canopy

42 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

In countries like the USA they aren't banned and present little to no problem.

You are delusional. Plastic bags are a problem in the most developed countries and that's why they are getting rid of them. California banned plastic bags in many stores and adds a fee on each recycled paper bag. This needs to be everywhere no exceptions. Millions of barrels of crude oil and pollution are attributed to making the bags. Plastic bags make it to the environment even in the most developed countries and kills untold amounts of animals, sea life, and birds there. And digging gigantic holes in the ground and filling them with plastic bags is stupidity and where most bags end up. Reducing is not the future, banning is right.

And think about this. Children are dying every year like flies suffocating in plastic bags. Yet there is not one single person raising their hand that we should ban plastic bags. Then just one kid dies from muay thai and there is a hissy fit that this is intolerable and must be banned. People are so stupid.

Countries that already banned plastic bags are making a laughing stock out of the rest of the world. How lost does that make Britain look who 50 years into the plastic generation rolls out a 25 year plan, (yes a quarter of a century) to get rid of single use plastics. Or how about the other countries like Thailand still hopelessly floundering with the idea of how to "reduce" plastic bag consumption. People scratching their heads how to get from 10 billion bags to 9 billion, BFD. The answer is just so easy and right there in front of everyone and yet no one sees it--ban plastic bags. Why on earth is any concerned person talking about anything other than such a simple, proven idea that completely solves the problem 100% before the year is out?

14 hours ago, kotsak said:

Ok, let's see how they handle this one compared to the high profile guy case.

The high profile guy got the book thrown at him, has had his house searched, and has had his dodgy land holdings scrutinized and is facing a huge number of charges. These guys can expect harsh treatment because they are foreigners, but perhaps not as sweeping as the rich guy is getting. The main thing the forestry officials have alluded to and we can witness all over Thailand is only the rural poor are approved to hunt and pillage the forests. The poor can take all the black panthers and nobody cares. And all they have to do is claim they are hunting mushrooms to win public support and sympathy. I wish one day the forests could be protected equally even if the poor are the ones doing the damage. Good work catching these guys, but a million others get a free pass.

The thickness of the load bearing block depends on a few things. A 25cm thick block is sufficient for any normal residential structure 1 or 2 stories and thus is a good size to use for general purpose exterior walls. Thinner load bearing blocks exist and can be used for things like interior walls or possibly exterior with engineer verification. 25cm offers better thermal and sound dampening properties than thinner blocks so even if you don't have to use them, you may still want them. 25cm thick blocks are not that big really. In germany typically they use around 37cm thick blocks which are so large they have built in carrying handles.

It is also crucial to note q-con makes 2 types of blocks: non-load bearing which are the defacto standard and load bearing which they call G4 blocks. You must specify load bearing in your order or you will get the wrong type.

Want to build load bearing? Search the net for "hebel design guide". q-con is licensed from hebel and the hebel instructions are valid and in english. I asked the amphur about load bearing and they referred me to follow the hebel manual.

Have a question about q-con? Send an email to [email protected]. Your question will get a tracking number and they will answer it.

Simoh do you by chance work for the Thai government? Strange to see someone sugar coat and make excuses for every disingenuous move the government made. Let's look at these points.

11 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

it was for those reasons that actual PM<2.5 levels were not reported previously

Cost and not having the devices were not the reason. Other countries donated PM2.5 monitoring equipment to thailand many years ago. Thailand still chose to not release the data, keeping it completely hidden from the public for years.

11 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

It's also worth pointing out that the WHO guidelines regarding PM2.5 are so stringent that no country globally can meet them, that was why Thailand created its own more realistic index.

There are places all over the world that meet WHO guidelines for good air quality so why would you say something so false? Even the north of Thailand does during points in the rainy season. But this point doesn't even matter. If the air is unsafe, then it's unsafe. Fabricating a "realistic" index as you put it where Thailand classifies air known to be harmful to humans as good is a horrible injustice to the people living there who will suffer greater health consequences. The government will simply point to their fabricated data and say everything is fine instead of doing anything about the pollution. Everyone who made the decision to doctor the PM2.5 data should be immediately fired and put on trial for fraud. The new staff should be chosen with people who care about honesty and the health of the people, not face saving and hiding the truth.

4 hours ago, rickudon said:

Wow! They are now officially measuring PM2.5 levels.

Thailand resisted reporting the dangerous PM2.5 levels which are extremely high for many years because they did not want the truth to be known about how bad the air is. Before deciding to report PM2.5 they did something they referred to as "experimenting with the data" which really means came up with devious ways to doctor the data to keep on hiding the truth from the people. The outcome of this "experimenting" is below:

1. They made up their own Thai air quality scale to label air twice as bad as WHO standards as acceptable.

2. They will report the daily average of PM2.5, not maximum PM2.5. Think about that, what matters to anyone about the weather forecast of a day? Maximum temperature. People want to know how hot it will get. Absolutely no one cares what the average temperature is over a 24 hour period. So it is with pollution.

Be aware of these things when Thailand talks about its air quality. As long as this despicable charade is going on, be sure to get your information about Thailand's air quality from unbiased, 3rd party sources.

39 minutes ago, trainman34014 said:

How do they intend to tackle the problem of millions of Villagers burning all their rubbish every night and in some cases during the day ?

I've noticed this seems to be absent when discussing contributing factors. Clouds of smoke and stench blanket the villages, especially early evening of every day. Amongst these rubbish piles are generous amounts of plastic, hazardous materials, and yard clippings that have been doused by herbicides and insecticides. And I think you are right, it surely must run into the millions of such fires burnt daily. Surely that is doing something to the atmosphere.

8 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

Do they imagine Thailand is covered by some invisible bubble protecting it from external pollution?

If you bothered to read the article it answers your question. Hint: "collaborate with neighbouring countries to mitigate the transboundary haze problem"

While I agree other countries are doing it, I disagree that meddling with mother nature is a good thing. We simply do not know the long term consequences which could be harmful to an already fragile species in ways we don't yet understand. And are you really certain they aren't dumping the hatchlings out at sea? Other countries do this and I find it a very disturbing practice. The key to their survival is habitat--the eggs should be left exactly where they were laid by the mother. The turtles know how to survive on their own if we could only let them. What some well intentioned people are doing here could instead of helping the turtles tilt the balance and send them into extinction never to be seen again.

Protection is needed, but digging up all the eggs and growing them in factories and dumping them in the ocean is despicable. It ruins allowing the eggs to hatch naturally, the turtle being able to imprint on the sands it was laid, and removes natural selection where the best hatchlings find their way to open seas and survive as it has been for ages. The turtles deserve better Give them undisturbed, protected habitat, not factory farming.

Windows opening inside are easy to clean both sides. If they are tilt and turn windows they also have two opening modes. These are popular in western Europe and almost unheard of in America. And as mentioned a window style like this keeps the flies, mosquitoes and things out that are waiting to jump in.

Back to roofs porcelain or clay tile are perhaps the most long lasting and available from SCG.

58 minutes ago, PremiumLane said:

There is a middle ground, the use of heard guards for young fighters and they can only compete in amateur fights. 

That makes a lot of sense. But this is one of those hot button subjects that is religiously divided. I would imagine a lot more kids are brain damaged every year from other things no one wants to talk about or solve: ladders, trees, scooters, swimming pools, domestic violence, etc etc. So the push for a ban is less about brain damage and more trying to find leverage to stop something many people dislike for other reasons.

And let the burning begin. Since the rains stopped earlier in the month visibility has steadily declined and the horizons are no longer blue. Ash and the smell of smoke are sometimes in the air. While I welcome the cool air and am in shorts I've noticed villagers suffering and burning wood to stay warm in 70F range temperatures. The air quality charts confirm air quality has deteriorated into the yellow zone and it's the last day of October. There will be mainly worse air quality than this for the next 6 months give or take. All totally normal. This post is simply to document the start of the normal situation that happens every year for the benefit of those who don't understand the full extent of the smog problem plaguing the north.

I am surprised no one has responded. 85 meters is an unusually long run. Thus, make sure make a proper cable size calculation is performed because conventional wisdom will not be good enough. Cable size will also depend on how big a main breaker you end up using. If 100A there is no way you could use 25mm², even copper, for this job.

Any old box with a flap doesn't guarantee a safe solution for outdoor use. You need to look at the ip rating. Some feel ip44 is suitable, others feel only much higher ratings are suitable like ip55 or even higher. If there is no ip rating do not use it outdoors because it is unlikely to perform the function you are looking for.

Applying for the card is essentially a consent form to allow them to spam you with SMS advertisements for homepro products. Haven fallen for that one now whenever they insist i get a card i insist they do not get my phone number.

Most banana varieties or any other trees can be ordered online from the likes of nanagarden, thaicentralgarden, etc. I could be wrong, but it may be called gluay nahk (กล้วยนาค) in thai. I have a few like this; whether the leaves get purple or are green seems to depend on the conditions. It does real well here; stalks are hardier than most and fruit is large and tastes great though a few seeds are common.

The big disappointment is that the burning in Thailand is largely deliberate, unnecessary, and harmful to the health of all there for extended periods of time.