simon43

46 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

Two things to note in this long thread....

 

One is that, since the advent of the internet, most people's IQ has jumped 50 points. This seems to be due to the ubiquitous nature of self-directed IQ tests available online with scoring via the honesty method.

...

I would day that most people's claimed IQ has jumped by 100 points!  According to Dr Google, Albert Einstein had an IQ of about 160, Isaac Newton had an IQ of between 170-190.  So it seems that some of our forum members are very, very clever indeed.....

22 minutes ago, nahkit said:

I'm trying to figure out how a bullet comes through the ceiling, so is presumably on a downward trajectory, but hits him under the chin and lodges in the back of his head when he's lying own on a bed?

Perhaps he sleeps standing on his head?

On 4/10/2024 at 1:09 PM, brianthainess said:

I just don't understand why anybody would want to join a cult of nonsense and fantasy. 

Sorry but they are all nonsense to me. 

So?  The OP didn't ask your opinion about religion - your post adds zero to this thread.

I am not the slightest bit religious, but I don't condemn others who are religious or have differing views from me.

OP, I do not have any facts to answer your question, since my knowledge of these churches is very small.

IMHO, the OP has a death wish......

On 3/25/2024 at 6:16 AM, rwill said:

The town I live in all the people pushing carts around selling coconut ice cream are myanmar/burmese

Do you live in Burma? 🙂

I'm very happy living in north Laos.  But there are 2 important issues:

- I have 'weak lungs' and the annual burning season here is not enjoyable - I'm coughing up litres of sticky phlegm and my nose runs like a very leaky tap!  Face-masks help, as do some medications, but my health outcome in the long-term is probably not rosy if I continue to live with such polluted air.

- Next year my UK pension will start, but since I live in Laos, this will be frozen, and this could become a financial issue for me in later years.

This is why I am considering making a permanent move to somewhere in The Philippines before my UK pension starts.  This would avoid administration issues with the UK pensions office, should I move from Laos to The Philippines after my pension starts. (Of course, PI does not freeze UK pensions).

Really, it's my own health issues that concern me, and the AQI numbers for PI seem to be way lower than Laos or north Thailand.  (South Thailand has cleaner air, but I do not have 800,000 baht for a retirement visa and I do not trust to 'fiddle' this visa by using an agent).

Would PI be a sensible option?  Here are my requirements:

- low risk of major earthquakes (my knowledge of tectonic plates suggests that the west side of PI is not prone to major earthquakes, since the plate boundaries are on the east side).
- low risk of major typhoons (again, my knowledge of cyclones suggests that the west side has calmer weather)

I would want to live in a safe rural/semi-rural location, renting a house and garden (not a condo), perhaps near a beach.

I do not need the company of other Westerners, nor nightlife, nor the fair sex, (meaning I don't want to live in the equivalent of Pattaya).

I'm good at learning languages, so an English-speaking environment is not required.
 

Can someone with knowledge of The Philippines suggest some small towns to visit?  I need to get my skates on if I want to move before June 25 (my retirement date).  Thanks!

20 hours ago, proton said:

 

Is it Urdu when in Leicester then 😄

Lol, my parents took me out of the government primary school in the early 1960s and put me in a private prep school after we started having morning assembly in (probably) Hindi - the Urdu-speakers arrived a few years later...

5 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Perhaps the Jewish Chronicle isn’t an unbiased source of news in this issue.

Educate yourself!  The report was not from the Jewish Chronicle but from the Henry Jackson Society. The Wiki link is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Jackson_Society

and that society has absolutely nothing to do with Jews or the Jewish Chronicle.......

On 4/4/2024 at 12:27 PM, John Drake said:

 

Wear bathroom slippers. 

Wear bathroom slippers AND hold onto firm surfaces AND don't enter the bathroom when p*ssed out of your mind....

I remember many years ago when I built a small hotel in Phuket - I installed sliding smoked glass doors in the showers and assumed that the glass was safety glass (forgive me - I was a newbie in Thailand).

Some time later a young boy staying with his parents ran straight through the glass door!  Shards of glass everywhere, but amazingly the boy only had a few small cuts.  It could have been so much worse.

In another incident (this time in Vietnam), a stone on the road flew up and hit the windscreen of our tour car that I was sitting in as a passenger.  The windscreen shattered into shards - it was standard glass, not safety glass....

Over the years there have been more than a few fatalities where foreigners have slipped in their bathroom and died, typically after hitting their head on something sharp.  Some of these deaths were where the person was elderly and unsteady on their feet.  Others were younger but drunk.

Many bathrooms in Thailand do not have non-slip floor tiles, some are like an ice-rink when wet.  It is always advisable to move slowly and hold onto firm surfaces when taking a shower.

51 minutes ago, smedly said:

 

I think you will find that air quality is the reason 

You may be right - I have no way to tell because I haven't visited Thailand for a couple of years.  I guess I need to wait until the rainy season and then see what % wear masks, and ditto here in northern Laos where the burning season is upon us.  For me, wearing a simple mask definitely helps my health by filtering out the smoke particles in the air. (If I were trying to avoid virus infections then I would purchase a mask designed for that purpose).

2 hours ago, MicroB said:

 

Some reading material for you (all peer reviewed)

...

 

I won't quote your long post, but thanks for introducing some scientific FACTS into this thread, but sadly which will go right over the heads of many posters 🙂

2 hours ago, Highlandman said:

 

You must be the only person in Laos still wearing a mask. There's a term in the industry we use for people like you: a virtue signaler. 

Lol, many people in Laos wear masks, especially right now since it's the burning season.  As I mentioned in my post, I have a chronic lung illness and wearing a face mask has absolutely nothing to do with virtue-signalling. But perhaps you don't understand that some people wear masks because the masks do what they are designed to do....