jaywalker2

I said "for the most part." Of course I have some apps on my phone and I've tried others but generally the experience hasn't been good -- like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. I prefer to use them in the browser. Personal preference. Again, there are exceptions obviously. I have tried Brave along with most of the other browsers both on the laptop and phone. As far as I'm concerned Firefox is by far the best.

For the most part, I don't use the apps. YouTube is the classic example -- unwatchable in the app because of the ads. I deleted Spotify and Twitter for the same reasons. So I open most sites in the Firefox on mobile. But if you want to go to a link and read an article, you can't. You either have to sign up for "free" account or it's behind a paywall. And you're inundated with ads, of course On the laptop, I don't have that problem. All the links work, no ads, and paywalls are usually not a problem. Apps on phones serve two main purposes: data harvesting and the delivery of ads. Functionality is a distant second place, which is why so many people were surprised to see how user friendly RedNote was, unlike most US social media apps.

I agree the acting was bad, the male lead especially. clunky implausible script and low budget but it did keep me watching. The Recruit was better, although equally implausible, mainly because the acting was better. Still, what bothered me in both shows was the tattoos. Especially in the Recruit they had this beautiful girl with half her arm covered in a weird tattoo. Is this some kind of cult thing?

I meant avoiding the ads doesn't work as well on the phone. Firefox isn't the problem

Disagree with that. I have access to a lot more websites on my PC that I can't see on the phone because of the paywalls, I'm not inundated with ads like I am on the phone, and obviouisly the phone isn't much good for watching videos of playing music for that matter because of the small screen and since it eats up battery life. I tend to open most websites in Firefox to avoid the ads, which just doesn't work as well on the phone. And I don't have to worry about data harvesting as much either. And forget about typing. The camera is convnenient but now I have hundreds of photos I never look at.

I was thinking of having the same thing done and my dentist advised against it, which I found somewhat strange, since dentists in Thailand are more than happy to earn extra money. But he said it would be costly and time consuming and it was unnecessary. Previously, I had voiced concern when a dentist wanted to put in an amalgam filling because of the mercury issue and she told me it was perfectly safe and the filling would be cheaper and last longer, it was the best choice (other than gold). Most dentists will tell you mercury fillings are safe while most holistic medicine purveyors will tell you they're poison. As far as I've been able to ascertain, the amount of mercury in fillings is very small and well under FDA guidelines for mercury exposure. The mercury blood level of people with amalgam fillings does seem to be a bit higher than with people who don't have them but it doesn't exceed what you're exposed naturally anyway. So I decided not to bother to have them changed. Of course, I absolutely loathe dentists so that was also a consideration.

I have an A 13, which is okay. The main camera is basically the same as higher end models and battery life is good. I don't need more ram or storage but the processor is slow and I wouldn't mind a better screen since I do a lot of reading on it. For my next phone, I'll probably get the A35 or maybe the A54. My girlfriend had the S line. It was faster, the screen was bigger and brighter, but the battery was the same. The camera had more functions but that wasn't important to me. What it comes down to is that if you have a much better phone, you'll probably spend more time on it. So you have to factor that in.

I think he was trying to get out in front of the possibility that Trump might release the names on Epstein's contact list. I'm sure Gates wasn't the only one being blackmailed. He said for an "alleged" affair but clearly Epstein had the goods on him.

Bill Gates has just admitted Epstein was trying to blackmail him

They'll come rushing towards you when you walk in the door. There are a lot of them and my haircut is basic so I just take whoever comes first.

78 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.5 on IMDB. I'll give it a try anyway.

It's called Lek Barber https://maps.app.goo.gl/WzeTKjxzB9Gn6cUk7

There's one off Petchaburi, just after Wittayu Road and right before the gas station on the right hand side heading towards Ratchaprasong. 60 baht for a haircut, 60 for a shampoo. Gets pretty crowded on Sundays

I thought it was very good. Although currently only the Cam version is available, the quality of both the sound and video were very acceptable, at least for me. It focuses on the period in Dylan's life between 1960 when he arrived in New York and the famous uproar when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. It's not strictly accurate, as various incidents have been changed or rearranged to create a narrative structure but still well worth seeing if you're a Dylan fan. I'm just disappointed that they left out his meeting with the Beatles, which I think is crucial for understanding why he went electric. I downloaded it from TGX

RIP David Lynch, passed too soon at 78. Blue Velvet is one of my favorite films and I fondly remember binge watching Twin Peaks when I lived in Japan.

By the way, most popular retirement destinations -- Malaysia, the Philippines, Panama, Ecuador, Portugal, Greecee, even France! -- don't tax expat retiree income. And to tax remittances of credit purchases is insane. That's not even income.

The US and Eritrea are the only countries in the world that based tax oblligation on citizenship rather than residency. I don't know what relevancy that has.

Targeting Chinese with families who want to get out of China

One Nation Under Blackmail, in two volumes by Whitny Webb. It charts the history of the interconnection among organized crime, the CIA, the political sphere and FBI, and Israeli intelligence in the US, leading up to the Jeffrey Epstein case (he allegedly had ties to Mossad and was engaged in blackmailing the rich and famous). Very long, very detailed, very interesting.

How many children have died from COVID-19? Among the 4.4 million COVID-19 deaths1 reported in the MPIDR COVerAGE database, 0.4 per cent (over 17,400) occurred in children and adolescents under 20 years of age. Of the over 17,400 deaths reported in those under 20 years of age, 53 per cent occurred among adolescents ages 10–19, and 47 per cent among children ages 0–9. Data correct as of December 2023. For more information, including age and sex disaggregated data,

Well, they don't. Vulnerable people get sick over and over perhaps but unvaccinated people probably get Covid at higher rates. I say probably because they're less likely to test themselves or seek medical care for milder cases, so it's hard to know the statistics for sure.

The CDC always errs on the side of caution. They would rather everyone have the same message rather than risk misinterpretations. Paul Offit discusses this. He was on the advisory committee when the bivalent vaccine was introduced and he was against recommending it because the data showed it didn't offer much more protection than the Omicron booster and so was unnecessary. The CDC went ahead and recommended it anyway, presumably because they didn't want people to start thinking boosters weren't necessary anymore. It's the same with vaccinating children. Children generally don't get seriously ill or die so it can certainly be argued they don't need the vaccine. But a couple of thousand children have died from Covid and thousands more have been hospitalized. So the CDC figures why risk your child's life, no matter how small the odds. You can agree or disagree with that depending on your point of view. But there has been ample evidence that people who got the original two shots and, perhaps, a booster, are sufficiently protected against serious illness assuming they are in good health and don't have any immune problems. I had two Astra Zeneca shots and that was it. But I never get ill so I wasn't worried. I did catch something last year that might have been Covid, though the PCR test was negative. It was mild and lasted about five days. I didn't even have to stay in bed.

No, you misunderstand the effect of vaccination. The antibodies may decrease but t cells continue to afford protection. Most people are probably fine with the original two shots and maybe one booster. Additional boosters are basically only needed for those with immune deficiencies.

This is what the CDC actually said about shedding: FACT Vaccine shedding is the release or discharge of any of the vaccine components in or outside of the body and can only occur when a vaccine contains a live weakened version of the virus. https://www.cdc.gov/covid/vaccines/myths-facts.html

That's why the safety monitoring exists. All vaccines are monitored for rare side effects after they have been released and the Covid 19 vaccines were the most heavily surveilled in history. That's how it was discovered that the J&J vaccines could cause thrombosis in rare instances (1 in 100000) and that the Astra Zeneca vaccine could cause blood clots (2 to 3 people in 100,000). It was also how the CDC identified myocarditis as a potential side effect of the the Pfizer (1.2 in 100,000) and Moderna (3 in 100,000) vaccines, particularly in young people between the ages of 15-24 (in most cases it healed quickly but there were some deaths). In fact, a special program was set up to assess vaccine safety called the Global Covid Vaccine Safety Project, which looked for adverse events by analyzing the healthcare data of 90 million vaccinated individuals. It focused on identifying rare side effects. You can read all about it: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X24001270