Etaoin Shrdlu

KLIM was produced by Borden back in the day. You know, Elsie the Cow. And Elmer, with his glue, made from casein, another dairy product. But nothing to do with Lizzie Borden, fortunately. Once upon a time, in an earlier millennium, Borden was my client and I visited a number of their facilities around the world, including a KLIM plant in Denmark. Tall towers with hot, dry air evaporating the milk produced by contented Danish cows. Or maybe it takes wocs to produce KLIM. But Borden eventually went belly-up and I don't know which company, if any, took over KLIM. Borden was a huge conglomerate with a large chemical division, but also owned Crackerjacks and many other consumer products. Strange that such an iconic company is gone.

Waiting for powdered bourbon.

Daughter going off to college in the US was also the reason my wife applied for a visa to visit the US. She had visited before, albeit on a single-entry visa, some twenty years before so it wasn't her first visit. During her interview she was asked almost exclusively about my status here, where I worked, etc. They asked her for my passport, which she did not have with her. Fortunately, she was approved.

The FDA determines what is a medication and what isn't. Many items that are sold in over the counter here would require a prescription in the US or may be banned. What is the active ingredient in the weight loss meds and how is classified by the FDA? Some general info on importing drugs into the US: https://www.fda.gov/industry/import-basics/personal-importation

Another thing to consider is Thailand's tax rules regarding permanent establishment. If your employer has revenue coming from Thailand, it may become taxable in Thailand if the company has an employee or representative based in Thailand.

The Thai Red Cross accepts blood donations from foreigners and actually encourages donation, especially from those who have O negative blood. Expats and tourists with O negative blood and who need a transfusion face potential issues here since O negative is almost completely absent among the Thai population.

Just think of it as an offering that is intended to convey positive sentiments. It kind of exists in the same universe as advertising copy that extolls a product as being "better" without stating what it is better than. Although it can be puzzling to try to determine exactly what a "good one" is, and may vary from person to person, I wouldn't waste too much time on it. I would be more concerned if someone parted with an "up yours!".

Many countries actually accept a Thai DL without an IDP since Thai DLs use English. I think most people don't bother to get an IDP unless they are going somewhere that requires one. Some car rental companies in the US insist on an IDP because there are several states that won't accept a foreign DL without an IDP even though the US is signatory to the 1949 Geneva Road Traffic Convention. Not being legal in one of those states could possibly void the rental car's insurance, so it is potentially a big issue.

Permanent residents are required to register with their local police station. When they do, they are issued a police book. These police books have red covers.

It seems that nothing is consistent. Last year I went to the DLT to obtain an international driving permit. In prior years they wanted a copy of my red police book along with the blue tabien baan and of course my DL. This time they turned away my police book and specifically asked for my pink card.

To my ears, the volume of content on streaming services seems to vary considerably. If there is music or violent scenes with explosions or gunfire, the volume is excessive, yet in the same movie the dialogue is often so low that it becomes difficult to understand. I have frequently wondered whether the streaming services like Netflix somehow degrade audio quality in order to conserve bandwidth when streaming their content. This article states that it is just inconsistent volume levels within the content: https://www.techhive.com/article/579229/streaming-tvs-invisible-annoyance.html. The article also mentions some solutions for specific types of TV or media players. I'm not entirely convinced and suspect that the audio signal is possibly intentionally degraded by the streaming service.

If you are a US citizen, the consular official will want to know about your status in Thailand and whether you have strong enough ties here to make it certain that you and your wife will return after a visit to the US and not stay and try to change her immigration status there. Your wife should take along your passport to show your immigration status and be prepared to answer questions as to where you work, how long you have been living in Thailand and similar. The stronger your ties to Thailand are, the better her chances of getting a tourist visa.

This isn't correct. Insurance follows the vehicle, not the driver. If the vehicle was insured for voluntary third party liability cover, that insurance should respond unless other exclusions apply. This would be true even if the driver passed away as a result of the accident. But that said, it may not be worth pursuing the issue. It's only a couple of fence posts and some chainlink fence.

When you wrote "bike", did you mean bicycle or did you mean motorbike? Based upon the description of the damages, I assume you mean motorbike. The primary source of third party liability cover for damage to your property would be the insurance covering the motorbike, not the tourist's travel insurance. If the motorbike is only covered by the government-mandated Por Ror Bor scheme, there is no third party liability cover for damage to your property. But It is quite possible that the motorbike is covered for third party liability under a voluntary policy, so the tourist or owner of the motorbike needs to provide you with details of any insurance that may cover the motorbike and the owner should notify the insurance company of the incident. Travel insurance policies often don't provide third party liability cover for damages arising out of the use of motor vehicles by the policyholder. Still, you should also ask the tourist for details of his travel insurance, but it may not provide thitd party liability cover.

He would fade if the Evangelicals figure out that the blizzard and frigid cold weather being sent to Iowa by God during the Republican caucuses is a sign of His displeasure at their choice of political party.

Kiatnakin Bank may be smaller than the large Thai banks, but it does carry a decent credit rating by TRIS: https://ir.kkpfg.com/storage/updates/credit-ratings/20230418-kkp-tris-59-2023-en.pdf. But bear in mind that TRIS ratings reflect a company's comparative strength relative to other Thai companies and is not an absolute rating of financial strength. It specializes in auto loans, which is possibly reflective of its history as a non-bank finance company going back several decades. Here's the company's account of its history: https://bank.kkpfg.com/en/aboutus/our-history. You can see that the bank isn't afraid to disclose that Kiatnakin Finance, one of the companies that combined to become today's Kiatnakin Phatra Bank, was one of the 57 finance companies that "discontinued" business operations in 1997 due to the financial crisis that started in Thailand that year. I don't think that Kiatnakin Phatra presents an inordinate amount of risk, but don't know how consumer-friendly it may be or if it offers high interest rates for relatively small FCD accounts. Foreign currency deposit accounts are not protected by the Thai government's deposit protection scheme.

My read of article 20 of the US-Thai DTA that specifically deals with social security, leads me to believe that anyone who is a US citizen cannot be taxed by Thailand for social security payments even if they also have Thai citizenship.There is no carve-back for Thailand to tax US citizens who also hold Thai citizenship in article 20. Article 21 of the DTA deals with pension payments made by other governmental jurisdictions (federal, state, county city, etc) in consideration of past employment by those government entities. These pension payments are not social security payments, so I think that the carve-back in article 21 enabling Thai taxation on these payments to those who hold Thai citizenship is solely for these non-social security payments. But that's just my opinion and I'm not a tax expert. Take a look at the DTA yourself and in particular articles 20 and 21.

Yes, It could be either. Or perhaps there really isn't a restriction. But other functions within the Paotang app are probably restricted to Thai nationals. I'm thinking of the purchase of securities or mutual funds, taking out personal loans and the like, so perhaps this would also apply to lottery tickets. But I don't know. Let's see if a foreigner who has purchased lottery tickets with the Paotang app will advise.

Ok. From what I can gather, the online tickets are only available via Krungthai Bank's Paotang app. If there are restrictions on foreigners purchasing online lottery tickets, and I am not saying that there are, it would seem that such restriction likely would come from KTB and not the GLO. I do not know whether KTB imposes such restrictions, but apparently the person whose post I quoted originally must have been told this was the case. So perhaps the issue isn't whether foreigners are not allowed to purchase lottery tickets by the GLO, but whether KTB imposes limitations as their policy. Or perhaps the poster I responded to was given incorrect information. Perhaps a foreigner who has registered with KTB's Paotang app and purchased online lottery tickets with it could advise.

The full sentence that sparked my post is "Digital ticket sales to foreigners are unavailable and of course prize winnings are not permitted to be paid to foreigners, from KTB." I know that there is no bar to foreigners purchasing physical lottery tickets from vendors or from redeeming winning tickets. I don't know whether foreigners are indeed barred from purchasing online tickets. Do you know?

The post that I was responding to stated that foreigners were not allowed to purchase online lottery tickets and I was speculating as to the possible reasons. Are foreigners allowed to purchase online tickets? Or is the post to which I was responding incorrect?

You're correct. I checked my SSA correspondence and 1099 form and I did not receive backdated payments. My mistake.

I have permanent residency, so I'm familiar with the process, although I received it about 25 years ago when it was slightly easier than it is now and wasn't as expensive. I think I spent less than 50,000 baht all in. Technically, I'm an immigrant (and resident) and not a tourist, but not being able to buy lottery tickets online does not bother me. And to correct an error on my part, the residency requirement on the lottery ticket I bought in the US years ago wasn't state residency, it was US residency.

At any given time, the majority of foreigners in Thailand are tourists who won't have tax ID numbers or bank accounts, so I suppose it might be to avoid issues with this if a tourist were to win. Easier to ban sales to all foreigners than to check to see if they are resident with tax ID and bank account. Perhaps the same issue would arise with printed tickets, but much more difficult to administer. Of course this is just speculation on my part. In a similar vein, I bought a lottery ticket in the US some years back and read the small print on the ticket. It stated that sales were only permitted to residents of the state where I bought it. Not too different, I guess.

The phone call from Manila SBU only takes about 10 minutes or so and they just ask questions to verify that it is really you. I was also instructed to fill out and submit an application for a new SS card although I still had the card I was issued some time back in the 1960s. My benefits started within a month or two and for some reason I also received about three months' backdated payments even though I did not request it. This was six years go.