Damrongsak

If you are interested, there is a book. I know a couple names, though I was a peon. Good read about how boots on the ground can work around government ineptitude. There were some really dedicated people. Refugee Workers in the Indochina Exodus, 1975-1982 by Larry Clinton Thompson

I wonder if they'll have another "Yamaha Championship". I saw a video of a racewhich looked like a bunch of 150cc bikes ( like Exciters) battling it out and it was fun to watch and occasionally funny. It was sort of a hybrid of road racing and riding in traffic, LOL. This looks like it may be slightly bigger bikes at Bira:

OK, someone post pictures of the biker babes.

Taksin should build a new prison and donate it to the government. He could have a fancy penthouse suite for himself which would be for use by prison staff after he is released.

My Dad used to have an ice crusher with a crank handle if he wanted a lot of small ice. Usually he'd just whack a large rectangular cube with the back of a tablespoon.

How about working with the sugar cane buyers/processors to deduct a portion of the price paid as a penalty. Call it a pollution tax or whatever.

Lighten up. I had to look up that expression, which we didn't have 50 years ago when I smoked weed.

If you can get an insecticide containing dichlorvos (AKA: DDVP, Vapona) it should kill them pretty quickly. It's a contact/stomach/fumigant poison. I used a pest strip containing DDVP to kill wasps that were inside under my roof. I cut a piece of the impregnated strip and stuck it where they were crawling in. They were flying and dying within a few minutes and all dead the next day. It has a fumigant action that lasts quite awhile. (It's used in animal flea collars.) Here is something similar containing DDVP. (They should not be used in an enclosed living space unless you vacate for awhile and then air the place out well afterwards. Good for a shed or in the rafters of an open garage) https://www.lazada.co.th/products/garbage-guard-pest-strip-model-t800-terro-insect-killer-i3175818641-s11884370311.html?clickTrackInfo=query%3Apest%2Bstrip%2Binsecticide%3Bnid%3A3175818641%3Bsrc%3ALazadaMainSrp%3Brn%3A448b24de66fac0e3497523cd42067088%3Bregion%3Ath%3Bsku%3A3175818641_TH%3Bprice%3A1089%3Bclient%3Adesktop%3Bsupplier_id%3A100089265%3Basc_category_id%3A13876%3Bitem_id%3A3175818641%3Bsku_id%3A11884370311%3Bshop_id%3A120436&fastshipping=0&freeshipping=1&fs_ab=1&fuse_fs=1&lang=en&location=Chiang Mai&price=1089&priceCompare=&ratingscore=0&request_id=448b24de66fac0e3497523cd42067088&review=&sale=0&search=1&source=search&spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.i4.df425e15wcfyJ2&stock=1 Years and years ago I bought a small bottle of concentrated DDVP to use on a bean crop. An agriculture supply store may have it. Here's what I used. $7.50 (250 Baht) in the USA.

I mostly worked the Ban Vinai camp in Loei, but worked in Nan, Trat, Nong Khai and over by Surin and maybe another place or two. Funny thing was, I mostly worked the Loei camp and that's where I spent 2 years as a Peace Corps volunteer. One morning on the way to work in Loei, there were about 500 Hmong people who had just crossed the Mekong river at Pak Chom in Loei. They marched them back to Chiang Khan. I think they were forcibly repatriated to Laos ... one wonders how many survived.

At that age, I wanted a dirty girl. (Well, OK, most any girl.)

It is not. But they have to prove persecution or reasonable evidence that they will be persecuted if returned to their country. I'd say most illegal migrants in the U.S. are economic "refugees" or coming from some lawless/disrupted country. Back in 1979/80 I worked in Thailand with the U.S. refugee resettlement program, mostly with Lao/Hmong people fleeing the commies. (I liked some of those people more then some of the U.S. Immigration officers I worked with. ????)

" ... Dead at the scene from shooting and stabbing were a Hmong husband and wife and three children who had the surname of the father. ... ". The emphasis is mine, but I don't quite know what to think of this. I know Hmong can be hard-headed and a bit "out-there", but what is the deal with slaughtering a whole family!?

One rooster is particularly friendly, and another was getting there. And after a few weeks, a small hen or two would not be too scared of me. Less scared of me than the strong young roosters that, according to my wife, rape the hens. Always laugh at that. But there are plenty of tiny chicks underfoot unless local cats or dogs want a crunchy snack. So cute to watch them dodge the adults when they stampede at feeding time. Or watch mama hen show them how to scratch for insects and such. ... And that is how I spent weeks of my vacation last fall during my first visit in about 15 years. Loei never was very exciting, 555.

Owl, the farang/Thai friends down the way have a new kind of chicken. (Found this little poodle dog sweater at a thrift shop for $2 US. They said she just recently killed a squirrel. Good little hunter. I dog-sit occasionally. They have 8 gigantic laying hens, so I get free eggs now and then. Good deal now that even cheap eggs are $4/dozen and these are natural/free range.)

Maybe those were just Malcolm Forbes' old balloons. Or maybe Lawn Chair Larry is back.

Corruption is an ugly word. Malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance are better words to use when talking about government workers. ????

This prompted me to look him up and the World Superbike races. Jonathan Rea won the World Superbike Championship in 2015,2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. He's won 118 races to date. He's been racing bikes since he was 10 years old. I found it rather amusing that in 2021, "Rea obtained his UK motorcycle license for solo road machines by undertaking a course in his native Northern Ireland".

I didn't spend much in seven weeks last fall aside from beer and cigarettes. But we did day trips and stayed at our own house in Loei or a relative's apartment in Nakhon Pathom near Phutthamonthon. Bought a few bowls of noodles here and there and spent a good bit on gasoline.

You need an iPhotoPhone with the built-in scanner/laser copier.

That pretty chicken sure looks like a rooster. My wife has about 40 or 50 pet bantam chickens. About 4 or 5 of them look like that one. One of the older ones doesn't seem to like the other aggressive chickens so he'll hang out with people.

My wife makes a very good vegetarian Glass Noodle Salad (Yum Woon Sen) ยำวุ้นเส้น. I like it hot and sour. And not Thai, but her vegetarian deep-fried Vietnamese spring rolls are to die for. She uses glass noodles, bean curd and I think mouse ear mushrooms (tree fungus) as filling, among other things. The tamarind/peanut/chili sauce is good. They are time consuming to make so we don't have them often. I usually get enlisted to prep the rice paper wrappers as they stick together.

To the tune of $12 Billion or thereabouts.

Good read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenethylline Syria is a major producer.

Bayer? The same ones who introduced heroin as a pain reliever and cough suppressant in 1898? "Better living through chemistry" ... Actually it may have been this: A Japanese chemist first synthesized methamphetamine—also called meth, crank, crystal meth or speed—from another stimulant in 1893. https://www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-meth