Paul Brownjohn @Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org
Retired software engineer & woodworker.
Anglo-francophone.
Detest tories. Subscribe to green, leftish radical politics but not to any particular political party!.
Love the EU and all it stands for, moreover, I spent the last 10 years of my career working at an EU agency.
Enthusiastic photographer, especially wildlife and most especially butterflies.
Slightly knowledgeable gardener.
Atheist; loathe almost all religions and pity the people deluded enough to follow them. I make exceptions for Buddhism as it isn't really a religion in the strictest sense of the word as it doesn't postulate the existence of any god, and Jainism which is the epitome of peace.
For anyone who is interested, my header photo is of the most stupendous sunset I have ever seen. On the right is the waterfront of Vientiane, the capital of Laos, on the left is Thailand and in the middle, acting as the border between the two countries is the mighty Mekong river.
Joined Nov 2022
No, I won't turn off my ad-blocker and no I won't bother wasting my time for the site to appear after X number of seconds - I'll just block you instead!
Yes the trend towards 'edgy' dialogue; i.e. dialogue you can't fuckin well hear, has been progressing for some years now. I can't make up my mind whether the directors of the shows really think that completely inaudible dialogue is 'really bang on trend' or whether modern sound specialists/engineers are just a bunch of completely incompetent slobs who need sacking!
Mobile phone service provider, Tango here in Luxembourg, finally rolled out a 5G service to our little village in the country and suddenly the speed available dropped from 40-50Mbps on the old 4G service to around 10 - 15Mbps on 5G. This is not quite what we were anticipating!
I complained to Tango's technical service and was fobbed off with excuses but eventually, I was told to complain to the directors of Tango as they were the only people who could authorize the expenditure required for 'densification' of the network which would improve the speeds available!
In one or two places, I have seen speeds of 200-300Mbps available in Luxembourg but on average speeds are extremely poor for users of Tango at least!
I have a phone that is capable of taking two SIMs so I have one from the Post.lu; the biggest local provider, and I will be installing that shortly to see if service is better with that! If it is then Tango can stick their bloody worthless service where the 5G don't reach!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
The same people that can recognize Nazi rhetoric in Trump conveniently stuff their ears and close their eyes when Israel says it's going to commit war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide, goes on to commit those atrocities.
Moral bankruptcy/degeneracy is too weak to describe it.
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
Rwandan dissidents in exile in Britain have been informed that President Kagame's agents may be trying to kill them.
Personally, I am resolutely atheistic and have little patience with true god-botherers and even less with convenience ones (christenings, weddings and funerals only).
What you call jews who enthusiastically support the genocide currently being perpetrated by the state of israel on Palestinians, I don't know but certainly not aherents to a religion of peace!
I'm not anti-buddhist as that's not really a religion even if some adherents treat it as such nor am I against Jainism; the ultimate religion of peace. Jains are by definition vegetarian and many Jains won't even eat root vegetables as it kills the plant.
Yes but the teaching of many religions is not that at all. For example - Islam - religion of peace but the Koran repeats more than 100 times verses that broadly have the meaning 'kill the infidel'.
https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/violence.aspx?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C2657980978
Cable salad is one of Thailand's specialities!
This one is down in Pattaya (unless you happen to be interested in paying for sex - this is about the best thing Pattaya has to offer!)
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
Putin can leave Donbas, Crimea, and abandon its naval base in Sevastopol - those are the terms of a ceasefire.
Ukraine gets back its territory, every inch of it.
Russia pays reparations to rebuild. (Russian oligarchs have assets everywhere waiting to be forfeited and sold)
Putin stands trial for war crimes.
Those are the terms of a "ceasefire".
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
@wannabemystiker
Rampant transmission is bad because it means: 1) more chances for a mutation creating a worse variant, 2) those of us who are high risk are in even more danger than usual, 3) more people will get long COVID (10% or so of cases) or new medical conditions, 4) more people will die.
Sure, less people will probably die than prior surges.
But take it from someone disabled by post-viral illnesses - I'd be more worried about long COVID than death or hospitalizations, if I were you.
Interesting! I wonder how many deaths have occurred due to the immune system consequences of measles rather than directly by the disease itself.
This, it seems to me, makes vaccination against this disease all the more indispensable!
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211112-the-people-with-immune-amnesia
We upgraded recently from ADSL (we were paying for 100Mbps but never saw more than 50Mbps) to one of Luxembourg's peculiarities, broadband delivered via coax cable. In theory that delivers 1Gbps and in the past it has indeed delivered exactly that but lately, after a dispute over their invoicing, the throughput has dropped to around 600Mbps.
However, when we changed over from ADSL to Coax, we needed a new Fritzbox router to suit the new delivery method.
I just had a look on Google maps, the cable salad is still there (just around the corner from where I used to live) but the coffee shop has now morphed into a Pizza joint - probably just as well!
If you are referring to the 'Gollywog' style signage - the Thais as a nation are resolutely racist, being raised to believe that their greatest good fortune in life is to have been born a Thai and that all other races are inferior to them.
Thailand is full of hypocrisy! The local Police 'raided' 'Walking Street' in Pattaya (for those unaware of Pattaya's reputation - it may very well be the world's biggest brothel with an estimated 10,000 - 15,000 working girls, bar-girls, ladyboys and trans-sexuals plying for hire). Walking Street is the very heart of the town's sex-trade - around a kilometre of wall to wall red-light bars, go-go bars, live sex acts and other assorted paid-for sex orientated attractions not to mention dozens of 'girls' offering services on the street itself. The conclusion was that, despite the best efforts of a large number of Policemen, no evidence of prostitution (an offence in Thailand) was found on Walking Street. Everyone who knows Pattaya simply roared with laughter at that utterly ludicrous conclusion!
I suspect that it would be difficult to find a group of more misogynist males than football supporters.
I noticed, in the other place, that people whose profiles I researched with a view to blocking them as I perceived their views to be either asinine, offensive or both, announced that they were supporters of this football team or that, with a truly startling degree of unanimity.
$ millions being spent by right-wing governed states on investigating practically non-existent voter fraud with very, very particular emphasis on Democrat voters and black voters (most likely to vote democrat)
Retired software engineer & woodworker.
Anglo-francophone.
Detest tories. Subscribe to green, leftish radical politics but not to any particular political party!.
Love the EU and all it stands for, moreover, I spent the last 10 years of my career working at an EU agency.
Enthusiastic photographer, especially wildlife and most especially butterflies.
Slightly knowledgeable gardener.
Atheist; loathe almost all religions and pity the people deluded enough to follow them. I make exceptions for Buddhism as it isn't really a religion in the strictest sense of the word as it doesn't postulate the existence of any god, and Jainism which is the epitome of peace.
For anyone who is interested, my header photo is of the most stupendous sunset I have ever seen. On the right is the waterfront of Vientiane, the capital of Laos, on the left is Thailand and in the middle, acting as the border between the two countries is the mighty Mekong river.
Joined Nov 2022
