I’m excited this is coming to Asia’s Discovery channel – Yui is a big fan of archaeology documentaries. There was an interview with Olly Steeds in today’s Bangkok Post.
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Click pictures to see a larger image. 
Panorama pictures from our one day trip to Bangkok made with a mobile phone camera using the AutoStitch iphone application. Future Park is a mall in Pathum Thani, just north of Bangkok. Nakhon Chai Air is the bus Yui and I often use to get to and from Bangkok. Made these short After Effects films earlier this year using video from our trips near Khon Kaen. I am testing out Facebook’s upload and video embedding service for the first time. ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=883927b7-9ac8-4c47-94d4-21004f4019c0) Ah remember back when they only charged $45 to access your child’s Twitter account on a plane. Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s All Things D for the link to this video.
It’s the tail end of the rainy season and flash flooding is quite common in many parts of Thailand. Richard Barrow of Thai-blogs.com has a great post up with pictures describing the flooding last week in Samut City. There is some dire forecasts out by climate scientists that predict Bangkok will be underwater by 2025 – not only is global warming causing rising sea levels but Bangkok is sinking every year into it’s soft clay foundation. Help We Are Sinking – By Richard Barrow
I talked this morning with Yui who is safe up in Khon Kaen. She had just talked to her father, who is in the military and he says the Army is trying to wait this thing out as long as they can and let the police take the heat for any violence in dealing with the protestors. The military already tried a coup two years ago and it got them nowhere. But things have now returned to the days before the coup with the same people on opposite sides except for the former Prime Minister who is now in exile. One thing I think is clear from these troubled times and all the events of the last ten years – despite the troubles and corruption and coups, ultimately Thailand as a whole wants to be a democracy – slowly and very unsteadily, but assuredly. That is what I tell myself as I watch the news today.
I had to laugh last March when Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Inc., showed a map of where all the iPhones were going to be this year – a map where Thailand, China, Malaysia, almost the whole of Asia except Japan were missing from Apple’s master plan for iPhone domination. I had to laugh because anyone walking around the 4th floor of the MBK in Downtown Bangkok knew that the iPhone had already arrived – it had been in Thailand as far back as August of last year, only a month after the iPhone was introduced in the U.S. Now this week the new iPhone is out and apparently already unlocked and destined to be on the 4th floor of the MBK – it’s just a matter of time as shown by this Reuters story, “Black markets eagerly await new iPhone” :
From: “Black markets eagerly await new iPhone” By Khettiya Jittapong and Sophie Taylor, Reuters
I have the original iPhone and I think the big news this week is not the new phone but the introduction of official third-party applications for the iPhone. One of the best things about this kind of phone is the possibilities offered by the large touch screen - it is a blank slate that can be any language or anything, a true world phone – all it needs is software. Apple has yet to support the Thai language but already there is a Thai audio phrase book out and support for other Asian languages. And with all those iPhones on sale in the MBK (as well in Khon Kaen – as I have seen) there is bound to be lots of Thai software to support it in the near future.
(note : This week I am re-posting my favorite stories of the year 2551) Two recent Hollywood films, “Wall-e” and “Idiocracy” depict a very dim view of our future, where humanity has become so stupid they live only on energy drinks and fast food. In “Wall-e” the year is 2700 and humanity has been forced to leave earth when their trash has filled the entire planet. The very flawed but still awesome “Idiocracy” is a kinda prequel to Wall-e, taking place in the year 2501 right before humanity escapes an increasingly trash-filled planet and where the dumbed-down populace has replaced water with energy drinks. They even use the “Brawndo” energy drinks to irrigate the crops – which doesn’t go down so well as you can imagine. But then this can’t really happen could it? Now cut to the year 2551 and this story from the Associated Press:
The future is almost now in Thailand. |
 Jis a scenic artist and filmmaker who lives part time in Ohio and Khon Kaen. He first came to Thailand in 1972 as a child and returned in 2004 with the Phuket Project to aid in the Tsunami relief effort. Yuiis a doctor in Khon Kaen. She has studied in the U.S. and Great Britiain but is happiest on a bike riding around Thailand with the Khon Kaen Mountain Bike Team Tom and Shampooare English Cocker Spaniels who live in Khon Kaen, but often travel to other planets in a spaceship they designed and fight alongside Hanuman against all evil. They also like swimming and sleeping.  |
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