Kinnock

..... too many weak-willed addicts who can't quit. People only pretend to like smoking because they lack the strength to beat their addiction.

President Truman.

I've had experience of working in projects alongside USAID and the UN .... both organisations were equally useless and corrupt. And the people working for them were totally focussed on internal politics and their own careers with zero interest in the actual project. After I left one project in China after it became clear it was just a property scam, they employed an actor to pretend to be the consultant in my place. Both USAID and the UN should be disbanded and funding diverted to organisations where they care about results.

Woke extremism is likely to create a far right backlash ..... as in US now and Germany, France, UK in the near future. People with minority sexual orientations or religious beliefs no longer need special treatment, positive discrimination has run its course, give it a rest or we'll end up with Tommy as the UK PM.

Yes, but I think that was one of cause of forum fights ... posters taking the emojis as personal insults .... a bit like the OP.

As an occasional user of 'confused' and 'laughing' emojis I think either can be an appropriate response to some of the drivel posted here. Some posts are so odd they leave me confused, so get a well-deserved confused emoji .... if we were having a group chat in a bar I'd be wearing the 'WTF are you talking about' expression - but may not think such a daft comment is worthy of a spoken response. Other times a reply to a post can be so ridiculous, it's funny .... most the US political 'debates' fall into this category. I also can't resist a confused emoji when some gets upset about confused emojis ....

My (Thai manufactured) bike came with extra spot lights as standard - so I assume they're legal here. Good on unlit back lanes as they give a wider spread of light, but if used on the road they may dazzle drivers. However, I do use them in rain to improve the visibility of the bike to other road users. The little aftermarket LED's I've seen on scooters may cause less dazzle than my spotlights - and look like a good idea to me.

Wouldn't it be more environmentally friendly to use a diesel car running on cooking oil and leave the truck/generator at home?

I wanted an EV to replace my 6 year old petrol SUV, and test drove a couple of them and checked the specs and sat in all the 4x4 EV's at the motorshow .... but none currently cover my needs. Maybe next replacement cycle in another 6 years they will have the range and capability I need for work ... but not yet. More likely I'll get a small EV as a second car in the future. But for now a diesel 4x4 works best for me.

Nice street shots showing daily life.

Recent photo from last month ... it's an old phone booth in a roadside restaurant - mainly used for photos 🙂

I think Thailand is much safer for women than many countries. Any violence against women is generally Thai ex husbands/boyfriends - so hopefully that's not an issue for you. For men, getting into arguments with the locals can be risky, especially if alcohol is involved, but that's easy enough to avoid. Traffic is probably the biggest risk, plus air pollution.

I think it's available on BBC iplayer if you can access it. May need a VPN. The post mentioned video and DVD.

Good question .... and I think the 'experts' were hung up on the historical vaccination-based eradication schemes such as smallpox and polio. The theory is if enough people are vaccinated the virus will go away, and this will relieve pressure on the hospitals (the primary 'reason' for vaccination). But smallpox, polio (and HPV, measles, mumps, rubella and others) do not mutate, whereas COVID mutates rapidly. So if your approach is to treat COVID like a cold or flu, stay at home and suck it up, then it's up to you if you get vaccinated. But if you run to hospital every time you get a sniffle (like they do in China and India) then regular vaccination has some theoretical value.

Just bought a new car - but not a Toyota and not an EV (as we have a specific need for our business that makes EV's impractical) and it was a simple and pleasant experience. Started at the Motorshow - great to be able to hop in and out of all the options in one day. Visited the dealers for the shortlist and arranged test drives. Line conversations followed - negotiating the best deal, offered a good discount, then took an extended test drive in the favourite model. Was able to choose the actual car from three in their warehouse (they told us the manufacturing date of each one). 3 days later, on an 'auspicious date' they had our car prepared with all extras added and up on a lift so I could inspect underneath. Flowers, bow, freebies, briefing on all the buttons and screens, then we were off for our first trip. But it was not a Toyota. I know Toyota have the best resale values in Thailand, but we keep our cars years and they have to travel to and on farms, so resale value is irrelevant to us. There's so much uncertainty in the market now, plus over-supply - so there's some great deals out there .... just not on a Toyota.

I think there's a common misconception about the real reason for the mass vaccination program. It wasn't some conspiracy or even about health, it was a political necessity. Most governments around the world panicked and made many unwise and unjustified decisions that wrecked their economies and created massive national debt .... but how to step back from lock-downs, travel bans, working from home, subsidies etc when it's clear the virus is never going away? You can't admit you made serious errors of judgement, so you use mass vaccination as the 'reason' for lifting the unsustainable restrictions. I think it's a brilliant strategy, and hopefully a harmless ruse ..... unless the health impacts of the mRNA vaccines turn out to be real.

He finally gets Britain off the hook for India. Well done that man! And if you just look at a globe and imagine you were playing a strategy computer game - then both Greenland and Ukraine makes some sense. Although I suspect Trump hatched his plans looking at a map rather than a globe, and he might feel short-changed if he gets his hands on Greenland.

That was such a brilliant serial .... the acting, the fascinating plot, the music, the mounting anxiety, the plot twists and the amazing ending. One of few things I've watched that draws you in like reading a good book.

Unfortunately it was more than 12 days. The first laboratory reported case was on 1st December 2019, and 'whistleblower' doctors were also making reports of unusual cases around the same time. The WHO did not start to act until the 'official' report from China on December 31. I work in public health, and we were discussing the strange Wuhan outbreak via online groups throughout December, so there's no way the WHO only became aware of the issue at the end of 2019. Politics prevented prompt action and they delayed until it became a pandemic and then it was too late for containment. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7153464/#:~:text=The illness onset of the,%2C China (Table 1).&text=Initially%2C an outbreak involving a,least 41 people was reported.

I think marriage should be illegal .... for everyone. As for gay or straight marriage .... it's none of my business if people want to formalise their relationship.

I think AC can help with reducing indoor pollution .... at least that's my understanding from the refrigeration engineers I used to work with. Recirculating air over the cold (and therefore wet) evaporator coils helps to remove fine particulates from the air, and they are then either flushed out the drain or left on the coils. To be effective you need to have the ac cleaned regularly. I'm sceptical about the HEPA filters in some ac units and in the domestic air cleaners .... I don't think the fans have the required pressure to force air through a very fine filter. Electrostatic precipitation (EP) is what's really needed, and I've not seen a domestic EP air cleaner. I'm also a bit skeptical about the pm 2.5 meters on the air cleaners .... mine always starts at around 120 then gradually falls to 15 or so when the auto fan cuts off ..... reassuring, but it even does this if I put it outside, so apparently it cleans all the air in Bangkok. Impressive! The pm 2.5 meter also goes crazy if I'm cooking - shooting up to 250, and during pest control treatment it hit 300, so what's it really measuring?

Nobody honestly believes man didn't land on the moon. It's just that total losers who've never achieved anything have found that spouting nonesense conspiracy theories and denigrating one of man's greatest achievements can get a reaction on social media that they could never hope to get by posting about their own lives. Don't feed the trolls and let them slip back into the darkness of their little cave of ignorance.

WHO advice from January 12th 2020 based entirely on false reassurances from the Chinese Government and issued weeks after the true extent of the risk had been highlighted by Chinese doctors. "WHO does not recommend any specific health measures for travellers. In case of symptoms suggestive of respiratory illness either during or after travel, travellers are encouraged to seek medical attention and share travel history with their healthcare provider. Travel guidance has been updated. WHO advises against the application of any travel or trade restrictions on China based on the information currently available on this event." Within days we had a global pandemic with the first cases being in Thailand then more in other countries. Flights of tourists out of China should have been stopped before Chinese New Year, but the WHO, using suspect advice from China, did nothing. How many deaths and how much economic damage was caused by this failure of the WHO to give effective, timely and honest advice?? https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2020-DON233

That does not show any effective action by WHO after several weeks of reports of illnesses within China .... I don't know why you're trying, and failing, to defend this corrupt and useless organisation with your highly selective and inconclusive links .... do you work for the UN?

That's some very selective reporting .... late 2019 the WHO was aware of a novel virus spreading rapidly within China, and into early 2020 the WHO was quoting Chinese official reports about no need to cut travel or close borders. Only after China had infected the whole world and were therefore safe from being singled out for travel bans, did global travel restrictions start.