pattayasnowman

More propoganda how Russia and Putin are the Bad Guys. This whole mess started because US Oil and Gas interests wanted to develop possible Gas fields in western Ukraine. For that they needed a Western friendly Ukraine goverment.

Moreover, the US since the 1990's have been pursuing a dangerous and unnnecessary policy of extending NATO.

With the collapse of the USSR , NATO should have been curtailed not expanded. NATO was created to counter the USSR and its presumed European expansionist policy.

Likewise the EU has been expanded with the Ukraine being woed with possible membership.

Russia is somewhat paranoid as to the Wests intentions, and probable rightly so having been invaded twice (3 times if you include the attempt to overthrow the Bolsheviks) by the West in the past 200 years.

The US and its EU allies are playing an extremely dangerous game here. This 'Cold' war could easily turn hot with direct conflict between the US (NATO) and Russia. Such a conflict would escalate very quickly to an all out Nuclear War.

Russia is being squeezed into economic ruin by the US that somewhat parallels the policy the US pursued towards Japan in the 1930,s

The kneejerk reaction on this forum as with the News Medium in general is excactly what this Act of Barberism

was meant to acheive. But by whom ? IS or whoever is behind IS.

This is all part of a much grander stratatergy -

1. To instigate conflict between Suni and Shia

2. Create greater fear and hatered of muslims in the west.

We are being played as are IS and the muslim states.

The ultimate goal is the securing for the West the remaining supply of Oil in the Middle East.

I work in the avionics industry, but don't know everything about every manufacturer's flightdeck, so you Airbus A320 Engineering "experts" correct me if I'm wrong...

It doesn't matter whether the copilot or the pilot is flying. Both pilot and copilot controls are active, at all times.

The flight computer sums both inputs. So even if the copilot pulled up, the pilot could push down and the FMC (Flight Management Computer) would average the two inputs and fly level.

The only exception is if the Pilot chooses to "lock out" the copilot controls. The Copilot cannot lock out the Pilot controls.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side-stick

The statement that the copilot was in control is a logical "red herring" and means nothing.

In the case of the crash of AirFrance 447 the 2nd officer continued pulling back on the sidestick throughout the descent despite stall warnings. A 'gut' reaction from fear seeing the plane contiue to loose height, being disorientated and maybe not believing the computer warning. AF447 crashed still in a stall nose up.

My 'guess' is that the pilot(s) dialed into the computer a new height as they had requested from ATC. The computer was performing this maneuver when the aircraft was caught in a fierce updraft due to the storm. As a consquence the aircraft sensors may have caused the computer to display erroroneous or conflicting data.

Seeing the rate of climb to be so great the pilot(s) may have throttled back to decrease the rate of ascent causing the aircraft to stall . Probable disorientated by the storm and perhaps not wanting to believe the computer warnings (not uncommon) the pilots kept the aircraft in a nose up position trying to make the plane climb thus failing to correct the stall.

A stall at 38,000 ft should be easily correctable, unless the storm for some reason prevented this.

My guess is that the outcome of the enquiry into the crash will be pilot error.

Malaysia deserves credit.

Its declaration of the MH370 crash as an accident is a humantarian gesture solely to allow the process for insurance compensation claims by survivors. If it otherwise delayed such a declaration, the survivors will remain in an indefinite litigation limbo and some may suffer financial difficulties. This action doesn't prevent a continuing search and investigation into the causes for the crash nor pre-empt a subsequent finding that might contradict the crash as an accident. So what's the problem?

Well if that is the reason well fine and commendable.

But the fact is that the Malaysia's Civil Aviation Authority , Malaysia's Airline Operations, Malaysia's Milatary Air Operations and other branches of the Malaysia goverment bungled this incident from the very beginning and have been trying to cover up their incompetence ever since.

As such it is unlikely that MH370 will be found. By comparison the search area for Air France 447 in 2009 was approx 5000 sq miles but took 2 years to find the Wreckage and millions of dollars. They found 447 on what was to be the final attempt.

The search area for MH370 is some 10 times the area for 447 approx 50,000 sq miles.

So do the Math and who's going to pay - Malaysia?

To find MH370 will require someone to get very lucky.

Without finding the Wreckage the mystery of this flight will not be resolved.

All that is known is that the aircrafts Transponder, ACARS, Radio were disabled and subsquently went through 2 course changes.

Why or how is just speculation without finding the crash site.

It is my understanding, and someone please correct me if I am wrong, that the Thai Baht is not openly traded but pegged against a basket of currenies the primary ones being the $US, Euro, and Pound Sterling. I think the weighting is primarily with th $US. The $US has risen considerable against all other curriencies over the past 4 months which accounts for the appreciation of the Baht against the Euro and Pound and only a small depreciation against the $US.

With that in mind this may be building to a situation with the Thai Baht that is the reverse of the SwFr. That is the Baht is unrealistically valued against the $US .If that currency ($US) continues to rise it may result in the Baht having to be forced to be revalued down. A more realiistic value for the Baht at the current value of the dollar is more like 37.00 (as opposed to 32.5)

As to why the ECB has started QE - well it appears to have worked in both the US and UK. Though why this has not caused massive or even hyperinflation is a mystery to me.

But the fact that gold has been going up, even against a rising $US, and despite the fall in OIL prices might be an indication of some pending econonmic crises

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Great. These guys are on the frontline of tourism here and what happens? He loses it and his mates jump in and "squared up"

Just typical thugs.

Another fine example of promoting "Thainess"

So why all the emphasis on Fake Watch seller.

Its not as if he was trying to pass them off as genuine branded watches for 850 baht

I think even the dummest punter can figure out he can't buy a genuine 300.000 baht Rolex for 880 baht even in Thailand

Looking at the picture of the tail section, (see reuters link for photos) there is not much left of it, just the vertical stabilizer and rudder, plus some of cabin skin forward of the rear passenger doors which has split open.

Looks like the horizontal stabilizers, elevators, cabin floor and APU have all broken away from the tail section,

If the vertical stabilizer and rudder broke away during the flight , the plane normally would be un controllable and plunge into the Ocean.

Several Airbus 300 series jets have had tail fin and rudder problems in the past

Where this section was found in relation to the body of the wreakage is im portant iin determining this.

just say no, in a polite and comitted manner. Stop insulting them or calling them scammers of a million of fake watches.

You spit against the wind, you get spat yourself.

Yes I fully agree and frankly I doubt the validity of the Russian story.

I have lived in Pattaya many years and have learnt a simple Thai phase "mai au khrap"

(No Thank You)

Say it politely with a smile and you will never have a problem with a street vendor.

My gut fleeing is that this tourist insulted the guy and probably told him to F**** Off

Frankly if I had been up all night trying to make a buck from selling some obviouly fake watches (which ,by the way ,often work as good as the real thing) and got disrespected I probable do the same.

"Pundits say that China's real debt is about 250% of GDP while the UK's is 100% and the US has about 90%."

The figures for UK and US apply only to Goverment Debt.

Overall Debt ( Government, Household, Financial and non Financial ) the UK is 2nd only to Japan with a Overal Debt of 490% of GDP

The US 290% of GDP These are 2012 figures

On the subject of Reincarnation - can can someone who believes in this explain how approx 150 years ago the human population was 1 billion whereas today its some 7 billion.

If 1 billion souls were reincarnated over this period where did the other 6 billion come from ?

Perhaps we should start a million years ago when the human population was only in the thousands.

The illusion of the Mind trickes us into thinking it is more then just a manifestation of the Brain. This allows us to forget that we are just another hairy Ape that came down from the trees.

Samples from bales deep inside the stacks of ricw were taken from 1 in every 7 storage sites because the other 6 of every storage site they only found 1 that actually had rice deep inside the stacks. The rest were made to look like rice was there but had scaffolding or boxes in its place.

And your evidence of this is where ????

Why is so hard for some you to believe ?

It takes 2 min to look up the historical annual Thai rice exports. 8 - 10 million tons is the norm see chart.

Get out of this midset that everything reported by THai organisations are distorted. THey can be easily verified !

What a load of rubbish! Whenever there is a dramatic price drop in stock or currency there are always someone blaming it on manipulation or speculators. Whereas it is simply free market forces - thats it plain and simple.

For gods sake man, stop complaining. It's not harassment, it's a routine check.

This is the attitude that allows the errorsion of a societies freedoms. Stop and search without probable cause is a violation of your personal freedom and should not be tolerated anywhere.

There is no doubt in my mind that Saddam's intelligence services had contact with AQ, but AQ would have been the sworn enemy of a leader like Saddam, so any contact would have been about nothing substantial. Iraq was a Republic.

The decision was made and then the excuses were invented.

It's sad that so much good will was wasted. It might be a situation of crying wolf one too many times.

al-Qaeda is as much a frabrication as WMD. There is no and never has been any centrally controlled terroris organization. It came into 'existance' with 9/11 as part of the the whole propoganda to justify the Afghan and Iraq wars

Almost 100% more than their closest rivals India ?

Exporting or "dumping" to get rid of the stockpile?

I suppose if you're getting rid of what you have it's still classed as " exporting"

Now the key question of course would be " what price did they get for that 10 million tonnes compared to what the India exports made?

Fair play they have regained top spot but quality over quantity is also very important too.

"I suppose if you're getting rid of what you have it's still classed as " exporting". "

That's what every country in the world does, if you don't have you can't export it.

"Now the key question of course would be " what price did they get for that 10 million tonnes compared to what the India exports made?"

That would be a question for a different survey. The price is irrelevant when the question is how many tonnes were exported. The figures would probably be meaningless to you anyway as you think that 10 million is "almost 100% more" than 4.8 million.

India and Thailand as all the exporters get basically the same price. Its the world price arrived at on the open market

Rice, 5 percent broken milled white rice, Thailand nominal price quote, US Dollars per Metric Ton has average $415 for 2014

oh dear, the usual garbage from the deniers.

What exactly do you think is causing the climate change?

Historically, I think it is called...Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.

The Sun Duh ! The current solar Max is one of the weakest on record. The Solar Min of 2008 and 2009 was the longest and deepest solar minimum in a century.

The Sun is the Engine that drives the Earths Climate not all the CO2 spouted by anti industrial alarmist. In fact the end of the current intra Galcial period is more probable then runway warming.

In any case even if the use of fossil fuels were causing climate change via increasing global tempertures the matter is mote as we will have used up our last drop of oil and last nugget of coal in approx 30 years well before we reach a critical atmospheric (or Ocean) temperature change.

This apparent disagreement between the OPEC members is, I suspect, just for public show. OPEC and in particular Saudi Arabia are deliberately overproducing with US insistance so as to put economic strain on Russia. OPEC is happy to go along with this to force out the 'weak' producers - Shale oil and deep sea drilling . The cost of production per barrel for these is between $50 -$60, whereas for OPEC its between $5 -$10/barrel)

As to the role of shale oil (and gas) - this is well overstated. The Bakken fields (One of the biggest producers of 'tight' oil) produce approx 0.5 million barrels a day. The reserves are about 7.5 billion barrels. Set these figures against a world wide daily production of appox 98 million barrels a day and an annually consumption of some 30 billion barrels. Bakken Oil represents 4 months supply.

The whole matter is even more outrageous when you consider that the various test for HIV are so unreliable.

THe Elisa, Western Blot, Rapid Tests do NOT test for the presence of a virus , but for antibodies that are suppose to be specific to the 'HIV virus'.

However, HIV Test kit inserts state explicitly that they have no reference standard to determine if the antibodiies detected by the test come from HIV. That if you have a +ve result this should be 'confirmed' by another (same kind of) test.

To illustrate this a 1990 University of California using standard commercial Western Blot kits tested 144 dogs for "HIV" . 72 tested positive - thats 50% ! Dogs don't get HIV ! (http://www.omsj.org/wp-content/uploads/Dogs-Test-Positive.pdf)

These tests have caused so much pain and suffering to so many individuals and who become Osterized through ignorance by society. Many have committed suicide because they feel they have been given a death sentence. They should be stopped altogether. They have made Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier multi Millionaires it just disgusts me.

Lets hope this case is pursued properly and appropriate custodial sentences dished out.

Forget that - lets hope they take them 'round the back' and cap their Arse .

That might make an impression on the rest of the thieving mother<deleted>

Yup so much for global warming - oops sorry 'they' call it climate change now.

OK its a cheap shot - cannot base a whole theory on a single incident despite the fact that global warmers do this when there is a record high temperature in New York. Record high temperatures in New York coincides with setting up of the IPCC.

(The hottest day of 1988 was June 14, with a high temperature of 32°C. For reference, on that day the average high temperature is 23°C)