Orac

So we've gone from "no impact" to "no significant impact?

Seems to be a fairly consistent message so far. "No significant impact" from Kittiratt, "not have a serious impact on local economy" from Yingluck and backed up with "limited direct impact" from Christine Lagarde.

Has anybody been there yet today?

Probably the only way they will be able to open again is through a court ruling. That won't happen on the weekend. Maybe this is why the landlord cuts the power on Fridays.

See you down at Castas?

Not sure if you know but they have extended the opening hours to 1800 sat and sun now at Castra.

OPENING TIMES: We have had quite a few requests to open later on the weekends. We are pleased to announce that we will be open from 09:00 to 18:00 on Saturdays and Sundays (as of 30^th of June). At the present moment we cannot open any later but we will review these times at a later date.

Mon-Fri - 07:00-21:00

Sat-Sun - 09:00-18:00

I do find that banannas here tend to go off quickly - if they last more than a couple of days I am lucky. Any tips on how to make them last longer???

I can think of a few politicians who might be quite happy for PTP to be disolved as it would be an ideal opportunity to turn the clock back and re-establish the TRT party again given that all its executives have just returned from their enforced holiday.

The authors details are interesting though I am not sure how relevant:

Fifteen-year-old Marquie Leelatham is a Year 10 Student at Bangkok Patana School and @marquieleelat on Twitter

taken from previous article here:

http://www.nationmul...g-30174231.html

I use Viriyah Insurance and not had any problems - just renewed for year for 20k baht. Did have a claim on them a year ago after an accident which was my fault. Their assessor was with us in 30 mins and everything was sorted out quickly with no problems.

Just an off the wall thought but, given your wifes strong obsession with pregnancy, are you sure she may not think/know she is pregnant already. This may explain why she is so keen to stay here as it must be difficult being pregnant and having a child in a foreign country without your family around you.

One thing not mentioned about Pattaya's child friendliness is the quality of healthcare if something goes wrong which, although it is obviously of more significance to us residents does have some bearing on visitors.

As an example which brought this home to me a couple of days ago, my daughter woke up in the middle of the night a couple of days ago with a lot of pain in her ear. From making the decision that she needed a doctor it took 40 minutes to get her to a high quality hospital, checked out by a doctor, medicated and back home in bed fast asleep. If I were still in my wifes village where I lived for several months we could not even have got to the local non-provincial hospital in 40 minutes.

One word that I wished I hadn't learnt from TV a few months back was santorum - I think that was down to JT

produced by Doctor Company were tainted with Carbofuran at a level of 0.007mg per kg. The EU prescribes a safe level of Carbofuran as not exceeding 0.02mg

Isn't 0.007 less than 0.02?

Guessing that was a type o. I am assuming it should have been 0.7mg per kg. or it would not have been mentioned.

It also goes on to say that carbofuran is banned in the EU

Meanwhile, Vitoon Lianchamroon of the Biothai Foundation has demanded the government ban four pesticides - Carbofuran, Methomyl, Dicrotophos and EPN - for use on agricultural crops, as the pesticides pose serious health risks to people.

The pesticides are banned in the European Union, US, United Kingdom, Finland, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Myanmar.

It sounds like a prediction about what could happen; nothing more, nothing less.

There seems to be some differences in how what was said is being reported as per the following tweets from bangkokpundit

1. Bkk Post reports Korkaew as saying "I am not just making a threat". In Thai, Matichon, Thai Rath, & Kom Chad Luek all have K saying

2. ตนไม่ได้ขู่แต่เป็นการประเมินจากข้อมูลหลายส่วน (I am not making a threat, but assessing [what will happen] from different information)

3. Bkk Post - link removed -Thai Rath http://goo.gl/A8avs Matichon http://goo.gl/UBWbQ KCL http://goo.gl/Te32V

4. The Nation has headline of Korkaew "warns" which is fair interpretation, but they don't quote him as making a threat

I noticed Pattaya Klang had barriers all the way down the middle yesterday from Suk to Beach Road - could that be for the marathon??

Hello all......just got back on to this as I started it, and have a puzzling conundrum.

After posting here and after my last cholesterol test I undertook some of the suggestions offered on here (many thanks) as well as doing some research.......... more exercise, Benecol, "Pro-activ" margarine, halving my intake of sugar, taking Beta Glucan supplements and so on.

I also had a CAT scan done to detect any deposits in the heart arteries. The scan is supposed to detect deposits of calcium as well as ANY deposits laid down. I also had a heart stress test carried out as I was due to get my cholesterol retested.

Now here is the strange part:- the CAT scan showed absolutely no deposits in the main arteries and the heart stress test suggested I had the artery elasticity of a 50 yr old (I am 65) BUT the new cholesterol tests showed my overall readings to be about the same as before..........very high LDL and Triglycerides.

Now I have had high cholesterol for 15 yrs, yet apparently my arteries are clear??

For me this seems to lend weight to some reports that I have seen which point to the fact that calcium plays a major role in artery disease with cholesterol coming along after to coat the calcium and cause a blockage?? Well that's as I read the reports as I am not a doctor.

So I suppose I could start on statin drugs but why, when I've had high cholesterol for at least 15 yrs, perhaps a lot longer, and still have "clear" arteries??

Comments/suggestions welcomed.

Strange results but also perhaps not enough time for the changes to take effect. Upon reflection when I reduced my cholesterol with Benecol I was also taking coconut oil.

Have you had an ultrasound done of your abdomen. I had some tests done a year ago including the exercising stress test which was fine but the ultrasound showed an extremely fatty liver. Lipid profile showed up total cholesterol at 394 and triglycerides at 641. Have them back under control now at 122 and 181 but it has taken a lot of changes diet, exercise and statins.

You seem to have missed off a bit of information about this "UDD and Thaksin ally"

http://asiancorrespo...rdpoum-chaidee/

The trouble with one-line responses, and even more so with cute one-word responses like Tlansford's, is that they are not saying anything very much.

I wasn't writing Chaidee's full biography. I was addressing the earlier false statement that 'PTP redmob are pro-democracy, pro-monarchy and even pro-LM'. That is clearly a lie and I put forward the fact that current redmob leadership and PTP members, as well as their longtime colleague Chaidee, spent months in Communist intensive brainwashing camps in Vietnam, as well as years in Thai Communist party. The fact that some of them now claim to be reformed actually fits entirely with the covert 'stealth revolution' training they recieved.

The subject of him being arrested at government house, a data-rich location for any budding revolutionary, or associating with other communists (of which PAD has plenty), does not change the fact that he is a revolutionary communist, true communists do not see differences outside of 'the people versus the ruling elites' and will work with any people in order to bring about revolution.

Chaidee served as member of parliament under Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai, and has written for the UDD magazine and has associated with the UDD leadership long time including their happy-memory holidays together in Vietnamese communist brainwashing camps. How is my statement that Chaidee the revolutionary communist is longterm ally of Thaksin and UDD not infact accurate?

My point is that ; how can UDD/PTP be pro-monarchy and even pro-LM (as was falsely stated earlier in this thread), and pro-democracy, when UDD have had communist Lenin articles in their official magazine, have red demagogic face posters everywhere they go, agrarian populism speeches, 'burn the capital' speeches, Thaksin has several hardcore communists as UDD leadership and PTP members, and they talk about death to the elites, all of which which is pure naked Maoism. You can not be a communist and a monarchist, the two are mutually exclusive.

The issue of PAD communist members is not relevant to the subject of PTP changing the constitution along carte-blanche lines, because DP are not in power today and they are not proposing radical constitution reform bills, and if they were I would say 'they have communist members' as a warning too.

I am a pro-monarchist parliamentary democrat, I have the utmost respect for the ancient Thai higher structure, and would like to see democratic constitutional-monarchy remain permanently, except for the state's political system to be cleaned up for everyones' benefit.

Tlansfords one-word cute reply speaks volumes about the red response to this subject, it is the same sort of reply Yingluck uses for almost everything since she took office. It is so much easier than writing long responses about the facts.

My apologise if I have not been verbose enough for you in my one line response however the link I provided goes into plenty more detail about the character you have introduced to this thread.

You can waffle on about UDD/Thaksin links to communism as much as you like but it is a bit disingenuous of you to go to great lengths to use Therdpoum Chaidee as your example, stating he is a UDD and Thaksin ally, without mentioning that he is actually a leader of PAD, not just a 'member' as you try to play down above, and also a party executive of the New Politics Party.

Given that they have said explicitly that they won't change the LM laws, and they have said explicitly that they won't touch the areas in the Constitution that relate to the LM laws, and they haven't talked about or suggested any changes to the LM laws, that they have no intention (for the forseeable future) to change the LM laws.

Abhisit HAS talked about LM law reform, and PTP hasn't even used that to suggest reform. It's simply not on their agenda.

As you know communism is based entirely on the removal of all elites including the 'highest elites' in society. You will know that PTP and redmob have spoken publicly about not only removing all elites but actually "death to the elites" from a 2010 stage speech. They also gave speeches which mirrored Mao's agrarian populism, peasant revolution speeches, central to which is the removal of all people at the top of society except for senior Party members.

If you read back through some back-issues of the UDD Magazine, you will see pictures of Lenin carried ontop of a wave of red. Also "Communist Thailand" was the title of a UDD article in this magazine. I had a link to an online copy of this but the article has been removed and the link is broken. Hardly a surprise given how hard redmob on forums try to play down the Maoist stuff.

Therdpoum Chaidee, a former communist and longtime colleague of current UDD protest leaders, as well as a member of parliament under Thaksin’s now defunct Thai Rak Thai party. He is a walking talking revolutionary Marxist, he speaks of exterminating the elites all of them including the highest levels.

Here's some nice little sample lines from your "pro-monarchy pro-democracy" long-time UDD ally Chaidee ;

"The revolution walks on two legs. One political leg and one army leg. Violence is the essential ingredient in the mix. That is what we were taught."

"The tactic is to keep saying that you are a peace-loving people. The many factions folded into the united front [uDD] organization are not told what the real strategy is because they might not agree and they might not act their part convincingly."

"Many of them are now absolutely convinced that Thaksin was the best leader in Thai history, that he was a kind and generous man who holds the solution to all their problems. They don't need a program - they just need a new Thai state with Thaksin in charge"

And my personal favourite from your 'not-communist-at-all' UDD and Thaksin ally;

"Old communists know that when it comes to revolution, ignorance is much more powerful than knowledge."

http://www.atimes.co...a/LE13Ae01.html

You seem to have missed off a bit of information about this "UDD and Thaksin ally"

http://asiancorrespondent.com/33095/who-is-therdpoum-chaidee/

snip...

We also have a 2 year old daughter thus why i would like to have the stability of a home before she starts school so from there i could make a spare 5 million baht (10K sterling) annually to pay for private schooling.

... snip

you certainly picked the right profile name

Allegedly, the den has been operating for 20+ years.

Pehaps some additional questions should be asked;

How does a gambling den run during multiple Democrat and military controlled governments?

How does an alleged "Thaksin" controlled gambling den operate in the Democrat stronghold of Bangkok where the governor detests all things Thaksin?

If the gambling den has been around for 20+years, then surely the Democrat regime under Abhisit, which was no friend of the Thaksin family, would have done something, since Mr. Abhisit was so "clean".

The gambling den might or might not be run by a Thaksin relative. If it is, that doesn't mean the Thaksin relative might not be one of the family outcasts.

Gambling dens in Thailand do not survive for 20 years unless there are powerful protectors and those protectors would have been around long before a man named Thaksin was elected PM.

Of course, this all assumes that there is even a gambling den. To date, Chuvit has made all sorts of accusations, yet he is never able to back it up with actual evidence.

Before, the Nation broke the story, why didn't someone go and take pictures of the valet parking, or the vehicles? Why didn't one of the Nation's journalists knock on the door and ask if there was gambling inside?

Lots of allegations, but no evidence presented.

And before anyone says, you go knock on the gambling den door, I say, Nationmedia has its own media facilities, why not run with the story, as it would have embarrassed the government had the story been substantiated.

Why why why. Who knows if its true. But nothing can be closed down unless the police close it and on past experience they don't want to as it upsets their income stream.

It's like in Pattaya were the Navy do more drug and gambling busts than the police

Sent from my GT-P1010 using Thaivisa Connect App

No they don't. The Pattaya newspapers report the busts in Sattahip which is controlled by the Navy.

And they go into pattaya as well

sent from my Wellcom A90+

I thought that the navy operated the mobile drug testing bus which was why they were involved in the large scale sweeps in Pattaya.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Thaivisa Connect App

i can't remember a doctor ever taking a blood sample from me and i have had many taken.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Thaivisa Connect App

Since you mentioned 'very poor' then she should qualify for the 30 Baht health card. Not sure though how much it will cover for dialysis.

A friend of the mrs goes for dialysis treatment for 2-3 hours twice a week, its free.

This is in the SamRong area of Bkk.

thanks for the info on this. sadly events have overtaken us and my MiL passed away this morning.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Thaivisa Connect App

^

There are NONE..the US war machine is getting ready for WW3

http://news.antiwar....s-asia-pacific/

You can't see the merits in a climate study specifically covering monsoon weather given the flooding problems last year??? IT would be a shame if such valuable research does not go ahead because of the politics of nationalism.

The flood happened up north then flowed downward to the south. I wonder why not ChiangRai or Myanmar?

Have you considered a job a science minister as your understanding of floods seems to be on a par with the current incumbent.

The rainfall that generated the floods is carried for some distance before being deposited on land so any study needs to cover a wide area over several countries.

^

There are NONE..the US war machine is getting ready for WW3

http://news.antiwar....s-asia-pacific/

You can't see the merits in a climate study specifically covering monsoon weather given the flooding problems last year??? IT would be a shame if such valuable research does not go ahead because of the politics of nationalism.

I have researched this but I checked out Bangkok General Hospital and Bumungrad. I'm a stage 4 kidney failure patient so I have also looked into dialysis costs.

Obviously the hospitals I checked out are very expensive and it was much more than 2,000 baht per session. Also it depends what kind of dialysis she goes for. Is she going for hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis?

A translation of the types of dialysis is a step too far at the moment - it took a couple of hours to work out what the problem was in the first place. I am guessing from my newly aquired internet knowledge it is hemodialysis though due to the frequency of treatments being suggested. I will probably take a trip up there at the weekend to find out more but it is a 10 hour drive.

Since you mentioned 'very poor' then she should qualify for the 30 Baht health card. Not sure though how much it will cover for dialysis.

Apparently she is covered on this for the testing and being in hospital on and off for the last few weeks but it does not cover dialysis we are being told.