This is all my understanding of these things and personal observations.

As someone who worked in loss prevention once upon a time, this looks like a standard magnetic Sensormatic tag(no ink) https://www.sensormatic.com/products/hard-tags/ultra-gator-tags

@ChaosEngine It's actually used more as a deterrent than anything. People tend not to steal stuff if they think it will set off some sort of alarm.

Most of the time when a cashier forgets to remove it a small alarm sound will go off when exiting the store. Most people stop look around and then just continue on their way as they usually have no idea why something was just beeping. It happens within seconds so customers are usually way out the door before anyone could react even if they wanted to. Employees tend to just ignore it when it happens. Most big businesses don't want employees chasing or stopping people. You stop someone and they may rightfully feel as if you are accusing them of something in front of all who may be looking. Leading to defamation lawsuits which are often won by plaintiffs.

I vaguely remember something about Lord of the Rings - they took hundreds of sound recordings of custom swords and various other props in the field, to make the audio track more authentic (I'm sure they also used Foley and staged prop sounds too).

Well that was easy, thank you.

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Self Post

*ban

Have to be honest, music is wrong for the scene and, unless that Maserati is a custom bulletproof model, Mary would be dead.

I mean, unless it was a nod to old b movie action flicks, the placement of the holes on the doors didn't even try to pretend that something like the engine block or a tire stopped the rounds.

Pretty good video. Specific things:

Too many prostitutes: Most of the non-Thai people that complain about this went to the wrong places in Thailand. Pattaya was a tiny fishing village before the Vietnam war. Then, soldiers started getting shipped into the country for R&R. The Thai government didn't really know what to do with them, so they sorta passed the buck and decided to send them to Pattaya to relax. Bunch of stressed out dudes there, nothing to do, high demand for alternate activities ... the market answered.

Fast forward to today, and Pattaya knows exactly what put it on the map. I hate that place -- it is like what would happen if you took the worst/sleaziest elements of Vegas and Tijuana, and then built a "city" around it. Shittiest beach in Thailand, chock full of sleaze, disgusting. However, it is one of the most major tourist destinations. Gee, why could that be? Is it in spite of the nature of the place, or because of it? No false advertising here, you know what you're getting when you book a trip there. And if that is your thing, more power to ya.

Now, I don't want to act like prostitution exists in Pattaya and Soi Cowboy / Patpong in Bangkok, and is absent elsewhere. Far from it. Every town, down on to tiny ones, likely has a red-light district and brothels. The ones you hear about are sex tourism pits like those major ones, but the trade is alive and well pretty much everywhere -- and mostly caters to local Thais.

I've honestly never been to such an establishment or sought those services (in 11 years of being here), but I don't care that they are available. The most significant negative is that they are NOT well-regulated like, say, what I've heard about Amsterdam. Prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand. So the de-facto situation is that brothels have to pay protection money to police in order to avoid getting shut down or "inspected", etc.

Corruption is a major problem -- much worse than prostitution, in my opinion.


Too many ladyboys: It is certainly true that there are more trans people per capita here than pretty much anywhere else that I know of. It took me a while, being a country kid from Kansas, but I see that in pretty much the same light as the German narrator in the video at this point. Acceptance is good. You do you, man.

As a stereotype on the flip side of the coin, I think the ladyboys tend to be great in custom interaction kinds of jobs. Cashiers at 7-11, waitpeople at restaurants, etc. Polite, attentive, helpful. And often the most willing to attempt to use English. A lot of the best students that I've taught English to have been ladyboy leaning.


Freedom: I'm with @Mordhaus here. When your personal liberty is mainly due to the apathy / incompetence of the governing authority, and they may choose to get off their asses and revoke that at any time ... perhaps it isn't something to brag about. Very basic stuff like dissenting speech and protesting is met with being carted off for little re-education chats, etc. Pretty scary shit, actually.


Basically I tend to think that just like anywhere on Earth, there's a lot of good here and plenty of bad too. There's plenty of legitimate gripes with cultural elements and stuff in Thailand, but the most common ones (that the video pretty accurately listed) are pretty insignificant in my opinion.

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*Ban for self link

Laughing customers aren't posting angry Yelp reviews. Anyone working there would be deeply relieved by this reaction.

If that was the policy, I could agree, but the corporate representative has said publicly that in that region it's their written policy that non customers can't use the rest room or loiter inside, and they set up the manager, unintentionally, to fail with their policies. It's horrific to me that, for following written policy, the manager is now fired.

Crazy that you, of all people, are arguing the manager in a privately owned business doesn't have the right to eject even customers, much less non customers. How can that work? Any place open to the public is now publicly owned? No business may prosecute anyone for trespassing? Even non customers? Or is it just franchise coffee shops? I've seen many a white punk asked to leave Denny's at 2am for no purchase, or for nursing their coffee for hours....I've been one.

The cops have said they asked the men at least 7 times to leave peacefully over a prolonged, disruptive time period, and they continuously refused. During that time, backup and a supervisor were called and had time to show up while the men remained seated, ignoring the police requests/commands.

How hard would it have been to just buy their own coffee instead of causing all this over obstinate refusal to respect the manager's requests because they're waiting for someone? How often would you expect that excuse, if accepted, to end with hours of free WiFi and restroom use but no sales? Seems to me they caused all this themselves, and had dozens of easy opportunities to avoid even being asked to leave, much less arrest, just by being a customer in the store they set up shop in.

Edit: and I shouldn't have said it had nothing to do with race, there's likely a racial component....it's not only or definitively about race.

All that said...please go ahead and boycott Starbucks, if not for this then because they're out of control and a near monopoly.

Unsurprisingly, today I saw a new paper warning sign taped to the door of a local restaurant saying in part that only customers may loiter on the premises all others will be prosecuted for trespassing, restrooms require prior purchase before use, and you will be asked to leave 30 minutes after you finish your purchases.

Thanks guys.

Ok, it seems they did use the restroom and were noticed and approached, not that they asked to use it and were denied, I misunderstood the tv report. From their online report....

"The employees told police the men came into the store, sat down and then used the bathroom, according to Ross.
"Starbucks said that according to their company policy, they do not allow non-paying...people of the public to come in and use the restroom," Ross said. "So they then asked these two males to leave. These two males refused to leave and the police were called."

"We would love to meet those two men and personally apologize," Camille Hymes, the Starbucks regional manager, told NBC10. "We take full responsibility."
We take full responsibility and....we put [the manager] in a position that did not allow her to be set up for success or those two men," Hymes said
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Protesters-Gather-Outside-Philadelphia-Starbucks-After-Two-Black-Men-Were-Arrested-There-479809353.html

So it seems this is corporate policy, or at least a regional policy, that may just not be enforced in most places, at least that's how I read that.
Full disclosure, I don't think I've ever been to a Starbucks.

Edit: now I've seen an interview with a customer who said you do have to ask for the restroom code at this location, so the original report is looking more correct.

NBC nightly news.

I've never had an issue like this either, but I also have never gone to a busy business, set up shop, tried to use the amenities, refused to make a purchase, and obstinately refused to leave. I have been forced to make my purchase before being allowed access to the rest room, doing the gotta pee dance the whole time. You can't ignore that I'm white....but it had nothing to do with that interaction.

Why buy something if you think your friend is buying? Because you sat down and they asked you to. I've not heard anyone claim that was the case, however, nor that they made that clear to the manager.

Could be they're friendlier at your local Starbucks, since I assume it's not run by Americans. ;-)

I think the 'grief' started when they asked for restroom access but refused to make a purchase. Many locations are strict on that rule to avoid becoming a public restroom that serves coffee. Then they refused to leave or make a purchase, and were likely nasty after being denied restroom access, but even if not they were undeniably defiant of the manager, who has every right to ask non customers to leave.
It might have a race component, but just as easily might not. Jumping to the conclusion that just because they're black it must be racial discrimination is bullshit imo, and leads to insanity like people outraged at racist faucets and soap opera tv court cases.

Can you cite your sources, please? I have not heard this information. What I had heard matches some of what you said.

The information I read on several news sites (CNN, WaPo, and I forget the thrid) all said similar things to what you said, except that the 2 were waiting for a friend to arrive, who happened to arrive just as they were being led out.

They were not customers, yet. Why buy anything before your friend arrives, if he is buying the drinks?

I am white and I have never once been hassled at a Starbucks for showing up and hanging out with my laptop, going to the bathroom, or doing anything for any amount of time.

I don't think we can ignore that they were black, and it sounds like they were getting grief pretty early on in their stay.

Actual information is coming out now.

They were not customers.
They were asked politely to make a purchase or leave.
They refused to leave and tried to use the customers only rest room after being told they could not without making a purchase, then sat down in defiance of the manager, taking a table in the busy business and disturbing the staff.

This had nothing to do with race and everything to do with false entitlement and eventually trespassing. It's a private business, not a public lounge. Don't leave when asked, get free bracelets.

Not that I saw, but I didn't watch it all.
The glaring issue to me was, when asked 'You found out in 2015 about this data breach, when did you notify your customers?'
he answered with 'When we found out, we removed the apps and asked the thieving companies to delete the data, and took their word that they did...which was a mistake.', never addressing the question because they still haven't notified all the customers whose data was taken by this one breach and never would have if it hadn't been discovered by investigators and made public, and make no mistake it's far from the only breach.
To me, it's outrageous that he's pretending that keeping your data private is a goal, it's not. They exist by selling your data. Nothing's free, and things that claim to be free usually cost far more than you would voluntarily pay.