impulse

So, you can rip into Yanks, Russkies, Brits and just about any other entity. But leave the Israelis alone or you go to jail. Once again, conflating anti-semitism with legitimate criticism of a government. Nothing controversial about that.

Wonder if he was rushing because it was an emergency, or because the first ambulance to the scene gets the business? Kinda like tow truck drivers back home. They'll run your butt right off the road to get to the scene first.

Que Bumero. (that's Spanglish). I would hope there's a similar market in Chiang Mai, and someone may come along and chime in.

I don't know how far the OP wants to take this, but if it were me, I'd take the unit down to Ban Mo electronic street market near Chinatown and I'd bet someone can rejigger the power supply to take 220/50. I'm always amazed when I wander down a new alleyway there and see someone rewinding a cheap fan motor or resoldering components on stereo circuit boards. One of the things I love about Thailand, where labor is cheap enough to actually fix stuff instead of binning it. For something at that complexity level, it would be good to bring a Thai speaking friend to translate. And let them negotiate, they've been haggling prices since they learned to talk. Edit: Caveat... Ban Mo isn't for everyone, but anyone with an interest in DIY, especially electronics and "maker" stuff, it's like a toy store. But it may take time to find exactly what you want. Especially if it's in the bowels of the buildings surrounded by the street market. I love the place.

Sadly, over the years I've come to the conclusion that my gub'ment's "strategy" on Russia is to stick it to them whenever possible, regardless of what 3rd party it harms, and how much taxpayer money it costs. And since the mid '90s, I've felt that they didn't learn a thing from history and the Armistice. The Germans capitulated in 1918 and it took them 21 years to regroup, re-arm, get their war finances lined up and make another go of it. Anywhere during that period, WW2 could have been prevented had the French (et al) eased up on the punishment, and Hitler would have never come to power. Took the Russkies a few years longer, but here we are. Anyone who claimed the Cold War was over, and the West won, just didn't learn from their history.

I don't know that degraded is the correct term. They have forced Russia to ramp up weapons production, train up a lot more personnel than they would have, and season them with the most realistic (and tragic) war game possible. Russia's going to come out of the debacle a lot stronger than they were going in, and certainly stronger than they would have if Ukraine had capitulated when Putin faked toward Kiev.

Showing my age... I still recall the machines they used to swipe credit cards to make several copies on carbon paper. Pumped gas during high school and will never forget that sound.

Good cautionary tale. I ended up scraping the aftermarket tint film off the windows (and especially the windshield) of my Mitsu pickup truck because I just don't see that well at night any more. The truck was nominally warmer during the day, but much safer at night.

Good info. I'll go by and ask for one next week on my monthly visa run to Thailand. I thought they had to emboss my name on a card and mail it out (or hold it for me at the bank), and I'm generally only in LOS for a week or so. Edit: I'd add that I don't really use the account I just kept some money in it in case I want to use it in the future for a retirement visa, given the difficulties I've been hearing about a non-resident foreigner opening a new account. But it would be handy to have a debit card...

1800 out of an under 18 population of 73,000,000. So, a 0.002% chance of dying from Covid.

Interesting that there were never any excess deaths in the under 25 age group (even before the vaccines were available), yet they're pushing the latest round of vaccines for everyone over 6 months old. Is it any wonder that the CDC is trying to regain the trust of the public?

Some people just don't know a chick magnet when they see one...

My WP expired several years ago, and I'm on visa exempt with 6 or 7 entries in 2023. My US passport expired when I was a Covid refugee. Went into K-Bank this summer to update my passport number on my K-Bank account and had no problem. Took a long time for all the forms, but there was never any suggestion that I wouldn't be able to keep the account. Edit: Because I don't have a Thai address any more, I didn't ask for a new bank debit card. No place for them to mail it...

How do you figure they get the crew out to those offshore rigs? The rigs that are too far out for boats to be practical...

According to the linked article, the real question is whether her story (now deleted) is even real.

Don't skimp on your transformer unless you enjoy a loud 50Hz hum. I'm not going to claim to be an expert, and I offer no advice on what type of transformer to buy. (Except that there's cheap ones and better, shielded ones) But I had a horrible hum when I put a US stereo on a transformer in China, where the power is the same 220V, 50Hz. Even worse when played loud and I suspect the transformer was clipping. You may wanna go by Fortune Town in Bangkok or one of the other markets that sell high end audio equipment and get their advice. Ban Mo electronics street market near Chinatown is another good place to look for sound equipment.

One more data point. The lady with 4 wheels and seatbelts suffered a minor injury, while the couple on 2 wheels both died. Same accident, even.

45 year old hookers are charging the same as they did 20 years ago, when they were 25... Some of them, even more. That's criminal.

Is that the number of patients hospitalized WITH Covid, or the number of patients hospitalized FOR Covid?

In an equally impartial study of EV economics, the Texas Public Policy Foundation estimates that driving an EV costs the same as paying $17.33 per gallon for an ICE car. That includes the cost of gub'ment subsidies, purchase, charging stations, electricity, and a myriad of other hidden costs. Adding the costs of the subsidies to the true cost of fueling an EV would equate to an EV owner paying $17.33 per gallon of gasoline. And these estimates do not include the hundreds of billions more in subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act (2022) for various aspects of the EV supply chain, particularly for battery manufacturing. https://www.texaspolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/2023-10-TrueCostofEVs-BennettIsaac.pdf Which one's true? Hard to tell... Edit: And even if ya don't own one, you'll be paying for it... Home and public charging stations used by EVs put a significant strain on the electric grid, resulting in an average of $11,833 in socialized costs per EV over 10 years, which are shouldered by utility ratepayers and taxpayers. Direct state and federal subsidies for EVs average $8,984 per vehicle over 10 years.

And I suppose you're okay with picking 12 of these fine upstanding DC citizens, empaneling them on a jury and letting them decide who I'm allowed to vote for next year? That's justice? That's democracy?

If word got out that was an option, nobody on overstay would show up with, or admit to having cash.

If you're going to Laos by land, you can do that 2 times in a year and come back to Thailand visa exempt. If it's by air, there's no limit. But in both cases (and always), it's at the discretion of the immigration officer. I'm assuming the OP doesn't have a history of living in Thailand, or black marks (like overstays) on his passport.

Years ago, I used to post a link to a summary of the Thai laws around BB guns, pellet guns and airsoft guns. I'm not going to look for the same link because the laws may have changed. But 2 things that were illegal stick out in my mind. One is shooting at animals to inflict pain, and the other is shooting metallic projectiles. You can probably get away with "persuading feral cats" unless one of your neighbors rats you out, either because they like cats or don't like you for some reason. I had an airsoft pistol and 2 high power pellet rifles (all bought in the open in Chinatown). Then Thailand had one of their occasional crackdowns. I kept the airsoft pistol and used it for target practice into a paper filled box in my apartment. I gave away the 2 pellet rifles to someone braver than me, who claimed to have a bird problem.

Not hyperbole at all. That's what cancel culture is all about. Going after people you don't agree with. There's a plethora of concerts, lectures, conventions, sports and other events that have been shut down or pre-empted because someone complained about "not feeling safe". As if someone "feeling safe" is an objective measure of legal free speech. Of course there's some anti-semitism going on. A lot of it. And racism and transphobia and Islamaphobia. But there are also a lot of legitimate questions, discussions, and legal protests (on both sides) being squelched by threatening cancellation.