Al Jazeera ran a video report yesterday on Thailand’s lèse-majesté laws and the late “Uncle SMS.”

The piece is embedded above and is on YouTube here.

Anasuya (my foodie wife) and Austin (my foodie pal) and I have wondered many times:

Since Thailand is home to so many buffalo, when will cheese-loving foreign and Thai consumers be able to purchase buffalo mozzarella?

Turns out, as a 2008 DPA story says, various Thai companies have been producing local cheeses for several years. But I’d never seen Thai buffalo mozzarella in stores.

To my great astonishment, Anasuya recently brought home the packages pictured above.

That’s right — it’s not buffalo mozzarella, but buffalo feta. I’ll take it.

Anasuya purchased the items at a central Bangkok outpost of the famed Aw Taw Kaw (Or Tor Kor) market.

I did a little poking around online, and I’d forgotten about this WSJ Scene Asia story last year about Thai buffalo feta.

The piece says that the Thai king’s Royal Project group has been tinkering with various buffalo products for around five years. And, the story notes:

Today, there are 24 female Mehsana water buffalo, an Indian breed named after the western district from which they come, and they produce six to eight kilograms of milk a day each. That is used to make the aforementioned feta, and yogurt and mozzarella — all branded under the name Bubalos.

Last year, sales of the water-buffalo milk products topped 500,000 Thai baht (US$16,229). At local markets, a 200-gram block of Bubalos feta costs 145 baht (US$5)

Indeed, we are now in possession of the Bubalos feta product. We haven’t tried it yet, but I have high hopes.

It’s nice to see an epicurean dream come to fruition.

Some Thailand-related, some not:

1. As Myanmar Opens Up, Idyllic Islands Remain Unwelcoming — The New York Times
2. Microfinance Yields Mixed Results in Thailand, Economist Joseph Kaboski Finds — University of Notre Dame
3. Recycling Eyeglasses Is a Feel-Good Waste of Money — Virginia Postrel at Bloomberg
4. What’s in a Name? For Yale in Singapore, a Whole Lot — The Chronicle of Higher Education
5. Bangkok swelters, sparks debate on city planning in Asia — Reuters
6. The Truth About Debt At Barcelona And Real Madrid — The Swiss Ramble
7. Historic Photos From the NYC Municipal Archives — The Atlantic/In Focus
8. Data Journalism Handbook — DataJournalismHandbook.org
9. Turning 60: The Twelve Most Important Lessons I’ve Learned So Far — Tony Schwartz at the Harvard Business Review Blog Network
10. Video embedded above and on YouTube here: Sergio Aguero’s championship-winning goal for Manchester City, May 13.

(Previous link round-ups are available via the links tag.)

I won’t be posting anything here until next week.

In the meantime, if there’s big news, you may be able to catch me on Twitter.

AP reports today:

A Thai man in his 60s who became known as “Uncle SMS” after he was convicted of defaming Thailand’s royal family in mobile phone text messages has died while serving his 20-year prison term, his lawyer said Tuesday.

The case of Amphon Tangnoppakul, a grandfather who had suffered from mouth cancer, drew attention to Thailand’s severe lese majeste laws last November when he received one of the heaviest-ever sentences for someone accused of insulting the monarchy.

And:

Amphon was arrested in August 2010 and accused of sending four text messages to a government official that were deemed offensive to the queen. He denied sending them, however, and said he didn’t even know how to use the SMS function on his telephone to send texts.

He wept during his court proceedings, saying, “I love the King.”

AFP says:

A 62-year-old Thai man considered a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International for his 20-year sentence for royal defamation has died in jail, his lawyer said Tuesday

And:

“He had come to represent the enormous degree of injustice that was this lese majeste law and yet he wanted nothing more than to be a grandfather and to enjoy his old age,” Amnesty researcher Benjamin Zawacki told AFP.

Reuters reports:

A Thai man who was jailed for 20 years after being found guilty of sending text messages disrespectful to Queen Sirikit has died in jail a few months into his sentence, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

The case last November of Amphon Tangnoppaku, 61, who the media nicknamed “Uncle SMS”, had stoked a debate about the harsh sentences imposed in Thailand for lese-majeste, or insulting the king, queen or crown prince.

Prachatai has this:

After being convicted to 20 years in jail for allegedly sending four offensive text messages to the secretary of former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva in November 2011, his lawyers applied for his temporary release several times citing his medical need as he had been suffering from cancer among other illnesses. The latest request was made in February 2012 and it was rejected by the Appeals Court who claimed that “The illness which the defendant claims [as one of the reasons for the bail] does not appear to be life-threatening.”

There’s also a story from The Nation and The Bangkok Post.

And finally, for background info, here’s a BBC story from Nov., when Ampon was convicted.

(All emphasis mine.)

(Image: The Nation.)

Update: There’s also a story from The New York Times.

Reuters reports today:

Thai authorities were investigating on Sunday a blast that killed 12 people and wounded at least 105 at one of the world’s biggest petrochemical hubs.

Explosions sparked a fire at a chemical factory at the sprawling Map Ta Phut complex – Thailand’s biggest industrial estate – on Saturday, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people and workers from the area in Rayong province, about 180 km (110 miles) east of Bangkok.

The Bangkok Synthetics plant, 20-percent owned by Thailand’s largest industrial group, Siam Cement Pcl, produces butadiene and other raw materials used in the manufacturing of synthetic rubbers and plastic resins.

The blaze has been extinguished and many evacuees have returned home, said Verapong Chaiperm, governor of the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand, confirming the number of dead and wounded.

“The evacuation order has been cancelled while other nearby buildings and factories around the area are under security checks,” he said in an interview.

Authorities were investigating the cause of the explosions and were watching closely for the environmental impact of the spread of the chemicals, said Verapong

The Bangkok Post has more here and here.

A few years ago, as you’ll recall, Map Ta Phut was the focal point of a lawsuit about pollution and the Thai constitution’s environmental protection requirements.

(All emphasis mine.)

(Image: Bangkok Post.)

Yet more news from the Thai parliament.

Late last month, as I noted, a graphic image of a woman was broadcast on large screens during a parliamentary session.

Now a member of parliament has given the Nazi salute and yelled “Heil Hitler” during an argument.

Thanks to Saksith at Asian Correspondent for pointing out yesterday the remarkable May 2 video, embedded above and on YouTube here.

The salute and “Heil Hitlers” start at around the three minute mark.

Here’s Saksith, translating a Thai news story:

Reports say that before parliament was about to decide [on a proposal], a little bit of chaos ensued when MP Boonyod Sukthinthai of the Democrat Party raised his hand to protest House speaker Somsak’s hasty attempts to end [the session], but the latter refused to listen and proceeded to the voting, leading to Mr Boonyod yelling loudly that he will protest until the speaker will listen to him, as he then shouted “Heil Hitler, Mr Speaker of the dictatorship! Heil Hitler!” – to which Mr Somsak still refuses to listen and requests the parliament to cast in their votes.

As Saksith notes:

This arbitrary and erratic display of Godwin’s law evidently shows the still volatile political climate that is being maintained, if not even increased by the parliamentary infighting over amendments to the constitution, to which the opposition fears potential abuse of power by the government (and most of all a carte blanche for Thaksin). Nevertheless, it also shows an unacceptable behavior by our elected representatives, who think that any rough measures for this political discourse is legitimate.

This is not the first time a Nazi-related story has made the news in Thailand. CNNGo ran a piece in Feb. about the issue.

(All emphasis mine.)

I’ve mentioned the recent spell of sweltering weather we’ve been suffering through here in Bangkok.

Well, we finally have a graphic that illustrates how hot it feels.

Yes, it feels like Thailand is on fire.

Thanks to Annelie (@a_nnelie) for Tweeting this pic yesterday:

CNN explains why it’s so hot in Thailand twitter.com/a_nnelie/statu…

— Annelie (@a_nnelie) May 2, 2012

(For the record, if this is a recent broadcast, I wasn’t able to locate any related story on the CNN Web site. Perhaps this graphic was related to recent drought problems, though.)

(Image: @a_nnelie.)

Here are some items from the last several days that I wanted to point out, at least belatedly:

• On Aung San Suu Kyi and reforms in Myanmar:

  The AP provides the context on Aung San Suu Kyi’s parliamentary swearing in today:

  Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sworn in to Myanmar’s military-backed parliament Wednesday, taking public office for the first time since launching her struggle against authoritarian rule nearly a quarter century ago.

  The opposition leader’s entry into the legislature heralds a new political era in Myanmar, cementing a risky detente between her party and the reformist government of President Thein Sein, which inherited power from the army last year.

  Meanwhile, representatives of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have an op-ed in today’s WSJ headlined “Burma’s Reform Is Still on Parole.”

• On Chiranuch “Jiew” Premchaiporn:

  The AP says:

  A Thai judge postponed a verdict that had been expected Monday for a webmaster accused of failing to act quickly enough to remove Internet posts deemed insulting to Thailand’s royalty.

  Judge Nittaya Yaemsri said more time was need to process documents in the case, which has drawn global criticism because many see it as an assault on freedom of speech. A new court date was set for May 30.

  Here’s more from the Bangkok Post

• On David Thomson and Bangkok’s Nahm restaurant:

  Australian Chef David Thompson’s restaurant here in Bangkok, Nahm, has come in at number 50 on the newest list of the “The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.”

  (Previously at Newley.com: Here’s an earlier post on Thompson and the issue of foreigners cooking Thai cuisine. And here’s an audio slide show I made about Thompson in 2009.)

• And finally, speaking of Thai food:

  Thanks to my good friend Dan S. for Tweeting the photo, above, of Bangkok Center Grocery in New York City.

  If you’re interested in the Thai language, you might like to know that the image prompted a a back-and-forth on Twitter, embedded below and on Storify here, about the establishment’s name and its spelling in Thai:

(Image: @NewYorkFitness.)

Some books and long-form works I’ve downloaded, bought in physical form, am reading, or have recently finished:

1. The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer, by David Goldblatt
2. Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945, by Max Hastings
3. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande
4. The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will(Eventually) Feel Better, by Tyler Cowen
5. The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust, by Diana B. Henriques
6. Soccer Men: Profiles of the Rogues, Geniuses, and Neurotics Who Dominate the World’s Most Popular Sport, by Simon Kuper
7. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg

(Cartoon via.)