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
There was an effort several years back by the National Health Service in the UK, to create a computer system that would contain all the medical data for every patient the NHS treats, X-rays, CT Scans, MRI Scans, blood test results, GP notes, specialist's notes - everything! It was an unmitigated catastrophe no one wanted to use it as it was atrociously badly designed and eventually the whole project was abandoned after an eye-watering £10 billion had been spent.
Where I live in Luxembourg, the government have just tried to do the same with pretty much exactly the same result! Every doctor with whom I have spoken about it says it's unwieldy, appallingly un-user friendly, attaches WAY too much importance to patient confidentiality.
I see a common thread emerging here
On the rocky cliffs that border the Alzette river in Luxembourg City, there is allegedly a species of lizard that exists on those rocky cliffs and nowhere else on earth!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
The UK is not suffering wage-price spiral #inflation, it is experiencing the continued impoverishment of anyone outside the #financialservices sector;
the UK's rentier #capitalism continues to be a machine to enrich one (small) segment of society through #wagetheft on a societal scale.... this is the system the #Tories have engineered whatever their rhetoric.
In others words; this is what you get when #bankers run your economy in their own interests!
The other major problems in the USA are that they don't use roundabouts, preferring infinitely more dangerous four way intersections and the fact that overtaking/undertaking is permitted anywhere you like on the freeway. The road accident rate in the US is pretty appalling for a 'civilized' country!
there's no need for mental hospitals in a country where just about everyone seems to be barking mad!
Well, Geneva is largely French speaking and Zurich is German speaking so where you go determines the language that will be most useful. I admit to being surprised that they are prepared to accept a PhD student who doesn't speak a Swiss language. To get to the level in either French or German that you would need to interact in everyday life (if living in an English speaking environment) would probably take 3 - 5 years study, but to get to the sort of level of fluency you would need to write a doctoral thesis in either language, I would guess, would take at least 10 years of hard study!
I used to work at the "Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union" so I have quite a bit of exposure to professional translators and I therefore know how long most of them studied in school, university and post-graduate training to become to be considered capable of translating from their specialist language into their own mother tongue (no professional translator ever translates professionally into any language other than their mother tongue. Interpreters do but only if no one is available with the target language as a mother tongue)
I'm not sure that the Swiss could be described as nice by American standards - they are much more reserved and much less overtly friendly than Americans generally. However, what they say they mean
Compared to the USA, you may find Switzerland a very regulated society, for example, in Switzerland you may only keep certain social animals as pets if you have more than one of them (so that they don't get lonely) and dropping litter is close to a death penalty offence in Switzerland!
The crime rate in Switzerland is incredibly low and the murder rate vanishingly low despite it being one of the top gun owning countries in the world.
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
I think what annoys me most about the phrase "This is the New Normal" is that it sort implies that we just have to accept it and there's nothing we can do.
Being sick all the time is Not Normal.
The oceans boiling and the forests burning down while the cities either flood or wither in droughts is Not Normal either.
A few assholes holding the vast majority of the wealth while the rest of us struggle to get by is definitely Not Normal.
And we should not accept any of it as Normal.
It is not.
Are the universities in Switzerland happy that you do you your doctorate in English then?
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
The Davis Downside Dossier
UPDATED. David Davis famously said there would be no downsides to Brexit only considerable upsides. Here we keep a tally. https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/regular-features/the-davis-downside-dossier/
#Brexit was always going to be a disaster for the UK
Switzerland is a brilliant place lovely people, very peaceful, weather is typical northern European all four seasons in one day! BUT!!!! Switzerland is deliriously expensive. Everyone there is paid a proper living wage - a wage you can live on decently. However, the result of that is that, for example, a cup of very, very good coffee in a café will set you back $10 - $20.
The trains are a legend, you can literally set your watch by them! I'm not sure about the rest of the public transportation links.
Most people speak two, three or four languages German, French and Italian are the official languages and speaking English is very common!
Prices in America are very low compared to Europe but my guess would be that Switzerland would be about twice as expensive as most areas of the USA.
I have experienced 47°C in Thailand and it's pretty unpleasant - a couple of local builder's labourers died of heatstroke that year!
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.
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
That we are now seeing warnings about a potential #measles outbreak in #London tells you much about the state of the UK
Misled by charlatans, some have decided not to have their children vaccinated over the last decades (perhaps hoping that normal herd immunity would allow them to free-ride on #vaccination programmes, or perhaps thinking the risks from measles or other diseases were so low as to make the miss-conceived danger of harm of greater importance?)
Its a little like #Brexit isn't it?
The Netherlands and Luxembourg are both exemplary countries as far as public transport is concerned although in both of them (I have lived in both) the weather is mostly utter shit!
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
