impulse

Probably the same buyers who are swooping in and buying in the Maui burn zone.

I can see the new signs along Sukhumvit: Kidney Stone Expulsion, 300 Baht an hour.

Yeah, 'cause everything's ginger peachy keen in California with Newsom at the wheel.

Aren't you a little concerned about the state of American politics that a guy who has a pretty good chance of going to jail is still polling neck and neck with his other party opponent, and way out ahead of anyone else in his party? Hardly a vote of confidence in the Swamp...

True, but they're not afraid of him/her winning. They're afraid of RFK Jr (for example) pulling a bunch of Dem votes away from Biden Kamala if he runs on a 3rd party ticket. He may not even come close to winning, but one man could be the deciding factor in an entire election. Edit: The other possibility is that he'd be able to force concessions on the Dem party platform to keep him off the ballot... In either case, running on a 3rd party ticket may not be about winning.

Seems like the new CDC director has admitted that they lost the public's trust, and they're doing their best to get it back. A good start would be to detail what they actually screwed up to lose the trust... https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/16/cdc-director-public-trust-00116348

I'm not disagreeing with you because I just don't know. But some kind of reference pointing out where that suggestion came from would be helpful.

It sure isn't competence.

Where’s the PROOF where’s the EVIDENCE heck where’s the beef! Given the less than 2 minutes between my post and your insightful reply, I can only conclude that either you're a speed reader, or you really don't want to see any evidence. Edit: Did you at least read the 3 Bank Memoranda? Interesting stuff... With a promise of more memoranda as the subpoenas make their way through... Not looking good for Team Biden.

https://oversight.house.gov/the-bidens-influence-peddling-timeline/

Agreed. It's a WAG. Even just an assumption. But they have to forecast it so everyone in the company is using the same assumptions when they make an investment recommendation. Otherwise, there's no criteria to compare the opportunities.

Agreed, and if it's a choice between weed and nothing, obviously "nothing" is safer. If it's a choice between vaping and nothing, "nothing" is safer. But if it's a choice between smoking and vaping and between weed or booze, weed and vaping are both safer. I'd like to see the studies that look at the whole picture. For example, weed related car crashes and alcohol related car crashes, added up. Did they go up or down when weed was legalized? As an example, I can 100% predict that car wrecks would increase if they banned scooters in Thailand. No scooters, more cars, more car wrecks. But the number of deaths would go down.

Short answer... Yes. But longer answer is that there are long term infrastructure projects that won't pay out for decades. Some of them will last for over a century. In order to be consistent when financially modeling those projects, there has to be a forecast that everybody in the company works from. Even if they're wrong, all the models will be consistently wrong and they can still rank projects against each other. I still remember starting off in the oilpatch in 1980, working with a forecast that oil would be at $200+ a barrel by 1986. I don't recall the forecast price for 2050, except thinking "ouch". BTW, I suspect oil would have been over $200 if Reagan hadn't made a deal with the Saudis to bankrupt the USSR. Went as low as $8.

Just don't be cheezed off if your basket case, scrap scooter zips by your house at 100KPH in a few days. With a new, zoomy paint job.

https://babylonbee.com/news/white-house-says-there-is-no-direct-evidence-that-hunter-biden-exists "It's a shame we didn't start questioning the notion of this 'Hunter Biden' fiction a long time ago," said Meet The Press anchor Chuck Todd. "How could we have been so blind to the deep deception of the far-right? The whole thing was a hoax! This is an attack on democracy.

Healthy people don't spend as much on pharmaceuticals, so I'm not seeing that happening...

I don't know about Thailand, but back in the USA "Mook" would be a dead giveaway.

Nah, It's an entirely expected reaction to woke PC liberal policies. If you take the bad orange man out of the picture, what American would disagree with Make America Great Again? PC liberals...

You're suggesting that a $15K e-bike is a viable alternative to a $5,000 Wuling Mini EV? I have a Specialized bike in the USA. Made in Taiwan.... But you're right. I'd never pay 15,000 USD, EU or GBP for a bicycle. The value just isn't there unless you're competing at the top levels where 1/10 of a second can make the difference between 1st and 2nd place. Or you go for an ostentatious show of wealth. When did I work without a WP? I often toured factories, placed orders and followed those orders on a business visa. Never turned a wrench. The reason I know that was legal is because I'd occasionally have to get a visa extension by going to the Public Security Bureau (CN Immigration) with a chopped copy of an open PO and a letter from the factory. They'd cancel my existing visa and give me an extension until the end of the year. During the 2008 Olympics, they weren't doing extensions so I'd fly out to Seoul for a weekend and a new visa. I'm in Kanchanaburi right now on a visa run from China. Where I'm on a 10 year tourist visa. I haven't worked since 2017. Don't need to....

Sadly, the US gub'ment has lost pretty much all credibility when it comes to statistics like "the border is secure" or "safe and effective and necessary for kids". They want so bad for people to buy EVs that I don't trust them.

I had 3 in Thailand and still have 2 in China. Never spent more than $800 and that was for one in Thailand. In China, the most I spent was $600 USD. I loved them as an alternative to a pedal bike. But they are no substitute for 4 wheels, doors, a roof, and seat belts when it comes to safely getting the groceries, especially in the rain. I even thought about importing them to the USA until the news covered the fires they cause. Making a few hundred $$ on a product that may burn down a million dollar home, with associated fatalities, didn't seem like a good risk. Of course, if you're selling a $600 e-bike for 15,000 Euros, you can probably make the numbers work. Edit: On a related note, my US car insurance company started sending me solicitations for e-bike liability insurance a year or so ago. So that's apparently a thing now. But I don't know if it just covers road hazards, or includes cover for structure fires. I don't have an e-bike in the USA so I didn't look into the details.

Lord, I hope it's not the EV owner, because I typically get $500K of coverage. That doesn't even cover one nice condo...

Id agree with you there. But I wonder if there's been a number published about the actual likelihood of an EV fire (perhaps by brand?). Is it a one in a million fluke, or 1 in 1000 and you better keep them outdoors? Edit: And I also wonder whether the typical auto insurance policy covers an entire apartment building if yours is the car that sets it off. I can see where it may not be just the car's fault if there's a problem with the charger, etc. So I would anticipate a lot of finger pointing between the parties.

For those of us who would gladly buy an EV as our other car, I wish they'd scale back on the battery size and cost to build a cheaper EV with about 100 miles of range. That would do about 80-90% of my daily driving which is usually a 30 mile R/T to town and back. Something along the lines of the $5,000 Wuling mini EV. I don't even care if it meets highway safety standards because I'd never intend to take it on a highway. (In fact, I'd propose it as an island car for where I live, not allowed over the expressway bridge to get off the island) Just a much safer alternative to a scooter for getting the groceries. Charging wouldn't be an issue, because it would be in my driveway before and after every <50 mile trip. For a road trip and towing my boat, I'd still go with my soccer Mom Toyota van. Edit: I'd add that makes me a good candidate to buy a cheap 2nd hand EV, because I don't really mind if it's lost half its range (if the price is right, of course).

I don't claim, nor aspire to be Thai. But I worked with several dozen who were extremely competent. I'd give a Thai a much better chance of succeeding in a western company than I'd give a westerner to succeed in a Thai company. Edit: You know how to get an extremely competent Thai to come work for your company? You offer them 1/4 of what you'd have to pay a marginally competent westerner to fill the same role. Instead of 1/8, like most western companies seem to try...