jsflynn603

That is soooooo racist.

If we Europeans run into the "solarium" for artificial sun to get brown: Is that also racist?

Nope. Since tanning, using any form of tanning light is definitely carcinogenic that's not racist, it's mere stupidity.

Edit: Oops...Kratiboy beat me to the punch on this one!

....a Police Officer shot once into the air in an attempt to stop the vehicle.

Imagine staying in a high rise hotel block and sitting alone out on the balcony enjoying the view.

Would your insurance company believe you when you file a claim for being shot?

It's the poor buggy who is minding his own business and the bullet comes down on his head.

I was once rather surprised at how many deaths/injuries are caused by "celebratory" (firing into the air/upward) bullets...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire

A bit off topic but one that might be useful:

As the years go by more and more sleeper trains are infested with bedbugs.

Thai trains are not more necessarily likely to be infested.

I suggest that you research bedbugs to learn how to make absolutely sure that you do not bring them along with you in your luggage.

http://www.wikihow.com/Protect-Yourself-from-Bed-Bugs-While-Traveling

Bedbugs are a problem in Thailand, they are a problem in America too.

In Chiang mai there have been multiple deaths due to improper insecticide use--they are that difficult to eradicate, though they are a nuisance and do not spread disease.

Using Occam’s Razor the woman was a trafficker.

(from thefreedictionary.com: “This rule is interpreted to mean that the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable and that an explanation for unknown phenomena should first be attempted in terms of what is already known. Occam's razor is named after the deviser of the rule, English philosopher and theologian William of Ockham (1285?-1349?).”

From: Factsheet on Human Trafficking:

http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/UNVTF_fs_HT_EN.pdf

The United Nations estimates the total market value of illicit human trafficking at 32 billion US dollars.

Though another poster commented that the value of children were a few thousand dollars two white girls of this age could be worth tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands and not as slave basket weavers.

Consider this: “HONG KONG - Asia will have the world's largest number of millionaires as early as 2014 despite the expected tapering of the US Federal Reserve's stimulus program, according to a report published Wednesday, September 25”

From: http://www.rappler.com/business/170-features/39855-asia-to-have-most-millionaires-survey

Remember, these millionaires usually don’t have “one” million…

In Asia it is very easy for children to disappear, certainly as easy as adults to disappear being forced into slavery on fishing boats.

Had that been my child—that woman would NEVER have left the scene. It’s so sad that they never got a photo of her—there are many in law enforcement worldwide who would have taken that photo very, very seriously in the hopes that it would lead to a ring of traffickers.

For those interested another link that I just found by accident:

http://www.news.com.au/world-news/child-sold-for-organ-harvesting/story-fndir2ev-1226743335651

In it:

"The report also said 20 British girls had been victims of human trafficking, in cases where they were raped and exploited by gangs of Asian men."

Sounds like the poor kid was an undiagnosed epileptic,

and the seizures he occasionally had were labeled evil spirits,

and he had stress induced seizures during the water torture part of the exorcism.

The second caused him to drown. Very sad and ignorant.

As another poster here suggested swelling of the brain was likely the cause of the seizures.

The old adage: "the dose is the poison" is appropriate here. Even water in high dosages is a poison.

Let's assume he weighed 40 kilograms. The LDL50 (The median dosage of a rat forced to drink water such that 50% die is equal to or greater than 90 grams/k), therefore if the boy weighed 40k 3.6 Liters can be a lethal dose. (There is no known LDL50 for water for human's) Thus he likely died of water intoxication.

"Overhydration can cause acidosis (a condition in which blood and body tissues have an abnormally high acid content), anemia, cyanosis (a condition that occurs when oxygen levels in the blood drop sharply), hemorrhage, and shock. The brain is the organ most vulnerable to the effects of overhydration. If excess fluid levels accumulate gradually, the brain may be able to adapt to them, and the person will have only a few symptoms. If the condition develops rapidly, confusion, seizures, and coma are likely to occur."

http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/overhydration

The ultimate cause of death, most likely, would be arrhythmia (a cardiac anomaly).

A little known odd tidbit: The famous artist Andy Warhol likely died (though he was ill to start with) of water intoxication caused by intravenous solutions. (The hospital where he died never admitted this, but settled and paid Warhol's estate an unknown sum of money).

Ouch! 500,000.

I have (had?) 20,000 in a bank in Chiang Mai. The bank, after opening the account told me that they must send me my PIN # in the mail.

But they never did (or it got lost at the condo place I was renting at).

Now I'm back in America and all I could ever get was (over and over) go to the branch in Chiang Mai....

...long walk that is.

I imagine it's history now, as that was 2010.

OP my suggestion is to hire a lawyer.

They need to fix the welfare system so it pays less than not working. They also need to cut out the credit cards as people just get in trouble with them, stop banks from loaning money on houses at or near a 100% of the purchase price, and stop giving money to other countries as the US cannot even take care of its self very well with the extremely large debt they have run up. I guess these are opinions but all true in my mind. With just about no manufacturing jobs left in the USA it beats me how they think they can survive long term in the real world.

Name one US bank that has drafted a mortgage loan at or near 100% of the home's value in the last 4 years to anyone. Credit card issues are down substantially. If you can't show a credit score of 720 or higher (in US), you get rejected. Manufacturing has moved to Asia. It's been happening for 30+ years Not even South America can compete now. But many US manufacturers are doing quite well...., they just took it "offshore".

Here's one, well, not 100% but you said "near" this one allows the purchaser to put down 1%, thus it's 99%.

http://www.nhhfa.org/rental-housing-choice-vouchers-ownership.cfm

It really is strange in America these days and to me reminiscent of the Great Depression (1928-1931).

It's certainly not the same, but in some ways it is.

No bread/soup kitchen lines but we have 48 million on food stamps--A line with each person standing two feet apart would reach 4,550 miles. But nobody sees the throngs line up for food. If recipients of food stamps, welfare, fuel assistance, medicaid (medical for the poor), housing assistance, etc. were forced to line up each week to collect now that would be something to see. But it's all hidden.

"Since January 2009 the country has added a net total of 270,000 full-time jobs, but it has added 1.9 million part-time jobs, according to the House Ways and Means Committee." Washington Post

Unemployment figures are not so bad but when we look at the % of people who could be employed the numbers take an a Great Depression aspect. Remember, when an American runs out of unemployment benefits he/she is no longer counted as unemployed. Remember too, that when a person goes from a job that earned $40,000/year to a part time job that earns $12,000--that person too is no longer unemployed.

Education costs have risen so far beyond other costs that Americans are approaching one trillion dollars in debt for education loans. Why have education costs risen so much? I'm not sure, professors are not being paid more so I suspect it's bigger/better buildings/campus.

Yet all is not totally bleak. American earnings have stagnated so much that in real purchasing power American's earnings have dropped since the mid sixties. Chinese earnings however have risen and risen and risen. And already in some sectors America is once again becoming a manufacturing center--and with the various forms of gas coming on line (coal bed methane, tightly held gas, horizontal drilling, etc.) I predict that in ten years America will once again become a manufacturer, that is--unless our politicians and the banksters don't derail everything.

personally think its a great idea the army using surplus rubber.

Thinking outside the box for a change, its better than the soldiers being idle.

I am with you on this. Not sure why so much negativity about paving better roads.. Granted it is not a lot but then again why is the Army doing it? That should be the Governments job.

If it results in more durable roads it should be required in all asphalt roads. The Rubber producers making money off of it would be a byproduct not the reason for it. Also rubber is replaceable Oil is not.

This is very common misunderstanding. The idea that rubber, or corn, or whatever can replace oil simply never happens. Rubber trees need to be fertilized twice per active season. Fertilizer is NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium) Nitrogen is created by using gas. The heat and pressure needed require hydrocarbons (or nuclear/hydroelectric) power. Phosphorus comes predominantly from the mineral apatite, mined by equipment which uses a large amount of energy, separated, processed, dissolved and reacted (all using energy). Potassium is perhaps the least expensive in energy cost but it too is mined as sylvite (usually) (Potassium chloride) in deep mines, or with superheated water injected into sylvite or other potassium rich ore, with the resultant saline solution sucked out and dried (usually with energy intensive means).

In short agriculture, contrary to common belief, IS MINING-- and is heavily energy intensive.

True it can be done differently, and human feces, recycled as is sometimes done in Thailand works too...but in reality the idea that an agricultural crop such as rubber can somehow magically replace oil is largely false. Today's agriculture is extremely energy intensive.

Just something to think about.

Paypal is like some scroungy money changer--don't expect ANYTHING from them.

Go to BBB (Better Business Bureau) and find a plethora of complaints.

Often things go smoothly--but when they do not, do NOT expect anything from them.

IMHO Paypal is NOT to be trusted.

Avoid Paypal.

(Actually most scroungy money-changers are trustworthy.... but Paypal is not to be trusted)

Yup, I remember the case where the family chased the guy, shot him with an antique musket, then clubbed him to death and dragged the body to the royal game preserve whereupon the tigers ate what was left.

This is not the same case, but I guess "feed 'em to the tigers" is common in some areas...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/thai-woman-admits-feeding-her-british-husband-to-tigers-410250.html

Seriously though, avoid bargirls (rule #1)--and if you ever cheat--remove all sharp objects in the house first.

Thai culture goes back thousands of years.

American culture goes back a paltry 250 years--it's understandable how difficult it is for American's to accept and perhaps even embrace the concept of dowry. For Thai men, there is a sense of pride at being able to pay. Respect in Thailand historically has always been measured in wealth (historically in land). A wealthy man gains respect and status through generosity, and if Thai, or an enlightened foreigner embraces the concept, often the returns exceed the outlay.

Too, in America, as in my case as I'm engaged to a non-Thai woman, while there is no dowry, a platinum ring with an appropriate sized GIA certified D color diamond is, in reality, a sort of dowry that's appropriate to the woman and to my assets.

Were I to marry a Thai woman I'd be proud to be able to contribute a generous sin sot to her family.

Oh, so much fuss, just hide it in your pants, they'll never know....

Gold prices have a sure fire battle at $1000. Why the heck buy now?

I guess some people like to sweat profusely while holding on to an underwater position.

Yup, I remember someone telling me this in 2008.

Actually gold will have trouble at 1100 and again at 1200, they are psychological not technical barriers but are important. China is hurting; nothing in the Euroland has been fixed and inflation is non-existent (that is America's viewpoint but I think America only looks at the cost of Ostrich feather dusters, and have long dropped such mundane things as fuel and food) so one might assume that the world will go in the direction of deflation and if so (or if the herd believes (or is led to believe) gold could drop all the way to $700, though I'll admit, at some point it'll rise back up and eventually I like gold because, simply, it is honest. Our currency has long ceased to be honest and this is so in all countries, Canada's nickels (5 cent piece, or 1/20 dollar) now stick to magnets. So too with 10 peso coins from the Philippines--the old ones did not, the new ones do as they are nickel plated steel.

Still, I for one think the question is valid and not bait so I'll not answer it a different way because though I'm famliar with Sandstorm (both Sandstorm metals and Sandstorm gold) I'm not particularly familiar with the others. I stopped following Sandstorm(a) a while ago but cannot remember why.

Last week I bought:

Endeavour mining @$0.44 Canadian

Carpathian gold CPN.T @ $0.16 C

Atac (ATC.V) at (I can't remember)

PLG.V (Pilot gold) @ $0.70C

I have orders in for REN.V (Rennaisance) but my bid was not taken.

I expect prices to fall to new lows sometime in July, time will tell if I'm right or not and clearly if I was so sure I would not have purchased the above. It's a strange market, buyer beware and not for the faint of heart.

I particularly like Oceana and like PMI, who refused a buy-out by what is now Asanko back in January. Both of the later (not Oceana) are in Ghana and I like Ghana and have done well there with some company that was bought out by Liongold (A78) Singapore and offered me a triple though I have sold A78. Asanko has over 100mm (million) PMI and Asanko would have been good bed-partners. PMI has good property but needs a whopping amount to open the mine. Frankly I cannot help but wonder if it is like it was near the end of '08 to March of '09. We aren't near a top so we are someplace down near the bottom of the V but how near, nobody knows. The big question is, if hard times and a low gold price continues many small time companies will die. Just keeping the office open costs over a million a year even if you idle everything and everyone.

Best of luck. My eventual prediction: Gold will go beyond $4k ounce...but the questios is "when?"

Definately decide which school you want to go to and pay a deposit. It's axiomatic that the best schools are apt to be full quite a bit prior to the start.

I'm preferential to SIT (School for International Training) which "had" a great location in Chiang Mai and still does. Unfortunetly Stephen Tate ran it and last I knew (2 years ago) he left and the SIT class closed. It was a great class in a great location. SIT has other sites, one in Bkk, Sadly I arrived in CM to take it only to find it had ceased to exist. I have heard good things about the Bkk location. The location is still open but the SIT classes, last I knew, were not.

Your degrees might be of help, or might not. If they are English related you can then teach at a University level. Though in reality for a TESOL a high school graduate with a passion might be a far better teacher than someone who has a slew of degrees. Teaching English is a science but it is also quite an art in my opinion.

Realize that if you teach in Thailand that you'll have to change your mores quite a bit. For instance you cannot fail the rude fellow in the back who won't really bother leaning anything and who utters not a sound other than that of farting--particularly you must not fail that child/fellow/young lady, else you might find yourself without a job. Remember your job there (I'm speaking in Thailand) is more to entertain than to teach, of course, a good entertainer might well impart a budding seed of interest, has he a passion for teaching. Thailand can be a difficult place to teach English, or not, depending on so many factors.

If you have high standards consider Japan--really. You will be paid respect, courtesy and make ok money too.

Beware of China, you will be hired, but maybe never paid. Seriously...

As far as where you learn it--it does not matter and frankly you will not (again in my opinion) learn to teach English to Thais simply by taking a class here. SIT does have a very good location (good for me means cheap) in the Ukraine. Ironically SIT's home location is Brattleboro, Vermont, USA about 1/2 hour from where I live--though they stopped teaching the class there. There is one about an hour away but it is cheaper to fly to Thailand and pay room and lodging for the duration than go to the class in America an hour away from my home.

As far as which class--I suggest that you start hanging around TESOL/Celta sort of sites, there are many if you look. Find seasoned teachers and ask many questions--they have been there and they know the answer.

Chiang Mai (University?) does have a TESOL class and I thought about taking it but changed my mind hearing quite a bit of mixed reviews. It may have gotten more stable in the past year or two and is worth checking out. Chiang Mai is a darling of a place as long as you don't try to cross the street as a pedestrian.

"Is there a nifty device that I can point in his direction which would
either cancel out his music or make listening to his music very
difficult/uncomfortable for him?"

Indeed, there is, it's called a RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenado) you might find one at a yard sale in Afganistan.

This sends a clear incentive to criminals to come to Phuket to do crime.

Get caught here, and all you do is buy your way out of it.

Interesting times ahead for Phuket.

Sounds rather like the USA, consider the IRS scandal, the LIBOR scandal, the Bengazi scandal and Obama's extrajudicial drone killing of US citizens.

Clearly crime pays these days as long as you're uh, in the "upper crust" (even relatively speaking)

"Deputy Governor Adisorn Kamnerdsiri said the level of haze in the
province this morning was rising to the level that residents suffer eye
irritation."

Translation into plain English:

Deputy Governor Adisorn Kamnerdisir said the level of haze in the province

this morning was rising to the level that numerous people were dying in hospitals due

to respiratory problems, and their eyes were irritated too.

C'mon....is this just gross denial, or stupidity?

And this:

"The fires were caused by burning weeds and underbrush in mountainous
areas and lighting fire by local residents when searching for forest
produce. (MCOT online news)."

Searching? Uh, what do they need extra light?

What insane rubbish. The fires are deliberately started by locals in a serial manner. A week after an area is burned many saleable products are created, bamboo shoots, certain mushrooms that react to the fire (this occurs in the Western US also where edible morel mushrooms fruit after a fire) and other herbaceaous products. So if you burn an area every three or four days, in a week or two you will find a bounty of edible and saleable products. Locals start the fires and then continue to start them at intervals that suit their harvest schedule.

99%+ of the fires are set intentionally and the authorities know this.

It is this way in parts of China, Burma, and other surrounding countries and has been this way for centuries and with this sort of dumb denial it will be this way for centuries to come.

As a rough guess I'll bet that between 300 and 1200 people die from this sort of burning each year, though none die from eye irritation.

See: http://ia600401.us.archive.org/11/items/VE-IMG-19873/seasia_amo_28feb05.jpg

For a satellite image of fires in SE Asia. Here there are significant forest fires too, but it is apparent from images like these that most of the burning is intentional. Even the forest understory has changed to facilitate this sort of burning. We go through this every year--year after year. Well, ostriches really do not hide their heads in the ground, but clearly Thai authorities do.

"Public Health Ministry deputy permanent-secretary Dr Apichai Mongkol said the body releases dopamine hormones when a person is addicted to games, in a similar fashion to being addicted to drugs."

Dr Mongkoi needs to go back to school. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, not a hormone. This is elementary biochemistry.

Neurotransmitters are created at and localized at nerve synapses.

Hormones are created by glands and are circulated via the bloodstream.

Though clearly video game playing can be oddly addicting. A few years ago two fellows from Shanghai were playing online together and a monster dropped an uber (elite) sword. The two agreed to use the elite ethereal (existing as electrons, not in reality) alternately. One day one of the fellows sold the sword for about US$1,000 equivalent, (ethereal items from games can be sold on Ebay sometimes for hundreds of dollars and sometimes over a thousand) and when the second one found out he killed the one who sold the sword.

To read the story search using: "Online gamer killed for selling virtual weapon"

the link if allowed:

http://www.smh.com.a...1862440188.html

Although not discussed a lot this is a rather common occurrence and the woman should be thought highly of. Going to the hospital and assuming a fake identity is much better than having the baby and throwing it in the dumpster.

During the 1980's in America approximately 100 babies were abandoned each year. Depending on the year ten to thirty-three babies were found dead.

As a result of this, starting with the american state of Texas "safe haven" laws were created and now exist in every state.

These laws allow a person, parent or not to literally "drop off" a baby. Usually it is at a hospital, but in some states can be a church or other facility. No questioning, no calling the police. Drop the baby off and walk away.

It may be hard to fathom but it clearly happens. It could be drug addiction, poverty or the child could be a product of rape. Safe haven laws at least give the baby a chance to live.

A bit off topic, but maybe not.

A few months back I sent a birtday present package from the US to Chiang Mai using the US Postal Service. It never arrived.

It had two girls shirts (kids size) and a pediactric old stethoscope (the ten year old girl whom the gift was for is intrigued by doctors). I have no idea if it was stolen because of the stethoscope--perhaps someone thought it was valuable. It wasn't really even very functional since it was old and the head had a small crack in it. I guess maybe it was seized for lack of something....

I hate to inject facts here when speculating is so much fun but consider this: The dose of DEET that is required to kill 50% of the rats treated is over 2 grams DEET per kilogram body weight of the rat (source: USEPA). Assuming that htese unfortunate women weighed 60 g, they would each have had to ingest 120 grams of DEET to have a 50% chance of dying from the exposure. This would be about 4 ounces of pure DEET. However, the most concentrated form sold commercially is 41% meaning that they would each have had to drink at least an 8 ounce tumbler of the straight product. I don't think it is possible for anyone to get drunk enough not to notice that they were drinking a glass of mosquito repellant.

So, as convenient as it is to blame all ills on chemicals, it does not seem plausible in this case and the the cause of justice is ill served by accepting this at face value.

You have obviously missed the fact that many rats die at much lower doses. So humans can also die taking less. 50% won't always die. That's just an average. Other things come into play, such as alcohol ingested, state of health, etc. Did you check for experiments where rats were given DEET and alcohol. You obviously don't understand how these tests work.

Actually Anonymous did not miss the fact that many rats die at much lower doses. You are simply pulling that fact out of your as.... uh hat. It is far more likely that the LDL50 has a fairly narrow range, not a broad one.

DEET method of death would by inhibition of acetylcholinesterase which essentially shuts down neurons. Alcohol is not an inhibitor of cholinesterase and therefore would likely be only a minor factor. Were there certain insecticides such as carbamates then there would be a synergistic effect.

Anonymous's analysis in my book stands rather true if one considers the low of DEET's LDL50 as being around 1750mg/kilogram. Even using the higher LDL50 of 1800mg/kg (notice the tight range) and choosing the smaller of the two women, assuming a 95lb frame (43kg) one comes up with a lethal dose being around 77grams for the smaller woman. There are few products which contain 100% DEET, but there are some and such as Coleman's 100% DEET, and Ben's products and these are fairly expensive and most come in 4 oz sized bottles or less. Therefore one would have to pour an entire bottle into the drink if the mix were to be imbibed by two.

Bottom line is: DEET did not kill these two women.

,gold shops have also been robbing people, tourists and thai's as well.

From my experience which is only in Chiang Mai, gold shops work on a tiny margin. I purchased a 1/2 baht necklace, this is equivalent to just about 1/2 troy ounce of gold from a Chinese Thai near the Ping river a while ago. Thai gold is among the finest in the world being 23 1/2 karat. At today's price of gold that means that the gold value in the necklace is about $880 US. The price that I paid was about 11% higher than the value of the gold in the necklace.

In the US it is difficult to find even 18kt gold jewelry (18kt = 18/24 or 75% pure gold). Most US gold is 14kt or 58.6% gold. Now if I were to buy the same necklace in the US I would pay double or triple the actual bullion value of the gold content. So while the American market sells necklaces for 100 to 200% more than the bullion value of the gold in it, the Thai market sells it for 11% more.

Frankly I have no clue as to how they can even survive on an 11% margin. Perhaps shops in Phuket or other places have higher markup but in Chiang Mai I went to over a dozen shops and the markup was similar.

In fact Thai gold jewelry is about the best value for your buck (or Euro, or Pound, etc) in the world.

Hoffer, are you buying jewelry such as a chain, or bars?

If you are buying either--a true gold test is destructive absent XRF machine. Specific gravity alone does not work because an item with a tungsten alloy "core" can be made with identical SG.

An acid test can be done and is simple, but destructive. First the item must be filed/cut or abraded to bypass any plating/coating. Then the item is rubbed on a piece of stone that is rough creating a colored swipe mark (of the gold from the item). Next two known "fingers" of gold attached to a bronze holder are swiped next to the item. In the case of 23.5 karat gold, one would use a swipe of 99.99 gold and on the other side, a swipe of 23kt gold. Then conc (concentrated) nitric acid is picked up on a glass knob type dropper, and a few grains of ordinary table salt are added to the droplet now sitting on the testing stone. The tip is used to crush the grains and dissolve the salt into the Nitric acid. The salt disassociates into H+ and Cl(-) ions, the "chloryl" ions are insanely reactive, the mixture then becomes Aqua Regia which is a combination of Nitric and Hydrochloric acid which DISSOLVES pure gold.

The mixed droplet is then swiped across the the three marks covering part of the marks. The tester then waits, in a few minutes the 23kt swipe disappears where acid is across it, a few minutes later, thte 23 1/2 (standard thai gold) would dissapear and a few minutes later the pure gold disappears. Thus proving that the identity of the piece being tested has a purity between 23 and 24kt gold.

But this test is destructive and most would not do it to a finished item or a 1 ounce bar because they'd have to file or cut the edge.

Interestingly in Thailand not long ago a fair amount of jewelry was sold that was made of an alloy of the correct SG that was apparantly tungsten alloy that was gold plated. That's a scary thought.

As far as Thai jewelry being a rip-off. I do not agree. The items that I bought cost less then 10% above the contained gold value and for a finished item that is tremendous. In America an item that has $1000 of gold in it, be it 14kt, or 18kt would usually sell for $3000 (or 300%) more than the contained gold. I consider buying Thai finished gold jewelry to be amongst the best deals on the planet, and from what I've seen the mostly Chinese-Thai vendors up along the Ping River in Chiang Mai are always honest about the metal content (do not trust their scales though, but I have seen their scales weigh over and under actual weight... ) The Baht concept is simple: The gold is not quite 23 1/2 karat it is .965 gold, and 1 Baht is equal to 15.244 grams in raw bullion form or 15.16 grams when it sold as jewellery.

True, if you are buying with intent to resell as scrap buying finished gold jewelry is not worth it, but if so, just buy ingots that are accepted and identifiable in the culture where you intend to sell it. Perth Mint, the Swiss manufactures (Hereaus sp?) are pretty much accepted in 1 ounce bars worldwide, or the Eagle/Maple Leaf/Buffalo/Philharmonic coins.

I had this done in the states some 40 yr ago in the Dr office with no meds. On the table, up on my knees, I saw the nurse come in with a stainless steel tube, of a size that would make any horse proud. After a good greasing, the Dr said there would be some minor discomfort, and then I had tears come to my eyes. Last thing I remember. Good luck

Don't know what Doc you went to but sigmoid scopes have been 'flexible' since perhaps the late 1950's - early 1960's. Although unpleasant, it is not at all a painful procedure and is done with the patient laying on the side. Maybe your Doc never upgraded his gear?

My arse it is not painful--the sigmoidoscopy I had was the most painful experience of my life, to this day (this was done about 12 years ago, I still wish that I had slugged the doc at the end saying: "Oh now, that doesn't hurt much, does it?" Because he said to me: "Oh that doesn't hurt that much...stop moving." Some people seem to experience no pain and some experience a whole lot of pain--who knows why, but I recommend that you never have a Sigmoidoscopy done.

Horrid, horrid, horrid.. No, No, No to a Sigmoidoscopy--yes to a Colonoscopy because they do conscious sedation. You are awake and you do feel pain--but you cannot remember it, or retain it in memory, so when you wake, you believe you felt no pain. As a RN student I observed several and this is the way it goes:

Patient, Oh, ouch! Doctor: Oh did that hurt? Patient: Huh, did what hurt, Oh ouch... Doctor "Sorry" Patient: "Sorry about what?"

It's funny actually, but the meds block imprinting the memory, so while you feel pain, the real problem with pain seems to be the "remembering of it," and under conscious sedation you cannot remember a bit so if asked: Was it painful? You will answer: "no."

Pig farms stink--always--everywhere, in Thailand, in America--if they use liquid manure, and if this place has a biomass generator then their fecal waste system liquifies and transports the waste as liquid. As much as they might try, the odor is unlikely to be resolved.