Etaoin Shrdlu

It's proven that beer makes one smart. It made Budweiser.

I just completed this quiz. My Score 90/100 My Time 67 seconds  

It used to be possible for foreigners with PR to legally purchase and own firearms in Thailand. The law was changed a few years ago to restrict gun ownership to Thai nationals. I don't know whether foreigners with existing permits were grandfathered.

"Elderly man found decomposed by a stream..." The stream had nothing to do with it. The karaoke girl caused him to lose his composure.

Death penalty? Nothing to worry about. We all know that foreign sentences don't count in Thailand.

Joe Rogan promoted the hoax that schools were providing litter boxes for students who identify as cats. This put him in the company of MTG, Lauren Boebert and other completely unhinged Republicans. Amazing that millions would follow this nut job.

October First this year is "offerings to ancestors day" in Khmer culture. Called Pchum Ben in standard Khmer and Hau Doan Ta in at least some versions of northern Khmer dialect. I'm not aware of any public ceremonies.

I just completed this quiz. My Score 70/100 My Time 143 seconds  

The shooter's defense will be: "I wasn't going after Trump. If I were going after Trump, or any Republican for that matter, I would have carried an elephant gun."

I received a letter while in grad school inviting me to seek an interview with the CIA. I did not pursue it.

If you spend any amount of time in Kantharalak town in Sisaket Province, you'll hear the northern Khmer dialect spoken.

In my case, it was quite gradual. I think it started some time in my fifties and slowly progressed to where it is today. I think there have been studies that show a correlation between the amount of reading one does and the incidence and severity of nearsightedness. I have wondered whether it was the shift from reading paper documents to reading documents on computer screens where I could increase the size of the text to reduce the strain on my eyes that helped. I really don't know, but the difference is remarkable.

My understanding is that nearsightedness is caused by the slight elongation of the eyeball causing incoming light to focus short of the retina. LASIK re-shapes the cornea slightly to correct this. I think with age, some people's eyeballs lose some of this elongation and the focal point of the light starts to shift closer to the retina. Had I undergone LASIK surgery in the past, it is possible that now the focal point of the light would have shifted to a point that was over-corrective of my previous nearsightedness due to the elongation of my eyeballs diminishing. Others have mentioned to me that their nearsightedness lessened with age. I know some people who have had to return to wearing glasses years after LASIK, but I am not sure of the cause. Perhaps someone with experience in this field can help.

My nearsightedness improved from 2.00/2.25 in my forties to 0.50/0.75 now. I no longer need glasses to drive. I have presbyopia, so use reading glasses. I contemplated having LASIK at one time. I'm glad I did not go through with it.

I heard DeWine's interview on NPR radio today and he described the Haitian immigrant community as "hard working". He did mention that obtaining an Ohio driver's license did not require completing a driver's education course and that this was an issue with newcomers. But in general, he seemed to be welcoming of the Haitian immigrants.

Based upon his debate rhetoric, one would think that Donald Trump is running for dog catcher of Springfield, Ohio.

Cletus Spuckler says Apu's eating Snowball II Old man yells at cloud

That's right. The US public wanted vengeance and it did not matter much who Bush 43 went after. It was probably ok to go after al Qaeda in Afghanistan, but it just chased OBL into Pakistan where he was protected by the Pakistani intelligence services. US military had no plan for nation-building as that's never been their remit, yet they spent 20 years and trillions trying. 43 got us in with no plan to get out. He had seven years to come up with something. Obama had eight years and he also could not figure it out. Trump had four years and managed to sign the surrender agreement with a very unrealistic timeframe for exiting. Biden inherited Trump's flawed timetable and had six months to comply and not much wiggle room under the terms of the agreement. And the Republicans want to say it's all Biden's fault?

More likely just JD's family eating possum.

Apu eating Snowball? Somehow can't see it.

Springfield. Immigrants eating cats. It's an episode from The Simpsons, right?

Yup. Republicans through and through.

The Republican candidate would have to be a particularly odious person for a staunch Republican like Dick Cheney to endorse a female liberal Democrat for president.

Never should have gone into Afghanistan in the first place. Whose idea was that, anyway?

I don't think it is likely that the TRD will seek to tax undistributed income within US IRA and 401k accounts, although I don't think there is anything in the US-Thai DTA that expressly precludes it. I think it is technically a possibility, but I don't see it as likely. But who knows? I tend not to underestimate the capabilities of the TRD if they want your money, Somchai or not. I have heard people who have been audited say that the Thai tax net isn't very wide, but it is very deep. I think that the TRD has the ability to obtain transaction data from the BoT with respect to inward foreign remittances. Somchai won't find anything, but the TRD computers might. But I don't think the TRD has the resources or perhaps the political will now to chase bargirls upcountry with foreign remittances.