PeterRS

So far it seems that the faults under the Pacific are more serious than those under the west coast of the USA. In the last 21 years we've had the giant 9.2-9.3 eathquake off Indonesia which resulted in the horrific Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, the devastating 9-9.1 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and now the 8.8 quake off eastern Russia. The biggest California quake in the last 40 years was just 7.4. I wonder how the state, and LA in particular, would cope with one closer to 9. The devastation would I suspect be utterly disastrous.

I assure you that the "special delights" I mentioned did not exclusively refer to temples and palaces! Paraphrasing a post I wrote some months ago, it did not take long for me to become a voracious Suriwong, Ni-chome and other gay districts attendee - well, let's be honest, slut!

Another massive quake has hit, this time to the east of Russia. 8.8 on the Richter scale is a huge earthquake getting quite close to that off Japan in 2011 which resulted in such massive destruction. Evacuation orders have been posted in Japan and Hawaii and the first tsunami has now hit Japan's Hokkaido. Mercifully it was small. Tsunami warnings are in place all over the Pacific, even as far as Ecuador. The Russian Academy of Sciences has warned that aftershocks, possibly as large as 7.5, should be expected for the next month. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c3r4x9yrrg4t

Because we all have our own priorities I do not think we have a right to criticise others for their choices. I have certainly enjoyed far more amazing life experiences than I ever dreamed of when I started my career and I put that down initially as much to stubbornness and serendipity as to making a specific choice. Still in my 20s I just decided that if I were to get further up the ladder in the type of job I was doing and enjoying, there were so few available in the UK I had first to move abroad for a few years. It was always said that experience overseas would be an advantage when I returned to work again in the UK. I assumed that would mean the USA and I did make a couple of trips to see what jobs might be available. Then totally out of the blue i was asked if I'd like to be considered for a job in Hong Kong. I knew absolutely nothing about Asia and all its different countries. The furthest east I had been was for holidays in Crete and Rhodes. Had I not agreed to go and be interviewed, I have no idea if I would ever have considered visiting Thailand. Certainly in those far off days it was much too far away and flights far too expensive. But I did go to that interview, got the job and within a month found myself in Hong Kong for what I assumed would be no more than three years. Staggered by the place, I kind of fell in love with it within days. From then on my life totally changed - and I just could not believe my luck. Less than five months later I was discovering the special delights of Bangkok, and soon thereafter many other countries in this amazing continent. Only once since then have I ever seriously thought about leaving Asia. I am happy I did not.

A dozen years ago I saw these umbrellas in the window of a shop in Talinn in Estonia. I always felt I should have bought one so that I could hit anyone giving me unsolicited advice over the head with it!

Several times I visited friends who lived in Pasadena for 20 years in the 1980s and 1990s. I know the LA area has had quite a number of earthquakes - but no major one has hit down town. Since those skyscrapers were built, construction in earthquake zones has advanced considerably. You only have to look at Tokyo where there are earthquakes under the city virtually every 6 weeks or so (yes, I did live there and I did experience them). Or in Taipei where Taipei 101 was until quite recently the tallest buiding in the world. And Taiwan lies on a major earthquake zone. I have experienced at least six quakes there - some jerking, some plain rumbling. As this LA Times article points out, the worst quake was the one at Sylmar (better known as the San Fernando quake) on February 9, 1971. Although this caused death and destruction - 2 hospitals flattened, elevated highways destroyed and many low rise homes suffering damage - their construction had been mostly rigid concrete. Apart from City Hall, the city regulations had forbidden any building over 13 stories until they were repealed in 1966. Up popped the group we now regard as the centre of the city. The problem for LA, though, was less the effect on the skyscrapers than that on the surrounding countryside. "The top of the earthen Lower Van Norman Dam melted into the reservoir. No one knows exactly what kept the dam near Granada Hills from collapsing," said the article in the Times. Had it done so, that 1971 quake could have resulted in vastly more damage and become "many times over" the most deadly in US history. Scientists still wonder if the quake had lasted just a few seconds longer, could the dam have withstood the shaking? The state geologist reckons over 100,000 would have been killed. Following that quake, some high rises were retrofitted to make them more earthquake proof. But far from all. In 2013 the Mayor gave a 30 year deadline for retrofitting to be completed. 30 years? So some buildings could still be in their original state 54 years after the Sylmar quake! What devastation might occur before 2043? And let's never forget. That 1971 quake was only a 6.6 magnitude quake. The Tohoku earthquke off Japan in 2011 was between 9.00 and 9.1 magnitude. Would present day Los Angeles survive anything anywhere close to that. I very sincerely doubt it. My point is that LA is not a good example for earthquake-proof construction of high rise buildings. Tokyo and Taipei are far better examples. Yet as @TheBossBabyback points out, integrated medium-high rises could be an answer to the housing problem, but for one thing - cost. Who is going to pay their construction and maintenance for what would be much more expensive housing? https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-02-09/50-years-ago-1971-sylmar-earthquake-shook-la

He taught mathematics and musical theatre, and was a classically trained pianist. He also had an ear for satire just as a satire boom was about to explode on both sides of the Atlantic. Tom Lehrer's satire was witty and sometimes a bit daring in the 1950s and 60s, but for many years he became incredibly popular with his songs on topics of the day, often involving black humour. Yet they did not last the test of time. I expect they were never meant to, but that's just my opinion. They were just very much of their time. Lehrer died yesterday at the age of 97. Although he was Jewish, perhaps they might play his Vatican Rag at the funeral. In the meantime, with war going on in so many parts of the world, I think this song is particularly apt - and amusing.

There may be some sort of end in sight. Both parties in the conflict have agreed to meet in Malaysia with a view to finding a way of ending the fighting. Malaysia's Prime Minister is the Chair of the Association of South East Asian Nations.

We are close to the 44th anniversary of President Reagan firing 11,000 air traffic controllers who had disobeyed his order to return to work following their strike on August 3 1981. I know that thousands of flights had to be cancelled in the days following that action. But I can't seem to find references on the internet as to how the administration immediately was able almost immmediately to replace such key, highly trained and important specialist jobs in a vital industry. Anyone remember?

Then a new thread might be more appropriate. That could prove quite interesting.

Three guys in history? They're still with us 🤣

I love Sydney and visited regularly on business and to stay with friends around 15 times, usually around the Christmas/New Year period. Thankfully I was never involved in the bush fires. But I was at a meeting in Pacific Grove CA on the afternoon of 1 October 1989 when the magnitude 6.9 quake occurred in the Santa Cruz mountains only around 30 miles away. It awas the largest to strike the San Franscisco area since that of 1906. The quake was quite frightening, but as much for the aftershocks as the event itself.

I subscribe to just one youtube travel channel because I have found quite a few are generally a waste of time! No doubt others will disagree. Solo Solo Travel is run by a young Japanese guy - I am assuming he is late 20s/early 30s. How he pays for his travel I do not know because he rarely has any sponsors. Yet he travels a lot in first and business class around the world. One vdo even has him travelling on Etihad's hugely expensive Residence Suite. He also has some fascinating vdos of bus and train trips in Japan and low cost hotels, including one to a fabulous Japanese winter spa town which I hope to visit. Thankfully there is no intrusive music or aural commentary. His comments are all in English at the foot of the vdos - and some are often quite funny. He has become extremely popular with over 1.4 million subscribers. Today I noticed this vdo posted only a few hours ago. I was surprised that ZipAir started in 2018 and is wholly owned by JAL. It is a no frills low cost carrier, but it does have a business class with flat bed seats in a 1-2-1 layout and free wifi throughout the aircraft. And that's about all. No drinks, no TV monitors, no overnight kits - just the bed and a low price. As usual, you pay extra for luggage, pre-ordered meal service, even a rather nice overnight kit. The flight in the video is from LAX to Tokyo's Narita airport. The one way business class price was US$1,050. The add ons for hold baggage, meal and overnight kit seem to come to around $75. The Kayak website has the cheapest one way ticket on regular carriers at over $3,000. ZipAir now has services to other North American cities. For Bangkok residents interested in visiting Japan, ZipAir seems to be linked to Air Asia as one sector is usually on that airline with the cheapest eonomy daytime flight cost of Bt. 13,785, but that does mean paying for hold baggage on the Air Asia outward sector. Not on the ZipAir return. For both flights in business class, Zipair has flights but the outward sector has to be overnight. The basic price is US$1,100 which is at least $500 cheaper than full fare scheduled carriers. Great if all you want to do is sleep on a flat bed!

I have often wondered what gay stories Alexander the Great would have to tell. We know of his deep love for Hephaistion and how Alexander was overwhelmed with grief at his death aged 32. We know, too, from Mary Renault's excellent book The Persian Boy about Bagoas, the beautiful young boy from a noble family, castrated and presented to the Darius King of Persia who in turn presented him to Alexander. Almost certainly they became lovers even though Hephaistion was still alive at this time. Castration, a common practice for millennia in many countries where eunuchs were entrusted with conrol of harems and in some countries like China could wield great power, must have been an incredibly painful operation with many young boys dying in the process. One who fascinates me is a man castrated in order to retain his glorious boy soprano voice who went on to become as famous and as wealthy as many of today's pop stars, Carlo Broschi known as Farinelli. Born in 1705 when the use of the castrato voice was becoming very popular in the world of opera, he had arguably one of the greatest operatic voices of all time. Women fainted in his presence, others roared approval at his vocal feats - with the lung power and strength of a man allied to the sweetness and agility of his unbroken voice - it is unlikely any singer today could match him. But then Farinelli was not gay, so he would not be on my list. He was though an unsurprising result of an edict from the Catholic Church around 1592 which banned women from making sounds in churches. Some singers had to take the soprano and alto lines. Hence the increasing tendency for castration, even though most of those mostly poor boys either died or lived desperately sad and unhappy lives. For those who rose to the top like Farinelli, though, they could become fabulously wealthy. It was not until the mid 1870s that the Catholic Church banned the practice. The last castrato, a man named Moreschi, sang in the Sistine Chapel Choir which had six other castrati when he joined. He was known as the "Angel of Rome". The only known examples of the castrato voice were made by Moreschi on old cylindrical devices. Although by then only in his early 40s, the voice is nothing like that of Farinelli in the movie. Many regard the thin, often off-key sound as a voice well past its prime. Nowadays the castrato voice has been taken by countertenors who use their head voice to reach the higher pitch. This is a short example by the superb - and very good-looking! - French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky who has been in a long term gay relationship since 2007.

Today's Observer newspaper has a series of articles about the acute housing shortage in Europe, with the Mayor of Barcelona recently saying - "The housing crisis is now as big a threat to the EU as Russia" He is right to include almost the entire continent of western Europe. Renters now find that virtually half their incomes are routinely swallowed up by rent. Year on year increases are now routinely 10% or more resulting in many having to live in ever more cramped conditions and increasing the number of homeless. It is also having an increasingly vocal move towards political disenfranchisement in the continent and away from established political parties towards those fuelling the far-right. Not everyone is suffering, of course. The housing crisis is lining the pockets of a small number of individuals and institutions who moved in a big way from more traditional investments to housing. Major financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies, pension funds and other mega financial groups have been pouring more and more of their investment cash into property since the 2008 financial crisis. Whereas these investments accounted for US$385 billion in 2008, by 2023 that had risen to $1.7 trillion. So all those who almost brought the world to its knees in the 2008 financial crisis and not one of whom has gone to jail are now on another financial rampage, this time controlling the homes many of us live in. In Vienna 42% of all new private rental homes are in the hands of institutional investors. One of the Observer articles ends - "In the coming years, housing will occupy centre stage in European politics. As investors have come to dominate, so the power of residents has been systematically undermined. We are left with a crisis of inconceivable proportions . . . Now is the time for fundamental structural changes that reclaim homes from the jaws of finance, re-empower residents and reinstate housing as a core priority for public provision." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/07/europe-financial-sector-house-prices-politics