Mr Creosote

Interesting. However, it deals with tangible things like possessions / money / jewelry. What's not possible, is dealing effectively with is peoples' psyches - how they think. If they harbor desires to instate Sharia Law and/or lean towards being a terrorist, that's very hard to assuage if such die-hard Muslims want to be secretive. It's unlikely the first wave of migrants will stoop to devious deeds, but they're going to have lots of children. Children grow up to be teenagers. Some teenagers get reclusive, angry and/or sex-crazed. Bad things can happen - particularly if those teenagers think they have a justification to harm the apostates which they (the Muslim teenagers) think are keeping them down (casting aspersions, disrespecting, or any of a slew of denigrating things which paranoid people readily imagine).

Sorry to sound cynical, but there are going to be gobs of disaffected people in Europe in the coming decades. Some, with mental troubles - will feel compelled to lash out and cause major harm. We've already seen it manifest in Paris (twice in one year!). Expect lots more in the near future. Sexual exploitation will be another way it manifests.

You just hit the nail squarely on the head. Larger families, more insular groups of people in urban centres surrounding a Mosque, less work, more poverty, more anger.

I think it was Warren Buffet who said something like... Buy when everyone's fearful and when everyone's greedily buying, sell. It may well soon prove to be a time to buy.

Yep, stay in cash or near-cash. FX is also a play. The stock market is just too hairy at the moment IMHO with too many confusing indicators. Its getting hard to even value a company and it seems, there are very few bargains at the moment. Wait for the next bear and pick up the bargains.

Well, these fellas ARE on a mission from God to impregnate Europeans. However, not being experienced at approaching women in a civil manner (goats they can handle) their only known "moves" are to taunt, grab and fondle. Obviously they will need to work on improving their game if they are to be successful in God's task for them. For one thing, they need to ditch the track suits for some proper cloths and need to learn that showering with soap and water (on a regular basis) is much better than drowning out body odours with cheap cologne. Hope this helps.

Thailand’s Customs Department is preparing to make a 30% cut to import duties on luxury items in hopes of boosting tourist spending.

so I'm a tourist and when I come to Thailand, I am now going to buy luxury goods which even after the cut I could purchase in my own country much more cheaply and this is going to boost my spending as a tourist...

Gotta disagree with ol' ukrules (above), this makes no sense whatsoever... or at least the logic for the decision makes no sense...

That said, it'll make moving up to BMWs more affordable for all the locals around here with the orange kubota engine proudly displayed on the front of their current set of wheels...

THIS is the problem. Even at the Duty Free, the goods are still more expensive than online or at stores in Europe (as an example). Local people with means simply fly abroad and shop for these goods rather than buy at Paragon etc.

I sympathize. It is very annoying to run out of ice.

Best comment of 2016 so far. LOL

Good Idea at least its a start to stopping some of the carnage on Thailand roads.

Know what you're getting at but apparently the fatalities are up on last year.

Just a thought ... in 'bahn nok' where the locals probably know each other and the law feels pity on the drunk drivers that need their vehicles to go feed their livestock in the morning, do the figures that contribute to an impounding really involve the confiscation of a vehicle? Or is just like a role-play where the act is apparently the real thing but after the notification and logging of the event, a few thousand baht exchanges hands and it's back behind the wheel!

It's possible.

The road fatality statistic is a misleading statistic since every year, there are a lot more new cars & motorbikes coming onto the roads.

A 24% decline in two years mostly attributable to fleeing foreign investors. This does not help Thailand's economic recovery for 2016.

The good news is that investment in Vietnam and The Philippines is looking very attractive.

foreigners buying or selling Thai stocks have no impact whatsoever on the local economy.

I think what is meant is foreign "institutional" investors, not individual investors. Large funds for example.

To see how markets performed globally, this graphic is quite revealing. Looks like Argentina was the big winner in 2015

http://money.cnn.com/interactive/investing/best-performing-global-markets/

"...increase its load factor by 6 percent to almost 80 percent the coming year.."

More flights to rural China will be added then.

If they can't maintain a website proper;y why should people trust the planes to be?

Probably more cuts here, even though they clearly contracted with the lowest bidder to do the designs. Its the most horrible airline website I have used. Especially the Royal Orchid section. Useless.

The full story says it's a Glock 12. I've never heard of one but... Surely it's either a model 26 (subcompact 9mm) or its brother the model 27 (40 S&W). With so much 9mm (NATO) ammo floating around in LOS I'd guess perhaps its a model 26.

Cheers.

No, i think it's a hand gun

All the Glock models mentioned are handguns. I don't think Glock even makes any rifles or smg's. And, 9mm NATO is a pistol cartridge but it is also used in smg's (sub-machine guns.) Neversure was surely right this time.

yeah, very interesting but unlike some i don't get an erection thinking about hand guns.

I will go out on a limb here and do some profiling: They are probably <deleted>

Looks scary even without the gun. No wonder the moto guy did him in. Strange to hire a motorcycle to take a tour of the town with a holstered gun. Could have been an assasin hunting for his target.

A very stupid assassin.

End of the year. Seems raids are happening all across Pattaya. It will be interesting to see if these continue on into next year....

Most of the punters on Walking Street seem to be low budget Indian and Chinese tourists who, if they do wander into a bar, will drink one beer over the course of an hour. I suppose that the bar revenues are dropping and they cannot afford the annual increase in the BIB invoice. Just a thought.

Meanwhile the SET continues its steep decline as institutional capital flows out, foreign direct investment is drying up and looking for other shores, exports (the lifeblood of the economy) are not exactly booming. Tourism is but a small slice of the GNP pie. The bigger picture is much more alarming.

Do something about Visas,must be the biggest muddle headed system ever devised.

What's the problem with the visas? Please explain.

Hotel owners need to start investing in their properties, modernising them and hiring quality management & staff. The hotel building boom of the 80's and 90's by the elite has left a ton of run down properties only fit for Chinese tour groups and sexpats.

What people need to know is they are likely including some or all of the following which skew the results: 1) All air landings in Thailand. Bangkok has become an international hub for air traffic connecting flights and many travelers are on a short layover. 2) All cross border crossings. With Asean and increased trade between neighboring countries the number of crossings will certainly skew the results and could be laborers or daytraders.

I think only arrival cards are being considered. The numbers are traditionally very high for border crossers at the southern borders (Malays crossing over to trade and returning home in the evening). The last information I saw put Chinese at 60-70%.

And now...some lessons on queuing up and in how to walk down a sidewalk in single file as opposed to herd style. Next, how to use escalators and moving walkways by not blocking entrances and exits and keeping the left side free. Stage three, talking QUIETLY. Stage four, no spitting. Stage five, how not to be a locust at a buffet.

12k baht = 457 Canadian dollars.

Not cheap.

What a useful post.

Would you let us share your valuable knowledge and give an example for a cheaper oneway from Bangkok.

I'm just sayin' it's not cheap.

My mom is coming to visit me from Toronto which is a lot longer flight than anywhere in Europe.

Total cost including tax with China Eastern = 908 CAD (return)

Ya but..China Eastern.

lock them up for 10 yrs. Make an example of them

As evidenced by the rest of the dubious jumper cases, its likely not going to happen. Suicides don't have to be investigated and investigation is work.

"Ivan Todorov Ivanov". Sounds like a real Canadian name to me!!!

Probably from Quebec.

Probably a fake passport too

As for USA the data do not show the number of suicide made with guns. Wich is hudge. It's made for scared people. Just like in France and in Europe where we are supposed to be in a war with Islamic State. We are, all citizens, in danger, we are all possible target for terrorists. But the first decision European Commision is trying to take is to ban guns ownership from Europe. They don't want legal ownership of gun. They don't want honnest cityzens to have gun. They say that it is to fight terrorism! Bullshit. They are affraid of us , the people , not of the terrorists. It's the same all over the world. This campaign is made to help governments to disarm honest people.

And all the sheep don't understand this. They are so disgustingly ignorant.

I have heard this argument before that guns protect us from our governments. Is this really true? Can small arms really protect us from tanks and armoured vehicles? Air bombardment? Nuclear and chemical weapons? Basically the argument is silly because a loosely gathered bunch of civilians (militia) with small arms is simply no match for the heavy weaponry that a state can bring to the party. So, its a rather silly argument IMO.

Sources need to be checked on this report. I dont see anything (just a quick browse) on the NPR or IHME websites to corroborate this report. If anyone does, please post. IHME seems interested in heatlh related topics not gun related and there is no section I can see on gun deaths.

They stopped short on cracking down on the fare ripoffs though. Rent a car, its way cheaper.

It can happen anywhere, anytime in any country. The thing is, keep calm and carry on. Dont let all the hype be effective in scaring you. This is the whole purpose of "terrorism" in the first place. Dont buy into it.