MangoKorat

Jeez, will you all just stop this and show a bit of bloody respect!!! When this man was reported missing, people were falling over themselves to post suggestions that he was lost in Pat Pong, in a soapy massage etc. etc. - you all saw and many wrote, the posts. Now, possibly so they don't lose all face (or don't think they do), some people are still suggesting that he must have been up to something, others are attacking the Go Fund Me appeal. Many posters are simply fighting amongst themselves. One suggested his family are scammers......jeez! What is wrong with you? You know very little about this man and even less about how he died. Some people like to have somewhere to go to pay their respects or remember a loved one. If he is laid to rest in the UK, his family will have that. If people want to contribute to a fund to repatriate this man's body, surely that's up to them? Its certainly nothing to do with you. Maybe there'll be enough left over to make his son's life a little easier, if only for a short time. On the subject of 'loved ones', can we please not forget that this man had a 7 year old son who now does not have a father. Moderators, please consider closing this thread, there is far too much speculation going on here - mostly negative, some downright nasty. We are discussing a man who has died. Is there no respect anymore?

That would be good, what evidence do you have to support that? Residents in my area have been complaining about low power supplies for years - nothing changes.

I wonder how those who made awful comments about what may have happend to this man in the thread reporting this man missing, feel now?

When fast home charges are available without an increase in your power supply are available and when the charging infrastrucure is in place nationwide - not just in Bangkok, without 'charger wars' - I'd love to have an EV. I pulled into a UK supermarket car park last Saturday. There were 6 charging points, 1 was out of order and the other 5 were all occupied. No thanks - I doubt Thailand, out in the sticks, is any better and it may be worse. I don't want to have to plan my journey according to the availibility of charging points - charging points that may well be occupied. The other point is that in my area of Thailand, we already often don't receive the power supply we are supposed to - they either dont' have capacity or the lines, as they stand, can't take it. How will that be if the number of charging points are increased? Does Thailand have the generating capacity overall to cope with a large increase in EV use? This is happening at the same time as huge data centres are being built all over the world to cope with the massive power demands of AI, The Cloud and the like. Google and Microsoft say they will create their own power supplies using renewables and nuclear power. Easy talk, what are they actually doing at the moment? How long does it take to build a nuclear power station and bring it in to use? Is Thailand, or any other country for that matter. really ready for EV's? I honestly don't know but I think there are questions. How much will electricity cost when the number of EV's on the road starts to significantly reduce the tax intake from petrol and diesel fuel? Will they tax the electricity to compensate or will they tax the EV? If the price of electricity goes up then people who don't even own a car will end up paying more - I can't see that happening. If some sort of tax is put on charging points - what about those who charge at home? It seems inevitable to me that the only way to replace the tax from fuel is to tax the car. I'm not being negative, I want to see this happen but I'm not convinced the country is ready and I think that EV owners will have to accept that they are going to be paying additional tax sometime soon.

Just to clarify - not to argue. There are different types of Brachytherapy - the seeds that your refer to and HDR which is done in conjunction with a PET Scan. With HDR the therapy is carried out through what I can only describe as large needles inserted through the Perineum and guided into an exact location through computer mapping informed by the PET scan. HDR is sometimes said to be only 30% effective but my oncologist disagrees in cases like mine where it appeared that previous Radio Therapy had 'missed' a small area. One of its main advantages is the precision that it can achieve. In my case the residual tumour was right in the centre of my prostate on one side only. The needles, were guided into the exact spot by imaging using the map obtained through the PET scan. So far there has been no return but this was a secondary treatment following Radio Therapy a few years earlier. I am not sure, as I didn't have a low grade of PC (I wish I did) but I believe the seeds are used with lower grades of the disease and in cases where 'watchful waiting' (monitoring) has taken place over an extended period and the cancer is now becoing active. There appears to be several new treatments around and on the horizon at the moment but the key to it all is to catch it early and that is why a PSA test is so important - or maybe one of the newer tests somebody mentioned above. It doesn't matter really if it turns out you don't have PC. This is one of those diseases that can either take years and years to become really active (if at all) - or it can romp through your body very quickly. What the naysayers need to consider is that once the disease breaks out of the Prostate Capsule, the pathways used by UK hospitals (I can't speak for other countries), do not include curative treatment. They can (will) only use measures that will slow the disease down. A lot of guys avoid testing because they have heard that if they are found to have the disease, the subsequent treatment will put them out of action in the bedroom department. That is not always the case these days and there is a lot that can be done to help. Yes, its a 'big thing' for a bloke, it terrified me, I was relatively young on diagnosis but it doesn't always happen and sometimes, function can return several months or even years after treatment. I don't keep up with the latest developments in dealing with PC as I'm (hopefully) past that now but there's always some news on the subject, usually good. The one thing I do know that remains key, is to get tested and regularly. I wish the UK government would stop their nonsense and introduce a sceeening programme for men over 50. I don't care how many false positives there are - the alternative can be deadly. Far too many men are dying of a disease that, in most cases, is readily treatable in its early stages and a bonus is that early treatment is normally less invasive in many cases. To be totally brutal on this, the most common areas for the disease to spread to are the bones, lungs and brain and it doesn't stop. As Sheryl says, it can be an agonising death.

That's something new, things are changing fast. Anything that identifies this horrible disease can only be good.

No, you have a risk of infection but read what I and others have said, in many cases, there is no need for a biopsy in many cases these days unless an MRI scan suggests the presence of PC. Biopsy's are then used in order to identify the size, location and nature of the tumours

And just how does it make things worse? The excuse usually presented is the risk of infection from biopsy's. As had been stated by many people in this thread, PSA tests are now, in most cases, followed up by an MRI scan.

There was no significant difference in the risk of dying, or dying of prostate cancer, between the three treatment options. Three‑quarters of the men in the active-monitoring group experienced growth or spread of the cancer and needed subsequent treatment, but a quarter of the men were alive without having received any form of treatment. Reginald Hall Retired urologist, Newcastle upon Tyne As someone who's had Prostate Cancer (PC) for 10 years and who's illness is in currently in remission but not necessarliy cured, I am shocked at the attitude of a 'Professional' towards this disease. He should know very well that you can't lump men who have low grade PC together with those who have a more aggressive type. Although its the same basic disease in terms of outcomes, there is a vast difference. Most people who have low grade PC are simply monitored as the disease often does not get worse or spread. The reason for the monitoring is just to confirm that. What is it they say? You die with it, not of it. However, aggressive PC spreads and must be treated if the subject is to have a chance of survival. Once PC spreads to other parts of the body, there is no curative treatment, it can only be slowed down. 'However, men should think very carefully and consider the evidence before asking their GP for a PSA test.' If my GP hadn't sent me for a PSA test, I wouldn't be here now. I went to see my GP on a totally different matter. It was only when I mentioned a few symptoms I was experiencing, one that isn't usually associated with PC, that my GP said "I think we'd better do a blood test. She didn't even mention PC but PSA was, as it turned out, one of the tests she'd requested. Two days later I received a phone call asking me to visit the surgery immediately. The results were a PSA of 189, my GP said she suspected PC and was requesting an urgent appointment with the Urologist at my local hospital. A subsequent biospy confimed PC and the resultant scans identified tumours occupying 60% of one lobe of my prostate and 100% of the other. I was given a choice of removal or radio therapy and told the 10 year outcomes were about the same - I opted for radio therapy. I asked the Oncologist to be brutally honest about my chances (as everyone was referring to my PSA count being massively high) and she told me I was only just within the criteria for curative treatment and she thought there was a 70% chance the disease would return as it was a highly aggressive form. The tumours had broken through the capsule of my prostate but there was no evidence of it anywhere else. At that time I was told that I was having the maximum dose of radio therapy and if it wasn't successful, any subsequent treatment would only be to slow the spread of disease down. Fortunately I responded to the radio therapy (+ hormone therapy) better than anyone expected. My PSA began to rise again 5 or 6 years later and the oncologist I saw then said he thought it was more likely that we hadn't quite 'got' the disease the first time around than it had returned. Things had moved on in treatment pathways during those 5 or 6 years and my response had been good. I had a PET scan to map out exactly where the cancer was active and it was still within my prostate. I could not have further beam radio therapy but I could have a more targeted version in the form of HDR Brachytherapy, better still should that not be succesful, other treatement options were now open to me. The HDR Brachytherapy was given in 2 sessions, 1 month apart and to date, my PSA has settled to a constant 0.70. Had I not mentioned my (few) symptoms to my GP or if she was one of those that is opposed to too much PSA testing, I would not be writing this post, I'd have been 6ft under a long time ago. The suggestion that: 'men should think very carefully and consider the evidence before asking their GP for a PSA test.' is ridiculous. Are we doctors? There is only one way to identify the likelihood that PC is the cause of any symptoms you may have and that begins with a PSA test. There is no other way. The old reasoning of false positives and the risk of infection though a biopsy is long gone. In many countries the next step after a high PSA reading is a newer form of MRI scan which, I believe can identify the presence of potential tumours and help urologists make a decision on a biopsy. I met my original oncologist in the hospital coffee bar recently when I was at the hosipital on a different matter and I asked he what she thought would hatve happened if I my PC had not been diagnosed when it was. She told me that it was very hard to say but she suspected that if I had not been diagnosed until 3 months later than I was, I would not have fitted the criteria for curative treatment......."and remember, yours was highly aggressive". I don't think there is a chance in hell that I would still be here now. I don't care what this man says, there is no other way to identify the possibility of PC and I tell everyone I know to get tested every year once they reach 50. You don't always have the usual symptoms, some people that have been diagnosed with PC had no symptoms at all. I apologise for the length of my ramblings but the debate of whether to test or not really stirs me up. Perhaps by reading what happened to me, men reading this will be convinced that regular testing is an absolute must.

Agreed, but let's say that all the unfortunate events did actually happen, the bits that might well be missing/short on detail are the reasons why they happened and his subsequent reactions. From what I've seen of the Thai police, they usually handle people fairly reasonably if they are compliant, the strongarm stuff takes place if someone kicks off. Things can turn very nasty from thereon in.

My thoughts exactly. If I'd encountered even a fraction of what this man claims to have, the first thing I would have done is contact a lawyer.

I'd suggest CABLE.......a hose is something fluids run through. 😁

You missed off........and sod everyone else.

Yes and a much higher percentage have absolutely no idea who has the right of way at roundabouts for example. They don't improve, even when you explain it to them yet. In the UK and Europe, roundabouts are not seen as a problem - its not difficult.

No, what people need to do is ignore this ridiculous wind up.

Yes, the skim reading was clear.

Yes, they clearly need to be shown - scientifically, why they shouldn't be doing those things. You can't just claim that its stupid or dangerous to behave in those ways though, you need to back that up with scientifically based evidence 😁 I note the guys on the truck are wearing their 'safety flip flops' and that at least the parents on the motorbike have helmets on so the children don't have to worry about them being killed in an accident.

Yes, politeness like refusing to stop at pedestrian crossings.....which conveniently takes me to a story about Enforcement. I apologise if this evidence appears weak and not obtained through any scientific survey. Its just what I've witnessed for that last 22 years. I suggest you go to Sukhumvit in Bangkok, more specifically to the crossroads with Soi's 3 and 4. That junction is traffic light controlled - sometimes automatically, sometimes by a policeman who sits in the box on the Soi 4 side of Sukhumvit Road. Not only is the junction controlled by traffic lights, a lighted pedestrian crossing is included in order that people, mainly tourists can get across the busy road, safely (in theory). The police box has a clear view of the lights on that pedestrian crossing yet cars go though the lights at red all the time - the green man is on clear view to the police officer who does precisely nothing about it, day in, day out. A tourist couple were killed there a few years ago yet the drivers still go through the lights at red every day whilst the policeman sits there looking at the green man being shown to pedestrians. Enforcement? Pfft. How much science does it take, exactly, for the police to take action and punish every driver that goes through those lights when the green man is showing? How does the officer in the police box keep his job when people have died? What would your science do about that?

Strange, I thought I had concentrated of that. Silly me.

Careful, you'll be accused of being unscientific. I agree though, lack of enforcement is the root cause of it all.

Its quite clear where you've either spent or spend your time in Thailand - 'usually drunk' - ha ha, I can't remember seeing any of my mates in Thailand drunk. 3 of us ride motorbikes, we all hold Thai licences. I'll admit to not being a spring chicken but I am not slow, I don't have poor vison and my reflexes are very fast - the Thai driving examiners couldn't believe it. Show me a Thai traffic sign and in most cases I'll tell you what it means. A country that accepts international drivers and their licences is supposed to provide both national and English versions of its signage. Whilst many of the things you mention, do go on, I'd suggest they apply mainly to tourists, not residents.

According to the news tonight, Armitage was arrested when he arrived back in the UK. No charges were mentioned just that he is being held for questioning on suspicion of murder. No mention of new evidence. The lack of an extradition request suggests that there is no new strong evidence. The normal time that he can be held for, without charge is 24 hours but in serious cases such as this the police may be granted extra time by a judge - up to 96 hours. Given his record so far, I suspect he'll 'no comment' all questions so if there is no new evidence that's enough to convince the CPS to agree to charge, he could be out again tomorrow. I wonder if he took any legal advice about the revocation of his residency?

A final thought on 'stupidity' how rational do you think someone who rides a motorcycle along a country road at night without any lights is? If you talk to many Thai people, they will agree about the stupidity, the risk taking and the lack of enforcement. They may well have lost a relative to one of those reasons. I have Thai friends, they talk about these things in the very same that we do. They are not all stupid, or selfish and I didn't say they were - it doesn't take many to cause the carnage that goes on almost every day.

Using the example I gave of stupidity. Do you seriously believe that any of the factors you have listed is at play? How much education does someone need to know that you can't just stop in the r/h lane of a fast moving 4 lane system, indicate and cut across 3 other lanes to go to a market stall. You cannot be serious. This is a wind up. Rubbish!!!

I have never said they are all stupid but the ones that cause accidents often are. That's very easy to answer, no science necessary. It can't be effective if it doesn't happen. 1 tiny example - why are schoolkids allowed to ride 3 up with no helmets on right in front of a policeman? Ever been stopped in Thailand and asked to produce your licence? Don't worry, even though the law says you are supposed to carry it with you, if you don't have it or as is the case with a good many Thai's (factual), you don't actually hold a licence, simply pay the 200 baht fine (in cash of course) and carry on your way - no need to produce it later. Lack of consequences is the same as lack of enforcement. They have the rules, they have the punishments - they just don't enforce or apply them. Quite often the 'consquences' are a far lesser punishment that somehow doesn't reach where its intended to - that's as far as I'll go on that one, other than to say that there are often checkpoints, targeting motorcyclists who are not wearing helmets. The 'fine' is often just 50 baht and they are allowed to ride off without a helmet. What I do understand is that despite all your training, you appear to have about zero undertstanding of Thailand, its people and laws. Not sure if you live in Thailand or not but you certainly have no idea what goes on, on the roads, with the police, or many Thai drivers. If you think a scientific approach will cure Thailand's road carnage - good luck to you. To a certain extent they are different people - I have never known a UK motorcyclist pull out of a side road without looking, for example. As I said, it goes against basic survival instincts - I don't know anybody, apart from maybe a 5 year old who needs training to know that there are cars coming and you are very likely to hit one. I see no point in discussing this further with someone who can't think beyond the science. Very few things fit well with science in this matter. I've given you examples, not science, things I've seen happen that despite driving 50k miles per year, I have never seen in the UK and you choose to ignore them or try to make them fit with your 'model'. You are almost completely wrong on all points.