cmsally

I think the world has simply surpassed it's sustainability with regard to population. Not that it was sustainable before, but we've seemed to reach a sort of critical mass.

I heard some talk on BBC or AL Jazeera today where they were saying that globally we need to produce more food. Seems overpopulation isn't their concern.

This would have been referring to Ban Ki-moon's speech at the conference in Rome. He said we need to produce 50% more food by 2030

News BBC

Quite frankly listening to some of the emotive meaningless speeches and really bad/foul language coming out of the PAD's mouths; I can't believe anyone is supporting them. At least anyone with at least an ounce of brain matter.

As far as comedy goes though it's a pretty good show. My daughter and I were in hysterics last night watching the small, old guy with a beard say not much at all, and when he ran out of words just put his arms in the air and let out a loud wail or whatever it was. He did this repeatedly and we were in absolute hysterics, our sides were splitting.

It's a bit like the "Monster Raving Loony Party" holding the British govt. to ransom.

Translated, this probably means some conciliatory deals have been made by the govt. behind the scenes. Therefore the govt now has a wider mandate for crackdown on the PAD. Presumably the PAD have to a certain extent had the "carpet swept out from under their feet".

My housekeeper is from Sanpatong. You can see her eyes glaze over and go into lock down when anyone speaks to her in central Thai. She only likes to converse in Kham Muang or Yong; so maybe there is your answer.

Definitely getting more expensive as it is throughout the world.

Food and fuel definitely the main culprits. Anyone noticed a big jump in other costs?

I am surprised to hear that it has affected foreigners on pensions so much.

I think living here you have to overestimate your costs by a big margin and make sure you have medical insurance.

Rising costs must push a lot of the restaurant businesses to the brink, I have heard many complaining.

It would be interesting to see how much the big guys (LOtus, Carrefour etc) are squeezing their suppliers to max. their profit.

My opinion has always been they want to squeeze out the smaller people so they can hike up their prices and we will be left with no choice. Much like the rest of the world I guess.

Please answer me this one question.

If many people in Thailand agree that Thaksin is corrupt, but they think that so are the Democrats - as they represent the rich elties that have feathered their nests for generations on dirty little deals (or so 'they' may believe) and have no interest in the plight of anyone else...

Thus the majority want Thaksin becuase they think (rightly or wrongly) that he has actually done things for them - so they'll vote TRT/PPP/Anyone-else-who-seems -like Thaksin -- then would you finally agree that they have a right to govern without interference by the military?

A pretty straight forward question - does the majority, including "them" farmers and poor people "up there' in Issaan even if you are 'outraged' by their choice, have a right to have their choice govern without mobs in the streets threatening another coup?

If not why not?

This seems like a fairly straightforward question and no one seems to have answered it.

At the end of the day you can look at all the vote buying, supposed vote buying, spheres of influence etc. - and everyone is guilty of this. But ultimately people can vote for who they want, they can take the money, say thank you and vote for another person. It takes more than a banknote waved under the nose to change someone's mind, even if they are a farmer, labourer, whatever.

If you ask the farmers "up there" what affects their decision when they vote (and yes I have asked many), they will tell you they look around and see who has done the most for them. Who has fixed up the temple, who has built the road, who has given them health care, who has provided schools and education grants. Some might be swayed by who the other members of their family vote for. Not much different to other places throughout the world.

These issues will fix their decisions.

You will get people who can be bought but I think these are less than assumed. There is a lot of money flying around from all camps but ultimately people will vote for who they want.

Yes there is a big Bangkok/other parts divide. And it was noticeable that the Democrats benefited most during the military coup, thus entrenching them as being part of the establishment in the eyes of the provincial people even further. I think that it is the reason that the PPP won the last election. Without that divide and the experience of the military coup which dragged on and on with an inneffectual government, I doubt the PPP ( with its poor lineup and not much of a choice for PM) would have won.

Hi,

Glad you got it sorted out.

Leave ctfmon alone. It should be there. I think it controls MS office languages.

The ones you deleted had an a and b on the end - different things.

One supposition on here is that it is only the PPP and TRT before them who buy votes.

I would refute that, and I think some of those farmers "up there", would back me up on this one.

As a footnote to this, I must admit I am having a hard time getting that TV series out of my brain. It is the one where Paris Hilton and her friend take a trip to a small mid Western town ("redneck") and stay on a farm. There could be some parallels with above.

Abhisit is a true politician, since he was young and studied politics in England.

Personally I would say Korn and Surin come across far better than Abhisit.

I am not so sure Abhisit has what it takes, it takes more than studying in England.

Listening to his speeches there seems to be a lot lacking.

Thanks cmsally!

Windows/system32 blackster = bug on my screen. Date modified 27/05/2551 FOUND IT!

And ... there's ctfmonb in BMP file (ACDsee 6.0 BMP image) . Same modified date.

I assume I need to delete both in safe mode.

But then .. how does one go to safe mode and after that back to normal?

Also found WLCntrl32.dll = application extension. No idea for what. Can it be for Norton? I assume don't delete?

Nienke

Looking here:

Malware

You need to delete blackster and the ctfmonb and it looks like you should have a ctfmona which should be deleted as otherwise it would just replicate itself again.

To start in safemode you press F8 on the keyboard when windows is starting. Has to be done at the right moment though.

If not successful try here for tutorial. Can be done through system configuration utility for windows xp

How to start in safemode

Try this link - some good answers here.

CNET

Try the screensaver option first. Then you might want to look at the others - setting to none for screensaver

If you look in your Windows\system32 folder and find a blackbug screensaver you should be able to delete, it definitley shouldn't be there.

On the link says needs to be done in safe mode.

Try Spybot Search and destroy

It normally clears off most things and you can delete everything it finds, pretty safely; although on that list will probably be the adaware program so you might have to uncheck it.

I used to run it as well as Adaware and found this one better so now only use the one.

What was self-serving?? Increase of defense budget makes sense or not, but has nothing to do with corruption.

The overthrow a dictator. Thaksin was by no means democratic elected at this time. Go to jail for what?? No one hurt, damage from the country prevented. The only mistake they did was not to shot Thaksin.

With rhetoric like this, thank god you are not running the country. (Although there are quite a few in politics with similar rhetoric). Try participating with a meaningful argument backed up by facts, and not assumptions and suppositions; those kind of arguments benefit nobody.

The argument so far is as follows: a huge increase in defence budget; of course that in itself is not evidence for corruption but it doesn't exactly look good coming from an unelected military government with no immediate external security issues.

Were the military overthrowing a dictator? He was elected to government by a large majority and would have gone back to the polls, only the opposition decided they didn't want to join in.

I haven't read the 1997 constitution word for word but a contributor above says that it outlawed coups, meaning the military were operating outside the law.

To say that their only mistake when acting outside the law was not to murder a person, really defies words.

As a footnote I would add that the Sudan, Congo and such places are very nice this time of year, maybe you should be residing there instead?

Firstly the 1997 constitution was widely hailed as being the most progressive ever in terms of democratic reform.

Then why no protests when it was abrogated by the military?

I believe the 2006 constitution includes powers for the National Security Council, which would I guess be synonymous with the military.

Putting yourselves in the shoes of someone who truly stands for democracy, the most logical position would be to support the reinstitution of the 1997 version and the condemnation of the 2006 version.

Surely the 2006 constitution was a step backwards for Thailand regarding the passage towards democracy.

I was surprised that the Tiger Airways flights were discontinued. That must have been a bad step for tourism. They were nearly always full. Lots of Singaporeans and many many expats used to use the flights. Many times had friends trying to travel up here and just couldn't get a flight and it wasn't even a holiday.

If the issues at hand are specific it would be nice to hear this in the speeches given by the PAD.

But listening to a fair bit last night there was nothing of the sort.

Somehow journalists who reported for Bangkok Post and the Nation heard it.

It's impossible to talk on one single issue for hours, they are bound to cover lots of other things as well.

In the end, all their demands were about leaving the constitution alone. They didn't ask for a coup. They didn't ask Samak to resign. They didn't ask for parlament to resign, they didn't ask Democrats to take over.

If not for Constiitution amendment, they wouldn't have any reasons to rally at all, and they didn't, for more than two years.

The PAD are demanding the resignation of Samak and the impeachment of those supporting the amendment of the constitution.

If they really want to protest on this issue, they should stick to the subject and away from inflammatory speeches on nationalism and the like. I don't see anything constructive in their stance whatsoever.

If they really want to support democracy they should put their egos aside and consider a path of mediation and constructive participation.

They should also remember that the last constitution was written under the power of a military govt. which did not come to power through democratic means.

Until Thai politics gets rid of its "winners and losers " culture things will never improve.

The PAD are no better than the rest.

When it comes to disruption of the capital city and endangering the lives of the populace, they are considerably worse.

If the issues at hand are specific it would be nice to hear this in the speeches given by the PAD.

But listening to a fair bit last night there was nothing of the sort.

Somehow journalists who reported for Bangkok Post and the Nation heard it.

It's impossible to talk on one single issue for hours, they are bound to cover lots of other things as well.

In the end, all their demands were about leaving the constitution alone. They didn't ask for a coup. They didn't ask Samak to resign. They didn't ask for parlament to resign, they didn't ask Democrats to take over.

If not for Constiitution amendment, they wouldn't have any reasons to rally at all, and they didn't, for more than two years.

The PAD are demanding the resignation of Samak and the impeachment of those supporting the amendment of the constitution.

If they really want to protest on this issue, they should stick to the subject and away from inflammatory speeches on nationalism and the like. I don't see anything constructive in their stance whatsoever.

If they really want to support democracy they should put their egos aside and consider a path of mediation and constructive participation.

They should also remember that the last constitution was written under the power of a military govt. which did not come to power through democratic means.

Until Thai politics gets rid of its "winners and losers " culture things will never improve.

The PAD are no better than the rest.

When it comes to disruption of the capital city and endangering the lives of the populace, they are considerably worse.

very timely.

that should delay visa processing for a week or so and keep the junta happy.

As the song says:

" You took the words right out of my mouth."

Normally when the little red light goes off (ie water not being heated), it just means there is not high enough pressure.

You need a certain amount of water pressure for it to function.

As it is working some of the time, you may find it is stopping because other water outlets have been opened and therefore pressure is dropping. This is going to be more likely if it is on a floor above ground level where water pressure normally lower.

I think they discontinued the route about 1 April this year.

If the issues at hand are specific it would be nice to hear this in the speeches given by the PAD.

But listening to a fair bit last night there was nothing of the sort. It was all about inciting nationalism, hatred etc etc.

At one stage Sonthi did mention the amendments to the constitution. Hurray I thought, at last this might give me an idea of what this is all about.

He didn't explain a thing, only went on to shout about that the constitution wasn't really that important, it was the motivation behind changing it. Crikey man, now are you protesting about people's supposed motivations.

And then of course the degeneration into protectionism, nationalism and all that usual verbal run off; finalised with a chant from him to the crowd - "are we going to let this happen?" "no" etc.

I really don't think there is just 2 sides to this problem and the complexities of the issue cannot be dealt with by having these mass rallies and protests, I like many others are totally fed up with it.

As a footnote to this I saw on the news that a probe landed on Mars recently. I can't help wishing that a few people involved in Thai politics had been put into it with a one way ticket.

Always fly Nok Air, v. good. You will find actual prices are almost double to that quoted on web as taxes are added on after.

They only quote the fare without the fuel tax, VAT etc.

From what I hear from many people this May has been as dead as the proverbial doornail. I went to the Night Bazaar for the first time in ages last week and couldn't believe how quiet it was (it was not a Sunday) and how many of the shops had shut.

Vast sections were closed.

On top of that, rapid inflation and ever climbing rents.

Makes me wonder how a lot of the businesses survive.

May is always quiet but maybe more so and compounded by the rising costs.

We have lots nesting in our garden. They have rather strange nesting habits, choosing to nest only about 2-3m from the ground. They also make extremely small nests, usually produce 2 chicks which can just about squeeze into this nest. Not unknown for one to fall out.

When they choose to leave the nest (not much choice really as by that stage they can't fit into it) there are 3-4 days of very dodgy flying capabilities and have been known to end up as Golden Retriever food.

Geckos are attracted to bugs and bugs are attracted to light. Keep an outside light on where the bugs can get to, and you will find the geckos and bugs will party all night.

Keep on persecuting the geckos and you might just come back as one