blackprince

The Ford Mustang Mach-E That was a surprise, to me anyway. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/ford-mustang-mach-e-review-electric-car-b1940990.html

A new application for EVs - giant snow "buggies" in Canada: "When tourists reach the north Canadian community of Churchill they have long been greeted by two sounds: the howling of sub-Arctic winds and the rattle of diesel engines. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of visitors have come to the “polar bear capital of the world”, in the hopes of spotting the predators. They journey on “tundra buggies” – hulking, spacecraft-like vehicles that rumble over the stark landscape..... Now, one of the town’s tour companies has unveiled the region’s first-ever electric buggy – a vehicle that can move almost silently into areas where the polar bears congregate. The buggy has an estimated range of three days worth of tours and can operate in frigid temperatures." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/03/no-easy-fix-polar-bear-capital-of-the-world-turns-to-electric-buggies-to-save-the-bears?ref=upstract.com&curator=upstract.com&utm_source=upstract.com

Exactly Jeff, as I said 2 days ago. If memory serves SA had vaccinated around 30%, higher than other African countries. Vaccine hesitancy has not yet kicked in in SA yet (though it may do), the issue is currently "over supply" according to the NYT, as I've referenced 3 times. Yes Omicron seems to transmit more easily but it also seems to be less harmful. Let's wait for the experts to deliberate. All my views are data driven, so I'll wait for the confirmed data.

All of the vaccines work. None of them work 100%, either in preventing transmission or death. Their success to date is based on reducing the viral load, not on elimination. 90% of UK adults have had at least 1 jab, 80% have had 2 jabs. An unknown number have had 3 jabs. And transmission and death continue in these groups, albeit at a lower rate. Surely this is now agreed and accepted. All these vaccines fade after a comparatively short time, hence the booster programme in the UK.

Your headline says "The Next Challenge". That's exactly what I'm saying. It's not a current challenge, not even in SA which has greater vaccine penetration than any other African nation as of last week.

It's strange that you regard my descriptions of militant "progressives" as baiting, when a large number of your posts are openly derisive of people whose views you disagree with. As I've posted several times in the last hour, a hallmark of Liberalism is acceptance of diversity of opinion and tolerance. I rarely see this in the militant "progressives" here. As I've also said in the last hour, I have nothing against militant "progressives". As a Liberal of half century's standing I am quite happy to tolerate their views; but their methods of engagement seem to be little better than those of the evangelicals.

I've already covered this point several times. The key issue NOW for developing countries is lack of vaccines due to the west's hoarding and failure to honour their Covax pledge. This issue is never raised here despite being discussed in the liberal press in the UK for over a year. Vaccine hesitancy may well become a limiting factor in the future in the developing world, but it isn't right now. In fact I posted a link (twice) from the NYT a few days ago stating that the issue now in SA is "over supply" - ie SA does not have the facilities to get the available vaccines into people's arms.

I have never said that a defining point of Liberalism is to tolerate lies and misinformation. In fact I said quite the opposite in a post that you responded to earlier today. But your reply here clearly indicates an enthusiasm for misattributing and/or misquoting others, to suit an agenda. I have noticed this trait often in militant "progressives", but it's definitely not a Liberal trait.

I'm not unaware of your reference, but you seem to be unaware or deliberately refusing to understand legitimate alternative narratives. As I've posted many times now, this is a specific problem with parts of the west. It's not a problem outside the developed world - the problem in the undeveloped world is lack of vaccines due to the west's hoarding and failure to honour its pledge to vaxx the world. I guess you are aware of the Covax programme. Also this problem is not significant in the UK for example or Israel. Germany and France have historically been vaccine hesitant, it's not a covid specific or AfD specific or Front National specific issue (or whatever Le Pen's group is called now). In fact I'd say the problem of highly politicised anti-vaxx militancy is largely a US issue. I'll come back to a key point. Liberalism is about tolerance and diversity of opinion. I have no objection if people wish to become militant progressives, after all I'm a Liberal (of about half a century's standing) - I accept they have the right to their views, but a militant progressive is not a Liberal. I recently posted a Dylan song about immigrants in response to a thread about "expats" in Thailand - "I Pity the Poor Immigrant". Right now I'm thinking of another Dylan song "With God on Our Side". Of course, Bob's lyrics are notoriously and often deliberately obscure, but I always read that song as being about injustices sanctified by having God on Our Side, and yes we all know that US evangelicals are notorious for that, but it seems to me that a growing number of online self-styled "Liberals" now are too.

An oversimplification. Many smokers and drinkers understand the risks. But they get pleasure from their habits. And of course it's been accepted for decades that moderate drinking can be good for the heart, it certainly reduces stress and increases sociability. We have also heard from non-vaxxers (not anti-vaxxers) here who mitigate the risks of covid transmission via masks and distancing. And as we know from the stats in the UK, as the number of people vaxxed increases, the number of vaxxed-to-vaxxed transmissions increases. This is surely obvious enough to be called "common sense". Reducing everything to over-simplistic binary splits is not conducive to understanding complexity, or to winning others over to a particular point of view. There is a small hard core of militant anti-vax, anthropomorphic climate change denying, pro smoking lobbyists, pro fossil fuel lobbyists. But it is just a small hard core.

This getting so tedious. For the 5th time, I quoted the BBC verbatim (and 9 out of 10 = 90%). My original post also contained a reference and link to another article about adult super-spreader events (and the fact that the vast majority of attendees would have been vaxxed because 90% of the adult population had had at least 1 jab, and 80% of the adults had had 2 jabs). To understand my comment one would have had to read the two halves of my post and to have read both links, something that no-one appears to have had the courtesy to do.

Covid, like any pandemic, is multifaceted and the profile morphs over time. The OP headline may have been true in some countries at a certain point in time, but it's not true more generally. For example in the UK it's clearly not true (BBC link below): "With nine in 10 of those aged 12 or over having had a single jab and eight in 10 having had a second, the focus has shifted to boosters" https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55274833 Outside of the developed world (ie most of the world) the issue is lack of vaccines, not anti-vaxx or vaccine hesitancy. The west has so far failed to live up to its pledge to vaccinate the world, but that is rarely mentioned here. Instead what we see is 1st worlders perpetuating their own culture wars. And as for polls and democracy, the hottest topic on this forum a couple of years ago was Brexit - a poll where everyone knew the rules before it happened, but many liberal progressives refused to accept the result - even non British liberal progressives. As a liberal progressive of many decades standing myself I had to part company with many LPs over their hypocrisy about Brexit, just as I do now over their lack of tolerance for dissenting views over Covid. Being a LIberal requires tolerance of dissent; if you cannot tolerate dissent, you are not a Liberal. (Needless to say that's not the same thing as tolerating fake news, but many LPs don't seem to understand the difference, and even seem to be pretty good at disseminating biased narratives themselves.) Threads like this do nothing but perpetuate a culture war imho. No-one has been converted. I'm a bit busy today, and won't be available for comebacks.

The "he" you are referring to is me, and I quoted the BBC directly from a recent BBC article, here you are again (4th time now). "With nine in 10 of those aged 12 or over having had a single jab and eight in 10 having had a second, the focus has shifted to boosters" https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55274833 on't be available for comebacks.

Just returning to the notion of communicative English aka English for communication which someone raised earlier. This is frequently what Teflers are taught on their 4 week courses. And often that's all they know or care to know. This approach is fine in ESL environments where it actually evolved (eg UK, NZ, Canada, Oz, US etc), or for Thai adults in Thailand who need to communicate with foreigners or who wish to travel abroad, but it's professionally negligent in Thai government primary and secondary schools where the real benefit an English teacher can provide, whether Thai or foreign, is to help the pupils get a good enough ONET, GAT/PAT, NT, GPA result to get a good place at university. Just one thing further before I bid farewell to this thread, a monolingual foreigner is hardly the best role model for a struggling bilingual pupil in a government school in Thailand. Have fun xxx

If you knew a little more about the cannabis industry here you'd know it's extremely rare to offer "CBD alone" as CBD and THC exist in different ratios in all relevant cannabis variants. And the process to extract oil or tincture which is the current process in the legal industry in Thailand does not separate specific chemicals out of the 60+ chemicals that constitute cannabis. As for "pure" CBD, it has a high correlation with psychosis and is illegal in Thailand. If you truly believe you have anything remotely like THC, please take your stash to the police for analysis. I bow to your knowledge of the illegal street trade though. It's never interested me personally.

Not the most coherent post so far. I guess the fact that I live on an organic farm that happens to be one of the first to be licensed in Thailand to grow medicinal cannabis (the CBD variant) might indicate that I'm somewhat more knowledgeable than the average poster here about the legal cannabis industry in Thailand. As for "the worst of the worst sold in Thailand" (your post above to Ivor), I'm not a doper myself, but I seem to remember from my more youthful days that Thai stick had possibly the best reputation in the world.

@Bkk Brian And here's a link to a BBC article about the risk of super-spreader events. It's not the same one that I posted yesterday, but there have been so many such articles from reputable sources that no reasonable person is in doubt of the risk they pose. Children are not usually in attendance for super spreader events, though of course for some events they may. Super spreader events in the UK in the last few months have been overwhelmingly vaxxed adults as per the mind-numbingly packed maskless event that I posted yesterday. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59414343

Here's what the link says "With nine in 10 of those aged 12 or over having had a single jab and eight in 10 having had a second, the country is now ramping up a booster campaign in an attempt to stop a potential wave of cases driven by the new Omicron variant." Bye.

Brian I did post it again maybe 30 minutes or an hour ago, just for you. Please don't ask me to post it yet again. Cheers.

1. I never said the hospital was acting illegally. I said you were mistaken in what you took. Even if you were given something that was labelled THC it would have been extracted from the CBD variant (which as I've said a few times now contains tiny traces of THC, but far too small for a "high", and lacking the therapeutic effects of CBD anyway). 2. Your link to France 24 ( ! ) talks about cannabis oil. Cannabis oil can be made with both the CBD and the THC cannabis variant. But the THC variant is illegal in Thailand. By the way, I'd recommend the tincture rather than the oil. Thai hospitals are still researching extraction methods, and in my experience here the tincture is superior to the oil. I'll just say it again, your own experience of the medication you took demonstrates conclusively that it was not THC. THC is a highly concentrated extract from the THC variant and is known to be connected to cases of psychosis. If you had taken THC you would have noticed a major psychotropic effect, but you have said you felt nothing.

My work permit doesn't say "teacher", but I do teach (legally) for fun to higher students occasionally. "Insufferable brit" - moi? - zut alors! I won't reply in kind. PS. It's precisely because English is best taught as a communicative medium that we should focus on an international standard (that includes the most common Thai way of telling the time), as I have proposed. Rather than fill 7 year olds up with the vagaries of native time-telling subvariants.

I'm not sure who you are aiming this comment at, but my comments were explicitly in the context of native English variants, the two most taught being British and American. I have never seen an international student English course book based on other native variants like Australian, Canadian or New Zealand etc; they may exist, but in my experience English in international contexts is usually taught as British or American English. Being an English person myself (though long lapsed) I'd prefer to call British English "English English", because at that time the Scots, Welsh, Irish (and most of England) were not speaking English, and the Americas and antipodes had not been colonised by the English (among others), but I know that might offend the sensitivities of many dear friends on this forum.

I've posted the BBC link twice. To the best of my knowledge the BBC is not part of a global covid conspiracy.

Here's the BBC link. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55274833 I agree with you to the extent that the return to school was one major cause of the surge (as I said yesterday). The other is massive super-spreader events largely by the complacent vaxxed (after all nearly every adult in the UK is vaxxed ). I also posted one link to that data yesterday, which I haven't repeated here, but they are easy to find on google - there have been so many!

I got it from the BBC in an article published 2 or 3 days ago. I posted the link here yesterday I think. Feel free to find it.