BKKBike09

I think he buckled his trunnions driving over some of that cheese.

That would be a good system. I suspect that - as EVs become more and more popular - the resale value of mass market used vehicles will drop like a stone. Being an EV owner (a BYD Atto) I hope I'm wrong, of course, but seems to me that battery/charging technology is developing so fast that - as with phones and computers - the base price may not change much but the spec will change hugely. Atto cost me THB 1.2 million for a 60kw/h battery that gives around 400 km real world range and can charge at just under 90 kwh. If I want to sell when it's three years old, I'd say a guesstimate for market value of a 1.2 million ICE at that point would be around 7-800K. Question will be if I ask that for my EV, what will be a prospective buyer's options in terms of a new EV market for that sort of price - probably quite a few cars with bigger batteries, more range and faster charging. We shall see.

Did you copy that Puntid? I'm hoping she'll include this quote from the valiant Captain, who conclusively battled to wrangle the dramatic plane to a thrilling landing: "Because I was inverted".

Especially after being in a hold over Dhaka for an hour ... and then also looking like they briefly thought about Chittagong before diverting to BKK. They declared the emergency as soon as they crossed into Thai airspace. Almost looks like they may have been originally looking to divert in DMK but then went for SVB. Would be interesting to know the full story - especially why they didn't divert to Kolkata which I think has ILS Cat IIIA/B not quite 'land in the blind' but pretty close).

UpBit had my vote until I told them I needed to change my nationality to Thai from foreign (I opened account before I got Thai nationality) ... not possible. Have to either re-verify with original foreign passport, or close account completely and start from scratch. I'm doing the latter. The re-verification process is a PITA. I haven't "requested an identity update" - that's all on them forcing it on long-standing customers who've already been through all their KYC and have local bank account linked etc. Thank you for choosing Upbit Thailand. Since you have requested an identity update via the Upbit system, we would like to inform you about documents required in the re-verification process that should be prepared before you confirm your account demotion. To do re-verification, we need to demote your account which means you have to upload all additional documents in the system referring to these criteria below: Criteria no. 1: Non-Thai Nationality Residing in Thailand (2 Documents) Please send one of the following documents : Household registration (Yellow house book -- Thor.Ror. 13) with a 13-digit identification number Work permit issued by the Thai government Non-Immigrant visa or Smart Visa And one of the following documents : ID issued by the governmental authority of the customer's country e.g. an identification card, a driving license ID via SWIFT authentication or notarized ID Employment certification together with the ID card or a company affidavit of the employer (for those who work in Thailand) Resident permit in Thailand Educational certificate issued by an education institution in Thailand

Actually I don't think said poster is consumed by fear and panic, but rather by an evangelistic zeal to 'spread the word' and, through (in his eyes) calm reason and a bucketful of stats, show the misguided majority just how foolish they (we) are. He made me chuckle the other day when one of the interminable posts included some guff about the introduction of 20 mph speed limits in Wales and how this wasn't working very well. Apparently certain personality types were questioning the 'obvious benefits' of the reduction because these people are obviously selfish and mis-guided - just like some people and how they regard Covid 'protections'!

The possibility of passing on infection to others, and those who are simply nervous of getting infected...... Those who are simply nervous of getting infected should take agency for their own protection, then, especially as they are now very much in the minority.

This should be pinned at the top of every covid thread so that the mask and needle brigade can be kept in check and brought back to reality. All too often they outsource any critical thinking to "fact checkers" with a political agenda. My agenda is very simple: autonomy. You can add to that this gem from the CDC. Don't get me wrong - I find the whole topic of Covid rather tedious these days, but it does amuse when folk cherry pick data. The chart and stat doom merchant cited bits from this very same CDC study that implied vaccination was very effective in 'protecting' etc. I found the reality to be quite astonishing: "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." https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7221a3.htm 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. It's astonishing how quickly people can normalise behaviours they would have laughed at previously. Of course in Thailand peer pressure and fear of being seen as 'not a good person' plays a big part in the continued masking.

Add considerate, 'Considerate' of what, exactly?

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 ...