Updated 03-Aug-2025 With a significant number of people in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar without electricity (as well as a number in Thailand and Vietnam who are not accounted for in the official numbers on electricity access), power generation is of strong interest. Instead of expensive, larger scale projects (which are of course also important) something ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 My son was born on 28 October, and the first week has been exciting, eventful, as well as tiring. A few points for others: Emotion In a newborn, emotion is quite simple. It begins and ends in the guts. To be hungry is to be upset, and to use the only faculty at ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Colic affects between 10% and 30% of babies at some point. It is defined as excessive crying, > 3 hours/day, 3 days/week, for at least three weeks. However, apparently the causes of colic are unknown. The normal span of such colicky behavior is between 2 weeks to 6 months of age. However, some ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Note: See also Cloth Diaper Laundry Detergents and Cleaners It seems that the more we learn about how much of the human world is manufactured, and the more we realize how unnecessary, wasteful, and destructive it is, the more self-sufficiency and self-reliance becomes a demand on my soul. By self and by soul ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Cecil from The Straight Dope has an article from 2005: Does Microwaving Kill Nutrients in Food and is Microwaving Safe. The result of the article is actually that we don't really know for sure but research is being done. With that in mind, we proceed. What is a Safe Microwave Oven? Safety is ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Currently I am expecting the birth of a son, sometime around early November (about two months). This of course makes me reflect on safety and other issues. Taking a look at lifespans and probabilities due to various causes, here are some comparative charts. The biggest problems for infant mortality are well-known. The gap ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Avoid tips and tricks from people who have lived in Thailand for 2-3 years. Their experience is too partial and what they find memorable is not very useful. And their sad attempt at providing a glossary or phrasebook is a waste of time (the tones are as important as the sounds, if you ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 To the newcomer, first-time visitor, and even those who stay longer, there are a few aspects that are quite attractive: - Smiles: Thai people are culturally conditioned to smile (even if they don't want to). When someone smiles at you, you feel welcome. - Very little traffic horn honking: This is really nice, ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 From 2001 to 2009 I was in a PhD program in the US that had, as many do, students from around the world. Included were students from many Asian countries, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Macau, Thailand, etc. The mainly western professors always became impatient with these students, in their first few years ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 On 21:07, 13 August 2015 the English Wikipedia article entitled Burma (Myanmar) was renamed Myanmar. One might think this is a simple thing, but far from it. There were several discussions and votes taken every few years on this topic. Note that the main focus was on the concept of the Common Name ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 It is safe to say that the current Wikipedia is slowly dying a death by atrophy. Due to Google algorithms, the death is slow. Nevertheless it currently has a lot of information that is interesting and important (and of course a lot that is trivial and wrong). So, what better system might there ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Dear Interwebs, We have a problem. It's not me, it's you. Here is my list: - No Flash - No Popups (in-page or new window) - Cookie and Privacy Policies - Mobile Friendly No Flash Flash is insecure and slow, and there is no good reason for it, except for very limited cases, ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 I've been watching Real Humans and Humans, along with other robot movies. I'm a fan of these and other science fiction TV series and movies. My first science fiction novel was The Tar-Aiym Krang by Allen Dean Foster, who went on to write Alien, Outland, and a host of other fantastic books. So, ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 What is great about Life Coaching is that life is a generalized concept. Just as it appears sometimes that an astrologer or fortune teller can have insight, it is the generalized nature of that insight, combined with pattern recognition, that makes life coaching not only possible, but lucrative on a level completely divorced ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Note: This post is out of date. The AlmondPlus people sent a refurbished replacement to me, after charging $50 for shipping, and this thing doesn't work half the time, and takes 5 minutes to boot up normally. Piece of junk. Don't trust these hucksters. Oh, and the orginal device died a month after ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 We can now contemplate the departure of the CEO, whom frankly I always thought was supposed to sell it to Google, as he did Feedburner. Not meeting expectations, what can we see as obvious failures? More Jackass Attitudes A prime example of the ongoing jackass behavior is how Twitter deals with third-party apps. ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 It appears that for a good part of the world (the hot and humid part), the water problem will largely be solved. Combined with renewable energy resources (solar, wind, hydro, geo, tidal) this becomes a compound solution, both decreasing relative humidity and temperature, as well as generating clean water. Think of it as ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 There is some interesting device data if there is enough enthusiasm or boredom to find it. For one thing, it appears that the best Android visitors to sites use either Android browser or Chrome, and not Firefox. This is an area Firefox is failing fairly hard at. Another point is that for both ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 I've heard the accusations, that Apple is into anorexic design and that the 2015 Macbook is as powerful as a 2011 Macbook Air (though that is an i7 Macbook Air). Since I actually use every day a 2011 Macbook Air (4gb ram, i5, 256gb SSD), I want to comment on this. Performance and ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Buddhism is not some religion of quietism, although it is that as well. But rather, Buddhism as a lived practice (specifically situated, as I am, in mainland Southeast Asia) could potentially inform economic development in the same locale. Let's find out... The Language of Business As an aside, it is important to criticize ... Read more