Specialist

I saw "Lucy" a while back. It is one of those films you will either love or hate. If you try to make SENSE out of it, you will hate it. If you see what the director was driving at, it will hit you very hard and very deep. The director is asking three questions: What does it mean to be human, what does it mean to be MORE human, and what does it mean to be more THAN human? Contrast "Lucy" with "Limitless", for two very different takes on a somewhat similar idea.

"Kingsman: The Secret Service" This is NOT a chick flick, unless your chick is WAY cool with guy flicks. This is not QUITE a James Bond flick, although most of the elements are there. What it is is FUN!, from beginning to end.

I was just in town for two weeks in March. I can't get loose again that soon. DARNITALL!

OK, data point. I just flew back to the US after spending two weeks in BKK. Sports Academy is a very well-run small pool hall on the 2nd floor of the Ruamchitt Hotel, in the basement of which lies Thermae. While on my way to Sports Academy, I found myself talking with a sweet young thing on the front steps, who was working on her makeup, in the early evening. I do not know whether she was going to Thermae eventually. I do know she was "available", and was quite willing to go with this particular 59-year old 286-lb farang. I had appointments to keep, and I had to disappoint her, but I did make a point of getting her telephone number.

OK, so what about new SIM cards purchased after the deadline? I'm one of those guys who is only here every six months or so, who has to buy a new SIM every trip.

There is one bit of good news. One ISIS jihadi learned that things might not be as he was taught all his life.

Stolen shamelessly and reposted elsewhere. Too good not to.

I've never had a drink at Cheap Charlie's. Every time I've been by there, I've been on my way to or from Charley Brown's. "Best Tex-Mex in Bangkok!", they claimed years ago. Best Tex-mex on the planet, I sez. And their margaritas are LETHAL. They should come with a black box warning label. I did two in fairly quick succession one bad night. I WON'T do that again soon. Now I space them out carefully, with dinner, and enjoy.

There's a table somewhere on the Intertubes that claims, with data, that the more Muslims you have in a country, the more and worse TROUBLE you have in that country. 13% is serious trouble territory.

OK, with the band playing romantic songs, that is indeed the Zanzibar I was thinking of. I guess I should hit that place at least once this trip...

If Zanzibar is the place I think it is, it has been years since I last ate there. It was GOOD!

I think Penny Black is still running, although I've never done anything there. Asoke Place was still in operation last time I had occasion to walk up Asoke to catch a cab. 99% of the time, I catch cabs from the Soi 23 end, to take the back soi to Soi 15 and my usual hotel. World Inn (I think) on Suk Soi 7/1 may still be there, although there's been some remodeling lately, to make a small seafood restaurant plaza to replace the one on Soi 7 that was torn down. More when I know it, in a little over a week.

Munchie, I'll grant that the Bose QC15s are not cheap. On the other hand, they're expensive for sort of the same reason a divorce is expensive. They're WORTH IT.

Flash, there's a saying. "What one legislature giveth, another legislature can taketh away." Such a clause would last one election cycle, two at the most.

Reboot in Safe Mode with networking disabled. Try a deep Malwarebytes scan from there. Worst case, you may need a second, uninfected computer to download the necessary tools onto an uninfected Flash drive. (Been there, although not with this particular POS.) The page you linked gives detailed instructions for removing it. Also, I've found Bleeping Computer a useful reference: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/550141/have-browser-hijacker-safehomepage/

I prefer not to waste good airplanes and good pilots on suicide missions.

Cropdust them with pig's blood. Even better, use a firefighting waterbomber. You'd probably need some good air superiority support, as cropdusting airplanes tend to fly low and slow.

The pharmacy at Food Land on Suk Soi 5 is getting 180 baht for it.

The Euro folks have announced a "quantitative easing" program, similar to the one that crashed the dollar. They even ADMITTED that the purpose is to raise the inflation rate of the Euro. The Euro nose-dived against the dollar the moment the announcement came out.

I've only been to Panthip Plaza once, several years ago. Even then, business did not appear to be healthy.

I'd try Vasu, on Suk, at the Soi 7/1 corner. Second choice would be one of the Soi Arab exchange booths.

Currently working my way through Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics". So far, what he has covered demonstrates what a co-worker would occasionally describe as "a keen grasp of the obvious". Well, at least it is obvious to ME. It appears that basic economics, the idea that SOMEBODY has to pay the actual costs of supplying the goods and services, is not obvious to a lot of people.

Royal President, Suk Soi 15. The pool is smaller than the Nana pool, but quite nice as far as I can tell. Very well-run, guest-friendly. When I added what the Nana Hotel was charging for hourly internet access (somehow, the witches at the cashier's desk NEVER had the daily tickets, even though they advertised them) to the room rate, that was the end of my staying at Nana Hotel. They cost me more than what Royal President cost, and Royal President was and is a MUCH nicer hotel. (I also get the impression that the Nana Hotel has gone downhill considerably since I was last there.)

I'm jealous, Jack. I've got another 7 weeks to go before I get on the airplane.

The first question that has to be answered (it has been asked, many times in many places) is "How do you define 'global temperature'? How do you measure it? Where do you stick the thermometer in?" The related question is "How do you know you're measuring it the same way this year as you did last year?". Every time the question is asked, the Global Warming folks evade and change the subject. Of course, these *ARE* the same people who claimed to believe that Greenland had always been glaciated. (They didn't study history, presumably.) When a warm year a few years ago brought the old Viking dairy farm ruins to public view, they, not wanting to waste a good photo op, started screaming about the warming, only to see the glacier advance again and re-cover the farms.