From the late 19th to mid-20th Centuries, herds of sheep roamed the High Sierra meadows, managed by sheepherders; most of them were Basque immigrants. The sheepherders eased their boredom by making their mark on the landscape: carving symbols and artwork on aspen trees where the sheep grazed. This artwork is known as arboglyphs.
https://thetahoeweekly.com/2018/06/in-search-of-arborglyph/

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LocLabs members have done extensive work with indigenous languages of Africa, Middle East, South and Central America... We are excited for 2019!
https://en.iyil2019.org/?fbclid=IwAR2tsWhqCUhBFnik92Q5WIoAWDSHOcmupq92pR1Q8T9adtntXwotyCakkKE

https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews/videos/436607200202024/

With only 6.9% of the occurrences of whilst appearing in US English, this form seems to be rapidly falling out of favor. American lexicographer and writer of more than 20 books on English usage and style, Bryan A. Garner, claims that whilst ‘reeks of pretension in the work of a modern American writer’. This stance is echoed by other authorities. So if you’re a US speaker or writer, you’d only be likely to use whilst if you were consciously aiming for an old-fashioned effect (for instance, if you were writing historical fiction). In all other contexts, while is the word to choose and thus avoid that dreaded reeking."
https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/02/18/while-or-whilst/

Step into a medium-sized mall in a medium-sized Chinese city — which, granted, means a mega-sized city by the rest of the world’s standards — and you’re likely to come across a Mi Home store. These well-lit emporiums draw obvious comparisons to Apple’s own stores, but they’re really more like Japanese lifestyle retailer Muji. Xiaomi funds countless startups to produce a huge range of low-priced, tastefully minimalist devices that work together as part of the company’s Mi Home ecosystem, as well as more commodified products like luggage and phone chargers.
"...Unlock a Xiaomi phone, and you’ll see snappy animations, clean visual design, and overall far less cruft than you’d expect from such a comprehensive overhaul of Android. In many ways, it’s the archetypal Chinese phone OS with its simple colors, lack of app drawer, and focus on shortcuts. The designers I spoke to pointed out specific features that have received strong feedback from Xiaomi’s users, such as the advanced conversion abilities of the calculator app and a crowdsourced phonebook that helps you screen calls from unfamiliar numbers."
https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/17/17988564/chinese-phone-software-android-iphone-copy-ui

Many LocLabbers grew up on translated Asterix comics. Here are some great analysis of the French-into-English translations..
https://auntymuriel.com/2012/12/23/asterix-in-translation-the-genius-of-anthea-bell-and-derek-hockridge/

"The continent has world-class companies in fields like biotechnology, luxury cars and nuclear energy, manufacturing sectors incorporating sophisticated software (a BMW these days is as much a computer on wheels as a car). London, a global tech hub, is home to DeepMind, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) outfit; Stockholm is home to Spotify, a dominant music-sharing service; Cambridge-based Arm makes processor chips for almost all the world’s smartphones. Yet still Europe lacks large firms in areas like social media, e-commerce and cloud computing comparable in scale to America’s Google and Microsoft, or China’s Alibaba and Baidu. Of the world’s 15 largest digital firms, all are American or Chinese. Of the top 200, eight are European. Such firms matter. They operate dominant online platforms and are writing the rules of the new economy in the way Cockerill’s innovations did in his day."
https://www.economist.com/europe/2018/10/13/europes-history-explains-why-it-will-never-produce-a-google?

Last month, Tencent launched a system to verify the identities of Honour of Kings players by cross-referencing with public security databases. The company said it was the first time such data has been used by the gaming industry to screen users.
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/2166447/tencent-employs-facial-recognition-detect-minors-top-grossing-mobile

Here's something for your Monday blues, straight from our friends at Boston Dynamics.
Plot twist: the robots filmed it on a Sunday when the humans were out.
https://youtu.be/kHBcVlqpvZ8