bkkguy

another of those YouTube viral videos in case you missed it - a 17 yo gay Aussie student's short movie about being in love with his best mate at school The Language of Love sorry in a hurry and have forgotten how to embed! bkkguy

one of the newspaper reports I read today indicated that this was this co-pilot's first flight as a supervising trainer and this was the first time these two pilots had flown together and this was the flight pilot's first approach to this airport in this aircraft ... I was going to question your comment on lack of training because eventually new (to this aircraft) pilots have to do it in the real world or else we will never have new qualified pilots - but with hindsight this particular combination of "firsts" seems to be potentially fatal! This has been widely speculated on in the media today often referring back to Malcolm Gladwell's 2008 book “Outliers: The Story of Success” - an interesting and controversial character and an interesting and controversial chapter “The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes” the Wall Street Journal blog "The Middle Seat Terminal" provides an historical perspective from 2008: Malcolm Gladwell on Culture, Cockpit Communication and Plane Crashes but most of the current commentary seems to agree that while in the past there were problems with deference to elders and superiors (in Asia) and a disjoint between ex-military and civilian trained crew (in the west and in Asia) in the cockpit these problems have mostly been overcome by new training programs - the results from this crash investigation may or may not change that impression! Another US newspaper report today also noted the interviews with the pilots have been taking a long time because of the need for interpreters! As much as I try not to let possibly irrational personal impressions of cultural differences impact on my real-life decisions this is not doing much for my peace of mind as I board my next Thai Airways flight - perhaps I should just stop reading Bangkok Post reports about the competing political, civilian, elite and military factions on the Thai Airways board! bkkguy

who "owns" and who can control "use" of the "device" are not simple issues - buying a phone is not like buying a toaster! there are many parties that may be able to assert some control over your use of the "device", and while Apple may or may not "own" the hardware they do still "own" the iOS operating system - you only have a (fairly restricting) license to "use" it! to be fair they created an app store - customers liked their hardware and the app store and it became popular, others created competing app stores that have not become as popular for a number of mostly technical - not marketing - reasons and Apple did not suddenly start censoring content when they perceived that had achieved market dominance - while their review guidelines for apps have evolved over time they were there from day one! this Microsoft you refer to is the same one that has faced numerous government and other legal challenges in the USA and Europe for abuse of their monopoly position on the PC with Windows, IE and Office? and more specifically relating to app stores have you actually read Microsoft's Windows 8 app certification requirements for placing apps in the Windows Store and compared it to Apple's App Store Review Guidelines? I don't think you would be pleased with the comparison! I am no Apple, Microsoft or Google fanboi - there are a number of good reasons to be critical of all of their hardware and software licensing, app store, privacy and marketing policies, but you really seem to have it in for Apple without any consideration for the reality of the alternatives - a classic fanboi failing, or do you just have shares to defend? bkkguy

Apple does not "read" your documents to block them any more than Google "reads" your gmail emails to place ads next to them or most mail servers "read" emails to block spam - but I doubt there would have been a piece of regular email delivered last year or this year to just about anyone anywhere in the world that had not been scanned and selectively passed or blocked by some server somewhere! email is the postcard of the Internet - use encryption, the same as you would use an envelope on a letter, if you don't want others reading it! "the power of this" is more when the NSA et al gets easy access to all of this - if you don't like one mail provider's filtering choose another but it is hard to choose another government! Google blocked the Gay Romeo app in the Android Play store as well - I don't think the app is available for Blackberry or Windows Phone so who is your preferred choice now? At least Gay Romeo eventually released an uncensored app that could be installed from other sources for Android (an option not available for Apple devices) so I suppose Google is still an option? bkkguy

I didn't want to "pollute" the "Some Model Photoshots " thread where there had been a discussion about the forum rules on nudity, and I know the usual reaction to posts about threads on dancing with the devil in the city of angles but I did like his "perspective" in his recent post about the impact the Supreme Court's recent rulings would have on both the same-sex marriage issue and gay rights: Eye Candy: Depth Of Field warning: not safe at work! and perhaps this should have been posted in the Bar Beer! bkkguy

absolutely! freedom of the press surely is about its right to "say" or report, not about its right to "do" - and like freedom of speech it comes with responsibility the gutter press may feel they "need" to hack into a missing girl's mobile phone message bank to get a sensational headline or pay paparazzi photographers with telephoto lenses to get compromising images of royalty or celebrities but this is just crass commercialism and lowest common denominator journalism - a responsible free press needs no such "freedom" to achieve their objectives a responsible free press need journalistic and editorial integrity and a respect for the rights of others and in a free democratic society they would have the right to voice their opinion on any issue - the same as citizens with free speech are entitled too - but I must admit that until I can find a place where such ideals actually exist I choose live in Thailand where the need for things like a responsible free press, freedom of speech and democracy are so easily overshadowed by the great food and the great sex! one thing a free press does need is sources and informants, and I have been very interested in the recent debate about Edward Snowden - is he guilty of "treason" or a hero? and what about the right of the government to run programs like Prism ... I grew up in Australia where our constitution is more about delimiting state and federal government rights and our rights as individual citizens are ill-defined and often abused, but it depresses me that increasingly in Oz and even more depressingly in the USA with its very strong constitution and in the UK and Europe you only need to mention a few key words like "terrorists" and "pedophiles" and so many people seem willing to throw their legs in the air and say fuck me and my rights to privacy and fall for the fallacy that "if you have nothing to hide ..." bkkguy

but an Agnostic Jew - oy vey, what a mother to have - as I am sure Woody Allen would sympathise ;-) Who is "we" - I have heard more than one western commentator opine that Christianity has "developed" to its current "civilized" state but the Muslim world is still centuries behind in its progress to being "civilized"! The Crusades where how many centuries ago? do we perhaps need a statute of limitations on atrocities? or is that just a cop out? in Australia we have a very tawdry history of how we have treated the Aboriginal people who inhabited the continent before the arrival of British settlers/invaders, and until fairly recently we were still debating whether the current government should accept responsibility for, and apologize for, the actions of 50, 100, 150 years ago or do we just need to move on and address the results of these actions - I lean towards the latter and was disappointed with the government's apology but lack of real action on the current issues facing Aborigines in Australia today! I know this is not the point you were trying to make, and I know every time a US drone strike kills civilians in Pakistan or Afghanistan it breeds another generation of jihadists, but when do we - Lesley Hazleton's silent majority - get to call foul on the fundamentalists? and the politicians? bkkguy

to be less serious KhorTose I think the ultimate response to both religion generally and fundamentalism specifically is the famous quote (source unknown): which lead on one discussion forum to John Lennon turning in his grave to the tune of "Imagine there's no penis...it's easy if you try" and yes fountainhall I agree - "fundamentalism ...is racked with interpretations that may - or in may instances may not - be accurate". Both the Bible and the Koran must top the list of books that get selectively and deceptively quoted from, using whatever translation suits one's purpose at the time and to hell with context and Rogie the sentence that struck me most in the your quote from the NYT review was "her interpretation of 'whatever happened up there on Mount Hira' is to stress Muhammad’s 'experience' of revelation while sidestepping its objective existence". Even if you are not an agnostic (as she is) how does one objectively "prove" the existence of a higher being let alone objectively "prove" that a text is a revelation from that higher being? surely it takes faith, and as she so eloquently points out, doubt. and I doubt "it would have forced her to embrace the perilous notion that the Koran, instead of being the revealed word of God, might be a text like any other"! and what conclusions should we draw from the fact that our best guides to Islam seem to be an agnostic Jew and a Catholic nun who left holy orders! bkkguy

So surprise, surprise, a Jewish lady writing a biography of Muhammad comes to a conclusion as to who the true infidels are, but have a listen, you may be more more surprised than you think, though it is not to everyone's taste - as one of her detractors said "She might as well have told the story of Harry Potter and how Voldemort is a fundamentalist...", and while I am not a big fan of TED another protagonist claimed the talk was not "TED-worthy"! http://on.ted.com/Hazleton On Muhammad, the relationship between faith and doubt, and the travesty of fundamentalism for some background, her blog: The Accidental Theologist - an agnostic eye on religion, politics and existence and the New York Times review of her biography of Muhammad - "The First Muslim" The Messenger and the Message - ‘The First Muslim,’ by Lesley Hazleton And just remember "TED talks are there to make you think about things that you haven't thought of before" - or perhaps discussed on a gay forum before! and yes I do have a spare grain of salt and a truck if you feel the need! bkkguy

why bother with "fake" meat when your Isarn boyfriend and most of Asia and Africa already have the solution, and the west - or at least the UN - is finally catching on! Edible insects - Future prospects for food and feed security bkkguy

What depresses me is the growing number of even small restaurants and cafes that are getting greedy and going "++" - take a walk around Silom Complex or just about anywhere in Bangkok these days and see the small print on too many menus saying "prices plus tax and service charge" Thai Airways is even more confusing on their web site - if you click to book a regular air fare the first and every price shown is all inclusive, but if you click to book one of the current "specials" the first price you see looks really cheap till you get to the end of the booking and they show the final price including all the extras! Air Asia actually does it fairly well on their web site by leg, by type of charge, automatically updating as you change the selected flight etc bkkguy

in Thailand the minimum wage everywhere is now Bht 300 per day, for an eight hour day that is Baht 37.5 per hour so help me out here - who is earning 20/30 Baht per hour? and why is it my responsibility as an expat or a tourist to bolster their income above this level when the government and particularly the local population don't seem to think they need to share that burden? Or should the Thai population be forced to adopt some other country's tipping standard? in which case which country? and who should it apply to? As an Australian living in Bangkok when I get on a non-aircon or aircon bus should I have to know the hourly rate the conductor gets paid? and what should I tip? and if I am an American? and if my pension income is $300 per month? and if my business income is $3,000 per month or $3,000 per day? and what about the driver? and the cleaner at the depot? and when I am at 7-11 should I tip the cashier? what about the night cleaner? and while I am tipping the oh so deserving waiter at the restaurant do I also need to find out the hourly rate of the cashier and the kitchen hand and cleaner and decide what to leave for them? I assume the chef is already too well paid to worry about though he/she has probably contributed most to my enjoyment of the meal! when in Rome I will follow the local tipping standards but if you want to try to apply your own arbitrary rules go right ahead but they are not necessarily "right" in the local context and they are not necessarily grounds for calling others "penurious" bkkguy

you mean the S4 Mini? the S4 ruggedised? the S4 dual SIM (recently released in China)? the S4 has been in the shops since 3 May in Thailand and forget Kies Air - check out AirDroid bkkguy

Google has recently removed the PlanetRomeo/GayRomeo app from their Play app store because of nudity, the official Microsoft policy for Windows Phone apps guidelines specify apps must not include "Sex / Nudity – Images that are sexually suggestive or provocative (e.g. sexually provocative touching, bondage, masturbation); provocative images that reveal nipples, genitals, buttocks, or pubic hair." and apps have been banned for this, and the RIM policy is similar for apps in the Blackberry app marketplace so having ruled out all the major smartphone OSes I think Nokia still has a few handsets that run Symbian OS (not really smartphones), and Samsung has a few smartphone handsets running their proprietary Bada OS - good luck with finding one with the apps you want but the life of the righteous is never easy! one of the advantages of Android is that it does optionally support installing apps from sources other than the official Google Play app store - and Google rightly says you do this at your own risk, but Planet Romeo has already indicated they intend to offer an Android app with full access to nude images available directly from their website and as for removable batteries that is not OS dependent but manufacturer/model dependent - Samsung, HTC, etc supply a variety Android handsets and tablets, some have removable batteries, some do not! Perhaps it is time to get a new friend - or perhaps ask him how you buy an iOS app without having an "Apple" account, or a RIM app, or a Windows Phone app etc do you (or your friend) use Google search? gmail? g+? chrome?and what information does Google collect from you from these services? and how do they try to tie it to your Android app purchases? do you (or your friend) use bing? hotmail? outlook live? IE? and what information does Microsoft collect from you from these services? and how do they try to tie it to your Windows app purchases? do you (or your friend) use Apple mail? itunes? safari? and what information does Apple collect from you from these services? and how do they try to tie it to your iOS app purchases? do you (or your friend) use facebook? if yes they why are you bothered about what data other "free" service providers collect about you - you have already sold your soul! given the number of reasonably priced low-end to mid-range smartphones with local and international warranty and service available from legitimate retail stores in Thailand I don't really understand why people need to resort to second-hand, grey market or "copy from China" smartphones! go to J-Mart, TG Phone, even AIS and ask about a cheap low-end smartphone and data packages available for your 123-Call account - they are not going to white-slave you into buying a galaxy S4 or an iPhone 5 and a 1,000 Baht a month data packege! bkkguy

forgive my ignorance, for more than 30 years in Australia and in Thailand I was a PAYE employee and I received some automatic benefits and could claim other benefits quite easily on my annual tax return submission without needing recourse to any tax planning advice - if the UK tax system is so much more opaque or difficult for the average tax payer then perhaps this is again something the government needs to address obviously it is not a problem for NIrish - he admits has his own private source of tax planning advice so does this put him at an unfair advantage over the huddled PAYE masses? how much tax planning advise does he have to receive before it is "morally reprehensible"? again my point is you and NIrish seem want to make some arbitrary decision as to what is "fantasically wealthy" and what is ""raping [the] country" - I am just looking for some guidelines on where to draw the line in the sand, and who gets to decide and who is excluded from the discussion, is it just you and NIrish? PAYE taxpayers who do not rort the system, ones who rort the system for less than 100 pounds? less than a 1,000 pounds? the shareholders of some of these "fantasically wealthy" companies? the government? bkkguy

so we have one group of UK taxable entities, most of whom claim some or all of the deductions and benefits available to them under UK tax law, boycotting another UK taxable entity for claiming some or all of the deductions and benefits available to them under UK tax law you are so willing to publicly castigate Starbucks, perhaps you will just as publicly tell us exactly what legal tax deductions and benefits you have claimed or received over the past 10 years and what tax reduction this resulted in for you as an actual amount or as a percentage? at least the directors of Starbucks can claim fiduciary duty, how do you justify your "raping [the] country" by claiming your legal tax deductions and benefits? and perhaps you could explain to us when exactly you think the actions of a taxable entity like yourself or Starbucks strictly following the tax law becomes "morally questionable" - when it is more than you think you can rort the system by thus making it unfair? and apart from some handwaving about closing "tax havens" what exactly is the government doing about changing the tax laws to prevent this type of "rape"? why should they bother when they can achieve such results with trial by witch hunt in the media - traditional and new! bkkguy

Samsung's official marketing policy in Thailand seems to be "we don't need to tell customers or retailers anything, so fuck off ^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hgo away" in the retail channel at Samsung brand stores, AIS, JMart, TG Phone etc the official policy seems to be "I don't have it today and I am not going to waste my time getting information for you about when, how much, model details, etc so fuck off ^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hgo away" the Samsung Note 8 was rumored to be available in Thailand April 23 - on April 19 I called Samsung Thailand, no information available on release date, price,specs; on April 21 I asked at the Samsung store in Paragon, no idea when it would be available, not willing to make any effort to find out when available, price etc, at AIS Serenade shop no idea when would be available, all staff too busy sucking up to people buying models in stock today to even bother with me. On April 23 I called Samsung again, was told it will be in all the shops today - in the Samsung shops, in TG Phone, in JMart, in AIS, everywhere. I then rang AIS and was told no idea when will have or price. I went to Central World, TG Phone and JMart both no idea when will have, in Paragon Samsung shop, no idea when will have and not willing to call Samsung to find out, in AIS shop no idea when will have, in true shop yes have, how many do you want so they got my business. When I then went to AIS Serenade shop to get a SIM for it all the staff drooled over it and one asked why I didn't buy from them - they still didn't know when they would have stock and some that remembered me from April 21 at least managed to look a little embarrassed! in the box with my Note 8 was a 500 Baht discount coupon for a cover only redeemable at "official" Samsung stores - on April 27 they had the covers on display in four colours at TG Phone in Central World but could not accept the coupon, at the "official" Samsung store in Paragon there were none on display and the first two staff I approached said "no have" - eventually someone found one in one colour only and I really begrudged giving them my money for it even though it was the colour I wanted! the only consolation is that according to someone I spoke to at AIS Apple is even worse to deal with! A sign on the window at the Samsung shop in Paragon says the S4 will be available on May 3 - good luck if you want to buy one because on April 27 nobody at that shop knew if they would actually be available on that day and what the price would be, I didn't waste my time asking anywhere else bkkguy

wasn't that the slogan chosen by Pattaya City Council to promote one of the city's key "attractions" - the infamous katoey hookers! somewhat puts you off wanting to "eat out" in Pattaya bkkguy

I am not sure what point you are trying to make here - if screening tests are not reliable then no amount of hocus pocus with dubious screening questionnaires is going to have a significant effect on the safety of the blood transfusion supply bkkguy

the risk factors for HIV transmission are related to sexual activity not gender or sexual orientation - receptive unprotected anal sex is a high risk activity regardless of whether the receptive partner is a male or a female, unprotected sex with a large number of unknown sex partners is high risk regardless of the gender or the participants, etc the Red Cross questionnaire focuses on sexual orientation not activity what qualifications do you think people need to be able to see the disjoint here - the questionnaire is fundamentally flawed and if the "doctors" and "scientists" cannot see this then perhaps "we" should have a voice or perhaps leave it to the politicians or social workers because obviously the problem is a cultural one - how to design a questionnaire that people will not be offended by and will answer honestly but let's not let the Red Cross or other organizations get away with being lazy in their form design while they trample on people's rights because they happen to be in someone's idea of a high risk group even if they don't engage in high risk activity bkkguy

as usual the Guardian article is a bit of a beatup - the best they can really manage is "Ah, faultless legal reasoning" which is actually fairly close to the truth! I don't really really think of HP much more highly than I do the Guardian but the following links may add some balance to the Guardian link: http://jeremyirons.net/2013/04/05/jeremy-irons-in-response-to-huffpostlive-chat/ http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/04/jeremy-irons-would-gay-marriage-fathers-marrying-sons-avoid-inheritance-tax-video_n_3012356.html?utm_hp_ref=uk http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/04/jeremy-irons-would-gay-marriage-fathers-marrying-sons-avoid-inheritance-tax-video_n_3012356.html?utm_hp_ref=uk bkkguy

perhaps you should be asking AIS and/or the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) what happened after January 15 2013 when it was announced with great fanfare that "NBTC has set a Friday deadline for mobile operators to start properly registering prepaid SIM cards and scrapping the expiration date on prepaid mobile credits, or face tough fines and other penalties" http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/telecom/330819/nbtc-sets-sim-card-deadline but then this is Thailand so you probably shouldn't waste your time ... bkkguy

GB obviously didn't think so - my same post was pulled very quickly there followed by a PM huffing and puffing that I was trying to get him arrested for posting a message advertising "lese majeste videos" even though GB thought it was "very poor judgment on Bangkok Post's part" I thought it was a fairly good effort for them and it perhaps reflects social change - a few years ago fear and self-censorship would have killed any idea of an "April Fool" article like this, which is why I thought it was worth a post to see what the reaction would be and I think dismissing this as just an obvious prank perhaps misses the point! and I think it was a lot better than The Nation's "April Fool" article on finding enough gold in Loei to pay off Thailand's national debt. still I think the best I saw was Google Nose (beta), a search engine for smells - "people who sniffed this also sniffed..." bkkguy ps I thought you had me on ignore

YouTube today announced the release of a boxed collection of 14 DVDs containing all the YouTube videos ever submitted on Thailand - a full 70 hours of entertainment, information and trivia caught on video about Thailand. Each DVD will cover a different topic and most of the controversy has been about Disc 6 - "The Lese Majeste Collection". While details will not be fully known until after 2pm on Monday Thailand time - midnight of April 1 in California - it appears the DVD includes all the material banned by the Ministry of Internet Censorship of Thailand (MICT). "This trouble-making YouTube company is just trying to blacken the image of Thailand by releasing harmful videos that try to bring down the system of constitutional monarchy," said a statement by Somchai Veerasakul, chairman of the Royalty Protection Group of Bang Kapi, and faxed to the media. full story - Bangkok Post: YouTube April 1 DVD release 'includes lese majeste video' bkkguy

so how do you expect others to "be the judge' when you don't include this! see the first minutes of the clip on the Sydney Morning Herald site http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/youll-make-it-worse-for-yourself-new-footage-shows-mardi-gras-teen-kicking-at-officers-20130308-2fp79.html the guy repeatedly punches and kicks police - so he really was resisting arrest there are many arguments to be made about how serious or justifiable the charge was, and how inappropriate the final police response may have been and the police minister has already said the police demands to stop filming were totally wrong but your selective videos don't really tell the whole story and the TV interview and your post are just simplistic and facile - this guy is no innocent bystander assaulted at random by police! if he didn't get double bonus points by being a gay Aborigine but was instead a straight middle eastern man from Bankstown going around annoying people like he was would the sympathy and support be the same? bkkguy