Thai Inventions.

[JSixpack]

Hercules graphics card

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_Graphics_Card

"The Hercules was developed in 1982 by Van Suwannukul, founder of Hercules Computer Technology. The system was created by Suwannukul initially so that he could work on his doctoral thesis on an IBM PC using the Thai alphabet (his native language)."

Became the PC display standard.

[dominique355]

On a serious note here, I've asked almost all of the groups of students whom I've taught over the last four years this same question. These have been 'educated' people, BA students, MA students and even the odd PhD. I have yet to have anyone give me a good answer. The only thing I can think that has been invented here is chaos theory!

There is one simple answer to your question: Check with the Thai Patent Office and carry out a search for patents where the inventor is Thai.

[9999]

Yes,,12,000 years ago they figured out how to pick up 1 grain of rice with 2 small sticks..

6,000 years ago that figured how to pick up 2 buckets of shit with 1 stick. and there it just stalled out.

They had a thriving civilization while the poms were living in barbaric squalor and yet to discover hygiene :jap:

[astral]

How about those devices to allow you to pee in the car, when you are caught in a traffic jam.

[Travel2003]

Yes,,12,000 years ago they figured out how to pick up 1 grain of rice with 2 small sticks..

6,000 years ago that figured how to pick up 2 buckets of shit with 1 stick. and there it just stalled out.

They had a thriving civilization while the poms were living in barbaric squalor and yet to discover hygiene :jap:

You beat me to it.

We still used clubs to "pick up" women back then.

Most likely, as most countries/cultures they had a lot of inventions which contributed to the society back then, which was too advanced for us in the caves.

[way2muchcoffee]

Yes,,12,000 years ago they figured out how to pick up 1 grain of rice with 2 small sticks..

6,000 years ago that figured how to pick up 2 buckets of shit with 1 stick. and there it just stalled out.

They had a thriving civilization while the poms were living in barbaric squalor and yet to discover hygiene :jap:

You beat me to it.

We still used clubs to "pick up" women back then.

Most likely, as most countries/cultures they had a lot of inventions which contributed to the society back then, which was too advanced for us in the caves.

Well for a civilization as old as Thailand (and others) is, then why have they not advanced as quickly as Western ones? They have had a few thousand extra years to develop so they should be at the pinnacle of civilization. How can this be explained?

Edited August 8, 2010 by way2muchcoffee

[Travel2003]

Yes,,12,000 years ago they figured out how to pick up 1 grain of rice with 2 small sticks..

6,000 years ago that figured how to pick up 2 buckets of shit with 1 stick. and there it just stalled out.

They had a thriving civilization while the poms were living in barbaric squalor and yet to discover hygiene :jap:

You beat me to it.

We still used clubs to "pick up" women back then.

Most likely, as most countries/cultures they had a lot of inventions which contributed to the society back then, which was too advanced for us in the caves.

Well for a civilization as old as Thailand (and others) is, then why have they not advanced as quickly as Western ones? They have had a few thousand extra years to get it right. How can this be explained?

Was waiting for that one.

Maybe we should also ask that about some of the Arab, Greek, Chineese, Egyptian, Samoan (and lots of other) cultures.

Seems like the various cultures always have leapfrogged each other since day one.

Why? I guess some people have a degree and can answer this.

Nevertheless, each of these cultures had their own inventions which was high tech then, which also explain why they were the top cultures back then.

[zzaa09]

Well for a civilization as old as Thailand (and others) is, then why have they not advanced as quickly as Western ones? They have had a few thousand extra years to develop so they should be at the pinnacle of civilization. How can this be explained?

It might be added, and safe to say, that Western development and advances were never of a Western/Euro origin. As these civilisations were clearly dependent on non-Western sophistication and guised as European advancement. The Eurocentric School of Diffusionism {Fernand Braudel, Max Weber, et al} has long been challenged and put to rest as cultural-centred fantasy.

[sillyman99]

Makes one wonder why all these superior Farangs ever chose to come to Thailand.

[mark45y]

Well for a civilization as old as Thailand (and others) is, then why have they not advanced as quickly as Western ones? They have had a few thousand extra years to develop so they should be at the pinnacle of civilization. How can this be explained?

It might be added, and safe to say, that Western development and advances were never of a Western/Euro origin. As these civilisations were clearly dependent on non-Western sophistication and guised as European advancement. The Eurocentric School of Diffusionism {Fernand Braudel, Max Weber, et al} has long been challenged and put to rest as cultural-centred fantasy.

We certainly don't have to worry about Thais being ethnocentric, or Thaicentric do we.

[mark45y]

Makes one wonder why all these superior Farangs ever chose to come to Thailand.

I think it is safe to say they didn’t come for intellectual stimulation with the exception of the posters on Thai Visa of course.

[sillyman99]

Very true Mark, ThaiVisa members are different.

[zzaa09]

Well for a civilization as old as Thailand (and others) is, then why have they not advanced as quickly as Western ones? They have had a few thousand extra years to develop so they should be at the pinnacle of civilization. How can this be explained?

It might be added, and safe to say, that Western development and advances were never of a Western/Euro origin. As these civilisations were clearly dependent on non-Western sophistication and guised as European advancement. The Eurocentric School of Diffusionism {Fernand Braudel, Max Weber, et al} has long been challenged and put to rest as cultural-centred fantasy.

We certainly don't have to worry about Thais being ethnocentric, or Thaicentric do we.

Only if they're Thai, as I don't know many natives that truly identify with the "Thai culture by default" extension......but then, I live in Khmer country:jap:

[zzaa09]

Very true Mark, ThaiVisa members are different.

Very diplomatic of you. Cheers!

[Berkshire]

This Thread is another great example of Thai bashing that is a norm on this forum.

All one has to do is enter "Thai Inventions" on search and you will get your answer.

I just answered a post that states Thais are Racist, This forum is proof that it is the Falangs that are the racist,.

Cheers:

You are absolutely correct, kikoman. I've never understood the mentality of the folks that post here. I'm rather certain (like 100%) that none of the schmucks posting on this thread ever invented anything or contributed in any way, shape, or form to modern society. Yet, they're just so giddy about taking credit for someone else's work. As an American, do I get to take credit for all that America and Americans have done? Heck no! But these other folks do so with no shame. FLASH ALERT: All the inventions of the past several centuries, whether it be China, or Britain, or Roman, or Egyptian, or whomever, YOU TV POSTERS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. YOU CONTRIBUTED NOTHING.

As a recipient of a US patent, with the number and certificate which were issued by the patent office, I would take exception to your 100% certainty, and flash alert. Just another example of a statement by a very uninformed individual. You would probably be surprised at the people who have made a contribution to society, business, science, medicine, etc who do not beat their own drum, nor do they make statements as though they were fact, on a topic, which they are not familiar.

You want to equate ownership of a US patent with an actual invention which contributes to modern society? I'm sure you realize that these are two entirely different things. Anybody can apply for a patent--whether the "invention" ever amounts to anything is a whole different matter. I can invent a solar-powered butt warmer (with accessories) and apply for a patent. My point is that most of the posters here seem to enjoy bashing the Thai's for supposedly not having invented anything that they're aware of, yet, they themselves have contributed nothing. But since you mentioned your patent, may I be so bold as to ask what your patent is for? Not a solar-powered gadget, I assume?

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

How about the sala? Or, do architectural achievements not count in your farang way of thinking?

[Payboy]

We still used clubs to "pick up" women back then.

Still picking up women at clubs - and proud of it.

Edited August 11, 2010 by Payboy

[wintermute]

Since it's a pretty much a Chinese colony, may as well credit them into the Chinese invention fold. Kind of the same way some westerners like fold all 'western' inventions regardless of nationality into one group.

In the end though, IMO it doesn't matter what you come up with, it's what you do with any particular concept.

Pretty much. If you could chart the geography of inventions you'd see that there is a wide overlap between all sorts of people western and non western alike. Even the typical "western" inventions were conceived piecemeal over a long period of time through derivations from other smart inventors in various civilizations along the way. The most important thing and the biggest advantage coming from Europe were actual changes in social and political thought which allowed cheap and affordable education to flourish amongst the common people. That was by far the biggest advancement and most Europeans should be getting on their knees and thanking the French for their little revolution that lifted out most of the "western" world from the crushing bootheel of Monarchy back in the day. The Magna Carta was overrated..it was the French revolution that really stirred things up.

Back in the day the concept of "science" was reserved for mostly upper class learned men who had the backing of the court or church. Everyone else was too busy dying early and sweating from manual labor. It wasn't until the industrial revolution that science really started to take off at an extremely rapid pace anyways. This is where the "400 year" headstart in Europe has come from...

Edited August 11, 2010 by wintermute

[welsh1]

quote name='exp9696' timestamp='1089990351' post='130345']

Suicide with a plastic bag over the head en handcuffed on the back

Edited August 11, 2010 by welsh1

[welsh1]

After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year,American scientists

found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the

conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more

than 100 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the Americans in the weeks that followed, an English

archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet, and shortly after, a story

published in the Sassenach Morning Herald read:

"English archaeologists, finding traces of 130-year-old copper wire,

have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech

communications network 30 years earlier than the Americans

One week later, Mr Sintawichai from north issan not to be out done by both the Americans and the English

"After digging as deep as 30 feet in his rice field

Mr Sintawichai a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he

found absolutely <deleted> all.

Mr Sintawichai therefore concluded that 130 years ago, Thailand ( Issan ) had already gone wireless."

Edited August 11, 2010 by welsh1

[Travel2003]

We still used clubs to "pick up" women back then.

Still picking up women at clubs - and proud of it.

[KhunG]

From these forums:

"Thailand’s Intellectual Property Department registered a patent for the royal rain-making to the king in 2003. Two years later, the European Patent Office issued the patent named “Weather Modification by Royal Rainmaking Technology” which is valid in 30 European countries for the Thai monarch. (MCOT online news)"

[Thakkar]

Well for a civilization as old as Thailand (and others) is, then why have they not advanced as quickly as Western ones? They have had a few thousand extra years to develop so they should be at the pinnacle of civilization. How can this be explained?

It might be added, and safe to say, that Western development and advances were never of a Western/Euro origin. As these civilisations were clearly dependent on non-Western sophistication and guised as European advancement. The Eurocentric School of Diffusionism {Fernand Braudel, Max Weber, et al} has long been challenged and put to rest as cultural-centred fantasy.

In other words, we all stand on the shoulders of giants. It is the height of arrogance, audacity and ignorance to blithely declare the superiority of any one culture over another. My guess is that people who do so are merely trying to feel good about their own sorry selves. To feel good about oneself by putting down others may not be a collective TV invention, but we here have certainly perfected it.

[Thakkar]

<snip>

What the Thais, and many developing country nationals are better at than us is adaptation and recycling, and I don't mean copying. They can make repairs on many things with the minimum of tools that farangs, with their throwaway cultures are now simply incapable of. I've seen small groups of Thai workers sink huge metal fence posts without any digging or hammers - using just a simple plank of wood - literally in seconds.

I once tried to run a thread on examples of improvisation in Thailand, and it died a sudden death - the few responders simply assumed the thread was about invention, commercialisation and patenting, which shows the mind set that many farangs suffer from. I see lots of clever improvisation like this around Thailand, but I suspect many farangs never really open their eyes to such things. OK, bring it on........

I'm reminded of when we first moved here. The double doors on a cupboard at our rented townhouse would open on their own whenever there was wind from a fan or whatever. I rigged up an elaborate latch system using plastic, velcro and double-sided tape which fell apart after a couple of days. My wife then solved the problem by slipping a piece of discarded folded-up cardboard between the two door handles. That worked till we moved out of the place a year later.

[Thakkar]

carrying the busfare in the earhole ??

never seen it done anywhere else

I have seen this in Singas, but I think it is for luck rather than covenience. The coin eventually sends the ear black

It's a Chinese thing. Hokkien or Tewchew if I am not wrong. In the old days the loan-sharks used to walk around with coins in their ears as a kind of advertisement. (The coins had holes in the center, so hearing wasn't really a problem). Those with good business obviously had more coins in their ears than those with lousy business. In fact, in Singapore and Malaysia today, if someone calls you a "Big ears", it means you are a charging exhobitant rates, or actually is a loan-shark.

ASIC

In Cantonese, "Big ear hole" means loan shark.

[Thakkar]

"Today [Mr Santosh's] solution – a mobile-phone adaptation that triggers irrigation pumps remotely – is saving water in India and helping more than 10,000 farmers avoid several taxing, dangerous long walks a day. I talked to Mr Santosh for a podcast earlier this year, but it’s worth digging back into the transcript now to help explain the Indian concept of jugaad, an inspired kind of duct-taped ingenuity that employs only the tools at hand"

http://economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/08/jugaad

Similar stories of Thai ingenuity abound, I'm sure.

[yabaaaa]

<snip>

What the Thais, and many developing country nationals are better at than us is adaptation and recycling, and I don't mean copying. They can make repairs on many things with the minimum of tools that farangs, with their throwaway cultures are now simply incapable of. I've seen small groups of Thai workers sink huge metal fence posts without any digging or hammers - using just a simple plank of wood - literally in seconds.

I once tried to run a thread on examples of improvisation in Thailand, and it died a sudden death - the few responders simply assumed the thread was about invention, commercialisation and patenting, which shows the mind set that many farangs suffer from. I see lots of clever improvisation like this around Thailand, but I suspect many farangs never really open their eyes to such things. OK, bring it on........

I'm reminded of when we first moved here. The double doors on a cupboard at our rented townhouse would open on their own whenever there was wind from a fan or whatever. I rigged up an elaborate latch system using plastic, velcro and double-sided tape which fell apart after a couple of days. My wife then solved the problem by slipping a piece of discarded folded-up cardboard between the two door handles. That worked till we moved out of the place a year later.

Tell her you plan a manned mission to Mars and see what she suggests?

[yabaaaa]

From these forums:

"Thailand’s Intellectual Property Department registered a patent for the royal rain-making to the king in 2003. Two years later, the European Patent Office issued the patent named “Weather Modification by Royal Rainmaking Technology” which is valid in 30 European countries for the Thai monarch. (MCOT online news)"

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/28/obituaries/vincent-j-schaefer-87-is-dead-chemist-who-first-seeded-clouds.html

[Thakkar]

<snip>

What the Thais, and many developing country nationals are better at than us is adaptation and recycling, and I don't mean copying. They can make repairs on many things with the minimum of tools that farangs, with their throwaway cultures are now simply incapable of. I've seen small groups of Thai workers sink huge metal fence posts without any digging or hammers - using just a simple plank of wood - literally in seconds.

I once tried to run a thread on examples of improvisation in Thailand, and it died a sudden death - the few responders simply assumed the thread was about invention, commercialisation and patenting, which shows the mind set that many farangs suffer from. I see lots of clever improvisation like this around Thailand, but I suspect many farangs never really open their eyes to such things. OK, bring it on........

I'm reminded of when we first moved here. The double doors on a cupboard at our rented townhouse would open on their own whenever there was wind from a fan or whatever. I rigged up an elaborate latch system using plastic, velcro and double-sided tape which fell apart after a couple of days. My wife then solved the problem by slipping a piece of discarded folded-up cardboard between the two door handles. That worked till we moved out of the place a year later.

Tell her you plan a manned mission to Mars and see what she suggests?

She suggests I pack more underwear.

[bonobo]

If we are going on about patents. the Thai company for which I work does hold a US patent for a specific kind of bag.  Maybe not earth-shattering to many of the posters here, but this Thai company figured out how to do something which Western and Korean companies could not.