MaxYakov

4 hours ago, TerraplaneGuy said:

Yes it’s a relief but let’s not get excited ????  It’s already worse again than it was early this morning.  I’m about ready to leave BKK.  After 8 years, it’s only getting worse.  I’m not going to spend the rest of my life cowering behind a mask and darting from home to safe haven to home again lol   You’ve got to have a very good reason to stay here long-term. 

Yep. To paraphrase a common quote: Living in Thailand is like being in prison with the possibility of getting laid. Add to that: "with the added possibility of having a chronic disorder brought on by the air pollution".

An interesting range of particulate infestation. Where is that might I ask?

2 hours ago, Blackheart1916 said:

If it was shot down, then it has to be intentionally.

The "Tactical Mode" switch was in "Tactical" when they thought it was in "Systems Test".

RIP poor victims and condolences to their relatives and friends.

These kinds of "incidents" can foment revolution, but it probably won't happen in Iran.

3 hours ago, mogandave said:

10 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Maybe you start with educating us which universally accept authority is responsible for labeling anyone as terrorist. 

In US, terrorism is defined in Title 22 Chapter 38 U.S. Code § 2656f as "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents".
 

The above can be interpreted in way that meant that US in killing Soleimani is a terrorist act. Don’t you think so. 

No, I don’t. 

Eric Loh: By the very law code you cited it was not a terrorist act. The killing was not performed by a "subnational group or clandestine agent" and Major General Soliemani was not a "noncombatant target".

You can read and understand English, right?

For the morbid and/or gorehounds, horrific crash debris images HERE.

19 hours ago, JimShorts said:

At least you will be able to know if the air in your house is ok or not and do something to fix it if it is not ok. Same goes for your kid's school and your workplace. Most school actually have air purifiers or are willing to install them. You will also find many safe havens, such as many malls, restaurants, coffee shops, kids indoor play areas, etc. all with good air. 

 

I too am here for work and although I am seriously considering leaving, for now I try to make the best of it. 

One would have to carry a PM2.5 meter to measure and verify the levels anywhere. I have done this at the FoodLand (Took La Dee) restaurants and pollution levels are actually worse than outside - probably because of the cooking. I doubt that there are many "safe havens" out there among the malls, restaurants and coffee shops and (even) the schools. If I had a child in school, I'd be verifying steps it has taken to lessen its pollution level. But what do the children do during recess? How many children are actually in effective masks these days (rhetorical question)?

I don't worry about it too much because I'm always in an effective mask except when I'm actually eating. I wear a mask even in my apartment's un-air-purified rooms because I know the pollution levels in those rooms are essentially the same as outside. I keep only one "clean room", my bedroom of around 15 m². I try to keep the levels at < 5 mcg/m³ there. My biggest nightmare is falling asleep and breathing 100 mcg/m³ for several hours as do (apparently) most of the residents of Bangkok during "unhealthy/red" hours. I personally consider anything greater than a very clean "green" level to be unhealthy, but that's just me.

Incidentally, since I've been wearing an effective mask full-time when out and about, my incidences of what used to be catching a cold regularly has dropped to zero (knock on wood). I also try to avoid being around people (mainly due to the noise - another pollution issue with me).

18 hours ago, JimShorts said:

My bad, I did not explain myself correctly. What I was trying to say is that aqicn.org website is indeed the best measure we have available and I am thankful for the project. However the way most people interpret the AQI colors is inaccurate. Anything other than green is not safe for health, especially for young kids and older people. Yellow and orange are not be careful, they are this is unhealthy. Yellow equals unhealthy. Orange, red, purple and brown are more and more unhealthy. 

If children are more susceptible to air pollution, then they should be in masks at all times during other-than-green pollution levels. The thing is I don't think I've seen child-size masks for sale anywhere. Would the children even wear them (or be made to wear them) if they were available?

Look at the bright side - nobody got killed (except the pickup). 

"Srisuwan suggested that the consumer should expect lower prices for having to provide items to carry their shopping themselves."

And we who convert our currencies to Thai Baht should get a better price. The strong baht is costing me thousands of baht monthly. The plastic bag ripoff, if there is such a thing is a comparative trifle.

23 minutes ago, tlock said:

5555 at the keychain plastic bag holder.

 

In California, while plastic bags are banned, you are able to purchase a paper bag for 5 cents, which is tax and goes to the locality.  The situation in Thailand amounts to pure profit for the stores, they are not only saving money by not providing bags, but making money on the sale of bags.  Quite clever.

 

Yeah, I have a Wal Mart "Paper or Plastic? Neither" (printed on their custom cloth bag along with the Wal Mart Logo) from at least 10 years ago. My local FoodLand Grocery Store will charge 1 baht for each of their previous standard, poly, hand loop bag they sell at the customer's request. This money goes into a "Save the Earth" slotted, clear plastic box that's sitting on the checkout counter by the cash register. So, in their case it's not exactly all "pure" profit.

A few weeks ago my local FoodLand GS was selling shopping bags for 25 baht each. I couldn't (or didn't) tell if they were plastic-based or cloth. They were prominently displayed by the checkout lines, but I don't see them now. I take some time to watch in fascination the checkout lines to see the various types of bags people bring to FoodLand to carry away their purchases. I watch them walking away with their shopping bags as if it were routine.

Thailand is at least ten years behind other countries/states with this banning of poly bags. Being behind, if not abjectly backwards, should not be a surprise to us should it?  BTW, we're having an extremely bad (160+/red/unhealthy except for one hour - RTAQ) wide-spread air pollution morning since from 21:00 last night. What are going to "ban" to address this endemic and even more important (to human health) pollution?

3 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

Sure, why not start WW3 to avoid leaving office and be impeached.

We've been in WWIII since 9/11 (if you're not even counting the Cold War with Russia). Where have you been? We should be worried about WWIV, the probable nuclear one.

U.S. Department of War Defense

U.S. Department of Defense Best Defense is a Good Offense

4 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

Soleimani was a VERY important man and kind of a hero to the iranian regime .

His killing by the US will provoke a serious reaction , may be not directly , but for the Iranians that was clearly a ' declaration of war ' by the US .

They will now accelerate their work on a nuclear bomb , and do everything to damage US interests in the region ...

We will see what will happen exactly , but it will be nothing good ...

 

That could be the start of a big war , Iran is not like Iraq .

I hope not .

Don't look now, but the U.S. and others have been at war with terrorists for decades. This assassination is a parallel of the P-38 raid (aka Operation Vengeance) on the Japanese Admiral, Yamamoto, during WWII.

Soleimani must have forgotten that the U.S. is on a war footing and, like Yamamoto, was too ignorant of U.S. intelligence capability and too punctual with his movements. Why was Soleimani at the Baghdad airport? Did he fly-in thinking of a wild night on the town?

Some of us refuse to cower under our beds while terrorist leaders like Soleimani  and Baghdadi are alive to plan more death and mayhem. I'm going to get under my bed now. ????

29 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

As I've got a hoard of plastic bags that could last for years, I reckon people will start to look at me like indoor smokers. Look, bad bag, bad man! I don't know why they call them single use. Many of those plastic bags are good for TEN times. 

Probably because many are used only once and then trashed, like the useless little ones that people use to carry their cold drinks in and the discard when finished with the drink. Hoarding plastic bags, eh? Maybe you should consider opening a plastic bag museum and charge 5 baht per tour?  I hoard bicycles and DVDs and rarely ride or watch them.

37 minutes ago, Salerno said:

13 hours ago, ben2talk said:

I think the concept of 'free' is outdated.

They where never "free" in the first place. 

Yep, most things touted as "free" are really just "included" in the asking price. "Free" can be applied only when there is no monetary transaction occurring. Even then, one has to consider any peripheral/unconsidered costs such as one's time, trouble and unexpected consequences, etc.

Prediction: It will never be "goodbye to plastic bags". Not in our lifetimes or in the lifetimes of Dugongs and other plastic-endangered species.

2 hours ago, jastheace said:

ref to last pic...

and the plastic wrapped veg, and the plastic egg carton, and the........

oh yeah, the plastic bunting, banners, advertising poster...... crikey...

Hopefully (very hopefully), slowly cooking the frog of plastic pollution by humanity. They somehow managed to kill the pull-tab can seal but it was much less of a threat to the environment than plastic.

38 minutes ago, theonetrueaussie said:

56 minutes ago, Saint Nick said:

Crazy, I know...but here me out!

There is this thing called " a shop" and you cab go there and buy garbage- bags!

It's not that hard! 

Or even better you just go on lazada and buy 300 PLASTIC BAGS like the shops used to have...Just like I did cost me a whole 170THB for 300 of them and will just throw a pack of 30 in my bike to use at a time...and then use as garbage bags later on......All my friends have done the same, turns out way cheaper then buying garbage bags too!!!

So you're saying you don't re-use these bags that you buy from Lazada for shopping as well as eventually use them for garbage and you're bragging about the savings!?

I re-use the same set of bags that I carry with me hundreds of times for shopping and rarely have to buy any from anyone. If one wears out I've been known to use packing tape to repair it. If I can't repair it, I'll pay the 1 baht at FoodLand to get a new one. No big deal.

I do buy some of the 18 x 20 inch black bags and wire twist seals (they fit my two flip-lid, foot-operated trash bins perfectly) from FoodLand but use them sparingly and they have uses other than just for garbage as well.

You don't seem to get the point of why the retailers stopped (or were told to stop) giving bags out at no charge, do you? I mean come on how much garbage are you generating, anyway?

7 hours ago, Shot said:

My local Kamala Tesco Express hasn't had plastic bags for a few months, bring your own. My 7-11 has been asking for a few months if I want a bag. BigC Kamala was only giving out bags if you had a lot of stuff, today they informed me, "No bags today and not ever. " Like many others, I use these bags at least twice. I'm not going to buy trash bags and only use them once, so I'll be burning my rubbish in the yard or street, just like my neighbors. Happy cough, cough new year.

I'm sure many of us appreciate your creative flexibility on this issue (NOT). I hope you were not serious because many of us homo sapiens sapiens have to actually breathe air - something that most of the Bangkok residents seem to have forgotten or ignored. Maybe their metabolisms are actually alien and they don't really need oxygen via clean air. It wouldn't surprise me if this were the case.

TIP: Buy, install and use both a trash compactor and a sink disposal unit or don't they allow these in Thailand's outback?

3 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

you can't live like a frightened rabbit all your life

You are correct! I decided to live like a frightened cautious, albeit a somewhat strange, homo sapiens sapiens while in Thailand and elsewhere. Have we heard the last of the "frightened rabbit" from you now? It (the metaphor) is getting a bit worn and tattered, doncha think?

2 minutes ago, ubon farang said:

So has the road deaths improved or not? Watching the idiots race past the shop i was at last night i think not. Speeding was out of control and i mean these guys were not just over the limit they were way past the speeding limit it was  like a drag race .Yippee I am flying take me to heaven quick

Yeah, it probably was some kind of drunken race even if they were only trying to beat their personal best. It's like a Le Mans race on my narrow soi every day. Usually it's motorbikes (often ridiculously loud ones) passing cars, but sometimes it's a high-performance car passing motorbikes. Never seen the RTP clock and pursue a speeder or loud motorbike. They sometimes come around to write tickets for illegal parking, though.