Categories
Misc.

Skype, Writely, and GMail Notifier for Mac

Three tech updates for you:

1) Skype. It rules. But you knew that. I’m all up on it. Finally got a headset and mic and am no longer pussyfooting around. So hit me up VoIP-style. My Skype ID is newleypurnell. (And yes, I know I’m like five years late with the whole calling-over-the-Web thing, but still.)

2) Remember Writely, that sweet Web-based word processor that I told you about back in December? Yeah, well, Google seems to think it’s pretty good, too. Memo (composed using Writely) to my product development friends in Mountain View: stick with me. We’ll go places. (FYI: WebOS, here we come.)

3) Speaking of Google, they recently released the Gmail notifier for Mac, so that you can receive Outlook-style alerts — complete with snippets of text that pop up on your screen and screw up your workflow — when you receive a new email (or should I say a new Gmail?). I’ve had some connectivity issues, but the application looks promising.

Categories
Misc.

“The Quiet Farang”

John Burdett, author of two excellent novels about Bangkok, had an informative op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times. He says that there’s a reason delinquent foreigners come to Thailand — and that the country has some endemic problems of its own:

The story of the cute white girl in the red tartan bonnet who had been dead 10 years burst into the Thai news media just as another equally harrowing local story was breaking: allegations, vigorously denied, of the systematic serial rape of five 8-year-old girls by two highly respected Thai teachers with decades of experience as educators.

In Thailand, only monks are revered more than teachers. But this local news, which surely touches the lives of Thais more deeply than John Mark Karr’s confession to the murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey a decade ago, was knocked off the front page even as doubts began piling up about Mr. Karr’s reliability.

Since her death, JonBenet has become a multimillion-dollar American industry, whereas the allegations at Prachanukul School in Bangkok’s Sai Mai district are just another Bangkok crime story. Or are they?

As of now, it seems possible that Mr. Karr did not commit the murder, but is an attention-seeking farang kee-nok — “Western drifter.” Like other members of that group, he tried to make ends meet by taking on teaching jobs, made regular visa runs to Malaysia, lived in a budget hotel, drifted around Southeast Asia with no apparent direction.

Yet it is exactly his familiarity as a type that has concentrated the attention of those Thais most familiar with it. Nit Dandin, a veteran teacher of the Thai language to Westerners, put it to me this way: “Why do farang come to Thailand after they kill or rape somebody in their own country?”

Why indeed?

Read the whole thing.

(Via.)

Categories
Misc.

Karr’s Creepy Usenet Postings

Thanks to A for passing along this site, which details some of Karr’s sicko Usenet postings as well as a mirrored copy of his (similarly creepy) teaching resume.

This case gets stranger by the day. Now there’s a potential link to a yearbook inscription Karr made 20 years back.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the answer is yes: John Mark Karr now has a Wikipedia page.

Categories
Misc.

John Karr and Tourism in Thailand

In my most recent Gridskipper post, I take a look at Karr’s bust and the Thai tourism industry.

Categories
Misc.

More on the JonBenet Murder Mystery

Wow. Yesterday was quite a day here in Bangkok, with Police arresting suspected JonBenet Ramsey killer John Mark Karr. Initial reports suggested that he was proclaiming his innocence, but then he ultimately confessed to the crime. But wait — could he be lying?

2Bangkok.com has a good round-up of news stories, many of which paint Bangkok (understandably) in a negative light. And here’s an interesting look at Karr’s life in Thailand.

Yahoo EPL Fantasy Football

Deportivo Azogues (Ecuador)

A brief alert for all newley.com readers who’re into fantasy football (soccer). My kid brother Colin has put together a Yahoo English Premier League group; go here to sign up. It’s free. Email me (newley [at] gmail.com) for the group name and password. Lineups must be submitted by 11:00 a.m. GMT on Saturday, August 19 (that’s 6 a.m. EST in the US). FC Newley is in. It will be scintillating fun, I promise.

JonBenet Murder Suspect Nabbed in Bangkok

UPDATE 2: Is Karr falsely claiming to to be the killer?

UPDATE: Thai police say he’s confessed.

CNN:

A suspect was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday “for the December 26, 1996, murder of JonBenet Ramsey,” the district attorney in Boulder, Colorado, said Wednesday.

A law enforcement source identified the suspect as 41-year-old John Mark Karr, a one-time schoolteacher and American citizen who has lived in Conyers, Georgia.

It is the first arrest in the decade-long investigation of the 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant’s slaying. The case was the subject of suspicion and speculation and provided years of fodder for the news networks and the tabloids.

Karr had been communicating with someone in Boulder and that online communications played a key role in leading authorities to him, law enforcement sources said.

Karr has confessed to some elements of the crime and is under investigation for an unrelated sex crime, the sources told CNN.

Reuters provides more info on the suspect:

BANGKOK – Thai police said on Thursday they had arrested an American in connection with the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey, a child beauty queen whose grisly death triggered a U.S. media frenzy.

They did not name the man, identified in U.S. media as primary school teacher John Mark Karr, 41, but said he was arrested in conjunction with FBI officers after being followed for three weeks as he sought a job teaching English in Bangkok.

“We arrested him yesterday at an apartment not far from my office after having followed him for 21 days,” immigration police chief Lieutenant General Suwat Tumroungsiskul told Reuters.

“During the arrest, we were accompanied by American officers. He has been in and out of Thailand a couple of times and the arrest warrant was issued just a couple of days ago.”

Sy Hersh: Iran’s Next

Writing in the New Yorker, investigative journalist Sy Hersh — a guy who’s broken a story or two in his time — says that the US helped plan Israel’s war against Hezbollah, and that the Israeli air campaign amounts to a dry run for a US attack on Iran’s underground nuclear installations.

Hmm. Growing instability in the Middle East with an undercurrent of American influence. Is it me or does that ring a bell?

Nicholas Cage Visits Bangkok

Bangkok Dangerous

First Sly Stallone sets his sights on Bangkok, and now Nicholas Cage — the man who famously named his son Kal-el, after Superman’s birth name — is up in Krungthep.

Seems Nick is here filming a re-make of the 1999 flick “Bangkok Dangerous.” Apparently the film will be called “Time to Kill” (not to be confused with the 1996 crapfest “A Time to Kill”).

According to the Wikipedia page for the new movie:

The original film’s main character is a deaf-mute whose disability makes him a fearless, unflinching gunman. That character will be changed in the remake.

“We’d like to keep him the same, but we understand that from a marketing point of view Nic needs to have some lines,” Oxide was quoted as saying in the International Herald Tribune. “So what we’re going to do is transform his girlfriend instead into a deaf-mute. This switch will maintain the drama of communication between the two main characters.”

Cage’s character’s girlfriend will be portrayed by Hong Kong actress Charlie Yeung, who is preparing for her role by learning Thai dance and sign language.

In addition, Cage’s character will have a local “errand boy” with whom he develops a bond. That role will be portrayed by Thai film and television actor Chakrit Yamnam.

Indeed, I can confirm that filming occurred Sunday evening on Soi Cowboy, one of the Big Mango’s most popular red light districts. I wasn’t there, but a pal was picked to be an extra, a gig which required him to sit in a girl bar from 4 p.m. until 4 a.m.

The Best Basketball Essay I’ve Ever Read

While I admit that I don’t read much about basketball generally or the NBA specifically, this just might be the most amusing — and incisive — thing I’ve ever read about the sport.