XLance

35 minutes ago, Capacitor said:

 

Interesting interpretation, do you work for the government by chance?

 

It's unlikely that AQI readings consistently above 150 for the last 24 hours are related to fog, which has not once in my lifetime given me a headache, scratchy throat, and itchy eyes.

No wonder there is so much misinformation and scare around if people cannot understand a simple message on a forum.

I replied to your comment about the visibility of Doi Suthep, not about the current AQI level. With an AQI of 150 or 200 (the reason why I used that value in my previous post), you will see Doi Suthep without any issues, even from Hand Dong in a low humidity atmosphere. Since the humidity lately is between 50 and 100%, this reduces visibility by 200 to 300%. If you don't see Doi Suthep right now, it's ~10% because of the haze due to pollution, ~90% because of the fog due to humidity

14 minutes ago, XLance said:

I would find surprising that PM2.5 and PM0.1 would not be mildly proportional to <10^-8m particles, not correlated though, depending on sources. If it's polluted for PM2.5, it's likely to be polluted for PM0.1 and vice-versa.

ah well, it is surprising: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019311110

But my remarks about Chiang Mai burning season pollution remain valid though, the particulate size distribution of smoke from grass/shrub burning is relatively well defined and relatively properly monitored by PM2.5

Quote

In short,current PM2.5 meters are ineffective in measuring pollution as they don't count the very smallest particles-nanoparticles,which recent research suggests are a much larger cause of illness & death

Not sure exactly what was said but the definition for PM2.5 measurement is all particles between 2500nm and 30nm. Of course, there are particles below that size, but I would find surprising that PM2.5 and PM0.1 would not be mildly proportional to <10^-8m particles, not correlated though, depending on sources. If it's polluted for PM2.5, it's likely to be polluted for PM0.1 and vice-versa.

As for Chiang Mai, if we stick only to the particles produced by burning, it's around 150nm with a 2sigma between 60nm and 250nm. The amount of particles below 30nm is around 1% so the PM2.5 in Chiang Mai seems to me to be perfectly appropriate to monitor the pollution during the burning season.

23 hours ago, Capacitor said:

3rd straight winter in Chiang Mai and this December has been ridiculously bad. I don't recall a single day in February last year when the mountain vanished behind an impenetrable veil of smoke like today.

 

Obviously it can't be vehicle emissions; is there a fire map or other means to see where the smoke is coming from? Not that it will change anything, but at least to have an idea of what's happening and why.

Somehow, a lot of people seems to have forgotten that normal weather plays a big role in atmospheric visibility. What we had for the last few days is just fog (and a minor component of air pollution).

The humidity level between 4 and 7am these days is basically 100%. Since it doesn't really rain, that humidity remains in the atmosphere and create a fog (not a haze).

Humidity concentration can considerably limit how far you can see.

Based on this diagram, with an AQI of 200 (which is bad in itself), the visibility can be around 20 km (what it would be in March-April) or around 5 km like it is right now.

https://www.chiangmaidoctor.com/burning-season

20 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Congratulations to the Tories and the Brexit bunch. But please don't let it go to your heads. It seems to me this was much more about what people don't want (Corbyn) than what they do want. 

My feeling as well, and a vote to make sure that Brexit happens quickly. I assume a lot of people who voted Remain have enough by now and an hypothetical 2nd referendum probably would not have helped. Scotland has third option with a independence referendum, so results don't surprise too much there.

It's 'fun' to watch the mess you are in for the past few years, but I would assume that Europeans probably are not that upset by this result either.

On 10/19/2019 at 6:30 PM, FolkGuitar said:

On 10/19/2019 at 11:26 AM, worgeordie said:

I never knew earthquakes made a sound,

 

I've lived through three major quakes. Two in California, and one in Japan. Close enough in all three to have everything knocked off my shelves in the kitchen and all my bookshelves, and structural damage to my house in Japan. As is normal in Japan, all our large, tall furniture (amoires. dressers, sideboards, TV, etc.,) was bolted to the walls so didn't fall over on us, but the quakes shook us out of bed and scared the living daylights out of us!

Two of the quakes sounded like freight trains coming through my living room. The third was absolutely silent.

 

I don't like earthquakes

 

I went through well, i guess tens of earthquakes (part of my job) and they make noise, but the further you are from the epicentre, the more it will be in the infrasound range (like a heavy truck on a road nearby...) or even lower. P-waves can be in the 30-40Hz range and transferred to the air; S-waves are silent but can be felt.

Closer to the epicentre, it is often in the audible range for humans as higher pitch waves haven't been absorbed to heavily yet.

That's of course independent of any human-related noise (furnitures, buildings, cars, not so rigid materials, etc.). So I'm just talking about the sound it makes in the middle of dry flat field.

On 10/19/2019 at 3:03 PM, cmsally said:

Maybe because the epicentre was quite close to the surface.

 

Hypocentre is calculated at 6km deep but it would not matter too much for the perception of it.

However, distance to epicentre can change the perception of the earthquake. P & S and more importantly surface waves arrive more or less simultaneously so it feel to be more sudden.

The further you are from the epicentre, the lower the pitch is going to be as well as higher frequencies get absorbed.

Then there are strictly local variations that can make an earthquake felt differently only a hundred meter apart.

2 hours ago, eyecatcher said:

They are limestone quarries.

No limestone there,

These quarrries are in the Oligocene conglomerate that forms most of Mae Ping valley in Chiang Mai area. Similar formation than in Pha Chor; sedimentation modalities are generally more energetic elsewhere (means more pebbles than Pha Chor which is an alternance of coarse sandstone & medium conglomerate).

From what I've heard, these quarries (karstic sinkholes are very rare in non-carbonate rocks) are the result of extraction to build roads and railways more than 20 years ago. I didn't see the records for that.

As for the edge of those quarries, it depends on areas, but the rock matrix is quite coherent to have an exploitation front quite vertical.

14 hours ago, Tayaout said:

Ash does add potassium. Charcoal add water retention and promote beneficial bacteria. However the best method is composting like you said but it also require the most time and energy. 

Doesn't add potassium or make it more bio-available (in fact it's slightly worse in that regard), it only adds something if you bring ash from somewhere else. However, charcoal can arguably have a better humidity retention than tilling.

In lower Maewang valley, I rarely see rice field burning, they just plough the field and plant corn or onions depending how late in the year it is. Burning is just supposedly to be bushfire fuel burns but the true reason are heet thob mushrooms.

This from Pontianak, Indonesia on Monday. Just to put the Chiang Mai burning in perspective?

 

 

I know two wrongs don't make a right. But I doubt it ever gets this bad?

Humidity can play a big role in visibility. Chiang Mai has that yellow tinge to the smog and very low humidity that tells you that what you see is what you breathe...and it's not great. I don't mean that the south or Indonesia are not bad right now, but visibility only can be deceiving.

33 minutes ago, XLance said:

just worried about something (not the clinic by the way, but the post is gone)...

but I understand that it wasn't very appropriate for me to make that type of comment ????

7 hours ago, elektrified said:

Because you were caught out in another thread (the one where you defamed the Loy Kroh clinic).

just worried about something (not the clinic by the way, but the post is gone)...

3 hours ago, BrandoB said:

So Xlance your wife or girlfriend is Dr Artima from the Raintree clinic is that right?

yes, well, we changed the name because it attracted too many people seeking "alternative cures" ????

10 minutes ago, elektrified said:

Convenient that your wife runs this clinic - no?

How do you know she's my wife?

Anyway, absolutely, very convenient ????

On 8/6/2019 at 9:38 PM, Golden Triangle said:

Everything is pointing to using an agent, sorry but that is true, you may as well get used to the idea because otherwise you won't get what you want.

I did my marriage extension in June, no agent, no issues either but it sometimes requires paying attention to some details, even if it sounds stupid and insignificant.

Now, using an agent starts to be the norm in other countries than Thailand. In Australia, it's even an immigration lawyer that you need. When you pay 10000$ for a visa, I guess paying another $2000 for a lawyer is a minor thing (that's just to put things in a financial context compared to the mere 2000 THB we pay here).

21 hours ago, BrandoB said:

Not sure I would go to see a dr that has a website domain name "chiangmaidoctor", seems a bit suspicious!!

???? , but I'm definitely more likely to remember a web or email address like that than healthcaremedicalclinic.com cited above ????

by the way, a friend just did the work permit at the 'suspicious' Dr recently; 25 minutes, no blood test, just fingerprick - that would definitely be quicker than hospitals where it takes at least 2h for them to do the lab test.

14 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

Sort of what I was thinking. December would have maybe subsided in long lines. Why did you collect the sticker in April?

Not sure, I think they told me to come back in April. As long as they would give me access, I wasn't in a rush to collect it.

1 hour ago, Bill97 said:

Recent years pretty mobbed up at all times. I have been using an agent, about 250 baht so do not go myself.

I've been this year in December to submit the document (already filled), I didn't have more than 3 minutes of queue.

...and to collect the sticker in April, at best 10 people were there, and the 'farang' box of sticker is separate, so 30 seconds of waiting time ?!?

Maybe I was lucky, that was the first and only time I went there.

in terms of low quality cheap wood plank and beams (think pallet-type of wood), I buy them in Lamphun on the road that connects Lamphun [11] to highway [1147] Muubaan Narathani. Artisans in that area do all kind of furniture sold at high prices in CM but quite cheap on site, and sell their building materials as well.

CM Mediclinic in Chang Pheuak https://www.cmmediclinic.com/

or Raintree Medical Practice near MaeHia market https://www.chiangmaidoctor.com/ are other places; these are English-speaking clinics.

Blood test is necessary for Syphillis (VDRL or RPR)

I live in MaeWang as well (T. Thung Pi) at the end of an electric line (~1km from the transformer, voltage drop is not pretty). I got used to the 170 volt and cope with it, ...and farmers hitting all the lines with their longan trucks...and farmers feeding the public electric line with a generator during blackout (or not..) ...and farmers swapping neutral and live on the public line as well..., I did everything I can to protect my own line but well, it has its limits ???? and people in the village have no clue what I'm complaining about (hence why it doesn't bother them if neutral is suddenly hot).

Back up for <150V is currently a generator but I will eventually switch full solar in a couple of years. I live in the foothills and have no hope it will improve in the foreseeable future.

Hi all,

I'm looking for a photographer in Chiang Mai that is skilled and has accessories to do newborn photography (you know, these people that manage to make these little crying-pooping monsters look like angels ????). I found a lot of studios in Bangkok but so far nothing in CM. Any information is welcome.

Cheers,

16 hours ago, Samuel Smith said:

Until the rains stop for a couple of days...

The rain will clean the air, but the very high particulates level in the air are not caused by the absence of rain.

You need a source (bushfires have reduced a lot, so air pollution is now mostly associated with typical city pollution) and the right meteorological conditions (inversion layer, which is rarely possible at this time of the year). Other factors are secondary.

Reduced source and no meteorological process to accumulate particulates cannot lead to very high particulates concentrations, rain or no rain.

On 5/27/2019 at 9:17 PM, GregTN said:

If I understood you correctly they wanted the TM7 application hand written in blue ink. I wonder if they will still accept the computer typed form?

Well, I normally used a typed form as well, but the checklist I had requested documents filled with a blue pen. They might still accept filled pdf; I just didn't try so that they couldn't whinge about it and I wouldn't have to rush filling forms.