seminomadic

11 hours ago, NotYourBusiness said:

Anyone wanting to get an education on minimum wage should watch this video. Peter fields ALL the normal and reasonable questions presented (morals, poverty, supporting a family, etc.) by the host with some very common sense answers. Of course, once a socialist, always a socialist, so I don't think this will change anyone's mind. But very hard to argue with logic he presents.

 

We must realize that raising the minimum wage does NOT guarantee prosperity for everyone. If it did then we could just raise the minimum wage to ONE MILLION baht per day and everyone would be rich! What it DOES guarantee is that jobs worth less than the minimum wage will GO UNDONE. And that hurts the very people the minimum wage is intended to help. Outstanding conservative and free market commentary on the subject:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6LtyFTEdis

Bravo with the link. "Once a socialist, always a socialist." Correct. Let me add: virtue signalers gon' virtue signal.

[Game show setting with ombudsman as host]

[Ombudsman Raksakecha turns slightly, looking up] Judges?

pause

[Raksakecha, after a short buzzer sound] Sorry, Reuangkrai! that's not going to work!

And so on to the final round of LET'S PLAY DEMOCRACY!!

(NB: We all know who the judges are)

Numbers 2 and 3 are a LOCK.

On 4/4/2019 at 9:36 AM, Odysseus123 said:

The election was a sham designed solely by and for the Thai Elite in order to present a face to the outside world rather than just admitting that they have joined the ranks of their neighbouring failed states-Myanmar,Laos,Cambodia and..Wonderland.

Ladies and "gentlemen," I present to you the unvarnished truth. Read the above aloud. Read it aloud while looking in the mirror. Do that 13 more times.

Acceptance is the first step.

Stoicism is your friend.

Btw... wth is wonderland? VN? Malaysia? Jeez.

Yes, to the NACC. That'll do it.

18 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

What you don't seem to be able to grasp is the fact that the political scene is changing, and changing quickly, the junta will do all in their power to stay in control, and if that means drumming up false, ludicrous & downright dirty tricks (shares and the fake tape, for example) they are now using their EC puppets to discredit members of the newly formed coalition so that they (the junta) remain in power.

 

The electorate will not stand for this interfering and it could well end very badly for the junta - I remain hopeful of that. But you are so in love with Prayut and the watchman Prawit that you are either too blind or stupid to see it, it may well be that, to use your rather poor choice of words it is you that may have to.........Leave.

 

 

You are delusional. You are delusional because you clearly hold this naive notion that things will change. You scupper your own credibility saying that Steven100 should leave, when he's resigned to Thailand *as it is*, and commenting as he sees fit on the editorial, which is in one sense truly smoke an mirrors ('let's signal that we hate this state of affairs') It's YOU who should leave if you can't accept that there are two political entities in Thailand - those who want things to stay the way they are, and those who want change - either incremental or otherwise. The former has an overwhelming and immutable advantage. That isn't something I say with delight. It's just the way things are.

If you didn't pay attention that the latter had a nice run about 15 years ago, and put in place more policies that are still benefitting Thais to this day than any previous administration ever had, but was finally ousted for 'corruption' then you're not exactly a quick study. Thai history has proven that change, no matter how good, is unwelcome unless that change is bestowed upon the masses by the largess of the former.

Grow up, learn to love Thailand as it is, faults and all, or go suck your thumb and hug your pink bear muttering "duh ewectowate wiw not stand fow dis!" ad nauseum to yourself.

All this development around SEA is Chinese-funded. The more Chinese growth slows, the cleaner the air will get.

Peerasit has done his research, and it's a great analysis, but s/he sure as sh!t hasn't spent any time working in a university

1) You're a middle class kid asking Santa for 5 Maseratis if you think you can get "quality scientific research [as] the major focus...along with [better] teaching." You don't get that. At this stage in Thailand's development, you just . don't . get . to . have . that....

Thailand needs to choose:

sacrifice the quality of the kids' education for the sake of just getting on the board with research development profile in Asian universities **in MAYBE a generation from now**

OR

give the kids the kind of education that isn't archaic, isn't holding them back, leaves them with some desire for further/lifelong learning (acknowledge this is an issue with tertiary ed globally), and doesn't simply fossilize their mostly docile nature into adulthood, and allows them to possibly "provide commensurate social, economic, political and scientific benefits to Thailand" as a result of said improved education and analyic thinking

You have to PICK ONE of these.

2) If you're oriented toward the "primary criterion" of research output, you're always going to be playing catch-up. The system is going to get more and more bent with who can boast the most 'research citations' and the flim-flammery that has been exploding in the last decade or so. You can pay people to 'like' your posts on social media and youtube to falsely increase your profile. It's coming with citations if it isn't already here. Playing this game of points for research to increase the perceived value of your university is wrong as it sacrifices the kids. Professors go jetsetting all over, presenting papers and it's not uncommon for them to be doing by cancelling classes - "the university's paying for me to go present my paper in Japan! Free trip! I get an audience! Just gotta cancel 3 days of class is all. No biggie." When you iterate that hundreds/thousands times over, that's a BIG cut into the students' time that they're supposed to be taught. Again, this is a global issue and I'm repeating what I said in the 1st point about sacrificing the quality of kids' education to be in some outfit's ostensible research ranking system...

but it needs to be said again, and again, and again. Thailand COULD take the lead in terms of increasing the quality of education by focusing on the professional development of teachers, really taking notes from other more developed countries' playbooks, but that's me asking my wife for a maserati for my bd.

Best pizza in Asia.

Stinks for him..

[rimshot, crash]

Finally, a hub for Thailand within realistic reach, if it already isn't so.

9 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

I haven't seen any tweets or claims by the UK government that the British teams are the best and have rescued all the boys.

 

They will probably say thanks to ALL the teams when it is over and everybody is out and safe. They won't make the claim that the Brits did it all with some help from the Thais.

Maybe Ms. May doesn't like to tweet? The US prez does. Get over it.

Wow, I wonder who'll win this argument.

5 minutes ago, PunkRockerGuy said:

Fortunately, I am a well-known foreign lawyer in Thailand and have worked for previous PrimeMinisters.  I have many Thai friends who are top lawyers or government lawyers.  

 

I did most of the prep work myself but had to hire a Thai lawyer for the court appearance.  I paid about 15,000 baht to 2 of my Thai lawyer friends.  I was told the normal fee would have been closer to 30K-40K.  I didn't worry about the money, as I had a point to prove.  However, I understand some or most people would not take it upon themselves as a "world citizen" to try and change Thai legal proceedings.  It was my choice to pursue the ticket after watching numerous time erroneous speed indicators on the highway.  

Thanks for answering and thanks for sharing this. By far the most useful point made on this thread... Your investment could well mean an instrument for shaping things up over here what with the imminent sprawl of the automated traffic-violation-fine-issuance-matrix, and for that, you should be thanked as well!

5 hours ago, quadperfect said:

Honda has already developed the pcx to be self driving. It come out this year.

Self driving meaning it wont fall over at speed and a few other tricks but of coarse it probobly wont change lanes on its own or stop before impact.

But still great for 5 year olds and the elderly and smart phone junkies

You can bet, in light of what I just posted above, it won't be long before there's something like self-driving PCX's modified with little disco platforms and rigged lights seen on Thailand's roads. 

It is vexing to watch a video like this, but it's in large part explained by the risk compensation theory: the safer you make a machine or process, the more people will find creatively self-destructive means of pushing risk with it.

23 minutes ago, PunkRockerGuy said:

I won, both times.  It was difficult and the Judge first refused to allow camera calibration dates, but in the end, the tickets and fine were dismissed.  I am trying to set a precedent against poorly calibrated and inaccurate speed cameras in Thailand.  

Well done, PRG. Now this next question will sound smarmy but is not meant that way: How much did you have to pay the lawyer, soup to nuts, in service of the cause? And how did you decide upon the lawyers you did?

Mom needs to up her laundry game a little.

2 hours ago, neeray said:

"After his meeting with Chairman Kim, PresidentTrump remarked that Pyongyang no longer posed a nuclear threat."

This remains to be seen as the honeymoon between the two BFs could end fairly soon. Or it could not.

But given the fickle, unreliable, historical double dealing record of both with their big egos and short fuses, either one could quickly decide to gather up their toys and retreat to home (square one). Both will blame the other for infidelity but Chairman Kim will show that he best understands "the art of the deal".

Lighten up, hater.

DENG XIAOPENG LIVES!... DENG XIAOPENG IS ALIIVE AND WELL, PROOF OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CRYOGENICS.... IF A LITTLE SLEEPY.

Any political party worth its mettle will flat out refuse any meeting. What, they have to explain themselves to him?

4 minutes ago, kannot said:

yet I dont go round shooting people

How do we know that?

But honestly, it doesn't have to be circus music playing.

I really wonder if the fact that our host culture is NOT a reading culture flat-out precludes the possibility of real progress in education/knowledge dev/learning, whether in test scores or analytical/problem-solving skills..

and whether the simple fact that your average Thai residence has an average of maybe 1 book in it doesn't render all education reform, top-down or grassroots,  shuffling deck chairs around on the Titanic.