BKKBike09

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

They have a strategy? Aren't these the guys who were going to install PM2.5 filtering AC in all BMA schools but then said it was too expensive. Perhaps the 'strategy' could to emit a lot of hot air from committees and discussion groups and hope that it carries all the PM2.5 into the upper atmosphere.

Buying land is a gamble because it will be in the partner's name and can be mortgaged.

I have to confess I've never even thought about folding them manually. However - just for you! - I can confirm that they do fold manually just fine. Need to push with firm pressure; there's a fair amount of resistance and then it suddenly folds smoothly. In a highly-scientific comparison with my Scirocco, I can add that the Atto mirrors require much more effort to fold. However my Scirocco doesn't have power folding mirrors, so maybe that's not surprising (that they're easier to fold). Happy folding.

For the Atto 3, yes. Everything off. The 'safety' features are (to me) not needed. The Autonomous Emergency Braking is downright dangerous. Predictive Collision Warning - pointless. Lane Keeping - maybe helpful if dog tired and on a long drive but otherwise useless. At least since the last OTA update you can permanently disable all this stuff, not have to switch it off everytime you start the car. Then there's the 'Adaptive' Cruise Control. I think the Atto cruise control is among the worst systems I've ever tried to use. Particularly frustrating is that it only allows for speed settings to change by minimum +/- 5 kmh, not 1 kmh. Apart from this stuff, it's a great car. Even the Batman Atlas tyres aren't as bad as some people claim. Speaking after 9 months of Atto ownership.

Please. Covid is the same as bubonic plague? The latter (not viral) killed roughly 1 in 3, irrespective of age. The former killed what % in age groups under-50? Or over-50, for that matter.

This guy is a bell-end. Seen him riding like a tw@t for years now. Usually wears a wife beater and shorts. I look forward to him nursing some full body road rash.

According to the news source that cannot be named: The navy came up with two proposals. One is to buy a frigate that can fight against submarines, and the other is to purchase an offshore patrol vessel.

Yep. They could allocate the budget for local-build (Bangkok Dock) of a couple more OPV, which ran around THB 5-6 billion each. They're so desperate to support the local economy it seems stupid to give the money to an overseas builder, full stop. Without knowing the mission requirements it's difficult to say why they want a frigate: a war-fighting vessel as opposed to something optimised for maritime patrol / interdiction. If they do buy a frigate I suspect it will probably end up running the same mission profiles as the OPV anyway.

If you're in the NW of Spain, possibly think twice before telling people you have a bad case of the Covid Pirola variant.

From the linked article: “The truck driver had no insurance, but he’s taking responsibility. The total damage is over 300,000 baht.” 300K + for that low speed drop! Crazy.

Although if you're trying to get from A to B very quickly on busy roads, while also working a radio and other kit, automatic is quite handy.