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Cake day: June 24th, 2024

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  • Never. Not what you want to hear,but hear me out. Because if it safes your sanity it is worth it.

    • I got my apprenticeship as a paramedic first and then went back to school to get my full A-Levels. Specialized school we have here,thankfully for these cases. The oldest one of my classmates was 52.

    • I studied economics with someone who was 55 and basically had already done the job we all wanted when we graduate for 25 years. He did so so he finally would get a more comprehensive background and maybe get up the ladder once more. (Which according to linked in he did)

    • I currently do another master (in a distant education setting,though) simply out of interest in the field and to broaden my CV. And you know what? I am 25 years in my field and still learned a fuckton of things, got a better network, love the research field AND got so much better at my job AND found a lot of opportunities.

    • An former paramedic trainee of mine was almost 50 when he started paramedic training. He was a C level executive before and at one point had enough - he changed careers so he would not get even more depressed and is now very happy with it. And I had multiple people do that in my bubble.

    Now,from my current perspective: Was it stressful? Fuck yeah. I literally cried sometimes. Was it a tough time financially? Fuck yeah. I am self employed/have a small company and I had month were making ends meet was really though due to the added expenses and the lost revenue. But it still was worth it. Because: For what it’s worth we all gonna need to work till 70+x anyway to afford retirement. And that’s a long time.


  • For Austria and Germany I would basically rule out working as a english teacher tbh - It’s next to impossible.

    Basically everyone goes to a state operated or recognised school - and for a job at these you will need a local education degree, superb local language skills (like: Not only speaking on the level of a natural speaker but also dialect free) and for Germany, depending on the state/in the majority of states you will also need the right citizenship.

    Private language schools exist,but they are not widely used (like really really rarely) and often are staffed by teachers having a locsl degree, local education students that need some extra money,etc. There are very very few spots where someone with an non-local degree might fit in (and most ads you see for that sadly are a pyramid-like scam).

    So… Tbh, maybe consider another way of making money. (And note that self employment in Germany works totally different from the US, is highly regulated and has a LOT of hidden costs)









  • Yeah. It’s a fucking son of a bitch cancer. Together with Pancreastumors the ones I am most afraid of.

    When I had my paramedic traning one of my instructors got one. He waited till he had the first seizure - and then drove into the next town so the ambulance crew finding him would not be “one of his own”, went into the woods, called the cops to tell them what he way about to do and, well, “self removed” the whold thing with a 9mm to the head.

    …little did he know I was send over that day to cover for someond who got sick. …Nevertheless I would do the same in his situation.


  • Heaps. I part timed as a bouncer/medic at a club when I was 21 and there were heaps of girls below 16/18 trying to get in. Actually one of the reasons I was hired was because I normally used to be fairly good at recognising these and their fake IDs and as the youngest member of the team at least some of them as younger sisters of my friends.

    And nevertheless I had two occasions were it was a “close call”. Once I chatted with a girl who stayed till the end and she,well, was, pushing to go to my place - until she made a mistake (can’t remember what she said) and I asked her about her age again(I had before and of course she claimed to be 19). She was indeed 14. SHIT. That was literally one day after we had the cops raid the place for minors and if they would have found her inside it would have cost us 10k at least - or our licence. (In theory in my country age of consent would have allowed “it” between us. But no. Never ever ever.YUK) That was a close. (Imagine me always shitting a brick back then and still feeling nauseated today) But would have never ever suspected her to be younger than me actually.

    Other case was a girl very agressively pushing her number onto me, I was busy, so I didn’t care, but tbh, she was pretty and looked definitly 18+x. Responded for a call for medical backup, we need an ambulance to respond. Nothing drastic,just someone overly intoxicated. …next thing I can here my colleague from the ambulance screaming at someone in front of the toilets. …It was the girls mother -she worked nights and her 15 year old daughter thought it was a good idea to go out with a friend-. Funny enough my shiftleader was mortified as they had texted pretty flirty before - she had definitly made it inside a few times. (I think she claimed to be a uni freshman,which are all above 18 in my country)

    (And fuck,our national IDs were so easy fake back then. Luckily that’s 20 years ago)

    I am fairly sure that I never had anything going with someone younger than 16 after I turned 17, but fuck… The first one was a really close call,the second one coud have been. I would have never ever suspected their age. I am so happy that the universe did not let that happen.

    Anyway: Even if someone gets tricked: Why on earth would they go for another round.

    PS: Funny enough it goes the otherway around as well: A female friend of mine looks,well, like she is barely 14. She once was my trainee paramedic and I got regularly stopped by cops for letting an alleged minor drive the ambulance. (She was 20 at that time). Nowadys she is over 40, has two kids, is a chief physician and tbh, still looks bloody young and it’s often a nightmare for her with some patients.


  • No. Patriot act had provisions to make it basically impossible to go through the regular law system. This is not the case here - the whole stuff needs to be approved by a judge and they usually handle these things fairly restricted due the high constitutional burden. Additionally you need to be involved in a pretty specific subset of crimes to be even a possible target.

    This is explicitly not the case and unlike the US the evidence obtained illegally can basically never been used with a red-hering, etc.

    And there are provisions in the law that actually make the cops already be angry about it, make DAs cry and defending lawyers happy: They must prove that there is no other,less invasive, way to achieve the control of the possible danger - and that can be fairly hard and they risk of the evidence not being admissible in court and their own legal consequences for it. Additionally the approval is time limited, etc. Don’t get me wrong,I am not happy about it either, but it’s a necessary evil,imho - it’s the modern way of a phone tap, which has been a measure used by the cops since 1920ies and it’s sadly one of the few ways to fight organised crime. And it’s the far better alternative to what a lot of other countries want to use and currently push: Backdoor in all messengers.

    The true issue with that law is NOT that. The AI bullshit, numberplate recognition, population data use,etc. are the actual issues.


  • Heise is generally one of the most reliable tech source news outlets in German. (E.g. Netzpolitik.org

    And yes,this has been reported on various other news outlets as well

    Sadly this is actually not the main issue with that law - the use of KI and population data is far more problematic and overstepping boundaries. The installation of the remote logging software (“govermental trojan”) was already possible before, but not by the state,only by the federal criminal investigation office (BKA) and it still has pretty high boundaries (a judge needs to approve,approval is fairly limited in it’s timespan, there are limits what crimes it can be used for and how data can be used) While I am not happy about it either, personally I must admit I have far less problems with it than with the other parts of the law. Observation on high risk people has always been part of police work and tbh, it needs to be done if you want to tackle organized crime, violent extremists, etc. Back in the 90ies they tapped the phone of the Mafia associates, now communications have shifted so from my point of view it’s acceptable IF “imminent danger” is not routinely assumed regularly (that reduces the limits) and the judges look at it critically - which at least some of them do. And: It’s far far better than the alternative that is being pushed: Backdoors in all chats - as pushed by some EU countries on a EU scale. Far worse.

    The AI, automatic number plate scanning,face recognition, etc. part of that law is the issue.

    If you speak German: Page 25 ff. https://www.parlament-berlin.de/ados/19/IIIPlen/vorgang/d19-2553.pdf




  • Massages or (far worse) manual therapy on the neck can lead to a dissection, spasm,etc. of the vertaebral arteries - they are in the back of the neck, fairly vulnerable and sadly lead to real nasty strokes that often lead to major paralysis or death a lot of the real critical tissues in the brain are supplied by them and clots as well as tissuetend to find their way into the basilar artery which is basically the worst place for them to be. The brain can compensate for a lot,especially when it comes to the cortex, but back there, structures are small, tend not to have “collateral” aka backup but are very important.

    The type of symptoms and paralysis he has makes it very likely for him to have suffered from something in that area and well… Manual therapy and massage in that area are the absolute posterboy reason for someone to have these strokes, especially in a comparably young age. I saw 18 year olds have debilitating strokes that way. I had a 28 year old woman go from "talking to me to brain death/organ donor* within 45 minutes. (BTW: Covid is another huge risk factor,but that affects more the venous side of that area. The vaccination does massively reduce these cases,especially in woman on hormonal birth control).

    There is a reason why in a lot of European countries a massage of the neck is forbidden/considered malpractice by massage therapists (beside it not helping much anyway - muscular cervical pain almost always is caused lower, in the shoulder muscles) and manual therapy of the neck above C4 needs special training for physios (and even then is discouraged).

    Don’t get me wrong, I am not blaming the massage therapist - One would need to see the MRI for that- but it is a reasonably good reminder of a common cause for these cases.




  • What part do you mean exactly? That we train technical rescue with the firies every year? That comes with the job - and it’s more “their part” - even the smaller volunteer fire departments do that at least once a year to keep up their skills with the heavy tools and we get train to work with them. It’s usually not that expensive either,as they use an old car that wouls be wrecked either way. Often they get them for free (as disposing a car can be expensive otherwise).

    The total submersion training? That is much rarer and I only did that once, but it’s part of the training of the more specialist water rescue crews, afaik. The issue here are not the cost,but finding a suitable location - you can’t just use your community pool or nearvx lake so you either have a quarry with a lake or something like that (we did it in a army tank training ground, they have a pool to drive tanks through. Nowadays it’s almost impossible to get a permit to train there due to the hybrid warfare the fucking russkies do) We have a specialist training side that enables indoor training of helicopter based winch rescue from flood water/flooded buildings,etc. though. (Mainly focuses on mountain rescue,though and has a cold chamber,etc. as well) (https://bw-zsa.org/) (https://youtu.be/2qWJNgKVo18)

    Similar training of an automobile club: https://youtu.be/T5l1ayTryhc

    HUET for helicopter is mandatory for everyone who works with maritime helicopters, e.g. oil rig workers, maritime pilots,etc. Therefore they are fairly common. https://youtu.be/YyPzzLwpzvw


  • It’s very very very unlikely/next to impossiblr that you are able to destroy the front window in a modern car - even with tools that takes time and skill

    With a back window you might have more luck,depending on the car,at least with a center punch tool, you might have a better chance - but that requires you to be able to a) be alert and uninjured enough to do so b) find your way there in total darkness, wrong orientation,etc. c) manage to apply the right amount of force.

    Source: Am a paramedic,have to destroy windows once a year for our training with the firies, additionally have done “total submersion” training once. (Basically the same as what happend here. You get into a car,this car get spun on the roof, then slid down nto a pool/lake - with the difference that you have space on all sides, there is a rescue diver with you in the car and another two are next to it. It is still a fucking nightmare and MUCH worse than what I used to do to work on the helicopter - their HUET was much easier.