allanos

A recent PSA test came back with a level of 5.9. My doctor has diagnosed prostate cancer and feels it is at an early stage, with no particular planned treatment ahead.

I would be interested in comments from others who have had a similar diagnosis, and what steps they may have taken to contain it.

My thanks in advance.

5 minutes ago, yuznmeez said:

PSA went from 4, to 6 then to 10. I Pretty much ignored it. I started taking the "mish cocktail" and over

3 months, PSA went from 10 to 1.7.  

 

Please explain the meaning of a "mish cocktail".

There are, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of men who find blow-up dolls attractive, lol.

Beauty is most definitely in the eye of the beholder!

Ritz, glitz and tits!      ????

I found all of the girls striking, but many did not seem to be

representative of the ethnicity of their home country.

Perhaps this is not important in a beauty pageant, and it is just

my wishful thinking.

The Deer Hunter - De Niro, Streep, Walken

35 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

Telepathy requires no language but that of the recipient.

And of course, there is the "universal translator" you never seen Star Trek....lol

In fact, I have not even seen or viewed ONE episode of Star Trek.  I guess the Universal Translator might solve the problem, Lol!

Not too sure about the first part of your reply, though.  When transferring one's thoughts, they would surely need to be unscrambled by the recipient into something equally meaningful as the original transmission?

I don't believe you have satisfactorily solved my "puzzle". I could go on and ask the question, "how does a burning bush talk"? ????

Begs the question "in what language did the alien speak to you when he made you 'King of the World'"? How could you possibly understand him?

It's the same conundrum I have with Adam of the Old Testament, Moses of the burning bush fame, Mohammed and his visitations, and those of Joseph Smith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and his golden tablets.

In what language did the unearthly beings involved in all of these instances communicate?

The Rolex movement is "perpetual", and not battery-driven. The "second" hand is a 360-degree sweep type. 

I did some business with a Londoner, many years ago, who told me he used to be a fake Rolex purveyor. Had the boxes, guarantee paper etc. made up in Spain, seemingly.

Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware)!

I have to ask myself the question, why, if Bitcoin is a scam or a ponzi scheme as many of the dilettantes on TVF and elsewhere claim, are major institutions, listed corporates, large banks and financial organisations, and high-profile investors taking positions in this crypto and others? Let me make a small list:

Massachusetts General (added $100m BTC to their treasury) 

Microstrategy (BTC holdings now somewhere in the region of $2bn)

Tesla (Elon Musk famously bought $1.5bn for the Tesla treasury)

Morgan Stanley

Citi Bank

Wells Fargo

Square

Grayscale

Pay Pal

Visa

Goldman Sacks

Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks)

Kevin O'Leary ("Mr Wonderful")

George Soros (recently, Bitcoin to be included in some of his funds)

There are also at least seven etf filings with the SEC waiting for approval.

There are a host of other actors in this space. And for people who claim Bitcoin is unregulated, they lack the understanding that Wall Street players, and others, are constrained about what they can do with shareholders' funds, and have to file with the SEC to obtain the necessary approvals to include Bitcoin in their operations.

I am a simple guy, but the endorsement of Bitcoin by such luminaries leaves me in no doubt that it is a part of the future of finance, in one form or another. I have no wish to die wondering, "what if" . . .

It is wise to remember that FB was founded and run by a lefty liberal, or what these days is called a "progressive". 

It seems that the unspoken rationale of FB is to make swathes of money through advertising, whilst promoting a distinct, biased agenda (under the guise of preventing "unthinking" others from being "exposed" to right-wing thought, misinformation or disinformation as decided by the "manipulators-behind-the-scenes).

In pursuit of vasts amount of advertising dollars, Face Book cleverly manipulates its readers/ users' demographics by employing directed algorithms created by psychologists. Our personal information, likes, dislikes and foibles, are all stored on its servers, and accessed according to particular marketing directions and endeavours.

It is possible that the US Congress has finally woken up to the "covert" operations of FB, Twitter, et al, and are undertaking an investigation with a view to curtailing some of the most egregious of these activities.

However, with the above caveats in mind, I personally do use Face Book, but am as judicious with it as far as I possibly can be.

So, like the other communications tools available to us in the modern era, sms, email, WhatsApp, and so on, it has a definite place in the panoply, but "handle with care"!

I am old enough to remember when sex was safe and cars were dangerous!

Born in 1945 in a British coastal city, my growing up followed a similar path to some of the posters of the same age here.

I left Britain when I was 20 years old, and have led a life rich in pleasures and experiences, whilst trying to improve my character and finances along the way (not always successful on both counts, though).

I am now in the Autumn of my years and still trying to improve myself. Fortunately, I am in (relatively) good health, never having smoked and always trying to eat reasonably well.

My four children have had good educations and are settled and established in their maturing years and I have little to worry about on that score, so there is some cause for satisfaction, despite two broken marriages. 

All in all, a great life, not always easy. I try to avoid thinking about the bad times and try to remember only the fun and the good.

I am thankful to have been born where and when I was, with the parents I had, with feet in both the camps of the analogue world and the technological era which followed on.  

Do I give thanks to a higher power each day, for the accident of birth which didn't consign me to the rubbish heap of humanity where billions of people scrabble to survive and eke out a living, each and every day? You betcha!

The cheapest outbound flights are for Singapore, but they don't allow foreigners there now. So I'm looking for a feasible outbound ticket within 30 days, even though I intend to extend/change my visa status in Thailand, mainly to satisfy the airline on departure from Vietnam. 

It is not for the airline check-in desk to concern themselves about your onward destination and its present rules under Covid, which, in any case, might change in the following 30-60 days. At check-in, they will just want to be sure that you are conforming to the requirements for entry into Thailand, and that you will not be refused entry whereby they will have to return you to Vietnam for free.

A novice investor playing the stock market? The chances of success are slim and none, and slim is out of town!

Remember KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Let her put her money into an index fund. Costs are low and the basket of shares in it roughly follow the index. It's hard to beat any index, and the commission-earning, so-called experts have a tough time beating it.  So much so, that they rarely do!

DCA  in. (Dollar Cost Average, or Baht Cost Average into the fund), with regular amounts being invested into it month by month/ year by year.

She will even out the gyrations in the stock price. Time in the market can

be better than timing the market!

Let any dividends be reinvested.

Although the naysayers will laugh, she will be better off by far with putting some of her funds into crypto - Bitcoin, my personal favourite, or Ethereum.

Let her sit back and enjoy the ride!

For anyone considering putting some funds into Bitcoin, it is not a gamble but rather a speculative investment, a calculated risk where the upside potential far outweighs the downside. The ratio of reward to risk which any astute investor should be aware of.

It is a bet on the future, if you will, by being early into the digital age. To be crude, it is the Face Book of money, a financial network.

Unknowledgeable persons will call it a Ponzi scheme.  If they have even the remotest idea about how such schemes work, and how Bitcoin in particular works, their position is laughable.

Any investment, property, stocks, precious metals, anything short of government bonds, carry risk. However, treasury yields are pretty much negative currently, so where does one go for yield?

Gold is termed an inflation hedge and a so-called "long-term store of value".  There's no risk in gold, surely? Well, gold traded at $ 2075.00 in early August and is trading at  $ 1750.00 today. You decide!

Bitcoin is extremely volatile, which is why it is better to hold for the longer term by riding out the peaks and troughs. Those who have done this since its creation have enjoyed, on average, 200% annualised returns. If you had bought-in, in 2009/10 during its infancy, you would be incredibly wealthy today.

With Bitcoin's widespread adoption today, there is very little chance that it will fall to zero, as the doomsayers like to argue. 

For those who feel they may have missed the boat, huge gains are still going to be made in the future, if you have sufficient nous to take a position now.

This will require some research and investigation. Never go into anything "blind". It is worth employing the time to do so.  It is those who have not done so, however, who sit on the sidelines and carp about Bitcoin, without having the foggiest notion about its merits, properties or potential. They are also envious of the millions of Bitcoin investors who have multiplied their initial investments.

Like other investments, a general caveat is to only play with what you can afford to lose.

4 hours ago, rott said:

They are mainly in the Cape Province and are mostly (as I understand) descendents of Malay slaves. They speak Afrikaans, whereas the Black majority speak a tribal language, Zulu or Xhosa etc. 

Coloureds are fiercely proud of being Coloured. 

"Coloureds", is a wholly non-pejorative term in South Africa, and refers to the large community of mixed-race persons in the country. Some, probably the minority, are Cape Malay.

You are absolutely correct when you mention their pride in being Coloured.

I think "disappointed" describes my feelings about "Private Dancer", full, as it is, of all of the cliches endlessly repeated about Thai bar girls, in particular.  I found the novel, to use the eloquent expression often used by "Mr Wonderful", Canadian Kevin O'Leary, a nothing-burger!

More to my liking was "Bangkok  8", as mentioned earlier. I found it much more realistic and entertaining, with a reasonable plot and story-line.

For the purposes of the Thai Visa readership, the OP has drawn a line in the sand which says, "thus far, and no further".

One wonders how he will finally resolve his dilemma, and will he post about it, truthfully, on here?

My personal opinion is that the sums of money required to be paid to remedy the situation are simply "the cost of doing business". Many people in the commercial world understand what this means.

Putting "principle" first, is never a way to profit!

The markets have yet to reflect the effects of the latest Biden/Dem "stimulus package", at around $ 1.7 TRILLION! How much, or how little, will it in fact help to improve the American economy, or will it simply stimulate US stock market indices?

That the package includes such worthy targets as gender studies in Pakistan, or the bailing out of New York and California from their tenuous financial positions, does not really inspire a lot of confidence.

And new Fed appointee Janet Yellen has yet to make her presence fully felt. Interest rates are at a low and she has no headroom to raise them. Factoring in inflation (whose figures, anyway, and not to put too fine a point on it, are manipulated), bond/ treasury yields are negative, thus undermining the value of the dollar.

Is this the time to talk about Bitcoin? Lol

Given the above, the future scenario is about a weakening USD, and a concomitant rise in THB and other international currencies. (THB is not "tied" to the US dollar, as in "pegged", but is nevertheless essentially a function of US dollar fluctuations).

Personally,  I don't give a hoot about whether Scotland stays in or leaves the Union.   

What I do believe, however, is that the SNP is drumming up and inflaming passions without much regard or deliberation on the consequence of a vote for independence.

I believe many of the UK's citizens will be glad to see Scotland go.  Deep down, there's not much love lost between the nations.

If Scotland leaves the United Kingdom, there is no reason why she and the UK shouldn't remain peaceful, co-operative neighbours, however.

Joining the EU is hardly a vote for independence, although much is made of the somewhat specious argument that the previous "no" vote was made before the UK referendum calling for Brexit. Certainly, the EU would have the funds to help uplift a newly-independent Scotland. Think Bulgaria, or Romania, or Turkey, when it is allowed to join. Somehow, Scotland would have to find a way to become part of the Eurozone, and switch to using the Euro.

The SNP needs to be up-front and transparent in what they are seeking, and what will be the practical consequences of either a vote for true "independence", or a notional independence.  On the plus side there is the romantic, idealistic concept of independence; canny and gritty Scots going it alone in the face of a challenging world beset with problems, to overcome all adversity that is in their path?

The reality, and true consequences, may be somewhat harsher.  Will it follow the path of Malaysia, perhaps, granted independence in 1960; or Ghana, similarly granted independence in 1960? A dichotomy if ever there was one!  Hard to determine, at this early stage.

Then there is the question of how often different referenda should be allowed or held, as there is always the possibility of setting up a future one should there be a clamour to rejoin the (rump) of the United Kingdom, perhaps after NI and Wales have also left the Union. Lol!

In the case of Scotland now, perhaps a referendum should first be put to the other 3 nations of the United Kingdom - that is, England, Northern Ireland and Wales, sans MP's from Scotland - following a majority vote for it in the British Parliament endorsing it, agreeing to a further indyref, and damn the cost! 

The UK is swimming in debt as it is.  A few millions more ain't gonna make much difference.

To the OP, as with all investing, first decide what is your risk tolerance. There is always a correlation between reward and risk. US Treasuries are completely safe, for example, but are essentially delivering negative yields!

Not all exchanges are created equal. APR's of 14+% are possible. Online research is important.

Spread your risk; do not put all of your eggs in one basket. 

Good hunting!