Secret ASEAN Deals: Thailand-Indonesia
Please report to the mine face to begin Week 221 of the two-week pause to flatten the curve.
What do sea monsters eat?
Fish and ships.
ENTERTAINMENT HOCKEY STANLEY
Bobrovsky made 32 saves as Panthers shut out the Oilers in Game 1 of the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final.
https://shorturl.at/7c2lc and at
https://edmontonjournal.com/sports/hockey/nhl/panthers-win-game-1-oilers-stanley-cup-final
ASEAN SECRET DIPLOMACY
Hunt for a Drug Lord
The Secret Deal Between Thailand and Indonesia
Indonesian police officers have already deported one of Thailand’s most wanted fugitives, and now Thailand has to hunt for the Indonesian drug lord and deport him as well -- back to Jakarta.
Top Thai politicians including the Minister of Justice and the head of the ONCB were told (supposedly secretly) to get cracking to track Indonesia's most-wanted drug trafficers Freddy Pratama.
Freddy is alrady under an Interepol Red Notice for international drug trafficking. https://www.khaosodenglish.com/featured/2024/06/06/secret-deal-between-thailand-and-indonesia-hunt-for-a-drug-lord/
From ANTARA
Indonesian police believe drug lord Fredy Pratama remains concealed in a forest location within Thailand.
Fredy is the biggest drug dealer in Indonesia. He controls distribution in Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.
ASIA INDIA CHINA
India's prime minister Narendra Modi won the election. Now what?
By United Nations correspondent John J Metzler.
For one thing, India and Modi, as a member of the Quad, an informal strategic group focusing on the Indo-Pacific region, are happy to be in closer political harmony with the United States, as well as Australia and Japan, in thwarting Beijing's maritime aspirations in the Indian Ocean.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2807119/
Asterisk more than just a footnote
In the ladies golf major tournament last weekend one of the top American amateurs was 15-year-old Asterisk Talley. I don't recall ever coming across Asterisk as a name before. Apparently her mother is Greek and the word asterisk in Greek means "little star". So it would seem quite an acceptable name for a baby.
It divides opinion over whether Asterisk is a cute name to give a child or one that could become a bit of a burden.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2807665/asterisk-more-than-just-a-footnote
As two-time Super Bowl champion with the Denver Broncos John Elway put it
 There's always an asterisk behind someone .that hasn't won the Super Bowl. There shouldn't be, but that's the way history works.
Parents have a lot to answer for when it comes to giving children questionable names. In England among those who have suffered was a lad who was named Strange Odour Andrews. Then there was the chap christened William Thrower Fitt. One kid who must have experienced a rough time at school was Longhorne Bullet Dick.
Girls don't totally escape. Among female new-borns registered in England have been Mary Hatt Box and Wava White Flag.
Then there's the American fellow called Smith whose parents unkindly christened him Mister.
And then there are Aptonyms...
Dream or Nightmare
The promise made by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin shortly after he became PM last year, that he and his Ministry of Foreign Affairs would get Thailand elected as a temporary member of the United Nations Security Council? It has gone up in smoke, no more credible than Srettha's promise to stick 10,000 Thai baht in the bank account of every citizen of the Kingdom.
Last Thursday, the 193 members of the U.N. General Assembly held an election and Thailand didn't win. The new 'non-permanent' Security Council members as of January 1 are Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama, and Somalia.Â
Pakistan fills the slot for Asia, the one that Srettha assured would be easy for Thailand.
Gutzy.Asia: https://t.ly/Xjp8o
Sum Beach
Nuke Me Baby, 4 To The Bar
One of our favourite interwebs reads for 21 years is the frequently acerbic and never-shy Ace of Spades, who has brought and supported other terrific writers like J.J. Sefton, Buck Throckmorton. etc. etc.
Ace had a malignant tumour some time back -- and it went away but now it's back and super-aggressive and Stage 4 cancer.
AoSHQ has been described as "smart but very very vulgar."
https://ace.mu.nu/
Also old, also worth a look: News aggregator
TECHNOLOGY
Massive Lithium Deposits Discovered in Pennsylvania* fracking wastewater (Breitbart)
So two questions: Will the Joseph Biden regime report this? Will the government mine this priceless Earth mineral?
https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2024/06/08/massive-lithium-deposits-discovered-in-pennsylvania-fracking-wastewater/
*U.S.A. state, formerly site of the U.S.A. capital city.
By Angela Huyue Zhang, University of Hong Kong and S. Alex Yang of London Business School.
The high cost of the GPT-4o 'giveaway'
The newest upgrade to Artificial Intelligence is GPT-4o and it's free. The nice inventors at OpenAI just give away this stronger, faster, better AI machine without charging a baht for it -- not one satang. And this new version even has a voice assistant baked in. So forget Google and Perplexity and just get this extremely fast and spiffy upgrade, absolutely free.
Well... this insanely free and "better" GPT-4o comes at a heck of a cost -- total violation of your personal copyright.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2807229/the-high-cost-of-gpt-4o-giveaway
