mfd101

Not sure whether a non-subscriber can get in, but for what it's worth: theaustralian.com.au of last Thursday and go to the Business Review section. So here's an extract for you, Dude: "While treatment could still be years away, the in-vitro study showed there are anti-cancer effects of a specific extract from cannabis sativa called PHEC-66. "According to the study, this strain forces melanoma cells into a “programmed cell death”, also known as apoptosis. "The cannabis extract works by attaching itself to the receptor on the melanoma cell surface, and changes the messages to the inside of the cell to manipulate the normal growth ie: force it to go into death progress. “If we know how they react to cancer cells, particularly in the cause of cell death, we can refine treatment techniques to be more specific, responsive and effective,” said study co-author Dr Nazim Nassar. "Dr Nassar said the next challenge was to develop a targeted delivery system to the melanoma cells, enabling pre-clinical trials."

Any large-scale & long-term change - over which, by definition, individuals have no control - has to be good for a sclerotic culture unable to see much beyond the end of its nose.

My thought too. May be brothers.

About a month ago and for the first time ever we had a snake (at most 2m) in the house. When I came downstairs at 0700 to sweep out & make the first double shots of the day, there peeping out from the heavy curtains by the front sliding door was what I first thought was a large gecko head but then realized it was a whole snake. So I shrieked for my knight in shining armour who came galloping up trumpets blowing. I handed him my broom and he carefully escorted the serpent out the door to the garden. He said it was deadly poisonous and I believe him (though he may have been embellishing his own daring-do).

I travelled through northern China by train in 2010 - Beijing, then Xian, then on to Xinjiang/Urumchi before heading on to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan & Russia. A magnificent trip. Wonderful to watch a great nation lifting itself up by the bootstraps. Pull in to a huge railway station in the middle of a small (by Chinese standards) town. "This looks like it's built for a million people!" "No worries, they'll be here in 10 years." Western end of the Great Wall; windmills everywhere throughout the western deserts (Taklakmakan); ancient watering systems from distant mountains (Turpan); men riding on donkeys while women tilled the fields by hand. In Urumchi at the museum a Tocharian woman from c300 BCE with ginger hair - one of our cousins; beside her a Chinese general from C1st or 2nd CE wearing white robes with blue bumble bee motifs (Greek! the influence of the Indo-Greek kingdoms of what is now Pakistan & Afghanistan, following on from Alexander the Great). Then in to Kazakhstan, which was like going back to the 1950s ...

If we just consider the quality of life as human beings then technological progress isn't so important. Yes, which raises a whole lot of other - rather more philosophical - issues. The Thais, however - at least at the 'Middle Class' (such as it is) and elite levels - clearly want to follow The West up the escalator of economics & technology. They just display little or no idea of what's involved, namely a 50-year project of clear-eyed step-by-step progress up the ladder. And no idea where to find the up-to-date project plans: Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Sth Korea, and increasingly even India ...

I don't disagree, but the problem is that Thailand has too few eggs in too few baskets. So there is very little protection against the gale-force winds of economic change worldwide. For example, it has a good car-assembly industry but that's just doing the dirty work for those who actually design & build vehicles (China, Japan, Korea ... ). So it's at the low end of skills and profits. When will a new and better car be designed and built in Thailand? When will there be an education system that produces the skilled workers necessary for moving up the ladder of productivity? When will a Thai government recognize that the endless chasing after the tourists' quick bucks is a road to cultural loss and ecological ruin?

True, but as usual the expert commentators here on AN ignore the question: Why do poor farmers behave like this year after year? ie People who barely know where their next meal is coming from, who have a passive attitude to life carefully reinforced on a continuing basis by religion and by the feudal state, who never have new & better methods explained to them including how this will help with their next meal as opposed to merely helping the (relatively rich) contractor ...

Arrived in Thailand at last, to show off to the RTAF. Mummy! Mummy! I want one!

An economy based on tourism, real estate and corruption ... An example to the world of how not to manage anything. 'Productivity' anyone?

Cannabis specialists on AN will be delighted to learn that, according to a report in today's Australian Business Review, a new Aussie study has found that cannabis can kill melanoma.

Switzerland! Gosh they're brave. Mmmm, and wonder whether Oz will be reciprocating. (I guess Yes - China doesn't give away anything for free.)

And that's just for starters ...

At the moment here it's '38C real feel 43'. My 3 workmen who travelled 3 or 4 hours to get here early last week have just about finished the major tasks around and in the house. They are currently sleeping under a big tree in the back yard. Thoroughly sensible. I will give them an extra bonus when they leave this afternoon for the good & hard work they have done, and will remind them that I'm expecting them back in December this year before the real heat begins again ...

A "mid-sea airport"? Really? Or should that be 'mid-South East Asia'? Either way the chances that anything actually happens out there in the real world ... Thailand: Hub of Ridiculous Announcements.

If some on AN were to be believed, she should be taken out at dawn and executed by firing squad.

Key point I see here in south Surin on a daily basis including in my family: Amongst poor and uneducated people, every day is much the same as the last one, steady does it take your time keep plodding on ... So time is NOT money in this culture. Time has no value. What we don't get around to today we can get around to tomorrow or the next day or never.

Yes, if you can't cope with the criticism, shoot the critic.

22? Looks more like 32. But a child at heart. Does he have a big let-down awaiting!

Chilly in Phuketski? I guess temperatures have dropped since the Russians took over ...

Not at all my IMAGE of a Swiss man. I thought they were all tall, hansum and peaceful, getting filthy rich at the bank Monday to Friday, and practising their yodelling up in the mountains with the cows at the weekend. Turns out they're more like Russians these days.

'BA reignites ... adding fuel to the excitement'. I think I'll stick to Cathay Pacific.

Mustn't hurry these things. Dignity at all costs.

Oh no! This cannot be true! We all know - at least here on AN - that even ONE covid injection can be life-threatening.

Well it would certainly be hard work, particularly if the client is over 60. And skilled work at that.