bendejo

Uh-oh, wait until he hears about this: https://www.eseller365.com/usps-suspends-package-services-to-australia/

There was a while back in the 1970s that Mick Jagger was the go-to guy for reporters looking for a comment on current events. "Mick, have you seen the new Truffaut film?" What the . . . . ?

Maybe she couldn't handle having to count backwards from 10 to zero. "Like, it's hard enough the other way..."

That's another thing in the US these days: a mere comment about certain things could result in death threats to you and yours, doxing, etc. An argument against the paranoia of immigration is that immigrant laborers do the work no one else will do. I believe that is what is being implied. And it seems to be playing out.

The theory that free markets regulate themselves went down the tubes in 2008. Just as a reality check, ten years ago tickets to see a certain famous-name comedian in the US were $200 for a decent seat, $75 to sit near the ceiling. More recently (pre-Covid) I heard some celebs on a talk show b_tching how it costs $300 per person to see Madonna, and she wasn't putting anyone on the guest list. I hear that's the price these days for nearly every arena music show, but on the other hand you get a 2-3 hour performance, and of course there is an intermission so you can go to the concessions and spend $$$ on merchandise and lousy, overpriced sports arena food. I have a buddy (over 60) who is an all-time Rolling Stones fan. He went to show a few years ago and even he couldn't take any more after an hour and a half.

I didn't know who he was until this thread. Lisa? Lisa Simpson?

Oops! At first read I took the use of disrobed as an implication of hanky-panky. Never heard that term before, usually in the West it is defrocked. I would guess their veneration had something to do with a generous donation.

When you are 40 and your girlfriend is 20 she's half your age. When you are 50 she'll be 30, 3/5 your age. When you are 60 she'll be 40, 2/3 your age. Before you know it she'll be older than you, get out now! (I figure anybody who uses Groucho as an avatar would appreciate such humor)

Argentina? in early 2001 the peso was app. 1:1 with the US$. In 2011 it was app. 3 peso to the US$ Today it is app. 100 pesos to the US$ As with some other South American countries the largest industry is theft. They need foreign money to come in, otherwise they are just stealing from their own left pocket and putting it in the right. Otherwise it is a beautiful country. The further away you get from cities and tourist areas the more the crime rate drops. For you Brits, a word of caution: even though the Malvinas Falklands war was nearly 40 years ago, every so often they (meaning the governing entity) will stir the pot, especially when the economy is even worse than usual. Things like dedicating statues to the war dead, propaganda movies, etc. ensuring people their relatives did not die in vain.

Al Rawabi School for Girls A "Mean Girls" type movie from Jordan (Arabic with subtitles), but not played for laughs, it's about bullying. And revenge. It gives a peak into households of a different culture. Obviously not made for a Western audience, e.g. there is scene where a girl takes off her hijab and shows her hair, and there is no explanation why this is scandalous. It's on Netflix and torrents. Lilyhammer A NYC Mafia guy rats out and is sent to small town in Norway for witness protection. It's a goofy comedy, don't take it seriously. Stars Steve Van Zandt. It's on torrents, all three seasons. In case you missed it last year, The Queen's Gambit An orphan girl becomes a chess savant and vies for world champion. Chess and drugs and . . . It's from one of the streaming services (Amazon?) and also on torrents. An old movie I first saw last year has become one of my favorites, Stray Dog. 1949 by Akira Kurosawa. A film noir in post-WWII Japan. Seen it a few times.

Tourists must stay one night in place "where they can be contacted" You mean like where a cell phone is?

...and then there is M-150

A friend in the US got a notice from a lawyer regarding torrenting his client's vids (Southern California porn producer). They made it sound like Elliot Ness was on his way to the house. They also spelled out the full indiscreet name of the vid to cause maximum embarrassment and it appeared often in the text. It was sent to the ISP and they forwarded it to him, lawyer demanding to know his name, address etc. Yeah, sure. The ISP's own message to him was to knock it off or they will cancel his account, but no threat by the ISP to comply with the shyster. Some searching revealed that this "law firm" was making a cottage industry of doing this. A few weeks later he got another warning, in this case the client was HBO. It was not due to visiting websites, but to the actual torrent connections. So if in the US yes, VPN is the way to go. When you connect to a VPN your ISP may not be able to track your connections, but they can tell that you are connecting to something and they tally the amount of data you transfer through it. Same thing with Tor: they can't track what you are doing but they know you are connected to Tor routing. Another handy bit provided by VPNs is you can connect via another country to a site that would block connections from the country you are physically in.

I think one is called Balls No More Bar.

How many percent of thai bar girls are post op trans? 53

I have learned from experience that the first four digits of a CC identifies the card company and the issuer. I would suspect that there is more public info out there about this if one would put some effort into looking.... This thing with the secret number on the back of the card is somewhat of a farce when nearly every transaction requires that you reveal it.

For the past few decades (at least) it has not been unusual to find a newspaper article in Malaysia or Thailand telling of how they busted a bunch of Chinese lads with a briefcase full of stolen credit cards. Maybe what we are seeing here is a change in tactics. On the other hand I wouldn't be surprised to learn that someone at the top of the scam is a LE poobah. Once I bought an MAL ticket online for a local flight out of KL. Checked in, took my time getting to the gate as I had an hour to kill. When I got there I handed the attendant my boarding pass. She then turned her head slightly to the side and said something brief, and out came another airline employee and two uniformed policemen. The airline guy seemed stunned to see me. Not so long story short, I paid with a CC on a US bank and that sent up a red flag, according to airline guy. It was all settled within a minute. Not unusual for Asian people to think my name is Chinese, so I think the combo of a Chinese name and a foreign CC is what set them off. Like it or not, this thing going on now is black eye for Thai tourism. Fuggetabou the million-tourist New Year's Eve with an opera star initiative.

So, they will bring in a million foreign tourists, this k-pop star and a Western opera singer. Ok, maybe tourists from Singapore, starved for acts from other parts of the world. Lisa will bring out the teenagers and tweenies in Thailand, but foreign tourists? And each tourist will exchange app. US$2,300 when in the country. The only way they are going to pull that one off is if they paid up front, the whole package in one lump sum paid upon entry ("you pay now!"). This kind of sounds like one of those US teen comedies where the kids try to raise money for new cheerleader outfits, or something like that. As for Rolling Stone's hit list, a few years ago they released a list of all-time 100 greatest songs. It was very boomer-centric (ahem!). #1 was Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone." If they had taken a poll to see how many people under 30 ever heard of the singer or song it would have been a rude surprise. Then they released a new list, of which the boomer writing this post never heard of at least half the people or their songs. Before BTS came along not many people in the West (of any age) even heard of k-pop boy bands. A k-pop song called "ice Cream" is now an all-time hit? Oh wait, isn't there a pandemic?

60% of Thai people believe country not ready to reopen to foreign arrivals The other 40% live in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya.

You don't need to refer to Finland or berries to appreciate the contrast. In any of the Western economies any minimum wage job would pay multiples of a Thai (or Malaysian, or Indonesian, etc) wage. When I first lived in Brazil (early 2000s) the minimum wage was app. US$80, this for laborers as well as elementary school teachers. Just about any "working girl" in Rio would have have jumped at the chance to get started in the US by making US$200/week as a housekeeper. The fact that this amount would barely cover her basic living expenses, well, no one wanted to hear that.

happy ending indeed!

Don't get too excited, she's gay.

...and then the young acolyte sez 'make me one with everything'...

It's been really weird. Certain world leaders faced with increasing deaths from Covid repeatedly declaring a litany of disparate excuses: it's a hoax, it's a flu, take [name of unimpressive pharmaceutical here], alien DNA in the vaccine, and so on. The only word to describe it is macabre. I've been trying to figure what these guys (and gals, like certain US state governors) have to gain from more deaths. I suspect the force propelling this is a certain man in the US that appears to be the architect of the new world fascist movement. No, not the orange guy, it's the one he listens to, I won't mention his name (hint: he wears three shirts at a time).

Hey, a new movie of Dune will be out in a few days. I hear that the spice in that story cures Covid.