AlphaSoiDog

On 3/30/2018 at 2:39 PM, Ruffian Dick said:

Because ALL of Thailad's air pollution gets blown up into Northern Thailand, and because of topography, and stays there.

My Thai partner told me it ALL comes from Myanmar.

The funny part was that she told me this in northern Chiangmai while driving past an entire mountain side of burning national forest adjoining farming area.

On 3/19/2018 at 2:34 PM, pearciderman said:

 

This is a quote from page 21 " In an experiment in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, Cialdini placed signs at entrances asking people not to take home petrified wood. The sign at one entrance showed three thieves with an X over them, while at another entrance, the sign depicted just one thief. The latter was far more effective at reducing theft."

 

So it is about the theft of petrified wood.

 

:-)

Ah, that would be page 19.

So, right link just the wrong page. I stand semi corrected. I should have done a search in the first place rather than just read page 21.

I understand you wanting to correct me, especially given the effort put into finding the source material (hats off to you). I think it's a shame though that the only response to my post was to tell me I was wrong. That's not your fault, it's me that apparently can't write something interesting while intentionally avoiding armchair naysayers and habitual flamers.

Thanks for being polite with your post. Something not to be expected here....   :)

2 hours ago, pearciderman said:

 

Why have you not cited your source? Why have you missed out the word "petrified"?

 

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sites/gsb/files/2008August.pdf      Page 21 is where you got your info.

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228908090_Activating_and_Aligning_Social_Norms_for_Persuasive_Impact

 

This is the abstract for the actual research.

Well done on the reference. I thought the original poster did well to remember it at all given how poor human memory is. But excellent to see the somewhat more involved source.

The first reference (page 21) is about corruption and effects on efficiency, so not about the (petrified) wood theft. The second is the one to look at. Long and in well educated academic speak, and worth looking at even if not your forte.

Notable was that when given the clear results the park refused to change their signs as they preferred to believe their rangers subjective opinions from interviewing visitors. Rather than believe a properly done study showing the opposite.

So when given clear evidence on how to improve a situation the people who could have taken action chose to do nothing (humans dislike change). Does that sound familiar?

"...inspect the blood alcohol level from all public transport drivers who are required to have zero blood alcohol level while operating vehicles"

Brilliant!

So it's fine for, say, truck drivers to be drunk as a skunk. What could possibly go wrong?

:)

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Let's face it. Big Oil has the politicians of both parties in their pocket. As long as they do it will be business as usual. If the voters of America continue to vote for the same corrupt politicians nothing will change. The answer lies with them. There is no point California voters re electing the same crooks for decades and expecting anything to change. 

There used to be a law that oil could not be exported, but the crooks in congress changed that so it could be. If America kept all it's oil it wouldn't need to drill in the sea. Alaska  has loads of the stuff, but people won't let them drill there, so they drill in the sea instead.

Self inflicted wounds all round.

 

If people don't want drilling in the sea, elect decent politicians, ban oil exports, ban large engines in cars, subsidise a proper public transport system so people don't need cars, build nuclear power plants and stop burning oil so people can use AC, ban oil for heating in cities.

Dozens of things could be done, but none will because the American political system is corrupt.

 

Up to the voters though- either use the vote to elect the best people or at least stop whining when they do elect crooks.

A few good points in here. Though several that I'd disagree with.

One is that drilling was attempted previously in Alaska and a very big mess was made. So big that it was banned. From what I hear Alaskans are extremely unimpressed with Trump's decision.

The other biggest one being the nuclear power stations. Nuclear doesn't pay for itself even over the expected 40yr amortisation period. That is including the massive subsidies and tax breaks they get. AND the public paying for nearly all of the cleanups.

Then when they are finished with the radioactive hell hole? They walk away and let the public pay again.

To a lesser degree this applies to coal generation as well.

Wind energy has been cheap for a long time. Solar has dropped so much in price over even the last 3 years that it is clearly not sensible to build power plants that require many decades of subsidised expensive power to possibly break even. It made sense in the '50's with few alternatives. Not any more.

For the naysayers: Yes, solar and wind have their own unique technical difficulties. They also have enormous benefits. Even at the current price point the difficulties are fairly easily surmountable, and markedly easier with every year.

The biggest part of the 0.2% that put Trump in as a candidate was the fossil fuel industry. No surprise that Trump has just put the brakes on solar power in the US with a 30% tax plus even more tax breaks for fossil fuels.

At this rate the US will still be burning fossil fuels when the rest of the world has moved on.

Up to the voters?

Fun fact. 0.2% of the US people choose the candidates. Then the rest of the population can choose whichever ones out of the selection that they want. "Democracy in action" when the extremely rich have control.

While this paradigm is in place then whatever the "unwashed masses" vote for will have very little relevance. ( quote from neo liberalists about 250 years when this was thought up ).

11 minutes ago, sklmeeera said:

Maybe not on the surface , but deep down in side they do even if they themselves do not see it , and it colours everything they do . Fools .

That probably is true for a lot of people claiming or appearing not to have guilt.

Unfortunately it's not true for all. With just a very slight change of brain chemistry it's possible for people who had "good" ethics to lose them.

Then there are the ones who just don't have that part of the brain/chemistry functional from birth. Some of them learn early to pretend that they do, but they live amongst us as complete psychopaths.

9 hours ago, isaanbanhou said:

 

I think it would be difficult to commit suicide, dismember oneself and then place ones own dismembered body in a suitcase.  But I am glad you have an open mind and I welcome your insights

You would think so. But this IS Thailand....  

19 hours ago, transam said:

This is 2018 LOS, if underage kids lived a 100 yards from their school they would still be given the bike keys...

You couldn't expect a Thai person to walk THAT far!!!   :)

Mind you, I have enormous respect for a lot of the young kids and their riding ability. Western kids would let their emotions do the riding and be dead in a day. My experiences here and in Laos are that the majority of young kids are polite on the road and even wait for pedestrians.

The post pubescent hill people though..... 

Every comment so far has blamed the motorcycle. While they could be right, my experience here is that it cannot be assumed.

I have lost count of the number of times that a driver has decided it would be better if they don't wait 0.5secs to turn left BEHIND me. Generally they will just accelerate until I am level with the passenger door before they start turning. ( I get a ring side view of them not looking at me! ).

But the really ambitious ones accelerate hard to get well in front before braking hard to turn, usually still off to the right as they start the turn, so there is nowhere to go when one realises that both the brake and indicator lights must be working as well as the drivers brain.

Then of course there are the special ones that cut across the highway to a nearly stationary broadside for corner negotiation. Most scooter brakes at any reasonable highway speed may not save you without your e.s.p., luck and possibly one of your nine lives.

59 minutes ago, Coconutman said:

Just by your post it shows how far off the planet you are. Please inform the rest of the world where the usa is we anxiously wait your little pearls of wisdom

Whoops, did you miss the joke? It's worth looking at again :)

Oh wait, it didn't support your belief system, you might not be able to see it at all.

Pity, it was a good post. Mostly because it didn't resort to this sites normal abusive put downs that purport to be knowledge or a cohesive argument.

3 hours ago, Credo said:

It's called weather.   It doesn't mean much in and of itself.   It does when it keeps occurring.   But it's so nice the deniers have something to grasp onto.   Meanwhile, in the desert SW, including AZ and California, it was the hottest summer on record (at least for AZ), it was one of the driest and it still remains unseasonably warm.   

 

3 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

 

You just don't understand. You probably believe that the USA is located on planet earth and its weather fluctuations are just part of a larger system. You probably also believe that there is such a thing as climate and not that it's all just weather.

Yep, Credo is just another fool who believes in verified facts. What a moron!

Then he thinks that facts and basic knowledge can have any effect on a belief system! He probably thinks that most humans can learn, question their own beliefs, actually analyse both sides of an argument, check the money trail and a host of other useless abilities.

He's the kind of gullible twerp that paid attention at school, or even worse, went to university.

Listen idiot, climate change isn't happening! Thousands of scientists from hundreds of countries all got together in secret and agreed on a LIE! We saw several extracts from some emails that prove it! We don't actually understand the out of context snippets, but that just proves those lying scientists are liars!

Anyway, the change that isn't happening is caused by sun spots! No wait, it's caused by el nino. No, it's caused by car parks around weather stations, the Koch brothers told me so! They're rich, sell oil and pay for governments, so they must be right!

Besides, it was cold in Chicago 8 years ago. And polar bears don't need ice. And I haven't been hit by the increasing hurricanes. Get over it, it's a "natural" cycle. Geez....

11 hours ago, wealthychef said:

 

Kind of a lame excuse.  Isn't your license waterproof?  Doesn't it come out of your wallet?  

 

Not an excuse at all. 

But you seem to have missed the point. Focusing on people carrying their licence during the festival of drenching is a pretty lame excuse for making people safer on the roads.

1 hour ago, jaiyen said:

They are only just warming up ! Wait for tomorrows figures. Over 93,000 nicked in 1 day ! Thats incredible. I hope the increased number of check points and publicity will make a difference, but I doubt it.

A pity though that most of the busts were not presenting a licence. Hardly as important as being drunk, running red lights, erratic and unsignalled lane changes etc etc. And how many people didn't take their wallet to get soaked? I certainly didn't.

So again we have stationary checkpoints busting riders while cars are cutting up lanes right in front of them.

1 hour ago, onemorechang said:

Yes. why not  give a good insensitive to the cops.

up the fine by say 10% give that straight to the cop writing the ticket .

He may start to do his job then.

Win Win , i would say

 

 

And perhaps scale it according to weight of vehicle?

Then perhaps they might be interested in going after a few of the "big" killers rather than just making money off falang on scooters.

Oh Oh wait. Another scaling in proportion to how rich the driver is!  ;)

They just made the world safer. We didn't have our new tax sticker on the scooter yet and paid the price.

To do this they closed a lane leading off the main highway causing total mayhem on an already tricky (read dangerous Thai style) part of the highway. Big delays, short tempers and I'd guess more than one "accident".

And again, I have yet to see them pull over anything other than a motorbike. Targeting vans my a.....

I call BS on his "results".

There are plenty of countries with faster drivers and far lower accident rates. Germany would be an obvious example. This is just more of the Australian "speed kills" justification for massive fines. Does it? Well, no, not really. Speed difference can though.

I have been badly hassled by cops twice in a week, who had no idea of the law regarding licences. But I have yet to see in the entire time I've been in this country, a single person pulled over for breaking laws that endanger others.

But it's "speed" killing. What a "cop out"....

The part that surprises me is that so far nobody is commenting on what the "lucky guy" did after the rider crashed and was possibly dead or dying. He walks away and doesn't even wander in the riders direction until other people run to the scene.

In shock? Probably, but I've been in a few accidents and still managed to think about life, death and very basic safety even through the pain (and usually more worried about others and my bike than about my own bleeding all over the road). I didn't experience what he did, but walking away until there are witnesses (or reminders of the other human?) seems a bit odd...

As for the arguments about whether the bucket was blocking the road. To me it appears not. However, there also appears no reason at all for it to be so close or for the bucket to be up. Even if not actually blocking the road, it's certainly crowding it and reducing options for others while providing a clear danger.

Humans react to the perception of danger. Many drivers will unconsciously hit the brakes on a good clear stretch of Australian highway just because there is a tree somewhere near the side of the road. This alone can contribute to accidents if the person following wasn't expecting it.

14 hours ago, rijb said:

Who's forcing Thailand to buy subs?

Who's forcing Australia to buy Subs?

A good conspiracy theory needs to make bigger and more outrageous claims every time a pesky question seems to negate it. I'm sure there are some here who could help out   ; )

Conspiracy theory warning :)

Part of Germany lending money to Greece a while back was forcing Greece to buy some Submarines. So now we have Thailand, Greece and Australia that I know of with subs that they don't need and lack of finances to pay for them.

The USA is/has built hunter killer drones to kill other nations subs. So are the poor nations being made to buy up products of a "dying" industry?

And bonus for the banking cartel because we all have to borrow to pay for them?

:)

According to an ex Qantas employee Australia gets a "discount" on certain military hardware when we buy airliners from Boeing. So it's Boeing that influences our choices, not any rational thinking.

A while ago Australia did a deal for Euro copters. Did our military want them? No, the military were very happy with the Blackhawks that did the job and we can make parts for. But some politicians wanted to win some votes in Queensland so decided to spend some military money there (plus the pollies get 1-3% kickback on big spends, that from a defence contractor).

Then the govt. looked around for what they should buy that was "appropriate for QLD. They only found a big helicopter business, so they bought it and decided on choppers. The US was getting out of new attack choppers after finding out, again, what a single guy with a cheap missile could do. So we went to Europe. But to keep the US happy, we paid them to put the choppers together, even though we have a workforce already experienced with building things like blackhawks.

Now we are spending a couple of hundred billion on F-35's after supplying engineers for more than 4 yrs to try to fix them. That price to be paid by 11million workers (many without full time work). Why? Because yet another short range fighter is just right for a large chunk of land a long way from anything.

But that wasn't enough to bankrupt us quickly enough, so we are spending another obscene amount of money on, wait for it, SUBMARINES!!!

5 hours ago, lanng khao said:

One of them will end up in dry dock as a converted go go bar..

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 

Best use I can think of actually :)

4 minutes ago, Khun Han said:

 

In the UK, a police officer can be subject to a disciplinary procedure at work if their child gets into trouble at school.

Perhaps not always fair, but a definite consequence to encourage them to civilise their children.

I like it  :)

4 hours ago, Get Real said:

Oh! yes, now it was the good thai man that really thinks before he is doing something again.

Beeing the son of a police does really seem like a problem in this country. How many times are we going to hear about members, (sons),  of these families resorting to violence as soon as something happens.
Not even the police can teach their own sons to behave in a normal fashion. Like one said before. Good luck with the long article defending thai men!

I've met some decent cops up near Fang, helpful, reasonable and friendly. Even the locals think they are decent. But I've recently had a couple of exceedingly poor experiences with bribe taking tourist targeting mongrels in Chiang Mai city. These ones thought it was OK to try to physically intimidate and insult with much denigration, raised voices and fingers in my face. In other words, behaviour that is not generally acceptable in this society. (All the while never admitting that I had broken no law, other than politely refusing to pay a bribe...)

So the chance of one of these teaching a son to be civilised?

If the PM had done something/more about police corruption so that the citizens didn't see corrupt police as all powerful... In other words, if there were consequences, then perhaps things would/will change. Of course Thailand doesn't have a monopoly on this problem.

In Australia (and much of the west?) young people are being taught that there are no consequences for their behaviour. After several generations of this it has even reached the point of some claiming to be the innocent victim after killing someone with their car. I expect the west to get worse in this respect, while also having massive hidden corruption (think large corporates, military "spending" and the banking system).

Hope may not be a plan, but I hope Thailand will improve while the west continues to slide.

  :)

On 18 March 2017 at 7:24 PM, dave2 said:

here ya go

 

from the front of pantip plaza in the night bazzar 

 

go down chang klan road .... past the 3 d art in paradise place on the left

 

at the traffic lights turn left ... at the tee junction turn right

 

and theres a carpet shop on the right in about two hundred yards :)

 

dave2

 

For those finding this post later I did visit this place. Good directions by the way. It wasn't quite what I had in mind though as it is actually what I'd call a "rug shop". Persian style in more affordable and washable acrylic.

While I actually want wall to wall carpet, I did see a rug that I liked (and I'm not usually into persian). It is about 2.4 x 1.6m and getting on for 5,000B. That should give an idea of what to expect.