Shaunduhpostman

That the Bundesbank is there and 70 billion in gold is just a coincidence of course. Move along folks, nothing to see here...

He is the one who will suffer the most from how he is. As do we all. Poor guy. Poor us.

19 hours ago, impulse said:

 

The 2 key words in your post are "bubble" and "bursts".   It may go up to $10,000, but I don't want to be one of those holding the bag when it happens.  Unless I got in at $5.00, but it's way too late for that.

 

I get a kick out of an ad that plays on CNN, claiming that a cabbie in BKK got paid 300 baht in bitcoins and now he's a millionaire.  And when I was in China, the same ad had a cabbie in Beijing getting paid 100 RMB in Bitcoins and now he's a millionaire.  And when I turned on my VPN through Prague, it was a cabbie in Prague getting paid a few CZK in Bitcoin and now he's a millionaire...  

 

I love the concept of a digital currency, but Bitcoin's been hijacked by the worst kind of get-rich-quick charlatans.

 

More bad news for Bitcoin fans:  http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-trading-china-yuan-remnibi-2017-1

 

 

Don't mind me, I'm going to indulge in one of my favorite pasttimes a bit of recreational public drivelling.

Whatever you may think of Bitcoin, my point, which perhaps was not made very plain, was that there's no need for getting middlemen and their agendas involved by handing your money over to them to "help" you make money using Bitcoin.

Its just a currency, of course it can be used by charlatans, so can the fiat currencies we all use and we don't see people complaining about the evil of the Thai baht because acquiring it is what motivates all the corruption and organized crime in Thailand. 

The OP's friend, if she indeed did get scammed, at least has the possibility of getting her money back doing it all herself, depending on her timing, competence, grit, desire, bankroll  etc. Of course if she got into bitcoin yesterday she'd be getting hammered by the crypto currency sell off in progress, but as I am sure you well know it is a bit more complicated than just buying some Bitcoin and waking up on morning next month a millionaire next month. So, why make it even more complicated riskier and more complicated by allowing other people to do "invest" for you what you could do yourself, which is really the whole beauty of crypto currencies is that there is much you can do yourself.

Anyone can buy and sell currencies and with the smallest of bankrolls. Why play video games when you can you take 50 bucks and try to make into 150 bucks? Trade commisions are miniscule and it is liberating knowing you are trading directly with others rather than asking some employee of a brokerage to trade for you. I am as poor as many Thais and things like FOREX markets are prohibitively expensive for me to get involved with.

Its rather tragic that the media gloms on to scam stories and how absurdly over valued  Bitcoin is rather than the news that the average person now has great potential for opportunity that you  can to some degree manage and control yourself, vicissitudes of the crypto-currency markets not withstanding. There is also micro loaning to other crypto investors you can do, you can actually mine and mint various coins yourself using video game graphic cards. It is not something the avergae person has even a remote chance of doing with fiat currencies. Do we hear about any of that, of course not, haha!

So, That's what I was thinking when I read this post and what I would try to impart to my friend, rather than just say "See, ya got scammed! Too bad! Nothing you can do! Guess you learned your lesson about BItcoin and trying to invest your money! Just don't even go there dood! Forget it! Why don't you stop being lazy and greedy and go sell some papayas in the market like good honest people do. "

Bubbles and bursting bubbles and hype go with the territory and you accept those risks or don't, but that's not the same as people who take your fiat currency and tell you they are going to make you millions on Bitcoin. What I suppose additionally galling me about the guys who scammed the temple  was that the scammers offered to give them such a small return that it seems the scammers, had they actually put the money towards Bitcoin, which they probably didn't, could easily have made the 300 percent and kept a mere piddly 600 percent for themselves and everybody'd be happy. That's just the facts of the matter, bit coin did during one 300 day period go up about 1000%. 

As to whether or not that incredible run is finished or whether you or I too could make a lot of money on Bitcoin or other altcoins is, after some good timing, up to our guts,  intelligence,  research and decision making ability. I would assume I don't have to tell you that.

But Bitcoin, on its own is far from being just a scam or an instrument for people to scam people with and little to nothing else. What is really a shame as well  it seems it won't be too long before many governments will start conflating scams with crypto-currencies and making them illegal under the pretext of looking out for people's well being, which of course we all know they are so good at, as though there were something inherently wrong with cryptos.

A currency exchange shop in Kathmandu also pointed out some subtle irregularities on some new notes I got from Thai Commercial bank that I tried to change. There was quite a discussion among the guys in the shop, they had to phone someone but after the call they decided to buy what I was trying to sell. I had to agree, it looked like there were some problems with the printer or something, some of the notes didn't look quite all there. Just par for the course, really, around these parts, though that said obviously neither I nor even the exchange shop people are experts on the nuances of Thai bill design and what is OK and what isn't, nor is it considered to be any of our business I suppose, it is not like the Thai baht is taken seriously by many outside Thailand. I really have never understood why there never seems to be any standard to the thickness and size of coins, such that it is tricky to get vending machines such as BTS ticket machines to accept coins. With such slack standards you really are inviting people to print their own money. But as with most things it just doesn't matter.

If I were the OP I  would try to explain to my friend myself how buying and selling Bitcoin, while not easy, is, still, compared to other investments, a piece of cake, considering the fact that it is very possible to have gotten filthy rich quickly had you bought enough of them 300 days ago . I would say to him or her, look, just see if your friend can't get his investment back and do it himself, or barring that, invest more  again but this time on his own.

300 days ago Bitcoin was at $380/BTC

At the moment it is at $4724/BTC

Many expect it will at least go to $5000 before the bubble bursts.

But for now that is pyramid scheme like money, but it is not a pyramid scheme, anymore than the pyramid emblazoned U.S. dollar is anyway, for which you'd probably be right saying it was.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

He said if Yingluck had left on a private jet, a record of the flight would have appeared in the Immigration Bureau’s online database.

 

However, had she left discreetly via a land border, the bureau would have no record of it, he acknowledged.

 

Oh...so, then when we leave/come back from say Laos, to say get another 90 day entry stamp we have to fill out the TM6, have our passports scanned that's all  just for immigration to end up with having  kept no record of our entry? 

How cool is that?!

Reuters seems to be spinning things nicely for the Thai authorities and co. Last I checked, the families of the victims were not all satisfied that the case was investigated properly. There was at least one member of Hannah's family, Hannah's sister as I recall, who was appalled by just about everything, the investigation , the way the court hearings were conducted how they were treated in Ko Samui. And was she not threatened by thugs in the UK to stop posting about it on facebook, I may not recall that quite right, but at the very least it seems pretty suspicious that the families would all unanimously be happy with the investigation when just about no one else is.

The catch being that you may, depending on your location and luck, still have to deal with an arbitrary situation in which the rules are not transparent and even if they were wouldn't necessarily be applied fairly. They need to get better people to work as officials who are on the level and not simply on the take or too selfish to help people trying to negotiate the difficulties of remaining legally in this country. New visas will create problems for the older programs. There will be that much less focus and dedication to them. These new visas are bad news and show, not that we are surprised, that there is likely little to no interest in a  revamp or serious attempt at improvement of services or  transparency   on the horizon.

 Thai Mettallica clones ought to jump on this one for their latest song: Ronald Mc Donald: Puppet Master!

5 hours ago, TunnelRat69 said:

10 years for possessing a deck of playing cards??  They sell them in 7/11 but keep them out of sight, since when is it against the law to hold a deck of playing cards??  I am confused.

Sorry, I retract that about cards. I was echoing something someone else said without checking it. I hope you did not stress out too much about it. Having more than 120 cards is illegal however.

That said, many will assume that you are using the cards for gambling. Cards are not often played just for fun in Thailand. So, just having them could conceivably give any cop who really wanted to nail you an excuse to do so.  Which was my point, that because of the arbitrary way that the law is enforced it is very easy to stray into gray areas without knowing it.

Maybe you recall the senior citizen bridge club in Pattaya that got raided by the police last year. In that case, the police seemed to have a hard time accepting that people don't necessarily use cards for gambling only. Penalties for gambling are a year in the slammer. 

If they are going to warn people about the draconian e-cigarette laws, they might also want to mention that the whole legal system and law enforcement culture in Thailand in general is arbitrary and that combined with the zero logic, zero regard for your life or well being mentality of many you would have to deal with in any kind of hassle  makes for a particularly nasty combination such that if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time you could be in a heap of trouble for little to nothing. A more important warning to people would be, I would think, that people take precaution and use common sense so as not to run afoul of what can be a rather arbitrary and sporadically enforced bunch of laws. You can literally be in a real mess for saying the wrong thing or standing up for yourself to the wrong person. It is also very easy to be lulled into a false sense of not needing to worry at all, and if you are here on holiday that usually is whole point, to drop your fretting and worrying, and it would seem you've come to the right place and indeed the police are generally less obtrusive and ubiquitous than they are in many cities in the world. But ten years for vaping or 10 years for a deck of playing cards if they decide they really don't like you. And that seems to be what it boils down to here: If we like you you can do anything you want, if we don't there's nothing you can do that isn't wrong or even illegal.

Nothing like being informed in advance three times or so in one week about something you'll have to do that in fact you have been required to do all along and been doing all along. Is it not bad enough that we have to do it that we now also have to be reminded that we will have to fulfill the rather trivial requirement daily in the news? It's kind of like they really want to say something else but just don't know how to say it and we are supposed to figure it out what it is they are really trying to say with this "news" item appearing again and again and again.

BUt if we just take this at face value that there is nothing else they are trying to tell us, one has to ask Is it really such an issue? Is there something I just don't grasp here? Should I like try and take a month long summer course at the Sorbonne on how to fill in Thailand's TM6 to a superb and perfect level?

Or maybe it would be enough if I just work a few hours a day everyday for the next few months on my penmanship and do independent research to confirm the accuracy and validity of information I will be asked to furnish on arrival in Thailand, such things I have always just assumed were correct and accurate such as my address and my name. Tho, I suppose if we go to a foreign country we should be open minded enough to consider that such things as our name and address may not be what we thought they were. Perhaps what they have in mind here, is that they would like us to be better prepared to fill out that form when it comes time to do so.

11 minutes ago, Lampang2 said:

My pitbull/bear/lion/tiger/elephant never bites etc etc

 

animal owners in action

 

 

Yep. A variety of a classic human response to the misfortune of others: I've never had a problem with xyz (erroneously assuming they never will have a problem with xyz in the future), so what's wrong with you that you have a problem? 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Monk Thanet Tikhayano said that the bear had never attacked anyone before.

 

He said that Fon was drunk and that when the bear got a whiff of the alcohol she didn't like it and attacked him.

Good thing there was a monk at the scene of the incident who could talk to bears, otherwise how could anyone possibly explain what happened?

You can bet money that they aren't even remotely concerned about fire hazards. I will never like how the culture is such that you can't just do or say anything directly. I will never understand the point of not really doing what you can and want to do. Of course if you do there will be a price to pay that is much too much, people will not stand for anything that gets underway too deliberately. Seems like that is what is going on with the monthly hits on the bars etc. It's probably going to drag on for years, all of these indirect attacks on the sex industry, its better, they think to just erode it at some agonizingly slow glacial pace than get together make extensive plans, don't mess around and  just let the busineesses know where you stand, "Well sorry the jig is up. We have another idea for what we want Pattaya to be. We want to put up not very colorful or interesting condominiums everywhere. Keeping the beach clean is a hassle, requires too much management and asks too much of hotels and apartments to treat their own sewage, but maybe people will buy the condos for some mysterious reasons anyway and Pattaya can become a bedroom community we know it really was all along for...who knows.The whole tourist industry can leave and go back to farming or  just sign up for work at the American registered business that is a Thai owned oil fracking operation in Khon Kaen or the potash strip mine in Sakon Nakorn or work for the new Chinese factories in Isaan and wherever else. No bars, no alcohol, no music starting next year. Party's over." But no, that would be too direct, and someone might have to get real, the whole world might notice and then the Daily Mail or some other publication in Europe would start in, would print something that embarrassed someone by noticing what was going on and commenting. None of that,  its, No, you have to wait till 6 pm to open now. No, you can't have big neon signs. No, You can't have ladies in short skirts advertising alcohol out front. No You can't have upstairs short time rooms but you can carry on with providing ladies for tourists. NO you cannot have a place to sit on beach road we are taking down the benches we put up 5 years ago. No you can't have businsses on the beach. No, yes you can have businesses. Now, no you can't. This will go on for ages during which time they will forget why they are always every month putting a new restriction on the bars. Mirthfully chuckling over his ice cream sundae  in a May 2047 interview,  Pattaya Mayor incumbent Pramote Vriyayakitoriumsomartnabalampoowataysat commented, "Well, its just a tradition, I suppose...Nobody knows why we have to slap the businesses around every month and make a demand. Its all in a good spirit anyway, it is just like big brother to little brother.  Western people just don't understand, there is never any harm meant by any of these things, you see. The businesses  want to feel safe that a strong authoritative government is running Pattaya and we want to feel that we are in control of the bars and restaurants. My grandfather was a mayor of Pattaya and my father was a mayor and they always said, "If you don't make a new restriction for the bars every month they will take over everything in Pattaya and turn it into a sex tourist zone. Can you imagine if that happened to Pattaya?  Luckily, and as we all well know, its been the kind of place that nature lovers and sports enthusiasts flock to from around the world to take advantage of many of the city's one of a kind attractions and enjoy a beer at the bar before retiring fo r the night at 6:00 pm.

Looks like the Utopia system, Thailand 4.0.5  is continuing to fire on all cylinders, keeping the streets safe, keepin 'em clean with cutting edge garbage collection and sewage systems, all nice and lit up with state of the art power grids, everyone sober and on the level, a look of clarity and noble intention in the eye of every man, woman and child. +1 the police are nipping things in the bud and arresting the seeds that could ruin it all.

Here in Kalasin province, the south part near Mahasarakham, the storm seems to have let up as of last night after nearly two days of continuous rain. Been in Thailand for the better part of 17 years and never seen it rain like this, very intense and unrelenting in this neck of the woods.  

Crazy amount of rain in Kalasin today, started raining hard at 4 am, did not stop until well after 5pm. A bit scary actually.

Yeah, I lived in Bangkok for 10 years and moved to Isaan 5 years ago. The last few times I've been down to Bangkok, the op's feeling about it was about the same as my own. Particularly interesting and certainly unforseen by the authorities are the effect it has of essentially making Bangkok perhaps somewhat more dangerous at night. I never used to have my street intuition kick in and say, "Pay attention!" But now, yeah, for sure. I'm not saying suddenly its a jungle out there at night, but yeah, its darker and very few are out in areas where there was lots of activity, you feel like should be at least marginally vigilant now.

If it is all down to a general pattern in the culture in which one must deny anything unpleasant could ever happen, while driving or otherwise, that to think about it let alone talk about or base one's actions on possible negative outcomes for fear of invoking such outcomes, then the situation is worse than the article writer ever thought it was. I think it is down to a 3 monkey's stance in life of see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil, the notion that by ignoring what is unpleasant it all goes away. 

That said, you have to admire how Thais get on with happily living their lives in a hopeless tornado of tragedy and chaos and are seemingly content with it. It is really a non-starter to talk with most Thais I know about safety or cultivating an attitude of foresight. Its like someone who drinks heavily all the time and chuckles that he enjoys his drinks, he's not going to get off the sauce anytime soon if ever.

We are all rather bored of the crocodile tears about road deaths tho, I'd like to see stats of how many people die in the hospital after going in for minor surgery or other minor problems stemming from road accidents. I wonder if the same recklessness that we see on the road going on in the hospitals is well known to the survey takers and that that is why we only get the numbers dead at the site of the accident. Perhaps that is what is alluded to by saying its worse than we think, that too many doctors make victims with minor injuries into science projects, and too many others are so incompetent and careless that people die of relatively minor wounds and other injuries they got from their various crashes .

Really tho, dying on the roads here is probably better than being creamed and living in some atrocious semi-livng state, helpless and unable to work or live and simply there as a cash cow for the medical industry.

Its all so boring and I am sorry to probably be even more boring droning on and on and on about this perpetually recycled story about the tragedy of the state of Thai safety which is going to be with Thailand as long as there are people here.

I wouldn't hold my breath on this one. Laws need to be vague, and contradictory or even, as they are complaining about, outmoded so that there is maximum flexibility in "interpretreting" them. 

I admire his Thai cultural and language skills, he has to be commended on his talent for tapping the Thai desire to relate to foreigners who have the same, sorry to say, white trash interests and values and make loads of money. To quote the late great soul singer James Brown I couldn't "stand myself" and do the same.

But therein lies the problem, innit? You are not supposed to be able to relate to anyone here in Tieland and get popular. You are s'posed tuh be like uh fockin eedjit and either leave quickly or leave quickly and maybe come back later or leave and send all your money to Noi in Udon and shet the <deleted> up, not post wildly popular videos that may or may not be taken the piss.

The promoters probably see her as vulnerable because of Uncle P.'s disapproval of her and thus an easy mark. No matter that they likely did not refund people's money to them, no one will bat an eye, Lamyai is down so she deserves more stomps and kicks. Nice bunch of people.

1 hour ago, scottiejohn said:

So does Amazon and many dodgy sites!

 

A 'South Seas Bubble' on the way?

 

So you don't really know how it works or how to get your 'money' back when it all goes wrong.

 

I love the faith you guys have in this huge Con.

To venture a few hundred dollars in something that you are interested in such as cybercurrencies is hardly getting conned. I don't recall what exactly the terms were at Localbitcoins, of course I was well aware I could have been ripped off by the site the seller or a hacker, but the same could happen to you via a conventional wire transfer from abroad to Thailand. I think you are rather overstating the relative risks.

I have ordered books from Amazon to ship to Thailand for several years, books that will never appear in any shop in Asia, ever. They are always delivered as promised and at prices most western published books go for in Thailand, so again,  it can be godsend. It isn't any dodgier than anything else on internet and sometimes internet is our only option in Thailand.

Local Bitcoins is the site I have used, tho its been about a year. Sorry to read a post that someone was hacked. I don't know, I just use it to locate a seller make arrangements, receive the coin and send it on. They seem to do a good enough job with securing the site to do at least that. If I am not mistaken, if you have a problem  you can easily contact their ownership which is in Scandanavia somewhere, I believe. They seem to be a much used and smooth running site.

Also, even if Bitcoin is still hovering at the top of its range 1 bitcoin/$2520 U.S. it has its uses. If you just buy enough for what you need them for it can be worth it.

And if you want to spend time and really sweat it out, you can trade it for any of many other relatively viable cybercurrencies which are on upswings relative to Bitcoin. You can also shortsell on many cybercurrency exchanges. The Poloniex exchange works pretty well for me, Bitrex is another exchange that seems to be good. You can also find the charts of the exchanges on the free charts website Tradingview which lets you plug in all kinds of analysis indicators and algorithms. Not for everyone and you could more easily see your initial investment dwindle as Bitcoin seems to have nowhere to go but down currently. If you'd bought them a year or so ago they would have gone up 500% or so in that time. Your only regret would then have been that you couldn't have bought enough of them.