Paul Brownjohn @Paulos_the_fog@social.cleverlibre.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
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
Nestle makes enormous profits each year and faces no legal accountability for stealing water. Now coffee empire Starbucks has struck a multibillion dollar deal with Nestle. We ask you to join the movement to #BoycottStarbucks, #BoycottNestle, and boycott all of their products. Nestle profits from water theft, habitat destruction, child slavery, & plastic pollution – don't support them!
Take and share the pledge.
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
⬇️ This is a fact. ⬇️
It’s not a meme. It’s not an opinion. It’s a fact — a fact I wish everyone could accept, take to heart, and use to motivate action!!
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
@Radical_EgoCom@kolektiva.social
Looking at that list, I am definitely a Leftist then!
In France, you will still hear people in the food markets, especially older folk, ask for 'une livre de tomates' literally 'a pound of tomatoes' but what they will be expecting to be served and will be given is 500 grams. France invented the metric system of weights and measures and the country along with most of the rest of Europe was completely metricated by around 1850.
In Normandy, I was offered some second-hand oak beams recovered from a demolished barn. They were priced by the 'pied cube' or cubic foot but when I asked what their 'pied' was in metric measure, it turned out that it was considerably smaller than a UK/US foot!
The enormous variation in weights and measures with the same name across the country used to cause significant problems in trade which is why standardized weights and measures were introduced in the first (to enormous opposition)
A swallowtail butterfly feeding on Verbena in my garden this morning!
@TimWardCam @NormanDunbar @kennykravitz
Nor me, but someone on the internet thinks they exist, clearly!
Yes somewhere on the internet, there is a table for converting US cups to UK cups which for historical reasons, is what I guess might have been used in Oz.
I have never in my life seem a single Brit recipe that uses cups so I am in some doubt as to the veracity of the conversion table.
Yes, me too, I grew up with pounds, ounces and all that complete bollox but having lived in continental Europe of much of my adult life, I flatly refuse to have anything to do that nonsense!
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!
The sad thing is that even if all three seats up for election today fall to the opposition, it won't make a jot of difference in the House of Commons as the tory scum have such a crushing majority!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
Do you ever feel that the PM and Government don't understand your pain and don't speak out for you?
Well, if your Coutts account is closed they will be there for you.
I hope that is some comfort.
Paul Brownjohn
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It's expensive to be poor. It's ironic but true. You get charges and fees for everything. Higher interest rates. Overdraft fees. Late fees. Having only enough to buy what you need right now instead of buying in bulk. Losing your job because you can't afford to get your car fixed. Losing your car because you don't have a job. Even your mental faculties are drained, as you are forced to continually eat low-nutrition foods, "sleep" in miserable conditions, and be exposed to toxins and lack of medical treatment. The lack of liquidity wipes you out. Life really does kick you while you're down.
You can't tell someone trapped in that vicious cycle to "just" get a job or "just" make responsible decisions. Sometimes, no amount of good decision-making can stop the vortex sucking them down. So the next time you are tempted to place moral judgment on someone who lives in poverty, think twice.
Signed, someone who has been both a Have and a Have-Not.
Paul Brownjohn
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Meanwhile elite wage #inflation continues apace:
The CEO of Crown Estates has received a pay rise over the last three years that from his arrival in the role has seen his pay triple!!!
But, hey, nothing to see here.
Of course, there's lots of 'justification' trotted out to counter criticism, but it just suggests as so often (at the least) #KingCharles has a tin ear for #politics & more seriously, whatever the pious words the #monarchy is detached from our reality!
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jul/19/crown-estate-triples-pay-of-ceo-in-three-years-to-nearly-16m
Paul Brownjohn
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Lies, damned lies, and Rishi Sunak’s government | Ordinary people are seeing their living standards drop like a stone while a zombie government obfuscates and prevaricates | Andy Brown
#Byelections
https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/politics/lies-damned-lies-and-rishi-sunaks-government/
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
A Florida family that ran an online “church” that peddled a poisonous industrial bleaching agent as a miracle medical cure will go to trial on federal charges in Miami this week.
https://news.yahoo.com/florida-family-behind-church-sold-095000976.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr&s=09
There sure are some REALLY smashing people out there, aren't there
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
The Prime Minister blaming Junior doctors for hospital waiting lists is one of the most despicable things he’s said
& for the record he’s offered them a crappy real terms pay cut
If like me you stand with the junior doctors who sacrificed so much to keep us safe RT this widely
https://twitter.com/PeterStefanovi2/status/1681653013545459712
I agree with Macron - we Europeans have no need at all of US "talent". Their loyalty to the EU is likely to be completely overwhelmed by their loyalty to the USA. It was an utterly stupid idea to consider appointing her! Sack the cretin who thought of it!
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.
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
