Mac’s Web Log

While browsing the forum that I managed last week, I come across this special box. 張雨生 (Phil Chang) was a talented Taiwanese singer, song writer and producer. However he had a car accident in Oct 1997 and died 24 days later in the hospital.

I am very lucky (with the help of my internet friends) to own all his CD, hence when I know his previous record company (豐華唱片) has taken great effort to produce this collectable box set. of course I want to own it.

張雨生：如燕盤旋而來的思念 1966-1997 全創作精選典藏
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Primeval is a British sci-fi TV show about anomalies happening in UK that lead to appearances of creature from the years of dinosaurs and even the future!

I didn’t realise this until today when I’m watching Primeval season two episode two that: at the very end of every episode, there’s a funny image showing THE creature of the episode.

I’m going to post all of season one’s creature now and season two later when the season ended

Scutosaurus (not shown), Gorgonopsid and Coelurosauravus (not shown)

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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.