paulbj2

1 minute ago, Trouble said:

In this world, sh*t happens.  Have we come to such a state of affairs now that when something goes wrong it is immediately necessary for us to go looking to place blame. There was a power surge that was evidently powerful enough to prevent the backup systems form working. Not something BA anticipated but it happened.Sure it was unfortunate for everyone concerned but the attitude that I won't fly BA again is ridiculous.  It could just as easily happen to any airline.  We are dependent on computers and electronics and things are going to happen now and then that cause problems. We better be getting used to it.  God forbid Facebook or Instagram go down for a couple of days.  People might actually have to stop and talk to each other personally.

I think you might look at it rather differently if your bank's systems went belly up and you couldn't get at any money for days or when they came back up, all your money had disappeared. Ordinarily, banks have completely parallel systems in place so that if the main system fails the backup system can be up and running in minutes. A few recent system failures in the UK make me wonder if the banks there are trying to save some pennies by doing away with such expensive parallel systems. The whole point of such systems is that they are a long way from the master system so an outage in one, like a power surge, will not impact the backup system. In the bank where I worked, it was in a different town! 

If BA don't have such a parallel backup then I would say that was a very very risky way to run their business!

1 hour ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

People do not go putting fentenal or other poisons in Beer, unless they are out to kill someone deliberately.

Car fentenol is even very deadly and killng lots of people now. I hve had many friends who started into drugs

by smoking pot, then headed for other drugs as pot did not give them the high they craved.  So yes alcohol can kill

but so do drugs, legal or not.  I also do not go out and buy suspect alcohol from a back alley, but in a regulated

store, and I have brewed up my own beer and wine and neither product killed me like a bad batch of drugs surely can.

See the difference? In your legal drug country, maybe you have a better chance than America or Canada, so count yourself

lucky, and toke up man, relax!

Geezer

it's "Fentanyl" that I believe you are referring to.

12 minutes ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

I will never go to those countries that you named becase of their 3rd world standards, and in Canadas north where I lived for

10 years, the locals also drank a home brew of antifreeze and wood alcohol, which killed one an blinded 3 more,  so yes I do

know that illicitly made alcohol can kill too. Thanks for your story of it.  so guy I am not so blinkered as you think, I am just

old.  so your second point and your relationship with some physician is noted, as I also have 3 doctors and 4 nurses in

my family tree as well, but they are in the back ground of this discussion.
Geezer

So you won't have to take my word for the fact that the Accident and Emergency departments of just about every hospital in the western world are overflowing with drunks who have injured themselves and drunks who are in medical danger through alcohol consumption especially at weekends.

If you are so well informed, why do you talk such complete rubbish then?

Oh and by the way, I'm no spring chicken either!

5 minutes ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

To the pot smokers, You are right that I have my own opinion just like you do, and it is across the fence from

yours, but as I have mentioned, Don't worry be happy, guys, chill out that we have opposite opinions.

My alcohol fueled opinion is not bigoted, just different,  so go ahead and defend yor precious pot, better

yet, come to Canada and smoke up with the PM as he is about to change this countries drug laws.

Geezer

I don't smoke pot although I have done so in the past. I do drink alcohol, however, I am not prepared to deny the facts as demonstrated by hard scientific research just to please you. You belong to the same camp as a recent British prime minister who asked the government advisory panel on drugs and drug abuse to prepare a report on the subject. 

The report said that alcohol and tobacco were by far the most damaging drugs in society by every single criterion. The worst of the illegal substances were heroin and crack cocaine. Cannabis was so harmless that they recommended either legalizing of at least placing it in the lowest class of drugs to reduce the penalties for possession and dealing to a minimum. So did the Prime Minister accept the advice of his expert panel - nope - he sacked the chairman of the committee for reaching a conclusion he didn't like! You remind me of that ex-prime minister!

I know this is not the way the world is heading what with Trump and all that, but I prefer science to bigoted twaddle!

39 minutes ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

People do not go putting fentenal or other poisons in Beer, unless they are out to kill someone deliberately.

Car fentenol is even very deadly and killng lots of people now. I hve had many friends who started into drugs

by smoking pot, then headed for other drugs as pot did not give them the high they craved.  So yes alcohol can kill

but so do drugs, legal or not.  I also do not go out and buy suspect alcohol from a back alley, but in a regulated

store, and I have brewed up my own beer and wine and neither product killed me like a bad batch of drugs surely can.

See the difference? In your legal drug country, maybe you have a better chance than America or Canada, so count yourself

lucky, and toke up man, relax!

Geezer

You seem to be a bit blinkered about the realities of life. 

My first point would be that a member of my family used to be a consultant physician in one of the largest hospitals in Europe and I was surprised when he told me that somewhere around 75% of the admissions into his department were either directly or indirectly due to alcohol abuse.

My second point concerns illicit alcohol; something of which you seem to be completely unaware! 10s of 1000s of people die or are blinded or otherwise crippled every year in India, Pakistan, Russia, other developing countries and more recently the UK every year due to the effects of illicitly manufactured alcohol. It is usually the inclusion of methanol (wood alcohol) that does the damage. It's a popular ingredient because it's very easy to obtain and tastes much like ethanol (the real deal). Unfortunately, even a relatively small dose can blind you.

--

On 5/29/2017 at 3:46 AM, Stargrazer9889 said:

Pot smokers will always defend the weed. Guess that is why they are called pot heads, as weed really does affect the brain

  Drugs of all sorts affect the brain, and the thought processes, but the drggies will mostly deny that fact as well.

Just saying.

Geezer

...and drunks will always defend their booze along with cigarette smokers who will likewise always defend their right to kill themselves with their drug of choice.

Avoid looking at the facts, for God's sake! In Portugal where all drugs have now been decriminalized with spectacularly positive results or the Netherlands where pot has been legally tolerated for as long as I can remember without society falling apart or productivity dropping (hint: it's one of Europe's richer countries). Don't let the facts get in the way of your bigoted options eh!

On 5/28/2017 at 10:58 PM, wakeupplease said:

Comments like this make people look very bad and silly

 

I will have to PM for sure as soon as I get the time

 

Robo that's enough for a few years in the slammer locally, here they would throw away the key.

 

A forty something acting like a teenager, who simple does not care how much this sH>> causes problems for family's and others.

 

I have fought against it all my life and seen so much damage to people who got hooked and then went further up the tree to wreck their own lives and others close by

 

Simple sick to see a comment like this, but their are those who can if they want stop it, especially after screen capture? and no CCA

 

Disgusted, drugs are a menace to the world.

Absolutely !!! They should ban all drugs starting with the ones that kill the most and do the most damage to society - nicotine and alcohol!

First observation, this HAS happened to British Airways before - some years back, if I recall correctly, a JCB (digger) driver put his back-hoe through a pair of power cables just outside the building that housed the mainframe computer system that ran BABS (British Airways Business System). One cable was the incoming mains supply so flash and BIG bang and emergency lighting came on in the building. Everything worked exactly according to plan: the two massive static diesel engines running the back up power supplies fired up right on cue and then the short-term battery backup power supply in the building ran out after 5 or 10 minutes and everything in the building died! Unfortunately for BA, the second cable that the JCB had cut was the supply cable from the static diesel power supply system to the building housing the mainframe. Oops! The entirety of BA's systems were down until a new power cable could be connected into the building and in the mean time BA and all the other airlines (which were quite numerous back then) that used the BABS system were almost completely paralysed! If I remember correctly, the final bill for this charade was around £40 million but that was back in the last century so it'll cost a whole lot more today.

The only way you can guard against a failure of this sort is the way that banks do it. They have a complete duplicate system at another location that is kept perfectly in sync with the main system at all times. If your primary system fails, it should be possible to switch over to the backup system within minutes and everything keeps running pretty much like nothing happened. If after the power cable catastrophe that I mentioned, at Heathrow, a few years back, BA still don't have a solid, bank-style parallel stand-by system in place, then very, very senior heads should roll including the CEO!

How do I know all this - I used to work for BA as a contractor and I have also worked for banks as an IT consultant!   

Does anyone know of a dental practice in Chiang Mai where they have experience of Telescopic Crowns (I have an appliance of this type and one of the supporting crowns has fallen off!)

1 hour ago, Classic Ray said:

I think he's advocating U.K. Style road safety with far lower casualties. That necessitates effective enforcement as well as driver education.

As Britain vies with Sweden and the Netherlands for the prize of safest roads in the world and Thailand is runner up

in competition for the world's most lethal roads - if Thailand did emulate Britain in matters of road safety - it would likely be a pretty massive improvement over the current endless slaughter.

A few years back, I was injured slipping on some wet tiles in the bathroom of a Sofitel (a rather classy hotel chain) in Luxembourg. They had been wax polished which made them like a skating rink when wet. If there had been anything in the way for me to bang my head on, it could easily have killed me.

Stuff like this does happen!

3 hours ago, Ulic said:

This is the first I have heard that the alcohol breathalyzer limit was lowered to 20mg/100ml.

This is lowest I have heard of in a non Muslim country. I am not sure any one could have more

than one drink and many not even one. The whole thing seems ridiculous. 50mg/100ml is

already low. Not sure if this is a BIB money maker or the reaction of a thin skinned leader.

With the police/political reaction to a couple of articles in British tabloids referring to Thailand

as the brothel of the world I am inclined to think the latter.  

"This is lowest I have heard of in a non Muslim country." - In that case you haven't looked very hard!

Poland, Romania, Sweden, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, Japan, China, India, Nepal and many others have limits at 20mg/100ml or lower. 

In the EU, most countries have the limit at 50mg but the UK still permits 80mg. However, enforcement is the key; in the UK the limit of 80mg is rigidly enforced and backed up with very severe penalties. The minimum sentence the courts in the UK can imposed for exceeding the limit by even 2 or 3 mg is a 12 month driving ban. For offenders who exceed it by a considerable amount, the ban will normally be longer. If a driver commits a second offence , a very long ban is usual and for a third offence, a prison sentence will normally imposed.

Given that The UK, the Netherlands and Sweden consistently vie for the crown of "country with the least road accident deaths per 100,000 vehicle kilometres" each year and that Britain's limit is 80mg, the Netherlands is 50mg and Sweden's 20mg, I would suggest it is rigid enforcement that is the key; something I honestly cannot see happening in the LOS. 

5 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

A good read. I tried to Google the doctors name but could not find it but I rather base my life on his thinking. He stated that if you reach 75 and have a catastrophic illness accept it and move on. I am a few years past that still in good health by my standards anyways (nobody else's counts) I am sure if I went to a local named hospital and took advantage of the 6000 baht checkup they would find at least 3 thinks for this old mind to worry about and for this old body to try and repair. Of course they give these cheap checkups for a reason a life partner/customer/client. They put you on a monthly treatment plan much like car payments. In my younger years I used to drive old junkers and the fixing just never seemed to stop. 

Well my brother is resident in the UK and over there, they don't do surgery for profit; quite the reverse, they already have more patients than they can cope with. If they decided he needed a coronary artery bypass, it's because he would likely have died sooner rather than later without it.

My own doctor in Luxembourg asked me a few years back if I realised, given my lifestyle (heavy smoker, heavy drinker, sedentary profession, overweight, diabetic, appalling family history of cardio-vascular disease, very bad cholesterol levels) how great was my chance of dying of a heart attack or stroke in the following five years. It turned out that it was 1 in 5. I replied that as I didn't have much of a pension, I didn't have much to look forward to so that would suit me just fine. She replied "Ah, yes, I can understand that but the first heart attack or stroke is frequently not fatal; so do you fancy becoming a wheelchair bound cardiac cripple or being partially paralysed for what remains of your life?" I decided I didn't! Since then I have completely changed my lifestyle, given up smoking, don't drink that much, I have lost a lot of weight and I take a lot more exercise; honestly, I wish I done it sooner, I haven't felt this good since I was in my 30s.

Way back when I was still in my early 50s, I read an article by a learned professor of medicine who suggested that people in their 50s at that time would mostly live to be well over 100 as the advances in medical science and in anti-ageing research were progressing so fast. I don't see much evidence of that right now. 

I seem to be rambling off the point a bit here - now that really is a sign of advancing age!    

On 08/04/2017 at 11:45 AM, elgordo38 said:

I am amazed they spent the  money to do the testing usually they usually wait till the fhit hits the san before doing anything and then try and smother the bad news so as to not frighten the cattle sorry tourists. Its like everything else in the world today a bad news good news presentation. As a friend of mine stated with a heart problem. The doctor said that he had 72% heart blockage and they like to operate at 70%. The good news is that we can put you on medication that will make you better. The bad news was it did make him feel lethargic. The good news was he quit the medication and felt fine. The bad news was he failed to tell his doctor who surely would have had a heart attach had he known. The next visit to the doctor the good news was the doctor asked him how do you feel he said fine. The doctor said well I guess we don't have to operate. The moral of the story is take all doc speak with a grain of salt but to much salt is dangerous to your health. 

Hmmmm...I think maybe your friend should think again. If the arteries that supply the heart are really blocked to that extent (that's what it sounds like you are saying) then he is a walking medical time-bomb; he could drop dead at any moment. More to the point, a patients chances of surviving a coronary artery graft and of making a full recovery are excellent if they are in good health when the surgery is undertaken. If on the other hand, they have already survived a heart attack when they go for surgery the chances of surviving it and having a good outcome are significantly reduced.

My brother had exactly the same sorts of issues and spent years dithering about whether to go for the surgery for it or not. In the end, when he started getting Angina attacks (or rather when his doctor told him that it was Angina he was experiencing), he decided he would go for it. He did make it OK but the risks of the surgery were enhanced due to his advancing age and deteriorating condition. 

I just looked the statistics produced by the EU on Legionella infections. Apart from such infections being widespread throughout Europe and the rest of the world (their stats include figures for USA, Canada and Australia) and causing 1000s of deaths every year (moreover, the bacterium responsible for a fatal infection will not always be identified, so under-reporting is highly likely), it is interesting to note that, for a reason that I am having difficulty rationalizing, men are disproportionately more likely to acquire Legionella infections and to die of them, than are women.

The risk modification factors you might expect also apply. You are more likely to acquire a serious, potentially fatal, Legionella infection if your a smoker, if you have a pre-existing respiratory condition like COPD, if you are elderly, if you are a heavy drinker, if you have Diabetes, if your immune system is compromised in any way (either by illness or by medication) and so on.

1 hour ago, gemguy said:

Whether you know this or not or whether you believe it or not that particular type of bacteria can be eliminated by way of Colloidal Silver and proven so.

Very few people know about this means to kill bacteria but it works where other means to control or kill bacteria does not work.

But, it is not Government approved so you will seldom see it applied while it is safe and far safer than the usual means used to kill bacteria

Just for your information.

Cheers

Yes, I learned recently that many/most bacteria will die when exposed to copper and so, by extension, brass and bronze. The old brass and bronze doorhandles actually killed bacteria whereas the modern stainless steel or plastic ones (as used in almost all hospitals these days), don't!

One of the problems that can readily affect everyone who travels is that the precise strains of bacteria found in one part of the world are not necessarily the same as the ones found in ones homeland. 

For example, bacteria commonly found in and around kitchens and restaurants, ones that we ingest every day in our homeland without coming to any harm at all, can have evolved just sufficient differences on the far side of the world to act upon our digestive tract as pathogens. This is, apparently, what causes many cases of travellers diarrhoea. Bacteria are omnipresent; it's only the ones that our immune systems are not used to coping with, or are not capable of dealing with, that cause us problems.

Following a visit to Thailand in 2014, the local health authorities in the country where I was living contacted me to say that there had been a case of "open" (infectious) tuberculosis on the flight from Bangkok to Paris , the passenger had collapsed at Paris CdG airport and was diagnosed as a result. They asked me to attend a screening clinic to see if I had been infected. Thankfully, after three rather scary months and a lot of blood tests and X-rays, the health authorities announced that I had not been infected. I must have inhaled a fair few bacteria as the infected passenger was sitting only a couple of metres from me and coughing her lungs up for pretty much the entire 13 hour flight. It seems, nevertheless, that my immune system fended them all off. One of my brothers spent his whole career as a hospital doctor and he said at the time that during his career, he had been in contact with dozens, if not hundreds of cases of open TB and had never caught it.

21 minutes ago, Khon Kaen Dave said:

I have read the posts of what appear to be experts in Legionella. And i respect their opinions.

I remember back in the Uk years ago that some elderly people died from the problem in a hotel or somewhere.The problem was found to be in the cooling towers and the temperature changes allowing the bacteria to assert itself.

Please correct me if i am wrong, but i thought that the bacteria was only harmful when ingested through the nose as in shower mist.It becomes a respirational  problem.

I would welcome replies from qualified people please, as want to know more about this subject

 Thank you.

That is what we were told when they found Legionella in a building in which I worked before retirement. No danger at all from drinking the water but they closed the showers as they considered showering in the affected water to be potentially hazardous.

2 hours ago, AlQaholic said:

Just as you can find e-coli anywhere you look in nature, legionella can also be found anywhere. Just not in any significant concentrations to cause harm. The Myth-busters showed this very nicely when they placed toothbrushes around in a bathroom for a few days and every brush had e-coli samples, even the one they didn't open from the factory packaging.

Yes, it's one of those facts of which it is better not to be aware that every time a WC is flushed, it produces a "mist" of water droplets that contain a small amounts of the contents of the pan including urine and faecal matter, if present. Nice eh?

14 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

See you have already reached step 1 you have unburdened yourself so much and gotten so much off your chest your progress is truly amazing. Nobody said your unintelligent you just seem to pull the trigger on so many derogatory words like stupid etc. as I explained we were not all born equal. Don't belittle your brethren comfort him. Just tone it down a bit do not be mad at me and the world we love you. A good rant does us all good. Look forward to your comments on TV with interest. 

Perhaps you should direct your comments at the poster to whom I replied rather than at me?

42 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Once I got past your bombastic opening words I enjoyed your post. You seem like a very intelligent person when you calm down. Like most intelligent people you are bombastic when opening your comments is it a superiority complex or something?. You must understand you share the world with us less intelligent people who never the less dislike people talking down to us in a rude manner. I am sure your intelligent enough to understand the gist of my comments. Thanks again for the enlightening post. 

I don't know what is bombastic about calling-out a stupid and, dare I say it, bombastic comment by the original poster who seemed to wish to imply that Thailand was the only place in the world that had this issue, that the rest of the world should be informed of Thailand's failure to act and that Thailand's failure to act was because of untrammelled greed! 

I would agree that Thailand is not perfect but then nor are any of the other countries where I have lived, nor indeed is my homeland, the UK. Quite why people on this forum feel the need to indulge in so much "Thai bashing" I don't quite understand and I don't react particularly well to it! 

I have been made very welcome here and I am very grateful for that. Tell me, who goes to visit someone else's house and makes comments like "what a sh1thole this is, innit!" That's what "Thai bashers" are doing, in effect, they are invited guests in this country and they never stop complaining about the place and about their hosts, the Thais. 

If you want to lay claim to being "unintelligent" that's your problem but I'm sure you are not incapable of simply using Google to check facts, nor, I am sure is the original poster. 

1 hour ago, moe666 said:

If the water supply is located on the surface: rivers, streams, lakes, pond and any other standing source you will have this infection. Most people who contact this diease usually have mild flu like symptons. Do not worry about it in the shower head as the spray is not fine enough to get into the lungs. The water droplets have to be small enough to infiltrate the bodies defenses but if they are too small they cannot carry the bacteria. The only way the split a/c units can be a problem is if the drain pan becomes stopped up and water ponds in the pan then some way this water has to become a mist  fine enough to infect the body. 

 

The problem with treatment is that it is a bacteria that acts like a virus. Keep your immune system up and you probably have little to fear

Interesting! When Legionella was detected in the hot water system of the building where I worked, the only action the management took to protect us all until treatment could be arranged to eliminate the bacterium from the pipework, was to lock and forbid the use of the showers that were available to us as they said, there was a risk of someone showering, inhaling enough bacteria to contract Legionnaires Disease.

They also sent round a statement saying that there was no danger at all in drinking the water as this particular pathogen cannot cause disease by being ingested in that way.

1 hour ago, ThaiKneeTim said:

Not a problem until there is an earth fault and the only way for the fault current to flow is through the next poor sucker that touches the faulty equipment. 

 

Just so you know, it's not just Thais, I worked in South Sudan for an aid agency, my predecessor wired sockets in the operating theatre without earth, next time I saw him in Nairobi I mentioned it; he said "we don't bother with earth wire in Holland". Errm, yes you do, unless it's double insulated  (The symbol for double insulated is a square within a square.). Just because the standard European plug doesn't have a pin, like the British plug, doesn't mean it isn't earthed.

 

I made sure my pumps, shower, aircon, and the metal framework of the roof are all earthed.

The standard European plug has an earth when required. Double insulated appliances (which is most appliances these days) don't have an earth pin on the plug as it is not required. When it is required the earth pin is present. Modern sockets in all the European countries where I have lived (The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Luxembourg) had earth connections available.

2 hours ago, kiwikeith said:

I would also be  concerned about dirty aircon units as most guest houses have filthy air units in the rooms, a major spreader of legionella.

I was surprised to read this as, so far as I was aware, Legionella is an exclusively water borne pathogen. The research that I have done on the internet suggests that the standard two part "cooler on the inside, compressor on the outside" style of aircon unit generally used here do not harbour Legionella whether regularly cleaned and maintained or not. If you have evidence to the contrary please let me know.