Both sides to blame for landmines

Your editorial on the festering border dispute near a well-known Khmer temple places the responsibility for freshly-laid landmines at the other side's door. Immediately prior to the recent flare-up of shooting in the area, an unfortunate Thai soldier on patrol lost a leg to such a device.

The Cambodians said he had crossed into their territory; the Thai authorities denied it. This suggests that both neighbours implicitly acknowledge setting these hideous traps in their own backyards - just at a time when clearance operations are supposed to be gaining momentum elsewhere.

CITIZEN JANE

BANGKOK

Satellite TV offers the worst of Western culture

The anger of UBC subscribers is understandable but surprises me nevertheless. I think it is the unbelievable programming in general which causes the most anger. When do we ever see intelligent European movies, a classical concert, opera, ballet, cultural programmes, etc? Instead we are presented with the worst of American culture like idiotic soaps and stupid movies. Maybe once a year we get a programme that is not insulting our intelligence. Why still only UBC? There is no alternative, though I still like the news channels, for which I pay heavily.

EGON WOUT

BANGKOK

Apparently we don't 'read' on screen anymore

Recent articles about electronic book readers tell us that one day e-paper versions of portable newspaper and magazine readers might be rolled up and taken to the beach or read on trains by commuters. This makes me wonder: If readers are reading this letter in the printed version of your newspaper, they are "reading" it. But if they are reading this letter online, are they "reading" it or "screening" it? One might say that what we do online is not reading per se, but "screening". When we read news online, we read a text printed digitally on a computer screen. Perhaps we need a new word or term to describe this phenomenon?

New words are coined every day, and some stick and some don't. Time will tell whether or not "screening" will stay with us or not. For now, though, the new word has been accepted and listed by the editors at an online dictionary in California called The Urban Dictionary. Screening is defined there as: "To read text on a computer screen, cell-phone screen, Kindle screen or PDA screen or BlackBerry screen; replaces the term "reading" which now only refers to reading print text on paper." The dictionary gives this example: "I hate reading print newspapers now. I do all my screening online."

The new Amazon Kindle e-reader has spawned a new verb about reading on screen as well. Kindle users often refer to their reading a book on the Kindle screen as "kindling". And this verb, to "kindle", has been accepted by the the Urban Dictionary, too.

DAN BLOOM

CHIAYI CITY, TAIWAN