EC Commissioners Receive Death Threats

Election Commission member Sodsri Satayathum said Sunday she and at least one colleague had received death threats. "In addition to me, commissioner Prapun Naigowit said he received a threat. We were told to resign," Sodsri said, adding she was not discouraged by the threat. "I am serving the country and I am ready to sacrifice my life for the country," she said during her visit to observe advance voting in Samut Prakan. Sodsri said commission chairman Apichart Sukhagganond was aware of the threats.

She requested police protection but said so far had received none. "I wonder if any political interest group is manoeuvring for the general election to be scrapped. Despite all the pressure, I have not thought of quitting," she added. Sodsri allayed concerns there could be a new round of political confrontation, or even bloodshed, after the general election.

Meanwhile, another member, Somchai Juengprasert, Sunday said he had received no threats. But, he warned of attempts by unnamed political groups to create chaos at Sunday's poll. "There is a movement trying to create chaos and prevent a free and fair election so that certain political parties will be disbanded," Somchai said. "I appeal for all people and parties to help ensure a free and fair election so that we'll get a new government to run the country," he added. [via The Nation]

Sierra Tangos

• Nearly 1.5 million voters went to the booths on the first day; high turnout put down to a new rule making early voting more flexible. Today is the second and final day for advance voting ahead of December 23. [via The Nation]

• I visited the new Outlet Village on Theppasit Road today and it looked like many of the shops had simply relocated from the Outlet Mall. The Callaway/Titleist/Taylor Made golf shop wasn't offering any real bargains that I could see. Branded 'polo' shirts were selling for 1,000 - 1,500Baht and branded clubs appeared to be selling for a similar price to other outlets in town. One club that was selling for less was the Callaway FTi which was 20,400 at Outlet Village and in the sports shop at Big C it was selling for 22,000 Baht. Other brands with outlets at the village are Bossini, Item, Urban, Esprit, Bata, and Nike Factory. It looks to me like a development in need of tourist coaches to succeed.

• The 24th Southeast Asian Games involving athletes from Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam closed its curtain at the main stadium in Korat, northeastern Thailand on Saturday with golden fireworks, music and traditional Thai dancing. Hosts Thailand scooped a mammoth 183 golds but there were allegations of biased judging in favour of Thai athletes particularly in the weightlifting events. The biennial SEA Games have been dogged before by accusations of bias, with this year’s event marking a role reversal for Thailand, who levied similar claims against the Philippines at the last Games in Manila. [via Daily Times, Pakistan]

• Thaksin Shinawatra will be monitoring the Dec 23 election, possibly from Hong Kong, according to his legal adviser, Noppadon Pattama.

Ed. Wonder if the private jet will be cleared to get him here in time for the PPP victory parade?

• Proposals to cut the time tourists from outside the EU can stay in the UK from six months to three are expected to be announced by ministers this week. The move is among measures aimed at further tightening the visa system. A deposit of at least £1,000 to be paid by families who want relatives to visit Britain will also be introduced. [via BBC News]

• The GPS Tracking Key is designed to be attached to vehicles so that you can track the drivers activity. It is powered by just 2 AAA batteries and can be placed inside, outside and even underneath the vehicle using a powerful magnet. Some of the examples given on the site for potential uses of the key are quite scary:
  • To track the location of kids
  • To check if your partner is cheating on you
  • To see if your employees are using your vehicles for personal use
  • To produce travel history for company vehicles

If you suspect your partner is having it away, just get a GPS Tracking key, that can pinpoint the position of the cheater to within 2.5 metres. In order to make sense of the data that the GPS Tracking Key is sending, reports can be received via text reports or even better, the data can be downloaded and overlayed using Google Earth for analysis. [via Connected Internet]

Ed. Sponsors could attach a Tracking Key to a motorcyke to see if said motorcyke goes anywhere near Walking Street....

• Blowfish Advanced manages to provide the user with several security and encryption features that I have not seen before in one utility. The first purpose of Blowfish Advanced is to encrypt - and decrypt - files offering eight different encryption algorithms, three data compression algorithms and keys with a length of up to 1024 bit.

It integrates itself seamlessly into the Windows Explorer context menu offering fast access to encrypting and decrypting functions. One interesting feature is to divide the password to decrypt files. It is for instance possible to save 50% of the password on a keydisk and 50% as a password that you have to remember. A file could only be decrypted if the keydisks would be accessible and if the correct password would be entered.

Another application would be to share the password between users which would mean that all users had to enter their part of the password to decrypt the file or folder that had been encrypted before. [via gHacks]

• Heather Graham has built a fine portfolio of rack flashing in her movies and you can find clips from 10 of her finest efforts here. Flashes include Boogie Nights, Killing Me Sofly and more.

• Mischa Barton does Maxim, Jan 2008

• Topical humour

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