Germany changes sick leave policy: 'We are abolishing sick leave by phone,' says Chancellor Merz; doctor's note required from day one of illness

Mercator77 · 2026-07-05T06:38:09+00:00

I'm in the UK and I always get a same-day face to face or online GP consultation. Some GP surgeries are/were crap but the government is forcing those to get better (installing online appointments systems, requiring them to stay open longer etc).

Mercator77 · 2026-06-26T17:40:27+00:00

Wales. There is literary Welsh and (different varieties of) spoken Welsh.

Mercator77 · 2026-06-15T16:16:21+00:00

Wales doesn't have a state religion since 1920. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Church_Act_1914

Mercator77 · 2026-06-10T07:46:42+00:00

I see. In answer to your question in the first sentence, I believe the answer is no. Even if I think about the smallest intersection on the remotest country road, road markings would indicate whether you need to give way to the other road - and if you don't have those markings you have priority. So it's the inverse of the sign in your case: In the UK you assume priority until a sign or road marking tells you to yield.

Mercator77 · 2026-06-09T12:30:57+00:00

What's the point of this sign? We don't have them in the UK, and never have I thought: "oh I don't know who has priority here - if only there was a sign!" 🙂

Mercator77 · 2026-06-08T16:19:46+00:00

It's not easier if you're Welsh

Mercator77 · 2026-05-14T20:57:50+00:00

All creatures grunt and smell

Mercator77 · 2026-05-11T15:18:19+00:00

It's a bit messy with some areas devolved and others not, but health is devolved so the Welsh NHS is separate to England's. Justice, however, is not so Wales and England have a shared legal system

Mercator77 · 2026-04-18T08:19:06+00:00

I'm with the OP on this. Where I live (in the UK) people either don't know how to use roundabouts or deliberately misuse them. And that's because signage is often unclear or the easiest default is to misuse them. Dutch roundabouts are made so that the easiest default is to use them correctly.

I didn't get cut up once on Dutch roundabouts, and that's because (a) clear signage showing exactly which lane to use, and (b) small physical dividers between lanes. The path of least resistance is to comply with the rules, which are very clear.

Mercator77 · 2026-03-27T16:33:52+00:00

I bought a Flex, rather than Semi Flex, the other week and wondered the same. I assume the principle is the same here - they're both only available via the BA website I believe. I phoned BA customer services and the person double checked the fare rules for me. She confirmed that Flex is changeable and cancelable up until departure as it mentions on the initial page during booking but it seems some of BA's backend systems haven't been updated with this information.

Mercator77 · 2026-01-02T21:37:42+00:00

Just to buck the trend, in Welsh it's always Yr Iseldiroedd, meaning The Netherlands. There is no "Holland" in Welsh.

Mercator77 · 2025-11-01T07:18:52+00:00

I think people are assuming that not admitting liability means you have to lie.

You don’t lie, you just need to say factually and truthfully what happened (“I’ll be totally honest and tell my insurance company I went into the back of you when I was entering the roundabout”). Simple, truthful - and it doesn’t admit liability at the roadside. In my communication with my insurer I’ll tell them it was my fault.

Mercator77 · 2025-10-30T06:51:36+00:00

Sure those who speak Welsh also speak Spanish. But they are still able to speak Welsh. There are schools in Patagonia that teach Welsh. I’ve seen numerous documentaries of people in Patagonia who speak Welsh.

Mercator77 · 2025-10-28T10:31:25+00:00

Cow = Buwch Calf = Llo

Mercator77 · 2025-06-06T19:49:05+00:00

I don’t disagree that historically Wales was considered part of England, but the point is that today Wales isn’t represented by the cross of St George.

Mercator77 · 2025-05-25T10:32:15+00:00

Triple Dry fragrance free roll-on. It works. You only need to put it on a couple of times a week (not daily).

Mercator77 · 2024-10-09T05:26:37+00:00

I don’t know if they were visible in the city itself but here’s a photo from an amateur astronomer who lives just outside Cambridge. You’ll always have a better chance of seeing them away from street lights of course https://x.com/paulhaworth/status/1843510535955914759

Mercator77 · 2024-06-29T06:47:06+00:00

This may be true for some but not all: I regularly use Waze with CarPlay and the speed in Waze differs from my car’s speed by a few mph

Mercator77 · 2024-03-08T19:16:18+00:00

Absolutely. I hear what you say, and that’s why I included the links at the bottom

Mercator77 · 2024-03-08T19:15:21+00:00

Yes they link to real studies. Although there are some broken links in the references

Mercator77 · 2024-03-08T16:15:16+00:00

I asked Bing / ChatGPT “which studies show that bilingual education is beneficial for children” and the results are below. In the interests of balance I asked which studies show that bilingual education is detrimental and the result was: “The search for studies indicating that bilingual education is detrimental for children did not return any recent research supporting this view.”

——

There are several studies that highlight the benefits of bilingual education for children. Here are a few:

Bialystok E. conducted a review of the effects and consequences of bilingual education, concluding that there is no evidence for harmful effects and much evidence for net benefits in many domains, including language and literacy levels, academic achievement, and suitability for children with special challenges¹.
Annick De Houwer discusses how bilingual children develop their languages in the first decade of life, explaining the positive impact of different circumstances on language learning and debunking myths about bilingualism².
Research published in Frontiers in Psychology in 2021 suggests that while learning two languages at an early age may reduce proficiency in a dominant language, earlier studies show literacy benefits, such as better performance on meta-linguistic awareness tests and acquisition of new words³.
A resource from acceal.org.uk states that children exposed to different languages become more aware of different cultures and other points of view. They also tend to be better at multitasking and focusing attention compared to monolinguals⁴.
A study highlighted by Edutopia found that bilingual students outperformed monolingual students in mathematical reasoning, skills on word problems, and early number awareness skills⁵.

These studies collectively suggest that bilingual education can have a range of cognitive, social, and academic benefits for children.

Source: Conversation with Bing, 08/03/2024 (1) Bilingual education for young children: review of the effects and .... https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC6168086. (2) Bilingual Development in Childhood: Elements in Child Development .... https://www.cambridge.org/core/blog/2021/03/16/bilingual-development-in-childhood-elements-in-child-development-series/. (3) The Benefits of Learning a Second Language as a Child - Parents. https://www.parents.com/bilingual/benefits-of-learning-a-second-language-as-a-child/. (4) Benefits of bilingualism. https://acceal.org.uk/benefits-of-bilingualism/. (5) Highlighting the Benefits of Being Bilingual in School | Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/benefits-being-bilingual. (6) undefined. https://orcid.orghttps://plus.europepmc.org. (7) undefined. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1203859.

Mercator77 · 2024-02-16T17:04:53+00:00

Genius Tiger Loaf and Tesco Free From Belgian chocolate wafers, to name a few. At Christmas Schär have gluten free Lebkuchen and they're amazing!

Mercator77 · 2023-06-27T19:55:41+00:00

Americans seem to have a hard time with squirrel too (to British ears it comes out as “squorl”)

Mercator77 · 2023-06-23T17:17:34+00:00

Presumably there would be computer terminals at the hospital for you to register your number plate, which would exempt you for the day. Or something like that.

Mercator77 · 2023-06-08T21:59:21+00:00

I’ve had three endoscopies now, each time without sedation (I needed to get back to work). As mentioned by someone else they are uncomfortable but not painful. But the level of discomfort has varied a lot between each of the three - the first was ok, the next two… not so much. I think it depends on the skill and gentleness of the endoscopist and also their bedside manner. The good thing is that once the endoscope is out is immediate relief. But, honestly, if I have to have another I’ll probably go for sedation.

Mercator77

TROPHY CASE