impulse

Thailand has a lot more than the climate to worry about. May as well spend money on the problems that they can affect. With 1% (+/-) of the world's GDP, Thailand could go back to wood huts and walking and it won't make one iota of difference to the earth. Which puts them in the enviable position, if they choose, to let other countries decimate their economies. I'd suggest improving wastewater treatment and trash collection. Those would have an immediate positive affect on the quality of life for everyone in Thailand, tourists included. And absolutely no disagreement about "the science" behind it.

I always love pulling these out, on the outside chance they'll be seen by someone with budget enough to buy beach cleaners. And to shame the cities that don't bother. Especially the ones that make their money on tourism, both foreign and domestic. And I love Songkhla town and Samila Beach... Shameless plug. The bottom photo is right after a storm blew through. If you know Samila beach, that's why the water's roiled. They were right on top of it.

They sure don't like Musk since he quit squelching conservative viewpoints, do they?

And it was happening 1,000 years ago, and 10,000 years ago, and 100,000 years ago.

I'm told he was a manager for one of the major oil field service companies (retired). Generally, those guys are very diplomatic and some of the best at conflict resolution because they have to deal every day with the Straw Bosses you refer to. And not from a position of authority. The saying goes "The customer may not always be right, but they're always the customer". Even roustabouts and roughnecks. Edit: He may be an outlier, and maybe demon rum got him that night. But having been both the company man and a vendor at different times, I'd be careful painting someone you don't know with a broad brush.

I'm curious whether Sumet Sumetho has indoor plumbing? The answer may 'splain the rapid growth and unusual size.

If it was a women's sport, and there were extra points for style, I may tune into that one. But only if the time zone worked out right. And it would fit right in with recent Olympic "activities".

First time it ever happened to me, too, in 20+ years of working, doing business and traveling to China. But lots of things have changed post-Covid. Many for the better. Some, not so much. I may have just caught the ISP caller on a bad day, but why risk it?

Got a call from the ISP's security section after I was back for 3 days. They said someone on our network was using a VPN, and that needed to stop. Not relishing the idea of getting banged up or kicked out, I quit using the VPN.

They may have had the answers, but privacy policies prevent them from revealing them to anyone but law enforcement. It's nobody's business but the guy traveling.

And I have this vision of a press conference where they present him the check. Followed quickly by a suicide or a death by a rare flesh eating bacteria. (That's a Boeing reference for anyone not following that story)

When I drop a piece of buttered bread on the floor, it either lands butter side up, or butter side down. It's the same thing. Sometimes, "the science" is simple. XX or XY. It only gets complicated when you start discussing the 5 second rule for eating stuff dropped on the floor.

The final report found that every year, each individual feral cat in Australia kills 390 mammals, 225 reptiles and 130 birds. That adds up. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/australias-cats-kill-two-billion-animals-annually-180977235/ Australia is at war – with feral cats. By 2020, the government wants to kill two million free roaming cats, a large chunk of the total feral cat population, which is estimated to be between 2 and 6 million. Some areas of Australia have gone even further. In the northeastern state of Queensland, there’s even a council offering a $10 ($7) bounty per feral cat scalp – a policy People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has lambasted as “cruel.” https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/26/asia/feral-cats-australia-intl/index.html Of course, I'd rather see it done as humanely as possible, but culling feral cats may be a necessity if you want to protect native wildlife.

Best of luck to the OP. It's not hard to imagine someone sitting on an idle house that they're not using and don't want the hassle of marketing it while they're out of the country for the next 6 months or so. A few bucks' rent and having someone to care for the place would be better than letting it sit vacant, risking break-ins and general entropy. But, if you don't ask, you'll never know. And best of luck with the treatment. That's been my life here in China for the past 18 months. I came back after Covid so she wouldn't be alone during what looked like her last few weeks. A year and a half later, she looks better than she did 18 months ago. Don't lose hope.

Someone help a po' boy out here. The Sun is blocked where I'm staying. (Probably not a bad thing to avoid brain rot) Can someone give me the Reader's Digest version of where they found him and how?

The difference being only a matter of degree. You know the old story about how to boil a frog...

I don't know about a whole party, but if you want to see what happens when, all of a sudden out of thin air, they replace a candidate that got 14 million primary votes with a candidate that got none, look no further than the USA in 2024. The MSM seems to love it.

It's not milking (so much) if they also got the rabies immune globulin in addition the the vaccines. That one is spendy. The international clinic in China where I got bitten wanted to charge me $2,000 USD. So I went to the local clinic and they charged me a few bucks for just the first vaccine shot. Then I finished the course of vaccines in Thailand, also very cheap. I have no opinion how smart that was, You'll have to get that advice from a medical expert.

Have they actually confirmed he got on his BKK flight, or are they counting on a post from "a user"? Any updates from the Finns, or the airline, or any vetted officials in Thailand? A user, identifying themselves as Pol Rithikrai, who works for Thai immigration confirmed Simon had boarded Flight no. AY142 on July 26 at 05:46 am. But despite the crucial update, Simon's whereabouts in Finland are still unknown. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/mum-brit-missing-thailand-issues-33403276 That's rather weak sauce if that's what she's basing her assertion on. If someone wanted to throw the search off track, seems like posing as an immigration employee and posting that he's left Thailand would be a good way to do it. And I'm a little skeptical of an Immigration employee posting confidential information like that in a public forum, and not through official channels.

Advertising group suspends brand safety unit after Elon Musk’s antitrust lawsuit The World Federation of Advertisers, or WFA, confirmed Thursday that it would halt its nonprofit initiative Global Alliance for Responsible Media. GARM was started in 2019 in part to help advertisers avoid having their promotions show up alongside content they deem harmful. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/08/ad-group-suspends-garm-after-of-x-elon-musks-antitrust-lawsuit-.html Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) Brought to you by the free speech advocates at WEF. https://www.weforum.org/projects/global-alliance-for-responsible-media-garm/

My nomination for meme of the week.

Hunter, Schmunter. The scary thing is that Biden's sitting across the negotiating table from foreign leaders, many of them adversarial, who have that kind of dirt that could send his kid to prison.

I miss the olden days when it was perfectly acceptable to punish (and even fire) employees who did their jobs wrong, risking hundreds of lives. If they're shielded from consequences of their incompetence, what's the incentive to do it the right way? Edit: If I had a lament there, it would be that they didn't fire the higher people responsible for the rushed conditions and the lack of training. And prosecute anyone who falsified documents.

I hear there was a run on plus sized panties around all the liberal newsrooms after they figured out Harris would have to ad-lib, with no crib notes. They forgot the first rule... Be careful what wish for.

Don't they have to apply for asylum in the first safe country they land in?