ZZZ

My comment was for any commodity to increase in price 30-50% overnight is out of the ordinary, especially when inflation in Thailand is at a current high of 6%.

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"Overnight" is maybe not the correct way of looking at this, when was the last time he had a price increase??

Also, I'd like to point out that in the Pacific Northwest of the US the term 'wild salmon' refers to salmon which are naturally spawned and not hatchery spawned.  This means that fish caught in open waters might not be 'wild salmon' by this definition.  Some people think that any salmon not raised in a pen is a wild salmon but this is not true...at least it is not true based on the definition used in the biggest salmon rearing region left in the world today.

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Just curious, if this is the definition of wild salmon in that region how do they know if a salmon caught in the wild originates from naturally spawned or hatchery spawned salmon?

1. this will teach your body that there is often a shortage and it must add some spare fat if bad times come. Do not do that....

Fat is added when you eat more calories than you burn. By fasting you train your body to use up this excess supply. Anyone who has been fasting knows that they need to eat less after fasting to feel full.

The most important aspect is to give the body time to get rid of all the waste products. When you are sick you loose your appetite, this is your body telling you to stop eating as it needs all the resources to clean out the body and deal with the illness. Fasting has always been part of life, it was even incorporated in just about all religions but lately it has not been widely practiced. This could explain the rise in many chronic deceases and cancers.

2. Never heared of that, always good to take as much liquids as possible.

Drinking with meals will wash away all the enzymes produced in the saliva needed to digest carbohydrates and other substances. It will also dilute the stomach acid needed to metabolize proteins. The result of this will be incomplete digestion and higher fat absorption.

Excess drinking of water is very dangerous. The habit of constant drinking has only been around for the last 10-20 years and it is now clear that this is causing a lot of problems. Incontinence problems has sky rocketed, miscarriages and kidney problems are other complications. Many athletes have died from drinking too much.

This problem started when a US study said that you need to drink 8 x 8oz glasses (about 2 liters) of water per day to burn a normal calorie intake. When media spread this advice they failed to quote another thing from the same study and that was that most of this liquid would already be in the food you eat as most food contains a very high level of water.

How much you need varies a lot, best guide line is to drink when you are thirsty and don't force yourself to drink.

3. Cold or hot, does not make any difference, beside that cold things might reduce the speed of the process a little bit.

If you constantly drink cold drinks your body will try to adapt to this cold by creating a protective fat layer. The brain can not comprehend that this cold comes from the inside as this is an unnatural phenomena; ice cold drinks have only been common the last 50 years or so. Cold drinks may, in the short term, make you loose weight as you need to burn energy to increase the temperature of the cold liquid to body temperature but the long term effect is more fat.

Must say that I, occationally, don't mind an ice cold beer or two

4. Fully agree!

There are no fast ways of loosing weight, 1/2 month in Bangkok is not going to do it. A few things you should do:

1. Do not eat anything for 24 or even better 48 hours every week. This will train and force your body to burn excess fat, it will give your metabolism a break to remove all the waste substances from your body and your stomach will shrink so you will not need to eat so much to feel full. Just remember to drink liquids while fasting.

2. When you eat do not drink anything 1/2 hour before the meal and not until 2 hours after the meal. Any additional liquids with food will dilute the metabolic liquids in the stomach, the metabolism will be incomplete and you will absorb more fat and other unhealthy substances.

3. Avoid drinking coold drinks. They will trick your brain to try and protect the body from cold and start convert anything you eat to a protective fat layer. If possible, anything you drink should be close to body temperature. (This is one big reason for the obesity in the US, it's the ice more than the coke that makes you fat).

If you have been in Asia for a while you will notice that most oldtimers (they usually know best) drink hot water when they are thirsty or feel hot. The hot water will trick the brain that you hotter than you are and all systems to cool down the body will kick in.

4. If possible just eat raw vegtables and fruit. It is virtually impossible to gain weight from this kind of diet no matter how much you eat.

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I agree, h90, that weight loss should be done slowly and as enjoyable as possible.

All diets are bad as they imply a temporary change to lose weight, when returning to normal the lost weight will always return. What is needed is a permanent change of eating habits.

There are no fast ways of loosing weight, 1/2 month in Bangkok is not going to do it. A few things you should do:

1. Do not eat anything for 24 or even better 48 hours every week. This will train and force your body to burn excess fat, it will give your metabolism a break to remove all the waste substances from your body and your stomach will shrink so you will not need to eat so much to feel full. Just remember to drink liquids while fasting.

2. When you eat do not drink anything 1/2 hour before the meal and not until 2 hours after the meal. Any additional liquids with food will dilute the metabolic liquids in the stomach, the metabolism will be incomplete and you will absorb more fat and other unhealthy substances.

3. Avoid drinking coold drinks. They will trick your brain to try and protect the body from cold and start convert anything you eat to a protective fat layer. If possible, anything you drink should be close to body temperature. (This is one big reason for the obesity in the US, it's the ice more than the coke that makes you fat).

If you have been in Asia for a while you will notice that most oldtimers (they usually know best) drink hot water when they are thirsty or feel hot. The hot water will trick the brain that you hotter than you are and all systems to cool down the body will kick in.

4. If possible just eat raw vegtables and fruit. It is virtually impossible to gain weight from this kind of diet no matter how much you eat.

So we are going to have a selection of corrupt people selecting from a group of corrupt people who will investigate corruption, brilliant.

At least they are getting in the experts on the subject.

Doctors know what they read. What they read is 99% directly or indirectly created by or sponsored by the pharamaceuptical industry.

Don't expect any doctor tell you any of these natural ways to cure ailments.

I used to clean my fruits and veggies thoroughly, but occasionally still got a bit sick eating them.

Then I bought an ultrasonic vegetable cleaner. This cleaner fits in the kitchen zinc. Just fill it up with water put the veggies/fruits in and press a button, after 10 min it’s all clean.

Apart from ultrasonic cleaning it uses nano silver and ozone for disinfection and decontamination. Just about all bacteria, chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides are removed.

There is a supplier in Bangkok selling it, very helpful. Will deliver and give a demonstration on how to use. Can’t remember the price, think about $400, worth every cent as it removes all of the chemical contaminants as well as bacteria. Never been sick since I started using it.

http://www.greenbison.com/washer/index.htm

Email the dealer in Bangkok for more information:

[email protected]

The worst Thai website by far must be 12Call's website. Totally useless if you need to get any info on 12Call, most English links dont work or have out dated information, incredibly anoying sound effects and takes forever to load.

http://www.one-2-call.com/One2Call/otc/t/index.jsp

Again, if it's not a condition that it has to be notarized by the US Embassy you can always go to a lawyer, most of them can do that.

EQUITY INTERNATIONAL LAW OFFICE

284/69 Moo 5

Pattaya – Naklua Road

Naklua, Banglamung

Chonburi 20150

Tel 038 225427

Fax 038 225428

Mobile 01 6465907

Email: [email protected]

Member:

MR THANAKORN RAJRONGMUANG, Attorney

General Practice in criminal, civil, family cases and Notary Public

English speaking lawyer

Do the bank transfer and, as a previous poster adviced, make sure you get a FETF from the bank in Thailand when you receive the money, you will need that if you later want to take the money out of Thailand.

Travellers checks may give you a better exchange rate than cash but you also have to pay a premium when you buy them so there is no profit there, they are just safer in the case of a loss.

No US embassy in Pattaya. Think there is a combined scandinavian consular office in Jomtien, Soi Sukasem, in the hotel building at the end of the soi. They should be able to do it unless it really has to be a US embassy.

Many Thai banks have branches in the US, get a cashier's check from one of them, that could speed up things.

Just use any kind of good ground coffee. Put a tea spoon or two of coffee grounds in a cup of hot water, give it a good stir with the spoon and leave it for a minute and the grounds will settle on the bottom of the cup.

Some ground coffee works better than others but the taste is always superior to that instant crap.

Shouldn't we have a section to remind people about these events before

they happen, rather than after??

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Brilliant idea. Admin, could we have a TV Events Calender, please?

BANGKOK: -- Thailand could serve as a regional hub for crackdowns said a normally well informed source yesterday.

With numerous crackdowns ongoing, Thailand could share it's expertise in the field of starting crackdowns.

With crackdowns on internet use, corruption, drugs, drinking, smoking, poverty and numerous others Thailand must be considered a world authority on starting crackdowns.

Obviously, to make sense of these crackdowns outside help will be required as they only seem to be announced without any further action being taken.

What is needed next is probably a crackdown on crackdowns.

I just saw the sign for the laundry downstairs:

7 kg - 20 baht

13 kg - 50 baht

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Guess everyone are going for the 7kg option then

Thailand is full of un-licensed waste disposal companies dumping toxins wherever they can. These toxins are then making their way into food chain. There are daily stories in the papers regarding this but not much is being done.

From this weeks Pattaya mail:

Police and Plutaluang sub-district authorities are looking for those responsible for the unauthorized dumping of chemical waste in the Khao Pancham Valley.

Following complaints from villagers, volunteer police went into the deserted area late at night where they found a truck bearing Chonburi license plates and a railroad truck, also carrying Chonburi identification, parked in the valley and pouring chemical substances onto the ground.

Volunteer police officer points to toxic waste illegally dumped at Khao Pancham Valley in Plutaluang, Sattahip.

As soon as he saw the officers the driver locked his door and ran away into the forest. The vehicle was impounded and taken to Plutaluang police station.

Taweep Tangkaew, chief of the Plutaluang sub-district executive, said the villagers have reported the truck had been dumping the chemicals into the valley every night. A report has been made to Sattahip district chief Pongpat Wongtrakul, and the chemical substance is being analyzed. The authorities assume it came from Rayong Province.

Are you saying that the most people TODAY associate the swastika as it was some 3000 or so years ago?

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It's found on numerous temples and schools around China, I have even seen it on several temples, schools and Chinese societies’ buildings in other countries like Singapore and Malaysia. I would expect it to be quite common on Indian temples as well.

Given the population and relative lack of education in these countries it's not impossible that most people still associate this symbol with its original.

Seems to work on the Thais, at least the falling asleep part. Not to sure about the part on waking up energetic

"TGC", which I assume means Thai Gold Card.

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TGC is the Thaigolfer Card, nothing to do with the Elite Card. The Elite card covers several courses in that area including Laem Chabang and St Andrews 2000.

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You're right - TGC is the Thaigolfer Card (www.thaigolfer.com) and you can get membership for 600 Baht per year. Great card to have if you play golf all over the country.

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For the same 30-50% discounts on all the courses in the Pattaya/Rayong area join the Pattaya Expats Club, 600Bath for a life time membership and no yearly subscription fee. This could even be a better deal than the Elite Card.

http://www.pattayaexpatsclub.com/golfgroup.htm

I strongly suggest that anyone thinking of any kind of laser eye treatment first have a look at other options. There could be all sorts of complications and problems.

One option that has worked for a lot of people is the Bates Method. This is mainly a series of exercises that will help to restore normal vision. Some people will notice an immediate effect for others it could take some time.

There are hundreds of sites on internet regarding this method, just search for “Bates Method” or have a look at one of them:

http://www.seeing.org/

There are also a few books with a complete explanation on how it works.

Suggest you give this a go for six months or so before deciding on a laser treatment, much safer and cheaper.

Without meaning to sound insulting, you do not appear to have an adequate grasp of the science involved which seems to have caused you to misinterpret what i have said and what is actually happening. That is making it very difficult for me to try and explain to you my example.

However, i do understand your concerns about the regulation of the industry. As a consumer, i would like to be reassured that companies are not able to rush their genetically modified food onto the market without rigorous testing of it's safety.

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We are probably equally guilty of misinterpreting each other.

Simply put my main arguments against are:

1. It is impossible to know what will happen with any system (human body, wildlife, vegetation or all of nature) if you don’t know exactly how that system works in the first place. Science has only scratched the surface on how the human brain works and on what the importance and functions are of different enzymes, proteins, trace elements and others. (Just look at all the perfectly safe medicines that later have been banned due to unforseen complications).

2. Once GM is out there it will be virtually impossible to contain and control so there will be no choice, most things will be contaminated by GMO. A dangerous medicine can be banned but we may get stuck with a bad GMO out there.

3. This we agree on and that is the present lack of regulation and control.

So what you are saying is that any gene has one function only?

A gene provides the template for the production of a protein

As far as I know a gene can have several functions, direct and indirect. The protein that is produced could, but not necessarily, have a part to play in a variety of biochemical systems

Exactly, the lack of knowledge in what part this protein is playing in various biochemical systems may cause various problems.

The same thing goes for the enzyme, it's more than likely that this enzyme has several functions. Many enzymes in food are necessary for proper digestion of this food and are also used in the human body for other processes.

Enzymes are biological catalysts, they are usually quite specific for the substrates on which they act. There are many different enzymes. In the example i gave polygalacturonase is an enzyme which catalyses the degradation of large sugar molecules derived from galactose. This is it's specific purpose.

"usually quite specific" but not always, and this is as far science know today, tomorrow could be a different story when other purposes are discovered.

Also you are only talking about the properties of the tomatoes, not what happens to the insects, animals or people eating it or birds eating insects that have eaten the tomato or other vegetation growing where the tomato have fallen to the ground or to honey from bees collecting pollen from the tomato flowers. The chain of events is endless.

Pectin is not harmful to you, otherwise we wouldn't be able to eat tomatoes in the first place, the fact that it retains its integrity longer in the tomato makes no difference to you or any other animal eating it. Your sentence seems to suggest that some toxic substance is now going to be miraculously produced out of thin air because of this modification, but that is quite simply not the case.

What I'm talking about is that nature is a delicate system and a small change could have dramatic effects, often very hard to predict. In the example above the protein could have other important functions along the chain of events.

Also, in the tomato example it seems to me that this will produce tomatoes where the cell walls stay intact longer giving the appearance of a fresh tomato. I'm not sure how these works but guess that even if the cell walls stay intact longer other parts of the tomato will start to go bad.

Personally I would like a rotten tomato to look rotten.

Believe it or not, scientists who have studied biochemistry and molecular genetics for years, do have a very advanced understanding of what they are doing. It seems to be the common opinion of people on the street that they are altering things that they have little understanding of, but that is not the case.

I'm sure the scientists working with this have a very good understanding of what they are doing. Problem is that most scientists I know fit in the old definition of scientists: Someone who knows everything about nothing and nothing about everything. What happens in nature with all the diverse biosystems is usually completely outside the GM scientists frame of knowledge. Same as a brick layer don’t know everything about plumbing and electrical wiring even if he works in the same industry.

Of course, careful regulation of this industry needs to occur, because the technology if misused could have harmful effects, but people need to come to terms with the fact that it also has very beneficial uses if used correctly, and it can be 100% safe.

Like others have said, NOTHING is 100% safe, everyone knows that.

Everyone is saying that careful regulation of the GM industry needs to occur, but where is it? It is completely irresponsible to carry out these modifications with the current lack of regulation, especially in the US. The US FDA have a long history of corruption, just the other month the latest boss quit as they were going to check his holdings in a pharmaceutical company. . There are several previously high ranking officials in the FDA now holding well paying positions in pharma companies they helped, the NutraSweet scandal was just one of these incidents.

Having said that, i think it's good that the public are willing to demonstrate a concern, that means that the industry is under intense scrutiny which is in all of our best interests. However, it can be irritating to see people in outrage about a product that is perfectly safe, just because they have no understanding of what's involved.

What is irritating, to put it mildly, is the industries arrogant behavior. There are millions spent in lobbying governments to release GMO. The industry have done everything they can to minimize any kind of regulation and safety procedures. The industry have been against all safety measures so far including very basic things like labeling.

The big question is why do they oppose safety and regulation if it’s so safe????

The lack of choice is the big problem, once it’s out there is no stopping it. You can read in the papers about GMO popping up everywhere, one day in papayas next day in cookies what’s next??

So what you are saying is that any gene has one function only?

A gene provides the template for the production of a protein

As far as I know a gene can have several functions, direct and indirect. The protein that is produced could, but not necessarily, have a part to play in a variety of biochemical systems

Exactly, the lack of knowledge in what part this protein is playing in various biochemical systems may cause various problems.

The same thing goes for the enzyme, it's more than likely that this enzyme has several functions. Many enzymes in food are necessary for proper digestion of this food and are also used in the human body for other processes.

Enzymes are biological catalysts, they are usually quite specific for the substrates on which they act. There are many different enzymes. In the example i gave polygalacturonase is an enzyme which catalyses the degradation of large sugar molecules derived from galactose. This is it's specific purpose.

"usually quite specific" but not always, and this is as far science know today, tomorrow could be a different story when other purposes are discovered.

Also you are only talking about the properties of the tomatoes, not what happens to the insects, animals or people eating it or birds eating insects that have eaten the tomato or other vegetation growing where the tomato have fallen to the ground or to honey from bees collecting pollen from the tomato flowers. The chain of events is endless.

Pectin is not harmful to you, otherwise we wouldn't be able to eat tomatoes in the first place, the fact that it retains its integrity longer in the tomato makes no difference to you or any other animal eating it. Your sentence seems to suggest that some toxic substance is now going to be miraculously produced out of thin air because of this modification, but that is quite simply not the case.

What I'm talking about is that nature is a delicate system and a small change could have dramatic effects, often very hard to predict. In the example above the protein could have other important functions along the chain of events.

Also, in the tomato example it seems to me that this will produce tomatoes where the cell walls stay intact longer giving the appearance of a fresh tomato. I'm not sure how these works but guess that even if the cell walls stay intact longer other parts of the tomato will start to go bad.

Personally I would like a rotten tomato to look rotten.

Believe it or not, scientists who have studied biochemistry and molecular genetics for years, do have a very advanced understanding of what they are doing. It seems to be the common opinion of people on the street that they are altering things that they have little understanding of, but that is not the case.

I'm sure the scientists working with this have a very good understanding of what they are doing. Problem is that most scientists I know fit in the old definition of scientists: Someone who knows everything about nothing and nothing about everything. What happens in nature with all the diverse biosystems is usually completely outside the GM scientists frame of knowledge. Same as a brick layer don’t know everything about plumbing and electrical wiring even if he works in the same industry.

Of course, careful regulation of this industry needs to occur, because the technology if misused could have harmful effects, but people need to come to terms with the fact that it also has very beneficial uses if used correctly, and it can be 100% safe.

Like others have said, NOTHING is 100% safe, everyone knows that.

Everyone is saying that careful regulation of the GM industry needs to occur, but where is it? It is completely irresponsible to carry out these modifications with the current lack of regulation, especially in the US. The US FDA have a long history of corruption, just the other month the latest boss quit as they were going to check his holdings in a pharmaceutical company. . There are several previously high ranking officials in the FDA now holding well paying positions in pharma companies they helped, the NutraSweet scandal was just one of these incidents.

Having said that, i think it's good that the public are willing to demonstrate a concern, that means that the industry is under intense scrutiny which is in all of our best interests. However, it can be irritating to see people in outrage about a product that is perfectly safe, just because they have no understanding of what's involved.

What is irritating, to put it mildly, is the industries arrogant behavior. There are millions spent in lobbying governments to release GMO. The industry have done everything they can to minimize any kind of regulation and safety procedures. The industry have been against all safety measures so far including very basic things like labeling.

The big question is why do they oppose safety and regulation if it’s so safe????

The lack of choice is the big problem, once it’s out there is no stopping it. You can read in the papers about GMO popping up everywhere, one day in papayas next day in cookies what’s next??

I'd also like to know why one would choose a prepaid ? what are the benefits ? I'm genuinely interested to find out.

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I have a prepaid card as a spare if the other gets lost while travelling.

It's easy to get without any credit check.

It's safe to use on the web and shoddy places, max loss is what you have on the account.

Apart from that, yes a credit card makes more sense.