CygnusX1

Yep, they’re not going to remain high quality tourists for long spending that amount on booze. Was just reading today about “Nyepi Day’, or ‘Silent Day’ in Bali, on which tourists are forbidden to leave their hotel. Now THAT’s an inconvenience.

I’ve been one of those tourists at Jomtien beach for the last couple of months, though with a minimal amount of sunbathing. The smoke hasn’t been pleasant, and on a few mornings Koh Larn has been invisible from the section of the beach closest to that island, but 200m visibility is a bit of a stretch, to say the least. On the worst mornings, I’ve still been able to see Reflection condo from the Dong Tan section of the beach, 5km distance, albeit very hazily. Reminds me of the story here a couple of days ago about the driver who failed to take a bend, allegedly because he was blinded by the PM2.5 particles in the air.

I get my annual flu and China virus shots every March when I'm in Australia. They're entirely free of charge, and if a couple of tiny jabs with a needle even only slightly reduces my chances of feeling miserable with a flu or cold for a couple of weeks while I'm holidaying in Europe, why not? I think we'll never know if the China virus originated from a lab or a wet market, partly as a result of CCP secrecy. I've always found it strange that many of the Woke were outraged by the lab leak hypothesis - I would have thought that a wet market origin would provide far more ammunition for someone racist against Chinese people.

A pedestrian bridge at Thappraya/Thepprasit road intersection would be wonderful. If every owner of a condo in the near vicinity, including me, was levied $100, I’m sure there’d be more than enough to cover construction.

I’m anything but an expert on this, but on the iphone 16 pro go to settings - camera - photographic styles - open settings - you can see ‘Pro Raw and resolution control’. Short reply sorry, have to catch a plane.

Great photos, you have obvious talent. I’ve also been impressed with the low light performance of my new iphone16 pro after a few handheld test shots. Thing I really dislike about it is that it’s apparently impossible to turn off HDR (high dynamic range), even shooting in RAW. Only way around it seems to be to buy non Apple software to control the camera (subscription pricing model, which I hate).

I was forced to buy a new phone when my much loved bottom of the range Android phone was no longer compatible with Australia’s mobile network, despite it being 4G. Bought an iphone 16 pro for its camera and e-SIM facility, which is great for a frequent traveller who needs to contact Airbnb hosts. I’d say I use less than 1% of the phone’s features. Hopefully a high end phone will also remain compatible with the network for longer.

Congratulations to Thai police, I wish the police where I live in Australia would do the same.

Yes, I think people should treat each issue on its merits, rather than slavishly following an ideology, whether left or right. Just letting you know I wasn’t the one who downvoted your last post replying to mine!

OK, I’ll have a go, maybe you can define ‘right wing’ - you seem to think the term ‘far right’ has the same meaning. I’d say that people can be leftist economically, or socially and morally. Economic leftists think that we should place more emphasis on cooperation between people, and controlling unbridled capitalism, and there should be a very strong social welfare system. Taken to an extreme, this can lead to communism, which experience has shown is a very bad idea. Social and moral (non extreme) leftists maintain that there should be absolutely no discrimination between people based on race or sex, and that people should be left alone in respect to their private lives, especially in regards to their sexual behaviour. As a mild libertarian, I have no issues with that at all, sounds a lot like libertarianism. People on the centre and right would agree, with the rider that provided a behaviour doesn’t negatively affect other people. Taken to excess this results in ‘Wokery’, in which people are censored and punished for expressing dissenting views, and ‘Identity Politics’ which strives to permanently divide people into classes based on sex and race (see Australia’s recent referendum seeking to enshrine race into the country’s constitution, thankfully soundly defeated). It’s possible to be simultaneously an economic leftist and morally far right, as in Australia’s long defunct Democratic Labor Party. With transgenderism, I think the Woke have gone a bridge too far, and it’s very possibly the reason for Trump’s election. I’d agree that the Far Right, the Right, the Centre and the Centre Left have successfully used the word as a way of ridiculing extremists. I’m sure there are stupid and ignorant people who follow along, just as there are many highly intelligent people who use the word ‘Woke’. I’ve heard people WAY smarter than Trump use the word, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris come to mind.

Good summary of the word’s original use by progressive leftists. However, it’s been my experience that leftists now hate the word, as it’s now used very successfully as a term to ridicule leftists who’ve taken some originally good progressive ideas to ludicrous extremes, and those on the extremes, whether on the left or the right, hate being ridiculed. It’s a far better term than the awkward ‘politically correct’.

Exactly. There was freedom of speech in Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Russia, and the consequence was that you were executed or sent to a Gulag. Not as bad in the West at the moment, you might just lose your job (eg google ‘Israel Folau case’).

I had an epiretinal membrane in my right eye diagnosed a few years ago. Was relieved it wasn’t macular degeneration, as the symptoms seem similar - blurry vision and wavy lines. My optometrist also said it was up to me whether or not to have surgery. I elected not to, due to difficulty of operation. Risk I’m running of course is that if the same thing happens to my good eye, car driving’s over for me for good. Also, apparently the operation is less successful the longer you delay. My vision’s not deteriorated further, and I have an annual retinal scan. I can read a car number plate from over 20 paces with my good eye, about 5 paces with the bad one. Things look sharp with both eyes open, interesting how the brain manages to ignore input from the bad eye.

Don’t know if this gives you any more information than you already have from streetview, but from memory of a walk tonight, think it starts from around soi 7 or 8 and goes south, don’t know for how long, haven’t walked that far. North of that, such as at Dong Tan beach stretch, is unaffected. I’d say it’s going to be a fair while before it’s finished, hope by next high season. Beach road’s one way in south direction (except for some motorbikes!)

Sounds like you’re one of those fortunate people who can ‘pick up’ a language in a similar way to young children. I could try your way for 20 years and only acquire a few words. Any (very basic) ability I have in French and Thai is the result of a lot of hard grind.