Well, you got me! I did not know there was a Mekong River beach to go and throng!
Question: Is Sunday the last day of the week? Or the first?
Either way, you're trapped in Sunday, March 13 for the entire day.
Sunday forecast: The weatherman says
balmy
blue skies
morning: no clouds or rain
afternoon: clouds AND rain, high of 34° Canadian
|That is one entire degree colder than Saturday}
EV crash kills Pakistani refugee
A Porsche Electric Vehicle (EV) driven by a son of a former top cop smashed into a motorcycle at the Taksin Bridge in Bangkok and killed the Pakistani driver, a refugee.
 Police say it will take days or longer to sort it out, but the EV driver has already admitted to making a sudden lane change.
 The Porsche Taycan Turbo S driven by Pornmet Songmetta, son of Pol Gen Wirachai Songmetta, crashed into the Yamaha Fino motorcycle driven by Waseem Ahmad near the Taksin Bridge in Bangkok, around 1 a.m., said Pol Capt Thamnong Montha, deputy inspector at the Samrae police station.
 Pornmet sustained head and face injuries from contact with the steering wheel and received treatment at Suksawat Hospital.
 Following his treatment, he reported to police and admitted that he had carelessly made a sudden lane change before the incident. Police were waiting for results of his alcohol blood test and medical examination, Pol Capt Thamnong said.
 Police were expected to charge him with reckless driving causing death.
PHOTO: Investigators examine the scene of the accident where a Porsche sports car struck a motorcycle near the Taksin Bridge in Bangkok early Saturday. (Photo courtesy Nakhon 002, FM91 Trafficpro)
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2278179/
Schools feel the chill
Parents delay payments for online classes, putting outlets in jeopardy
SPECIAL REPORT
The pandemic has hit private schools, vocational colleges and universities where it hurts the most (their pockets), with up to 10% of private schools in danger of going under and several universities being taken over if no help is forthcoming.
Two years of pandemic have been so difficult for some private educational outlets that they feel they are reaching the end of their tether. They say online classes were the crux of the problem.
The crisis started when the Education Ministry directed schools nationwide to push back the reopening of the new school term when the pandemic broke out.
Parents were unsure when their children could return to school. When it became clear the virus would persist longer than anyone had thought, classes had to resume remotely.
Although online classes had commenced, some parents were paying only partial tuition fees, if any at all.
==
Padiwaradda Phongsuwan, director of Pongsuwanwittaya, a private school in Lum Luk Ka district of Pathum Thani, said parents dodging tuition fees caused the biggest setback for private schools' finances last year.
Despite the return of some on-site learning in the second term, some parents were still paying off outstanding fees from the first term.
Ms Padiwaradda said the school had recommended that parents pay full tuition and associated fees first with the promise that the school would reimburse any unused portion of their payments later.
PHOTO: Pongsuwanwittaya School in the northeastern Bangkok district where MacAlan Thompson lived.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/2278331/
Well, you got me! I did not know there was a Mekong River beach to go and throng!
Tourists throng beach on Mekong River
Food stalls and jet skis beckon as low water level exposes island in Nakhon Phanom
NAKHON PHANOM: Tourists thronged a sandy beach on an island in the Mekong River on Saturday, generating hundreds of thousands of baht a day at the attraction in That Phanom district.
Had Hae beach, in tambon Nam Kam of this northeastern province, became accessible to tourists last month after the level of the Mekong River fell.
PHOTO: A sandy beach, known as Had Hae, has emerged after the level of the Mekong River fell in That Phanom district of Nakhon Phanom province. The attraction is drawing crowds of tourists but (WARNING ACHTUNG) locals say it might be under water again by May.
https://bityl.co/BIgK
Junta-appointed governor of Bangkok to enter election
Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang will seek to return to office and compete in the election, as early as May.
Aswin was just another old police general in 2016, when coup leader Prayut appointed him to succeed the elected ahd corrupt ex-governor.
A new group, Rak Krung Thep (Love Bangkok) will support Aswin in the election.
PHOTO: Aswin had said for two years that he wanted no part in any of that democratic election nonsense.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2278283/
o-h-h-h-h-h those Russians.
The entire country has been blacklisted and will have to survive the war without PDFSAM, the ne plus ultra of PDF mergers, splitters, rotators, OCR, etc.
Also Belarus. No free PDF mergine for you, either.
CHINA COLONY TIBET
Chinese army destroys another Buddhist statue complex in Tibet
Communist Party and PLA crank up the anti-Tibet campaign yet again.
'Sometimes, Chinese authorities make up regulations to justify the demolition of Tibetan statues,' said a Tibetan exile
"Though the Chinese authorities warned that they would demolish the statue last year, one of the Lamas of the monastery had documentation supporting the significance of the statue, so the demolition was pushed to a later date," the source said.
"After the appointment of Wang Dongsheng as the secretary of the Drago County Party Committee in 2021, he put more priority on the statue's demolition in line with the Chinese Communist Party's hardline policies against Tibetans."
(Before-and-after satellite photos and photo analysis at the link below}
PHOTO: Padmasambhava statue in Drago county in Tibet - before the PLA got to it.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/statue-02282022155542.html
DEFENCE F-35 AIR FORCE
The United States is edging closer towards permitting the sale of four F-35 stealth fighter jets to Tnailand.
 Bangkok threw a monkey wrench into the possible dea, by demanded that the U.S.A. also agree to a transfer of "know-how" technology, as part of any deal.
 Thailand has set aside 13.8 billion baht, and cancelled the purchase of two Chinese submarines to pay for the tentative purchase - US$414 million, or 528 million loonies.
 Thailand's key allies already have F-35s - South Korea, Australia and Japan, with Singapore set to follow suit.
 PHOTO: A United States Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II takes part in an aerial display during the Singapore Airshow 2022.
This is quite cool, a simulation of gravity on every planet in our solar system, and on the Sun.
Also, how come the buffalo gets Shotgun and I have to sit in the back?
CORONAVIRUS THAILAND STATISTICS
Saturday saw 24,592 new Covid-19 cases in Thailand, andf 68 more deaths.
 Saturday's figures did not include 20,385 positive results from antigen tests over the past 24 hours. If they were included, daily infections would total 44,977.
 This compared with the 63 coronavirus-related fatalities and 24,792 new cases reported on Friday.
PHOTO: A temporary "community isolation facility" has been eatablished at the Thai-Japanese Stadium in Din Daeng district of northern Bangkok.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/
The annual Rohingya migration peaks again
46 Myanmar job seekers caught near Malaysian border
The Rohingya, mostly refugees from Bangladesh and western Rakhine state, try to reach Malaysia by passing through Thailand.
A group of 46 were arrested in Sadao district of southern Songkhla province, near the Malaysian border.
The migrants told the police team via an interpreter they wanted jobs in Malaysia. They had contacted Mong Mao, a Myanmar job broker, in Malaysia to get them jobs there.
 He demanded 30,000 baht each by transferring half of the brokerage fees to the job brokers first. The remaining sum would be paid when they arrived in Malaysia.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2278139/
CORONAVIRUS CHING
The country that invented Covid-19 has no clue about stopping Covid-19
Covid-19 cases hit 2-year high
On Saturday, the number of new and confirmed cases of Chinese Covid-19 inside mainland China was the highest since 2020.
"Health Officials" said the growing number could complicate Beijing's "dynamic-clearance" ambition to suppress contagion as quickly as possible.
PHOTO: Flaskback: Shanghai residents line up outside a nucleic acid testing site of a hospital, following cases of the coronavirus disease.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2278123/
If you or a family member was attacked by Indonesian terrorists, read this:
Indonesia Pays $1.7M in Compensation to 142 Terror Victims, Families
Indonesia has paid out 24 billion rupiah (US$1.7 million) in compensation to 142 victims of terrorism and their families in Central Sulawesi, a province where Islamic militants have carried out 20 years of terrorist attacks.
 Those receiving cheques from the payout included relatives of 45 people who were killed in terrorist attacks and those who were injured but survived, said Hasto Atmojo Suroyo, who heads the central government's Witness and Victim Protection Agency. It serves people victimized by terrorism, human rights abuses, human trafficking and other crimes.
 "They are victims of 20 terrorism attacks before the enactment [of the 2018 anti-terrorism law]," Hasto told reporters after a ceremony to hand over the compensation money to victims and victims' relatives at the governor's office in Palu, the provincial capital.
https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/indonesian/indonesia-compensation-terror-victims-03042022132114.html
RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR PROPAGANDA
We are told...
 A 40-mile-long (64-kilometre) Russian military convoy, composed of tanks, armored vehicles and towed artillery, has stalled just outside of Kyiv, the new, approved spelling of Kiev.
 We have been told the convoy has been stalled for a week. We are not permitted to know why.
 I mean... what in the blue heck, right? Doesn't the Red Army have a logistics section or department or whatever? And once you've set up a 40-mile traffic jam of heavy objects, how do you even get fuel and ammo up to the front, let along some luncheon bisquits for your troops?
 Sounds like Russia hired Pentagon officers to run their transport.
PHOTO: The headline on this photo caption was, 'Russian convoy not moving towards Kyiv'. No kidding.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/11/europe/kyiv-russian-convoy-intl/index.html
Yes. Any other questions?
Is China Eyeing Taiwan While The World Is Focused On Ukraine?
 Taiwan looks closely at Ukraine for inspiration, with China observing very closely how the world is reacting to Russia's invasion. Will it be the next epicentre of war after Ukraine?
 Included: What has Taiwan learned from Ukraine?
PHOTO: Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (centre, back to camera)) visiting a Taiwanese air force base
https://sofrep.com/news/is-china-eyeing-taiwan-while-the-world-is-focused-on-ukraine/
CHINA TAIWAN SOUTH CHINA SEA
China military plane crashes in South China Sea
 The crash was probably why China closed part of the Gulf of Tonkin near Hainan island.
 Taiwan's military intelligence sources said the crash was apparently a V-8, in airspace between Okinawa prefecture's main island and the smaller Miyako island in southern Japan.
 The crash was probably why China closed part of the Gulf of Tonkin near Hainan island.
PHOTO: Courtesy Japan Air Self-Defence Force.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/taiwan-plane-03102022092701.html
Sunday Read:
Yes, it's the 'New Yorker'. But its really good.
 The Weakness of the Despot
 How Putin lost the plot
The biggest surprise for Putin, of course, was the West. All the nonsense about how the West is decadent, the West is over, the West is in decline, how it's a multipolar world and the rise of China, et cetera: all of that turned out to be bunk.
 The courage of the Ukrainian people and the bravery and smarts of the Ukrainian government, and its President, Zelensky, galvanized the West to remember who it was. And that shocked Putin! That's the miscalculation.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/stephen-kotkin-putin-russia-ukraine-stalin
Is this only to piss off Trudeau the Younger?
In Canada, which still cannot find a single seditionist:
Province de Québec eliminates all that crap about mandatory shots and masks and stuff.
https://bityl.co/BIiS
No holding back the bear...
