pete_r

"There are two figures in there that call for some simple arithmetic:

(1) It takes 6.5kg of fresh roots to produce 1L of ethanol.

(2) If all petrol cars were to switch to E85 (which they will eventually have to do if oil prices continue to go up), then 17 millions liter of ethanol would be needed per day."

I have read elsewhere that it takes 5 to 5.4 kilograms of cassava for one litre of ethanol, that's about 20% less than the above figures. As far as increasing the amount of cassava grown, there is a new method of growing it now, that is suppose to get a yield of up to 30 tonnes per rai, compared to the present 3 to 5 tonnes, that means that if everybody went to that method, without increasing the land used for cassava growth there would be still lots of surplus cassava that maybe could be used to make ethanol to ship to the States. Issangeorge

All reports I have read indicate that 6-7kg of fresh cassava tubers are required per litre of ethanol.

Perhaps 30 tonne per rai may be achievable in a perfect, and small, environment managed by researchers with nothing else to do, but I do not believe it will be replicated in the real world, and certainly not by farmers trying to do so on 50 rai or so. I find it interesting that, to date, I've found zero research on this being published on the Net (English or Thai language). I have a Thai neighbour who is trying it on one rai, though I don't think he's doing it properly. Another Thai neighbour told me a few days ago that he watched an agriculture program on TV about it - he described it to me as extremely labour intensive.

Rgds

Khonwan

Regarding the 30 tons per rai: I've seen 20-30t/rai done experimentally in the breeding center that develops the Huay Bong varieties. The key thing according to the team is irrigation (drip feeding), and they readily agree that it is not feasible for the typical cassava farm.

Since last year there is another team that has been promoting high yields too, apparently from the Kampaengphet province. The explanations I've seen talk about a scoring system with inoculation of a cocktail of micro-organisms, resulting in 3 levels of starchy roots. Fertilizer and irrigation requirements seem to be quite high as well. Like Khonwan, I have searched for scientific papers on this method and haven't found anything (only a project proposal in Thai).

Interesting article, thanks.

There are two figures in there that call for some simple arithmetic:

(1) It takes 6.5kg of fresh roots to produce 1L of ethanol.

(2) If all petrol cars were to switch to E85 (which they will eventually have to do if oil prices continue to go up), then 17 millions liter of ethanol would be needed per day.

17 millions liters ethanol per day means 7300 millions liters per year. To produce that quantity from cassava, we would need 7300 x 6.5 = 47450 millions kg = 47.45 millions tons of fresh roots per year.

Whereas, the current production of cassava roots is around 25 millions tons per year (maybe 30 millions tons next year).

What I want to point out is that in the medium term Thailand will need to grow a lot more cassava and sugar cane than it does today, if it is to meet its internal demand for petrol and continue its exports of cassava and sugar cane-based products. Thailand may be in a position to do so, by increasing productivity and dedicating more land to cassava & sugar cane. Other countries with higher consumption or less agricultural land available may not be so lucky, for example all the corn in the US couldn't cover their current petrol consumption.

What I find very clear from this is that aside from its negative effect on food prices, bio-ethanol will not even be enough to cover energy needs for transportation worldwide. We will need to find another source of energy (probably a combination of different sources), and/or reduce the use of personal cars.

So you are telling me in Isaan they did not went from house to house and offered money?

That just did not happen, right? The PPP and the other parties in the coalition did not do any vote buying, right?

All that stories were just made to discredit the honest PPP people, right?

In Thailand, if you want to get rid of someone, you accuse him of corruption or vote-buying, or if you're really desperate you go for the accusation of disrespect to a certain family. It's too easy.

Nobody contests that some vote-buying took place, by the PPP perhaps but I would also like to know how clean the Democrats are. The point is, the influence of vote-buying on the results of these elections is way exaggerated.

I know a politician in Isaan (Roi-Et area) who went around his district in August 2007, to feel the water about which party he should join. He summarized the answers he got like this: "If you're not with the PPP, don't even bother to be a candidate". So either the PPP got up bloody early to buy votes (4 whole months before the elections), or, much more likely, they didn't need to buy votes. Because, right or wrong, they are the brand name people in Isaan will choose whatever.

If the opponents of the PPP want to get back in the government, they should stop the discrediting and politicking tactics and start developing their own political brand name backed with a real program for the next elections. That's the long and hard road, but they only want the quick and easy one, even at the cost of democracy, political stability and economic growth.

In bad Thai, kept asking for fried penis instead of fried banana.

Oh, I still do that now.

I've already quit trying to use the Thai word for banana.

He destroyed the democracy as he baned all other parties from TV and newspaper.

I'll react on that: The PAD was all over the newspapers from January to September 2006. So were the Democrats in March-April 2006 when they called for the boycott of the April, 2nd elections (thereby taking their good share at destroying democracy). Is that what you call being banned from TV and newspaper?

For the rest ("For sure a lot people would have died, Thaksin wanted to get rid of the PAD."), as Cmsally said, could we have more facts and less assumptions?

Here is my vote for a brighter option too.

What many misunderstand is that they are selling products, they are not, they are selling the dream. What dream? The dream to make money which for most isn't ever going to happen any other way, fact. It is a potential shot at the bucks which is why so many sign up.

Some people are good at it and make small fortunes but most are just cannon fodder, or how would the few make money?

A lucid assessment, couldn't have put it better.

What is questionable is the methods some of these businesses use to sell their dreams and hopes.

Today I checked previous posts on cassava prices and I found this:

Nepal4me2008-02-29 15:39:00I have never found a site where I can get the daily or weekly or periodic price level of Cassava.

Anybody have a site to get this info?

Thanks........

and

pete_r2008-02-29 22:35:07For the roots, prices are displayed at the factory gate and vary between different regions (currently around 2000 Bahts/ton). I don't know if there is a website tracking these.

For the starch, the Thai Tapioca Starch Association website has weekly updates:

http://www.thaitapiocastarch.org/

They also have historical data in their "market and statistic" section.

So I checked the website:

http://www.thaitapiocastarch.org/price.asp

and find the Cassava price is now US$440 per metric tonne (FOB Bangkok).

At today's Baht/US$ rate that equals a price of 13,826 Baht per metric tonne.

The website also shows the Domestic price as 12.9 Baht per Kilogram.

(12,900 Baht per tonne)

How can that be if pete_r says it was around "2000 Bahts/ton" ?

Did Pete_r make a mistake? or did the price go from 2000 to 12,900 within 2 months?

Funny - I had taken this price as gospel and had made a lot of calculations based on this un-refuted claim.

Now I'm pleasantly surprised!

Anybody have (or seen) any predictions on how the price may increase over the next year?

There are 2 different things with 2 different prices here: 2000 Bahts/ton is the price of the fresh roots (currently it's increased to 2400-2500 Bahts/ton as other posters have mentioned), whereas 12,900 Bahts/ton is the price of the starch after extraction from the root.

The relation between the two is, you have about 25% starch in the cassava roots (range is 23-30% with the current varieties: KU50, Rayong 60, Huay bong 60...). So to get 1 ton of starch, you need more or less 4 tons of cassava roots, usually more because there are some losses during the extraction process. Therefore at 2500 Bahts/ton of roots, the cost of raw materials for the starch extraction factory to produce 1 ton of starch is already 10,000 Bahts. They sell at 12,900 Bahts/ton of starch, not unreasonably high considering they have some overheads to pay for, labour, energy inputs, some chemicals, maintenance etc... (don't worry, they still make a good profit ).

For cassava farming purposes, the price to consider is that of the roots, currently 2400-2500 Bahts/ton. The price of the starch comes into play further down the line.

There's a second hand shop for baby and children equipments behind North Park off Vibhavadee road. They had one or two changing tables two weeks ago.

http://www.weloveshopping.com/template/w09...amp;shopid=9118

Quite a big selection of car safety seats and pushchairs as well.

To find the shop, the entrance to North Park is on Vibhavadee road between the junctions with Ngam Wong Wan and Chaeng Wattana, on the left when driving towards Don Muang. You need to follow the road through North Park, the shop is a 100-200 meters after the park on the right. The name is "Let's share".

Ask your building society or bank in UK about SWIFT transfers. You need to provide the SWIFT code and account number of your Thai bank account. The fee for sending 30,000 GBP should be in the range 20-30 GBP.

When filling the transfer form, be clear that the transfer should be in GBP (to be converted in THB by the receiving bank in Thailand). Normally there is a box to tick to this effect. Keep a copy of the form in case of dispute later. There are a couple stories on the forum about GBP being changed to THB, then changed again to GBP before being transferred to the Thai bank, resulting in very poor exchange rate.

my observation is that the hotter it gets, the faster they spin, which leads me to beleive that they are not controled by passing wind, but escaping hot air from attic.

Interesting and that may explain some glass pyramids I've noticed in Hanoi, installed under the "whirlies" (see example below): The glass could be there to raise the temperature of the air below the rotor. As the hot air goes up, it would increase the speed of the rotor and the extraction efficiency of the system.

I'm sure that Sonthi would have said the same in september 2006, just before the... coup.

He did! It was in July 2006 (from memory).

From the information you provide, I assume you also have a re-entry permit (big rectangle stamp that fills half a passport page), in which case it is normal that they stamp your passport up to the end of the validity of your visa extension when you arrive at the airport.

You still have to report every 90 days, but the count was reset when you left then re-entered Thailand.

Motel 6 near LAX airport currently charges 3USD a day for unlimited access to wi-fi internet.

I think the technology exists already, but pretty expensive for the airline to implement.

Alternatively, if Emirates allows the use of mobile phones, in theory these could also be used for an internet connection. But the speed may be slow.

Travel agency will sometimes reserve a block of seats to popular destinations during peak periods...say, as an example, to Rio during Carnival week. They hope to be able to fill those seats with paying passengers. If it gets close to the departure time, and the seats are not full, they turn them back to the airline. The airline then has the seats available for sale.

This is exactly the point: How close to the departure time do the travel agents wait, before they give back the seats to the airline?

If I am put on a waitlist when booking a flight, is there a way to estimate the probability of getting a seat on that specific flight?

So far my waitlisted bookings have always been confirmed, but I wonder what happens in the case no seat becomes available?

Thanks for any input,

Well, the future is shaping up - big business wants it all to themselves without any attempts at public scrutiny.

Somehow Nattakorn refuses to acknowledge, let alone answer any questions regarding their sincerety or even goals. What is their vision for the country in the first place?

I'd say same as TRT: Give an image of a stable, safe country to attract foreign investors. Hence the mega-projects and the war on drugs.

Talking about vision for the country, I'd argue that other political parties (Democrats...) don't offer much either.

Ok the PPP may not respect freedom of the press, but who in Thailand does when they are in power? The military?

While I'm all for democracy - a proper one - and not an elected dicatorship, lets do compare press freedom during the coup.

I'd argue the Thai press was much freer. The military was critised - frequently. And they didn't do anything to stop it. They could have, but didn't.

You have a point. On the other hand rumor has it that they kept soldiers stationed in the TV stations. Or was it just a rumor ? (I have no first hand info on that)

Internet websites critical of the coup were also under close scrutiny and blocked from time to time, particularly on fridays-saturdays when protests against the coup were organized in Bangkok.

Of course my examples refer to the media in general, not specifically the printed press.

Ok the PPP may not respect freedom of the press, but who in Thailand does when they are in power? The military?

Try the Motel 6 (www.motel6.com). It has 253 rooms. Cost: $68. Free airport shuttle on request.

Looks good and that's the cheapest I've found so far. Thanks for the link.

This time I'll be there on a monday evening, but that's good to know.

The title says it all... I will have to stay overnight near the airport, waiting for a connecting flight. First time I will be in LA, so any recommendations would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Amazing Thailand...

Perhaps the only country where the army must give official notice that they are not planning a coup whenever they want to move tanks from one place to another.

If Prakanong or yourself would care to explain the glaring reality of Post #17.... please let us know.

John, I have to admit you had me going there for an instant, till I re-read Post #17. And having re-read it, what in bloody hel_l are you talking about? WHAT reality, glaring or otherwise, is present in that post?????

Quite simple really.

How do you explain his expressed and displayed English communication skills (aka reality), orally and written, with that of someone awarded a PhD that was completed using that same English with its level of skill?

I'll pick up the gauntlet... John, if you talk to Thai lecturers who hold a PhD from US or UK universities, you will find that a good proportion of them are less than fluent in English, just like Thaksin. However if you open their PhD thesis, the written English is all good and up to her Majesty's standards. How did they write so well? Simple: First they write the science in "funny English", then they get their mates with good English skills to twist the sentences back into proper grammar and articulation. That's how, and it doesn't mean that they don't deserve their degree, because the science, the years of research work, comes from them.

Then comes the oral defense. How can a Thai student not fluent in English survive this? Again, because the jury at those sessions focuses on the science, so the student will pass as long as he can get the science across. And after 4 to 6 years of studies in an English-speaking environment, the English skills are good enough for that.

Conclusion: I don't know how Thaksin got his PhD (and I don't think you know either), but in my book being less than fluent in English is not a barrier for getting a PhD degree outside Thailand. Otherwise there would be much fewer Thai lecturers with foreign degrees around the country.