WannaGo

Wow, they really don't mess around with these things, do they? BANGKOK -- Thai police arrested two people on suspicion of using the Internet to spread rumors about the health of the country's 81-year-old king that sent stock prices tumbling last month. The two -- both of whom have worked in the securities industry -- were charged Sunday with violating Thailand's Computer Crimes Act by "feeding untrue information through a computer system which undermined the security of the nation," a Thai police spokesman said. Thailand's Stock Exchange Index fell a combined 7.2% on October 14 and 15 as rumors circulated about the health of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-serving monarch. He had been admitted to the hospital with pneumonia-like symptoms and is still there. Authorities have said his health is improving. Teeranu Wipuchanin, a 43-year-old former stock trader, was arrested at Bangkok's international airport after returning from a trip overseas. She told reporters after her arrest that she translated an article from financial news and data provider Bloomberg LP, which attributed the market's decline to rumors about the king's health, and posted it online. "Everybody on that day wanted to know what caused the market to fall," Ms. Teeranu said. A spokeswoman at Bloomberg's corporate headquarters in New York didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. Police also arrested Bangkok-based stock broker Kata Pajajariyapong, who couldn't be reached for comment. Both were charged under Thailand's computer-crimes law and face up to five years in prison and a $3,000 fine each if convicted.

There are so many things wrong here. 1. We're so short of qualified teachers that we have to recruit outside the country. 2. The school districts seem to have done little to take care of the teachers in their employ. 3. The woman behind all of this is not already in jail. Federal complaint: Filipino teachers held in 'servitude' By Greg Toppo and Icess Fernandez, USA TODAY BATON ROUGE — It has been more than two years since Ingrid Cruz aced a middle-of-the-night video interview in Manila, borrowed $10,000 from her parents and flew halfway around the world to take a job here teaching middle school science. She was seeking that most American of dreams: a new life, and opportunities she couldn't approach back home. But along the way, Cruz says she has endured intimidation, humiliation, extortion and a long, painful separation from her young daughters. Cruz is one of more than 300 teachers imported to Louisiana from the Philippines since 2007, a group of educators who say collectively they paid millions of dollars in cash to a Filipino recruiting firm, PARS International Placement Agency, and its sister company, Los Angeles-based Universal Placement International Inc. Cases like those of Cruz and others prompted the American Federation of Teachers and its state affiliate, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, to file a complaint on Sept. 30 with the state Workforce Commission and attorney general. On Oct. 20, AFT filed a lengthier complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor. The unions allege the companies kept the teachers in "virtual servitude" by holding onto their U.S. work visas unless they kept paying inflated fees, commissions and rents. Teachers paid upward of $16,000 apiece — about four times what they could earn annually as teachers in the Philippines — to get and keep jobs with public schools here. USA TODAY was unsuccessful in repeated attempts since Oct. 16 to get a response to the allegations from Lourdes "Lulu" Navarro, the owner of Universal, or a spokesperson. The situation underscores the vulnerabilities of a small but growing corner of teacher recruitment: the H-1B visa program, which last year brought an estimated 6,000 teachers to the USA to fill hard-to-staff jobs in subjects such as math, foreign languages and special education. An estimated 19,000 migrant teachers work in U.S. schools, according to AFT, which last month warned of "widespread and egregious" abuses of imported teachers. "I'm very concerned that there are more places like this," says American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. "Even if it was an isolated incident, it would be horrible, but my hunch right now is that it's not isolated." H-1Bs are reserved for skilled professionals. The law overseeing them relies heavily on employers to protect against fraud and abuse. In this case, critics contend that several Louisiana school districts — including East Baton Rouge, Jefferson, Caddo and the state-controlled Recovery School District (RSD) in New Orleans — at best were negligent in not looking out for the best interests of teachers.

Thanks, I needed that laugh!

D-Y-S-F-U-N-C-T-I-O-N

Nope...trust me.

This is just stupid. I can see how you'd feel that way. Talk about spending the rest of your life with massive regrets... What I hope I would do: Blow $5 million on whatever the hell I want, then invest the remainder in a diverse portfolio and live off the interest the rest of my life. What I'm afraid I would do: Spend it all on hookers and video games.

I don't buy the laptop story for a minute. I think they both dozed off, then came up with the laptop story later because it sounded better than, "We were asleep at the wheel."

Is it more tart or sweet?

I had to look up RASTERS... This is what Merriam-Webster's had: A scan pattern (as of the electron beam in a cathode-ray tube) in which an area is scanned from side to side in lines from top to bottom; also : a pattern of closely spaced rows of dots that form an image (as on the cathode-ray tube of a television or computer display)

I don't know much about Pawlenty, but it would take a great deal of work for Palin and Huckabee to rehabilitate their reputations enough to be considered serious candidates, and I think Ron Paul will always be a marginal player, like Ralph Nader.

Lvdkeyes is right about this. If you are a politician -- meaning you have the power and authority to create laws by which the rest of us have to live -- and you are passing laws that discriminate against gays, while being secretly gay yourself, then you deserve to be outed, without a doubt. It's both a moral issue, because you are a big, fat hypocrite, and a practical issue because the public has every right to know if the judgment of someone who helps pass legislation is being affected by personal issues. This is no different than if a senator wanted to give drug dealers the death penalty because his own son died of an overdose...the public deserves to know what is driving his agenda. And, think about it like this: These are people in a position of power (whether that power comes from the legislative process or a celebrity's ability to sway public opinion) who are using that power to marginalize gay people, while simultaneously protecting themselves from being marginalized. To say that calling them on their bullshit is "mud-slinging" is both simplistic and disingenuous.

Here in Florida, we have not one, but two types of cockroach that can fly...the Palmetto bug and the Asian cockroach. Let me tell you, the first time a giant roach flew at me, I about shit my pants.

Apparently, he's saying that she made fun of her own handicapped kid. Much as I dislike her, I'm gonna have to take that one with a grain of salt.

Or did I screw something up?

Aren't these basically the same requirements as in the States?

Really? You think you'll attract sympathy to your cause by killing Buddhists, of all people? Suspected insurgents kill 2 in restive Thai south PATTANI, Thailand (AP) — Suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed two Buddhist civilians in separate drive-by attacks in Thailand's insurgency-plagued south, police said Wednesday. More than 3,700 people, both Muslims and Buddhists, have been killed in Thailand's three southernmost provinces since an insurgency flared in January 2004. The provinces — Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala — are the only Muslim-majority areas in the Buddhist-dominated country. Muslims there have long complained of discrimination by the central government.

From the AP today: Krispy Kreme expanding into Thailand WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corp. said Thursday it has reached a deal to expand into Thailand with 20 new franchise locations over the next 5 years.

I was fascinated by this piece in the Vancouver Sun about Saxena...the guy's obviously slimy, but you gotta admire somebody with the balls to plot an African military coup from a jail cell. VANCOUVER — After more than 13 years fighting extradition while holed up in Vancouver, financial fugitive Rakesh Saxena is finally on his way back to Bangkok. The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday cleared the runway for Saxena to be returned to Thailand, officially ending the longest extradition case in Canadian history. The court announced it was denying Saxena’s request to appeal an earlier extradition order. As usually happens in such cases, the court gave no reasons. On Wednesday, before the decision was announced, Saxena turned himself over to RCMP, as per the terms of his house arrest in Richmond. He spent the night at the North Fraser Pre-Trial Centre. More

Reporters without Borders has released its annual press freedom index for 2009, ranking Thailand No. 130 out of175 ranked countries. According to the group, Thailand fell several positions because "the endless clashes between 'yellow shirts' and 'redshirts' had a very negative impact on the press’s ability to work." Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji, Vietnam, China, Laos, Burma and North Korea all ranked below Thailand. This is from the group's website: To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders prepared a questionnaire with 40 criteria that assess the state of press freedom in each country. It includes every kind of violation directly affecting journalists (such as murders, imprisonment, physical attacks and threats) and news media (censorship, confiscation of newspaper issues, searches and harassment). Ãnd it includes the degree of impunity enjoyed by those responsible for these press freedom violations. It also measures the level of self-censorship in each country and the ability of the media to investigate and criticise. Financial pressure, which is increasingly common, is also assessed and incorporated into the final score. The questionnaire takes account of the legal framework for the media (including penalties for press offences, the existence of a state monopoly for certain kinds of media and how the media are regulated) and the level of independence of the public media. It also reflects violations of the free flow of information on the Internet. Reporters Without Borders has taken account not only of abuses attributable to the state, but also those by armed militias, clandestine organisations and pressure groups. Go here to see the index.

I feel kind of dirty -- and not in a good way -- every time I do, but I'm also poor, so sometimes it's a necessity. Check out this great website about Wal-Mart shoppers: http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

Yeah, I'm with you under those circumstances...but if some actor who never says anything wants to keep his orientation to himself, seems like that would be his business. I think Hilton outs those guys too, doesn't he?

Christ, looks like dial-up.

Hey, welcome home. Good to have you back on the board. Love berries of just about any type, so I'll keep an eye out for them. Was just at Wal-Mart and didn't see anything like that in the produce section, but it is Wal-Mart. Maybe one of the other stores...

That's one of the funnier newspaper misspellings I've seen in a while...I'm sure Gately didn't consider the defect very "congenial."

I suspect we're probably talking late teens, early 20s at the oldest. And an Alabama jury acquitted him, despite this (from the AP): "Some men testified they turned around during the paddlings to see the judge sexually aroused or exposed. One testified the judge made him masturbate, and a forensic scientist reported finding the man's semen on the judge's carpet. Another former inmate said the judge tried to force him to have oral sex."