Macaque monkeys climb over a man as he serves them a Thai desert outside the Phra Prang Sam Yod temple during the annual Monkey Buffet Festival in Lopburi province, north of Bangkok on Sunday. (AFP photos) Their table manners were shocking, but the guests of honour at a special banquet in the central town of Lopburi on Sunday loved monkeying around. Lopburi has been laying on an annual feast of fruit for its population of macaques since the late 1980s, part religious tradition and part tourist attraction. This year's Monkey Buffet Festival saw around 1,000 hungry simians descend on tables and wheelchairs piled high with fruit outside the town's 800-year-old Pra Prang Sam Yod temple. Organiser Yongyuth Kitwatananusont said the monkeys have a special taste for durian, the pungent love-it-or-hate-it tropical fruit popular across Southeast Asia. Covid restrictions meant last year's party was missing its usual crowd of spectators, but this year the humans were back in force, with …
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Verstappen takes jibe at Hamilton’s seatbelt fine
Max Verstappen has sarcastically said he will consider loosening his safety belts rather than touch a rival car in future as that is “cheaper”. While Verstappen and his title rival Lewis Hamilton have been busy on track, squabbling over the 2021 Drivers’ Championship, they have also been keeping the stewards busy. Brazil in particular saw them working overtime, largely due to the rear wing on Hamilton’s Mercedes W12 failing a DRS test, although it ultimately went deeper than that. Verstappen was caught on film touching that rear wing in parc ferme, and although the stewards determined he was not at fault for it failing the test, they imposed a fine on him of €50,000. Hamilton was in the wars also that race weekend, excluded from the qualifying results for that rear wing issue, while he already had a five-place grid penalty for taking on a new Internal Combustion Engine. And to cap it off, he was fined €5,000 for breaching seat belt regulations, with a further €20,000 …
BlackRock Joins EV Charging Venture Ionity In $788 Million Funding Round
BlackRock, the world's largest money manager, has joined electric vehicle charging (EV) venture Ionity in a 700 million euro ($788 million) funding round, providing a much-needed cash injection to speed up construction of high-power loading sites. The investment, which also includes contributions from existing shareholders, will enable Ionity to more than quadruple the number of high-power 350 kilowatt charging points to 7,000 by 2025, Ionity said on Wednesday. Ionity did not provide a detailed breakdown of the funding round, in which existing investors Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW, Ford and Hyundai also participated. Sources said last month that BlackRock alone was close to investing around 500 million euros in Ionity. BlackRock's investment in Ionity makes it the venture's first shareholder from outside the automotive industry, highlighting the growing interest in the EV sector "Ionity really stood apart in terms of the maturity of the business and the sophistication of …
Tesla Details $1 Billion Costs For New Texas Factory, Targets Year-End Completion
Tesla Inc is planning to spend more than $1 billion on its new vehicle factory in Austin, Texas, and plans to complete construction by the end of this year, public filings with a Texas state agency showed. Filings submitted to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) on Friday outlined Tesla's spending on various manufacturing capabilities at its Austin factory. The company said it plans to complete construction of its general assembly, paint, casting, stamping and body shop facilities by Dec. 31. The five facilities would have a combined square footage of nearly 4.3 million (0.4 square kilometer), and cost a combined $1.06 billion, according to the filings. Electric vehicle news outlet electrek first reported on the filings on Monday. Construction for Tesla's new factory began during the summer of 2020. The TDLR regulates and licenses a broad range of businesses, facilities and equipment. The Tesla filings were made under the agency's architectural …
Xiaomi To Open Car Plant In Beijing With Annual Output Of 300,000 Vehicles: Report
Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp will build a plant that can produce 300,000 vehicles annually in Beijing for its electric vehicle unit, authorities in the capital said on Saturday. The plant will be constructed in two phases and Xiaomi will also built its auto unit's headquarters, sales and research offices in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, the government-backed economic development agency Beijing E-Town said on its official WeChat account. In March, Xiaomi said it would commit to investing $10 billion in a new electric car division over 10 years. Beijing E-Town said it anticipated the plant reaching mass production in 2024, a goal announced by Xiaomi's Chief Executive Lei Jun in October. In March, Xiaomi said it would commit to investing $10 billion in a new electric car division over 10 years. The company completed the business registration of its EV unit in late August. 0 Comments The company has been opening thousands of …
Frenchman faces deportation for Facebook posts
A 49-year-old Frenchman known for making fun of Thai politicians said on Saturday he was denied re-entry when he landed in Phuket, and faces deportation. Marchal: Known for political satire Yan Marchal, who posted a video mocking the now-dissolved National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) in 2019, returned to Phuket from France. He was told by immigration officials that he was prohibited from entering because he was deemed a threat to national security. He said he was also served a legal notice saying his behaviour indicated he was a possible danger to the public. According to the legal notice, Mr Marchal will be expelled in accordance with the Immigration Act but he can lodge an appeal within 48 hours. Mr Marchal said he intended to appeal the ban. However, he said he could not contact the French embassy for advice. Pol Maj Gen Achayon Kraithong, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, said the Frenchman is on the blacklist of several agencies and immigration …
Report outlines rising costs, benefits of college degree
5 SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Cory Britton doesn’t need a public policy institute report to fully appreciate the costs and benefits of a college education. He knows what it’s like to try to make ends meet with dead-end jobs and the anxiety of not having health insurance. Britton also knows what it’s like to graduate from college with high honors with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, a credential that is in high demand in the workforce, the Deseret News reports. Is a college degree worth the time, and the cost? Here’s a glimpse at Britton’s lived experience. “Post-graduation only seven months and we’re experiencing those benefits. We were able to purchase a home that we love. My wife can work part time and spend more time with our kids. Even with some uncertainty with my current employer, not once have we been concerned about unemployment,” said Britton, who was in his early 40s when he graduated from Weber State University in the …
He spent almost 50 years alone at 10,000 feet. His hobby helped shape climate research in the Rockies.
6 GOTHIC, Colo. - As world leaders gathered across the globe this month to discuss a climate crisis that is rapidly heating the Earth, Billy Barr, 71, paused outside his mountainside cabin to measure snow. His tools were simple, the same he'd used since the 1970s. A wooden ruler plunged into white flakes accumulating on his snow board - an old freezer door affixed to legs of plastic piping and wood - showed two inches. A section of snow that he slid into a metal bucket and hung from a scale a few paces away told him it was about 10 percent water, which did not surprise him. For years, that number hovered around 6 percent, but snow here has gotten wetter. "One year could easily be a fluke. I mean, weather is weather, it changes all the time. But all of a sudden, we've had five years in a row," said Barr, dingy face mask dangling over his white beard. "So that's starting to get significant." These measurements would be a few more …
Youngkin tests activists’ patience as he pushes abortion and guns aside
RICHMOND, Va. - Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin says he would "entertain" certain antiabortion legislation next year, but it is not part of his "day one" agenda. Gun rights appear to be on the back burner, too. The Republican who launched his bid for Virginia's highest office promising to "protect life before birth and after birth" and to roll back a slew of gun-control laws is focused on other matters as he prepares to assume the governorship on Jan. 15. Youngkin was vocal about abortion and guns early in his campaign, when he was seeking the Republican nomination, then downplayed those polarizing issues after he'd won the nod and begun courting moderate suburbanites. But some conservative activists hoped - if not expected - that he would put those causes front and center again once elected. Youngkin himself indicated that was the plan over the summer, when he was caught on video saying he couldn't speak publicly about abortion ahead of the election for fear of alienating …