Fat is a type of crazy

28 minutes ago, VincentRJ said:

I'm not sure it's mainly on the deniers' side, unless you are combining the term 'denial' with 'skepticism'.

 

Skepticism, perhaps due to a sense of the irrationality of an argument, or the presence of counteracting evidence which casts doubt on the truth of an argument, is the most fundamental aspect of scientific enquiry. Without it, there would be no scientific progress.

 

The behaviour of certain scientists who were earning a living in the tobacco industry, is an illuminating example of the bias that can result when earning a living might be in conflict with a 'potential' scientific truth which is still in the process of investigation, and which could destroy one's career if eventually proven to be correct.

 

The choice would be to either resign immediately and look for another job, perhaps despite having an expensive mortgage to pay on a house and having a wife and 5 young children to support, or to continue working in the tobacco industry and attempt to downplay the significance of smoking on lung cancer, hoping that the evidence for a significant risk will never become conclusive.

 

However, this problem is faced by many scientists in various industries, including the IPCC. Which is more important, complete scientific integrity and honesty, or earning a living?
 

There's many ways people sell their souls in life and that would be one of them. I am more sympathetic to people who might lie when their life is on the line. I am not sympathetic to a scientist who could simply take a lower paying job rather than sully the name of science, that  can lead to many more deaths or just a slowing down of progress, so Johnny can go to a good college.

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

You had me until you praised Ayn Rand.

I know what you mean. Sometimes you can read a book that acts as a catalyst to wake you up. A book like The Fountainhead, apparently based on Frank Lloyd Wright, had that effect.  The book shows  the idea of self reliance and a form of selfishness and how life affirming that can be. The architect who is not willing to give in to the consensus.

 You can understand her feelings about left wing things coming from the Soviet Union. 

Then I read Atlas Shrugged which went too far. 

 So then I went back to the middle. 

To be honest the novel is a bit dead to me. In my teens and twenties I read books constantly. Like romantic and light British novels by Iris Murdoch, Kingsley Amis, Daphne Du Maurier, Evelyn Waugh, P J Wodehouse and the like. Also modern American literature, Tom Wolfe, Jay McInerney etc. Throw in a Dosteovsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy and a Kafka.

Ayn Rand books changed my life though they are a bit extreme. She turned me from a lazy left leaning person to a bit more centrist with her right wing economics. Albert Camus left a big impression with his notions of living in the moment. 

Then I stopped reading. Just had enough. Not sure why. 

I don't think long term in many aspects of life and retirement is the same. I think I'll just rent somewhere in Thailand, keep the home in Australia, enjoy the lifestyle, if it gets too hot or tiresome go back home. Covid hasn't changed a thing. 

55 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

Nobody said that, it's just your fantasy.

Although this is not the right place, investigating and discussing corruption in science would be interesting,  don't you think?

 

I didn't say someone on this topic said that - it just seems to be an excuse people use on a range of topics from warming to covid.

Corruption is something that can affect science - in my opinion mainly on the deniers side e.g. affects of smoking, warming, etc - but it happens across the board in all facets of life where there is a buck to be made.

I do think if science denies the likelihood of your intelligent design theory it is extremely unlikely that it is due to those 3 reasons I mentioned. It's because it does not fit the facts at this time. 

 I haven't seen these posters all in one place since the News section was up and running.

I never had doubts but was a bit lazy to get it done. Waited a bit longer to get Pfizer rather than Astro Zeneca. Was a bit tempted to get Astro Zeneca as it used old technologies but when Pfizer got fully approved in the US I made the booking. Getting it this week. No cases in my area but still in harsh full lockdown in Melbourne Australia. 

8 minutes ago, RafPinto said:

Didn't know that TAT has now farangs on their pay list.

Just think you guys in Thailand might forget how those outside Thailand see the country. The hoops will be gone, or no more onerous than other countries, in two years. Australia has nice beaches, and there are attractive alternatives in Europe, but I think that's always been the case. Sign me up TAT. 

7 minutes ago, RafPinto said:

Didn't know that TAT has now farangs on their pay list.

Just think you guys in Thailand might forget how those outside Thailand see the country. The hoops will be gone, or no more onerous than other countries, in two years. Australia has nice beaches, and there are attractive alternatives in Europe, but I think that's always been the case. Sign me up TAT. 

14 minutes ago, Tanomazu said:

When women entered the workforce en masse due to the exceptional calamity that was world war two this opened the door to women flooding into the work world. It looked innocent at first, however, this came at a price.

 

Pair bonding was not invented by women. Before the advent of pair bonding both women and men were wildly promiscuous. You can still see this in chimpanzee and Bonobo society today. Promiscuity was the starting point. However, the problem with this was that only a small select group of men, the victors in male on male competition, then had unlimited access to mating with women. Until the less successful males figured something out, that they could trade provisioning for sexual access. After providing provisioning to a female the male could however find that another male swooped in and "stole" a pregnancy. Obviously that was a wasted investment, so the male required the female to be faithful to him. The female agreed in return for provisioning. This trading provisioning for sexual access can also be witnessed in chimpanzee and Bonobo society. Thus was pair bonding born.

 

https://www.pnas.org/content/109/25/9923

 

However, with the advent of women entering the work place and the welfare state it was clear that women no longer needed to provide sexual access in return for provisioning. The work place or the welfare state now did that. Finding a male now was no longer a matter of life or death, but merely of decrease or increase of luxuries, a better wardrobe or tv perhaps.

 

Hence the terminal decline of pair bonding in our current time, with some women, usually feminists, now refusing to pair bond altogether and refusing to have children, whilst others merely use it for material gain and swiftly abandon the male once his economic value has been extracted.

 

If we had never introduced women into the workforce the crisis in pair-bonding may have been averted and possibly would never have happened. Women also would be much happier this way, for even if radical feminists who live alone think it's wonderful, if you ask them a few decades later they're just bitter lonely people. However, above all the unhappiness of many men would have been avoided.

 

Now women have very little reason to stay faithful to a man, unless they have kids and economic necessity, which is very often not the case anymore.

 

 

Your comments on this and on happiness being based on overcoming something are interesting. I can admit that I am not that attracted to many Western women for a range of reasons. 

Surely though you are not arguing that women's rights and freedoms should be curtailed. That taking away their freedoms and making them dependent on men is a good thing. 

The bottom line for me is that happiness comes down to freedom.  I know it sounds a bit obvious and cliched but I can't see why women can't find happiness through freedom too. 

It must have sucked being a full time housewife if you have some smarts , for some but not all, and must suck wearing a burqa etc. If there is some natural balance between men and women it'll probably happen over time.   If they are getting smarter and freer maybe we have to do the same. Give them a reason to want and need us. 

52 minutes ago, Tanomazu said:

Yes, we men fell for the "equality" lie line hook and sinker. We did not understand then that feminism was not about equality. It was about ego. Pankhurst did not want equality to vote, she was a social psyocopath and narcissist with a pathological ego. Feminism is about ego.

 

If in Asia they spoil the boy, in the West they spoil the daughter. We've created a generation of massively entitled feminist monsters. Their preferred work is to lecture in gender studies, newspapers, tv studios, about the insufferable suffering of the poor feminist.

 

The problem is men still take them seriously. Even after they have the vote, childcare at taxpayer expense, more money spent on medical care than men, the criminal and family justice systems tailored to their advantage to the extent that a woman can kill a man by burning him alive and walk away with 3 years because of battered woman syndrome.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiranjit_Ahluwalia

 

This woman who killed her husband by burning him alive is now a media celebrity in feminist circles in the UK.

 

So it is clear. Feminists want to shape society, all our institutions, the law in particular, viciously in their favour, at the expense of men. It is not about equality. It is about an ego-trip and selfish advantage.

 

Whilst it is indeed a part of happiness to avoid feminists in LOS, they do exist here as well, and whilst we can escape the evil of feminism here by and large, we are already seeing an influx of western feminists into Thailand to educate the "sisters" further on how to help the feminist cause succeed in Thailand. Only Thai men and Thai patriarchy can save us.

But you no doubt agree that women should have every opportunity that they want to work and live how they wish. You would agree too that in the past women weren't given the opportunities in Western countries that they should have. You would agree too that the way women have to live in islamic and other countries is not fair. So you are a type of feminist. You can argue for women's rights and argue that the type of issues you raise above are not fair. 

8 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Don't know why you claim I'm confused. Please explain.

You put a confused face on his post 

The best flight I recall was my girlfriend and I returning from my first trip to Thailand and Burma in 1985. We flew back late December 24 and the Qantas plane was close to empty so we were plied with champagne and tasty titbits all the way home. 

7 minutes ago, giddyup said:

I'm not sure when you call internationally it goes to Sydney. I think it goes to a call centre, could be in Mumbai, because quite often get Indian accents. Also, it's supposedly a 24 hour help line.

Good point. I guess they'll have maximum staff from 8:00 am or 9:00 am but more demand too. I have just found it's much easier to get through at that time.  

Normally the best time to call is first thing when most staff are there: 8am Sydney time. So if you can get up at 5am might be a good time to call. 

27 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

With the ever shifting sands of Politics leadership etc, the changing of policies and regs on a whim of the latest apppointed "boss" the inconsistency from region to region  and even by office.

How can you possibly plan anything of any distance, you cant !

Throw in  the mix the pandemic and you have a total "Lord knows" .

Who new just 2 years ago we would be in a country decimated by the regime and the pandemic.

The immigration could change and any regs you think you have planned for are obsolete.

 

Hypothetically, Retirement changes to 2m , compulsory health care, any or all would mean hasta la vista to large portion of the expats, or a thriving business for agents depending on your viewpoint.

 

"What if" is just a crazy game of speculation, the best you can plan for is the next 12 months and anything beyond that, roll the dice, and anyone who has spent anytime in Thailand would know this and probably  has the T-shirt too.

 

Guessing, frankly,  quite pointless IMHO

It's hardly crazy speculation as it is not 'what if' but when if you are a  man of a certain age. Sure, you don't have to dwell on it, but knowing your options is helpful. For example Australia has many non expensive options for elderly care on a budget which might make returning to Australia sensible. For those with more money private health insurance cost is not based on age and there are limited waiting periods.  Lifestyle might be better too. Being 85 in Thailand might be good but might be terrible. 

The fact that they may throw you out in the meantime is a different topic in my opinion. 

47 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

The Afghans don't want to fight for their freedom. The Army of 300,000 strong what just laid down their guns and walked away. The president of Afghanistan just walked away, those people aren't capable of being free. 

 

 

Isn't your comment an argument in favour of Joseph Biden? If your propping up a government that apparently the army and the majority of people have no passion for then what is the solution: just stay there or go.

Sure.. they got it wrong in execution.. I think it would have been messy in any case .. but he had the guts to take action and not just spend spend spend for another 20 years. The only other solution, other than same same, is possibly an all out war, but it appears the Taliban have a lot of support through Afghanistan, or they wouldn't be as strong as they are. Would you back an all out war?

It is terrible to see the Taliban back. In a year though we may look back and say Joe got it right. The  fact that the execution was poor may be remembered less than the fact of ending a 20 year war.  

1 hour ago, possum1931 said:

Lets just say that they are nowhere in the same hurry for this Cvirus to end as we ordinary people.

I agree that politicians aren't always the best of us but I really can't see why they would think there's a benefit in keeping it going. There may be odd politician who gets a bit extra from some scam but broadly I can't see it. Just the opposite. They want to look like triumphant heroes sending it back from whence it came. More scams and money changing hands in a good economy if you want to look at the cynical side. 

19 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

when nothing is better that should tell you something

It's just nice to have total freedom to do your thing for a time. Still do things but up to yourself. 

When I travelled too, I used to do adventurous stuff, but my girlfriend and I, for much of the second half of the 2010's, had been happy to go to Koh Chang and spent two or three weeks, two times a year,  just taking it easy.  That's why I think my transition to retirement won't be too hard. 

I have some similar feelings about the last 18 months. 

The fact that I have been able to get out of bed at 7am and start work at 7:01 am and not have all the office bureaucracy and politics and small talk to deal with has been a godsend. No transport too. At 3:00 turn off computer. Done. 

I have been separated from my Thai girlfriend for that time but, truth be told, I haven't minded that as much as I thought I might. Being with her is fantastic except when it's not.

I live in an area near forest so I can get exercise and fresh air during lockdowns. Feel bad for those in apartments. Still can talk to friends and see them if lockdown allows. But sometimes not being able to go to social events e.g. 21 st birthday parties of kids of friends, boring dinner parties and some family stuff isn't so bad too. 

If you ask me what happened in 2016 I couldn't tell you but 2020 will remain memorable, and now 2021, a time for solitude that turned out to be better than I thought. 

2 minutes ago, Sparktrader said:

Hollywood stars have $100m. Giving away $1m is nothing.

Still. Better than nothing and if they give fans probably tend to give too. 

28 minutes ago, Sparktrader said:

I miss Thailand.

18 months since my girlfriend left Australia. 2 years since been in Thailand. Could be why I hang around here a bit. Talk to my girlfriend on line but not the same of course. Hang in there.

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

If God can create the universe, I'm pretty certain that a big stone would be no problem.

In case it seemed like I said a whole lot of nothing, if someone said to god, ' Make a stone heavier than you can carry' God called say

' You dont understand my nature since by definition the initial premise has to be I can lift any stone.  If you said "Fly faster than you can fly" I can reject the premise since I can fly as fast as I wish so it doesn't make sense. Your question has a limit that does not exist therefore the proposition is not sound'.