simon43

Update (6th April): Wow! The doctor at Blackpool Hospital has just called me, about 2 weeks after he performed the prostate biopsy and took 25 samples from my prostate, particularly in the regions where the MRI indicated something 'going on', (and a DRE by him and the Bumrungrad Hospital specialist could just about feel a small lump inside my prostate). I say 'wow' because all 25 biopsy samples have come back negative for cancer ???? There is absolutely no evidence of any cancer cells in my prostate. To say that I am gobsmacked (and very relieved) is an understatement..... What the samples did show was 'irritatation', which is no surprise because test after test since last October have indicated a UTI that doesn't clear up with the antibiotics that I've been prescribed over the past 6 months. Clearly, there is 'something' going on, since the MRI scan shows 2 small growths etc, and the doc said they will now have to investigate further to see what is going on, probably with a massive camera rammed up my John Thomas to see if my bladder has some form of chronic UTI.... I think I might buy myself a nice Easter egg this weekend!

AQI meters used by the various AQI websites are usually internet-of-things, meaning they are not manual devices, but are connected via wi-fi to an internet connection, (just like my planefinder.net receiver). This is the kind of equipment that is used: https://aqicn.org/gaia/

Seems so. Do you have a link to this app so I can create some full-frontal naked videos and solicit donations? Thanks ????

Give him an exploding Action Man!

19 years ago I wrote the 'AI' SMS text-chat program called Natachata which the BBC stated was the best candidate for passing the Turing test. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3503465.stm ("The test was dreamed up by pioneering mathematician Alan Turing as a way to judge machine intelligence. It revolves around people and machines communicating via typed messages. The machine would be judged intelligent if it could trick a human into thinking they were swapping text with another person. Turing thought that a machine could beat the Turing test by 2000. TURING TEST British scientist Alan Turing (1912-54) said if humans could be duped by computers into thinking they were talking to humans, the machines could be called 'intelligent' He was wrong, but only by a few years.") Well, my AI program was anything but 'intelligent', even though it fooled many people into believing that they were chatting with a real person. A simple word/phrase manipulation program connected to a 100,000 word/phrase mySQL database. Many people are raving about ChatGPT, but I haven't seen any detailed technical investigation of how this application actually works. Anyone have links?

They need a new kind of pelican crossing where some kind of physical obstruction for traffic rises up from the ground when the traffic light is red.

[quote] I have a slow heart rate, resting about 48, ... [/quote] That doesn't always mean that there is a problem with your heart. My resting HR is about the same, but only because I am rather fit, a result of daily jogging/exercise.

I do use a web-server in Hong Kong which is specifically configured by the ISP to provide fast access from mainland China, and I use another in Singapore and another in Yangon (Myanmar) to host some of my files/websites. I will check out the self-hosting ????

Are you sure that this solution resides only on my own server? Their website has an extremely load time from within mainland China? PS - Their 'install' web link returns a 404 error!

Yes, it was Manycam. Unfortunately, I have never found a way to pay for Zhumu! I used to pay for Zoom, but most of my lessons are 30 minutes long.

This is the problem: I use different apps such as Zoom, Zhumu etc to teach online, and I share my computer screen with my students so that they can view the pdf of the text-book on my computer, or to view Google Search images etc. Zoom restricts free usage to 40 minutes for each lesson, although one can log straight back in again. Access to Zoom by my students in China seems to vary across regions/dates. Zhumu has been working fine, but they have now disabled the screen-share option for non-paying users. So here's an idea: My students can see me on my camera. If I were to redirect that camera to point at my computer screen with textbook pdf displayed on the screen, then they would see the book just fine without any need for screen-sharing. But is there a 'soft' way to achieve the same by somehow redirecting the camera input to the Zhumu app to a file or image on my computer? I sem to recall years ago that I used an application that allowed me to switch between different camera inputs, as well as file/image inputs. Thanks

I know that if you are employed in Thailand, you have to contribute to the social fund, and after leaving your employment you are entitled to government hospital health cover so long as you continue to pay about 450 baht/month into that fund. My Googling suggests that a foreigner may join the health fund (through their Thai employer) if they are not yet 60 years old. Is that correct and is that always correct? Are there any options for those age >60 years old to benefit from the Thai social fund health cover if they are employed in Thailand?

I think the 20 year olds are all at home finding punters using social media. Only the unwanted still do street-walking....

Go to Beach Road at the Walking Street end. Start walking towards the north end of Beach Road You will soon spot several ugly, fat, elderly women (they may actually be men), all 'waiting for a bus that never comes' Those are your freelancers. Good luck!

Happily I am still very fit and run every day ????. As yet, I have no outward cancer symptoms, but the MRI scan strongly suggests prostate cancer and I'm waiting on the biopsy results. At least prostate cancer is usually slow-growing.

I planned, thousands of USD on expat medical insurance over the years. I got sick (suspected prostate cancer) My medical insurance refused to cover the cost (long story, already covered in other posts) I had to return to the UK for treatment on the NHS The waiting times are not too bad (cancer treatment is prioritised), although I'm grateful that prostate cancer is usually a slow-growing cancer type. So.... you can make as many plans as you like, but 'bad luck' can scupper your well-thought out plans. Another example: A week before flying back to the UK I was stung by a box jellyfish on Koh Phangan. Totally unexpected event, most people die of heart failure within 10 minutes of the sting. I also 100% felt and thought that I was going to die (as I flailed around on the floor of a beach restaurant as locals frantically poured vinegar on me and commented in Thai that I would be dead in a few minutes). Amazingly I recovered..... These 2 recent events have changed my view on planning for the future, 'cos you never know what plans the Grim Reaper has!

AFAIK, a 'healthy' automatic transmission car cannot stall!

It is an ASEAN problem, but as most of us know (think of the civil war in Myanmar), ASEAN is weak as water and will not intervene in another member country's problems.

Thinking back, I was also arrested in The Netherlands! I was the temporary transmitter engineer and DJ on an offshore radio station in the 1970's called Radio Delmare. When I returned on the tender boat back to The Netherlands, we were all arrested by the Dutch police. The police took the Dutch and Belgian nationals off somewhere and they took me directly to the ferry to England at Hook of Holland, wished me a nice trip and that was that! In the past few years I have been 'hassled' by police/military in both Myanmar and Laos for my totally legal amateur radio activities. In Laos my house was raided 3 times by many police and I was taken against my will to the local police station where I was 'grilled' about my activities (they ignored the copy of my ham licence issued by their own government). In Myanmar, some senior military chaps visited me for a nice chat about how I could perhaps help them with developing satellite technology (I used to work as a satellite design engineer), in return for allowing me to do my ham radio hobby. Sorry, no can do!

If you look at the satellite fire map over the past 24 hours, it's clear that most of the fires are actually in Shan State (Myanmar) and Laos - the Golden Triangle region, which is probably better renamed as The Smoky Triangle. The likelyhood of Thai farmers not burning the stubble is almost zero and the likelyhood of Lao and Shan farmers not doing likewise is less than zero. In other words, if you don't like smoke pollution, don't visit or live in that region, because nothing will change.

Tamsulosin doesn't have a similar action to Finasteride. The latter is an 5-alpha reductase inhibitor which can lead to a reduction in the physical size of the prostate, whereas Tamsulosin is a Selective Alpha-1-Blocker which relaxes the muscle around your bladder. But Tamsulosin doesn't reduce the size of your prostate. (All according to my non-medical understanding of these 2 drugs!).

Duh! To all the outraged posters, check your calendar!!

I spent a day in the jail under Pattaya Courthouse, based on some trumped-up and fake charge that I refused to plead guilty to. I had my shoes and tie and belt taken away from me, but rather than being put in the 'cages', I was allowed to sit on a chair outside the cages. (Maybe because the police there knew that the charge was fake). I watched others come and go, all shackled with a heavy chain on their legs. Most were Thai, some were foreigners. I was lucky enough to get bail, but looking at some of those in shackles I wondered if they were innocent of the charges against them but didn't have the funds to pay for bail.

He was time-travelling... ????

When I lived in Myanmar and was paid in USD cash, I used to have to iron these notes at my hotel before they would be accepted! If it didn't look as if it were newly printed then nobody would accept it....