HTML5

I've embedded this in the new Youtube iframe embed code for HTML5. I'd appreciate it if you could leave a comment for any viewing difficulties; particularly on mobile phones. Thanks a lot.

The Stoned Ape

The inexplicably rapid evolution of the neocortex is akin to an organic singularity event. It's the first piece of steak to recognise it is a piece of steak. Not quite a tautology but not far off either. I came across this yesterday night by accident. Peter Webster does a lovely job of reframing a potential hypothesis for why we have a garden of Eden story in our mythology, and he provides more evidence for Terrence McKenna's stoned ape theory which hits my confirmation bias hotspot.

The Great Internet Balloon Race

I'd really like to put this widget in the margin for the duration of Balloonacy, but I don't think it's going to fit. 

Balloonacy Is Back

The lovely people at Poke are doing Balloonacy for Orange again. You may have noticed a floating animal icon around the blog as you're reading this, but it's simpler to understand if you watch the video above that Orange made to explain how it all works. I hear that this latest version makes 2008 look like an 'Atari game of Pong'. That's tucked between the Babbage Difference engine and a ZX Spectrum I'm guessing.

I'm looking forward to joining in, and you can too. If you know where your blog template is then cutting and pasting a snippet of code into the end shouldn't be so hard. Then you're off. More over here.

Minnie Nandakwang - มินนี่ นันทขว้าง

Waiting for you. Email me here

Silence Is The Loudest Scream

This isn't the first time I've wanted to cut and paste a comment. I wrote this before my Sheepish post.  So a bit of seriousness after the madness.

Giles Ungapakorn is a Thai academic in political exile in the UK because of Lèse majesté laws. Nobody takes the subject seriously elsewhere, but Thailand is the world heavyweight champion, the undisputed leader. Full evidence in that first link. It's good that there's no such burden in the UK. A lot of people think Prince Charles is a bit of a tool. I don't know for sure as I've never met him though I like his multi-faith ideas, I think it's healthy to have a viewpoint on architecture even though I disagree with HRH. Other than that I could say openly and for all to hear on public transport for example that Prince Charles is a complete cunt and I'm almost certain that nobody would object to what I think but to the use of vulgarity.

More obscene would be the loss of freedom to talk about say Republicanism. Or how moved the Brits were as Charles Spencer delivered his eulogy at the funeral for his sister The Princess of Wales. These things matter. The importance of talking uninhibitedly about the large crowds listening to the service outside Westminster Abbey matters. How their applause for Charles Spencer's scathing speech against the Royal Family coalesced from outside Westminster Cathedral and swept inside and unquestionably humiliating the Queen. It was a gesture of solidarity for the Peoples Princess, as Tony Blair named her.


That's a freedom not fully appreciated until discussion of the monarchy can land a 20 year sentence.

I haven't read any of Giles' academic work. I'm sure he was a Marxist before me. I'm also sure he wouldn't agree with my Neo Marxist thinking which is principally about sharing as an economic model. However he's written a piece about the Royal Thai Military which I think is extremely interesting to those like me who find his analysis helpful in negotiating the rapidly shifting multi-factionalism that typifies Thailand's institutional and political relationships.

The article is also really useful as a ready reckoner for astute people who find Thai current affairs confusing. A lot of the contextual information is unintentionally informative. There's more glimpses of the national psyche than entire books I've read about Thailand. I've noticed that Giles attracts a lot of irrational venom. As far as I can see it's mostly the people who think that Marxism is historically obsolete . This is odd given that Capitalism's single largest failure is its inability to factor in the costs of relentlessly liquidating nature. A colossal miscalculation that is least easy to grasp by those who are rewarded for ignoring the blunt logic of corrosively global imbalances.


In any case. Once in a while a comment I write needs to be here so that there's no ambiguity about what I think. This ticks off a fair bit of where my heads at on a lot of things, and although I categorically accept that Communism was nothing less than a complete disaster for millions upon millions of people around the world. It's evident our current model is busted. I'm often surprised that nobody calls me out on this post I wrote back here, because I got some things the wrong way around. I totally underestimated Wall Street and The Federal Reserves' ability to game the system. My timing was wrong but I still stand by what I wrote back then. As indeed I stand by this comment.

Giles gets deserved airplay because nobody articulated the military triangulation dynamic better. His consistency and coherency are an anxiety to the bildungsphilister. A leitmotif to their impending loss.

That is loss of respect, loss of credibility, loss of status and finally loss of wealth not to mention the plot.

The Royal Thai Army has its own poetic consistency. Periodically massacring Thai citizens with asymmetric force while safeguarding with first class whitewash. A matter of least vulgarity to those most disinclined to sharing the peoples burden no less.

Instead of applauding he who speaks truth to power, the calumny commentariat debase reason, side with might and bully in unison. They are intolerant to pluralism, ignorant of Marxism, drunk on capitalism while hallucinating on history.

Why else would one solitary exiled voice continue to rock every institution his attention focuses on.

Mixcloud

I know I said back here that I was digging Soundcloud. I still do prefer it for scanning through sets and tracks, but I have to champion Mixcloud for having an elegant look, lovely UX, good sociability and suggested music. This is the track I'm working to right now. Trying to keep the girls' gossip from not distracting me too much. If only they talked in Laotian when I'm working. Instead they save that for when I join in their conversation. #asialiving

Travel Mix by Dj Phil G. on Mixcloud

 Love to know your thoughts on this. Shit? OK? Showing my age? Whatever :)