Enoon

22 hours ago, scotty1286 said:

I will again be trying to contact HMRC, previous attempts have seen me giving up after waiting up to 1 hour and still on hold.

 

What is the cheapest way to call a UK landline number, would it be Skype or are there any other alternatives ?

 

Thanks.

Skype to Phone

UK unlimited, landlines only, is £2.40 a month.

https://secure.skype.com/en/international-calls/United Kingdom

9 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Dear Folks,

 

Does anything makes sense, these days?....

To YOU, I mean.

 

Or, do you find yourselves stuck, each day, in an ever more incomprehensible world, and feeling increasingly adrift?

 

aa. On the positive side, we have optimistic news from Google's AI:

 

 

bb. On the negative side, we have our more realistic human-based view of what is actually happening to us.

 

And this only tells us that we no longer understand the complex systems that impact us, daily...just as....

 

 

these systems continue to gain in complexity, by the year.

 

How much longer will it be before we can no longer keep up, even while we are fighting to stay afloat during this first week of 2025?

 

cc. Have we, during the past two decades, created a society which is one too complex for us to easily survive?  And, why would we have intentionally done this?

 

dd.  Do you think you will be able to adapt to our increasingly complex society, with its complex systems, one which is growing more complex, by the year, at an increasingly rapid rate....an almost exponential rate?

 

ee. And what are the limits of human adaptability, given that the rate of change and the rate of complexity seems to be unstoppable?

 

ff.  Almost EVERYBODY loves to look at exponential curves. And here is one, a very old one:

 

 

 

gg. But what about Exponential Rise of Complexity in our world?

 

Do YOU think you will be able to keep up?

 

Maybe.

 

But, then....
What if you cannot keep up.

Yet, the world just continues to become more complex, year by year.

Then....

What will you do?

 

Crawl in a hole, or something?

 

Or, will you decide to have an AI Implant, as envisioned by Musk, and others?

Just to maintain your status quo in the world.

 

We are  talking about exponential techno-social evolution here, which will progress even faster than Moore's Law, while, YOU, will continue to evolve only at a biological snail's pace, and will not adapt quickly enough to keep up.

 

What will you do?

What will be your strategy to survive, knowing what is ahead?

 

I worry about this, almost constantly.

 

Any answers which might help us to survive the inevitable?

 

Thank you.

Regards,

Gamma

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many on AN have lost what it was that enabled them to keep pace.

The alleged turn towards "conservatism", as one gets older, is the polite way of saying that you are losing your intellectual flexibility, your faculty to learn/absorb new ideas and your previous ability to develop........to evolve.

That turn is not a "choice", just as one does not choose to become less physically flexible and mobile as one ages........Dr Robert Sapolsky as good as calls it neural deterioration.

To most younger people, and some on AN, everything around them is normal and they work with it.

They still have to "strive", but they are not lost........as you are.

39 minutes ago, thaiasia said:

By the way, last time I was in Thailand I applied for the 30 day extension but after that I needed a few extra days because of my flight schedule, so they stamped this big "CANCLE" stamp in my passport. On my way out, the female IO at Suvarnabhumi looked at it quite closely, and began to talk to the IO next to her about it, and was scrolling through my passport for several minutes and after giving it one more long stare, she stamped me out.

 

Are they going to give me a hard time over this stamp when I come back 🤔

 

No

2 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Dear Folks,

 

Listening to Sam speak, one might believe that he has a throat problem, as well as other problems related to his running of the company that tried to get rid of him, yet could not.

 

So, is Sam really a woman?

 

Why does he croak like a frog, intentionally, otherwise?

Vocal fry is not a disease.

It might be due to laziness.

Would it be too much trouble for Sam to speak like a human being, instead of a frog?

 

Here is a video where Sam croaks away, without saying much:

 

 

 

How many more months, or years, will we need to have this guy around?

 

Also, when he is croaking, do you believe anything this guy says?

 

He needs to go.

 

Musk created a monster when he hired Sam...don't you think?

 

The only one stranger than Sam might be Zuckerberger.

 

These guys are just way too out of touch with reality, and with other human beings.

And, they are given way too much power.

 

How to take back control from these guys?

 

Musk cannot stand them, either, or so we are told.

 

Regards,

Gamma

 

 

This is the first time I have heard of the man and the first time i have knowingly heard him speak.......as opposed to hearing his voice, without knowing his name, on some radio programme.

I think it extraordinary that you, or anyone else, would find anything so peculiar in his voice that they would have cause to comment.

If you were to ask me if the presenter of the video was a woman I would say they could be a transgender woman who has superbly mastered the tones of a birth woman.

I once watched a video of a TGW that showed before and after gender-affirming voice therapy......absolutely astonishing to  hear the difference.

Back on the subject:  You are a million miles wide of the mark.

With regard to your motive for posting:

Time has rushed by and far ahead of most who post on AN........you are the person who most exemplifies that fact.

It's not your world anymore, it's all going to happen...........whether you like it or not.

Shut up and get out of the way, that is the message of Modernity.......oops! I posted it again:

1 hour ago, Will B Good said:

I remember one of my kids having a fit about this years ago.

 

Apparently the existence of MK-Ultra became public knowledge way back in 1975-1976 during the Church Committee investigations.

 

I guess the Mail now has actual documents relating to it.

The whole world has the documents.

NSA published them on Dec 23rd 2024:

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/dnsa-intelligence/2024-12-23/cia-behavior-control-experiments-focus-new-scholarly

On 1/5/2025 at 12:06 PM, Yagoda said:

Or left wing agitators or government agent provocateurs seeking to gin up Jan 6.

 

Is there a Yevno Azeff around?

No only you.....the troll who previously manifested on ThaiVisa/AN as "Nyezhov".

The Crisis of Parliaments, English History 1509-1660.

In 2008 I thought I would last until 2010.

I was once assessed, by a college tutor, as "tends to rely excessively on his wits".

It will take all of them to make it through the next 10 years.......I fear I may live that long.

Happy New Year to one and all:

6 hours ago, smedly said:

acting an idiot on your dirt bike, no sympathy for your reckless behavior..................idiot

 

 

RIP

Whatever the circumstances he provoked a lot of people on this thread to react like idiots.

They are not the people who require hard evidence before making up their minds about who was at fault.

A Saree guard, as fitted on MCs in India:

Would need one both sides (Indian lady pillions travel with legs left) for all round blanket protection.

1 hour ago, Cereal said:

A score is 20. So, scores were not injured. Just looking for accuracy.

Aye lad, "A score n' seven, or two n' a qwarter dozen Russyians....."

They'd be bang on the same as roit they would.

2 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

a. If the video I linked mentioned a reinforced concrete wall, then the creators of the video, as reported by Reuters, is mistaken.

 

b.  However, when viewing the video, it is important to just use one's eyes. Watch the video and see that the aircraft exploded immediately after hitting a very large berm, seemingly composed of many tons of dense and packed earth.

 

c. There is a wall with wire on top, some distance behind the berm. This wall is composed of what looks like cinder blocks, or concrete blocks.  The plane exploded when it hit the berm, and not the concrete wall, although part of the wall was subsequently damaged, it seems.

 

d.  Much of the media was reporting a concrete wall, and were in error.  I am the ONLY one who reported the BERM as being the culprit.  I can assume that many writers in the media have no idea what a berm might be, and how it is constructed.  So many SocialMecia reporters now live in ignorance.  How sad, really.  And, they commit a lot of fake-news-reporting, or so it is said.

 

 

e.  Now, we just need to wait for the NTSB report, several months in the future.  I am sure they will mention ground effect, and also the fact that the pilot, when he decided to abort the landing, and go around, did NOT allow enough time to go through his landing checklist the second time.  Then, the airport's runway design was at fall.  And, a few other things. 

 

I am right.

 

But, we need to wait for the NTSB report so that I will be vindicated.

 

 

By the way:  The reason the pilot landed LONG is probably due to ground effect, and this ground effect seems to have lasted even while the plane was past the halfway mark of the runway.     ALSO, no flaps were down, and this might be the reason the aircraft was landing at a higher-than-normal speed.

 

 

 

Until a credible source publishes a cross section of the structure I'm going with a concrete foundation for the array, sitting on a berm.

For the moment WYSIWYG:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mvynnxzzmo

PS. I feel compelled to  contest your assertion that you were the first person on AN to introduce the berm into the conversation, see below:

Jeju Air Flight from Bangkok Skids Off Runway at Muan Airport, 28 Dead

5 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   Could have been that the pilot was waiting for the wheels to hit the ground ?

   The wheels would have touched ground much further back on the runway had they been deployed 

All eyes would have been on the aircraft.

Difficult to believe that the tower would not have "pointed out" to the pilot that the landing gear was not down.

21 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Thanks - thats an excellent addition to the discussion...    

 

PPrune probably the only discussion worth reading as far as the operation of the aircraft is concerned.

11 minutes ago, Gobbler said:

 

It's partly a pilot error.  I watched the landing and he came in hot.  They should have diverted to an airport with a longer runway. 

 

 

Not much mention made, but I think you'll find that he came in downwind.

16 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   Veered off the end of the runway ?

It ran off/overshot the end of the runway and they don't want to talk about the massive lump that they stuck on the end of the runway that would destroy anything that, for whatever reason, ran off/overshot.

25 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

I would suggest ronnie50 is correct and the term 'veered off' is a poor translation... 

 

There is no 'assumption' to be made based on a few Youtube videos, there is clear observation. 

 

The aircraft hit the 'localiser concrete base' which is in line with the runway.

 

IF the air-craft have 'veered off' the runway, it would have missed the 'concrete base' potentially rendering the crash far less devastating. 

 

 

This is a localiser on a concrete base:

Had it hit anything like that it would have kept going.

This is what it hit. 

Judging by this, and the great amounts amounts of earth shown being thrown up in uncensored videos, most of it was an earthen berm.

On 12/24/2024 at 3:06 PM, backstreet said:

 

Sorry this may sound like I'm rambling on and this may sound like a '' pull your self together '' sort of post , but to me this situation is real and its becoming a nightmare. Going back many years , ever since I moved to Thailand and got married to my wonderful Thai wife, my mind / thinking process has steadily began to become what seems constantly overloaded . Every day now as soon as I wake up my thoughts go straight into overdrive, I'm thinking about this and I'm thinking about that , what if this happens or what if that happens or I have to go and do this or I have to do that . My mind is endlessly thinking and in most cases worrying about my life in general. This curse is effecting my sleep pattern , where getting a good nights sleep is now a luxury. As I lay in bed trying to go to sleep, my mind is still mulling over things that I know need to be done the next day , or planning on how to achieve some thing. My home desk is full of to do lists. 

 

To try and help sort of calm me down , Ive tried natural supplements. Ive watched endless YouTube videos , to no avail. I now seem to be more susceptible to medical complaints, which I'm wondering if is due to my immune system being low . Ive also started to eat more comfort foods, my mind being in a state of what seems constantly overly active, is wearing me out. 

 

I don't drink alcohol , and I cannot exercise  due to a foot issue.

 

I must admit that I'm not that keen in talking to a medical professional .

 

I was wondering if there was some thing drug related that I could take on a daily basis , that may help in calming my mind down .

 

I'm in my late 70's and feel that at my time of life I should by now be enjoying my golden years , but sadly my mind just won't let me rest in peace . 

 

 

 

Your curse is one that typically afflicts many westerners........I was similarly cursed.

Drugs, including alcohol, would be a typically western option........but not a solution.

Thais and other Asian cultures are very good at "not thinking".......ask your wife how she does does it.

It's laughably simple.......but you have to work at it if you were not brought up on it.

🫠

.

"Retired U.S. Air Force General Mark D. Kelly had previously acknowledged the possibility of China developing next-generation fighter jets. "They are not dummies. They know what they’re doing," he said, cautioning that the Chinese sixth-generation air combat program is likely to include "exponential" advancements in stealth technology over existing platforms" 

Unlike the people mindlessly "copying" and repeating the worn out mantra that China is only capable of copying, the USAF general knows perfectly well that:

A) China has learned quite enough, during its meteoric period of technological development, to build on the knowledge gained and to independently develop its own innovative ideas/designs.

B) Designers with similar knowledge levels tend to come up with similar designs when designing, consecutively and independently, for similar requirements.

Look back at the monoplane fighter designs that proliferated in the mid/late 1930's and you will see a lot of broadly similar designs........there was no way that they could not be similar given the high level of equivalence in knowledge/competence existing in design offices around the world.

PS.

Re: Copying.

When Reginald Mitchell "designed" the elliptical wing, which gets him so much adulation, of the Spitfire (first flight March 1936).......

.......was he "copying" the wing of the Mitsubishi A5? (first flight February 1935)......

.......or the wing of the Heinkel 70? (first flight December 1932!)......

🫠

22 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

She didn't see it ?

Enlarged still shows no hand on left HBar and head tilted down.

It only takes half a second too long looking away to lose your line.

On 12/24/2024 at 8:23 PM, BananaBandit said:

Just want to double-check:  Are they still unlimited?

No limits have been defined for the moment.

I suspect that the inability of the authorities to competently articulate that fact led one of their number to declare that entries were "unlimited".

Many limits in Thailand are undefined.

🫠

Nobody wants any sort of a cemetery in their back yard.

On past predictions half of existing UK cemeteries will be full within the next 10 years, and many councils are already saying no to any more.

Happily, good Christians like me, and Hindus, are OK to go up in smoke.........Muslims and Jews aren't allowed to do that.

The fact of this being a Muslim cemetery (with scant reference to the wider, greater, cemetery space issue) is the sole reason it is in the pages of the "Torygraph"........ to maintain it's barking readerships rage levels.

Surprised it didn't turn up in the "The Maul" first.

4 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

I do believe that justice will never be achieved in this case as he has shown he is above any Thai law. - Sad for Thailand justice department.

Any "Thailand justice department" operates under orders..........which are little to do with justice.

In his current circumstances It is only required to run show trials that prove him innocent.

Anyone who hasn't worked out the how and why of his return to Thailand, and the reason for his current invulnerability, is not qualified to comment on the political situation in Thailand.

Anyone who has worked it out would not be permitted to explain it on these pages.

🫠