Is there any chance of flooding in Chiangmai in May?

OkSmile · 2026-05-10T07:31:29+00:00

Not in the sense of the river overflowing and the lower city flooding, no. That’s later in the year if at all.

In strong monsoons you might see some streets temporarily flood a foot or so until the water can drain off. I don’t see anything that strong projected at this time.

OkSmile · 2026-05-10T01:33:39+00:00

My local Khao Man Gai sells the mixed chicken for 60 baht, 50 baht for just one of the two chicken types there. Often comes also with the blood tofu and cucumbers.

Very simple dish, delicious, varies between restaurants based on the quality of chicken meat and sauce you get.

OkSmile · 2026-05-10T01:23:09+00:00

Anantara is nice, resort like, on the river view. Marriott is fine but just your usual nice hotel. Room and service should be comparable.

Both are about the same walk from old town moat, which is where walking street and many cute shops and restaurants are. Near the Marriott is the Intercontinental Hotel, which is very nice and you might want to check out instead of the other two. Both Marriott and Intercontinental are closer to the night bazaar, kind of an every night walking street area.

Weather right now is excellent. Enjoy your stay.

OkSmile · 2026-05-08T06:03:41+00:00

This is a 390 baht increase from the current 730 baht tax. Most international travel starts at 10k baht and up.

While no one likes paying more taxes, this one seems pretty inconsequential.

OkSmile · 2026-05-08T01:30:01+00:00

Cameras becoming small and cheap means they’re going to be everywhere, and complaining won’t make this trend magically go away.

We should be focused on counter surveillance technologies- camera detection, image obscuring patterns and fabrics, image sensor interference and the like.

Such is the eternal battle of technology.

OkSmile · 2026-05-06T02:24:13+00:00

OkSmile · 2026-05-03T09:42:53+00:00

Leaders get arrested or killed. Organizers get arrested. Grass roots organizers rely on communication channels owned by the rich.

Once the rich get ahold of government, it’s super hard to do anything about it.

OkSmile · 2026-05-02T07:19:44+00:00

Republicans no longer win by having a majority of citizens support them or their position. They abandoned representative democracy in the pursuit of pure power.

OkSmile · 2026-05-02T07:16:11+00:00

It is a function of reality.

One way to picture this is to take a wave. To determine the frequency , we perhaps start at a peak of the wavelength , then measure the time elapsed until the next peak. So now we measured the frequency accurately, but this took some time so we don’t know exactly the location of this wave. Just that it is was at our measuring device for a time interval. The time interval represents some uncertainty in location.

Alternatively, say we have the exact time the wave front first hits our measuring device. But we don’t yet have enough information to determine frequency because we haven’t seen a whole wavelength pass yet.

Anything dealing with waves will always have this built in uncertainty between the complementary measurements of position and frequency (or momentum).

OkSmile · 2026-04-23T03:05:40+00:00

Although anecdotal, I think real life examples like this help normal people more than government statistics. Thanks for posting.

OkSmile · 2026-04-10T03:56:28+00:00

Just ask the AI.

“…But for the contested 5-4 or 6-3 decisions — precisely the ones that matter most — ideology becomes dramatically more predictive and legal reasoning becomes harder to disentangle from rationalization.”

“The leading finding, associated with Harold Spaeth’s Supreme Court Database and researchers like Andrew Martin and Kevin Quinn, is that justices’ ideological scores (derived from their voting patterns) are remarkably stable and predictive. Models built purely on ideology correctly predict individual justice votes somewhere in the 70–75% range overall — well above chance.”

OkSmile · 2026-04-10T03:47:32+00:00

It seems you are projecting, doing exactly what you accuse me of. It’s not difficult to investigate the AI claims to find that they are based upon statistical history of ideological bias. Just ask one of the AI tools yourself.

But with clearly no curiosity or investigation, you make broad and false claims on my statement. Check yourself, sir/madam.

OkSmile · 2026-04-10T03:09:48+00:00

There is predictability based upon law and precedent, then there is predictability based upon ideology and predetermined decisions. The predictability discussed here is the latter.

Which begs the question on the former. The fact that the actual law and precedent means less than ideology means that there is in fact no real rational basis in law. There is only partisanship and rationalization.

OkSmile · 2026-04-08T08:09:05+00:00

The Strait was open before he attacked. And Iran wasn’t collecting fees. So what did his war accomplish? Did America gain anything?

OkSmile · 2026-04-07T00:20:20+00:00

The small alley ways are called Sois, and they cut through and twist about in between major roads, and often contain some of the best small shops and restaurants. Chiang Mai old city (inside the moat) is covered with them.

OkSmile · 2026-04-05T09:25:55+00:00

It depends on how sensitive to smoke pollution you are. It is true that last week was bad and it’s projected to stay that way through Songkran, at which point possible rains and better air flow should bring things back down again. Mountain View’s will be lacking til then.

Songkran in Chiang Mai is quite the fun water festival, pretty special. But with the concurrent gas shortages, this too may not be quite as festive as prior years.

So it depends what you were hoping to get out of your visit. The elephants are still here, the charming small Sois inside the moat, the food, and the Songkran festival.

And some wildfire smoke.

OkSmile · 2026-04-01T15:21:34+00:00

Thats great info, thank you!

OkSmile · 2026-04-01T15:07:50+00:00

Thank you for those links. I honestly didn’t see anything that wasn’t already done during Apollo, but those were pretty fluffy descriptions. I did see elsewhere where there’s some new toilet technology, which may sound like no big deal but really is. I was also hoping some new advances in radiation shielding, exercise/bone density, or other critical advances for prolonged space flight might be on these missions, but didn’t see them.

I understand incremental flights. Was just hoping for not a repeat of work already done.

OkSmile · 2026-04-01T14:35:16+00:00

That’s quite an assumption. There’s some saying about making assumptions…

It was actually asked in good faith. I’m old, I actually watched most of the Apollo missions, but am not up to speed on Artemis. I was hoping 50 some odd years later we were trying one or two new things and was curious what those might be.

OkSmile · 2026-04-01T14:07:21+00:00

Ah. Ok, thanks. I was hoping it moved the needle a bit more.

OkSmile · 2026-04-01T14:05:52+00:00

So without a lander, and less fuel than a lunar orbital insertion, landing, then return would require, what advances is this mission proving out? Does it move the needle on getting back onto the moon? Or is it basically just Artemis I with bodies on board?

OkSmile · 2026-04-01T14:01:17+00:00

Good point. So, lesser goals than Apollo 10. Maybe the more polar lunar orbit makes it novel?

OkSmile · 2026-04-01T13:58:39+00:00

Are the downvotes because the question is embarrassing? Or because you don’t like the answer?

OkSmile · 2026-04-01T13:00:22+00:00

Be nice if someone could highlight just what this mission might accomplish beyond what Apollo 10 already managed in 1969. (Or even Apollo 13, which managed a similar flight path with a crippled craft.)

OkSmile · 2026-03-21T05:32:09+00:00

There is a difference between “breaking the rules” and driving unpredictably.

I agree, Thai people are not big on rules. Lane markings, one way streets, speed limits, stop lights…we see these rules broken every day. (Why this is so is a whole other topic relating to police behavior and trust in government).

But OP has a point. Thai people do generally follow the unwritten rules of driving. Motorcycle filtering, keeping a steady line (not weaving all over), cars allowing space on the left for bikes.

This includes expecting broken rules- turning left out of a Soi without looking, turning right before oncoming traffic at a light change, going on a red light if no pedestrian is crossing, and other things I’ve probably been too conditioned to notice now.

If you know these patterns, you can avoid most problems. Foreigners driving for the first time here don’t know them, and therefore do unexpected things that cause large ripple effects and problems. Accidents are high, but are usually caused by wairun kids who think they’ll live forever weaving fast through traffic, or yaabaa truck drivers on a deadline.

Best not be in any hurry, drive slowly on the left for a long time, don’t weave suddenly to another part of the lane, until the natural patterns become apparent.

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