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Posts posted by timmyp
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I'm happy to see that all the other problems have been solved in North Korea and now they can focus on mobile phone etiquette guidelines.
other thing I was surprizeThe d is, can they afford to have mobile phones there?
Or this is planning for the future when their dear leader snuffs it and they are free to live a better life?
Yes....it makes me wonder how much truth and how much propaganda is in the stories we are told of their impoverished state.
Watch or listen to a few decent documentaries on YouTube or the web, especially those with defectors and refugees' accounts, and you will know very well that this is the most abysmal and abusive regime on the planet. As to phones, they are probably basic, dirt-cheap ones that the better off people can afford.
I think you're being naive to believe those documentaries and interviews.I'm not saying that things are awful in North Korea, just that there's no reason to think those interviews aren't propaganda, or heavily exaggerated description by the people seeking refuge/asylum. -
Yes, I addressed the different resiliences that people have to bacteria.
I have a filter, I just wanted to see if the water was safe to drink. People are always stressing how dangerous it is, but I've never met anyone who drank it, so it made me wonder why everyone is so sure it's dangerous.
I agree with DP25, who is the first person I've encountered who says they drink the tap water. It doesn't taste very good. It's not a hard water vs. soft water problem, nor a chlorine taste issue, the water just has a bit of a dirt taste.
I was only curious to explore people's fears of microbes. At least from my tap, it seems safe in that respect.
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About 2 months ago there was another story in the newspaper about the government claiming that the tap water is safe to drink.
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/751589-tap-water-in-thailand-safe-to-drink-pwa/
If you don't already know, nobody in Thailand drinks the tap water, not even the economically down-trodden. So as a personal test to see if it's safe or not, I started drinking it last month. I planned to make a clever day-to-day posting of my bowels, but I got busy with work… In the end, I just strung the updates together.
Anyway, I've been drinking the water for over a month now, and haven't gotten sick. It's not that I got sick and then I got better, I just never got sick.
I gotta admit, the water tastes a bit like dirt. It doesn't taste that way if it passes through my filter (which I by-passed for this experiment). But I am fine. I eat almost 100% at home, and I never eat street food. I mention this because I want to stress that this isn't a result of me having gotten used to microbes in the water through exposure elsewhere. I don't eat out, and I have only drank filtered water until last month.
I think the water is most likely safe to drink, at least as far as microbes are concerned.
That said, it's important to note that alot can happen on the way from the filtration plant to your tap.
*The pipes that the water travels through might not be in such great shape. They might be fine leading to my apartment, but I can’t speak for elsewhere.
*The water to your building might get stored in a special tank for your building, and that tank might not be in very condition.
*If the system loses pressure (which I am told can often happen in the rainy season), then ground water can leak in, and that can make you sick.
*There may be chemicals in the water (bromate, chlorine, asbestos, barium, fluoride, benzene, lead, mercury, etc.) that don't have any short-term effects, but are dangerous in the long term.
I live in an old, run down building near Victory Monument. My building is 26 years old. Nothing is new, and there definitely isn't an extra filter for my building. There are no fancy high rises on my soi or the surrounding soi that would have put in new pipes. Essentially, I live in a bit of a dump, and if my tap water situation is ok, I would venture to say that other areas in the city are probably fine too.
Of course our bodies are not all the same, some people might be more sensitive to drinking water. I do not have a super gut. If you want to continue drinking bottled water, I'm not trying to stop you. As far as microbes go, though, I think it's probably safe. Over the last month, I've also been drinking the tap water at other places I visit around the city (to the horror and disgust of my friends) but I still haven't gotten sick. I think the popular fear that Thais and non-Thais alike have of the water are probably overblown, at least as far as microbes go.
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Just a warning tremor for the Big One
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This is very sad story, but what is it that makes it worth reporting in the newspaper? That people are so desperate that they have no choice but to chain up their brother/son? That the family was cruel enough to chain him up?
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I've seen some of those guys boozing it up all day around Bangkok. I'm not complaining, only wondering why there isn't a higher incidence of them getting busted for driving drunk.
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It is great to know public employees working late at night are so grounded in reality.
Clearly they need to hire a more effective medium to ghostbust that spirit. Perhaps for the same amount as those pricey microphones for the fancy audio system getting scrutiny?
Or maybe they could just let the ghost sweep the floors, and save on personnel costs?
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I have read that only 30% of people can become physically addicted (and thus will get headaches when they stop drinking coffee), but now I can't find that online...
When I don't drink coffee, I feel like I get a headache around noon, but that could just be in my head. <--what a clever and ingenious joke
But really, my headaches may have nothing to do with caffeine withdrawal, and just be coincidental.
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"Diplomats are about smoothing relations, not about importing a new controversy."
We'll assume you're not a student of history.
Yes, of course diplomats do things that don't smooth relations, of course sometimes they push agendas from their home countries, as I agreed with you in your other post. It is a separate matter, though, to do it for personal reasons. I'm glad the guy got married, I wish happiness to the couple. But that seems like an uncool choice considering his position.
I see nothing morally wrong with smoking pot, but I think it would be out of place for a diplomat to smoke pot in a country where doing so is illegal. Unless the diplomat's home country is trying to push a policy of other-countries-should-stop-arresting-pot-smokers, in which case, it's part of the job, like your South Africa example. If diplomats decide to smoke a joint on their own, then it should probably be smoked without calling the press.
Pushing a personal message as a diplomat is uncool.
I like your profile gif, btw. Totally cute.
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It sounds like the goal is, more than matrimony, to piss off the Chinese. Doesn't seem very diplomat-like...
There is no shortage of things that almost certainly piss off the Chinese. Are the British or Americans or whoever going to cower for fear of ticking off the Chinese? Being diplomatic does not equate to hiding in closets of any sort.
During the Apartheid period the US Ambassador to South Africa was an African American who often put himself in the middle of some dicey situations. I doubt P.W. Botha was pleased, but because of his visible intervention, it's possible Apartheid ended a bit sooner than it otherwise would have.
Yes, the U.S. did that because the U.S. was taking a stand against Apartheid. The U.S. government wanted to send a message. Do you think that's what happened in China? The UK wants to take a stand on gay marriage? If that's the case, then what this diplomat did is keeping with what diplomats are hired to do.
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It sounds like the goal is, more than matrimony, to piss off the Chinese. Doesn't seem very diplomat-like...
Civil rights movements always piss off some people. Chinese gays are fighting for the same rights. I doubt they are pissed off. It's annoying to hear the lame excuses to try to rationalize bigotry.
I agree with you fully. But it's really not the place of diplomats to do things like this, don't you think? If Chinese people had a big movement for same-sex marriage going there, then taking a stand with that as a diplomat might be understandable.
But as a diplomat coming in and saying, "Y'all are behind the times. I'm gonna help ya catch up," isn't very diplomatic. Diplomats are about smoothing relations, not about importing a new controversy.
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It sounds like the goal is, more than matrimony, to piss off the Chinese. Doesn't seem very diplomat-like...
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Very bizarre story...
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People caught with drugs are drugs addicts???
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I love religious sects <--this is a pun
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Wow, what a total shocking surprise, the U.S. tortured detainees.
I'm sure there is alot worse going on than just waterboarding.
Whether you think it's deserved or not, whether you agree that it may be a necessary means to an end or not, I am in shock that politicians in the U.S. express shock at this.
This war and global domination business is a dirty game, and the U.S. is an excellent player at that game.
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This is such a disturbing story... of course the hiring company should be held responsible, and the criminal can't possibly be punished harshly enough.
The guy is a Burmese immigrant though... with the need to find a guilty party, what's the chance he's being framed? The underclass and foreigners are always an easy scapegoat in every country in the world, I shouldn't need to remind anyone
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There has been nasty imitation green tea for years all over the world (bar East Asia)... I remember when the Arizona Tea company in the U.S. came out with nasty green sweet Kool-Aid they called "Green Tea" in the late 90s. In Thailand, there is some funky weird candy-like "green tea" in all the convenient stores.Marketing geniuses don't believe the real stuff will sell, so they sweeten for the lowest common denominator, the dumbed-down masses (I don't mean the folks in Thailand, I mean all human beings on this planet).Many tea shops and coffee stalls aim for that candy, lowest-common-denominator taste captured in the convenient store drinks.Until the discerning market emerges, we're stuck with the weirdness + sugar in everything...
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Yesterday I extended my 60-day visa at the Jaeng Wathana or whatever the transliteration is.
It was fastest I have ever had anything done there, I was in and out within an hour. They were smiley and nice.
Not to contradict the original post, just sayin'
What type of 60 days visa did you extended at Jaeng Watthana?
Sorry, I should have specified that.
I was extending a 60-day, double-entry tourist visa for 30 days.
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Did this person really expect LESS discrimination in Asia?
Thailand has accepted transgender people to some degree, but transgendered folks are still seen as less desirable freaks by most of Thai society.
Really interesting about the move to New Zealand. Maybe she's traveling around to draw attention to how she is treated.
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Yesterday I extended my 60-day visa at the Jaeng Wathana or whatever the transliteration is.
It was fastest I have ever had anything done there, I was in and out within an hour. They were smiley and nice.
Not to contradict the original post, just sayin'
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This is great because Chinese people think so highly of Africans.
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I'm sure he has worked out things out financially with the authorities already, which is why he isn't being accused of any wrongdoing and the police are smiling in the photo above.
He will fly into Thailand on his private jet, go through the motions of their investigation, and leave.
I wonder if he'll take all of those kids with him? I'm guessing that he will, but lord oh lord what a freaky life they are going lead...
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The only people who would read this book are already believers, so I don't imagine it's going to change any minds.
I've been drinking the tap water, and I feel great!
in ASEAN NOW Community Pub
Posted
This is bizarre coincidence, but the word you have there for baby tiger 虎子 also means "potty," the little portable toilet that young kids get potty-trained on. The reading changes to "maru" in that case. "If you don't go into tiger's hole, then you can't get your little potty." Amazing depth in your selection of proverbs on so many levels.