PeterRS

Sorry but I do not agree with the murder/suicide theory for the very reasons i outlined in my earlier post. The co-pilot of the German Wings plane had a long history of psychiatric problems, had ingested a cocktail of drugs no active pilot should be taking, and had previousy researched suicide and how to lock cockpit doors tightly. Presently we have no reason to believe that either of the Indian cockpit crew had suicide on their minds. The key question surely is: why did both fuel switches turn to off within a second of each other? I accept one pilot could have done it but as the co-pilot was flying the plane, it would have to have been the senior pilot who activated the switches. Both pilots denied responsibility just prior to the crash. The captain had logged 8,596 hours on the 787. It is impossble to believe that he had accidentally turned both switches off - each action itself requiring two actions. But for the time being it must remain one possible theory. My primary concern is much more all the very major problems the 787 has experienced in the production plant in North Charleston, a totally new facility for Boeing plane manufacture. Books and endess articles have been written about this and whistleblowers have added to Boeing's problems. One whistleblower died the day before he was due to give testimony to Congress! All of which may mean nothing. But then the 787 problems keep cropping up, many just this year. The Dreamliners have been grounded several times, once when Boeing itself grounded 8 of them after discovering structural problems. More recently KLM has grounded 7 of their 787s, 30% of its long haul fleet. British Airways grounded 4 of its 787s for months, and has announced it expects to experience regular 787 groundings this year. Sam Selehpour, one of the whistleblowers, went public on the NBS Nightly News claiming there are small unplugged gaps in the welding of sections of the fuselge that could result in the plane literally coming apart. in mid-air. Boeing has warned several airlines of design problems with the rear fuselage. Just this year, all airlines were ordered to ground their 787s for inspections. This is a plane that clearly seems feted to suffer major flaws. Could a computer malfunction - or indeed an unknown function as on the 737 Max crashes - be to blame? Eventually we will find out. I often refer to the professional pilots website pprune.org but it is based in the USA and has not yet caught up with the AAIB findings.

Indeed, we may never know, but somehow I suspect this is not similar to the German Wings crash. Although we do not know the mental state of the two Air India piots, we did learn following the German WIngs crash that the co-pilot had quite serious mental problems which included thoughts of suicide. He had earlier been hospitalised for depression. When searching his apartment a few days after the crash investigators found a doctor's letter declaring the co-pilot was unfit for work. As a result of doctor/patient confidentiality in Germany, the doctor could not pass any medical information on to the airline. Investigators also found he was taking two anti-depressants, escitalopram and mirtazapine, and a sleep medication. All were found in his body. Apparently escitalopram is associated with suicidal thoughts, especially soon after treatment is commenced. He had been prescribed this drug nine days earlier. Criminal investigators then discovered on his computer "ways to commit suicode" and "cockpit doors and their security provisions." As if this was not enough, doctors were aware that for years he had feared he was going blind. He had consulted no less than 40 doctors and feared his pilot's licence could be revoked. He should never have been in a cockpit, but German Wings did not know that in advance.

Something tells me the sight of @Olddaddy dancing on stage with the boys might be more than a bit of a turn-off for other potential customers. 🤣 🤣

I'm not sure I would have liked to try sugar, the more so as it has not even been tried on humans yet. As the link provided in the OP clearly states, “The research we have done is very much early stage". Obviously a very large monitored study, almost certainly an international one, will be required before any sugar treatment is given the go ahead by the various regulators. I suspect that if in fact it does work on humans , it will be 4 to 5 years before it is available on the market. My grandfathers and father were completely bald and twenty years ago my younger brother was going quite bald (he is now totally bald!) Apart from a slightly receding hairline, I had a small bald patch on the crown of the scalp and had been wondering for a while if anything could be done about it. I thought about transplants but was then recommended Rogaine which in some countries is sold as Regaine. It was then quite expensive but I decided to try it. I have no idea if it was due to the daily applications of Rogaine, but my gradual hair loss stopped. I used the liquid for ten years from 2005 and not since. My small bald patch is perhaps fractionally larger, but I think it is only I that notice it. Many people say they are surprised that I seem to have almost a full head of hair, the more so as baldness runs in the family. The only problem I found with Rogaine was you are supposed to use it morning and night. But it does start to leave a yellowish stain on the pillow. I just added an extra cover.

At last little nuggets from the crash are starting to appear - and this first one is somewhat scary. India's Aircraft Accident Investigtion Bureau (AAIB) reports that something happened to switch off the supply of fuel to both engines within one second of each other. In the cockpit voice recording, one pilot asks the other why he activated both fuel cutoff switches - an action that has to be deliberate and involves two steps for each cut off. The other pilot says he did nothing. At the time of take-off, the co-pilot was flying the plane. The MAYDAY call was received by the air traffic controller nine seconds later. The crew was able to restart one engine and this was starting to generate a degree of lift. The second had just been relit but wihout time to be effective. By then the plane was doomed. Although still early days, speculation has now started. Was it a technical issue? Was it a software issue? Was it human error? Definitely ruled out has been unsatisfactory fuel and the competency of the pilots who had many hours flying the 787s. Both were breathalysed at 6:25 local time and found capable of operating the flight. Bird strikes have also been ruled out after examination of the engines. A number of imporant questions will now focus firstly on the pilots. One possibility, however unlikely, is that this was a deliberate action by one of the pilots essentially to commit suicide and mass murder. Sadly we recall the 2015 German Wings flight 9525 when the copilot of a flight from Barcelona to Dussedorf deliberately locked the pilot out of the cockpit and crashed his flight into the Alps just to commit suicide. Another could be a software issue. Again this is unlikely as more than 1,000 787s have been flying without a similar incident occurring. But if it is found to be an issue with software, it will prove not merely a major headache for Boeing, it would be a catastrophe. We have to recall that the 787 development was a chapter of major disasters. As pointed out above, and as reported in the following article from Aero-News Journal - "What was meant to be a dream for airlines and passengers alike has, for many, turned into a recurring nightmare, casting a shadow over Boeing’s reputation and raising serious questions about its manufacturing processes. The Dreamliner’s troubles are not a singular event but a series of compounding issues that have plagued the aircraft since its inception." Now we must await the next more detailed series of reports from Boeing and the AAIB. &nbsp https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cx2vrdd5xkeo https://www.aeronewsjournal.com/2025/03/boeings-dreamliner-turning-into.html

Life is not really the bowl of cherries some portray it to be - at least not always in my case. True, I've had many great times, been to so many fabulous parts of our world, got to know some really interesting people and generally been wonderfully lucky to be lured to Asia when still in my 20s. Here I have worked for major multi-national companies as well as starting up and running two tiny ones of my own. To have worked in a field that I love has been another huge benefit. As my sister always tells me, I have been a very lucky bastard! Yet being blessed with so much does not mean everyday life has not been without a large number of problems, difficult situations, even hardships. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for when I first landed in Hong Kong. I was excited, thrilled even, the more so to get away from living in the UK. What I had not realised was that the company I was working for was basically overseen by political appointees and civil servants - usually interfering ones. I would often sit in at meetings and almost want to explode at the nonsense that was being discussed. Yet I had somehow to learn to keep a smile on my face, politely answer even the most inane questions and generally find ways to push forward with my agenda. I had naturally discussed that with the Chairman in advance, but he was not very good at siding with me if he felt the wind blowing in the opposite direction. Near the end of my first year I had all but decided to give up and return to the UK. But then something clicked. I started to realise that everyone I was interacting with was playing a game - including me. The political animals believed they had to act in a certain way, because that's what they did for most of their professional lives. I acted in my way because I knew much more about running the business than they and could not understand why they could not understand that! Once my brain had processed that, life quickly became far easier. I played their game, eventually becoming more than just quite good at it. After having annual extensions to my contract, suddenly I was offered a 4-year deal with guaranteed quite generous annual increases. But that was a Hong Kong based company. Working in senior positions for multi-nationals was somewhat different. Although the only foreigner working in the Tokyo office and with my own staff, I still had to get what I wanted to achieve approved by no less than six senior executives in other parts of the world. Six! Japan obviously, Hong Kong, Sydney, London and two in New York. Often that ran perfectly smoothly. At other times it was a near nightmare. I soon learned that being on the geographical fringe of a multi-national could result in endless delays for urgent issues, being the political nice guy again when one of the six needed his ego massaged before he'd agree - and so on. Sometimes I would leave the office in the evening intensely frustrated. But Tokyo is a great place to unwind, great nightlife and with good friends to moan with over drinks. By the next mornings I would be bright and relatively cheery again. When I was headhunted to run another multi-national back in Hong Kong, I was excited, but very soon realised there was little difference. I was still just a cog (albeit quite a large one) but in an even larger wheel. This time I was no longer prepared to pander to their egos. I quit. My contract had a parachute built into it – massively far from golden, not even bronze – but enough to keep me going for a time and help me set up another company. The cherries when you run your own business can also be few and far between. Legislation, contracts, taxes, negotiations taking months before collapsing, “oh, can you please help me with this, but I can’t afford your fee!”, and a galaxy of other issues were never far away. But I was enjoying myself and my relative freedom. I could take time off to indulge my passion for travel – and as @vinapu so elegantly puts it adding to my stamp collection with extra-long week-ends in Bangkok. What I had learned from the difficult times had in fact by now made life so much simpler. Soon the cherry bowl was becoming quite full. I was happy!

Very many thanks for the recommendation. I am listening to my first one now and find it fascinating. Lots of enjoyable listening ahead.

The famed advertising tycoon David Ogilvie once wrote, "Encourage innovation. Change is our lifeblood. Stagnation our death knell." Emile Zola had a slightly different view. "This sounded the death knell of small family businesses, soon to be followed by the disappearance of the individual entrepreneur, gobbled up by the increasingly hungry ogre of capitalism." I'm not sure how relevant these are to the end of what had appeared to be one relatively popular bar in Sunee Plaza. But it was obvious Sunee was dying years ago. Was it due to it just becoming boring? Did it make any real attempts to change? Was Winner Bar ever likely to survive? I visited once quite soon after it opened and enjoyed it. But for a piece of real estate for most gay patrons in a dying part of town being open for just 6 hours a day, maintaining quite a large stock of booze and praying that each low season would be better that the last, surely that required some sort of miracle. What change might be required to reverse this dying trend I have no idea. All I can think of is clustering of venues as in Jomtien and as used to be in Bangkok's Soi Twilight. But this would require bar and venue owners to come together to work out a strategy and plan for the future. From what I recall, in the past owners rarely had much interest in any other than their own venue.

Interesting article. And rather shocking that Americans spend more time alone today than at any time in recorded history. I suspect that also appies to more than a few other countries. Another factor is that American men spend 7 hours in front of their televisions for every one they hang out with friends. As it states, "The rise of individualism and solitude since 1970 has been all-encompassing." The author places blame on social media - but only to a certain extent. His conclusion, though, is damning. "To be a citizen of the Internet is to spend hundreds of hours inside the minds of virtual people we couldn’t party with, even if we desperately wanted to." When I was at university in the UK many decades ago and for the few years I worked there before moving to Asia, there always seemed to be parties in someone's home every week-end. Usually very simple ones - bring your own bottle etc. - but it was the regular means of socialising. And of meeting fellow gays for hook-ups or even just friendships. Without social media and even phone calls being expensive, home parties were the ideal way to meet others. Partying in a restaurant was extremely rare as dining out took up a considerably greater percentage of income. But Asia is not like the west. I quickly found that while people did give parties they were almost exclusively in restaurants - rarely expensive ones. Socialising was done over mah jong before dinner, lots of food and drink, chat and laughter, and then - finish. As soon as dinner was over, that was the cue for everyone to depart. A large part of the reason is that in Hong Kong - and no doubt many Asian homes - accommodation is mostly a small fraction of the size of that in the west. Being invited to homes for dinners or parties was almost exclusively for the richer members of society. I had two gay friends in Hong Kong who were, let's say, not short of a dollar or two. One was a really good cook and so they regularly invited friends for wonderful dinners and parties always with interesting fellow guests, many from the gay community. They were, though, an exception. I find the same here in Bangkok. Thais - or at least those that I know - rarely entertain at home.

As usual @macaroni21 has been very comprehensive. I remember 15-20 years or so ago when the free gay mags used to include maps, there were always complaints that they were either not up to date or venues were not quite in the right location. But the problem then was that so much on the gay scene was changing almost monthly and the mags had no one on site to go around checking. From what I read here things seem to be a bit more stable now, but I am certainly not the person to confirm that.

I only read about these sites on a music blog. Seems Classic FM has been going downhill in terms of listeners for quite some time. It has recently pinched a young producer Joseph Zubier from the BBC's Radio 3 classical channel to become its new Deputy MD.

I recently came across a youtube video titled "The Tragic Life of Male Concubines in Roman Empire". It goes into detail about how keeping boys as male concubines was a much more common practice on an horrific scale than most will have realised, with boys around 12 being especially desired. Greek boys were more expensive due to their perceived sophistication, refinement and education. The vdo is much too long as there is too much endless repetition. But it made me want to learn more. Youtube does not permit uploading of the vdo - this is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rimSgImcd-w One of the commentators mentions that some of detail in the video is contained in a 2005 book titled "Rubicon" by the author Tom Holland. Looking up the book on amazon, I note that it gets a slew of excellent reviews from professional reviewers, as this from the Los Angeles Times - “A fascinating picture of Roman city life. . . . In every aspect of this story, Holland expertly makes the Romans, so alien and yet so familiar, relevant to us.” Inevitably the issue of concubines forms only a small part of the book. One amazon reviewer more neatly sums it up - "you invariably tend to sketch the potraits of several events that have been magisterially described by the author, as if he is describing contemporary events." Amazon's Kindle edition is available for US$4.99. Another professional reviewer draws parallels with 21st century life. Certainly and very sadly the trafficking of young girls and boys continues to this day.

Thankfully his two feet are firmly locked up now. How he was permitted to remain as a Congressman as details of all his lying and deceiving trickled out is extraordinary! Just noticed his statement made prior to entering jail - "I’m heading to prison, folks and I need you to hear this loud and clear: I’m not suicidal. I’m not depressed. I have no intentions of harming myself, and I will not willingly engage in any sexual activity while I’m in there," he posted on X. " If anything comes out suggesting otherwise, consider it a lie…full stop. The statistics around what happens to gay men in BOP custody are horrifying, and that’s exactly why I’m putting this out there now. So if something does happen, there’s no confusion. Seems like he plans to enjoy himself when there. "Willingly not engage in any sexual activity?" How about unwillingly? My guess is he'll be used like never before! https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/george-santos-issues-statement-heading-prison-im-not-suicidal

Google translates the first line on the website as - Hi Sis Club Pattaya By Sit2sis, a club that will make everyone have fun all night long, with a KTV room 🎤 and girls to take care of you closely. Later it says this - Do you miss our girls? Come and see our girls. The shop opens from 22:00 onwards. Doesn't sound remotely like a gay venue. No idea why it has a vdo of guys!

Schuller once tackled a United Airlines flight attendant when flying first class from New York to LA. He put the poor guy in a headlock because he had not served him fruit with his cheese or hung up his garment bag! But he must be turning in his grave now, but not in repentance for that incident. In 1980 he opened his massive Crystal Cathedral before 3,000 guests who had each paid US$1,500 for the privilege. His weekly "Hour of Power" televised sermons all came from that glittering building. Only, the same as happened with Jim Bakker and his outfit, Schuller's mob had not been minding their cash in an appropriate manner. In fact, they ran out of it. The Ministry declared bankruptcy in 2010. The Crystal Cathedral was eventually sold. Now - and this is the part that must have the mortal remains of Schuller spitting blood from whatever remains of his corpse - it is owned and run by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County. As with most of these other religious con men, Schuller and his fmaily were dismissed from their Ministry. Yet the Lord works in weird and wonderful ways. The Ministry is now run by Schuller's grandson, Robert! And the "Hour of Power" is still broadcast although from much smaller premises. During one service, Robert announced that his wife had been related to Elvis Presley! And most of these so-called Ministries have tax exempt status. Glory! Hallelujah!

I listened to the first 75 seconds and then gave up. That podcast is frankly misnamed. It really has precious little to do with the "Arts" in Thailand or of Thailand. It's almost exclusively about pop culture. No problem with that, except that is how it should be titled. Thai "arts and culture" cover quite an array of different art forms from Khon and many other forms of Thai classical dance, painting including the stunning frescos in many temples including the stunning Temple of the Emerald Buddha, ceramics, traditional Thai puppetry (the Joe Louis Thai Puppet Theatre is stunning), the dfferent forms of Thai architecture, Thai classical music as well as the work being done by the country's more modern symphony orchestras and ensembles etc. etc. Any programme about the arts of Thailand should also spend a few minutes on how that cuture has developed, particularly in its relation to religion and history. Sorry @zombie! Probably a great listen for those only interested in pop culture. But the podcast is not what it portrays to be!

I have described most of my firsts in other posts and so will not waste others' time repeating them here. Like many who had been sent to a boarding school when quite young, I quickly learned about mutual masturbation and other boyish activities by the time I was 10. Not being able to cum even though having an orgasm was a major concern when others were spraying so much. But then soon all that changed. I had crush after crush when I moved to a day school aged 12. But I was too nervous to do anything about them. Eventually along with my next door friend, my age and at the same school, experimented a bit, but it was really only for mutual release. Real love (at least that is how it felt) came into the equation in my second year at university. For almost a year I lusted after one boy/young man not realising that he was also lusting after me. One day in a quiet college room we finally realised this. He was staying in one of the halls of residence where we arranged to meet the following afternoon. That felt like sparks of magic were happening! For a while we were inseparable. But then he had to move away and ever so slowly those sparks lost their brightness. But others appeared! I remain happy that I remain in contact with that first love of my life. Every year when I return to the UK for a couple of weeks, we meet up for a lunch that ends up far too drunken for us to remember much afterwards. But they are happy occasions. Rarely do we ever talk about our university years. But we remember them.

In all my years in Thailand i have never listened to the BBC's broadcasts. Before then for a couple of decades in Hong Kong I almost always tuned in to what was then called the BBC World Service, a 24-hour English channel with news on the hour interspersed with a number of very good programmes. I'm not even sure if it exists any more. My very first job after university was as a trainee with the BBC in London. We had to spend three months of that course working in Bush House, a very large building centrally situated in the midle of The Strand. This was then the location of the World Service. But it also broadcast programmes in a total of around 45 different languages and was paid for by the government. As Studio Managers, we rarely worked on 'live' programmes. Most had been taped in advance. So all we had to do was pick up the relevant tape from the library, go to the tiny cubicle of a studio, do all the checks and balances and then wait for the red light to come on when we would start the tape rolling. Sometimes I recall having to work the night shift when we would broadcast the news around the world starting with China and then working our way through various countries before the last one to Germany. What I remember most, though, was the basement buffet canteen. Catering for so many nationalities, it had a wondrous array of dishes i had never heard of before, let alone taste. I have often wondered if it was the cuisine in that canteen that developed my love of travel.

I agree with you 100%. What has happened in Gaza in the last 18 months or more is one of the great crimes against humanity. Three years ago when back in the UK staying with my sister, knowing of my interest in Taiwan she arranged lunch with a lovely young Taiwanese who had recently moved into the neighbourhood and her Palestinian doctor husband. When Israel started its incursion into Gaza (which given what Hamas had recently done in Israel may have had some justification, even though Israeli intelligence had totally botched up its mandate), the doctor was immediately concerned. It was not just that his parents, brother and sister lived in Gaza, he had a total of 26 relatives living there. He immediately gave up his work as a doctor to fly to the Middle East to see if and how he could get everyone out. It took more than a year to raise the required cash from all of their friends as well as a GoFundMe page. Eventually he did get everyone out. Some are now in the UK, others in Canada and yet more still stuck in Egypt awaiting resettlement. That young man was determined to rescue his family. Hundreds of thousands of others must have wished they could have done the same but either had no clue how to achieve that goal or were unable to raise enough money. It's so dispiriting - and often makes me furious - that had Yitzhak Rabin not been assassinated in 1995 by one of his own Jewish extreme right wing, perhaps - just perhaps - everything would have turned out so differently. Netanyahu has always been a right wing zealot determined to see an end to those he perceives as Israel's enemies. Without the recent wars he himself would have been in the dock for crimes the Israeli prosecutors know he has committed. He will no doubt continue on his evil path if only to see he is six feet under before ever seeing the inside of an Israeli court.

Apologies to all as my information above seems to be incorrect.

This thread is about classical music - nothing to do with pop and rock!

I was present at a concert in Hong Kong recently when Seong-Jin Cho gave an absolutely mind-blowing performance of the fiendishly difficult Prokofiev Second Concerto. Interestingly it was conducted by the young 25-year old whizz kid conductor Tarmo Peltokowski who is the Hong Kong orchestra's new Music Director after Jaap van Zweden's departure after 12 years at the helm. Thanks largely to van Zweden and his predecessor Edo de Waart, the HK Philharmonic is now one of the world's best, having won Gramophone magazine's coveted Orchestra of the Year award in 2019 for its recording of Wagner's Ring cycle. Peltokowski is another of the students of the great Finnish conducting pedagogue Jorma Panula. Now at the venerable age of 95 he has honed the skills of so many of today's conductors, including 29-year old Klaus Makela who is soon to take over two of the world's top orchestras: the Chicago Symphony and the Royal Concertgeouw. I only saw Yuja Wang once performing Brahms Second Concerto with the New York Phil under van Zweden some years ago. The concert was in Taipei's main Concert Hall with its glorious acoustics. Although seated in the centre of the stalls, my friend and I were rather underwhelmed. The fact was the piano was frequently lost in the orchestral sound. Being generous to an artiste who I know is superb, I suspect the conductor had not had a colleague sit in the stalls during the earlier balance rehearsal. Pity!

Just one word of warning. @khaolakguy's post is very perceptive. Both go to see the lawyer so that P will not be too uncomfortable when the time eventually comes to discuss your will with him. I will only add one more caveat: beware of lawyers who advertise cheap wills on the internet. The first will I made out here was with such a lawyer who happened to be based in Phuket and I thought everything was settled. Unfortunately not. He had omitted to include one important clause and then to advise me to amend it some years later when legislation changed. Get a good lawyer and don't be put off by the fee. I now have an excellent one in Bangkok but you will be looking for one in Pattaya where I am sure there are many.

How wrong you are! But you will never accept it! Gergiev is Putin's main spokesman. That's why Putin awarded him with the artistic direction of the Bolshoi in Moscow as well as his Mariinsky in St. Petersburg. No conductor has ever before controlled both Houses! Note also that I was discussing top international artists who are prodigies. You brought in the vocally failing Netrebko who will soon be nearing the end of her career. I admit I brought in 72-year old Gergiev, but only because he is Putin's close friend. Since the invasion of Ukraine, the only country he has worked in outside Russia has been China plus one propaganda exercise in Palmyra in Syria. Funny that he was an officially authorised surrogate for Putin's 2018 election campaign. Absolutely "no one put him under intense pressure", as you quite incorrectly claim. Once lauded everywhere as a guest conductor, in addition to his Russian opera Houses he is now stuck conducting local orchestras at venues like the Kamaz truck and bus factory in Tatarstan, or in the small village of Chorny Otrog, the Ural foothills hometown of late prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. I know the business of classical music extremely well - and with respect probably a great deal better than you. Of the list you posted, I know of only four top international names - Gergiev, Netrebko, Matsuev (who certainly is a superb pianist) and the violist Yuri Bashmet. Bashmet had a huge career in the west until he signed a letter approving of the invasion of Ukraine. End of western concertising! The others are basically international nobodies. You write "authoritarian Russia still announced no one". Of course you realise why that is. Western artists will not go near Russia while it wages war no matter what incentives Putin's Culture Ministry might offer!

Netanyahu turned up at the White House yesterday bearing a gift. A nomination for Trump to receive the Nobel Pece Prize! Does anyone take Netanyahu seriously these days? Or Trump, for that matter? https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5388994-netanyahu-trump-nobel-peace-prize/