Fans of the banned YouTube video-sharing website will soon face "severe punishment" under a draconian new cyber-crime law. Anyone using a proxy server to visit a website censored by the Thai government could now end up in jail.

This criminalization of ordinary Internet users is just another symptom of Thailand's descent into authoritarianism.

The act (which has been passed by legislators and is currently awaiting royal approval) also creates a new class of cyber-crime defined as "any act that damages Thailand either directly or indirectly, including those carried out abroad." Presumably, this measure was enacted in response to the Thai government's recent spat with YouTube - which couldn't proceed to court because no law had been broken. They obviously need a new legal stick to bash foreign webmasters with.

There may also be implications for this website.

The Thai authorities probably know who I am and, while I hope that they've got bigger fish to fry, it's always possible that I might be scapegoated in a hysterical morality campaign. A popular expat blogger in China recently faced similar problems.

When you consider that an innocuous guidebook like Bangkok Inside Out was banned for publishing a single photograph of a Patpong go-go bar, it may only be a matter of time before the decency zealots target this site and others like it. I don't think that Mango Sauce "damages Thailand" but, if anyone were to disagree, this dangerous new law would give him or her the means to have me prosecuted.

As the noose of repression tightens, the reality of a state-controlled Internet is beginning to sink in.

Identified for the very first time when served up to a hungry American naturalist on a skewer in 2005, a living specimen of the Laotian rock rat has now been photographed. Despite appearances, the creature - known locally as a kha-nyou - isn't a rat at all. Robert Timmins described his tasty new discovery as a "spineless porcupine."

At that stage, however, he'd never seen a live specimen so branding the enigmatic creature a coward might have been premature. For all we know, when ambushed by Laotian rice farmers brandishing sliced bell peppers and pineapple chunks, the bushy-tailed beast might have shown conspicuous bravery.

Scientists who went shopping recently at an Asian food market got more than they bargained for—a rodent unknown to science was being sold as meat.

Discovered in Laos, Southeast Asia, the animal is described as an "oddball rodent" with long whiskers, stubby legs, and a furry tail. But it isn't a squirrel, and it most certainly isn't a rat, says the researcher who first spotted the animal.

Although it's been called a rock rat, the name is misleading, says Robert Timmins, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, based in New York. "It's not at all closely related to typical rats and mice," he said, adding that the description "spineless porcupine" would be more apt.

The animal is believed to represent not only a new species of rodent but also the first mammal family to be discovered in 30 years.

Collected specimens were sent to the Natural History Museum in London.

Paula Jenkins, the museum's zoological collections manager, examined the skull, teeth, bones, and other body features, comparing them with the remains of rodent species stored in the museum's collection.

DNA analysis was also done by C. William Kilpatrick at the University of Vermont in the U.S. Results of the combined research were published recently in the museum's journal Systematics and Biodiversity.

"The animal's characteristics are distinctly different from any mammal species yet known to science," Jenkins said. "As a new mammal, it provides us with an interesting insight into the evolution of this and other rodent families."

The research suggests the kha-nyou is a "living fossil" that split from other rodents many millions of years ago.

Furthermore...

New Rodent Discovered at Asian Food Market

http://news.nationalgeogr...odent.html



Thank God science 'discovered' it. Now the people of Laos can rest easy having previously been unaware of eating this animal for centuries.

fhqwhgads said:

don't go to jail! i bet they don't have computers there