Gaccha

If I was in that position, I'd favour DMK. They don't get the person-jams at Immigration because no clusters of large international flights in early morning and late afternoon. And it's better to reach my home: I'd just grab the Airlink bus.

You've missed one trick. If the item cannot be found with the Lazada or Shopee search facility, do the exact same search on the Google Search, and it'll provide not only links to Lazada/Shopee and many others that didn't even appear within their websites/Apps, but often also the cheapest prices. The only downside is they might no longer be selling or are sold out. Worth it for obscure items. And where you are on the hunt for cheap.

I always thought magic mushrooms were a no-brainer for decriminalisation. The recent academic papers for its use against depression are remarkable. It seems better, far better, than serotinin. Secondly, it was quasi-legal in many countries (such as the UK, where it was legal in wet form) without problem for many years, but finally got criminalised across many countries with hasty reactionary legislation around 2005 because of a brief spell of bespoke mix'n'match drug creations. Thirdly, the side effects are so laughably trivial then it makes marijuana hardcore in comparison.

Announcement:

Just to make this absolutely crystal clear: there was nothing, absolutely nothing, preventing the UK having a blue-black (Pantone 5395C) passport when it was still a member of the EU.

And... it's gone. Lazada has already removed the item for purchase. Remarkable.

They are slowly clarifying their plan. The clock is ticking. They have roughly 25 days remaining until the creditor moratorium expires and they become vulnerable to vulture creditors. They have said they have signed 2 MOUs, at least one appears to be a serious foreign investor. And they have staked their (damaged) name on returning the major frozen funds within 2 weeks (i.e. the big coins such as bitcoin or stablecoins). Zipmex are carefully attempting to ensure there is no 'bank run' by gradually returning funds. They've started with coins with few owners (such as SOL). They are moving the money into the Trade Accounts over several weeks to minimise panic sells. They'll really needing to be canny about this as the ZipUp frozen accounts has caused colossal brand damage. The next 3 weeks are critical.

You had the same thoughts as me. By running they are providing more oxygen to the flames. The sense of panic makes it so difficult in the moment. Within 150 metres of my place, there have been 3 large fires within the last 18 months, all with more than 10+ fire vehicles responding; one was an elementary school. With such constant danger of fire because of such low standards and such slow response times of fire services, Thais must be all trained to stop, drop and roll. And heads must roll with reckless manslaughter charges.

On this very long thread, I'm the only person who has cited academic work after somebody else took the risk of questioning my claims. It's 11pm, I'm tired, I already know it's the academic consensus position, and it's really your job now to find it out on your own. Google is your friend. This isn't an academic conference.

EI isn't a real thing. IQ increases rumination, which increases depressive tendencies. They can't ruminate their way into happiness. On the contrary, General IQ of most humans allows them to see the sheer pointlessness of existence; you'd have to have a low IQ to be happy about it all. A high IQ will however help increase the chance of a happy marriage.... which will allow them to tolerate the dark, horrific, hellish truth of being a bunch of apes clustered on a little planet, in a small solar system on the <deleted> edge of an insignificant galaxy. Presuming Western educated men getting milked for their money possess a high IQ is quite an assumption... They are generally blue-collar, hardworking but simpy boomers who can't believe they received a teaspoon of female attention.

1. My claim: divorce laws are harsh to deter domestic violence 2. Your claim: my friends are divorced and only one was violent I don't claim the divorce laws will stop divorces. I simply say they are designed to impose good behaviour from the male during the marriage. I have to make assumptions because you forgot to lay out the reasoning for your argument which led you to claim the current jurisprudential position is ridiculous. ...But if your friends all divorced their wives because the wives were behaving badly, then that in no way affects my argument. ...if your friends were divorced by their wives for some reason besides domestic violence then that in no way affects my argument. The law achieves its goal if men prone to violence (mostly low IQ men) remember the potential consequences of their actions. It does this. It works. "Domestic Violence and Divorce Law: When Divorce Threats Become Credible" January 2016 Journal of Labor Economics 34(2):000-000 Note, "cheaper" (credible) in the research text means for the woman...

A lot of this thread is coming down to personality types. To be blunt, those with high intelligence levels and high education levels do not need a 3rd party to wipe their bottoms. Many on this thread are saying that they need a 3rd party to coerce them to do the right thing; they fear they would have walked away without the threat created by marriage. High intelligence is correlated with the ability to delay gratification, lower levels of addiction, higher abilities at dealing with frustrating events, longer time horizons, fewer temper tantrums etc. These people simply do not need the threat of coercion by a 3rd party. But we know that half the world's population has an intelligence below 100 IQ. Thailand has an average IQ of 85. That means the majority of the population would struggle to read and comprehend a bank statement, let alone resolve a complex problem. Religion is manifestly absurd when it adds a layer of magical sacredness to a State coercive policy to stabilise the banal everyday life. ... but when half the population has a severely low IQ, then you have to keep things simple. So I do think marriage and religion have an important place. I celebrate marriages. But if you have a university degree and can string a sentence together, you can manage without State cultic practices. In fact the marriage laws in England are actually designed with this problem in mind. To reduce the crazy levels of domestic violence, divorce was designed to be such a huge punishment that it would deter violence in marriage. The law, in other words, is designed for the lowest common denominator parties to behave themselves (Violence is frustration at being unable to resolve matters. This is strongly correlated with IQ). It is a crude system that spits you out. Obviously it is up to you to decide where you fall in my argument. ... But you are on Thai Visa forum...

A key point not recognised by those celebrating the frugal divorce laws in Thailand in this thread: it is where you are resident which determines what laws apply. If you marry in Thailand, live in Thailand for 8 years, then move to England for 6 months... then the English Law applies to your divorce. It follows that if your priority is maintaining financial health, marriage restricts your movement around the globe. The benefits are trivial; the cost is extraordinary.

The WHO report is one of two reports/papers referenced in the Green Book as seen above in this thread. You can see the reference right there. They have the detailed citation later on. Your intuition is, I believe, exactly right. The reason for the cost/time implication should not have been generalised from specific diseases/specific places/specific vaccinations to all diseases/all countries/all diseases by the NHS, and yet somehow it was. I feel amazed by it. I'll predict a reversal within 2 or 3 years of feedback from the mass vaccinations from COVID. My guess is the reasoning for the initial decision was 'forgotten' as committee members changed. I've spoken to 2 British GP friends, and both said for all the COVID vaccinations there was no requirement to aspirate. I forgot to ask if they did any injections themselves. I suppose not. I'm paying so I don't care if the nurse 'wastes' 2 seconds of their time doing it. The other people on this thread don't understand that besides the science, cost issues and time issues will also come into play. And if you go private you get to override them. Anyway, technical issue that I'll leave behind now.... until my 5th jab in 4 or 5 months.... The hospital turned out to be totally relaxed about my requests, suggesting I wasn't the first.

Please note that the 7 day grace period is only for walk-ins. For the internet, it is Day 0, although interestingly even 11:59pm on Day 0 is ok, despite it being long after the end of the workday.

Ok. To clarify: Aspirating is good. The Thai nurse aspirated. Sheryl thinks this. I think this. It simply means the nurse checks the needle did not enter a blood vessel in the muscle area. Aspirating was regarded as such an obvious benefit that it was all but common sense. See Sheryl's comments. This position was altered by a WHO report from 2004. This was adopted by some countries. The UK's NHS no longer requires aspirating. See their bible on this. The report is a mere cost-benefit analysis. Most adverse heart responses to COVID vaccinations appear to be linked to a failure to aspirate. The victims described a metallic taste in the mouth shortly after injection as well as a cold sensation moving up their arms. This suggests the vaccine entered the bloodstream immediately. These reactions are extremely rare but obviously if something can be avoided without a cost then avoid it. If you are paying for the vaccine yourself then the cost and time saving for the hospital of not aspirating should not be a consideration for the hospital. If you get it free, then the government may decide the time/cost saving is worth the increased risk. Thailand has seemingly not altered its position on aspirating, although this may be sheer inertia and may depend on the hospital's specific best practices. In terms of dosages: this is dependent on the hospital in Thailand. The peer reviewed literature tells us a half-dose of Moderna is as effective as a full dose but with reduced adverse reaction. I wish everyone a safe year ahead in their vaccine experiences. Get them but make the decisions that the hospital allows you to make (dosage and type of injection). The hospital I attended, in contrast to the ferocious comments on this thread, was totally relaxed about altering these things for me. It was a non issue. Informed consent is the key to modern medicine.

Rather oddly, the Thai position speaks of an urgent "at most" disposition while the USA's CDC position is the safety-first "at least" disposition. See the link kindly provided by @Dcheech. The CDC states: "CDC recommends a 2nd booster of either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at least 4 months after the 1st booster for: Adults ages 50 years and older People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised" Note, the CDC makes no recommendations for a second booster for people outside those categories. The UK position is seasonal, but we can take their Autumnal position as 2nd boosters: "Another Covid vaccine dose will be offered to: adults aged 50 and over people aged five to 49 with health conditions which mean they're at higher risk - including pregnant women care home staff frontline health and social care workers unpaid carers household contacts of people with weakened immune systems" The implication of the British position is that at least 3 months will have passed. I have allowed 7 months between my first booster and second booster. I received my first AstraZeneca on the very first day of the public vaccination programme as a high priority candidate (at the time, very few Farang could get an appointment). So all my vaccinations are well spaced out.

They asked me. I deferred to Sheryl 's position on the Booster. This nurse then said their hospital did it differently. I am not questioning the experts. I'm deciding between two different positions of experts. Since, I know one group are correct, because I invested time to find out, I opted for that one. Your position is Russian Roulette.

To my amazement, as if this could not get more weird... The nurse giving the injection and an assistant nurse said today, just prior to injecting: "you want a half-dose?" I said "I want the Booster dose" They said "At this hospital, the booster dose is the same as the normal doses". Shocked response. Giggles from them. "Uhhh... then I want a half-dose". If anyone is wondering why I am insistent on a half-dose, it is because the academic literature shows the half-dose has the same efficacy as the full dose but without as many adverse responses.

I was, of course, not pointing it out for that reason. Let me break it down for you. Sheryl made the (what turns out to be false) assertion that aspirating was so obvious that any 1st year nurse knows to do it for IM. Based on this (false) assertion she asserted that it would be insulting to even raise the issue with the nurse. Had I thought that Thai nurses would rely on the Green Book, I would have mentioned it in my original topic opener, of course.

You are in for a shock. UK NHS best practice now is to NOT aspirate. This is the "Green Book", the protocol bible of the NHS. Like you, I feel it should be obvious... and yet there we are... I am forced, as a consequence, to politely insult the nurse. I would, of course, never question the nurse's technique, but I leave it to the scientists as to which technique to use.

I'm a little surprised. The reverse is certainly not true. Even if in possession of a Thai account, they will not open a Singapore one for Thailand residents unless some exceptional circumstance. I tried. ...Although, presumably as a resident in Thailand it won't be difficult anyway. But that has nothing to do with possessing a Singapore account. Coincidentally, I accidentally ended up with a Singapore account of theirs through investing in a finance platform owned by them. I did not expect nor aim for one at that time. Banking is a funny thing.

To update, ZIPMEX have signed two MOUs so far. If the due diligence is satisfactory these are likely to lead to binding contracts. They have declared a preference for investments over a buyout but given their destruction of their brand's reputation this is a rather surprising and bold move. If cryptos continue to rise in value, Babel Finance will be able to deleverage gradually and restart payments of the debt owed to Zipmex. Babel Finance suffered a collapse in 2020 which they recovered from by waiting it out until cryto regained in value. Zipmex have announced they have initiated legal action against Babel. This seems rather pointless unless they hold priority debt.

@Sheryl, I am getting my second Moderna Booster tomorrow. I requested a half-dose (as I had received at the same hospital in December) and was a bit surprised when they replied, "but why?". I thought it was standard for Moderna boosters. Secondly, I want it aspirated if necessary for depth of injection. But this raises two sub-questions: 1. Where to inject for a half-dose? Is it IM? Or SC etc.? 2. Should it only be aspirated if IM? Thirdly, what on earth is the Thai word for this technical sense of 'aspirate'? Even the enormous Paiboon dictionary has nothing. Thanks Sheryl and any others.

Once the new reporting site became available, I found the App would no longer work for me. Until then, the App was great for submissions.