rickudon

It will be interesting to see what would happen if his plane landed in a European country. Would he be arrested and sent to the ICJ? 😂

First firm commitment. Pity 4 other European countries have already beaten you to it.

It is actually worse. He didn't intend going at all. Had to be talked into it. Remember COP? The same. The man has no political savvy what so ever. Just like family reunions, sometimes you would rather not go, but you do, because to not go causes offence. Guess he doesn't care about his image, but we knew that already. Goodbye Rishi.

Made redundant at 55. Was working in IT. Hard to get another job, did part-time manual work/sick benefit for 2 more years, then took my pension. It would have been nice to have worked another 2 years because my pension at 58 was borderline for retiring to Thailand. But do i regret it retiring early? No way! those first 6 years here were great!

As predicted by me. Part of a post i made on Udonmap 2 years ago Even if we stopped burning all fossil fuels tomorrow, doesn't mean that temperatures start falling straight away. It is like an oil tanker - stop the engine and it will take miles before it stops. A lot of warming is already built in by heat in the oceans and melting ice lowering albedo. Can we mitigate the warming? We could, but it would be neither affordable or acceptable to most people who vote. China could maybe... not possible with capitalism. It would need draconian changes, diverting a large part of our GDP to decarbonisation - ban fossil fuels except for exceptional needs, stop consumerism, stop global tourism and much more. Because current progress is so sluggish (and getting slower), I predict that 2 degrees Centigrade of warming will be hit by 2040, and that attempted mass migration from Africa and possibly Asia will be the cause of rising famine, anarchy and wars. By 2050 genocide and selective culling will be normal, if WW3 hasn't done it already. Democracy is doomed. Or, the world collectively takes the bull by the horns and does something this decade.

Not in the news. Link found from Tom Coopers sarcastosaurus (a Ukraine war blog).

Well Sunak has shot himself in the foot and the Tories, by deciding the 80th anniversary of the D-day landings wasn't important, initially saying he wasn't going then compromising on a half-day so he could do a TV interview. COP all over again? just shows he has a poor sense of what is important, whatever you believe, and is totally out of touch with the British electorate. Expect him to play his US green card the day after the election.

Not really true. Plants can survive down to 150 ppm (0.015%) and wouldn't actually die as such, but as they would have very low levels of photosynthesis, natural processes would slowly increase CO2 levels again (volcanic emissions, decomposition of organic matter). Most plants do fine at 280ppm. Although global 'greening' has increased as CO2 levels have gone up the last 50 years, it doesn't actually mean that the extra CO2 by itself has increased growth. You also need nutrients, the right amount of water, and the right temperatures. Increased food production has mainly been due to fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, mechanisation and improved varieties. Unless you get all those, the extra CO2 doesn't make much difference. Also, more CO2 means climate change - more droughts more floods more fires and, more weeds. Greening has probably offset some of the warming but as temperatures increase so will the negative effects. Low levels of CO2 are naturally self limiting, very unlikely to actually cause death of all plants. High levels of CO2 - tend to have positive temperature feedbacks which would just push levels higher (e.g. Methane from melting permafrost, decomposition of methane clathrates) followed by mass extinctions. What we do not know is how close we are to these runaway effects. But the Permian mass extinctions are believed to be linked to high CO2/ temperature levels.

First, yes Hamas is an evil cynical organisation who believe the end justifies the means. After 20 years of futile peace negotiations all that has happened is a lot of Palestinians were dead, a lot of land was stolen from them by the Israeli government and the people lived under constant persecution. Any wonder that Hamas could gain converts? I believe Hamas knew exactly how Israel would respond, so actually encouraged some atrocities against the Israeli citizens so this would happen. And sure enough, Israel has stopped at nothing to punish the Palestinian people; not just in Gaza, but the west bank as well. 36.000 Palestinians dead (mainly women and children), starvation and destruction of civilian infrastructure used as a weapon of war, deliberate restrictions on aid supplies, and targeting journalists, aid workers and paramedics. In the west bank over 500 Palestinians have been killed, settlers allowed free reign to terrorise and destroy Palestinian villages, and another 11,000 hectares of land seized by Israel from the Palestinian owners. Remembering that Gaza is just a small city state, approximately 1.5% of the population have been killed in 8 months. In the whole of WW2, UK suffered losses of about 1% of its population. And Gaza only has small arms and rockets to defend itself. Clearly a disproportionate response. Modern drone technology allows you to identify individuals who could each be targeted to minimise civilian casualties. But most Israeli attacks have been carried out with bombs and rockets which flatten entire buildings. Israel doesn't care how many they kill, only restricted by how much bad press they get. Yeah, Genocide. You would think the Israeli government and people should know what genocide looks like.

Just keep your food away from windows. Heat is a bigger danger to stored food quality.

The OP says that money is a bit tight, but he still needs the 400,000 baht in the bank to get the multi-entry visa. When you consider the cost of the new visa, 2-3 days in Laos to get it (paying for a Laos visa as well), plus the need to leave the country every 3 months, just getting an extension in Thailand would be cheaper. Could still use some of the 400,000 for living costs after one month also.

Electric cars are gettimg popular in Udon Thani.

I have once been wheelchaired to the departure gate in Bangkok and so has my son. If you able to hop or totter.to your seat no problem. But you also see people wheelchaired on to the plane itself, although I assume by prior arrangement. As lomg as death or medical attention is not required, no problem. The old lady mentioned in the earlier thread may have only tequired assistance. Actually, getting to the UK would be the least of her problems unless their was family to take her in at the airport.

Simon is spot on. Unfortunately migration is not going away. But, 90% of migration is 'legal' migration. We might need migrants, bjt how many? University graduates these days find too much competition for jobs, and near impossible to buy a house. Meanwhile, nearly impossible to actually deport illegals; the answer is make ilegal entry a crime and force them to work off the fine and other costs of their arrival. If they refuse, simple, ticket back.home and costs written off, free to go any time.

In the UK, never saw or experienced any crime before i went to university. And only one memorable event in the next 5 years, when late one night i disturbed 2 men with a rifle in someones front garden and was threatened by them (not robbed).. 2 house breakins in Birmingham in the early 80's, and 2 city riots. Moved to Hampshire. Mother had her jewelery stolen in late 80's. No crime then until 2007, house breakin ( large rurall village). Moved to within 100 metres of a police station. I then got divorced and came to Thailand. In the past 10 years, ex-wife been burgled twice and all ATM'S raided because no police station anymore. Thailand 14 years nothing personally, family lost some chickens and fish. Safer here.

I'm not a vegan, or a vegetarian. I do like to eat a lot of vegetables, but it needs some high protein tasty food to complement them. I have eaten some nice tasting vegetarian food ( always expensive) and a lot of greasy tasteless stuff. If you want to go organic and back go natural methofs, you need mixed farming - animal wastes for fertisers.

UK does have problems due to migration and radical islamism, stronger action is needed. But Tommy Robinson is just jumping on these issues to serve his own ends. Just another obnoxious little man.

Not news. The giant stingray has been known about for years. Also found in the Chaophra south of Bangkok.

Pity no body read your post properly. Yes, can eat like french beans. Lookup on wikipedia.

M-in-L has dementia, grandnephew has ADHS, nephew is mentally and physically diabled 100%

No sane Russian volunteers to fight in Ukraine. The pay is really good, but their is a reason - your life expectancy is measured in weeks. Those going 'over the top' in Russian meat attacks have a life expectancy measured in hours (8-10,according to a chinese soldier who volunteered). The lucky ones are those whose injuries are severe enough to get discharged. But not a lot of casualties get evacuated - you usually need to be able.to walk/crawl back yourself, while being umder constant attack by drones. Reports also of young males being picked up off the streets in cities and being presumably mobilised.

Cash works all the time (except those buisness's who, especially in western countries, think digital is all they need). I have had ATM's that wouldn't work, for various reasons, cards that wouldn't work, internet banking that is sometimes off line, and banking apps which crash, paralysing the entire banking system for hours or even days. Also power cuts can mean.digital payments cannot be done. For backup, cash is king.

Crime isn't a new thing. Back in 1980 my house in Birmingham was burgled twice; previously a friend living there was mugged. I moved to Hampshire in 1982, no crime for 25 years. Then they closed the part-time police office, got bugled 2 years later. Moved to a village with a police station 100 metres away. 5 years later they.closed that station. Burgled twice in.2 years. MORE.BOBBIES ON THE BEAT.NEEDED!

True that we will never be considered khon thai. If you live in Bangkok , Pattays, etc. then you are just a resource to be cynically exploited. But in Isaan .... we are more appreciated. 14 years in Udon Thani and have never suffered farang pricing in shops or overt discrimination (unlike my experinces from just about 10 days in Bangkok). Probably because Isaan people know what it is like to be considered imferior. My wife's father was a pooyai baan and well.respected. but when she went to work in Bangkok, 10 years in a responsible job and never a promotion or a pay rise, new workers got the same money. She realised that she was not respected. She returned to Isaan and opened a shop. Her sisterfound the same. Result - both married farang.

Agree it wouldn't happen, for a number of teasons. But, yes we need it. The Ukraine war teaches us one thing. You still need a lot of infantry. The UK hardly has any, in a real war the professional army could only defend about one city and would be out of ammunition and reserves in about one month. WW1 - UK had a.small professional army (still much larger than today) but it was devastated on the first 3 months. Ot took best part of a year to train and equip a nrw one. And as one poster has said, where is the infrastructure to house and train the conscripts? I used to live in Hampshire. Aldershot,now nearly a military museum. Bordon - gone. Ordanance supply depots like Liphook - gone. It would take years to build the infrastructure to train all those conscripts. You cannot start doing all this once a war starts, the war would be over before the first conscipt gets a uniform. 12 months service, learn some useful skills so we have reserve force IF needed. Affordibility? Hell, we encourage 50% of our kids to rack up a 50,000 GBP debt by going to University for 3 years.