blackprince

Don't Americans usually say 15 after, or a quarter after, rather than quarter past? Ditto (in reverse) with quarter to. Not that we need to emulate Americans of course, just that it's better to standardise imho. Consequently I've come to the conclusion that 3.15 = three fifteen or 2.45 = two forty five etc. This is also the simplest way to tell the time in Thai too, so it's the easiest method for Thais of all ages to pick up, and suits British, American and other native forms of English. But thank Buddha that telling the time in English is less difficult than the traditional Thai way of splitting the 24 hours into 4 segments. PS I've never actually seen two fifteen for example as exclusively analog, but I see what you mean.

There's such a lot of national variation, even among our home countries. For example in the UK it's inaccurate to say that the unvaccinated are the problem, because "almost 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 running a booster campaign." (BBC) https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55274833 The UK surge has 2 main causes - the return to school, and the complacency among the vaccinated who throw caution to the wind. https://inews.co.uk/news/health/boardmasters-cornwall-music-surf-festival-superspreader-event-4700-covid-cases-1164592

The issue isn't how long a foreigner has been here, the issue is what the foreigner has done since they have been here. I'll reiterate, foreign teachers in Thai government schools are not funded via a government budget for foreign teachers.

Lack of vaccination is one problem, no doubt, but in the UK the problem is more to do with complacency among the vaccinated. They seem to think that vaccination makes them 100% immune. Some of the photos of overcrowding in mass events with no masks are truly mind-blowing. I'm double vaxxed, I wear masks with everyone except family. And I keep my distance. Nearly a year ago I got a terrible respiratory problem. For a long time I thought I must have been the first Thailand covid case, then a few months later I bumped into a farang neighbour who told me he had had pneumonia last Christmas. The penny dropped - I must have caught pneumonia from him in Tesco from a 5 minute conversation without masks just before covid became world news.

I didn't have the time to read your link this morning, but the reason why the vaxxed are increasingly the source of transmission is because the vaxxed are an increasing proportion of the population, especially in the UK where vaxx acceptance and vaxx rates are among the highest in the world. The viral load of the vaxxed is also lower (as per my quote from the lancet above). So the transmitted infection is weaker. As you know, it's never been claimed that vaxx eliminates the virus or virus transmission. It has long been stated though that a vaxx rate of c80% of the population is necessary for "herd immunity". The other thing about the UK is that as soon as people got vaxxed many of them stopped all sorts of sensible preventative measures, like masks in crowded places and distancing. "Mad dogs and Englishmen ...etc".

The peak viral load is determined by the viral load coming in, so it's to be expected that there's no difference between vaxxed and un-vaxxed. However, the key issue is viral load decline, which by your own link is better for vaxxed, as expected. Nevertheless, a good fact based link, thanks. "Fully vaccinated individuals with delta variant infection had a faster (posterior probability >0·84) mean rate of viral load decline (0·95 log10 copies per mL per day) than did unvaccinated individuals with pre-alpha (0·69), alpha (0·82), or delta (0·79) variant infections."

As I said earlier, the vast majority of westerners in Thailand are neither expats nor immigrants properly speaking.

Actually I tend to prefer the older definition of expats, whereby very few here are actually expats , and yes almost none of us are immigrants, correctly speaking, either. But enough semantics ???? This type of thread always reminds me of Dylan's song, so I thought I'd finally post it!

I haven't checked all the responses to this question about the (in)compatibility of covid rules between your home country and the Thai rules. But the rules in all countries have been in a state of flux for the last 18 months, so I don't think an answer is even possible. I think the most sensible advice is to limit international travel to the bare minimum for the time being: so many people have found themselves on the wrong side of a border when the rules changed.

"I pity the poor immigrant Who wishes he would've stayed home Who uses all his power to do evil But in the end is always left so alone"

I'd rather suggest you go back and read the very first post and then the following posts, there haven't been that many. The OP is making an unsubstantiated claim based on hearsay, though hearsay from whom he hasn't seen fit to tell, despite being asked. This kind of fishing post frequently appears here. Those of us who have knowledge of how funding for foreign teachers works in Thailand's government schools have gently corrected him.

Clive Sinclair was a man well ahead of his time with his e-trike and ZX80 pc. His nephew has updated the e-trike idea, and I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of this kind of thing in cities as we get further along the e-vehicle curve. The layout really lends itself to solar panels too. https://www.theengineer.co.uk/sinclair-c5-revamped-by-sir-clives-nephew/

I don't think anyone here subscribes to EVs as 'Savior of the World'. If they do, they haven't said so. I have no idea why you would misrepresent the article you linked to, other than the fact that you have an anti-EV agenda, as has been clear from all of your posts on this thread. I merely gave the full context of Williams's comments in the article you linked to. Williams is clearly an advocate of EVs, so I'm surprised you would try to enlist him to your anti EV agenda. As I and others have stated numerous times, EV technology is still in its comparative infancy, while ICEs are in their dotage. I refer you to the standard technology acceptance curve that I posted a few posts above this one.

I thought this graphic might be useful - it's the standard marketing acceptance/marketing penetration curve for new technologies. It can be applied to anything, including EVs. Developed nations are now mainly in the Early Adopters or Early Majority stage of EV acceptance.

You must really hate EVs a lot to trawl the net looking for this kind of stuff. That's up to you, but you are cherry picking quotes to suit your agenda, and that must be corrected. The article you link to states: "But Williams was able to get the vehicle running in 15 minutes with inexpensive parts on his shelf." "Williams said that he is “actively working” to set up franchises, train them on EV repair, and provide support of deep-level expertise and parts as necessary. What I see in Williams’ plan is the beginning of a nationwide network of independent electric-vehicle repair specialists that needs to develop for the burgeoning EV world." "I [Williams] helped Jim think through his decision about getting an EV in late 2014. There weren’t many choices at the time. Ultimately, he was swayed by the style and comfort of the B-Class powered by a Tesla powertrain." In other words Williams is an advocate of EVs. In summary - ICEs have spent 100 years hammering out their flaws, while EVs are at the beginning of their technology cycle.

I don't post my own opinions, I post the validated opinions of experts in the field.

As I've posted from the NYT previously, the problem current is oversupply. Vaccine hestitancy will likely beome a factor in SA in the not too distant future, but it certainly didn't create omicron. And I'll say for the 3rd time - the problem is the rest of Africa not SA.

Brown's performance in leading the world out of the Global Financial Crash is well documented. It was a statesmanlike performance, just as his actions are in his currrent WHO role re covid. Covid would have been far better managed if we'd had a few more statesmen like him around last year.

Just to inject a bit of seriousness. Sneezing on someone's face could actually be a death sentence for the person receiving the mucus - after all, that's the main way covid spreads. Some oiks in the UK were jailed last year for spitting on people's faces, and some were even daft enough to spit on cops' faces! Re 10-100. I know you live in an area that has a lot tourists, but I guess you still see 10 or 100 Thais for 1 tourist. In my case it's more like 1000:1. And we all wear masks - Thais and foreigners alike, even in the remote villages.

The narrative is getting a bit mixed up. Here's the actual chronology: 1. Mutant variants. The mutant variants have occurreed due to the west not honouring its promises re worldwide vaccine rollout. The west has reneged on its commitments to covax - this is well documented. As per my first link on my OP on this thread. The risk of not vaccinating the whole world has been communicated clearly ever since the covid vaccines were certified for use. 2. The current situation in SA. My 2nd link, from the NYT as far as I remember, demonstrates quite conclusively that currently the issue in SA is over supply - ie the supply of vaccines in SA exceeds the ability to get it into people's arms. 3. Vaccine hesitancy in SA: this may become a limiting factor in SA's vaccine rollout in the future, but it is not yet a limiting factor, and neither was it responsible for the emergence of omicron. All of the above is in the public domain. Blaming everything on vaccine hesitancy is an oversimplification of the situation, which may be true for the US, but it's not the main factor in most other parts of the world.

For the Easy Riders, I'm sure there are quite a few here, and I know I'm not alone in being old enough to have seen the movie when it was first released. https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2021/nov/28/easy-rider-well-miss-the-roar-but-electric-motorbikes-cant-kill-our-road-romance

That's not strictly true. The biggest problem in SA is oversupply now - ie the supply exceeds the ability to get it into people's arms. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/28/world/africa/south-africa-omicron-vaccination.html Apart from that, this issue isn't confined to South Africa. It's in Botswana too. And further spread would seem to be inevitable. But the more general point about the west's failed promises which I made is far more important - it was a quote from Gordon Brown (as per my original link), and he should know as he's the WHO Ambassador for Global Health Financing. He's also the guy that co-ordinated the global response to the Global Financial Crash, the guy who saved global capitalism (for better or for worse). I know that a few people here are fixated by vaccine hesitancy, and yes it's a particularly big problem in your native USA, but other countries have other issues.

Personally, I think I may have preferred sail and horseback ???? but with internet of course!

I agree there's a lot more to this story and a lot more to come too. That's why I suggest hanging on until we get more evidence from the experts. But current expert opinion is that it's more contagious (this seems certain now), but less dangerous (but this is far from certain at the moment). But the real back story in my opinion is much bigger: (1) this mutant strain has developed because the west has failed to live up its promise to vaccinate the poorest countries in the world (mostly in Africa), despite knowing that mutant strains will develop more rapidly in unvaccinated populations. (2) the EU in particular has been engaging in "neo-colonialism" by locating covid vaccine plants in Africa, but sending the African made vaccines to Europe. (3) The refusal of the west to waive covid vaccine patents at least until we get this under control (apart from the excellent team at Oxford University who stipulated this as part of their contract with AZ). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/16/gordon-brown-hits-out-at-eu-neocolonial-approach-to-covid-vaccine-supplies