Fat is a type of crazy

42 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

Ukraine's freedom is simply not available.  To arm them and encourage them to provoke the Russian bear is the height of cruel stupidity.  Like a lot of people who have seen too many movies, you think this is about morality, but it's not.  It's about great power politics.  The great powers, the US, Russia, and China all pursue their own interests ruthlessly without reference to morality.  

You seem to assume Russia is going to win. You may be making the same mistake as Putin and thinking too much about politics and power and not enough about the effect morality and ethics is having on the people and soldiers on both sides. Around the world too. 

Cynicism about politics and power and human nature can only take you so far. 

Russia  has lost control and influence in neighbouring nations through it's own actions. This effort to reverse it's decrease in influence is showing to be a disaster. 

Ukraine has decided one side is better for its' interests than the other. The human toll is terrible but Ukrainians have decided that given the alternative of living under the control of a thug it is best to fight. 

It is a terrible price for Ukraine to pay for freedom.  If a gangster authoritarian tried to take over your country, that has an imperfect democracy,  what would you do. Rally the allies and fight or say best no one dies, historically we have done bad things at times, let the gangster take control.

It is hard to argue that Ukraine's move towards the west, similar to the Baltic states and other countries, is not because of the extreme bullying of Russia. Yes.. maybe there are weak parallels with Cuba but it's 2022 now.

Think what it means for Ukraine to move towards the West .. integration with other democracies, new standards to maintain, a better economy. The west in 2022 is not as bad as you may think. 

I have just looked at a few insurance policies such as AXA and they specifically exclude hotel accommodation cost due to quarantine which, as others have said, makes sense if you are not sick. Lets say I am at a hotel in Bangkok and test positive. How long do I have to quarantine. Can I pick a different hotel from my first night and can it be SHA but otherwise normal, and I can just order food from the hotel, or, I assume, it is a special booking that includes meals. Is this a category that can be searched for on booking sites. These issues have probably been discussed ad infinitum but I don't see clear rules and regulations. If I can work this out I can at least know the worst case of what can happen. 

21 minutes ago, Sparktrader said:

Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.

The point of consensus isn't to say that it is perfect or that there could not be a new scientist come along and upend previously held beliefs. The new scientist just needs proof. Consensus of scientists is surely the most likely to be correct except where the consensus leads to complacency, a barrier to new ideas, or if there is corruption. I think that is rare but others may have a different opinion.

Michael Crichton wrote some really good books. Not just Jurassic Park of course.  

7 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

UK military is one of the best gravy trains ........................ if you do it right.

One of my pals was a sniper 'spotter' in one of the middle east skirmishes, at age 23 he fell off a roof while taking a wee with no lights, damaged both his ankles just enough to have an excuse never to work again. Decent 'grace and favour' pension for the rest of his life, plus free accommodation forever if he wants to live in the UK.

I had a close friend who shocked us all when he joined the army at 17 when we were just thinking about girls and bands and such.

He eventually got into the SAS, I think, as he couldn't talk about it, but after 20 years service he retired, with a pension of about $50000 in the 90's increased by inflation. He had no wars to fight, and just did lots of fun stuff, if you are into that sort of thing. So he had the last laugh compared to my good self working till 59 or 60. 

I think the reason William Hurt's death may have touched some is because his acting was fairly relateable and somewhat sensitive. He seemed like an everyman dealing with life.

I wasn't a huge fan of his movies. The Accidental Tourist. So so. Kiss of the Spider Woman Not my cup of tea. The Big Chill. A bit pretentious. Children of a Lesser God. My worst date movie ever. Lost In space. Terrible movie and he was terribly miscast as John Robinson. 

All this talk of widespread scams is a bit over the top. It seemed a few months ago there were some stories of people getting hit with huge bills and hospital stays but none since. I may have missed such articles.

I think the government was likely under pressure to keep the one night Test and Go given the cost to hotels and others in it's implementation, and to keep the money coming,  but to say there is some broad scheme to have false positive tests or similar, does not seem to be borne out by the evidence at this point in time.

I'll be happy to save $150 on a PCR test at the Australian airport, and hours of waiting around, if and when I go to Thailand. 

38 minutes ago, SooKee said:

The problem with that theory is that most insurance with medical coverage will contain a clause about admission to a HOSPITAL being medically necessary.  As a lot of people here found out the hard way, that is the get out clause for the insurance company.  First and foremost the incarceration here for those with no or mild symptoms is NOT medically necessary (it's just a public health policy), secondly many of the facilities (hospitels and 'field hospitals') are not recognised hospitals.  On that basis it would be advisable for anyone to check the specifics of any policy they have or consider buying rather than assume 'they must cover it' or they might find there's a lot of 'iffs and buts'.

It would be good to get suggestions on an insurance policy that is fairly comprehensive such that you are covered for the situations you have noted. I have a ticket for May that can be rebooked but if I had that type of policy I might still give it a go. 

8 hours ago, grego49 said:

The test and go scam continues,Bali,Vietnam and the Phillipines are all open and enjoying the tourist dollars that used to be spent in Thailand,

Bali has fairly strong testing and rules for tourists too. In fact they seem worse than Thailand. 

Love working from home. More productive I think. Most office workers I think could do their job in 4 days and have a day off.

I have to go back 3 days shortly but that 3 days can include days off so not too bad. Travel and noise and small talk at the office and just having to sit under fluorescent lights, and here people talk about last nights television, is going to be tedious but I suppose it might be OK to get out a bit. 

Just now, Sparktrader said:

Which airlines

Jetstar

1 minute ago, Sparktrader said:

Get away from the bs and the tourist junk. 

I started with that thought but now I think I'll still want a fair bit of western stuff when I retire. Being in Ubon is nice for a while but unless you fully integrated as a Thai, which I don't intend to do, those other places are better to hopefully get the best of both.

$258 airfares return Melbourne Bangkok right now. Could be same for Sydney. 

Delete

44 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

I have an issue with a loan I advanced to my son. For some reason, the online system flags it and I have to sort it out at a Centrelink office. As you probably know, their phone service is inferior to jungle drums.

It may be $5-10 a fortnight I am missing out on, I don't care.

So I've failed to report changes in my assets which would mean my pension would be adjusted upwards. What penalty could they impose for that, quite apart from making themselves look ridiculous on mainstream and social media?

There would be no penalty for telling them information if you have been underpaid.

The loan presumably has been treated as an asset under the assets test, and as earning income at the deemed rate, for the income test. 

To get rid of it you can tell them either you received repayment, and then tell them what you did with it e.g. spent it, or if the loan is not to be repaid. 

If you can show a fair reason why it is not to be repaid , e.g. person cannot pay, they'll take it off . I doubt they would ask for evidence given presumably you told them about it in the first place.  They may though.

But if you say you have forgiven the loan by choice, or gifted the amount, they may treat it as a gift which means it is assessed under the assets and income test for a 5 further years. This depends on the amount gifted. This is based on information correct many years ago so others may have further details. 

There's been stories lately about how farmed salmon is not all that healthy in terms of the amount and types of fats. That orange colour isn't natural of course. Still better than alternatives I suppose but lean chicken and other fish may be as good. It's still good to eat though. 

I would think it would be nicer to eat cut into bits and frozen and cooked when you want to eat but google says 3 days for cooked fish. 

8 hours ago, ripstanley said:

You are are wrong in part. As i have stated all money transferred OS or into your account from OS is reported to Austrac. The $10,000 is only limited to passengers who are departing or arriving. Austrac is only for money being exported or imported

I am not wrong but I was looking particularly at bank transactions and this may not be relevant to this discussion. Austrac is not just for money imported or exported. It is also for a range of domestic transactions including bank cash deposits and withdrawals over $10,000.   

On 3/2/2022 at 2:22 PM, ripstanley said:

I was talking about Austrac reports. This is the reporting of money transferred from Australia to OS. The government requires all money transferred by bank or other institutions to be reported to Austrac. If a passenger takes money out of the country it has to be $10,000 or more before a report is made. I was not talking about the limits on banks

Actually Austrac has details of all amounts you send overseas. You buy a $5 product in Australia from overseas or send  $100 to Thailand. It shows up. The $10000 limit relates to deposits of cash to your account in Australia.  

Keep in mind Agoda and Booking.com are the same company and I find Agoda is cheaper but Booking.com did have better service e.g. a proper call centre. If you do have a screenshot showing that when you booked it it said free wi fi, and they clearly don't,  then I would think they'll cancel it on your behalf. 

My girlfriend lives in Ubon. She says pollution is not an issue. It is still super hot for 9 or 10 months of the year I think. Hot right now. I know you might not want a big city but I am just not sure what Ubon would have for a 33 year old unless you went there for a particular job. Nice place to visit but nothing to really make you want to stay except it is cheap. I would rather go to say the outskirts of Pattaya or something or maybe Phuket. Have some beach and life and some western shops when you feel like it but otherwise quiet and can still be cheap if that's an issue. 

Be interested why you want to be somewhere like that. 

1 hour ago, Mr Derek said:

Very well, let's talk about the cities. Take Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest city. This was basically a Russian creation. A hundred years ago Russians were greatly in the majority. Then the Soviets, for reasons of SSR politics sufficient to their own purposes, decided to bring in Ukrainians and make the place capital of Ukraine SSR. Today the population is (as far as I recall - feel free to check) about 65% Ukrainian, 45% Russian.

 

Given that history and current situation, and geographical location, I'm not sure that makes the place 'properly' Ukrainian, but let that pass. The fact is, there are a sizeable number of people in Kharkiv cheering the Russians on, though of course you won't hear anything about that in the western media. The point is that information like this should certainly influence anyone's understanding of the war and if anyone has come down on Ukraine's side in this war without being aware of the situation in Kharkiv, then their opinion is completely invalid.

 

 

Even if true, not sure if it is or not, does that mean it's OK for a country to invade another country, bombing and killing indiscriminately, just to 'liberate' a minority population of a city who might happen to prefer Russian to Ukrainian identity. In a sense even if it is true who cares. 

1 hour ago, zzaa09 said:

I'll pass. Almost impossible with this disconnected crowd.

Exactly. You need to connect the dots. Ivan the Terrible.. Crimean War..  JFK .. 9  11   ...  Covid  ... Flat earth ...  Ukraine ..  This crowd have no idea. 

I wouldn't volunteer but I am happy for my taxes to be helping a bit. 

45 minutes ago, Sparktrader said:

99% wouldnt yet maybe 50% say they would to act tough. Thats how humans are.

There's a dictator who thought that about the Ukrainians. I think he thought democracy made people soft. But it didn't turn out to be the case. 

7 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

I never said not to be black or white.

Nothing wrong with comparisons -  it's OK for England to invade 117 countries but not for Russia?

It's OK for the US to invade Iraq and kill innocent civilians?

 

I do not condone what Russia are doing, but frankly it has nothing to do with Thailand, or me.

 

Put things into perspective and don't fall for the propaganda. Don't forget what Bush/Blair did, and Biden has the nerve to criticize Putin! Did Thailand remain neutral there? Comparisons are good.

The topic though is this particular situation. I was against the Iraq war as I was with this war. It just seems you criticise America but, though you are not condoning Russia, you seem hesitant to criticise them, and refer to some  propaganda, or other. It's not that hard to say Russia started a war with Ukraine, leading to lots of unnecessary deaths, and it is wrong.  

12 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

So what "progressive policies" benefit working people? 

I like to think of myself as in the middle though in Australia the middle is probably a bit to the left compared to the United States.

So I say let the market do it's thing, except keep an eye on when it's not working, by having fair minimum wages, stop policies that disallow unions, compulsory superannuation, access to low cost health care, good schools for kids, sick leave, good infrastructure for roads bridges and things like internet. They're all lefty things that can help achieve stuff to help make the free market fair.

In terms of housing you can have tax discounts for first home buyers, some government housing for the physically or mentally disabled, and such. I heard that in California to get anything done such as building projects costs 10 times more than in France so the government is clearly inefficient or corrupt or something.