Rogie

Let me say first off I don't like that kind of book, but sorry to say I cannot help myself being somewhat aroused at the thought of Mick Jagger and David Bowie in bed together. 1973 would have been around the time Bowie was re-establishing himself. Following his success with Space Oddity he went quiet for a bit, then released Hunky Dory in 1972 I think which contained a great selection of songs which kick-started his path back into super-stardom. His album The Man who Sold the World where he is dressed in drag (although his long hair may have been his own, I can't remember) on the cover clearly showed he was a man unafraid of what people may have thought of him. When one considers the lives of pop stars they truly are in a world of their own. For the heterosexual young man bestowed with the glamour fame has brought is never short of the next girl to bed, from high society types to groupies he can take his pick. No doubt there are people, hangers-on, music paper journalists etc who get a vicarious thrill by keeping count of the numbers of women each member of the Roling Stones slept with. Brian Jones was the best-looking member and it wouldn't surprise me. . . but I'm getting carried away, and I'm not here to speculate. So to be told Mick Jagger and David Bowie got together in the way claimed wouldn't surprise me at all. Bowie was clearly bisexual and Mick too, Bowie-style, was his own man, confident in his own sexuality. He may have been getting bored after hundreds of easy lays and, being a man of tremendous energy and charisma, it's hardly surprising he established some sort of rapport with Bowie, even if there wasn't a sexual side to it. These two were extreme extroverts and sparks were going to fly come what may!

So did Lawrence of Arabia (discussed in the Peter O'Toole topic in the Beer Bar)

Those bakers sure do get around. Here's a few more countries where they're only too happy to demonstrate their baking skills: France la? Condom! ...ok? Greece la? Let's not do anything too taxing! Australia la? Mutton dressed as lamb Cuba la? Fancy a smoke? Thailand la? Bondage German la? I don't like it up me!! Holland la? Mutual masturbation Italy la? Vanilla sex Zimbabwe la? Watersports with a full bladder Zambia la? Similar to above Canada la? I like to be mounted . . . America la? Fancy a 'big Mac'?

Group sex in Burma atishoo. atishoo, they all go down . . .

Nice and succint but I fear many people might not be so restrained! I feel sorry for the average bank employee, tellers and such. All the banks in Britain, whenever I've done business over the past few years, the staff have been unfailingly polite and helpful. They've been badly let down by unscrupulous 'colleagues', many already on far higher salaries than the humble 'faces of the bank' who actually deal with the majority of customers on a day ot day basis. These behind-the-scenes, largely invisible people are like a malignant cancer. The body as a whole looks healthy, all rosy cheeks and glossy hair but deep within, well out of sight the cancer is slowly eating its way into the body's vital organs. It's now erupted onto the surface like a melanoma that's suddenly mutated from an innocent-looking mole into a hideously ugly mishapen excrescence. Would emergency surgery save the body? Who knows, quite possibly, but it'd need a very long period of convalescence to recover its former vitality.

Sounds encouraging FH. Let's hope the eyes of the world will be on Myanmar to the extent big projects are transparent and not a result of shady deals (call me a hopeless romantic perhaps - I know that's almost unheard of!).

As a confirmed Burma-phile I found that BP article of interest. Attempts to woo foreign tourists is nothing new. The government mounted a Visit Mynamar campaign in 1997. That was pretty feeble and rightly criticised by many inside and outsside the country. A bit too early to know whether the current Burmese tourism minister will prove true to his word. The country has suffered too long from top-down rule by a small clique of unelected army Burmans together with on-going civil war in many parts of the country. U Htay Aung may be serious and honest (I have no idea whether he is or not), but unless some element of genuine entrepreneurship can be encouraged it will fail. I would be concerned in the way the country's tourist infrastructure is developed. I don't like the sound of that Hong Kong developer - to my mind Burma would be better suited by having some domestic entrepreneurs holding the reins, not foreigners. Having said that Burma is already choc-a-bloc with Chinese foreign money and labour, so I suppopse that is a risk a developing country will have to take until the spirit of entrepreneurship can blossom from within. Another question: are foreigners likely to be more or less corrupt that the Burmese when it comes to the thorny issue of sensitive development that respects the landscape, or will it become just one big landgrab as they try turfing innocent local smallholders off their land as happened in other countries? For my money Samui and Phuket are living on borrowed time already. I am sick and tired of reading of yet another story of tourists in Phuket menaced by taxi drivers, mugged and even killed, and fleeced by jetski and motorcycle hire operators in cahouts with the police.

Thank you for your contribution Hedda. I agree with your assertion that Baht Stop's forte is a good source of informed political news and views as well as often heated discussion, indeed as I commented on another Board recently, Baht Stop has carved out a niche in that area. I do feel you made a mistake in closing Hedda's Hopper, that was the natural home for posters wanting a proper (I.e. civilised) discussion. Now anything and everything gets lumped together onto just one Forum which makes it far too helter-skelter IMO. I am sorry to hear about Baht Stop's owner-cum-moderator being ill. There used to be Baht Stop himself, Mod 1 and Mod 2. That seemed to me a good set-up. Could it be the current situation lacks a certain amount of flexibility in the event of just such a problem?

5 cents for 30 years. I remember they used to say 'Still 5 cents' so as KT mentioned the price alone was somewhat iconic. They did a similar thing in kid's comics. My favourites were Dell and Classics Illustrated. The price of the Dell comics was 'Still 10 cents' Now I'm almost in tears over these old signs and the iconic price of a bottle of Coca Cola. And that flag Koko flew in post #31 May our glorious flag and this lucky star Guide you and keep you wherever you are That makes me wish I had been an American. You Americans really do sentimentality well, I'll give you that. My parents have a collection of Norman Rockwell plates - the sort you hang on the wall. I love 'em! By the way please don't think I am being facetious, I am deadly serious. I think my mood of nostalgia is affected by the state of the world today. It ain't lookin' good from where I sit.

Has anyone seen any Arabs in host bars or go-go bars in the usual gay areas? Michael say he has spoken to bar owners and they have. (More specifically he say there are more Arabs than Americans, but he does not specify exactly where). Whilst it is true they would appear to be more numerous and quite high-profile my impression is they stick with their companions and mind their own business.

Ok I'll bite as they say. It must be quite an old ad as it refers to 'cork' rather than 'cap'. I put that down to American vernacular and assume cork = (metal) cap. Righty-O, I'll try latching on to the word 'LUCKY' - Koko drops a hint that's the 'second iconic image' but for the life of me I don't know why.

Maybe we need to take stock here and reflect on the sheer demand for fully trained pilots. I seem to recall reading about (maybe on GT!) how China was dealing with their own particular shortage by offering very generous salaries to pilots from other country's airlines hoping to tempt them.

Ah, you confused me! I quoted from your post but by the looks of it you altered it slightly by specifying the swastika. That's why I didn't answer your question in the way you wanted! Yes, popularity should be a factor, but I cannot answer your question as to whether the swastika should receive less recognition owing to its notoriety or association with the nazis. That is for others to decide! Thaiworthy, there was some discussion about the 'swastika' in the Good and Evil thread. Here's the link - see posts numbers 36 - 40. http://www.gaythaila...__20#entry53050

Iconic is derived from icon which was an image, figure or representation; often a portrait. I would say the word has broadened out to mean something which is instantly recognisable to most people. I think to strictly adhere to the original meaning the iconic object should be of a person or people, so in Thaiworthy's example a representation of Christ would be an icon, but the cross would not. That's just how I read the situation, others my disagree. As Koko has mentioned I agree it's important to specify what the audience is.

If you are reading a forum and do not appreciate a particular poster's style just ignore him. I do that on Baht Stop and there are several posters who, if i see their name against a topic, my internal traffic lights turn to red and I screech to a halt, do a U-turn and speed away. Equally there are some posters I like to read as I know they are intelligent and don't lecture to or insult the intelligence of the rest of us. Unfortunately that Board is a bit too idiosyncratic. One Forum was closed and its posts left as an archive - potentially very useful as there was a lot of erudite political discussion there. One day it simply disappeared into thin air. Maybe that could happen to its single remaining Forum too, without warning . . . Ting and Tong Forum could usefully benefit from a reduction in the number of forums and sub-forums so I agree with koko about that.

(Fountainhall, I see you use the expression Chat Room in your topic title. I assume you intend that to mean the same as Message Board. I just mention that because a 'chat room' often refers to a place where people can 'talk' to each other in real time). It's very rare for me to be following the same thread that'd been posted onto more than one Message Board. One reason for that is very few new topics posted on this Board are simultaneously posted elsewhere. I don't think I've ever done that and it seems others do that rarely, if at all. Exceptions are those topics posted by bar owners and the like and that seems fine to me as they are running a business. I agree that in order to make the 'only post a new topic on one Board' rule practical there has to be a critical mass of members willing to respond. IMO we just about manage that here. It would be nice to have a few more chipping in though. If I am reading another Board and notice a topic's been posted on multiple Boards i am far less inclined to contribute any comments I might otherwise have posted. But that's just my preference - anyone that's happy to go chasing around to see if anyone on one of several Boards has replied to your post, fine, you have more stamina than me! As to whether any Boards should merge? There's only a finite number of people who are likely to want to read and post on the Thailand gay Boards. Are there enough new readers and members coming in to replace those who die or drift away for any reason? Having said that the existing Boards, other than one which is coming up to its first anniversary, have been around for several years and the readership on the whole is mature. There's a lot to be said for leaving things as they are rather than any mergers. The mature, the long-established members, know what they like, and they read and post on the Boards they feel comfortable with. A Board may appear to be struggling but very often appearances can be deceptive. As has so often been said numbers of posts is not the critical thing. To my mind it's the atmosphere of a Board, whether you feel comfortable reading what others have written and whether you feel comfortable posting yourself. At the end of the day, it is supposed to be enjoyable, if you don't enjoy it, why bother?

People's opinions and comments are the bread and butter of Message Forums like this one; it would rapidly die without the active participation ot its members. How people respond varies widely based on many factors. Some people only post or comment on issues focussing on their interests. No problem about that. Others enjoy the challenge presented by a post about a topic they might not have realised would interest them until they get thinking about it and then their contribution can be very rewarding as whatever viewpoint they adopt it's likely to be based on a careful weighing of the facts. Another often very interesting area is topics that discuss an event that happened, but for reasons unknown or unclear. Those kind of stories are likely to proliferate in the media as everybody likes a good scandal or mysterious event. In that situation if I am looking for an article to quote from I will try and choose one that reflects my view on the matter. Others can choose to pick holes in the article or my comments (if I made any). No problem with that. A good example of this would be the various snippets taken from articles and expert opinion quoted in the Black Boxes thread in the Beer Bar. That sort of 'mystery' invites all kinds of conjecture until the moment arrives, in this case three years later, when a definitive conclusion is reached. For someone like myself, utterly ignorant of aircraft and the psychology of cockpit interaction, it was a fascinating eye-opener.

I can recognise or am familiar with all of those GB has posted - except the last one. The one with a baby in the foreground. It looks a bit scary, whatever it is that's happening. Here, to tie in with the Olympics I assume, is a modern take on Henery the Eighth . . . NB. deliberate mis-spelling as per the song: I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am (1910) by Fred Murray and R. P. Weston

Looks like a breakthrough at CERN Scientists confident the Higgs Boson is for real More technical stuff: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18702455

The internet allows anyone who wants one to have a website. Some see it as a way to make money and some as a way to make the world a better place. However, those wanting to make it a better place tend to be more anonymous, drowned out by those who just want to catapult themselves into the limelight or, as those such as Mr Denton would no doubt prefer, having a 'searing spotlight' shining on them. It is a struggle to make your way in the world in the 21st century. A life lived at anything less than 180mph makes you an ordinary person. What? - an ordinary person! How can that be? Surely that's quite nice. Personally, yes I enjoy being ordinary, but it seems a growing number of men and women think otherwise. It seems to me the divide between us Joe-ordinaries and the stars and super-stars and super super stars is getting wider and wider. No wonder so many young people are star-struck, to use an old familiar expression. Now it seems there are as many terrestrial 'stars' as there are stars in the sky. I don't think there are actually any more people worthy of the accolade star than there used to be. But to a young person it might seem that way because we've got a serious problem of star inflation. Wannabe stars are two-a-penny and they're no shrinking violets either. By fair means or foul, they will strut their stuff.

Unlike Daddydawg, it came as a surprise to me as I had never heard of this gentleman, as I am not a watcher of CNN. I am in agreement with the tone of that Guardian article. Unfortunately the genie is out of the bottle as far as people in the public eye having much likelihood of privacy. I guess you could say it was always like that, but there used ro be such as thing as discretion and respect for another person's feelings - even going so far as to keep 'secrets' if it came to that. These days the mob mentality rules. The great unwashed lead crude pitiful lives only enlivened by periodic doses of scandal and lapping up exposes of life within the castle walls. Many magazines and TV programmes seem to cater for this. I'm not sure what came first, the crass minds of journalists and TV producers ramming it down the throats of a decent public, or a nosy public demanding to know the ins and outs of everyone in the public eye and the media only to happy to oblige. I suspect many people couldn't care less about such outrages as phone hacking provided it supplies a nice juicy story to read with their cornflakes on Sunday morning - but once they realised the perverse depths to which some journalists had sunk, the public turned against them. Maybe cases such as the one under discussion can lead to a better understanding and respect for people in public life.

That would be my guess too. But can the Yellow shirts seize power? They can certainly try something along the lines of their blockade of the airport or Parliament, but would they succeed? Probably unlikely. The airport manoevre was devastating and showed their ruthless disregard for anything other than themselves. Perhaps you could say the same thing about the Red shirts occupation of a part of central Bangkok, paralysing many businesses. No, I do not think the Yellow shirts can do much without the army on their side. The government have to tread carefully to avoid alienating the army and they have to be careful not to fall into the trap many in the establishment are only too ready and willing to spring, but that topic is best not gone into here.

I meant to mention that in my reply to your OP. I agree it is excellent. Whoever came up with that idea is a genius.

When my roving eye alights on the bottom left hand side of the main forum page it tells me which members have signed in. Amongst those intrepid souls, often to be found lurking are a few 'outsiders'. Who are these snoopers, and what are they doing here? Their names are familiar but they stand aloof. They are Messrs Google, Yahoo, MSN/Bing, and one other. Blow me, if it isn't that mysterious (to me at any rate) entity Facebook. So back to my original question. I think I can understand what the other three are up to, but what about Facebook? What the dickens is it doing here? For what purpose is it here? Can anyone reading this who's a member of Facebook tell me what's going on?