I will be away from all things Internet related for the next few days as I am taking a much-needed (short) vacation from work and this blog. I will be doing the same next weekend, so don’t expect many posts ni between. I’ve been working quite a lot recently and sleeping at the most bizarre times, so this break is really essential for my own sanity. When I return, I will need to reevaluate my sleep patterns, as I’ve started noticing that I’m perhaps doing too much to be effectively productive both in the office and out.

So, I’ll see you on the other side, at which time I should be back on the ball and feeling refreshed.

Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung is on a mission. On Tuesday, he announced that he would use a security law to shut down what have become Thailand’s top 29 websites, after several sources listed the offending URLs. Many of the websites have already been taken down by their owners, but some are still rampaging against all that is good and all that is heavenly.

It was actually the Democrats who called for the 29 websites to be banned, but Chalerm was quick on the mark, immediately blaming ISPs for allowing such dreadful content to be broadcast to the masses.

At the time of writing, you can still access many of the websites. What has actually happened here is that Chalerm and the Democrats have joined forces to give the ultimate publicity to websites that they supposedly see as threats to national security.

The sensible thing to do, from their positions, would have been for this whole debacle to go on behind closed doors. If the websites are a threat, block them, but don’t leave it open to public debate, which highlights how incompetent those involved truly are.

Those 29 websites have seen their popularity soar. People who would otherwise never have found them are now browsing through the archives, seeing what all the fuss is about.

Meanwhile, Chalerm is back on the move, vowing to arrest “a mastermind behind Internet messages deemed offensive to the monarchy”. WTF? A mastermind?

“In no more 72 hours I should have the outcome of tracing who is behind the posting of inappropriate messages in the Internet,” said Chalerm, as quoted in The Nation.

I must have missed the part when it was reported who this mastermind is and what he or she has done.

God speed, Chalerm.

Did anyone else in Thailand see this curious spectacle last Friday? I’m unsure if it was limited to Phuket, but sure enough, there was a rainbow around the sun. I tried in vain to catch a glimpse of the rainbow with my naked eyes and subsequently spent the proceeding 30 minutes completely blind.

It was only when I was in a car that I was able to to look at the sun without blinding myself. Apparently, the rainbow was caused by ice crystals refracting light from the sun.

I was told that this sort of rainbow only occurs every 100 years or so, but I have my doubts about this claim.

Your parties to raise money for the people affected by Cyclone Nagris were a tremendous success.

When are your parties for the Chinese affected by the recent earthquake?

I’ve been keeping tabs on a certain area of the Internet recently. In this particular area, a prolific Thailand blogger is currently being sued by one, possibly two, real estate agents for defamation. This, the latest turn in a bizarre string of events, poses interesting implications for bloggers in Thailand and around the world.

While most bloggers think that they can write whatever they like without any repercussions, there are times when blogging can bite back. It is easy for bloggers to sound off about what they’re unhappy with or what annoys them, but perhaps this underlines that there are some thoughts that should be kept off the Internet.

While most bloggers wouldn’t dream of going to the lengths that this particular blogger went to, the fact that bloggers aren’t subject to the same editorial standards as magazines or newspapers means that there is still a large divide between journalists and bloggers.

However, there have been countless cases of journalists and newspapers being sued for defamation.

The latest from the main case filed against the blogger in question is that the whole thing is still in the preliminary stages. We live in Thailand, so the worst possible outcome for this blogger is a hefty fine, but there is also the possibility of deportation.

To my knowledge, this is the first case I have seen of a blogger anywhere in the world being sued for defamation.

It all seems like a bit of an expat soap opera, but there’s no doubt that there is a lot of foreign interest in this case. Anyone who publishes work, be it on the Internet or in a newspaper, can be held accountable for what they write.

The case of Kamol Kamoltrakul, being sued by Tesco for 100 million baht, has been plastered all over the media in the UK.

Kamol Kamoltrakul wrote about Tesco’s invasion of Thailand, which has been a major point of concern for locals in Phuket. Kamol mistakenly claimed that “Tesco’s Thailand operation provided the company with 37% of its global income”, when the real figure is 3.7%.

Anyone have any thoughts on any of these cases?