Trang is inviting avid divers and lovers of the sea to come and admire its beautiful artificial coral reef built off the coast of Sikao and Kantang districts.
The reef, created from waste materials like concrete slabs, train carriages and broken sculptures, has been built to not just offer habitat to marine creatures but also help restore natural coral reefs.
Apart from the man-made reef, Trang is also offering special scuba diving adventures at its iconic Emerald Cave, Hin Nok Rock and its Waen and Kradan islands.
A little over 4,000 tourists will be allowed to enter Maya Bay in Krabi’s Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park each day from January 1 onwards.
The crescent-shaped Maya Bay on Koh Phi Phi Leh island, which became famous after it was featured in the 2000 Hollywood blockbuster “The Beach”, has been closed to tourists since June 2018.
Damras Phoprasit, Department of National Parks director, said reopening the beach next year will help stimulate Krabi’s economy and can be seen as a New Year’s gift to tourists.
He added that the bay will be reopened under the following conditions:
• People can only enter from 7am to 6pm.
• Boats carrying no more than 375 people will be limited to 11 trips daily.
• Only 22 shallow dives will be allowed per day.
• Tourists can snorkel for 45 minutes per time and stay in the water for an hour. Groups who arrive in the morning may spot blacktip reef sharks, while snorkellers may catch sight of painted spiny lobsters.
• Tourists can reserve their trip via the QueQ application from December 20.
Damras added that tourists will be instructed to strictly comply with the national park’s regulations to protect natural resources and refrain from leaving garbage in the area.
“If this set-up proves to be successful, then we will apply the same rules to reopening other parts of the Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park,” he added.
In their version of the metaverse, creators of the startup Sensorium Corp. envision a fun-filled environment where your likeness can take a virtual tour of an abandoned undersea world, watch a livestreamed concert with French DJ Jean-Michel Jarre or chat with bots, such as leather-jacket-clad Kate, who enjoys white wine with her friends.
But at a demo of this virtual world at a tech conference in Lisbon earlier this year, things got weird. While attendees chatted with these virtual personas, some were introduced to a bald-headed bot named David who, when simply asked what he thought of vaccines, began spewing health misinformation. Vaccines, he claimed in one demo, are sometimes more dangerous than the diseases they try to prevent.
After their creation’s embarrassing display, David’s developers at Sensorium said they plan to add filters to limit what he can say about sensitive topics. But the moment illustrated how easy it might be for people to encounter offensive or misleading content in the metaverse – and how difficult it will be to control it.
Companies including Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. are racing to build out the metaverse, an immersive digital world that evangelists say will eventually replace some in-person interactions. The technology is in its infancy, but industry watchers are raising alarms about whether the nightmarish content moderation challenges already plaguing social media could be even worse in these new virtual- and augmented reality-powered worlds.
Tech companies’ mostly dismal track record on policing offensive content has come under renewed scrutiny in recent months following the release of a cache of thousands of Meta’s internal documents to U.S. regulators by former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen. The documents, which were provided to Congress and obtained by news organizations in redacted form, surfaced new details about how Meta’s algorithms spread harmful information such as conspiracy theories, hateful language and violence, and led to dozens of critical stories by the Wall Street Journal and a consortium of news organizations. The reports naturally prompted questions about how Meta and others intend to patrol the burgeoning virtual world for offensive behavior and misleading material.
“Despite the name change, Meta still allows purveyors of dangerous misinformation to thrive on its existing apps,” said Alex Cadier, managing director of NewsGuard in the U.K. “If the company hasn’t been able to effectively tackle misinformation on more simple platforms like Facebook and Instagram, it seems unlikely they’ll be able to do so in the much more complex metaverse.”
Meta executives haven’t been ignorant of the criticism. As they build up hype about the metaverse, they’ve pledged to take into account the privacy and well-being of their users as they develop the platform. The company also argues that these next-generation virtual worlds won’t be owned exclusively by Meta, but will come from a collection of engineers, creators and tech companies whose environments and products work together.
Those innovators, and regulators around the world, can start now to debate policies that would maintain the safety of the metaverse even before the underlying technology has been fully developed, executives say.
“In the past, the speed at which new technologies arrived sometimes left policy makers and regulators playing catch-up,” said Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs, in October at Meta’s annual Connect conference. “It doesn’t have to be the case this time around because we have years before the metaverse we envision is fully realized.”
Meta also says it plans to work with human rights groups and government experts to responsibly develop the virtual world, and it’s investing $50 million to that end.
To its evangelists, virtual and augmented reality will unlock the ability to experience the world in ways that previously existed only in the dreams of sci-fi novelists. Companies will be able to hold meetings in digital boardrooms, where employees in disparate locations can feel as if they are really together in one place. Friends will choose their own avatars and teleport together into concerts, exercise classes and 3D video games. Artists will be able to host creative experiences tailored to geographic locations in augmented reality, for any device holder to enjoy. Entrepreneurs will create virtual stores where digital and physical goods could be purchased.
But digital watchdogs say the same qualities that make the metaverse a tantalizing innovation may also open the door even wider to harmful content. The realistic feeling of virtual reality-powered experiences could be a dangerous weapon in the hands of bad actors seeking to stoke hate, violence and terrorism.
“The Facebook Papers showed that the platform can function almost like a turn-key system for extremist recruiters and the metaverse would make it even easier to perpetrate that violence,” said Karen Kornbluh, director of the German Marshall Fund’s Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative and former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Though the far-reaching, interconnected metaverse is still theoretical, existing virtual reality and gaming platforms offer a window into what kinds of problematic content could flourish there.
The Facebook Papers revealed that the company already has evidence that offensive content is likely to make the jump from social to virtual. In one example, a Facebook employee describes experiencing a brush of racism while playing the virtual reality game Rec Room on an Oculus Quest headset.
After entering one of the most popular virtual worlds in the game, the staffer was greeted with “continuous chants of: ‘N***** N***** N*****.'” According to the documents, the employee wrote in an internal discussion forum that he or she tried to figure out who was yelling and how to report them, but couldn’t. Rec Room said it provides several controls to identify speakers even when that person isn’t visible, and in this case it banned the offending user’s account.
“I eventually gave up and left the world feeling defeated,” wrote the employee, whose name was redacted in the documents.
The abuse has also already reached other VR products. People on VRChat, a platform where users can explore worlds dressed as different avatars, describe an almost transformative experience where they’ve built a virtual community unparalleled in the real world. On a Reddit thread about VRChat, they also describe nearly unbearable amounts of racism, homophobia, transphobia – and “don’t forget the dumb Nazis,” as one VRChat user wrote. It’s not uncommon for players to walk around repeating the N-word, while some virtual worlds get raided by Hitler and KKK avatars.
VRChat wrote in 2018 that it was working to address the “percentage of users that choose to engage in disrespectful or harmful behavior” with a moderation team that “monitors VRChat constantly.” But, years later, players are still reporting harmful users, and say that “nothing is seemingly ever done.” Others try muting or blocking problematic users’ voices or avatars, but the frequency of abuse can be overwhelming.
People also describe racism on popular video games like Second Life and Fortnite; some women have described being sexually harassed or assaulted on virtual reality platforms; and parents have raised concerns that their children were being groomed on the seemingly innocuous Roblox gaming platform for kids.
Social media companies like Meta, Twitter Inc. and Google’s YouTube have detailed policies that prohibit users from spreading offensive or dangerous content. To moderate their networks, most lean heavily on artificial intelligence systems to scan for images, text and videos that look like they could violate rules against hate speech or inciting violence. Sometimes those systems automatically remove the offensive posts. Other times the platforms apply special labels to the content or limit its visibility.
The degree to which the metaverse remains a safe space will depend partially on how companies train their AI systems to moderate the platforms, said Andrea-Emilio Rizzoli, the director of Switzerland’s Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence. AI can be trained to detect and take down hate speech and misinformation, and systems can also inadvertently amplify it.
The level of problematic content in the metaverse will also depend on whether tech companies design digital environments to function like small invitation-only private groups or wide-open public squares. Whistle-blower Haugen has been openly critical of Facebook’s metaverse plans, but recently told European lawmakers that hate speech and misinformation in virtual worlds might not travel as far or as quickly as it does on social media, because most people would be interacting in small numbers.
But it’s also just as likely that Meta would integrate its current networks, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, into the metaverse, said Brent Mittelstadt, a data ethics research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute.
“If they keep the same tools that have contributed to the spread of misinformation on their current platforms, it’s hard to say the metaverse is going to help,” said Mittelstadt, who is also a member of the Data Ethics Group at the Alan Turing Institute.
Considering a great deal of the misinformation and hate speech could also arise during private interactions in the metaverse, Rizzoli added, platforms will face the same debates over free speech and censorship when deciding whether to take down harmful content. Do platforms want to have virtual beings approach people and tell them their conversation is not fact-based, or prevent them from having the conversation at all? “This is a debatable issue,” Rizzoli said, “the type of control that you will be subjected to in this new metaverse.”
Defining and determining authenticity in the metaverse could also become more complicated. Tech companies could face tricky questions about the freedom people should enjoy to portray themselves as a member of a different race or gender, said Erick Ramirez, an associate professor at Santa Clara University. Deep fakes – videos or audio that use artificial intelligence to make someone appear to do or say something they didn’t – could evolve to become even more realistic and interactive in a metaverse world.
“There’s more room for deception,” said Ramirez, who recently participated in a roundtable discussion with Clegg about the policy implications of the metaverse. That kind of deceit “takes advantage of a lot of in-built psychology about how we interact with people and how we identify people.”
The metaverse could also compromise user privacy, advocates and researchers said. For instance, people who wear the augmented reality-powered glasses that are currently being developed by Snap Inc. and Meta could end up recording information about other people around them without their knowledge or consent. Users exploring purely virtual worlds could also face digital harassment or stalking from bad actors.
“In the physical world, often you have to do some extra work in order to track somebody, for example, but the online world makes it much easier,” said Neil Chilson, a senior research fellow for technology and innovation at the right-leaning Charles Koch Institute, who also participated in Meta’s roundtable.
Bill Stillwell, Meta product manager for VR privacy and integrity, said in a statement that developers have tools to moderate the experiences they create on Oculus, but the tools can always improve. “We want everyone to feel like they’re in control of their VR experience and to feel safe on our platform.”
Even metaverse supporters such as Chilson and Jarre, the French DJ who will soon hold virtual reality concerts, say regulators around the world will have to draft new rules around privacy, content moderation and other issues to make these digital spaces safe. That might be a tall order for governments that have been struggling for years to pass regulations to govern social media.
“Every technology has a dark side,” said Jarre. “So we need urgently to create regulations.”
Jonathan Victor, a product manager at the open-source developer Protocol Labs, also sees a potential bright side. In his vision of the metaverse, anyone will be able to own a digital 3D version of themselves, exchange cryptocurrency or make a career selling virtual goods they created.
“There’s incredible upside,” Victor said. “The question is, what’s the right way to build it?”
The Motor Expo 2021, which wrapped up on Sunday (December 12), proved to be a success despite strict Covid-19 control measures.
As many as 31,583 cars and 3,253 motorbikes were reserved at the expo, which attracted more than 1.15 million visitors, including 139,110 who visited via the online platform.
Revenue from this year’s Motor Expo has been estimated at 44 billion baht.
Cars sold at the fair cost an average of 1.3 million baht per piece and motorbikes came in at 398,831 baht on average.
Kwanchai Paphatphon, chair of the 38th Motor Expo, said this year’s event was successful because everybody complied with Covid-prevention measures.
The fair was held at Challenger Hall in Impact Muang Thong Thani from December 1 to 12.
The omicron variant dented the protection afforded by two doses of Pfizers and AstraZenecas covid vaccines as feared, researchers found, increasing the risk of infection.
Blood samples collected from people vaccinated with the two different shots and tested against the new strain showed a substantial drop in neutralizing antibodies, a proxy for protection, particularly compared with the delta variant, researchers from the University of Oxford said Monday in a paper.
The results echo other recent findings that emphasize the need for booster shots, especially amid evidence of omicron’s ability to drive a tidal wave of infections. The scientists couldn’t yet answer another key question, about the vaccines’ ability to ward off severe disease. The new mutation has sparked concern around the globe, but reports from South Africa — where it was first discovered — suggest so far cases appear to be milder than during earlier surges.
Omicron’s impact should become better documented in a few more weeks, making clear whether new vaccines are needed, according to Teresa Lambe, one of the creators of the shot that Astra developed with Oxford.
“We’re hopeful that the current vaccine will protect against severe disease and hospitalization and that’s certainly what we’ve seen before with other variants of concern,” Lambe told reporters. “We and other vaccine manufacturers are in a position that if a new variant vaccine is needed, we can go fast.”
In the meantime, the rise in infections alone could strain hospitals in places like the U.K. Gavin Screaton, head of Oxford’s medical-sciences division and lead author of the paper, called for remaining “cautious, as greater case numbers will still place a considerable burden on health-care systems.”
The researchers saw a roughly 30-fold drop in neutralizing antibodies against omicron after two doses of the Pfizer vaccine compared with the delta strain. The impact on the Astra shot was similar. The authors also found evidence of some participants failing to neutralize the virus at all.
Neutralizing antibodies are just one arm of the immune system’s defence, and the scientists are now looking at how T cells respond to the variant, with data expected in the coming weeks.
The blood samples were taken from the Oxford-led Com-Cov2 study looking at how mixing and matching vaccines with different intervals impacts the immune response to covid-19. The findings on omicron were mainly based on those volunteers that had two shots of the same vaccine, the researchers said at a press briefing Monday.
The data was published on the pre-print server medRxiv and has been submitted for peer review.
A third vaccination drive is necessary to deal with the Omicron Covid-19 variant, expert virologist Dr Yong Poovorawan said in a Facebook post on Sunday.
Comparing the battle against Covid-19 to a long marathon, Dr Yong said people should be given inactivated vaccines like Sinopharm or Sinovac for their first two jabs as they have few side effects.
However, he said, all three jabs of a viral-vector vaccine like AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson is not suitable because recipients’ immunity drops over a short period.
He added that though mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna provide high immunity, they also have high side effects.
“Swollen lymph nodes were found in some people who received an mRNA vaccine as their third jab, while heart muscle inflammation was found in some whose second shot was an mRNA vaccine,” he said.
Dr Yong said boosters can be provided in the following combinations:
• Two jabs of inactivated vaccine: The third jab can be a viral-vector or mRNA vaccine and delivered one month after the second jab. Both viral-vector and mRNA vaccines can be delivered as fourth shots to deal with new Covid-19 variants.
• Inactivated and viral-vector cocktail: A booster of a viral-vector or mRNA vaccine can be administered three months after the second jab. If the third jab is a viral-vector vaccine, then the fourth jab should be an mRNA one.
• Two viral-vector jabs: The third jab should be an mRNA vaccine administered three to six months after the second jab. If people prefer a viral-vector booster, then the interval must be longer than six months to ensure high immunity.
• Two mRNA jabs: The third jab can be an mRNA vaccine depending on the Covid-19 situation.
The Thai National Team kicked their way into the semi-finals of the AFF Championship after beating the Philippines 2-1 on Tuesday. Captain and forward Teerasil Dangda scored two goals for the team and became the all-time top scorer of the competition with 19 goals.
Thailand will now lock horns with Singapore on Saturday at 7.30pm in the last game of the group, which will decide which team grabs first place in this stage.
Manchester United announced on its website on Tuesday morning that the English Premier League fixture at Brentford FC, at 7.30pm, has been postponed and will be rescheduled in due course.
The team said that following the confirmation of positive Covid-19 test results among the first-team staff and players, the outbreak requires ongoing surveillance. It said the decision was taken to close first-team operations at the Carrington Training Complex for 24 hours to help minimise the risk of further infection, and individuals who tested positive are isolating in line with Premier League protocols.
“Given cancellation of training and disruption to the squad, and with the health of players and staff the priority, the Club requested the match to be rearranged. The Premier League Board took the decision to postpone based on guidance from medical advisors,” the team announced.
However, Manchester United said that it regrets the inconvenience caused to Brentford FC and to the fans of both clubs by Covid-19.
KING POWER CLICK & COLLECT—to unveil All stores ready to launch New Year festive campaigns.
KING POWER always stays top of world-class duty-free retailers. Adjusting to consumers’ behaviours at the sign of COVID-19 recovery and travelling beginning to resume, the new service –KING POWER CLICK & COLLECT— which allows customers to pick up their purchases at both arrival and departure terminals, will be unveiled on King Power’s online platforms. New year festive campaigns and activities will be launched at full force, while strictly following public health guidelines, to continually boost tourism-related businesses.
Mr. Apichate Srivaddhanaprabha, assistant to CEO and acting deputy-MD for marketing King Power Group, said that “as the country has now been open to tourists again since 1st November, we’ve seen more than a hundred thousand travellers entering Thailand. Coupling with tourism industry stimulus plans from all relevant sectors, it is promising that the dormant tourism businesses will gradually come back to life. It’s also imperative that we need to adhere strictly to public health protocols which will be mandatory to the new normal of travelling.
Such a positive sign prompts King Power group, as the global leader in travel-retail business, to launch new campaigns to boost Thailand’s tourism industry. From the moment travellers set foot in Thailand, they will enjoy several benefits that have been specially designed for them while making trips in the country. Thai travellers are also entitled to the same benefits. Some campaigns will start in the beginning of December, and more will follow suit in 2022, making the whole picture clearer.
Apart from these new services for travelling shoppers, through out December, King Power will transform all its stores into “the landmark of happiness” for the Christmas and New Year festive campaigns—KING POWER CELEBRATION 2022 : A NEW JOURNEY BEGINS WITH A SMILE, LIVE A LIFE BEYOND BOUNDARIES. Let’s make your smile shine even brighter. King Power is your only destination for the ultimate shopping, dining, and travelling experience. Now in store at King Power Rangnam, Srivaree, Pattaya and Phuket.
Drop the happiness pin! King Power Srivaree is back to service and now open on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. The store will be open for Christmas and New Year celebration.
Delivering happiness for this upcoming Christmas and New Year celebrations, from 18 December 2021 to 3 January 2022, King Power is ready to welcome everyone to enjoy the new shopping campaign KING POWER CELEBRATION 2022 : A NEW JOURNEY BEGINS WITH A SMILE, LIVE A LIFE BEYOND BOUNDARIES.” Customers can enjoy brand name products conveniently delivered to their houses with even more benefits: a package of 3 discount vouchers valued 1,500/3,000/5,000 baht each for the purchase of products worth 6,000/10,000/15,000 baht respectively. And don’t forget to try your luck – every 5,000 bah purchase will give you one chance to enter the draw to win special gifts; and every 10,000 baht purchase will give you a chance to collect letter tokens which can be exchanged for gift vouchers of 10,000 baht maximum. Now, subscribe to King Power membership and receive the cash value of 1,500 baht in your SCARLET member account upon application and 6,000 baht top up. What’s more, customers are entitled to 500 baht free meal at THAI TASTE HUB Rangnam and THAI TASTE HUB@SRIVAREE after spending 10,000 baht at King Power.
The benefits don’t just stop there. There are more to enjoy at King Power Rangnam and Srivaree. With every 3,000 baht purchase, customers can join “A NEW JOURNEY BEGINS WITH A SMILE” activity. In this activity, customers can take a memorabilia picture which will be printed on iStamps or postcards and post them to their loved ones instantly. Or, with every 5,000 baht purchase, customers can enter the KING POWER ROLL DISPENSER activity. In this activity, customers will be given the KING POWER HAPPY BAG and the liberty to choose freely the snacks to be filled in the bag. Customers can personalised their bags using unique stickers containing touching messages of love, prayer and care, for their loved ones to make this special time of the year even more special. At the Crown Atrium King Power Rangnam, customers can take selfies in the Optical Illusions Booth which allows them to look at themselves in a new perspective—that is, upside down, seeing oneself braving the gravity at the semblance of walking on the ceiling. New shooting ideas are welcome!
And King Power Srivaree will be reopen on Saturday and Sunday 18-19, 25-26, 31 December 2021 and 1-3 January 2022. Apart from shopping, customers can savour the food from leading street food vendors at THAI TASTE HUB @SRIVAREE and try delicious desserts and coffee at CAFÉ LOVERS POP UP where famous cafés come together in one place for coffee aficionados to enjoy.
Even more special! Meet the Christmas classic show JAZZ SONGS TROOP – a re-enactment of New Orleans festival’s SECOND LINE PARADE. Be enchanted by the fluid rhythm of Jazz music, performed by the diva “Chan – Chaichaem Wannaphat”, a vocal coach and musical performer who gives voice to Mirabel, the leading character from Walt Disney’s 60th animation, and “June – Kumarika Suphakarn” a lecturer at the faculty of music and performing arts, Burapha University who herself is a singer and vocal academic. The event is available on Friday to Sunday, between 24 December 2021 to 3 January 2022 at King Power Rangnam and Srivaree (only on Saturday to Sunday and special public holidays)
Mr. Apichate concluded that “King Power has organised these campaigns for both Thai and foreign visitors to enjoy Christmas and New Year festivals. KING POWER CLICK & COLLECT is our answer to the current needs of international travellers, as well as the future solution. As for Thai customers, the no-flight shopping campaign will be an important driving force of our business. It also brightens up the shopping scene in this festival of celebration.”
dtac participated in a meeting with NBTC to clarify regarding customers port-out requests.
dtac participated in a meeting with NBTC to clarify regarding customer’s port-out requests.
In the meeting, dtac reiterated its stance to facilitate if customers demand to port out according to NBTC’s policy that allows customers to port out and verify their rights before porting by pressing *151*ID number 13 digits# then make a call.
Customers can verify their port-out conditions as follow:
No outstanding balance. Name and information of the porting number match with the registered information. Not under purchasing device contract.
Q: Is it true that dtac delays in sending pin for customers who demand to port out by pressing USSD *151*ID number 13 digits# then make a call?
The answer is “NO” if customers are not under any port-out conditions, they will receive the pin within 10 minutes as per NBTC’s measures. However, in case customers face this issue, they can contact dtac to investigate further.
Q: dtac delays customers to port out claiming that prepaid customers still have credits remaining?
Answer: Not true, dtac doesn’t use this claim to maintain customers. dtac wishes to preserve customers’ benefits, in case there are still credits left in the prepaid system. Thereby, if customers acknowledge, and still want to pursue the port out, dtac will accommodate the request.
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