We're Number Two. Chiang Mai hits excruciating air-pollution levels.
Hope you have a good plan for a delightful Sunday. In the meantime
This is the earliest, Bulldog, edition of Fishwrap for Sunday, March 10, 2024.
Start of Ramadan (1444 AH)
NONG CHOK, THAILAND: Appointees of the Chularajmontri (Aroon Boonchom, aka Sheikhul Islam) shall aim to confirm the appearance of the new moon, and thus the beginning of the fasting month of Ramadan for all of Thailand.
Until the celebration of Eid al-Fitr on about April 9, observant Muslims must not eat, drink, smoke or have sex during daylight*.
Bangkok first prayer Fajr 0517. Maghrib, or breaking fast 1828.
*There are specific exceptions for the very young and elderly, the ill and others.
If the new moon is not seen tonight, Ramadan fasting will be pushed back one day, to Tuesday.
OPED OPINION
Thai Prime Minister sets ambitious goals for tourism
Below: Straight from his flying (commercial, at that) trips to Australia and Germany, Prime Minister Srettha went straight to Paris (photo) to try to drum up more -- much more direct investment in Thailand.
At the Amazing Thailand Networking Event at Internationale Tourismus Borse (ITB Berlin), Srettha bragged:
 Last year, there were 28 million foreign tourists, which earned the country about 1.2 trillion baht.
 Tourism does not only contribute to the economy but also brings employment opportunities for a huge portion of Thailand's population.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2755439/
Related: Blame the pandemic!
Airlines contend their new, high fares are justified.
As consumers cry foul over expensive domestic airfares...
 Example: Thai AirAsia appeals that their new ceiling prices should not be slashed. Airlines have carried a higher cost burden because of the near-ruinous rules and regulations of Covid-19 days.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2755519/
Bangkok Goes Electric For Commuters
The board of BMTA, Bangkok Mass Transit Authority, has approved the purchase of 3,390 electric-powered buses to replace some of its decrepit blue and remarkably cheap commuter-street force.
The catch is... we've heard this story before. But anyhows...
This massive procurement project would be divided into three phases. In the first phase, 350 buses will be procured, while 1,520 buses each would be purchased in the second and third phases.
https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40036228
'We’re Number One... erm Number Two'
The Rose of the North, they called it, has beaten nearly every city on Earth in the Most Polluted Derby.
https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40036175
The seasonal PM2.5 levels in and all around Chiang Mai has hit truly unhealthy levels -- second worst air pollution in the entire explored galaxy.
The director of Chiang Mai University's Research Institute for Health Sciences, Khuanchai Supparatpinyo, said that air pollution in the northern region was triggered by forest burning for agriculture.
https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40036175
The best Sunday columnist we ever will have has no problem unloading his thoughts about standing in those lines at Suvarnabhumi, and elsewhere.
The Som Tam Test and Other Tales
 We've all probably experienced that sinking feeling after stepping off the moving walkway and facing a definitely non-moving formidable queue.
 Painful truth is that, apart from being a very useful word in Scrabble, queuing is definitely not much fun.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2751976/
Read it all, but there's enough space for just one more anecdote:
On one occasion I landed at Don Mueang after a trip to Australia. The queue had been painfully slow-moving and ominously the immigration officer appeared to be not in the best of moods.
 When it came to my turn he perused the documents and asked how long I had been living in Thailand. I told him it had been quite a long time. He examined the documents again and kept frowning. It looked like I was in trouble.
 Can you eat sticky rice?" he asked in Thai.
 "Yes" I blurted out, a bit baffled by the question.
 "Can you eat som tam?" he asked.
 Why yes, my maid has a som tam cart and...
"Welcome back to Thailand" he said grinning and I was waved through having passed the Isan food test.
But it's Crutch, so don't stop until the end.
Straight outta Canada
Prepared by CovenantHouse -- The anti-sex trafficking campaign.
Learn to recognize sex trafficking. It's not what you think.
 Vanessa, 17, from Halifax Nova Scotia, was required to earn her keep, eventually being trafficked along the TransCanada Highway as far west as Winnipeg before she managed to escape.
https://macleans.ca/sponsored/covenant-house-sex-trafficking/
And from the CBC, Canada's original government-operated broadcaster
 A growing number of Canadians want more money spent on defence.
 And also about Trump's threats to abandon allies who don't invest in defence.
 ... 29 percent of Canadians today choose military preparedness and the country's place on the world stage as their top political priority. A decade ago, that figure was 12 percent.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/polls-canadians-defence-spending-trump-1.7133640
U.S. Army traitor spied for China
A team of U.S. FBI raiders arrested army sergeant Korbein Schultz on charges of selling documents and writing intelligence reports to the Chinese Communist Party, including intel on U.S. plans to help Taiwan in the coming invasion.
Schultz, an army S-1 or intelligence analyst got US$42,000 for his aid to Beijing's State Security Ministry, roughly the Chinese counterpart of the CIA. [1.5 million baht in real money]
The Texan soldier-traitor faces five criminal counts with a maximum penalty of execution -- but more likely a life sentence in the supermax prison, ADX Florence, Colorado -- with shoe bomber Richard Reid, New York bomber and terrorist planner Ramzi Yousef, ex-Taliban soldier (and U.S. citizen) John Walkdeer Lindh and 330 others.
The sergeant told his Chinese handler from Hong Kong that he wanted to work for China forever and 'be like Jason Bourne.'
Boeing does it again
United Airlines 777-200 Flight 35 to Osaka with 249 people aboard diverted to LAX because its tire fell off during takeoff from San Francisco.
The tire fell off, hit cars in the SFO parking area.
SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY
JEDEC has published the specifications for next-generation graphics memory, GDDR7. (AnandTech)
GDDR7 is 50% faster than GDDR6 - because it uses trinary. With GDDR7 the data inside the chip is still ones and zeroes, but the interface uses 1, 0, and -1.
https://www.jedec.org/news/pressreleases/jedec-publishes-gddr7-graphics-memory-standard
OPINION: The same government pressure erecting an Iron Curtain around the Internet is also constructing a financial social credit system like Communist China’s inside the United States."
The Feds Gave Banks Woke Censorship Tools To Control All Your Money.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/07/the-feds-gave-banks-woke-censorship-tools-to-control-all-your-money/
Do scientists ever agree? Should they? Not these ones.
 One group says flatly, "We are not in 'the anthropocene'. In fact (say the chair and second vice-chair of the panel in question, the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) within the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS)) that whole anthropocene thingy was a fraud.
Hill Heat: https://shorturl.at/flLT6
Much more here: https://physicsworld.com/a/epoch-or-event-defining-the-anthropocene/
In modern Britain (formerly 'Great' Britain) everything is policed except crime.
 J.K. Rowling reported to U.K. police for 'misgendering' trans broadcaster as a 'man'. Which of course he is.
https://nypost.com/2024/03/07/world-news/jk-rowling-reported-to-police-for-misgendering-trans-tv-anchor-india-willoughby/
The U.S. President spoke to the nation -- State of the Union, demanding that he and Vice-President Kamala must be re-elected in November to Four More Years because
• Gaza and Hamas are nearly starving to death and
• Highly trained U.S. experts and scientists have created miniorgans from amniotic fluid cells.
Without once mentioning his name, Biden said for 68 minutes that 'my predecessor' is already jeopardising freedom at home and abroad.
APNews WATCH: All the moments you missed during the State of the Union.
https://shorturl.at/suQU3
Read about it: Hunger is acute. Children of Hamas are starting to die. https://t.ly/8Go5W
Not since President Lincoln and the U.S. Civil War [1861-1865]] have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today.-- Joseph Biden, president, USA
A wide majority of Americans, 63 percent, said according to the latest Economist/YouGov survey they did not watch the speech.
A cadre of anti-Israel protesters joined together to block President Joe Biden’s motorcade while on his way to the State of the Union Address on Thursday night.
"Shame!" the protesters chanted. And "Genocide Joe", and "Criminal."
We're not worried about nicknames and bumper stickers. I mean, it's First Amendment free speech. The president's focused on ... making sure that we can continue to support Israel as they fight a terrible terrorist group, Hamas.
-- John Kirby, spokesman, U.S. Security Council
Things said by U.S. President Joseph Biden.
Our [U.S.] economy is the envy of the world.
U.S. inflation is the lowest in the world.
There is historic job growth in the United States.
Unemployment in America is at 50-year lows (sic).
The threat to democracy must be defended!
He actually said that.
About the miniorgans: https://t.ly/2QD1V
Thailand 1970 Redux [https://shorturl.at/jqxJX]
Missing girl: Her case seized South Africa’s attention. Now her mother is charged with selling her.
Today In History
U.S. Marines storm China Beach outside Da Nang, sparking the Vietnam war.
U.S. intelligence agent David "Bear" Spillane files a complaint that the Marines kicked sand into his picnic lunch.
The nation that used to claim it was neutral
Sweden joins NATO as the 32nd member of the alliance, ending decades of post-World War II neutrality.
Related Backgrounder: Related: How Sweden and Finland went from neutral to NATO.
For one thing, both of them have increased their military budgets.
True or False? The best offence is a good defence?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61397478
It's International Women's Day. Don't even think of giving her flowers or candy. However,
 Example: Colombia's women emerald miners are a source of inspiration. https://t.ly/Flado
What do you get when you combine three-mile-high Rocky Mountain skiing and Rocky Mountain rodeo?
You get skijouring. Here's a sample from Colorado's very high town of Leadville.
Weekend Read
MH370: The families haunted by one of aviation's greatest mysteries
They still feel chained to the plane that vanished 10 years ago, with their loved ones on board.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68476289
The key word 'pilot' is mentioned seven (7) times in the BBC story.
Well, Fishwrap for one disagrees with that clickbait by the Beeb's Man in Bangkok, Jonathan Head.
We know what happened.
Below: Tearful Chinese farmer Li Eryou clutches the Sharpie he used to write a message to his son -- a passenger on the Malaysia Airlines flight.
Li has used all his savings travelling to Europe and Asia, and to beaches in Madagascar, where some debris from the missing plane has been found.
At last! A Middle East peace solution.
https://twitter.com/RadioGenoa/status/1766131734695874800
