Sri Lanka is frequently broken down into Sinhala and Tamil (or Sinhala vs. Tamil), but the country is actually a lot more diverse. There is a huge and largely multilingual Muslim population, but even that doesn’t do people justice. There are also Malays, mostly Muslim but diverse in their own way. Here are two posts on the subject.

Kottu has been completely recoded by Janith Leanage. What’s different? Well, it got too big and now Kottu has tools to make the experience a bit more relevant again. You can filter by language on top (English, Sinhala, Tamil). The popular posts thing is now back, except smarter. Before a few people would sit and click all day and mess up the rankings. Now clicks are only one factor in an algorithm, other factors are buzz on Twitter, FB, Twitter and Google Plus.

Janith Leanage has updated Kottu. Check it out – www.kottu.org/beta. Kottu was innovative when it started, but stagnated after, oh, five years. Janith, of Colombo bus route fame, has kindly rebuilt the whole thing to be faster, better and smarter. The notable features are that it’s more of a social feedreader now, at least in terms of calculating ‘buzz’. Check it out.

In the myopic breaking news culture of Sri Lanka, it’s rare to see someone pursue a story for more than a news cycle. Recently, however, I found a blog made up of newspaper articles tracking a single issue – animals and the environment. The author, Malaka Rodrigo, has some interesting stuff on sea horse trafficking (who knew?), deaths at the elephant orphanage, and the killing of Nuwara Eliya leopards (a double who knew for me). The blog is called Window2Nature. Worth a read.

I honestly haven’t read through Kottu for a while, just did today. Still some interesting stuff. It’s a bit of an oldy, but Serendipity has an interesting perspective on this whole militarization of vegetables. Not that vegetables are joining the Army, but that the Army is selling vegetables. He says, “When the army bypasses the normal distribution channels for a short period, in order to reduce the price to the consumer, the costs borne by the army in collection and transport are not reflected in the price, thus unfairly prejudicing long established businesses.” Serendipity has an interesting position because he actually is a farmer.

I actually haven’t read Kottu that much lately, but I’m getting back into it. There’s a few good posts today. Himal is sublimating into technology and producing some funny stuff on Twitter, Facebook and the blog. He has an interesting post on why Sri Lankan cinema sucks so bad. This is something I have always wondered. It seems like the medium actually rewards ugliness and mediocrity. I’m not a cricket fan, but Island Cricket has an interesting analysis of the perennial Murali/Darrell Hair feud, which is simply interesting politically.

I wake up in this Rameshwaran hotel room. Sri Lanka is 30km from here but I feel very far from home. I had an allergic reaction (peanut I think) and spent the last few hours itching and throwing up. It’s been a long day. I have a message from my father that I’m under attack. Ugh. I don’t get it. This chap is accusing me of making 5 million rupees a year from Kottu. I wish. I could throw up in a better hotel room.

This chap Lefroy has been commenting here. I didn’t sort him out from the usual, but he’s started his own blog which is pretty funny. So far the posts include pissing on his cousins clothes, sex chats overhead in internet cafes, Sri Lanka’s lack of sex education and the gold and silver rules of dealing with women. I daresay as I get old I’m getting older and more conservative with what I say, but this guy might be picking up the slack.

There’s another ‘issue’ of Kottu Print deep in the Sunday Leader today (Review section). Have a look I suppose. There has been some debate about the selection criteria for the articles. I suppose what it comes down to in the end it that I choose. I am not particularly fond of control, but I can’t think of a simpler way. I pay attention to stuff that gets a lot of clicks (cause I don’t have time to read everything) and I took suggestions via comments.

The Sunday Leader wants to run another Kottu insert this, wait for it… Sunday. I have to lay it out and submit tomorrow, so I’m mentioning the stuff I’m considering here. People ask what the selection process is and, in the end, it’s basically me. Be that as it may, I try to be judicious. The criteria is basically stuff that seems popular or otherwise gets my attention. So this is what’s up for print.