orosee

... the smart tourist money is going elsewhere.

I can't quite follow this. Are you saying that tourists are in any way affected by work permit regulations?

As for the pink post, "most tourists have expat friends"? Just try and calculate the number of work permit carrying expats in Thailand based on the number of tourists, and you'll laugh about the silliness of your statement.

That said, I'm planning to run a Nail & Coffin ImEx business from 2012 onwards, so I hope that honest trade will still be on the allowed list then. Some research here told me that demand is at a peak.

Seriously, that list could have used some updating long ago. Most of the prohibited jobs are targeted at immigrants from Burma, Laos, Cambodia and China and largely concern lowly, menial or agricultural tasks. Time to add "Web Design", "Cold Calling" and "Loitering" to get back to reality.

Not at all feeling serious today.

“Here lies Sharecropper, the man who took a camera to a gunfight”

Wonderful!

I thought was already the official gathering arena for grumpy old men?

Anyway, will be happy to join in 2020

The silly thing is that while these birds are permitted to fight till death, they are neither allowed to smoke nor buy alcohol between 1 and 5 PM.

The concept of "fast food" is already outdated. It was once a valid distinction from restaurant prepared food and has played a role in many discussions in the 70s and 80s, but doesn't hold up as the only alternative to restaurant or home cooked meals anymore. hence before this discussion was started, the OP should have made a clear definition of what kind of food he/she wants to set against what other kinds of food.

For example, a daily bar of chocolate, a double scoop of Baskin-Robbins and a pint of sugar laced milk will prove more dangerous to children's health than a weekly visit do McD, KFC and the other franchises, especially those who offer more balanced meals.

As it has been said before, "fast" food is available on the street and in shops every couple of meters in Thailand, I can get a nice soup or rice dish from a vendor within minutes and less. So speed is not really an issue here, and there is no reason why a "slow" Chinese restaurant should not use MSG and other food irritants in their dishes.

Bashing the global franchises can make sense for some but the underlying reasons are too often unconnected with nutritional purposes. A valid argument would in any case have to include the food sources and manner of "growing" (if you've seen "Food, Inc." you'll know what I mean) and their impact on the environmental and social structures in addition to health issues.

Basically, the question could only properly we worded as:

"Is eating (mostly) healthy food better than eating (mostly) unhealthy food" or "Is a balanced diet better than a life-shortening one"

which is of course a trivial question with a predetermined answer, or in other words: "duh".

And the reason why Thai kids (and Korean, Chinese etc. kids) are getting fatter is not because of McD et al, but because their parents don't know or don't care. Cigarettes also don't cause cancer, but smoking lots of them does you no good. But I have the feeling that the OP would prefer an argumentation along the lines that Western cigarettes are bad for you and that's why Thais should stick to their traditional ones (or maybe it is the teacher who wants this result?).

I'm still stuck at this bold statement:

Radioactive waste disposal methods are safe.

Technology may have advanced but human nature hasn't. And a nuclear reactor will give the red or yellow shirts just one more high profile target to occupy

Here's how it will play out for eager students:

IO: "Please speak to me in Thai"

ED: <speaks fluent Thai which has been acquired and practised over several years>

IO: "Well, your Thai is very good so there's no need to study anymore. Please make sure you leave before the expiry of your current visa."

So take the middle road when being tested

... Jittapas Pirompakdee, who works at the PM's Secretariat, brought two boxes of the racy calendars in her BMW's trunk ...

And it was absolutely impossible to just write "in her car's trunk"? Someone would rather investigate journalistic corruption through product placement than what they're doing now.

Not long before the Taliban will flee Thailand "because it is no fun here anymore".

The crash involved a motorbike and a motorbike and a Silver Isuzu D-Max pick-up...

Why not just say "The crash involved two motorbikes and a Silver Isuzu D-Max pick-up"?

...her boyfriend from Finland who had come back from an afternoon and early evening drinking session...

Too much information or is it redundant information

With respect, having a finnish boyfriend may have been the final straw here.

Sad, RIP.

Topic implies that there are also legal gambling dens in Thailand, would be interesting to know where to find these.

You can get lucky at Central World (top floor supermarket) and Central Chidlom (basement supermarket). Last time I was there, they had this buffet style candy counter where you can fill a bag with the goods from a large display. They ran out of my favourite candy and never refilled it, but there must be 30 or more types of soft candy such as peach rings, apple rings, fish, mushrooms and so on.

Though what is left now is mostly too sweet for me. What i liked was all sour (such as cola bottles) and no. I am not surprised that it was never restocked :-D

Yet another before starting work:

4 who keep writing "lightbulb's" instead of "lightbulbs"

more...

3 who can't post at present because they tried to get bulbs at King Power and were arrested for shoplifting... they'll comment once back in their respective home country

Fun stuff! Wonder why this has not come up yet:

1 to mention that broken lightbulbs are yet another nail in the coffin of Thai tourism

Keep it on!

Transgender group calls for changes

The Network of Transgender Women of Thailand has urged the Education Ministry and universities to cancel regulations forcing transgender persons to wear male uniforms to classrooms, exams and graduation ceremonies.

I find the headline and the first line funny! After breast implants, hormone injections and the final sexual reassignment surgery, what other changes do they want? Or is it that they call for a reversal?

Next, "Network of Transgender Women": What does it mean? For me, a transgender woman is a born woman that has been changed into a man (just like a recycled soda can is a soda can that has been transformed into something else). So then, what's the beef with the male clothing (I also didn't know there were sexes assigned to clothes)?

Ah well, just feeling a bit dense today...

The laws that need to be followed are the laws of the country they are in. I don't know if Thailand views a 16 year old girl with a 21 year old man in the same manner.

In Thailand he could be in trouble for being with a 16 year old girl. The girl must be 18 in Thailand unless he has the consent of her parents.

Of cause all you guys are thinking "What would I have done with a 16 yo girl" and get upset at your own perverted fantasies. Am I mistaken, or is the article not about a 21 yo being caught having sex with a 16 yo? Ah, dirty minds all think alike. A few hours from no a retired gentlemen will ask for adivce on how to adopt the children of his 17 yo Thai girlfriend (whose parents have of course provided written consent already) and whether a 55 yo age difference is still acceptable or not.

Does it say anywhere that the girl came to Thailand without the consent of her parents? They may have financed the entire holiday for her. And men don't come to Thailand to have sex with their girlfriend, fiancee or wife. They want sex they come alone

4 pages and not a single bit of information more than what was written in the news report! Actually, that's a lot of restraint for TV.

There is but not through iTunes, which is great for shopping but pretty mediocre in every other way.

Download Media Monkey. It's free for all the important functions (you can pat for some extra features which are nice but not essential). Build up your music database (fast) and use the search duplicates function. Now delete at your hearts content.

MM also has great auto-tagging features using several sources to download the tag ad cover info. It can then rename and reorder your entire music collection in pretty much any way you can imagine.

Afterwards you could delete all song info from iTunes and rebuild the iTunes library from scratch for a clean start.

However MM can also be used to sync with iPods and iPhones, so there's almost no need to use Apple's monsterware anymore.

Give it a try, it is the best music library administration software i have found since MP3 came to the scene.

The 2010 FTA will affect several Asian countries. Expect big benefits from overtaxed alcohols such as wine. Finally we can afford better than what the French have scraped out from under their toenails and filled in an export bottle!

I do however never understand what's wrong with journalism today if people write rubbish such as "three times cheaper". Is it so hard to spell "third"? For example, imagine a bottle priced at 1,000 Baht. Now this shall become three times cheaper - as what? Do a little math:

Full price: 1,000 Baht

ONE time cheaper: 1,000 Baht - 1 x 1,000 Baht = 0 (FREE!!! BOOZE!!!)

TWO times cheaper: Now that can be anything from 1,000 - 2 x 1,000 = -1,000 (so you make money on the purchase) to 0 (by using another "1 times cheaper" on the 0 Baht obtained before).

Continue ad infinitum each new round of "times cheaper".

I'm surprised that this being Thailand, the writer did not put "three times more cheaper" since this is proper Tinglish.

After being found guilty ,sentenced to death then a pardon the thais must think after a short term in a uk jail then returning to thailand is taking the p1ss, im inclined to agree,.

Was she convicted in the UK? Because technically after the pardon, she was free to leave and not subject to e.g. completing her life sentence in a British prison. Seems that she went straight from KP to study.

What surprises me is that 16 years have passed since her conviction, meaning that she may have been under arrest possibly a year longer, what loose ends were there? It has been 9 years since her pardon, why the timing? Anyway, it would have been wiser to meet her loose ends across the border in a friendly country, Malaysia or the current place for people to go who do not want to be caught in Thailand, Cambodia.

The photo for the article is not current, I believe?

<snip>

If you are financially well and don't mind 4 regular seasons, come to Korea where grown-ups are not yet treated like infants by their government, where beer is 60 Baht/half liter and the bars close for 60 minutes each day (not all at the same hour though).

Well, these gift baskets are stupid too, but the bottle of booze has always been the highlight and not subject to an expiry date.

With all respect, Khun Achara needs to take her head out of her a$$! Talk about generalising and making one's own problems a pandemic. There's only one time a year where you can have serious trouble getting a Bangkok cab, and that's the first few hours of the new year near the usual party hangouts. Oh, and in the pouring rain of course, but try to get a cab in any city when demand exceeds supply. In 13 years of living in Bangkok I've had one critically rude driver (I got ai-hia'd for demanding a 50 satang change on the fare, in my defense it was clear that the meter was rigged and we took more than a slight detour on what should have been a straight ride from Chong Nonsi to Asoke), two fixed meters (90 Baht fare for 500 meters) and a handful of refused rides. Then of course I rarely need to do into the middle of nowhere 30 km outside of the city at 3am. Still never had a problem to catch a cab from Nang linchee into Bang Na.

Things are different for the mafia taxis near the red light areas and around hotels, but you know that. Considering that taxi services are easily 10 to 50 times more expensive where we come from, and hardly an equal amount more friendly or comfortable, the only thing I would change is to weed out some of the cabs that are in worse shape than the Sukhumvit pavement. Then again, most of these hang out at the airport anyway.

RIP little one...your atoms are indestructible.

Ummm... not correct as we know since the 1930's

Slow news day?

in the meantime i will continue to take advantage of the booth with the red light on and no cars in line at din daeng

Just back from Singapore. Now they are exchanging their old e-link cards, so now it not only works on the MRT and busses but also on the ERP tollroad system, schoolchildren can purchase their schoollunch at schools with the new card and shopping in 7-Eleven. It would be nice if the Thai authorities could make a study on that.

...or if you stayed in Singapore and kept the silly comparisons to yourself.

How is that a "silly comparison"? Do you think Thailand is so far behind Singapore that they could not implement a pay card system that can be universally used in mass transport, toll collection and payments in convenience stores, bar fines etc.? Apart from S'pore similar systems already exist in Korea (T-Money), Hong Kong (Octopus card) and I'm sure several other countries, widely accepted and much more convenient than using coins and small notes. As far as road tolls go, I'm all for the Korean system which allows you to drive through the gate at 40 (recommended) to 80 km/h (any faster and you'll probably hit the barrier before it snaps up).

I certainly did not love the old Bangkok system where you had to slow down to a crawl all the time to see if your blue gadget worked, and frequently back up 20 meters because the driver in front of you had one that didn't work at that time. I sure hope they make 8 out of 10 gates electronic toll only.

Anyway NanLaew, &lt;deleted&gt;