Word: pads
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...desk has two parts: a table with adjustable height--low for when you're sitting, high for when you're walking or standing, superhigh for when you need to rest your chin on the wrist pad--and the treadmill, which is operated by buttons on the desk. It's nifty, simple and about $5,000 total, so some people have MacGyvered setups like it on their own. The first thing it does after you turn it on is ask your weight, which is a little confrontational. It then asks your weight every time...
...yellow-clad demonstrators call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD). But they represent neither the majority of Thai people nor universal democratic values. Their mission is to erase from government any influence of billionaire populist Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed as Prime Minister in a 2006 army coup. Although the telecom tycoon is beloved by many poor Thais who once gave him a record electoral mandate, the urban middle class, which forms the bedrock of the PAD, accuses Thaksin of being a power-hungry strongman. In October, the former P.M. was sentenced in absentia to two years' imprisonment...
...Even from self-imposed exile overseas, Thaksin casts a long shadow. Current Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat may be a soft-spoken judicial expert, but he also happens to be Thaksin's former brother-in-law. Since August, the PAD has besieged Somchai's offices, forcing him to set up a makeshift administration headquarters in the VIP lounge of Bangkok's old airfield. On Nov. 24, the PAD upped the ante, shutting down Thailand's parliament and later overwhelming the old air terminal. Somchai's spokespeople have assured the public that policy-making is going on from a "secret location...
...government literally on the run is clearly not an effective one. Parts of the Thai capital have been convulsed by gunfire and small-scale explosives. Over the past couple of months, several people, mostly PAD footsoldiers, have been killed in political street violence...
...Mayhem is just what the opposition alliance craves. PAD leaders are hoping that the military, which has masterminded 18 coups since Thailand's absolute monarchy was abolished in 1932, will intervene again to contain anarchy and set up a new, Thaksin-free regime. But shortly after the air terminal takeover, the army publicly quashed putsch rumors and called for the PAD to leave the airport. (Army chief Anupong Paochinda did, however, urge Somchai to "return the power to the people" by calling fresh elections.) The military's reluctance to let tanks roll on the streets presumably derives from the fact...