JCauto

10 hours ago, Partenavia said:

There was an article on the BBC website yesterday, regarding the different way countries report Covid19, and there was also a table whereby they taken average deaths per month over the last 10 years. There were no comments regarding the different countries, however, in Thailand their reported deaths attributable to Covid 19 stands at 57, but taking into account the average deaths per year, in March there was a spike of 2316 deaths, over and above the monthly average. This to me indicates that this is possibly the reason the authorities have been reluctant to open the country up. Many countries have done the same, and hidden deaths citing other causes. As hospitals have not been overun, they have managed to keep a lid on things.

Don't suppose you'd have a link to that? I searched but could not find.

On 6/18/2020 at 7:50 PM, yuyiinthesky said:

Quite possible that I misunderstood. The OP is about the bill pressuring China over the Uighur concentration camps. I don’t care about the bickering theater with Bolton and Trump. I however care about the organized atrocities of a bully such as the CCP committed on millions of humans.
 

I don’t even like the muslim religion, however what is happening in these concentration camps is wrong and evil and has absolutely no justification.

 

I also think that what Saudi Arabia and the US are doing in Yemen is bad and a terrible atrocity too, and the world should stop it.
 

And about the Nazis and concentration camps, you might have heard about the experiments of Josef Mengele in the Nazi concentration camps? The Uighur in the CCP concentration camps are also subjected to medical experiments. (Please see the reports of the survivors of such camps.)

I agree with your post and that the situation in China with respect to the Uighers and in Yemen are appalling.

And yes, I've heard some reports that are awful but there seem to be very very few that have managed to leak out. On the other hand, I'm aware that people also didn't believe the initial reports of the Holocaust and what was happening to the Jews as well. That these two atrocities in Yemen and China are occurring with relatively little outcry is a condemnation of people's supposed humanity.

3 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Why would China and Russia stay out?

 

Russia isn't Soviet anymore but the ambitious dictatorial Putin wants to expand Russian influence and importance. 

 

China is NK's closest ally. Although dough-boy Kim is somewhat of a loose canon, his little sister may be getting ready to grab power, with Chinese backing. China likes a stable do as their told type running their satelites.

 

China is pushing many boundaries at the moment. The West is reeling from Covid 19. The virus shows how vulnerable the West is to such pandemics and how poor their response and coping is. Their economies are reeling and much weaker because of it. Mass lawlessness, rioting, mixed with protests is taking place in many Western countries that would normally counter Chinese aggressive expansionism. BLM might be protesting against racism but it is also a neo-Marxist organization that wants to destroy capitalism and replace it with the so called neo-communist socialism like China, Venezuela etc, where democracy is a sham and the truth is what they government says it is.

 

China, like all revolutionary totalitarian regimes wants to take advantage of chaos to further it's own interests. The Chinese government would most certainly not allow the US to simply neutralize NK. And the inept UN has become almost dominated by sham non democratic countries.

 

Perhaps after all, we are really heading to the apocalypse.

This was a cogent post, well, at least until you got to the Mass lawlessness and BLM sentences. Ignoring those contentious statements and focusing on the meat of the matter...

Yes, agreed, why on earth would Russia and China sit back and watch? There's a reason they didn't before, and there's the same reason they wouldn't again. 

I am less concerned about China's boundary pushing though than you are. They're still fundamentally weak in terms of their economy, military and overall ability to manage an increasingly difficult country with massive environmental issues and won't be able to overcome those internal issues very easily. Those same weaknesses are evident with Russia, which however is much more experienced and equipped to cause trouble in the meantime due to their long-term build up of propaganda and soft warfare tools and skills. Overall though the only thing that can threaten America is internal division. I think this is why America's enemies are both focusing on that and succeeding in their efforts, unfortunately.

6 hours ago, Laughing Gravy said:

We have created a snowflake generation who are offended by everything, narcissistic in nature as they need constant confirmation that they are liked and doing well with their FB and emoji culture. I have said it before, as I do not fear being overtaken by the younnger generation. Generally they are lazy, want to get to the top, without putting their time in and feel that they are owed everythhing. They have minimal staying power and blame everyone else for everything, except themselves.

 

Yes of course there are exceptions but not too many as they are few and far between. I blame the X factor stardom generation and the fact that everyone has to be a winner, you can't tell someone they are second or need to improve.

 

There is nothing wrong in following your dreams but not at the expense of working hard and having a plan B. Too many youngsters looking up to the Katie Price's of the world as role models. Now people jumping on the Racism bandwagon. It will be something else next time. All poor me, why am I not rich and famous. I find the generation on the whole a disappointment.

Let me summarize it for you to save time.

"GET OFF MY LAWN!"

1 hour ago, evadgib said:

There's a Hastings there too I believe. Given what happened to the original in 1066 can we expect Esther Ratzen to have a pop at that too, especially as she's taken all their guns?

Why not just find acceptable namesakes for them? Perhaps Gavin Hastings and Lewis Hamilton would suffice?

16 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Maori killed those there before them, waged constant war tribe against tribe and were cannibals at times. Hamilton has a museum completely dedicated to these savages and you can't take photo's because it goes against their beliefs. We civilised the place and have nothing to be ashamed of, statue should have been left. What next renaming Wellington after some ghastly Maori chief?

Seems you have gotten lost despite your geographic moniker. You should have taken a right, oh, about 100 years ago or so. 

I'd start looking to source some old Deloreans if I were you. It's the only way you're going to find your way back to Orton Rd. Watch out for those Libyans you get the nuclear material from!

Sorry to interrupt all the name-calling and typical end-of-thread "debate" which inevitably has devolved into "whataboutisms" and "alternative facts" along with confident predictions about electoral futures...but this is a well-balanced and written article from the Economist about the issue. It's not inflammatory or extreme, so probably won't interest anyone, but...

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/06/11/how-to-handle-racists-statues?utm_campaign=the-economist-today&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=2020-06-11&utm_content=article-link-5

1 hour ago, Psimbo said:

Orange Kool Aid today?

 

Finally I agree with something Trump has decided (or hasn't or may be has or I don't know, but possibly) but not the way he has put the message across. 

 

Like them or not these Generals were part of a history that is still raw  today. I did a Battlefield Tour of Gettysburg with the US War College a number of years back and it was an emotional experience for some of the US Army guys. Lee was actually going to be the Union Commander until he put Virginia first and sided withe the Confederacy. There were good and bad generals on both sides. Having the bases named after them does not glorify them it just reflects their place in history. To be honest 99% of the public probably doesn't know who they were anyway.

Well, you may be surprised to find there are others who support this strongly who are diametrically opposed to both Trump and what the Confederacy represented. I'd recommend listening to the view of Sir Geoffrey Palmer of the UK - there was a good and long interview with him I saw two days ago but can't seem to find. His view is that the statues indeed do represent history and that history is important and needs to be learned from to guide people to lessons. Instead he proposes installing new plaques that describe clearly what the people did, both good and bad, the context within which it was done etc. That seems a pretty good compromise to me. 

That's a Thai name, not a Khmer name. Perhaps a mixed Thai-Khmer marriage?

1 hour ago, Bkk Brian said:

There are dozens of studies being published and nearly all of them have not been peer reviewed and come out in pre print yet media picks up on them, often these studies have information rolled back after being reviewed. 

 

Draft Research Raises Murky Questions

An unreviewed early draft of a study—known as a preprint—from Harvard Medical School researchers with data that suggests that the coronavirus may have been spreading in Wuhan, China, as early as August 2019 received widespread media coverage this week. U.S. President Donald Trump and others keen to blame the pandemic on China have seized on the draft paper. But as numerous analysts have pointed out, the preprint has serious problems—including cherry-picking data.

 

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/10/trust-early-coronavirus-research-pandemic-wuhan-harvard-study-preprint-trump/

Yep. I pointed it out immediately as soon as I read it. And I pointed out that the design itself was fundamentally flawed in that they chose for whatever reason the wrong sensors for the approach. Had they instead selected PlanetScope imagery (from Planet, a company operating hundreds of micro-satellites orbiting in a ring around the earth that takes an image of the earth once per day at 3-4m resolution) they would have been able to view hundreds of more images than they did from 2016 onwards, and get a much more comprehensive understanding of parking lot changes over time, be able to compare them to similar times in different years and do all the other analyses that this study failed to undertake. As someone who does this sort of analysis professionally, I was personally embarrassed for whomever got roped into this and decided they'd catch the wave as it rolled by. Big mistake that they'll have a long time to live down.

2 hours ago, jimmybcool said:

I think you missed my point.  Which is simply this - Harvard did not release politically biased information at the behest of the Trump administration.  They bear no love for him.  If they released something they believe it.  I make no comment on the validity of their study as I'm not qualified to judge their work.

 

No, I'm agreeing with your point, but pointing out that this does in fact indicate some poor academic practice at what is supposedly one of the top five educational institutes in the world. They likely saw the opportunity presented to release it early since only a fool would not see the potential for its rapid and massive amplification. That is not political, in terms of advocating for a specific point of view or outcome that would be pleasing to one side or another, but is political in terms of recognizing that the results would receive a lot of attention because of the subject matter and they knew that. So they were happy enough to harness that political wind by hoisting up a sail to catch it.

11 hours ago, jimmybcool said:

Problem with that theory is politics.  I assume you mean political intervention request from the Trump administration.  if so - do you really see Harvard cooperating with him in this?  Harvard is very left and they hate Trump.  

The problem with BOTH theories is politics.

Is it that difficult to see that someone in higher levels of academia would say "this provides an interesting opportunity for us to test potential warning systems that use corollary data as a basis for identifying potential outbreaks". That would be a piece of cake for a grad student and an immediate Green Light for funding applications.

Is the research something inherently biased? Quite the contrary. 

Is Harvard a monolithic left-wing institution - considering that so many of the leading lights of the Right graduated from there, if they are, they're doing a hell of a bad job in educating their students! Check out Republican congresspeople who graduated from Harvard - Tom Cotton (Ark.), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Dan Sullivan (Ak.) and Rep.-elect Elise Stefanik, Sens. Ted Cruz (Tex.), Pat Toomey (Penn.), David Vitter (La.) and Mike Crapo (Wyo.). You're confusing "elitist" with "leftist".

The issue is a simple one - they did a poor job of designing the study, chose the wrong technology then released it too early before outsiders could quickly see how half-baked it actually was. Thinking about the reasons why brings up an obvious motive - what could be "hotter" than a paper on the origin of the COVID-19 possibly starting in August in China? This was for academic self-promotion, plain and simple. And they should be punished academically for that.

Did I miss something? What happens to returning Cambodians? Are the rules different for them? Does the virus know not to affect them on the plane somehow?

So I looked at the satellite imagery part of this study - it relied on 111 observations over a 15-month period using VHR (very high resolution) imagery. They don't have a year-on-year comparison to make, and they didn't take advantage of existing and CHEAPER technology that would have enabled them to observe daily for the last 3 years that could potentially have provided data they could properly assess.

I would not have published this and this leads me to believe they were probably either trying to rush something out the door to get credit while the issue was "hot" or they're accepting shoddy work at Ivy League schools these days. Perhaps there was political pressure too? Who knows.

8 hours ago, simon43 said:

I wasn't commenting about the quality/availability of drugs.  My comment was about the legality and your risk of being extorted by the police or thrown into prison.  It's high!

 

As for curfew, my comment more precisely refers to Luang Prabang, where a curfew has always been in place for many years since I recall from first working in the town in 2013.  The exception is for people going to the bowling alley.

Well, like anywhere, it's a matter of how well you blend in, understand the language, have local connections, etc. And for sure, that's a factor for those who don't have those things or aren't good at developing them. Don't recall curfews in Luang Prabang, perhaps there was during that time though. But dangerous? Only for fools or noobs.

I think that there are places that are better suited to people based on their personal preferences and requirements. There are lots of expatriates who enjoy life in Vientiane, as there are those who love the so-called "cesspit" of Phnom Penh, or perhaps Vietnam, Myanmar...it's entirely up to the sort of person one is and what one is looking for. I've lived and worked in all of those places, as well as in Northeast Thailand and Chiang Mai. Have enjoyed them all for different reasons but I'm pretty adaptable. 

For the OP, the best advice is always the same - take off for a month or two and live in whichever of those places sounds best suited to your taste. If it is, then arrange to move there. If it isn't, try another! There are many great places and hidden gems all around the region. 

15 hours ago, Ron jeremy said:

Both Vietnam and Cambodia have excellent western restaurants.

As does Laos. For Western food, Vientiane is superb quality and value.

10 hours ago, dddave said:

The Wahlberg's grew up in Dorchester, Mass., a very tough, working class neighborhood of Boston during the very racially polarized 1970's/80's.  Involuntary school busing as part of a court ordered desegregation plan was causing huge social unrest and riots around schools were a daily event.

It was a very racially charged time and working class neighborhoods were seething with resentment as their elementary school aged kids were being forced to attend schools in other parts of the city, sometimes many miles away.  Local politicians fanned the flames and deep racism  was commonplace.

 

The mark of a mature adult is the ability to overcome such feelings learned young and grow.  I think Mark Wahlberg has done that and should not be viewed as a racist for things said in a different era.

I agree with your post, and with forgiveness as a general principle. As others pointed out, if he remained silent, he surely would have been condemned, probably more harshly. I believe there should always be room for redemption, especially when the moment is so big and the opportunities there for taking some real steps forward. 

But I think it is also fair for him to be held to account for what he did. 

2 minutes ago, transam said:

Sorry there were no cartoons.....????

No problem - wouldn't want you to go to any effort.

3 hours ago, transam said:

What a load.....................????

Well, thanks for the cogent analysis. Brilliant!

15 hours ago, simon43 said:

Before I provide you with an answer to your question, please assign 1 point to each affirmative reply to my list of questions below:

 

- Are you in poor health or need regular visits to a semi-decent hospital?

- Do you like go-go bars and women (or men) of ill-repute?

- Do you partake in any kind of illegal drugs, from crack cocaine down to cannabis?

- Do you like loud, rowdy nights out with the lads?

- Do you like to stay out after midnight (curfew time)?

 

If your total score is 1 or more, you should give Laos a miss.....

Strongly disagree with your third point - the quality and variety of cannabis has improved exponentially as well as its availability.

And while the place is indeed as quiet as a church at night, there is no curfew nor has there been other than during this COVID-19 lockdown.

3 hours ago, muzley said:

Didn't that happen under a democrat Governor and Mayor.

 

Indeed it did! But if you want to shine a light on where the problem originates, perhaps this photo of the Head of the Police Union might help:

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

so you feel it's ok for those irresponsible protesters to go out and spread COVID19 everywhere as though they don't care about anyone's health.  And cause trouble as well ....  

I think people (at least in the USA) have an inalienable right to protest and they feel that there is no point in being healthy inside of a sick society. Some issues are more important than just surviving, and we should be grateful for those who are willing to fight for democracy. Some people just don't like the taste of boot polish and will risk danger for their rights.

You, on the other hand, probably have boot polish flavoured toothpaste.