PeterRS

I wonder why. For about ten years I have had a small Japanese made wristband that measures my blood pressure and pulse. Admittedly it is not a watch but could be attached to one. After I press start, it takes about 20 seconds to come up with the readings. Understandably it does lightly squeeze the wrist for a few moments. I once took it to a hospital so I could check the readings against professional equipment. They were remarkably similar.

A drag brunch? I hope it will be popular but nothing will drag me anywhere near a bunch of drag queens.

Oh come on! I specifically stated "several UK newspapers". So you don't believe me. Here are more - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dominic-cummings-barnard-castle-durham-coronavirus-police-prosecution-nazir-afzal-b1454947.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8899061/Dominic-Cummings-face-prosecution-breaking-lockdown-says-former-prosecutor.html https://breakingnewstv.in/dominic-cummings-225-page-file-alleges-aide-dedicated-six-covid-breaches/ Is there anything there right wing enough for you? I find it hard to square the accusation of possible perversion of the course of justice backed up by a 220 something page report, an accusation made by a former Chief Crown Prosecutor, with your view that the whole business is "very tiresome". The man broke his own regulations. He jmay have lied. An inquiry with testimony from the witnesses who state he lied should surely clear that up. The man should have been fired on the spot.

More doubt on Cummings actions. This has been reported in several UK newspapers of which this is one. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/30/dossier-alleges-cummings-may-have-perverted-course-of-justice-in-account-of-lockdown-trip Even though he broke the law and may have perverted the course of justice? One law for government advisors and one for the rest of the country, obviously.

Such a shame that foreigners will not be able to attend this years Taipei Gay Pride Parade on Saturday.

Sorry vivapu, I think it an absolute disgrace that he turned up. How would your family feel if the person who murdered you and then ran from the crime scene turned up at your funeral? This criminal policeman is a member of the "super elite" and the heir to a family fortune. Remember what happened to the Red Bull heir, Boss whatever his name is? More than 8 years ago around 5 in the morning he murdered a traffic policeman in cold blood by mowing him down on Sukhumvit driving around 100 mph and then dragging the body for a few hundred meters before escaping to his family compound. His family would not release him and the Ferrari to the police for about 8 hours. Even so, he still had alcohol and drugs in his system. He has succeeded in escaping justice for 8 long years, finally fleeing Thailand in his private jet in 2017. Even with an Interpol arrest warrant, he is still at large allegedly enjoying the high life in Dubai. When the elite government announced earlier this year that all charges against him were being dropped, there was such an outcry on social media it was forced to do a U turn and reopen the case. Interpol is again involved. What's the betting that both he and now the murderer policeman get off scot free in the fullness of time. Money talks in Thailand.

Is blatantly breaking the rules once not bad enough? Is the most senior Prime Ministerial adviser who helped write the rules permitted unilaterally to break them by driving about 400 kms from his home during a total lockdown without any resultant sanction? Of course not. He should have been fired. Period. To argue otherwise is pure nonsense. That view has absolutely zilch to do with which party is in government. So what if he is useful? I'll bet tens if not hundreds of thousands of others in the UK felt they were also useful and also had valid reasons for breaking the lockdown. Such hypocrisy and such we are holier than thou attitude is not confined to the UK. If the US Senate does confirm the new homophobic judge today after the Republicans unilaterally changed the rules and then had its most senior representatives with hands on hearts blatantly lie on camera more than once, it illustrates once more the depths to which US democracy has sunk. In politics there is lying and there is lying. These were the depths of disgrace. No, thats not Donald Trump, although he has taken US politics into a very black swamp. That is the conniving bastard Mitch McConnell and his perfectly awful surrogate Lindsay Graham. Hopefully they will themselves be confined to the depths of a miserable swamp by being roundly defeated next week.

That is obviously one viewpoint. The other is that these are not normal times. The world is in the grips of a pandemic when partly as a result of the UK government's near total ineptitude wages have been substantially reduced for huge numbers and others have no opportunity of finding work. As a direct result existing social security safety nets have huge holes in them. From what I read the government's view has been criticised by so many in Britain the majority clearly seem to agree with Rashford and the pediatricians. There seems to be a near universal view amongst some that everyone should work for a living and that state subsidies are in many cases a disincentive to work. I defy anyone to try and argue that view at the present time. Johnson's government has made mistake after mistake after mistake. He has not even sacked his main advisor who twice deliberately broke the lockdown rules he himself had helped draw up. Break the rules and you should be out. Period. And every government has a duty to ensure that its young children at least have food on the table.

Im good at airing the problem but lousy at offering solutions. I agree wholeheartedly with z909 about the quality or lack thereof of candidates. but then who selects the candidates? Political parties. As long as you have parties and first past the post, you have division and a large chunk of each constituency not represented. My parents generation accepted this because they sincerely believed that whoever was elected would represent all the electors. Now politicians beholden to a party have to tow the party line, however that represents the views of the electors. Over the weekend I was been reading of the recent case in the UK of the excellent Manchester United soccer player, Marcus Rashford. At the age of just 22 and from a single parent underprivileged background, he led a successful movement to persuade the UK government to continue school meals for kids from poor backgrounds during the summer vacation. Johnson's party had vetoed the idea and then had to do a hugely embarrassing U turn. A few days ago an opposition party tabled a motion that kids from poor homes should again benefit with meals during the half term and Xmas vacations. Johnson forced a party line and it was defeated. Instead of bitching about it, Rashford and his team set about talking with cafes, restaurants, other suppliers and even local councils to try and ensure decent meals for the kids. A petition signed by 2,000 pediatricians stated that ensuring young kids have enough nourishment is one of the most "basic human responsibilities." The huge outpouring of support in the country has yet again totally shamed a government that has wasted vast amounts of sterling in its increasingly hopeless attempts to control the corona virus. A fraction of that could easily provide nourishing meals for kids from homes where their parents now just don't have the money to buy enough food.. The excuses put forward by some allegedly intelligent MPs were disgraceful in the extreme, as a result of which they have had to apologise in the face of massive public opposition. One ruling party MP took to social media linking free meals for kids with"crack dens" and "brothels". Utter idiocy! It seems as though Johnson's government will once again have to do another even more massively embarrassing U turn thanks to the passionate humanitarian efforts of a humble young 22 year old wise beyond his years. If this is the result of democracy, there is something rotten about the present system of governance.

I'm with Vessey - Winner Boys and Nice Boys. If I could go back in time, Happy Boys off Sunee and the early incarnation of Krazy Dragon.

I was not aware that Cathay Pacific played such a major role in the airline's history. I had thought it was largely independent until recently. I assume it must have had separate management. I did wonder why it added flat bed seats in its A330s. For an airline that only had regional routes, that seemed an expensive and unnecessary addition. Is Hong Kong Airlines still operating? Wasn't it a division of Hainan Airlines, a great airline but it had severe financial problems even before the pandemic. HK Airlines offered great transPacific prices.

Cathay Dragon was named Dragonair before CX took it over. On the few times I flew it I found it one of the best airlines in Asia, way better than Cathay Pacific. Better ground staff, better cabins, better cabin crews, better food. Very sad that its staff are being let go.

Dont all of us on this and other gay forums tend to regard these circumstances from our own rather narrow viewpoint (mine included). We forget there are loads of rich people around the world for whom spending a few months in a hot climate getting away from winter cold is not something they might just consider - they do it all the time. My brother knows of one Scottish couple who are rich and who have spent more than 20 years coming to Phuket for 5 or 6 months every winter. No idea what accommodation they book but I know they pay for it since they do not own property there. 5,000 baht for a room would be nothing for them. Even 15,000 baht and more for a villa with its own pool. In normal times the Banyan Trees, Six Senses, Mandarin Orientals and their like are packed with those for whom money seems no object. At least some will surely be prepared to accept the restrictions and return for their annual months away. Not a pleasant thought for those who have to scrimp and save, though.

Tou are certainly correct about engine reliability and there was little point my bringing up the comparison. At least the early 747s did not self combust due to faulty battery protection as happened to some of the early 787s and required that entire fleet to be grounded

Was reading a website today which provided information on one of the workhorses of aviation in the UK some decades ago. The BAC 1-11 had four AOA sensors! The revamped Max will still only have two. There was also another interesting Seattle Times article last week where Captain Chesley Sullenberger (the "miracle on the Hudson" captain) states he is not satisfied with the changes being made by Boeing and the FAA. The main change he seeks is a third AOA indicator. This is included of Boeing's 787 Dreamliners but was rejected and is still rejected on the Max on grounds of cost. The article is here - https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/celebrated-pilot-sully-urges-further-updates-to-boeings-737-max-and-to-older-737s/?utm_source=marketingcloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TSA_101020032254+'Capt.+Sully'+says+he's+not+satisfied+with+Boeing+737+MAX+yet_10_9_2020&utm_term=Registered User In an exclusive interview, the celebrated pilot said that even if the FAA ungrounds the jet next month as expected, additional modifications are needed as soon as possible to improve the plane’s crew alerting system and add a third check on the jet’s angle of attack data. “I’m not going to say, ‘We’re done, good enough, move on,'” said Sullenberger. “People are going to fly on it and I will probably be one of them,” he added. “The updated MAX will probably be as safe as the (previous model) 737 NG when they are done with it. But it’s not as good as it should be.” Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association (APA), the union representing American Airlines pilots, said he’s with Sullenberger. Though the specific flight control software — the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) — that brought down the jets in two fatal crashes is now fixed, Tajer said, the investigations into the crashes “have exposed other areas we can do better on that airplane” and also on the 737 NG. “We cannot lose this opportunity to address something that needs to be enhanced,” Tajer said. With Boeing financially strapped, the cost of what they propose could be a major barrier — not least because the safety issues raised apply not just to the MAX but equally to older versions of the 737 currently flying, like the 737 NG. But Sullenberger says these improvements will make 737s safer — both the MAX and the older models — and shouldn’t be shelved due to cost. “Is that really something we are comfortable saying out loud to everybody who boards an airplane?” he said. “I just don’t think that’s defensible. In safety-critical domains, ‘just good enough’ isn’t.” [Re the AOA sensors, Sully makes the point that] if one of two sensors is faulty, the computers won’t know which is correct. The likely solution is not a third angle of attack vane on the jet’s exterior, but an indirect, “synthetic” software calculation of the angle of attack based on parameters such as the aircraft’s weight, speed, inertial position and GPS signal. Boeing’s newest jet, the 787, has such a check on the reliability of its air data sensors called Synthetic Airspeed, a system Boeing rejected for the MAX on cost grounds.

Winston Churchill gave some marvellous speeches to rally his country as it faced Nazi Germany. At other times he expressed his views on the state of the world as he saw it. In these days of Trump, I especially like this one the more so as it was uttered many decades before not just the internet but also direct dial international telephone calls. "A lie gets half way around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." But it is his views on democracy that remain of interest, especially this one to parliament in 1947 "No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government apart from all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." But with power brokers in many countries even including the USA now doing everything possible to get rid of many of the institutions essential to the practice of democracy, where do we go from here? If one man one vote and first past the post are no longer generally accepted, what takes its place?

I see it as a grissly combination of both! Greed because it knew Airbus had a competitor aircraft in a more advance state of design. Instead of continung with its new 737 Max design, Boeing abandoned those plans. It made a risky decision to add much more powerful larger engines on to a six decades old airframe, even though it knew those engines could not be positioned as in all previous 737 models. But by keeping the mechanics and cockpit of the Max as close as possible to previous models, they wanted pilots to easily slip from one model to the next with a minimal of training. That is one reason why the sales pitch to customers became so hugely successful. Knowing the above, it had no choice but to come up with a whole raft of new solutions. That's when incompetence entered the picture. Anyone who has read the whole series of articles in The Seattle Times will know that pressure from the bean counters bore down on all in change of constructing the aircraft virtually every day. Engineers admitted that corners were cut. Vital safety systems were compromised. The MCAS became the vital system to ensure airworthiness. Boeing lied to the FAA about it. It lied to customer airlines when informing them pilot retraining and time in simulators would not be necessary for pilots. All pilots were given was a one hour presentation on an iPad. Southwest was even given a formal agreement that if simulator training became necessary, the airline would be given a rebate of US$1 million per plane. Not surprisingly both the FAA and EASA have now insisted on simulator training.

Please do. If possible find a short route served by the aircraft and splash out on a business class ticket. Most seats are in individual units separate from other seats. The flat bed seats are amazing, not that they would be needed on a short flight. The large vdo screens and the huge choice of IFE is truly amazing. The bar at the back is a full bar with premium liquors and snacks. I find it is usually busy on long haul flights from the USA to Dubai.

From what i read, the 737 Max f**k up was a direct result of competition from the long range Airbus A320 Neo. Boeing originally planned a totally new design for the Max, but the Neo got a head start and this got the Boeing bean counters really worried. A new aircraft can take many years to design and develop. The six decade old airframe of the 737 was deliberately close to the ground so that it could be used at smaller airports without airbridges. The original A320 on the other hand was developed much later and sits considerably higher off the ground. Competition with the Neo would require larger engines. On the old airframe they would be too close to the ground. As reader points out, the solution was to place them further forward and up to the point where they jut above the front surface of the wings. This disrupts airflow over the wings and gives the aircraft a tendency to pitch the nose up. No other aircraft has a similar design. The MCAS computerised system was developed to bring the nose back down when this occurred. But pilots were not told about it. I also understand that the MCAS activation is dependent on the Angle of Attack (AOA) sensors. There are two on each aircraft, one on each side. But Boeing only attached one to the MCAS i.e. no redundancy. Prior to the first crash, Boeing had received more than 200 complaints from pilots about faults in the AOA sensors. There is another piece of software related to the AOA sensors that Boeing decided to make an optional extra rather than mandatory. Cannot recall what that was. Since the grounding, it is now mandatory that this be included in all Max aircraft. The real problem surely is that the 737 Max is inherently an unstable aircraft that is dependent on its computers and the MCAS system to ensure it can be kept stable.

Could not agree more. Find it more comfortable and quieter than the competitor 787 Dreamliner. Have seen the Lufthansa 747-800 at several airports but never flown it. I think very few passenger versions were completed and LH was virtually the only customer. Most others are the freighter version. My other favourite aircraft is the A380. I am so disappointed it was the wrong plane at the wrong time.

Not sure how easily but they will have to be applied before the models already sitting idle can be permitted to fly again. Revamping the MCAS system was only one of a number of problems with the aircraft which became obvious before it got near the FAA for recertification. One was bunching of wires at the back of the aircraft which could have resulted in a fire. I believe there were also problems with the fuselage, perhaps of the same type that have now grounded at least 8 787 Dreamliners. These 787 problems are a result of production flaws at Boeing's South Carolina facility. The FAA is now investigating potential defects in that aircraft's production. As if that is not bad enough, there have also been concerns about the new wider longer range 777X. Unlike the 737 Max, this is a redesign and not an add on. A year ago it failed a stress test that involved bending the wings to a worst case scenario. In the same test the rear part of the fuselage depressurised and a cargo door came off the plane. At least that is how Boeing described the incident. A photo obtained by The Seattle Times and reported on CNN shows it was far worse with part of the fuselage split wide open behind the wing. That test aircraft was a write off. Despite the setbacks, Boeing kept pushing to launch the plane this year. It has now been put back to 2022. The 777X has also had big problems with its larger GE engines. But the FAA finally certified them last month. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/boeing-777xs-fuselage-split-dramatically-during-september-stress-test/

As reported elsewhere in these forums, there recently have been demonstrations in Bangkok. On Thursday 15 the government instituted a "severe State of Emergency" in Bangkok for the next 30 days. Now there may be sanctions if these are discussed publicly and on social media. The Prime Minster stated yesterday - https://thepattayanews.com/2020/10/16/severe-state-of-emergency-in-bangkok-initially-implemented-for-a-month-to-maintain-peace-and-order-thailands-prime-minister-says-today/

I believe Boeing, its planners, engineers and everyone who was a supervisor on the creation of a plane which was very obviously not airworthy are guilty of the murder of 346 souls. From the Congressional hearings and the regular excellent Pullizer prize winning reports in The Seattle Times, we know that major airworthy issues were raised by many working on the plane and routinely brushed aside by the bean counters based in Chicago. They knew the plane was not airworthy. They wilfully and deliberately concocted false narratives for the FAA and airlines first to persuade them that a plane with a 60 years old airframe and larger engines that had to jut above the wings only because they just could not raise the height of the landing gear, and second to have another 737 success story in the air. I absolutely loved the various models of the 747. I have happily flown most other Boeing models. After three years with no self combustion, I finally took the 787 and enjoyed the flights. But I will never fly the 737 Max. If I find an airline has switched planes at the last minute and the new one is a Max, I will demand to go on another flight.

Am I alone? Horrified when I see people having to queue up for a dozen or more hours to make their vote in a general election during a pandemic? Amazed when I see a so-called pastor place an illegal ballot box outside his church? Aghast that one of the main parties places a series of fake ballot boxes around a major city and then refuses to take them away even though they are in fact illegal? Staggered that a country continues to stick with an anachronistic electoral system that has 50 different states using different methods of voting for its citizens to cast votes in what is a nationwide general election? Florida's hanging chads became a tragedy for America but a joke around the world. That a tight election was then decided by highly paid lawyers and a Supreme Court packed with justices loyal to the two main parties beggars belief. The USA holds itself up as the beacon of democracy worldwide. What I see on television every evening is more like a farce. Few other democratic countries can rest of their laurels for they have systems that are also way out of date. The constituency system in the UK is based on what existed centuries ago when only landowners could vote. In only very few countries does the man or woman who actually gains the majority of all votes win a general election. The many dictators in our world must be laughing their heads off.

An unexplained illness to one of the 60,000 volunteers has resulted in trials of another virus vaccine being suspended. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/12/johnson-johnson-pauses-covid-vaccine-trial-over-participants-unexplained-illness