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
I tell her I can’t believe
that I am living in
the pandemic’s fifth year
but she insists that I
need to keep things in perspective
and so she reminds me
that the 20 warmest years on record
have all occurred in my lifetime
which I must admit
does not make me feel any better.
I think the 'clowns' are running the assembly lines rather than designing aircraft!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
@ChrisMayLA6 @AVO8OHM This is my feeling too. It's all about trust in standards. The "Not for EU" may be intended as merely a tool for import.export, but suppose suppliers use it to drop standards. Eg, I have a pack of bacon "Not for EU" from Netherlands. It's fine, at the moment, but how long before the production line diverts rashers which don't meet EU standards into a line for UK sale?
It's the same with standards marks - I trust CE, but not UKCA. Just as well CE will remain.
To be explicit about this I do not consider myself to be any different to the 1000s of refugees who call Luxembourg their home nor indeed to the 1000s of others who, like me, for one reason or another, moved to Luxembourg to make a living.
Living in Luxembourg shines a bright spotlight on the immigrant -v- expat question as an astonishing 47%+ of the population of Luxembourg are immigrants (yes, that isn't a typo - the official government figure is more than 47% of Luxembourg residents, were born outside the country making them immigrants like me). Even more surprisingly, taking the population of the capital city alone, more than 70% of population are immigrants - yes 70%!
I never intended to remain in Luxembourg for the 20 years that I have lived here and certainly didn't anticipate retiring here although that is what has happened. At what stage did I morph from being an 'expat' into an immigrant, I wonder? (I'm a white, sedentary, office worker and therefore absolutely "entitled" to call myself an expat according to the way that I have seen it used)
Yes, but the problem with it is that I have never once heard of the epithet 'expat' applied to anyone except a white man or woman.
Generally, the way it is used by Brits is definitely to maintain the social distinction between themselves and other foreigners of different skin colour or doing more lowly jobs; a sort of way of extending the still very prevalent class system from the UK to lands further afield
I'm a Brit living in Luxembourg and am therefore an immigrant. One of the most annoying habits of Brits living in foreign countries is to describe themselves as 'expats'. Like they are a cut above the rest of us mere immigrants!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
Spanking new Boeing planes have nosedived out of the sky, their fuselages have blown out mid flight, yesterday you had a door fly off mid flight in Alaska and Boeing has admitted to defrauding the FAA on their safety —
AND YET
the only person at Boeing who has been prosecuted is literally a technician.
Remember that when your boss ask you to do some questionable shady shit 'for the team' #CapitalismIsKillingYOU #StrikeReady2024
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
Nice video explaining how the Boeing 737 Max emergency exit door (plug) is built. Regarding to the Alaskan flight where the plug went missing. It was onlu 2 months old plane, bolt(s) missing?
Having wondered for some years whether it was in fact an old wives tale, the other day I proved to my own satisfaction that it wasn't!
I'm talking about eggs. I was told years ago, I cannot remember by whom, that if you put eggs in water, they should sink and, that if they float, they are either bad or extremely stale. The other day I grabbed a carton of six eggs with five eggs left in it and put the five eggs in a saucepan of water to hard boil them. All five of the eggs floated and I was slightly surprised at this as I was sure that the carton of eggs with one missing was fresh as I'd only bought it the day before; For that reason, I dismissed it as a problem. Then one of the eggs actually burst and the smell that came out was not pleasant, so I fished the carton they came in out of the wastepaper bin and checked the use-by date on it. Sure enough, the use by date had been and gone several months previously, somehow the carton of eggs had got hidden under other things and overlooked when I threw out all the eggs that were past their use-by date. As you might guess, I took them out of the saucepan and threw them straight on the compost heap where no doubt the local Pine Martens will deal with a few lightly boiled stale eggs without further ado.
I thought the business of eggs floating or not was an old wives tale but it seems that that is not the case at all!
Once the prostate starts to expand due to age related BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia) or prostate cancer, it is, indeed, much easier to induce the bladder to empty completely in the seated position rather than standing up.
I wouldn't, ordinarily, have thought that that constituted an attack on 'manliness' but north American men do seem to have the most fantastically fragile male egos!
The proof, as if proof were needed, what a worthless, lying scumbag Theresa May was!!
https://www.richardcorbett.org.uk/falsehoods-failures-fibs-fabrications/
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
The polish train hacking saga is truly the gift that keeps on giving, now with full receipts PLUS an actual incident of a train compressor failing on the exact date that security researchers found hardcoded into the train's software, as a condition for triggering a compressor failure.
https://www.404media.co/polish-hackers-explain-exactly-how-they-fixed-trains-that-the-manufacturer-bricked/
#trains
#infosec
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
No woman should trust Donald Trump - who is a proven sex attacker. He's also an enemy of democracy
The Supreme Curt should uphold the ban on him standing for office
I learned when exposed to a case of 'open' TB on a long haul flight, that the BCG vaccine that my generation of kids were given at around age 11, is pretty nearly completely ineffective against pulmonary TB - the type that we all know and love - consumption - the scourge of Victorian life in the big cities. In fact , the BCG vaccine targeted meningitis caused by the same bacterium that causes tuberculosis of the lungs, mycobacterium tuberculosis.
In most patients, the immune reaction to the vaccine subsides 20 or so years after vaccination, however when they gave me the standard test for TB, the Mantoux tuberculin skin test, it was massively positive, suggesting either an active or recent TB infection. The local health authorities where I live then ran a Quantiferon Gold test; a test that is much more accurate, sensitive and can discriminate between people vaccinated with BCG and actual cases of TB. The Quantiferon Gold test came back reassuringly negative as did a second round of Quantiferon Gold testing six months later.
In summary, if the inexorable spread of TB in India and other developing nations is to be halted, the world needs an effective vaccine against pulmonary TB!
However, it is as well to remember that most people who are well fed are not susceptible to TB and that India, at least is no longer a poor country so perhaps they should be doing something themselves to ameliorate the nutrition status of its people!
Don't be silly - that would have deprived Netanyawho of the excuse to level Gaza then steal the land from the Palestinians
that will be because the vast majority of owners/directors of limited liability companies vote tory every time!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
I have the weirdest problem with my laptop, and I have no idea how to even debug it. So, I'm posting it here in case anyone has an idea:
I'm using Ubuntu 22.04; all updates installed.
Almost all the time, I'm connected to my home wireless network (router + APs).
Last week, the connection to the wireless was working fine. I went on vacation for one week; I took the laptop with me so it was not connected to my home network. Today I tried to connect to my WiFi, but it is not working.
The laptop can connect to the wireless network,
and it gets the IP, DNS and routes assigned via DHCP. But pinging to the router does not get any response.
I tried the wired connection (same router), and it works.
I tried the WiFi hotspot from my phone, and it works.
All other devices connected to the wireless network work.
There are no firewall rules in the AP or router blocking my laptop (again, it connects to the wireless network and DHCP works).
iptables is clean.
If it is a problem between the laptop and the AP, how can it get all the DHCP info?
If the problem is between the AP and the router, how do the other devices work fine?
If the problem is the wireless driver in Ubuntu, how does connection to the hotspot in the phone work?
I removed and recreated the WiFi configuration to my home network; it does not fix it. I also tested using a static IP.
I have no idea what this could be.
Any ideas?
Reposts appreciated. :-)
I wonder if he will get invited to his old public school, Eastbourne College, as a VIP for Speech Day (the VIP on Speech Day gets to present the prizes and gives a speech). Do you know what, I do somehow doubt it!
I have been saying this for some years now and have elicited much bile, insults and aggression for daring to suggest that this could be the truth!
However, it's no good saying this to the fascist scum currently running GB plc nor indeed to their lackeys the right wing press nor finally to the average British bar-prop or pub bore that that is the case as they simply wouldn't believe you!
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
