Just curious, but a question for those who had a retina reattached here in Thailand - What was the cost?

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The purpose of these visits was to remind car and motorbike rental businesses that they could be fined if their customers were caught driving without valid licenses.

But?  However?  They probably won't be.  TIT.  It's less of a hassle to shake-down farangs too stupid to consider the driving laws, regulations, and licensing requirements in the foreign country they visit. 

Honestly?  There should be a law that is enforced where after tourist are pulled over by the BIB for driving without a license, they then send a cop to the rental agency to fine the renter for renting to a customer without proper license.  It would save a lot of farang fools lives who come to Thailand without any driving experience, especially on M/C, and then pull out and think that they are bullet proof.

The exact same price any other customer would pay.  Want extra money, sugar?  Perform extra services.
That's sort of the nature of P2P.  And no - I haven't always been married and monogamous.  I have traveled the world.  Soooooo....

Cue the Beach Boys.
 

Formula 1 racing:  by the rich, for the rich. 

House Speaker?  Not for long.

2 hours ago, Excogitator said:

There's no contradiction between helping Americas friends and allies, now fighting our common enemy, and helping veterans at home. Both can and must be done.

Billions for "friends and allies."
Pennies and lip-service for US vets and the "working homeless" and the Gen-Z "near-homeless" who are now a common sight in all US cities.

Imagine if you can - $95 billion USD to take care of the homeless issue.  How about $850 billion earmarked for US infrastructure upgrades instead of corporate welfare for Team America World Police and the Military Industrial Complex annually.

I'm a "boomer" and an anti-war US veteran.  And Major General Smedley Butler was 100% correct - "War's A Racket." 

The beneficiaries:  Corporations and Arms Manufacturers
The victims:  US cannon-fodder veterans, the foreign recipients of US "Freedom Bombs" and Democracy JDAMs, and the US taxpayers and average US citizens who are recipients of "Freedom Inflation" as the political class creates money out of thin air to make transfer payments to Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing, and the rest of their Super Pac corporate and NGO donors who make a mockery of US democracy. 

As we said during 'Nam:  Fighting for Freedom is like ****ing for Chasity. 

Nothing has changed in the last 70 years.  A society living on a "War Economy" like the US does creates money out of thin air and export death.  It doesn't have to be that way - the US could retool, recreate a manufacturing base, and export products, and work on balancing its trade deficient.  Instead, Janet Yellen and other corporate proxies go whinging and crying about how Communist Party of China is more of a successful market economy than the United States.  So what is the US' answer to that - start a war with China.  If you can't beat them economically - then overthrow their governments and kill their citizens. That's been the freaking US model since I was born.  It's empire and it always fails in the end.  For those who study history, but who studies history in this dumbed-down world anymore?

The US neo-cons and neo-lib war-hawks are screaming for a multi-front war with Russia, China, Iran/ME/NA, and North Korea.  Gonna tell ya'll a secret US and Canadian peeps:  The Pacific and Atlantic won't protect the North America when they finally provoke WWIII in order to bring "Freedom And Democracy To The Axis Of Evil." 

Nobody "wins"; everyone loses. So wave your little flags and cheer for the death and destruction of "your enemies."  Best of luck with that when regional war turns into global war.

If you see squares you all good.  If your seeing warped surfaces you may want to find an eye doctor asap.

7 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

The Tesla website shows $6,000 gas savings over a 5 year period 10,000 miles per year

https://www.tesla.com/modely/design?financeModalTab=gas_savings#overview

if the buyer qualifies for a federal tax credit then $7,500 would be taken off the $42,990 base price

So potentially a combined saving of $13,500 from the  $42,990 base price

My car cost $10,000 brand new and gets in-excess of 50+ miles per gallon.  Why would I want an expensive EV?  Right off the bat my saving are $32,990 and I'm not sucking off of the teats of a government who is using taxpayer money to essentially subsidize its wealthier than average citizens to purchase over-priced EVs.

On 3/15/2024 at 6:50 PM, george said:

The electric car fleet is growing and it is at the expense of fossil-fueled vehicles.

When EV spin meets the realities of "maintenance costs" and lack of demand.

Rental giant Hertz dumps EVs, including Teslas, for gas cars
Reuters, Jan 13, 2024

I remember recyclable glass bottles.  Plastics are pushed by petrochemical corporations who make them.
If government really wanted to address plastics, create laws to ban plastics in favor of recyclable glass.

Won't happen though - too much corporate money flows to government "lawmakers" to make sure it never happens.  Mussolini had a name for this type of corporatism where corporations pretty much control governments and government officials benefit from the largess of corporate funding - all at the expense of the average citizen who are thrown an occasional bone from off of the public-private banquet table.

Nope.  Don't need it.  The pneumatics work just fine without it. 

Come back, do a few weeks in a hospital suite, exit "on parole without a monitor" but keep you neckbrace on for a couple of weeks, and Bob's your uncle - Freedom for the uber-wealthy.

44 minutes ago, Microwave said:

I had a wretched life experience years ago (not in Thailand) which left me with PTSD and chronic insomnia.

I can sympathize.  I had situations after the death of my daughter that quite literally would find me waking up screaming.  I went to a shrink once here in Thailand who was worthless.  Buddhist meditation (Forest Tradition) is a better avenue.  I haven't had one of those "wake up screaming" dreams for a few years, so something in me has healed.  But chronic insomnia is a constant issue although my problem is initially getting to sleep.  Once asleep I tend to be able to stay asleep other then "old man" peeing issue, but I usually fall back asleep easily enough.  But I take melatonin nightly and make sure the room is as dark as I can get it as for me it tends to work although it still takes me upwards of an hour to an hour and a half to get to sleep.  If I absolutely need to get to sleep and wake up the next morning without a sleep hangover I'll take 10 mg of diazepam (prescribed by a doctor). But I use diazepam rarely and prefer melatonin.  Although it has a rather long half-life, I don't wake up groggy at all.  I shy away from short-term benzos like Xanax as they can rebound and cause drug induced anxiety.  Regarding breath meditation.  It's worthwhile to practice as you can eventually focus entirely on the breath and let thoughts arise and pass away without dwelling on them.  I use that technique to fall back asleep after I wake up at night.  You'll find you mind what's to attach to thoughts, but you can get to the point where you remain with the breath and your mind becomes Teflon, and then watch as the thoughts turn into hypnagogic imagery and the next thing you know you're asleep.  Just a suggestion. 

You may be able to find zolpidem (Ambien) but it's expensive and again, it can only be acquired from a hospital. One common thing about Thailand - they are extremely adverse to prescribing anything that is effective for pain or for sleep.  Palliative medicine here in Thailand is in the stone-ages and it seems to be getting worse, not better.  Even melatonin which many here would like to take is becoming a pain-in-the-butt to find and purchase.  However if it is only for occasional insomnia, then benzodizepines like diazepam are widely available from clinics.  However you don't every want to become physically dependent on benzos.  Not a good choice for those who tend toward addictive behavior. 

3 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

So according to their email,they charge an extra 5k for prep /labour 

Yes I don't think I will pay more than 30k

It's just I have no idea of what sort of Crown I require 

Anyone know anything about Crowns can advise me?

It's a upper right tooth molar in the middle of the jaw  so it's a big tooth 

Zirconia Crown - they are the best value for the money - I'm speaking from experience.  However you can go cheaper like porcelain.  I had a porcelain crown that lasted 20+ years.  More expensive crowns?  You don't need them.  They're just money makers for the dentist.

What fun - 200 more days of this Left - Right d**k measuring and listening to, "My Candidate's <deleted> is Bigger Than Your Candidate's <deleted>!!!" 
Gawd children - grow up.

  "Trump Is Hitler!!! Arrrggghhhh"
  "Biden Is Stalin!!! Arrrrgggghh"

Trust me - they all suck and could care less about you or the American people. 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

All six suspects have been charged under Section 295 of the Criminal Law for physically assaulting others, and causing bodily harm. The potential punishment includes imprisonment for a maximum of two years, a fine of up to 40,000 baht, or both.

Apologies, wais, and forgiveness all around.

7 hours ago, opporna said:

Does anyone have any experience with going to a government hospital

Yeah - most government hospitals are happy to pull your teeth out.  Most don't have the facilities to do anything beyond a basic filling. 

Average cost for a root canal will be between 10K to 13K for a molar.
Average cost for a Zirconia Crown will be between 18K to 20K for a molar.

My own dentist: 13K for a root canal and 18K for a Zirconia Crown.
My wife's dentist: 10K for a root canal and 20K for a Zirconia Crown.

Shop around.

1 hour ago, superal said:

Iran was on the verge of nuclear bombs a couple of years ago . It is shrouded in secrecy . Speculation has it that Iran already has the bomb . Testing might not have happened to prevent detection . There are many opinions and conjecture but Iran is known to have all the tools , skills and ingredients to make nuclear weapons / bombs . One opinion link below .

       https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/feb/19/does-iran-already-have-nuclear-weapons/

"Opinion" as opposed to "facts" derived by state sponsored Intelligence gathering as well as facts gathered by international agencies, such as the IAEA, are two entirely different things.  Can Intelligence agencies lie?  Of course. 
Mike Pompeo: "I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses." 
So could the US Intel agencies be publishing nonsense about Iran's nuclear capabilities?  I guess they could.  Are they? 

It's my opinion they are not based on "fact-based" assessments that I've read.  It's your opinion that they are based on "opinion-based" Op-Eds you have read. 
Ok - we all are welcome to our opinions which was the purpose of this post to begin with.