Crushdepth

I read a few years ago that diabetes would be the number one problem in Thailand based on the amount of sugar used in nearly everything they eat and drink.

Its not just a Thais it's happening all over the world with the kids and the internet games which they play for hours on end when they could be out playing and exercising and unfortunately parents are using these games to act as babysitters when they should be encouraging the kids to take up a sport.

Shame with the obesity with all the great healthy food that's available in

That's if they don't keel over from heart disease first from eating fried in recycled palm oil gloop 3 times a day, everyday. Plus snacks.

This pic has done the rounds but to my knowledge has never been satisfactorily explained. This is what the Naga is supposed to look like.

That's an oarfish (marine).

So, do I get this right?

The rice was bought from the Farmers for 458 $/ton (15,000THB) and then sold at 390 $/ton.

That is a loss of $68/ton.

or 68*3,930,000 = $267,240,000 in total.

that would be 8,737,411,800.00 Thai Baht

They also have pay ongoing storage costs for however many million tonnes they still have, and who knows how much in losses through degradation and improper handling.

Some of Thailand's biggest client nations are refusing to buy until quality issues are addressed.

So where am I going to get my strapadichtomy done now?

Sent from somewhere in the Pacific

Thailand regains top rice exporter crown

It predicted that Thailand will be the second biggest rice exporter selling 9 million tons, trailing India which should export around 10 million tons. Vietnam will export 6.5 million tons of rice this year.

Not sure about the headline here.

The headline is misleading. It's not fact, just a "prediction" by an honorary association guy with a few vested interests.

Crap article about nothing, basically.

Can we all agree none of us are in the slightest bit surprised at this development ? Im not

I'm just stunned at how feeble their cover story was.

When you do water testing, you have to test specificly, for each trace element you are looking for and there are over 300 different elements which are bad for you in water from a plastic bottle. You cant just put a water bottle in a car for a month or more and then take it out an say now lets test it for chemicals. Not possible.

If the pH-Value are 6.5 or 7 its safe to drink no chemicals are in the water. If the pH-Value on water is lower or higher dont drink it since heavy metals are water soluable. If it is ass low as 3.5 in pH there is Aluminiom or Cadmium in it and that is pure poison.

a Good rule is dont lets water get over 70 degrees C in a plastic bottle, since that is also when some chemicals get released into the water. But its your life. I know I am not drinking water left in a hot car, for many days.

Cheers

Actually there are methodologies that allow you to test for, identify, and quantitate, unspecified chemicals in water. I am an analytical chemist and own and operate an environmental testing laboratory.

There are no metals (or at least there shouldn't be) in plastic. Most of the bottles are low density polyethylene. Quite safe. The pH of the water should be around 7, if it is significantly off that value, it did not happen in the bottle, and the entire production run that filled that production lot is suspect and should be recalled.

As for "dont lets water get over 70 degrees C in a plastic bottle, since that is also when some chemicals get released into the water", well it is very dependent on the chemical not the temperature. It will depend on the solubility of the particular chemical in question. Temperature simply increases the solubility. There is no 70 degree actuation point.

Water that got hot after bottling is just that... water that got hot. Nothing more. No need for fear mongering.

Ever boiled water, to let it cool down before use?

You at least seem to know what you are talking about. I worry more about released plasticisers as in the toys that there have been problems with. Do any of the bottle types in common use in Thailand have danger issues with plasticisers. I am suspicious of the soft semi-trasparent commercial water bottles, not the ones like they put soft drinks, coke Pepsi etc in.

I doubt it, but styrene food containers are looking like a bad idea. A big problem with toys in the region is the use of paints containing large amounts of lead.

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I mentioned this in another thread yesterday, someone is going to have to make a brutal decision soon, as the rice stocks are not dwindling they're increasing, and nobody has killed the scheme, the farmers ARE going to have to halt their production, and if the scheme is dead, they have to go back to using the Millers, who know they can drop their buying price, simply because the supply outweighs the demand, it's economic suicide to continue subsidising the farmers, whilst unable to shift the current stock.

Some countries have been known to burn excess subsidised agricultural produce in order to avoid further impact on market price. Rather painful though.

"and 3,000 illegal radio stations operating without licences." One would think they should be shut down permanently.

Yes, but this is the land of bending the rules and a lot of them provide useful services. Government agencies often work with (and provide technical support!) such illegal stations on various education and extension projects.

No drugs either.

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Don't like it don't eat there. Hasn't this happened before in Bangkok, a few years ago?

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Missing, or never actually delivered? And what happened to the "missing rice was off being milled" story?

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It's a good idea. I wish it wasn't the army implementing it but whatever

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In other news, economists revise Thai GDP forecasts upwards due to unexplained spike in productivity.

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From the OP:

The military believes underground movements would soon surface to oppose the coup.

The military dictators and the ammart are deeper into it than they had ever been for a hundred years yet they're still digging.

Good on US Ambassador Kristie Kenney and German Ambassador Rolf Schulze among others for not attending the meeting because, as they said, they want nothing to do with the Thai military as dictators ruling over Thailand. That's an excellent posture by Prez Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Waiting also for the sanctions coming that were referenced in the OP, by the United States and the European Union.

I see the State Department has now issued a travel warning against travel to Thailand, which throws the marker down to begin the international processes to isolate the military dictatorship. Military mutiny coup d'état is already passe' in civilized society but this one is beyond the pale.

has only just begun to begin for the militarists, the military dictators, the ammart. There's a severe shitstorm headed their way.

Security Message for U.S. Citizens: Security Situation in Thailand

Thailand Travel Alert

Last Updated: May 23, 2014

The U.S. Department of State recommends that U.S. citizens reconsider any non-essential travel to Thailand, particularly Bangkok, due to ongoing political and social unrest and restrictions on internal movements, including an indefinite nighttime curfew throughout Thailand. The Department of State has advised official U.S. government travelers to defer all non-essential travel to Thailand until further notice. This Travel Alert supersedes the Travel Alert issued on May 16, 2014.

http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/service.html

Oh noes!! The bully to the world disapproves! Net impact on Thailand: Nil. Concern of population: Zero.

When you do water testing, you have to test specificly, for each trace element you are looking for and there are over 300 different elements which are bad for you in water from a plastic bottle. You cant just put a water bottle in a car for a month or more and then take it out an say now lets test it for chemicals. Not possible.

If the pH-Value are 6.5 or 7 its safe to drink no chemicals are in the water. If the pH-Value on water is lower or higher dont drink it since heavy metals are water soluable. If it is ass low as 3.5 in pH there is Aluminiom or Cadmium in it and that is pure poison.

a Good rule is dont lets water get over 70 degrees C in a plastic bottle, since that is also when some chemicals get released into the water. But its your life. I know I am not drinking water left in a hot car, for many days.

Cheers

I wondered when the tin foil hatter's were going to turn up on this thread...

I drink BANGKOK TAPWATER and I'm still alive.

Don't cuddle up to camels.

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Scathing report in The Australian Financial Review ( afr.com.au )

And a spot on report in the LA Times.

"To choose the Thaksin regime is to guarantee the death of democracy for Thailand's foreseeable future"

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0529-thompson-thai-coup-20140529-story.html

<EDIT> Are you serious? I have to pay $1:90 a day to read your article.

My link is free and open to all which is not dissimilar to what democracy will be like in Thailand after reform.

"It has been a general historical truth that regimes bringing order at least make a democratic transition possible. The converse is seldom true. Permissive regimes tend to lead to crackdowns that doom enlightened rule."

Interesting that he thinks the Yingluck regime was permissive, despite also saying Thaksin would brook no opposition. Of course, many would agree, because there are few democratic governments which would allow the PDRC to get away with what they did. In any case, this article offers few facts, just the standard assertions about what a bad guy Thaksin is. But the Thaksin hasn't been in power for 8 years and the chances of him becoming premier again, coup or no coup, were close to zero.

I have a very low opinion of Thaksin but I think articles like this are ridiculously simpleminded, no more than caricatures of the actual situation. That's why they're few and far between, I suppose, as very few serious analysts agree. It's instructive to compare this to the article written for the NYT by Duncan McCargo recently. One of the most respected scholars in the field, vs an "old hand" who probably has a rose tinted view of the military regimes in the 60s and 70s and acquaintances within the Thai ruling class. In any case, what I most object to is the idea that opposition to military rule = supporting Thaksin. Not only because many who object were harsh critics of his rule (particularly when he was having people gunned down in the streets, a measure which many current PDRC supporters likely backed at the time) - but also because, principles aside, it's not yet clear that a coup weakens his hand much in the long run.

"But the Thaksin hasn't been in power for 8 years"

He was in power until the 9th of December 2013 and then in a caretaker unelectable leader capacity until the 22nd of May when the democracy restoration team came in to remove the unelected dictator.

Now he has been removed he is trying to set up HIS government in exile in Cambodia.

Cambodia has publicly declined to host the criminal fugitive former government in exile. I look forward to it being established in a sympathetic democracy such as Togo or Cote 'd Ivoire, in the near future. Claiming that a government in exile would be set up is a huge Robert Amsterdam PR fail. Despite the obligatory anti-coup rhetoric from western democracies, they know a despot when they see one and won't be hosting Thaksin's "government in exile". Ever. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

And yes, I'm open to bets on the matter.