dcutman

Make more room in the inactive post building. Surely there is more than a few policemen involved in this ring.

The govt are already limiting production by keeping river and canal levels low enough so that farmers find it impossible to grow a crop now. Where I live some rice farmers have effectively had their income slashed by up to 50%.

I think that has more to do with availability of water, at least the lack of. I do believe the farmers were warned of this months ago. Here in Chaing Mai, most farmers had there 3rd rice crop in by the first of the year, and those that didnt are planting now.

Commerce permanent secretary Ms Chutima Bunyaprapat said after chairing a meeting of the panel tasked with selling the leftover rice that the panel targeted to offload 10 million tonnes this year and the rest next year through auctions and government-to-government deals.

Another consequence of this disastrous scheme. Thailand is still producing 25 to 30 million tons of rice a year, and exports 10 to 12 million tons. Unless a major natural disaster occurs or it cuts production in half, the price of rice will remain painfully low for several years to come.

just install stoplights linked to the pedestrian's push button and be done with it.

Rarely does anybody stop for those either. Waste of even more money.

Apparently the farmers in Chaing Mai didn't get the memo.

Most have planted their third crop, and all the fields are well replenished with water, and all the irrigation canals full and flowing.

Time for the Aldi to come to Thailand, everything will be affordable and from a good quality. Thai will all love it!

So you moved to Thailand to shop at Aldi??

Hell no!!

If you guys left your ghettos once in a while and went to the local fresh markets: Plenty of cheap/exotic produce, genuine Thai atmosphere and in general a lot of friendly people!!

That is Thailand!!

HA? half the stuff, especially meat is bought at makro , I am gonna go out on a limb here and say these vendors are not selling their product cheaper than they bought it.

As for exotic, I have never been a big fan of seeing chicken and pork sitting out in the heat for long periods of time with a shirtless Somchai swatting fly's off the meat with a plastic bag.

I hear next years children's day is going to be at Swampy. Its supposed to be even a better cockup show than this years disaster event.

Does the Thai Air Force have an airport not attached to an international airport sending and receiving scheduled flights?

"Assuming that the oil price is sustained at US$50 per barrel throughout the year.

What are the chances of this happening?

There is going to be a major reduction in oil production very soon in the middle east. They might want to keep pumping, but storage has already become a huge issue.

K Samui is a mafia controlled island - who in turn are under the wing of Suratthani's mafia. They have a totally different mind-set to the K Tao animals though. Sure there's been a couple of murders over the decades but mostly it's a safe place where the mafia understand that apart from coconuts, tourism is it's biggest income stream and they do try to protect that income stream, as opposed to murdering it. Most tourists, if not all, don't even know there's a mafia there.

Being a Newbie I am planning to start exploring Thailand at weekends.... I'll be travelling alone.... are all of the islands as dodgy as Koh Tao appears to be??

The ones in Surat Thani province are. Of course Phukett is another dodgy place as well.

transferred to an inactive post at the operations centre of the National Police Office.

Geez how big is this place?

SURAT THANI: -- Relatives of a French tourist who hanged himself did not doubt the nature of his death, Surat Thani police said.

Surat Thani police commander Pol Maj Gen Apichart Boonsriroj said the police were in touch with the French embassy after a French tourist, Dmitri Pofv, was found hanged in a rented Bungalow room in Koh Tao on January 1.

The embassy has said relatives did not doubt his death after they were explained of the investigation procedure of the Thai police and the autopsy result.

But the police commander said the relatives have not yet said whether they would fly in to take the body back for religious service, or want the embassy to send the body back home.

Source: http://englishnews.t...s-death-koh-tao

From the update.

Despite being identified by police, the body of Dimitri Povse remains in a Koh Tao temple awaiting relatives in France contacting either police or the French Embassy.

I am really confused here. Did the French embassy talk to the next of kin or not? In the OP it stated they did, and in this latest update they have not as of yet.

This is just about fisheries. Not even sure this even includes the small Burmese and Cambodian children that peel shrimp 12 hours a day. What about the textile and and fruit industries? We dont even want to start talking about the traffickers in the sex industry do we.

That is a large portion of the tail which they have discovered, although we have no idea of how complete it is. The photos show the "A" and the "i" from the base of the left side of the vertical stabilizer, and they also show the "AX" from the aircraft's registry number which is just below the rearmost windows on the port (left) side. It is upside down and the vertical stabilizer may be buried in the mud.

This is quite close to the area where the 'black' boxes are mounted - of course, provided that they are still there.

Below is a link to a picture the AirAsia aircraft involved in the crash, so that you can see the locations of the white "Ai" and the black "AX"

http://www.planespotters.net/Aviation_Photos/photo.show?id=556151&from=flightradar_200

I have asked the question several times now, and the TVF experts wont answer. Apparently I am not using the perfect terminology. These so called black boxes should be emitting a signal (from under water) that can be heard on the surface from boat or search plane. Up to this point I have not read any confirmation that these signals have been detected.

I am just wondering why this aircraft was, allegedly, located using a side sonar, and not by detecting the pinging from these black (orange) boxes? Seems it would be much easier locating a signal than locating an object by sonar mapping at the bottom of the sea.

If not you, can anybody answer this?

I will definitely not be holding my breath as to get a sound explanation why an emergency locating transmitter would be designed as not to work underwater.

I think that you are wasting your time asking for answers on TVF.

There are more aviation "experts" here than there are ex "SAS" and "SEALS" in the bars of Pattaya and they know just as much about the subject as my dog does.

Yes of course you are right Billd. It was a test, met with expected disappointing results.

I will definitely not be holding my breath as to get a sound explanation why an emergency locating transmitter would be designed as not to work underwater.

We need to get the terminology correct to identify which technology is applicable for the circumstances.

ELT - Emergency Locating Transmitter is primarily a high impact activated device such as a ground crash and triggers on certain amount of G force which I believe is around 5 Gs. We don't know the entry of the aircraft or more specifically the impact energy at contact with the water of the aircraft or the ELT. However, that is somewhat academic as RF is strongly attenuated by water and the signal will not be detected above surface at any significant distances.

ULB - Underwater locator beacon. This is the predominant one for crashes that has the aircraft ending up under water. It is an audio ping that is detected by sonar style sensors and can not be detected on or above the surface. It has a narrow range and can be difficult to pick up due to interference, obstruction or echos so the ship dragging the sensor or the buoy with sensors or submersibles have to be within a moderately close distance. But the ocean, as one oceanographer mentioned, can play tricks on the sound. These are activated by contact with water and located on the data recorders. The range depends on the frequency used and can be 1km to 22km in very good conditions.

There is my point exactly about not holding my breath getting a sound explanation. You aviation guys sound like politicians.

But from what I understand from the circle talk is neither of these systems mounted to nearly every aircraft on this planet really works if an aircraft goes missing, especially if the aircraft crashes in the water.

That is a large portion of the tail which they have discovered, although we have no idea of how complete it is. The photos show the "A" and the "i" from the base of the left side of the vertical stabilizer, and they also show the "AX" from the aircraft's registry number which is just below the rearmost windows on the port (left) side. It is upside down and the vertical stabilizer may be buried in the mud.

This is quite close to the area where the 'black' boxes are mounted - of course, provided that they are still there.

Below is a link to a picture the AirAsia aircraft involved in the crash, so that you can see the locations of the white "Ai" and the black "AX"

http://www.planespotters.net/Aviation_Photos/photo.show?id=556151&from=flightradar_200

I have asked the question several times now, and the TVF experts wont answer. Apparently I am not using the perfect terminology. These so called black boxes should be emitting a signal (from under water) that can be heard on the surface from boat or search plane. Up to this point I have not read any confirmation that these signals have been detected.

I am just wondering why this aircraft was, allegedly, located using a side sonar, and not by detecting the pinging from these black (orange) boxes? Seems it would be much easier locating a signal than locating an object by sonar mapping at the bottom of the sea.

If not you, can anybody answer this?

I will definitely not be holding my breath as to get a sound explanation why an emergency locating transmitter would be designed as not to work underwater.

Do these people not know the meaning of the words: fire, sack, dismiss, get rid of, terminate, discharge, kick out, send packing, dispense with...........?

Even better words.

Arrested, charged, indicted, prosecuted, and imprisoned.

But of course these words would rarely be attached to a policeman here in the LOS. The same as many of the words you use.

I just feel the need to repost this treatment cost. The cost was from long ago but all I could find, but was a cost from the USA, and far from the quoted prices in the OP.

The costs per patient of plasma exchange and IV IgG for the treatment of acute Guillain-Barré syndrome were $6,204 and $10,165, respectively. A sensitivity analysis determined the model was sensitive to the cost of IV IgG. The cost savings per patient treatment for the use of plasma exchange varied from $304 to $6,625 depending on the IV IgG product selected. Plasma exchange and IV IgG are both effective treatments for Guillain-Barré syndrome. However, our analysis determined plasma exchange on average was almost $4,000 less costly per patient than IV IgG. Further research is required to determine the impact of patient and physician preferences on the treatment of this disorder. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10540364

McDonald's Japan said on Monday it was facing more chicken nugget woes after a customer found a piece of vinyl inside the popular menu item.

A piece of vinyl in one nugget? Hardly worth getting to upset about, if in fact this is isolated to, 1 nugget.

I have to assume from the response from both companies it is much more than the article makes it out to be.

BBC is saying a human tooth was found in french fries as well as stuff in nuggets.

Sabotage is a possibility that can't be entirely ruled out.

I just had a dim-some that had what I think was a bone in it. It could have been somebodies tooth, I just discarded it and went on eating the rest of 7 pieces. Didn't give much thought of it until I read your reply.

McDonald's Japan said on Monday it was facing more chicken nugget woes after a customer found a piece of vinyl inside the popular menu item.

A piece of vinyl in one nugget? Hardly worth getting to upset about, if in fact this is isolated to, 1 nugget.

I have to assume from the response from both companies it is much more than the article makes it out to be.

We’ve already paid £17,700 for treatment so far. Treatment Tues 6 Jan, will cost approx £20,000 and is for only one dose administered by IV over 5-7days.

Due to the severity of Craig’s condition, Doctors have said its possible he might need 2nd and 3rd doses of treatment, each approx £20,000 plus £1000 per night in hospital.

Granted this was from 1999 but this was also the USA. Some one is exaggerating I suspect. Not sure if the ones seeking funds or the hospital bending over the farang.

The costs per patient of plasma exchange and IV IgG for the treatment of acute Guillain-Barré syndrome were $6,204 and $10,165, respectively. A sensitivity analysis determined the model was sensitive to the cost of IV IgG. The cost savings per patient treatment for the use of plasma exchange varied from $304 to $6,625 depending on the IV IgG product selected. Plasma exchange and IV IgG are both effective treatments for Guillain-Barré syndrome. However, our analysis determined plasma exchange on average was almost $4,000 less costly per patient than IV IgG. Further research is required to determine the impact of patient and physician preferences on the treatment of this disorder. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10540364

I find it odd there is never mention of these boxes sending out locating signals. Surely if they found the tail section the black boxes would sending out a strong signal.

Have a look at post 3. The pics of the recorders show a small cylinder with supports at each end, this is a water activated pinger. With quite simple equipment you can located the signal from the pinger.

I understand how how they work. My point was, all the articles about this crash and said having located the plane, but there never a mention of locating or identifying the plane by its emergency locator transmitter. Is this thing not pinging away at the crash location? As far as I am aware they found this wreckage using sonar.

BANGKOK, Jan 9 – Thailand’s spending on education, representing 4 per cent of gross domestic product or 20 per cent of the national budget, is the highest in the world, according to research findings by Mahidol University.

The National Children and Family Development Institute which conducted the study on Thailand’s educational system concluded that spending on fundamental education is as high as Bt35,000 per person per year while parents have to pay on average Bt25,000-35,000 per student each year for added extras.

Despite the high expenditure, the country’s educational gap--the delivered performance--remains wide and in need of improvement.

Study hours for Thai students are five times more than countries such as the US and Canada where students spend 600-700 hours in classes while Thai students 2,000-3,600 hours. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/695289-thailands-educational-spending-highest-in-the-world/

Guaranteed there are a very few keeping this so called insurgency alive and running, and they are making truck loads of money doing it and have been for years. Innocent lives lost and consistent terror is part of this game.

There is an exact copy going on in Mexico and other parts of the world. It just has not reached such a grand scale here, yet.

Im calling total BS on this headline..... they are just making the whole thing up.

Seriously they dont have a clue about these kind of stats, they cant track peoples movements and they cant collate info like this especially within such a short timeframe...its simply made up BS.

I am with you on this one. 90%++ of the transactions are in cash, there is no why anybody could know how much was spent this new year holiday. Not this soon any way and more than half of those cash transactions are not reported.