Vietnamese vegetarian killed in apparent suicide in Nonthaburi

Via: The Nation

Nonthaburi – A Vietnamese vegetarian was killed Monday morning in apparent suicide when he fell from his room of a residential building in side the Sukhothai Thammathirat University.

Tran Huu Dan, 24, fell from his room on the eight floor of the Chalermprakiart Building at 9:30 am.He checked into the room with three other friends on May 22. They were scheduled to check out Monay.

Komsan Phokong, deputy director of the open university, said some 1,000 Vietnamese vegetarians sought permission to use the university’s compound to organize the world vegetarian festival to pray from May 22 to 30.

They arrived on buses and stayed at the building.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/Vietnamese-vegetarian-killed-in-apparent-suicide-i-30156545.html

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photo: ‘Heavy tongue piercing at the annual Vegetarian Festival Thailand’

http://www.thailandmagic.com/Thailand-Festivals.html

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Q: Did you go to the Vegetarian Festival?

A: Oh, hell no!    I STAYED ON THE BUS, and Tip the driver and I, had ribs at the Dukes, Chiang Mai.

https://seattle99.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/chiang-mai-the-dukes-restaurant/

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Law on high-rise buildings needs updating

via: The Nation

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In photo: Officials from a Chiang Mai administrative body inspect the damage caused to a high-rise building in the city after an earthquake hit Burma earlier this month. There are 40 buildings more than 15 stories high in downtown Chiang Mai.

The current law, under which buildings should be able to withstand tremors of up to 5 on the Richter scale, only covers structures that are over 23 metres in height.

~~~

Dr Amorn Pimanmas, chairman of a panel on structural and bridge engineering at the Engineering Institute of Thailand, said the amendment was necessary given that there are buildings like manufacturing plants, boilers and chemical plants that can be severely damaged in a quake, which take place more often now.

Amorn said the regulation issued in 2007 had not been updated and that its coverage of building types and areas as risk was not comprehensive. Under the current law only buildings that are more than 23 metres in height and built after 2007 are required to withstand earthquakes. The law does not cover structures like manufacturing plants both inside and outside industrial estates, boilers and commercial buildings.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/04/15/business/Law-on-high-rise-buildings-needs-updating-30153170.html

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Let’s see if I’ve got this:

– the current law only covers structures over 23 meters tall

Now let’s say the average floor is 3 to 3.5 meters tall, the number of floors in a 23-meter structuire would be 7 or 8, correcto mundo?

Soooo, presumably ALL BUILDINGS, including MY 8-story apartment, meet code for a 5.0 Richter scale quake.

YES?    NO?    MAYBE?

definate maybe, huh?

Oh well, mai pen lai

🙂

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regarding the photo: Unless the Mae Ping River has flooded it banks again, I would guess that’s NOT Chiang Mai.

YES?   NO?   MAYBE?

And I tell ya what; I’d feel a lot more confident about the information in The Nation, if someone would take the time to ‘proofread’.

I mean, JEEZ!

Booze-free ‘safety areas’ set for Songkran

via: The Nation

“Safety areas” for Songkran water fights and celebrations are to be designated at 60 locations in 44 provinces this year, a network of antialcohol and accident prevention groups said yesterday.

The zones are aimed at tackling drunk driving and reducing road accident rates and crime during the festival from April 1317 this year.

April 1317? – April 13 through April 17

Sale and consumption of liquor will be prohibited in the areas, with Sonkgran revellers encouraged to gather and celebrate traditional events, said Supreeda Adulyanont, a senior Thai Health Promotion Foundation official.

~~~

– There have been an average of 1,948 DEATHS  per YEAR during Songkran in the PAST FOUR YEARS and another 1,423 people made disabled by road accidents caused by drunk driving.

– A similar survey found that 58 PER CENT of PEOPLE KILLED in road accidents last year had been DRINKING, with a QUARTED of them being under 20.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/04/08/national/Booze-free-safety-areas-set-for-Songkran-30152785.html

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1,948 x 58% = 1,130 x 25% = 282 deaths UNDER age 20

I personally think it’s a excellant campaign, and I wish them well.

 

Cabinet to consider approving pricey military gift list

via: The Nation (April 6, 2011)

– The biggest item will be 200 new medium tanks to replace, on a unit-by-unit basis, vintage US M41 tanks.

– Another 82 BTR3-E1 wheeled armoured personnel carriers, made in Ukraine and worth Bt4 billion, are to be handed over to the Army, and a further 121 BTR3-E1s, worth Bt5 billion, will be purchased in a later phase.

– Three Russian-made medium Mi-17V5 helicopters, worth Bt994 million, are also on the list, to replace ageing US-made CH-47 Chinooks, for which maintenance and obtaining spare parts has become difficult and expensive.

– Three more US-made UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters will also be bought at a cost of Bt2 billion.

– The Royal Thai Air Force will get another six Swedish-made Gripen jet fighters, worth Bt16 billion, in the next two years. The first six, which cost Thailand Bt19 billion, arrived in February.

– A number of rescue helicopters are also being sought by the RTAF, as those currently in use have proved less than fully capable of helping in disasters.

– Support and radar systems currently being used with US-made F-16 fighter jets will be integrated into new systems coming with the Gripen fighters, to make the different aircraft work together, the RTAF said in its purchase request. It has not yet said when the integration will take place or how much it will cost.

– The Navy is also pushing for Cabinet endorsement of projects that require funding of more than Bt16 billion, to buy six used submarines and to upgrade two of its frigates, the Taksin and the Naresuan, at a cost of Bt7.5 billion.

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current exchange rate @30.21Bt

1,000,000,000 Bt = plus/minus $33,101,621.98 USD

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/Cabinet-to-consider-approving-pricey-military-gift-30152606.html

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via: The Nation (April 6, 2011)

‘No coup’

In an unprecedented move, top commanders came out yesterday to declare there would definitely be no military overthrow of the government.

“We ask you not to believe the rumours that soldiers will stage a coup. The Thai Armed Forces strictly abide by the Constitution under constitutional monarchy. Soldiers will not get involved in any political affairs,” supreme commander General Songkitti Jaggabatara told a news conference together with the chiefs of the three armed branches.

He also warned that any military unit moving out of its barracks without orders would be charged with treason.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/04/06/national/No-coup-30152605.html

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via the Nation (April 6, 2011)

purely coincident?ally, I’m sur?e,

‘Hikes in soybean oil and milk prices’

The Commerce Ministry is allowing manufacturers of bottled soybean oil to increase the price by Bt9 per litre from tomorrow.

Yesterday’s approval will bring retail prices of soybean oil up to Bt55 per litre from Bt46.

“The price will have to be reviewed again in three months,” Vatchari Vimooktayon, director-general of Internal Trade Department, said.

The department is consider?ing the price of several goods, since manufacturers are strug?gling from rising production costs. The next product to be considered for price adjustment would be fertiliser.

Vatchari said the price of soybean oil had been increased in line with the cost of import?ed soybean seed, which has risen from Bt14.86 to Bt17.31 per kilogram. In order to pro?duce one litre of oil, 5.87kg of soybean seeds have to be used. As a result, it costs manufac?turers an extra Bt14.09 to pro?duce a litre of oil, which is why they want to set the retail price at Bt60 per litre.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/04/06/business/Hikes-in-soybean-oil-and-milk-prices-30152591.html

Unseasonably wet ‘DRY season’ weather in Thailand

Bangkok traffic flows during morning rush hours yesterday became paralyzed after the city was hit by heavy rains and gusty wind causing three traffic lanes to be blocked by fallen trees and flooding condition covering 23 spots of main roads.

Following heavy downpours since 4.30am until late morning yesterday traffic jams became SEVERE especially . . .

~ 

Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) Department of Drainage and Sewerage director Sanya Chenimit said the amount of rainfall in Bangkok yesterday early morning was measured as 70120 millimeters HENCE many flooding conditions . . .

~

Meanwhile, Chon Buri’s Pattaya City residents were frighten of ‘tsunami like in Japan’ after the city was hit by heavy rains and gusty winds early yesterday morning, causing signboards and trees to collapse, a blackout, flooding condition in various areas and subsequent traffic jams while many resident homes were also damaged by strong wind – but the authority affirmed there was no such tsunami gathering in the Pattaya Bay.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/03/24/national/Bangkok-hobbles-during-morning-rush-hour-after-hea-30151662.html

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70,120 millimeters = 2,761 inches

I don’t know, but it seems to me the ‘Nation’ and the ‘Bangkok Post’ newspapers are in SEVERE need of proofreaders.

https://seattle99.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/thai-says-its-tickets-from-japan-not-overpriced/

https://seattle99.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/everyone-is-a-critic/

 AMAZING THAILAND!

THAI says its tickets from Japan not overpriced

via: The Nation

Thai Airways International insists that it charges a single price for a oneway ticket from Japan to Thailand, Bt16,000 inclusive of all surcharges. With the tickets, Thai citizens can board THAI planes from any of the country’s five international airports – Narita, Haneda, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/03/19/national/THAI-says-its-tickets-from-Japan-not-overpriced-30151264.html

16,000baht @ 30.35 = $527USD

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Thailand to review nuclear power plan: minister

The study on building nuclear power plants will be thoroughly reviewed amid the unfolding nuclear crisis in Japan which will be a study case for Thailand, Energy Minister Wannarat Channukul on Thursday said Thursday.

““

Initially, FIVE 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plants are to be be built on 2020, but if the plan is disrupted, it must be replaced with another form of alternative energy. In this case 13 coal-fired power plants and one natural gas plant will be built, according to the minister.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2011/03/17/national/Thailand-to-review-nuclear-power-plan-minister-30151135.html

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” . . . Energy Minister Wannarat Channukul on Thursday said Thursday.”

“. . . to be be built on 2020”

Jeez, can’t help help but wonder what the ‘BKK to NRT’ price will be; hmm, maybe I should buy now.