fedssocr

They need to find someone to design and build the engines first. Might not be a trivial undertaking.

it would certainly seem a lot longer

I spend a lot of time here and have not had the same impressions of the recent activity. Maybe we all see things through our own lenses

After reading this thread YT served up this video to me. About Bangkok, not Pattaya, but the sentiment is similar

He hasn't been locked up yet. And if he didn't do so many crimes he wouldn't have any problems.

Melbourne has really slipped. I'm a little shocked at Calgary. Frankfurt is very nice. I spent several days there a few years ago. It was summertime so the weather was beautiful. Lots of people just hanging out along the river in the evening with friends or family. I really felt like the quality of life in Germany was fantastic.

Apparently his militia is losing its mind. They are gearing up for a shooting war. The bad news is they have lots of weapons. I guess the optimistic news is that they're a relatively small group. But I have to say that the NBC expert Ben Collins who spends all of his time following these groups online sounded pretty shook last night when he was talking about their chatter.

They're building yet another mall on the corner across from MBK. Has anyone spent time at the new Ong Ang walking street? It looks really nice from the videos I've seen

Apparently this is related to the boxes of documents he stole from the WH. I'd imagine that anything really incriminating is long since destroyed

I agree that a big age difference is a problem for many people. I have several friends who have older partners here in the US. I've never asked any of them about it, but I suspect there have been comments made about their partners being "sugar daddies". Some people have a hard time minding their own business and enjoy being judgmental of others. I think some of us might have some of our own discomfort with being gay or being with much younger men whom we are paying for their companionship. So it's more of an internalized issue than anything.

Depends on the cruise line, but most of them have stopped forcing people to dine with strangers, especially in the aftermath of Covid

even Emirates has subpar 2-3-2 business class on their 777s. I'd take 1-2-1 options on DL,AA, or even UA over that

There are some gay cruises out there but they tend to be circuit party type things. Not all of them but that's the reputation. Cruises these days are generally much more casual than they used to be. Lots of gay couples on mainstream cruises - they all have YouTube channels

I just watched Thirteen Lives (the Ron Howard film on Amazon Prime). It was better than I was expecting and gives a lot of credit to the many local volunteers, but focuses squarely on the rescue divers, which is fair enough I suppose. They had to build some quite elaborate sets, that's for sure. I haven't had a chance to see The Rescue yet because it's on Disney+ and I don't have a subscription to that one. But I feel like as the definitive documentary it's probably better.

I thought the general consensus was that all of those priceless historical artifacts were ultimately saved by CKS. If they'd remained behind in China how many would have survived Mao?

seems odd that a guy who worked in private equity feels the need to keep doing all of this work

This forum has gotten too quiet. We need Min to get back to his travels for our entertainment! 😘

will the powers that be allow him to keep doing all of this? Reformers usually have a pretty big target on their backs

I was just going to suggest seatguru. Of course it can't tell you where the passengers of size will be located, but it can help you see which seats are least desirable. I am not a big person by any means, but once you fly up front it's nearly impossible to go back to sitting in economy. Most of my business and first class trips have been booked with miles so they weren't super expensive. But I have paid for business class. When your trip is 20 hours plus to the other side of the world having some comfort is important to me. There's no way I could sleep sitting in an economy seat. Even in a lie flat business seat it's not especially easy for me. But it's way less stress on my body and mind. Plus the lounge access is a nice thing, particularly when the lounge has showers and decent food. It's nice to freshen up mid-trip. And shorter check-in lines, etc.

A view from Taiwan https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/03/china-us-taiwan-nancy-pelosi-visit

I think a face cradle attachment is the best if available.

Slot Machine also did well with the theme song on the KP soundtrack. There's an English version and a Thai version. I may have to make some time for this series. You're right about the skincare products. Dunk is all over the place with his many endoresements.

I guess I never considered Asia Miles - never used that program. Thanks for that tip. I had about 100K AA and had to buy the difference to have enough for this ticket. I have a lot of Amex points and have spent most of my Citi points. I have a big stash of Avianca miles that I bought a while ago. Unfortunately they don't seem to have many available award seats these days. I'm hoping that will improve once things get more back to normal.

AA's routing rules are annoying. My recently booked IAD-DOH-BKK itinerary on QR was reservable on the AA website, but was not bookable without calling them to complete the transaction. It was pretty straightforward though. Since the booking was already in the system the AAgent just had to complete the process so it was a short call. Since it's two award it cost me 110K miles.

I believe there may be an obligation under US law for the US to help defend Taiwan. At some point it seems like the world will need to recognize the reality that Taiwan is already an independent country. Ultimately Taiwan is a country of 25 million people. In the face a PRC with a billion plus people it will be very difficult for them to defend themselves even with American weapons systems. The PRC is a big country with many big problems looming on the horizon. The economic problems invading Taiwan would create certainly won't help with those problems. Even if they did invade and managed to takeover the country they'd have to deal with a population that doesn't want them there. Crushing Hong Kong was one thing, crushing Taiwan will be a much bigger job. And to what end? To have a destroyed island under CCP rule might be quite a pyrrhic victory.