John Drake

Please identify Michael Bridge in the headline listing when posting these stories so I'll know to give them a miss.

Not much background information in this story. More here: https://www.naijaprey.com/nigerian-man-flees-thailand-after-murdering-a-jeweler/

How much did the Markles win in their last lawsuit against the Mail? Wasn't it something like 1 pound?

A number of "tweets" are done in a thread format that unrolls as many messages as the author needs to make his point. Personally, I like Twitter because it is the fastest breaking news outlet available. The Abe killing was a perfect example. Traditional media sources were flatfooted for hours, while Twitter accounts brought the news within minutes of the murder. Compare breaking news on Twitter to Aseannow, for example. A half day or more might go by on AN before important stories get noticed. It's not that AN is particularly slow. It's just like a lot of other traditional outlets that take their time to get things sorted. Obituaries of the famous are another example. Twitter is valuable, I think, although I think Musk is on firm ground about all the fake accounts. Some blue checks on Twitter have a million or more followers but never get more than a hundred or so likes, retweets, or comments. Clearly, something is amiss there.

No, it wasn't.

Chinese celebrating Abe's killing. https://www.newsweek.com/shinzo-abes-death-celebrated-china-1723012

How do I reconcile this story with this one?

Back to online learning? Not just useless but damaging.

It's July 8th already. Doesn't anybody know? Wonder if this means Immigration will want more than 10 baht of stamps now on the 90 Day mailed return of receipt?

Many good films in his career. Too many to list. A glance at his filmography shows just what a landmark figure he was in the industry.

But it is the story selected. There is a much bigger story that this one hides. That is the fact that the US dollar is surging across the world against all currencies. That is the story. Instead, the piece selected focuses, as usual, on the problems for the UK, a relatively minor country off the mainland of Europe with a marginal effect on the rest of the world. Maybe look for a source other than the BBC for the true importance of what is going on. And, btw, I didn't say it was "written here," I said it was "published" here.

You can always tell who Asean Now publishes their news stories for. Instead of the above, why don't we see "The US dollar surges to a two-year high against the British pound?"

The major issue is: are the US and UK even capable of strengthening Taiwan's defense? What sort of deterrence do they have after using up so much of their arsenal in Ukraine? You've got Putin constantly throwing a left jab in Ukraine, while Xi winds up for a right hook knockout blow.

So ASEAN is abetting criminal Russian behavior. Is a formal alliance next? Europe and North America should respond with appropriate sanctions and trade tariffs for all ASEAN countries.

A "premium" tropical destination is Hawaii. Thailand is not and never will be Hawaii.

True. And every now and then they even have an event for unlimited downloads over a two or three day period.

For the past decade I've read that increased US production is what brought down oil prices and also was the best unofficial "sanction" against Russia. Why that policy was abandoned in the face of Ukraine is puzzling.

There is a limit of five books per day there. Or ten, if you register. The place is particularly valuable if you're doing research--they have scholarly articles as well. As is, I often need to order an old, out of print book from ABE or through Amazon. But Z certainly cuts down on this number by a huge factor.

Sure looks like Russia is winning everywhere. Along with pal China. Wish it wasn't so, but that appears to be the case to me. Russia produces a culture of criminality wherever it gets a foothold. Need only look around in Thailand to see it's so.

They don't care if Thais eat chicken or not. They reoriented chicken production first to China and then a few months ago to Saudi Arabia. That is why the price of chicken has doubled in Thailand.

You do get it by drinking regularly

A "pothead" is a habitual user. It doesn't have anything to do with legal or illegal. As it happens, btw, I do not drink alcohol. I don't know the statistics on alcoholism among Thais and foreigners in Thailand. I would guess that among foreigners, it is high, as many don't seem to have anything else to do. But I couldn't say. I do think the hostility expressed in these posts from users is revealing.

I see a lot of elderly potheads getting aggressive, angry, and paranoid about their claims for the benign nature of this drug. Sort of belies their arguments.

But better than a Michael Bridge "opinion."

My old Samsung started behaving exactly as you describe a few weeks ago. Wasn't the battery, wasn't the charger, wasn't a dirty port, did a factory reset. Still dropped to zero and wouldn't charge. Went to Samsung and a mall phone stand. Both said it was the phone. Nothing to be done. As this was my cheap backup phone, I went to AIS and got another. For the same price as the Samsung bought five years ago, got something called an Oppo. Not as good as my other top end Samsung but good enough.