tgw

"Western farang" is a pleonasm or.. actually, I take that back. there are plenty farangs which aren't Westerners. Russians for example.

let's see if this is a repeat of this: https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/russian-tourist-borrows-100000-baht-bail-feeding-fish-off-phuket/ the Russian lady spent 2 nights in a police cell for feeding the fish ! why isn't this kind of overreaction prosecuted for "tarnishing Thailand's image" and "damaging Thailand's tourism business" ?

motorcyclist should never have been so close to the buggy in the first place, should not have been in the buggy's lane while overtaking, should not have overtaken at a crosswalk, and should have slowed down at the first sign of unanticipated conditions. one thing that is remarkable about about many Thai drivers is that too often they don't slow down when there is a sudden obstacle ahead. many prefer to veer, often without checking if the other lane is free or not. middle aged and older people on motorcycles making their left turns without looking for incoming traffic are way too common too.

a war between Russia and Ukraine today would be more significant for Europe than the war in the Balkans

I'll go step further than what I posted before. I think the current "negociations" are not what the public thinks they are. I think Russia and the West are currently collaborating to turn on the heat on that "crisis" to get public opinion really scared to then make the mere handover of the separatist republics look like a Western diplomatic victory. Because Putin understands he must not make Biden look weak.

yes. I just tried wordle. I'm not impressed. the word I should find was "micro". which is... not a word. or not really. but it refused virgo. which is... a word. so the game broke rules twice on my first try, so it's a no go for me. it also just refused hindu and hindi. so it's rubbish

well, nordstream 2 isn't even open yet and nordstream 1 is at 50% capacity

well, don't you read cyrillic ? it means "myi gavarim pa russki"

not really. I guess reserves will be enough to cover this year's winter which will soon be over, and then there is almost a year to organize energy. sure, Europe would need to reactivate a lot of carbon-based energy plants and import a lot of fossil fuels, and the French would build NPPs (nuclear power plants) everywhere. maritime tanker traffic to EU ports would resume and oil from OPEC will flow again without production cap.

the limited invasion of the two secessionist republics is also the most likely invasion-scenario, if there is an invasion at all. the "plans" posted on the CSIS cover all scenarios, except that of "Novorossiya" present in Putin's thoughts, which would result, in fact, in the invasion of Eastern Ukraine and Southern Ukraine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novorossiya But I still bet on the relative non-event of invasion of both separatist republics. Starting a war with the rest of Ukraine would taint relations for the next 50 years and possibly mean the termination of persons dear to Putin and confiscation of Russia's international possessions, as well as a lockout of all Russian business and money from the rest of the world. I don't think his cronies will agree to that. Now Russia plays up tensions until everyone will be relieved they just take the two republics, which is more or less unavoidable anyway. The play by Biden and the rest of the world seems to support that, and the CSIS publication also supports this scenario by adding to the scaremongering.

difficult to make predictions on what happens here without conjecturing what happens there. domino-effect.

probably not. If Russia invades, I expect them to "generously" limit themselves to Donetsk and Lughansk oblasts, or the current de-facto borders of Lugansk and Donetsk republics, where the majority of the population is of Russian nationality (don't get confused, Russian nationality but Ukrainian citizenship). So if this scenario plays out, the "invasion" will be done without combat, since the aforementioned territories are already under Russian control and they would meet no resistance at all. Western media maintain radio silence on this fact - the population of these regions of Ukraine is in its large majority Russian. And this is also the official legitimization of Russia's territorial claims. Little mother Russia wants to protect its children that are being oppressed by evil nazi-nationalist Ukrainian extremists. In reality, Russia wants to add these regions with rich agriculture and industry to its dominion and therefore fomented separatist plots and supports separatists with weapons and personnel. Russia ideally also needs a casus belli, that's why it has been orchestrating various media campaigns and possibly false flag operations. as a consequence, if the Russian invasion is limited to these regions, I expect there won't be a big refugee wave, since most Russians with Ukrainian passports won't object too much to having that new sheriff in town, and those who do will find a new place to live in the rest of Ukraine. the loss of these 2 regions won't be fatal for Ukraine, but will clearly demonstrate how weak the West is. Then referendums will be held. The 2 republics Lughansk and Donetsk will vote to be independent or attached to Russia. Same as in Crimea. The end. so for expats in Thailand, nothing will change.

correct. subsidizing food, housing, etc. is way better than rising the minimum wage because it will not unbalance the economy.

guns just needed to disappear for a couple of days, the time for leaving the country. they had all this well planned in advance. the cover-up story by the person "in uniform" will be interesting.

Indian with Canadian passport, but deported from Canada.

only when commercially organized. there is no law against 2 persons privately exchanging money for sex.

this forum will only be aware of Western celebrities. I'm sure there are Japanese, Korean and maybe Russian celebrities in Thailand. There was this story years ago about this Russian orchestra conductor ...

yes, the buggy driver technically was "a little" at fault for not using a hand signal, but the motorcycle driver was more at fault. the buggy was hit while still in its own lane. the motorcycle was driving too fast for the situation and did not maintain safety distance, and did not assess the situation before overtaking.

everybody owning aircons knows the problem: after some time, goo forms in the exhaust pipe and causes the unit to drip water. what I usually do is to blow it clean, that will fix the issue for about 2-3 weeks or 4-5 weeks if lucky. my units in clean environment (personal office and bedroom) are clean enough inside, as there is even hardly any dust on the air filter and the coil is clean too, but the pipe keeps getting obstructed, while the pan collecting the condensated water is clean. my guess is that bacteria come from outside and work their way up the drain, otherwise I would find some goo inside the AC unit. I know a professional cleaning will last much longer (6-9 months), but I'd like to know a tip on how to go longer between cleanings. what I already tried is rinsing the pipe using a glass of vinegar. it didn't hurt, but I didn't notice any benefits either. next up for trial is a chlorine solution. does anyone know anything else I could try to keep the goo out of my aircon pipes?

A friend booked a hotel and paid 50% deposit, but it amounts to 12.500 THB. Thaipass website says minimum payment is 15.000 THB, how strict are they?

certainly not a dick. he might be negligent, forgetful, etc. but not a dick. only in case of course, if there was money in the car in the first place.

choosing between choking down or coming over the top

this is good advice

well, carnage is not an invented word. it's an existing word with a well-established definition that means something else entirely.

funny, the same happened to me. surely, this would not happen on one of the "approved news sources" ????