BKKBike09

Depends on the bank. For instance, UOB are hopeless compared to Kasikorn. Also all the banks are trying to push customers to use their mobile apps. So you get daft situations where you can send a transfer, no questions asked, via the app, but if you want to do this at a branch, they'll deluge you with 'must have this paper / must have that paper' nonsense. Introduction this year of the facial verification for online transactions over 50K THB may however add a wrinkle to the app transfer process. FWIW I tried to send THB 1 million to UK in Feb this year using the UOB app, because UOB told me the app didn't need all the paperwork ... the transfer then got blocked by them because they said source of funds wasn't clear and the amount was "too much" compared to my salary. I had a testy phone discussion with some stupid bank official who also insisted I had to show my work permit. I explained I have Thai ID, as their system shows, and asked her if she also had a work permit. I made the transfer request the day before I was flying to UK, so this was all taking place while I was at the airport here. Once I got on the plane I sent the money from UOB to Kasikorn, and then to UK via the Kasikorn app, all in 5 minutes with no questions asked. I also got an email from my bank in UK within another 5 mins to say funds had been received. UOB kept spouting 'it's not us, it's BOT rules' which is patently false, because Kasikorn operate under the same rules. It also cost me THB 8,000 more, thanks to the exchange rate change between the two days.

Ah, some good 'ol cherry picking of stats. I find the whole topic of Covid rather tedious these days, but it does amuse when folk cherry pick like this. I can do the same - here's a bit from the very same CDC study you've dug up: "Among adults aged ≥18 years without immunocompromising conditions, bivalent booster vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-19–associated hospitalization declined from 62% at 7–59 days postvaccination to 24% at 120–179 days compared with VE among unvaccinated adults. Among immunocompromised adults, lower bivalent booster VE was observed." So ... basically, for healthy adults, by 4 months post vaccination the average level of protection against hospitalisation is just 24% "better" than for someone unvaccinated of the same age. It's a meaningless figure anyway because it lumps together everyone above the age of 18. People under the age of 50 are, as every study shows, in any case at lower risk of serious outcomes. If a healthy 25 year old has a 1:5,000 or whatever risk of hospitalisation, a 24% increase to that risk is minimal. And if you're immunocompromised, according to this CDC study vaccine effectiveness is even worse! In order to maintain a reasonable level of protection it implies the need for a vaccination every few months. That's madness, especially when there is still no clear understanding of what long-term repeated Covid vaccinations may do to the immune system.

Given how readily the latest variants SPREAD, these vaccines don't seem to be doing a particularly good job on the 'ol reducing likelihood of contraction front.

Indeed. Just like the obsession with meaningless (or at least context-lite) headline-grabbing percentages: "Research finds that X leads to 150% increase in risk of Y", without making clear that risk of Y (cancer, burglary, being punched by a dwarf, whatever) to the 'average person' is 1 in a million.

For people in high risk groups, probably a good idea to get vaccinations. For everyone else, highly debatable, especially as long as the current 'vaccines' don't stop you either catching Covid or spreading it. Back to the OP: 800 odd deaths this year. Not very many. Of course every death is a tragedy and all that, but more than 10 times that will die this year of TB here in Thailand and I don't see anyone on AN taking much interest in that. And 15 times more will die on the roads. According to DDC Director-General Dr Tares Krassanairawiwong, Thailand is one of the top 30 countries globally with the highest number of active TB cases. Thailand records some 103,000 new TB cases annually, resulting in about 12,000 TB-related deaths. https://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news/detail/TCATG230912142257755 According to data revealed by ThaiRSC on Friday, road accidents claimed 14,737 lives and injured 924,799 in Thailand last year [2022]. Of them, 536 deaths and 7,885 injuries were foreigners. https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40023780

Interesting to compare with first 4 days from last year. I could only find 'Top 5' sales but quite interesting nonetheless. Toyota don't seem to have lost any sales volume, same with Honda.

It does make me chuckle to see vinyl now described in marketing literature as 'vegan leather'!

I don't think it's anything to do with "cost-effective production". The auto industry generally has fine-tuned production to be as cost-effective as possible. What this guy (who is the local Ford MD) means is either "Chinese EV manufacturers are prepared to accept lower profit margins than Western/Japanese manufacturers" or "Chinese EVs are willing to take losses to build market share".

The Chinese companies also have the advantage of tacit state support / access to cheap finance from Chinese lenders. And the disadvantage of also being subject to influence by CCP: dominance of the auto industry here (or anywhere else) is an economic and political goal, so the Chinese companies, willingly or not, will weather initial losses to build market share in a way that Western / Japanese companies would not. However, that said, EVs have a long way to go before they can erode the pick up and mass urban markets: there isn't the charging infrastructure in most (I'd say any) rabbit hutch condos. Also, loan delinquency in the auto sector is on the way up, so the 'average consumer' likely doesn't have the wherewithal to buy anything right now. Where the Japanese companies are going to suffer big time is in the urban affluent / management-level sector: people who can charge at home and would be buyers of SUVs or higher end saloons like Accord / Camry. Once there are decent EV van options, then Alphard / VW / Kia will lose share there. The government knee-jerk moves to keep electricity priced as low as possible is also helping the EV market. Interesting times.

Seems to me the Chinese EV companies are going full throttle to establish market dominance / build customer base as quickly as they can. I'd go so far as to say this is an unprecedented level of disruption in the Thai auto market. Good news for prospective buyers. Maybe not so good for existing owners who'll see their purchases undercut both on price and spec ... although I'd say that's inevitable anyway with EVs, thanks mainly to battery/charging technology advances. Is there a 'Moore's Law' equivalent for EV batteries?

Perhaps it's just me but all this stuff about the possible intricacies of charging seems a bit OTT. My view on EV charging is that it should be as quick and simple as possible / practicable. Ideally 'plug and forget' when using a home charger. I decided to get an EV (the Atto) in large part because the LFP battery chemistry is allegedly much safer and can be left to charge to 100% without any problems. Potentially adding a couple of % to SOC over 5 years vs faffing around with different chargers / charge methods doesn't hold any interest for me. I appreciate others may have a different perspective.

From the original reporting in September: Well-known MMA fighter Khusein Askhabov and his twin brother Khasan have been arrested in connection with three Kazakh nationals forcing their way into an Italian man’s villa at a resort in Cherng Talay and holding him bound and gagged while beating him for information in an hours-long ordeal that ended with the three men flying out of Phuket to Dubai after robbing the Italian man of more than B12 million in personal belongings. https://www.thephuketnews.com/russian-mma-fighter-khusein-twin-brother-arrested-for-kidnap-torture-extortion-in-phuket-89533.php It included this photo. Clever of the victim to tie himself up before making the 'false accusations'. Would seem there's a LOT more to this story than has been reported.

Did you name it 'Water Cat' or did the app do that itself? 'Water Cat' being the transposed literal translation of the Thai for 'seal' ('maew nam แมวนำ้) - it should really be 'Cat Water' but that's not something you want sprayed on anything electric. I'll get my coat ...

Since anyone without a legal permit is, by definition, prohibited from carrying a gun in public, I'm not sure how you can 'tighten' the laws to prohibit it. It's always been illegal for a licensed gun owner to carry a gun in public, unless the person has a carry permit. Licensed gun owners going to / from a range for practice or to take part in a competition understand that gun and any ammunition need to be secured in the boot (trunk) of your car, ideally in such a way that the gun can't be easily used (ie bolt taken out of a rifle; slide off semi-auto pistol etc). Even then, police can still make it a big problem if they feel like it. All comes down to interpretation of the Thai phrase used for 'carry' ('pok-pa').

I hope they inspected some of those garish Chinese-made 'massage devices' on sale at stalls all round that area to ensure that they don't electrocute the user.

They (geckos) do get everywhere ... lucky they don't eat plastic or rubber ...

BYD were offering an aftermarket aluminium cover for the battery pack but I'm not sure if it completely covers all of the stock plastic. In any case I don't worry about rodents nibbling my car: I have cats. A cheap and effective solution. Also, battery prices will continue to fall and it wouldn't surprise me if, in a couple of years, a battery costs half what it does now. It would be great with EVs if you could choose to swap out the battery in a couple of years and replace with one that charges faster and holds more power. Go from the Atto current 60 kwh pack that charges at 80+ kw to a 100 kwh pack that charges at 150+ kw.

Yes, but to be fair to them, do car designers really think about how to protect cars from attack by rodents? I'm not sure there's any way to do that anyway. Rats / mice will get in to any nook or cranny and they do like gnawing on cables and rubber insulation. However I'm surprised a rat or whatever was that interested in the hard plastic battery cover. Not making that cover from metal may be a safety thing, unless the metal is absolutely non-conductive.

Thanks for the post. Interesting. I am very surprised though that a replacement battery was needed if the only damage was that hole in the plastic cover. Here's a screen grab from the battery teardown vid I referenced: would be quite a lot of effort to get the battery out of the chassis but after that, I don't see why just changing the cover wasn't an option.

My EV hasn't caught fire yet that I've noticed, after wading through some substantial flooding last couple of days. On "how well sealed are EV batteries" I previously posted a vid of an EV-qualified engineer in Oz dismantling a battery from an Atto. He made this comment about the battery's water resistance: "There is a thick gasket all around the outside where the top plastic case bolts down onto the aluminium base and there are O rings around all the connections. The pack also had a couple screw vents on top that equalised pressure when I undid them so the pack is air tight"

1. Politics (rural electorate heavy users of diesel; powerful transport lobby) 2. Corruption

Let's get these two in the ring together. I know who I'm rooting for. "NSW Health's director of Communicable Diseases, Dr Christine Selvey, says modelling suggests a new wave of COVID will peak into December. Dr Selvey only went as far as recommending face masks in public if symptomatic." https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-03/covid-wave-incoming-case-figures-reporting-booster/103054678

You might want to re-think the gun in basket, particularly given the ongoing anti-gun clampdown. As you note, Thai laws are not always clear. If someone sees 'farang with a gun' the police will be all over it. Makes for good news. The recent Interior Ministry pronouncements say that all BB guns should be presented for registration with the RTP, although of course not all BB guns even have a serial number.

Not to be sniffed at, eh. Trouble is, people have free will and don't always do what they're told. Seems a bit of a stretch to blame 52 doctors for all these 'preventable' deaths. And since there are more than a million doctors in the US, sounds like most of them didn't go over to 'the dark side'. Maybe time to start blaming doctors for not getting more people to quit smoking, since these are all 'preventable' deaths. Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/diseases-and-death.html#:~:text=Cigarette smoking is responsible for,resulting from secondhand smoke exposure.

^ +1 - exactly All these people are also going to kick back, relax, and survive on air and sunshine: Half of the global population lives on less than US$6.85 per person per day https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/half-global-population-lives-less-us685-person-day