billd766

6 minutes ago, still kicking said:

I am OK now Thanks I was lucky to fall on the carpet (so no broken bones ) had 2 broken ankles falling outside and ever since then I have a phobia of steps and elevators so it makes it hard for me to travel now. 

At 80 I use a walking stick.

Stairs I can usually manage but slopes are difficult for me now. Stairs are OK if there is a handrail or a bannister. I can go upstairs one step and one tread at a time. Coming down is usually both feet on the one tread and both hands on the bannister.

The good news is that i wake up every morning and it is great to be alive, Bad knees, aches and pains, problems walking don't seem to matter as much as being alive and being with my wife.

4 hours ago, still kicking said:

No Sheryl the only meds I take is what I normally take  this was just the one of thing I completely blacked out and fell answering the front door lucky not to break any bones. 

You were very lucky.

I blacked out up by our kitchen about 18 months ago and woke up in hospital. I had no idea where I was, what time, day, week, month or year it was. I had no idea how I got there or where it was, I didn't even know if my wife knew where I was or what happened.

I hope that you are better now.

5 hours ago, Luuk Chaai said:

and if it was you on the other side of the blockage....?

I wouldn't be going anywhere. Tired workers can cause more problems than the solve.

It is obvious to me that you have no idea what you are talking about, and are just a troll on this thread.

His time and that of his party has long gone.

I can well remember how the democrat party denied that they would join the military coup government. After the so called election, they joined with Prayuth's coalition government

Since 1997 the democrats have lost voters and votes with almost every election.

33 minutes ago, Gobbler said:

The church should be protected on a historic registry. 

 

 

Why. It is just an old unused building, boarded up, shuttered and decaying. The FORMER owner of the building is stopping it being rebuilt and becoming a useful part of the community.

It is not as if they have any interest in it.

Something interesting for you to read.

https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html

Some key findings from the Church Statistics1 report are:

UK Church membership has declined from 10.6 million in 1930 to 5.5 Million in 2010, or as a percentage of the population; from about 30% to 11.2%.
By 2013, this had declined further to 5.4 million (10.3%). If current trends continue, membership will fall to 8.4% of the population by 2025.2

In England, membership is forecast to decline to 2.53 million (4.3% of the population) by 2025.

Over the period 2005-2010, the major Christian denominations such as Anglican, Catholic and Presbyterian all saw falls in membership. Orthodox, Pentecostal and other new churches (Evangelical and Charismatic) on the other hand, saw an increase in membership.

Church membership is declining in all four constituent countries of the UK, but in England the decline is relatively small, whereas the biggest decline appears to be in Scotland.
1 The Church Statistics document gives an overview of the various definitions of 'membership' used by different Christian Denominations.

2 Source: Church Statistics 2

Church Attendance in Britain
Brierley Consultancy have also published statistics for church attendance (as opposed to membership) for the period 1980-2015. Key findings are:

Church attendance has declined from 6,484,300 to 3,081,500 (equivalent to a decline from 11.8% to 5.0% of the population).

England has the lowest percentage of the population attending church in 2015 (4.7%), just below Wales at 4.8%. In Scotland, the equivalent figure is 8.9%

1 hour ago, retarius said:

What else is she supposed to do with the trash in her car? There are no waste bins about are there?

Take it home with her and dump it in her own trash bin. It seems as though there was a trash bin 20 metres from where she dumped her trash.

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

This is an opinion forum.

Therefore without any backup any opinion is meaningless.

The same as opinions of school children.

5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I already suggested how the navy could do it simply by blocking them with fast patrol boats from crossing into British waters. No need to board them or take them into custody.

 

No doubt there will be a chorus of how that wouldn't work by those with no better ideas.

 

Bit ironic that the navy that ruled the oceans can't find enough sailors to do much any more. Perhaps they are all on those 2 big floating targets.

 

How the once upon a time mighty has fallen!

 

Ozymandias by Shelley

 

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

 

 

For the manning levels of the British Forces you need only to look and see who has decimated them. The UK politicians have done it themselves and at the same time they have also increased the number of tasks given to the Forces with a reduced number of people.

7 hours ago, MicroB said:

 

You are thinking very small, and wrongly if you think emulating the West African Squadron, which consumed 2% of GDP (about the current defence budget once pensions are stripped out) is anything to do with a frigate or two sailing up and down the Channel.

 

In his speech, Tom proposed that British troops are deployed to confront Russian and Belarusan paramilitaries forcing people over the border on the orders of their government.. The West Africa Squadron was deployed for 60 years; thats how long it took to destroy the slave trade. The Squadron had some of the highest casualty rates in the Navy at the time.

 

It means deploying British troops to the major sources of the refugees, which are Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, and accepting the cost of that,

I was thinking about the modern day RN which still does not have ships or man/women power to spare not about something that happened more than 100 years ago. Back in those times if men were required for the RN, press gangs simply went out, banged a few heads and there was a ships crew.

Nowadays that doesn't happen and new recruits and retaining serving members is at a low point.

Back in the days of the West Africa Squadron a new ship could be built, commissioned and in action in a matter of months. Nowadays it is a matter of years to build , commission, handover after sea trials, fit out, equip and staff even a small ship such as a frigate.

The Tories under their multitude of PMs have had 14 years to come up with a workable plan whilst they were in power, but they didn't or couldn't.

12 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Good for him. Finally a politician that has a pair. I wish him well.

He is living in a political dream world.

In theory it is good.

The problem is that the RN don't have any spare ships or men/women to carry out yet another useless political idea.

As a thought (if this plan) ever sees the light of day.

The RN deploys a frigate that actually chases a boatload of illegal immigrants and orders it to stop. They will probably ignore that and carry on.

What should the captain do next? Launch a small boat loaded with armed marines and take over the boatload of illegals, bring them back to the frigate, and do what with them?

Take them back to France and dump them there? I doubt if the French will even accept them. Take them to the UK, and hand them over to who? That won't fix the problem.

Talking is what politicians do best.

If you come up with an idea like that, plan it through from start to finish, long before you mention it. Dig deep into the Tory policy rules and regs on illegal immigrants on exactly what happens to them from the time that they land, right through to the end. Where do they stay, what is real total cost to the UK, how to deport them and who will even accept them.

If they have no passport, ID etc, how can you send them to another and what is the cost.

The Tory party had years to sort this out and they couldn't. The Labour party are making loud noises about what THEY will do.

In the end, if the UK is lucky and smart enough. they will make it impossible to land as an illegal, be given somewhere to stay, food etc and money to live on.

They will be tied up in the courts for decades with appeal after appeal that the UK government will have to pay for the courts, the prosecutors cost and the defence costs as the illegals have no money to pay them. Not to mention all the protests about civil rights and all the bleeding heart liberals against the government.

2 hours ago, theblether said:

 

Usual witless barrel scraping. That definition has been posted hundreds of times on this forum. Always by Dunning-Kruger types thinking they have uncovered a pearl of wisdom. 

 

So I apologise, I now know you are not better than that. 

quote "That definition has been posted hundreds of times on this forum. Always by Dunning-Kruger types thinking they have uncovered a pearl of wisdom".

If the definition has been posted hundreds of times on this forum, it probably means that most of the posters are correct.

Thank you for the apology.

It was completely wrong and unnecessary.

On 8/28/2024 at 6:18 PM, Georgealbert said:

This is my personal opinion on this rescue (this is not the view of the AN news team, but my own).

 

The incident occurred after the roof collapsed, I have seen no details of the geological problem which caused this. 
 

It does appear that the workers were possibly in an area of unsupported ground, which is normally a no go zone, as before collapsing this type of roof should have shown some bowing or sagging, which should have been noticed on daily safety and geo tech inspections or by work teams.

 

Questions on safety standards that can be asked are, no self rescue devices on workers, no emergency refuge chamber given the distance of travel, lack of helmet lamps, workers in short sleeves and no tag board system, as they did not even know the name of the Myanmar worker..

 

it is unclear if the site had emergency plans in place and what liaison had taken place between other agencies, or if any drills or training had taken place.

 

Once the workers became trapped, there were 2 options, vertical or horizontal rescue. Given the unstable ground conditions and possible lack of suitable equipment, vertical access looked a non-starter.

 

it is strange that no communications equipment, radios, were in place, to establish initial contact with the missing workers. Also there is no evidence that the construction company had access to a horizontal drill rig, which could have initially drilled small exploratory holes to help located and contact the missing workers.

 

The USAR teams are well equipped, with life detection radar, endoscope cameras and seismic sound devices. The problem is gaining access through a very unstable earth pile, which continued to collapse. Concrete was injected in the collapsed area to try to help stabilise the rubble and the first plan, which failed, was the small circular pipe. The use of a construction of an old style mining access tunnel seemed the next logical and safe step, and clearance of the earth fall was never going to be achieved.

 

Incident command has been a problem, as there seems no structure in place with too many agencies wanting be involved at the response level.

 

Those agencies need to work together in the crisis command, supporting, not running the incident response, and provide the logistical support and deal with family and media requirements. Clear and concise media briefings would help convey a message that the rescue is under control.

 

Too many unrealistic promises have been made, setting rescue timings, which are always doomed to fail.

 

The good sign is that the first worker is found and alive, so hope remains for the other two.

 

 

I agree that there are too many chiefs, too many agencies, too many plans and not enough co-ordination. There are also too many lookie sees cluttering up the area, especially local and national politicians. They also have too much influence and power, so unfortunately they cannot be kicked off the site and let the guys who are actually doing the rescue can get on with their job without being interfered with.

Many of them have no ideas of their own and are simply in the way.

On 8/27/2024 at 5:34 AM, Luuk Chaai said:

I got worried for a moment ,,     thought it might actually be an all out effort to get it done ...

 but,  not dissapointed,   there are several slackers sitting around nose to mobil screen

So what?

Perhaps they have done their work and are on a break period and relaxing. perhaps they are waiting to go to the front and start their shift. Not everyone works for every second of every minute of every hour.

Many people take a break now and again.

45 minutes ago, theblether said:

 

Uhuhu

 

Note the silence, even the most slavish Democrats are gobsmacked at this own goal. This is the type of ammunition you don't hand to Trump a few days before the debate. 

 

Incredible. 

quote

Note the silence.

So far in this thread there are 3 posts. 2 of them are yours.

Not everybody responds instantly, and many people simply don't care.

2 hours ago, 300sd said:

I wonder when they'll do the next planned move and remove poor old Joe as current president and insert this Kamala sham before the election! Someone needs to be running the country and of course it's not Joe. (won't be Kamala either) haha

And it certainly won't be Trump, Vance or the gop.

12 hours ago, billd766 said:

We found a cannabis shop in Kamphaeng Phet yesterday. My wife rattled off in Thai to the young guy working there. He explained in fair English that a lot of the locals in his village who also had knee problems boiled up the flowers, left them to steep then drank the stuff before they went to bed. They slept better and it seems as though thier knee joints ached less the next day.

 

My wife talked to the guys boss and they gave us 100 baht of the flowers for free.

 

This morning she made the first lot in a big mug. I strained it through a sieve and put it in a bottle in the fridge for tonight. I also made a second brew ready for tomorrow. I will try that for a day or so and see if it makes a difference to my knees and if I sleep better.

I had about 250 ml last night and as it is, it has all the flavour and smell of wet grass. The next lot I make, I will put some honey with it to add a little bit of flavour

On 8/27/2024 at 7:44 AM, thesetat2013 said:

Harris can not afford to be in a debate that is unbiased. She will only giggle when she's not know what to say.. Which means most of the debate she will only be giggling. Trump on the other hand, will be spouting semi-truths and outright lies based on facts that were made biased by the news services. So Harris needs to be in a safe place where she does not need to know what to say. And Trump needs to be in a place where the real facts can be told without biased reporting afterwards. Either way, Harris should not have the right to demand the place. Especially when that station is so biased against him and for Harris. 

Trump does not like or do real facts.

Lies a plenty, but the truth and Trump are complete strangers.

Hey up Father, There's trouble at t' mill.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Advice to Paetongtarn.

Change the backstabber proof vest to a guaranteed bullet proof vest, and stay away from buses and bus routes.

6 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

I apologise to folk following this thread but I have a smidgen of sympathy for the BBC here.

(Only the most minute smidgen though.)

The BBC are just confused.

Hamas do not target innocent civilians.

They tell the world that ALL Israelis are guilty and must be annihilated.

Hamas do not differentiate between Israeli civilians and military.

Even babies are to be annihilated as they will be guilty when they grow up.

Change the words for Israeli and Hamas around and you have what is happening in Gaza now.

On 8/27/2024 at 3:10 PM, Homburg said:

The BBC tell lies. This is news?

And nobody else does?

I wonder just how many CAMERA teams are on the ground in Gaza actually reporting the news?

I am sure that Israel would give them a visa and as much help as they need to give the true picture from the Israeli point of view.

https://cpj.org/2024/08/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/#:~:text=As of August 23%2C 2024,began gathering data in 1992.

As of August 27, 2024, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 116 journalists and media workers were among the more than 41,000 killed since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.

Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict during the Israeli ground assault, including devastating Israeli airstrikes, disrupted communications, supply shortages, and extensive power outages. This has meant that it is becoming increasingly hard to document the situation, and CPJ is investigating almost 350 additional cases of potential killings, arrests and injuries.

Last month Israel told international news organisations Reuters and AFP that it could not guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was targeting Hamas throughout Gaza and accused the group of placing military operations "in the vicinity of journalists and civilians".