TPI

I just can't figure out how they hold the bat???

In Phrae we've had 100mm over 2 days, klongs are up, mozzies are out in force, looks very promising for the wet season!

Prepare for early flooding? ... I remember one of the ministers claiming there will be no floods this year... What was that again???...

Not one of the ministers, the PRIME MINISTER! And it was a promise!

Before this rumour gets out of hand and is repeated as the truth this is what she actually said

The Thai premier said she had ordered the establishment of schemes to help companies get back on their feet from the disaster that knocked businesses sideways last year.

"I have reaffirmed to the Japanese government and business leaders that the Royal Thai government is committed to ensuring that the devastation caused by such disasters will never happen again," she told reporters in Tokyo during a joint press conference with her Japanese opposite number.

http://www.terradail..._chaos_999.html

which is NOT "claiming there will be no floods this year".

Excuse me, but aren't the "devastating disasters" quoted in the above piece..."floods"?

Q.E.D. devastating disasters(DD) = Floods. This means she said there will be no more DD (floods) any more!

I've worked overseas with Thai workers for about 15 years. With the Philippine workers they are definitely the best in Asia and probably are the most comfortable workers to work with in the world! The problems start when they come home, then they become the laziest, dumbest most switched off workers in the world, bar none! I've seen guys who can hold their heads up amongst the best of the best become lao kow, mango eating, under tree sleeping zombies in one week of their return to the of land of smiles...I've asked them "why?" "Because we can" is the usual response!

20,000 workers, look out Australia, these little guys are going to give you a lesson in co-operation and good work attitude!

Seems legal enough. You're not intending to avoid VAT or tax on the company profits...What's the problem??

I'd say, that most murders in Thailand aren't properly investigated in comparison to western countries in scientific terms ...

Based on what special knowledge ... or is this more home-spun wisdom?

People in the much vaunted "west" are arrested and convicted improperly on a massive scale, implying that the true criminals go Scot free (many of them eluding western police and immigrations to go on holiday in Thailand where Thai police are expected to arrest them for deportation).

We tend to think about miscarriages of justice as rare and exceptional occurrences. Prominent cases such as the Birmingham six, Guildford Four, Bridgewater four, M25 three, Cardiff three, Stephen Downing, and so on create the impression that miscarriages of justice are seen as very much an intermittent, high profile and small scale problem; that there are very few victims in the context of the statistics of all criminal convictions. But there are many more cases than those which receive prominent coverage in the media. Those cases of criminal conviction that are routinely quashed by the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division), or by the Crown Court for convictions previously obtained in the magistrates' court have received no attention at all.

"If we pay more attention to these routinely quashed convictions, we find a scale of miscarriage of justice to fundamentally challenges any notion that the current system of criminal justice is weighted too much in favour of the defendant. The Lord Chancellor's Department's statistics on successful appeals against criminal conviction show that in the decade 1989-1999 the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) abated over 8,470 criminal convictions - a yearly average of 770. In addition, there are around 3,500 quashed criminal convictions a year at the Crown Court for convictions obtained at the magistrates' courts. Contrary to popular perceptions, then, wrongful criminal convictions are a normal, everyday feature of the criminal justice system - the system doesn't just sometimes get it wrong, it gets it wrong everyday, of every week, of every month of every year. With the result that thousands of innocent people experience a whole variety of harmful consequences that wrongful criminal convictions engender".

While I can agree that Magistrates often get it wrong you will find it's not an investigation problem! The problem, generally, is that Magistrates don't understand the rules of evidence and therefore will allow evidence to be presented to their Court that in a higher Court would be rejected!

The "Golden Rule" is...when faced with a court appearance in a Western country go for the highest court you can afford! The Judges understand the rules of evidence better!

This has nothing to do with the general incompetence of the BIB where how much money you spend is the level of how much interest "they" take in any investigation! Unless the perpetrator is known via CCTV or through witnesses there is almost no investigation beyond the first 48 hours...if you're lucky! Of course informers are a legion here and usually the only evidence presented to the Court is the statement of the informer and the "verbal" by the BIB. In 13 years here the only people to plead not guilty seem to be the people who appear to have fore knowledge of the result!

Make of that what you will.

more than likely the Common Blind or Flowerpot Snake (Ramphotyphlops braminus)

a fascinating creature, it's one of a very few species that is Parthenogenic - can reproduce non sexually without fertilization. All offspring are female and genetically identical (clones), males are unknown in this species.

Be buggered, really?? Must be Thai......(sorry, the devil made me do it!)

I'm confused by the people who support Chalerm and his thugee sons against all of the evidence of their multiple wrong doing!

Surely he cannot pay enough money to bloggers to whitewash his sins??

Just so long as they get out of the d-mn country, once out they may never want to go back!

Nothing changes....all pride, no shame. I've flashed my headlights...get out of the way!!

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Waterboarding isn't considered by most as torture. Much ado about nothing really. This will certainly bring out the USA haters and cry babies. The author is perfectly safe and the sky is not falling.

Question? Do you really understand what "waterboarding " is all about? If its as harmless as you suggest why don't we get together with an elevated plank, a few rags, a couple of buckets of water you can lie down and I'll pour...OK?

Cute....but stupid! The hot air wouldn't be a problem, but where would you get condoms big enough??

While in the army in Oz and doing jungle training in Canungra Queensland I had an encounter with a similar but larger spider, nose to nose! I still wake up screaming!!

Perhaps more than one purchase of 60 cents is in order, we could always go for a "job lot"...Arrogance is one thing but this whole family is rotten to the core!

I'm interested as well as 3 relatives of mine are applying soon and they're already nervous about Oz immigration!

Hope they are all ok and the man is caught.

I heard possibly wrong but I am sure someone on Thai visa will know, that for a Thai national to own a gun they must have a minimum of 1 million THB in the bank. If this is the case how do so many young Thai's have them. In addition what is the penalty for having a gun without proper paperwork.

Nope, you've got the wrong information.All you need in Thailand is to be of good reputation (or not) and pay the licence fee, oh yeah, you've got to be over 18, preferably with 50K in the bank.

Snake eaters, lizard eaters, ah! Wonderful Thailand!

be aware that reconciliation and amnesty are not the same thing. amnesty is given by the Monarch at his discretion, not by a bunch of Thaksins buddies. reconciliation involves the Thai people, again not just Thaksins buddies in parliament. when the reconciliation bill is passed and supported by a referendum, I will cease opposition to his return. I won't like it, but I will accept it.

Hear, hear!

Songkram is a great holiday as usual we have the complainers who complain about all things Thai.

Well most of my neighbors, Thais, are hiding in their condos. They are also openly complaining about the number of accidents, dangerously drunk creeps roaming the streets and the fact that there are hardly any taxis available. Shame on those Thai complainers of everything that is Thai!

Songkran could indeed be a great festival, but has turned the last into a 3 day binge drinking idiocracy.

Let me get this straight.."Well most of my neighbors, Thais, are hiding in their condos." Far be it for me to puncture your bubble but most Thai's, believe it or not, don't live in condo's! They're just common dog faeces living and working in and around the street! Perhaps if you all took up a petition and presented it to the government to move these "lower classes" into a more appropriate area...perhaps a walled ghetto, so you could go about your business undisturbed?

There is no pride in a good result as there are no questions about a bad result! It doesn't matter what the result is for P6 or M3, the students that are moving up still pass. The teachers aren't held to account, the Director doesn't have to explain why his school has done so badly, nobody really cares!

All the area office is interested in is how much money the school directors can put into the "promotion pot" for their next advance!

To me the great unanswered question is if the oft quoted opinion of "Thaksin should return and serve his sentence" were to come true then what then? You've got a "clean slate" Thaksin on your hands with a sister as PM. Hardly an ideal situation for his Democrat etc "fan club". I can hardly see him simply buying a motorcycle combo and riding around selling luk chin in his dotage.

He is a Messias, a Messias can´t go to prison.

the last one we nailed on the cross, why we can't do it with this one as well?

Gandhi, Mandela and Hitler all did time! Surely "Takki" doesn't consider himself better than those king pins of history??

Text pads that is, you couldn't get that stupid "texting" on only one?

But I thought that most Thai men had 2?

I guess if you can get a certificate of residence from either immigration or your embassy you maybe able to get licenses with a tourist visa

I have to agree, if you have a 1 year then it's only a matter of sighed photocopies of your passport and the residential letter from Immigration, if you're on a Tourist visa you may have to have the home owner vouch for you at immigration?

Here in Phrae there are still many people who grow Lum Yai. While we have only 100 trees we still manage to get 3-4 tonne of fruit. While the fruit are not large the seeds are small so we get a corresponding amount of meat equal to the 35-40 mm fruit!

We don't trim the trees to get the fruit as this cuts down on production, while it makes harvesting a little harder we get a lot more fruit per tree!

We fertilise with Buff poo and we keep 3 buffalo's for that purpose, we don't use any other chemicals or sprays.

Please keep in touch!