Category: General

There was a military coup in Thailand today. You don’t see them as much anymore as you used to several decades ago, so I think it’s appropriate to take the opportunity to address several things:

1) This is the 18th coup that has taken place in Thailand since the end of WWII. That’s about once every 3 years. Thailand is not alone is suffering from multiple coups in the last 60 years. Many Asian, African, South American, and even European countries have had military leaders take control of the country in the second half of the 20th century. During that same time period, military conflicts between states have become quite rare. Most post-WWII military conflicts have been low-intensity conflicts involving separatist movements, civil wars, and terrorism.

Its sort of begs the question, why is a standing military necessary for most countries? By far, the primary use of standing armies in most countries around the world have been to fight with their own population, not to defend themselves from foreign invaders.

Costa Rica has no standing army. They’ve not had any military coups. Panama abolished their military in the early ’90s. (Hard to justify having one when your neighbor doesn’t I guess) Most island nations also lack standing armies. The only Pacific nation I can think of with a standing army is also the only one who has had a military coup: Fiji. I’m sure Canada could eliminate their military altogether and no one would notice.

At this point in history, unless there is a very explicit and obvious external threat (South Korea), having a standing army is a greater threat to democracy and freedom than being defenseless. (Even in the case of South Korea, they’ve spent more time since the end of WWII under military rule than under democratically elected governments)

2) The majority of military conflicts since the end of WWII could be resolved if we recognized a general right to secession. Most conflicts arise from the way the maps are drawn. I’m sure the world would be better off if Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo, and Sudan ceased to exist and devolved power down to its ethnic/tribal units. This is frowned upon by most nations because the power structure in every country would be in danger if every ethnic group could split away. Russia (especially in the Caucuses) would split into a dozen countries. China would probably break into 4-5 countries. The US would probably lose Hawaii. Quebec would probably become independent.

3) Will anyone in Thailand notice or care? As a rule, military juntas are not good things. If Thailand goes the way of Burma (I refuse to call it Myanmar) it would not be good. However, if day to day actives in Thailand continue as they did last week, would a change in the leader really matter? The fact that the leadership of a country is elected is I think secondary to how they behave. Many countries have installed dictators via elections. African nations are especially prone to having an election and then never having a second one. It probably won’t stop anyone from backpacking through Southeast Asia.

We’ll see how this plays out over the next few weeks I guess. The coup plotters are promising a return to civilian rule in 2 weeks and a new constitution. Any constitution which can be thrown out and replaced so easily isn’t much of a constitution and doesn’t provide much of a barrier to the military taking power again.

Last night I wrote a post on Last.fm and I had put in the line feedburner sucks BTW.

This morning I woke up and had an email from Don Loeb, VP of Business Development for Feedburner asking what problems I had with Feedburner.

I wrote out a pretty lengthy reply and was about to send it when I realized that I was wrong in complaining about Feedburner. My complaint was with Feeddigest, the site who lets you put HTML versions of RSS feeds on your website. Feedburner is totally different. I made the correction in the post. (Feeddigest sucks BTW).

Anyway, I was pretty impressed with the fact that he was 1) searching blogs for mentions of Feedburner, 2) Bothered to write me and ask me why I was upset, and 3) did it late on a Saturday night.

I’m not even a Feedburner user, but I was pretty damn impressed with how they handled things. It’s a simple thing, but the small stuff matters. I’m probably going to be more apt to check them out when I start my trip website.

What a better way to spend a Sunday morning than writing about religion….

I’m a big believer that there is more to most news stories than what we are told. Its usually a lot more complex than what we are offered and sometimes the reality is totally different.

A good example is the recent hubbub about the Pope.

The Pope is accused of offending Muslims in a speech he made saying that they were violent and wanted to convert people by the sword. (The reaction of some Muslims was to kill people and burn things, but that’s another topic)

After the initial news hit, the headlines were that the Pope was sorry for how Muslims reacted, but didn’t apologies for what he said.

So, what did he say?

Here is the entire text of the speech he made at the University of Regensburg. The speech was titled “Faith, Reason and the University Memories and Reflections”.

He does indeed quote Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus saying: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached”.

That is in the context of a much longer quote which is:

“God is not pleased by blood – and not acting reasonably is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats… To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death…”.

emphasis mine

The entire point of the quotation is to start a discussion of rationality and Christianity, and in doing so he discusses the differences in the Christian and Islamic nature of God. In the Christian view, God is rational. Hence, God would not want people to act unreasonably (spilling blood). Islam holds that God is above even human concepts of rationality and isn’t bound by anything.

I think the Pope is right on this one. He has nothing to apologize for other than not picking a better quote. Given how the media as presented this, it seems as if he was giving a speech on the evils of Islam. He wasn’t. In fact, he ended his speech with the following:

The West has long been endangered by this aversion to the questions which underlie its rationality, and can only suffer great harm thereby. The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur – this is the programme with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time. “Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God”, said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in response to his Persian interlocutor. It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures.

emphasis mine

When it comes to updates; when it rains, it pours.

As an extension of my post on myspace (which was mostly written a month ago btw, I just bothered to finish it and post it tonight) I wanted to write about one of my favorite sites/applications: last.fm*.

Last.fm basically is a service that tracks what music you listen to. You install a plug in for iTunes or Windows Media Player or Winamp or whatever, and it sends the tracks you listen to, to a central server.

I sounds like a big invasion of privacy…and it is. But I really don’t care if other people can track my music listening habits. I like the fact that I can track my own music.

Here are my top 10 artists since I’ve began tracking my music with last.fm:


1 Philip Glass 2391
2 Regina Spektor 1050
3 Fiona Apple 730
4 Queen 703
5 Mitch Hedberg 497
6 The Langley Schools Music Project 477
7 Olivia Newton-John 343
8 Aimee Mann 332
9 The Like 304
10 Liz Phair 297


I have no beef with the list other than you can really skew results if you put your player on repeat and leave the house. Example: I own a total of two songs by Damien Rice, yet he is ranked #13 on my list. Reason? When I downloaded them, I put them in a rotation and left the house for the weekend. Next thing you know I’m the biggest Damien Rice fan in the goddamn world. Pretty much the same for Olivia Newton John. She’s good, but….

You can also get pre-made or data feeds for your website. I have a list of my 5 more recently played songs in the right hand column of my site (feeddigest sucks BTW). You can also just paste an image like this:

I think this sort of stuff is what the internet was made for because its a really simple way to find out what people you know are listening to and a really easy way to discover new music. Get it. Install it. Its fun.

*Note: the .fm domain name is for the Federated States of Micronesia. On my trip, I’m going to do a piece on small nation domain names. .tv, .fm, .tk, etc. Just for shits, I want to see if I could register microsoft, google, or some other big trademark under a small nation top level domain name.

My \My\, a. & poss. pron.
Of or belonging to me

myspace
Noun: An empty area of or belonging to me

Clever no?

Myspace is probably the worst designed major website in the world. As social networking sites go, if your not under 18, you probably don’t have a myspace account. If you’re between 18 and 24, you probably have a Facebook account. If you’re over 25, you probably have a Friendster account. If your from Brazil, you use Orkut.

I have accounts on all of the above (cause I’m a nerd). I have a Friendster account because I’m over 25. I have a Facebook account because I took classes in college. I have an Orkut just because, and I guess I have a myspace account because I’m emo.*

As much as it sucks, I find myself checking myspace much more than the other sites even though I know far fewer people on it. The best I can figure, I’m compelled to look at myspace like I’m compelled to look at car crashes on the side of the road. I know its wrong, yet I cannot help myself. I actually have very few real friends on myspace because most people I know don’t use myspace. (and that’s not a bad thing).

I check Facebook every so often just to see recent photos of kids I worked with in extemp/debate. Its odd because they’re all adults now (sort of). Some of them have become very adult (sort of). Its spooky (sort of).

Friendster has become dead to me even though I know more people on there than anywhere else.

All of these sites are great for stalking people. None of these are good for stalking me, especially since I have a site like this. I’m super easy to stalk (FYI, if any women out there would like to seriously stalk me, I will trade fingernail clippings and dirty undergarments in exchange for house cleaning. Contact me for more info!)

I’m always amazed at how when you look in your extended network (aka friends of friends) everyone is always attractive and happy. I’m ugly and miserable. I think my friends serve as a buffer between me and the good looking, happy people. They must be plain and boring.

There is no real point to this meditation on social networking sites other than, like reality TV shows, I think they’re dumb yet I tune in anyhow. If you have an account, list me as you’re friend, but not too many of you because I’m really not that social.

*Note: not really emo.