30 Days hath April...
Top o'the mornin' to all you girls, boys and others. It's April 30, it's Saturday, and the weather in Bangkok looks good.
THAILAND CORONAVIRUS
The Chinese Covid-19 disease is killing Thais. During the 24 hours of Friday, there were
14,053 new Covid cases
129 more deaths
 The new cases figures did not include 12,233 positive results from antigen tests. This could raise the day's total to 26,286.
 The deaths were all among victims from 16 to 100 years old, and included three citizens of Myanmar (Burma), one Lao, one Ukrainian and one Cambodian.
PHOTO: People receive booster shots at Wat Sai Yai, a walk-in vaccination site hosted by authorities of Nonthaburi province, just north of Bangkok.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2302406/
Yes? And? So? What's your point?
Getting Covid Tested
When the Next Covid Wave Breaks, the US Won't Be Able to Spot It
 You mean exactly like the current Covid that the U.S. couldn't detect, right?
https://www.wired.com/story/when-the-next-covid-wave-breaks-the-us-wont-be-able-to-spot-it
DRUGS TRAFFICKING METHAMPHETAMINE ICE
220 kilos of 'ice' found on overturned pickup
 SURAT THANI: Police found 220 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine, or ice, hidden on a pickup truck that overturned in Tha Chana district on Thursday night.
 Eyewitnesses told police that the driver of the truck and an attendant immediately fled the scene on another six-wheeled truck after emerging from the wreckage.
 Police estimated the market value of the discovery at 220 million baht and believe it was being transported from a neighbouring country in the North to the far South for further smuggling out to a third-party country.
SURPRISE: The 'neighbouring country' is Myanmar (Burma) and the 'third party country' is Australia. People have the right to know that.
PHOTO: Police examine the drug-loaded vegetable truck on Highway 41 in Tha Chana district, Surat Thani.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2302498/
Well... French, eh?
Cabbie arrested for stealing from passed out French passenger.
 Manuel Boyer, 32, a French national working in information technology business, filed a complaint with Thong Lor police that his Lacoste brand bag containing cash and valuables worth 54,200 baht in total had disappeared.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2302458/
CORONAVIRUS CHINA TOURISM
 If you and your S.O. have finished packing for your short holiday in Hong Kong or Shenzhen, unpack and go to buy a video instead.
The Chinese Communist Party and apparatchiks have cancelled just about all flights in and out of southen China.
You can probably guess why: Airport staff and their S.Os. and their close contacts have Covid.
PHOTO: The Chinese Communist Party has ordered Guangzhou city (pop. 15.3 million, aka Canton) into total lockdown with mandatory Covid testing for all - under armed guard surveillance.
https://www.forexlive.com/news/guangzhou-orders-mass-testing-and-grounds-flights-after-covid-cases-found-at-airport-20220428/
Just one question, Mr Xi, how's your 'Zero Covid' project coming along?
The head of the Thai Fresh Fruit Traders and Exporters Association is angry at the junta (and who isn't) for total failure to negotiate quick-and-proper cross-border regulations with China.
"These borders have been opened for a while now but the problem is that there is still a lot of traffic in Youyiguan, Dongxing, and Mohan because of China’s Zero-Covid policy," said Sunchai Puranachaikere on Friday.
Regulations created by Chinese customs officials and the Communist Party of China have created waiting lines of up to two weeks. That's plenty of time for the fruit to rot.
China has issued a public warning that Thailand had better stop sending fruit laced with Covid-19 to China, or else.
Hundreds of tonnes of durian have reached China this year, by truck, rail, sea and air - but it's not enough.
https://bityl.co/C0vd
https://thethaiger.com/news/national/china-warns-thailand-to-fix-durian-covid-19-problem-or-face-export-ban
The extreme cost of China's zero-Covid policy
The cracks in zero-covid
Chinese consumers have been hit hard by repeated lockdowns.
https://tinyurl.com/yc8sya6y
Well... it took us a while to get to this point, but sure enough, here we are.
China's biggest social medium, the Twitter-like site known as Weibo, supervised by the Chinese Communist Party, goes full 1984.
If you post a message on Weibo that seems to be 'bad behaviour'*, Weibo will doxx you, show your profile in full including photo, name, address and phone number.
*Bad Behavious includes criticising the benevolent Communist Party and the President-4-Life - both of which qualify as 'malicious disinformation. In addition to doxxing a Badthing Weibo post will result in adjustments to your social credit score.
PHOTO: Weibo is more than a little hydra-headed but one of its CPC-approved languages is English.
https://www.asiafinancial.com/chinas-weibo-to-fight-bad-behaviour-by-showing-user-location
https://www.adchina.io/how-to-use-weibo-in-english/
That's very comparable to President Biden's new Ministry of Truth, to be enforced with harsh rules.
The U.S. Ministry of Truth will attempt to hide behind a kindly Newspeak alias - Committee on Public Information, led by Nina Jankowicz.
https://ricochet.com/1250165/quid-est-veritas-biden-unveils-ministry-of-truth/
THAILAND CORRUPTION
Cops transferred after illegal hotel parties
WITH VIDEO
PHUKET: Three policemen (no policewomen) have beeen transferred out of the lucrative Patong precinct for helping bars and hotels to hold illegal parties. And gambling.
Under Thai law, such transfers are the worst punishment unless court charges are filed.
The suspects include a two-star police general and two other high-ranking, super-connected cops.
Possible charges at the moment say the three were paid to tip off businesses that a police raid on their illegal parties and temporary casions were imminent.
PHOTO: Police raid
an illegal gambling den in the Patong region of Phuket.
VIDEO:
https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40004027
Yes, well... Just ask Prayut. And/or his political prisoners.
Secrecy is the Keystone to all Tyranny:
 Secrecy and Tyranny.
https://accordingtohoyt.wordpress.com/2022/04/28/secrecy-and-tyranny/
Good Lord, this is what now is classified as a rowback, or correction, from the formerly trustworthy BBC.
 "We have amended an article on the BBC News online site in Bristol about endometriosis to make it clearer to the audience how the condition affects women.
 The article was updated to remove an inaccuracy where we described symptoms as causes. Also, specifically, the word 'people' was replaced with the word 'women', and we removed the phrase '"who are assigned female at birth'."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/helpandfeedback/corrections_clarifications
CRIME and TECHNOLOGY and CSAM
What could be better?
It's a Trap!
(This Wired magazine article is a longread.)
The Bitcoin Bust That Took Down the Internet's  Biggest Child Abuse Site
or
Proof of Concept: If you think your crypto and your blockchain are secure, grow up!
https://www.wired.com/story/tracers-in-the-dark-welcome-to-video-crypto-anonymity-myth/
TECHNOLOGY
About that strange Billy Gates kid:
Elon Musk says right out loud (on Friday) what I have been writing for decades.
Billy is a one-hit wonder. He bought/lifted some stuff from IBM and other sources, and he made that into a magnificently profitable company. Give him tons of credit (hahahaha) for that.
He can't code; he's never written a functioning program/macro in his life. He has little people to handle stuff like that.
Equally, he can't diagnose or treat, medically. His knowledge of food production and delivery is zilch, but he lusts for the power of ordering us what to eat. He and his discarded bed partner distributed millions of bedding soaked with 2-4-D (good on them) but he has no knowledge of malaria, novel viruses or ANYthing medically adjacent.
ELON SAYS (heh)
Bill Gates really needs to stop being treated as a smart guy.
He never produced great code.
All this asshole did is sign a great contract - for him. And then he bought a very jenky program from another guy.
He wasn't even smart for signing that contract. IBM was just stupid.
It's a Study, so it must be true.
More hotspots than ever before
Climate change increases risk of viruses like Covid-19 emerging, study says.
https://sea.mashable.com/life/20190/climate-change-increases-risk-of-viruses-like-covid-19-emerging-study-says
Amazon posts loss as online sales falter
The e-commerce giant is wrestling with the impact of rising costs and the war in Ukraine.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61264509
I love it.
I was in newly independent (and frequently troubled) Singapore in the 1960s, and this is a great find.
Nostalgic postcard book showcases life in Singapore during the 1960s
https://sea.mashable.com/amazon-deals/20198/nostalgic-postcard-book-showcases-life-in-singapore-during-the-1960s
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Russia Is Being Hacked at an Unprecedented Scale
From "IT Army" DDoS attacks to custom malware, the country has become a target like never before.
https://www.wired.com/story/russia-hacked-attacks#intcid=_wired-verso-hp-trending_165c8956-b09d-4640-bdf3-b9739aefab52_popular4-1
Woman running
Samsung apologises for woman running at 2am advert
Samsung's new advert has been criticised by some women's running groups for being unrealistic.
The advertisement shows one woman (outfitted with Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Buds) running, all alone, at 2.30 a.m. Oh, the humanity!
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-61242917This is the 60-second advert. Samsung does not show the woman being killed. Put down the pitchforks. The video has been made private.
GLOBAL WARMING
Putting your various devices on charge or standby will probably make the world heat up beyond 300 degrees.
But the exact figures aren't in yet, so 95% of scientists recommend you should worry and panic, at least a little bit.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61235367
Banks in Taiwan are stuck in a 1980s time warp.
What the heck?
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60918337
Believe it or Don't
