Gaccha

"accuse event organiser of robbery"

I really wish journalists would learn that words have meanings. Many people in this chat will know that what the ladies experienced was not a "robbery". Was there a threat of force before or during the time that the money was stolen? If there wasn't, there was no robbery.

On 10/31/2023 at 1:55 PM, FruitPudding said:

British expats can make national insurance contributions for the state pension 

No. They can top up to a limited extent, depending how long they worked in the UK and how long ago that was, but they cannot actually create a pension whilst working in Thailand.

4 hours ago, Everyman said:

similar to the N1-N5 ranking

There used to be one with the exact same ranking system for Japanese speakers learning Thai. I actually took and passed the Thai N3 grade (and yes, I was the only non-Japanese taking the test). The organisation was headquartered in Silom but have since shut down.

Since then, a points test was set up by Chula Uni. Other members here have taken it. It provides something similar to the N1 to N5 grading. You can find by hunting around their website. There's an interview, listening, writing and reading in it. 

The new MaMa noodles franchise, MaMa Station, opening in Bang Khae, has got to be worth a look, with prices from 45 baht. If you've got the money...

The starting point to minimise the tax burden on you is, as always, to follow the ABC rule.

You or your accountant then have to investigate which place is best for you as C country. Putting aside the issues of how secure it is, what investment opportunities there are etc, the key question and concern of this OP's topic is what will be the tax burden in country C and how does it operate.

If it has a tax treaty with Thailand then this will no doubt help. In any event, you'll be linking the way their system works with the way the Thai system works.

4 hours ago, Pistachio said:

She doesn't have a system in things

What you are describing is the difference between the middle class way of bringing up children and the working class way of bringing up children.

The middle class way leads to highly productive, high earning children but often at the cost of the happiness of their childhood. This is where you get the ideas of "helicopter parenting" and "tiger moms" in Asia.

The peasant life in Thailand has a similar value system as the working class life in England. They give the children unstructured lives which can be very contentful but obviously they are not going to become the next CEOs of Google.

On 10/17/2023 at 5:26 AM, scubascuba3 said:

Usually being overweight \ obese leads to health conditions eventually

The levels of psychological denial against your simple yet true claim you make here are remarkable.

Just being overweight (a BMI of over 25) considerably increases the risk of the following:

High LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, or high levels of triglycerides (dyslipidemia); Type 2 diabetes; Coronary heart disease; Stroke; Gallbladder disease; Osteoarthritis; Sleep apnea and breathing problems; Many types of cancer; Mental illness such as clinical depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders; Body pain and difficulty with physical functioning.

... and increased risk of death from Covid. In fact, almost all the risk factors with Covid depended on being overweight.

2 hours ago, HuskerDo2 said:

"As a person with perfect weight"... pretty much in love with yourself aren't you?

I have met plenty of extremely obese expats who were deeply in love with themselves, so having the perfect weight, or observing that you have the perfect weight, is not a prerequisite for loving yourself nor a sign of loving the self.

LINE merged with Yahoo Japan, an entity totally separate from Yahoo. Yahoo Japan was always far more valuable than Yahoo. 

I have had an email address with Yahoo Japan for around 20 years. They have been superb. Their website and their app are top of the game. I have no fears about the changes to LINE. 

On 10/16/2023 at 3:12 AM, Swiss1960 said:

it helps reduce appetite and keeps your stomach full longer

As a person with perfect weight, the trick that has always worked for me is to eat much later in the day. Ideally around midday.

For drinking, stick to water or black coffee or ginger tea (with added cinnamon or nutmeg as required), making sure to avoid sugar, sugar substitutes, and dairy products.

You'll find that you simply won't get hungry. It is the sugar that initiates the hunger pangs, not the empty stomach.

Once you break the fast (aka having breakfast), gobble up anything you want in a 6-hour time frame). 

I suppose with something so cutting edge it is inevitable that the price will be almost the same as the price in the United States.

The price is around 6,000 baht per dose at Walmart in the USA on the goodRX drug price comparison site.

This bribe has all the hallmarks of the tablet debacle, when every school kid was supposed to get a fantastic electronic tablet.

As this inevitably goes wrong, the military-industrial complex will swing into action, and use this as evidence of corruption and malfeasance by the redshirts.

Then when the time is right they will create astroturfed protest movements, which will lead to the 14th military coup. And return Thailand to its former 'glory'.

They have a nice long list of prohibited items on the invite letter. 

Does it, in practice, include a mobile phone? Clearly a phone normally has a camera and recording devices and many other things which they expressly prohibit.

My assumption is yes, and if so, any good lockers nearby to store it in?

I am pretty sure the last time I got a new passport there, they allowed us to store the phones in some draw on the premises. But they expressly rule that out in this letter.

What troubles me is the guy said he couldn't get through to the Thai Embassy. Do they have an answerphone on or did they decide not to bother answering calls... 

'we can't come to the phone right now. I hope you're having a lovely time in Israel. Please get back in touch after the weekend.' Beep.

2 hours ago, herfiehandbag said:

7. I am going to take my tinfoil hat off now, as it is making my head rather hot. When my head gets hot I tend to froth at the mouth

At the same time could you ask the Israeli energy minister to do the same thing...?

Otherwise, could you please leave this conversation to the adults.

1 hour ago, donmuang37 said:

My first career was in the military where I worked with both very high IQ people and very low IQ people.  As Peterson indicated, it is very difficult to teach complex tasks to people with low IQs. 

Something that has stuck in my mind over a couple of decades is that the British Army had an unofficial policy of never having the platoon commander possess more than 30 IQ points above the squadies in the platoon. 

The reasoning behind this is the commanders thinking would be so beyond the capacity of the squadies to comprehend that they would not trust in his commands. 

9 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

The Flynn Effect shows that, within one hundred years, the average IQ of the population could increase about one standard deviation

I fear across the world in all countries of mid-income and above we're going to see quite a rapid deterioration in IQ levels.

Put simply, the middle class are not having enough children, and lower classes are having children.

IQ tends to congregate among the middle class. If you have 10 children, and this continues through each generation, you end up with 1,000 great grandchildren. If you have 0.7 children, the average in South Korea, then in each generation the population shrinks by 35%.

The religious are also more likely to have children than the secular/atheist. The religious are likely to have a lower IQ.

Eventually, people will look back on General Prayuth as a veritable genius.

4 hours ago, retarius said:

. The main point that got me was the no jobs for people with IQs under 83

This is concerning because the reputed average IQ of Thailand is 85. 

The suspect looks like a sweet lad. He looks pretty nervous and confused.