placnx

The OP could get an account at Citibank in the US. OP could check whether their Thai bank has a correspondent relationship with Citi beforehand, but it is quite likely.

It would make sense to ask the Thai destination bank which are their US correspondent banks. If your account is in such a correspondent bank, the SWIFT transfer is quick and easy to resolve if there is a snafu.

The ARIS IAEA SMR book has over 200 reactor designs. On pages 255 (actually 265) and 267 (actually 277) are thorium designs. Bill Gates has a project in the works, but the Ukraine war is a complication: https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/nuclear/bill-gates-nuclear-startup-wins-750m-loses-sole-fuel-source

No, trade the reactor for the immobile Chinese submarines. Maybe no secrets in the export model, though.

It's normal in the US to inquire about a doctor's success rates in major surgeries. The one time I asked in Bumrungrad, I could feel that the question was not appreciated. Answer: 50-50, while the Johns Hopkins surgeon claimed a 90% success rate, without a robot needed. In the US it can make a big difference where or by whom you get treated, just as here.

The triads go back hundreds of years. Logically, they have been operating in Thailand for a century or more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_(organized_crime) This seems quite informative: https://books.openedition.org/irasec/327?lang=en

In Chiangmai I transferred stamps to my new passport, then went to the 90-day drive through window to do the first 90-day report. The next report was rejected anyway, so it might be advisable to do the first report by mail. After the rejection, I sent in a 90-day report by EMS mail and am waiting today for delivery.

Doc said that it was not dangerous.

I went to one of the CMU gastrointestinal specialists who takes appointments in the Excellence Building on the other side of Suthep Road from the new Sriphat OPD Clinic. I learned that everybody (BKK-CM, Ram, Sriphat) is using the advanced technology colonoscopes these days which use blue/green light and zoom to better discover polyps and judge their level of danger. In the Excellence Building they apparently don't have an anesthesiologist, and I had a colonoscopy once under those conditions. Once was enough to see one's inside scrolling by. So I went to Ram for a colonoscopy. A polyp was seen but not removed or biopsied.

What if you need to do a 90-day report (by mail or online) before the annual extension? Would you use the number of the canceled passport, or the new passport not yet entered into their system??? Seems problematical.

In Chiang Mai I was told that, after transferring retirement visa stamps to new passport, I could go around the corner to the 90-day drive-thru window to do that operation and have my new passport number recorded. Just this week I tried doing the 90-day report online, and it was rejected. So having sent a new report by EMS, I am waiting for the receipt from Immigration, but the 4-day holiday is delaying a response.

There are four curves for four regions in Thailand, and it's really difficult to figure out which one is for the North.

Maybe it's good if someone could find out when the latest vaccine versions are distributed, assuming that both the Northern and Southern are available here at different times. Otherwise one could end up at the tail end of a vaccine version's usefulness.

Unfortunately, hospitals give conflicting advice as to optimal timing. Is it rainy season or January-June? "For Thailand, an expert recommends that people get the vaccine during January – June." https://www.bangkokhospital.com/en/content/influenza-can-prevented-by-vaccination Apparently, in the case of the Southern Hemisphere vaccine, the vaccine is "now" until 31 December. https://www.phukethospital.com/package/influenza-vaccine-with-4-strains-the-2022-southern-hemisphere/ https://www.bumrungrad.com/en/packages/flu-shot https://bewell.co.th/influenza-vaccine-2022/ (see WHO vaccine table at bottom of page - may be outdated) WHO's current vaccine compositions: Northern: https://www.who.int/news/item/25-02-2022-recommendations-announced-for-influenza-vaccine-composition-for-the-2022-2023-northern-hemisphere-influenza-season Southern: https://www.who.int/news/item/23-09-2022-new-recommendations-for-the-composition-of-influenza-vaccines-in-2023-for-the-southern-hemisphere When will the new Southern be available? Does it alternate here seasonally with the Northern composition?

There was a documentary on al Jazeera about Thai berry pickers in Sweden (currently not available online). https://www.aljazeera.com/program/101-east/2021/5/6/swedens-thai-berry-pickers

The weird font on the first link (the Sachs website) is very difficult to read. It starts out making the US help for Ukraine as the culmination of a 20-year neocon disaster. That is simply not plausible. Neocons have historically had influence in Republican administrations, while in Democratic interregnums they held out in think tanks on K Street. Iraq 2003 was a true neocon disaster.

In the Yeltsin era Sachs was a promoter of giving Russians vouchers representing shares in state enterprises. People sold out cheap, and this led to the rise of the oligarchs and of Putin.

Zelensky's NATO move could be considered a response to the fake referendum.

If this war continues as it's going now, Ukraine will have earned its place of honor at the NATO table. Will Hungary stand in the way?

NATO expansion is inconvenient for Putin since it is an obstacle to reestablishing the Soviet Empire.

Putin doesn't care about his own people and how many "volunteers" may die in his Ukraine adventure.

Sabotaging the pipelines is Putin's way of sending a message to threaten pipelines and other undersea infrastructure in Baltic and North Sea, Europipe 1 and Baltic Pipe, for example.

In light of what's happened to Ukraine, Poland and others are very happy that they could join NATO. Russia's autocratic habit and imperial tendencies are the problem.

US could sink the entire Black Sea fleet with conventional weapons.

Debt trap diplomacy has been a problem because China was charging near market rates while other big creditors charged low rates for development loans. The Chinese loan contracts typically contained clauses regarding confidentiality of terms and denying the borrower the possibility of renegotiating under the Paris Club arrangement with creditor nations or a similar setup for commercial loans through banks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Club Due to bad publicity the Chinese position seems to be softening. The rise of the US dollar will make default on development loans more likely, especially since the rising cost of imports (many priced in dollars) will add strain to budgets and the balance of payments. The real estate issue in China is so big because real estate was one of the few (previously) productive places to invest domestically. The stock market is still more like a casino. Now the central government is leaving it up to local authorities to resolve the unfinished construction, but it's a good question how this will work since land sales by local authorities have dried up, but were previously around 30% of revenues. Also, there is a lot of unofficial debt incurred by local and provincial entities. In the past, people had a $50,000 annual quota to obtain foreign exchange for use abroad. People would pool with relatives to buy real estate abroad, some in Thailand, no doubt. It's more difficult now with more questions about the purpose for sending cash abroad.