billd766

26 minutes ago, Guderian said:

A very long time ago, when I was working in West Africa, we came home one night to find the street blocked by a giant python. The road could take two cars side-by-side, then there was a grass verge on both sides and a storm ditch. The python was so big that all you could see was its body on the road, the head was already down in the ditch on one side while the tail still had to emerge from the ditch on the other. That was one big snake.

Snakes of any size are the things that I hate the most, followed closely by flies and flying ants.

Now if they had a submarine with an engine, they could bung a set of wheels on it and torpedo the python.

It is a good idea and only about 50 years too late.

38 minutes ago, zhounan said:

Sometimes when I am in the car at night, I stare at the countless windows without lights in skyscrapers.

Bangkok has so many uninhabited rooms but skyscrapers keep springing up everywhere destroying Bangkok's distinctive features.

 

Thailand should stop developing only one city and start to develop major cities in every provinces to encourage a gradual displacement of people from the capital city.

Good idea but people seem to prefer to live reasonably close to work and within commuting distance. The further you move from the bigger cities, the harder it is to find a job to commute to, assuming that you are still close to your commuter network.

It has been said many times that Bangkok is slowly subsiding and in a couple of decades or so may be uninhabitable.

Where will people live, work and commute to, then?

1 hour ago, retarius said:

The UK is no more than a colony of the US, the US does what it wants in the UK, stationing missiles dozens of bases which all US personnel having immunity to mow down our kids on the roadways as they drive drunk on the wrong side of the road. If you want to be a vassal, this is the treatment you get, never allowed to devote from the US position even on genocides by Israel. The last time a UK politician had balls was in the Vietnam era.....that's been totally squashed since. I feel ashamed actually.

All this fuss. AFAIK the us has to get the UK government's permission to station extra weapons on UK soil.

As for the person who killed a Brit on the roads, it was a woman civilian married to a US serviceman who caused the accident, and NOT a US serviceman.

She only had immunity because she was married to him.

On 1/28/2024 at 7:58 AM, impulse said:

 

And the warmongers, beating the drums...

 

They would be the Russian warmongers, beating Russian war drums.

2 hours ago, Kinok Farang said:

Only kidding sorry.

You're a braver man than me.

And me.

Jumping out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft.

Definitely not in my skill set.

4 hours ago, youngster30uk said:

closer to 15 seconds

Not correct.

Edited to include the link.

Example Calculations:

At t = 1 s
d = (0.5) * (9.8 m/s2) * (1 s)2 = 4.9 m

At t = 2 s
d = (0.5) * (9.8 m/s2) * (2 s)2 = 19.6 m

At t = 5 s
d = (0.5) * (9.8 m/s2) * (5 s)2 = 123 m
(rounded from 122.5 m)

6 hours ago, youreavinalaff said:

Air fryers are great.

 

I love a roast chicken in the air fryer. I turn it upside down with 20 minutes to go to get the underside crispy too.

 

I now also use my air fryer to make my home cured hams.

I used to make ham with a hind leg of a pig. The problem I have is that I am the only one that eats ham, and 5 or 6kg is a bit too much for one person.

On 1/27/2024 at 8:56 AM, impulse said:

Once again, Iran and their proxies putting those Biden bucks to good use...

 

What Biden bucks would they be?

8 hours ago, novacova said:

I highly doubt it. For one, an airline is not going to risk losing millions in a law suit and fines and loss of revenue due to a maintenance issue of a plane that can be swapped out.

 

A pilot is not going knowingly fly a faulty aircraft, they want to get home just as everyone else.

 

Its illegal to knowingly fly a faulty passenger aircraft.

Many decades ago when I was in the RAF, in the back section of the Form 700 (the aircraft logbook) was a section of the aircraft faults.

If the faults were written in green ink (green lined) the aircraft was flyable, but the performance was limited to the next service, a certain amount of flying hours etc, depending on the fault.

If the faults were written in red ink (red lined) the aircraft was grounded until the fault was repaired, and was not up on the board as available.

I had always thought that civilian aircraft were subject to similar regulations, but it seems more and more nowadays, that some things are more important than safety, such as profit.

Personally If I couldn't fix the problem  I certainly would not sign off on the job. My supervisor , or his supervisor, or perhaps HIS supervisor would have to make that decision.

Perhaps the airline did not have a spare aircraft, either locally or near enough to be called in to replace the unserviceable (IMHO) aircraft.

The good news is that they (belatedly) traced the fault and it went back as far as either faulty manufacture by Boeing or the sub contractor who supplied the door, or not enough thought went into the servicing instructions.

Alaska were lucky that nobody was seriously injured or killed, or that the aircraft didn't crash, and that they had a top notch flight and cabin crew on board.

There used to be a couple of phrases used in bad weather.

"Batten down the hatches", another one was, "Close all watertight doors".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porthole

A porthole on a ship may also be called a sidescuttle or side scuttle (side hole), as officially termed in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. This term is used in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations.[3] It is also used in related rules and regulations for the construction of ships.[4] The use of the word "sidescuttle" instead of "porthole" is meant to be broad, including any covered or uncovered hole in the side of the vessel.

A deadlight is a hinged metal cover which can be clamped over the porthole to secure it in heavy weather.

Yesterday I made some wholemeal bread in the air fryer.

Today it was raisin bread in the air fryer.

last week I made some pasties with pork, onion, carrot, some garlic, a Thai vegetable similar in size and shape to a carrot (I cannot remember the name of it), but it is white.

I made the pastry at home as well.

The problem I have with my air fryer is that it doesn't cook the bottom of what I am cooking, so after the top is done, I turn it over to cook the bottom.

8 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Now that America has made itself an enemy of the Houthis, they can expect attacks on American ships as well.

So much for not expanding the war in Gaza.

 

Had they stuck to shooting down the missiles it would have IMO been seen as business as usual, but to attack land based facilities has made them official enemies, and that goes for Britain as well.

 

IMO stupidity writ large.

Not really. That assumes that every Houthi missile of whatever sort will get shot down every time. Reasonable if the Houthis only send them over 5 or 10 at a time. If they sent 50 or 100 at a time several are bound to get through and either sink or disable a ship or two.

It is quite possible to target one ship, even if it is a naval ship and overwhelm the defences.

Then both the Houthis and the Iranians will face a big time retaliation.

The Houthis will almost certainly be wiped out or at least severely damaged enough to keep them out of it for a while.

Iran will be a much harder nut to crack, especially in the Arab Gulf. I believe that the USA has 2 carrier groups in the Gulf and the only way out is via the Strait of Hormuz, which is quite shallow and narrow, and the main deep water channel is not that wide. 

The Strait of Hormuz is 56 km wide and roughly 90 m deep but for a trough near and around the Musandam Peninsula. Not a large area and not very deep, if you have to launch aircraft from a carrier there.

4 minutes ago, The Cyclist said:

 

Armed Forces Pensions ( Army, Navy, RAF ) are the first pensions listed on the Uk Governments list of Government pensions.

 

As such, it is covered by a DTA and non taxable in Thailand.

 

The link to the actual Government webpage was posted in the 200 page long thread.

Thank yo for that information.

If it is covered by the DTA, would I have to declare it?

6 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

A link below to the KPMG Tax News Flash page listing the latest news from the RD. It's a useful link because it's easy to read and everything is in one place. As new announcements are made, they should appear in the link:

 

https://kpmg.com/th/en/home/insights/2019/01/th-tax-and-legal-news-flash.html

 

Also linked is the Siam-Legal web page which provides useful legal commentary on tax related issues:

 

https://www.siam-legal.com/thailand-law/thailand-new-tax-on-foreign-income-an-overview/

Thank you for those 2 links.

For me the Siam-legal link gives a little more (but not enough) information about a person who is retired in Thailand and whose home country (UK) has a DTA with Thailand.

I will send them an email on Monday to see if they can clarify whether I have to pay tax on my 3 pensions.

I am 79, married for 24 years, and should be entitled to a higher tax allowance here in Thailand, plus I am supporting my 19 year old son, who is in his first year at university.

My state pension I pay no UK tax on as it is within my tax free allowance.

My military pension I pay some tax on, as combined with my state pension it exceeds the UK tax free allowance.

My company pension is taxed at 20%.

I read in earlier pages that my UK military is tax exempt in Thailand. Whether that is correct I don't know as it is down to the Thai RD.

2 hours ago, Denim said:

 

Similar issue to me compounded by the fact that we live in a rural village , 7 kilometers from town and my wife can't drive. She has enough personal savings to get by should I die but why just leave my 400,000 for a bank to enjoy if it's going to be a hassle for her to do probate I have decided to get a halfway decent home safe that can be bolted down and keep half or more of my cash in it, just leaving enough in the bank to enjoy having an ATM card. This way , if I die it will not be an issue for her.

 

On the other hand ....if she dies first a bigger headache for me having to sell her house etc but at least I can drive and have the tenacity to pursue things.

We also live in a rural village, only 6 km from the bank and 65 km from Kamphaeng Phet. luckily she can drive the pickup, and the house and land is in her name.

IF my wife dies before me then it all goes to our son, who has told me that I can stay here until I die.

We have had a safe for years, so that isn't a problem, and my marriage extension is on income so there is no 400,000 or 800,000 baht to worry about.

I need to contact Wise in the UK on sorting out my bank account there, hopefully into an either/or account as my wife of 24 years (who will be 59 this year) can get my military and company pensions.

35 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

It will most likely be a new account.

Thank you for that information.

My wife has a selectively deaf ear when it comes to things like pensions, RD tax and stuff like that. I am not even sure if she knows what to do or who to contact when I die.

All the information is on the opening screen of my pc with no password.

I have taught her how to transfer money from Wise to BKK bank and from BKK bank to the joint account and she has even done it, but when I turn my toes up it will be her problem, as I won't be here to do it for her.