Lacessit

It varies between offices. When I lived in Chiang Mai, visits to Immigration were always an ordeal, mainly due to the number of people. When it takes an hour or more, even with an agent holding your hand, it's too much. OTOH, my visits to Chiang Rai Immigration have always been less taxing, and the staff are always helpful.

IMO he did not get the credit he should have as a social commentator, albeit as works of fiction. IMO his book on organized religion and its corruptions, "One More Sunday" is one of his best.

No. It's not hard to get along here being polite and respectful. 12 years here, have never seen a fight between a farang and Thais, let alone one that was unprovoked. IME ( younger days ) people who go looking for trouble usually find it.

A good reason to scratch Phuket from my bucket list. I wonder what percentage of Russians holidaying there still support Putin.

If you are into reading, "Condominium" by John D. MacDonald is a fictional novel about the development of high-rises on transient land in the Florida Keys, and the aftermath of a hurricane. He wrote it more than 40 years ago. "1ft change in 100 years = not worth mentioning IMHO." You seem to have missed the statement "and most of that rise has occurred in the past three decades." Give it another 50 years. Not that either of us will be around to see it.

I was one of the first to install solar panels on my house in Victoria. With the feed-in tariff I got at that time, my electricity bill dropped to nearly zero, and the capital cost was paid back in two years of operation. High capacity battery storage is the next step along the road. I can't see it happening in Thailand soon, fossil fuel-derived electricity is still cheap here, and a government run by incompetents and kleptocrats won't be willing to spend on infrastructure unless it helps them line their own pockets. Eventually, market forces and carbon pricing will bring about change.

IMO negative gearing definitely distorts the housing market in Australia. Some politicians from both sides of the divide are in it up to their eyeballs. Call me a socialist if you will. However, I fail to see how having $5 - $10 million in superannuation is needed for a comfortable retirement. There used to be something called a Reasonable Benefit Limit, which appears to have petered out in 2007. Resources tax is screaming for reform. The Minerals Council of Australia paid $10 million for an advertising scare campaign aimed at preventing more taxation of the gas and minerals assets Australians own. Best money they ever spent, it saved the mining companies billions. Was the election of the teal independents a process of natural selection, from electorates sick of being taken for granted? Josh Frydenberg might not agree.

That photo is 13 years old. Permit me to doubt he looks the same now. IMO he never intended to attend, too risky.

It's a better place for living, I am not sure if it is when one gets to the pointy end. Cost of private hospitals. When I was flying back and forth from Australia pre-COVID, I could feel myself relaxing as I flew into Chiang Mai. Every time. There is no way I could live as well in Australia as I do here. Just for starters, the cost of rent in Oz would take 50-60% of my age pension. Here, 15% if I still rented. Add in the fact women here are not ball-breakers, and want to keep me happy, what's not to like?

I did predict in a previous thread Putin would not attend APEC. Apart from any security risks if he was outside Russia, there is also the high probability of a coup against him while he was not in the Kremlin. IMO he has a lot of disgruntled oligarchs and generals waiting for the opportunity.

Don't have any issues with VLC media player, been that way for years. But then, I have a Linux OS, perhaps it's just another example of Windows strikes again.

It very much depends on where one sits on the income scale. The quite rich do extremely well with negative gearing, capital gains discounting, and family trusts. Perhaps the biggest tax rort is superannuation. Maximum income tax rate in Australia is 47% including the Medicare levy. However, if someone earning $400,000 sticks it into super instead, they pay 15% tax, or even less if their fund is invested in shares with fully-franked dividends. I am not envious of the rich, but anyone who tells me they have it hard in Australia with tax is talking out of their backside. I have a friend who is a multimillionaire. He is quite proud of the fact his accountant has managed to acquire a Commonwealth Senior's Health Card for him.

Agree. I remember an article from years ago in The Economist which said the number of babies a woman had was inversely correlated to their education level. Religions have something to answer for too, given their liking for a high birth rate. Which demonstrates how anachronistic they are.

The ultimate woke term is substituted for non-PC chairman. It's chairpersibling.

I can remember back in the day measuring stack emissions in milligrams per cubic metre. A fairly simple calculation. Then trying to reconcile the result with a US standard which quoted grains per cubic foot.

A ton is 2240 pounds, there are short tons and long tons just to add more confusion. A TONNE is 1000 kilograms. I can remember wondering how America got to the moon without going metric.

African-American. What the hell is wrong with saying someone is black? I don't mind being called white.

Natural selection is alive and well in politics. Everybody favors the politicians who tell them what they want to hear. A candidate who expresses harsh truths is weeded out in pre-selection even before they get to face the voters. That is why scientists and engineers are almost invisible in politics, and also why it is dominated by lawyers.

They need it more, they usually have children, parents and grandparents in Isaan to support.

You got on without paying for a ticket?

Biden comes across to me as a decent person. Trump surrounded himself with people who told him what he wanted to hear, and stroked his ego. Biden has had the sense to recruit competent people to the various portfolios. AFAIK there are none of the ructions that went on with the Trump lieutenants. As for Harris, she is the bane of every insecure male - a smart and savvy woman.

You think he is probably right? AFAIK putting up prices reduces demand, it's basic economics. Even Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are capable of admitting they are wrong occasionally.

I don't think I was reading disinformation, just predictions of pollsters that did not come true. Not the first time they have wound up with egg on their face.

I was not aware of that. I just have the injection. I have never been offered nitrous oxide.

IMO p##sing off all women voters except the religious ratbags was a gift to the Democrats from the Supreme Court, when it turned down Roe vs. Wade. Trump then made it worse for Republicans by endorsing the decision.