nausea

Awakening the Bear is not a good idea, as Napoleon and Hitler found out. The Russians may have many faults in Western eyes, but one thing they are good at is War, at least in their own area of influence. Escalatory dominance and all that.

I'm twisted on this, my father was an Irish immigrant brought in to work in the English coalmines, so I'm not against migration per se. And one has to admit these were usually young fit males who caused some tensions in local communities.

Try Paris.

My family is staying very silent on this topic. I suspect the wall will break at some point. Doesn't seem like either of the mainstream parties has a real answer. It's all down to energy costs, I suppose. Why Britain, with its rich reserves of energy should be affected is beyond me.

Here's some investment advice- buy at the bottom, sell at the top. I can't see Bitcoin going away anytime soon. Whether it's reached its nadir yet is a moot point, but a truism of investment advice is you can't time the market. Personally, if I had a few pennies to spare, I wouldn't be adverse to buying, as a purely speculative investment. Just remember "not your keys, not your coins".

Yes. Those most suited to survive, will survive, on a statistical basis. However, I think there are a lot of niches, here and there, which depend on particular environmental circumstances. A general breakdown in society will kill most of these niches off. But, no doubt, enough will survive to bring it back to fruition when environmental factors once again become favorable.The sign of a strong society is its ability to protect the weak and marginalized, it all adds to the gene pool.

I look at the funding for some of these groups and I do wonder whether it expenses genuine Thai opinion.

Ukraine needs to get NATO involved with boots on the ground, otherwise they're screwed. It's just like logistics. Russia can keep pouring in men and equipment. That's why America and Europe are so leery, it would be a close run thing. There is no guarantee the West would win. Logistically, all the advantages are on Russia's side. Pick your fights carefully I say.. You screwed up on this one.

True, those Donbas people are so repressed, I expect a popular uprising at any moment.

The human cost in Ukraine is on humongous levels. Will someone please say stop.

Basically, Thailand has no interest in pi@#ing off, China, India, Russia, or the USA. Talk about stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Been there, Done that. In my younger days.

Who knows what really happened here. Reason I don't drive in Thailand. It's great if you're one of these people who has an iron will and never drives when you are drunk. I realised a long time ago this isn't me. Now it's always my Teerak who drives me.

It invites violence. I must admit, I was rather gobsmacked when a colleague of mine said he'd never been in a fight in his life. Always talked his way out of it. Different generations, I suppose. Almost a rite of passage in my generation, didn't really matter whether you won or lost, you just had to be willing to fight.

"Jai Yen" is a good phrase to learn.

I'm doing an ongoing cost benefit analysis, at some stage the Phillipines is gonna look very attractive. At the moment, cos of my long residence here, I get stuff very cheap, it doesn't make sense to relocate. That may change. My UK State pension constitutes about a third of my total pension. The problem is my committments: a woman, dogs, a pick-up,, all the usual stuff. I would really like to end my days here, whether life will allow, we 'll see.

To address the question, walking stick defense is probably the best option. At 62, you can get away with carrying a cane. Personally, I'm all for risk avoidance. Don't bounce so well, these days (67). Apart from that, get psychologically attuned to violence, as Mike Tyson said: "everyone has a plan until they get to get punched in the mouth". At 62, how you get this, I don't know. Maybe do some Muai Thai stuff, just to ground you in reality. As far as I can see most Thai confrontations are based on hidden knives, guns, or mob violence. I can tell you one thing, having dabbled in a lot of these things in my youth, traditional martial arts won't work, and I include MMA in that definition. It's all great for one on one confrontations with rules.You might also want to look at "Get Tough" by W.E. Fairbairn. Good enough for the British commandos during WWII, good enough for me. I must say you should've learned all this stuff in the schoolýard, coming to it this late in the game is rather telling of modern society. To sum up: risk avoidance, develop your situational awareness, psychological toughness, and have one or two tricks up your sleeve if push comes to shove, and give yourself an edge, carry a cane.