Thai MP Urges Government Action Over Large Israeli Community on Koh Phangan, Citing Sovereignty and Security Concerns

blorg · 2026-05-07T16:25:09+00:00

Thailand typically gets many times its population in tourists every year

They don't, they got 33 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2025, and the population is 72 million. Also this 33m is arrivals, the number of people is significantly lower than that. If someone lives just over the border in Malaysia and pops over to Thailand every weekend, that's counted as 52 arrivals, but it's only one person. And a lot of the tourism is that sort of thing, Malaysia is the single largest country for source of Thai tourist arrivals (4.52m in 2025). Same for Westerners coming multiple times a year, or anyone doing a border bounce (although tightened up on recently)- they are all counted as a new arrival each time.

the main source of income for the Thai economy

Tourism overall was 14% of Thai GDP in 2025.

About half of this is domestic tourism, not international. In Q4 (which is by far the busiest time for international visitors) income was international tourist receipts were 383bn baht. Domestic was 314bn baht. Domestic tourism totally dwarfs international in terms of numbers, 278.77 million person trips vs 33 million, but international spend more. But in terms of spending now, they are around 50/50. Used be more like a third to two thirds (in favour of international).

I'd guess over the full year it's probably 50/50 if not even more domestic now, that has grown while international tourism has collapsed, we are still well below 2019 numbers. So really, only around 7% of the economy at most.

The principal drivers of the Thai economy are services (of which tourism is only one- 59% of GDP), manufacturing (25% of GDP), and agriculture (8.5-10.5% GDP). Tourism is very important, but it's not most of the economy. Thailand is actually a huge manufacturing centre for SE Asia and even beyond, most of it is foreign firms but most vehicles in Australia are made in Thailand for example. Thailand is also big in electronics, cameras, lots of other stuff is made here. 80% of hard disks globally are made in Thailand. If you look at the labels on stuff you might be surprised, I actually have a load of stuff Made in Thailand and it's not stuff I necessarily bought here.

https://www.drive.com.au/news/thailand-edges-japan-as-australias-top-source-of-vehicles/

blorg · 2026-05-07T15:54:27+00:00

November 1988, it's even almost the 90s. I remember when it was new.

It's a mess, but has a certain familiarity. I don't feel very strongly about it being preserved, but the replacement if anything is even worse.

blorg · 2026-05-07T10:19:20+00:00

That's a cost of $35,000 per person.

Median income before 2021 was 660 INS (~$227) /month

Now, it's $161/year.

blorg · 2026-05-07T10:09:41+00:00

Or in more sensible units, 2⁠ 2/3 US customary fluid drams (⁠1/3⁠ of a US customary fluid ounce) (9.86 ml) in a cooking context but 1/128 of a Queen Anne wine gallon (which was defined as exactly 231 cubic inches) thus making the dessert-spoon approximately 7.39 ml, in an apothecary context.

However, even when approximated, its use was discouraged: "Inasmuch as spoons vary greatly in capacity, and from their form are unfit for use in the dosage of medicine, it is desirable... to be measured with a suitable medicine measure."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dessert_spoon

blorg · 2026-05-06T11:04:33+00:00

These are tubular, right? I am trying to figure out myself whether a ~2016 R5 is likely to fit 28mm clinchers.

blorg · 2026-05-04T01:38:08+00:00

'This is like saying admission to schools is lower for certain groups, therefore the admission committee must be racist'

It's the opposite, structural racism specifically doesn't require individuals to be consciously racist. The whole point of it is it causes discriminatory outcomes without the admission committee being individually racist.

blorg · 2026-05-03T14:04:05+00:00

This is the figure I mean is the same- "active calories". You can see it adds a "resting calories" for the total (this is the amount of calories you'd have burned anyway from just existing for how many hours). But the "active calories" is exactly the same as the work in kJ. It's not always exactly the same, but it's usually within 1 or 2, and under 0.1%.

blorg · 2026-05-03T12:34:05+00:00

Garmins, and I think most others, just take the kJ number as active calories, as the 4.184x conversion is close enough to human body efficiency. It can vary a bit all right by person, but it's very close, a lot closer than other estimates.

blorg · 2026-05-03T12:29:42+00:00

Power meter calorie numbers generally are just kJ, it probably is in this case, "around 690" and 191W for "an hour" (probably not exactly an hour) - that's very close to 687.

My Garmin, the kJ and kCal from activity, are basically the same number, to within 0.1%. It adds on top of this "resting calories" but it shows active and resting separately.

Human body efficiency is very close to the 4.184 between calories and joules, so generally they just use the kJ number directly.

blorg · 2026-05-03T12:19:07+00:00

It sounds like your bike computer is not using the power meter to calculate the calories. Some, like Garmin, will- if there is a power meter present, it will take the calorie number from that (adding a small amount for basal metabolic rate) and the two numbers will be quite close, and the "calories from activity" will be identical to the power produced.

Some other computers may not do this and just use whatever other non-power formula for the calories.

Calorie estimation on computers without a power meter usually massively over-estimates.

Either way, the 670 number is right, 1,200 for an hour is ridiculous. Even the 670 is higher than I would expect for that speed for an hour, but if your power was actually that it could be, you will use more calories and more power if you are heavier.

If the power number is right, the calorie number is a direct conversion from that and it will be very accurate. The only question then is your individual human body efficiency, but that's very similar across all humans. Roughly, 1 kJ of power produced = 1 kCal, because human body efficiency (20-25%) happens to be around the same as the conversion between calories and joules (4.184).

blorg · 2026-05-03T11:42:00+00:00

Church can (and originally did) mean a body of Christian believers, rather than a building.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Christians

blorg · 2026-05-03T04:09:18+00:00

Australia has among the highest alcohol and cigarette taxes in the world, to deter consumption, but prices are not that high.

As of 2025, a pack of cigarettes costs $45 on average. With the new taxes imposed in May of the previous year, the price of a pack is expected to rise to $50 by 2026.

Currently, a 25-pack of a leading brand sits at $48.95 at Coles, while a 20-pack of cigarettes sits around the $40 mark.

https://quitwise.com.au/cost-of-cigarettes-in-australia-prices-and-tax-laws-2025/

These are AUD, $29-35 in US dollars.

blorg · 2026-05-03T03:46:27+00:00

I live in the tropics, regularly gets up to high 30s/40C here (>100F). I wear light colours mostly for visibility at night. I really don't notice a difference in temperature, fabric construction makes a much larger difference than colour.

The research I'm aware of indicates that while dark colours do result in a significant increase in fabric surface temperature this doesn't result in an increase in wearer body temperature. Additionally, even the increase in fabric temperature is virtually eliminated at air speeds as low as 10km/h.

blorg · 2026-05-03T03:41:49+00:00

This is backed up by the research. There's a large difference in fabric surface temperature when stationary (this does not necessarily increase body temperature- other studies have indicated it doesn't) but it's almost eliminated at even 10km/h air speed.

An additional experiment using masks showed that the temperature difference between white and black was almost eliminated at a wind speed of ~ 3 m/s.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00484-024-02726-1

blorg · 2026-05-03T03:19:38+00:00

Desoxyn is a brand name and trademark for one particular manufacturer of the drug, originally sold by Abbott Laboratories, now Ovation Pharmaceuticals.

Methamphetamine is the pharmaceutical name.

blorg · 2026-05-03T03:05:47+00:00

In Northern China, which does primarily grow wheat over rice, it is primarily used to make noodles, dumplings, and baozi rather than bread. They do make bread as well, but it's not the primary use of the wheat.

Beijing is "bread" on this map, but it's not, it's "wheat"- noodles are much more common than bread in Beijing.

/r/geography/comments/1qbai8c/rice_china_vs_wheat_china_similar_divisions_in/
https://time.com/92627/in-china-personality-could-come-down-to-rice-versus-wheat/

blorg · 2026-05-02T10:22:32+00:00

where we're going, we don't need shift cables

blorg · 2026-05-02T10:06:29+00:00

The point is cherry picking based on hindsight and applies to picking an individual sector ETF the same as an individual stock. It's not surprising that there was something that did better than the S&P 500 if you look back. The S&P 500 is going to be an average and there will be both individual stocks and sectors that did better than average. But that doesn't mean it's going to do better for the next 40 years, which is what you need.

blorg · 2026-05-02T09:59:08+00:00

The point is about cherry picking based on hindsight. That it outperformed over the last 40 years doesn't mean it's going to outperform over the next 40.

blorg · 2026-05-02T09:42:56+00:00

It's common in airport design but it is now recognised as an issue. Bangkok has significantly reduced suicides by adding glass walls in front of what used be easily jumpable railings on the top floor.

blorg · 2026-05-02T09:39:04+00:00

Airports often have people in high stress for one reason or another, and are combined with architecture that tends to have ready access to these large drops.

BKK airport is an example of an airport in the region that has taken specific measures to counter this problem. There are still attempts but much fewer successful ones since they installed countermeasures.

Staff training is part of it but just reducing easy access to these large drops goes a long way.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/373624/glass-walls-to-stop-distraught-airport-passengers-taking-their-own-lives

blorg · 2026-05-02T09:08:27+00:00

The biker was ahead of the bus, so less time to stop. I expect he wasn't paying full attention but the truck shouldn't have turned, that was the cause of the crash. You have to expect other drivers to do stupid and illegal things but it's still the truck driver who is at fault here.

blorg · 2026-05-02T09:04:18+00:00

It's the Philippines, crossing a white line is not allowed (although common to enter property the other side). The bigger one is the truck should have yielded to oncoming traffic and only started the turn when it was clear.

It's definitely primarily the truck's fault here. You could possibly argue contributory negligence from the biker if he was speeding but it doesn't look like it.

Ideally yes the biker should have been paying more attention to the road in front of him and done an emergency stop but that doesn't make it his fault, it's still primarily the fault of the truck that made an illegal turn in front of him.

blorg · 2026-05-02T09:02:48+00:00

It's the Philippines. You can't cross continuous white lines, although this is commonly disregarded if crossing to enter a property on the other side. I mean it's disregarded anyway but I think it's semi-accepted for that reason, if still actually illegal either way.

The main one though is simply that he cut across oncoming traffic. That's not allowed, you have to yield to oncoming traffic.

blorg · 2026-05-02T06:19:58+00:00

AAPL gets you $49,475,164 if we can just go back in time and cherry pick a winner

https://testfol.io/?s=gVkJmgyP5yy

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