crobe

They are not going to call it an entrance fee - it is "protection money"

If by the "region's leader in space technology and initiative" he means the ASEAN region then there is some justification for this historically.

Thailand was the first of the ten ASEAN countries to get a small satellite into orbit in 1998 - the Thai+paht satellite done with Surrey University in the UK, and in 2008 Thailand was the first to have its own remote sensing satellite, but since then Thailand has started to slip badly as the satellite launched in 2008 has now exceeded its lifetime and due to the political disturbance a replacement program has not yet been agreed, even though this was studied in detail last year.

In the meantime the other ASEAN countries are forging ahead - Indonesia has a 10-year program and has launched its second satellite, Singapore and Malaysia both have remote sensing satellites under way and are looking to a continuous program and Vietnam has the most ambitious program of all, it has just launched one satellite made in Europe, has another one on order from Belgium, and will take two radar satellites from Japan together with the facilities to build the second satellite in Hanoi.

Thailand does have some possibilities, in Sri Racha it has a new space center with some major companies involved from Europe and North America (Including Airbus Industries, Thales, MDA and Swedish Space, and possibly soon some of the major US players), but as yet there is not sufficient funding to take advantage of this international goodwill to partner with Thailand.

Thailand is one of the most vocal proponents of regional space integration, and has tried many times to get multi-country projects going but this has usually failed due to the other countries all wanting to lead - or as in the case of the climate campaign with NASA two years ago, stupidity on the part pf the Thai politicians.

The fact that NASA even want to be seen again in Thailand after how they were treated last time is amazing

First mobile water data center with sat communications....Not

GISTDA, that Thai Space Agency, have four of these for the past 4 years, they are currently parked at Sri Racha.

I will post a picture of them tomorrow

First mobile water data center with sat communications....Not

GISTDA, that Thai Space Agency, have four of these for the past 4 years, they are currently parked at Sri Racha.

I will post a picture of them tomorrow

The Appeals Court reasoned that Suthep's campaign statements were facts that have been widely publicised.

The court also said that the EC had failed to prove that Suthep's statements were false.

If the above is true it is the first time I have seen in Thailand that a defamation case can be thrown out due to the facts being true.

I hope this is a precedent that sets the standard of proof being applied to all of defamation cases from now on, and in which case, would bode well for the Andy Hall activist case against Natural Fruit. if it can be proven that he was correct.

The Thailand space agency - GISTDA - actually has an in-house system that could help in these circumstances.

It is a maritime surveillance system that uses radar satellites and the transponder signals from large ships (called automated identification of shipping) to locate and identify every ship in a 1000Km radius - which takes it well into the south China sea and south of Singapore.

If you take away all the known signals than you can track all ships of a certain size even if they are "dark" and giving no signal.

The ship the pirates used in this case to steal the cargo would have been trackable by this system if it had been made operational.

The same system can also be used to track oil spills.

The reason this has not been used is that buying the data for such persistent monitoring is very expensive, and due to the in-fighting in Thai government ministries (and within GISTDA), and government owned entities like PTT - no-one is willing to contribute to the cost.

Hopefully with the new administration this changes.

Seems crazy doesn't it,  drought and flooding in the same sentence ?

Flooding and drought are just two sides of the same coin - that is why it is not flood management or drought management but water management.

I am glad to see that they are picking up on the idea of using the underground aquifers as a vast "water tank" storage.- hopefully based on the GISTDA scheme to pump water from the reservoirs int the aquifers during the rainy season and to pump it out in a managed way during the dry season.

75% of fresh water in the reservoirs is lost through precipitation, and so harvesting this natural resource, and protecting the aquifers from just being a source of water pumped out causing subsidence, is a good idea but needs some complex engineering and management.

It is hoped that this new plan will do away with the proposed forecasting and management system by Loxley/AGT at a cost of 4Bn, which, as far as I could tell from a limited review,their system was not adequate in terms of Meteo and GIS input data.

The reason this data was not used before was that the forestry department was not interested, but now with a new set of bosses they have suddenly become more keen.

This may be able to turn up more results than you may think. GISTDA has an archive of 6 years of data from its own optical satellite (yes, Thailand has a satellite), which has a resolution of 2 metres - good enough to show encroachment, and around 20 years of archive of US Landsat data at a lower resolution, and even some years of radar data that can show the difference between natural forest and plantations such as rubber. This is because GISTDA is now working closely with a lot of companies from outside Thailand with the analytics to detect this, even from the historical data, and so there may be some more "influential persons" in trouble.

I expect to see a lot more of these cooperations involving GISTDA coming through - agriculture, maritime and navigation to name a few

It is good to see that some more joined up government is now happening.

 

How about eliminating the immoral and regressive VAT tax on food first.  The level of greed among the rich and those who serve the rich in all countries is truly amazing. 

For those who want to bring morality into the argument, please first take an economics lesson. 

 

1) Minimum wage of 300B per day regardless of location had NEGATIVE BENEFIT for the poorest of the poor. The only way to improve the poor is to improve their productivity, commonly done with education. Learn a bit about inflation before you make moral arguments.

 

2) Tax policy. Again Economics 101. Price increases, demand decreases. How much decrease in demand per unit of increase is called "elasticity". Luxury goods by definition are highly elastic. When governments tax highly elastic products, the result is net negative benefit to the country. The government must tax lower elastic items such as energy and cigarettes in order to produce a net benefit for the country.

 

So all in all, the reduction of tax on luxury goods is a good thing for Thailand, sans moral judgement or not. 

 

Why give the business to other countries that you can retain in Thailand?

 

 

 

Your knowledge of basic economics is truly abysmal - the high fashion industry is one of the most inelastic - which is why they can stick a designer label on a shirt that costs $10 to make, and retail it for over $200, ask my very dear friend Paul Smith.

And this is where your argument totally falls down, the extra 30% tax is not an issue for inelastic goods - it s all relative to the retail costs - however making a country an attractive place to shop does work - take Dubai as an example - people do not shop there just for the duty free as the price in the malls is in many cases higher than you can get in other parts of the world tax paid, but it is the shopping experience that they go for. 

I have faith that the Thais can handle the Russian Mafia. My concern is more focused on China. Somehow I do not think the Thai historic ability to play one side off against another is going to fit so well with the traditional View of the Middle Kingdom.

You are forgetting that the largest investors in Thailand are from Japan, and the new great game is playing the Chinese off against the Japanese.

This not about Thailand warning the EU. It is about the shallow understanding of both the EU and US on Thailand domestic issues and their short sightedness on how well the Coup has quickly brought the situation under control and the excellent policies that the military continue to execute to stabalise the country and clean up years of mess.

Neither the EU or the US should be commenting - look at the mess in the Ukraine and the Middle-East. Hardly a track record to shout about. If they are not contributing something useful to help Thailand, then they should stop mouthing off - it is not helpful.

So it's the EU's shallow understanding and short sightedness. Not this, then;

It was therefore with extreme concern that the Council has followed recent developments in Thailand. It called on the military leadership to restore, as a matter of urgency, the legitimate democratic process and the Constitution, through credible and inclusive elections. The Council also called on all parties to exercise the utmost restraint. Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms must be upheld. Furthermore the Council urged military authorities to free all political detainees, to refrain from any further arrests for political reasons and to remove censorship.

The military leadership's recent announcement falls short of the credible roadmap for a return to constitutional rule which the situation requires. Fully functioning democratic institutions must be brought back to ensure the protection and welfare of all citizens.

Pretty much like this statement then

"Moreover, in our view, every person who has been detained must enjoy a status under international law and is entitled not to be detained arbitrarily and to receive due process and a fair trial. The Commission would also stress that no-one should be subject to incommunicado detention and that the International Committee of the Red Cross must always be allowed access to detained persons wherever they may be"

EU statement on Guantanamo Bay detentions - Brussels 31/05/06

On Monday, the EU decided to suspend mutual official visits after the military's power seizure in May, and said the exemptions would continue until Thailand has a democratically elected government in place.

Blackmail in it's purest form. Why doesn't the EU and the rest of the West make the same play until China has a democratically elected government ?

​Countries enforcing their democratic agenda onto others make me sick.

Just means no 'jollies' for the officials in question, bet they are the sick ones!

The EU is a joke. Full of bureaucrats, former politicians and non elected petty officials bloated with their own importance and usually do all they can to favor their own particular country. It's great for the poor countries in Europe as it provides an income stream from the wealthier ones.

Very noble of the EU to stand up for the Ukrainian faction that supports the EU throwing out an elected government that didn't; then refusing to accept a democratic decision by the people of Crimea (completely ignoring the history of the Crimea in the process) but fully prepared to condemn the people in Thailand who throw out a corrupt, lying, cheating, law breaking administration bent on tearing the country apart.

Bully Thailand but oh, Russia and China might fight back.

Next we'll get that twerp Hague lecturing again and showing his astounding lack of knowledge of reality.

Agree with everything you just said there,

One thing that Thailand may do is to make a level playing field for all countries, and that would mean scrapping the Treaty of Amity with the USA, which may well happen later this year if the Cobra Gold exercises are cancelled.

What the EU does not realise is that it is already losing out

When the last round of bidding was done no European companies were there, mostly Korean, and I expect no different after the military reviews them - new double guage railways and rolling stock - Siemens could be in for a surprise there.

I was a consultant for a large Thai high-tech procurement last year - >$100m - and there were expressions of interest from many places including Europe and the US. It could very well be that when the final bidding is announced these countries will not be invited, but Thailand would still get the choice of partners from China, Japan or Korea - building up those countries industries - so Thailand will not lose out.

And in other areas the US/European hold is being weakened, even in the areas such as GPS, invented by the Americans, the Europeans have invested over $5Bn, but in the next 2-3 years you will see all of Thailand's systems, and all new developments, using the Chinese BeiDou system with ground stations set up around Thailand to give accuracy to 5cm - something that would not be allowed with the other systems.

Just another way that Thailand is moving towards a more Asian future and away from the old alliances.

U can cut 90% of the theft and other crimes out by making Transvestites illegal in the city limits, Those are men and hey are disguised as women only for one reason and one reason only, CRIME......thats all....

Sounds an excellent idea, so why not include:

Blacks especially Nigerians

Irish

Dogs

Iranians / Arab types

Indians

Chinese

Etc etc

I have some friends who work at Tiffany - you could not meet nicer people. Transsexuals are part of many Asian cultures and are mainstream here in Thailand- just watch local TV. Please leave your discrimination at the airport.

Just because you have chosen to turn a blind eye to the truth, just like some other tv posters, who confirm that they have a passion for ladyboys, and therefore obviously do not want to see them go, does not mean amerasian, I and others have to do it too. On the contrary, I think it is important that as many people as possible speak up about this (to me) obvious problem. Hopefully one day it will reach the right ears, and someone will do something about it. People have been screaming about the Phuket Taxi mafia for decades, and now general Prayuth is finally doing something about it. With a little luck he will remove the jetski mafia and the ladyboys next.

You are of course welcome to leave anything you like at the airport. For starters I suggest you leave your vallet and your mobile there

Having had my wallet lifted on Sukhumvit in Bangkok by a ladyboy (but I got it back after putting them up against the wall), I would agree that the prevalence of pickpockets, particularly in tourist areas need sorting out, but I would not start calling all transvestites criminals as Amerasian does - some have respectable jobs - just go into many department stores or even the receptionists at Bangkok Pattaya hospital and see

He is just a bigot and needs to be sent packing

While we are on the subject - are you trying to be a racist with your monicker?

Bigots and racists need sorting.

I have searched the news but I cannot find out what these 28 mega projects are?

Does anyone know the list?

A lot of high ranking soldiers from the Junta reviewing large infrastructure plans and development projects I would presume these people have absolutely no idea what they are looking at and are completely unqualified to manage such high profile many billions of Baht projects, and are more used to shouting at soldiers to march and turn left and turn right.

Shouldn't be that difficult. Just juggle around the previous modules, re-set the time frame, call it differently and called them your own. No need to re-invent the wheel.

It may need a bit more juggling

I was doubtful on the capabilities of the information and forecasting system as this was not transparent as to how they were going to analyse the data, incorporate meteo data and flood hazard mapping etc. but it seemed to be a done deal as the company (Loxley) were closely connected to the government.

This may all change now and with the external agencies such as Met Bureau and GISTDA involved this 3.99Bn baht module may get re-assessed.

The delay in the time between the arrest warrant being files, and it being actioned, is probably due to the new crackdown.

The police last year possibly thought that this could end up being a case of "he said-they said" and difficult to prosecute or find evidence for, but the recent crackdown by the military, and a change at the top of the Pattaya police, has meant that all arrest warrants for serious offences now have to be actioned.

This does not presume any innocence or guilt for either parties, it will be up to the courts to decide, if they can actually find the accusers to testify - if they are still in the care of child welfare, and not either back in Cambodia or it on the streets with no known address.

It is possible to set up a persistent monitoring system using satellite data that could help in detecting such hijacks.

It involves training people on ship detection and using satellite imagery and tracing the larger ships by the transponder signals known as AIS (Automated Identification of Shipping).

Unfortunately the system to set up is quite expensive - around $2-4m minimum, and needs a lots of satellite data (which can be done by the space agency GISTDA), which also costs money, but it would also help with the detection of oil spills etc.

If the Thai military, oil companies and ministries can put up the funds then the system, covering Andaman, Gulf of Thailand and the western part of the south china sea, could be in operation in about 4 months.

I presume they are waiting for the new budget?

//corrected for typo///

AIS?(automatic identification system) Yes we do have a number of automated systems that track our movements. There are websites on the internet that any interested party can go to retrieve that data on any one they like. For its normal legal use this is for charterers and the like to see where there goods are. On the other hand of course, I presume it could be used for people with other intentions. The bureau in KL has been in operation for the best part of 25 years (?) although I am not sure what it has actually achieved. The only occurrence that seemed to stop the pirate attacks in the Malacca straits was the tsunami in 2004, it all seemed to go quiet after that. The only deterrent in the South China Sea I remember was about 20 odd years ago when a pirate boat attacked a Russian ship. However they must have been colour blind as apparently it was painted grey. The BBC reported at the time that all contact had been lost with the pirate boat. To answer another poster who asked how they could get the diesel out. I presume it was a very small coastal feeder and the diesel could have been cargo in which case its designed to be pumped out. So......switch the pumps on! I believe some ships do have weapons, I personally have never come across one in the last 40 years, save for a 12 gauge on one ship. I would not want to try to enter a number of ports around the world with any weapons on the ships manifest. Of course if you have weapons you have to be prepared to use them. Around the Horn of Africa some companies employ armed security guards. Strangely enough every one seems to be 'ex' special forces. They are heavily armed. The last lot that tried a sonic weapon found that it was not effective and jumped over the wall when the ship was boarded. Pirates - thieves, all the same

The systems you are talking about are not set up for satellite data and persistent monitoring, that is the difference.

There are some websites that show the AIS data (mandatory for all vessels over a certain size), but the data is not real time and does not give you any intelligent interpretation

To track vessels which go dark - i.e. have the transponder turned off or spoof the signal of another vessel is very complex, also tracking smaller vessels and performing vector analysis of potential trajectories takes a lot of data and analysis as there are up to 2-3000 vessels in the tracking area at any one time.

I did some work for the proposed Canadian system to monitor the atlantic and pacific coasts using three radar satellites equipped with AIS, with reporting within a 5-10 minute timeframe - it is possible to do the same thing here given the funding.

It is possible to set up a persistent monitoring system using satellite data that could help in detecting such hijacks.

It involves training people on ship detection and using satellite imagery and tracing the larger ships by the transponder signals known as AIS (Automated Identification of Shipping).

Unfortunately the system to set up is quite expensive - around $2-4m minimum, and needs a lots of satellite data (which can be done by the space agency GISTDA), which also costs money, but it would also help with the detection of oil spills etc.

If the Thai military, oil companies and ministries can put up the funds then the system, covering Andaman, Gulf of Thailand and the western part of the south china sea, could be in operation in about 4 months.

I presume they are waiting for the new budget?

//corrected for typo///

@Billsmart

It was the finance ministry about 5 days ago that estimated the losses at 500Bn and the missing rice at about 3m Tonnes.

These are estimates rather than rumours, but need to be investigated.

You are asking for proof positive, that is why they do the investigation to find out where the discrepancy comes from

Gp. Capt. Somsak however warned residents residing on hilly terrains in the provinces of Phayao, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Nan, and Phrae, saying the areas are more susceptible to flash floods after the tremors.

Really... earthquakes causing floods now?

​Sometimes I think these newspapers actually know exactly what they are saying, And then they have a good laugh when the paper comes out.

Seriously if someone collected Thailand's scientific news releases for a few months they would have quite a lot of funny stuff. Might be good for a book or comedy program on Discovery channel.

Earthquakes can cause landslides and temporary blockages and dams of waterways, especially in the more remote and hilly regions.

Monitoring aftershocks and weather patterns after this is particularly important as more heavy rainfall can cause the temporary dam "plug" to break causing flash floods.

There are various methods for monitoring the effects after an earthquake tio check for land deformation and the risk of flash flooding - radar inteferometry from satellites, topographic elevation modeling from aerial LIDAR survey of ground based GPS sensors that can detect small lateral land movements.

And as to you sarcasm about Thailand scientific knowledge, I am sure a comedy book about your inane drivel may be more entertaining

I knew a post like this would pop up. Ok, I am aware that in certain circumstances a landslide can cause a stream blockage, which could result in some kind of flood, if there was a lot of water involved and the dam broke suddenly. Or a large landslide could enter a reservoir and make a huge wave which could have bad results.

But guess what, that didn't happen and the earthquake was 24 days ago and they are not talking about that. They are saying that since the earthquake, the region is more susceptible to flooding, which is just dumb. There no flash floods coming from a month-ago earthquake.

Just google flash floods and Thailand.

You will see that these killed around 80 people in 2011

I suppose you will say that that also did not happen?

Earthquakes, erosion, landslides are all contributory factors.

I have documented evidence from satellite data showing exactly how the landslips occur causing dam plugs, and the consequences after.

You have only your half baked opinion.

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Gp. Capt. Somsak however warned residents residing on hilly terrains in the provinces of Phayao, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Nan, and Phrae, saying the areas are more susceptible to flash floods after the tremors.

Really... earthquakes causing floods now?

​Sometimes I think these newspapers actually know exactly what they are saying, And then they have a good laugh when the paper comes out.

Seriously if someone collected Thailand's scientific news releases for a few months they would have quite a lot of funny stuff. Might be good for a book or comedy program on Discovery channel.

Earthquakes can cause landslides and temporary blockages and dams of waterways, especially in the more remote and hilly regions.

Monitoring aftershocks and weather patterns after this is particularly important as more heavy rainfall can cause the temporary dam "plug" to break causing flash floods.

There are various methods for monitoring the effects after an earthquake tio check for land deformation and the risk of flash flooding - radar inteferometry from satellites, topographic elevation modeling from aerial LIDAR survey of ground based GPS sensors that can detect small lateral land movements.

And as to you sarcasm about Thailand scientific knowledge, I am sure a comedy book about your inane drivel may be more entertaining

Once the farmers are paid off, the program ends, right? I think a big push for the next government should be to figure out how to diversify crops, as well as improve yields and quantity of crops through technology and education. Handouts are nothing more than populist schemes, instead invest the money into real agricultural change.

The Thai space agency (GISTDA) and the ministry of agriculture are already doing some pilot programmes looking at mapping all the agricultural areas for crop diversification, crop quality, crop pest and disease control etc. using expertise and support from abroad

Some more extensive programs were intended but as these were being funded under government to government agreements they may now be put on hold

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