Thai Language in GTA4

The second word heard in the new all time best selling game (Grand Theft Auto IV), is the Thai word 'alaiwah' or "what the hell". It is uttered by what seems to be a Thai dominatrix whipping a guy on the boat that Niko Bellic arrives on. Cool.

Thai's giving Americans real estate advice.

Fun post by an American tourist writer discussing real estate with a Thai business man in Phuket:

"...what's really wrong with the US is that we have no honor. Actually, that's not how he puts it. He says in Thailand the financial and legal consequences of defaulting would be secondary. A defaulting borrower would suffer a serious loss of face and incur negative religious points, or karma. Some real estate investors are still "making merit"--performing redemptive religious acts--for losses following the 1997 crash."

Copy Ferrari made inThailand

Thailand is credited with this copied P4:

The Ferrari P4 - of which only three were made, in 1967 - was made in a back street factory in Thailand and is powered by a Subaru engine. more

In case you forgot, Bangkok is still sinking

Bangkok is one of 13 of the world's largest 20 cities at risk of being swamped as sea levels rise in coming decades, according to warnings at the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change held here.

The still expanding megapolis rests about 3 1/2 to 5 feet above the nearby gulf, although some areas already lie below sea level. The gulf's waters have been rising by about a tenth of an inch a year, about the same as the world average, says Anond Snidvongs, a leading scientist in the field.

But the city, built on clay rather than bedrock, has also been sinking at a far faster pace of up to 4 inches annually as its teeming population and factories pump some 2.5 million cubic tons of cheaply priced water, legally and illegally, out of its aquifers. This compacts the layers of clay and causes the land to sink.

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