It's the first Fishwrap of the year. Try to be worthy. These two numbers are identical.
Thailand is in the Buddhist Era (B.E.) which is 543 years ahead of Pope Gregory. But if you say or write '2024' everyone will know what you're talking about. So... win-win. In either case or neither, Fishwrap and every stafferi and volunteer and reader wish the world a Happy New Year. And yes, yes it's the Year of the Dragon again, the beast that symbolises power, noble decorum, honour, luck, and success. Â Â
A priest, a paedophile and a rapist walk into a bar and he orders a Mekhong-Coke. Â Â
Almost 93 percent of the statistics you see online are made up. Â -- Abraham Lincoln, U.S. politician
A spot of good news from Khao Sodnewspaper (Fresh News) Up North, a research team from Chiang Mai University spotted a new mushroom species with double-good properties.
Russula pseudomodesta and Russula sribuabanensis are edible. And it looks like they'll have medicinal usess. The team leader was Nakarin Suwannarat, from (and this is a real department) the Center of Excellence for Microbial Diversity and Sustainable Utilization, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, at CMU. Â The new mushrooms were found during a field trip in Lampung province.
In England, they discovered the 'T-Rex of the sea", a pliosaur. The BBC broadcast heart-stopping video footage of archaeologists scaling cliffs to retrieve the skull. Accompanied of course by Sir David Attenborough, left in the photo. The ancient pliosaur was the 'ultimate killing machine', experts say, able to navigate the ocean at high speed and kill its prey with a single bite. The skull has around 130 long and razor-sharp teeth, each with fine ridges at the back designed to pierce its prey's flesh and prepare the creature for a swift second attack. Its diet included dolphin-like creatures and other pliosaurs, scientists told the BBC -- but may have even included dinosaurs. Experts think it could have theoretically held its own against the king of the dinosaurs, the T-Rex.
One presumes that PETA will protest against the pliosaur's diet of dolphins.
Siam Paragon boy-shooter released.
No legal charges have been brought. The parents of the extremely troubled 14-year-old will 'try to help to look after him'. They had to promise this in writing, to police and the Office of the Prosecutor. Two of the top doctors who tended to the kid said he's addled and dangerous. Siris Sparkle, deputy director of Thailand's Department of Children and Youth Protection, fell back on Civil Service Regulations. "We do not have the authority to detain children." Even though the department did, in fact, detain the mall-killing boy from the day of the killings (3 October) until yesterday -- exactly 90 days. There are no legal charges of any type against the young murderer. Or anyone. When the boy went rogue at Siam Paragon mall, he had already moved out of his parents' Bangkok home. Report (in Thai)
Obey the 'Do Not Swim' signs and lifeguards. Or die. The body of a Russian tourist washed up on a beach at Koh Samui on Saturday. He and a Russian couple went swimming at the main beach at midnight on Friday, after an evening that involved adult beverages. He swam out far from shore, and was swept away strong waves in the Gulf. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2715408/
Friday of next week, the Thailand Department of Corrections will escort a designated committee of MPs to visit Thaksin Shinawatra at his 14th-floor room at the Police General Hospital in downtown Bangkok. The MPs are members of the House committee on police affairs. Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong said the national Ombudsman has alreasdybeen in the room, "along with officials from several other agencies," unidentified. Tawee, a retired Royal Thai Police colonel: Â I've never visited Thaksin, but I've met doctors who are looking after him, and they confirmed Thaksin is indeed sick. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2715871/
Thaksin's youngest daughter 'Ung-Ing' signs up for military networking Paethongtarn, busier by-the-day in politics enrolled in a 'mini-NDC cxourse offered by the Royal Thai Armed Forces to young executives. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2715143/
When you're in dire need of a really good bluegrass band, say you desperately needed bluegrass-style Auld Lang Syne... obviously you'd go to Bangkok. Bangkok Bluegrass Underground hosts a weekly jam for bluegrass enthusiasts at a Bangkok market. They also busk in the MRT Hua Lamphong and randomly at craft-beer outlets and clubs. Much more including VIDEOs at
Suwit Kamsunthon. At no time do his fingers leave his hands. And note the Scruggs peg.
ISRAEL GAZA HAMAS WAR ATROCITY Support for Hamas is on the rise in Gaza. And many other places. The majority of Gaza civilians are in complete denial of the Hamas atrocities on/after October 7. New information from former hostages reveals that some of those civilians are shielding and helping Hamas militants. A female hostage has revealed some of her experience in captivity. She said she was being held by a civilian family in Gaza and described it as "a holocaust."
According to the latest survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 75% of civilians in Gaza believe Hamas was correct to launch its assault on Israel on October 7. Since the war began, support for Hamas has strengthened. The vast majority (70%) thinks Israel will fail in achieving its goal in eradicating Hamas and the resistance. Only 8% think it will succeed, and 21% think it will only weaken Hamas and the resistance. Half of the public (45% in the West Bank and 54% in the Gaza Strip) expect to see a ceasefire in Gaza in the upcoming weeks while a quarter (21% in the West Bank and 32% in the Gaza Strip) expect the war to continue for weeks and months.
CORONAVIRUS COVID THAILAND CHINA Thailand's quite misnamed Department of Disease Control is buying adverts on YouTube to partially cover up the video and advertise its alleged expertise on Covid. https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/eng/index.php
Coming soon: mandatory masks, street-stops for vaxports as well as closures of businesses and schools. You cannot spell 'pandemic' without 'panic'.
Straight outta JAMA. Poorly Defined Definition of "Healthy Diet" Dooms Failed Study
USA BORDER The latest 'caravan' demanding entry to the United States.
Why hasn't anyone told these people what the United Nations and the top journalism outlets already have reported? In the United States, people of colour are systemically and structurally oppressed and exploited. Manhattan Contrarian: https://t.ly/Al5c9
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark shocks the nation by announcing on live TV that she is abdicating. Her Majesty is 83 and has been on the throne since 1972. Her announcement:
I have decided that now is the right time. On 14 January 2024 -- 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father -- I will step down as Queen of Denmark.
I leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik.
The man, the myth, the legend; Shecky has left the building. RIP.  Comic legend Shecky Greene dies at 97. https://shorturl.at/ilIZ4 Also in Vegas, also RIP NASCAR Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough, a 3-time Cup champion in the 1970s, dies at 84 https://shorturl.at/dnKQ2 And in Seoul Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun of the Oscar-winning film Parasite founddead in his parked car. Police had been searching for Lee, 48, after receiving a report that he was missing https://shorturl.at/oBKWY
Is Malaysia a sponsor of terrorism? https://www.meforum.org/65397/should-the-state-department-designate-malaysia Even the world's most anti-Semitic leaders often try to hide or deny their anti-Semitism. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's senior statesman who served close to 25 years as the Southeast Asian country's prime minister, abides no such nuance. In a December 29, 2023 tweet, Mohamad (who has long been open about his anti-Semitism), outlines his theory about the Jewish control of the United States. "Who owns America?" he asks, before explaining, "Obviously, the Zionist Jews because they control the different media and they own most of the big American corporations." Consider: In 2018, Malaysia accused the Mossad of assassinating a Hamas engineer on a Kuala Lumpur street. Whether Israel was behind the assassination is immaterial to the fact that Malaysia was hosting a prominent Hamas weapons specialist.
And we might as well list the 10 most-pirated movies of Christmas week. Numbers in parens are the previous week. 1/ (7) The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes 2/ (n/a) Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire 3/ (3) Killers of the Flower Moon /4 (1) The Family Plan /5 (4) Oppenheimer /6 (n/) Silent Night /7 (n/a) Saltburn /8 (8) The Creator /9 (n/a) Thanksgiving /10 (n/a) Dream Scenario
The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright infringement by ChatGPT and Copilot. (Tom's Hardware) This suit seems more substantive than some earlier ones, with examples showing that ChatGPT will reproduce large chunks of NYT articles word-for-word.
Inside Apple's massive push to make the Mac a gaming paradise, after they completely killed off gaming on the Mac and almost killed off the Mac itself. (Inverse) So yeah, good luck with that, idiots. https://www.inverse.com/tech/mac-gaming-apple-silicon-interview
Tracie Keesee (mugshot) may be an expert in something or other, but she is DOCTOR Tracie L. Keesee of the Denver Police Department who worked 25 years in a fruitless, failed effort "to make it the most diverse and inclusive police department in the world." She's now paid by the New York PD to do the same.
