Thailand: The suffering will continue until morale improves
Morning kids. Eyes up here, please. It's now Tuesday morning, 21st day, 6th month 2,022th year.
Maybe we'll learn something. It's summer, after all.
The outlook for Thailand tourism: Mixed with afternoons of rain.
Thailand bars 'transgender women' from swimming competitions
Thailand's self-appointed 'prime minister' announced Monday that the 898-day-old Covid Emergency Decree will remain in force indefinitely.
The drastic edict was issued on March 19, 2020, and authorizes secret arrests and other draconian measures that are extremely similar to martial law.
Prayut claimed the emergency decree was invoked to facilitate government efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 and the special law has been an effective tool in helping to achieve that target.
For the fourth time in a month Prayut claimed he "was doing my best".
"The people are in [economic] hardship. Don’t you think the prime minister is troubled by that? We're trying to help to the best of our ability without causing more problems."
Literally minutes before Prayut spoke, progressive politicians of the Move Forward Party (MFP) suggested that Prayut should make up his mind.
"Stop renewing the decree, which has been extended 18 times in two years," said emergine new progressive spokesman Rangsiman Rome (photo below).
"This special law has been used to take legal action against anti-government protesters rather than curbing the spread of the virus."
(NCPO is the military group that seized power in 2014.)
But apparently, California was listening to Prayut.
Los Angeles County somehow looks at reinstating mask mandates.
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/06/20/los-angeles-county-somehow-looks-at-reinstating-mask-mandates-n477365
Felonious Flautist flaunts facial fiat
It was for Sunday's Music in the Park, back after a two-year halt because of all the Covid.
FULL REVEAL: Several dancers unmasked themselves as well.
VIDEO https://www.bangkokpost.com/vdo/travel-and-lifestyle/2329430/
CORONAVIRUS THAILAND
Covid numbers go down
Thailand's health officials report that the numbers of new
Covid infections and coronavirus-related deaths continue declined again on Sunday - 18 fatalities and 1,784 new cases.
Cumulative cases in the country since January 1, 2022 are at 2,277,393.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2329883/
CORONAVIRUS RESEARCH ORIGINS
Corrup... Rot at the head of the U.S. three-letter agency N.I.H.
The Inspector-General at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reports that 69 percent of the National Institutes for Health (NIH) grantees it surveyed failed to report links of researchers to foreign countries and companies.
Adam Andrjeweski, the guy behind Open the Books, who blew the lid off the secret NIH royalty payments, said that more sunlight is essential to root such corruption.
https://bityl.co/Co8h
THAILAND INFLATION FUEL
Refiners deny profit accusation
Calculation made in error
Thailand's refinery operators shot back at the Prayut instigation that fuel prices are high because they are greedy ba*tards.
The Petroleum Refining Industry Club, a unit of the Federation of Thai Industries, displayed its full outrage on Monday.
The club said the accusation that oil companies are making a high profit is a misunderstanding - and "inaccurate".
There will be no Lia Thomas kerfuffles in Thailand. Or anywhere else except the U.S.A.
The international swimming federation FINA is setting up a separate, 'open categrory' competition for transgenders.
"I do not want any athlete to be told they cannot compete at the highest level," said FINA president Husain Al-Musallam. Then, immediately, he banned transgender women from women's races.
Al-Musallam, a former airline captain who is also head of the Olympic Council of Asia, is from Kuwait, which bars and/or arrests transgender people.
FINA members huddled and announced they are calling it their "new gender inclusion policy".
The extremely well-endowed Thomas has sent numerous records while swimming as a woman for the University of Pennsylvania.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/19/world-swimming-body-adopts-new-policy-for-transgender-athletes
Story behind this morning's political cartoon
Wealthy businessman and junta supporter Anutin Charnvirakul, head of the pro-marijuana Bhumjaithai (Thai Pride) Party has stated publicly he is prepared to take over the role of prime minister from Prayut.
Something You Didn't Know, Volume ceithre chéad caoga sé
THAILAND FOOD
Thailand has a lot of chocolate stuff. Because Thailand grows and harvests cacao.
Full story: https://t.co/K8zGaUABHO
ASEAN expert analyst and oped writer Kavi Chongkittavorn:
India and ASEAN at 30: What's up?
On its own, India stands tall and fearless. Its long and continued civilisational linkages in the Indo-Pacific are there for all to see.
One of the most frequently asked questions today is: Will India lead the Indo-Pacific region?
Or, one can turn the question around:
Can India lead or does the world's largest democracy have to trail behind the West? It depends on the levels and persons you talk to.
At the 12th ASEAN-India Dialogue in New Delhi last week, both Indian and international participants expressed ambivalence as to whether New Delhi can live up to the new perceived role as a global leader to provide the much-needed diplomatic trajectory for those countries which share a similar outlook to that of India.
THAILAND ECONOMY EVs
The self-styled 'government' of Thailand is putting final touches on a new programme to hand out big baht to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups that want to invest in charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs).
Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow said such handouts and 'soft loans' would result in increasing sales of purchases of Thailand-made EVs.
He had a statement, no questions allowed.
"The government sees the soft loans as being essential to convince SMEs and startups to invest in charging stations, even though the Board of Investment [BoI] has already offered incentives for small investors that invest in small-scale charging stations."
He declined to elaborate further on the measures or the soft loans.
PHOTO: A prototype electric vehicle charges was shown at last year's Bangkok Motor Expo.
It's still dangerous out here.
Maybe more dangerous! Especially on roads and highways.
A 50-year-old Canadian was struck and killed by a speeding pickup as she and her husband took a morning bicycle outing in Kanchanaburi province. The 23-year-old pickup driver was arrested.
That is her grief-stricken husband at the centre of the photo, and a witness on the left.
https://bityl.co/CnLv
INFLATION U.S.A.
You think you have it bad in Bangkok and Chiang Mai?
Typical U.S. Asking Rent Surpassed $2,000 for First Time in May - 70,200 baht in real money.
The median monthly asking rent in the U.S. surpassed $2,000 for the first time in May, rising 15% year over year to a record high of $2,002
https://www.redfin.com/news/redfin-rental-report-may-2022/
Hillary Clinton has announced she will not be running in 2024.
"No, out of the question," she told the Financial Times newspaper. "First of all, I expect Biden to run. He certainly intends to run. It would be very disruptive to challenge that."
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/hillary-clinton-2024-run-biden
Commentary from Singapore
The newest U.S. 'pivot to Asia' is back, but will it be enough?
Yale-NUS College's Trisha Craig summarises:
Despite war in Ukraine and domestic political problems, US President Joe Biden's administration has refreshed the "pivot to Asia" to build relationships and push back against China.
... Ideally, the U.S. would offer more concrete and far-reaching policies, to show up as a more attractive partner than China and reassure the region of its long-term commitment.
But as veteran diplomats have said, the United States is a necessary part of the strategic balance in Asia regardless.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/us-china-pivot-asia-indo-pacific-trade-security-2755641
THAILAND TOURISM
Junta group optimistic about expected foreign arrivals
Airports of Thailand, which operates and regulates the 8 most important Thai airports. sees happy days ahead.
"Since Thailand is lifting restrictions, we believe that by October, Suvarnabhumi airport (Bangkok International) will see up to 100,000 passengers per day, which is about 50 per cent of the pre-Covid levels."
Last week, Suvarnabhumi arrivals averaged about 80,000 airline passengers a day.
To cope with this increase in passengers, AOT has instructed all airports to open more check-in counters as well as increase the number of self-service and bag drop counters.
https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40016815
But not everyone is 100% optimistic
The junta's Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) predicts that domestic Thai tourists will provide most of the updates.
The junta is sponsoring a Rath Tour Tua Thai (State Tour, better known as 'staycation') programme that allows local travellers to recover up to 50% of travel costs within the country.
TAT deputy governor Thapanee Kiatphaibool said each traveller is expected to spend about 4,100 baht per trip and if 90 per cent of the 2.5 million officials take a workation, they will generate some 50 billion baht in revenue.
https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40016825
THAILAND POLITICS
Pro-democracy activists renewed their public protests on Sunday in northern Bangkok (Din Daeng district).
No violence was reported.
The 'Independent Citizens' demonstrators called on the alleged 'prime minister' Prayut to resign, and called for cancellation of lese majeste law.
Police fired up a loud tannoy to demand that protesters call off the demonstration as they were violating the emergency decree. After more than 10 minutes of scuffles, heavy rains forced the protesters to disperse and the intersection was opened to traffic again.
https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40016817
THAILAND INFLATION
100 billion here, 100 billion there
The country's Oil Fuel Fund is looking at a deficit of 100 billion baht by Canada Day. It continues to subsidise oil and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) amid soaring global oil prices.
That's US$2.8 billion, 3.7 billion loonies.
Thai Air Force cadets shine
They beat 75 other teams from nations around the world to win the Student Unmanned Aerial System (SUAS) 2022, held in Maryland, U.S.A.
In the competition, teams fly Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS aka drones) through an indoor obstacle course while completing tasks, including exploration, target detection and precision delivery.
Cadets must design, build and fly their own aircraft.
The competition was not held for two years because of the dangers from some disease that was going around.
https://www.komchadluek.net/news/519403
https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40016827
The robots have already begun taking over the fast-food restaurant preparations and sales. Now they're going to take over all the Chinese and Thai restaurants, too.
SKYNET FRIES: A technique to teach bimanual robots stir-fry cooking.
Researchers at the Idiap Research Institute in Switzerland, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and Wuhan University (WHU) have recently developed a machine learning-based method to specifically teach robots to master stir-fry, the Chinese culinary cooking technique.
Their method, presented in a paper published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, combines the use of a transformer-based model and a graph neural network (GNN).
Much more at the link:
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-technique-bimanual-robots-stir-fry-cooking.html
Seriously related, about Domino's Pizza:
Ghost Kitchens: The Future Restaurant Model?
... Ghost kitchens are not designed to be seen or to dine in, and multiple restaurants can rent the same ghost kitchen, hence saving rent space money and additional labour costs.
https://businessreview.berkeley.edu/ghost-kitchens-the-future-restaurant-model/
ELECTRIC VEHICLES EVs
Study shows electric vehicles could be charged on the go via peer-to-peer system
Every day, Americans see more battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) on the road. According to Fortune Business Insights, the market for electric vehicles in the U.S. is expected to grow from $28.24 billion in 2021 to $137.43 billion in 2028...
One drawback has made some consumers wary of purchasing a BEV - limited range. Unlike those plentiful gas stations, charging stations for EVs still can be few and far in between, and recharging a BEV's lithium-ion battery might take hours, making EVs impractical
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-electric-vehicles-peer-to-peer.html
JAPAN FEMINISM
Japan comes the heartwarming story of radical feminists being defeated by the holy power of boobs.
I linked this story, but tbh it requires visual aids.
https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=51720
U.S.A. POLITICS
The 39.9% president. Inflation up 8.6%, groceries up 11.9%, gasoline up 48.7%, used cars up 16.1%.
https://tinyurl.com/2fhkmsc2
Related. Big sigh of relief.
Yellen says recession is not 'inevitable,' despite 'unacceptably high' inflation.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2329443/
Only a country that requires children and close family members to snitch on each other would ever have to ask such a question:
Will Your "Smart" Devices and AI Apps Have a Legal Duty to Report on You?
https://reason.com/volokh/2022/06/18/will-your-smart-devices-and-ai-apps-have-a-legal-duty-to-report-on-you/
PHILIPPINES POLITICS
Duterte The Punisher is gone, but not forgotten
Duterte's daughter sworn in as Philippines vice president
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2329438/
It's a ludicr... no, bizarre moment in U.S.A. politics when Bill Maher comes across as a voice of reason.
https://tinyurl.com/2bzjw33m
Limey Not Allowed to Donate Blood Because He Won't Say If He's Pregnant
Pregnant persons of all sexes are banned from giving blood in the nation of warm beer.
https://bityl.co/Co9b
A COOL AND LOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BICYCLE MENACE:
Trek FX 1 Disc, the First Bicycle of the United States, explains "Why I Busted Joe Biden's Elderly Ass on Father's Day Weekend."
https://freebeacon.com/satire/guest-column-joe-biden-bike-fall/
ProTips
Things to do with Bret Rabbit Molasses, Lea & Perrins Sauce and Reynolds Wrap. It's all new to you, right?
Or an even quicker tip for foil, molasses, and worcestershire sauce: put the last two into foil! Form it into a ballI Bake for an hour! Chew! Wince! Toss!
