Mac’s Web Log

I participated in a seminar this afternoon at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology about computer/cyber crime prevention & development in information security (電腦犯罪的防治與資安技術發展).

The (main) reason that I signed up for the talk is because one of the speaker is Dr. Henry C. Lee (李昌鈺博士). I must first declare that I’m not a big fan of him, all I want to know is what he has to offer in his talk about forensic science (I AM a big fan of CSI though ).

He’s a funny person, and he speaks mostly in Mandarin with some English jargons here and there. He asked the audiences several questions in-between his talk and gave out presents to the people that answered them. You get to choose between a badge which he claimed you can sell it on eBay for US$29 or a miniature torch that you can sell it for more than US$30. Anyway, I didn’t answer any of the questions, so I don’t have any souvenirs so show.

The second speaker is Police Lieutenant-General Amporn Charuchinda from Thailand. His talk was a shock to everyone. I think the organizing committee will be checking speaker’s presentation slide next time if they are to host a conference such as this in the future. Why? Maybe Pol. Lt. Gen Charuchinda wasn’t aware that Taiwan is not as dangerous as Thailand that we don’t see dead people all the time, or maybe he wasn’t aware that those that come to the talk aren’t forensic scientists. His slides are way too graphic that I don’t think anyone besides him, and less than a handful of people saw something like that. There were a lot of images on crime scenes, dead people (without pixelization), close up view on wounds and blood spatters, autopsy, etc. He started by telling us a story (and shows lots of crime scene photos) about the death of Hangthong Thammawattana (a wealthy former Bangkok MP) in 1999. It is not until recently that people start see it as a suicide case rather than a murder case and he explained why. After that he showed photos and 3 complete videos on people who is committing suicide with small hand gun (just to show that it is possible to have the dead person still holding the gun after he/she’s dead). Maybe I watched too much CSI, I think I’m rather immune to them

HANGTHONG CASE: Noppadol’s top servant under scrutiny (2003/04/11)

Scots crime solver is a wanted man in Thailand (2003/11/07)

Ecosse: Body of evidence (2003/11/16)

A Scottish forensic scientist tells Kenny Farquharson how he was dragged into the murky world of Thai politics as he probed a millionaire’s mysterious death

Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan (Dr. Death) (2004/01/11)

World beats a path to blood-spatter specialist’s door (2004/07/17)

Third autopsy: Hangthong killed himself (2006/02/17)

Noppadol cleared in Hangthong murder (2007/09/28)

The Criminal Court cleared Noppadol Thammawattana of conspiring in the murder of his brother Hangthong in Thailand’s longest running family feud, citing weak evidence.

Court Acquits Brother of Former MP in 8-Year-Old Murder Case (2007/09/28)

The Criminal Court has decided to acquit Noppadol Thammawattana of charges of first degree murder after the death of his brother, former MP, Hangthong Thammawattana. The court cited insufficient evidence to prove the suspect’s guilt.

Because Dr. Lee and Pol. Lt. Gen Charuchinda talked for too long, therefore the third speaker Prof. Tzong-Chen Wu (吳宗成博士) only quickly mentioned about TWISC (TaiWan Information Security Center) and iCAST (International Collaboration for Advancing Security Technology). Nothing as exciting as the previous two in this talk. Well, it is very unlikely to have anything more exciting than those

While everyone was thinking about that and as the conference came to an end, the host asked if anyone has any questions about today’s talk, someone raise his hand and he said: 我是319真調會與行動聯盟召集人梅峰 (Mei-Feng) …..

He wanted to ask if all Dr. Lee cares are evidence why did he influencing the investigation (that’s a stupid question, how can evidence not affecting the investigation!) . He and Dr. Lee started to argue and shouting and things were getting a little out of hand (I was thinking on my mind, shit, now I can’t get an autograph from Dr. Lee, he’ll be in such a bad mood now ). Anyway, Dr. Lee was escorted out from the conference room (there goes my autograph…) and Mei-Feng was nowhere to be seen then. Too bad I didn’t record the whole dispute with my Canon camera, or else it will be very exciting to show it to my family and friends.

p.s. I’ve seen Porntip on National geographic’s “Crime Scene Bangkok” and I kind of remember she discussed Hangthong’s case on the show. I hope to see this show again

Inside Crime: Crime Scene Bangkok

Dr Pornthip Rojanasunan is Thailand’s renowned forensic expert– famous for arriving at homicide scenes with her trademark spiky hair and trendy clothes. She loves her work – trying to find the truth behind unexplained deaths by cutting and slicing her way into corpses. In Thailand, the police investigate crime scenes, gather and decipher evidence, and then decide whether or not to bring charges. In this system, when a suspect has financial resources, corruption can lurk behind every crime. “Crime Scene Bangkok” is a film about a woman’s fight to bring more transparent justice to the people of Thailand, as she tries to bring an outdated forensic system into the 21st century.

p.s. From the way Pol. Lt. Gen Charuchinda talks about Porntip, it is very clear that Porntip aren’t very welcome in the Thai police.

Living Darfur is a song by Mattafix recorded to raise awareness of the inhuman suffering of peoples of the Darfur area in Africa.

I first heard fragments of this song on the News on TV. Thanks to Google and my excellent Internet searching ability/skill, I was able to find the name of the song and the artist who sings it within an hour

A report from GLOBE FOR DARFUR, please refer to the website for full text

The first single ever to have been recorded in a war zone by an international artist will be launched today (Sunday 16th September).

The single, ‘Living Darfur’ by Mattafix was filmed in the refugee camps on the Chad/Darfur border where over 200,000 people have been killed over the last four years.

The project is backed by a host of international names. Desmond Tutu, Matt Damon, Elle MacPherson, the Black Eyed Peas and many others have supported the project by appearing in the video holding slogans demanding action on Darfur. The project was funded by Mick Jagger.

All artist royalties from this single will be donated to Oxfam, Crisis Action, and the Save Darfur Coalition to support their work on the Darfur crisis but the main purpose of the single is to raise awareness of the crisis.

The single is being released to coincide with the ‘Global day for Darfur’ which will see campaigners in fifty countries take to the streets to demand an end to the slaughter. It is designed to put pressure on world leaders meeting at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly next week.

Video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJtvNHPWUO8

iTunes Store: Digital Music / Music Video

Mattafix’s Official Website: http://www.mattafix.com/

We’ve been tolded by our government and media about how high up in the ranking table is our foreign exchange reserves compare to other nations in the World. It sounds like such a good thing to have our name in the Top Five. But the issue is seldom (or never?) discussed, is it good to have such a large amount of foreign exchange reserves? Does large amount of foreign exchange reserves indicates good economy? With the below articles, we now know, it doesn’t

外匯存底持續增加隱含的警訊
財政金融組助理研究員 楊宗勳

再論外匯存底的迷失
國立空中大學中部地區主任 謝明瑞
國政會財政金融組兼任研究員

再談外匯存底
國立空中大學中部地區主任 謝明瑞
國政會財政金融組兼任研究員

外匯存底與熱錢
國立空中大學學務長
國政會財政金融組兼任研究員
謝明瑞

突破外匯存底的繭
銘傳大學國際貿易學系副教授
曹為忠