CygnusX1

Definitely not in Palermo, Sicily, where I’ve been the last couple of days. Imagine Bangkok with 90% fewer pedestrian lights, no footbridges, and worse drivers.

I’m happy to be corrected on the third to a half, good news if that’s true. Certainly a lot fewer than that were wearing masks in Jomtien, I was referring to Bangkok. What do you think is the % of mask wearing in central Bangkok? The proportion of people who wore masks pre Covid was minuscule, people have posted videos of crowds in Bangkok to demonstrate this. Whether taking precautions is hysteria or not depends entirely on the odds - I take the precaution to always look both ways before crossing a road, but my chances of becoming severely ill or dying from Covid are tiny, so it would be crazy for me to wear a face mask. I do take the precaution of a shot of vaccine annually, but that’s a trivial bother compared with the misery of wearing a face mask whenever I’m outside my home.

Around a third to half of people in Bangkok still wearing face masks (when I was there last month, doubt that anything’s changed since then), including in situations outdoors where they aren’t within cooee of anyone else, vs ZERO in Europe, is a pretty good indicator of hysteria.

I feel his pain too. One time in Australia, I input the correct PIN, which was accepted by the ATM, which then asked me how much I wanted to withdraw. I selected a modest amount well under the daily withdrawal limit that was a fraction of the amount in the account, ATM then swallowed my card. I marched into the adjoining branch, and with zero language difficulties, since this was in Australia, explained what had happened. Sorry, can’t get card back, machine immediately destroys it, get new card mailed in a couple of weeks.

I’m in Europe right now, doing the usual tourist stuff amid big summer crowds. No face masks anywhere whatsoever, no Covid hysteria. You have to wonder why It’s just Thailand that’s so vulnerable to this disease.

Yes, but my point was that this was not stated in the article. If 84% of people hospitalised weren’t wearing a helmet, but 95% of riders on the roads weren’t wearing helmets, then that would mean that wearing a helmet would make you more likely to be hospitalised in an accident. I’m sure that’s not the case, but you must quote both stats before you start calculating probabilities.

Although I’m certain that it’s an excellent idea for bike riders to wear helmets, this 84% is meaningless unless accompanied by general statistics on the number of riders, including those not in accidents, who wear helmets.

Yes, people who’ve never been to India have no idea of the incessant, eternal, never, ever ceasing blaring of horns there. Drove me crazy after just a week in that country. Thailand’s wonderful in comparison, noisy motorbikes aren’t pleasant, but they don’t even come close to the insanity inducing car horns in India.

1. Right to reside permanently in Australia (ie Australian citizen for most people) 2. Australian accommodation (owner occupier of property or long term renter) 3. Australian family (spouse or children under 18 living in Australia) 4. Australian economic interests such as reasonable amount of money in an Australian bank account. Explained in a lot more detail at the link KH provided. Proposal is that if you’re in Australia for at least 45 days of the tax year and if you satisfy at least 2 of the 4 factors then you’re a tax resident. It’s even easier than that - you have to be present in Australia for less than 45 days for 3 consecutive years to lose tax residency. All just a proposal, no legislation yet passed, or I think even presented to Parliament.

Delete the words “verging on”, and I’d agree with Grant Shapps. If you’re further to the woke left than Keir Starmer, you’re really far gone.

I think it’s because there are fewer problems with female to male transsexuals. Men are way less bothered by the idea of biological females using male only toilets than women are by biological men using female only toilets, and there’s zero chance that a female to male trans could successfully compete against biological men at the elite level of male sports.

Entering Istanbul airport after my stay in that city, all bags were X rayed at the airport entrance, before reaching the airline checkin and baggage drop area. The carving knife I had in my checked bag was picked up, but not confiscated, the guy just added my passport number to a handwritten list. Not sure how that would have prevented me from running amok with the knife, if that had been the point of the initial security check, before the normal post checkin security check of carry-on bags. At a hotel in Doha, Qatar, the hotel X rayed my bags, and kept my carving knife with the desk until I checked out. Bit strange, as I could have purchased a range of far more lethal looking knives at city markets.

I leave 20 baht for the maid when staying in hotels. Would like to leave 40, but now that I use plastic at supermarkets, I find it hard to collect enough 20 baht notes. Is it possible to exchange 1,000 baht notes for 20’s at a bank?

The pole shift you refer to is the movement of the Earth’s MAGNETIC pole, not the precession of its axis. Shifts in the magnetic pole don’t affect the angle to the sun or jet stream. Axial precession does have an effect on climate and ice ages, but on a time scale of thousands of years.

Not a good match for the photograph accompanying the article! Reminiscent of the prediction that poor Tim Flannery (a noted Australian climate change alarmist) made at the height of a drought that “even the rain that falls isn’t going to fill the dams”, after which the major dam serving Sydney has spilled over several times.