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
The healthcare system over here in Luxembourg has implemented a virtual online vaccination system so that not only are all your vaccinations available on a mobile phone, laptop, or desktop but also they send out reminders when any vaccination booster is due or available. It's behind a rather clunky firewall but even so - very useful and I would guess rather a lot cheaper and much kinder to trees than sending out invitations by snail mail which is what they did before.
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
You need not remember
where you were
four years ago today
when you first heard
that the WHO
had officially characterized
COVID as a pandemic
at home or work
at school or online
the specifics are unimportant
what matters
is that you remember
you are still in that pandemic.
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
When privileged folks tell me at my talks “I don’t care about my privacy / I have nothing to hide / Give me one example of the ramifications of surveillance capitalism / etc.”, I tell them “you will care when your health insurance premiums go up because your Smart Fridge tells the insurance companies what you’re eating/drinkjng.” This is basically the same thing. Sad that it takes things hitting their own wallets for privileged folks to pay attention.
Do me a favour, let me know who you block as I will have a llok at their profile and consider blocking them too!
@hannu_ikonen @fkamiah17
Yes, I find that attitude extremely tedious too.
Nobody sensible is saying that what Hamas did is right, however no one sensible should be saying that the mass murder of around 30,000 Palestinians many of whom were entirely innocent women and children is justified by her mass is woeful slaughter!
Conflating objection to israel's (I refuse to give that murderous state even a capital letter) utterly foul murder of innocent Palestinian civilians with anti-Semitism should be criminalised in any civilized country, in my view (just as some countries have criminalised Holocaust denial)!
I keep dreaming that I have lost my wallet, mobile phone, passport or all of the above!
WHY???
It's not every night but at least once a week and it is a real off-piss as I wake up in a bit of a panic state and it often takes me a few minutes to realise that it was just a dream!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
sending consensual and platonic forehead kisses to antifascists everywhere. We need each other more than ever 
For the same reason that most people (in the UK at least) no longer capitalize the verb to 'hoover' the carpet, I don't capitalize 'internet'.
Back in 2015 I was notified of a vacancy by Jobserve. The vacancy fitted me to an absolute T, but after reading the job spec a couple of times, I realised that it was the job spec that I had written myself to recruit my replacement as I was retiring!
I also inject semaglutide at the rate of 1mg/week for diabetes rather than weight loss.
Due to recurrent shortages of the injectable form, my endocrinologist has given me an alternative prescription for an oral version of semaglutide called Rybelsus(14mg/day) taken daily.
I wonder, firstly, why the injected form is prescribed if an oral form is available and whether the daily oral dose would be more effective than the injection as it would presumably deliver a more stable blood concentration of the medication than the weekly injection.
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
We can reach our full potential only if we use all our talent and diversity.
Gender equality is a core principle of the EU, but it is not a reality yet.
To make sure changes happen, the #vdLCommission:
🟣 set rules on pay transparency,
🟣 adopted the “Women on boards” directive,
🟣 adopted the first ever legislation on combating gender violence,
Together, we are working tirelessly to achieve gender equality.
Perhaps Sunak's wife would do us all a favour and F-off taking her worthless husband with her!
I have found them to be completely useless in every interaction I have had with them!
My last contact with them rather sums it up:
I saw someone who had tried to burgle my flat (also reported to the Police) crossing the road a few 100 metres from my place. He was carrying a large basket with roses and visible bottles of wine in it. There was a florist shop near me that also sells wine so I phoned the Police and told them what I had seen and which shop the goods were likely to have come from. I then went off to work for the week (I worked away from home so didn't return for several days.).
When I returned home, I went to the florist's to ask if it was indeed them that had been the victim of the burglary; they confirmed that they had indeed been burgled on the night in question and that they had found the rear entrance to the shop wide open when the came in to work on Monday morning.
I phoned the Police and insisted on talking to CID and then recounted the entire story to them including the fact that the guy had a very particular accent (I had spoken to him when he tried to break into my place). The Police officer I spoke to said "Oh! I know who that will be" - then apparently they got a search warrant and went round to his place and found loads of bunches of dead roses and empty bottles of the type of wine that was stolen plus the basket I had seen him carrying!
The filthy little scum-bag was remanded in custody as he was already on bail for other burgaries. It seems highly likely that he was responsible for dozens of other break-ins in the village including three to one shop that resulted in them going out of business as they could no longer get insurance.
When I first started a salaried position in Luxembourg, I took the trouble to check my monthly deductions compared to what I would have paid on the same salary in the UK. To my great surprise, they were nearly identical give or take a fiver!
I am still puzzled as to how that can be - Luxembourg has an absolutely exemplary healthcare system; far, FAR better than the benighted NHS, it has one of the world's most generous state pension schemes (pensions here are contributions related your contribution being a %age of salary but the average state pension is in excess of £800 per WEEK and the absolute minimum for a full career is £442 per week) and benefits are absolutely sky-high compared to the UK. Sick pay is universal and equal to full salary!
So how come the deductions in Luxembourg are at the same level as the UK where you get SFA for your money?
Yes, apart from the UK, I have lived in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Somehow, all of those countries managed to be more enjoyable to live in, than the UK ever was.
In France, taxation is extremely high BUT somehow people seem to live better than in the UK!
Well, well, well!
What a surprise
Crumbling schools many of which are unsafe, the NHS on its knees due to tory cuts and Brexit, NHS dentistry almost non-existent, so many potholes that damage to vehicles' tyres and suspension is commonplace, local councils going bankrupt right left and centre, who wouldn't want to get the hell out the UK!
I would argue for the inverse of that!
Where I live in Luxembourg, your salary advice has several categories of deduction - for a state pension (the highest state pension in the world, as it happens), for healthcare (one of the best healthcare systems anywhere in the world) for long term care in old age and so one. Finally when all those sums have been deducted you are taxed on what is left.
The specific deductions are paid into ring-fenced funds that then cover the outgoings for the healthcare system, for pensions etc.
It seems to me that that would be a far better system that that used in the UK today!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
So, just in case you needed the heads up - noauthority.social is a fascist server; appears to be a refuge for nazis who got tired of having their previous server, noagenda.social, defederated by literally everyone. I just caught some nazi rando in my replies and after blocking him, hopped over to his timeline to see who he's talking to and it's literally all other fascists from noauthority.social. Strong defederate with extreme prejudice recommendation for admins but it's your life.
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
