rickudon

Exactly. My ICE Nissan March has never been driven more than 150 km in a day, now 12 years old. Typically just used for school runs and shopping.

Sodium based batteries are already in production, much greater life expectancy than Lithium and no shortage of Sodium, also cheaper. Just one drawback, currently half the capacity. The BEV of the future?

Illegal migration is just the tip of the iceberg, 30,000 a year compared to a million 'legal' migrants. Yes, some of those legal migrants are ones that are needed to do specific jobs, most are not. And supposedly we have a skill shortage, but in reality nearly all professional skilled jobs see a hundred or more applicants for every post. So we have one million legal migrants, and less than a million British born ones entering the workforce every year (or trying to). Back in the early 70's I had no trouble finding jobs, nearly every job I applied for I was successful. Nowadays most University graduates have to apply multiple times to get one, often being unemployed or temporarily employed for a year or more. This was my sons experience, and that of many of his friends (even with Cambridge degrees!). What are the consequences? Disillusionment, am expanding population on a crowded island where buying property is now beyond the means of many, infrastructure unable to keep up with the population growth, pollution and environmental degradation. Only allow migrants to do the work for which their is a real skill shortage - e.g. farm workers ( give them annual visas). Illegals are criminals - fine them, make them pay for all services they receive, offer them the unwanted jobs and no citizenship until all debts paid. If they do not like it, no-one is forcing them to stay - just give them a free ticket back to where they came from.

I have had more bad memories of Taxi drivers in Bangkok that when i visit now (as infrequently as possible) i plan my travel in the town to avoid using them. Do have one good memory - my UK daughter and boyfriend were visiting Thailand and wanted to see the sites of Bangkok so spent 3 days there - ONCE a taxi driver used the meter and refused a tip, said the fare is the fare, not want more!

One word of advice - cooling. Every laptop i have brought to Thailand has died within 3 years, due to not mich air-conditioning at my home. Laptops get too.hot to keep on your lap. I swapped to a refurbished desktop 5 years ago and stand a fan next to it for cooling. Still going strong. My current laptop is now 3 years old and already has problems even though not used much (asus).

Only recognise a few of those puddings. Not a great variety at our school. Remember the prunes ... used to hate them, but then realised that as lots of other people didn't like them i could have theirs as well! Same for the boiled cabbage. Strangely enough, cannot remember the meat dishes at all, must have been very unmemorable.

Not google, but once clicked on a friend suggestion on my Facebook page. it directly connected to an account which was basically many semi clothed photos of this girl. I did browse it a bit, but eventually got bored. But new video from her kept popping up on my Facebook page. Eventually i blocked her. But ever since, I get these 'reels' on my Facebook page of various women, not just Thai ones. All involve very skimpy swimsuits or flashing bits of anatomy. nothing comes up elsewhere only Facebook.

Had a similar dilemma a couple of weeks ago. Bought some ham/cheese croissant from seven eleven, 32 baht. Gave them a 1000 baht note, got 968 baht change, all good left, ate croissants. When i checked my wallet later, saw the receipt. it was for change from 100 baht, not 1,000 baht. I did consider going back to the 7/11, but thought, if i say i got 968 baht change, but show my receipt is for 100 baht, they might insist i pay them the 900 baht difference! felt a bit guilty, but it was not my fault.

They say they were sampling along the Yukon river. Have they considered that the area was for a long time mined for gold and mercury was often used to recover gold? levels may be lower elsewhere.

The key words are "registered workers". Many people running the odd roadside stall, one chair hair dresser or day labourer are not registered. As also once indicated, one third of all Thais of working age are not registered workers. They have no OFFICIAL job.

2 years in prison? Highly unlikely, considering his influence, but one lives in hope....

A couple of observations. First, the man was stupid to run his money down to nothing after he lost his job; no welfare state for farang in Thailand and no Russian relatives to help him. If he cannot even afford to pay instalments on a motor bike, how on earth could he buy a plane ticket? Only hope is Russian embassy pays (unlikely?) or relative in Russia does. He is now desperately in need of help. Second, maternal instinct not always strong in Thailand. In my village alone, know of 3 cases where the mother has abandoned their kids to go live with new partner, leaving them with the old one or once just dumped the kid on a friend!

Many people in UK live from one pay check till the next, particularly lower skilled people. Welfare state means that no need for emergency savings, although sometimes takes some weeks to get the help you need. Unfortunately cost of living in the UK is high and to many do not have a savings habit. 13% have no savings at all 33% have insufficient to last one month if they lost their income. 65% have insufficient to last three months if they lost their income. Cost of housing is astronomical, many require government assistance to even rent. Many food banks. In many ways like Thais - live for today (or this week) no plan for the future. Nothing is done in schools in UK to prepare children to be financially independent. Even my son, 1st class degree and a masters from Cambridge, found it hard to budget and save once working, took him a couple of years (and a lot of advice from me) to get him started. I think part of the problem is in the past kids lived at home after they started work, and could pick up some common sense from their parents. Now they stay in education until 21 or older, but no common sense.

Astaxanthin is a carotenoid, and anti-oxidant. It is sold as a food supplement for human consumption. So i would say it is pretty safe.

I was taken to a touristy one in Pattaya during Covid - free for Thai, farang must pay! I was the only farang there, 80% of the shops stalls were deserted, hardly any people. Most interesting thing was watching a catfish slowly swim between one pier and the next. Never again.

I really wonder whether someone pays these morons to post that climate change isn't happening/ is nothing to do with Humans. Here is a simple statement about how much the temperature has changed. Easy to understand, even for deniers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_Thailand

As far as Thailand goes, one factor stands out to me - no low temperatures anymore. When i first came to Thailand 16 years ago, In Isaan, the cold season was cold at night. You needed a duvet. In the morning you would see the locals shivering around wood fires early in the morning to warm up. Haven't seen that for at least 7 years. And sometimes even in cold season we now need the aircon on at night. The last 2 years have seen many days above average daytime temperatures in April - used to be maybe 2-5 at 39C plus, now more like 6-10. Last 2 years have seen quite a few crop failures in the veg garden, when too hot. And fish dying in the heat, used to be dying in the cold. I expect to be a climate refugee sometime in the 2030's, if still alive.

The reality in this day and age you cannot stop illegal, or legal immigration easily. And remember their were approximately one million migrants last year, of which only 52,000 were illegal (0.5%). All you can do is make it less attractive. I would - 1. Make illegal entry a crime (it actually already is) and fine everyone 5,000 GBP 2. Make them pay for any accommodation provided. 3. Pay the NHS surcharge. 4. Limit other financial support. Obviously most cannot pay, but that debt is held by the government, and like student loans, will be deducted from pay packets until paid off. Anyone who doesn't make repayments for a year (without good reason) will be placed in a labour battalion until they find a job. When they have paid off their debts, they can apply for citizenship and entitlement to usual benefits. Legal migration is also an issue. Yes some people are needed, but many game the system, with fake qualifications and help from UK based family. My son told me about one dubious case - in his small rural Hampshire town, a Greg's bakery opened - but staffed entirely by Indians with poor English. What visa are they on? Finally, what also has caused friction? Population. It was 56 million in 1972, and took over 30 years to reach 60 million. it has taken less than 20 years to add another 8 million. Housing is in short supply; infrastructure and the environment are under pressure. No more population growth - please.

I retired at 57, having my (then) 30 years in the bag. But the new state pension was then started just before my 65 years of age pension date - but i now needed 35 years! Had to return to UK and sign back on as unemployed. Didn't claim JSA, but got the pension credit. Fortunately they credited me for some incomplete years and i soon got the 35. However, as i had been contracted out of full rate NI for 25 years, they deducted 1/6th from the new state pension rate - which strangely enough gave me exactly the same as the old state pension rate - minus the married/widows pension benefits i had expected when retiring. Do not count your chickens until they hatch, as they say.

Sorry deniers, Most glaciers are retreating - 85% of Arctic glaciers are retreating. Mid-latitude mountain ranges are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses. Examples for such mountain ranges are the Himalayas in Asia, Rocky Mountains in North America, the Alps in Europe, the Cascade Range in North America, Southern Alps in New Zealand, the southern Andes in South America, as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. Those that are not are probably due to increased snowfall. And yes, it is due to climate change. You may argue that the human impact is small, it is not. Plenty of evidence. On the other hand, pretty close to zero evidence for other causes. It is not all CO2, but also other emissions from Industry (or lack of, the reduction in smoke and SO2 has resulted in warming, still due to us humans). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850

So, is Israel going to give up all the land they have occupied since then? Even the 1948 partition plan was heavily biased - 56% of the land was allocated to israel, while they made up only about 33% of the population of Israel (a lot of whom were recent migrants). At the time, the UN consisted mainly of European and American (North and South) countries. Zionist lobbying in the USA led to pressure being applied to many wavering countries to vote yes to the partition plan. European countries were sympathetic, largely due to the holocaust. Was it not surprising that the Palestinian Arabs and their Arab neighbours went to war?

The Falklands war showed that anti-ship missiles can seriously damage large ships. Ukraine's Neptune missiles have done most of the damage to larger Russian Warships; drones have had a cost effective success rate against smaller vessels. Submarines and aircraft put an end to close blockade in the 20th century, missiles and drones are doing the same in the 21st. Just like on the land battlefields, nations will need to update their defences at sea. As for the future, a British scientific autonomous submarine just completed a 5 month research trip, alone, both near surface and at depth. The implications for conventional naval warfare is going to need a big rethink.

The original post could have been lifted from a typical UK insurer, but most Thai insurers do not provide these, just the dashcam discount. Pretty rubbish original post.

When i came to Udon 15 years ago, i found most expats friendly and helpful, made a few friends. There was an expat meetup once a month which would see about 20 people turn up. Unfortunately all started to change about 3 years later. Other expats stopped saying hello to strangers, the monthly meetup attendance fell until i was alone or just one or two others. Had up to 12 people at our local bridge club, now down to 4 or 5, but half over 80 now, haven't been able to recruit anyone new in 5 years. Had 3 fishing companions, one dead, one gone and one had a stroke and doesn't fish anymore. I think many are just too old and sit at home most of the time. Others have become conspiracy nuts or take offence at the slightest perceived offence. Declining exchange rates and frozen pensions have not helped. It is true i have never met so many people who admitted to being criminals here! I must admit i rarely socialise with other expats now, as bars not my thing and i stopped drinking (rarely drank much anyway, stopped when wine taxes made it as expensive as imported spirits). Only know of one social gathering on a Friday, but other side of town and conflicts with school pickup, so rarely go. If you live in Udon Thani and would like to play bridge (no experience necessary) or go fishing I am still friendly enough! Can PM me.

To vague to be of much use. And can you scam an AI into giving access to an account?