jas007

Apparently, all of the above only gained widespread use in the so-called industrial age, with the exception of sugar, although the refined sugar in use today is something everyone should stay away from.. Before the advent of cheap seed oil, Thais used concoct oil for cooking, primarily. A much healthier alternative. MSG was introduced in the 1940s. As for sugar? There are different types of sugar, but today's refined sugar is probably the worst. Anyway, it's all very much an unhealthy way to eat, and it's no wonder people are developing an obesity problem. The problem isn't limited to Thailand. The USA currently has a huge obesity epidemic, along with skyrocketing rates of diseases. It can all be blamed on junk food, for the most part. Cheap junk food to feed the masses.. RFK, Jr. is trying to put a stop to some of the abuses, but he's up against powerful interests that make money feeding people junk and that make money keeping people sick and in need of treatment and medication.

How is anyone in 2025 even discussing this nonsense?

Robin Hood has good burgers. The most expensive beef burger is the Smothered Jack Daniels Burger. Prime Burger can also be good. Anyway, there are also other burger places around, but for consistent quality, I like those two.

You can bet WalMart isn't going to sell items at a loss. Trump should know that. I'm not sure what the margin is on some of the things they sell, but it may but be all that much.

Here's some free advice for any country wanting to attract long term expats or tourists: let them in on three conditions: they have health insurance, they can't work in the local economy, and they have a regular source of income to support themselves. Make it a 10 year renewable visa, and so long as no money is earned in the local economy, there will be no tax issues. Problem solved.

I looked at those the other day, but the rules aren't exactly clear. For example, you invest xxxx amount of money, and then they decide how long your visa should be valid for. Anywhere from 1-5 years, or maybe it's 1-10 years. Still, it would be nice to know what you're getting for your money, I think.

I'm not sure I understood your question. Typo? Anyway, it you're self employed, then you make your own decisions, adjust to what you see, and move forward. Nothing wrong with that. If you screw up, it's your problem. My main point is that the AI world may be progressing faster than you seem to think. That's not unusual. Many people are asleep at the switch, including many investors. My only interest is to make easy money, and lately, in the world of AI, it's like taking candy from a baby. Most people don't realize what's coming, and by the time they figure it out, they will have missed the investing opportunity of a lifetime. It's a big deal, and I'm not sure what you can compare it to.

You should probably listen to GammaGlobulin. Or, it you don't believe him, listen to some of industry leaders. And what you'll find is that most believe that within the next year or so, AI will be doing most if not all of the coding. At some point, the AI agents will train other AI agents, and the curve becomes exponential. And from there it's out of control, if we haven't already reached that point. As for "biased" papers? Maybe the bias is at your end? Maybe you and people like you want to remain employed and remain relevant. Casting doubt on AI, and the speed of development is a simple way to hang onto a job, if you ask me. Remember this scene from Office Space?

Of course. Ever since 1913, when the Fed was created. The chart looks like a downhill ski slope. Anyway, there's nothing to keep it from going even lower under Trump, especially since that's what he wants and because the Fed put is alive and well.

Do you agree that if the value of the dollar decreases, the price of oil will rise? If so, then at some point, the $600B might not be so much any more. Right? Surely you don't believe that if the dollar is slowly depreciated over the next 10 years by money printing, then the price of oil will drift lower as well?

It's not as if all that money will be invested tomorrow, right? It's a long term strategy. As for the price of oil going higher? No problem. Of course it will. Let Trump be Trump and watch him continue to destroy the value of the US dollar. Of course the price of oil will increase. Or rather, the purchasing power of the dollar will decrease. Either way, the Saudis can afford it.

I think you can hire a car from Pattaya for around 3300 baht. Or, you can go to Bangkok and take a train to Hua Hin. The cost of the train ticket is almost nothing. I was actually thinking of doing that just the other day. There's a new express train from Bangkok. The only drawback is that the train leaves early in the morning? You would have to spend the night in Bangkok. A guess you could call it an adventure.

I remember one time in TQ on Beach Road, back 25 years ago, there was a girl dancing during the day that was supposedly 49. She didn't look it, though.

That seems to be the prevailing wisdom. But the people that think like that seem to be focused on the US dollar as the world reserve currency. But will it collapse all at once? Or just fade away? If history is any guide, it'll just fade away. Little by little, it will become less relevant. My only hope is that I won't be around for any sudden collapse.

Breakfast today and tomorrow: Australian grass fed ribeye. Maybe some eggs, a naval orange, and some coffee. I was at Tops in Central Festival the other day and the girl behind the counter looked at me like I was nuts when I ordered three. I forget the cost , but I bought those and a bunch of other junk and the grand total was around $108 US dollars. I guess the three steaks were half of the total. I can live with that.

Trump is just being Trump. And anyone with a brain would know that Trump would always be Trump. Your best bet would be to pay no attention. Does that make any sense?

Yes, but if you get repeatedly "divorce raped," how do you take care of your kids?

But that's exactly what it is. It's a contract. Unfortunately, at least for now, a contract with no expiration date. To be sure, some people have all sorts of rationales as to why it's more than just a contract, but that's all they are. Rationalizations. Anyway, at this point, none of this affects me. There are still girls chasing me around, but I have a conscience. I could have a girl living with me by tomorrow. And I could get married, have kids, and have lots of fun. And I would surely drop dead long before any of them turned into old ladies. But how would that be fair to them? Or any kids? I'll pass.

I understand, I really do. I lived through that as a kid. It happened to my mother. My father was one of the best in the world in his field. One of a handful in the world. My mother was as good, if not better, in the same profession. And yet she chose to marry my father and stay at home and raise two boys. Her choice. And when there was a divorce 15 years later, she had a problem. It never affected me, financially. My father paid child support in an amount that would be considered humongous, today. And he paid to educate myself and my brother. No questions asked, at least through undergraduate school. Anyway, my point was this: what if marriage was redefined? What if there were no lifetime contracts? That may sound unfair, but would it be, if everyone knew the deal going n?

Yes, I live in Thailand, and yes, I've experienced power outages and internet outages. But everyone knows those are just temporary glitches. Small localized outages. Just the other day, my internet went out. It was fine on my phone, but the 5G in my condo wouldn't work. I finally just turned off the computer and went to lay around the pool. By the time I got back, everything was working again. One time in Phuket, the power was out for the better part of a day. But they told everyone that was going to happen, in advance. They were doing some work on the electricity in the area. In America, that kind of thing doesn't happen, but for a natural disaster or a grid failure. Hurricanes, tornados, floods. All understandable. But sometimes, it's more widespread and can mean trouble. Anyone remember the 1977 blackouts on the East Coast? Lightning hit a power station somewhere and a cascading effect shut down a large section of the power grid. It was a mess.

When you talk about marriage, you're talking about a contract. And in most cultures and for most purposes, that contract never expires. It's a lifetime contract. Let's suppose I don't have a problem with the concept of marriage, as such, I just object to the terms of the contract. Let's further suppose that I might be OK with a contract that expires after five years, let's say, with an option to renew if both sides are agreeable. Get married and see what happens. It the contract is not renewed, that's it. Over. Done. Finished. As if it never happened, for purposes of the legal system. Not unlike a longterm apartment lease that the landlord doesn't want to renew. In the case of a renewable contract, I'd be fine with the concept of marriage. My problem is with the legal system and its enforcement mechanisms. My guess is that you wouldn't like a short term marriage contract. You rolled the dice and won, and you want to lord that over everyone else as if you had a crystal ball and would always have been able to choose correctly. Don't kid yourself.

To be sure. There's lots of blame to go around. Different legal systems. Different cultures. In any event, I was at work one day and had a moment of clarity. There was no way I would ever trust my freedom to chance. No way I would ever turn my life over to a legal system that was rigged. If that meant never being married in this lifetime, then so be it. And here I am, almost 50 years later and I don't regret it at all.

You're probably right about that, I hope. But it is a very real possibility. Have you ever been in an area that had a power blackout? One minute, everyone is in the grocery store, ready to check out. And then, nothing works. And so you leave your groceries in the cart and drive home. And on the way home, no traffic lights. And when you get home, no electricity. No nothing. That happened to me one time. Fortunately, the situation resolved after a few hours, but what if it hadn't? No one was really prepared.

Fine. I'm pretty sure, though, you haven't seen what I've seen. What kind of childhood did you have? How many times did your father lose half of everything he owned in a divorce settlement? How many divorce cases have you looked at? The legal files? The reality of what happens when two people decide they hate each other. Maybe you dodged the bullet. Misogyny? Not really. Just someone who recognized a broken system early on. I won't go into too much detail, but in one of my very first jobs after law school, that's all I dealt with every day. Divorced people. Divorced people who hated each other. One time I counted the file cabinets. 75 file cabinets filled with divorce paperwork. And every six months, half of those file cabinets had to be emptied out and the contents placed in storage, simply to make room for all the new cases. For me, it was just a job. They paid me money, I did the job, and at the end of the day, I went home. But I did notice what was happening to men, primarily. They were up against a rigged system. And for them, there was no escape. One time, I sent a guy a letter about his divorce, and when he received it, he went into his back yard and blew his brains out. I could sit here all day and tell you crazy stories, just from my own person experience. One of my friends was once handling a simple divorce case. The man was not from the USA and didn't want to comply with a court order giving his wife custody pf his kids. He wanted to take his kids back to the Middle East. What did he do? He killed them all. Wife and two kids. Problem solved? If your life turned out OK, great. You dodged a bullet. But I'm sure if it had turned out otherwise, you'd be one of the first people to complain.

I understand. You may be right, but I think I have a point as well. Extreme maybe, but possible. Do you take medicine? Do you need anything made of plastic? Do you consume anything that was transported to your place? Where does your pension come from and how is it paid? What if your Thai bank account was worthless and could no longer be accessed? People seem to think they can disconnect from an irrelevant grid while the grid continues to function, providing them with banking services, medicines, and other of life's necessities. We saw how that played out in America, during COVID. People with office jobs stayed home and played around online, collecting their stimulus money and paychecks. And yet some people continued to work, collecting the garbage, driving the trucks, keeping the power grid operational, picking the crops, and so on. Everyone pretended that wasn't happening, but those people were there, keeping the world from collapsing. Many of them illegals who had np real choice.