@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

Paulos_the_fog

@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.

#FBPE

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Paulos_the_fog, to random
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

There sure are some REALLY smashing people out there, aren't there

kennykravitz, to random

There are two kinds of people in the world:

Those who know that a 'cup' is a specific measurement of volume and that using the correct size of cup is vital in properly replicating the proportions in a recipe.

And those who just use literally whatever cup they have to hand.

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@kennykravitz

I reject all recipes that use cups and °F.

These are nonsense measures! A recipe is in grams and °C or I won't even entertain it.

Only the USA ever uses cups as a measure and American food doesn't have a great reputation with its "quantity trumps quality" philosophy so I doubt if I'm missing much.

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@NormanDunbar @kennykravitz

The Americans don't even have the same gallons, pints or fl Oz as the British Imperial system!

Lose hope all ye who enter here!!!

I lived in Thailand for several years and the decorative order of the house that I rented was to say the least rather poor. So, I asked the landlord if he would be happy if I gave the living room a coat of paint. The walls were concrete but had been finished to a pretty high standard. He agreed and so I measured up the surface area of the walls deducted the windows and doors and arrived at a total area that I calculated would require 4.5 litres of paint for 2 coats. Off I went to the local DIY hypermarket, a place called Baan and Beyond Where I asked them for a 5 litre pot of the shade that I had chosen (the palest grey in their range). “No litre here sir! Only gallon here”. I had somehow stumbled on the only DIY outlet I'm guessing in Thailand where they sell paint in gallons and not litres. Thailand is to all intents and purposes completely metricated so I was very, very surprised! From my school days I remembered that one gallon equals about 4.5 litres so I asked for a gallon. That was fine until I arrived home and I thought that doesn't actually look like a 4.5 litre pot so I looked carefully at the label and it was marked 1 US gallon which equals 3.75 litres not 4.5 litres. That's the difference between a US gallon = 3.75 litres and a British gallon = 4.5 litres! In the end, I had to go back to the DIY store and get another pot because 3.75 litres was just not quite enough to finish the job. My calculations we're nothing if not accurate and I was roughly half a litre short!

Free_Press, to news
@Free_Press@mstdn.social avatar

Casey DeSantis is the smiling face of right-wing BIGOTRY & HATRED in America.

https://news.yahoo.com/casey-desantis-smiling-face-anti-083909128.html

If anybody wondered whether Casey DeSantis shared her husband’s distaste for anything deemed “woke,” there’s no mo...

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@Free_Press

mikemathia, to random
@mikemathia@ioc.exchange avatar

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@mikemathia

I suffered a bout of catastrophic depression that put me in a psychiatric hospital for six months at age 15.

I was very lucky, there was a proper psychiatric hospital not too far from where I lived and plenty of spare capacity in it. These days with the tory scum slashing budgets for every NHS service, if the same happened today, I'm sure that I'd just be left to commit suicide (I lived conveniently close to Beachy Head; Britain's No 1 suicide spot).

Unfortunately, it left me and I'm sure it leaves other people who have been through something similar, with a lifelong fear of relapsing into that terrifying dark place. I also carried the stigma of serious mental illness with me, for a lot of my working life!

I'm 73 now and (fingers crossed) I haven't relapsed but I guess I'm still defending against it!

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@mikemathia

there's no need for mental hospitals in a country where just about everyone seems to be barking mad!

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

Apropos of nothing, one observation I’ve heard people who used to be involved in labour negotiations here in Iceland is “people with American brain worms don’t know how to negotiate with unions”

(Paraphrasing, since the original is always in Icelandic.)

This is noticable in that you can guess with reasonable certainty, which company is run by an executive trained in the US just by how badly they are handling union contract negotiations

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@baldur

Americans only seem to understand eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation - anything less than an outright 100% win and metaphorically stamping on the unions' testicles is a loss to them. This is why they are completely useless at negotiating with unions!

The Germans are much more sensible. There, the unions are not regarded as enemies, but rather as partners with whom the company can have a productive dialogue.

Free_Press, to news
@Free_Press@mstdn.social avatar

In some areas of the world, sea temperatures right now are up to 10F warmer than historical averages!

Get the current and average sea temperatures from over 7,000 locations and 200 countries around the world

https://www.seatemperature.org/

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@Free_Press

For god's sake; no one in science uses degrees Fahrenheit - science uses degrees Celsius or degrees Kelvin!

glynmoody, to random
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

Paris to charge drivers higher parking fees to tackle ‘auto-besity’ - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/11/paris-charge-suv-drivers-higher-parking-fees-tackle-auto-besity great idea - everywhere should do the same if they don't ban them outright...

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@glynmoody

A really excellent idea. It's more than ironic that we are in the midst of a climate change crisis and yet idiots are still buying gigantic SUVs or "Chelsea tractors" as they are know in England.

Are people unaware of the climate crisis - or is it what I suspect, that the people who buy them are of the "I don't give a shit about my fellow (wo)men, I'm going to buy a massive SUV as a penis extension"

Do none of the buyers realise that buying such a vehicle with it's massive, unnecessary fuel consumption and correspondingly massive tyre consumption (tyre wear produces rubber/plastic dust which is now a very major pollutant) is super massively damaging to the environment.

It wouldn't be so bad if the people driving them were aware that they aren't that much wider than an average family car but they drive like they were piloting a 40 tonne truck - right in middle of the fückin road!

On the very narrow roads where I live they are a bloody menace thundering imperiously down the middle of the road and forcing more competent drivers on to the grass verges!

I love seeing them trashed in accidents on the side of country roads where they have tried it on with one of the local truck drivers and lost - rather badly!

Radical_EgoCom, to random

Hypocrites

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@Radical_EgoCom

This is probably the wrong moment to bring up the fact that Ukraine's territorial integrity was guarantee by a treaty signed by Ukraine, Russia, the USA and the UK. In exchange for those guarantees, Ukraine agreed to hand the nuclear arsenal it inherited from the Soviet Union to the Russian Federation.

jeffgilchrist, to random
@jeffgilchrist@mstdn.science avatar

Wildfire smoke - now extra toxic plumes from sun UV

Did you know just one of the many fires burning in Quebec is the size of an entire Canadian province (PEI), or large enough to stretch between the cities of Ottawa and Montreal or Toronto to Niagara Falls? Read on to learn more about why the smoke now smells like plastic and the health impact. 🧵 1/

You can read the unrolled one page version here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1675174138741178371.html

Image of map of Southern and Eastern Ontario with an overlay of the largest fire burning in Quebec to see the size stretching from the cities of Ottawa to Montreal and from Toronto to Niagara Falls. Image from: https://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@jeffgilchrist

I used to live in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand where the annual "burning season" (during which farmers in that part of Thailand and in Laos and Burma burn off grass, rice stubble and weeds in their fields prior to planting crops) results in some of the worse smoke pollution anywhere in the world for several weeks each year. I can vouch for the fact that the smog resulting from stubble burning is nothing like bonfire smoke; in fact it's extremely acrid and really hurts your throat and lungs.

It used to give me mild bronchospasm - unfortunately it coincides with the hottest time of the year up there with temperatures of 40+°C, which doesn't help!

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@jeffgilchrist

Yes and the 'smoke' no longer smells like smoke but has an acrid, sulphurous sort of smell which used to send my lungs into a sort of spasm for a few minutes every time I went outside. It's combined with the hottest season of the year which only makes things worse.

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@jeffgilchrist

Yes the first hot/burning season I spent there was absolutely BRUTAL!

Doi Sutep, the mountain at the back of Chiang Mai was almost completely ablaze as careless farmers had let their fires spread out of control (possibly deliberately) and the temperature, according to the local air quality monitoring station reached 47°C (the govt would never let a figure like that be published for fear of discouraging tourists. Officially the record is 41°C)

The air quality was an absolute horror story but the at that time there was not PM2.5 monitoring only PM10 but that was bad enough! I dread to think what the PM2.5 would have been that year and even locals were dying of heatstroke!

The most popular water over there is osmotically filtered as it's very cheap. Unfortunately OF water contains no dissolved salts at all so if you are sweating a lot, it's one of the worst things you can drink. In order to sweat and generate pee, your body needs sodium, potassium and other disolved salts and if the water you drink doesn't contain any they will get pulled out of your bloodstream by the kidneys and eventually the electrolyte imbalance or deficiency that that process engenders causes you to have a heart attack and die!

magdelenehall, to random German
@magdelenehall@mastodon.social avatar

Would better buildings help fix the NHS? The story of Britain's hospitals, from grand designs to counting the costs
https://theconversation.com/would-better-buildings-help-fix-the-nhs-the-story-of-britains-hospitals-from-grand-designs-to-counting-the-costs-208090

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@magdelenehall

I live in Luxembourg and have now needed surgery twice over here. The 'wards' here have a maximum of 2 beds in them but I believe they are still building hospitals in the UK with wards with 10 - 20 beds.

I should have thought that enhanced risk of cross infection between patients would have informed the designers choice of ward sizes in the UK but not so apparently!

ChrisMayLA6, to Banking
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

We've seen the growing incidence of deserts (where towns have no bank branches at all), now as will close around 300 in the UK in a bid to 'optimise' locations, the Q. is how will this impact local communities?

Positively, it may remove a competitor from local (and regional) pharmacies allowing them to capture more provision of & associated products, but;

negatively, where Boots has already driven out the competition, will we see new pharma-deserts?

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@ChrisMayLA6

I love the principle they have in France concerning bakeries. Bread is an indispensible staple in French cuisine and they take it's availability very seriously. If you own a bakery (most in France are run by owner/bakers), and you wish to retire or leave the trade, you cannot simply close up, you are obliged to sell the business on to someone else who wants to use it as bakery so that it's customer base is not inconvenienced by not have access to the indispensable freshly baked baguette morning, noon and night!

They have similar rules about pharmacies - you may not simply decide to open a pharmacy wherever you like. You need to get authorization and you won't get it if you are in close competition with an existing pharmacy. Likewise there are rules about closing down a pharmacy so in France, Boots would have a real fight on their hands with civil servants who have the absolute power to say no. Quite right too!

Greenseer, to random
@Greenseer@mstdn.social avatar

Labour's 5 point plan on..

<oh good grief>

Charlie Brown gif, in his usual yellow top with black zigzag and shorts, shrugging and despairing, with caption 'Good Grief'

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@Greenseer @mistakenotmy

It's not only mortgage holders who suffer, credit card interest rates will climb as will the rate on ODs and other bank loans.

Lots of people use credit cards to stay alive these days and those people will feel the pain!

But yes - raising interest rates sucks money out of the economy as does slashing government spending which this govt of clowns will undoubtedly prescribe for the ailing British economy.

If fact the useless wankers will try anything at all, rather than bite the bullet, admit Brexit is a catastrophe and reapply to rejoin the CU and single market if not the EU itself!

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@mistakenotmy @Greenseer

Indeed rising interest rates screw absolutely everything up, in fact! They reduce capital investment and R+D. Norman Lamont's cack-handed handling of Soros manipulating the value of the pound, thus leading to a hitherto never seen, one day rise in interest rates, caused a massive project I was about to run to be cancelled leaving me on the dole - cheers buddy!

Paulos_the_fog, to random
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

This research could bring about a revolution in the treatment of this awful disease!

I suspect that this will not be the last time mankind discovers the causative connection between a pathogen and a serious disease.

Remember the discovery of the connection between infection with Helicobacter pylori and stomach cancer. That was revolutionary at the time as doctors did not believe bacteria could survive in the extremely acid conditions in the human stomach.

The discovery that the tumorigenic HPV16 & HPV18 viruses were responsible for a substantial proportion of cervical cancer was just as revolutionary and led to the development of extremely effective vaccines targeting these viruses.

https://www.livescience.com/health/fertility-pregnancy-birth/endometriosis-may-be-caused-by-a-common-gut-bacteria-small-study-suggests

aral, to random
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

Was away for a week visiting my parents. Don’t get to see them nearly enough, in no small part thanks to our lovely “European Values” meaning they have to jump through more hoops to come visit us in Ireland than they can manage at their age. You see, we don’t really see non-Europeans as human in Europe. They’re something less. A potential threat.

I may have an EU passport and pass for white but I never forget that. In fact, I think about it every time I miss my parents.

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@aral

I used to live in Thailand where locals getting a tourist visa to visit Schengen countries is fairly straightforward but locals getting a tourist visa to visit the UK was practically impossible. I cannot see a reason for this as, so far as I'm aware, there is no wish on the part of most Thais to move to the UK, especially not illegally by entering via a tourist visa. My conclusion therefore is that the government dept responsible is run by bigoted, racist, fückin arseholes!

In my three years over there, I met dozens of Thais who applied for a UK tourist visa; many were in stable relationships with either Brits or other EU nationals (this was before Britain left the EU) and whilst none that I met were refused a Schengen visa if they applied for one, equally none were granted a UK visa; not one single one!

Paulos_the_fog, to random
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar
elduvelle, (edited ) to random
@elduvelle@neuromatch.social avatar

Where are you on the political scale? Please boost wildly!* 😃​

(*) Yes I mean Wildly not just widely

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@elduvelle

It's all semantics!

When I first lived in France back in the 70s, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was President of the Republic. He introduced several 'radical' reforms including giving the vote to anyone over 18 and permitting unmarried women to be prescribed the birth control pill or other forms of birth control (something that was formerly banned).

Back in that era the soviet aligned French communist party used to receive 25+% of the vote in general elections so they were a force to be reckoned with.

The leader of the French communist party at the time was a guy called George Marchais who when asked what he thought of the radical reforms put in place by Giscard d'Estaing replied
"Yeah - he's given the whores the pill and the kids the vote!"

pattykimura, to random
@pattykimura@beige.party avatar

Nikki Haley said the most important issue facing teenage girls is unfair competition from transgirl athletes.

An estimated ONE MILLION high school girls have been raped based on a 2021 (NBC) report. In 2021, 2590 children under 18 were murdered by guns (Pew). Before age 18, 3.5 Million girls have been stalked. One in 10 girls is a victim of dating violence.(Childrens Hosp of Phila).

Meanwhile, (Apr 21, 2023) Newsweek reports 15 high school transathletes competed in high school sports, of those 15, only THREE are girls.

MAGA will exaggerate and lie about victimization to justify hate and bigotry. Nazis did this, too. It's not harmless.

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@freemo @turboquokka @ariaflame @trinsec @pattykimura

Yes, I am aware of Thailand's acceptance of transgender & transvestite people, as I used to live there.

The clerk who looked after my account at the Bangkok Bank was a "tomboy"; a woman who dressed as a man; when at work (s)he wore an impeccable business suit, man's shirt, tie and mens' shoes. According to mutual friends, her partner was a "ladyboy" - a transvestite male.

I have never visited America - never wanted to, so I have little idea what life is like for transvestites and transsexuals over there, but I have lived and worked in the Netherlands where being transvestite or transsexual is considered totally normal; probably more so than in Thailand actually!

I had a transvestite colleague in Amsterdam who came to work dressed as a woman and, as this was Amsterdam, nobody batted an eyelid. She was a bit unfortunate in that she was well over 6 feet tall and massively built with a deep booming voice and a 'street' Glasgow accent that made her difficult to understand even to another native English speaker. Her height was not too much of a disadvantage in the Netherlands as they are the world's tallest people and women well over 6 feet tall are fairly common there.

I was raised in the UK where attitudes to transvestites and transsexuals are extremely unhealthy, as are attitudes to sex in general!

I have also lived in France, Belgium and Luxembourg where I have never met any transvestites or transexuals. However, Luxembourg does merit a special mention as it is one of the few countries that has an openly gay Prime Minister (the Republic of Ireland is another country that had a openly gay PM). The PM of Luxembourg married his partner whilst he was PM and so had a form of state wedding! That must be some sort of 'first'!

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@freemo @turboquokka @ariaflame @trinsec @pattykimura

I'm not American nor have I ever visited the USA so I'm hardly an expert on conditions there however, given that the US dominates the world news in the English language, it does seem like the US is currently the absolute worst place in the entire civilized world to be trans!

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@freemo @turboquokka @ariaflame @trinsec @pattykimura

Coupled with the bans on abortions that are being enacted by the Nazi governance of many US states, I'd say the USA is vying for the prize of the most narrow mined country in the western world - land of the free my fuckin ass!

Paulos_the_fog,
@Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org avatar

@freemo @turboquokka @ariaflame @trinsec @pattykimura

That should have been "...narrow MINDED..."

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