impulse

My GF from high school was a horse person. He raised them, rode them, and ended up creating a shelter for retired race horses. She often came home and regaled me with stories about getting to "violate" horses like that, just as a matter of normal health care. (She was also pre-vet so she did some apprentice work). I never felt the urge, but I can understand why a curious soul would wonder what that's like, having seen it done repeatedly. And it's not as if the critters feel violated. For them, it's just like a normal visit from the vet. I was offered a very long rubber glove once on a visit to the barn, but I politely declined. There was certainly no stigma attached.

Those are the clearly demarked areas.

Confirming yet again my contention that the wee hours are best for sleeping. Especially in tourist traps.

Holey moley. We left a guy up there? I hope they left him enough Tang. TBH, that could have been taken in a zillion studios anywhere in the world. Not that I believe that it was, but it's hardly convincing proof. I don't know why they'd have a problem with a credible hi-res photo from Hubble or one of the others. I've seen a few, but they're not very convincing either. And they could be taking photos of tracks left by unmanned vehicles.

Yeah. It's those silly brown people. Don't they know they need to buy a car so their kids can eat on the road and then they'll quit crying? Like we do back home...

Why wouldn't he let up if he's getting all the concessions he wants from The Great White North?

Can anyone clue me in on why the UK police would suddenly show interest in a crime that happened 11 years ago in Thailand? Not that they shouldn't have been interested all along. But why now? Also, did Tinsley spend prison time in Thailand or the UK (or both)?

A distinction that's probably lost on the folks back home contemplating spending their sweaty tourist money in Thailand. Or not... Perceptions count. Do what you will. Just crop the photos.

What? Funding that allowed Ukrainians to keep fighting and dying, but didn't come close to allowing them to actually win? That would take foreign boots on the ground and risk WW3 and Armageddon. The sooner the money dries up, the sooner the killing will stop. On both sides. Then they can start spending that money on rebuilding.

Gotta give you an A for effort, explaining why it's Trump's fault that Putin took Crimea during Obama's term and Donbass during Biden's term. Steely Dan had an album whose title described it. Pretzel Logic.

That makes it harder to eat on the back of a moving scooter, though. At least without getting grease all over everything.

Neither do I. But my first thought looking at the photo is that it appears they have been "worked over". Even if that's not the case, perceptions count when you're in the tourism biz.

I'm not against tying them up. I'm suggesting that maybe a country that depends on tourism should have cropped the photo of a couple of tourists trussed up like that. It is not a good look, and it could come back and bite TAT in the butt. Especially with all the scabs and bruises and dirt on their legs.

Seems like that's the problem. Not the sharp tip.

They probably should have cropped that photo so it doesn't show them trussed up like they're going to be put on a 17th century slave ship. Not a good look for LOS.

Keep it up, Dems. That's a winning formula for 2026 and 2028.

I wonder who they really pissed off?

In Cajun country, that's called lagniappe.

So what you're saying is that this isn't the fault of Trump's plan. It's been building for years, maybe decades. And we've been getting gaslit by Dems and lefties that the economy under Biden was ginger peachy keen. BTW, I tend to agree with you. The employment (and many other) indicators have been fiddled for so long that I won't even blame Biden. The people wielding his auto-signature stamp do hold some responsibility, though. But they didn't start the lies. They just perpetuated them. to get Biden Kamala elected.

You mean COBOL? Who's the ignorant fool? You obviously heard that, probably from Rachel or Joy. Because if you knew anything about programming or had seen it in print, you'd know that it isn't COBALT. I'll take Big Ball's word that there's something more to it than a Y2K-ish trick in COBOL.

Could Trump's plan fail in a spectacular fashion? It could. The Dems are doing their best to sabotage it, and the country along with it.

When I look at the price per passenger, and multiply by the usual number of passengers, I'm amazed that they can afford fuel, let alone nanny state standards, (not to mention amortization of the vessel itself.) My company insisted on the boats to our offshore Thai platforms meeting international standards. And we paid out the nose for it. There's no way tourists in Thailand would pay those prices. They'd simply go elsewhere.

Call me a meanie, but I'm in favor of cutting Medicaid benefits to people over 150 years old.

I cycled the busy streets of Bangkok for about 6 years when I worked there. On a recumbent after my bypass surgery and I needed the exercise but couldn't risk a fall. I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the visits to the Elephant Ear via the Khlong Toei crossing. I found Thai city drivers (in general) to be pretty good about not running me over. But I don't have a lot of road miles in the boondocks of Thailand. In the past 5 years, I've lost 2 friends in the USA to bike/vehicle accidents. I guess it's down to risk tolerance, though some valid statistics would be helpful.

Is the battery removable for charging? Some of my recent e-scooters are lights on whenever the battery is in and connected. But I'm just guessing, having owned about a dozen different e-bikes and e-scooters in China and Thailand. Possibly a safety thing to remind me to take the battery out to reduce risk of fire. They also have a "find my bike" feature that uses GPS and requires power all the time to enable that feature. On those, I just disconnect the battery, even if I'm not going to remove it. It's as easy as unplugging an iron in the house. And I figure it makes the scooter safer from battery fires. The older ones (20 years ago) had lead acid batteries that required some disassembly to remove them, and those batteries were too heavy to bring inside. On those, turning off at the switch turned off the lights. In any case, post back if you do find the real solution. Edit: Apologies that I didn't see the photo in the OP. From China here, it takes a few minutes for the download, and some photos are just plain blocked.