fvw53

For a peaceful religion such as Islam... why is it that everywhere they are there is violence???

This time the Muslims were the victims.

I am living in Pathum Thani, south of the planned waste incinerator and I hope prevailing winds will send the smoke in the Northern direction ( A.I.T. ?)

Indeed Dioxins (PCDDs and PCDFs) are not normally present in waste, but are formed when chlorine-containing organic substances (e.g. PVC) are burned at the same time...

Or do I really want to believe that a lot of money will be spent on very expensive exhaust filters?

I have the same system : combination of letter issued by Embassy + some money in the bank to have total of 800.000 Baht

Is it acceptable to apply for the next extension one or two working days before the old extension expires?

Indeed I can have problem to get on time evidence of pension in my home country which has to be confirmed by Embassy.

The French asked Netanyahu not to come. So maybe they asked Obama not to come too? Or why did the French ask Netanyahu not to come when they asked Obama to come? You see what I'm getting at here? Did Obama not come because the French asked Netanyahu not to come? Seems to me if any countries are riling up the terrorists it's Israel and America. If the French asked Netanyahu not to come why didn't they also ask Obama not to come?

I think Obama should have been there regardless of what the French wanted. Netanyahu came even though the French asked him not to come so why not Obama?

I'm a pro American poster (I think most people here know that) but there comes a time that one must finally realize American politicians just aren't that bright and this is a good example.

Is there a link where it says the French asked Netanyahu not to come?

Not saying that's wrong, but I didn't see that.

I do know the French don't want any Israeli PM to say emphatically to the French Jews, it's time for you to escape because you are not safe in France (which arguably is true).

They don't even like it when Israel invites them more mildly, which Netanyahu did do on this trip.

BTW, the store owner of the grocery where the antisemitic terror attack happened has expressed that he has had enough and wants to move to Israel.

Some people may not realize that there have been a number of such terror attacks against Jews in France in recent years.

Funny, no mass marches about those. Clearly if the grocery attack had happened without Charlie there would have been NO RESPONSE ... no rally, no world leaders.

I am glad Netanyahu came and I am glad he did indeed push his way into the front of the line.

I heard it on CNN (I think, because the wife mostly watches CNN)

French President Francois Hollande conveyed a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend asking him not to come to Paris to take part in the march against terror on Sunday, according to an Israeli source who was privy to the contacts between the Elysees Palace and the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. The fact that this message had been conveyed was first reported by Channel 2.

After the French government began to send invitations to world leaders to participate in the rally against terror, Hollande’s national security adviser, Jacques Audibert, contacted his Israeli counterpart, Yossi Cohen, and said that Hollande would prefer that Netanyahu not attend, the source said.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.636557

Jerusalem confirms: Netanyahu wasn't wanted at Paris solidarity rally

http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/57421-150112-jerusalem-confirms-france-didn-t-want-netanyahu-to-attend-solidarity-rally

Complete story is here

http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/212583/how-bibi-tried-to-make-paris-all-about-him/

One thing has to be reminded all the time : NATO is a defensive pact ...
No NATO activity is possible without approval of every of its member states...even the smallest ones.
If Russia feels it is strangled by NATO ...it should be reminded that European countries - which were once USSR dominated nations - asked and got NATO membership because they were scared of a return of Russian aggression.
Of course Putin must invent an external enemy as every fascist leader did in the past.
Nevertheless I am in favour of lifting all sanctions against Russia to remove the idea that Russia's economic problems are caused by NATO or EU : sanctions never worked on totalitarian regimes because the people in the street have no voice except repeating the officially dictated stories.
Ukraine has missed its opportunity with mafia style governments during 20 years after the end of communism : they can no longer join EU or NATO without insulting Russia.

_{if you have so much money to risk you better spend some money and consult a lawyer}

Dodgy.

More aspects than 1 make these budget airlines dodgy......meanwhile dummies keep linng up to fly with them....you save a bit of cash though.

Contender for most stupid post. AirAsia safety record is better than most. As for not having authorised flight time. Separate issue. More about self interest. I fly AirAsia OFTEN. Brilliant service. Please come back with sensible stats with sensible post. And yes AirAsia just overflew run way days back in phillipines. So did Thai airways few months back in bkk

Brilliant service ? Air Asia even invited two teen Aussie girls to ride with them in the cockpit from take off to landing ! Not an airline I would fly with !

This comment illustrates the quality of the contributions to the Forums of Thaivisa : there has been indeed an incident whereby two Aussie girls were invited to the cockpit but that was NOT on Airasia but on Malaysian Airlines ....my goodness !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSAMSZhCfXY

It was already strange that Air Asia changed the flight's departure time to two hours earlier than the original time. I haven't seen any explanation given for that.

One possible explanation could be that at this peak period of the year the flight was overbooked and ground staff preferred to let it take off two hours before scheduled departure (indeed some people missed this flight due to the earlier departure and survived).

What is the meaning of "not cleared" : that this was a flight added before paperwork was done.... to cope with too high demand?

What is democracy?

In the ASEAN member states the majority have the same government for more than 10 years and some of them since independence.

This would be difficult to achieve in West European democracies and when it happened the (elected) people in power lost contact with reality...such as in Sweden during the 1970ies.

There is the "Juan Peron" and " Ferdinand Marcos" kind of democracy : both presidents and their parties won (bought?) every election in which they participated, but they emptied their countries to a state of bankruptcy.

There is the Chinese kind of democracy with the power being a monopoly of the CP...but this is a party of 80 million members and not at all a family run affair as it in North Korea and other "democracies". There are also very wise time limits on the top jobs in the government.

Nothing is perfect but a good democracy is for instance the UK where the wish of the Cameron government to join the US in the civil war of Syria was voted down not only by the opposition party members but also by members of the ruling Conservative and Libdem parties. Again nothing is perfect but obviously the UK members of parliament were not elected thanks to "sponsoring" by the Prime Minister....

I was at the US embassy once when they were handling the death of a citizen . They were running around in circles not knowing much about the deceased that died alone in a hotel room . I said wouldn't it be simple if you had a what to do and whom to contact when one registers with the embassy ? This was 10 years ago and they still don't have anything . Typical of the US government .

why is this funny to you?

The first formalities to register the death of a foreigner have to be done by local authorities and not by their Embassies.

I do not see why they would be running in circles...once they obtain death certificate issued by Thai authorities every Embassy will know exactly what to do.

Following info on the website of Radio Praha seems to be a serious effort to find out what really happened in Usti nad Labem

http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/new-evidence-on-post-war-massacre-of-germans-in-usti-nad-labem

history has always been written by the victors

There have been many more war crimes committed by the Empire, since WWII, which are barely given any coverage and no Nuremberg trials, yet Nazis are still being waved at us on an almost daily basis. No prizes for guessing why.

Which Empire to you mean : the Soviet Empire?

_{...what about private hospitals - listed on the stock market - where dragging the life of a terminally ill patient can be a gold mine?}

It is indeed strange that the judge whose ruling has to face an appeal had the right to accept or reject the right for appeal

The best documentary movie and later DVD ever made is "The World at War" (by BBC 30 years ago) and this 80 hours epic opens with the horrific ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane.

It is hard to believe to such hardship has been created by a nation with immense earlier contributions to Western civilisation through science, literature, music, philosophy, etc...but at least we can say that the Germans have repented and that now "another" and peaceful German nation has replaced the IIIrd Reich.

When are the Japanese finally going to repent in stead of honouring their war criminals at the Yasukini Shrine?

^{Test done with OOKLA at 12 noon BKK time with servers in Silicon Valley}

^{I am shocked as to a Thailand based server I get directly 30 Mpbs download speed but to California at this moment (there peak hour?) I get max 5 Mbps download speed}

Under #67 Ajunadawn writes

Quote

IMO, the NATO that I worked with for years has defined itself in the modern age as aggressor, liar, and questionable agent of democracies.

Unquote

I gues Arjudawn has been making coffee or cleaning the toilets at NATO headquarters...Indeed NATO is a "defensive pact" with a veto right for all member states ...even the smallest.

We all remember well that Germany and France refused to back the US in the UN Security Council before the "liberation" of Iraq in 2003?

In international diplomacy we have to remember the words of Cardinal Richelieu - the French Prime Minister under King Louis XIII - when he was questioned how - as a cardinal - he could justify to make deals with the Ottoman Empire to stab the Pope and the Papal States in the back....He replied : "France has no permanent friends, no permanent enemies...only permanent interests". This still applies to all countries ...all NATO member states and of course also to Russia.

Has anyone ever heard such a thing as law and justice? 1954 February 19 with violation of the Constitution , Crimea was transferred to the Ukrainian Republic . Referring to Article 18 in effect on the 1954 Constitution of the USSR.

March 22 held a referendum in which the majority of residents to join the Russia.

Why in the Crimea, where people voluntarily made their choice - it is not legal and in force from Kosovo from Serbia are connected - is it legal?

double standards or ordinary fascism?!!!

P/S

If the people of Crimea made a "voluntary choice" to join Ukraine, then why had the "the liberation" to be done by soldiers disguised as bank robbers with ski masks?

This election makes me think of the free and fair elections held in the countries of East European liberated by the Soviet Army and where ...surprise...surprise...in each country the communist party won...

Speaking about fascism :

a) The Duma voted to approve the annexation of Crimea 445 to 1 .

This would make Kim Jong Un jealous...

The only 1 (one) no vote came from Ilya Ponomarev and later on bailiffs have frozen his bank accounts and it was announced that they will not allow him to leave Russia anymore.

Nobody can dispute that Russia had and has strategic interests in Crimea : I know a lot about the history of Russia but now I learn from you that already the ruling Communists of the USSR committed a crime by attaching Crimea to Ukraine...

b)the language used by Putin saying he has the right to "protect" Russian speakers all over Europe remind us of Hitler's megalomania to protect (and annex) all German speakers..

Last week he compared in a speech the "holiness" of Crimea to the Temple Mount of Jerusalem : the demagogic tone is still rising

http://www.theage.com.au/world/russian-historians-left-baffled-by-putins-crimean-claims-20141205-120pea.html

c) my friends in Russia have asked me not to send any more emails on the subject of Ukraine because they are scared that terror is coming back.

d) now the last independent Russian TV station "Dozhd" is under attack : critical news should be countered with open discussions but a totalitarian state will oppose this ...this is true fascism.

In 1990 I had the hoped that the Russian people would join the other European free nations and not return to the old habits from the Czarist and Communist rule.

I am disappointed....and it is very sad that there is no more free press in Russia.

Yes true democracy is a mess... but for the majority of the people it is better than every other system which has been tried.

neverdie, you are a most uninformed , doult, putin is one of the worlds great leaders at this time

...as was Hitler ? Stalin ? Mao ?

how about "hold an election"?

Hire Imelda Marcos : she might be able to tell you not only about "holding elections" but also "winning elections" (her husband and his party won all the elections in which they participated)

One of the big issues in the US is that in most of the States, law enforcement at several levels is elected (sheriffs, district attorneys, judges, etc...)

This morning on CNN the always balanced Jeffrey Toobin (a former Federal Prosecutor) said that the crowds in NYC Manhattan may be angry with the outcome but the district attorney of the borough NYC Staten Island were he called for a grand jury would only care about the opinion of the mostly middle and upper class white people electing him in his borough.

Six years ago there was an article in the New York Times raising the same concern about elected law enforcement

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/us/25exception.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

I know it is easy to make this observation from my side sitting on the fence...but the article is the NYT speaks for itself

Just got the transfer of the extension at Pathum Thani Immigration and they rejected the form mentioning the Bangkok Immigration Division.

They had an application form mentioning their own office....as it was not too busy I did not loose too much time to go and fill it in again.

Not a big issue but I thought that I should keep you updated..and I thank for the many other times your advise was very valuable.

I need to go to Immigration Office to transfer the stamp of visa extension to a new passport.

There are online several links to download the application form but all of them are addressed to "Inspector of sub-division 2, Bangkok Immigration Division"

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/files/file/20-transfer-stamp-to-a-new-passport-form/

Question : will this from be accepted by Immigration offices outside Bangkok or can I download somewhere a form without mentioning the name of the Immigration Office?

Vitamin D Deficiency Predicts Cognitive Decline

By Megan Brooks •

medscape.com • November 20, 2014

A new study supports a link between low levels of vitamin D and increased risk for cognitive decline, prompting calls for clinical trials to test whether vitamin D supplementation may delay or prevent dementia.

In a group of cognitively intact older adults, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels below 75 nmol/L at the outset predicted cognitive decline over roughly the next 4 years, independent of other factors.

"[N]eurologists and geriatricians should be aware of the possibility that in elderly individuals, vitamin D supplementation might be a potential cost-effective strategy for preventing neurodegenerative diseases," Elena D. Toffanello, MD, from University of Padova, Italy, and colleagues say.

Their study was published online November 5 in Neurology.

For this analysis, the researchers looked at data on 1927 community-dwelling elderly individuals (mean age, 73.9 years) participating in the Italian population-based cohort study, Progetto Veneto Anziani (Pro.V.A.).

At baseline, participants had a mean serum 25OHD level of 84.1 nmol/L. Roughly 28% of the cohort had 25OHD deficiency (<50 nmol/L), and it was severe (<25 nmol/L) in 6.5%.

Participants with 25OHD deficiency or insufficiency (50 to 75 nmol/L) were more likely to have declining Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores over 4.4 years of follow-up than their peers with sufficient 25OHD levels (75 nmol/L or greater).

Among participants with intact cognitive function at baseline (MMSE score of at least 24), 25OHD insufficiency was strongly and independently associated with a higher risk for onset of cognitive decline over 4 years compared with those with normal 25OHD levels, the researchers say.

Table. Risk for Cognitive Decline by Vitamin D Level

50 to <75 nmol/L 1.29 (1.00 - 1.76) .03 <50 nmol/L 1.36 (1.04 - 1.80) .02

In individuals already cognitively impaired at baseline, vitamin D deficiency was also associated with a higher risk for decline in cognitive function, but the association became nonsignificant after adjustment for other medication conditions.

It's possible, say the researchers, that the role of vitamin D on further cognitive decline may be less obvious because of the presence of other comorbidities and disabilities that might accelerate cognitive decline regardless of the starting levels of vitamin D.

Supplementation Trials Warranted

Dr Toffanello and colleagues say studies are needed to evaluate whether vitamin D supplementation might help to delay the cognitive decline, especially in patients who already have cognitive impairment.

David J. Llewellyn, PhD, from the University of Exeter Medical School in the United Kingdom, who has studied vitamin D and cognitive function but wasn't involved in this study, agrees.

He told Medscape Medical News that this new study "effectively replicates" a 2010 study by his group showing a link between low vitamin D levels and an increased risk for cognitive decline.

He said the Pro.V.A . study results are also consistent with a study his group published just this year in Neurology. That study suggested older patients with vitamin D levels below 50 nmol/L have about a 122% increased risk for dementia compared with those with higher levels.

"Taken together, this rapidly evolving body of evidence suggests clinical trials are warranted to investigate whether vitamin D supplementation helps to delay or prevent dementia in elderly adults," Dr Llewellyn concluded.

The study had no commercial funding, and the authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Neurology. Published online November 5, 2014. Abstract

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/835226

Subscription only / paywalled article.

During my recent visit to Belgium a blood test showed considerable vitamin D deficiency and the family doctor prescribed an OTC pack of 4 capsules "D-CURE" - to be taken one a week - in order to eliminate the shortage.

For reasons I do not understand this can also be ordered only but only in a few countries (it is really cheap)

http://www.newpharma.be/apotheek/omega-otc/265331/d-cure-ampulle-4-ampullen.html

I mentioned this because after taking those capsules some annoying pains in the joints and bones which I thought to be caused by old age, have all disappeared...