pseudorabies

Using a good VPN is wise if you are going to be using any public WiFi in airports, hotels etc.  They also help if you want to stream from Amazon and other providers.

12 hours ago, slsmith38 said:

I know I am wasting my time with this post but have any of you Sinovac bashers actually had any real dealings with the Chinese, worked with Chinese companies and spent time in China at Chinese manufacturing facilities? I personally have for many years and have a lot of respect for what the Chinese can do well. Have a look at all your belongings and see how many were made in China. You have a perception based on very little factual information. I do not believe the Chinese vaccines are any worse or better than other brands and they did use tried and tested methods in their development – unlike Pfizer and others. Also, please don’t quote efficacy results as all the vaccines were tested under completely different circumstances and stages of the pandemic. I admit it would not be my first choice as it is not yet recognized internationally which makes travel more difficult, but if I could get a Sinovac jab tomorrow I would certainly take it.

I've dealt with Chinese CRO's for in vivo pharmacology studies and one CMO for biologic production. I won't go into details but I'll wait for AZ, Pfizer or Moderna. It's worth mentioning that for the biomedical sciences their best and brightest typically leave to do their PhDs and post-docs in western countries. Historically few have returned although that is changing. The scientists I worked with in China imo didn't compare to their Chinese counterparts in the US. This may have something to do with why the Sinovac vaccine is the most "primitive" of the covid vaccines being used currently.

I moved to Bangkok from northern California about 9 months ago. When I lived in the San Francisco bay area I was homesick for New York City.  I missed things like bagels, good bread, pizza, European food, authentic human beings.  The way I see it Bangkok brings me more of the things I was missing than California ever did (although I haven't found good bagels here... yet). 

So, no, with the exception of family, I hardly miss it.

47 minutes ago, clivebaxter said:

Only another 45 million to go then

Until we have the illusion of immunity.  Then we open up to tourists and watch the <deleted> really hit the fan

2 hours ago, ChipButty said:

Making copies is not exclusive to Thailand

I was referring to China as the fake batteries were from Shenzen, China and it was a Chinese man who was caught with them. That and the fact that China has ripped everything off from the west from cars to handbags to software code to plant seeds.

For a culture so obsessed with "saving face" they sure lose a lot of it by being the worlds source for rip-off's of other people's work.  Nothing says "We're either too lazy or lack the ingenuity to create something on our own" like this non-stop, shameless theft of intellectual property that we've seen for the past 30 or so years.

9 hours ago, Solinvictus said:

What gets me is these Evangelical Christians or simply active Christians on the far right which compose mainly of whites that according to Chris Hedges foster 'hate.' Their adherence to boot-licking, the corporate state, the police, and religion brings forth fascism as we see it today developing within the US.

 

The only solution is to bring people together from all classes and backgrounds to 'fight' against the upper classes and those who exploit the working class. One who realizes this and can acknowledge this is a true friend.

Much of what right wing Christians (aka Christian Nationalists) adhere to comes from political tribalism.  Pro-corporation, anti-tax, anti-government, anti-environment, etc. is just part of the Republican party package deal.  Before Nixon's implementation of the southern strategy these so-called Christians were perfectly happy existing in the Democratic Party and with their platform.  It wasn't until the Democrats started supporting civil rights (which had been part of the Republican platform) that they started abandoning the party.  

For these Christians home is where the hate is.  And as they've shown over the last 50 years they are perfectly willing to act/vote against their own and their children's interests to live there.

In the US this has happened because of the moratorium on evictions due to COVID.  Recently there was a case in Riverside, California (which already heavily favors tenants) where the seller refused to leave and the buyers couldn't do much about it because of the eviction restrictions. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/california-couple-barred-from-their-own-home-by-eviction-moratorium-2021-3

But it sounds like you have more options here, both legal and semi-legal.

If you are worried about retribution after forced removal can you tell him that you have immediate construction planned and rent a condo for him in his name for one month?  It's a cost but it might be negligible in the long run.

Best of luck.  It must really suck to have this happen after looking forward to owning your own place. 

8 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

I don't think water a good idea.  Isopropyl if you have it or other alcohol.  

I know that instinctively water sounds like a bad idea but it is often used to clean circuit boards.  Salts from the gecko's body are what causes the short.  However they are not very soluble in alcohols.  The salts will readily dissolve in water though. But it has to be very clean distilled/deionized water that won't leave a residue once it dries.  

Personally I'd do the DI water followed by Isopropyl alcohol, anhydrous if available.  I'd probably avoid 70% since you don't know what kind of water the manufacturer used for formulation ????

One of many resluts from google

https://www.quick-pcba.com/pcb-news/how-to-clean-a-circuit-board.html#:~:text=Yes%2C you can use water,it has poor electrical conductivity.

I lived in southern Florida for a few years and really liked the tropical climate.  And it was there that I met a Thai woman who brought me to visit her homeland.  Thailand was on my list of places to go but once I got here I found that I really loved it.  Each time on my way to Suvarnabhumi to fly home there was a voice in my head saying "stay.... don't leave".  Over the years the voice got louder and louder.  Then with covid, all the BS going on in the US and at work we decided to pull the trigger on retirement a few years earlier than planned.

In short, the people, the food, sabai-sabai lifestyle, tropical climate, proximity to other SE Asian countries like Lao, Cambodia and Burma (????) that I want to visit or re-visit.

Thanks for posting this.  This has removed a lot of my guilt from using sticky-traps to get rid of some small geckos that had been hanging around my desktop mid-tower computer.

Like Bankruatsteve said, I'd try getting rid of the gecko and wiping the board off with distilled water (don't use tap as it likely has dissolved salts). Let it dry and then see if it works.  Hopefully the gecko just caused a logic error on the board without causing damage.

17 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

Again, I have looked at the local numbers in Chonburi and they support the national numbers, not including the prison system. 

 

If you have data to support your feeling, please share. Otherwise, you are just repeating a Monty Python sketch. 

I was in a similar situation about two years ago working with a CRO in the US that was running some in vivo rodent studies for one of my groups.  In one particular study the numbers for individual mice were identical across a 5 day period.  We had never seen this before from many previous studies we'd run with them.  Many emails were exchanged as well as a few conference calls.  They never gave a satisfactory explanation and we never believed the numbers, chalking it up to junior personnel who, since they had no vested interest in producing accurate data, were in a rush to get home during a weekend.  We never did see numbers again like we did in that one instance.

Just like with the Trump administration, which we are now learning DID screw with the data to make it look more favorable to Trump, I don't trust this administration to generate or show data that might cast them in the worst light.

The ink used to stamp the Import Documents for approval is very expensive and must be freshly prepared for each vaccine import request.  Once prepared it must be used within 3-5 minutes after which it must be discarded and a new batch made.  Adding to this the shelf life of unprepared ink is itself very short and must be used within 1 day of receipt (Note that the import of this ink requires its own special approval and yet another special ink). Making matters even worse is that the lead time for this indispensable ink is on the order of months.  It's only due to the dedication to excellence of the agencies tasked with examining the safety and efficacy of these never-before-used vaccines that we have any hope of importing them at all.

And don't get me started on the extra-special ink used to approve Form 27b stroke 6

11 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Some mental disorders also are a true medical situation where medications are needed daily to assist the individual.

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/messages/2021/one-year-in-covid-19-and-mental-health

Emerging data also indicate that people with schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses have also been hard hit by the pandemic. Individuals with schizophrenia, for instance, are nearly 10 times more likely to contract COVID-19 and are nearly three times more likely to die from it if they do fall ill, compared with individuals who do not have a mental illness.

Schiz was the one indication I was thinking of where people might be at greater risk due to self control issues.  Maybe bipolar as well. People with OCD and/or agoraphobia might actually be better off.  But the way that Thailand is calling this out seems strange since I don't recall western countries formally doing this AND people in Asian countries with mental health issues are typically under-represented and under-treated due to stigma and lack of appreciation that mental health issues are true medical issues.  Are those with drug addiction or alcoholism also included in this? Doubt it.  I think that those who register under this criteria will be a tiny percentage of those who are affected with a mental disorder. (except the expats ????)

Or maybe it's part of the government's daily drip of press releases to make it look like there is action

I'm curious why those with "mental disorders" are prioritized over healthy individuals.

Maybe this is the government's way of reaching out to the expat community and getting us vaccinated?

38 minutes ago, Bkktodd said:

Its I LOVE YOU.  wow. Dont you have google or a gf that watches youtube?  Everyone knows this sign 

You didn't follow the discussion. We're talking about two different hand signs.

Although right now I'm thinking of a third 555...

13 minutes ago, Clarkey611 said:

I believe it is the Ronnie James Dio signature salute , both for Black Sabbath and Heaven and Hell.

You might be right. I was thinking of Ozzy's picture on Black Sabbath's Volume IV but looking at it again it looks like it's a peace sign.

Scale up is not trivial and rarely goes perfectly.  That said, how quickly it gets resolved depends on the experience of those running the program.  I never believed their timelines and figured that they were just continuing with their Hope For The Best, Plan For The Best thinking and strategy, which seems to be baked into their DNA at this point.  So I'm guessing that pilot looked good, it was this that generated the material that passed QA/QC and that they are planning on doing this smaller scale to produce vaccines.  But will this interfere with efforts to iron out the wrinkles they've encountered with scale-up?

One thing is certain - I would not want to work for Siam Biosciences right now.  

3 minutes ago, robblok said:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-obese-countries

 

I was wrong there are more countries that are more obese then the US

A lot of the pacific islands have a very high incidence of obesity due to their metabolic "thrifty" phenotype/physiology and western diets.  Micronesians, for example, are particularly fond of turkey tails and spam.  Combined with a metabolism that has evolved to make the most of every calorie consumed (due to limited resources on these islands) it's a recipe for metabolic syndrome.

As a colleague of mine once said "Those who are most in need of losing weight are the least able to do anything about it".

Bitlocker was for me the main selling point for getting Win10-Pro.  I used to keep all of my passwords on a text doc on an encrypted drive (before that writing them down in a notebook) but eventually gave in and have started using 1Password.  I think overall it's more secure for a number of reasons and definitely easier and faster.  Keeping track of scores of passwords between myself and my wife had become a headache.  So far no regrets.

1 hour ago, Susco said:

 

No I said you were exaggerating, which you are now doing again by make false claims about what I said.

Sheesh.  You are exhausting...  And wrong. Repeatedly.  Give it a rest.