A Wordle of my delicious tags.

Which of the following statements comes closest to describing how you feel, on the whole, about the people who live in Japan?

The Japanese people will always want to go to war to make themselves as powerful as possible – 35%

The Japanese people may not like war, but they have shown that they are too easily led into war by powerful leaders – 39%

The Japanese people do not like war. If they could have the same chance as people in other countries, they would become good citizens of the world – 19%

Don’t know – 7%

A US public opinion poll, circa 1946. For the original, see this Frog in a Well post.

I am sure we all suffer from it. I don’t mean that you can’t mentally handle all the information and go into drooling stupor at some point. I mean that there is too much information to process, robbing us of time we need to get real work done. Teh Internets provide such aimless joy as Lolcats et cetera that can sometimes leak into the real world. I, too, am a sufferer. Between working 30 hours a week, hitting the gym (rarely as I do) and spending time with the wife, I do have a graduate thesis due in the next few months. Damn, I better get on that.

So, yes, I has a pifanee and decided to get organized. Some may recall that I am a GTD convert (I covered GTD nearly 2 years ago on CA) but sometimes your system needs a tightening up. Over the past couple of weeks I have been re-evaluating my system and finding holes. My first step was to implement the Kinkless desktop and simplify my collection and filing systems for incoming information. The next step was to reduce that incoming information by cutting down on my RSS feeds. I am an RSS hound, but I have always tried to keep my feeds to a minimum. I have just 106 that cover Politics Blogs, News, Design, GTD and the latest in Apple stuff. But every day it took me about an hour to process these in the morning. They do all offer great information, but with the Thesis of Doom™ looming I needs to cut down to only the essentials. With motivation from zenhabits I have cut down to just 36 feeds which takes only 20 minutes to check in the morning. I have also adopted the habit of only checking my RSS once in the morning and once at night, something I should think about doing with my email as well. If you have any other time-saving, information pruning tips, give em up in the comments.

In the late 1990s, Robert Mugabe began confiscating private property of (white) farmers in a rather disgusting “land redistribution” plan. That was the beginning of Zimbabwe’s nightmare. Overnight the country was turned from the breadbasket of Africa to a food importer. The economy began to implode. Inflation jumped into absurd numbers. More people are unemployed than employed. Poverty is rampant. Security is collapsing. The country is a complete mess.

Yet Mugabe continues to receive inexplicable support from his neighbors.

At a recent southern African summit in Tanzania, he received warm support from his neighbors just weeks after his security forces arrest and beat opposition leaders, and the collapsing security services had to be reinforced by ninjas from Angola. The 83-yo leader then returned home and rallied the ruling party to endorse him for re-election next year. How much longer will the madness last? And why?

The answer seems to either (1) as long as Mugabe his supporters can cast the elder president as a symbol of the 20th century anti-colonial struggle, or (2) raw geopolitics. Yes, his neighbors are sick of him, but they limit their criticism to recommendations, and all of Zimbabwe’s neighbors reaffirmed their solidarity with Mugabe at the recent summit. But it may not just be that they want to shove it to the US and UK for their finger-wagging rebukes of Mugabe—pissing off one of their close neighbors will only make problems for themselves.

22 hours of Rome, 12 hours of I, Claudius, and 6 hours of Masada

The turn of the millenia two thousand years ago is perhaps the most tumultuous period of Roman history that changed the face of Europe forever. Several television series have explored the transformation of Rome from a republic to an empire, and now that HBO’s Rome has finished, it’s now possible to enjoy a solid 120 years of history in 40 hours. Of course, each program uses a certain amount of poetic license. But the length of television series allows them to explore more detail and in greater depth than movies or plays ever could.

There are gaps between the series, but it doesn’t result in losing the history. Most of the young characters that survive at the end of Rome —Octavian/Augustus, Livila, Octavia, Antonia, and Agrippa—are dealt with in the early episodes of I, Claudius, which begins 10 years later. Although there is a gap of another decade between I, Claudius and Masada, both series have a narrative summary of what happens to Emperor Nero. And anyone who enjoys history and who can bear a little creativity on the hands of the storytellers would enjoy these series in the appropriate order.

Sent by a colleague; comments below.

Changing lingo: Hinglish in, English out

LONDON: Hinglish, Chinglish and Spanglish are as English as the language traditionally said to belong to the British Queen, a revolutionary new prescription says, arguing that new arrivals to Britain should not be taught Queen’s English but cultural mixes used by non-native speakers in territories such as India.

The new report issued by Demos, an influential think-tank that claims to represent “everyday democracy”, says “Imperial” English (is) outdated” and believes Britain will lose out despite its initial ownership of the English language unless it “adapts to the global reach of the language”.

In the boldest suggestion yet to incorporate Indianisms such as ‘aloo’, ‘airdash’, ‘eve-teasing’ and ‘pre-pone’ into more than just the rash of market-hungry, standard rash of get-rich-quick dictionary supplements routinely issued over the last few years, Demos argues that language blends such as Hinglish are the way forward.

It says the British government’s recent calls for newcomers to the UK to learn standard English are misplaced and they should be encouraged instead to learn blends such as Hinglish (Hindi/Punjabi/Urdu-English), Chinglish (Chinese-English) and Spanglish (Spanish-English) which is widespread in America, where it is also called Tex-Mex.

The Demos report says the English language is no longer the preserve of the native English-speaking peoples of the world. They, says the report, are “just one of many shareholders’ in a global asset… With non-native English speakers set to top two billion in as little as five years, Britain’s influence, relationships and access to markets across the globe are at risk unless we change our outmoded attitude to language”.

Demos says that Britain’s attitude to English “is better suited to the days of the British Empire than the modern world.” It categorically asserts that “Far from being corruptions of English, new forms of the language such as ‘Chinglish’ (and Hinglish) have values that we must learn to accommodate and relate to”.

Curzon’s comments: Frankly, I think Demos is a group of nitwits who shouldn’t be given the time of day. When you modify a language in ways that alienates you from the majority of those speaking it, you open up a can of worms that is destined to result in disaster.

Consider: if you speak Spanish and English, you can communicate with the people all over the Western Hempisphere save for Brazil and Quebec, plus many other countries and cities in Europe, Africa, Oceania, and Asia. That’s wonderful. But here’s a reality check: If you speak “Spanglish,” then you can only speak with some people in New Mexico and Miami. You get the worst of both worlds of knowing two languages.

(Speaking of which, it’s telling that there’s not even an agreement on how to spell Spanglish/Spenglish. How is a linguistic revolution supposed to spread when the name can’t even be agreed on.)

Second reality check: if you teach south Asian immigrants “Hinglish,” you are relegating them to a life of isolation and infusing them with a cultural identity crisis. And that’s just wrong, no matter how you look at it.

Okay… so I don’t have any cats. I am more of a dog man. I try to keep my online identity fairly compartmentalized, but I thought today I might share a few things in the manner of the oft seen Five Things You Might Not Know About Me meme. Most of you know that I am a Canadian, a graduate student, an avid Mac user, a grappler and strikingly handsome. Here are some things you might not know about me:

1. Straight edge since 1995
2. I am quite an aficionado of the hardcore rap scene, including such eminent composers as Ghostface Killah and Mike Jones. Also, one of my all-time faves is MF DOOM (including Viktor Vaughn, Metal Fingers, DANGERDOOM, King Geedorah and Madvillain)
3. Though I haven’t lived the “thug life” I have slung a lunchbucket as both a union and non-union common labourer in various natural resource and metal related industries
4. Yeah I got tats, you gotta problem with that?
5. My people come from Galicia, an autonomous province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. My great-grandfather came over to Canada during the exodus in the late 19th century. My granpa, born in Canada, spoke Russian until he went to school when he was eight.

If you like lots of shorts lists, check out productivity guru Merlin Mann’s entertaining site 5ives. If you would like to share your own list, leave it in the comments or leave us a trackback from your own site.

YH sings, “No more sailors, no more boats, no more bunker delivery notes!”

Today was my last day as a bunker agent. By far, the worst experience in my life. If you want to know why, read my post On Leadership.

As a boy, Sean Carney would climb on Second World War tanks he saw in parks or in front of Legion halls. Yesterday, the 43-year-old shop teacher brought one to school. Automotive technology students at Etobicoke Collegiate Institute will be refurbishing the tank as part of their course. Mr. Carney, a military history buff, thought it would be a great way to teach them the principles of diesel engines and metal fabrication, and give them an appreciation for a piece of history.

All I got to do was ruin my dad’s chainsaw… From The Globe and Mail

As I’ve previously mentioned, and as my absence has perhaps indicated, I’m leaving tonight on my big trip. I take a late flight to Istanbul, sleep over in the airport and catch my connection to Diyarbakir in the afternoon. I’ll be gone for the next three months but will be posting pictures and trip reports semi-regularly for readers to enjoy. Wish me well!

For those who missed it the first time, here’s the map of my approximate route again: