impulse

Leaving out the nationalities, this is a good lesson for anyone flying long distance where you may fall asleep. It doesn't matter where you stow your bag if you're asleep when the thief rummages through the bins. Unless, of course, you put the valuables on the floor in front of you, or in a money belt. I'd be curious whether the guy flashed his goodies, or was this just a random bonanza for the thief?

Like several other responders here, my solution was to minimize the use of my US debit cards in Thailand's ATMs. Not because they're any worse, but because of the time lag if something bad happens. I keep my "walking around" money in my K-Bank account, using that ATM/debit card in Thailand. Every few months when I need to top up the account, I use my US bank debit card outside in an ATM outside an open bank branch, suck it up and pay the 220 baht per transaction fee. That has dual purpose. 1) I only pay the 220 baht fee a few times a year and 2) because it's a rare action, it's not too inconvenient to wait for the bank to be open. That way, if the ATM eats my card, I can go inside and ask for help. Of course, that's a luddite solution with no need for WISE or other zoomy solutions, or opening up any additional accounts.

Sadly, the zenith of his comedy career was "Girls jumping on trampolines" It's been downhill since... Fortunately for him, the lefties won't pull up episodes of "The Man Show" to club him with- as long as he toes their line.

Because, without guys like him, the next flight you get on may have even more loose and missing bolts than they already do. https://samchui.com/2022/07/10/how-a-loose-bolt-caused-china-airlines-boeing-737-haul-loss/ https://themalaysianreserve.com/2023/12/30/boeing-warns-airlines-about-potential-loose-bolt-in-737-max-jets/ https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/08/us/what-happened-alaska-airlines-flight-1282/index.html

Good. As an American, I don't want to see another dime of our treasure spent to perpetuate the killing and misery of a war that, by all objective measures has already been lost. I'd support loaning Ukraine the money to rebuild. I'd even support the long term prospect of forgiving the loans if Ukraine met conditions related to corruption and actually using the money for rebuilding. But not another dime to continue the killing. Not another forever war.

No, you gave your opinion. You're not the least bit curious that Alaska left the seats nearest the reported whistling noise empty? Do you really think it was sheer dumb luck?

Homendy also confirmed that the Max 9 door plug had moved during prior flights, citing markings on the door. There were 154 prior flights by the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 before the Jan. 5 flight. “There were very small movements until it eventually came out,” Homendy said, adding that testing showed “you could see a bit of a gap towards the end” but that it was not clear how noticeable it was. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/06/ntsb-chair-criticizes-boeing-for-lack-of-cooperation-in-737-max-9-probe-.html Citing documents and people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said investigators have contacted some passengers and crew — including pilots and flight attendants — who were on the Jan. 5th flight. https://apnews.com/article/boeing-ntsb-door-plug-emergency-landing-2d23408a25eff999579c88071836dbec You figure they may want to see if Alaska or their employees or their passengers may have noticed the "bit of a gap" any time during the 154 flights, many of them after the decompression alarms? And that maybe there was a reason they didn't want anyone in those 2 seats? Because the DOJ certainly aren't going to be asking the Alaska pilots or passengers what went on at the Boeing plant. And it seems that I'm not the only one asking what Alaska may have known and when. A “whistling sound” was heard on a previous flight of the Boeing 737 Max 9 whose door plug blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight last month, an attorney representing passengers in a lawsuit said in new court documents. According to the complaint, passengers on the earlier flight heard the sound “coming from the vicinity of the door plug.” They brought it to the attention of flight attendants, who then “reportedly informed” a pilot, according to the complaint. After the pilot checked cockpit instruments and found readings to be normal, no further action was taken, the complaint says. Timothy Loranger, an aviation lawyer and licensed pilot who worked as an aircraft mechanic while serving in the Marine Corps, said airplanes are noisy machines and the whistling sound described in the lawsuit may have been unrelated to the door plug. But he also said it was plausible that passengers on previous flights heard such a noise, given its prior pressurization issues. “We know that the bolts were missing. ... So this sound makes sense,” Loranger said. “If they heard that whistling noise, that’s very possible to have been an indication that the aircraft had some small leaks around the seal and that it wasn’t keeping pressure properly.” https://apnews.com/article/boeing-alaska-airlines-door-plug-lawsuit-whistling-484bb238f540e1fa9c7bc84d7fbd2286 With just a 1 in 770 chance that those 2 seats (in the area of the whistling) were empty by random chance, do you figure that maybe Alaska knew not to put anyone there, if only so they wouldn't be bothered by the whistling noise? Or pester the employees by reporting it? I'm certainly curious. Hopefully, the DOJ is talking to those passengers and the employees to whom they claim to have reported the noise... If the NTSB hadn't already.

Technical foul. Victimless. If I ever get so petty as to cheer for the deportation of someone for a WP violation, or because of his/her nationality, please take me out back and put me out of my misery.

Looks like she fessed up and apologized. I always thought she was one of the good 'uns. But I'm a Yank. What do I know? Still... I think highly of her and the hubby. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/11/uk/kate-royal-photo-apology-gbr-intl/index.html

Apparently not. They list 8 fulfillment centers, none of them in Thailand. https://th.iherb.com/info/storage-facilities

Most of us are 100% in favor of immigration. Just not the way it's being done. We (the west, including Europe) can attract the best and the brightest, in whatever numbers we need for our economy. Millions of them would be fine by most of us. Engineers, doctors, nurses, fruit pickers, whatever we're short of. Invite 'em in, streamline the legal visa process and vet them before they start their journey. Instead, we're getting unvetted unknowns who may end up on the dole for decades. Whose very first act is to break our immigration laws. Including gang members, drug mules, human traffickers, names from the terrorist watch list, 5th columnists... We just don't know.

God no. I'm praying he makes it to January. Look at the alternative... That's also why there won't be an impeachment. Choosing her as VP was the best insurance he could buy if he saw all the charges coming at him.

Neither are most of the links posted in the OP. Just "illegal" stuff that apparently puts foreigners at risk of being deported. Along with another half dozen threads just today. Much to the delight of so many posters here. And I don't understand why they're so pleased. They may be next if the authorities change their priorities just a little and start deporting, for example, guys who frequent prostitutes.

Not aimed at you specifically because I don't know you. But be careful what you wish for, lest they start deporting people for paying women for sex and for dodging taxes. Not to mention the guys who have to use visa agents, (not the ones who just choose to use them, the ones that have to). If they enforced those with deportation, the ranks of foreigners would thin quite a bit.

I don't understand all the contempt here for a woman who, by all accounts, has harmed nobody on this forum. In fact, probably nobody in Thailand.

You may get more helpful suggestions if you reveal what you're planning to volunteer for, and whether it's an approved charity, etc.

From your own link: CNN noted on air late Thursday that the poll was conducted among speech watchers, not of the overall electorate. The sample leaned more Democratic than the public is at large, but it’s typical for more Democrats to tune in when a Democratic president is delivering the State of the Union, as it is for Republicans to watch the address when a Republican is president. So, a CNN poll, admittedly largely of lefty participants says that Biden got a 30 minute feel good bump from a fiery speech. I'll bet he lost that bump and more the next day when even the Dem Elite turned on him for calling Laken Riley's alleged murderer an "illegal". Rather fickle, those lefties... The only thing that would even cap that is if CNN came out and admitted they only polled CNN listeners. Which wouldn't surprise me, given their journalistic integrity.

I'd look at the overnight stay as a perk rather than a burden. One more advantage of an affordable health care system. For a single guy like myself that means I don't have to cajole (or hire) someone to drive me home and stay with me for 24 hours. And on the rare chance that something does go wrong, I'd be right at the hospital and not an hour (or more) away. Back home in the USA, I'm sure some insurance wonk has carefully calculated the cost savings against the risk of an occasional patient going blind. (Too bad for the unlucky patients...) In Thailand, I'm glad that cost analysis leans toward the patient and not the insurance company. But I freely admit I'm not a fan of healthcare by the $$ numbers, like back home.

Moral of the story: Get a dashcam. Pony up for a good one, and preferably one that shoots front and back. Check it every few weeks to make sure the SD chip is still recording good quality video. Edit: Unless, of course, you drive like an idiot and the truth is more likely to grass you than exonerate you.

If reality was as simple as you claim, why do you figure the DOJ is calling in passengers, flight attendants and the pilots in their criminal investigation? What could those people possibly tell us about a shop floor defect at Boeing? They're Alaska employees and passengers, totally unrelated to shop floor issues, much less Boeing shop floor issues. Now ask yourself what they may possibly tell us about Alaska's decision to fly the plane, but only over land... And the 1 in 770 (0.13%) odds that those 2 seats would randomly be empty on an almost full aircraft. Citing documents and people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said investigators have contacted some passengers and crew — including pilots and flight attendants — who were on the Jan. 5th flight. https://apnews.com/article/boeing-ntsb-door-plug-emergency-landing-2d23408a25eff999579c88071836dbec In any case, do you think Alaska told their passengers they were flying in a plane that wasn't cleared to fly over water? They're in for a wicked ride at the lawsuits. Even if those empty seats were sheer, dumb luck.

Wouldn't it be a kick in the nuts to find out the owner is a Thai proxy with a Swiss backer? That would be a trifecta...

They need to be released on humanitarian grounds. Nobody wants unkempt Russkie women wandering around in public.

The wingnut conspiracy guy in me wondered about the odds that both the seats next to the plug would be empty, given an almost full plane and the fact that Alaska knew there was something wrong with the pressurization to the point they would not allow the plane to fly over water. It's still a wingnut conspiracy, but here's my calculation for both those seats being empty, with 171 of the 178 seats being full: (7/178) x (6/178) = .0393 x .0337 = .0013 = 0.13% chance that both of those seats would be empty. That's about a 1.3 in a thousand. Pretty lucky, or was something going on there? Can someone check my math and logic? Edit: Feel free to call me full of bullpucky. It is way out there. But please show your math if you do.

That is absolutely wrong and a good way to die of an embolism if you hold your breath on ascent. You can't breathe "uncompressed air" any deeper than a couple of feet. If you think you can, try breathing through a garden hose next time you're in a pool. In fact, the closer you are to the surface, the more important it is to not hold your breath on ascent using any source of air, because of the inverse nature of Boyles law on the expansion of a gas.

You gave it away when you mentioned "battle hardened (French) troops".