placnx

On 1/15/2025 at 9:44 AM, Bkk Brian said:

Actually this is a hard one for the terrorist supporters to accept. Now they'll have to show their faces in public, all that's left for them to hide is on a forum or social media anonymously.

The counterargument is that students are potential victims of doxxing if their faces can be researched in social media. They can be shut out of jobs in finance and other business fields. This "fear" of masked students is a pretext, IMO.

14 minutes ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

3 cheers for the Trump Hegseth team. Hamas caved like the cowards they are when faced with a carrot and stick scenario. Democrats carrot and carrot failed of course.

Trump to Hamas release those hostages before I take office, or else. Hamas - yes Sir we'll get right on it, please dont hurt us Sir. On behalf of all forumers. Thank you Donald J Trump! 

Democratic presidents were in charge when the Hegseth "miracles" took place (except 2017): 1917 - Wilson, 1948 - Truman, 1967 - Johnson.

To that I would add 1979 - Carter (an Evangelical), who deleted text from the treaty between Israel and Egypt which referred to the principle of non-acquisition of territory by force, so that Israel's taking of territory from Egypt, Syria, and the then Jordan West Bank would have been acknowledged as contrary to international law; and 2000 -  Clinton, who tried to force Arafat to accept a "Swiss cheese" statelet without sovereignty. We can now see how things are going for the Palestinians in the West Bank - economic strangulation and creeping annexation.

It's no wonder that some Muslim voters prefer Republicans, and, after the Biden performance, even Trump despite the record of his previous time as president.

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

This is a highly unqualified man, morally bankrupt man, and another bottom of the barrel pic by Trump. He has never led a large organization and he may be qualified to lead a Boy Scout chapter of a large County but not the Department of Defense, which has 3 million employees. 

Hegseth advocated the construction of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during Trump 1.0. He said that 1917 was a miracle, 1948 was a miracle, 1967 was a miracle, 2017 was a miracle. Video available here:

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/new-us-defence-secretary-called-building-third-temple-jerusalem

2017: the Balfour Declaration, the UK promise for a Jewish state in Palestine;

1948: creation of Israel

1967: the war that seized East Jerusalem

2017: the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The Third Temple is a goal of the extreme right in Israel and far right Evangelicals in the US who see it as part of the coming of the Messiah heralding the end of the world.

9 hours ago, hotchilli said:

You do have a point there...

Maybe their next strategy will be offering cheap housing for Californians.

Such as Thais in LA. IS Thaitown far from the flames?

7 hours ago, MikeandDow said:

Absolutely stupid !!!  the cost of SMRs can cost between $50 million for microreactors and $3 billion for larger units. 

 

Most G7 turbines cost in the $2-4 million dollar range so for the equivalent output ( need 3, G7 ) would be approx 6 mil

and a lot safer, Can you imagine the potential Danger !!!!!   spending that amout of money on SMR's they would have to raise the electrical cost !!!

There are hundreds of designs underway, but only two are under construction in CHina and Argentina (125 and 30 megawatts).

https://aris.iaea.org/publications/SMR_catalogue_2024.pdf

At a cost of around USD4mn for a 3 megawatt wind turbine, this would require 42 wind turbines at a cost of around USD168mn to equal the power generated by the Chinese SMR cited above. Time will tell whether these small reactors cost that much. The concept is assembling them in a factory and installing them onsite in a concrete shell (see designs in linked publication). Low maintenance compared to turbines.

18 hours ago, Carsten07 said:

No problem, i thought Internet Banking was much safer than the App on the phone, but maybe it is not.

 

Inside a bank, the clerk swipes his card and can do any transaction, without pictures or limits.

I bought a house and transferred 6.8 Mio just like that, Passport was needed but nothing else.

 

Here we are at the culprit. Blaming someone at BKK Bank is dangerous but, from my understanding, this is how it happened. How else?! My PC was not hacked, all security is in place. This will end up as a scandal on TV and at Bangkok Post.

Was not the first time.

My US card was recently compromised. I have used it for some recurring charges in the US, but here only in ATMs. So I checked whether there was any way my card details could have been captured here.

I use Bitdefender since last year when Kaspersky was outlawed in the US. I have learned that there are vulnerabilities, nonetheless.

1) Using older wireless devices such as keyboards and mice with Bluetooth, the transmissions are not encrypted, so someone fairly close by can intercept the data. Some current wireless devices, from Logitech for example. They use their own Logi Bolt dongle to send encrypted signals. Google "Mousejack".

2) Another danger is through a fake CAPTCHA popup where you click to confirm that you are a human. There is not the usual display of a photo divided in 9 sections where you have to identify a specified item appearing in certain sections. This is called Lumma Stealer.

https://blog.qualys.com/vulnerabilities-threat-research/2024/10/20/unmasking-lumma-stealer-analyzing-deceptive-tactics-with-fake-captcha

Antivirus programs including Bitdefender cannot detect this activity.

One solution is using virtual or burner cards as much as possible. Also, avoid storing sensitive data such as passwords in unencrypted files on your computer.

Aside from concealed cameras at ATMs, I wonder whether there is any way that bank employees or the authorities can intercept the transmission of chip card details and what details are in the transmission. Does anyone here know? 

15 hours ago, Tailwagsdog said:

Meanwhile those people in heterosexual relationships are neglected with no modernization of the laws relating to parents rights after seperation and/or divorce.

Unmarried father's have little or no rights when it comes to child access and mothers entitlement to child support is not enforced.

So yeh hurrah for homosexual rights, see if that can solve Thailand's impending population implosion. ...a country needs babies to have a future ...politicians are only interested in short term populism, not long range thinking .

Why not allow surrogacy for gay couples so that they can contribute to growing the population?

6 minutes ago, SiSePuede419 said:

They don't have "EMS" in America.

 

USPS Priority International mail starts at $59.50 for an envelope.

The rate for 29 pounds for USPS priority express international parcel is $245. 

5 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

Because you'd prefer to have the terrorists re group for another attack on Israel? Do you think its quite antisemitic to keep spelling Israel and Netanyahu incorrectly.

 

Why do you think the Palastinanian Authority are attacking Hamas in the West Bank?

No, PA claims that it is attacking Islamic Jihad in Jenin. They are apparently trying to show Netanyahu or US that they would be capable of preventing the reemergence of Hamas in Gaza if they were given "control" over it, but Netanyahu does not want to see any group in control of both West Bank and Gaza.

On 1/5/2025 at 2:57 PM, placeholder said:

Outbid? This is about trade. China is a big market for these countries.

To transport the lithium and other resources it can capture, China is building a mega port in Peru. But maybe it could double as a naval base.

2 hours ago, jippytum said:

 maybe a Joe style Presidential pardon looming for Jiuliani come mid January. 

Not possible. Appeals court is the only route, a chance to have the damages award reduced.

Maybe WHO should have a registry where all countries can report doctor suspensions.

3 hours ago, freedomnow said:

More like US govt. invested by proxy organisation in the level 4 lab to research novel coronavirus in China.

I believe that it was the French who set up the Level 4 lab at the Wuhan Institute. However, the Bat Woman was usually using Level 2 or sometimes Level 3 facilities. This helps explain how a leak could have occured. Some American researchers visiting in 2018 were appalled by the sloppiness in the lab.

2 hours ago, candide said:

Actually, talking about lab-leaked is obscuring the real issue, which is natural evolution.ution vs created by researchers.

-  natural evolution, whether from the Wuhan market or leaked from the samples collected by the lab. It seems to be currently the dominant scientific explanation.

-  created by researchers in a lab (then leaked). This is currently not the dominant scientific explanation.

When you say "created", that's confusing. The discussion should be about Coronaviruses collected (as the Wuhan lab was known to be doing) and then modified using technology that they got from Baric in Atlanta.

Early on somebody calculated that to go from the closest existing (natural) virus to the original Covid strain should have taken 30 years, based on the number of changes to the structure from the natural sample. Perhaps the Wuhan lab possessed other natural Coronaviruses closer to Covid and unknown to the scientific community. Just a supposition.

2 hours ago, placnx said:

Your idea that the US government preferred the zoonotic theory is interesting. It's true that the Wuhan Institute got NIH grants which went through Daszak - ECOHealth Alliance, who organized the Lancet article to downplay the lab hypothesis. That the US government may claim that they did not fund dangerous gain-of-function research does not preclude the possibility that there was parallel military research at the Wuhan lab on virus collected from a quarry in Yunnan where around six workers died after contracting Covid from the bats there.

 

Sorry, my links are marooned on a disk drive from a old computer. I'll ask the friend, microbiologist who sent me a link to an excellent article on the lab leak theory, to send again, if he can.

 

I have found one of the best anaylses bringing together the information supporting the lab leak hypothesis:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/coronavirus-lab-escape-theory.html

This is a long but very worthwhile read. Date: January 4, 2021.

On 12/27/2024 at 12:52 PM, simple1 said:

Immediately after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by groups of Hamas-led gunmen, the military granted mid-ranking officers the authority to strike a wide range of military targets where up to 20 civilians risked being killed, the newspaper said

 

Israeli military loosened rules of engagement at start of Gaza war, New York Times reports

Maybe this policy permitted the use of the Lavender AI program:

https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

5 hours ago, Oliver Holzerfilled said:

It's hard to imagine a disaster other than the origin of the coronovirus that the Chinese or USA governments would be more motivated to cover up at all costs.  As some have pointed out, if the origin is from a Chinese lab and if the US were directly involved, such as providing virus samples, Chinese cooperation is likely not needed to reach a conclusion.

Your idea that the US government preferred the zoonotic theory is interesting. It's true that the Wuhan Institute got NIH grants which went through Daszak - ECOHealth Alliance, who organized the Lancet article to downplay the lab hypothesis. That the US government may claim that they did not fund dangerous gain-of-function research does not preclude the possibility that there was parallel military research at the Wuhan lab on virus collected from a quarry in Yunnan where around six workers died after contracting Covid from the bats there.

Sorry, my links are marooned on a disk drive from a old computer. I'll ask the friend, microbiologist who sent me a link to an excellent article on the lab leak theory, to send again, if he can.

6 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

More lies from you, that report is from Nov, here is the retracted page where the report was:

 

https://fews.net/middle-east-and-asia/gaza/alert/december-2024

 

 

I just tried to access the above link, and FEWS website says "access denied". The November report already indicates a dire situation and is still accessible: https://fews.net/middle-east-and-asia/gaza/alert/november-2024

At that time the population in North Gaza was 75-95,000 people.

"A famine can be declared only when certain measures of mortality, malnutrition and hunger are met. They are: at least 20 per cent of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope; acute malnutrition rates exceed 30 per cent; and the death rate exceeds two persons per day per 10,000 persons."

https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/07/382342

Actually, the Israeli COGAT & American ambassor's claim of a remaining population of 9-15000 people, means that based on the famine critieria quoted above the situation would be even more critical than with the higher population figure, so the retraction is entirely political, not based on the FEWS evidence-based approach. Mr Lew is just trying to confuse the public.

There is an obvious confusion between the remaining population of 3 beseiged camps and the population of North Gaza. The situation in North Gaza is described in the UN report in my earlier post.

7 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

Actually it was UNRWA that confirmed the data is wrong and agreed with the US officials rather than the report.

There is a recent report from UNWRA regarding around four beseiged refugee camps in north Gaza.

"Some parts of the North Gaza governorate have been under a tightened siege for more than ten weeks. Access remains extremely challenging and partners’ ongoing attempts to deliver aid into these besieged areas continues to be largely prevented, leaving 10,000-15,000 people without access to food, water, electricity or healthcare, as mass casualty incidents continue."

https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-152-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem

This is not the population of the North Gaza governate. Where is your link to your UNWRA claim?

It was a great pity for the country that in 2020 he hid out in his bunker during Covid instead of showing his already declining capacity. It's also too bad that the Dems didn't have a better field of alternatives at the primary stage. Basically they are pretty feckless. They should have derailed the Biden rerun back in 2022.

The WSJ article is a good read.

On 12/18/2024 at 3:02 PM, HappyExpat57 said:

When Bill Clinton won (can't remember if it was election or re-election), women voters were a very large part of who helped him across the finish line. When they were asked why they voted for him, a frightening number replied "he's cute." For better or worse, packaging is EVERYTHING in today's political arena. As much as I detest the wretch who recently won, he has stage appeal and knows how to con his marks. If ANYONE else  had run with exactly the same platform, they'd hardly have gotten out the starting gate. Klobachar is like a damp piece of toilet paper. She's quite useful in her box (take that as you will) but is basically unappealing.

 

Nicky Haley LOOKS and ACTS presidential. She's serious and I would bet she will have a great run as the 2028 Republican candidate. The very thought of Klobachar on the debate stage against Haley is daunting, and Harris up against Haley? Yeah . . . no.

The most likely Republican candidate in 2028 is Marco Rubio.

On 12/3/2024 at 6:31 AM, JohnOFphon said:

Can you do a 90 day by mail in if it is your first after a return trip?

I have done it in CM, using EMS with return receipt by EMS as well. It's good if you live far from Immigration.

19 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I would recommend she look into becoming a mime. Her screechy cackle is a large part of why she was so unappealing. And this isn't a "woman-hater" thing. If Nicky Haley had a more human platform, I'd vote for her in a New York minute.

I agree that Kamala's laugh and tone was really unappealing, rather like those young American women with speech and intonation disconnected from any part of the country, Call it metropolitan bourgeoise?

Her dismissive retort to Muslims in Dearborn showed no empathy toward people, some of whom had family in the Occupied Territories. Beltway Bubble, perhaps. Anyway, election results there were Harris 37%, Trump 43%, Stein 19%.

I thought that Amy Klobuchar would have been a sensible candidate, but she was up for reelection as senator last year. Her speaking is a huge contrast to Kamala's.