CygnusX1

That’s true, and it isn’t pleasant to be strolling along Sukhumvit Road when an ancient bus spewing black smoke goes past, but there’s stalled traffic and street stalls frying meat the whole year, but we only seem to get consistently high levels of air pollution in entire large regions of the country, well outside Bangkok, at this time of year.

You could replace all the fossil fuel power plants with nuclear plants or wind turbines, and all of the cars with EVs, and it would do very little to reduce PM2.5, which is almost all from agricultural burning, it’s called the burning season for a reason. Outside the burning season, the air at least outside Bangkok is usually not too bad, it’s the ag burning that causes air pollution throughout the whole country.

Love the large number of ‘amused face’ emojis next to the original post, says it all about the justified cynicism of posters here. Today’s the worst it’s been so far at Jomtien, previous days the island of Koh Larn has begun to very hazily emerge from the murk by midday, but at 1245, it’s still completely invisible. Still going for my long morning swim and beach walks, at my age haven’t too many years left anyway, though I do worry about the developing lungs of the Russian kids on the beach. Mind you, some of them probably come from industrial towns with even worse air.

Thanks, just logged in with no problems, there’s an “‘Approved” next to my address, and, as on previous attempts, I can see the screen to add all this info. Don’t want to test it today though, as if it were to work this time, I’d be a couple of months late with my submission! I’ll have another opportunity to try next month, when I’ll be returning from a few days in Kuala Lumpur.

I’m a condo owner, and registered online with no problems, have a username and password, but have never been able to figure out the rest of the process. I have a go at it each time I return to Thailand. I always ensure that I stay less than 90 days, so never have any contact with immigration, and have a receipt for a TM30 I did years ago at the immigration office.

I’m sure you met many kind and generous Saudis, but for another perspective of a woman who’s lived in an Islamic country check out Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Well, you may be correct, but a reformed Islam 600 years in the future isn’t much consolation for its current victims, is it?

I think Harris knows a great deal more about Islam than the great majority of people. I’m sure he’d thoroughly agree with your statement on the evils perpetrated by Christianity in the Middle Ages but your last sentence is the salient point - Christianity was on the wrong path 600 years ago, but Islam is on the wrong path NOW.

I don’t think Sam Harris is a typical leftist. When I quoted his statement that “Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas” in an argument with my severely Woke sister, she was outraged, and called him the most evil man alive. She was then confused when I pointed out that Harris was also the harshest critic of Trump I had ever heard, and I’m sure she’d also thoroughly approve of this article on Musk. I disagree with lots that Harris says, including his over-the-top attacks on Trump and Musk, but recognise that unlike the typical Woke leftist, he doesn’t follow an ideology, and looks at each issue on its merits. Although he might not be as famous as a Musk, he’s very well known as one of the 4 most prominent of the “‘new atheists”.

I’m in VT5D. This high season, no real delays with elevators, if I have to wait a full minute I’d call that unusually long. I’m on the top floor, rare for elevator to stop at more than 2 or 3 floors on the way up or down. No lifts closed for maintenance that I recall in the last couple of months. Seems that there aren’t too many people here, despite high season, although the car parks are mostly full. My floor’s very quiet. No noisy maintenance allowed between 15 Nov and 15 Feb. Pool is big enough by my standards! Last few weeks I’ve just been swimming in the sea, as water in pool’s a bit cold, but when I’ve used the pool it’s never been too crowded to make swimming laps awkward, and usually only 2 or 3 others in the water, often it’s been my private pool. That’s early morning or late afternoon though, don’t like to swim in midday sun.

It’s crystal clear to me that the ‘bad rubbish’ he’s referring to is racist and anti meritocracy DEI practices, NOT the particular people who might be advantaged by DEI. You’re entitled to disagree with his position, but not to grossly and deliberately misrepresent what he’s saying.

I’m a lot more concerned about soi dogs cr****** on the beach.

But males aren’t the rate limiting sex in reproduction. If a woman wants a baby, it’s trivially easy for her to find a willing male, even if the number of males has been substantially reduced through war or accidents. In wealthy Western countries at least, the State will then ensure that her children are financially supported. In the same way, if 95% of male soi dogs in a town are neutered, but no females, it will make no difference to the future population of soi dogs.

Back in 1930, the famous economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that by 2030, the average person would only need to work 15 hours a week. Given the spectacular advances in labour saving technologies since 1930, together with large scale participation of women in the workforce, if we could somehow bring him to the present day, he’d surely be mystified as to our worries about the labour force in a gradually falling population being insufficient to maintain a prosperous society .

This problem (if it really is a problem) should eventually correct itself. Women who want several babies will, unsurprisingly, produce more offspring than women who don’t want babies. Their daughters will tend to inherit their mothers’ desire for babies, and so the proportion of women in the population who want several babies will increase over the generations, and after enough time, we’ll be back to the old problem of the population increasing too steeply. In any case, you don’t have to be a rabid Greenie to realise that an economic system that relies on a continuous increase in the population is no different from a Ponzi scheme, in that it will eventually run out of resources, just as every Ponzi scheme runs out of new investors.

Excellent article. On days when I can’t even see the nearby island of Koh Larn from Jomtien, I know instinctively that breathing in that air must be very bad for my health, but in science, data is always king, no matter how obvious or logical your theory. The problem is that it’s so hard to reliably compare the health of people living in places with high air pollution with others in areas with clean air, due to so many confounding variables.

We should be clear that the explosion of the reactor at Chernobyl wasn’t a nuclear explosion from a chain reaction, but rather a steam explosion from the accelerating chain reaction of the fuel - a commercial fission reactor can’t be a bomb. I think discussion of fusion reactors is moot, since they’re always 25 years in the future - they were in 1960, and they still are now.

Hydro’s the perfect, almost instantly available power source, just a pity that the world doesn’t have enough mountains and rain. I wasn’t just talking about grid frequency stability, but also the huge amount of extra ‘poles and wires’ that large scale wind and solar require.

If that’s the case, then renewables are the last thing Thailand needs, as they’re a nightmare for an electricity grid.

Nuclear of some sort is essential for reliable base load power, whether as small modular reactors or more conventional plants. Even if it’s more expensive, I’d happily pay more for reliable power. The way we’re going with renewables, is that the wealthy will be OK, as they’ll be able to afford to install a large array of lithium batteries in their home for backup power, whereas the poorer will just have to endure blackouts. I can’t understand the anti-nuclear hysteria. I read media reports of the ‘elephant’s foot’ puddle of radioactive fuel at Chernobyl, which apparently would kill anyone standing next to it for a short time. However, many of the substances routinely handled by modern industry are so much more dangerous - for instance, a single drop of hydrofluoric acid on the skin will lead to a horrible death, yet this substance is used in the electronics industry without any apparent media hysteria. I do have the anti-nukes to thank for one thing though - a few years ago, I realised that the highly successful campaign by the Greens against nuclear power meant that we’d be dependent on thermal coal for far longer. Bought some coal shares, and have so far multiplied my investment by a factor of 5.

Suvanaphumi airport (haven’t been to Phuket for years) is the only airport in the world where I buy food, as it’s the cheapest by far, and has a great selection of fast food chains. Always look forward to my ‘take-home’ size blizzard from Dairy Queen. Have also occasionally bought Subway there, and it seems to be about twice the price of my local Subway at Jomtien, which makes it about the same price as a non airport Subway in Australia. I think that’s fair for an international airport. The complainant’s clearly very fond of cheese - 3 extra portions per sandwich?

We could be approaching peak complexity now. In the near future, we might each have a personal AI assistant which (who?) would handle all of the complexities of everyday life for us.

First morning this burning season that I can’t see the nearby island of Koh Larn from my condo in Jomtien.

Compulsory 2 factor authentication via mobile phone can be a nightmare for frequent travellers. There are some countries in which your home SIM card doesn’t work, and what happens if your phone stops working or is stolen? There should be an option for people to have a bank account which doesn’t require 2 factor authentication, for which the user absolves the bank of any responsibility in case of losses due to fraud.

I’ve had a small amount with Bangkok Bank for the last 6 years, just so I can auto pay my electricity bill. Never received any interest until last month, when a bit of interest was credited, together with withholding tax. Had changed nothing in the account, hadn’t even deposited any money for months. Bit of an irritation, as the amount is negligible, but I’ll have to declare it on my Australian tax return (I’m now careful to be present for less than 179 days each calendar year in Thailand).