MaxYakov

5 hours ago, ezzra said:

As horrible and gut wrenching these repeated killings are, the sad fact is that not much can be done to stop it from happening again and again, as there are as many as deranged dumb asses in the US as the availability of guns and ammo and the ease of which one can just get weapons and go on a killing spree....

I beg to differ. Holding parents responsible for their minors by charging them as accessories to murder, especially when the parent's firearms are used by them, would be a good start. Hardening the schools - single point of entrance, metal detectors, armed door guards - still has a long way to go (obviously) even in Texas.

This shooter did penetrate with a long gun (shot gun) and a pistol somehow. What did the parents know? I understand even though pretty stealthily demented, there were still some warning signs from the shooter with is choice of clothing, emblems, etc. He appears to have been some kind of Columbine copycat.

Hat tip: Stefan Molyneux:

Crucially, did the explosion result in separation of the tractor's body and engine?  Anyway, RIP.

20 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

I don't catch motor taxis, minivans or  motorcycle anymore, I would rather hire a motorbike or motor vehicle than feed this lot of cheap gutless wanna be mafia, perhaps if we all did the same when away from home, the industry might start getting cleaned up.

 

Well its always good to dream, and by not supporting them, means I am doing my part, F the lot of them.

Yes, I too have avoided all manner of taxis over the past 9-10 years by cycling and have not so far regretted the decision (knock on wood). It took me years (far too long), however, to develop rules and tactics to cycle relatively safely in urban Bangkok.

OP: ``Many said pillion passenger net[sic], 52, must have made some serious merit.``

This says it all to me and explains a lot of the road carnage. Superstition/Buddhism trumps safety, traffic laws, physical laws...even the notion of luck. He made a serious mistake getting onto a motorbike with that, now deceased (RIP), operator.

Gap apologises for selling T-shirt with 'incorrect politically-incorrect map' of China
 

Aren't penisectomies women's exclusive specialty? On the other hand: TiT!'

On 4/13/2018 at 12:00 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

As noted above, the closest markets to the former Villa Soi 11 are both 24 hour operations:

--Foodland Suk Soi 5

--Tops Suk Soi 19

 

I don't like to correct, but for folks not really familiar, the Tops market is actually much closer to Sukhumvit Soi 17, beneath the McDonalds / Robinson complex (GM Street View).

"The car’s GPS log showed that it was travelling from Ratchaburi to Bangkok Eternity."

RIP fellow travelers.

The "motorbike disease" strikes again! If they'd been on bicycles maybe the temptation to race would not have been so strong. And don't give me this "It was too far to pedal a bike to school excuse". If distance were legitimately too far to cycle, motorbikes are several times more dangerous than either bicycles or school buses.

1 hour ago, NancyL said:

With this comment, you're demonstrating that you're just a tourist and not a full-time resident of Thailand.  I found that it didn't take too long before I started to think of prices and the cost of things in terms of baht.  In fact, I now find that in planning holidays and major purchases, it's difficult for me to think in terms of dollars and I have to convert quotes to Thai baht to really understand how much something is going to cost.

 

Recently, I went to the U.S. for the first time in ten years and found the money difficult to manage.  All the same color and size.  How did I get along all those years?

"With this comment, you're demonstrating that you're just a tourist and not a full-time resident of Thailand."

Wrong. How did you arrive at that deduction, Holmes?

I haven't even played a single game of Monopoly over the entire ten years+ I've resided in Bangkok. The only I reason have returned to my home country was for some serious medical treatment. I interchangeably / automatically and often almost simultaneously think in terms of THB and USD even with the fluctuating exchange rate (Roughly - divide Baht amount by 3 and take 1/10 of that result to get ballpark USDs). I have absolutely no trouble dealing with the more or less single-color US currency.

US Currency Tip: It helps to look at the printed value numbers and know who Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Hamilton, Jackson, Grant and Franklin are what they look like (especially, Franklin with the inflation in the US). 

Back on-topic: I routinely get both 50 and 500 Baht notes in my change at Foodland and 7-11s (and sometimes several thousand Baht in 500s at the Bangkok Bank Exchange window) so I don't understand why it's thought they're used "sparingly". 

Has anyone noticed how closely the Thai paper notes colors resemble Monopoly^TM  (the game) money (the twenty, fifty and 100 anyway)? Anyone notice how often we treat it as if Thai paper notes were money from the game and spend it frivolously?

10 hours ago, Deli said:

I thought more likely it's a Harley, like the mainly Western dentist and lawyer pussies are riding, to show off and feel young

Scoopy, Fino or Harley but definitely in pink with "Hello Kitty" decals.

8 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Some credit should be given to Makro.  No bags at all, we just roll the trolley to the back of the car and throw the stuff in. Never felt the need for the bags, the process to pantry repeats in reverse once at home.

You have a Makro trolley at home as well!? I use the same approach with bicycle panniers (saddlebags). I take the bike up an elevator and roll it right up to the pantry, since I keep the bike in my apartment's living area (actually, several of them - but that's another story).

23 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

Garbage trucks are quite large and usually have yellow strobe lights on> Not easy to miss. If you know what i mean?

Unless the GT did a rapid and unsafe lane change into the path of the victim's vehicle. These GTs are the bane of my soi as they park taking up half a lane to sort the garbage for hours on end during the night and early morning and leaving a smelly, slippery mess upon departure.

Not meaning to second guess their decision to use a taxi to go to Khao Lak from Phuket, but it's at least 100 km one-way according to Google Maps. Further than I would want to go in Thailand in anything less than a bus or a Panzer tank. I wonder what type of taxi it was. In any case, I hope she has a complete recovery.

22 hours ago, johng said:

you don't see the difference between a car blocking an extra lane by trying to push into a queue and a motorbike skirting to the front of the queue causing no congestion in the process ?

Yes. A car driver is risking some bent side metal whereas a motorbike operator risks bodily injury while squeezing in. A motorbike does not take up zero lane space either. Both risk causing an accident. Then there are the lane-changing buses...

3 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

Does anyone know where I can find that girl handing out those coat hangers, because I am very interested in "hanging out" with her..... 

You would be just a "hanger-on", I'm sure. (I'm sorrier than you!)

1 hour ago, DoctorG said:

Maybe "expired" is the correct word to use for an empty magazine. Just seemed strange to me.

Same here. Even "expended" doesn't quite do it for me. I often wonder who writes these articles and titles. I also often wonder how many see the difference between the usage of "amount" and "number" as is often recognized by American English speakers/writers ("number" being used for items that can be individually counted, "amount" used for something that can't be individually counted - same for "fewer" and "less"). Or is it just me and English is being changed in a way that simplifies it?:

A Japanese man was arrested at Don Mueang airport on Wednesday after a large amount number of expired rifle magazines and other weapons were discovered in his luggage.

Onward to the OP. How long has this seeming paranoia/overreaction w/r harmless weapons components been going on in Thailand (especially those items headed outbound or being passed through)? Would the law apply to a wooden gun stock or a telescopic sight?

Have an entity (the government?) pay 5 baht for each plastic bag turned in for re-cycle/permanent destruction like they did with glass bottles of the past and have customers charged 5 baht/new bag to pay for it.

If it continues as it is, future generations will be asking "what we were thinking?" and many of us are already asking that question.

Will the US get the cash back from Iran for pulling out? That's a big "No way, Jose" I take it.

A lot of things, especially technological, children can't know, but what disturbs me most is their ignorance of morals, philosophy, politics and other essentials of civilisation.

15 hours ago, Aussieroaming said:

No pity for red light runners from me.......she should be charged with murder, because that is really what she did.

Vehicular homicide/manslaughter

9 minutes ago, Lee4Life said:

   Agreed...terrible thing to happen.

 

Up here in Isaan we also can hear the motorbikes racing at night, but they are not limited to the weekends...it's nightly. There are no manned police checkpoints in the evenings and no patrols that I have seen, so what is there to keep them in check? 

Do you have red pickups? On second thought, any color will probably do.

3 hours ago, marko kok prong said:

we get many of these idiots going up the main street in our town wichianburi,unlike most Thai towns it is not a dual lane road either side of a ditch or barrier,just single lane each way. Many small soi's run off it yet these gits with their earsplitting exhuast's  drive up and down at the max speed they can get,mostly with no helmets. I saw a guy hit a pickup outside the busy main market,the busiest spot in town ,catapulted over the bonnet, he must have been doing at least 80-90kmh,how he actually survived i have no idea.

  i have told my wife when my stepson is 15 next year i will buy him a motorbike on the condition that he passes his test,always wears a helmet,and no souped up exhaust.

None of those will stop a truck or car (or even a motorbike) from turning across his path, as apparently happened with the red pickup. Buy him a car, ideally with airbags if you want him to have a better chance of survival on Thai roads. BTW, you omitted the "no drink drive" condition.

20 minutes ago, attrayant said:

As soon as middle schools and high schools start having their students do actual hands-on experiments in science class/lab, instead of me standing in front of the room trying to explain, for example, how a gas can be transparent at one wavelength of light but opaque at another, while glassy-eyed students look at me, only then will I believe that they're earnestly trying to change things.

Be careful what you wish for... Either way, if you're teaching, I don't envy you, that's for sure.