₿itoshi Galt

In malls in Asia in general, the food is either on the top floor or the bottom floor. Most of the time it's on the bottom floor. That's where the food is in One Bangkok, a shopping complex costing about $3.4 billion that opened in the Thai capital in 2024. This explains a lot about why Bangkok's malls are packed while American ones are closing. In the United States, malls were built around department stores, known in the business as anchors. A Macy's or a Nordstrom would sit at either end of the building, so you'd have to walk past every other shop to get there. When the department stores died, the malls went with them. When Nordstrom said it was going to leave the Westfield mall in downtown San Francisco, in 2023, the mall's owners defaulted on their $558-million mortgage a few weeks later. In November 2025, the banks acquired the mall at auction for $133 million, about a tenth of its 2016 value. It was reported to be 95% vacant, with just two restaurants left in the food court. Bangkok moved the anchor. Lunch is the new department store. As the property firm Knight Frank has noted, Thailand's malls have been able to maintain occupancy rates of over 90% by handing space to restaurants and clinics, businesses that still benefit from foot traffic. The traditional split between retail and food in a mall used to be 70% to 30%, but it no longer holds, the head of retail at CBRE Thailand said earlier this year. Malls are now turning previously empty roof space into new restaurant floors. One Bangkok's food floor has more than 250 restaurants along a loop that's about a mile long. I had a bowl of udon there. California, Bay Area, probably $20, $25. This is $4 and no tip. You don't have to tip. Food is of course cheaper in Thailand, and wages are lower, so this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison, though not leaving a tip is nice. What I truly can't get back home is the place itself. In the Bay Area, where I live, the closest thing I can find is Valley Fair, in Santa Clara. Our nicest mall is like... I don't have anything like this. We have Valley Fair. That's like our best thing. Nothing in America is the equivalent of One Bangkok, or of ICONSIAM, on the Chao Phraya River. ICONSIAM, which opened in 2018 and cost 54 billion baht, or about $1.7 billion, has a ground floor that replicates a Thai town, spans four acres and was built to host over 3,000 local shops from all of Thailand's 77 provinces. Even in Bangkok, the malls that haven't pivoted to food are struggling. CBRE expects occupancy across the city's malls to fall below 90% this year, which hasn't happened in years. The malls that are thriving are the ones that have gotten away from relying on retail, because shopping has gone online, and dining with family has not.

Many of you still think soldiers die like heroes in clean, decisive moments. This footage from Height 105-106 shows the actual pattern: short, brutal close encounters in trenches and treelines where both sides take heavy losses in seconds. The foreign volunteers (US, Canadian and others) who went into Alfa and Bravo did not stroll in as invincible veterans; they closed with the enemy under fire, cleared positions, and finished the fight at arm’s length. Officials on both sides will call the dead martyrs or heroes. That is a cliché that softens reality for people who have never watched these frames. This is not the Middle East style of engagement most Western veterans trained for. Iraq and Afghanistan experience does not automatically transfer. Standard training and past tours do not prepare you for the density of fires, the constant drone threat, and the pure infantry meat-grinder of these European fields. You can be a veteran of Kandahar or Fallujah and still not last long if you trust only old skills. As the Afghan proverb says: everyone is gang until they go to Kandahar. The ones who actually went into those trenches found out quickly that talk and prior service do not change the arithmetic of short-range killing. Most of the fallen on either side were not dying as storybook heroes. They were simply there when the next burst of fire arrived.

Andrew Henderson (@nomadcapitalist) said a benefit of being an expat is that you can ‘float above politics’. For example, an American leaves the US as they do not like how politically divided it has become. He finds happiness in Brazil not necessarily because Brazil is any less divided - but because he does not concern himself with local politics and has now distance himself from politics back home as well. He floats above it.

🇺🇦 🇷🇺 combat Footage of an assault on RUS positions involving American and Canadian mercenaries who failed to proceed as planned after RUS troops returned fire. Credit ScorpionIntel

Chamath is a donkey 🫏 If you didn’t know that already, you do now

With dating apps, instagram, and unlimited DMs, women have more access to men than any generation in history… Yet somehow they still can’t find a husband, be loyal, or be satisfied. Too much access didn’t create more fulfilled women. It created women who can’t value anything.

How the vast majority of mass shootings look in America… All black Multiple guns Several people killed This is Philadelphia, but this happens every day in every city.