kokopelli 2

I sincerely doubt there are more liars in the U.S. government than there are in your own personal life. Human beings tend to lie when it's convenient, easy, or it will save their ass.
I know plenty of people who work for the U.S. government who care deeply about the work, this country, and the public service. Of course it's always the bad apples who ruin things for everyone.
But when you seriously think about large bureaucracies, especially the ones where employees come and go with each new administration, it's hard to imagine any mission that can be perfectly executed with so many hands coming and going. Run a business, any business, and find out how difficult it is to create a perfect execution. Or better yet, see how easy it is for just three people to keep your secret.
America's problem is education, and it has been a serious problem for decades. Republicans in particular prefer to keep their voters stupid and scared. As long as there are too many stupid, scared people running around, there is no way they will ever be able to wrap their brain around science. If the cross you want to bear is science-denial, then you just might die on that cross. It's proving true for many anti-vaxxers. 

I'm planning for departure on 4th Feb.  I'm taking a gamble on this.  Wish me luck!
** I'm waiting for Royal Gazette to release tomorrow (hopefully) so that I can start my bookings.

I enjoyed him a bit, after all he was in Rocky Horror.
But, sad that he ended his life as an anti-vaxxer idiot. What a way to destroy your own legacy.

A vocal opponent of Covid-19 vaccine mandates, singer Meat Loaf appears to have succumbed to the disease himself (death certificate hasn't been filed yet). As an obese 74 year-old, you'd think he would have chosen a wiser course, since he fit the profile as a prime risk for the illness. I have zero understanding of why entertainers think they're so much more knowledgeable about vaccine safety and efficacy than public health and medical experts. It's difficult to muster any empathy here. Hopefully his words and actions didn't lead to others losing their lives.
https://www.tmz.com/2022/01/21/meat-loaf-dead-dies-singer/
"...Our sources say Meat Loaf has been outspoken about COVID, railing with folks in Australia recently about vaccine mandates..."

https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/4509131/meat-loaf-died-catching-covid/
"...just months before his death he declared "if I die, I die - I'm not going to be controlled" when discussing Covid.
In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published last August, he also labelled face masks a "nuisance".. ."
Well, it looks like the only thing to control him was the virus... 🙄

A few thoughts on wills from my own experience.
*    Minimize the chance of lawyers extracting more than a modest fee by make your will as simple, short and clear as possible. The more you get carried away trying to control every last detail and end up writing “The Soap Opera of My Final Testament”, the greater the opportunity you provide for snafus which the legal sharks will ruthlessly exploit for profit. Refer to Charles Dickens, Jarndyce v Jarndyce.
*    Ensure you have a good executor. This must be kept up-to-date as a good option when you make the will may not be a good option by the time you pass on, and this holds true as much for law firms and trust departments as for individuals.
*     Give copies of the will to the beneficiaries, at least the main ones. This ensures both that copies of the will are easily available and that someone will be on the ball and prod the executors to action.
*    It may help if one of the beneficiaries is a large entity with the ability to easily summon lawyers to ensure that things move efficiently.  
If this advice gives the impression that I have very little faith in the probity of the legal profession when it comes to the execution of testamentary wishes, that impression is correct.
I do not think bequests are the best way to ensure you are remembered.
The park near my home is dotted with decaying sculptures, fountains, horse troughs and dog water bowls erected by individuals seeking remembrance (and failing) and the storage of the art gallery is full of works donated in the fond hope of preserving someone’s memory, now out of fashion and out of sight.
Short of doing something so awesome that it will be remembered down the ages (not much chance for most of us), our best hope is to have people we have helped during our lives, friends, and family in whose hearts a fond memory lingers for a few decades.  

I did it once by accident at Jomtien beach under the palm trees many years ago , I schedule massage with one masseuse after I finish my breakfast but he disappeared so I took another one after few minutes the first masseuse came and apologized that the massage session took longer than he thought with his last client so the second masseuse kindly suggest I do massage with both of them and it was unique experience indeed . thinking about it now I don't understand why I never did it again ...

Yes, I am laughing at most of that, but at the same time it makes me feel so sad that so much of the population could support all that insanity. The damage tRump did across the civilised world in those four years was catastrophic.  

People who don't have wills usually don't think their deaths are possible. And/or they don't care about their potential beneficiaries much. 🙄

In addition to including contingent  beneficiaries, as Peter noted above, it is important to keep your Will updated .  A friend died in Thailand  whose  Will was about 10 years old and his situation had changed.  He had left two of his condos to two Thais but after ten years he had two newer "friends" and even wrote a draft Will but never executed it. Also  he did not include a "catch all" clause to cover the remainder of his Estate which had increased since his Will was first written.  A real mess!

Although there are many opinions as to what happens if testing positive on arrival with no symptoms, (ASQ hotel, Hospital hotel [hospitel], Rest at home, etc) there is a detailed report on reddit that explains the chain of events.
Here are a few excerpts from the report from a person who tested positive on arrival in Phuket.  The original report is on Reddit.com:
 
 

How could Superman, the man of steel, be circumcised? 😜

40,000 books that the "publisher" claims have been written about the assasination amounts to approximately 700 per year.  
Whole lotta books.

I spent a career in corporate communications working with CEOs. There were a lot of troubling secrets. 
What I learned is that secrets don't keep. There are too many loose lips and people that could benefit by revealing it. Only those who have never been involved in such things could believe that large numbers of people could keep their mouths shut. Human nature is to blab. Even more so when there is benefit in it.
Conspiracies are, for the most part, intellectual masturbation that makes the believer feel superior to the unbeliever because they possess 'hidden knowledge'. Witness all the stupidity of Qanon.
Belief in such nonsense leads to a lot of dark places. January 6th for instance.
 

Maybe if that is the only reason a person is traveling to Thailand for haunting boys and grab them to long term in room , otherwise traveling to a country which banned alcohol and opening of entertainment venues and more other redilucious restrictions seems very depressing idea.

My thoughts as well although I still think there were others involved in the assassination plot but Oswald pulled the trigger 

Here is a website that offers health insurance with Covid included. Many variables are offered such as duration of stay, amount of insurance desired, age of traveler,deductibles, etc.
https://www.insubuy.com/travel-health-insurance/

Here is a website that offers health insurance with Covid included. Many variables are offered such as duration of stay, amount of insurance desired, age of traveler,deductibles, etc.
https://www.insubuy.com/travel-health-insurance/

From Channel News Asia
Thailand’s Kotchakorn makes mark at global climate change talks

The rooftop garden of Thammasat University is the largest in Asia. (Photo: Land Process)
GLASGOW: David Attenborough was in the middle of arguably one of his most important public calls to action. To more than 100 world leaders, on the biggest stage at the opening of global climate change talks in Glasgow, he called on delegates to rewrite the human story in the face of a monumental challenge.
As he paused, for a moment, another face appeared onscreen with a decidedly different accent.
“Can we fix the climate problem in one generation? My answer would be yes. We have to,” said Kotchakorn Voraakhom.
The video excerpt was from an interview Kotchakorn had done in the lead up to COP26, a short film in a YouTube series sharing the voice of the people on the frontline of climate change. 
Kotachakorn was last year named a United Nations Global Climate Action Award winner for her transformative work building innovative landscape solutions for urban resilience in Bangkok.

That recognition gave rise to her attending COP26 in the UK, which began on Nov 1. Given the logistical difficulties, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the apparent limited access to the conference from attendees from the Global South, she admitted that she felt fortunate to even be there.
The 40-year-old’s work has made an impact in Bangkok, where she founded her urban design firm, Landprocess. She has been a leading voice promoting functional green spaces in Bangkok’s new developments and converted spaces.
Her sights have been set on sustainable green infrastructure that makes the city more liveable, walkable, and suitable for its future and new uncertainties to come.

At a campus for Thammasat University, Kotchakorn’s designs have given birth to Asia’s biggest rooftop garden, a place with incredible aesthetics and true function.
The 22,000 sq m space recreates a rice terrace, includes micro-watersheds from its cascading roof and has expansive areas for students to grow organic vegetables and herbs. It has aesthetics but more critically, purpose.
Opened in 2017, Chulalongkorn Centenary Park is a critical piece of functional architecture that reduces inundation risk in the city during periods of heavy rain, by collecting, treating, and holding millions of litres of water, reducing pressure on sewage infrastructure.
Bangkok is one of the world’s most vulnerable cities to climate change impacts. The megacity is slowly sinking, just as sea levels rise. It means much of the city could be underwater within decades and increasingly exposed to dangerous flooding.

The looming crisis, and the chance to witness global talks up close, has given Kotchakorn more perspective about the need for greater action, the inequalities that exist and the frustrations of political negotiations.
Continues with photos
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sustainability/cop26-climate-change-thailand-kotchakorn-landscape-architect-2292241
 

Strictly Come Dancing viewers were moved to “tears” on Saturday (6 November), after a “spellbinding” and sensual rumba from Johannes Radebe and John Whaite.
The show’s first-ever male same-sex dance partners performed the rumba to “Shape of My Heart” by Sting, and came in third, scoring 35 points out of a possible 40.
  Viewers were overwhelmed with emotion after the performance, and many revealed that they had broken down in tears.
One wrote: “In tears watching Johannes and John. I bloomin’ hate the rhumba but the fact that two gay men are dancing this together on prime time Saturday night BBC is everything.”
Lib Dem councillor Mathew Hulbert added: “Tears. Couldn’t take my eyes off John and Johannes during that dance. Beautiful.
“They may not know just how much seeing them dance together means to so many.”
 
While Whaite and Radebe having been blowing fans away since they first stepped onto the Strictly dance floor in September, many declared that the rumba was their best performance yet because of its sensuality and raw emotion.
 

This is why I'm waiting. Or at least, one of the reasons.
And what the hell are jpg and png? I struggle enough with the everyday operation of this infernal machine and so it appears that I shall have to employ a technician to help me. A home visit, I suspect , will be expensive. And this is not a joke.
To be blunt, I'd rather queue-up at the Thai Embassy in London.
Another thought; I do have a computer and have just bought my first (and probably last) mobile phone, specifically for Thailand.. There are some technologically-deprived souls who own neither....are they to be permanently denied a trip to meet their boyfriends?