impulse

+1 on Decathlon. I'm looking at bikes in China and the lower priced Rockriders look to be an excellent value. I just can't get over the hurdle that I have a serviceable bike from years ago... Though I bought it when my biking needs were different, and I don't ride as much as I'd like because it's not so comfortable any more. But I'm a cheap bustard. Back in the states, I have a cheap Specialized of the same basic genre. I put a comfier seat on it and I love it.

Is the law against feeding pigeons just a Bangkok thing? I see signs all over warning of a 20,000 baht fine for feeding pigeons.

Is that a legal taxi stand? I've always gotten a ticket from the machine and walked over to a numbered taxi so there has never been an argument over who got there first.

I suspect that ad spend is the deciding factor.

I'm a Yank, and I'd actually carve out 2 hours or so to watch a historically accurate documentary about how the Royal Family got into the situation they are over the past 80 years (maybe 120 years to include WW1). But I'm going to watch the reviews before deciding whether to watch a docu-drama on Amazon. I have Prime already, but my time and patience are worth something. I've already wasted half an hour each of a bunch of crappy movies before deciding I couldn't stomach the next hour and a half.

It's not that ratio that counts. It's the right swipe ratio. Google hypergamy. When I was a kid, before the interwebs, average guys stood a chance at finding luv locally. Today, not so much.

Eventually, but probably only after the election, some reporter is going to drill down and find out how 20,000 Haitians arrived in the same small Ohio town, to the relative exclusion of newcomers from 100+ other countries who need jobs. And I'd bet dollars to donuts it's not organic as claimed. Somebody was steering it. But you'll never see that in the NY Times. Maybe the NY Post will cover it and we'll learn the truth, with bus or plane receipts.

Funny that you didn't question the credibility of NY AG Leticia James when she actually ran on a platform of "Get Trump". Levrentiy Beria would be proud of both of you.

Nothing is free. It's included. Those credit cards charge fees. If they didn't, they couldn't pay the airlines to offer benefits. Last time I checked, the airlines make more money selling points than they do selling tickets and flying people around. I'm making a pedantic argument, for sure. But for the majority tuned in here, free water from the lounges isn't an option. And pointing out getting water from the lounges is bragging about access to the lounges. Everyone knows there's goodies in the lounges. That's not useful information for anyone.

Here's a Stanford historian that disagrees with you, point by point. And then some. So I'll let you take it up with him, using your well reasoned logic. https://dailycaller.com/2024/09/12/victor-davis-hanson-forgettable-warped-debate-donald-trump-kamala-harris-abc/ pitiful, vengeful wreck pathetic man-child wild fantasies shriveled brain Raving and ranting wild accusations twisted and bitter mind utterly stupid and weak

That works well for those who have access to the lounges. Not so well for the rest of us peons.

Good info. Thx for that. I always find free filtered water dispensers in BKK (in fact, in every airport I've transited in Asia). I buy a 10 baht water upstream of security and either guzzle it down or pour it out to get through security. The dispensers are kind of hidden as you say, but generally near just about every rest room, with signs pointing to them. Some have old timey drinking fountains, but most just have a dispenser to fill a container. BYO empty. And I'm not a big fan of old timey drinking fountains since the pandemic... One of the things I like about Swampy, and Asian airports in general. Free water. Last time I flew out of the USA, I paid $4 for a water.

That's a shame, because I enjoyed a monthly (or so) change of pace from KFC. I miss cole slaw... KFC's cole slaw isn't the best in the USA, but it was the best I found in LOS. I wonder if the franchise agreement specifies that they must use ingredients sold to them by KFC, or stay true to the Colonel's recipe? Fried chicken is my most common street food meal. I buy a small jar of the Thai dipping sauce when I check into my hotel, and I always have something to munch on if I get the hangries. I've experienced good then bad street fried chicken, even from the same nice lady. I always chalked it up to how old the oil was (and whether they fried fish or old socks between chicken batches).

That was my first thought, but I think it's more likely they'll migrate to another Euro country or the USA. Who will eventually offer them money to leave. Unless they tend to vote Blue.

And yet, strangely his poll numbers went up every time they leveled more bogus lawfare charges against him.

I think you're confusing which one is the tired trope.

President Joe Biden is frustrated that Barack Obama wouldn’t tell him to his face that he should leave the race. He’s angry with Nancy Pelosi and views her as ruthless for ushering him out the door. And he’s still miffed at the role Chuck Schumer played, too. There's 3 of the 6 or 7 names. And an admission that he "volunteered" to step aside under duress. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/14/biden-frustration-obama-pelosi-00173883

And you're not concerned at all that 6 or 7 people decided in some backroom meeting who was going to be their candidate? Doesn't sound like democracy to me.

Gosh. Here's a novel thought. Why don't Repubs let the voters decide? Unlike the Dems. Remind me, how many primary votes did Harris get? You can add in 2020 primary votes if you'd like.

That's $34,000 a head. It's being reported now as a done deal. Anyone know if that's true? https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/government-migrants-should-be-able-to-get-sek-350-000-for-leaving-sweden

Yeah. Because the safest thing you can do is step out and calmly talk to an angry mob. I don't blame her for refusing to get out of the car until enough cops showed up to keep the crowd in check.

It's not just Americans. I get blasted every time I post this, but I've never encountered a group that's so proud to be ignorant. I freely admit that I am ignorant about more than 99% of the world. (With ignorance being a description denoting lack of knowledge, and not an insult or pejorative) I don't possess more than a fraction of a percent of the world's knowledge. But I don't hold my nose and refuse to dig into information I don't agree with. How else can I understand the other guy's arguments, no matter how stupid I may think they are?

From his editorial I linked: And an irate former President Donald Trump confirmed that he was too touchy and easily triggered. Does that sound like a Trump fan?

Victor Davis Hanson is a famous (Stanford) historian, and not a fan of Trump. Your credentials?

I'll let Victor Davis Hanson describe the debacle... The Sept. 10th presidential debate went down as expected. Summed up, it was Sappy and the Blob pile on Grouchy. The swarmy and evasive Vice President Kamala Harris preened, posed and proffered empty platitudes. The ABC moderators proved they were predictably and shamelessly biased. And an irate former President Donald Trump confirmed that he was too touchy and easily triggered. https://dailycaller.com/2024/09/12/victor-davis-hanson-forgettable-warped-debate-donald-trump-kamala-harris-abc/