PeterRS

Bush and the neocons have a great deal to answer for. The refusal to allow the UN to have a second vote, conning Blair and other leaders with lies which at least Blair had the decency to apologise for, albeit many years later, their determination to get rid of Saddam etc. And once they won the war, the absolute shambles they left behind led by the gung-ho idiot Paul Bremer, a total mess including the disbandment of the Ba'athist army which led directly to the creation of ISIS. Notable too were the huge amounts of cash that just happened to disappear during his administration. That Iraq remains a failed state is directly due to Bush.

I have frequently noticed rats but not that the numbers have increased in recent years.

To a certain extent I agree. On the other hand, why was the Manhattan project initiated? I have explained Einstein's view. But let's not forget that even in August 1943, Oppenheimer himself said, "It is possible that the Germans will have, by the end of this year, enough material accumulated to make a large number of gadgets [atomic bombs] which they will release at the same time on England, Russia, and this country." Indeed, Oppenheimer was only involved in the Manhattan Project because he believed Germany would develop the bomb. It was this repeated fear of what the Germans might have achieved up to that point, given their head start, that prompted the US to build Los Alamos. But (and this is not in the movie - so no spoier) there remain doubts that the German scientists were anywhere near as motivated as their American colleagues. Heisenberg met with Niels Bohr at a September 1941 Conference in Copenhagen. Prior to the meeting Heisenberg had discussed the possible meeting with other scientists involved in nuclear research including Carl von Weizsacker and Karl Wirtz. For thanks to the discovery of another nuclear team in Berlin working under Fritz Houtermans, as Heisenberg recalled years later, “It was from September 1941 that we saw an open road ahead of us, leading to the atomic bomb.” At that time, of course, it seemed that Germany was going to win the war. While accounts of that meeting weeks later held in the open air to avoid spies remain uncertain due to the differing accounts later provided by the two men, there seems little doubt now that Heisenberg was actually committing treason by providing Bohr with some information about German nuclear progress. According to the memoir of Heisenberg's wife, "The truth was that Heisenberg saw himself confronted with the specter of the atomic bomb, and he wanted to signal to Bohr that Germany neither would nor could build a bomb. That was his central motive. He hoped that the Americans, if Bohr could tell them this, would perhaps abandon their own incredibly expensive development." Yet we now know that Frau Heisenberg was either gilding the lily in sugesting the Germans "could not" build a bomb or was merely unaware of what Heisenberg knew about Houterman's research. The meeting was unsuccessful and Bohr allegedly walked away. Nevertheless, this meeting did succeed again in confirming to the Americans that Germany was actively involved in research into an atomic bomb. After the war, it sparked controversy over what Heisenberg was actually trying to achieve. The British interred most of the leading German scientists at a place named Farm Hall in England. All the rooms were bugged. Much of what the British heard indicated that Germany could have produced the bomb, but that it was the German scientists themselves who managed to delay these efforts as they did not morally want Hitler to win the war. This conclusion has become known as the "Heisenberg Version". Even after the scientists were repatriated, some continued to reiterate the view that a German bomb had been possible. Yet other scientists like Erich Bagge and Paul Harteck were under no illusions that they could have been successful. They and many of their colleagues realised that with a budget estimated at not much more than US$1 million, success could never be achieved. It was fact that the scientists themselves were mostly not Nazi sympathisers and believed in Hitler's vision. They were out and out German nationalists who believed early in the war that the future of Europe would be based on German or Soviet domination. Heisenberg certainly had no love for the Nazis. In 1937 he had been accused of being a "white Jew". He was interrogated by the Gestapo for a year until he was finally exonerated by Himmler of all accsations against him. But he was a true German nationalist and refused to join his former jewish colleagues abroad. But much remains conjecture. The fact is that for a variety of reasons no German bomb was developed.

When Spacey was still Artistic Director of London's Old Vic Theatre, I remember visiting Singapore to see him in a production of Shakespeare's Richard III. I doubted if he could bring it off but he was in fact excellent in the role. Thereafter the company went to Australia. One of my good friends there is a theatre Production Manager. What he told me about Spacey and the way he treated people in general (non-sexually) does not bear repeating. I cannot imagine what people in Hollywood actually think of him.

OMG! How old would he be now? I remember lapping up his latest vdos back in the 1990s. That face and gorgeous body, the way he seemed so natural in front of the camera . . . But that photo! Even without the facial hair I'm not sure I'd want to enjoy a coffee with him. But it happens to us all. We cannot beat back time - unless constantly resorting to plastic surgery. I'm glad for him that Bel Ami kept him on in a managerial capacity. Of the current crop I like Jorik Tautou.

I used to visit Chiang Mai regularly over many, many years and loved those trips. More recently, having seen the sights many times, been to Doi Inthanon to see the waterfalls, visited the orchid farms and ridden on elephants, I find the nights quite boring. I found the Night Bazaar bars dead! (That's really a misnomer as there are no longer any bars actually in the Night Bazaar whereas there used to be around 6 - even those behind the D2 hotel have vanished - as @musgrave points out there are a few on Soi 6 on the other side of the main road). Doing a bar hop on Soi 6, they had a few customers who seemed to be long time expats and a handful of not particularly attractive boys either playing pool or glued to their phones. So many of the good and fun bars have closed - many before covid. If you have not enjoyed the old town and the scenery, Chiang Mai is certainly worth a visit. As a gay venue, keep your expectations low. Adam's Apple with the boys in shorts and shirt tops? This used to be such an exciting bar with nudity. Alas for progress!

And when my phone gets lost? I can't imagine the hassle required to reinstate banking details.

Isn't there a major problem when dividing up the actual number of posters on a site like the excellent Gay Thailand compared to those who post on the vast numbers of other chat sites around the world? Gay Thailand has a reasonably high number of active members and a lot of guests who merely read the posts. But when we compare all these with the total number of gay men around the world who travel for their vacations, these numbers are in fact tiny - virtually infinitesimal. What I assume we have to remember is that the merging of Gay Thailand with Gay Latin America (or whatever that site was called) was the joining together of two sites aimed at this tiny fraction of the gay travel market. Although I do not know, my guess is that there are several (dozens?) other sites out there focusing on Latin America that we know nothing about. Same but probably to a lesser extent about Thailand. I know of the Thailand travel section in a Singapore site. Do we know of any in Chinese based in Hong Kong and Taiwan? I assume so but I do not read them. So comparisons based merely on viewership of this site are in my view all but meaningless. As an aside, having read the Latin America threads on Gay Thailand, during my two visits to South America, I wish I had expored the gay scene as I now wish I had. If I had the time and much more importantly the finance, as a result I would gladly hop on a plane tomorrow. But I cast my lot with S. E. Asia decades ago and am delighted I did. For that reason I am more interested in chat rooms with a focus on S. E. Asia. Perhaps one day I will explore more sites in English with their focus much more on Latin America.

If by that you mean the Germans did not produce a bomb even though they had a major head start, then of course you are correct. But the reasoning is not. As Einstein stated, even after the Jewish scientists had left, Germany still had many excellent scientists perfectly capable of getting together to build a bomb. He was paticularly praiseworthy of Werner Heisenberg. Germany had created nuclear fission back in December 1938. These were just two of the reasons why Einstein wrote his warning letter to Roosevelt. Why Germany did not in fact build a bomb was much more complex. Part lies in the fact that whereas the USA had up to 150,000 scientists all working together in virtual secrecy at Los Alamos and a total cost of US$2 biillion, Hitler and the Nazis preferred to have three groups each working separately. Even so, Germany was still ahead in the 'race' when the USA set up Los Alamos. After the Nazi error which set their project back, it was still believed that uranium in heavy water would create suffficient plutonium for a bomb. That is why the 1943 British commando raid in Norway was essential in denying the Nazis stocks of that vital ingredient. By then, though, enough of the scientists working on a Nazi bomb realised that their efforts would be in vain, if only because Germany did not have the long rang delivery vehicles to make it effective other than over London. Then by that stage Germany was involved in total war with Europe and the US hitting them from the west and the Soviets from the east. The German scientists realised that even if they managed to construct a working bomb, it would not be ready in time to affect the outcome of the war. Some even feared a bomb getting into the hand of the Soviets. So the programme to construct a bomb was effectively wound down After reviwing a great deal of relevant material, the reaearchers Timothy Koech and Miriam Hiebert concluded in an article in Physics Today reprinted in the Wall Street Journal in 2019 that the Nazis came much closer to building a bomb than earlier thought. “If the Germans had pooled rather than divided their resources,” Koeth and Hiebert write, “they would have been significantly closer to creating a working reactor before the end of the war.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-nazi-germany-got-a-lot-closer-to-building-a-nuclear-weapon-in-wwii/2019/05/10/3181c168-71b2-11e9-8be0-ca575670e91c_story.html

He did indeed make a mistake. A stupid one because Malaysia has previously banned openly gay musicians. In 2013 Elton John's concert outside KL was abandoned just before it was due to start because of Muslim clerics' stance against Elton promoting "immoral values". That the lead singer of 1975 was not aware of this is perhaps understandable. But the promoter in Kuala Lumpur must certainly have been aware of it. He would also have known of 1975's promotion of an LGBT lifestyle. Elton's cancellation was suprising because he had given a successful concert in KL the previous year without incident. A mark, perhaps, of the growing influence of bigotted Muslim clerics. But Healy and his band have since seen a major backlash against them on local social media. Many local gays have complained that the main result of their appearance and banning is to make life more difficult for the local LGBT community. "In Malaysia, there are no LGBTQ+ rights, with a penalty of up to 20 years in prison for sodomy; Global Trans Rights Index ranks Malaysia as the second worst country in the world for transgender rights. And a privileged white man – the lead singer of British band the 1975 – has inadvertently made this situation worse . . . "Healy’s terrible misjudgment was to steam into this highly complex and historically fraught situation without due care, or seemingly enough research . . . one queer Malaysian producer and DJ has argued to me in recent days that “careless displays of ‘activism’, in the form of a conceited performance, damage the work of grassroots activists”. Another queer Malaysian has told me that Healy’s behaviour will make rightwing politicians “more paranoid”, and give them more ammo to further anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-music narratives. The fear is that queer artists will find it harder to secure spaces for their events. "Healy is protected by his status – he can return to the UK, where will face nothing more than a travel ban or slap on the wrist. He flies into a country [Malaysia], makes a clumsy provocation, leaves damage in his wake – then posts memes poking fun at the cancellation and at Malaysia from behind the safety of his phone screen." https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/26/the-1975s-matty-healy-has-hurt-malaysias-queer-community-not-uplifted-it

We have known for years that this is the general pattern for youg gay Asians. They tend to come in groups, look for sex in saunas or massage spas and then pop into the gogo bars for the shows. A few will pay the off fees and take out a gogo boy. But given the potential size of the Asian gay market, that "few" is tiny. In the 'old' days, many if not most of the older western guys always took off boys for a short or long time. I know I did. Now the Asian women may end up being a larger market than the guys! The sad thing is that the bar owners do virtually nothing to attract the younger Asian patrons. They are all set in their ways and as patronage falls they resort to the only way they know - raise prices!

I don't know any of the 3 star hotels that have what I would call a good breakfast. These hotels mostly cater for Taiwanese and so best to look at a good western chain hotel. But I know none near Ximending. @a447 recommends the Westgate. Just looking at the photos of the dining area, it seems quite small and I suspect - and I hope @a447 will correct me if I am wrong - that the breakfast will not be similar to a tradional western breakfast, even though it has an egg station. Wth comfort and a hearty breakfast as essentials, I would certainly give up the idea of staying in Ximending and recommend the Courtyard Downtown Hotel. You will absolutely adore the breakfast!!

Sorry to add that I find Hua Hin incredibly boring!! I stayed for a week at the Hilton hotel which I really disliked - and I like most hotels I visit. Sadly the Hilton had been recommended by a good friend and I had prepaid for the week but I'll never return. Even the beach by the hotel is tiny! Is there anything really to see in Hua Hin apart from the railway station and the Centara Grand Hotel which used to be the old railway hotel? When are you in Thailand? If in late December, Hua Hin can be quite chilly if the winter monsoon is blowing. If you are here in early August, I would definitely get to Ubon Ratchathanee for the Candle Festival Parade on August 3. It's a stunning unique event with all the temples having artisans spend a month carving wax scenes on top of lorries and trucks. Unfortunately you have missed the amazing Dansai Ghost Festival which was in June this year. I had a fabulous time there a few years ago. Sorry again I have little positive to add.

Sorry, not quite correct. The Nazi's "Manhattan Project" actually started 5 months before the USA was even aware of it. The USA only awoke to the Nazi progress on receipt of a letter to Roosevelt signed by Einstein and other emigre scientists from Europe like Enrico Fermi. They all believed that German science and industry was perfectly capable of the massive development programme necessary to build a bomb and their letter warned of the potential of nuclear weapons. Indeed, fission had been first discovered in Berlin in 1938. After initial secret meetings in April 1939, at a further meeting in September German scientists agreed to work on the various elements of what would be necessary for a nuclear bomb. By October 1940, experiments were being conducted at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut that were at a roughly similar level to those then being conducted at Columbia University. At that time, though, the USA believed that the Germans were ahead in the race. The head of the German research programme was Werner Heisenberg whose mentor had been Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist with a mass of research into an understanding of atomic structure and quantum physics. After the Germans overran Scandinavia, Bohr initially elected to remain in Denmark even though Heisenberg had invited him to join the German atomic reesearch team. It was only in 1941 that US scientists slowly began to pull ahead of the Germans. This was largely due to a critical miscalculation in Berlin that January. It was this error that led to the only "moderator" for a bomb available to the Germans being heavy water as a means of producing weapons grade uranium. Hence the vital importance of the British commandos 1943 raid to destroy the Norwegian plant. In 1943 Bohr was warned that he was about to be arrested by the Nazis. He escaped to Sweden and was then spirited to London. He became part of the British mission sent to Los Alamos and played a major role in developing the bomb, even though he was not based at Los Alamos. Thanks to his knowledge and his regular visits, Oppenheimer regarded Bohr as a father figure to the younger scientists who played a key role in part of the bomb's development. By then, though, the Germans were far behind. As we know from the movie, it also took the US scientists several years to gather enough uranium-235 just to make the test nuclear bomb.

The fact is that, whether we like it or not, someone was going to split an atom and realise what this could mean. As the movie makes clear, the Nazis were considerably ahead in developing an atomic weapon when the US assembled its team at Los Alamos. Although not mentioned in the movie, it was a British commando raid on Nazi-occupied Norway, one of the most dramatic and dangerous missions during WWII, that destroyed the Nazi supplies of heavy water and set the German nuclear scientists back by many months. Had that raid not been successful, it is almost certain the Nazis would have had their bomb ready before they were overrun by the Soviets and the Allied forces. What might then have happened does not bear thinking other than the Nazis would have won the war. But once you have let such a cat out of its bag, you are then stuck with a set of hugely difficult moral circumstances. You canot put it back!

Also never stayed there, but if @khaolakguy wants to be within walking distance, it will be a good 20 minutes walk to Ximending.

Once a great gay destination for many years, gay Chiang Mai seems all but in its death throes.

I tried to get another vaccination prior to my trip to the UK in March. Nowhere to be found! I then came down with the virus in late April despite 4 earlier vaccinations! Not at all pleasant.

Just found a much shorter youtube cip from the original French La Cage aux Folles. It has subtitles in English which I generally prefer to dubbing.

I will look forwarrd tp watching all of that video posted by @fedssocr. In the meantime while that kiss at the start in Wellman's movie was certainly historic, it is hardly seen to be a gay kiss. Having flipped through the vdo I realise it does mention what was I believe the first true lips on lips kiss in John Schlesinger's wonderful British movie Sunday Bloody Sunday. In this the bi-sexual Murray Head plants a real gay kiss on Peter Finch who plays a gay doctor, even though he was known as an actor to be agresively straight. It caused only minor comment when the movie was released in 1971 - except in the USA where the movie was generally despised and several theatres refused to show it. The third party in the trio was the late quite superb actor Glenda Jackson.

Condoms certainly help but even kissing can be a way to transmit syphilis. The real problem is that an individual can be infected with it and not know it. The average time from infection to noticing (or not noticing) symptoms is 31 days but can range from 10 to 90 days. Unless treated, as this CDC advisory states - "Syphilis can spread during vaginal, anal, or oral sex . . . A single chancre marks the onset of the primary (first) stage of syphilis, but there may be multiple sores. The chancre is usually (but not always) firm, round, and painless. It appears at the location where syphilis enters the body. These painless chancres can occur in locations that make them difficult to notice (e.g., the vagina or anus). The chancre lasts 3 to 6 weeks and heals regardless of whether a person receives treatment. However, the infection will progress to the secondary stage if the person with syphilis does not receive treatment." Worryingly, the guidline also points out - "In the United States, MSM who are HIV-negative and diagnosed with P&S syphilis are more likely to get HIV in the future." It's quite normal now for those getting HIV tests also to be tested for syphillis - and I reckon with the current trends this is highly advisable. Treatment is usually three weekly injections into the upper thigh and is not expensive. https://www.cdc.gov/std/syphilis/stdfact-syphilis-detailed.htm#:~:text=Syphilis spreads from person-to,%2C anal%2C or oral sex.

Saw the movie this afternoon at the Paragon iMax Theatre. I have not included any additional words in the title of the thread because I cannot think of any. This brilliant movie says it all. Its three hours went by so quickly. Superb direction and some stunning performances. I will be really surprised if Cillian Murphy is not given the Oscar Best Actor award for his truly magnificent portrayal of the conflicted genius that was Robert Oppenheimer. Most surprising, at least to me, was Robert Downie Jnr. who gives as fine a performance as any I have seen on film in the role of the scheming, two-faced Lewis Strauss as first a member and then as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. He too must be a shoo-in for a Best Supporting Actor nomination. This could have been a movie exclusively about the bomb and its effects not only on Japan but of a drastically changed future for the world. Instead at its core is a whole series of complicated personal relationships and how all see both their roles in assembling the bomb and the morality of their actions. The future comes later. To say more will give too much of the story away. Throughout, Murphy and Downie Jnr. are backed by some great acting from Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett, Kenneth Branagh, Emily Blunt and a host of others. A word, too, for the truly excellent and dramatic music score. It's as though throughout it subtly tells us precisely what is about to happen and how vital that event will be. The ending of the movie left us shattered, but certainly not in any manner we were expecting. Please try to see the iMax version. Director Christopher Nolan loves the iMax format and filmed the entire movie with iMax cameras. I feel the movie cannot be as powerful on smaller screens.

I generally stay at 3-star hotels like the Dandy Da'An which looks on to a large park and is just 30 meters from a subway station. Note, though, that like some hotels it has a few rooms with no windows! Pay more for a view of the park. Or The Ambience, although it requires a longish walk to the two nearest subway stations. There I like their Elite rooms which are at the back. Don't expect much from their breakfasts, though - certainly they are very basic compared to Le Meridien in Bangkok! On my visit at the end of this week, I got a great low rate at the Landis Hotel which is 5 star. It started life as The Ritz and was the only 5 star hotel until around 1990. I like it as it has an art deco theme. Great breakfast, but pricey! Normally I would not be able to stay there due to room prices. As I am in the Marriott Bonvoy points scheme, I have stayed at the mid-price Courtyard Downtown hotel which I much enjoyed. Excellent rooms and a fantastic buffet breakfast. It also requires a bit of a walk to the subway. Not far away is the large 5-star Grand Formosa Regent. Big rooms and excellent service. I don't think you have to stay in the Ximending area. Although the subway stops before midnight taxis are plentiful and relatively cheap. Only if it is raining hard or during a typhoon will they be difficult to get. On the other hand I am told Uber has a good service in the city. Besides, i can't recall any 5-star hotels in that area. One subway stop away is the main rail station. Here there is the Caesar Park hotel which used to be the Hilton. It's an older 4-star hotel which personally I do not like. Not far away is another older hotel, the Sheraton Grande. Never stayed there and I believe it is quite a walk to a subway station.

Finding information certainly seems more difficult than it was a few years ago. There used to be the section of a website titled AVERT which did publish statistics, although I believe it covered a more general msm percentage. I can no longer find it. A Paper issued by Australia's CSIRO in the Sexual Health section headed The Continued HIV Epidemic among men who have sex with men and transgender women in the ASEAN region: Implications for HIV policy and service programming, states re Thailand - "HIV incidence among MSM under IBBS (integrated behavioural and biological surveillance) decreased only in Bangkok from 28.6% in 2014 to 10.3% in 2018." https://www.publish.csiro.au/sh/Fulltext/sh20134 This is clearly illustrated in a graph showing the rate of increase/decrease in 7 major Asian cities. If the chart is accurate, the rate of HIV among msm has decreased substantially. A major concern arising from the chart, though, is clearly the significantly rising rate in Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh. There have been several other reports including data from 2014, but they require a great deal of time to analyse exactly what they mean since all seem based on different modelling methods and results which are extremely difficult to compare. Worrying, though, there is one paper dated July 16 2021 in Britain's highly respected medical journal The Lancet regarding an 18-month Study which suggests that "MSM will represent over half of all new HIV infections by 2025." This figure refers only to Bangkok. All reports I have looked at indicate a rise in the number of syphilis cases in Bangkok. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(21)00313-8/fulltext

I doubt if I would fall for such a scam, but you never know. I seem to be one of the few who refuse to do banking on my phone.