I am studying Chinese again.  And I will, once again, start speaking to myself in Mandarin in the shower.

In 10 years, English language websites will be outnumbered and outranked 10-1 by Asian websites.  That's an inference from a prediction that English and European internet users will be outnumbered by Asian users by 10-1 in ten years.  And China is the biggest part of those 10s. 

Ancient Chinese emperors never believed that they would or even desired to conquer the world.  They never had notions of conquest like Alexander the Great.  There were once great Chinese naval fleets outpowering all of Europe's, but they never had a design upon ruling the seas.  But the ancient Chinese emperors did have a vision of assimilating everything foreign to their own ways.  The Chinese character for the word 'China' actually means 'center' - like an arrow striking the center of a bullseye target.  They traditionally viewed themselves as the center of all things and all forces.  And to that center, all would eventually return.

Besides global warming, we are now entering a rapid period of assimilation to all things Chinese.  And so I have decided to re-center myself and return studiously to my Chinese studies.  If nothing else, I'll be prepared to blog on all those new Chinese social networks that will be blossoming like a thousand flowers in the Eastern Spring of days to come.