It started in 2006 out of necessity for American soldiers in Iraq.
They needed a microphone and a clunky laptop running a new speech-translation program to tell scared Iraqis "THIS IS A RAID! WE'LL TRY NOT TO KILL YOU!" in the middle of the Babylonian night.
Now all you need is a Google Android phone to live dangerously and "presione 2 para español."
ONCE AGAIN, we have achieved Star Trek.
We are on the verge of the "universal translator," and it will lead nowhere good. Klingon opera, anyone -- in English?
College radio awaits.
