cutter007

Twitter is gambling here. Nothing is to stop more robust competitors from emerging and dipping into Twitter's market share. The joy shared by certain ruling elites, who inflict incessant propaganda on to their dumbed-down nations, might be premature.

Totally agree, this leaves the door open for someone to copy there platform but without the censorship.

if you live here abide by the rules is my view. if however you are a resident of say Vietnam, should twitter or facebook block your post?

Your missing the point, now a few people at the top will have easy access to technology, that will allow them to

decide, quickly and on a moments notice, what they deam to be "the rules" at that time.

Need to have a coup to overthrow a government that was voted in democratically, no problem the "rule" today is to

block key government peoples twitter accounts for 24 - 48 hours.

Power NOT to the people.

Apple has good products but they are ripping off the consumers with their extremely high prices. But as long as people are willing to pay through the nose for something worth half the price, mostly as a status symbol , Apple will continue to get richer and the consumer poorer.

My mom bought some 200 USD tablet from the US, that runs on Android, it was a joke.

The hardware was obviously not suitable for the operating system, and 90% of the applications including the browser were

unusable unless you wanted to wanted to wait 10 minutes to complete a 30 second task.

I handed it back and told her I wouldn't pay a dollar for it.

These are the ripoffs.

_{I love this country, only here can a man that owns huge brothels in plain}

_{view in a country where prostitution is illegal, make the news by informing}

_{on underground gambling dens.}

_{The only thing I could compare it to is walking into your local police station}

_{with a smoking crystal meth pipe hanging out of your mouth, and telling them}

_{you have information about a possible pot dealer in the neighborhood.}

_{Chuwit is batman and Magnum PI all rolled into one!!!!! Rock that stash!!!!}

I wonder what kind of crap they put in a 100 bht pizza...

It's a form of cheese flavored cookable mayo, as a substitute for some of the cheese.

CP conglomerate enjoys a near-monopoly position on a large series of consumer products.

Calling for higher wages in the sector when you are the leader will hit your competitors (lower profitability with similar process) harder than you and may reinforce your position in the long run.

If this is the reason, we are far from the big heart humanism we may see in it.

By far this is the smartest post here.

Most of the other posts are absolutely clueless.

Someone actually suggested that tesco lotus target market was "farangs" and rich Thais. I printed that one out, I am going to show it to the tesco purchasing guys next time we meet. I am sure they will have a good laugh, opening up branches in places like Sam chuk suphanburi and selling to only farangs and rich Thais.

Most of the other posters wouldn't sound so ignorant if they understood that with the minimum wage hike they are also dropping the corporate tax rate from 30% to 23% then to 20%.

Companies will actually be moving here not moving out, and thats not speculation that's straight from the mouths of senior management at at least a half dozen billion dollar companies in thailand.

i take exception to this persons statement about nurses pay soaring. My wife was a nurse for 17 years and there has been no increase in salary for 10 years. And even now is only 15,000 bht a month! could you live on that?. They do the work but the Doctors get the big money. About 80,000 bht a month!

our accounting gets 8000 bht per month and she can live on that. Motorbike guys get 6000 Baht and can live with that

I think you should rephrase the statement to 'survive' on 8000bht per month. At that income level that's all your doing, surviving hand to mouth. I bet many of the motorbike guys, especially in central bangkok get more like 60'000 a month. In the provinces perhaps 6'000 is a good estimate.

Motorbike guys at the queue pull in between 15,000 - 20,000 per month.

If your making less than 10,000 in bangkok, your a sap, because it's a dangerous job.

Love the wai photo. Sawadii krap, president banana here............. banana banana banana.

My only complaint is Yingluck has got to get some other hotties in there. We all know that

her only other use other than as a wind up doll, is her hotness.

Yingluck needs to get the "Dream Team" cabinet rolling. I suggest that she sends advisors to

coyote bars across the city, for immediate vetting of cabinet positions, as the following positions

need to be filled:

Tall skinny one, with white skin: Sports and tourism minister

With braces, and can add single digits without a calculator: Finance minister

Full figure girl with knock out smile: Industrial minister.....................

Same stuff would get done, but the difference would be a whole lot better news programs, and

if Yingluck had some backup dancers she would shut up and stop pretending to actually know something, and

get up and DANCE DANCE DANCE!!!

I fear that this letter will go straight to the grey file.

Thats pretty optimistic that you think they will put it in a file.

Mr Granata held onto borrowers’ passports until the debt was repaid – much like most motorbike rental operators in Patong

Isn't holding onto anothers passport also illegal? Don't all foreingers in Thailand have to carry their passport as ID unless they have some other form of acceptable ID such as a Thai driving license.

Never surrender your passport to anybody for any reason other than being released out of criminal custody on bail or to your own embassy/consulate.

You obviously don't do much business in Thailand. Although it is no where near as bad as it was 10 years ago, I have to give up my passport all the time, whether it's to people at the ports, government offices, banks, embassys etc.

Just last week, I gave it to the Chinese embassy to get a visa................so you might want to amend your advise.

Nearly impossible to get, interview conducted in both written & spoken Thai, proof of at-least 60,000 THB paid in tax, 250,000 THB fee, business holdings in I forget the amount, that's only what I remember. In 31 yrs only know of one farang to ever get one.

If anyone is thinking it's & easy way out 90 day report dates, & worth maybe $20,000.00 USD go for it.

"Nearly impossible"?

How wrong can you be? I know so so many PR's...dozens and dozens of them.

If you're qualified and speak anything resembling basic Thai, you will get it if you are patient enough.

One day someone is going to decide to clean out the backlog, then everyone in the queue will get it. If you're not in the queue because you think it's "nearly impossible" or that you'll be dead first -- obviously you're not going to get it.

You questioned someone who posted his friend spent big baht trying to get one.You claimed you got it, "it is a points system"Then a mod listed the costs which are substantial Could you clarify this anomaly?

An unsuccessful applicant should only be out the application fee (7,600 baht). The poster claimed he was out 100K+...

You can spend 100K or more and get rejected if you use some lawyer or visa consulting service. I would advise against these, if you need someone other than a secretary or a good Thai friend to help you, you probably will have issues getting approved anyways.

I applied this year, got a couple docs to submit later on, that I missed. They give you a couple weeks,

as long as you have most of the stuff during the application period.

Although i can read and write on about a 4th grade level, you don't need to for the test, and that is from

the immigration officers mouth, less than a week ago.

Just basic conversational Thai.

Couple of basic points, for everyone that is complaining about the amount of notice given for the application period, it is well known and they will

tell you any time of the year, if you ask at immigration, that if they are going to open PR apps then it will be the last couple of

weeks of the year.

So don't complain if you can't be bothered to place a call to immigration and ask a basic question.

One thing no one pointed out, is while you are waiting for your application to be approved, they give you 6 month stamps to stay in Thailand,

and the only thing you need to do to get this, is go down and fill out a one page form.

For anyone that has done a 1 year business visa extension, and submitted the 3 inches of paperwork that is involved,

even if you don't get approved, the benefits of the approval process are worth the fee.

Hell, I wouldn't even mind if I was never approved, and just kept getting the 6 month stamps.

I am doing it because I don't want to fill out the paperwork for the 1 year extensions, thats it.

But there are a number of benefits if your on a work visa, the main being if you lose your job, your visa

is cancelled very quickly.

I think there are probably less benefits if you are on something like a retirement visa, because your

paperwork requirements are fairly small to apply for the extension.

Last note, I would think it would be difficult to apply on your own unless, your language skills including reading and writing

are very very good.

Thais don't even understand the meaning of the word fair fight, and typically they will

back down and run, if they don't think they will have a ratio of at least 4 to 1.

What does this have to do with this case?

The guy was a trained fighter and sustained heavy injuries, so no matter who is

telling the truth it can be assertained beyond a resonable doubt that the fight was

him vs. multiple other people.

If it was one on one, I am sure he would have beat down the other person without even breaking a nail.

I have seen at least a dozen fights in Thailand, never seen a bunch of foreigners beating up on one

person, it was either Thais beating on foreigners or on other Thais.

Also, he has the injuries to confirm the bottle being dropped on his head, again never seen a foreigner

use a weapon like this in bar fight in Thailand, but I have been treatened, with a knife, broken bottle, bat

in bars in Thailand, again always by a local citizen.

This is probably because most foreigners know (no matter how drunk they are), if you swing the knife the wrong way in a western country and you might

go to jail for the rest of your life, instead of for the night.

So it is safe to guess that the majority of the people on team "Beat UFC guy down" were

not foreigners.

Was that enough connecting the dots for you.

This sounded like a pretty even match, they should drop the man hunt.

Thais don't even understand the meaning of the word fair fight, and typically they will

back down and run, if they don't think they will have a ratio of at least 4 to 1.

So matching that mentality up against a hot headed UFC guy, and everything looks about even.

I never understood the appeal to being a dictator for somewhere like North Korea.

I mean seriously, sure you have absolute power and you can do whatever you want

inside your borders, but what is there to do? count your rocks and order around a bunch of uneducated peasents,

that would get old in a weekend.

I mean seriously I think I would trade being the leader of North Korea for a bag of microwave

popcorn and a cable TV subscription.

I remember a couple years back it was huge news that they had an Italian restaurant.

Can you imagine the Detroit Free Press running on there front page when Auburn Hills gets an

Olive Garden?

Anyone with a chuck of change could be Kim Jong, you rent a couple thousand acres

somewhere like North Dakota, then you hire a bunch of people with as little education as

possible and order them around, while accomplishing nothing, and producing less than

what is required to keep themselves alive.

Once every couple of years, you put on some platform shoes and shades,

go into town and yell from a soap box about how great you are.

Congrats on your new job Jong "King of Dirt" Un

Burma was an English colony.

It has millions of English speakers train by the British (the real McCoy).

Why not just hire Burmese English Teachers. Cheap and good.

"English colony" and here was me thinking all along that they were a former British colony!

British left Burma in 1948, considering that if you took someone that finished

high school in 1948, that would make them about 81 now.

Great idea, Thailand should tap that huge pool of British taught 81 year old Burmese english speakers,

Thailand can bring them over and stick them in front of a class of 12 year old Thais.

Anyone that has been to Burma for a day, knows that the junta beat any sense evidence of english skills out of the

populous decades ago.

The most useful move that the education system could make would be to Romanise the Thai alphabet, this is the biggest obstacle to learning English, and conversely for foreigners learning Thai. Just look at how Turkey emerged from the Middle Ages when it converted from Arabic to Roman.

As to unqualified but native speakers, these can do an adequate job if the department also contains enough qualified and experienced teachers to provide guidance. At the moment it is often the one eyed leading the blind.

Will never happen, to even suggest it would be blasphemous.

Never would be suggested, out of respect for who created the alphabet, apparently it is disrespectful to update out of date things according to Thai rational. The way it was originally designed is the best way and any improvements or updates to it would mean that the creater didn't do it completely perfect the first time.

They are still teaching the names of characters that are not even used in a single word in the language anymore.

Of course the wealthier and educated Thai's know this a ridiculous way to think, but if they educated the

masses that this was a silly and unproductive way to think, it would also erode at some values that are core tools, use to control these uneducated masses.

5,000 baht obviously isn't enough to compensate for the damage, but it is the standard pay out for flood victims for previous governments.

I know it's harsh, but, why should they get anything?

It's a taxpayer hand out that just means there is less money to spend on other things that the government should be spending money on ... ie proper cleaning after the floods, repairing roads, better flood protection, better public transport.

Do these people do anything for themselves to give them protection from floods? Insurance? Plans to protect their belongings?

I second that, why is in that anytime something bad happens to people or companies on a large scale, they feel the

need to give a cash payout.

Its the same as the highway tolls, it's great the highways are free, but in another 6 months, they will hike the toll, to compenstate for all this lost revenue.

What's the logic..................."sorry we dropped the ball, and left all the dams at near capacity, even though the rainy season

started 2 months early...............but don't get too stressed, because you can ride all the expressways for

free, while you wait for your house to drain"

Have these guys been to Lopburi, there is nothing to do even when it isn't flooding.

Same same, I always know when it's about the middle of rainy season, because

there will always be one token monkey, ie bureaucrat that will stand up and say the same line.

We knew it would rain a lot, but we didn't expect it to rain THIS much.

Why would they not allow it? If farmers want to band together and do something like this, how could PT or anyone else stop them? After all the cooperative Lungmi speaks of was set up by farmers themselves, not by the government, wasn't it? (I'm not a huge fan of cooperatives set up by governments anyway, bottom up is far preferable, was reading about the cooperatives started by Chavez, sounds like a massive scam that's helped almost no one to me).

Easy for them to stop it. Try donating money for a community center somewhere in isaan. My guess is 90% of the time you won't get provincial approval. Even if you are offering to fund 100% yourself. They don't want people to have centralized places to meet, and I am sure one of the main reasons is that single individuals are powerless but grouped together they wield some power, and that's the last thing the politicians and middlemen want.

The issue of whether the correct procedure has been followed is a red herring as all they would need to do is give it the the right person.

If Thaksin wants a Royal Pardon, why does he not request it himself (as is the case in most pardon requests)?

.

Technically having your clone draft and push it through would be requesting it yourself. Basically approving it himself as well.

Let's be honest thaksin owns this government, and I am sure when he sells it to whoever the takers are, he won't pay taxes of those profits as well.

Three questions;

1. What time can Taksin be ready to fly.

2. What time is his the taxi to the airport.

3. What time will his plane land in Thailand.

In or before December he already said he needs to be back for his kids wedding. Is it really necessary to even do a pardon review?

Supreme commander has already spoken.......... laws and other people's opinions are not relevant when in conflict to his wishes.

They should just hurry up and issue a "coupe" pardon, so that we can all get our free iPads.

I love Thailand the politicians are funnier than any comic I have read.

Great lesson they are teaching. I like Thailand one of the reasons why is I can do whatever I want. And the most I have to worry about is once in a while paying some some money to the muppets in brown.

They should put it in the TAT promotions "come to Thailand do whatever you want!"

Well yingluck is definitely proving she is a thaksin clone. Double tourist arrivals..........sell 1 million Thai elite cards. Sound familiar?

When a rail link, metro or any other type of connection is built anywhere in the world; there is a study made of the 'rider' numbers. Each year this increases hopefully and as more and more connections are added, then more trains or a more frequent service is planned. Of course; these figures can only be estimated on an average over the time. It is inevitable that rider figures are going to be high at the beginning of a new connection. Usually; these figures fall with time and then level to an average over the coming years.

BTS bases their requirements for travel on this average figure. Usually; the people who do this calculation are a very professional bunch of people who get the figure right, in the long run.

Gotta disagree with you Mark, you info about the train tech knowledge sounds good, not so great on the observation of BTS management,

I would call these muppets a lot of things but professional is not one of them.

They are adding 3 - 4 stations supposedly going online next year on the Silom line.

These "professional" BTS management and traffic engineers, are saying hey lets pack people on for 3 to 4 hours a day in dangerous conditions, because passenger traffic is likely to fall off and stabilize in the next 6 - 12 months on the Suk line.

Instead of saying, hey probably if traffic ever does fall off a bit on the Suk line, to a lower average, we will be just in time to shift those cars

over to the Silom line in anticipation of the surge when we those additional stations online.

An intern at the New York subway system could figure that one out, but then again that same kid might be over qualified as

MD for BTSC.

I talked to one guy at BTSC, although he was administration and not engineering, he was still about as clueless as you could get. He didn't even understand basic concepts like traffic growth on a line will increase exponentially not linearly when new stations are added.

I tried present simply that increasing 3 stations on a line with 6 existing stations, will not generate the same traffic growth,

as adding 3 stations on a line with 9 existing stations.

And estimating the growth patterns wouldn't require anything more than high school calculus.