When Pojaman Shinawatra got out of her limousine in front of the Criminal Court building less than an hour after her flight from Hong Kong early last week, she did not exactly look like Eva Peron returning home to reclaim the political limelight.
Unofficially she has long been recognised as a fixer behind the scenes with considerable power and clout.
Pojaman is here on an undeclared mission - to fix a lot of unsettling political equations and make deals for her husband's nominees to eventually grab power and pave the way for his return.
She has to test the public's reaction, measure the atmosphere of animosity and use her charms to bring about reconciliation with the powers that be. All these goals can be achieved with the help of big money, to the tune of billions of Baht if need be.
Thaksin has had to swallow his pride after sending his wife to face adversity, which, surprisingly, was hardly present. At the airport and at the court, she was warmly received by her admirers. The environment was not hostile.
For most of his business and political career, Thaksin has used his wife, children, housemaids, security guard and cronies as either fronts or nominees for the ownership of stockholdings and other assets.
This has put him in trouble with the law frequently and these shenanigans were the prime cause for the public resentment that led to his being ousted from the premiership.
Thaksin may have cared about the public's perception after sending his wife back home, but the visit would not have happened if his wife were not confident in her ability to exercise her charms effectively. In fact, the homecoming show could have been her initiative.
Will these efforts enable the PPP to take power? Will the generals involved in deposing her husband do nothing, sitting on their hands while they wait for their fate and careers to be decided by her political nominees and cronies? These questions depend on other factors for all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to fall into place.
After all, it all boils down to whether Thaksin can eventually set foot on this land ever again, with or without political vendettas. There are still unseen hands, which can put a stop to her schemes, hopes and expectations.
This can begin with the hand bringing down the gavel on matters involving the call for the dissolution of the PPP, and afterward in several legal battles her family members and all the cronies have to fight, regardless of whether her beloved husband is here or not. [vis The Nation]
Sierra Tangos
- I received the following response to yesterday's post on "No Smoking" from Gold.
Quote:
You don't do E's, V's; you couldn't handle 10 pints, and there's not a chance you'd go bare-backing dirty whores because you're not from either Hull or Burnley!!! And, I'm not even going to bite at the fact that there's as much chance of you managing to keep a hardon until dawn, as there is on Julian Clary shagging Miss Thailand World.
:Unquote.
Ed. He obviously thinks he knows me!
- There is a new international calling service available in Thailand called DeeDial. That's a little bit of a play on words, mixing the Thai word dee which means "good" with the English word dial. I haven't tried them myself yet but I probably will. I don't make many calls but when I do the meter is running in my head the whole time, makes me stressed.
DeeDial's rates are much cheaper than the alternatives. Calling the U.S., for example, costs something like 20 baht per minute if you dial 001, and around 8 baht per minute if you dial 008 or 009. DeeDial is 1.5 baht per minute. The only thing cheaper is Skype which is great if you are sitting in front of a computer with an ADSL connection. From regular phones, including mobiles, DeeDial looks like a great solution. [via Asian Sweethearts]
- Twenty-eight children were injured, four critically when part of an elevated amusement park watercourse collapsed Saturday at Siam Park in suburban Bangkok. The 10-to 12-year-old riders were being treated at a local hospital. The "Super Spiral" waterslide accident occurred during Children's Day when joints holding segments of the popular ride collapsed. Seven young riders fell through the damaged slide, according to company executive. It is the second time in less than four months that the amusement park has experienced significant safety failures. Siam Park managing director Wuthichai Luengamornlert said the "Super Spiral," a water slide three-stories high, had broken at the 2.5 metre level and that in addition aged 10-12 riding from the top of the water channel fell from the broken joint. Most of the 28 injured childred suffered head injuries, with some broken limbs and bruises. Four children remain in critical condition.
- YouTube's blocked for me. Is it just me or everybody in Thailand.
- I was listening to John Dykes on First Edition with Dave Jones who covers the Championship for Sky and Dykes said ESPN will be showing Championship games from next season. Now all I need is for Leeds to get into the Championship and this blogs history. I'll be too busy watching telly. Cum on you Whites.....
- MP3 Search Engine Summary [via Lifehacker]
These are sites that both stream and download music:
- The Hype Machine aggregates MP3s from the vast world of music blogs. Searching for an artist in The Hype Machine returns tons of results, and you can stream the songs inline in the results. The site itself provides links to buy music at Amazon or in iTunes if it's available, but you can also click through the read the original blog post containing the song and download music directly from that site. The handy player at the bottom of The Hype Machine's page creates a playlist of all the results on a page so listening to the results is easy. You can also choose favourites to build playlists. Most of the sites in the section are brand new, but Hype Machine has time on its side, having been around since 2005. (Read more)
- SeeqPod is a straight up MP3 search engine at first glance, but after you perform your first search you'll notice a fancy Flash app that makes it easy to create playlists in your browser via a simple drag-and-drop interface. SeeqPod doesn't have easy to find download links for the songs, but the URLs are readily available if you're willing to do the typing. Even cooler, though, SeeqPod has an iPhone/iPod touch-optimized interface for streaming any song directly in mobile Safari. (Read more)
- SkreemR is another simple, barebones MP3 search engine. Like Hype Machine, SkreemR pulls its content from across the internet and can stream any song in your browser. Unlike Hype Machine, SkreemR has simple download links for every file you listen to so you don't need to follow it to the source if you want to download it. (Read more)
- Thesixtyone has positioned itself to be a Digg-like community for music, which makes it a great place to discover new music (though it still handles search like the rest of them). Some songs on Thesixtyone include direct links for downloads, while others only provide links to buy the music on Amazon MP3. (Read more)
- Deezer is a well designed site with more of a focus on building playlists, rating songs, and other more advanced features for registered users (though you don't have to be registered to use the site). You can even view and listen to entire albums on Deezer. Like the others listed above, you'll find tons of great music there, but download links can be hard to come by. (Read more)
- BeeMP3 isn't really about streaming music or making playlists—it's more of a straight search and download site, providing details like bitrate, format, and frequency of the encoded music file. You can't preview music, but you can sure download it. (Read more)
- Almost perfect desktop client for all your social networks
Ever wish you didn't have to visit 20 different web sites to keep up with your friends on social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter? 8hands has you covered.
8hands is a desktop client that displays all the latest updates from all of those sites as well as media updates from your YouTube and Flickr contacts. All you have to do is download and install 8hands and you'll almost never need to visit a web page to keep up with all of the latest news from your friends. If you want to hit up one of those web sites though, all you have to do is click the icon for the service you want to visit and 8hands will pull up a web browser.
8hands is also a fairly competent replacement for desktop Twitter clients like Snitter and Twitterific. The client displays all the latest tweets from your friends in an optional pop up window. And you can send out tweets by changing your status line, although there's no easy way to reply to a tweet by clicking on it and there's no tinyurl integration. [via Download Squad]
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CES 2008 HDTV wrap-up [via Crave]
The whirlwind of CES 2008 is finally over, and now that we've had a few seconds to gather our thoughts, let's reflect on some of the major HDTV trends we observed at the show.
Thin is in
Flat-panels are popular for a reason, and part of it is people love thin screens. While plenty of people are satisfied with standard 6-inch-deep screens, HDTV companies are betting there's a market for ultrathin sets measured in millimeters rather than inches. The most impressive thin TV tech we saw was Pioneer's "Project Kuro" prototype plasma, which measures only 9mm thin, but unfortunately won't be released in 2008. On the more conventional side, JVC announced the "world's thinnest" LCD--coming in at 2.9 inches deep--while LG showed off an even thinner 1.9-inch thick LCD with a hole in it. Trumping both JVC and LG was Hitachi, with its new superslim LCDs measuring only 1.5-inches thick--although they ditch an internal ATSC tuner to do so. And, of course, no mention of thin HDTV would be complete without OLED...
OLED is coming
Sony made a big splash by showing off the 11-inch XEL-1, which will be the first OLED HDTV available in the United States and measures just 3mm thick. Samsung also had a 31-inch prototype OLED on display and there's no doubt the OLED technolgy is promising: razor thin screens, low power consumption and an excellent contrast ratio. At this early point in the game OLED isn't commercially viable--Sony's 11-inch set will cost $2,500--but as prices drop and screen sizes increase, OLED could be a major flat-panel TV technology.
WebTV all over again?
Bring the web to your TV sounds like an idea better suited to CES 1995 rather than CES 2008, but we saw a lot of HDTV manufacturers promoting their sets' ability to grab content off the internet. HP, which has been a step ahead of everyone in this regard, announced an update to its existing MediaSmart HDTVs. Sharp is promising the ability to check weather and stock quotes on certain LCDs, while Samsung is focusing on recipes, artwork and RSS feeds. And Sony is continuing to support its Bravia Internet Video Link service, which at least looks slightly more interesting now that Sony's announced a deal with CBS.
RPTV is (mostly) dead
Some of the biggest HDTV news at CES 2008 was what wasn't there. Rear-projection HDTVs (RPTVs) were basically nowhere to be seen on the show floor, and just a week before CES started Sony announced that it would officially stop producing RPTVs altogether. While the general buzz is that RPTVs are essentially dead, that didn't stop Mitsubishi from launching a big laser TV demo--which was short on details and did little to convince us that laser has a real shot to dismount flat panels as the dominant HDTV technology.
- Are Iga'd out yet?
- A mother and son were walking through a cemetery, and passed by a headstone inscribed "Here lies a good lawyer and an honest man." The little boy read the headstone, looked up at his mother, and asked "Mommy, why did they bury two men there?"
- Squads announced for the World Cup Qualifiers - childish and not PC but a couple made me smile
| Bulgaria | Russia | Roumania | Danish | Italy |
| Mowapitch | Whodyanicabolicov | Chatanoogaciouciou | Toomanigoalssen | Baloni |
| Horseraditch | Ticlycov | Atishou | Tryandstopussen | Potbelli |
| Fallinaditch | Chesticov | Blessiou | Crapdefenssen | Beerbelli |
| Digaditch | Nasticov | Thankyiou | Haveagossen | Giveitsumwelli |
| Pric | Slalomsky | Busqueue | Firstsson | Toonsgotkenni |
| Spic | Downhillsky | Snookercu | Secondsson | Onetoomani |
| Sic | Risky | Pennyciou | Secondsson | Legslikejelli |
| Hi | Swedishchev | Twoapennyciou | Thirdsson | Haveabenni |
| Scratchanitchitchi | Masterchev | Fourapennyciou | Legshurtssen | Wobblijelli |
| Hardtoreachitch | Fuckov | I’llgetchiou | Notroubleseeingussen | Spendapenni |
| Annoyingitch | Taykitov | Youandwhosarmi | Wherestheballssen | Buggermi |
| Itch | Sodov | Stuffyiou | Howmanygoalsisthatssen | Dirtybastardo |
| Shagabitch | Gechakitov | Nocandou | Finallygaveupcountinssen | Getrichcapello |
| Letsgetrich | Rubitov | NonU | Getthebeerssen | Cantthinkofani |
This 8hands thing is totally awesome!
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting for something like that.
Thanks!