Month: March 2012

Categories
Links

12 Links

Some Thailand-related, some not:

  1. The Personal Analytics of My Life — StephenWolfram.com
  2. 24/192 Music Downloads …and why they make no sense — xiph.org
  3. Adventures of a Teenage Polyglot — The New York Times
  4. The People of the Petabyte — Forbes
  5. Southern Food Primer — Southern Foodways Alliance
  6. Why I Love Apple But Don’t Own An iPad — The Wall Street Journal
  7. The AP’s New Apps: The Style, Substance And Strategy — paidContent
  8. The Empty Stomach: Fasting to Beat Jet Lag — Harpers
  9. Branded journalists battle newsroom regulations — Poynter
  10. Thai Interest Rates, Foreign Reserves Too High, Thaksin Says — Bloomberg
  11. Immigration deflects criticism: Suvarnabhumi arrivals ‘overwhelming’ bureau — The Bangkok Post
  12. Embedded above and on YouTube here: Dolphin Rescue

(Previous link round-ups are available via the links tag.)

Categories
Bangkok Thai politics

Yellow Shirts Rally in Lumphini Park

2012 03 11 pad

The Bangkok Post today says:

The People’s Alliance for Democracy yesterday backed away from its threat to stage a major Bangkok rally against the charter rewrite in a move hailed by the government as a breakthrough in easing political tensions.

However, after a meeting of about 2,000 rowdy PAD supporters at Lumpini Park Hall, the group’s leaders said shelving the mass rally was dependent on two conditions. First, the constitution rewrite should not reduce the power of the King or change the structure of the monarchy, and second, it should not open the way for an amnesty for fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his “cronies”.

The Nation, meanwhile, reports:

The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) will set up a committee to campaign for national reform instead of holding mass rallies to counter the Pheu Thai-led government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, according to PAD spokesman Panthep Pourpongpan.

Panthep said the group would launch protests if the government changes Article 112 of the Penal Code, amends the charter or any laws to waive penalties on Thaksin Shinawatra and his group, and when the time is right.

And:

It was the first mass rally of the anti-Thaksin PAD, known as the yellow shirts, since Thaksin’s sister Yingluck became the prime minister. More than 3,000 people joined the rally, which lasted from 10am until late evening.

(All emphasis mine.)

(Image: The Nation.)

Categories
Bangkok

Thurs. Night Fire at Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22

2012 03 09 bangkok hotel fire

To follow up on my Tweets last night on this topic, here are a few stories:

The AP reports:

A fire at a high-rise hotel in Bangkok’s main tourist district sent smoke billowing through the upper floors, killing at least one foreigner and injuring almost two dozen other people, authorities said Friday.

When firefighters arrived at the 15-story Grand Park Avenue Bangkok hotel Thursday evening, they saw people screaming for help from the upper floors, said firefighter Rampan Kaewyongkod.

And:

The mid-range hotel, formerly known as the Grand Mercure Park Avenue, has 221 rooms and is located off Sukhumvit Road, a tourist and residential district popular with foreigners.

Click through to the story for some images.

Elsewhere, today’s Bangkok Post says two foreigners were killed:

Two foreigners are reported to have died after a fire broke out at the Grand Park Avenue Hotel on Soi Sukhumvit 22 in Klong Toey district last night.

The fire was reported around 9.40pm. Thong Lor police suspected the blaze started at a seminar room on the fifth floor of the 18-storey building before spreading to other floors.

Two foreigners, a woman and a man, were killed in the fire, said a firefighter.

Meanwhile, AFP says one foreigner died:

“A female foreign tourist died from suffocation,” said Suvinai Busrakamwongs, director of the Kluay Nam Thai hospital. Her nationality was unknown because she had no identification.

“Another male Western tourist is in intensive care,” Suvinai said.

(All emphasis mine.)

(Image: Bangkok Post.)

Categories
Tech Thailand

Thailand Featured in New iPad Video?

2012 03 08 ipad

Here’s a screen grab from a promotional video for Apple’s new iPad.

Is it me, or does this look like Thailand? Or Cambodia?

Categories
Misc.

Newley.com in the New Lonely Planet Thailand

2012 03 07 newely LP

Thanks to Richard Barrow for pointing out that Newley.com is one of the Bangkok blogs mentioned in the new edition of the Lonely Planet Thailand guide book, which is out this month.

This modest site is recommended as part of a boxed text feature on Bangkok sites called “The Inside Scoop.”

Some of the other blogs mentioned include 2Bangkok, Austin Bush Photography, Patrick Winn’s Global Post blog, and Greg Jorgensen’s Greg to Differ. (You can find more Thailand-related blogs on my Links page.)

You may recall that Newley.com appeared in Lonely Planet’s last edition, as well. I am honored.

(Image: Richard Barrow.)

Categories
Bangkok

Off topic: My Favorite Bangkok Sunset Photos

Photographic cliché or not, I am a sucker for sunsets.

I often post Bangkok sunset pics to my Instagram feed (I’m @newley). And I just realized I’ve snapped many such images over the last year or so.

Here are some of my faves. All images were taken with an iPod Touch or an iPhone 3GS, and all — except for the very last one — were processed with Instagram filters.

Colorful Bangkok sunset. #MotherNaturesFireWorks

Another vibrant Bangkok sunset. Keep 'em coming, I say.

Magenta Bangkok sunset.

Bangkok sunset.

Bangkok sunset: oranges, blues, clouds, and more.

Bangkok sunset

Another reddish Bangkok sunset. Love it.

Vivid, reddish Bangkok sunset this evening.

Bangkok sunset.

Bangkok sunset

I took this one from Suvarnabhumi airport:

Suvarnabhumi sunset. Waiting for Sec. Clinton to arrive from the Philippines.

Here’s the gloaming as seen from my office:

One reason I like working from home: the view of Bangkok sunsets from my office.

And finally, this one may be my favorite. I didn’t apply any filters or effects:

Multicolor Bangkok sunset, Sun. evening edition. No filter.

Okay. Thanks for indulging my inner Ansel Adams. Normal programming will resume shortly…

Categories
Thai politics

Thaksin Tells Bloomberg He Thinks He’ll Return to Thailand This Year

The video is here.

UPDATE: There’s also a Bloomberg text story to go along with the interview. It says:

Thaksin Shinawatra, deposed as Thai premier in a 2006 coup, said his sister’s seven-month-old government will avoid the same fate due to her good ties with the army and expressed hope he’d return from exile this year.

“As long as there is no issue related to the monarchy, as long as there is no issue about internal security, the military will stay in the barracks,” Thaksin, whose sister Yingluck Shinawatra became prime minister in August, said in an interview yesterday in Seoul. “My sister works hard for the people, she respects the monarchy very much and she can work with the military without conflict.”

Yingluck’s push to rewrite the constitution risks sparking violence like in 2008 when a similar effort by Thaksin’s allies led to protests by his yellow-shirted opponents who shut down parts of Bangkok and seized its airports. Yingluck, a political novice before standing in July elections, is seeking to reassure foreign investors after floods last year swamped thousands of factories and caused the economy to shrink for the first time since 2009.

Categories
Thai politics

Bangkok Post: Environmental Group Seeks to Stop Industiral Estate Flood Walls

Just a quick note: A story in today’s Bangkok Post caught my eye. It says:

Industrial estate operators are hitting back at activists seeking a court order to halt anti-flood dyke construction, saying the work is urgent and needed to regain investor confidence.

The Stop Global Warming Association is today asking the Central Administrative Court to issue an injunction suspending construction of anti-flood dykes being built at seven industrial estates inundated during last year’s floods.

The association president, Srisuwan Janya, has said that the barriers would cause damage to the homes of villagers living nearby in the event of future floods.

He also said the permanent floodwalls would have serious social and environmental impact, altering natural water-flow routes.

But Thavich Taychanavakul, managing director of Hi-Tech Industrial Estate, said construction of the new dykes is under way in order to win back investor confidence and get ready for the coming rainy season.

I’ve noted Thailand’s flood prevention plans as rainy season approaches; today’s news could represent a significant development.

Sirsuwan Janya, of course, is head of the environmental group that brought the lawsuit over environmental concerns surrounding the Map Ta Phut industrial estate. Some $10 billion of projects were suspended for nearly a year.

It’s unclear, of course, what will happen with this, Srisuwan’s latest effort. But I wanted to point the story out for now.

UPDATE: There’s more from MCOT.

Categories
Links

10 Links

Some Thailand-related, some not:

  1. Make Your Thing: 12 Point Program for Absolutely, Positively 1000% No-Fail Guaranteed Success — Jesse Thorn at Transom.org
  2. Ryan Lizza: What I Read — The Atlantic Wire
  3. Debate Over Blog Limits Intensifies in Singapore — The Wall Street Journal‘s Southeast Asia Real Time
  4. Everybody Inhale: How Many People Can Manhattan Hold? — The New York Times
  5. Tricks of the Trade With The Atlantic’s James Fallows — FishbowlDC
  6. Dempsey scores as US beats Italy for first time — The AP
  7. John Paton to news execs: Abandon the gatekeeper model — GigaOM
  8. An apocalyptic view of future Bangkok: Connecting a doom-laden forecast in “The Windup Girl” to present realities — Global Post
  9. Why journalists need to link — Felix Salmon/Reuters
  10. Embedded above and on YouTube: “Lionel Messi never dives” (via Kottke.org)

(Previous link round-ups are available via the links tag.)

Categories
Sports

Bangkok Exhibition of Sport that’s like “Ice Hockey — Except that Players are Armed with Stun Guns”

How I missed this exhibition the other evening I will never know…

2012 03 04 taser ball

Today’s Bangkok Post reports:

The atmosphere was electric as a shocking new sport came to Bangkok.

Players took aim with electric stun guns at PAC Sports Centre as the Philadelphia Killawatts, Toronto Terror, San Diego Spartans and LA Nightlight battled it out in exhibition matches last night and on Friday.

UTB’s rules are similar to ice hockey — except that players are armed with stun guns that put out three to five milliamperes of electricity, with participants getting shocked dozens of times per match.

Police-grade tasers are not that much stronger and have been known to cause cardiac arrest and inadvertent death in their targets.

Eric Prumm, a cofounder of the four-team UTB league, said the stun guns hurt but are essentially harmless. The players, who have been recruited from the cream of the North American professional paintball circuit, have signed liability waivers resembling those in other contact sports.

The sport came to Bangkok as part of a marketing drive in Asia. Other exhibition matches are planned in Malaysia and elsewhere.

There’s more info on the sport’s official site, which includes this video (embedded below and on YouTube here).

(Image: Bangkok Post.)

(All emphasis mine.)