GammaGlobulin

Hey, Man! Thank you for another great comment, and I do appreciate them. Still, I would NEVER live in a shipping container. Even a 48-foot shipping container would be too claustrophobic, in my view. So, I ask you: Have you ever investigated the potential of Enameled STEEL houses? Because, basically, this is what I was thinking of when I began this OP. Steel Houses have many advantages, and there is at least one steel house, originally manufactured in the late 1940s, still being occupied today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lustron_house If I were the manufacturer of steel houses for use in Thailand, I would design one that was easily transportable using a single giant construction crane. I would have a large HOOK concealed in the peak of the roof. Then, any time my neighbors got noisy, I would just call a company offering a big crane and a large flatbed truck. I could have my house picked up and then delivered to any new site, a process which would be almost as simple as moving a medium-size refrigerator. I first began dreaming of this concept soon after I finished my first Buckminster Fuller book. (I would NEVER, however, wish to live in a geodesic dome due to its spherical shape, and the way noise easily propagates from one side of the hemisphere to the other side. If one is taking a leak in a bathroom on one side of the dome, the sound would be easily detectable in a kitchen located on the opposite side of the hemisphere. So, living in geodesic domes is, for me at least, impractical. Plenty of volume inside a sphere, but, still, a sphere is impractical for long-term living.) ALSO: As you know, steel roofs are among the best for insulation from heat generated by solar radiation, if one uses the proper insulation below them. A copper roof is even nicer. But copper is more expensive. Obviously, for stability during relocation, my house would incorporate THREE hooks, and not just one large hook. And, people transport yachts along our highways, and on container ships, all the time. There is nothing odd about this concept.

The downside to buying in Thailand is the lack of control of the environment around the home you purchase. Are there zoning regulations, for example. Does a cottage industry suddenly move in next door? A new neighbor decides to buy 10 more barking dogs. I would never buy property in Thailand. A house that could be easily moved seems the best option. Leasing land cannot be very expensive in Thailand.

I think this is a statement of the obvious.

I completely agree with your reasoning and preference. A highly resilient, high efficiency, well-designed house, maybe offered in a range of sizes from 50sqr meters, and up, is what is needed. For one, I would NEVER live in something that felt like a trailer home, living among trailer trash. However, a high quality prefab house made of resilient materials, and mass produced, able to be planted almost anywhere, and purchased at significantly lower cost than any other alternative...I would like to see this. Is such a product impossible?

I agree with the first sentence of your reply. However, I may have been misled by the advertising and might have erroneously come to the conclusion that the Boxabl house, in which Musk reportedly admitted living, might have somehow been connected to him. And yet, when one googles Tesla Home, there is a lot of tesla homes that seem to pop up.

Are they legal? Why do you ask? If you are worried about what might not be legal, then you can always restrict your torrent downloads to movies produced by Harvey Weinstein.

I recall that the cable company, maybe in 1975, connected HBO to our summer house in Cape May, NJ. I found it exceedingly boring at the time. Always the same old flicks on offer, and then there was Cinemax which offered the same. I have always preferred torrenting what I want. UTUBE is almost as much of a distraction as TikTok. Most movies produced after Y2K are not watchable, with the exception of things like Pulp Fiction, "unless one enjoys video games", to paraphrase what Jack Nicholson once said when asked why he stopped making new movies. As the OP stated, old movies are more interesting on multiple levels, and can usually be found on UTUBE. My only worry, very occasionally, is that the US film companies in Hollywood might go bankrupt without support from movie buffs like me.

From this further information you thankfully posted, I see that some of these Musk-type TESLA houses have proven to be "leaky and moldy", which are two qualities that would not be appreciated here in Thailand. There is already enough black mold in the few dwellings I have seen where I am. It seems that somebody might be capitalizing on the TESLA name to sell Tesla houses, even though there is apparently no connection. Even the typeface of some of the brand seems identical. As I also stated in the OP, Musk is such an enigma, and an unsolved riddle, a persona that seems to tickle his funny bone. Very high-quality prefab houses which are ultra-efficient and nonpolluting, and ultra-resilient, is, one would think, a type of product sorely needed by millions if not billions, around the world. Maybe Musk should stop making automobiles and work on the housing problem, instead. Just in case it might be of interest, here is a link to a New York Post article on the subject. If you cannot trust the New York Post, then whom can you trust? https://nypost.com/2021/07/05/elon-musk-is-living-in-a-prefab-tiny-house-worth-only-50k/ I just hope that somebody here might be able to reach out to Elon for comment and clarification concerning any TESLA involvement in this or any other house manufacturing scheme. Musk is such a mystery.

Yes. I agree with you...not much in the video...sorry. And, concerning accurate information about Tesla houses, this seems, also, difficult to come by. The BUSINESS INSIDER article I linked originally, however, does seem to provide a bit of information on the subject.

I noticed a error when I stated UTUBE resolution goes up to 4k. Actually, 8k is correct, as you can see from this video: I found that streaming this video shows download speeds up to about 150Mbps, although my download/upload internet connection promises 1Gbps down and 1Gbps up, which is pretty much standard. My computer displays are good, but not 8K, for sure. Most old movies on UTUBE are offered at between 480p and 1080p, it seems.

That's all part of the fun of owning a Musk House, IMHO. I actually very much enjoy Musk's humor, kitchen sink and all. Anyway, he's a fellow alumnus of mine, and maybe this explains his taste in humor. I like his thinking about manufactured housing, but it must be totally off-grid-capable before I will show much excitement about the concept.

To be honest, as old as I am, I have never in my life paid to download a movie. The last movie I paid to view was at a movie theatre at the King of Prussia Mall, Raiders of the Lost Ark, back in 1981. One very good source of free, and sometimes HD format movies, up to 2160p (4k), is UTUBE. These days, there is a veritable plethora of dynamite old movies, many from the 1940s and 1950s, freely available on UTUBE. The number of old movies being uploaded/available on UTUBE continues to increase. If you enjoy Film Noir, they're all there and in high video quality. Therefore, when in search of old movies, UTUBE is a good place to begin. And of course, you might think that you need to pay for a UTUBE subscription in order to avoid ads. But, I do not pay. And, I do not see any ads. If what you are looking for has not yet been uploaded to UTUBE, then maybe your next stop should be the site created by those famous buccaneers. At this site, whatever you have been unable to find on UTUBE you will find here, in 99 percent of cases. IF, in the rare case, you cannot find what you are looking for having tried option one and option two, then consult the ruskies; they sometimes offer some rare films that nobody else has, period, even films that you cannot buy, films that some had believed to have been lost or destroyed. You don't really even need an overly fast connection but still be able to download most films within minutes. Most of films from the Buccaneer Library are offered in several choices of video resolution to suit varied preferences, The Raiders movie, for example is provided in a 1080p, 8.83GiB size file, and smaller files, too. I don't know much about connecting to NetFlix, but all NetFlix films seem to be offered up by the buccaneers. Spotify, I have never used, just because I find the name Spotify gives me the creeps. But still, using just three easy options, I feel no need for Spotify, and I don't understand all the buzz about it. So my suggestion might be, before you stream movies, if you think that doing so might be problematic for you, try the three alternative options I have mentioned, because they just might work for you. Hope this was somewhat helpful.

Many of us have found that condo-living has its challenges, such as noise from all sides due to thin-wall construction, zero soundproofing, and the fact that very few condo owners in Thailand have wall-to-wall carpeting. I have noticed that if the guy above me drops a 10-Baht coin on his floor, I can easily hear it bouncing through my ceiling. If you happen to have a 100 kilogram male walking back and forth in the unit above you, mostly on his heels, then you are facing loud pounding sounds at all hours. Living on the top floor of the building is one option to solve the noise issue, but then there is often extreme heat generated by solar radiation, 24-hours, due to poor engineering and insulation. The concrete roof of the condo building acts as a heat sink and stores a tremendous amount of heat. I have found many more issues while living in condos in Thailand. Finally, I gave up and rented a completely detached house. Anyway, thank you for this detailed input. I searched, myself, but I was unable to find this information.

A TESLA house built entirely of Steel and Concrete and EPS foam? Will these Tesla Homes be impervious to Thailand's flying ants (termites)? Termites can eat almost anything, but will they be able to eat a Musk House? For Thai homeowners, termites are a nightmare, as you can see from this video: Excellent vlog work by this Expat living in Thailand!

Dear Friends, Wouldn’t you just LOVE to import and live in your very-own TESLA Home here in Thailand? I know I would. But, how much would you be willing to pay to do so? You could plunk down your TESLA Home on almost any plot of land of your choice, probably via a long-term lease. You could easily upstakes and transport your TESLA Home to other locations, probably almost in the blink of an eye. You would not need to worry about connection to any utilities, electric, water, etc., in most cases. Here is a link in Thai for TESLA Powerwall if you might need extra power to run UV Grow Lights for various reasons: https://www.tesla.com/th_th/powerwall Thailand is known for adequate rainfall during the raining season. And one could store the water in a TESLA cistern, for example, if they offer them. And, they probably do offer water storage technology, too. Sorry, People, this TOPIC is solely concerned with possible benefits of the TESLA HOUSE, mostly manufactured in a factory. Therefore, it would not be on-topic if one were to post comments about Musk, such as those made by people who opine that Musk is Our Savior of the Earth, or that Musk is The Greatest NitWit-in-Chief, etc., etc., etc. Personally, I find Musk an extremely interesting enigma, a puzzle within a riddle, whose mind was bent by his attempt at Penn to study Quantum Physics at a slightly deeper level while an undergrad. But, that is neither here nor there for the purposes of this Topic. Musk is a very nice human, I believe, but human at best. I find the idea of living in a TESLA House appealing for many reasons. I also am interested in accessorizing my TESLA House with TESLA Home-related products, when they become available. But I would never add a Tesla automobile because I don’t like to go fast; speed is wasted on me at my age. I really like the idea of owning a TESLA house, and there are rumors, according to this article, that Musk actually lives, or has lived, in his own TESLA house, not surprisingly…. https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-tiny-house#the-spacex-connection-1 The concept I find most appealing is that this mini-dwelling seems to require no utilities connections, and provides freedom to move…. I have found all sorts of TESLA Home pricing on the internet, so I will not add a dreamed-up purchase price here. And then, you would probably need to pay currency conversion costs, international freight & logistics charges, import charges, port charges, customs clearance fees, import duties & taxes and local delivery. So then, does living in a TESLA House on your own leased piece of ground in Thailand sound like fun to you? And, what does it feel like to walk around inside a Musk House? Does this video accurately portray the experience?: Regards, Gamma

Please note that the graph (top) was taken from the Journal of the International Neurophysiological Society, but it's behind a paywall, and I won't pay, so I cannot cite the exact source. Anyway, referring to this interesting graph, Speed decreases dramatically from age 20 to age 90, while Vocabulary Knowledge peaks at age 63 before entering a gradual decline. Most of us here have already seen this data, and so we are not surprised. Still, this is just a reminder to us of a sliver of good news. There are more more-detailed graphs we can post here, if we want to post them, showing changes in cognitive function, verbal abilities, visual memory, etc, in a more granular way, throughout the aging of healthy humans. But then, isn't it more interesting to find these graphs through one's preferred search engine, oneself? By the way, I am sure that you, too, know how to easily obtain any research article, for free, utilizing a well-known website. Maybe I am not allowed to post the link to this service on this forum, IDK, but I will not post it here. Just google it yourselves. Also, if you still have ties to a dynamite university, as do I, then your university may offer alumni full library services, as well as many other research services, for FREE. And then you can use JSTOR, ResearchGate, etc., to obtain restricted-access articles. Somebody's always gotta pay, of course, but it won't be you. Actually, I would not say for "FREE", because the tuition and fees at my uni amount to: USD58,620.00 for the year 2023-2024. Alumni at my school, therefore, should get, at least, a few goodies after graduation, and for life. Of course, I will not be able to post these restricted-access articles here, and this goes without saying. Sorry.

Fear thee NOT, at least in the case of THIS Original Post. Please refer to the following graphs, and all shall be made crystal clear concerning loss of linguistic ability, as well as other types of cognition, as a result of normal aging in mostly healthy humans. I have no doubt that you have often seen much of the same data presented from other sources, from time to time. In color: Above Graph Explanation, just because I think it useful to include such: "Three speculative models of cognitive change across the lifespan. (a) A single 'mirror-image' view; performance rises in childhood, is maintained in middle age and declines in late adulthood. (b) The different lifespan trajectories of crystallized intelligence ('cognitive pragmatics') and fluid intelligence ('cognitive mechanics'); the former is well maintained at older ages whereas the latter declines. (c) A more realistic version of (b), in that representations are generally well maintained at older ages, but some knowledge is either lost (especially with lack of practice) or becomes inaccessible. Control processes develop at different ages and also decline differentially, depending in part on the brain areas involved. " Is this information, as well as the research upon which it is based, useful for us? I believe it is useful. I also believe it is interesting and valuable information for many of the readers here. I am not sure what the average age might be on the forum, but even if one is 13, if one is a student of science, then a better understanding of human cognition is both important and interesting. These days, AI is a hot topic. Therefore, a closer look into how cognitive abilities change over time is both warranted and timely. This is my justification for posting this topic today.

I now post just one pertinent, and highly anticipated, link to a paper which may demonstrate a significant correlation between syntactical sentence complexity and observed early/late onset of cognitive decline and/or various types of dementia. This paper suggests that such a simple tool as measuring written-sentence syntactic complexity might be used as a measure of, or predictor of, ongoing or future cognitive decline. What I find so fascinating about this potentially valid tool for non-invasive testing of cognitive decline is that, if this tool proves valid, then both you and I might be able to use this syntactic complexity metric for gauging the cognitive health of people who run for election, even before we cast our ballots. More importantly, as this paper seems to point out, we might use this tool to test ourselves if we can devise a test which can be validated on a significant and suitable population of test volunteers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2021.749758/full In addition, here is a link to just one of many papers which seems to imply a significant correlation between cognitive impairment and reduced syntactic complexity in writing. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02687038.2020.1742282 I have read better articles on this general topic. Unfortunately, I forget where I bookmarked them, several years ago. No doubt, if I am patient, it will come to me. The article I have been searching for shares data concerning syntactic complexity of paragraphs written by pre-dementia volunteers and progression of cognitive decline and onset of later stages of dementia. Such a nice paper, too. I really wonder where I put it. When I find it, eventually, I will post it. Such a nice paper, too. Sorry, I already said that. So, here is food for thought: Do you ever wonder about the state of your written paragraphs? And, have you ever analyzed your written paragraphs to determine levels of SYNTACTIC COMPLEXITY? Philip Roth wrote beautifully crafted paragraphs of high syntactic complexity. As far as I know, he was lucid until the day he died, age 85. And, really, what more can you ask out of life? Regards, And, Stay lucid. Gamma

I cannot deny that I far prefer 24-year-old female Thai students, compared to 42-year-old guesthouse washerwomen who spend most of their time bending and lifting, principally because I find the students much more intellectually stimulating.

Still, it seems worthwhile to continue this practice.

The world requires FAR MORE investment in research toward the prevention of dementia. We also can benefit from far-wider early testing for cognitive decline. The global population pyramid, 1950 to 2100, is the obvious justification for this:

Such a marvelous suggestion: Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw I love to read almost anything written by Irish authors. I plan to visit Dublin, someday, and that day cannot arrive soon enough for me. However, I will share my plans to visit Dublin in a future TV Post, one which I hope will follow, shortly. Humor is crucial for maintaining optimum cognitive function, some say.

Many of you, My Dear Readers, become a bit touchy when a commenter mentions a "fact", or alludes to an "article or paper", without the required supportive link or linked reference, and rightfully so. Personally, I do not want to be found guilty or lacking in this department. Therefore, I have found the link to Chomsky's entire 1957 paper: SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES https://tallinzen.net/media/readings/chomsky_syntactic_structures.pdf This article explores Chomsky's thoughts about topics including the Origin of Language from an Evolution-Theory perspective, and also discusses many important syntactic properties of language from Chomsky's point of view. I suggest you start with the Introduction, which is a very easy read, and then wade into this paper as far as you can. You probably will not agree with the entirety of what Chomsky writes in this piece, but at least it is possible to comprehend and follow Chomsky's arguments. Just about EVERYBODY who is ANYBODY knows and refers to this paper, at one time or another. And so, I think it is both useful and downright Great-FUN to read this article now, almost 70 YEARS after first publication. Finally, during this most recent period of HYPE about AI transformers, I think that Chomsky's first paper is even more of interest. We do not wish to become bored here in Thailand. Therefore, we must engage in activities which have meaning. Reading SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES is just one of many activities that I highly recommend. Enjoy!

OK, Guys... I realize that this OP would not be complete without discussing the finding that Sentence Complexity, "SYNTACTIC COMPLEXITY", and maybe also sentence length, might be useful in predicting the age of cognitive decline, verbal skill decline, and maybe even age of onset of various forms of dementia. What are your thought? I know that you guys do not like commenters who post "FACTS" without supporting these facts using links to peer-reviewed science. There are a few good studies to choose from, and I will look for these and add them. However, I am just saying, from what I have read in the recent past, it seems that sentence complexity, or what is I would call syntactic complexity, might be a good indicator or proxy for predicting early or late onset of dementia and cognitive decline, and decline in Linguistic Skills. So then...please stay tuned, because,... I will definitely add these links when I find some of those that I have already recently come across.

An interesting point, and I would guess that your guess might hold even more water under certain conditions. Here is one such condition: a. One moves to a foreign land where one is exposed almost exclusively to a foreign language, both spoken and written. b. One consistently and valiantly attempts to become fluent in one or two foreign languages while immersed in this new foreign language environment. c. Simultaneously, one continues to use one's First Language (L1) on a daily basis for the purpose of important work requiring use of more-advanced vocabulary and writing skills. c1. A valid example of such important work requiring advanced verbal ability might be something such as commenting and posting topics on an English-language forum, like TV, and by contributing about 50 thousand well-written, logical comments during each decade-long period of time one remains in one's foreign land. d. One opts to religiously use a spaced-repetition-based memorization app, such as ANKI, to continuously review advanced vocabulary that one might otherwise easily "forget", otherwise. And that one follows the practice of uploading new vocabulary to one's ANKI app, such as the vocabulary available from books offering preparation for the Verbal part of the GRE exam. Memorization of such vocabulary will maintain more hair on one's chest. (I do not spend time memorizing such GRE-exam related vocabulary only because I am very lazy by nature. I had thought of engaging in this behavior, but then I realized I lack some necessary motivating factor, such as any ambition to take the GRE exam.) Anyway, I very much like your thinking. And, as I mentioned above, I have found that learning two foreign languages simultaneously seems to have significantly helped me speed up my learning of both languages, and may have even improved my capacity for more advanced use of my First Language (L1). I know you probably will not believe me when I tell you, but my First Language is English. I realize that many people here, after reading my prose, and with good reason, have asked me what non-English-speaking country I come from. Well, I am from The United States, in fact, though I have not spent most of my life in North America.