Have you made plans for a pleasant weekend? This is Fishwrap Bulldog Edition for the Weekend Eve, Friday 24 May 2024
As Canadian school children have chanted for [exactly, God Struth] 200 years [but of course it's complicated*]
24th of May is Firecracker Day If we don't get a holiday, we'll all run away
*The government's involved, is why. Example: the next Thai National Holiday should be Sunday June 2, birthday of Her Majesty Queen Suthida but the government has decreed "No! No, it will Monday June 3, like it or lump it.
USA ECONOMY It turns out that the widespread (550 restaurants) "American" chain Red Lobster is not American after all. It's a Thai outfit, owned chiefly by Thai Union Group PCL. In its 47-year existence, it has expanded from tinned tuna to just about everything-seafood, which is how it got into the business of owning Red Lobster, which it now is running into the dirt, apparently to prove that "American" fast-food chains aren't all that delicious.
As the photo suggests, it has done this -- and so far succeeded -- by cornering a significant amount of the U.S. frozen-shrimp market and exploiting that in the restaurant chain. Red Lobster Seafood Restaurants -- world (and U.S.) headquarters in the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in central Bangkok -- has filed for bankruptcy, the very-American Chapter 11 version. It achieved this plan with a ruinous customer campaign called "endless shrimp," basically an all-you-can-eat pigout offer that sounded terrific and simply couldn't be sustained. In its bankruptcy court filing, Red Lobster's lawyers wrote that 'the debacle was part of a pattern of mismanagement.' Others might see it as culmination of a cunning victory. https://www.nationthailand.com/business/trading-investment/40038209
I Don't Think I'll Be Flying Again For A While The Thai online newspaper Nation has pieced and edited a very readable account of what happened when Singapore Airlines Flight SQ321 hit an air pocket and turbulence that caused the death of a Brit and severe injuries to others as the plane flew over Thailand. The plane was (yet another) Boeing 777-300ER but all reports say the pilots handled the emergency perfectly. https://www.nationthailand.com/vdo/vdo-news/40038246
CANADA PRISON
The Devil Is Gone The B.C. serial killer-cannibal Robert Pickton was savagely beaten within one centimetre of his life by fellow prisoners at Port-Cartier Institution, Quebec, and the nation is not praying for his survival. He actually bragged that he killed 49*, most of them Vancouver hookers. The case is one of the latest failures of the Mounties. *It would be very horribly terrible to execute him but fellow prisoners have handled that problem. The cost of his incarcerations is a Canadian government secret.
THAILAND RELIGION Wednesday was (the annual) Visakha Bucha Day, marked by (photo) their majesties and tens of millions in countries where the main religion is Theravada Buddhism.
'Visak' (full moon, 6th Thai lunar month) is one of four major Buddhist events celebrated in Thailand. Among a dozen rules, all sales of liquor are banned. This report tells the evolution of Visakha Bucha Day in Thailand, https://www.nationthailand.com/blogs/life/art-culture/40038216
TECHNOLOGY Is there someone, somewhere who believed for more than one half of one New York millisecond that AI would not be used in paedo commerce? Anyone? Read on... (Smoking Gun)Â Â
Speaking of the 'Forward State' and its helpful programme to keep citizens informed:
New Trust the Science Experts Update, and it's a doozy: study links fluoridated water to behavioural problems in kids, and... autism-like symptoms. (Hotair) Perfect.
Microsoft wants to make Windows an AI operating system. (Tech Crunch) The problem with Windows 10 was that it worked. When you have a product that works - and never wears out - all you have to bring in money is new users.
Meanwhile... Google is putting adverts in AI search results. (The Verge) AI search results are a waste of ti... (oopsie) a complete waste of time, so of course they are dumping ads in them.
The only Copilot+ AI feature that matters is a huge privacy risk. (Tom's Hardware) Yes. Fact.
Most people want flexible queries, not RAG. (Win Vector) RAG is the latest AI term; it stands for "retrieval augmented generation". What this means is that AI search delivers garbage, and everyone knows it, so the solution is to replace the search results from the AI with the original search results, which raises the question of why we are using AI in the first place. https://win-vector.com/2024/05/21/i-want-flexible-queries-not-rag/
USA POLITICS SATIRE Biden's lead over Trump in New York state has fallen from 23 points in 2020 to a nine point lead now.
