jackinthebox

excuse my question: what does "a standard gate high-speed train system" mean? Does it mean single-track? That would be a really bad idea...

You guys don't understand currency exchange.

Here is a good starting point: Click Me

Best case scenario, if there are no natural disasters, terrorist attacks, real estate crashes, stock market crashes, unexpected expenditures from new health care bills, if absolutely everything goes as planned, the US gov will be paying 50% of its tax revenue towards interest payments on its debt in ten years.

Think about that a bit.

Well, you probably didn't make it through my post. You should have, instead you probably opened another sin sot thread and cracked another Singha, even though your belly really could use a break. It won't be long until you and many of your kind are starting threads about how "Don't the dumb Thais know that 25 baht to a dollar hurts tourism?" and "Gold? Why is it so expensive? It looks tacky".

Before I get too carried away on the froth of my Singha, look at the education system. Engineering and science under graduates are dominated by Asian students, the western students somehow find "history of art" and such bullshit easier and more "fulfilling". Yeah, great, that'll get you a good job in politics.

Here in Stuttgart, Germany (home of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche :-) with a University very famous for Engineering and Architecture you got hundreds of Asian students - but not one single Thai. Thai nationals are for 100% spouses of german guys, hanging around in bars and gambling silly slot machines. At the Campus you hear more chinese and korean than german, but I've never heard a single word of thai...

In any other country with these problems, demonstrators getting free reign, tourists cancelling, major stores closed, economy wrecked, the currency would be dropping like a stone. The reason for its strength is quite clear to anyone.

The Baht WILL drop - strange volatility of currencies or stock markets ist a sign of near plump (like in Greece, Iceland or... :-)

With 1000 more habitants arriving every day and more than 52,000 new cars every month there is NO WAY to make BKK more liveable. And even if - it would be a vicious circle, because if everything is blooming and going well, the city will attract even more people with even more cars....

More than 5 Mio. people on one place is IMHO something unnatural, Thailand is in the good condition that the overall population is not growing any more (unlike India or China). So they should try to "support" other places and to develop upcountry "Subcenters" like ChiangMai or HadYai. France is trying to do this under the name of "decentralisation" for decades - since they became aware that Paris is eating up everything.

Buses on long distance routes out of Bangkok seem to average about 80 kph, so I doubt that a system that only does 100kph would attract enough custom off the roads

Actual train system average about 50-60 kph, so 100 would be nearly double and a real gain. As for comparison with overland-buses I think that everybody feels more comfortable and safe in a (MODERN!) train.

But I agree that in downtown Bangkok railway may must be elevated because of the traffic and the imponderabilities in high-density city areas. I could cry every time when it takes more than one hour to get away from HuaLampong/out of Bangkok one a long-distance train crawling trough the suburbs.

How many does that make now for the past six months? I think that across Thailand there have been at least 5 that I can think of. I know that the rails are old, but I think there has also been a drop in maintenance since the union problems started with the SRT six months ago.

In an ideal world, they would use the land that they have the tracks on to create an elevated, high speed train system, but I don't think it will happen.

Yes, because elevation is much too expensive. A normal two-railway electrified "normal" (1435mm gauge) with new cars and bogies would be more than enough (and would IMHO solve many of Thailands economical and environmental problems). The idea of a High-Speed-Train system (200+km/h) all over Thailand like in Europe, China or Japan is building castles in the sky, they should focus on reaching a (safe) maximum speed of 120-140km/h and an average of about 100km/h.

So anyone here use ANY apps made in Thailand except CRACKS for outside apps?

And chances are those cracks were also made elsewhere.

There are some kids getting pretty hight tech lately,

but I wouldn't see a real innovative industry stringing up here.

Me. I use the Program "ArnThai", an OCR (Optical-charater-recogntion) solution made in Thailand (works pretty well - strange thing is that all international OCR-Software like Abbyy Fine-Reader, ReadIris etc. ist not capable to read thai letters). I bouht it in Fortune-IT-Plaza in Ratchada, funny thing that in the shop every software, every CD was 100 Baht (cracked obviously) exept this "ArnThai" -CD that cost me B 200 ("Mister mister, this one original, cost more mister"). But hey, 200B for licenced software is fair (normally OCR-Software is about 60-100 EURO!)

>And chances are those cracks were also made elsewhere.

Sure....there are no crackers in Thailand, I think they are mostly russian. Thai teenagers are not "nerd" enough

And what's with that Bird's Nest stuff?

You name it! Everytime I see the "Brands" or "Scotch" I wonder why I'm not doing business of

my own:

1. Bottle something not too expensive (buy/production cost not more than 10 Baht/Lit) in

very very small test-tubes (4cl)

2. Advertise. Advertise. No one needs your product, so advertise. Advertise more than anyone

else, more than Toyota, MissTeenWhitening, MamaNoodel or any other f...ng brand

3. Advertise again. Advertise in TV, advertise on billboards, advertise in Cinemas. Keep

good-looking girls annoying in every every supermarket throughout the whole country. Spend

Millions in advertising.

4. Keep telling people that "Chicken Essence" makes you intelligent, BirdsNest shows love

and BerryJuice makes you good looking

5. Sell 60-100 Baht one test-tube (4cl)

6. See how stupid people buy your lies as a gift for Christmas, for showing love, for

birthdays, for promotion - like you told them in your advertising. See how they think they

can calculate formulas, they will find love, will be be good-looking by drinking your

charlatan quacksalver products

7. Congratulations. You win.

And what's with that Bird's Nest stuff?

You name it! Everytime I see "Brands" or "Scotch" I wonder why I'm not doing business of my own:

1. Bottle something not too expensive (buy/production cost not more than 10 Baht/Lit) in very very small test-tubes (4cl)

2. Advertise. Advertise. No one needs your product, so advertise. Advertise more than anyone else, more than Toyota, MissTeenWhitening, MamaNoodel or any other f...ng brand

3. Advertise again. Advertise in TV, advertise on billboards, advertise in Cinemas. Keep good-looking girls annoying in every every supermarket throughout the whole country. Spend Millions in advertising.

4. Keep telling people that "Chicken Essence" makes you intelligent, BirdsNest shows love and BerryJuice makes you good looking

5. Sell 60-100 Baht one test-tube (4cl)

6. See how stupid people buy your lies as a gift for Christmas, for showing love, for birthdays, for promotion - like you told them in your advertising. See how they think they can calculate formulas, they will find love, will be be good-looking by drinking your charlatan quacksalver products

7. Congratulations. You win.

So this means, and I never knew it was this easy; "original name" has was a warrant for his/her arrest. By changing name tags, we don't recognize the person because we can't get past the name tag? And therefore, they become invisible, or can't legally be arrested, because no one is anything more than a name?

Thai politics, aka ludicrous, that doesn't make sense either I gather. oy!

Stupid Radovan Karadžić, that he didn`t change his name to "Raddi Krdcjuc", they wouln`t have caught him...

again, as with Skytrain/Underground and public transport in BKK in general I would say: Don't try to go for the moon, don't try to build like countries with a 5 times higher GDP! The problem is: The cost of modern transportation system (Tracks, Trains, maintenance) is in nearby exponential association with the speed, so a system that allows a maximum speed of let's say 250km/h is nearly two times expensive of a system that is designed fo a max. of maybe 200km/h. For only a little advantage of some minutes you have to build much more tunnels, bridges, more robust trains, high-tech brakes, special overhead contact-lines and so on. All this in a country with extremely heavy rains and and many other constant natural threats. It would cost billions and billions! 2000 or 3000 kilometers of this will not be build in Thailand, not in this century!

So here`s my proposition: Switch to double standard gauge, buy or build new (electrical) trains and keep your tracks in a shape and condition that allows a maximum speed of maybe 140km/h, so that you can reach an average speed of 100 or 110 km/h (instead of 55-60 nowadays). That would be more than enough, you could get to hadYai in 8 hours instead of 15 and to ChiangMai in 7 instead of 13. This is an aim Thailand maybe could reach, so better stop dreaming of TGV or Shinkansen...

sorry for my english, I'm german (so here it is called the ICE :-)

Congratulations. One step ahead in establishing different railway systems that are and always will be completely incompatible and incongruously, namely:

1. The 'classic' SRT with it's shaking and vibrating 1000mm gauge

2. The skytrain (in the sky) with 1435mm gauge

3. The MRT in the underground, operated by another company, with another tickets, another train and electrification system

4. The airport link, operated by the SRT, now suddenly with an overhead contact line (skytrain an underground get power trough railway based electrical lines!)

The last three ones build within only 10 years with absolutely NO way of upgrading, extension or connection between the lines.

Mai bpen drai. What London, NY, Paris or Tokyo do mustn't be good for Bangkok. So keep the transportmafia rolling.

Maybe it's a little bit too easy to blame the Thais for their annual death toll rate and to point only on little enforcement of law through lazy police or bad traffic-manners of Thai people. Of course, 12000 is a sad number in comparison to for example germany with only roundabout 5000 per year. But let's don't forget that in most western countries motorbikes or motorcycles are only for fun an riding these bikes is mostly just an hobby, while here they are used for work and as a real means of transport. It's well known that most of these deaths are Motoersaai-Drivers, so if the number of two-wheelers was less, there wouldn't be such a carnage on the roads (in other words - the death-toll rate in Germany rises every Summer because of the Sunday-drivers with their 160HP Yamahas and Kawasakis, so people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.)

And, of course these open Songtheuws with 15 or 20 passengers are more dangerous than a brandnew Mercedes-Benz O405 Bus with safety belts and ABS, EBS and so on, but after all - it's a question of money!!!

BTW they now sell the Honda Wave in Germany - FOR 2200.- EURO! That's more than 100 000 baht. And a ride with public transport (i.e. these brandnew Mercedes-Benz O405 Busses) ist 2.50 EURO compared to 7 Baht in the good old red farting Mitsubishis Cans of BKK

Greets

Bangkok is surely the capital with the highest number of (bad) copied "Louis-Vuitton" bags. But this is not a shame. Why? If you look twice you recognize them as a copy immediately. Everybody. Even the poorest "Luug thung" can see that the real bag is much better quality than the copy. So girls who got the money (or the rich gig) go to "Gaysorn" or "Emporion" (i.e. force their boyfriends to go there :-( and buy the original. All the others go to patpong or to any streetvendor outside shopping malls and buy the copy. For "LV-Paris" this is IMHO no loss. They wouldn't sell more or less if there were no copies. And - have you ever tried copied Perfume? Engine-oil smells better...

Thats good news...

I see them nearly every night when I go out or visit my gf...they flock together on Ratchadapisek, Petburi, Vipavadi, Rama9 and so on...always and everywhere on straight, broad and long roads. recognition feature: Tuned Yamaha Fino or Kawasaki MicroBike, red colored hairs (no helmet of course) and 14 or 15 year old girlfriend sitting on the back of the "Motorsaay sing"...Maximum speed: Around 100-120 kp/h! I always ask myself: Who ist buying these bikes worth of 40 to 50k Baht? And what do these people (parents!?) do at midnight i.e. aren`t they wondering what their offspring is doing with it`s birthday present?

C-130 aircraft minister boarding makes emergency landing

A C-130 aircraft which is scheduled to bring some ministers to Chiang Mai to attend special cabinet meeting has to make emergency landing after having an engine problem.

....If they had travelled in an C-119 instead they may would have been able to produce the third remake of "Flight of the pohenix".....

>Police found Bayerscne LandesBank Visa card...

being german I normally only read here an never write because I`m too ashamed of my bad english language and grammar- but this is my chance to be a real smart aleck:

The "Djangwat" in Germany of wich the capital is Munich (Bavaria) is called "Bayern", the adjective (bavarian) is "bayrisch" oder "bayerisch", that`s why the "Thanakaan" ist called "Bayerische Landesbank"

SCNR

Hopefully the powers that be in Thailand won't deem this site offensive as there does seem to be a lot of negative things said about the Kingdom of Thailand on some of the threads. Really hate censorship in any form. RIP You Tube (at least as far as viewing in Thailand goes). Hey, is there an actual list of banned sites in Thailand that anyone can refer me to? I'd love to read what sites they view as offensive.

Maybe can be found here...

http://facthai.wordpress.com/data/

think it`s this file

http://facthai.files.wordpress.com/2007/03...12-03-07csv.txt