allanos

I dunno. Does the teacher seem to be on edge all the time?

I think there may be another caveat. The father may be British, but there are different kinds of British (such as British Overseas Citizen) which do not confer an automatic right upon a child who was fathered by such a person. Moreover, the father may be British, but not himself born in the United Kingdom. I think that might also obviate the child's claim to British citizenship.

In this era, eighty is the new sixty! A wise person will always plan for the future. Only God knows on what date an individual's demise is ordained for. How were the biblical patriarchs able to live for hundreds of years before the Flood? Modern science and biology is working on anti-aging technologies, and increasing longevity, feverishly. It is within the realm of probability that a lifespan of hundreds of years may again become attainable for those who are prepared to embrace it.

There are 8 billion people on our planet, and counting. The majority are dirt-poor, leading hard-scrabble existences and are pretty much doomed to keep on living this way until they die. They do not care a fig for fringe groups chanting about net zero, LGBTQ++, fossil fuels, global warming or the green revolution. These things are a million miles away when it's all they can do to stay afloat and support their families, let alone get ahead in their miserable lives. When you don't know where your next bowl of rice or crust of bread is going to come from, or even if it will come, there is not much else of importance to be concerned about. Change, hopefully toward a better world (but in whose image?), is best left to politicians, where, in those countries lucky enough to be democracies, direction is guided by the popular vote; the "silent majority", let's say, and not a vocal activist minority clamouring for much which is unattainable in the short run.

"Look at the workers from south Asia as one example. If you see the video of workers living in terrible conditions in 50 degree heat, stuck like sardines in a room, no showers so they bathe with a bucket and water from the one or two toilets available for many men, it makes it all a bit real." The world we live in is far from perfect. Wouldn't it be terrific if it was Utopia and not dystopia! Instead, we make arms, fight wars, fly to outer space, the moon and beyond. Are our priorities in the right place? If South Asians are happy to come to the Middle East to toil in boiler room temperatures for meager pay, what does it tell us about the countries they are from, and the kind of governments they have? Upwards of 600 million Indians, over half of them women, are forced to defecate in the open each day, lacking self-respect and dignity on the back of it. There are billions of downtrodden people all around the world. It is heartbreaking and shameful. But where are the activists who should be decrying it? And where are the governments who should be uplifting their people, or the rich governments who should be doing their utmost to alleviate it?

Caffeine irritates the bladder, so, on doctor's orders I abstained from coffee, (including "caffeine-free", which nevertheless contains a small amount of caffeine), for a period of eight weeks. Instead, I drank rooibos tea, which has no caffeine. Initially, when cutting the coffee/caffeine, I suffered from intense headache, which lessened over the next 7-10 days, and which I attributed to "withdrawal symptoms". Did I feel any improvement during my period of abstinence? Nope, and I missed my morning cuppa Joe (usually 2-4 cups with a small amount of fresh milk added; def no sugar). I have returned to drinking my habitual French roast arabica, brewed using a cafetiere, and life is good once more.

There are creative answers with nuclear waste disposal. There is already a shortage of uranium, and fast-growing! Are you aware of just how long it takes to bring a new mining project of sufficient magnitude to production? I think not.

Nuclear is safe, clean and cheap when costs are amortised over a project's life, with none of the problems associated with renewables, like lack of wind for turbine generation, or lack of sunlight for solar. This is being recognised the world over. Germany is bringing some shuttered plants back online, (partly through need, it is true) and the majority of Japanese people are again in favour of nuclear energy, despite the Fukushima catastrophe of eleven years ago. Hence, the price of uranium, where stockpiles are diminishing and demand is outstripping supply, is rocketing.

I am visiting the United Kingdom currently and have been exposed to the country's television broadcasts for several weeks. Black people seem to feature on screen or in commercial advertisements, or in background voice-overs, out of all proportion to the percentage they hold in the population at large. Asians (especially those of Indian or Pakistan origin), despite being a larger ethnic proportion of the whole population (I believe), only seem to figure marginally in the set up. My remarks also apply to the BBC website, which is left-biased, and woke, and subscribes to this "new normal". I remarked to my daughter that, based on what one sees on television, if I were a visitor from outer space, I would believe that Britain was an African country rather than a largely caucasian one. And whilst certain apologists, or "wokists", might deem this post to be "racist", in its orientation, it is simply my observation and is not intended to confront or offend.

Not victim blaming, but how unfair is it to put such overwhelming temptation in front of a couple of poor persons earning peanuts? It seems iniquitous to me!

Inflation is a hidden, insidious form of taxation, and governments know this. Higher taxes on wages might lead to discontent, uproar, and have a knock-on effect at the polling booth. Inflation is thus the preferred route, a de-facto devaluation of the dollar, pound, euro, whatever. Because it creeps up on the unwary (read, the average man in the street), inflation's erosion of purchasing power over time is generally un-noticed. However, inflation increases into double-digits of late have happened relatively quickly, and the docile public is starting to sit up and take notice. If inflation is not reined-in soon, expect the muttering and grumbling to take on a more overt form, and, quite possibly in my view, riots and blood in the streets.

Gay. What is wrong with the word homosexual? I accept that words like "queer", or "fag" are abhorrent but it is no reason to turn a perfectly good word into something quite meaningless. And, if truth be told, many homosexuals are anything but "gay" in a literal sense. The word "gay" has been hijacked from the English language. It once meant "happy and joyful", but no longer. I think it's a shame.

The majority of bitcoin holders are invested for the long term, believing in its characteristics and fundamentals. Unrealised losses or gains are notional, being on paper only. You only lose (or gain) once a transaction has been completed. Price gyrations are caused by speculators (gamblers). In the recent drop in prices owing to the FTX debacle, leveraged shorts will have cashed in. Leveraged longs will have lost their shirts. We will see a reversal of this process soon. If you do not understand btc, which seems to be the case with most of the posters on this forum, and if you are not a trader/speculator, then stay away from it, it is not for you! There is no safe haven. Property prices are flat to falling. Stock markets are down. Fiat (USD), subject to high inflation, is losing purchasing power of at least 10% per annum. Gold is at the same price it was ten years ago and has no coupon anyway. Bitcoin blockchain is transparent, decentralised, and confiscation-proof, with minimal inflation built in. In the lead-up to the next halving event, price will start to gain traction once more. The downside is limited and man- ageable, the upside is infinite. Hold on for the ride!

It is difficult, if not impossible, to protect people from their own stupidity. Am I my brother's keeper

Stop me if you've heard this one: Two girls had been dating the same guy and were comparing notes. The first one says, "you know, I discovered he's got 'LUDO' tattoo'd on his cock". The second, more sexy girl says, "don't be silly, it says 'LLANDUDNO'! "

There is definitely a "new" normal, in my opinion, and which has been unfolding since the end of World War II. No one seems to question the tripe they are spoon-fed by the mainstream media, a dumbing-down of whole populations it seems. There has always been an element of it, of course, but "the people" were more prepared to discuss and opine about events on , let's say, an "intellectual" level, based on the limited amount of media which was open and available to them, and even where their education was not on a par with today's. Modern education has a lot to be blamed for, I feel, as educationalists, right down the line to a humble "teaching assistant" (I'm not sure what this truly is), set the tone and curriculum for how scholars will be "brainwashed" - inculcated in a fashion designated by the political elite. Sure, it's not as overt as that say in China, North Korea or Russia, but it is done much more subtly . . . and effectively in that regards. What ever happened to the three R's? Whole swathes of populations do not look behind the headlines, nor do their own research among a spectrum of opinion to arrive at a balanced viewpoint. They simply look for a confirmation bias of their own necessarily limited, or blinkered views; a kind of self-congratulatory "I told you so", to themselves! I think it is also true to say that, in a time when the news and events were only able to be reported in newspapers and other print publications, such reports, and journalism generally, were far more accurate, truthful and less-partisan than they are today. Sadly, those days are long gone, and unlikely to return anytime soon!

Tasteful tatoo! Beauty-enhancing tatoo! Reads like an oxymoron to me, a bit like Military Intelligence! Lol

If anything speaks to the lack of integration of foreigners in Thailand, it is those calling a song taew a baht bus!

I would say to the OP, and I quote - "Don't judge someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes"! For some people, work is a means to an end. For others, it's an end in itself. Work is only work if there is something else you would rather be doing.

The Scots are (in)famously parsimonious. There is a somewhat apocryphal story of a Jewish shopkeeper who was obliged to leave Aberdeen because he was unable to make a living!

Observations on African culture and tradition viewed from an entirely Western-orientated, Euro-centric perspective and speaks to the "ugly American" tradition of a wish to impose an alien will on the norms and mores of sovereign nation states. That is not to say that those of us from the West wouldn't agree that male-dominated societies in the Islamic world and Africa, for instance, and egregious practices like FGM are "ok", but it is a very long way down the track before many such abhorrent (from a Western viewpoint) practices, will be able to be moderated or eradicated completely.

Tradition is an important pillar of any culture. Strip it out, or ignore it, and the subject culture is weakened by its absence. One might look at the recent funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, steeped in tradition as it was. The British, certainly, were in thrall over the pageantry and spectacle, among other things, passed down and entrenched through countless generations. Some might scoff, but such things are part of the numerous traditions which combine to produce a unique culture of "Britishness", and never to be taken lightly. The fact that countless millions around the world tuned into the event speaks to, at least, a mass curiosity, but, more likely, an admiration, possibly envy by republican nations, of British culture manifested in the burial traditions of the island's monarchs.

A New Zealand researcher, Dr James Flynn, discovered, a number of years ago, that, over the past approximately 5 000 years, IQ's have increased generation on generation, and not the other way around. The finding has become known as the Flynn Effect. Possibly, the proof can be found even at a modern-day tribal level. Not so very long ago, an American Indian would say "How"! Today, he asks "Why"?

There is a great used book store within the Chatuchak market, absolutely bulging at the seams with everything imaginable. I cannot speak to their pricing, however. I would certainly recommend a visit.