JGon

Cool, very close to my inputs. As long as they don’t ask again.

No option there. The website never asked this questions.

Obviously Wise lol

Today I used the Wise app to make a transfer $$$ from my home bank to Thailand and after setting it up the usual it did not give me the option to choose "Funds for long stay in Thailand" (or whatever that option used to say). I thought well I guess the new tax laws caught up with Wise. After changing my option to "general monthly expenses" it asked for a bunch of personal information... My profession, my salary, why I was sending money to Thailand... this time it gave me the option for "Funds for long stay in Thailand" and how much money I plan to send via Wise to Thailand (annually). This definitely a Tax law thing... and no is not a scam... this is 100% the Wise app (I received the money within seconds as usual). The only thing I care is that the funds are viewed as coming from abroad (For Immigration/Visa purposes).

So around 8 years... 😵‍💫

This was going to happen to China without Xi... but he's definitely putting it on the fast lane. Besides the housing debt crisis, China's biggest problem is its population demographics.

A little more experience, higher seat height to help his knees, and try in December/January to ensure no unusual (El Niño) heatwave and he should be able to do it.

Meaning denied because of obvious relations with a country up north.

I'm all against illegal immigration (here I am in Thailand legally and I would never jeopardize that for my wife and son) but the reality is those third world countries will one day rule society because if we are not having children... they are. Eventually as their countries advance they will also stop having children... and maybe we are the third world countries. Is all about numbers... We need 2.1 children per couple to sustain a population and we are not there... but they are. Tribalism will always be present because humans in general are not intelligent enough to overcome that.

We would never reach that figure. We are bound to peak maybe at half that figure by the end of this century... if not decline at the end of the century. We are simply not having enough children. Certainly the vast majority of "First World" countries are already peaking or started to decline.

There's a big difference between the 1940s and today... and that difference is nowadays we have a certain group of "people" who hate the World, don't have any children or grandchildren and don't care about the future. In their mind we are overpopulated and wouldn't mind if a few billion of us would be gone (Kind of like that Thanos character from the Marvel movies). They are extinctionist, there's a few in this very forum... and of course spread through many countries... and the scary part is many a billionaires or CEO of a huge tech company. Now imagine people like that in charge of nuclear weapons. They don't care about the future... they would push AI without regulation, or put more chemicals in our food... and if given the chance consider nuclear weapons as an option.

Change DNS Windows 11 Instead of google 8.8.8.8 I use cloudfare 1.1.1.1 I don't want 3BB to control my websites. They do limit access to some websites or throttle your speed a bit.

The media nowadays is the best tool to influence the populace and slowly mold them to whatever the controlling agency wants. I detest mainstream media be western or any country... it's too influenced by the top. Lots are waking up to this and are ignoring it in the western world... but here lol my Thai wife listens to it like it's gospel...

Another one... soon the media will keep pushing this narrative and we "farangs" will be stereotype for a few bad apples (if this isn't already happening).

I agree as well that the "nuclear winter" if triggered... it will only last a few years (Not decades) based on the amount of energy of the entire World's nuclear arsenal yields. Is a good thing we abandoned the Tsar Bomba idea... there are things that are definitely overkill. As for Supervolcanoes genetic studies of humans traced our lineage to a few thousand humans around 74,000 years ago. Something cataclysmic happened during that time that we almost went extinct. That something happens to be the Toba supervolcano just a few hundred miles south of Phuket (and yes the caldera is almost as big as that red circle).

Listen to what he said... fission bombs... what kind of Nuclear weapons do you think Pakistan, India, North Korea, even China has? Do you think they have the Massive (ultra expensive and complicated ) hydrogen thermonuclear weapons or the easier to produce/cheaper "fission" nuclear weapons. Either way even the fusion "Hydrogen" bombs start off with a "fission" nuclear explosion who then triggers a chain reaction with the other elements inside the bomb. There is still radiation, just check with the residents of Bikini atoll after the 15 MT (MT as in Megatons or 15,000 tons of TNT) "Castle Bravo" thermonuclear explosion test. But... it's all about the yield. It's what really matters... the total world arseal of around 15,000 warheads has a Yield of around 1,460 MT... In 1815 Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted with a force of 800 MT... ejecting 100 KM3 of material into the atmosphere. 1816 was known as the year without summer. The questions is would almost double that amount of energy be enough to release enough particulates into the stratosphere to create the so called "nuclear winter"... maybe. One thing is sure... the total world arseal can't compared to a SuperVolcano like Lake Toba in Indonesia or Yellowstone in the US. There's a SuperVolcano in New Zealand lol The more you know...

I would take Switzerland off that list... who cares if you are neutral if all the countries surrounding you have been bomb to hell. The other thing to consider about countries above a certain latitude is... if a nuclear winter follows were the temperatures drops globally... the higher in latitude you are the worst off you will be. My bet are those equatorial Pacific Islands.

Like you... I keep my A/C on 24/7... but I have acclimatize to 25C. Back home I used to be a 20-21C Heat/AC person. But here that feels too cold, especially now that temperatures in the afternoon go above 37-38C... and I go outside a lot (Never turn off the AC though). But back on topic prices here in Thailand varied. I managed to build a new PC for a comparable price to my home country (US). Basically using an AMD 7800X3D CPU with a RTX4080 Super GPU and the supporting hardware. The only thing I couldn't find in Thailand was decent RAM (I needed 64GB DDR5 6000 CL30 the best I could find was 32GB DDR5 6000 but CL36). so I had to order it from abroad and make do with the inferior timings. This will keep me going even if China invades Taiwan (TSMC) and we don't get the ubber chips for a few years. If I was back home I would've waited for the next generation AMD CPU/Nvidia 5000 series... but in Thailand you don't have that luxury.

I think we'll see 45°C this year... because of "El Niño".

Geographically Thailand is in a good position. Geo-politically... assuming all out Nuclear war... It is my belief that besides China being bomb to hell... I believe the following countries around the region would also get bombs (At least in their Capital Cities, if not many more).. obviously Japan/Australia/India, but also Taiwan, North korea, South Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore... Obviously most of Europe, Rusia, a lot of the Middle East/Iran, and last but not least North America (US, Canada, Mexico). At this time I don't think Bangkok would get hit... unless over the coming years the government starts siding with one side or the other. Anyway... in a few hours billions would die... armageddon... so what about us here. At first you might be "ok" but in the following days or weeks... If a nuclear winter is triggered most of us will die of famine over months. Remote Islands near the equator might be our best bet if that happens. Depending on the season... Wet season would keep most of the fallout away since the winds come from the southwest. Dry season we are screwed... because the winds come from Vietnam/China, so all the radiation will contaminate everything here. Eventually scores of survivors escaping radiation and colder temperatures from the Nuclear fall out will move into what was Thailand and probably keep moving south. I say what was Thailand because I believe in a scenario like that anarchy will rule, everyman for himself... basically it will be hell on Earth for the vast majority of the population.

My house has insulation, so even if is... lets' say 22C outside... inside it might be 26C. Once it reaches 25C the AC will attempt to stay there. If it gets colder, it shuts off even though it's technically on. I had on on early morning hours when it was 15-16C outside. But it wasn't throwing any air. This is not the old on/off AC from decades ago.

Not sure why... but in the land of agents or I know someone... anything is possible. But the thing about electricity is that is all numbers. The appliances spend a set amount... the meter reads a certain amount... and that certain amount cost X amount. So, they might think it easy to scam but in reality, is not… if you pay attention and do some quick math you will know if something is wrong.

Chemically treated?! LOL The way an AC inverter works is the air is drawn into the unit through a filter. This filter captures particles from the air, such as dust, pollen, and other allergens. Mine has a HEPA filter, plus there’s another filter in the room keeping the PM 2.5 in the single digits… compared to the triple digits reading outside… especially now in the “burning” season. Anyway… then the air moves over the evaporator coils. These coils are filled with refrigerant, which absorbs heat from the air as it changes from a liquid to a gas. This process cools the air down. The refrigerant is then pumped outside the room via lines to the condenser coils, (The other part of the split unit AC… easy to see with the big fan) that’s where it releases the absorbed heat and changes back into a liquid. There are no chemicals being release anywhere lol It the same air inside room being circulated through a very cold evaporators coils or air conditioning 😁 But to answer your question yes I do go outside... it's just that my A/C keep running. It's an inverter with a very high SEER (Efficiency) that's why my electric bill remains relatively low despite high usage.

Since you are hell bent on not using a discrete graphics card... and with 4 monitors you are in need of graphics... Why not get the biggest i-GPU in the market? That's the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G It has the best iGPU performance on the market, it's TDP is only 65 Watts meaning is so much more efficient and easier to cool than Intel. For the past half a decade AMD has surpass Intel is a lot of areas. While this chip in particular has 8 big core (compared to 6 big cores and 8 little cores on the 13600K)... it's way more efficient because it uses TSMC N5 node (5nm vs 10nm Intel). For Thailand, heat is the enemy.

I run my AC's 24/7 at 25C (Except the few nights were the temperatures dropped below 20C or maintenance). Then the usual (Many Fans/TV/Microwave/ Electric Water Heaters/Hairdryer etc..) My bill is usually 2,000-3,000 baht a month. Electricity usage is one of those things that is basically math. Once you know your unit price, then it's all about how much each appliance uses. BTW- AC are not the most consuming items in your home... if they mean over time, yes (like me that pretty much use them 24/7) But here are some typical wattages of home appliances: Electric Water Heaters: 3,000-5,000 watts Range/Oven: 2,000-5,000 watts Clothes Dryer (Electric): 2,000-5,000 watts Split unit Air Conditioner: 900-1,200 watts (12,000 BTU) Window Air Conditioner: 500-1,500 watts Clothes Washer: 500-1,000 watts Dishwasher: 1,200-1,500 watts (excluding heating water) Refrigerator: 100-800 watts Microwave Oven: 600-1,200 watts Vacuum Cleaner: 500-1,500 watts Television (LCD/LED): 50-150 watts Desktop Computer and Monitor: 100-800 watts Laptop Computer: 50-100 watts Ceiling Fan: 15-90 watts Coffee Maker: 600-1,200 watts Toaster: 800-1,500 watts Hair Dryer: 800-1,800 watts Iron: 1,000-1,800 watts Blender: 300-1,000 watts But to contribute to the topic... it's simple. Your condo management is somehow "adjusting" consumption for all tenants.