The Beer Bar

I just read in the New York Times a story of a man who's 46, but believes he's biologically much younger: entrepreneur Bryan Johnson. He does a bunch of things which he believes keeps him younger. Some make sense, like being very physically active almost every day, and eating a relatively healthy diet. Some are probably counter-productive and ill-advised, such as receiving plasma from his 19 year-old son (which can results in developing antibodies that can make future blood transfusions problematic), and going into his own hyperbaric oxygen chamber (which puts his body's cells under oxidative stress). Quite frankly, though his body is quite fit (proba…

We were watching the premiere of the new Snow White movie, and I remarked that Dopey reminded me of Troye Sivan

From Culture.org Thailand will soon have its first large museum for international contemporary art called Dib Bangkok, which will open in December 2025 in the Rama IV area of downtown Bangkok. The museum, the first of its kind in the country, will exhibit modern art from all over the world. Located in a 71,000-square-foot warehouse that was first built in the 1980s, it has now been changed into a three-story art museum by Kulapat Yantrasast and his company, WHY Architecture. This same firm is also working on a major project at the Louvre Museum in Paris, one of the most famous museums in the world. The name Dib means “raw” or “natural, real …

In a 1999 article marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Noël Coward, TIME magazine noted that “no other 20th century figure approached Coward’s creative breadth: playwright, actor, composer, lyricist, novelist, stage director, film producer, Vegas ‘entertainer’”. Audiences adored Coward’s plays, his stage musicals, his wit and his often-cutting repartee. Between the two World Wars, Coward dominated the theatrical profession on both sides of the Atlantic as no one else has done before or since. As TIME added, he did so with “a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise.” Some of his plays have stood the test of time, but few are programmed today. Pe…

How did this pass me by...I'm in BKK as is @reader and I hadn't heard about this https://loyaltylobby.com/2025/03/23/mass-panic-at-bangkoks-mbk-shopping-mall-sparks-renewed-tourist-safety-concerns/?omhide=true🤷‍♂️

After nearly 30 years of Gay Pride marches in Budapest the next one has been banned. Human rights are being regressed all over the world. Hungary bans LGBT Pride Parade

I stumbled upon this two part podcast where an Australian describes the horrors of being locked up for months in a Cambodian prison. It genuinely sounds like he didn't commit much of, if any crime and yet was still locked up. I doubt conditions are much better in Thailand or many South American jails. It gives you a bit of pause to realize that when you travel to these countries you are at the whim of their justice system and despite behaving yourself there is always the potential of being swept up into something. Recently it seems that Venezuela has taken to rounding up random Americans to use as bargaining chips--definitely one country I'll not visit any time soon. Thi…

While looking at the Khymer Times to see more about the Australian who was in prison for nine months, I saw a story about a male masseur arrested for murdering a colleague. For the Khymer Times an arrest is apparently as good as a conviction, although that's common in the Canadian media as well. The guy is super hot IMO. The massage place is named Kines. I can't copy and paste in the address for the story url for some reason.

As those reading the news during the day will have noticed, fire at an electricity sub-station which serves one of the world's busiest airports at London Heathrow cut all power to the airport this morning forcing it to shut down all its operations until midnight tonight UK time at the very earliest. The blaze also caused damage to the backup transformer and put it out of action as well. Houses around the airport have also been without power. I see from the latest BBC bulletin that power has been restored to three of the terminals, but not yet to Terminals 2 and 4. Yet the airport remains totally closed. Incoming flights have been diverted to airport around around the UK a…

Like Emirates and Qatar whose joint orders for the now massively delayed Boeing 777X aircraft amount to over 50% of total orders, Cathay Pacific and others have been forced into an expensive retrofit of older 777 models with their planned new 777X cabins. Returning from London to Hong Kong at the week-end I was pleasantly surprised to find the 777 had Cathay's new Aria suites in biz class. These have a few modifications from the carrier's earlier long haul biz seats even after including the door. Frankly, I found the seat the most comfortable of any I have sat and reclined in. Even in Qatar's Q Suite I find when the seat is in the bed position with a thin matress over it …

Bangkok Christian Hospital is preparing to open a new Emergency Room on Silom road. As part of major expansion.

From The Thaiger A Chinese man assaulted a university staff member at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom, prompting calls for his visa to be revoked. The incident occurred when the man, upset his girlfriend’s performance was not filmed, attacked a staff member with a chair and slammed the staff member’s head against a wall, resulting in the staff member being hospitalised in the intensive care unit. The event unfolded on March 18 at around 1.30pm at MACM Hall, College of Music, Mahidol University. According to Vin, a student from the faculty, the incident took place during a concert where a Chinese master’s degree student was scheduled to perfo…

From The Thaiger Thailand’s workforce abroad is pumping an astonishing 400 billion baht into the economy each year—much of it from illegal workers, according to Labour Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn. Despite government crackdowns, the number of undocumented Thai workers overseas remains high, with 382,699 working illegally last year alone. While Thailand sent 92,392 legal workers abroad in 2024, a drop of 11% from 2023 due to conflicts in Israel, remittances surged by 9%, reaching 267.8 billion baht, up from 245.7 billion baht in 2023.The rise is credited to the strong global demand for skilled Thai labour, particularly in construction, manufacturing, and…

From Khaosod English PHUKET — Officials have announced the results of their investigation into what was described as “Phuket’s largest foreign slum” following a video report by YouTube channel “Ride with Gabi” titled “THE OTHER SIDE OF PHUKET 🇹🇭 THAILAND” released last week. The video showed a large slum in central Phuket reportedly inhabited entirely by Myanmar migrant workers, where over 300 children receive education and meals from a foundation funded by donations and foreign volunteers. Colonel Adul Choothong, Deputy Governor of Phuket, held a press conference to present the investigation findings, joined by Teerapong Chuaychu, Phuket Provincial …

To be openly gay in the latter days of the Russian Empire could be extremely risky. The celebrated composer Tchaikovsky, most famous for his music to the ballets “Swan Lake”, “The Nutcracker” and “Sleeping Beauty”, was very actively gay but had agonized while keeping his homosexuality private. Surprisingly, perhaps, his younger brother Modest was also gay. Unlike Pyotr, he had no qualms about it being known that he was gay. Even so, for more than a century his native country denied what was the obvious: Tchaikovsky was not gay, all claimed. Yet in 2013 as his own purges against gay men and women were breeding in his mind, Putin declared on Russian State Channel 1, …

From The Nation The Public Health Ministry launches the 'Thai Massage College,' aiming to train 20,000 specialized therapists in seven conditions, boosting Thailand’s economy by 144 billion baht. Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin, stated while presiding over the opening ceremony of the "Thai Massage College of Thailand" on Thursday (March 20, 2025) at the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine that elevating Thai wisdom, particularly Thai massage, is part of the Public Health Ministry's policy to enhance the health economy’s potential and establish Thailand as a Medical and Wellness Hub. The Thai Massag…

From Pattaya News On August 5th, 2022, a devastating fire broke out at the Mountain B Pub, a nightclub located on Sukhumvit Road in the Sattahip district of Chonburi Province. The blaze started around 12:45 AM during a live music performance, originating on the ceiling above the stage which we covered in depth here. The owner of the Mountain B Pub, identified as Pongsiri Panprasong, also known as “Sia B,” faced legal consequences for his role in the disaster. On March 18, 2025, the Pattaya Provincial Court sentenced him to five years and four months in prison after he was found guilty of recklessness causing death. Initially facing a potential 10-year sente…

A British tourist is missing in Thailand after a boat caught fire and sank off the coast of the island of Koh Tao. The Surat Thani Provincial Public Relations Office said 26-year-old Alexandra Clarke from Lambeth, south London, was on board when the fire occurred in the ship's engine room after 09:00 ITC (02:00 GMT) on Sunday. Koh Tao Police said it believed the boat's fuel tank overflowed when it was refilled during the journey, then set alight. Officers have charged the captain and crew with negligence. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g08j0dj25o

From CNBC Russian authorities are trying to stem panic over the ruble’s sharp fall this week, with the central bank forced to intervene on Wednesday to support the currency. The ruble weakened to 114 against the greenback on Wednesday, hitting its lowest level since March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia’s central bank (CBR) was forced to intervene on the day to prop up the ruble, saying it would halt foreign purchases on the domestic currency market for the rest of the year “in order to reduce the volatility of financial markets.” Following the intervention, the ruble was trading at 110 against the dollar on Thursday morning. …

From The Thaiger The Thai owner of a handcrafted home goods store on Koh Pha Ngan in the southern province of Surat Thani refused to compromise with two German male models who stole products from her store twice on the same day yesterday, March 18. The owner of the Sprout store, Ploy, took to Facebook and Instagram to expose the two German thieves after they stole from her shop. Ploy shared CCTV footage of the foreign thieves and revealed the story to netizens in both Thai and English. Ploy managed to obtain the German tourists’ Instagram accounts and tagged them in her post as well. Judging from their Instagram profiles, they may work as …

NOTE —- With scammers, corruption and bad behavior making the news all too often, here’s a welcom relief from the norm. Although the reward he received was small, his character towers above the rest. From Pattaya Mail Scrap collector finds and returns 100,000 baht UDON THANI, Thailand – Capt. Methee Thapsuri, Deputy Investigation Officer of the Klang Yai Police Station in Ban Phue District, Udon Thani, was at the station when a 28-year-old man, Boonkong Munmueangpak, or Namfon, came in to report that he had found a large sum of money on March 13. Namfon, who lives in the rural village of Nong Waeng, Nam Som District, works by collecting recyclabl…

At first I couldn't make sense of the Google Translate of this Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FrimYUehA/ However, it sounded serious, so I searched a bit and found a more intelligible account: https://mothership.sg/2025/03/thai-couple-wrong-luggage-cannabis-inside/

From Pattaya Mail By Barry Kenyon With a couple of weeks left to sign up with the Thai Revenue Department (TRD) for cash transmitted from abroad in the calendar year 2024, questions still abound. It all depends whom you ask. Some Thai tax lawyers, for instance, say the tax net includes use of overseas credit cards and transfers via Wise, others argue it’s more complicated than that. Some claim that everyone who was present in Thailand for 180 days plus last year needs to file, an observation hotly disputed by others who stress no need if you didn’t transfer “assessable” income. Benjamin Hart, a naturalized Thai citizen and managing director of Integrity …

From Bangkok Post The Ministry of Labour will work with the Thai Massage Association in France to upskill spa workers, increasing their chances of securing jobs there. Permanent secretary Boonsong Thapchaiyuth held talks with Sasima Park, president of the Association Française Nuad Thai & Spa (AFNTS) at the ministry to discuss initiatives aimed at upskilling Thai workers in the sector. He thanked the association for its role in providing employment opportunities for Thai workers. Thai workers seeking to improve their skills in massage and spa services can now contact the DSD for certification, which will help them secure legal jobs in France, he sa…

The United States embassy in Thailand has issued the following alert: On 27 February 2025, the Royal Thai Government deported a group of 45 Uyghurs asylees to China. Similar deportations have prompted violent retaliatory attacks in the past. Most notably, in the wake of a 2015 deportation of Uyghurs from Thailand, improvised explosive devices detonated at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok killing 20 people and injuring 125 others as this shrine is heavily visited by tourists from China. Actions to Take: The U.S. Mission in Thailand advises U.S. citizens to Exercise increased caution and vigilance, especially in crowded locations frequented by tourists…