OldChinaHam

Does anyone here recall reading James Surowiecki's "The Wisdom Of Crowds"?

I thought not.

"In this fascinating book, New Yorker business columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: Large groups of people are smarterthan an elite few, no matter how brilliant–better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.

With boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology, ant biology, behavioral economics, artificial intelligence, military history, and politics to show how this simple idea offers important lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, run our companies, and think about our world."

Most here, I can tell, do not enjoy even the minimum amount of reading to get them through the day. So don't read this book, and I really do not expect you to after what I have seen here.

BUT, the concept is simple. Crowds are smarter than the individual when pooling their knowledge or guessing things like their own weight, smarter and more accurate than any given individual. This means that no matter intelligent your group, you can collectively still be very smart in guessing something.

THE FIRST QUESTION WOULD OBVIOUSLY BE "What might be the best first question to ask this group of regular posters at the TV FARANG PUB?"

Or maybe no one here has any interest in finally trying to find out how collectively smart you are?

So far I don't think I have seen anyone ask a really smart question.

Then what would be a smart question to ask this group?

(If you do not have the time to read this book in full, I think there is a fairly good summary here: http://www.cooperationcommons.com/node/413)

Now please free to ask away.

"Who are you actually searching for and why do you care so much as to where they live?"

Oh, I am not searching for anybody.

But don't you find this site interesting?

And where they live?

I have no interest at all.

The thing is, I don't believe I have come across a site quite like it. The humor is extremely bizarre in some cases, but also I think anyone happening on this site would find it funnier than almost any other, just to read much of the "banter".

But no, I am not searching for anybody.

And,

It is not as if I still do not appreciate it.

Because I do.

Dylan?

Is that really you?

A question has recently been plaguing me.

Here on this worthy forum, I have noticed that there may be those who, due to whatever warped reasoning, may be posting as if they were actually outside of Thailand, but are not.

Now I don't know why they might be motivated to do this. I just know that it might be possible that someone here is falsifying information to mislead others into believing that what is not true might be true.

And my question is: Why in the World would someone do such a thing? This seems to me to be such an underhanded way of accomplishing something, who knows what.

I would like to know Who might be doing this? And how many?

Now yesterday, maybe it was the day before, I asked a simple question about those strawberries. But I did not get a simple answer.

I now want to pose the obverse to better determine what is going on in the minds of some of you people.

Maybe someone knows what is going on here, I dunno, but I would just appreciate more of your input.

Thank you.

The only place for electric power cables is underground.

Wherever I go, there are just too many power outages.

All this flickering means that the cables need to be buried.

Or, you can move to Japan.

They almost never have outages in Japan, even when winds are 100 knots the power stays on in places like MiyakoJima, an island south of Okinawa.

During the last major typhoon which went right over the island, I tried calling a hotel during the peak of the typhoon.

Everything was working during winds of about 130 Knots..

Total loss of face

When you don't keep the power on.

It is true I would like to have a rest. But if I do not keep up the good work, I may never reach 20,713 posts in time for Christmas.

"I agree I should start cooking my own food even though it is more expensive to cook than to eat at my next door neighbor restaurant."

Why not just eat at your next door neighbor's?

"yau dja kwai"? I bet this might be "YouTiao" which is a long cylinder of dough which puffs up when plunked in boiling oil. The way you spell it might be Cantonese or another dialect if we are speaking about the same unhealthful food item.

Yes, stay away from that. But if you can find the whole wheat flat dough cakes that are charcoal baked after being stuck to the inside of a 55 gallon metal drum, then this is the best thing to have. They are sprinkled with sesame seeds before baking. These are called ShaoBing, and where I used to go the street vendors, they would sell them by the hundreds in the early morning. Pretty wonderful. It is the charcoal baking that does the trick.

The music at retailers is probably researched and then set at optimum levels to maximize buying behavior.

If we are to be rats in their maze, then we must face the music and dance to Tesco's tune.

"I might however be able to point them in the right direction if they were looking for one e.g. behind the night bazaar in CM."

Didn't someone post something about various "scams" and recount one instance of those who offer to point out places of interest to tourists, and then ask for money to replace a "stolen" cell phone?

I read about that on TV but I cannot find the exact thread.

Next, it will be Elvis?

Or is Tom Jones really there?

Interesting.

I saw Jim Croce and Randy Newman at the Main Point before Croce Croaked.

(Both were good and there were only about 40 people in the audience, if I recall correctly. The Main Point was just a coffee house with seating for very few. Really dedicated to great music, though.)

Hi Muchogra,

Actually, Chou Dou <deleted> is Mandarin for smelly bean curd, a particular favorite of mine with plenty of garlic and chili. The black one is also bean curd but it does not have much flavor, it is only bean curd cooked in such a way that it takes on a black color due to the tea (I think?) that it is cooked in. It is white inside. If in Mandarin, Zha would mean deep fried, and the lighter colored 2 dishes are deep fried in boiling oil, usually in street markets or just by vendors. And then served with cabbage on top. About USD0.15 on the streets 30 years ago.

Very healthy and tasty. I have been eating this for about 35 years and I'm not dead yet.

Anytime you find Chinese around, then DouFu will be there too.

ONE THING THOUGH: I do you know if in CM anyone is producing large quantities of DouJiang? This is Soy Bean Milk, and is produced in very large quantities. In order to produce Bean Curd, you must first have lots of cooked soy beans in a soupy mixture which is pressed down after the beans are ground. The solids become the bean curd after the fiber is discarded. The Bean Milk we drink and it is very cheap and nutritious and a great substitute for cows milk, or goats. I used to drink it by the gallon for USD0.10. After about a month, no one would come near me.

But I would like to know where they make Bean Curd here to maybe ask if they sell the raw bean milk before processing and adding sugar.

This is usually produced late at night so that the fresh doufu can be sent to the shops for sale in the early morning.

I don't know whether there is such a thing in CM though.

Glad you, too, are interested in beans.

There is no better food.

Not even Soylent Green.

"usually, if you stop biting it"

I should not ask, I know.

But, you are referring to.......?

"all the planes disappear as they approach us"

Where do they disappear to?

You do not mean that they are intentionally disappeared, I guess.

Just with a cursory look at the http://www.tmd.go.th/en/province.php?id=2 offering, it does not seem to be very high resolution. Or, maybe I am pressing the wrong buttons and not seeing the higher resolution format.

Xen, are you a fellow sub-woofer sufferer? The bass is taking over.

MM, are you a sub-wifer sufferer? The wives are taking over.

It is the blasted Blasting News programs on restaurant TVs that are most formidable and life threatening, in any language.

"Why would that question plague you OP?"

Madness, maybe?

And, too much Rostropovich, no doubt.

• 09:00 - 10:00 PM
  Old School with David Garland

  Discuss This Playlist

• 09:39 PM

  Magnus cesar Otto Anonymous

  • Eric Mentzel, tenor
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  • Sequentia
  • Benjamin Bagby, conductor

  Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 58939

  length: 06:17

Where I come from, it updates ROUGHLY every 15 minutes.

They don't operate on time anywhere around here, apparently.

http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V7e/observe/radar/index.htm?type=0

But I did not expect that before I arrived.

Actually, I was not in the Army. It was oil, and I was in Sattahip.

Sorry you must leave your cats to come to Thailand.

Speaking of duplicity, I do not suppose anyone here is old enough to recall this film?

It is rather good.

Sir Lawrence, and all.

Highly suggest you watch it if you have not,

Before you come to Thailand.

There may not be a copy here.

Or, you could drop the facade and admit to being my landlady?

Ms. Mary,

Are you the Mary who Michener writes about in Tales of the South Pacific?

I am beginning to see the resemblance.

JD,

That is very interesting to me to hear you say you were first in Thailand over 40 years ago. I was first in Thailand in 1971, and then back a few times after that.

It has been so long since the first time, I have forgotten most of my impressions.

If I said it hasn't changed, I'd be lying, which I never do.

Better get here fast while the getting is good.