Thailand investigation reveals the end of the Thai massage parlour
Fishwrap hopes the Fourth was with you.
A wise man once said ... nothing. He only listened.
Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they're xenophobic!
-- Joseph Biden, U.S. Government senior official
To quote Japan: Well... that was unfortunate.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/05/04/japan/politics/tokyo-biden-xenophobia-response/
We had specifically been told that Trump was undiplomatic.
STANLEY CUP
Toronto Maple Leafs keep 47-year-old winless streak alive
David Pastrnak of Boston Bruins scored after 61 minutes and 54 seconds of the winner-take-all Game 7 and eliminated Leafs again.
Leafs last beat the Bruins that one time in [punching calculator] 1959 which was 65 years ago.
GAME report: The Leafs as we know them are out of chances. https://t.ly/BjNZa
VIDEO highlights:
The Pickering Whammy
May 2 1967, Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup. One month later, Canadian Alan Dawson of Pickering accepted a written request from the United States President to help the U.S. Army in its bootless War in Vietnam.
Since then, i.e. since June 1967 Leafs have won zero Cups and the U.S. Army has won zero Wars.
Coincidence? You be the judge.
On the other side of the continent, at the shore of the Pacific Ocean in chilly Vancouver
The last Canada-Canada match for the Stanley Cup puts the hometown Canucks against the world's best hockey player and his Edmonton Oilers, starting tomorrow.
https://shorturl.at/agpwK
THAILAND CORPORATE CRIME
Chemical fires in Ayutthaya and Rayong are linked.
Police teams now are searching for culprits after latest fire causes evacuation of hospital in Ayutthaya.
Below: Dashcam photographed the Ayutthaya blaze last Thursday.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2785710/
BANGKOK SAFETY PEDESTRIANS
A headline that no Bangkok resident dared even hope to see:
Bangkok Makes Progress in Improving Sidewalks
(In official Thaiglish language, they're called 'pavements')
Sidewalks in Bangkok, which have been notorious for being uneven, easily damaged, and often a tripping hazard, are now being renovated.
Officials from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA; aka City Hall) are gradually improving the sidewalks. Many areas have already been completed, including Ratchadamri Road and Phloen Chit Road in the heart of the city’s busy business district.
PHOTO: Totally walkable: Ratchaprasong district
Khao Sod (Fresh News) https://shorturl.at/GILV8
Yes, probably. If by 'in the future' you mean now and the next few years, at least.
Is the Thai Massage Parlour Business Really Doomed in the Future?
Example: Emmanuelle Entertainment in Bangkok (3,500 baht for 90 minutes) is closed, and also listed for sale for 645 million baht in real money. About 24 million loonies.
[THE MONDAY MORNING JOKE]
Mother-in-law comes home and finds her son-in-law furious and packing his suitcase. "What happened?"
"What happened? I'll tell you what happened! I sent an email to my wife saying that I was coming home from my trip today. I got home and guess what I found? My wife, yes my Rachel, with a naked guy in our marital bed! This is the end of our marriage, I will leave forever!"
"Calm down!" says mother-in-law. "There is something odd about this story. Rachel would never do such a thing! Wait a minute while I check what happened."
Moments later, mother-in-law comes back with a big smile. "See? I said there must be a simple explanation. Rachel didn't receive your email." (H/T Isophorone Blog)
TRAVEL AIRLINES AIRPORTS
Someone, somewhere... which is to say the travel insurance provider AllClear, has performed deep search-and-research on 1,800 airports, everywhere in the world
And ranks Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international as the seventh (7th) best on account of its fabulous 'luxury experience.'
Thai government spokespersonladyRudklao Suwankiri announced on Saturday that the rankers measured items like how many lounges, how many designer stores and so on and so forth and then
measured whether the subject airport has (either) a champagne bar or cariar outlet, and that (we now are told) is where the Cobra Swamp airport shines like northern light.
https://www.nationthailand.com/news/policy/40037767
The Ranking Says
Suvarnabhumi is
• not quite as good as Changi of Singapore (Number 6) but
• better than Hong Kong International, Frankfurt and Tokyo Narita but then who isn't?
The Top Five
1. Dubai
2. Heathrow
3. Hamad International of Doha
4. Charles de Gaulle
5. Sydney International
Comment: In all of known (recorded) history dating back to the Paleogene and covering MLB, NFL, NBA and Stanley Cup,
No team, ever, has blown a 3-1 series lead in consecutive seasons. And still hasn't, eh?
The lengthy article also notes:
And we haven't even seen our first Matthew Tkachuk overtime goal celebration yet.
Doggos of 7-eleveN
There are 14,000 (true) 7-eleveN stores in Thailand [https://t.ly/WJUtv]
Every one of them has a dog sleeping at the front entrance, or so it seems -- and sometimes they get inside and sleep there.
The Number One reason is probably the air-con. Every 7-eleveN has A/C but the amazing part of the story of the Mutts of Convenience Stores is that literally No One complains. Not One.
It's suddenly a 'Trending' on social media. The link above is an English-language discussion/example from Reddit.
ENTERTAINMENT SPORTS HOCKEY
ESPN began life as a small and regional 'network' (station, really) dedicated only to broadcasting games of the former NHL team Hartford Whalers.
Nice to see it still covers hockey.
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs are only a couple of weeks old, but there are already some lessons to be learned from them.
https://shorturl.at/nzGLN
Takeaway Number One
Maybe just don't take any penalties against the Oilers?
The first unit of the Edmonton Oilers' power play is poetry.
They're like the Sedin quintuplets, having that inherent hockey sonar in the attacking zone. It's like watching a jam band at the peak of its powers, every musician implicitly understanding their role in the ensemble and knowing how to change keywhen it's time for improvisation.
[That's Pretty Poetry from a Mostly Shitty TV Sports Station. Recommended for Reading.]
POLITICS and TECHNOLOGY
Ontario (a well-populated 'province' in the Great White North) will shortly issue officially tougher policies for cellphoneuse and vaping in schools. (GlobeandMail)
The government will allow school leaders to suspend students who don't comply, according to draft documents.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-schools-cellphone-vaping-policies/
The judge in the Google antitrust trial is considering imposing sanctions over Google's practice of deliberately deleting all records of sensitive internal conversations. (Ars Technica)
Having seen other big tech companies get in trouble when the DOJ went over their records, Google decided it would simply not keep any records.
It's a bold strategy.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/05/judge-mulls-sanctions-over-googles-shocking-destruction-of-internal-chats/
If you need even faster memory - like HBM - you can place your orders now for delivery in 2026. (AnandTech)
Hynix's production is already sold out for 2024 and most of 2025.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/21382/sk-hynixs-hbm-memory-supply-sold-out-through-2025
Google's search results, already almost useless, are getting worse. (The Register)
Google offered the cannedest of canned replies.
Bing, meanwhile... Didn't have the same problem. So score one for Microsoft.
https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/pulumi_ai_pollution_of_search/
Generating 1024 bit prime numbers the hard way. (GlitchComet)
The easy way is to just copy and paste. Here you go; you're welcome
177720646511895772991045629522972753502676425002016283330
773868745109334356532783500581560425145704773959769930413
789872718529515289471187735819720465888854952471427632098
554011932730921272830418010265570121099752587584547435013
097108422373834015070668330390239397186506619029851158511
460040722871392491661731
https://glitchcomet.com/articles/1024-bit-primes/
A Healing Moment: Both Sides, Pro-Terrorist and Anti-Terrorist, Discover They Agree on One Thing
And that thing is Let's Go Brandon.
https://mxmnews.com/article/4ad65410-baf4-4189-88ca-61d4e94024c1?moment-of-unity-palestinian-protestors-and-counter-protestors-together-chant-f-joe-biden
Palestine protestors and counter-protesters at the University of Alabama found a moment of unity in their shared disapproval of President Joe Biden, together chanting "f*** Joe Biden" in a now-viral video.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA awards studies for commercial Mars missions.
https://spacenews.com/nasa-awards-studies-for-commercial-mars-missions/
We were assured this never would happen.
President Biden's administration on Friday formalised a new policy of opening Obamacare health insurance exchanges to people who arrived illegally in the U.S. as children who have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status.
By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable care healthcare, this rule will give [100,000] DACA recipients that peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves.
Very compassionate and sincerely benificent and begging just one missing puzzle piece:
None of them is a U.S. citizen. [https://shorturl.at/kvFIN]
In its Defence...
Maybe the ATF was unable to quickly find a group of women and children to burn alive, which is ATF policy.
South Carolinian Faced 115 Years in Prison Until ATF Admitted They Got the Wrong Man.
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/south-carolinian-faced-115-years-in-prison-until-atf-admitted-they-got-the-wrong-man/
USA THOSE-YOUNG-PEOPLE-THESE-DAYS
These people are 'anti-fascist' like Jane Fonda Plemiannikov was 'anti-war'. (Hint: she wasn't.)
University of Wisconsin Anti-Israel Protesters Chant 'Heil Hitler' at Jewish Students.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/04/u-wisconsin-anti-israel-protesters-chant-heil-hitler-at-jewish-students/
Finally, for Today
The Week in Pictures
The Week in Pictures: Bossy Confusion Edition
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/04/the-week-in-pictures-bossy-confusion-edition.php