rickudon

Witness protection - an oil barrel and concrete.....

Have twice been chased by Thai drivers after a single warning toot. I wait in the car for them to come to me. They cannot see if I have a weapon, and have retreated each time.

A few points. First, I have never actually seen a motorcycle helmet on sale for 99 baht. I do not go looking for them because I avoid riding on bikes as much as possible. Most motorcycle accidents happen at low speed, even a cheap helmet increase your chances of avoiding serious injury. Have to start somewhere. Second, Driver education. It should be compulsory to get a licence, and be more extensive. Even free courses would save lives and the country money. Third, and no-one else has mentioned this, Compulsory TV averts on the dangers of not following safety rules. I have never seen one on Thai tv. In the UK, they appear quite regularly. 'Clunk click every trip', does that ring a bell? I do know that 2 car accidents I walked away from would have been an entirely different outcome without a seatbelt. Every single one of my Thai nephews and nieces have had motorbike accidents which required hospitalisation. Roads in Thailand are like a battlefield.

So all the growers are offloading their stock to stupid female drug mules, explains a lot of the recent Cannabis busts from tourists on their way home!

I hope they are aware of Google's disclaimer:-

Another wonderful appointee. Just like the new acting head of FEMA, who apparently didn't know that that the USA has a Hurricane season!

Alternatively, maybe with so many migrants to round up and deport, security personnel are to busy to look for drugs.....

Certainly seems all these stupid women have somethings in common - obsessed with their looks, no real job and probably no academic qualifications. I guess it comes down to become a drug mule or a prostitute; all they are good for.

When i first came to Thailand 15 years ago, i got a quote - about 20% of my monthly income..... haven't bothered since.

Don't care about Bangkok, but here in Udon Thani we have had well over 30 cm in May. Have some ponds overflowing - usually takes until August/September, if at all. Definitely wettest since 2010 (probably wetter than that year).

Where are the snails coming from? Prevention is better than cure. Spend a couple of hours looking for snails and removing hiding places. Works for me, only find a couple of snails a week, without really looking for them.

Reality. At the current death rate, if everybody in Thailand caught this version of Covid, 2,000 people would die. Compare that to the annual road death rate. if they all caught Flu, it would kill 3 times as many. No need for panic.

A few facts: 1. for every one degree centigrade rise in air temperature, the water vapour holding capacity increases by 7%. Higher temperatures also mean higher evaporation, so it is actually more likely that higher levels of saturation will be reached. Many studies suggest that rainfall intensity (amount falling in a given period of time) has increased up to 15% in the last 25 years. this can lead to more flash floods and more erosion. 2.Glaciers in central Europe have lost 39% of their volume in the last 25 years. Globally, loss has been 5%. 3. sea level rise, this averaged out as about 1.5 mm per year in the 2oth Century. In the 21st Century, this average is over 3 mm per year. In 2024, this increased to nearly 6 mm for the year. 4. Floods and droughts. Increased rain intensity has led to more floods. Conversely, higher rates of evaporation are leading to more droughts. 5. wildfires. in the last 21 years, extreme wildfires have become more frequent, more intense and burned larger areas. mainly affecting boreal forests in North America and Siberia. 6. in the 21st century, average temperature has increased by about 0.3 degrees Centigrade per decade. this rate is slowly increasing. It is easy to extrapolate that if the rate stays the same, 1.5 degrees centigrade of warming will almost certainly be reached by 2030 and 2 degrees by 2050.

Unfortunately need brackish water for breeding. Most of the giant prawns are grown near the coast. In Isaan, have been told supply of prawn larvae is a monopoly - they want you to sign up to a contract for larvae, feed and harvest of adult prawns. You take all the risks and they charge you over the top for everything - they make all the profit. There is a market for small wild shrimps (like you get in Pad Thai), But harvesting is labour intensive. My Mother-in-law did it for a while but too old now, I have dug a number of small ponds. and if the shrimps thrive, may try catching them. Will be about a year before i can assess stocks. Can find nothing on the internet about this, just have to go by what is known about shrimp ecology from USA or similar.

Who froze tax allowances, child benefit and tried to impose 1% pay rises on all public sector workers? 2010-2025 saw the biggest fall in inflation adjusted income under the Tories and students being saddled with probably the highest level of student debt in Europe. Brexit just added another layer of toxic icing. This just pushed more people onto the welfare state. Oh and also highest levels of migration ( Mainly of those from India, which put pressure on better paid jobs).