And now another go around.

Mr Touch and Go got it down on the second attempt but really smoked the tyres.

Mr Touch and Go has been taking the scenic route before trying again.

A three bounce touch and go.

1 hour ago, forcebwithu said:

Something different. You can now enjoy close up views of snakes with your coffee. Sure to be a crowd pleaser.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555004320253

Hard place to find though.

2 hours ago, lazarus said:

@Glasseye - why did you come to mind when I first saw this...? 😁

. . .

 

Does he smoke a pipe?

If it's a Thai affair I would have thought a keg of Coke and a keg of "Roy Pipe" would be what's required.

Roy Pipe

A bit more in vehicle CO2 monitoring. Prior to starting each leg had the monitor in fresh air to purge.

First leg, AC on, fan on, recirc on.

23/02/2024 19:43    431
23/02/2024 19:44    953
23/02/2024 19:45    1216
23/02/2024 19:46    1316
23/02/2024 19:47    1561
23/02/2024 19:48    1680
23/02/2024 19:49    1763
23/02/2024 19:50    1837
23/02/2024 19:51    1924
23/02/2024 19:52    1985
23/02/2024 19:53    2056
23/02/2024 19:54    2105
23/02/2024 19:55    2224

Second leg, AC on, fan on, recirc off.

23/02/2024 20:09    436
23/02/2024 20:10    829
23/02/2024 20:11    751
23/02/2024 20:12    706
23/02/2024 20:13    623
23/02/2024 20:14    581
23/02/2024 20:15    509
23/02/2024 20:16    474
23/02/2024 20:17    507
23/02/2024 20:18    497
23/02/2024 20:19    533
23/02/2024 20:20    523
23/02/2024 20:21    642

The 497 reading was immediately after I pulled off the road into the driveway. The following three readings were when I was parking the car and sitting in the cool using my phone to turn off the house security alarms.

I guess the takeaway is to keep the fresh air vents open.

These work a treat.

Not sure about which direction you need to rotate a tick

Tick mouthparts

Tick mouthparts, coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM). The mouthparts of a tick consist of three visible components. The two outer jointed parts are highly mobile palps. Between the palps, at centre, is a rod-shaped structure, the hypostome. The palps do not enter the skin of the host while the tick is feeding, while the hypostome is inserted into the hosts skin. The backward-pointing projections prevent easy removal of the tick.

11 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

Makes sense as it's time for my mid afternoon siesta. 😴

It is called a SCAN.

Senior Citizen Afternoon Nap.

Tourist stabbed during massive brawl with Thai sex workers

A group of male tourists ended up in a massive brawl with Thai prostitutes over a money dispute during a sex party.

The tourists allegedly called the five transgender escorts to their villa for sex along with two other women on the island of Phuket, southern Thailand, in the early hours of Thursday morning.

But midway through the party there was allegedly a disagreement over prices, sparking chaotic scenes that woke up the whole street.

Shocking footage shows naked sex workers running into the street as the two groups hurled glasses and garden pots at each other over the garden wall.

Inside the property, broken glass littered the floor and blood was splattered across the walls — among empty bottles and cigarettes.

A terrified neighbour watching from his balcony can be heard in the video saying: “My god, they’re killing each other in there.”

“It was like World War Three. Everything was being thrown around. I wanted to get a helmet for my own safety.”

Police who arrived at the scene treated Joseph Abadi-Johns, 23, from Bristol, for a stab wound to his stomach before he was bandaged up and rushed to hospital.

Officers said the other men in the group were also British.

In the video police lieutenant Phuwadech Rodthongdee can be heard asking the tourist if he is OK.

“No, not really, my stomach hurts, my core area, I’ve got no power, I need stitches,” Mr Abadi-Johns responds.

The fight is said to have erupted when one of the disgruntled prostitutes grabbed a wallet belonging to one of the Brits because they felt short-changed.

One of the tourists was then allegedly stabbed with a kitchen knife when a prostitute grabbed items from the drawers during the fracas.

Police arrived shortly after 4am questioning those involved in the mass brawl that took place in the Kata district of the popular holiday island.

“We received a report of an incident at the Kata Ocean View residence at 4am,” Police Captain Surasak Sudmuang said.

“When we arrived we learned that the foreign tourists had reached out to three transgender prostitutes to come to their villa and agreed to pay them 4,000 Baht each ($170).

“After this, there was a disagreement and the altercation began. We are also interviewing the property owner who rented it to the tourists.”

Police said that during the party, two of the sex workers were asked to leave and the group then only paid the remaining sex worker 2,000 Baht ($85), which was half the rate of 4,000 Baht that is said to have been agreed upon.

One of the tourists was taken to hospital for a stab wound and the other two were treated for minor injuries at the island’s Dibuk Hospital.

Additionally, one prostitute sustained injuries to her head and arm and was taken to Chalong Hospital.

Two other prostitutes sustained minor injuries and were taken to Karon Police Station for further questioning and legal proceedings.

Police captain Surasak Sudmuang added: “We do not have the details of everybody involved in the case and we have not charged anybody yet”.

“The prostitutes told us that the tourists started the fight. We must check both sides of the dispute.

“We want to protect tourists from being involved in dangerous situations but they also must take extra care themselves to avoid trouble.”

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/tourist-stabbed-during-massive-brawl-with-thai-sex-workers/news-story/0949dd296bdd507108611d7463fab548

I had been thinking about making a post on "How do you take your blood pressure". Maybe now is the time.

Usual caveats. This should not be taken as medical advice blah, blah, blah.

My thoughts.

Use a blood pressure monitor that has been validated against one of the recognised protocols. BIHS, British and Irish Hypertension Society in the UK or AAMI, Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation in the US. There are some other protocols.

BHIS validated monitors can be found here

https://bihsoc.org/bp-monitors/for-home-use/

This site is more for the US.

https://www.stridebp.org/bp-monitors/

Make sure you check the validation against the list suitable for the market you're buying in. Omron, for one, uses different model numbers for the US compared to Australia so it's pointless trying to check a model available in Australia against the US list.

Validation is a statistical exercise where the monitor under evaluation is almost correct most of the time when compared to a mercury or aneroid sphygmomanometer. It's not like a tyre pressure gauge or a volt meter where you would expect the same result each time.

Follow the instructions that came with the monitor for taking a reading. Do not try to take a reading while having a wank, after a stimulating beverage like coffee, after a meal or exercise etc.

Use a cuff suitable for your arm circumference.

Fit the cuff according to directions, usually 2 finger should fit comfortably under the cuff when deflated. Too loose or too tight a cuff can give incorrect readings.

An abnormally slow or fast heart rate can give an incorrect reading.

Unless otherwise specified, center the tube down the middle of your arm, palm facing upwards. Some cuffs may have a mark indicating the cuff to be lined up with the brachial artery. The brachial artery can be located towards the inside of the elbow, palm facing up.

How many readings?

I've seen various recommendations.

One reading , just like your doctors office, and that it.
Three readings 1-2 minutes apart and average the results.
Three readings 1-2 minutes apart and take the best one.

The one that works for me at the moment. 3 readings 1-2 minutes apart. Discard the first reading, it was seating the cuff. Average the second and third readings. I use the Samsung health app on my Samsung phone, it averages however many readings entered so I have a record of the individual readings and the average.

The various validation protocols I have read all discard the first reading and only take note of subsequent readings.

On the website of a company that manufactures both home and clinical blood pressure monitoring equipment they said that lab testing indicated 15 seconds between successive readings was sufficient.

That's my thoughts. What do you do?

1 minute ago, ocka said:

A family member has a Samsung here in Australia.  Model AX7500 I think.   It monitors air quality and displays levels of PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 on a small screen.   It will activate automatically if it detects high levels of these particles in the air.

He has observed it starting up when it detected diesel fumes in the house from an engine operating nearby.

These sell for about 23,000 baht in Australia.  Not sure what the price in Thailand would be.

It has two filters that are recommended to be replaced every 6 to 12 months,  depending on how much pollution is in your air.

 

That's the big brother of the AX5500 I have. Good for 90 square metres. I was going to get one until I saw the size of the unit. Settled for the AX5500.

40 minutes ago, Jambo said:

It could be that I am getting a false reading from the pulse rate. When I was in the hospital they discovered that I apparently have an "extra" beat in my pulse. Again, that did not appear to be of any major concern and may be heriditory as my grandaughter has the same.

They're called PVCs and are almost as common as arseholes.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/premature-ventricular-contractions/symptoms-causes/syc-20376757

I was having an ECG once and I asked the technician "how long a strip do you take". She said the usual 30 seconds. I said "make it 2 minutes and we'll probably catch a PVC". She did and we did.

A while ago and in another thread I mentioned I had acquired one of these.

A CO2 monitor.

Not being able to stop at one, I then got

basically so I could compare results. They have sensors from different manufacturers.

The good news is that, once stabilized, they agree with each other. Difference usually less than 10 ppm, quite often only 2-3 ppm.

Anyway, today I thought I'd take the latest acquisition, an Aranet4, on a little road trip down to the shops. I first placed the unit outside to get a baseline reading and then we were off.

21/02/2024 11:28    430
21/02/2024 11:29    502
21/02/2024 11:30    872
21/02/2024 11:31    1017
21/02/2024 11:32    1093
21/02/2024 11:33    1233
21/02/2024 11:34    1395
21/02/2024 11:35    1490
21/02/2024 11:36    1547
21/02/2024 11:37    1658
21/02/2024 11:38    1806

Doesn't take long for the CO2 to start rising. It's a "family size" car, AC was on but with recirc, no fresh air vents open. The unit and associated app can export the data to a CSV file.

After that it was a bit of stop and shop but then time for the return journey.

21/02/2024 12:04    1243
21/02/2024 12:05    1678
21/02/2024 12:06    1572
21/02/2024 12:07    1690
21/02/2024 12:08    1813
21/02/2024 12:09    1891
21/02/2024 12:10    1972
21/02/2024 12:11    2004
21/02/2024 12:12    2119
21/02/2024 12:13    2105
21/02/2024 12:14    2182
21/02/2024 12:15    2237
21/02/2024 12:16    2302
21/02/2024 12:17    2264
21/02/2024 12:18    2330
21/02/2024 12:19    2318
21/02/2024 12:20    2430
21/02/2024 12:21    2496
21/02/2024 12:22    2564
21/02/2024 12:23    2578

Ok. This trip was starting from a higher reading. It takes about 3-4 minutes for the unit to stabilize to the ambient conditions and I wasn't going to stand in the shopping centre carpark holding the unit above my head. You can get arrested for behaviour like that in some places.

Why is this important.

The levels of CO2 in the air and potential health problems are:

• 400 ppm: average outdoor air level.
• 400–1,000 ppm: typical level found in occupied spaces with good air exchange.
• 1,000–2,000 ppm: level associated with complaints of drowsiness and poor air.
• 2,000–5,000 ppm: level associated with headaches, sleepiness, and stagnant, stale, stuffy air. Poor concentration, loss of attention, increased heart rate and slight nausea may also be present.
• 5,000 ppm: this indicates unusual air conditions where high levels of other gases could also be present. Toxicity or oxygen deprivation could occur. This is the permissible exposure limit for daily workplace exposures.
• 40,000 ppm: this level is immediately harmful due to oxygen deprivation.

When the weather cools down I might take a longer trip. Perhaps see how long it takes to get to 5,000 ppm and then see how much difference occurs with the fresh air vents open.

Other readings.

430 ppm. Indoors, windows and doors open, a couple of fans moving the air around.

550-650 ppm. Indoors, windows and doors closed.

800 ppm. Bedroom when I wake up, windows and doors closed.

Life is just a science experiment.

17 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

Got a few strange looks of confusion when I first moved to Thailand and wanted to buy a dozen eggs. Kind of makes sense if you're going to go metric, you go all the way including the quantity of things you sell and buy.

Don't worry, we got ya covered.

1 minute ago, coxyhog said:

He may not be off to the gulag,more likely the jobcentre.

Serbia, Siberia, close enough.

25 minutes ago, Zambo said:

6mph or 6km/hr? I'm fully metric these days apart from pints and eggs. 

Do you buy a dozen eggs by gram weight?

No point in starting a new topic.

The effect of a short runway takeoff attempt.

I don't live in Pattaya, I don't even live in Thailand.

Where I do live has pretty good air quality.

Recent air quality from a monitoring station near where I live. The peak value is AQI 36.

Of course we do have the occasional summer bushfire, the spring and autumn hazard reduction burns and the odd winter inversion.

I do have an air purifier, a Samsung AX5500 although I believe that it has been superseded by the AX46.

https://www.samsung.com/au/air-care/air-purifier/ax5500-air-purifier-with-3-way-air-flow-ax46bg5000gssa/

The specs are identical just some unnecessary changes to the appearance. These are expensive, not for Cheap Charlies.

As Tommy Dee once posted "it's just a box, a fan and a filter element and can cost more than an air conditioner."

This model is good for 60 square metres. Samsung do have other models.

The more important spec as far as I'm concerned is that it can process 467 cubic metres of air per hour.

I just use it in the bedroom which is probably a bit of overkill but I do breath clear fresh mountain air when I sleep.

The filter system. The carbon and dust filter are bonded together and cannot be serviced. Replace when indicated on the control panel. The pre-filter collects lint and fluff and can be cleaned with a light vacuuming.

I use it nightly and am still on the original filter after 3 years.

In the interest of science and this post I measured the dust collecting filter. It has 105 pleats, 38mm deep and 175mm wide which by my calculations is a filtering area of just under 1.4 square metres.

PS. Might be worthwhile on informing yourself on what a HEPA filter actually is and more importantly be aware that some people who don't recognise copyright might be producing fake filters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEPA

The purifier has indicators on the control panel for PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 as well as "gas". I believe the main gas found in the urban home is formaldehyde which is give off by carpets and furnishings. On the other hand a good healthy fart in the near vicinity to the unit can turn the gas indicator from blue to red for a few minutes.

The unit is certainly quiet enough to use in a bedroom and being on wheels can be moved about to where it's required.

Anything else you want to know just ask.

On 2/16/2024 at 1:51 PM, biggles said:

Are u in OZ, that's bloody hot! 

Sorry, missed you post.

Yes, Perth.

Same again today, currently 43.3. Roll on winter.

"Stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake"