Jing-reed's Musings from Thailand

Thai Elections On July 3

I am still not a permanent resident here in Thailand, even though I have been here for 9+ years, and so I am still considered a 'foreign guest'. [Long, complicated story which I will not go into.]  Definately not kosher for guests to comment on political events of their gracious hosts.

Elections for Prime Minister will be held this coming Sunday, July 3. Difficult to resist the temption to comment on the electoral process, the many players, the corruption and graft, and seeming lack of intelligence currently being played out.

BUT, if I hear one more vehicle with loudspeakers blasting campaign messages go by my house I will probably commit seppuku on the front lawn.   Jeeze they make a lot of noise and say absolutely nothing.

Was surprised today when I visited the well known DLISTED website and found an advert for the current PM, Abhisit Vejjajiva, a bright, well spoken, Oxford educated Thai politician.  Entirely too bright and knowledgable and you can bet that he will not be reelected.

And of course he is running against the sister of the deposed ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, the most notorious crook in Thailand's checkered political process, [but the family is VERY, VERY rich] and as head of the notoriously corrupt 'Red Shirts' they have promised the poor people of the country everytihing but the moon.

 

Chinese Male Cheerleader 风骚哥

A video of a Chinese male cheerleader has hit the web and instantly became an Internet sensation. The identity of the person is yet to be announced, but some assume him to be a student from Shandong University of Science and Technology.

The student, dressed up in a skirt, hopped, kicked, threw his pom-pons in the air, and moved just like the other girl cheerleaders. He was also given a solo moment toward the end to steal the show for the night.

My favorite comment, "Sure, he might be gay. OR he might just be the smartest motherfucker in the entire school."


First posted on YouKu, Chinese equivalent of YouTube.

[Male cheerleaders are nothing new (remember America's last president), but we haven't seen a male cheerleader with moves quite this good. This guy has got the pep, the attitude and even the sequined skirt and skimpy top--and totally steals the show away from the girls. The cheerleaders are performing a half-time routine at a college basketball game, and Ministry of Tofu has translated a number of funny comments to the video--and they are generally positive.

He's now know as Coquettish Brother [风骚哥] in the netizen world. But what's so awesome about the video is that the cheerleaders made the decision to have this effervescent guy the star of the squad. Check out his solo moves to near the end of the video.]

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Ask Sam Harris Anything

Sam Harris is an American author, neuroscientist and CEO of Project Reason. He received a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA, and has a B.A. in philosophy from Stanford University. He is a proponent of scientific skepticism. 

Sam Harris, is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, and The Moral Landscape. In this video he answers questions submitted by users on Reddit.com.  Sam talks about everything from the benefits of meditation to religion and some of the pitfalls of religious thinking.

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Pravda on YouTube — Правдa.py

I have been reading Pravda, the offical Russian/Soviet newspaper,  intermittently for the past 50 years.  Provides a different, and uniquely Russian viewpoint, about the news of the day.  Just discovered that Pravda now has a YouTube channel.  Almost immediately discovered a unique series on 'secret cities' within Russia, which were unknown to the outside world, and used to require clasified documents tor entering or leaving the premises.  

Snezhinsk [Снежинск] is a unique city in the Urals and it was the home of the Igor Kurchatov, the 'father' of the first Soviet Atomic bomb.  It is still a 'closed city' since it is the center of the Russian nuclear program, much like the U.S. city of Los Alamos in New Mexico.

[These videos won't make much sense unless you speak Russian, but I know that a number of people who pass this way do. and I hope they find this documentary series as fassciinating as I have.]

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Dramatic Cat

 

I am sure that we have all been exposed to countless strange animal clips on YouTube, but for me the expression on this cat's face is priceless.  Of course I might react the same if someone blasted Richard Strauss at me from behind.

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Alien Life on Earth?

The discovery of a strange bacteria that can use arsenic as one of its nutrients widens the scope for finding new forms of life on Earth and possibly beyond, NASA scientists announced [Dec. 2010]. While researchers discovered the unusual bacteria here on Earth, they say it shows that life has possibilities beyond the major elements that have been considered essential. Six major elements have long been considered essential for life - carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. At a news conference on Thursday at NASA headquarters in Washington, researchers announced that they had found that a bacteria, discovered in Mono Lake, California, is able to continue to grow after substituting arsenic for phosphorus.

Astrobiology research funded by NASA has made a tremendous new discovery which could "fundamentally change the knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth," according to NASA.

The major finding  has fueled speculation recently that reached a fever pitch after the agency said the finding "will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life."

While the discovery is not extraterrestrial life, NASA has indeed uncovered an entirely new life form on our planet that "doesn't share the biological building blocks of anything currently living" on Earth.

    In a bombshell that upends long-held assumptions about the basic building blocks of life, scientists have discovered a a whole new type of creature: a microbe that lives on arsenic. It is unlike every other lifeform on the planet - from the simplest plant to the most complex mammal.

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Jack Chick Tracts

Jack Thomas Chick is an 86 year old American publisher, writer, and comic book artist of evangelical Christian tracts and comic books [Jack Chick Tracts]

His comics have been described by the Los Angeles Magazine as "equal parts hate literature and fire-and-brimstone sermonizing". Which is not true at all, since they are more like 90% hate-filled. In the past each page was appended with reference to a specific bible verse. 

Disgusting little religious tracts known when I was a kid as 'penny comics' due to their small size, low price and since they were only printed in black and white.  And they are still available for 16 cents.  But times have changed and larger size comics are available that cost $2.25 each for grander, more colorful bits of hate.

 

[Like many protestant sects, the folks at Chick seem to have an espticallly intense dislike of the Pope and catholics in general]

I never cease to be amazed at the hatred between the various differing groups of christianity [over 20,000 at last count].  Twenty thousand different groups, with each one claiming that they, and they alone, have the absolute truth about God, J.C. and salvation, etc. etc.


And there are now even embedable online editions of the Jack Chick marvels [although there doesn't seem to be a way of enlarging them so that they are actually readable].

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Asteroid 2011 MD

As we all know by now, an asteroid called 2011 MD passed unnervingly close to our planet last night. Although its orbit didn't put it on a collision course with Earth it did get close enough to be deflected by our planet's gravitational field.

"It is interesting to note that [2011 MD] will come closer than the GPS satellites, and also that it comes from the northern hemisphere, passes over the Earth's south pole, and then is deflected so strongly that leaves the Earth back in the northern hemisphere".

The Disclosure Project

On Wednesday, May 9th, 2001, over twenty military, intelligence, government, corporate and scientific witnesses came forward at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to establish the reality of UFOs or extraterrestrial vehicles, extraterrestrial life forms, and resulting advanced energy and propulsion technologies. The weight of this first-hand testimony, along with supporting government documentation and other evidence, establishes without any doubt the reality of these phenomena.

The "U.F.O DISCLOSURE PROJECT" video appears to be proof that UFOs exist.  I admit to having been a skeptic in regards to the existance of UFOs.

But, when you watch this video, you may well change many of your current beliefs. Watch and listen to these ex high ranking officials and people who have had access to sensitive documents as well as having had first hand encounters. You’ll hear from air traffic controllers, ex secret ops. officers, commercial pilots, military defense specialists with top secret clearance, lieutenants, ex commanders in the U.S. Air Force, astronauts, and more. These are not UFO nut cases, but regular people who have had extraordinary experiences. 

There is now incontrovertable evidence that certain parts of the U.S. government have been systematically lying to the people of the U.S., and the world, about the existence of UFOs. I have never been a fan of conspiracy freaks, but from the testamony of Dr. Steven Greer and other resposible individuals I realize that perhaps I have underestimated the power of certain groups within the government to withhold and corrupt the truth.

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Coffee: The Greatest Addiction Ever

"I believe humans get a lot done, not because we're smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee." 
~Flash Rosenberg

Will readily admit that I have been a coffee addict for 60 of my 77 years.  Absolutely cannot imagine passing a day without my caffeine fix.

One of the greatest joys during my 11 years of living im Mexico was that I lived next to, and traveled through, a small coffee plantation while walking to my universty classes every day.  The fragrance of the white coffee blossoms was divine, and light aroma of the coffee berries [cherries] as they ripened remains one of life's finest moments.

"Coffee is the best thing to douse the sunrise with."
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