haha

oh. I forgot to mention that these low figures are based on building large desalination plants. smaller plants would cost more.

curious about this subject. so, I did about 30 minutes of research on the topic via the internet. (isn't google incredible?)

from about 30 articles that I've read, it seems that the current cost of desalination ranges from $2.50 us dollars to a low one of about 25 cents per 1000 gallons or 4 cubic meters.

at the high end, we are looking at about 60 us cents per cubic meter.

the consensus of many of the articles were that the technology for desalination is progressing at a fast rate. such that the cost of desalination will decrease drastically in the next few years. to the point where as one source quoted, "it will be cheaper to desalinate sea water than to transport water".

whether these sources are true or not, I don't know. you be the judge. below are some of the articles.

evidently, many countries around the world are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into desalination plants. ...there must be something to it.

http://www.cbn.co.za/dailynews/July2005/article826.htm

http://www.marinwater.org/controller?action=menuclick&id=228

http://www.eelriver.org/html/publications_article_7.html

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:Z2qgahb...alination&hl=en

http://www.wonuc.org/desalination/conf_01conc.htm

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:mbR5ypl...alination&hl=en

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:sLlJSPg...alination&hl=en

http://www.scienceblog.com/community/article4961.html

I know of 3 people who played minor roles as extras in the movie. one guy was in the restaurant scene as a customer sitting at a table. another was a security guard. and yet another played the role of the immigration officer at the airport where tony jaa went through the australian immigration.

ahhhh. the life of a movie extra. present, but unknown. seen yet unseen.

For the month of August, The Great American BBQ on Sukhumvit Soi 36 is having "All you can eat" Mexican for 200 baht. Have been there the last 2 Monday nights and the food was great.

The owner told me that he had 90 reservations last Monday..

Owner also said that he would probably add Mexican dishes to his great BBQ menu..

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did I hear you right? did you say, "all you can eat"? does that include drinks? ..like soda or water?

I miss taco bell with a passion. everytime I go back home, I make it a point to go to taco bell for lunch. ahhhhh. 3 tacos and a pepsi. my favorite.

I remember once about 6 years ago, a taco time opened up in front of the ambassador hotel. at first look, I thought I'll be able to get my fill of mexican food again. but after eating there, I was greatly disappointed. not only did it taste different from the states, it was more expensive than kfc next door.

suffice to say, they didn't last long.

....memories of taco bell. ahhhh. ooohhhhh.

to the audience in the back. yeah, yeah, I know. what a moron. ok. just leave me be. I'm entitled to my dreams.

monday??? only??? I will go look.

the latest on jackgolf....

I did the border run today. took the 5:30am bus and returned at about 2pm.

it's back to normal now, guys.

you don't have to do the line up routine on the thai side anymore. it's back to the way it was before the recent change.

noticed 2 things...

the bus had only about 10 people on it. and the all-you-can-eat buffet has improved. yes, you heard me right. the food was better. much better than in all my previous trips.

included on the menu were cream potatos with ham slices, curry chicken, tofu with vegetables, stir-fried green beans with soy beans, chicken fried rice. didn't see any fish head soup this time. it was winter melon soup ala chinese style.

movies that they showed include hitch, camp dread, heaven on earth, and part of 7 seconds.

and to the audience in the back....

no, I do not work for jack golf. hehehe.

wouldn't it be great if we could all live together. and not hate one another.

the way I look at it. this arab person who is buying part of the grace hotel is bringing good money into thailand.

besides, he seems like a smart person to me.

..when the oil runs out someday, he'll have diversified into other countries.

talk about thai bbq's... I was just at that place that the totster talked about 2 days ago.

went with a friend. spent at least 2 hours eating. had a great time.

ate at least 5 trays of food. left the place feeling like a pig. and happy as ######.

besides all the marinated meats, they had watermelon for fruit. I had a plate of pad kapow gai, some egg rolls, teriyaki chicken, a bunch of vegetables. liked their version of spam too. if you like, you can get shrimp too. but it costs extra.

eating at all-you-eat places for about 2 dollars, and watching first run movies for 2 dollars.

ahhh. what a life.

Haha; ehh... I don't really get your arguments in your last post - but bottom line is that having ones nest egg in one currency (whichever!) only is a bad financial strategy, especially for international people like us, who will have more exposure to currency swings than most.

The reasons why so many people believe that the USD will weaken, are right in our face (the triple deficits/war Etc. cost MONEY). Many people much smarter than be (Buffett, Bill Gross Etc.) believes the same.

One COULD argue that the risk is then already priced into the USD. I.e. there might be more upside than downside from here.

Time will show...

Cheers!

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I agree with you. the concept of money and value are things most people never bothered to meditate on. they just accept it as it is without much thought.

have you ever wondered why any particular item costs as much as it does? or for that matter, why currency exchange rates are the way they are? have you ever wondered why thais are willing to work for far less than their counterparts in other countries? or for that matter, why the rich people in this country don't pay their workers more?

..I don't think it's due to greed on the part of the rich people. it just happened that way. thai workers just believed that their pay was adequate, and that was that. they had no perception of what was going on overseas. they only had their own experiences to draw upon.

like I said, it's all about BELIEF.

now, applying this knowledge to the total national debt in the US, perhaps you can now fathom what I'm talking about.

if the US wiped the slant clean and just told everybody that they wouldn't pay anybody what they owe, what do you think would happen? maybe some temporary turmoil, but soon after, it would be business as usual. people would be pissed off, but then life would carry on. the farms would continue producing food, and industry would thrive.

that is essentially what germany, and many other countries did in the past 100 years by changing their currencies.

and which was indirectly done by most countries who experienced regime changes.

still confused?

...ok. forget about it. just go listen to warren buffet.

life is too short as it is. thinking too much is a waste of time when you think about it.

I rather go bowling, and look at girls.

sometimes I wonder why I spend so much time on thaivisa.

..yeah, I get confused too at times.

logic dictates that the us dollar is the place to be.

Irrelevant.

The long term stability of the USD is hardly a tool to be used to predict the trend in the next weeks, months or years.

If you are really into logic, then consider that your arguments would have been as valid a few years ago as they are today - and yet the USD dropped significantly during this period.

Just to clarify - I am not claiming to know what will happen in the currency market short or long term - but nevertheless your arguments are irrelevant to making such a prediction.

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the value of a currency is based on BELIEF, or as some put it, FAITH.

if you can convince enough people that something is wrong, then, for all intensive purposes it is wrong. right?

the reason why the us dollar is not like before is because enough people are convinced for one reason or another that it is not being valued properly. right?

some of the arguments people anti-us dollar are using is that the national debt is too high.

I'm just trying to point out some other considerations that people should be aware of before they jump on the bandwagon with all the other sheep.

as for the long term stability of a currency not have any bearing on the value it might have in the near future, I think you got it all wrong.

if people believe strongly in something, it is here to stay even if it encounters problems along the way.

all of us are here because our parents believed in us, right? even after all the crying bouts, and pissing in our pants, they still took care of us. thank buddha.

check out the following website for all kinds of interesting stuff...

http://www.deathndementia.com/

that's where I first got wind of ogrish. scary stuff. so, don't look unless you are prepared.

My 2 (Euro) cents are on the Euro simply due to it having more controls than the USD. Also; the deficits in the USA seems over whelming. Meanwhile my overall nest egg is spread across currencies and commodities as I admit that I have no real clue what will happen next with currencies.

Cheers!

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yes, the usa has a debt that they are working on. but don't lose perspective on the whole picture.

the us currency is now one of the oldest around. yes, it has only been in existence about 250 years. but compared to many currencies out there in the world, it is a veteran.

what does that mean, you ask?

well, germany has had at least 2 different currencies issued out over the course of 250 years as has happened in many other countries. with every regime change, you usually see a change in the currency.

that should in itself prove to you the strength inherit in the stability of the us dollar.

not to say that a currency change is bad. look at germany now. they are not doing so bad, right?

if the usa did a currency change like mexico, bolivia, and a host of other countries have done in the past 100 years, they would have no debt remaining, and the 2 generations down the line, nobody would know for the worse.

just recently, a bunch of countries in africa had their debt forgiven by wealthier countries.

money is only paper.

and ultimately, the value of money is based on BELIEF.

so ask yourself, if compared side by side with many other countries in the world, who would you put your bets on to survive if it came to push and shove?

when oil becomes an alternative fuel, who will you put your trust in?

when food becomes scarce, who will you put your trust in?

the EU is a much desired union in this day and age, but let's face it, they have yet to prove their legitimacy with only being in existence for a few years.

remember, for hundreds of years, the countries in europe were at war with one another for one reason or another. yes, the EU needs to prove itself by just existing for a while. and only time will tell if it is here to stay.

just to be the devil's advocate...

imagine this scenario...

for some reason, the EU breaks up because some of the countries can't get along together. what happens to the euro then? as I see it, it will cease to exist, right?

instead of 1.12 dollars to the euro, what would the euro be worth then? if this scenario occurs, all the euros that people have would become worthless.

..it's happened before oh so many times.

logic dictates that the us dollar is the place to be.

but hey. it's your money. you do whatever you want to do with it. you earned it, right?

my 2 cents...

how you spend your money is up to you. you earned it. so, you have the right to spend it the way you want.

if you want to walk a mile to save 5 baht, that's your choice. if you don't want to tip, you don't have to. that is your right.

people who call other people cheap are usually just jealous, or neurotic. these are people who like to hurt others peoples feelings because it makes them feel good. in other words, sick folks. mentally sick.

if you want to maxmize your happiness in this life, stay away from people who like to call others cheap charlie.

many of them are either mean or vindictive.

people who you wouldn't want to hang out with in the first place, right?

Where is that 89B BBQ again? Cheers!

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there's one in sukhumvit soi 22

where are the others?

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They are all over the place but you will hardly ever see any N.Ts eating there.....and... ... what a bargain.

I have tried them in Chiang Mai-Hua Hin-Patti (3rd road)and last one in Bangkok was in TheParak.. leo sigh just off Suk Rd and its on the RHS.

I think they have mostly "shot-up"in price to @ 79-89 Bt ...before 39-59 bt..but even so

Ideally you want about a dozen people/social scene and all tuck in but even with 2-4 it is still OK.

Depending on the joint they will have lots of noodles /vegis/salads/onions /toms etc but also sometimes fish/meats and as said above usually thick sliced bacon which is worth ithe $£$ .. just for that.

Big Heinees are sold at about 1 bt profit and the ice comes free.

M.K.are good for plugs and sockets

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My favorite BBQ is just up the road from the Huai Khwang Subway station. Massive buffet, cheap beer, and they even spray a fine mist of water from overhead to keep everyone cool. bt89

totster

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hey! I know that place. ..the one with the pig in a neon sign, right? yeah. I go there once every 2 weeks. I usually go there when I'm in the mood to eat for 3 hours. ahhhhh. ooohhhhh. talk about getting to a cliimax.

food - the second most important in life.

I even have the discount card. if you are a regular, you got to get the discount card.

I love hanging out at shopping malls. this siam paragon will make my day. does anyone know if they will have a bowling alley too?

window shopping in an air/con environment. love it.

the only thing that may be missing is a taco bell....

Hi,

Iam deepak from india.

Iam coming to thailand for a job purpose

Can anyone here help me in gettig a studio accomodation?

I just need a small room with a toilet attached and if its slightly outside city also theres no problem.

My budget is around 1500 to 2000 permonth

deepak.v

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if you are talking about 1500 baht a month, living in bangkok might not be possible unless you share a studio.

the absolute cheapest I have ever seen for a studio in bangkok is 800 baht a month. and that was for a fan room that was about 10 feet x 10 feet. you also had to share the toilet with the other people in the place.

there are several places in the 1200 baht range that are in klong toei area. one of my friends lived there. (..why? I don't know.)

I saw some places in pratunam that were 1500 baht a month. and that's central. but it wasn't that nice. another friend rented the penthouse in that building. that's why I know about them.

I saw an ad for a studio in samut prakan for 1100 baht a month. but I never seen it since it is about an hour outside bangkok.

there are a bunch of places with private toilets out in rachada that run for about 1800 baht a month. again, some of my friends live out there with their girlfriends.

you could live here in bangkok on 2000 baht a month. many thais do. but they usually share a place to stay to be able to do that.

I've seen at least 7 people sharing a studio before. I was living in the studio next to them at the time. the place rented for 3k baht a month, had air/con, bed, furniture and (would you believe it??) cable tv. I say at least 7 because it seemed that at times the place was so full, there was no room to walk around.

most of the studios in my current place have at least 2 occupants- married couples with kids, or couples living together.

...yeah. it is interesting living here in bangkok.

just curious... will there be free food, and drinks?

it has to do with the filing system you are using. nowadays, you have fat, fat 32, ntfs, etc.

in the past, speed disk was the big thing. then, when nt came out with the ntsf format, speed disk didn't work anymore.

at that time as I recall, diskkeeper came out and took over the market. it was the only defragger available for nt servers using the ntfs format too.

later, speed disk got improved so that it could work with all filing formats.

warning - you need to be aware that you need to be using the appropriate utility when doing defragmentation. using an older version of speed disk will trash your hard drive if you are using a newer format.

on my system, I have both ntfs, and fat32. the ntfs is used in my main partition for network security, and my second partition is fat32 for data, and any legacy stuff I might get which doesn't work on ntfs.

for maintenance and backup, I make a copy of my c partition using ghost, and store it on my d drive. for backup of my data, I store it on the internet on a virtual disk so that I can access that info anywhere in the world without having to carry it with me.

restoring a 5 gig partition from a ghost backup takes me about 10 minutes.

if I had a cdrom/rw, I would create a ghost backup of my harddrive onto cd, but I don't have a cd/rw right now.

I don't use the ms backup or the goback because that stuff has inherent problems. ghost works. some problems can occur where you cannot come back from which would require you to reformat your hard drive.

I like bowling. but I only like to go where it's not too expensive. like 100 baht for 3 games.

I remember a few years ago, I was bowling at mbk for 100 baht/3 games. did this every weekday for about a year and a half.

then, they changed owners, and it's now 90 baht a game.

as a result, I have 3 bowling balls sitting in my closet.

once, I remember they had a 1 hour special for a while. 100 baht for all you the games you could play in one hour. I loved that special. would you believe I was able to play 10 games in 1 hour with an average of 176? I remember everybody would look at me funny after I did it. it was so much fun, I would be laughing all through the hour.

..what a deal.

the best deals that I last heard of were in places out of the way. at the central rama 3 mall, you can play for 25 baht a game in the mornings. I thought of going there to play everyday, but it takes me about an hour each way to get there from where I am now. so, didn't do it.

same with the piyarom bowl out on sukhumvit soi 101. you can play there for about 30 baht a game. it's too far for me to go.

I like bowling, but not that much.

I'm still waiting for another deal around where I live, but don't have my hopes up.

it's been about 3 years now since I last bowled. I wonder what my average is now?

....good memories.

I use yahoo bookmarks to backup my IE bookmarks. it seems to do the job for me. but it seems to only allow to store up to 900 bookmarks.

I like it all in one place. yahoo has briefcase, and photos sections too.

briefcase for a virtual 30mb harddrive.

photos for storing your photos on the internet.

actually, this is off topic. ...but hasn't anyone yet noticed the resemblence between my picture and the guy on the "MAD" magazine?

I always thought I looked a little like an asian version of the guy. granted, I don't have the big ears. but I do have a great smile. and my laugh is ..."different".

to happy memories...

I went last monday.  no problem and fast.

but one of the jackgolf guys recommended not to go on weekends because that is when all the thai gamblers go.  ..that's where the long waits occur.  when you have all those gamblers running around.

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Manipulating, are you that Korean guy?

If you are, you should charge 1,800 baht from now on. Since there is no corruption at poipet, we all have to stand in line and wait for hours, you don’t have to pay them anymore. I heard the convenience we had was worth 200 baht.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

no, does my picture look korean?

I think I look better than jackgolf. but then, it's all on how you look at it, right?

...hmmm? I wonder if that is his real name.

anyway, I remember once seeing this sign in chinatown san francisco. "LICK DICK chinese store". honest to god - true story. everytime I looked at the sign, I kept saying to myself, doesn't this guy know????

maybe that's where bart simpson got the joke from.

er... what happened???

somebody had a bad visa run to poipet?

I went last monday, and it was ok. actually faster than usual.

but how fast you get through really depends on the number of people in the line. when I went last monday, the were only about 5 persons ahead of me.

I took the 7am bus. because they don't have a 5:30am bus on monday.

anyway, when I went, I spoke to the jackgolf guys, and they told me horror stories about saturday and sunday. that's when all the thai folks swarmed into the casinos.

so, if you went on the weekends, expect the worse scenario...

oh, and one last thing, ....I don't work for jackgolf. hehehe.

I went last monday. no problem and fast.

but one of the jackgolf guys recommended not to go on weekends because that is when all the thai gamblers go. ..that's where the long waits occur. when you have all those gamblers running around.

I never have any problems like that. but then I don't "advertise".

when I go out, I never carry any credit cards, etc. all I carry is about 1000 baht, and that's it.

my wallet looks like a wreck, always goes in my front pocket. and I dress pretty casual.

seems to work. nobody has ever bothered to rob me. (knock on wood).

...if I get robbed after this, I'll start carrying ONLY 500 baht around.

That's a bad analogy, because in the case of the sun we are dealing with scientific fact, and in the case of the danger in the south of Thailand we have a broad spectrum of both subjective and objective considerations.

Why not offer us something to actually discuss? I'd do it for you if I didn't think you had something worthwhile to offer (or am I wrong?).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You said you had read the whole thread so I assumed you saw what lead to the first posts from me. My mistake.

Anyway, a little kind racist on this board posted qoutes taken out of context to persay everyone that Islam was a religion of terror and world-dominans. Anyone with half a brain and the ability to read ofcourse knows this to be false.

And let's not forget, the same kind of qoutes can be 'manufactured' from the bible, and are on several bibel-bashing-sites online.

Ofcourse the little racist couldn't comprehend that in euroland we actually read about religions (all religions) and other countries in school, several times, throughout the whole educational system, and therefor continues his slures against me for somehow being 'in cahoot' with terrorists.

"Only a Sityh deals in absolutes" goes the movie...and it has never been more true.

(For one thing the goverment in all countries aught to do, looks some 5-6 posts above. About 'religious schools'.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

just curious....

because of all the terrorists actions that have been occurring, I decided to do some research on islam. not that I want to practice the religion. but in an attempt to try to understand what is happening in the world.

I came upon this book named "Islam Unveiled". it refers to several quotes by Ayatollah Khomeini. one in particular kind of made me wonder about the mindset of people who practice islam.

quote:

"Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious."

my question to you Zarkow is - do you believe this way? and if not, why is this dude talking this way? he sounds like one major psycho.

no fun???? no wonder these guys are so crazy.

here is a link to the book where you can read some of the passages...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=books