http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/ This is an off-topic forum for discussing any topic in the English language. en-USA Sat, 25 May 2013 00:12:30 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/images/misc/rss.png http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/ http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43825-The-Singing-Spaceman&goto=newpost Tue, 21 May 2013 12:45:13 GMT Who said science is boring? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo David Who said science is boring?



David ]]> Off-Topic Forum (English Language Only) David_Loves_Ubonwan http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43825-The-Singing-Spaceman http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43802-Happy-Birthday-Mahindrasarath&goto=newpost Tue, 14 May 2013 09:58:20 GMT Happy Birthday Mahindrasarath Have a good day! :party::party::party: David Happy Birthday Mahindrasarath

Have a good day! :party::party::party:

David ]]> Off-Topic Forum (English Language Only) David_Loves_Ubonwan http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43802-Happy-Birthday-Mahindrasarath http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43800-Eating-insects-yum-yum&goto=newpost Tue, 14 May 2013 00:59:05 GMT UN says bugs are food of the future.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013; 07:00am

The UN's food agency says insect farming is 'one of the many ways to address food insecurity'.

'The main message is really: 'Eat insects',' Eva Mueller, director of forest economics at the FAO, told a press conference in Rome on Monday.

'Insects are abundant and they are a valuable source of protein and minerals,' she said.

'Two billion people -- a third of the world's population -- are already eating insects because they are delicious and nutritious,' she said.

Also speaking at the press conference was Gabon Forestry Minister Gabriel Tchango who said: 'Insect consumption is part of our daily life.'

He said some insects -- like beetle larvae and grilled termites -- were delicacies.

'Insects contribute about 10 per cent of animal protein consumed by the population,' he said.

The report said insect farming was 'one of the many ways to address food and feed insecurity'.

'Insects are everywhere and they reproduce quickly, and they have high growth and feed conversion rates and a low environmental footprint,' said the report, co-authored by the FAO and Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

But the authors admitted that 'consumer disgust remains one of the largest barriers to the adoption of insects as viable sources of protein in many Western countries'.

It suggested that the food industry could help in 'raising the status of insects' by including them in recipes and putting them on restaurant menus.

The report also called for wider use of insects as feed for livestock, saying that poor regulation and under-investment currently meant it 'cannot compete' with traditional sources of feed.

'The use of insects on a large scale as a feed ingredient is technically feasible, and established companies in various parts of the world are already leading the way,' it added, highlighting in particular producers in China, South Africa, Spain and the United States.

'Insects can supplement traditional feed sources such as soy, maize, grains and fishmeal,' it said, adding that the ones with most potential were larvae of the black soldier fly, the common housefly and the yellow mealworm.

The report also said the insects most commonly consumed by humans are beetles (31 per cent), caterpillars (18 per cent) and bees, wasps and ants (14 per cent), followed by grasshoppers, locusts and crickets (13 per cent).

It said trade in insects was thriving in cities such as Bangkok and Kinshasa and that a similar culture of insect consumption -- entomophagy -- should be established elsewhere, stressing that it was often cheaper to farm insects.

The report concluded: 'History has shown that dietary patterns can change quickly, particularly in a globalised world. The rapid acceptance of raw fish in the form of sushi is a good example.'


http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopS...ure_RSS_130513 ]]> Off-Topic Forum (English Language Only) fileeep http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43800-Eating-insects-yum-yum http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43780-All-friends-invitation-to-my-wedding-party&goto=newpost Tue, 07 May 2013 19:07:53 GMT Dear friends,

This forum and the ChatBox helped me a lot at the time i worked in Bangkok (for just over 2 months, less than i expected :banghead:) and have a good time with u guys even i've not posted on the forum much.

I will get married on 15th December 2013 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and i want to invite all friends from the forum/TCB to cheer me at the wedding party. I'm posting this topic to hope that you can arrange to visit Vietnam/Ho Chi Minh City if you have a plan to visit Bangkok/Thailand at the end of the year.

Feel free to contact me through email: q9.spirit@gmail.com if you may join (or whenever just visit Ho Chi Minh city).

It's my happy and pleasure to have anyone here at my day :party:,
Long "Spirit". ]]> Off-Topic Forum (English Language Only) Spiritvn http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43780-All-friends-invitation-to-my-wedding-party http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43768-Weird-Dreams&goto=newpost Sun, 05 May 2013 12:25:34 GMT Last night I couldn't get to sleep, so at 2 am I was online, and at 3 am I was on the sofa with CNN turned on. This nearly ALWAYS gives me weird dreams.

So here I was, along with some girls getting ready to try out for cheerleader. I wore leggings to hide my knee brace. Then I realized I needed a cheer, but all I could think of was a rope jumping rhyme from my childhood:

Jackie Gleason
Marilyn Monroe
Elvis Presley
and away we go!

Reading this, you might think I always wanted to be a cheerleader. NO! But I do kinda miss jumping rope!

Anyone else have a weird dream or two to share? ]]> Off-Topic Forum (English Language Only) Susana http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43768-Weird-Dreams http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43767-What-happened-to-the-forums&goto=newpost Sun, 05 May 2013 03:13:41 GMT My latest contribution to the forum was a thread "Happy Today". I recall Betti complaining about the number of people that read a post but fail to comment. Well, I just looked at the stats for my last post..... 216 views and only 4 forum members clicked "thanks".

Does that mean that the other members didnt like my post? Even the other mods of these forums?

Trangram asked me to continue to post photos, I'm not sure that I will post them here anymore. I am losing faith in all english language Thai forums :( ]]> Off-Topic Forum (English Language Only) guava http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43767-What-happened-to-the-forums http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43762-Criminal-Doctors&goto=newpost Fri, 03 May 2013 11:25:55 GMT Had a bad experience with doctors on Thursday. I was booked to have a Colonography for next Tuesday. I made my appointment 6 weeks ago and was quoted $290 out of pocket exspnses, we'll Thursday they call me saying the out of pocket cost would be $970 as my private health insurance does not cover the procedure in a private hospital, I said this is not good enough so they tell me to ring my specialist secretary, I call and they put me onto the accounts, they said that was just one cost, every one charges separately, the real out of pocket expenses would be $2000 plus $300 if they found a polet. I said a polet takes about 10 seconds to remove and they want $300 for 10 seconds work, I said the cameras already in there. I said I'm not paying $2,300 for 15 minute procedure, now they have put me on a waiting list of 18 months to go into a public hospital. I said the tax payer can pay for the procedure as I pay enough taxes. All these doctors should be put into prison for extortion, specially my late mothers oncologist, he had the hide to charge my late mother $260 per consultation in which only half was covered by Medicare knowing she was terminally ill on the aged pension and could not save her life. Considering these doctors inability to succeed in curing any stage 4 cancer how can they just charge so much for failure. Any doctor charging $260 for a 15 minuet consultation which is double the recommended Medicare amount of $130 is a criminal. Extorting money from the dieing with no chance of success is criminal, any doctor charging more than the Medicare levy should be jailed.
Dr Victor Chang was murdered by extortionist in 1991, well the only difference between his murderers and Dr Victor Chang was as one legally extorts and one illegally extorts. Dr Chang was just as much a criminal as his two assailants, you don't tell me your he was doing a community service by driving around in a $250,000 car back in 1991, he was just extorting money from his desperate and dieing patients, some of which survived hart transplants after many years of failure. Extorting money out of ginny pigs. These doctors should get out of there Mercedes and get around in a corolla like any one else who serves the community. I have no respect for doctors, they could not save the life of my mother or father, there the absolute low life of society and they should get off there pedestal, come down to earth and except there award Medicare levy instead of charging double, because as ability goes there success rate is far below par compared to other professions. Any doctor charging these extortionate fees double the award should be jailed. Scum absolute scum they make me sick. ]]> Off-Topic Forum (English Language Only) paul_au http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43762-Criminal-Doctors http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43759-Shiver-me-timbers!&goto=newpost Fri, 03 May 2013 07:45:59 GMT Women's Institute welcomes piracy victim wearing eye patches and waving plastic cutlasses

A village WI group was left embarrassed when they dressed up with eye patches and plastic swords for a talk by a retired sea captain who was captured by Somali mercenaries.



The members of Parkham Women’s Institute like to make their meetings a bit of fun by holding a light-hearted competition.


So when a visiting speaker came to give a talk about piracy, they decided to dress up as Long John Silvers and Captain Hooks, complete with eye patches, plastic cutlasses and even a toy parrot.


However, the WI ladies were left red-faced when it turned out that their guest had actually been booked to give an account of his terrifying experiences of being held hostage by Somali pirates.


Fortunately Captain Colin Darch, 75, a retired merchant seaman, saw the funny side and was even happy to judge the fancy dress contest once he had finished his lecture.


He said: “They seemed to be a little embarrassed but it didn't offend me in the slightest.

“It's been five years now and sometimes I have to remind myself just how terrifying and frightening it was.

“In any event, the ladies didn't look the slightest bit like Somali pirates - more like the pirates of Penzance.”

The women of Parkham WI in North Devon, aged between their 40s and their 80s, pride themselves on doing things a little differently.

They do not sing ‘Jerusalem’, their quirky competitions range from the best plate to the prettiest tin, and their monthly meetings are filled with chatter and laughter.

Stephanie George, 54, the group’s treasurer, suggested that they should dress up as pirates after learning that Captain Darch was their next speaker.

She only realised her mistake on the morning before the meeting when she spotted a copy of a new book by the retired sea captain about his ordeal in Somali captivity in the bookshop where she works.

“I cringed, but I thought, ‘we will just go with the flow, it’s too late now’,” she recalled.

“When he arrived, I did apologise. I said, ‘I thought you were just going to be talking about pirates in general, not about being taken hostage by real ones, which is a totally different thing’.

“I think he probably was taken aback, but not as much as we were. He took it in his stride.

“He said perhaps if we had looked a bit more like Somalis than WI members from Devon it might have been a bit more threatening.”

Mrs George, who is married to a dairy farmer, added: “He was such a good sport. We don’t normally sit quietly, but we did for his talk – an hour-and-a-half later we were on the edge of our seats.

“He was a fantastic speaker with a totally amazing story. It was horrific to be held hostage, but he made it very humorous.”

A report about the mix-up that Mrs George wrote for her local newspaper, the North Devon Journal, became an internet sensation yesterday, bringing a smile to people around the world.

It read: “The speaker at the April meeting was Captain Colin Darch, who talked about piracy.

“Embarrassingly the WI all dressed as pirates for the evening not realising that Captain Darch was going to be talking about his experience of being held hostage by Somali pirates rather than piracy in general.”

Captain Darch, from Appledore, North Devon, and his five crew members were held captive for 47 days in early 2008.

Their 115ft Danish ocean-going tug was seized 70 miles off the coast of Somalia by a gang of 20 pirates firing AK47 rifles.

The British sailor said he feared for his life at times and at one point was struck on the back of his head by the mercenaries for failing to make the boat travel fast enough.

Captain Darch and his crew were kept in the tug’s wheelhouse for six weeks until their firm agreed to pay a ransom.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...cutlasses.html ]]> Off-Topic Forum (English Language Only) David_Loves_Ubonwan http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43759-Shiver-me-timbers! http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43736-180-Years-of-Thai-US-friendship-Photographs-of-Life-wanted&goto=newpost Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:20:13 GMT 180 Years of Thai-US friendship
'Photographs of Life' wanted
April 26, 2013 2:30 pm
Photo : Benya Hegenbarth

The US Embassy in Bangkok is inviting professional and amateur photographers to submit "photographs of life" to mark the 180th anniversary of Thai-US friendship.

US Ambassador to Thailand Kristie Kenney encourages all Thai shutterbugs to submit the photos showcasing life in the US. The photos will be accepted throughout May.

The 90 winning photos from Thai public will join 90 others taken by American photographers about life in Thailand in an exhibition being held to mark the long friendship between July 19-21 at CentralWorld. The exhibition will then travel all over the country. The event will also showcase images by such famous photographers as Steve McCurry and Benya Hegenbarth.

For more details, and to submit your shots, visit www.180Photographs.com.

THE NATION ]]> Off-Topic Forum (English Language Only) Khun Don http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?43736-180-Years-of-Thai-US-friendship-Photographs-of-Life-wanted