Local Drunk

"There have been accusations that government officials, police and Navy officers are involved in the lucrative trade in humans fleeing poverty and persecution."

​Yeah you've got to wonder how they can sail down the Thai coast... off load hundreds of people and then hike them up a mountain with out anyone seeing a thing.

With only 11.63g from 29 bags, it sounds like they are right at the bottom of the supply pyramid, and splitting the contents to make some bags to sell to subsidise their own use. A 500 baht bag is typically not enough for even a light user, and people don't usual stay as only a light user for long.

(It's a sad story from previous times that I even know anything at all about this).

Under half an ounce...

I'm sure it's just one of many trafficking camps in that area with mass graves... Probably a drop in the bucket.

"High-rise buildings built after 2007 in Bangkok can withstand shaking from earthquake of 6.3 magnitude, according to the Building Control Division of the Department of Public Works of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration."

Nonsense. Thai engineers wouldn't have a clue about soil liquefaction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_liquefaction

I'm certain the soil underneath the buildings in Bangkok was never strengthened to avoid this earthquake phenomenon.

They never hit bedrock here... but if the piles are deep enough the building should stand. (but it won't feel like a gentle sway at 50+ floors up) It's the thousands and thousands of other buildings and bridges that are going to kill everyone.

Obviously, you never lived in California. If you read the linked article, the building may stand, but will no longer be safe. The shifting sand under the building causes damage that is difficult to detect.

I was born and raised in California. The last big quake quake that I experienced was the Northridge which was about 6.9. I lived in Santa Monica at the time in and living one level house that was built in the 30's on Pico and 29th Street. It's plaster and lathe construction kept it all tied together, but I was maybe 35 miles from epicenter and everything came off the walls and the house was tossed up and down like a basket ball at a Lakers's game. You're the one who doesn't know what they are talking about. You're not an engineer or a builder.. you know nothing.

BANGKOK: -- Among the Army's weapons confiscated by red-shirt protesters in April 2010, only one M-16 rifle has been returned to the military, the rest are still missing, Army spokesman Sansern Kaewkam-nerd said in testimony yesterday.

The missing weapons included 25 Tavor rifles, four M-16 rifles and 39 shotguns, he said in testimony before the House of Representative's sub-committee on political development and mass communication.

The weapons belonging to the Army were confiscated by red protesters during the bloody protest in April 2010. They were displayed on the red-shirts' stage at Rajdamnern Avenue on the day, he said.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/589905-military-arms-seized-by-red-shirt-protesters-missing/

None of these fire .308/.338 rounds ?

The Criminal Court Thursday announced the result of inquest into the killing of Reuters cameraman Hiro Muramoto, saying he was killed by a high-velocity bullet with unknown type and size.

Where did they say it was that type of round?

It doesn't ? that's what I'm getting at as mentioned in my prior posts high velocity doesn't tell what weapon it came from, it leaves it very open to interpretation as both sides had and used high velocity weapons.

The autopsy should have been able to gauge the calibre of the round, depending on the entry wound sized, and the various parts left behind as the round hit bone and tissue on the way through.

If they had pinpointed a calibre such as .308/.338 then only one side used these, so there wouldn't have been any doubt as to who fired the fatal rounds, but leaving it at "high velocity" neither implicates either side. ?

Why do I keep bringing up the .308/.338 issue you might add, well there are reports/claims of protestors having Been shot in the head by army marksmen/snipers and they use .308/.338 chambered weapons. As well as 5.56mm ?

Claims are not the same as evidence. .308/338 rounds are not the the exclusive territory of the Thai military any more than the RPGs that hit the BTS at Si Lom.

Well hopefully an earthquake thats high on the richter scale hits bangkok soon so we can see if its true.

I really can't respond to the stupidity of your post with out being banned for life.

I would have thought that to establish the direction from where the bullets were fired from is a fairly basic exercise in forensics today>??

Did they not recover the bullets? If so then this was a very high velocity bullet, possibly a solid nose, and usually the type fired by the army.

Despite witnesses hearing the direction of the firing and the very unlikely scenario of the protesters murdering their own.....this whole thing stinks.

Are we at all surprised?? Did anyone seriously beleive that a Thai court with Thai "Judges" would want to get to the truth and point the finger at the army??

Not entirely true, using sounds to gauge where the fatal shit came from, but witness statements of where he was standing and the direction he was facing and then doing basic line of sight appreciation would give you decent idea of the firers position.

Alm they are saying as well is that it was a "high velocity" that doesn't really help as it could be any calibre between .22 and 7.62 and even larger up to .50 inch. I'm pretty sure an autopsy is quite thorough enough to be able to determine the calibre these days too.

Should it have revealed that the cause of death was a .308/.338 that kind of narrows the weapons down.....considerably and really only points to one source.

The sad part here is the family are still none the closer to finding out the truth in his death and the finger pointing will continue, even more so here!!

Yes. Sound do bounce and can give a totally false sense of direction.

However it dependes on where the witnesses were standing. Were they 10m or 500m away. Big difference. For such a round to cause such massive damage the gun report would have been very loud indeed. If you were within, say 100-200m, I am sure you could tell if it came from one side or the other. The witnesses were very conveniently ignored.

Were there not any forensic checking of bullet marks on the ground or other objects nearby by these unfortunate victims? The bullets passed through their bodies (?). This would establish the direction with 100% certainty.

Yes....devestating for the families to have their loved ones murdered and no justice prevails....nor will it ever in Thailand.

Wrong! There is justice here, but don't confuse it with justice in the west. If fact, forget everything you ever learned in the the west when your plane lands here because you're not in the west anymore. It's more profitable to unlearn here.

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800,000 is a lot of money... I wonder what collateral she was offering when she got the loan, and how she got a kid to do the deed when she couldn't repay it?

Currently Thailand is controlled by the military.

"It cannot be said who the shooters were or which direction the bullets came from," the judge said.

Funny how these two sentences seem to be a natural ordering....

Not at all are they in any order. If the police that investigated the crime couldn't determine, the shooter, how could the courts? You seem to be able to do it with ease. Why haven't you presented your evidence to the courts? Please share with them your first hand knowledge of that night so that this case can be laid to rest.Why have you taken so long to do it?

Let's not forget the red shirts were well armed. Plenty of evidence out there that supports this. It was mayhem at this time. Without very good forensic investigators (which Thailand really does not have), it's impossible to prove exactly what happened.

A very sad day for the family of the reporter, but he put himself into that position. Many "war" reporters are killed every year. They know what they are getting themselves into:

1123 Journalists Killed since 1992

https://cpj.org/killed/

He put himself in that position? Oh well that's alright then, as that means those protesters Deaths last year should be viewed in a similar manner? If they hadn't been there they wouldn't have been killed? Is that really what you're saying?

That's one reason we didn't go to the protest sites. Just too dangerous. Not trying to be crude. But these protest sites have a history of being very dangerous.

Nothing crude about your response, it's spot on, they did know the risks, as did the reporter, and despite the attacks continuing, the protestors remained, they were asked any times to stop, and clear the streets, they didn't they seen it as an acceptable risk being there. Bluntly speaking why should people be compensated why they were fully aware of the inherent risk involved ?

If you knew there was a great white shark swimming around your area, would you still go swimming ?

What we see here in Thaialnd is people passionate about their cause and believe the cause is greater than their safety, regardless of their politics.

I wouldn't quite say that Thais are so passionate about their cause as I would tend to say that to be are is subordinate. They tend do what they are told for whomever pays them, or the big man. I don't think it's a cover up at all. I simply think that the Judiciary couldn't make heads or tails from the evidence. It would be simplistic to say, "shoddy police work" or point a finger here or there according to anyone's particular political bias regarding this matter. If you were to ask me for example for my opinion... We'll never know.

Ahh... The Premier of the Palace of Pixelated Privates, Pusillanimous Pretensions and Prohibited Productions...

"High-rise buildings built after 2007 in Bangkok can withstand shaking from earthquake of 6.3 magnitude, according to the Building Control Division of the Department of Public Works of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration."

Nonsense. Thai engineers wouldn't have a clue about soil liquefaction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_liquefaction

I'm certain the soil underneath the buildings in Bangkok was never strengthened to avoid this earthquake phenomenon.

They never hit bedrock here... but if the piles are deep enough the building should stand. (but it won't feel like a gentle sway at 50+ floors up) It's the thousands and thousands of other buildings and bridges that are going to kill everyone.

The source below details the amount per type of damage. There is no average 1 million compensation/head, it depends of the type of damage. Due to the high number of deads, it probably represents most of the expenses.

http://www.nationmul...s-30182791.html

Types of compensation

Killed at the scene: Bt7.75 million

Succumbed to injuries: Bt7.95 million

Disabled: Bt7.9 million

Loss of important organ: Bt4 million

Loss of unimportant organ: Bt1.95 million

Serious injury: Bt1.175 million

Not serious injury: Bt695,000

Slight injury: Bt235,000

Thanks for the numbers, it put's things into a better perspective.

It's over a million baht per victim... to most likely those families that supported a particular political cause to put it coldly.

12 months schooling in australia queensland for an overseas student is 12500aud,that doesnt include uniforms and other tools like laptops and writing materials,grade 12 high school

This happens every year on the approach to the new school term.

Parents pawn their valuables then pay weekly/monthly interest until they can afford to buy back their valuables.

The families may be poor but most of the kids are dressed immaculately for school (for the first few weeks anyway).

Don't get me started... I can't tell you how many times I've been into classrooms of 50 students or better and they had no books or paper to take notes on. What's even worse are the so called high so schools that have conversational English classes with sixty students in the class.

Why do parents have to buy textbooks? The Thai government spends unspeakable fortunes on education every year and parents have to buy the textbooks? Yes it worked that way when I was in university.. BUT NOT IN BLOODY GRADE SCHOOL!

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Pure insanity. The loggers come across with AK-47s into the border zone to steal rosewood for unofficial and illegal trade that is sanctioned, even organized by the Cambodian government under a front company run by a man called Try Pheap. Releasing them back to Cambodia only means they will come back energized to steal more timber. These people don't use passports after all so deportation means nothing to them.

I would have thought they would have brought chain saws in lieu of AK 47's. Oh well, I guess they know more about logging than I do.

They bring both when hunting elephants.

Phnom Penh Post point of view

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/820512-homecoming-thai-prisons-release-55-loggers/

I totally believe that view. I just came from a month in Cambodia birding.

Take a lone trip and stay in that area for a few weeks. Travel around to the villages and just look around.

While birding there alone. I was treated very good by the local tribes people. Who helped me get my truck out of ruts many times.

The only time I felt threatened there was by the loggers.

They sent there guys to make sure I was not taking pics of the illegal logging. Which I wasn't. But, if I were. I can tell you now. I would of been disposed of promptly IMO.

Here is a blog on the birding in that area. I left out the bad parts. The birding and people there are really great.

The loggers? They keep the tourists away. It is pretty bad situation.

http://www.birdsthatfart.com/1/post/2015/03/birding-northern-cambodia.html

Terrible situation.

Wow some great shots! Please throw in the rest of your shots on your site as soon as possible! I've never seen these birds before... I've booked marked it.

Hard to believe those birds are just a very few miles from the Thail border. They all used to be see in Thailand. But Thailand has deforested the lowlands almost totally. And the habitat is lost in Thailand.

Actually I don't know for sure? But, I bet Cambodia is no worse than Thailand was 50 or so years ago. Sad state for sure.

My flickr site has a few more birds from that area. http://www.flickr.com/photos/avianphotos

Starting from this shot: https://www.flickr.com/photos/avianphotos/16623184968/ there are fourteen pics from that area mostly.

Cheers,

Thanks so much for the links. During the last month or so I've seen a pair of Java Sparrows near my house, ( I don't know the scientific for them) which are the first I've seen in Bkk, near Don Muaeng. I did get a shot but I didn't have the focal length to get the details. I believe they are listed as threatened. Your shots are fantastic!

I guess nobody's here has ever seen a wood chipper before. There's no pushing involved. Just feed in the tip and the rest gets sucked in. Likely the same happened here. Hand gets caught and I just pulled his body in. And no its not instantaneous death.. Its inch by inch in you go.

Words cant describe how bad a way to go it would be.

I wonder if the owner will go to court for not having a barrier/guard in place?

I wonder if he was wearing an apron? Sad way to go.

To all you people complaining about the photo - go home if you want everything to be perfect in a developing country.

Well how about a picture of the monk? He's never had his photo taken? Can't dig one up? Someone has one... Get one! It's what journalist do!

Is this him? I can't confirm it. I got it off a website. They say it's him but I don't know if it's it's him.

http://www.chiangraitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PDMAA_2.jpg

http://www.chiangraitimes.com/thai-monk-and-former-abbot-facing-arrest-for-sexually-molesting-seven-novices.html

Their names and ranks are missing in the article.

See 5th sentence of the OP.

Thank you. I think I responded to the other article a bit further down the page.