CygnusX1

And…?

The beauty of science is that it’s self-correcting. Nothing is ever considered as proven beyond all doubt, and in your example - I think you mean something like a new drug that was trialled on just 8 mice? - there would be heaps of young researchers eager to advance their careers by pointing out deficiencies in the trial. Not sure what you mean by “the speed of science”. It’s true that establishing the efficacy and safety of new drugs takes a long while, which is why some cancer patients are given special dispensation to be given a promising new drug that hasn’t yet passed all clinical trials.

4 gold crowns on molars on separate occasions 5-8 years ago at one of the fancier looking places in Bangkok. Apparently gold (actually gold alloy) is still the best in many ways. Around $A1,000 per crown (no root canals), would have been much cheaper if not gold. Dentist told me the crowns would last from 6 to 12 years, all good so far. He was also a specialist who travelled between clinics. Another saving is in X rays needed before work on the crown, almost negligible cost compared to Australia.

Not at Jomtien beach. I sit on the sand with the Russians, close to an area of chairs, and have never received even a hint that I should be using a chair. At least Jomtien and Pattaya beaches have huge free areas, unlike some beaches in Europe, which are either largely or completely covered in sun loungers. I’ve noticed now that Xmas/New Year is over, Wednesdays have returned to being chair free, which must hurt the earnings of the operators and confuse tourists, although it certainly does make the beach look more attractive.

Modern medical science joyfully embraces effective drugs used or inspired by traditional medicine (google discovery of artemisinin for an example). Just like any other new drug, however, they have to be proved effective according to the rigorous standards of the scientific method, which goes well beyond anecdotal evidence.

Lots of “cans” and “‘maybes” in that article. I’m just wondering if there have been any studies comparing different countries, regions or cities. Something like a comparison of lung cancer deaths among lifelong non smokers between, say, Sydney and Bangkok? Not easy, with so many confounding variables. Presumably the deleterious effect of breathing in atmospheric PM2.5 is way less than smoking cigarettes.

Thanks for this, interesting, together with the link to the very comprehensive Greenpeace article. It still seems to me though, that they’re estimating number of excess deaths only from measurement of average PM2.5 levels, making the assumption that PM2.5 is correlated with excess deaths. Not saying they’re wrong, my gut feeling is that they’re broadly correct, but it would have been nice to see them provide data from actual studies of actual diagnosed causes of deaths, maybe from some of the published scientific papers they list at the end of the article. Otherwise, they’re just assuming the truth of what they’re trying to prove.

Completely agree. It’s especially a problem if you live in an apartment and want to be considerate to your neighbours.

Does anyone know if there have been any studies comparing rates of lung cancer, for instance, among geographical areas with substantially different average PM2.5 levels? It seems intuitively obvious to me that breathing air with high PM2.5 is bad for health, and I have an air purifier running at the moment, but in science it ultimately comes down to the data, which sometimes disproves even the most obvious theory. Of course, such studies wouldn’t be easy, as there would be so many confounding factors to allow for, such as smoking rates and use of indoor fires for heating and cooking. I have seen references in Wikipedia that smoking is overwhelmingly the leading cause of lung cancer, which was apparently a rare disease before widespread adoption of that bizarre practice.

Sorry guys, I seem to have jinxed us with the ill advised comment I made yesterday earlier in this thread - “At least I’ve been able to see Koh Larn all the time, if that’s completely obscured it’s my test for PM2.5 having reached New Delhi levels.” Koh Larn was completely obscured this morning, although I can make it out now through the haze.

Thanks for that, as well as the picture, very useful info.

You’re a lot tougher than me with no AC running, and I live in a similar location, also high floor and shady side, but have AC on constantly (except for the cold snap a few weeks ago). If you think the air at Jomtien’s fresh, I’d hate to think what Lake Mabprachan is like. At least I’ve been able to see Koh Larn all the time, if that’s completely obscured it’s my test for PM2.5 having reached New Delhi levels.

When you were running the purifiers 24/7, how often were you replacing the filters? I suppose it depends on how bad the pollution was.

The posters here attacking Israel should google “Sam Harris sin of moral equivalence”. A wonderful essay (also a podcast).

Or recovered the card from the machine, as it wasn’t retained as a result of 3 incorrect PINs. After a long absence from Thailand and consequent expiration of my Bangkok Bank debit card, I was surprised that they issued me with a new card on the spot with no prior notification by me, previously thought the cards were made in a special factory somewhere.

Much better than in Australia. I used an ATM outside a bank there during banking hours - correct PIN first time, accepted, hit withdrawal, how much, input modest amount that was a fraction of the dollars in the account, machine ate the card. Went straight inside, told we can do nothing to recover card, have to post a new one. Lucky I wasn’t a tourist in Australia.

Can’t remember if it was in Pattaya or Jomtien, but I saw a sign on one condo block offering units with either a sea or a mountain view. Now if it was on Croatia’s Adriatic coast, with a backdrop of the mile high Dinaric Alps rising straight from the sea, I might prefer a mountain view condo, but I think that the mountains of the Pattaya hinterland are a little underwhelming in comparison.

Saw a shop selling mineral specimens on the ground floor of River City. I might have been interested, but couldn’t see any prices, I hate having to ask the price. Last month there was an exhibition of spectacular mineral specimens such as enormous amethysts at Icon Siam on the river, don’t know if it’s still there. Some were for sale, if you had a few tens of thousands of dollars to spare.

I think the more expensive air purifiers do have inbuilt meters - mine just has a red light that shows high PM2.5. It was cheaper and better for me to buy a low cost air purifier and a good meter. For instance, I can easily take the meter outside on to the balcony, where it has shown some pretty disturbing readings the last few days.

I don’t know about the rolls for air conditioners, but the little air purifier I have is very effective. On the last few polluted days, my PM2.5 meter shows the level dropping from around 50 to around 10 only half an hour after switching the air purifier on.

Just an update for anyone who might have the same problem as I had. On the router configuration page http://192.168.1.1/3bb the username and password were not the ones on my documentation from 3BB - they were just “admin” and “3bb”. To get the validate code which confused me so much, as I thought it might be from an SMS I had to somehow get, all I had to do was click in the box next to “validate code” to generate the code. After that, changing to a secure WiFi password was easy. The only thing was that when I left the security standard as the hybrid WPA/WPA2, I got an indication that the security was weak. Changed it to just WPA2, and system seems happy, and I don’t think I’ll be connecting any WPA2 incompatible devices.

Yes, looks like I’d have to know how to open the configuration page for the first router as an initial step, which I don’t know how to do, but thanks for your suggestion, might be an option for my set-up back in Australia, where I do know how to configure the router. Why would even a very strong password for just a single router be less secure?

I’ve just had 3BB VDSL set up. They’ve set my WiFi password as my phone number - how secure is that, seems to me it could be easily hacked? Should I change it to something a lot more secure? Can this be done on the router configuration page? I can open the router login page from http://192.168.1.1/3bb. It shows a user name that corresponds to the “username internet” on the documentation I have, and asks for a password that I assume is the “password internet” on the documentation, which does seem secure. It also asks for a “validate code”, which I don’t have. Or is it better to follow ozimoron’s suggestion to chain another router to the original 3BB router? Apologies for my ignorance.

From overheard conversations, most of the non Thais on Jomtien beach seem to be Russian, but since I’m no expert on Slavic languages, some might be from other countries, even Ukraine. I suspect that most are staying in cheaper places than VT5 though. I have no issues with them, nice enough people. I’ve even had to employ the totality of my knowledge of the Russian language - “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Russian”, when a friendly lady swam up to me and said something in rapid Russian, probably along the lines of “This sure beats winter in Siberia, doesn’t it”.

What’s wrong with Foodmart at the airport bus station? A lot closer to the beach than the places above, and an amazingly good range of products for such a small supermarket. Very cheap chicken fillets, and a reasonable range of fruit and vegetables.