Callmeishmael

Ethiopian food is amazingly good. I used to eat at the old Blue Nile in Berkeley whenever I was over there. I don't get to Pattaya very often, but if there was a good Ethiopian restaurant there I would definitely check it out!

Well, I have to say that the half-time show is not keeping my interest!

I must confess to doing something similar in the water off of Huahin many years ago. The girl was a real trooper - she carried on even after being stung by a jellyfish!

For me the early 2000s were the best!

It is thought that there are substantial natural gas reserves in the disputed offshore area. If Cambodia tried to drill a well out there the Thai Navy could quickly put an end to that project. Could the Cambodians do the same if the Thais started drilling? I suspect that they could not!

The Thai letters say "Green Party", which I didn't know was a thing in Thailand!

I grew up being fascinated by ancient history - Greeks, Romans, Persians, etc. Later I studied and taught the history of China, Japan and Korea, as well as the four early river valley civilizations.

The Tories were in power for 15 years, Labour has been in power for 1 year. Which party can really be blamed for 'breaking' Britain?

^ Or Greenland!

I don't see much mention of Maduro's successor & what is happening with the Venezuelan democracy movement. The candidate who opposed Maduro and who seems to have really won the last election is not being put in charge of the country. Instead Maduro's VP is now the nominal leader. We haven't heard much talk about restoring democracy and that doesn't seem to be the goal here. Instead, we have removed on authoritarian leader and replaced him with another, who is just more amenable to US economic goals. The US has a long history of supporting 'friendly' authoritarian leaders. This has frequently turned out to be a big mistake. It seems that Trump has not learned anything from history.

Except that he was given UK citizenship by the Tory government, not Labour.

So, a drone attack against some random soldiers is ok, but a drone attack against the man who give those soldiers orders is cause for outrage?

Brando!

It's interesting that the country with the highest confidence in Trump is Nigeria! Perhaps they could build a fake gold palace to lure him away from the US.

The states impacted by this are Virginia and the New England states. How did they vote in the 2024 election? Petty minded vengeance might be part of the reason for this decision.