Jing-reed's Musings from Thailand

Glenn Beck Shows His True Colors

Today wasn't the best day for Glenn Beck's website to rely on a random image generator.

While the media goes back and forth about whether or not Fox News or conservative talk radio had an impact on Jared Lee Loughner's decision to go on a rampage, Beck unknowingly made a convincing case against himself when an image of him holding a gun appeared next to a quote where he condemns violence.


"We must stand together against violence"  — bang, bang!

Encyclopedias and Knowledge

Guess I was just born with an especially inquisitive mind.  In fact my parents nicknamed me  "Prečo" [precho], the Slovak word for 'why', since, after being informed of absolutely anything, it was my most common retort and immediate question.   And that desire for knowledge has not abated with the passage of time but if possible, has grown even stronger.

As an adolescent growing up in So. California one of my mother's first purchases was a World Book Encyclopedia, which along with a gigantic Webster's  dictionary, was located in the dining room, and hence never far from her grasp during our evening meals together.  She considered food for the body and food for the mind to be somewhat synonymous.

 

When I entered L.A. State University and moved away from home, one of my cherished possessions was a set of  Encyclopaedia Britannica, all 32 volumes, on very thin pages and relatively small print so as to include all possible information. This was the tool that assisted me nearly every day during my years at L.A. State University and later at S.F. State University. 

 

Years later after we had entered the age of computers, naturally I purchased Microsoft's 'Encarta' on a single computer disk, not as complete as my beloved Encyclopaedia Britannica, but with a lot more illustrations and pretty pictures.  Plus it had the ability to immediately access any related articles to the one I was reading.  This was when I really learned how to 'copy and paste'.  

 

In 2001 'Encarta' was eclipsed by the advent of Wikipedia, that online marvel of knowledge, and which soon became nearly everyone's choice of a favorite website. In addition, it had information available in hundreds of the world's languages.   I still access it several times every day.

 

Well, there has been a new innovation in the world of knowledge and information, The WikiReader has arrived.  A small battery operated device, which you can hold in the palm of your hand, and contains more than three million of the online Wikipedia articles - yet you don't have to be online to use it, since all the information is self-contained. 

  

 

And what would any new innovation be without a YouTube video touting its virtues?

Raoul , Raoul . . . and Romania

I never cease to be amazed at the flights that occur with my internet connection.   This morning I received notification that Raoul, a favorite Romanian singer, had posted a new song on YouTube.  At the time and not knowing that he had a website, I did a Google image search for a suitable photo to include in a posting.

Suddenly found myself at the website of a quite different 'Raoul from Romania', this one from Arad, on the western border.  A quick Google Earth search for the location of Arad showed that it was not far from Debrecen, Hungary where my nephew lives and a mere 300 km. from Nove Zamky in Slovakia where I was raised.  Google Earth has way of reducing everything to a hop, skip and a jump away.

Now this 'new Raoul' is a graphics student, certainly a subject of personal interest.  And then I noticed that he mentions he is "a next door guy meddling with graphics ... and other next door guys".  Seems that the 'confraternity' has yet another member, and a very cute/sexy one at that.

[Certainly much too young for me, but very pleasant eye candy, and I love his motto, "Never stop playing — with yourself."]

Now what is my connection to Romania?  Certainly the music, since the tradtional music of Romania is reminiscent of the tradtional music of my native Slovakia.   And, if you have been following my blog for any time you will remember that one of my dearest friends travelled from Sibiu, Romania to spend the month of October with me here in Thailand. And since installing Skype, Marina and I have weekly free 'phone' converations to keep in touch - so much easier than the endless typing of Google Chat. Can't remember exactly how Marina and I first met, but of course it was via the internet, that wonderful global connector.  

Almost spring, so Raoul singing Flori de mai [Flowers of May]

The Tale of the 'Mud-Grass Horse' — 草泥马之歌

A Dirty Pun Tweaks China’s Online Censors 

BEIJING — Since its first unheralded appearance in January on a Chinese Web page, the grass-mud horse has become nothing less than a phenomenon.

A YouTube children’s song about the beast has drawn nearly 1.4 million viewers. A grass-mud horse cartoon has logged a quarter million more views. A nature documentary on its habits attracted 180,000 more. Stores are selling grass-mud horse dolls. Chinese intellectuals are writing treatises on the grass-mud horse’s social importance. The story of the grass-mud horse’s struggle against the evil river crab has spread far and wide across the Chinese online community.

Not bad for a mythical creature whose name, in Chinese, sounds very much like an especially vile obscenity ['fuck your mother'].  Which is precisely the point.

Ng Tze-wei: ‘Innocent’ Ditty Pokes Fun at Net Crackdown; Childish ‘Grass-Mud Horse’ Song Lampoons Official Censors

In the harsh but beautiful desert of Ma Le Go Bi, a special herd of alpaca sheep known as caonima (grass-mud horse), lived happily. But their happiness is fading.

Their habitat has come under threat lately because of a sudden migration of river crabs. But the brave caonima are resilient and intelligent, and they are fighting back - through the mainland internet.

For readers hurriedly flipping through the pages of Index to the Animal World, this tale of survival is not a real ecological crisis, but rather a creation of smart mainland netizens who have turned the government’s sweeping internet crackdown into a national laughing stock. And it all started with an innocent-sounding little song.

KELL HULSEY IS BACK IN THE NEWS

Reinstated cop faces charges in bar brawl

Former Greeley police Sgt. Kell Hulsey, under investigation for his part in a fight at a mountain bar in early July, was issued summonses this week charging him with four misdemeanors in the case.

Hulsey, who is still working with the Greeley Police Department, lost his sergeant ranking because of the incident. The summonses — issued Thursday by the Larimer District Attorney’s Office — charged Hulsey with two counts of third-degree assault, one count of harassment and one count of disorderly conduct. All are misdemeanors. 

A 20-year veteran of the department, Hulsey has been on a roller coaster ride since he and his son were involved in an incident at the Pot Belly Deli bar west of Fort Collins on July 6.

Patrons and employees at the bar claim Hulsey and his son, Daniel Hulsey, became angry when one of the bar customers looked at Daniel Hulsey, and the father and son perceived it as a “gay look.” . . . .

One of the victims in the case, Sean McGlothlen, an employee at the Pot Belly Deli on the night of the fracas, said about the charges: “We believe it’s about time the (Larimer County) DA’s office filed the charges; it’s been four months. We were under the impression they were just putting off filing, hoping we’d forget about it. We really hope that justice will be served here.”

Kell Hulsey’s first court appearance is Jan. 12.

In July I posted about Hulsey who was under investigation for the bar fight which appearently was provoked by his homophobia.  [ HOMOMPHOBIA IN COLORADO ].   Received a interesting comment on that posting today:

Commenter name: GO FUCK YOURSELF
Commenter email: mxcady878@gmail.com
IP address: 138.86.118.37

Maybe you should pull your head out of your ass before you start posting bullshit. You don't know that you're pissing until your pants are wet, do you really think anyone gives a shit what you think? I assure you that they do not. Grow some balls and stop being a fucking parrot. Instead of regurgitating other peoples nonsense, try having an original thought that no one will give a fuck about. GET FUCKED. I'll have you any way you like mate! Fucking Blogger. Turn off the episodes of Star Trek and stop being such a fucking pussy you wanker!

"Maybe you should pull your head out of your ass before you start posting bullshit."

I post what I find of interest in the news, and beserk policemen, who are supposed to protect the populace, are always of interest. There were a number of news accounts [Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, The Coloradoan, Greeley Tribune, etc.] of the brawl.  All seemed to echo the same scenario of what occured.  If they were all bullshit, as the commenter has asserted, well it was a consensus.   

Guess the most telling part of the invective that followed was the phrase "Fucking Blogger".  Wake up and smell the 21st century my friend.  Gone are the days when narrow minded rednecks and homophobes can hide within their abysmally small craniums and Neanderthal behavior. 

You don't like what I post?  Very simple solution, don't read it.  But, for your information, bloggers are here to stay.  

WOMAN KILLS VIRTUAL HUSBAND

Online divorcee jailed after killing virtual hubby

TOKYO: A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday.

The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.

The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.

She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

Players in "Maple Story" raise and manipulate digital images called "avatars" that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles.

The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead. 

Scams go truly international

Got a hilarious letter in my spam file a few days back:

Приветствую вас, вы можете быть скептически получения электронной почты, потому что мы не встретились predtím, я г-н Патрик KW Чан (исполнительный директор и главный финансовый директор) на úbocí Сенг Банк Ltd, presto, я торговые предложения, связанного
сумма $ 24000000,00 долларов США в моем банке, я знаю, мы.....

So Patrik K, Chan, "Chief Executive Director" of the Seng Bank, Ltd [presto???] writes to me in Russian, from an Italian address, informing me that his 'bank' is worth 24 million US dollars and that we can mutualy benefit from something which is left vaguely undisclosed.  Yup, sure we can.

How stupid do these crooks think the citizens of the internet really are???  Discovered that Mr. Chen has hundreds of aliases, connected with various 'banks',  as well as limitless email addresses.   And all connected with vast sums of money, of course.

Loved the three language mishmash of requested information:

1.Full имена,

2.Age

3.Occupation,

4.Private номер телефона,

5.Current rezidencní адрес

Sorry Patrik, but you are a 他媽的輸家, fottuto perdente, проигрыше, and I willl even throw in an extra, pendejo perdedor - all of which point in the direction of your being a fucking loser - and not a very bright one at that.

So if you should be bothered by mail from "Г-н Патрик Чан." <rmb.ricami@tin.it> or Mr. Patrik Chan, do NOT answer it, but rather report it to the proper authorities.  Yahoo has a page on the procedure for reporting email scams and phishers.

"We're sorry this video is no longer available"

Firefox [Mozilla] and YouTube [Google] are both gigantic entities, and yet for months now they have just ignored hundreds of thousands of 'Netizens' who have encountered a major problem when attempting to view YouTube video clips.  In the past if this message was received it meant that the uploader of the video, or YouTube, had removed it, and it was indeed no longer available.

Suddenly some months ago I began getting this "We're sorry...." message on EVERY YouTube video I attempted to access. A Google seach revealed that there were countless others with the same problem. The remedies were numerous, but comments seemed to show that they didn't work for everyone.

The only solution that did work for me was to add "&fmt=18" to the video I was attemting to access. This code is for 'high quality' viewing.  And worked for all, even if the quaity was no different.

               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8PReHwIUk8

               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8PReHwIUk8&fmt=18

However, it was time consuming as well as being a minor pain in the ass, AND impossible to implement if I was reading a news or blogsite and it had a YouTube video to watch when clicking produced the same tired "We're sorry..." message.

But I finally found an excellent solution that always works!.  

Downloaded the Apple SAFARI browser for PCs and my frustrations were gone.  It works perfectly and actually is a much, much faster, and cleaner appearing, browser.  Fonts are actually easier to read and there is superb color reproduction on most web pages.  [Of course even SAFARI can't do anything with those illustrations that were shitty to begin with — the old "garbage in, garbage out" syndrome].  

STEPHEN FRY - Blog/Pod

Stephen Fry's blog is a nice place to visit.  His usual wit, and good taste [naturally], prevails.  Now too his Podcasts are available thrrough iTunes.  Four at present, each from 25 to 40 minutes in length.  I especially enjoyed "Wallpaper" - in this third episode, he discusses the merits of Oscar Wilde’s view on American violence and good wallpaper.

So, around this time, Oscar was asked a question. A very intelligent question actually. He was asked why he thought America was so violent. Seems an odd question at first blush, but it was an America that had just emerged from the most attritional, the bloodiest Civil War in the history of Western humanity so far as we know. It was a struggle for the heart and soul of America, for the future of America, and I think they were still dazed by the violence that had erupted in their own country. Such a nobel experiment. Founded with such hope and such high ideals, yet it descended into this terrible bloodbath. Not only that, but the west which was being developed - ha, developed - that had caused violence, too. Violence of course to the indigenous population, the Native Americans, the indian tribes. But violence of all other kinds. The gunsligners were becoming very famous. Gang warfare was erupting in Chicago and New York. This was all very puzzling to people of intelligence, people of intellectual curiosity. Why should a country that was established on principles of peace and tolerance, wisdom. All the glories of the Enlightenment have descended into internecine strife.

Of course the usual answer to why people get violent is they depart from family values. Ha-ha-ha don’t get me started on that argument. Afterall, most murders take place within families. Most violence takes place within families. Even organized crime is structured according to families. It’s a ghastly parody of a family, but the idea that family values are responsible for stopping people being violent seems to me to be so insane as hardly to worth repeat. I hope you take my point. That’s it, isn’t it? Family values and violence that seems to be no more relation between them than a skunk and a rattlesnake. Both nasty but they’re not connected. Except in the great scheme of life, the colors of the wind and the circle of how do you do. But Wilde gave a different explanation, and it’s on that on the surface seems very trivial.

“Why, Mr. Wilde, do you think America is such a violent country?”

“I can tell you why,” he said. “..... America is such a violent country because your wallpaper is so ugly.”  .....

CHALERMCHAI AND iGOOGLE

My Firefox browser's home page is one of the very nice creations by iGoogle.  Home page 'themes' are easy to change, and there are countless artistic patterns available.  Was both surprised and pleased to recently discover that the renown Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpitpat [เฉลิมชัย โฆษิตพิพัฒน์ ] has a theme based on his incredible art work, and the images change during the night and day.  Pleasant and peaceful.  Serene. 

 
          [detail of 'meditating mind']

Mr. Kositpitpat attended Silpakorn University, which is Thailand's primary visual arts school, and graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree in Thai art in 1977.  He combines traditional Thai Buddhist temple art and contemporary images, with a unique and very personal sense of design and fantasy. 

      [detail of a somewhat unusual lotus blossom]

In fact my home here in Chiang Mai is filled with large lithographs of khun Chalermchai's works which I purchased at the unusual and beautiful Wat Rong Khun, in Chiang Rai, which is another of this talanted and creative artist's masterpieces. Most Thai Buddhist temples are vivid rainbows of color and form, and yet the Wat Rong Khun is pristine white in its unique beauty. 

Mural and statue of Buddha on the back wall of the temple.  Some eight years ago I was visiting the Wat Rong Khun with some friends from Bangkok, during the early stages of construction.  Fortunately khun Chalermchai was in the process of painting this image at the time and took time from his busy work schedule to chat with us.  An exceedingly friendly and charming, as well as very humble, human being.

          [mural during the construction phase]

Wat Rong Khun and the art works of Chalermchai Kositpitpat are among the countless treasures of this very special country.