swain

Yes yes hard line everything is peachy keen in Chiang Mai is understood..

I have more intense cases of Bronchitis every year I get colds.

Though could be because of age. My wife was diagnosed with Asthma

and now my 2 1/2 year old.

Medical groups back

Oregon field burning ban Oregon is dealing with the same issues...

"The Oregon Medical Association believes particulate pollution can

aggravate asthma," said Paige Webster, spokeswoman for the

organization that is made up of 7,300 physicians statewide.

Field burning "constitutes a major threat to public health in

Oregoni". (and I believe Chiang Mai)

He was joined at a news conference by Dana Kaye of the American Lung

Association of Oregon, who said there's scientific evidence showing a

link between exposure to particulate pollution and increased incidence

of asthma and heart disease.

"It doesn't have to be a weeklong exposure" to cause health problems,

Kaye said. "We're seeing things happen in just a few minutes or

hours."

I lived in Chiang Mai and did not have business for 10 years without being bothered by pollution. If it were not for all the harping on the internet, I would hardly ever even think about it for more a day or two in March every year.

okay so for the Record UG is NOT actually bothered by the pollution.

Please everybody make a note if you missed his previous 500 posts stating the exact same thing.

I feel like many people on Thai Visa are hesitant to state their true opinions about certain things because they are attacked by certain self righteous posters who do their best to cower others into not admitting that certain issues are not as one sided as they would like to pretend (and I am not refering to CobraSnakeNecktie in any way).

A lot of us have seen how Priceless is ridiculed on a regular basis for providing statistics that prove that pollution in Chiang Mai is not nearly as bad as many people have claimed. He is a very intelligent, very personable man - with no business or so forth -no reason not to be honest - who is simply trying to present evidence for something that he has been studying for some time. However, some posters who resent his feedback mock him as some sort of evil scientist manipulating figures and actively working for the pollution industry.

Yes, I do comment frequently on some unpopular ideas, hoping that posters with much more expertise - like Priceless or Kevin - will jump in and add something to the debate. Some very learned people just like to know that they are not alone in their opinions and others could not give a fig. There are a lot of people out there who only are only mildly irritated by the air and only for a few days a year.

Kevin does not think that what we say on here affects real life one way or another, but I feel that maybe it does. Ten years ago, Chiang Mai was not thought of as polluted, but the internet has changed all that. If some people are purposely exaggerating the problem, what is wrong with trying to get to the truth of the matter? We all want Chiang Mai to be a clean city - each and every day - , but chasing away tourists with lies, exaggerations and false impressions is not going to help Chiang Mai get any better.

The amazing thing was I was not asked for my passport. To be honest this is the first time in 8 years that I have ever been pulled over. They told my passenger that the reason they didn't need to see my passport is that I had a 5 year drivers licence. They said that this is a good indication that everything else is in order. I wont argue with them and everything was in order but I didn't have it with me. They did not try to hit us up for a bribe and had us drive to the police department to pay a 200 baht fine. Curious, my passenger told me that they charged her only 200 baht because she was thai and that it would have been 400 for me. Can anyone verify this???

Condolences to Pat on her loss. I will miss her food while she is away. Good Burritos, Burgers and pizza in the evenings and a great breakfast menu as well.. Easy to have it your way as she speaks English, in fact lived in the USA for some time.

Apple tablet could write a new chapter for e-books

Electronic books make up an estimated 3 percent to 5 percent of all book sales.

Gecko Gardens and bar has a very good Hamburger that has 200 grams of beef, generous portion of fries, and generous amount of trimmings plus salad. He makes his own dill pickles which are sliced large. Price is 99 baht with cheese 1.09 baht and on Tuesdays he has burger madness which the same burger is only 79 baht. Its the best deal in Chiang Mai for burgers that I have seen and it tastes great. Will get a picture next time.

Plus for being downtown and central to everything it has good beer specials Chang 3 for 149 baht. Plus they just started serving Lao beer.

Paper books will only be replaced by something else that uses up wood, so I'm not sure how important that is in the long run. Instead of books, we will have more choices in toilet paper - big deal.

hmmm yes your right for sure. If we aren't making books we will still chop down trees to make greater stores of toilet paper. We wouldn't want to actually leave any trees for trees sake?

As far as being good for business, I disagree that e-books will help anything. It is my opinion that book reading and book sales will go down quite a bit just because the format is so much less satisfying. We have been losing readers for a long time even though attractive books almost advertise themselves.

Your right again.. the idiots on Wall street and Madison avenue couldn't possibly come up with more exciting ways to advertise and promote e-books and content. In fact through out the years I have seen less and less advertising coming from this group of dullards.

Of course publishers will save on paper costs, but those paper costs are what keep pirating books from skyrocketing. Buying the paper means much less profit for those who cannot buy it in huge lots, so pirates mostly avoid printing books.

The truth is that if e-books succeed, no one is going to want to pay for them, they are going to download them for free and writers will have no reason to produce them anymore - money is one of the main reasons that professionals make writing a career.

Wow dead on again.. Things that are easy to pirate could not possibly any make money and will all but disappear. I have seen a steady decline in the money being made on video games like Tour of duty, Modern warfare.. ( they reported 1 billion dollars in sales so far in the first 6 months ) Musical artists have all but disappeared as well. I think we will see Brittney on food stamps any day now.

I know I sound negative, but when it comes to e-books, I feel more than justified. After the dust settles, and all the giving stuff away and the tricks to get people to accept them have calmed down, I'm afraid that we will realize that we have lost much more than we have gained.

I think your right about one thing. You do have a vested interest in books.

I think of it as freeing.. you can get all your music, books, pictures, communications, internet and videos in a device you can carry with you. This is the future and the future is now!~

However good these machines become, I'd cry if someone took away my book collection

Recently purchased Richard Dawkins ' The Greatest Show on Earth' in hardback, not only a great read but a beautiful object'

I've come to terms reluctantly with mp3's, saying that if I still lived in the UK I'd of kept a vinyl collection.

Dvd's are competing for space with my book collection , they might get a culling at some point.

Maybe I'm the last of the luddites, I got my first mobile phone only 4 years ago and still have the same one.

Yes I will wait only because I would kick myself repeatedly if I settled on something less than optimal. Ready for it though. Ready to completely eliminate paper books, newspapers, and magazines from my life. Music and video already in digital format only.. a great space saver. ... oh I will keep a book case with some old cool looking books, but for aesthetic purposes only. Something like in the movie "The Time Machine" based on the H.G. Wells book of the same title where the man picks up one of the books and it falls to dust in his hands. Then is able to move his hand through a complete shelf of books all turning to dust.

"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy [things] we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history… No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war… our great depression is our lives." Tyler Durden

What this has to do with what I have been talking about I am not quite sure but I love that quote...

E-reader boom kindles a variety of new options

Some day in the far off future seems to have come into motion today at CES.

What I have been waiting for has arrived -a full page reader. Not the small hand held Kindle.

This is what makes it work for me.

LAS VEGAS – Samsung, the leading maker of phones and TVs for the U.S. market, is launching e-book readers early this year, joining a host of manufacturers who hope to capitalize on the shift away from paper books.

Samsung Electronics Inc. will be launching two models with 6-inch and 10-inch "electronic ink" screens, similar to the sizes of Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle models. They'll be able to download public-domain books from Google Inc. via Wi-Fi, and they'll come with styluses so users can write on the screen.

The models will cost $399 and $699 respectively, Samsung announced at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

I hope the opposite happens. I really hope these devices make the newspaper, magazine, and book go away as an option or make it expensive enough so that it will discourage the purchase. Just like the extreme tax on cigarettes. It will be better over all for the environment and lessen the strain on our landfills. Its destiny .. You see the signs now with newspapers closing right and left. The writing is on the wall.. or kindle if you may.....If you don't like the devices as they are then vote with your dollars for the devices that you do like. If its not there yet... then by all means continue using books, magazines and newspapers. I have replaced all that with my computer and a good monitor. The handhelds I have seen leave something to be desired but its not that far away... to ignore it is to put your head in the sand.

Cant wait for the day when you can download it directly to your brain. Plug me in!!

Kindle has tried to produce an e-book that is comfortable to read for a long time, but has failed over and over. I own a few bookstores so I am watching carefully.

They - the publishers - spent lots of money hyping the thing and you can hardly find a negative article about them, but the floodgates of complaints will open when and if trendy people start buying them in large numbers.

You don't have to pay for a expensive machine, but if you don't mind reading a book on your computer that is nothing but basic PDF files, why pay $300 dollars for a kindle?

The M16 rifle was marketed as a great success for 20-30 years, before they actually fixed the thing and made it work, but for many years they were actually pieces of junk that caused a lot of soldiers to lose their lives.

IMHO after they stop all the freebies and hype, book readership will drop like never before. E books are the worst thing that has happened to the book industry in centuries.

If you are who I think you are, then I am a fairly good customer of yours. The basic fact is that a book is more comfortable to read, easier to use, and overall much more enjoyable than a Kindle or any electronic reader. Further, the experience of buying an e-book is no where near as enjoyable as that of browsing a book store. That said, for people who travel to places where books are hard to find, the electronic readers are a very nice alternative. In the old days (3 weeks ago) I used to travel with 25 books stuffed into my backpack. It made life in the airport even less enjoyable.

I also share your concern that e-readers (along with computers, cable tv, etc.) will cause a rapid and detrimental drop in reading. However, the technology is here, will improve and expand, and I personally will continue to explore it uses. Maybe we can discuss all of this next time I am in your place.

Cheers and accept my wishes for a very prosperous new year.

Thanks, and I agree with everything that you have said.

Of course there are uses for such a device, traveling in certain places, or being able to increase font size for people who have very bad vision. I just don't see them replacing actual books unless they are forced down our throats by publishers who do not want to pay for paper as it would increase their profits by a huge amount.

I really have nothing against e-books if the public are given a choice in buying them. My fears are that they will stop making traditional books almost completely so no one has a choice - like they they did with CD's and phonograph records.

Make sure your unit is grounded and that you have a textured rubber mat that you stand on when you shower. These problems are avoidable. Our place was not setup with the ground wire.. we had to run one down the side of the house for the shower unit. These units save electricity unlike in the USA where you have a hot water heater on all day and night keeping the hot water hot.

Off topic for a second.. but still in the same vein

I think Dunkin Donuts will be on the chopping block soon as well.. was in there the other day.. 42 baht for a donut... sheese.. same donut with Mr Donut is about a third of that. Plus I found it very strange that they didn't sell milk there.. Coffee or milk with a donut is the norm for most.

For a complete list and details on how this information was compiled please go to the link below.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/30/worlds-fr...hsbc-chart.html

ahh yes a great way to embrace the chunky air.. sucking it down in great big panda breaths.

Kantary Hills

Salad & Antipasto Buffet

Every Monday & Friday from 18:00 - 22:00 hrs.

True only Only 150 baht but this is more used as a segue into dinner and not dinner itself.

Wanted the cost conscience to be aware of this.

Just a note to all you cost conscience people that are going to Grandview hotels buffet. They have joined the ranks of many other great establishments and eliminated their beverage area and are now charging for water. Cost isn't much though 10 baht a bottle. Still free coffee and tea...

For those wanting free water, just ask for Tea and Coffee but ask them not too put the tea and coffee in

Dont even have to do that.. HOT water is free at the beverage bar so if your ok with a piping hot glass of water with lunch then its free... but cold water will cost you 10 baht.

They have a nice buffet as well.. on Wednesday night with 150 baht all you can eat pizza.. and or full Italian buffet for 250 baht and its very good and like you said with the reasonable wine prices .. not a bad evening at all... They import their own flower and cheese.

Just a note to all you cost conscience people that are going to Grandview hotels buffet. They have joined the ranks of many other great establishments and eliminated their beverage area and are now charging for water. Cost isn't much though 10 baht a bottle. Still free coffee and tea...

Interesting.. though its hard to believe it when all the houses around me in the hang dong area seem to be going down in their asking price.. Example... a house that was selling for 2.4 million baht two years ago.. is now listed for 1.7 and still no takers. I see this over and over again. One that was 6.5 being sold for 3.8 ...with as many people losing their homes I am guessing the real investment opportunity is buying from desperate sellers... Maybe this will change. I hope so... Maybe this news is a ray of light... in an otherwise bleak reality or maybe its the propaganda group that believes if you say it often enough it will come true.

I haven't experienced a traditional Xmas for around 13 years and I am not sentimental about it at all. We'll probably go to one of the normal nice hotel buffets. There's always a selection of Thai, Japanese and Western food. The Grandview only costs 120 baht. The western food usually includes roast spuds and pork/chicken if you need that fix. In the afternoon we'll probably watch a movie at airport plaza. I might get my ears cleaned as well.

Not that the price has changed that much ... but it has jumped up to 142 baht per person. Still one of the better deals in town.

It can happen... I know someone that did it ..for about 6500.. but they were looking for about a year.. and he is well tied into the community. So.. more than likely a long shot.

Geckos Garden bar is doing a Christmas dinner buffet for 200 baht, Turkey, stuffing, and many other goodies. All you can eat.. its open and so if its raining and it could be chilly as your basically outside. Not a place to bring your kids but if you want good food, low cost and nice beer specials.

Please mention that you saw it on Thaivisa as I have been trying to get him to advertise here.

Just a note.. This is the 24th or Christmas Eve dinner not Christmas day. Update on the menu.. Turkey, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, Sirloin tips, Yams, gravy, rolls. 6pm-8pm is the buffet

Geckos Garden bar is doing a Christmas dinner buffet for 200 baht, Turkey, stuffing, and many other goodies. All you can eat.. its open and so if its raining and it could be chilly as your basically outside. Not a place to bring your kids but if you want good food, low cost and nice beer specials.

Please mention that you saw it on Thaivisa as I have been trying to get him to advertise here.