retiree

Quadrivalent flu shot is B 349 at the Travel Clinic in Bangkok. Aetna (formerly Blue Cross) offers me one free every year at many hospitals (30 in Bangkok) from 25 May through end October this year (I have in-patient coverage only, which ought'a tell you something). -- Retiree

And I was surprised to learn a while back that even deep wells can have problems if Mother Nature is of a mind. This is a report on the well-known problem of excessively high levels of fluoride in some shallow and deep wells in Chiang Mai and Lamphun. https://www.academia.edu/21014373/Fluoride_in_the_Water_Resources_of_Northern_Thailand_Source_Transport_Distribution_and_Water_Management_Implications

How long Zostavax "lasts" is really a moving target. This study extends early 1-4 and 5-6 year studies out to 11 years. It also looks at burden of illness (BOI); i.e. how nasty is shingles if you get it. It concludes that there's some protection against the disease for 8 years, and a reduction of burden for 10 years: https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/60/6/900/496651 The money shot is the three tables in Figure 3. Yes, efficacy declines, but the confidence interval that might also indicate an "average" gets wider and wider. This means that mileage may vary, and may be dependent on some secondary factor the analysis didn't tease out. Re availability, the below says that Shingrix production takes 6-9 months. Given shortages even in major countries through 2019, followed by Covid-19, it's not surprising GSK might slow down applying for Shingrix approvals around the world: https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/glaxosmithkline-shingrix-shortage-expected-to-persist-throughout-2019-cdc-says -- Retiree

And the winner is ... Magnolia half cream (115B/quart from Tops). Tastes just like old-fashioned Half & Half squeezed from red-blooded American cows -- smooths the coffee but doesn't add its own peculiar flavor. Definitely (ordinary) pasteurized, but not clear if it's been homogenized. And there's no ingredient analysis on the carton or website; just says Low fat fresh cream made from fresh milk. Carton is marked Best by ... one month from purchase date, and says consume within 48 hours after opening, which seems short. I assume it will last a week or two in the fridge. Science beckons! -- Retiree

I'm usually happy with VPN Unlimited (KeepSolid) for Prime / Netflix US / NFL. There are cheap lifetime deals for them out there (5 devices about $50, I think). The streaming services do block for a bit a few times each year until the VPN finds a workaround; seems unavoidable. -- Retiree

I recently got the Mazuma stainless guy. Works excellently. I think the zero-force knobs will probably go longer than my previous Turbora (which only lasted 20 years or so). No, you can't easily re-route the drinking water spigot on it, though. Maintenance is much cheaper long term than the plastic cartridge guys. https://mazuma.co.th/en/product/m3f3-uf/ -- Retiree

Yes and yes. I got the Oldenburger UHT Whipping Cream 200g from Tops (on sale at 95B for 2x200 ml containers -- note that 200ml is less than half a pint, so about 225B/quart). Arrived cold, container says good for 1 month. But ... even just a bit to lighten the coffee tastes like the cream you get in little unrefrigerated liquid cream portions at conferences, and apparently in Switzerland. I may start having my recurring nightmare about missing connecting flights again. Next tests will be Barefoot's suggestion -- Magnolia half cream (115B/quart) and/or whipping cream (189B/quart). -- Retiree

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Teapot Extra brand seems to be one of those "creamers" that consists mostly of sugar and palm oil, with a little bit of milk powder. https://bulky.my/products/teapot-sweetened-creamer-500g

Aha, so that's why the supermarket mangoes look so great, always wondered. But I get the impression that bagging is a standard part of the high-quality mango business, e.g.: https://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/612882/Benefits-of-Mango-Fruit-Bagging-Technology Was this something that only became clear late in the game on your farm? Also, a bit curious -- what was your pre-investment estimate of low and high mango price ranges?

I hate to be the one who points this out, but the same mutations that create more or less lethal Covid-19 variants also occur during human cell replication and repair -- every so often, a repair makes things worse Fortunately, animals generally rely on DNA, which is a lot more robust than the RNA that powers viruses. In effect, strands of DNA are proofread, and double-proofread, and then checked again -- RNA isn't. Nearly all of our errors are fixed, whereas many errors in virus RNA actually kill that bit of virus. Still, errors occur; hence cancer, reduced immune response, and all the other cumulative burdens of aging. This is a good overview of all the problems that occur in people, and the reasons that even the healthiest / luckiest folks rarely go far past 90. https://www.age.mpg.de/healthy-ageing/how-and-why-do-we-age I should also note that some human mutations are helpful, including resistance to HIV-AIDS, and the ability to digest milk in adulthood (which is believed to have only spread in the past 10,000 years), see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation more on mutation in general https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactase_persistence ability to digest lactose in adulthood in particular Unfortunately, humans can't mutate fast enough to stay ahead of rabies, typhoid, bubonic plague, and all the others, to say nothing of the myriad of diseases, including Covid-19, pneumonia, and the common cold, that affect the lungs and sometimes disable or kill us. If surviving the disease confers immunity -- as with measles, or even smallpox -- great. But that doesn't appear to be entirely the case for, say, the different causes of pneumonia*, or the several major variant causes of Covid-19. -- Retiree * The latest pneumonia vaccine, PPSV23, "contains polysaccharide antigen from 23 types of pneumococcal bacteria .... 25 µg of each antigen per dose" https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/pneumo/hcp/about-vaccine.html

It has been pointed out repeatedly that: - mutation is random, - with more mutations lethality could increase, even if less contagious, - with greater contagion rate, even a less lethal variant could sicken and kill more people. See thread beginning with:

Uhh ... 73,288 Total Cases 72,428 in locations that have not historically reported monkeypox (102 countries) 860 in locations that have historically reported monkeypox (7 countries) https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/world-map.html https://worldhealthorg.shinyapps.io/mpx_global/

I see your Goliath, and raise you David. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_fittest While the phrase "survival of the fittest" is often used to mean "natural selection", it is avoided by modern biologists, because the phrase can be misleading. For example, survival is only one aspect of selection, and not always the most important. Another problem is that the word "fit" is frequently confused with a state of physical fitness. In the evolutionary meaning "fitness" is the rate of reproductive output among a class of genetic variants. Perhaps I can recommend the many works of the late Stephen Jay Gould, who wrote extensively about the role of accidental and sometimes unhelpful variations in evolution; see e.g. Ever Since Darwin (1977) and The Panda's Thumb (1980), as well as Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene (1976). You may also be interested in the problem of runaway selection, discussed below, and in books like Richard Prum's The Evolution of Beauty (2017): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisherian_runaway The plumage dimorphism of the peacock and peahen of the species within the genus Pavo is a prime example of the ornamentation paradox that has long puzzled evolutionary biologists; Darwin wrote in 1860: The sight of a feather in a peacock’s tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick![7] The peacock's colorful and elaborate tail requires a great deal of energy to grow and maintain. It also reduces the bird's agility, and may increase the animal's visibility to predators. The tail appears to lower the overall fitness of the individuals who possess it. Yet, it has evolved, indicating that peacocks who have longer and more colorfully elaborate tails have some advantage over peacocks who do not. Fisherian runaway posits that the evolution of the peacock tail is made possible if peahens have a preference to mate with peacocks that possess a longer and more colourful tail. -- Retiree

Uhh ... https://www.livescience.com/1918-flu-variant-deadlier-later-waves-lung-tissue.html which I believe refers to this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9090925/ Evolution doesn't want the weakest to survive and breed. Lol tell that to the male black widow spiders. Or the next Neanderthal you run into ???? Evolution doesn't care about strength. -- Retiree

Can you provide a link to the source text? Or paste it here?

Where is the Thai source of this definition? Parts of your translation do not make sense, e.g. By Group method thought process. operating process, Process face circumstances [sic]

I found that a stirrup air cast like this works better than tape. They weigh almost nothing, last an awfully long time, can barely be felt, and really prevent the ankle from rolling or turning. I used to rely on these for running on rough trails up in the mountains. https://www.amazon.com/Aircast-Air-Stirrup-Ankle-Support-Brace/dp/B00YBZQEOQ -- Retiree

Uh, smallpox. HIV. Polio. Ebola. Rabies. A little more than a century ago measles was both more lethal, and far more infectious than Covid-19, see e.g. https://jmvh.org/article/measles-mortality-in-the-armies-of-the-early-20th-century/ https://www.science.org/content/article/how-europeans-brought-sickness-new-world Unless a virus were to kill an infected person almost immediately, there is little evolutionary benefit to a drop in lethality, which is why the viruses listed above and others were scourges for centuries or millennia before better public health systems and (in most cases) effective vaccines were developed. Worse yet, even if what you said were true, and the fatality rate of Covid-19 declined by 90% (to roughly 0.1%, as opposed to the 1% average over the epidemic*), imagine what would happen if it were as contagious as the common cold, which hits about 80% of the population at least once a year.** Total deaths would stay as they were last year. And, as the TallGuy points out, every case is an opportunity for a new, more virulent mutation to emerge. From my pov, simple measures like masking are no more or less necessary for now than washing your hands in the bathroom -- the danger of any single encounter is extremely small, but the cumulative effect across society adds up. Saying "oh, what's the point, shouldn't we learn to live with cholera?" (and a dozen other formerly common diseases) still seems ill-advised to me until the combination of incidence and mortality gets down (at least for one winter) to something like the historical hospitalization and death rate for influenza, which society has long been willing to accept. -- Retiree * Google says worldwide 624 million cases, 6.56 million deaths = 1%. ** https://www.statista.com/statistics/684010/frequency-of-catching-colds-adults-us-by-age/

Links from TallGuyJohnInBangkok and ukrules are both correct. If you look at the page TallGuy linked to, there's obviously a big jump in cases, and further down a big (but slower) jump in hospitalizations. Really too early to tell, esp. since different populations also have different vaccine type histories. Still, a rise in cases might not mean things are getting worse, but it's a necessary precondition. I'm just glad I live in Bangkok where pretty much everybody still wears masks. -- Retiree

Question: for the tiny amount you add to coffee, does UHT whipping cream taste any different from regular whipping cream? And does it really not spoil much, much longer in the fridge? -- Retiree

Medicare bills every quarter from the start: From their site: You get a bill from Medicare every 3 months to pay your premiums. I pay this from my bank just like an ordinary bill payment. Fyi, I just logged on to my account at medicare.gov -- it says: We sent your October bill on 09/28/2022 in the amount of $476.60. Your October bill covers your Medicare premiums through January 2023.Your payment is due on 10/25/2022. That bill will probably arrive in the mail very close to the due date, but I will have paid it by then. -- Retiree

Same situation. I set up a quarterly auto-pay system via my US bank because I wasn't collecting SS yet. Medicare has its own monthly debit system, but it was more paperwork to set up. I also get a bill here in Bangkok from the Manila office that invariably arrives right around the due date, after I've already paid it via the US bank. They do allow a lot of slack if your payment is late, though. And no, only usable in the US. -- Retiree

This is kind of interesting (as long as it's your toe & not mine ???? ). I think this is the most current big comparative study; note that amorolfine is seldom tested: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012093.pub2/full Topical and device‐based treatments for fungal infections of the toenails Conclusion seem to be that it's awfully tough to treat, but the OP's original stuff works best: Efinaconazole (Jublia). I'm curious -- isn't this a canonical use case for trying an online Canadian pharmacy? Apparently requires US prescription, but is far, far cheaper than US prices. -- Retiree

Another approach -- make sure you have a relaxed rest position. I have had extensive dental work over the years, with enough root canals, crowns, fixed bridges, and now a few implants to qualify for infrastructure week. After a certain point, especially with multi-tooth bridges, it became very difficult to get the ideal all-around tooth contact I'd had before. I found that I was causing myself a lot of pain by constantly testing my bite, esp. near the site of the most recent repair. Eventually I heard about making a conscious effort to maintain a relaxed rest position -- teeth aren't in contact except when chewing. It took a few weeks to learn to relax my jaw all day long (and resist the impulse to tap tap tap), but it made a big difference in comfort for me. Good luck, -- Retiree

Mongkut Medical is the biggest place on Ratchawithii. It looks like it's similar to Diamond Pharmacy, but is open Sunday, and is just around the corner from the SkyTrain stop. The name isn't well-marked (it's under the awning), but it's the only wide storefront with two doors and lots of shiny stuff. Both of these have interior pix, and links to the street view. Mongkut Medical Supplies Co. Diamond Pharmacy -- Retiree