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In a little update to the hurds, I want to introduce the concept of the Cultural Lisp. Basically, at its core, this is an urban legend, but with a twist in that beyond just being a story that people start to repeat over and over and take as fact, they start to try and convince others that this is the case as well and make them believe that what they're saying really is the truth. It's a downward spiral of societal stupidity. If you're looking for it on a smaller scale, think of the game, telephone.       The origin of the hurd name comes from an article I did last year about how people always say, Barthelona instead of Barcelona as those who live there say the name of the city. Everyone outside of Spain keeps saying that this affectation is because of a king who had this lisp and blah dee blah dee blah blah... God, I'm tired of repeating that incredibly inaccurate story. I can only start to know how all the Spaniards I know (especially those from Barcelona) must feel in getting history lessons from foreigners.       But this is the textbook example of the Cultural Lisp. People around the world became convinced that they knew the origin for this "lisp" (which for god sakes, isn't a damned lisp!) and they felt the need to spread it throughout their culture and in to others. Thusly the irony in all of this is not that Castilian Spanish speakers talk with a lisp, but that everyone else has created this lisp in their culture. It's an artificial construct that is made all the more virulent through today's connected technologies.       We don't have to do this though. We can be informed and not take what people say at face value. Despite how much my mom hates it for proving her wrong quite often, Wikipedia is a great friend to one and all. Be vigilant. Stop the Cultural Lisp.

I'm no trend setter. All attempts at trying to be on the cutting edge of fashion in my hometown resulted in further isolation from those who were "cool" and would of course be wearing what my parents had clothed me in (which was all the rage in SF and LA when I was wearing it) the next year. From this I learned that there is no point in trying to be too far out in front of the current popular culture wave. I also learned that you might as well just start up your own thing and not care what all others think. So, it's only know that I realize I have an annoying ability to come up with new words. Some of them good, some just evil and thusly requiring bloggery.       In recent office adventures, I've unwittingly coined a number of terms that for some reason have stuck. In this one design iteration, the search area of a website looked a helluva lot like a hamburger, thus the term "search burger" was invented. In trying to slim it down a bit, we only ended up with a "search dog" that was then ultimately replaced because it really looked like crap. Whenever anyone wants to toss of an interstitial (those annoying things that take over a web page, I started calling it the, "shotgun in the meadow" or just "shotgun meadow" and for some reason this actually stuck. If that doesn't make sense, think of yourself strolling through a nice meadow (a website) and then kablam! a shotgun goes off (the interstitial). Another one that's caught on even with Those Who Have O In Their Title is the "eyebrow", which is a reference to an extended title. I can't take credit for this though as that's a very old print term that apparently nobody in the net world knew about.       Then of course for those who read this site with any degree of alarming regularity, you'll know of praving, crippies, fatcarts, and of course, kockalocks. To this list, I now add, hurds, which are basically "hudin words". You can see a diagram below if you're unclear.       Will these words change the world? Quite possibly and you can always say that you knew about them first if you're hip enough to read the Hudin.

It is only recently that I've gotten in to Flight of the Conchords. I blame this on not having HBO and not really being very hip. Regardless, I have finally found these two fellows and have found them to be brilliant.       In an article a little be related to the previous one on the 8th, I picked out the genius clip below. Admittedly, it is not Business Time or Motha Uckas which are also hilarious, but it is funny even to those who speak the most basic French. That's the point and it's scary to find that when asking for a croissant, I have found myself in a similar point of assing out. Just like when I'm at the ATM and wonder, "Gee, how about trying some Español for once?"       Anyways, this is funny on many levels. Enjoy.       

For those unfamiliar with the word, "domain name", in a nutshell, it's what you type in to get to a website, such as here with hudin.com. I only own the 'hudin' part and can control anything after that, so if I wanted to start michael.hudin.com someday, that would be my business. The '.com' part (and it's actually .com., try it, it works) is owned and controlled by ICANN. They pretty much control everything on the net and decide what new top-level domains (the 'com', 'net', 'org', 'gov', etc.) that will be allowed to be used. This is unfortunate as the group is based, funded, and pretty much controlled by the US. So, internet growth in world is currently dictated by the US as opposed to a world consortium as it should be.       The reason that I'm bringing all of this up is because some interesting things have been happening in the world of domains these days. These aren't earth shattering events, but at the same time, a lot can happen in a country in regards to its name.       Take for instance former Czechoslovakia. When the internet came around, it got the .cs extension, which was then given up as they split in to the Czech Republic - .cz and Slovakia - .sk. The later being still mighty close to Slovenia of .si, so I'm sure email (as is postal mail) gets sent incorrectly all the time. I even mixed the two up when I started typing this and I know better!       So, .cs actually got re-purposed in to the ill-fated union of Serbia and Montenegro. They of course have since split and have become .rs and .me respectively. Ah, but they were also still using the .yu extension from their days as Yugoslavia. So, what's a website owner to do? Simple, either keep .yu or just register .com and not bother with any of it. In theory, they are supposed to be transitioning from .yu, but when I was in Serbia, I still saw signs for bus lines and government offices that had the .yu extension.       This is all something of a mess, except in the case of Montenegro. They've gotten quite a windfall with the .me domain. If they want to (and most likely they will) they can open up registration to anyone and thusly, we'll start to see wonderful sites such as www.do.me (I feel sorry for the person that thinks that is just 'dome'), www.blow.me, and scores of others on the net. It's not dissimilar to countries such as Tonga with .to, Tuvalu with .tv, and most importantly Western Samoa with .ws that gives us the domain for Number One Fan. These countries make a good deal of money through the licensing of their domain and to some degree, what I feel to be their identity. But money is money and these are all small places that can use it, so more power to them in the end.       But, the question of identity on the web is an important one as well as an expensive one. Here in the US, we think of the name before the extension to be the more important bit, because who uses the .us extension? No one, that's who. But, for other countries, that is quite important, yet cost prohibitive. I looked in to how much it cost to get a .hr extension for Croatia and it's not cheap. Most of the registrars that I found who could do it charged $100+ a year. Just a tad more expensive than Go Daddy, huh? But, this explains why there are so many .com and otherwise sites in Croatia. They can't justify spending that much just to have .hr for their site.       Honestly, I think that the .hr or any domain that is specific to a country should be given out on a limited basis at next to nothing to the people who are residents there. Instead of us all congealing into a huge mass of .com, .net, or .org (the big three) domains, it would be a lot more interesting, diverse and useful if we all used our country codes. To a large degree, I wish that the big three had never been brought about in the first place. It would have made much more sense for me to be www.hudin.us and my cousins to then have www.hudin.si so that you knew who you were talking to. Or more useful for things like www.tourism.us versus www.tourism.ca. Of course, www.tourism.cd would never be possible for the Democratic Republic of Congo as they have seemingly lost federal control of their own country domain through some shifty deal.       Russia has weighed in heavily on what it thinks of the whole system of control and has basically given a big fat middle finger with 'фуцк яоу' written on it, to the US ICANN which makes sense. They are really pushing for their own system in order to be able to use Cyrillic. It makes sense and is in line with the fact that .su (For Soviet Union) was supposed to be dropped a long time ago, but they keep selling new registrations for it, not caring what ICANN says. Of course, .ru is supposed to be their main domain name now, even though in Cyrillic, that is, .py which is actually for Paraguay. Screwy, yes. But, ultimately most people would assume that they're not really doing it for any kind of Russian pride, but more to control the whole system within Russia. For, those in control of these name servers are those in control of the web, which is why the US will most likely have to have ICANN pried from its cold dead fingers before they'll give it up.       One last domain that I find truly ridiculous is the new .asia that has been recently approved. So, I guess the fact that white people can't tell where people in Asia are from wasn't bad enough and so we need to have a domain that lumps them all in to one group on the internet, just to make that easy as well? I don't get it, nor why they keep refusing to start up a .xxx domain, but such is the state of domains in the world as it is controlled by a corporation in the United States.

These are a bit old news, but they're incredibly silly, so I'm posting them. Basically some English speaker went and put what he thought they were saying in the videos as subtitles. Racially insensitive? You betcha. Funny nonetheless:              I'd say you could stop watching about halfway through. There are some funny bits after that point, but it gets a bit repetitive. Still, if you're reading this blog, then most likely you've got some time to kill. And in that case, I'd recommend checking out this one. The subtitles aren't as funny, but the video is really, really silly. Again, it gets a bit repetitive as well, so use your own judgment in when to stop.

It's a fact that the vast majority of the information on the internet is written in English. Even a site that pulls together all this information like Global Voices still uses English as its main language. This is a shame. It's not a shame because it's using a single language, but that English has become so dominant on the web. It was somewhat inevitable as the vast majority of the components that drive it are in English. I mean, if you look at the code driving any page, you'll see all these English words in there. So, it's a given that to be able to set up sites, you'll need to be able to understand some degree of English.       I think it's this last point that really was excluding a great many people for a good long time. But now that there are so many packages you can use where you don't need to be a native English speaker to have a blog. Tossing up an installation of Wordpress or using a pre-fab system like Blogger or even Livejournal is possible by a great many more these days.       Unfortunately we still come back to the point that English has become so dominant in the world and if you're a native English speaker, you're bound to not know very many if any other languages. So, what do you do if you want to be informed about the rest of the world? Simple. You revert to the method of our ancestors and use pictures. Yes, it's primitive, but still quite effective. It's on this point that I'd like to point out a few blogs that are either wholly or partially photo-based and something that most native English speakers can follow. If not, fire up a little BabelFish and get a funky translation that might see you though.       Фотографоманство ('fotografomanstvo' in the Latin alphabet, which I think just means, 'photomanie') is a very compelling photographic journey by a girl living in Minsk, Belarus. The media is extremely controlled and the people there live under what amounts to an autocracy, so being able to see someone's daily life from the area is really interesting. The girl also has a very good eye and she was the winner of the Best of the Blogs.       A Best of Blogs winner for French, Cédric Kalonji is the life of Cédric in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Again, this is a nation without a free media, so his view from inside the country is quite interesting. Unfortunately for English speakers, we need to either dust off our crappy French skills or hit the Fish as most of it is in French.       Lastly, a friend named Timothée Rolin documents his life in Paris, France. Tim's site is almost completely photos and quite thorough about his life, so anyone can appreciate it and the partying that he seems to do non-stop when he isn't eating at La Fée Verte. If you're any kind of fan of The Real World or other crap reality TV shows, you'll probably get hooked.       Of course, there are a great many more blogs out there that people can follow. These are just some that I got turned on to which you may or may not know about and will hopefully enjoy.

For those who don't know, Arnold Schwarzenegger happens to be a very brilliant actor. Those aware of his moment in Eraser where after many attempts to have a "Deep" moment with Vanessa Williams, after one too many cuts, he finally yelled out, "I'm not an actor!" should take heed. For, accusing him of flubbing lines and sounding about as smart a lump of cheese at times, is ridiculous. And to support my argument, I submit this evidence:              I mean look at that. Okay, I admit that it's not perfect Shakespeare, but it's surprisingly good for an action actor. Oh yeah, it happens to be in Spanish as well, because we all know that Arnold is pretty awful in English. I don't know why he hasn't stuck to Spanish all this time as he is much better in it than English and it would have gone over even better with the Hispanic population in the last election. Oh and in case, you were wondering what his line of 'Hasta la vista, baby' would be in Spanish (since it loses something when speaking Spanish lines in Spanish), check out this.       But, it all seriousness, it is obviously the overdubber that gives Arnold a better tone in Spanish. It's quite funny actually, since in Spain all of his movies are dubbed in to Spanish and it's always the same guy doing it, so people thought that Arnold actually sounded like that or something like that. It came as a rude shock once he became governor (again, I still have trouble accepting this) of California and they suddenly heard what he really sounds like. And naturally, a great many of us cried as he was sworn in to office as the first governor of the state unable to say the name of it correctly. Viv l'Kalifohrniya!

Every so often, I'm reminded of the Notice of Revocation of Independence that goes around the net and often attributed to John Cleese, yet not written by him. Overall hilarious, quotes like...              ...do remind me of the fact that we Americans have beat the hell out of an otherwise lovely bastardization of French and German. I have yet to see anyone else combine anything from these countries with better results; the best result to date being crêpe-worst.       And upon reading some gossipy garbage that I should otherwise avoid, I came across...              ...and realized that there are two words we need to stop using: "exclusive" and "hot". We can thank Paris Hilton for "hot" becoming an adjective of mass abuse. "Exclusive" just seems to have tagged along for the ride as they have both gotten extremely popular in common vernacular at the same time.       Perhaps we could expand our vocabularies again and use "exciting", "interesting", "riveting", "engaged", or "popular" to replace "hot" which at its poor three-letter core originally was a word to describe the temperature of something. And "exclusive" could be replaced with "singular", "elite", "restricted", or "non-inclusive" every once in awhile to liven things up.

Original       I started writing this article in English with simple words. The reason that I wrote it this was is to see what happens when I process it through the BabelFish system, which is a system that I like very much because it allows me to read many languages that I do not completely understand. There are problems though, because the language that is created is very literal. At times, it seems like a substitution of words. Still, it is the best system that we have currently. So, let us begin this test.              English to French       J'ai commencé à écrire cet article en anglais avec des mots simples. La raison pour laquelle je lui ai écrit ceci était doit voir ce qui se produit quand je le traite par le système de BabelFish, qui est un système que j'aime beaucoup parce qu'il me permet de lire beaucoup de langues que je ne comprends pas complètement. Il y a des problèmes cependant, parce que la langue qui est créée est très littérale. Parfois, elle semble comme une substitution des mots. Toujours, c'est le meilleur système que nous avons actuellement. Ainsi, laissez-nous commencent cet essai.              French to German       Ich habe begonnen, diesen Artikel in Englisch mit einfachen Wörtern zu schreiben. Der Grund, aus dem ich ihm dies geschrieben habe, war muß sehen, was sich produziert, wenn ich es durch das System von BabelFish behandele, das ein System ist, das ich viel mag, weil er mir erlaubt, viele Sprachen zu lesen, die ich nicht gänzlich begreife. Es gibt Probleme jedoch, weil die Sprache, die entsteht, sehr wörtlich ist. Manchmal scheint sie als eine Substitution der Wörter. Immer ist es das beste System, das wir momentan haben. Somit lassen wir beginnen diesen Versuch.              German to English       I began to write this article in English with simple words. The reason, for which I had written it this, was must see, what produces itself, if I treat it by the system of BabelFish, which is a system, which I like much, because he permits me to read many languages which I do not completely understand. There are problems however, because the language, which develops, is very literal. Sometimes it seems as a substitution of the words. It is always the best system, which we have momentarily. Thus we let this attempt begin.              English to Russian       Я начал писать эту статью на английском языке с просто словами. Причиной, для которой я написал ему это, было сусло видит, производит, если я обрабатываю его системой BabelFish, то которое будет системой, которому, котор я люблю много, потому что он позволяет меня прочитать много языков которые я вполне не понимаю. Будут проблемы однако, потому что язык, который превращается, очень буквален. Иногда он кажется как замещение слов. Будет всегда самой лучшей системой, которую мы имеем однократно. Таким образом мы препятствовали этой попытке начать.              Russian to English       4 it began to write this article in the English with simply the words. The reason, for which I wrote to it this, it was must it sees, it produces, if I process by its system BabelFish, then which will be system, to which, I is which I love much, because it makes it possible me to read many languages which 4 I do not completely understand. There will be problems however, because the language, which is converted, is very literal. Sometimes it seems as the substitution of words. It will be the always best system, which we have once. Thus we prevented this attempt to begin.              English to Greek       4 άρχισε να γράφει αυτό το άρθρο στους Αγγλους με απλά τις λέξεις. Ο λόγος, για τον οποίο έγραψα σε το αυτό, αυτό ήταν πρέπει αυτό βλέπει, παράγει, εάν επεξεργάζομαι από το σύστημά του BabelFish, κατόπιν που θα είναι σύστημα, στο οποίο, το ι είναι ποια αγάπη ι πολύ, επειδή το καθιστά πιθανό εγώ για να διαβάσει πολλές γλώσσες που 4 εγώ δεν καταλαβαίνουν εντελώς. Θα υπάρξουν προβλήματα εντούτοις, επειδή η γλώσσα, που μετατρέπεται, είναι πολύ κυριολεκτική. Μερικές φορές φαίνεται ως αντικατάσταση των λέξεων. Θα είναι το πάντα καλύτερο σύστημα, το οποίο έχουμε μιά φορά. Κατά συνέπεια αποτρέψαμε αυτήν την προσπάθεια να αρχίσουμε.              Greek to English       4 it began to write this article in the English with simply the words. The reason, for which I wrote in the this, this was should this sees, it produces, if I process from the system his BabelFish, then that will be system, in which, the I are who love I very, because him render likely I in order to it reads a lot of languages that 4 I do not understand completely. Will exist problems nevertheless, because the language, that is changed, is very litteral. Sometimes it appears as replacement of words. It will be the always better system, which we have a time. Accordingly we detered this effort to begin.              English to Dutch       4 het begon dit artikel in de Engelsen met de woorden eenvoudig te schrijven. Indien de reden, waarom ik in dit schreef, dit was dit ziet, produceert het, als ik van het systeem zijn BabelFish verwerk, dan dat zal zijn systeem, waarin, I is wie liefde I zeer, omdat hem waarschijnlijke I teruggeeft het heel wat talen leest geen die 4 ik volledig begrijpen. Problemen niettemin zal bestaan, omdat de taal, die wordt veranderd, zeer litteral is. Soms verschijnt het als vervanging van woorden. Het zal het altijd betere systeem zijn, dat wij een tijd hebben. Dienovereenkomstig schrokken wij deze inspanning af te beginnen.              Dutch to French       4 il a commencé à écrire simplement cet article dans les Anglais avec les mots . Si la raison pourquoi me a écrit dans ceci, a été ceci ceee voit, il produit, si je suis du système BabelFish traite, alors cela son système dans laquelle, I être qui l'amour I très, parce qu'il ne lui rend pas probable I beaucoup langues lit qui 4 je comprends entièrement. Les problèmes n'existeront néanmoins pas, parce que la langue qui est changée, très litteral est. Il paraît parfois comme remplacement des mots. Lui le système toujours meilleur qui nous avons le temps sera. Nous avons eu peur en conséquence cet effort fini commencer.              French to English       4 it started to simply write this article in the English with the words. If the reason why wrote to me in this, were this ceee sees, it produces, if I am BabelFish system milked, then that its system in which, I being which it love I very, because it does not return probable I to him much languages reads which 4 I entirely include/understand. The problems will not exist nevertheless, because the language which is changed, very litteral is. It appears sometimes like replacement of the words. He it always better system which we have time will be. We were consequently afraid this effort finished starting.              English to Spanish       4 que comenzó a escribir simplemente este artículo en el inglés con las palabras. Si la razón por la que me escribió en esto, era este ceee considera, él produce, si soy el sistema de BabelFish ordeñado, después que su sistema en el cual, I que es que el amor I muy, porque no vuelve probable I a él mucho las idiomas lee cuál 4 I enteramente include/understand. Los problemas no existirán sin embargo, porque es la lengua se cambia que, muy litteral. Aparece a veces como el reemplazo de las palabras. Él él un sistema siempre mejor que tengamos tiempo será. Estábamos por lo tanto asustados el este comenzar acabado esfuerzo.              Spanish to English       4 that began to simply write this article in the English with the words. If the reason by that it wrote to me in this, were this ceee considers, he produces, if I am the system of milked BabelFish, after its system in which, I that is that love I very, because include/understand does not return probable I to him the languages reads which 4 Is much entirely. The problems will not exist nevertheless, because it is the language changes that, very litteral. It appears sometimes like the replacement of the words. He he a system always better than we have time will be. Therefore we were scared the east to begin finished effort.                     And I think that's enough. It gives you something of a taste of what people see on either end and even though folks aren't running stuff through multiple times, it still gets pretty garbled. Someday, we'll hopefully get our Universal Translators as well as the flying car.

When bopping around Europe, the fact that everyone speaks a different language becomes readily apparent. In places like Croatia, you'll see the majority of signs and instructions written in English, German, and Italian. Sometimes they'll even toss in Slovenian or French for good measure. It's a similar case in other countries and in other cities that see tourists or are a crossroads for many people.       There is one language that is generally missing in all these groups though and that is Spanish. It is just not there. Places like Montenegro will even have Russian before they'll have Spanish. Obviously, if more Spaniards went to these places, then they would have more Spanish translations. So, it is the case that Paris will generally have three languages: French, English, and yes, that's right, Spanish.       I blame this in a large part to how Spaniards travel, which is to safe destinations like Paris or Venice. It is only the truly adventurous souls that go to the strange destinations and that is really only possible because they speak multiple languages.       For me, it was a bizarre sight to see, since everything in California is always in at least Spanish as well as English. Not seeing Spanish for three months was a bit weird to be honest and I have to say that I kinda missed it, because a mashup of English and Spanish means that I'm home. Oh, it's true that I was in Spain for a good chunk of time, but even there, I saw more Catalan than Spanish. Someday, I suppose I will have to actually see Spain proper and go for full Spanish immersion.