John Drake

Early on, I was told that Thai and Asian standards of beauty sought a heart-shaped face. So, why are all these halfs with elongated horse faces the standard of late?

Diamond Jim!

And Russian gangsters.

Seems the only way out at this point.

You have more faith in Russians than I do. A quick google of "what percentage of Russians back Putin in Ukraine," shows considerable support for him. I still see only two possibilities. Either Putin backs down from his nuclear threat or Biden/nato let him go ahead. This is the same scenario Kennedy/Khrushchev backed themselves into over Cuba. Khrushchev backed down and was dethroned as a result.

Where? The current rump Ukraine? Occupied Ukraine? Occupied Crimea? Russia itself? Look, I don't know. I'm just asking questions. Where does all this lead? Personally, I have no idea.

Okay, Ukraine is now winning the war. And they will keep fighting to regain the territory Russia invaded and occupied. They likely can capture it. To stop that, Putin says he'll use nuclear weapons. If he does, what does Ukraine do? They cannot retaliate with their own nuclear weapons--they haven't any. What do Biden and Nato do? Use nuclear weapons in the Russian occupied territories? How does this end? You tell me.

It's bizarre in its way. The one country Thailand has not targeted with a tourism campaign is the US. In the past seven or eight months, they've announced campaigns to bring the British, the Scandinavians, the Germans, South Americans, Malays, the Indians, the Chinese, and now the Russians (again). And as you say, the Russians are about to be penned up. They Chinese already have been penned up with no sign they'll be let loose any time soon. But that is who Thailand targets. One of the fastest ways to turn around that dollar/baht exchange rate would be to get American tourists buying baht with their dollars. But Thailand clearly doesn't want Americans to come here.

Everybody is in a box. Putin cannot back down. Neither can nato. Whomever does so would be finished, their credibility destroyed. Putin appears to be playing for all the marbles. What do you think will happen if nato retaliates with nuclear weapons. And if Putin does in fact "face the consequences" with his own people, please note that a solid number, perhaps the majority, behind the scenes think Putin is a "dangerous compromiser." They want a harder line.

How does he do that? If he does, he'll be torn to pieces. What's his personal incentive to do so?

It should be made clear to China (and India) that they will not escape the consequences of their Russian ally's actions. They should know now they will not be able to pick up the pieces and enrich themselves. One side, here, will need to back down and lose face. If Putin does, he's likely out. And then what happens when we find out that all the time Putin really was the moderate voice of Russia and what is there now is even worse. If Biden and Nato back down, then the door is open for Russia to repeat the very same scenario all the way to Berlin in the West and Afghanistan in the south.

You might get both.

Maybe they'll get around to being more serious about life when Putin drops a couple of H-bombs on them.

Or Thailand could promote this exchange rate with American tourists. Oops. Forgot. They want to focus on Russians instead.

Great! Now Thai cities can operate just as efficiently and safely as American cities.

Even worse people than Putin, if you can imagine that, are waiting behind the scenes. No, the problem is the countries that have aligned themselves with and become enablers of Putin. China and India, namely. And of course the gamesmanship Erdogan is playing in Turkey. The door is slamming on China because of their plotting. The same, however, has not been applied to India. It should be. India is a Russian lackey. (And, btw, in the biggest absurdity of all, futures are green across the board, nasdaq, Dow, S&P.)

I wish.

How many bankruptcy plans does this make?

The only thing that will fix this are automated guardrails that lower for pedestrians, while tire spikes emerge simultaneously from the road.

Perfect timing once again, as Russia and Putin declare mobilization and threaten the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Move all your belongings to the second floor--if you have one.

There is a lot of investment up there, including Thai investment. The only problem is it's across the river in Vientiane.

Nowhere was I making a case for a university degree to be utilitarian. That is the role of vocational schools and some community colleges in the US. As for your claim, indeed, some people successfully run companies and have no college degree whatsoever. Universities have more complex functions.

I'll give you one: business. I was continually asked to write 15-20 letters of recommendation at the end of every trimester to third rate graduate business schools. Amazingly, none of the students was ever rejected. If you want a real discussion on this issue, btw, you should attempt to be more honest, instead of trying to bait me with phrases such as "should be interesting." Why should it be interesting for you, in actuality? I doubt that it is, because you're trying to set things up for endless argumentation.

Because many of my students from Mahidol were going to the UK to get degrees from places like Oxford Brookes, which is third rate, as are a lot of the former polytechnics that got a facelift a decade or so ago. I've held full time faculty positions in Germany, the US, and Thailand. I've seen what happens. There is a pipeline from Thailand to the UK for worthless graduate degrees.