rickudon

Well, Israelis have plenty of experience of trashing other countries and abusing the inhabitants. It is a sense of entitlement.

Trump, Netanyahu and the defeat of Iran's proxies actually make Iran's need for a nuclear weapon much more urgent. A 'little boy' Uranium 235 bomb is quite simple and could be made in a few weeks as long as the fully enriched Uranium 235 was available. Also, it is not true that Iran's missile attacks failed to penetrate Israel's defences - this is something which has been hushed up. There was plenty of evidence that some missiles did get through - several craters were filmed by journalists before they were caudoned off and quickly filled in, also satellite photos showed some damage at Israeli airbases.

I doubt that this carbon tax will achieve anything in Thailand (except increase fuel costs?). However, for all you deniers out there, climate change is happening and man is behind most of it. 2023 and 2024 saw new sea ice lows, in 2025 already a new low in February. Less sea ice means reduced albedo, therefore more heat absorbed by the oceans - a feedback which accelerates warming. I do understand that the complexity of climate change effects is beyond the comprehension of most posters on this thread....

The problem with climate change is that it is not just about getting hotter. There are other effects as well. More violent storms, floods, droughts and forest fires. How do you adapt to all those? you need different solutions, but you do not know which one(s) you WILL need. Also for those of us in Northern Europe there is the problem of AMOC failure. The current in the Atlantic has been getting weaker for some time. Nobody knows if it will fail (it has done in the distant past) but it could be abrupt and happen quickly; nobody knows how to restart it! Latest predictions are it could happen within this century, maybe in only 30 years. This could cause a temperature drop of 10 degrees Centigrade or more. Fancy trying to upgrade the insulation of 20 million buildings in the UK in under a decade? Climate change is a bigger problem than most realise. Complacency only works until it doesn't.

Worst was 1980-1981. I had just been made redundant from my job in Australia (reasons would be a post on its own, but basically my specialism was no longer required after mining plans were changed); i enjoyed a nice long holiday ended up back in the UK, where i thought with my recent experience in environmental monitoring i would at last get the job i was looking for with the water authorities. How wrong I was! The new Thatcher administration did a hatchet job on the economy (and the water authorities), and i spent 18 months unemployed. No-one would employ a scientist to do mundane retail jobs; there where plenty of less educated people for that. Also house was burgled (twice), the insurance company refused to renew my insurance; housemate got mugged, and 2 race riots took place within one mile of me. Strikes happening all the time. When i did finally get a job (as a civil servant), had to do a 6 week IT course which I struggled with for a while. Then we had one of the worst winters on record in 1981 and my house (empty at the time) suffered severe damage from freezing and snow - pipes burst, toilet cracked, and water penetrated the walls causing massive mould problems. House was for sale at the time and i had to take a loss as no-one would buy it in a riot zone. If not for fishing and my savings from the Australian work to live on, I would have got utterly depressed.

Do not really like the toasted sandwiches, as i prefer wholemeal. I do like the cheese and ham croissants.

15 years here, and still cannot get the monthly budget below 30,000 baht for family of 3. That includes no nights out, no alcohol ( both rarely taken). Some eating out or takeaway. Does not include trips to UK, major house improvements etc, health insurance not practical due to chronic issues. If you cannot find 500,000 baht a year until the pension kicks in, go back to work. I was in the same boat waiting for my state pension to kick in; small company pension, savings slowly eroding, made it with about 18 months to spare. Phew!

I live in a small village on the edge of Udon Thani. I feel safe, worst problem are some territorial dogs. As far as crime goes not much in the village/city unless ostentatious displays of wealth. Yes, Yabba and drunks are around, but rarely a problem. I do know of some killings but these are nearly all Thai on Thai or loss of face (e.g. one farang fired his bar manager over missing money). Health and safety are not priorities here. Several people in the village have died in road accidents, a couple of drownings and electrocutions. Just treat all road use as needing extra vigilance - and avoid using motorbikes. In the UK, over the years my home was burgled 4 times over a 40 year period - it is like a tax. I know of people who have been mugged or assaulted for no reason. Better off in Thailand

Problems with growing strawberries? How does Thailand manage! Just change varieties.

I have an ASUS. For me, that problem happened if you allowed it to go into sleep mode for a long time. When you try to wake it up, all you got was a blank screen. Had to play with the sleep settings but fixed it eventually (about 3 years ago, so no details).

Well, i have been here for 15 years and my Thai is abysmal. But i have my excuses. 1. A hearing problem. Not the volume, just a very narrow range of pitch. It makes a Tonal language like Thai a struggle. On the phone, even English words are misheard to often. 2. Also maybe slightly dyslexic. Dyslexia was not really recognised when i was young. I can read English OK but writing was always a bit harder. Do not start me on Thai characters! 3. Not for want of trying. I have, at various times, tried to learn French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Swedish, Slovak, Cantonese, Arabic and a couple of West African languages as well as Thai. After a month i hit a wall, know a few words but mainly, they just do not 'stick'. 4. In Thailand, rarely had any problems. in shops and Offices, between my Thai, their English, a phone translation app and my wife, get a result. Thais all learn some English at school, just most do not care about it and never try to learn it properly. Thai casual conversations? For me, forget it. Am i stupid? No, i have 2 science degrees and can do basic maths in my head (something my wife couldn't understand). Music, languages not easy.

I use the Soffel spray and find 90% effective. Lasts for some 3 or more hours. I do not use the lotion because leaves you a bit sticky and of course, a lot on your hands... I have used the natural version but only lasts for about 2 hours. I am also O rhesus positive, and yes, mosquitoes are unfortunately, rather too friendly.

I originally came on Thaivisa mainly for the immigration/visa updates after having fallen foul of a change i was not aware of. I also look at serious Thai news (not every murder and road accident) and for the rare informative thread. Unfortunately of late a lot of threads are just reposts of existing ones or clickbait. Also the forum has become rather dominated by political hatred, no point debating that because those posters just do not want to know any alternative view.

sea ice in the Arctic is decreasing. Their may be transient increases in some areas but it is going down. https://nsidc.org/sea-ice-today Glaciers are loosing mass. A few might grow, due to increased snowfall, but most do not. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-mountain-glaciers Nid noi is cherry picking.

Yeah, i thought when the conservatives and Margaret Thatcher took over that returning to UK would be a good idea. Hahaha. I spent the next 18 months on the dole, the employment situation was 10 times worse than when i left. Had to retrain as a computer programmer, throwing away all my scientific experience in water management. Thatcher deliberately restricted the ability of the regional water authorities to borrow money for investment, then blaming them for failing to meet standards, privatised it; Look where we are today - in 2017, 83% of people wanted all water services to be renationalised - the only people to benefit from the privatisation were shareholders, who asset stripped the companies to line their pockets, and water services today are in a worse state than 40 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatisation_in_England_and_Wales I will never vote conservative, foe ruining the water industry and my career.