Notices by Paul Brownjohn (paulos_the_fog@qoto.org)

This is for all American "christians" out there - this will make you feel better!

@freemo @chrism

Nevertheless be VERY careful with 'soi' animals of any sort. It is estimated that in some parts of Thailand 40% of 'soi' dogs test positive for rabies and it doesn't take much for it to spread from a dog to a cat!

I spent 3 years living in Thailand and was unvaxxed against rabies but if I went there again, I would have a rabies vaccine before going.

I didn't see any dogs exhibiting symptoms of Rabies in Chiang Mai where I lived but I certainly did when I was in India where feral dogs are just as common!

@freemo

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!

@freemo

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.

Someone asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?"
Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response:
"A few things spring to mind.
Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.
For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever.
I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.
Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.
Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.
And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.
Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.
He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.
He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.
That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.
There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
* Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
* You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.
He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.
In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clump-fuls of hair and scream in anguish:
'My God… what… have… I… created?
If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set."

I would absolutely echo the views of the expert commentator! There is no way you will get me into a Boeing 737 Max series of aircraft unless it's at gunpoint!

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-30/boeing-max-9-flying-again-after-door-panel-blowout

@deathkitten

I had had little contact with Americans until I moved to Thailand back in 2015. Over there, there are a surprising number of American retirees who moved there to try to eke out their Social Security pension.

In conversation with the Americans in Thailand, the subject of universal healthcare or the absence thereof in America often came up. Any attempt by me to suggest that American healthcare was utter shit and that just about every other civilised country in the entire world has managed to implement universal healthcare one way or another would elicit an utterly explosive response. Suggesting, as I always did during these conversations, that Bernie Sanders is right and that Medicare needs to be the default healthcare insurance system for every single resident of the USA, seemed to equate to suggesting barbecuing human babies alive for supper!

I found that saying absolutely anything that could be construed as any kind of criticism no matter how mild of the United States of America would elicit a reaction that was totally and completely over the top.

@deathkitten @USSJoshuaNorton

I call my country, the UK, a shithole but I have never heard an American call their country that - I'm warming to you already!

@freemo

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)

@freemo

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

@freemo

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!

@freemo

Some years ago, I ran a business with friend who was black. I was round his place one night whilst there was a programme about the USA in the 50 and 60 on TV. It occurred to me that, during the time I had known him, there were quite a few places in the southern states of the USA where it would have been, if not unlawful, at least inadvisable for me to go into a bar with my partner for a beer. Maybe there still are.

@aral

Isn't there an absolute defence in English law that the defamatory statement is true?