rayw

Yes I am not against this new law in principle at all BUT yes it should have been announced now for a more reasonable enforcement in say 6 months time to be fair to the businesses that are affected unfairly by this immediate enforcement. Surely though we have laws that forbid the sale of alcohol to those under legal alcohol drinking age (18 I believe here)and also laws to arrest those drunk and disorderly in public areas, so better would have been to strongly enforce those existing laws particularity in these areas close to educational establishments, rather than this strange within 300 Metre radius rule.

These laws that control freedoms are not what is actually needed but instead a strong enforcement of solid existing laws that protect the freedom of others. That IMHO is what is truly and sensibly needed. The less unnecessary controls and the more the firm enforcement of sensible socially acceptable laws the better it will surely be for all surely.

This sort of law of control should work both ways too of course to be fair, so you have to also say no new schools or colleges should be allowed to be built within 300 Metres of businesses that are already in existence that are licenced to sell alcohol, or at least not without suitable mutually agreed compensation paid out to such licensed premises to move elsewhere.

I strongly believe in fairness

This makes me laugh "....(name any financial market)...... is expected to .....(fill in the blank).... because of......(fill in the blank)".

The future direction of any financial market is completely unknowable. Everything someone can list as a possible reason why something "should" happen, is already known by the market and is already "priced in" resulting in the current price. There are billions of $, Baht whatever being traded by people whose business it is to trade currency markets. These are serious people. If they thought for one second that the current price was in some way "wrong" or that others had failed to consider a certain key piece of information or data, they would place their bets and rake in a fortune when they were proved right.

The current price is there as a result of all the people who have already placed their bets on the direction based on all known data / information / forecasts.

The only thing that will move markets one way or the other is if new news or data becomes available which differs significantly from what was expected. This data / information is by it's very definition "unknown", hence the future direction is also unknown.

But these economists will know: if you forecast the direction as "up" or "down", which ever they choose there is about a 50-50 chance of being correct. Then they can heap praise on their own shoulders for being so clever!!

Flip a coin, you have about as much chance of being right.

And there is the big problem and reason the Capitalist system in the 21st century is now deeply flawed.

It is all one betting shop and countries economies are "played" with by selfish and low life gamblers. Exchange rates in the old days of more true economies were almost exclusively effected, as they very much should be, by a country's balance of payments for goods and services in and out, not by low life a'hole speculators trying to make a quick free buck on the backs of the poor folk in the economies they falsely effect and often ruin. This world is currently totally crazy and grossly unfair to the the 99% of folk who are ordinary decent people simply trying to earn an honest living and have a happy and comfortable rewarding life but all of that is being ruined by the fat cat selfish pond life whom Governments allow to get away with it !!!!!!!!!!

Silly fraudulent manipulations by very corrupt and evil Governments like Washington and much of Europe too, who are a major part and main cause in fact of the problem. Falsely making the what should be a very weak US dollar stronger by fraud and deceit, and gold weaker (which is very strange as physical gold is highly in demand that exceeds supply!!), manipulating oil prices to help demonise Russia in punishment for them being independent and refusing to bow down to the hegemonic US domination as most World wide vassal states are having to do these days.

NOW before anyone starts the stupid jumping on me as usual on this point, I will say now that I am NOT being anti American as I have many US based friends and generally love most US folk and the beautiful country, though some are sadly it seems a bit apathetic and lacking in real knowledge of the truth. However I am really very much currently very anti the corrupt and simply evil corporate run Washington and indeed anti UK Government too for similar reasons as they are very much a US vassal nation now. There lies the problem that affects us all and time we all did something to rid ourselves of this blight on society IMHO.

Almost ALL of us here are ordinary decent folk and we are being totally stitched up by corrupt Western Governments and fat cat corporations that are controlling us and still too many of us seem unable to see the truth in that. This we must stop and get back to normality if it is at all possible. Unfortunately we are still being brainwashed and mislead by the Washington controlled Western media.

All just my honest two pence worth and I am not up to any debate on it as I am happy that it is all the truth and many or even most open minded ordinary decent folk can now see that too and agree !! So silly flamers who are unable to hold a serious sensible debate will as usual be ignored as they always should be.

If you are living here on a long stay visa (retirement, educational. work permit etc) then best to simply change to a more practical post paid account system. Bit of messing around to start with needing the correct documents to sign up for such an account with your favourite supplier but well wroth it in the long run. I have a True account which I find ideal for my iPhone package and works out cheaper I think than prepaid cards anyway and no hassle with ever having to top up and all that crap. And of course no need to register as you already will be of course.

Oh and yes I have had my True account for about 6 years now so never need change my phone number which is another big benefit too.

it's now so much cheaper and easier to buy a new device than "chop and change"

The "computer mall" for shoppers of limited income

What absolute rubbish!!!

its far cheaper to fix a broken hard driver, or replace a keyboard or even replace a whole LCD screen, than to buy a new device!!!

who on earth came up with this rationale ?

also: since when is it the place for shoppers with 'limited income' ? or was it refering to people that dont want to pay 1,000 baht for a small Apple-Cable, when they can get a chinese copy one for 150 baht ?

because, to me, that is not 'limited income', but it is just people that know its not necessary to get ripped off by Brand Name Goods.

I lived in bangkok for years, and I use Panthip often for cables, hard drives, accessories and occasionally for its computer or electrical repair shops at the back.

i find it hard to believe that the NEW Panthiop will have no one there specializing in FIxing peoples machines. because I believe they will be hard-pressed to find enough Expensive retailers to fill all of their Retail Space.

companies like J.I.B and Hardware House and Banana IT have numerous branches in Panthip. (I think JIB has more than 9 branches in there)!!

they all sell Parts of COmputers. (Graphic Cards, Motherboards, hard Drives, Almost everything). - as far as Thai prices go, their prices are ok.

There is no way that the NEW Panthip wont have these stores.

i think this article is a "puff" Piece,, obviously written following a PR statment from Panthip. but in reality, i am positive its just a modern revamp with some added stores.

How can Panthip get more expensive than the REAL Samsung shop in Paragon or PowerBuy ??

the layout may change, but whats inside will be much the same (all-be-it with some nicer shop fronts).

perhaps Panthip Managment will increase rent,, so ok,, this may push up prices.

Does anyone know when this development will finish?

Absolutely spot on. My original PC base unit is now over 8 years old. I have upgraded many components inside of course but still the same Socket 775 Motherboard with the fastest core2duo CPU available for it, an Intel E8400 (well there is an E8500/E8600 I believe too but they really are not a lot faster). This E8400 is nicely and safely optimised with over-clocking to the exactly right extent for performance and stability of the whole system including RAM. I have 8GB fast GSkill RAM also running as fast as it will safely go. Graphics card has had 3 upgrades over the years but recent cards are now a bit limited in performance with only PCI-E V1.1 on my old motherboard. Even so the whole system is fast and responsive and rocks for all I use it for including sim motor racing with iRacing too which is smooth at almost maximum graphics detail and processing RAW photographs for my main hobby. I run Windows 8.1 and will shortly upgrade to the free Windows 10

So yes of course I would have spent tens of thousands more Baht on just changing the PC every two or three years and totally unnecessary to do that for most folk. That is why I specified some details of my regularly updated old system so no not thread drift but to make the point of course.

So yes I will miss Panthip for nostalgic reasons as it was a paradise place for me to go way back in 2003 when I first moved to LoS, and even used it for my other big hobby pf photography too as some good priced camera shops in there for bodies and lenses too. The big trouble is I live down in Ban Chang, Rayong for the past 12 years, so was always the big chore of the awful bus trip to Bangkok to go up to visit Panthip, and I really detest Bangkok, even on its quietest days, as indeed I do all big bustling noisy and smelly cities everywhere including Pattaya and Rayong itself too.

Now I see from a post above there is at long last what looks like a decent Thai on-line PC parts store IvadeIT, which I did not know about. So that site is now firmly in my browser favourites and so so much nicer to be able to buy stuff on-line and quick delivery within Thailand, without all the hassle of travelling to horrid jammed up cities or long shipping delays from eBay purchases from China. Very happy with this Thai on-line shopping prospect, so will try them out to see how good they are next time I need a new Harddrive, NAS Drive, Graphics card etc etc or even maybe a new Motherboard/CPU/RAM before too long but no rush. Anyone here had first hand experience using InvateIT ??

To be honest if I had the money I would just get myself one of the nice big iMacs, and as I am getting an old git now I could then just give up the upgrading hassle. Maybe realistically I will see if I can buy a second hand not too old iMac cheap enough, as I do like the Apple OS I have to say especially for photography processing and music uses. But I have to be careful as I am a pensioner with enough pension income to legally live here long term and to be reasonably comfortable too, but not enough to throw money away on rip off new replacement computers/smart phones/iPads/TVs etc though I do like to have good quality capable gear if not the very latest. The second hand market if you buy carefully is a great way to get great gear cheaply and thanks to so many people regularly throwing away their money on new replacement gear. So keep it up you guys and lets have your not very old good nick stuff nice and cheap

>>>>

Honest no disrespect meant but reading your last paragraph I think most on Thai Visa would think you are a nut case. I mean that in a nice respectful way.

Clearly the line of people waiting to get into Russia is 1% of the line waiting to get into the USA.

Looking back at your other posts they are mostly anti USA rants that lend little credibility to anything you might write. Nor do you have any actual knowledge of the working of the USA.

The President of the USA has no money. He can't fund anything. You may want to read up on the role and power of State governors. Forty-four states—all except Indiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina,Rhode Island, and Vermont—give their governors some form of line-item veto power. The Mayor of Washington, D.C. also has this power.

This is a critical power and determines the real power of the office.

Take a small economy like Russia and the economies of just two American states together (California and Texas) are larger then the whole country of Russia.

https://en.wikipedia...y_GDP_(nominal)

The leader of Russia is relatively small time when compared to three State governors in the USA.

When the USA talks even in this report from the State Department to the Congress other countries listen.

In terms of economic clout you have the EU, USA and China. When they speak the world listens.

Everyone may not agree with the EU, USA and China but when they talk it is not in most countries interest to point out hypocrisy because money talks and BS still walks

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Think what you like but you are totally incorrect as I am no more anti American than I am anti UK. I am indeed anti Washington these days and certainly since that idiot G.W.Bush as they are so corrupt and dishonest it is incredible how totally crazed they now are. You epitomise too many in the USA and many in UK too who are brainwashed by the Washington controlled presstitute media.

What I stated I stand by completely as outside of the "indispensable" and "exceptional" God's chosen nation of the USA as Washington ludicrously describes it, folk can and now do see how corrupt Washington is and how in comparison brilliant and sensibly calm Putin is handling all the demonising crap coming out of Washington and most of it even proven to be lies and deceit. It is always the same with the US as anyone who does not agree with them or exposes their deceit and corruption is immediately branded a nut case, well my friend you have some awakening to come.

Fortunately I do have good US friends who also open their minds from the incessant press Washington fed crap. I also must be one of those 1% you mention along with millions of others as yes I personally today would rather move to Russia with its great culture and socially more caring and stable society than the USA right now. However, I honestly would not choose to live in either of those nations. Ask me the same questions 20 years ago then I would easily choose the USA but certainly not now. I have no axe to grind per se but just being absolutely honest about how I now feel.

Once again you come down to it having to be so big and wealthy to be good, this is so misguided and so crass and where the US (and some other nations too) is going so badly wrong today. Of course nobody is saying Obama has the money or even the power, as that comes from the rich corporates who undemocratically control your nation now, whereas little if any true democratic power is given to the people any more. In comparison the new proposed charter here will properly give more true democracy to the ordinary good Thai folk and why Washington's unhelpful ignorant criticism of Thailand is so unwelcome and held in so much disdain. So yes on this issue I stand firmly with Thailand and their well meaning sound temporary Junta Government and I wish this country and it';s people well for a better happier future which should result. But I suppose one has to be a nut case to think like that according to the USA !!!!!!

Both the Democrats and Republicans are subservient to their rich paymasters something I thought was now common knowledge, certainly with most informed folk I know. The most important and respected men has nothing to do with their wealth and control over people it is about how good and caring they are towards the well being of all the people they are responsible for and here Putin leaves certainly anyone in Washington standing miles behind

You ought to open your mind and also read Paul Craig Roberts articles (yes he IS a very experienced and knowledgeable US citizen, Google it and read his credentials) and follow respected award winning investigative journalists like John Pilger and others and the masses of evidence and facts they clearly point out, all of which can be checked elsewhere. You will see also why Washington are behaving like the dangerous and corrupt imbeciles they are too, and why the UK and many other Washington vassal states are also being pathetic and crazy.

Anyway I have nothing more to add so will not come back to this thread again, but I had to reply to that usual slating of anyone who dares to disagree with the hegemonic Washington as being anti US and a nut case. That sadly indicates the workings of a narrow or simply brainwashed mind I feel. I am certainly not flaming you or anyone here, as I feel 99% of flaming is just immature and even infantile crap in the main, and in fact appreciate your input as we need well balanced opinions of course. We have drifted off topic enough already as this thread is about Thailand, though in fairness it is still related to the Washington arrogance and ignorance in criticising so wrongly what is currently happening by necessity here right now. Once again I am a Brit but the UK under Cameron is not a lot better either as it just blindly bows down to Washington's every word of which most they spout I assure you is based on blatant misinformation and lies, as a little open minded research will easily show you if you can just bother and open up the mind by maybe reading informed news sources rather than simply the very one sided and untruthful Washington fed Western presstitute media.

But this is coming from a country which also tramples on the rights of its own citizens, invades other countries on the flimsiest of excuses, detains citizens of other countries without trial and those persons only defenders are appointed by the the US military. Some of those people have been arrested in countries other than the USA and many of them have been awaiting trial for years.

It regularly sends drones to kill people in other countries and worries little if anything about "collateral damage" to that countries citizens.

Civilians in the USA are regularly killed by the police forces within the USA.

It supports freedom of speech but when it comes to Wikileaks it wants to prosecute to the nth degree those people that expose the truth.

It supports dictatorial regimes in some parts of the world.

When you live in a glass house it is not always a good idea to throw stones.

And those transgressions are regularly condemned by other countries who have blood on their own hands. Despite what you think, in this world, the faults of a country do not preclude it from speaking out against those of other countries

Yes indeed and it is called hypocrisy and it is intolerable wherever it raises its head. I think one of the biggest hypocritical groups we know as the current Washington administration should keep the hell out of Thailand's affairs as it is clearly obvious that things have improved no end here since the Junta Government took over last year and which is working honourably for the good of the people of Thailand towards true and proper PR based democracy early next year. They even propose a fair and proper democratic referendum for the free will of the people to prevail and decide about the proposals for true democratic electoral reform to a PR based system. Such a PR system will never again allow a minority elected Governments to take unchallenged power, which is surely far worse and less democratic than anything this current Junta Government can be and often is completely wrongly accused of.

Just remember this peaceful coup last year was borne out of absolute necessity and I think we all feel happier and safer for it too. So Washington can kneb out of it and go screw itself IMHO as they are crass ignorant and arrogant as usual. I am knocking Washington administration and the paymaster lobbyist fat cats who control it, certainly not the ordinary good decent US citizens whose only real sin is apathy, which sadly allows Washington to continue with is corruption and current extreme and dangerous insanity and for it to rape true democracy as it is doing both at home and abroad.

no WE all dont feel happier and safer. speak for yourself.

Well i certainly do and many many folk I speak to and on here in TVF seem to feel safer and happier than they did brfore we had he painless and bloodless could that was sorely needed here. I obviously cannot say categorically that most folk are happier and safer and why I said i THINK they are. Of course a poll here on TVF with one vote per member would give an idea.

What I do not understand is WHY you do not feel safer and happier than before the coup ?? I find that hard to believe and seems out of step with what you hear form folk Thai and Falang in the streets.

Oh BTW in reply to your post following the above one, I do not see why those state Governors are important at all in those two states even though I confess I know little about them. You do not say why they are so important and that IS important when you make such statements??? Are they both exceptionally good caring men who look after the people rather than the big businesses and money ?? If the latter then they are not important but purely low life and not at all to be respected. I have no respect for any of the low life in Washington let alone state governors, though I accept some state governors might well be good guys/girls and if so all credit to them as they will be the important ones for sure who do not bow down to the corporate fat cat paymasters.

Currently, and I am NOT a communist or indeed a capitalist, I completely open mindedly would say Putin is the most respected, the least dishonest and most important man in the World right now and certainly has more support of his people (over 80% I hear) than any other world leader that I know of. He also commands far more World wide respect too than anyone in the very corrupt and crazy Washington whose corruption and dishonesty is clearly seen and despised all over the free world.

But this is coming from a country which also tramples on the rights of its own citizens, invades other countries on the flimsiest of excuses, detains citizens of other countries without trial and those persons only defenders are appointed by the the US military. Some of those people have been arrested in countries other than the USA and many of them have been awaiting trial for years.

It regularly sends drones to kill people in other countries and worries little if anything about "collateral damage" to that countries citizens.

Civilians in the USA are regularly killed by the police forces within the USA.

It supports freedom of speech but when it comes to Wikileaks it wants to prosecute to the nth degree those people that expose the truth.

It supports dictatorial regimes in some parts of the world.

When you live in a glass house it is not always a good idea to throw stones.

And those transgressions are regularly condemned by other countries who have blood on their own hands. Despite what you think, in this world, the faults of a country do not preclude it from speaking out against those of other countries

Yes indeed and it is called hypocrisy and it is intolerable wherever it raises its head. I think one of the biggest hypocritical groups we know as the current Washington administration should keep the hell out of Thailand's affairs as it is clearly obvious that things have improved no end here since the Junta Government took over last year and which is working honourably for the good of the people of Thailand towards true and proper PR based democracy early next year. They even propose a fair and proper democratic referendum for the free will of the people to prevail and decide about the proposals for true democratic electoral reform to a PR based system. Such a PR system will never again allow a minority elected Governments to take unchallenged power, which is surely far worse and less democratic than anything this current Junta Government can be and often is completely wrongly accused of.

Just remember this peaceful coup last year was borne out of absolute necessity and I think we all feel happier and safer for it too. So Washington can kneb out of it and go screw itself IMHO as they are crass ignorant and arrogant as usual. I am knocking Washington administration and the paymaster lobbyist fat cats who control it, certainly not the ordinary good decent US citizens whose only real sin is apathy, which sadly allows Washington to continue with is corruption and current extreme and dangerous insanity and for it to rape true democracy as it is doing both at home and abroad.

I'll bite if only to put a spanner in the works of some of the stupid comments so far. I support the junta but not everything they do.

Despite some doubts whether they are being egged on by 'certain' political groups or not - Jatuporn's support certainly gives some credence to that view - I totally condemn putting them on trial in a military court. Almost treated as badly as Palestinians by Israel who face the same severe reduction in justice.

I applaud their courage and have hopes that the junta will look again - they've already allowed appeals which were not formerly a part of military courts - and, if they have to put these people on trial, at least do it in a civilian court.

I sort of agree and indeed I back what ExPratt said in respect that it was a crime against a military decree and thus the military court was used. I can live with that as seems fair to me under the current circumstances of the temporary Junta Government.

Why oh why though cannot folk just tow the line for now. We have what I sincerely feel is a fair and honourable temporary junta Government. They are proposing what appears so far to be an excellent charter for sensible electoral reform proposing the only true democratic system there is and that is Proportional Representation (PR) and the German flavour of that as proposed gives a pretty sound democracy too. On top of that they are proposing a full referendum for the Thai people to accept or reject that charter once it is clearly explained to everyone how it will work and why it will work so much better. Hopefully then Thailand can finally have true and fair democracy and the true will of the Thai majority will finally be a highly desirable reality, certainly I for one will welcome that very much.

So come on folk STOP complaining and just tow the line for now and wait and see what the final charter says and what the results are of the peoples' referendum next January. Why oh why do some trouble makers have to stir things up, is it any wonder that they get arrested in the circumstances. Just be patient as these things cannot happen overnight but once we have this proposed true PR based democracy here then for sure full free speech can return as is sensible and right. But worth noting that with PR then surely we all can and should accept the elected Government as the people's democratic and true free will. There should then be no more minority elected Governments that give understandable fuel to uprisings and political turmoil amongst the people who cannot accept the will of a Government with only say 40% of the electorate who voted for it, as that is truly an undemocratic minority elected Government as we see all too often in my home country of the UK so often and indeed right now.

I understood this new charter is based on giving Thailand a Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system with its normal alternative vote system similar to Germany I understood. If so this is the most democratic true basic electoral system known to the World, so why does it say the "least democratic" ?? I am baffled to say the least with that statement. Must be something or a condition in the charter that I am missing here. So can someone please enlighten me of any undemocratic factual proposals in this electoral charter that makes it far from the usual PR systems of the truest form of democracy ?

There is clearly nothing less democratic than the first past the post system (FPTP) which we basically had here before, as that allows a minority elected party to take full control of Government, which clearly is utterly wrong of course in a supposed democracy. This is quite usual in undemocratic countries like the UK where they use the flawed FPTP system resulting in most Governments over the past several decades who never actually achieved anything close to a 50% or more majority of the votes, and yet had total Government control often with an unchallengeable majority.

Take the 1980's where Thatchers UK Governments for a classic example had over 60% of the electorate who did not vote for her or her right wing Tory Government, and nor did they even want her in power strongly disagreeing with her far right policies that forced a massively increasing divide in society between the haves and have nots. Same was true of all but one of the Blair Governments too where over 50% of folk did not vote for him or is New Labour party, though in 1997 he took just over 50% of the popular vote so earned his parties control of Government but which still of course did not deserve such a landslide majority as he attained under the disgusting FPTP system. This shows how the FPTP system is extremely undemocratic in anyone's eyes who has a modicum of intelligence and/or logic, and a sense of fairness. This is also no matter whether they sit on the left or right of the fence either, as it is totally across the board WRONG !!

Sure it will need a lot of educating the Thai folk as to how PR works but it really is not rocket science just different to the democratically flawed system that they had before. Anyone other than the sadly mentally retarded can easily be shown how it works and soon it would give Governments that were fairly in sync with the percentage of support they had with the voters. What could be better than that for a truthful democracy ??

It's not difficult at all for the govt to set a maximum price for drugs. They must approve the importation of them, collect any tax payable . certify the drug to treat certain medical conditions. It's difficult because they don't want to offend the high end of town , ie the connected owners and shareholders of these establishment. So a pale pink response.

Agree BUT there should surely NEVER be ANY tax applied on all normal and essential prescribed medicines anywhere in the World. Taxing folk's illnesses is totally unacceptable and immoral to a massive majority of ordinary folk and indeed for what it is worth IMHO too.

Yes as suggested it should be officially made compulsory for manufacturers and/or importers to price drugs on the label will stop the low life rip off levels of profit making on sick people.

All to me a big argument that the pharmacy industry worldwide should be taken completely out of private hands and run collectively by a properly run organisation like say the WHO and fully accountable to the people. It should be run at cost through global taxation added to each countries tax revenue bill and allowing of course for money being available for the important development of new drugs too, especially anti-biotics. This is unlikely to happen because of private sector greed over caring and the undemocratic power that they wield over the many corrupt western Governments. But surely it is an ideal that we should all be pushing for from our elected representatives, though fat chance with most right wing ones who are part of the problem anyway.

Where do you think? BKK of course! Where the heavy rains were reported.

You've obviously never experienced a signal 3 typhoon, much less signal 8.

No such thing as a class 8 typhoon !! The strongest typhoon is classed as level 5 and that is referred to as a super typhoon no matter how strong the winds are above the minimum criteria for class 5. There is no class 6 or higher numbered level of Typhoon that I have ever heard of. Please do try to get these basic facts right before quoting them. I think maybe you are trying to refer to the Beaufort scale where force 8 is a gale in fact, and force 11 is I believe a class 1 hurricane/typhoon/cyclone (all are the same thing but differently named in different regions of the globe). No reason at all why everyone should be expected to know that info of course, as we all know about different things of course. It is still though useful knowledge to learn.

Personally I have never experienced a full typhoon. A tropical storm is bad enough let alone an even minimum class 1 typhoon. Anyhow they are not talking here about a typhoon, and currently for info there is not even a tropical storm remotely in sight if you look at the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre that covers the whole of the pacific ocean and surrounding areas including Thailand.

We are, as is normal this time of year, expecting the first of the South Westerly monsoons of the rainy season, bringing not surprisingly heavy and sometimes devastating torrential rains and dangerously gusty maybe damaging local winds. As somebody said here earlier, what we have had these past thankfully cooling days is simply the showery precursor to the impending SW monsoons, which the Thai met office now say is likely about to strike the areas they have listed for our guidance.

So let us all thank them for the warnings and stop the incessant pointless moaning and put downs which are so boring and sadly so predictable.

"Please do try to get these basic facts right before quoting them."

I suggest you try to understand a post before trying to show how knowledgeable you are.

http://www.weather.gov.hk/publica/gen_pub/tcws.pdf

http://www.weather.gov.hk/informtc/precaution.htm

I talk about signals, not class.

Well I stand corrected of course and no problem admitting to it. BUT in my defence these are some obscure Hong Kong local signalling systems that I have never heard of anywhere else it seems.

No I am not a know-it-all either as like most folk, though yes I do know a reasonable amount about a limited number of subjects, of which meteorology is one of them that I have privately studied quite a bit. I also of course know a little bit about a lot of other stuff as we all do. So I suppose a jack of all trades and a master of very few is what I am not too proud to admit to being.

Certainly I have never been to Hong Kong and never seen or heard of that signalling system they obviously seem to use there. I am sure most folk here even with some meteorology knowledge are unlikely to have heard of that localised Hong Kong system either, as it is not one used generally over the World, and indeed not heard it used in Thailand either, from any of my my knowledge. Please correct me if I am wrong my friend.

Thanks for advancing my knowledge about this Hong Kong system as always happy to learn such stuff that is new to me.

Where do you think? BKK of course! Where the heavy rains were reported.

You've obviously never experienced a signal 3 typhoon, much less signal 8.

No such thing as a class 8 typhoon !! The strongest typhoon is classed as level 5 and that is referred to as a super typhoon no matter how strong the winds are above the minimum criteria for class 5. There is no class 6 or higher numbered level of Typhoon that I have ever heard of. Please do try to get these basic facts right before quoting them. I think maybe you are trying to refer to the Beaufort scale where force 8 is a gale in fact, and force 11 is I believe a class 1 hurricane/typhoon/cyclone (all are the same thing but differently named in different regions of the globe). No reason at all why everyone should be expected to know that info of course, as we all know about different things of course. It is still though useful knowledge to learn.

Personally I have never experienced a full typhoon. A tropical storm is bad enough let alone an even minimum class 1 typhoon. Anyhow they are not talking here about a typhoon, and currently for info there is not even a tropical storm remotely in sight if you look at the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre that covers the whole of the pacific ocean and surrounding areas including Thailand.

We are, as is normal this time of year, expecting the first of the South Westerly monsoons of the rainy season, bringing not surprisingly heavy and sometimes devastating torrential rains and dangerously gusty maybe damaging local winds. As somebody said here earlier, what we have had these past thankfully cooling days is simply the showery precursor to the impending SW monsoons, which the Thai met office now say is likely about to strike the areas they have listed for our guidance.

So let us all thank them for the warnings and stop the incessant pointless moaning and put downs which are so boring and sadly so predictable.

While in Australia you have full and legal disclosure, on-line, as to the where about of all the speed

cameras...

Yes indeed and should not be a problem surely. As a UK policeman I knew once told me these checkpoints, as well as radar speed check cameras, are primarily there not to extract money out of motorists but to safely slow them down as a deterrent to speeding. That is of course clearly the intelligent and sensible reasoning for it. As such then of course it helps the police achieve that deterrent objective if folk disclose to others their approximate or actual whereabouts. It is also exactly why there are speed camera warning signs up in most countries and indeed here too in Thailand as it is an effective speeding deterrrent.

I am not saying I agree with all motorway speed limits however as I do not because it causes in itself processions of close up nose to tail high speed traffic, and the multiple pile ups that result form what would otherwise be a small road traffic incident. I fully agree with the sensible and proven to be safer German main autobahn system of no speed limits except maybe around junctions where traffic joins and melds with the main motorway traffic.

The target demographic is those with enough millions to buy this and who also want to live in a high rise condo in Pattaya which the vendor is having trouble selling.

Yes indeed but come on now how about ordinary normal folk without such riches though of course still enough to live nicely and legally here in Thailand? Most of us retirees here for example fit that category of course. So I would like to see our current PM, who is clearly a far more open minded and intelligent PM than most before him, do something to allow falang retirees on long stay retirement visas, and others like on spouse visas who are also legally able to live here, to buy small amounts of land in their own name (even say 100 square wah is enough for most normal folk) for building on, or with a house built on it already, for their retirement / family home. Hardly selling off all of Thailand to foreigners as this would surely only be a tiny minute spec of the total land here in Thailand of course.

Those rich fat cats do not need such helpful schemes as they can get most of what they need and want easily enough anyway. It is the ordinary folk who meet the requirements to live here on long stay non immigrant visas that need such help surely. High time IMHO that the ordinary folk both falangs and Thai were given more needed help to make theri lives happier than the wealthy fat cats who are able to help themselves.

It should be ordinary people and their happiness that matters not money and wealth. Idealistic maybe but surely can we not see that we truly need such ideals very much in this unfair and sick way over capitalistic world.

Why close late night bars in a late night city? Why should adults be put to bed early? It's pathetic.

Spot on mate. I could no agree more. Sure they should be all licensed of course as in most countries and not allow illegal substances. Mind you marijuana for example is proven as less harmful than alcohol or tobacco for 100% sure from all serious open minded and unbiased documentaries I have ever seen or read. So why not legalise and licence the sale and use of marijuana the same as alcohol and tobacco and any other more harmless recreational drugs? Would raise taxation and save a lot of wasted police time better spent on hard drugs and drug barons for example.

But anyway back more on topic, to close bars at 2:00 AM in major cities like Bangkok and Pattaya and Chiang Mai etc is completely insane. Why not let each bar owner open and close at what times that suits his business best, depending solely on his personal choice as owner, his trade pattern and his staffing needs?? That will once again save a lot of valuable police time needed to tackle more real serious crime. Same really should apply across all of the country as long as noise pollution and nuisance is not allowed from late bars in residential areas of course, as that is a matter of public respect and decency.

Also same for the most ridiculous and totally pointless law of only allowing super markets to sell alcohol between 11:00 to 14:00 and 17:00 till I think 23:00. Even every Thai I have spoke to on this one says the same how silly pointless and inconvenient it is to millions. Also just discovered they have made this insane law even worse by no longer folk to buy over 10 Litres of alcohol in the prohibited hours as it used to be allowed. All so so pointless and crazy as no way does it stop people drinking, or indeed as much, as if they want to drink then they will do so no matter what sort of prohibitions you impose. That is more about education as to the woes of over indulging. There is already strong laws, that maybe need more stringent enforcing, that state you cannot sell alcohol to anyone under 18 years of age, so this time prohibition crap is not needed for that issue at all as it is already covered with inconveniencing adults pointlessly.

Sure yeh yeh yeh I am well aware I am a guest here in Thailand and a grateful one. I respect that very much and do love this country (otherwise I would not choose freely to live here), but that surely does not mean that I should not make comments and suggestions that I personally consider would make life better for almost all folk here and in particular most Thais too. So our good PM Prayut can I ask you to please consider this matter if you really want to make folk happier here and less grossly inconvenienced by absolutely pointless alcohol sale times restrictions in particular.

What the <f***> is it to do with the World Bank? All they are interested in is how much more money they can squeeze out of Thailand. The biggest problem in the World right now as we all know (or should know) is clearly the whole corrupt fraudulent world banking system. All they actually care about is money money money and power but never people and why we have such a sick selfish and greedy World with collapsing economies.

However I agree with the sentiment about better Thai education for the Thai kids a sthat I would very much like to see too. However my motives are honestly not about money but just to see a happier and more successful Thailand and not any personal gain.

Now admittedly I don't know a great deal about the Empower Foundation and maybe they do create work out in the Thai community.

However, there is a quite extraordinary statement on their website: - http://www.empowerfoundation.org/index_en.html

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I'm speechless.

I am speechless too and delighted as I did not know such a good well meaning organisation as Empower existed here. Well done to them and for standing up for their rights and the rights of the women (and guys) who do a valid and real job willingly giving a much needed service of course My full respects to Empower if that is the case.

It is clearly high time that freelance prostitution was totally legal Worldwide for both the actual providers (yes male or female) and the customers as it is obviously a highly popular trade which has been going since recorded time. Why make it illegal when all are carrying out the trade willingly and happily and anyway there is absolutely no way that you will ever stop it so why even try. Anyone who thinks they can ever stop prostitution is living in cloud cuckoo land for sure. The authorities should instead be more sensible and intelligent and just concentrate on taking out those abusing human rights like the pimps involved in this trade as that would be rewarding for all of us. It is only the pond life pimps who should be locked up for wicked exploitation.

If those girls with those footballers were under the legal age then of course action should be taken primarily against the people who made them available to those guys. I am so angry about the racist remarks they used but other than that I am sure they probably had no idea that the girls were under age, if indeed they actually were.

Totally appalling the need and use of racist insulting remarks. Sorry but IMHO for what it is worth, I find so many way excessively overpaid and often immature footballers are moronic in the extreme and why I gave up watching most football years ago. NO I did not say all footballers but far too many of them you can clearly see if you open your eyes. Like many other sports too where they are immorally overpaid by a factor of over 100 in most cases whilst so many of us work for comparative peanuts !!!

Sure no problems with orgies of willing participants having harmless good fun, as I am a pervert too just like most the rest of you here (where is the so called video link then hmm ? ) BUT I have severe problems with racism, bigotism and most other 'isms which show character weak folk devoid of any decency and ethics i.e pond life. We should all judge others only based on their actions and deeds and not on ANYTHING else like skin colour, race or religions etc. Flame me for that all you want and I will just ignore such pathetic responses, but I firmly stand by every word I state there and I truly believe 95% of decent ordinary folk here will agree but mostly stay quiet.

P.S. Just seen the post above and indeed if this is true then that is typical media hype and misinformation that si normally so prevalent in the Western media even more than here. But i still in principle stand by every word I stated above of course.

Bloody high time the UK FCO realised that they are there primarily to SERVE THE BRITISH PUBLIC WHO PAYS THERE WAGES AND FOR WHOM THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT. No other issue should EVER cloud that fact and/or take priority over justice, morals and ethics. Financial cost is NOT and should NEVER be the main issue in any such cases. Surely as the terrible crime happened here, Thailand should be responsible to see to it that they maintain good diplomatic relations with the UK (not the other way around) by ensuring true justice is carried out openly no matter how big the offender may be. ALL are guilty in proper law everywhere in the World, whether rich or poor, leader or surf, end of and NO ARGUMENT, period !!!

Maybe Prayut, who to me clearly seems a more honourable and decent guy that so far I personally support, should intervene here and see that true justice is rightfully served and do so no matter who may be implicated as NOBODY should ever be above the law.

This mother just wants to see proper and rightful justice served (and that in Thailand is the death sentence and should be in the UK too where there is no element of doubt as to guilt) for the disgusting murder of her son. Surely is that not perfectly understandable to us all ? Justice MUST ALWAYS come over and above ANY diplomacy as it is higher up on the importance and priority scale in most folks eyes and certainly will always be in mine.

Already we see the disgusting closing of consulate offices over the past few years and I hear incredible and unacceptable rumours now that the Chiang Mai UK consular office will close too, which is once again DISGUSTING and putting money over people which must never happen. The consular office there is meant to serve UK Expats many of them old retired folk who cannot take the stress of journeys all the way to the Bangkok UK Embassy and a reason they chose Chang Mai as a good place to live was because there was a perfectly functioning UK Consulate office there. This is clearly wrong in any decent persons eyes.

Totally unacceptable by a crap British Government who just for some weird and stupid reason just got re-elected into office again, truly amazing and crazy particularly as 62.3% of folk sensibly and logically voted against the Tory party !! Jeez I loathe the UK Tory party as much as the US Republican one too, both right wing defenders of their corporate fat cat paymasters and not the people !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry I digressed but loosely still connected of course.

Now FCO for goodness sake just get on with it, carry out your proper duty, and do as you are requested to do by properly and ethically primarily representing this distraught innocent mother, who rightfully wants and indeed demands straight justice for her murdered son. I am sure we are all decent folk supporting her here and we must all stand up for her strongly and verbosely. Also never forget that one day it just might sadly happen to your family too.

I was attending the Yasothorn fest last weekend, and there were no accidents... but these festivals are popular all over Eesan, Yasothorn just happens to be a large one which is extraordinarily well promoted...

I have been to two or three of these events in Surin province over the years and loved them all and got some great photographs to prove it :-). Sure you should know the risks when you attend but come on now how much stuff that is real fun and exciting in life is truly safe ?? Most fun I have had in my life is taking some levels of known and calculated risks and that is half of the excitement and enjoyment, without that then you just are not living life to the full. I get fed up in the West with excessive health and safety measures that totally ruin the activities and indeed are often the cause of high unaffordable prices of attending too. Sure some sensible controls that do NOT detract form the fun and/or put up the costs massively are fine.

Maybe with these rockets it should be mandatory to put a parachute return to earth system on them all. Indeed I know it can easily be done as I have seen this applied especially on some of the big circular spinning rockets they use. Another way is to keep a little more distance from launch to the spectators, but that wont help with the falling burned out rockets or one losing control at launch (surprisingly not very common that). Anyway it is up to folk to choose how close to stand not to be molly coddled into being forced to stand too far away form the action.

Hey I will still go to these festivals as they are fun and we should all anyway be aware of the relatively small risks. If you want a miserable low on fun long boring life then just choose not to go to these type of events, simple and easy, and let those who do enjoy them carry on with it. Live and let live of course. What I truly hope we never get here is the crazy spoiling over the top regulations they have in the over protected nanny western nations. Just a few easy and common sense not intrusive safety measures, that is all that is needed, though sadly even those basic measures are all too often missing here in Thailand I will admit.

There is a sensible level of health and safety regulation measures that should be common sense. In the west though that is way way over the top these days and truly often spoiling the activities, whereas here in Thailand it is way too little a lot of the time, but have to say much more fun most the time too, albeit sometimes quite dangerous. RIP those two who did lose their life and sympathies for those injured folk too. BUT they surely DID know the risks and chose freely to take them, though very sad indeed that the risks they chose to take cost them their lives :-(

I think ANYONE who willingly pays those prices in Thailand, no matter what the bloody seafood is, is a fool or has way too much more money than sense, unlike most of us who live here for various reasons one of which is that we can afford to live here rather than rip off UK and particularly as pensioners.

This is one huge rip off indeed. The most I have ever paid for a meal for 4 of us, yes including sea foods and drinks too, is about 1800 Baht and that I cringe at here in Thailand. Normally for a really good very filling meal here just for me with a beer at a nice air con local restaurant or UK pub style bar, costs me around 300 to 400 Baht. Mostly that is also for more expensive farang food too, as I am not a lover of a lot of Thai food because I cannot personally ever eat garlic or onion in food (maybe I am a vampire !!). Thai food without those two for me horrid ingredients can be very nice and I especially do at times enjoy hot food, or "Pet" as they call it here. I for though love most good English food like fIsh'n'chips (Cod or Haddock best),full roast sunday dinner, nice sirloin or fillet steak with Baked Potato and veggies, Toad in the Hole, English sausage and mash. All the food I love and was brought up on as a kid and young adult .

Indeed the main two political parties involved will never willingly agree to it as it will quite correctly end the days of minority elected Governments and their wrongfully taking full control of power. Any Government in ANY democracy should always have a proportion of seats in Government that is as near as possible related to the percentage votes of the the electorate. One party should only ever be able to take full control power if they have more than 50% of the electorate voting for them, and even so a for example a 51% majority vote should only give a very marginal Government that would have to moderate its more extreme policies to garner some other party support to survive. This after all would be how the people voted and PR does indeed take all of that into account and ends up very close to total and fair proportional accurately if it is implemented correctly.

What is being proposed for the new constitution here in Thailand seems eminently and encouragingly fair and democratic and should and I believe will have the support of all democratically minded fair thinking Thai folk, in other words the vast majority. It is basically what in the west we know as proportional representation and is proven to be factually the most accurate form of democracy that is known, and is used in one form or another in a few countries these days, Germany for a good example.

The First Past The Post (FPTP) electoral system as used in the UK, and many other places too including similarly in Thailand in the past, is truly far from democratic and usually results in landslide full total power Governments with often less than 40% of the electorate's support !! Thus clearly democracy is most definitely raped with say 60% saying no yet having to endure being ruled by and subjected to such a minority undemocratically elected Government. Democracy ? No of course that is clearly not.

Thatcher for example in the UK who ruled in the 80's with an very well documented aggressive uncaring iron fist, only ever got around 40% of the popular vote in her "victories" and yet unrightfully totally ruled over the 60% of folk who did not vote for her and understandably objected to her and her far right policies. Blair had one Government in 1997 that got a tiny fraction of over 50% of the electorate votes, first time this was the case as I can remember in my adult lifetime (though I stand to be corrected on that point !), But that tiny majority of votes should NEVER have earned him a landslide victory either of course. Subsequent Blair UK Governments were voted in again on more like Thatcher's mere 40% of the electorate's support and completely IMHO yet again just a rape of democracy. It is similar I believe in the USA where a system of FPTP exists too.

Yes I agree once the charter has been completed the proposals should democratically be put to the electorate with sufficient time for people to be taught in simple easy terms to be able to fully understand the proposals and give time for needed discussions. But please clearly we can never expect the Democrats or PTP parties and the likes to accept it, as it will be against their interests of ever again obtaining a minority backed power from a deeply flawed unfair FPTP system.

Remember a strong Government that does not represent the people is a bad and undemocratic Government, always much better is a maybe weaker Government that does truly overall democratically represent the peoples' wishes. Of the two evils surely a good weaker Government is ALWAYS preferable to a bad strong Government, well that is clearly true IMHO.

Oh and to answer an earlier comment this charter has NOT been drafted by one side and not the other. It has been drafted by NEITHER side and is IMHO an honest and well meaning approach to putting right Thailand's future and I hope successful democratic system. This charter if implemented will never again give absolute total Government control to any political party without a clear significant majority of the peoples' honestly obtained votes. So tell me what fair minded true democracy supporting person could actually object to that hmm ??.

How is the Baht weaker and yet we are getting fewer Bahts to the £ and $ - an enigma...?

That is because the pound has weakened significantly against the dollar over the pas few weeks, but not weakened as much as the Euro. DO not believe all the presstitute crap in the UK about the economy doing so well as it is all the usual pre election fraudulent and misleading figures the Tories are putting out.