Lyu Bin (L) of China and Yutthana Kaensa of Thailand face off during the weigh-in prior to a WBA super flyweight fight to be held in Yongkang, east China's Zhejiang Province, March 15, 2023. (Xinhua/Hou Zhaokang)
Chinese boxer Lyu Bin is set to fight Yutthana Kaensa of Thailand for the WBA International Super Flyweight Championship in his hometown of Yongkang, east China’s Zhejiang Province.
YONGKANG, China, March 15 (Xinhua) — Lyu Bin, who boxed for China at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, is set to fight Yutthana Kaensa of Thailand for the WBA International Super Flyweight Championship in his hometown on Thursday.
“I’ve been waiting for my chance,” Lyu told Xinhua. “Now the time has come.”
Lyu, 28, was known for his tearful defeat in the men’s 49kg division at Rio 2016.
“What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger,” he said.
Despite falling short of his Olympic dream, Lyu proved himself by claiming the national title in 2016 and then turned pro two years later.
Lyu, a native of Yongkang in east China’s Zhejiang Province, has spent months in China’s southwestern city of Kunming ahead of the upcoming WBA title bout, his first competitive fight in nearly five years.
“I’ve got a better grasp on speed and timing and have improved my punching technique a lot these years,” he said.
Apart from arduous training, Lyu has struggled to maintain his weight at around 52kg – running 10km every morning and engaging in special training for two hours in the afternoon, and eating a high-protein, low-carbon diet every day for the past five years.
“It’s absolute torture,” he admitted.
“The hunger for food was huge, but my hunger for victory is even bigger.
“To do what I love is a real blessing for me. I feel like the second spring of my career has come,” Lyu said.
Kaensa, 25, is an experienced name in Thailand’s professional boxing circuit and has a record of 24-4, with three defeats in his last five fights.
FILE - Text from the ChatGPT page of the OpenAI website is shown in this photo, in New York, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
LONDON (AP) — The company behind the ChatGPT chatbot has rolled out its latest artificial intelligence model, GPT-4, in the next step for a technology that’s caught the world’s attention.
The new system can figure out tax deductions and answer questions like a Shakespearan pirate, for example, but it still “hallucinates” facts and makes reasoning errors.
Here’s a look at San Francisco-based startup OpenAI’s latest improvement on the generative AI models that can spit out readable text and unique images:
WHAT’S NEW?
OpenAI says GPT-4 “exhibits human-level performance.” It’s much more reliable, creative and can handle “more nuanced instructions” than its predecessor system, GPT-3.5, which ChatGPT was built on, OpenAI said in its announcement.
In an online demo Tuesday, OpenAI President Greg Brockman ran through some scenarios that showed off GPT-4’s capabilities that appeared to show it’s a radical improvement on previous versions.
He demonstrated how the system could quickly come up with the proper income tax deduction after being fed reams of tax code — something he couldn’t figure himself.
“It’s not perfect, but neither are you. And together it’s this amplifying tool that lets you just reach new heights,” Brockman said.
It’s part of a new generation of machine-learning systems that can converse, generate readable text on demand and produce novel images and video based on what they’ve learned from a vast database of digital books and online text.
These new AI breakthroughs have the potential to transform the internet search business long dominated by Google, which is trying to catch up with its own AI chatbot, and numerous professions.
“With GPT-4, we are one step closer to life imitating art,” said Mirella Lapata, professor of natural language processing at the University of Edinburgh. She referred to the TV show “Black Mirror,” which focuses on the dark side of technology.
“Humans are not fooled by the AI in ‘Black Mirror’ but they tolerate it,” Lapata said. “Likewise, GPT-4 is not perfect, but paves the way for AI being used as a commodity tool on a daily basis.”
WHAT EXACTLY ARE THE IMPROVEMENTS?
GPT-4 is a “large multimodal model,” which means it can be fed both text and images that it uses to come up with answers.
In one example posted on OpenAI’s website, GPT-4 is asked, “What is unusual about this image?” It’s answer: “The unusual thing about this image is that a man is ironing clothes on an ironing board attached to the roof of a moving taxi.”
GPT-4 is also “steerable,” which means that instead of getting an answer in ChatGPT’s “classic” fixed tone and verbosity, users can customize it by asking for responses in the style of a Shakespearean pirate, for instance.
In his demo, Brockman asked both GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 to summarize in one sentence an article explaining the difference between the two systems. The catch was that every word had to start with the letter G.
GPT-3.5 didn’t even try, spitting out a normal sentence. The newer version swiftly responded: “GPT-4 generates groundbreaking, grandiose gains, greatly galvanizing generalized AI goals.”
HOW WELL DOES IT WORK?
ChatGPT can write silly poems and songs or quickly explain just about anything found on the internet. It also gained notoriety for results that could be way off, such as confidently providing a detailed but false account of the Super Bowl game days before it took place, or even being disparaging to users.
OpenAI acknowledged that GPT-4 still has limitations and warned users to be careful. GPT-4 is “still not fully reliable” because it “hallucinates” facts and makes reasoning errors, it said.
“Great care should be taken when using language model outputs, particularly in high-stakes contexts,” the company said, though it added that hallucinations have been sharply reduced.
Experts also advised caution.
“We should remember that language models such as GPT-4 do not think in a human-like way, and we should not be misled by their fluency with language,” said Nello Cristianini, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Bath.
Another problem is that GPT-4 does not know much about anything that happened after September 2021, because that was the cutoff date for the data it was trained on.
ARE THERE SAFEGUARDS?
OpenAI says GPT-4’s improved capabilities “lead to new risk surfaces” so it has improved safety by training it to refuse requests for sensitive or “disallowed” information.
It’s less likely to answer questions on, for example, how to build a bomb or buy cheap cigarettes.
Still, OpenAI cautions that while “eliciting bad behavior” from GPT is harder, “doing so is still possible.”
Eight parties presented their economic policies to attract more money to Thailand, on Matichon Forum.
Before Parliament is dissolved and the 2023 Thai election campaign begins, the long-established newspaper Matichon and its sister companies hosted a political debate attended by the prime minister’s top candidates and party leaders from 8 parties on March 13, 2023. They all came with the aim of clarifying issues in politics and economics.
Prachachat Business has collected all the important economic policies from 8 political parties:
Democrat Party on increasing THB 300bn on SMEs
Democratic Party Policy Director Pisit Leeahtam opened the first-panel discussion with the topics of creative industries and soft power. He said Thailand could attract more tourists to the country, which is an important source of revenue for the country, boost employment and increase tourism revenue to THB 2 trillion.
He stressed the need for the country to revive tourism and help hotel businesses that have suffered losses. The Democratic Party’s Director of Policy said the party would increase support funds to THB 300 billion to create soft power and bring money into the country.
Also, Democrat Party will start a local bank with THB 2 million fund to boost the local economy.
From left above; Pisit Leeahtam, Sonthirat Sonthijirawong,, Anutin Charnvirakul, Prommin Lertsuridej / from left below; Santi Kiranand, Sirikanya Tansakun, Suwat Liptapanlop and Suphan Mongkolsuthi.
PPRP on 5 soft-powers
Sonthirat Sonthijirawong, Political Policy Director of the Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), said that the heart of soft power lies in cultural capital. He explained that the most important Thai cultural capital is 1. bringing Thai food to the world market 2. enriching culture and traditions through festivals 3. making the country a cultural fashion centre, 4. improving the film and cinema industry and 5. promoting Thai boxing (Muay Thai)
Sonthirat Sonthijirawong
Sonthirat added that Thailand can compete with other countries in the service sector. However, there are 3 important transitional measures that need to be implemented: clearer policies, better budgeting and better cooperation between the private sector and the government.
Bhumjaithai on universal healthcare
Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul stressed the need to reduce inequality between the rich and the poor, large corporations and small businesses. He stressed that the government must take more care of the citizens and that everyone should be equal.
The party plans to continue and develop the so-called ’30 Baht Universal Healthcare’ program by providing access to more people in each province and adding more diseases and treatments to the programme, such as cancer, radiotherapy, dialysis and hemodialysis.
Anutin Charnvirakul
With regard to education, Anutin proposed that his government if elected will provide an interest-free loan without guarantors. He will adjust the law to make it fair to the people.
He said he was confident, given the country’s reputation, that the government could find a soft loan. This would allow state-owned enterprises to seek fewer profits and return them to the public.
Phue Thai Party to triple agriculture income in 4 years
Prommin Lertsuridej, director of the Phue Thai Party for Politics and Economy, said that the Thai economy has experienced a recession in the last 8 years and has lagged behind. He added that the government must tackle the root of the problem by first helping low-income citizens while strengthening the country’s economy.
According to a study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), if the economy of the 20 percent richest class grows by 1 percentage point, total economic growth will fall by 0.8 percentage points. In contrast, if the country strengthens the economy of the bottom 20 percent of society, GDP will increase by 0.48 percentage points, a 7-fold difference in overall economic growth.
The Phue Thai Party insisted on its all-encompassing policy-making. Short-term measures aim to revive tourism to attract foreign money, increase revenue from agriculture, which accounted for 8 percent of GDP within 4 years, improve marketing and financing for small and medium enterprises, increase productivity and create a life-long learning environment through the use of advanced technology.
Move Forward and Chartthaipattana focus on raising wages
Santi Kiranand, the Chartthaipattana Strategic Committee, said his party was not only focusing on increasing the minimum wage but also on skilling and retraining the labour force within the entire economic system.
He suggested that the government should use tax incentives to attract the private sector and focus on the skills of informal workers, as well as the education system.
Sirikanya Tansakun, deputy leader in the policy of the Future Forward Party, said the party will aim to increase the minimum wage to 450 THB per day and increase the wage every year, taking into account inflation and GDP.
Sirikanya Tansakun
“Our party will systematically raise wages every year to end the wage policy campaign and strengthen the bargaining power of all workers. [The party] will make a rule for upskilling and career change through online training,” Sirikanya said.
The party will help small and medium enterprises with wage increases by allowing them to stop paying for workers’ social security for 6 months, and they can reduce the 2-times tax on wages.
Suwat: new THB 5trn economy
Chart Pattana Kla Party Leader Suwat Liptapanlop revealed the party plan to increase more money to the country during high spending periods. He promised the new THB 5 trillion economy.
In his opinion, the fastest way to generate revenue is through tourism. In the next 4 years, he said, he wants to double the current record, double the number of tourists from 40 million to 70 million, increase the length of stay from 10 to 12 days, and increase spending from THB 5,000 to THB 6,000. If you add up all the figures of 70 million tourists to 12 days stay and 6,000 THB per day, you get a turnover of THB 5 trillion.
Suwat Liptapanlop
Suwat emphasised the 5-Fs soft power economy through film, fighting [boxing], fashion, food and festival. He also mentioned the improvement of agribusiness, which could create several million jobs and higher income.
He also planned to reduce costs through changes in the energy structure to reduce the cost of oil, gas, electricity, refinery margin (spread), marketing and the cost of renewable energy. He also mentioned the new tax regime whereby people earning up to THB 40,000 will be exempt from income tax.
Cancelled 1,400 laws to benefit businesses
Suphan Mongkolsuthi, deputy party leader and head of economic policy of the Thai Sang Thai Party, said the party aims to create scope for small businesses to increase the country’s income.
He insisted that the government must help smaller businesses through the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI). Suphan said small businesses deserve their own branch where there is a one-stop service to help them expand in the export industry to bring money into the real economy and financial markets.
Suphan Mongkolsuthi
Suphan said that there are several ways to increase the country’s revenue. For exports, it would be better if the country helped create tens of thousands of small businesses. He said Thailand needs to focus on the country’s strengths in agriculture and tourism and use the Ta system to support them. In addition, the private sector and the government need to work together.
“There are more than 1,400 laws that hinder the business. [We] need to halt these laws.”
Rescue workers transport the wounded gunman to hospital on Mar. 15, 2023.
Update: Police said Kitikarn died at hospital on Wednesday night.
BANGKOK — Police said a disgruntled police officer who fired multiple shots in a residential area north of Bangkok was arrested Wednesday afternoon after an overnight standoff. He later died of injuries at hospital.
The lengthy standoff, which lasted for more than 24 hours, ended when police commandos decided to raid a house on Soi Jiramakron in Sai Mai district where the gunman, identified as Pol. Lt. Col. Kitikarn Sangbun, 51, an inspector with the Special Branch Police’s intelligence unit, was hiding. Kitikarn was reportedly shot during the firefight and taken to hospital.
No one, except for the Kitikarn, was injured in the incident, police said. He later died at Bhumibol Adulyadej Hospital on the same evening, Sai Mai police superintendent Rangsan Sornsing said Wednesday.
The gunman, who has a history of mental illness, went into hiding in his house on Tuesday morning after he opened fire on his colleagues who attempted to take him to hospital to treat his condition. His colleagues came to visit him with an ambulance after he did not report for duty for days, Pol. Col. Rangsan said Tuesday.
After driving his colleagues away, Kitikarn decided to lock himself up in the house and refused to surrender. He also fired multiple salvos throughout the day as police negotiators attempted to calm him down.
Police had said earlier they would not use lethal force since the gunman was not taking any hostages or targeting any individuals, though a bullet did lodge in a helmet of one of the police commandos.
Picture shot from drone; police gunman was inside the house.
“There is no need for violence” deputy police commissioner Torsak Sukvimol, who supervised the operation, said Tuesday. “Please allow more time for us to work and wait for this police officer to calm down.”
Various tactics were used to subdue the gunman, who was trained in counter-terrorism, from using his relatives and superiors as negotiators, using his colleagues to sing his favorite songs through a megaphone, to firing tear gas into his house, but only with limited success.
National police commissioner Damrongsak Kittiprapas said Wednesday he would consider discharging Kitikarn from service as he is no longer fit for duty. He also apologized to civilians who were affected by the incident.
“We must work carefully to prevent any loss on both sides,” Pol. Gen. Damrongsak said. “The police will compensate affected civilians or any damages to their homes.”
The star Wolf-Rayet 124, center, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team via AP)
The Webb Space Telescope has captured the rare and fleeting phase of a star on the cusp of death.
NASA released the picture Tuesday at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.
The observation was among the first made by Webb following its launch in late 2021. Its infrared eyes observed all the gas and dust flung into space by a huge, hot star 15,000 light-years away. A light-year is about 5.8 trillion miles.
Shimmering in purple like a cherry blossom, the cast-off material once comprised the star’s outer layer. The Hubble Space Telescope snapped a shot of the same transitioning star a few decades ago, but it appeared more like a fireball without the delicate details.
Such a transformation occurs only with some stars and normally is the last step before they explode, going supernova, according to scientists.
This Hubble image shows the nebula M1-67 around the Wolf-Rayet star WR 124. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, geckzilla.com.
“We’ve never seen it like that before. It’s really exciting,” said Macarena Garcia Marin, a European Space Agency scientist who is part of the project.
This star in the constellation Sagittarius, officially known as WR 124, is 30 times as massive as our sun and already has shed enough material to account for 10 suns, according to NASA.
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By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
FILE - A U.S. MQ-9 drone is on display during an air show at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian fighter jet struck the propeller of a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday in a “brazen violation of international law,” causing American forces to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle, the U.S. said.
But Russia insisted its warplanes didn’t hit the MQ-9 Reaper drone. Instead, it said the drone maneuvered sharply and crashed into the water following an encounter with Russian fighter jets that had been scrambled to intercept it near Crimea.
The incident, which added to Russia-U.S. tensions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, appeared to be the first time since the height of the Cold War that a U.S. aircraft was brought down after an encounter with a Russian warplane.
U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, according to White House national security spokesman John Kirby. He added that U.S. State Department officials would be speaking directly with their Russian counterparts and “expressing our concerns over this unsafe and unprofessional intercept.”
President Joe Biden walks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral on a surprise visit, Monday, Feb. 20, 2023, in Kyiv. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
State Department spokesman Ned Price called it a “brazen violation of international law.” He said the U.S. summoned the Russian ambassador to lodge a protest and the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, has made similar representations in Moscow.
The U.S. European Command said two Russian Su-27 fighter jets intercepted the drone while it was operating within international airspace. It said one of the Russian fighters struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to bring it down in international waters.
Prior to that, the Su-27s dumped fuel on the MQ-9 and flew in front of it several times in “a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” the U.S. European Command said in a statement from Stuttgart, Germany.
“This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional,” it added.
U.S. Air Force Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, said the MQ-9 aircraft was “conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9.” He added that “in fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.”
Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the incident occurred at 7:03 a.m. Central European time (0603 GMT; 2:03 a.m. EST) over international waters, and well clear of Ukraine, after the Russian jets had flown in the vicinity of the drone for 30 to 40 minutes. There did not appear to be any communications between the aircraft before the collision, Ryder added.
The MQ-9 includes a ground control station and satellite equipment and has a 66-foot (20-meter) wingspan. It is capable of carrying munitions, but Ryder would not say whether it was armed. The U.S. had not recovered the crashed drone, U.S. Air Forces-Europe said in a statement, and neither had Russia, Ryder said.
He said it appeared the Russian aircraft also was damaged in the collision, but the U.S. has confirmed that it did land, although Ryder would not say where.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the U.S. drone was flying over the Black Sea near Crimea and intruded in an area that was declared off limits by Russia as part of what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, causing the military to scramble fighters to intercept it.
“As a result of a sharp maneuver, the MQ-9 drone went into unguided flight with a loss of altitude and crashed into the water,” it said. “The Russian fighters didn’t use their weapons, didn’t come into contact with the unmanned aerial vehicle, and they safely returned to their base.”
The Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, described the U.S. drone flight as a “provocation” and argued that there was no reason for U.S. military aircraft and warships to be near Russia’s borders.
Anatoly Antonov, Russian ambassador to the United States, departs after meeting with Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Karen Donfried at the U.S. State Department in Washington, Tuesday, March 14, 2023.. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Speaking after meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Karen Donfried, Antonov insisted that the Russian warplanes didn’t hit the American drone or fire their weapons. He added that Moscow wants “pragmatic” ties with Washington, adding that “we don’t want any confrontation between the U.S. and Russia.”
Moscow has repeatedly voiced concern about U.S. intelligence flights close to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 and illegally annexed. The Kremlin has charged that by providing weapons to Ukraine and sharing intelligence information with Kyiv, the U.S. and its allies have effectively become engaged in the conflict.
Kirby emphasized that the incident wouldn’t deter the U.S. from continuing its missions in the area.
“If the message is that they want to deter or dissuade us from flying, and operating in international airspace, over the Black Sea, then that message will fail,” Kirby said. “We’re going to continue to fly and operate in international airspace over international waters. The Black Sea belongs to no one nation.”
FILE NATO Black Sea exercise
The U.S. European Command said the incident followed a pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots while interacting with U.S. and allied aircraft over international airspace, including over the Black Sea.
“These aggressive actions by Russian aircrew are dangerous and could lead to miscalculation and unintended escalation,” it warned.
Gen. David Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps, said this type of collision is his greatest concern, both in that part of Europe as well as in the Pacific.
“Probably my biggest worry both there and in the Pacific is an aggressive Russia or China pilot or vessel captain, or something gets too close, doesn’t realize where they are, and causes a collision,” Berger said, in response to a question at a National Press Club event Tuesday.
As fighting continued in Ukraine, a Russian missile struck an apartment building Tuesday in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, killing at least one person and wounding nine others in one of the major urban strongholds the Donetsk region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video showing gaping holes in the façade of the low-rise building, which bore the brunt of the strike that damaged nine apartment blocks, a kindergarten, a bank branch and two cars, said regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking with workers at a helicopter factory in southern Siberia, again cast the conflict in Ukraine as an existential one for Russia.
“For us, it’s not a geopolitical task,” Putin said, “it’s the task of survival of Russian statehood and the creation of conditions for the future development of our country.”
Russia had welcomed a Chinese peace proposal, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Kyiv’s refusal to talk leaves Moscow with only military options.
“We must achieve our goals,” Peskov told reporters. “Given the current stance of the Kyiv regime, now it’s only possible by military means.”
The Russian onslaught has focused on the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, where Kyiv’s troops have been fending off attacks for seven months and which has become a symbol of resistance, as well as a focal point of the war.
Zelenskyy discussed Bakhmut with the military brass and they were unanimous in their determination to face down the Russian onslaught, according to the presidential office.
“The defensive operation in (Bakhmut) is of paramount strategic importance to deterring the enemy. It is key for the stability of the defense of the entire front line,” said Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces.
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Lolita C. Baldor, Tara Copp, Zeke Miller, Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington, and Lorne Cook in Brussels, contributed.
This image provided by Qibin Zhao shows ghost catfish showing iridescence. The ghost catfish has a see-through body that flickers with rainbow colors when the light hits it. Now, scientists have cracked the case of how the fish creates its iridescent glow. (Qibin Zhao via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — You can see right through this little aquarium fish from Thailand: Its skin is almost completely transparent. But when the light hits it just right, its body flickers with shimmering rainbow colors.
Now, scientists have figured out how this fish — called the ghost catfish — creates its iridescent glow.
That glow comes from within, according to a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As light passes through the fish’s skin, it hits tiny structures in the muscle that turn the light into a colorful spectrum.
This image provided by Qibin Zhao shows ghost catfish showing iridescent colors with a backlight. (Xiujun Fan/Qibin Zhao via AP)
The ghost catfish — sometimes known as the glass catfish — is a small species native to rivers in Thailand, averaging just a few inches (centimeters) long. It’s sold around the world as an aquarium fish.
Other creatures are also iridescent, creating the shimmering rainbow effect where colors shift as you move. Usually, they have shiny outer surfaces that reflect the light — like a hummingbird’s feathers or a butterfly’s wings, explained Arizona State University biologist Ron Rutowski, who was not involved with the research.
But the ghost catfish has no scales, said senior author Qibin Zhao, a physicist at China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who became fascinated by the fish after seeing it in an aquarium store.
The ghost catfish has a see-through body that flickers with rainbow colors when the light hits it. Now, scientists have cracked the case of how the fish creates its iridescent glow. (Qibin Zhao via AP)
Instead, it has tightly packed structures in the muscles that can bend light into rainbow hues, which researchers found after shining different lights and lasers onto its body in the lab. As the ghost catfish swims, those muscles relax and tighten, sending off a glinting range of colors.
And the very see-through skin, which lets in around 90% of outside light, is essential: “We wouldn’t be able to see the colors if the skin of the fish is not so transparent,” Zhao said in an email.
Some species use their iridescence to attract mates or give off warning signals, but it’s not clear whether the ghost catfish’s colors serve a purpose, Rutowski said.
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Report By MADDIE BURAKOFF AP Science Writer
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
A person stands in front of a Meta sign outside of the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Tuesday, March 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Facebook parent Meta is slashing another 10,000 jobs and will not fill 5,000 open positions as the social media pioneer cuts costs.
The company announced 11,000 job cuts in November, about 13% of its workforce at the time.
Meta and other tech companies have been hiring aggressively for at least two years and in recent months have begun to let some of those workers go. Hiring in the U.S. is still strong, but layoffs have hit hard in some sectors.
Early last month, Meta posted falling profits and its third consecutive quarter of declining revenue.
The company said Tuesday it will reduce the size of its recruiting team and make further cuts in its tech groups in late April, and then its business groups in late May.
“This will be tough and there’s no way around that,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success.”
People talk near a Meta sign outside of the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Tuesday, March 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
The Menlo Park, California, company has invested billions of dollars to realign its focus on the metaverse. In February it said a downturn in online advertising and competition from rivals such as TikTok weighed on results.
“As I’ve talked about efficiency this year, I’ve said that part of our work will involve removing jobs — and that will be in service of both building a leaner, more technical company and improving our business performance to enable our long term vision,” said Zuckerberg.
The biggest tech companies in the U.S. are cutting costs elsewhere, too.
This month, Amazon paused construction on its second headquarters in Virginia following the biggest round of layoffs in the company’s history and its shifting plans around remote work.
In early trading, Meta shares rose more than 6% Tuesday.
Anti-Prayut protester Wantana O-Thong, 62, filed a complaint on Tuesday March 14 with the Central Investigation Bureau in Bangkok against security officers of Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha for physical assault and holding her against her will. She displayed her swollen wrists, ankles and wounds to reporters.
Wantana said she was dragged away, pressed hard on her wrists, had her mouth and nose covered to the point where she had breathing difficulties.
The move came after she was charged late on Monday with assaulting and preventing officers from carrying out its duty, including biting a finger of one officer, making loud noise in public and not remaining in a designated area by Ban Pong police in Ratchaburi province.
The crime of assaulting and obstructing officers from carrying out its duty is subject to a maximum imprisonment term of one year and/or fine of no more than 10,000 baht. Wantana’s move came after she was granted bail.
She said she was dragged away by five to six officers after she told then, “don’t come close or I’ll remove my clothes” because she didn’t know what’s their intention.
Wantana also denied trying to block PM Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha’s motorcade, saying the incident occurred well before the motorcade arrived.
One official can be seen trying to cover her mouth, while another using umbrella to block news cameras. Wantana was a former MO candidate for Pheu Chart Party and added she has tried to petition the PM at the Government House several times in the past about the economic impacts on the livelihood of the locals, herself including.
“I would like to exercise my rights to choose a PM who truly solve the livelihood problems of the people and truly listen to people’s problems and not just imagining things like Prayut,” Wantana said.
Chiang Mai is popular with Chinese property investors, especially in the city’s San Kamphaeng district and Hang Dong district. A survey by Prachachat Business found that several Chinese investors have invested directly as a group, as well as those who buy property as a residence and as an investment.
Arak Kampanartbawon, head of the registration department at the Chiang Mai Provincial Land Office, said sales in both sectors – land/property and house, and flat/condominium – have increased after Thailand reopens in 2022. For condominiums, the Chinese are the main buyers.
In 2020, the total turnover of land and land-and-houses in the city was THB 9.4bn. It then rose to THB 10.4bn in 2021 before rising to THB 13.2bn last year.
The main factors were the reopening and the COVID-19 situation improving. Between January and February 2023, total sales were THB 1.5bn. Total sales of land and properties and houses in the city amounted to THB 34.5bn in the last 3 years alone.
Arak pointed out that flat and condo sales have increased significantly. Previously, the main buyers were Europeans, Americans and the Middle East, but after the pandemic, Chinese buyers predominate and even trump Thai buyers.
Under the Thai Condominium Act (B.E. 2522), foreigners can only be 49 percent owners. They cannot own land or a plot of land with a house. Looking at the current trend in residential property expansion, it is likely that foreign investors, especially Chinese, will invest heavily, including in the flat and condominium sector.
Arak said the government will carefully consider whether foreign investors use Thai nominees to invest in land, both before and after acquiring the land.
A source in Chiang Mai’s property market told Prachachat Business that Chinese investors are now entering the whole construction business. They are constructing their own buildings and importing materials from China. This is affecting the local business because Chinese materials are much cheaper.
Chang Klan Road is the area where Chinese investors invest the most to buy property. The price per square metre rose to THB 100,000. Chinese investors preferred to buy the floor and rent it out as Airbnb on Chinese social media.
