The Switzerball can take visitors to most of the major tourist destinations in Switzerland in just four and a half minutes, all the way from your hotel.

Along the route you board a train, climb a mountain, ride a cable car, stroll a cliff, enjoy a creamy fondue and taking a boat to Chillon Castle.

Switzerland is world famous for its alpine grandeur, which is captured in multiple photos in the show. Pictures also show the production of enough cheese during summer so it can be stockpiled for the long winter months. Others depict festive processions of herdsmen and women dressed in traditional costumes.

There’s a stacking challenge to find “the secret of Annabelle’s beauty”, a lovely cow. The winner each day goes on to the final round on September 23 for a chance to win an eight-day luxury vacation in Switzerland to meet Annabelle in person.

For details, visit the “Inlovewithswitzerland” Facebook page.

The event, held at Siam Kempenski Bangkok, also saw the announcement of collaborations with five licensee brands, namely Jockey, Hush Puppies, John Henry, Body Wild by Gunze and Frolina. Together, they co-launched five special collections of innerwear and towels that feature five world-class innovations and technologies for cotton. The collections and their special attributes were presented in a chic fashion show with a “Locker Room” concept by both celebrity and professional models, among them Boy Pakorn, Ken Phuphoom, Bee Namthip, Oabnithi Wiwattanawarang and Lee Thanat along with Philip, Attila, Joseph and Man from “The Face Men Thailand 2017”.

Kraipob Pangsapa, Cotton USA’s Asean representative, said: “Innovation is one of the reasons that over the past 22 years, we’ve been building consumer awareness of US cotton as a premium, eco-friendly fibre. Cotton USA consistently introduces innovative technologies to inspire licensees with new possibilities to increase the performance of their products. For example, these technologies are behind superior breathability and moisture-wicking performance that made cotton tshirts ideal for workouts. Denim, too, benefits from waterrepellent technology that gave jeans an added attribute for outdoor life. These performance products have received very favourable responses from consumers worldwide.

“This is our tenth consecutive Cotton Day celebration with textile industry suppliers, Cotton USA licensees, consumers and the media,” Kraipob continued. “The event also kicks off our global campaign to showcase innovation in technologies that will inspire everyone in textile business across the world with new ideas for cotton and cotton blended fabrics, performance of products and opportunities to meet lifestyle needs of the consumers.

“Innerwear and towels are contiguous to our delicate skin. Technological innovations are therefore introduced to increase their performance for better comfort and confidence of the wearers and users,” he pointed out. “Innovation can be found in the products of all these five brands. Jockey highlighted its argan oil innovation. Pure Moroccan argan oil contains beneficial fatty acids and vitamins. It is blended with US cotton, resulting in cotton innerwear that provides an extra soft touch and the ability to keep the skin moisturised. Hush Puppies features SuperCare Innovation, using collagen extract to give a soft, smooth touch to cotton fabric. This cotton technology also helps retain skin moisture and block UV rays. John Henry offers Deogreen Innovation, an anti-bacterial, anti-odour technology that also provides a soft, comfortable touch. Body Wild by Gunze brings the Cut-Off innovation, a seamless innerwear technology that allows the wearers to cut the sleeves or trunk to a desired length or cut the neckline to widen or deepen it without causing curls or unraveling at the edges even after more than 25 wash cycles. Frolina comes with Nano Pearl Innovation, in which the cotton thread is coated with nano pearl powder to give the fabric its soft, gentle touch and superb moisture wicking performance,” he noted.

To give consumers a hands-on experience of premium US cotton products and innovation, Cotton USA has created a popup store called “What’s new in cotton” at the Beacon 3 Zone, Level 1, Central World. It’s open through September 25.

Renowned for supporting local artists, Pullman Bangkok Hotel G is thrilled to showcase its latest collaboration with Koo, who has used striking geometric imagery and graphic elements to create designs that are fun and edgy.

A graduate in Creative Media from the London College of Communication, the freelance designer has an impressive client list that includes The New York Times, The Guardian, Wallpaper, Beams, Tokyobike and Smirnoff, to name a few.

The collection features designs inspired by the theme, ‘Bangkok means of transportation’. Guests can now brighten up the monsoon season with T-shirts, and coffee mugs emblazoned with colourful yet fun images of the city’s iconic tuk-tuk, bus and motorcycle. T-shirts are just Bt350 net and coffee mug Bt400 net.

G Shop is at lobby level of Pullman Bangkok Hotel G! Find out more at (02) 352 4000.

The aim, the organisers say, is to encourage the public to keep fit and for  family members to spend time together.

The event consists of two distances: a 10-kilometre mini marathon (Bt500 per entry) for which runners are categorised by age and a three-kilometre walk and run (Bt400).

Registers at http://www.MajorRunWithCare.com or in person at the Major Care Foundation on the M Floor of Major Cineplex Ratchayothin.

Proceeds will go to 10 schools in 10 provinces to fund scholarships and build classrooms.

Just horsing around

Actress, beauty blogger and animal lover Preeyada “Kambum” Kraivichai will be manning an ice cream booth at the eighth edition of “Pet Variety” taking place at Impact Exhibition Halls 34, Muang Thong Thani on October 47 on the theme of “Aloha Rerngra Hawaiian”.

This fourday event will showcase dogs, cats, ball pythons, guinea pigs, Fennec foxes, cockatoos, and racoons and will be open on each day from 10am to 8pm.

What we overlook

Artists Esther Alis, Dhanainun Dhanarachwattana, Saksit Khunkitti , Prae Pupityastaporn, Tulapop Saenjaroen, and Watcharas Leelawath join up for “Time Less Held: Artists Revisiting the Overlooked”, showing at Tadu Contemporary Art from now until September 27.

The six artists revisit the long-standing claim that what we typically overlook in our daily lives carries strange beauty and underestimated significance.

The gallery is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm.

Eat, drink and be merry!

Conrad Bangkok is celebrating Oktoberfest 2018 with special menus at Diplomat Bar, Deli by Conrad, and City Terrace-Pool Restaurant from Saturday through October 7.

Diplomat Bar is offering  traditional German dishes such as “Bratwurst und Sauerkraut”, “Weiner Schnitzel”, and “Weisswurst” while Deli by Conrad and City Terrace Pool Restaurant have a scrumptious menu of traditional German dishes such as “Brotzeitellermit Griebenschmalz”, “Schweinsbraten”, “Beer Braised Brisket Burger”, and “Gergrilltes Zanderfilet”.

Make your reservation at (02) 690 9999.

Travellers can apply special promo codes to receive special discounts up to Bt150 to Bt250 off unlimited rides. The local tourism promotion campaign runs through September 30 and covers emerging community attractions in Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Krabi and Surat Thani (Samui).

“While these destinations are already welcoming a large number of tourists every year, the ‘Grab Xi’ campaign will not only open doors to even more opportunities for the local communities with their unique charms but will also distribute income to the local people. This initiative forms part of Grab’s continued effort to improve the livelihood of the community and support income increase for sustainable growth. We hope to be able to expand this campaign to other provinces in the near future,” said Tarin Thaniyavarn, country head of Grab Thailand.

Travellers can participate in the Grab Xi campaign by selecting their destination as ‘TAT x Grab’ then choose the listed local destination in their province and add the promo code. For participating local community attractions in Bangkok and Pattaya, use the promo code ‘AMAZING’ to get a maximum Bt150 discount per ride. For Phuket, Krabi and Samui, use the promo code ‘THAITAY’ to get Bt250 maximum discount per ride. The promo codes can be used for unlimited rides throughout the campaign.

“To support the growth of domestic travel sector, TAT focuses on encouraging Thai travellers to visit local attractions. The initiative to promote these emerging destinations is one of our strategies to drive the economy, and tourism income, which is recognised as a major contributor to grassroots economies. To bring our strategic vision to life, an efficient transportation system is essential to the infrastructure required to ensure tangible growth for the local tourism sector, as it provides travellers with convenience,” said Noppadon Pakprot, deputy governor of TAT.

The local attractions are as follow;

Bangkok: Kudi Chin Community, Talat Noi, Baan Bart Community Village, Baan Bu Bronzework Community and Bang Kachao.

Pattaya: Pattaya Floating Market, Baan Chakngeaw Chinese Market, Na Kluea 100-Year Market, The Sanctuary of Truth and Khao Phra Tamnak.

Phuket: Thalang Cultural Village, Baan Kanaen, Ko Sirey Community, Phuket Old Town, Agritourism at Bang Rong and Mai Khao Beach.

Krabi: Krabi Walking Street, Khao Khanab Nam Caves, Ko Klang Baan Nateen Community and Tiger Cave Temple.

Samui: Wat Khunaram, Dusit Dhewa, Big Buddha Temple, Ko Fan, Wat Lamai Folklore Museum and Fisherman’s Village.

For more information, visit http://www.Grab.com/th/blog/tatxgrab/, Facebook.com/GrabTH or call the Grab Call Centre at (02) 021 2500.

A longtime writer from the beloved children’s show appeared to confirm they were in fact a “loving couple” on Tuesday, only for its creators to deny the pair are together or have a sexual orientation.

Mark Saltzman, who was a staff writer between 1981 and 1990, told the website Queerty he had based the pair’s dynamic on his own long-term relationship with film editor Arnold Glassman.

“I remember one time that a column from the San Francisco Chronicle, a preschooler in the city turned to mom and asked ‘are Bert & Ernie lovers?’ And that, coming from a preschooler was fun,” he said.

“And that got passed around, and everyone had their chuckle and went back to it. And I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert and Ernie, they were. I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them.

“I was already with Arnie when I came to ‘Sesame Street.’ So I don’t think I’d know how else to write them, but as a loving couple.”

Saltzman added the Bert and Ernie’s interactions mirrored his own with Glassman, who was his partner for more than 20 years until his death in 2003.

“I wrote sketches… Arnie’s OCD would create friction with how chaotic I was. And that’s the Bert and Ernie dynamic.”

But Sesame Workshop, which produces the show, denied the pair’s relationship was anything more than platonic.

“As we have always said, Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves,” the non-profit organization said.

“Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”

Bert and Ernie’s relationship has long been questioned by viewers.

In 2011, gay rights activist Lair Scott launched an online petition signed by some 7,600 people that called for the pair to get married on the program to teach acceptance of gays and lesbians, spawning an extensive online debate on the topic as well as less popular pages opposing the two characters tying the knot.

In response, the show issued a similar statement to that released on Tuesday.

That did not prevent the pair from appearing on the cover of the prestigious New Yorker magazine in 2013, shortly after the US Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the country.

They were shown cuddling up on the couch watching a television that showed the Supreme Court judges.

Microplastics — tiny plastic shards broken down from man-made products such as synthetic clothing, car tyres and contact lenses — litter much of the world’s oceans.

Hard to spot and harder to collect, they can seriously harm marine wildlife and are believed to pose a significant risk to human health as they move through the food chain and contaminate water supplies.

Now researchers of the University of Reading believe they have proof for the first time that microplastics can enter our ecosystem by air via mosquitoes and other flying insects.

The team observed mosquito larvae ingesting microscopic plastic beads — similar to the tiny plastic balls found in everyday cosmetic products — before monitoring them through their life cycle.

They found that many of the particles were transferred into the mosquitoes’ adult form, meaning whatever creatures then ate the flying insects in the wild would also ingest the plastic.

“The significance is that this is quite possibly widespread,” Amanda Callaghan, biological scientist at Reading and the lead study author, told AFP.

“We were just looking at mosquitoes as an example but there are lots of insects that live in water and have the same life-cycle with larvae that eat things in water and then emerge as adults.”

The animals known to eat such insects include several species of birds, bats and spiders, all of which are hunted in turn by other animals.

“It’s basically another pathway for pollution that hadn’t been considered previously,” Callaghan said.

Although the team observed the mosquitoes in lab conditions, she said it was “highly possible” the process was already happening in the wild.

Several countries including Britain have banned products containing microbeads, but Callaghan said the scale of the problem was still being discovered.

“It’s a major problem and those plastics already in the environment are going to be with us for a very, very long time,” she said.

The 42-year-old tycoon, chief executive of Japan’s largest online fashion mall, is the country’s 18th richest person, according to business magazine Forbes.

His Instagram feed is peppered with shots of his luxury living — including private jets, yachts and designer watches, but also his beloved art.

Maezawa hit the headlines last year when he bought a Jean-Michel Basquiat masterpiece worth $110.5 million.

But he also often features in the tabloid glossies for his celebrity love life.

He used to date the ex-wife of professional baseball player Yu Darvish, pitcher at US major league team Chicago Cubs and is now reportedly with Japanese actress Ayame Goriki.

The entrepreneur has a passion for modern art and splashed a record sum for Basquiat’s 1982 “Untitled”, a skull-like head in oil-stick, acrylic and spray paint on a giant canvas.

Maezawa founded the Contemporary Art Foundation in Tokyo and was on the 2017 list of “Top 200 Collectors” of the ARTnews magazine based in New York.

He insists he is just an “ordinary collector” — despite his extraordinary bank balance. His purchases are born out of love and driven by gut instinct, rather than the instructions of any art advisor.

“I buy simply because they are beautiful. That’s all. I enjoy classics together with the history and stories behind them, but possessing classics is not the purpose of my purchase,” he told AFP in an interview last year.

And rather than squirrel the work away, he loaned it out to museums including the Brooklyn Museum, in the artist’s hometown.

“I hope it brings as much joy to others as it does to me, and that this masterpiece by the 21-year-old Basquiat inspires our future generations,” he said.

Art was high on his mind when he announced he would blast into space on a SpaceX rocket in 2023, saying he would invite six to eight artists from around the world with him.

“They will be asked to create something after they return to Earth. These masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us,” he told reporters.

He has already shown his appreciation for Musk’s space programme, tweeting his congratulations for the successful launch of Falcon Heavy in February.

“I am moved that I shared the historic moment on the scene. I am so thrilled and encouraged I can’t put it into words,” his tweet said.

‘Routine work’

As a young man, Maezawa had aspirations in the music world and was a drummer with a band named Switch Style, which made its debut in 2000.

In an interview with corporate affairs website Nippon Shacho, he said he eventually discovered that the business world was more creative than music.

Writing songs, releasing albums and touring the country performing was “gradually becoming routine work,” he told the website.

“We were about to become salary worker-like musicians,” he said, referring to the famous Japanese “salaryman” businessman.

Even before the band’s debut, he was dabbling in business, founding Start Today, which operates online fashion shopping site ZOZOTOWN.

Start Today is now a publicly listed company with 900 employees according to its website.

He said his company has grown because he and his staff “are doing what we enjoy.”

“We love clothes, and we love our colleagues who love clothes. We are doing business as an extension of our hobby,” he said.

“Never trust your comrades,” may have been the last words that flashed through Bo Let Ya’s mind as he fell in a hail of M16 bullets. The assault by Karen rebels on his Thailand-Myanmar border stronghold came in November 1978. Three decades before, he had helped liberate Myanmar from British rule as a member of the Thirty Comrades.

Born Hla Pe in 1911 in Pyinmana, central Burma, to a civil servant father and half-Chinese mother, Bo Let Ya was well placed to become a revolutionary intellectual. As a student he joined the liberation movement, desperate to free his country from foreign occupation. He became a close friend of Aung San, and went on to serve as the right-hand man of modern Burma’s founding father.

Dr Khin Let Ya, his eldest daughter, has spent the past three decades tracing Bo Let Ya’s revolutionary path for her book “Burma’s Fate: Vision and Struggle for Independence, Unity and Development”.

In it she tracks her father’s journey through the struggle against colonial rule, the transition administration and his revolt against Ne Win’s dictatorship.

Burma’s fight for independence was waged against the backdrop of World War II with strong support from the Japanese Imperial Army. The author describes how Aung San and Bo Let Ya travelled for military training on the occupied island of Hainan, China, where they were taught strategies for command and administration. Meanwhile their wily comrade Shu Maung (Ne Win) chose battlefield-command training, a decision that paid off. Aung San and Bo Let Ya became skilled in civilian administration, but Ne Win’s military training saw him rise to lead the country with an iron fist from 1962 to 1988.

The three were leading members of the Thirty Comrades, the embryo around which the Burma Independence Army formed in Thailand, in December 1941, dispatching volunteers to fight in Myanmar.

After independence, Bo Let Ya played a key role in the administration, rising to become defence minister, before Ne Win took power in the coup of 1962 and promptly threw his former comrade in jail. Bo Let Ya spent much of his four years in Insein Prison painting artworks that were later collected and published by Khin Let Ya.

In 1969 he joined up with former prime minister U Nu and formed the Parliamentary Democracy Party (PDP) in Thailand, taking the fight to Ne Win’s regime until his last day in 1978. But the two rebel leaders failed to see eye to eye. While U Nu lived a relatively comfortable life of exile in Bangkok, Bo Let Ya’s focus was firmly on the Myanmar border. He rented a house in Kanchanaburi’s Sangkhla district from where he could monitor his homeland.

Burma’s brightest and best had been united by the struggle against British rule, but faced with a home-grown dictator, fractures quickly began to appear. “Within the first year of the PDP’s formation, different factions had developed within the party, to Bo Let Ya’s dismay,” writes Khin Let Ya. She adds that financing the struggle was also a major problem: “funds weren’t forthcoming while U Nu was leading the revolution. There were reports of mismanagement of funds by his son.”

PDP’s armed wing, the People’s Revolutionary Army, was not strong enough to stand against the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) alone, so it worked together with armed ethnic groups of Shan, Karen, Mon and Shin. Unfortunately, U Nu had fallen out with the powerful Karen militants.

Change came when the Thai government asked U Nu to leave the country in 1973, and Bo Let Ya took leadership of the PDP. But by that time serious differences had emerged between the PDP and ethnic groups. While the objective of the Burmese PDP was nationwide democracy, the ethnic armies were fighting for autonomy in their respective states.

By 1975 the political situation in neighbouring Thailand had swung against Burma’s rebels. After a massacre of students at Thammasat University in October 1976, ultra-rightist leaders dominated Thai politics, making it difficult for the Burmese resistance to use Thailand as their launching pad against Ne Win.

Bo Let Ya was in poor health. Entrusted with his care was Dr Mahn Myint Saing, a Karen physician who happened to be married to a niece of Bo Let Ya’s wife. However, the doctor took advantage of his trusted position to embezzle military funds.

Bo Let Ya’s only son, Aung Let Ya, who had joined the resistance movement in 1969, quarrelled with the doctor over the funding problem. He was shot dead in an ambush in July 1978, less than five months before the assassination of his father.

On the morning of November 27, 1978, as Bo Let Ya was heading towards the toilet at his jungle camp in Prachuap Khiri Khan, he was shot dead by suspected Karen fighters. The author points the finger at Mahn Myint Saing, who allegedly colluded with business interests and Karen rebels to seize Bo Let Ya’s stronghold for logging.

Three of his four bodyguards were also killed in the attack. The fourth is suspected of being the informant who aided the Karen attack. The assassination of Bo Let Ya was the final chapter of the resistance movement, after which fellow rebels were granted amnesty to return home.

The author and her family waited nearly a year before receiving final confirmation that her father was dead. But Bo Let Ya never made it back to his beloved homeland. His remains lie lost in an unmarked grave somewhere on a hillside in Thailand.

Ariya Banomyong, managing director of Line Thailand said: “Powered by our massive user base of 42 million users in Thailand, Line sees an opportunity to bring people who have the same interests together, building up communities by using our platform as a space where people get together, share ideas and update trends on their favourite topics. Line Square will be the largest real-time community in Thailand where users can access various communities, share ideas and engage with topics. It will serve as an all-in-one community platform integrated with Line’s chat application so users don’t have to log in to another website to connect with communities.”

Access to most of the web communities in Thailand is scattered, she added. Users need to look for their preferred communities by themselves and go through various platforms. There is no main hub that would allow them to choose the community based on their interests. Interaction within most communities in Thailand is still based on one-way-communication by posts and comments only, lacking real time engagement for users.

Line Square expects to become a massive community platform, offering users easy access to various communities within, and ease of use with a user-friendly experience. Simultaneous post-and-chat features allow users to interact freely either to discuss or share opinions instantly with new friends by the Chat feature, or to keep up-to-date with the latest movements of your favourite topics from the Post feature.

Tailor-made topic is also a highlighted feature. Line Square allows users to create a main topic while numerous sub-communities in the form of chat rooms can be generated under the square and customised freely by user’s preference to make the community more fun and specific.

For example, fans can create a square for a certain K-Pop boy band consisting of various chat rooms defined by objective (such as “Schedule update”, “Gossip news”, “Fan art” and “Event gallery”), or a popular running community group ‘Wingnaidee,’ which ranks highly as Top Trends in Line Square, divided into sub-communities by specific areas, such as “Wingnaidee@Suanrodfai”, “Wingnaidee@Chatuchak” and “Wingnaidee@Chiangmai”.

Once Line users in Thailand update the Line app to the latest version, the Line Square will appear in their friend list or timeline. To join the community, users do not need to reveal their private information or their actual Line ID when selecting their profile photo and nickname in each square. They can invite people to enter a Square by using a URL or QR code. In addition, users can join any existing chat room they would like.

To ensure safety, Line has implemented a variety of security measures. For example, users can report any inappropriate content, including text, images and videos. In addition, Line Square has an internal monitoring system, automatically filtering banned words and reporting people who post inappropriate content.