onebir

Just now, ourmanflint said:

because testing is mostly or solely done on those in quarantine, it is only finding positive case of those in quarantine, when it could easily be out in the general population.

This sounds plausible...

5 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

any dead cells from past viruses would flag a positive result

How long do you think an immune system (that's working well enough to deal with Covid in short order) leaves dead cells floating about?

3 hours ago, DrTuner said:

Good, now they have an excuse to take a loan from CCP and let them trigger the debt trap, effectively doing what the Sino-Thais want: selling the country to China.

Alternatively, as of now, countries heavily indebted to China have an excuse to coordinate and jointly default. (This might even be covered by force majeure clauses in their debt covenants. But I'm not a lawyer or sovereign bond expert so don't quote me...)

On 10/20/2020 at 6:44 AM, NanLaew said:

A good start would be for some of the rightfully riled up French officialdom to stop labeling the teacher's murder as an 'assassination'.

It may be a translation issue, but even if not, since English definitions of 'assassination' often stress a political motivation  it seems  accurate enough.

4 hours ago, donnacha said:

A significant portion of the population will voluntarily continue to minimize their exposure to other people,

This proportion may be pretty large. I've seen reports (here and via personal contacts) that suggest "long Covid" can be extremely nasty (comparable to Lyme disease). The real challenge governments face may not be how to impose continued social distancing, but persuading people it's time to stop.

14 minutes ago, elliss said:

     UK , have never  adopted , the Euro .

     Gbp , how low can you go . 

This may just save the UK economy (at the expense of the savings of the populace) if the Bank of England can manage to juggle the exchange rate, external balance growth and financing fiscal stimulus...

But hell, unlike euro area members, at least they have some kind of autonomous monetary policy...

1 hour ago, CygnusX1 said:

Thai is exceptionally rich in pronouns, and their use is exceedingly complicated, although they can often be omitted entirely where English would require them.

That sounds like a plan!

10 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

4. Vegetables and fruit (bok choy, kale, long beans, celery, sweet peppers, radish, white cabbage, cabbage, oranges and rose apple): 20.8% of samples exceeded safe levels of chemical residue.

If these are pesticides that accumulate, long term this cause some real problems - especially if this isn't unique to the veggies from the veggie festival...

8 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

surprised you ain't wrapped in something soft and cuddly. How disappointing.

Not to mention the rabbit!

9 minutes ago, Dart12 said:

FYI, about $35,000 usd can buy you online ecom stores generating $2500/mn profits.

~90% annual ROI! sounds too good to be true...

On 10/20/2020 at 12:40 AM, scubascuba3 said:

dead cockroaches everywhere

Dead.... that's a plus!

14 hours ago, Walker88 said:

As export contracts mature, what is the likelihood they will be renewed when business everywhere is down and many nations are looking to 're-shore' production?

Some companies/countries explicitly want to re-shore production, but some may mainly want to eliminate China from their supply chains; Thailand could actually be a beneficiary of the latter.

14 hours ago, Maverell said:

What I cannot understand is why the 'stimulus' packages are so measly, especially as they say they have huge foreign currency reserves?

The FX reserves are in foreign currency; to stimulate the domestic economy, they need to spend THB. If they used the FX reserves, they'd have to buy (and put upward pressure on the) THB.

The central bank can just create THB deposits & buy bonds anyway . That gives commercial banks/govt treasury liquidity to go out and lend/spend.

Surprised that research proposal passed the ethics review board.

Slang for checking lottery ticket numbers of an unconscious traffic accident victim:  "Thai Triage"

23 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen an olive tree around Chiang Mai. Not part of Thai cuisine, or maybe the climate or soil is wrong.

The former most likely:

Quote

Chinese olives are inherent to subtropical Asia and Africa. It is cultivated throughout greater China, Japan, Vietnam and Malaysia. It prefers warm summer, consistent rainfall and is sensitive cold and does not withstand sub-zero temperature. It could tolerate various growing conditions from poor soil to drought. The cultivar is naturalized outside Asia in Eastern and Northern United States where it revitalizes forested areas and attracts birds.

https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/facts-about-chinese-olive/

Apparently these were introduced via contact with ancient Rome. So they should be pretty similar to typical Mediterranean olives. However I'm not sure what they're are like treated 'Mediterranean style', because in China they're prepared quite differently (as 'ganlan cai' in oil with olive leaves, or heavily spiced & sweetened. Both a totally different 'kettle of olive'.)

IDK how smooth shipping  to Thailand is, but a few stores Aliexpress selling bulk vitamin/mineral/herbal extract powders etc seem to have opened up recently. Could be good if you don't mind measuring with a scoop or filling capsules.

15 hours ago, Airalee said:

Here’s the cheapest I could find on DD property....฿149,000

 

https://www.ddproperty.com/en/property/ทรัพย์-บสส-รหัส-8z1829-ห้องชุดพักอาศัย-กรุงเทพมหานคร-149000-for-sale-7336233

I was living in China ('Tier 2' city) for much of 2019, and I'd idly* check out the local estate agents now and then. The only 'apartment' I saw for less than RMB200k (~USD30k) looked like it was about this standard. IIRC it was 20m2 & about USD25k.

*Idly because foreigners in China on a tourist/study visa can't buy property... & everything was horribly expensive.

5 hours ago, BigStar said:

Thing is, living in Thailand is kinda like living in a sauna full-time anyway.

Any Thai gyms with walk-in refrigerators?

2 hours ago, Airalee said:

So, if your girlfriend won’t stop pestering you to buy her a condo...show her ones like these.

English vocab teachable moment: "this is called a 'fixer-upper'"

1 hour ago, SCOTT FITZGERSLD said:

thailand wants to have those kind of people, because they are big earners who can pay

a lot of taxes.

TBH if their business model is entirely portable, they'd probably go elsewhere if taxed unless they're taxed very lightly...

10 hours ago, kenk24 said:

They don't seem to be doing any harm... help out the coffee houses and restaurants...

Not to mention co-working centers (unless Covid has have killed off that entire concept...)

2 hours ago, moontang said:

Soviet style architecture with a few palm trees. 

"A highly sought-after Mediterranean Brutalist development" is how a UK estate agent (=realtor, real estate agent) would put it.