placnx

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https://bewell.co.th/influenza-vaccine-2022/ (see WHO vaccine table at bottom of page - may be outdated) WHO's current vaccine compositions: Northern: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.

A nasal vaccine should be quite effective in preventing Covid infection. The latest WHO list of vaccine candidates has much more detail on vaccine projects than back in 2020. Now there are 172 vaccines on the clinical list, and number 38 is intranasal - Phase 3. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines

I saw a photo of the Chiang Mai gate which was demolished in 1967. It was clearly a defensive installation which required traffic to wind through an S-curve to enter.

Now we are in the 21st Century (but unfortunately have to live with the United Nations created in the last millenium). What some countries did in those previous centuries is no longer appropriate behaviour, i.e. slavery, wars of agression, bribery of foreign officials, and debt trap diplomacy. I wish that whataboutism would be outlawed on this forum.

For many years gold has not been a good investment. Lately it performed opposite of what is expected. When inflation arrived it should have gone up, but the propect of rising interest rates interfered.

The residential property market in China has not reached rigor mortis yet, but if the brilliant Xi Covid policy continues, anything is possible.

Yes, so it would be galawk pad pet or gaeng pet (spicy stir fried squirrel or spicy curry). If you like really spicy, you could do gaeng pa (jungle curry). As for preparation, I'm told that they sear/roast the squirrels, then skin, debone, eviscerate, and chop the meat to fry or put in the curry.

You can do a gaeng pet or pad pet. Do you want more details?