Youtube.com banned in Thailand, snorting dead man's ashes and stuff...

As reported in the Bangkok Post today authorities have managed to block access to youtube.com from within Thailand. Having tried to connect to youtube.com today I can confirm that there is nothing but a blank screen.

Apparently no one seems in a hurry to claim responsibility but an anonymous source told the Bangkok Post that CAT (Communications Authority of Thailand) has blocked access to the popular video sharing site.

So, what's the problem? Why do the people of Thailand need to be protected from the evils of youtube.com? It seems that recently there have been some political postings to the site (possibly guilty of telling the truth, which of course is frowned upon here) and last week a video was uploaded that was in some way insulting to the king of Thailand.

Either way my youtube.com viewing days appear to have come to an end for the time being. No more music videos, no more humorous clips from favourite comedians, no more senseless home videos and, more importantly, no more videos from me. Arghhh!!

Almost as disturbing as the lack of youtube in Thailand is a report I just read on the BBC that says Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones has admitted to snorting his father's ashes during a drug binge a few years ago.

"He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow."

Shocking but maybe more so if it wasn't Keith saying it. It somehow seems the kind of thing you'd expect from Keith Richards.

The daughter's got friends around here this afternoon so I have even less freedom than usual and certainly less piece. These kids brought with them several huge water guns with water filled backpacks. So needles to say there's an air of dampness around here at the moment. My request not to fire them in the house led to them mooching off into the garden and firing straight through the windows into the house. Lovely kids!

Youtube.com banned in Thailand, snorting dead man's ashes and stuff...