Acharn

On 6/19/2023 at 8:02 AM, 2baht said:

Impressive exchange rate! Super Rich??? ???? 

XE.com converts it as $28,713,287.24. I guess the OP rounded up with a little poetic license, or when the exchange rate was higher.

14 hours ago, stoner said:

ok i can stop the internet today you win with this comment. a former smut peddler who must of paid unbelievable amounts of money in corrupt pay offs during his years is anti corruption ? 

 

thanks man i really appreciate this comment ????

I suppose I'm revealing myself as a terrible person, but I find Chuwit refreshing. Of course, I used to follow Thai politics more closely than I have since the last coup, so I'm more used to normal Thai high society people. I used to really enjoy Police Captain Chalerm, too. Alas, since the coup Thai politics has been boring, and I don't bother to remember names any more. Maybe a new government, if one is ever created, will be more interesting. I'm waiting to see who knows where all the bodies are buried and threatens to reveal stuff during run-ups to votes of confidence. I especially look forward to individual Senators deciding they need to spend more time with their families.

On 5/13/2023 at 3:15 AM, KhunLA said:

And yet, it has remained stable against the THB @ 30-35 for the past 20 years.

 

The world is always coming to an end, and yet ... still here and nothing has changed.

 

Your PS simply exposes your anti Yank prejudice, without looking within, at your silly monarchy and your own choice of PMs.  Losing all credibility to an almost valid post.

 

You want to be the pot or the kettle, either, you may want to not throw stones around that glass house.

Minor quibble: two or three years ago the USD was down to 28 Thai Baht for several months. It was below 30 for six to eight months (I'm not going to look it up -- see https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/  for Thai baht).

20 hours ago, Plern said:

I'm surprised the op thinks this is a thing. Most (all) of us produce one year leases.

<snip>

??? I've never had to show a rental contract or lease. Is this a new thing? I do have to furnish a copy of the tabian baan and the owner's ID Card. Is that what you're talking about? Granted, for the last fourteen years I've been living with relatives (by marriage).

I get recycled.

On 4/10/2023 at 6:45 AM, mauGR1 said:

Really?

According to this reasoning, non-predatory animals would be extinct. 

 

??? Why on earth would that happen? Evolution is random. Species produce more complex and less complex variants all the time. It's just that evolutionary pressures on predators seem (to me) to be more likely to favor intelligence in predators than in prey species.

On 4/23/2023 at 4:28 PM, Liverpool Lou said:

Perhaps USPS had something to do with the issue?   I get normal post from the UK to Bangkok with no issues, takes about 5 days normally.

I get letters from Social Security and Tricare at my address in the boondocks outside Nakhon Sawan.

2 hours ago, gerritkaew said:

It’s about time thay do this,, Iff you drive a truck you get stopt and in 95% you get a fine for,, nothing ! And Iff you go over the border you must pay also 1-5000b or you stand there for a couple off days. Border control and police,, all corrupt like hell. 
 

If you drive a truck you get stopped about every 50 kilometers for the price of a cup of tea.

When I see a case like this I'm suspicious. Maybe the cops got the right guy, but the fact that they interrogated him for 24 hours (or more?) makes me suspect a false confession. There's a lot of pressure on the cops to "find the killer," and they are often happy to serve up any convenient scapegoat. From the postings on this thread, I notice that few people share my skepticism, and, indeed, sound like they would happily join a lynch mob to prevent an inconvenient trial.

On 3/25/2023 at 6:18 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

Which goes to show he didn't know everything, and to believe that suffering could be extinguished has to be a bit weird, IMO. Jesus said "the poor are always with us" and he could have added suffering to that- it's in human nature to suffer, even after 50,000 years of existence during which we seem to have advanced mentally not a whit from our cavemen ancestors. Still killing each other over BS.

Well, he didn't say he didn't know the answer, he explained that the questioners didn't know what to ask and would not understand his answers. His basic assumption was that life is cyclical. Birth --> Sickness --> Old Age --> Death --> Birth ..., without end unless you practice the Eightfold Path, which leads to the ending of Birth, which is the end of suffering. By the way, Suffering includes not getting what you want and getting what you don't want, as well as any minor disappointment.

On 3/25/2023 at 6:00 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

and they KNOW that how? They don't even agree how the universe came to be.

I saw an astronomer on Al Jazeera saying that they don't know more than 10% of what is out there.

 

If you are right, the planet better get on with finding a better guest than humanity, which is busily soiling the nest.

Well, just so. They don't KNOW that. It's a hypothesis, which means it's the best story they can make up from the facts they know and other hypotheses they have.

Back in the '50s there was discussion among science fiction fans about why aliens have never (as far as we know) visited us. Any intelligent entity will have evolved from a predatory animal. Therefore they will have aggressive instincts. Therefore, when they have evolved far enough to develop nuclear weapons they will eventually end up destroying themselves. I'm 85 years old, and not at all sure I won't live to see the nuclear winter that ends 95% of life on Earth.

On 4/7/2023 at 8:13 PM, ukrules said:

Don't believe any article which uses this term. They would have you believe a 'pimp' is a human trafficker.

You're right, but in fact there are very few pimps in Thailand. Some of them are police officers. There is relatively little real human trafficking, although the NGOs that make a good living from it want you to believe otherwise. Even the Kazakhs on Soi Nana are mostly here by choice. They may not like their job, but it pays fairly well.

6 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Soi 22 is in the middle of Soi Cowboy which lies between Asoke and Soi 23, Soi 23 being the soi that is at the very end of Soi Cowboy.  Many Foreigners live in the condos on Soi 23.

Soi 22 is on the other side of Sukhumwit, and some distance south. I wouldn't call it "in the area of Soi Cowboy," but that does give a general idea.

On 3/22/2023 at 11:55 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

The question is simple. Do you believe that something can come from nothing ( atheism ) or do you believe it was created by an unknowable ( to primitive humans ) force ( belief in a creator )?

Up to you. I'm not here to try and convince posters of anything, but I am here to learn, which requires an open mind. Seems some are of such fixed positions they are unable to accept there is more to life than what we can see with our biological senses, or what our primitive science can prove.

 

BTW, IMO 4 billion years is nothing in cosmic terms, and if humans are the best it can come up with so far, hopefully there is time before the sun's fuel runs out to do better.

I don't have to believe something came from nothing. I believe everything has always been here. That seems to me just as reasonable as believing everything was created by a god who has always been here. I'm not trying to convince you, or anyone else. It's just that this is what I believe.

I really don't believe that 4 billion years is an infinitesimal part of 14.5 billion years, which is what I understand is the current  consensus of astronomers of length of the current cycle of Samsara. I can imagine much larger amounts of time, but technically there was no time before the Big Bang. I don't know what the current consensus of astronomers is for the "end" of the universe. I gather they don't expect a real ending, just that eventually entropy is maximized everywhere and things just sit there with the universe expanding forever. Myself, I believe it will all contract to create a new monoblock and a new Big Bang, but I gather most astronomers believe there is not enough mass (I think they include "dark matter" and "dark energy") in the universe to bring about a contraction.

When asked if Samsara would ever end, the Buddha refused to answer, saying the question was unprofitable, having nothing to do with the extinguishing of suffering, which was all he was teaching.

On 2/27/2023 at 7:58 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

You believe that the universe had no beginning, but it has an end ( when all the stars run out of fuel ), and if it has an end ergo it has to have had a beginning, IMO. Many, including myself, believe in the Big Bang, but what caused it, and where did the material to make the universe come from? Unless one believes that matter can just magically appear, one has to believe that it was created somewhere, and by some force- which is what I believe to be "God".

You said " I can't deny there are powers greater than myself in the universe.", so you apparently believe in the same thing, except I call those powers God, and you do not.

 

You, of course, have every right to believe or not believe anything, but given that a scientist that is exploring the origins of the universe  says they don't know 95% of what is out there ( on an Al Jazeera news item few days ago ) how can anyone definitely say that there is no God?

If you don't believe in a creator God, how do YOU think the universe happened? Was there a big mass of gas ( the universe started as a cloud of gas, or so I understand ) just floating around in empty space? Where did it come from? How were the laws of physics created to make the gas become stars and planets? How did humans evolve to have intelligence ( the dinosaurs were not exactly geniuses )? Was it magic? So many questions are raised if one does not believe in a creator God.

Well, the material for the Big Bang came from Samsara, this physical universe. After it used up its fuel it collapsed and created the new Big Bang. Of course, there's no way to prove this, and most astronomers believe there's too little mass in Samsara to be cyclical. That's OK, I disagree with them.

As for how humans evolved intelligence, the Earth has been around for a little over 4 billion years. That's a long time for the primordial soup to try different chemical combinations until several of them were self-replicating with controls to prevent change (which work poorly). I think the current consensus is that life as we know it appeared a little over 2 billion years ago. That's still a long, long time. By the way, we don't have any idea how smart the dinosaurs were. We keep finding more creatures that use tools.

What do you mean, "How were the laws of physics created ...?" They're inherent in matter and space. Most of your questions come from believing in a creator god and believing the universe had to have a beginning and an end.

THB ฿3 Billion is about USD $88 MILLION. I don't believe these scammers ever got that much. Nowhere near.

1. There are no podiatrists in Thailand. Surprising, but true.

2. I don't eat oysters, so I can't help you.

I don't believe in a creator god, like the Christian god, but I can't deny there are powers greater than myself in the universe. I accept the Buddhist understanding that Samsara (the physical universe) has no beginning.

If you scroll down on the product page and look at the right-hand side you will find the code-name of the seller. It should be in the form of a link, and might take you to information about their physical location.

Oh, boy. Varawut Silpa-archa. I remember going to visit Suphan Buri years ago and was impressed by how widely his father's name was on things. Really popular. He knew how to take care of his constituents, and it looks like he taught his son.

I love Chuwit. He's the only entertaining politician around now. My favorite used to be Police Captain Chalerm, from Thon Buri, who was alleged to control the Military Police, who control the Klong Thoey Market and several other protection schemes. Every time there was an uproar in Parliament he would threaten to expose the evidence he had against other politicians. He never did, of course, but everybody believed he really knew where the bodies are buried. I wonder if he's still living.  Looks like Chuwit is the holder of secrets now.

10 hours ago, TheFishman1 said:

It’s just amazing how the ex massage king of Thailand has all this information about the corruption of the upper levels of the police department and he’s telling all and nobody has even whacked the guy yet he’s a brave guy. As far as corruption in Thailand it’s just part of the make up. CR Tit

I suspect he's made it clear to the people who matter that he has a whole lot of undeniable evidence, held by somebody they can't whack or extort, which will embarrass the entire elite, especially the monarchists. This has been going on at least since the kingdom of Sukothai. Used to be, up until the Revolution of 1932, that every new king reformed the judiciary and police (or the military, which were used before the creation of police). King Rama V was especially effective while he lived.

On 2/8/2023 at 9:38 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

Disregarding the language thing, IMO he was spot on regarding bar girls. That is from decades of knowing many of them.

Well, I haven't been on the scene for over a decade, but I met a few decent ones. Ones with a strong work ethic, anyway. Some of them wouldn't rob you.

On 2/10/2023 at 4:39 AM, spidermike007 said:

...

 

The time is coming, when this will no longer be tolerated. Just wait. The army is on it's way out. It could take awhile, and it could get ugly, though it will never get to the hellish level of Burma, as the Thai parents would never, ever permit that kind of genocidal behavior from their sons. You take out one more Thai, and you are forever disowned by this family. That is all it would take to bring about mass defections from the army ranks. That would sure be fun to witness. Are the pompous generals going to put themselves into harms way? Never. They do not have it in them, they are cowards. 

I dunno. It's been this way for eight or nine centuries, probably several millenia. The worst offenders get taken out, the rest keep right on. Human nature on display.

Quote

He should read Private Dancer to get a good idea about what is going on.

I disagree. The author didn't understand Thai language outside Bangkok. The well-to-do say "mon" is only used for animals. Thai Northern and Northeastern people say it means "him." Bangkok residents who have only attended public schools up to sixth grade say it means "him." Granted, if he had married the girl things might not have worked out (he doesn't seem to have understood reality very well), but not because he overheard her referring to him with the word "mon."

My grandfather used to keep a large crate in his basement, next to the cream separator. It held several dozen eggs. Whenever it got full (a month or two) they would send it off to the creamery and set a new, empty crate there. In those days eggs were expected to stay fresh at room temperature for several months.  I don't know when they started this process of washing them to remove the  protective coating, but they sure turn bad fast now. Unless they're refrigerated.