35 Burst results for "Luxembourg"
InsideBitcoins
Does Blockchain.com Owe CoinFLEX Nearly 4.3M in FLEX tokens
"2 a.m. Monday, February 27th, 2023. Does blockchain dot com oh coin flicks nearly 4.3 M inflex tokens. Online publication decrypt reports that cryptocurrency exchange coin flicks claims it gave the Luxembourg based financial services business blockchain dot com a total of 3 million flex coins last year.
CryptoPotato
Bitstamp Secures an Operational License in France
"11 p.m. Sunday, February 12th, 2023 bit stamp secures an operational license in France. The Luxembourg based bitstamp became the latest cryptocurrency trading venue to receive the green light from the French regulators.
AP News Radio
McDonald's to pay France $1.3 billion in tax fraud case
"McDonald's France and related companies have agreed to pay over $1.3 billion to the French state to settle a case in which the fast food giant was accused of years of tax evasion The French national financial prosecutor's office says a Paris court has approved the settlement McDonald's says the settlement was the result of productive discussions with French tax authorities The decision means a tax for investigation targeting the company opened after a legal complaint by unions in 2016 will be closed The prosecutor's office says McDonald's France McDonald's system of France MC Luxembourg real estate and other related companies agreed to pay a total of $1.29 billion in fines penalties and back taxes to settle the case of the years of negotiations
AP News Radio
U.S. goes after more Russian yachts linked to Putin in expanded sanctions
"Volodymyr zelensky has addressed Luxembourg's parliament calling for more pressure on Russia Ukraine needs more modern weapons which he adds will ensure the superiority of our country over Russia in this war encourage and intelligence and also in technology He is well called for more sanctions against Russia then reporting on the fighting he said more than 20% of Ukrainian territory is now on the Russian control adding this is much larger than the area of all the better looks countries Belgium the Netherlands and Luxembourg combined
WABE 90.1 FM
"luxembourg" Discussed on WABE 90.1 FM
"Help them Is a high school economics teacher And on that frigid day in the mountains she told me she planned to continue teaching her students online Well two months later she's kept her promise Teaching economics to her pupils who are now spread out all over the world You're saying a lot of involvement from Belgium or Luxembourg Georgia turkey And the teacher is in Brittany France living in a coastal village by the sea I think it's to get to the ocean She's with her aunt and cousins who are 11 and 16 They start before French language and it's like opportunity for them to start to improve their friends and to see another country because they never go anywhere from default And it's those times to be I brought That's why we have a so long travel by train from Poland to This place You're describing this like a great opportunity to visit a new country and learn a new language this is not the way people often talk about fleeing a war All of what we get from life is opportunity We caught up over Zoom the other day She was in France I was in Poland and Daria told me she has dreamed of seeing Brittany since she was a teenager It was my dream from 16 I want to visit different French castles from the stories Yeah Now it's realized as for me it's terrible and beautiful at once What was it like to see those French castles for the first time that you dreamed of since you were 16 Now I can relate that they are beautiful that French people take care about the but when I saw them I understand that I need to create in different ways in a lot of beautiful cars so they are not better than French as in my dreams So it made you appreciate your home even more Yes Wow You know when I met you in Chris jenko I asked where you were going to go And you answered the question I hope to go home as soon as I can And now my answer will do the same Yeah As soon as I can but I really can't be in country in dangerous and now I also did my principles and also to be nervous and I'm scared each day and each moment in my city Because when I read news on my phone I really become hysterical And that's nipro right Yes isn't it for robots And our region around by he has a very old regions in dangerous Is it difficult for you to enjoy the beauty of this place you've always dreamed of going While you know that these terrible things are also happening back in your home I walk a lot with psychology So understand what beauty for plays and people and use around me and that I have a lot of opportunities because for that I was almost upset at and when I have said I can't help my sister held myself I found herself my parents and granny he brought my Friends that's why I work by myself to get normal emotions and normal life And be useful for my country Yeah So your parents and your granny are still in nipro Yes Are they safe How are they doing Anybody in Ukraine they are insane But their adult people with their decision and migraine is too old to have a long travel And now is the season of summer falls and she wants to plant it and Michael Jens help your and it's gives your a little emotion and trying to understand that she's also useful and she can do what she likes So she's planting a garden She's planting vegetables No it's a lot of but some tomato some carrot or some potato please Tell me about your students You're still teaching them remotely online How are classes How is that going in the middle of a war I have a lot of work now Because in Ukraine make the school year shorter that's why I have a lot of job of tests of taking tasks And are they able to focus Or are they distracted Because a war is happening Now every student and I hope each teacher understands that they should study and be better because we all should rebuild our infrared And in another way it's a time or not to be concentrated on more destroy and energy They have some task watch they should to do to be better to be better for themselves for their conflict and for their parents And it's for me it's a big motivation for me To get up in the morning and doing my job good as well as I can and more Yeah Daria I'm so glad to talk to you again And so glad that you're doing well and happy and getting to see French castles And I hope you get to go home soon Mercy Ukrainian economics teacher and.
The Final Furlong Podcast
"luxembourg" Discussed on The Final Furlong Podcast
"Crisis. Look at look at it. Look what's happening. you know. People are back on track. And you know what's happening bites breaking fights breaking out everywhere left right and center lucy russell you dictate tracy in a shocker. Absolutely something that didn't happen. No nor would it some of that new fake news. Did you hear lucy checks. Kate knocked her doctor code. Yeah i think that you're right. I also think that let's be completely honest about this if you want to deal with it as a proper problem. It's not alco it's cocaine. Yeah well quite possibly. I'm i thought really come alive that if if that's will never taken the drug in my life be terrified of ever taken any recreational drug in my life. I've taken plenty of oxycontin. That's been handed to me in valium. And all that kind of stuff because Who's got two thumbs and a terribly bad back and his asthmatic. This i and now his covert as well Bought i'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna come on the show. And patras i've walked through famous racecourses and seen guys stumble out of toilets with white on their faces. And it's like you look at them and you're thinking bacon in their mate auditioning for the great british bake for you in other words. And from what i understand from my consultancy work with the metropolitan police it. It does give you a high but it also makes you super aggressive. So if you're a dickhead. It makes you even more aggressive. And so someone bumps into you or you get you also get very paranoid on this and And so if someone is looking in the direction of your partner or looking in your direction and they're actually looking at their friend but not looking at all you might just go your way to go and start something So i mean. I've seen actually talking to a sergeant one day. let's I don't wanna mention the racetrack but it was at a racetrack that i was working who i had done. Some consultancy with a done with his eunice and I was asking him what he was doing with the With a doing a bomb threat or like doing a drill and a bomb threat. And he said nope. We're to clear out any illegal drugs. How often do you come across the self sit. Oh they've gotten very good at hiding it but we get them so all these dumdum so get arrested get arrested and then get charged with possession as well. So here's an idea you still taking the bloody stuff. It's not working for you and Maybe we as a media if we want to talk about this stuff that's highlight. The drug culture not highlight the fighting because as they said the other seven thousand funds numeric another great day. So that's how i'm done instead. Have you been panic buying fuel. I make a mistake. Ms fill in my car. Jay you panic caused some panic lucy but we completely unaware of what why was bottles acute penn station. I was completely unaware of the situation. I was staying away with some family. And i filled up my car in the middle of nowhere and there was a queue that and it wasn't until later on the radio or heard why so. Yes it's crazy. How worrying is it for you know. Obviously it's a major concern for the british horse racing industry. The i need to say that the chief executive of fuels for ireland who represents the country's transport in home fuel companies has said in the last three hours that we started recording this podcast so when we started going in our our fifty minutes ago three hours ago he said there is no concern about a fuel shortage now. We get our fuel from dare say from europe and we don't have an issue but there is an issue in the uk it's becoming a pretty serious one and that's not a big at brexit or anything like that I watched question time on thursday night and they were talking to the shortage of heavy goods drivers and they were saying that And love truck drivers this end so Showed up to the truck drivers so we had a horn beep on the on the desktop. Do we not sorry about that. You have to keep on trucking for us and Beep the horn if you're listening to his right now but They were saying that they were very concerned about the lack of and it's entirely possible that i missed the conversation about fuel shortage at the start of the show. I think i joined halfway through. But they were saying that they were very concerned about the shortage of heavy goods Hitch tv drivers. They were very concerned about the fact that A loss of them left during the pandemic and went back to europe and eastern europe and having come to the uk but there's also shortage of h. e. drivers in germany Shortage in poland is a shortage in spain. So it's becoming an issue. And i spoke to a cabdriver who put me in touch with Heavy goods vehicle driver earlier on today. As i coughed my way through the conversation and i i asked him why. Why is there such a shortage of drivers in your industry now. Like are you still committed to it. And he said no. I'm going to get out of an year. Said my pension kicks in in a year no match and He said it's not a pleasant job to do. Your does a camera on you. Twenty four seven. You have the tracker. He said he agrees. With because the tachometer that shows the average speed. That you've been doing so the police know that you're not Speeding in them But he's very concerned about the current training methods that have been used to bring drivers through.
The Final Furlong Podcast
"luxembourg" Discussed on The Final Furlong Podcast
"You're listening to this show on right now but we're going to look back at Predominantly new market and the camera and some of the big stories including a breaking story. That lucy uncovered. But we'll come to that in a few minutes. Lucy how are you thank you. How are you see so. I interviewed the absolute gentleman who was setting up. Costa kara. Which is phenomenal thing. And gavin lynch is the man's name. And what you didn't hear in the interview was gavin saying to me so you going to be joining then which are applied well gavin. I've cove it and he went. Oh that's a conversation killer so at the time of recording. They had raised eighty grand for cancer. Trials ireland the ended up raising one hundred forty five thousand euro that is phenomenal. So well done gathered and Well don't everybody involved well known to the final fallen podcast crew. You always turn up when needed and you very much did Gavin was telling me that they go to a bump wants to show when live so Every time we asked you to turn up do and Huge thanks to to you for contributing and If you're a fundamental podcast listener there were down. Some of the the experiences of being able to ride alongside the likes of barry in shamefully. Must've been incredible. But the real experience would have been to be alongside francis mullah francis crowley and sure enough if you could get even money about francis being the first over the line because they had a winning line at the curragh. She was the first one over. So if you got the evens was done So of kevin lynch. It's also done in memory of his late mother all of Who passed away from the same. Cancer as pat pancreatic cancer and That money goes a long way. It's not being handed to the. Hey chessy it's being handed to Concentrate ireland who do phenomenal work. So while don't everybody who was involved whether don't gavin. Well don't francis and While don't everybody on the trail. Particularly all stud farms got involved moyglare. Kara bella town your amazing people and i hope that can become an annual thing because we're incredibly good at Coming together for the right reasons and no better reason than that and no betterman to meme to remember in the late batsman right some racist to go through from the weekend will start with soft whisper so is covering this on sports Boy did i get it wrong I was convinced lucie that dubai love was the horse to be with and the market did swing back around in her favor but Frankie dettori his boss. I've been. Sarah ended up being quite easy winners of this race. A few horses in behind to her disappointing. But it's the resurgence of sabin sira and it began with this race was three good open runs down race but yes the other side host hosted by love seemingly. Am had moved support from the market gains the race. Frankie get this video right. Good ride a race the very promptly astle in this in this contest and i think find transference. I've been what is he does say. Well these horses that have campaigned on may and in the winter months and then he's cutting fresh and then go on to win in the in the ultimate certain uneasy a- easy feat and seems does it with his ambassador breaks is out in may down then he geeks fresh in that and then talk it since races over here because it with the likes of Who else farewelled. He's he's another example of a horse. They keep the ibm does that. You just can't some flashing. And i still soft whisper yet given a very positive by frank story so the by love think. Oc murphy said wasn't particularly suited by the ground and perhaps an he read that herself down on the on the surface at newmarket important handle the camera to well but now i still affiliate going paces super young one hundred agree with that and Look they campaigned. Or in the u. e. darby and things didn't work out a plan There she finished on lasts. Some people were saying she pulled up. No she didn't They took her to set arabia for their darby as well The saudi darby. So the very fact that they would even run in those races tells you what they thought of her and of course she bolted up in the one thousand guineas as well which side minutes were has an embarrassingly. Good record thing. So it's nice to see your back in the winners enclosure and it's also nice to see and i one hundred percent means it's nice to see side rural back in the winner's enclosure because if you were to look at the prize money the season and this is one of the conversations that we had on talksport because he made that point I'm gonna he. I mean the great and powerful mckenzie made that point that what is it about. This is covert this is covert messing with my bloody head amino being able to talk properly. What is it about side been sore and being able to campaign and train horses and get them ready for sort of like the back end of the campaign And i wasn't entirely certain that's the case But i'd be more inclined to agree with you but did point out that charlie appleby curtly said some three point eight million pounds in prize money silencer is currently sitting on seven hundred eighty thousand. So it's just nice to see him back.
Connected
"luxembourg" Discussed on Connected
"Obsidian that was organized in three sections so i had checked progress with alex new things for alex and sylvia design so in the design section. I would dropping things that were you know that. Sylvia needed to design The way that silvio likes to work is she doesn't like me like using shared reminders. Or anything like that like she. She sits down and she says okay. What do i need to work on today. Right now and it would just do that on a day to day basis and so i just i kept a list of the things that she needed to design for us in the czech progress with alex section of the note i would have a long list. Hundreds of lines of text of things that we needed to double check all kinds of things like this button working. Is this caller just right. What's this animation. Like like all kinds of things. Some of them were grouped by feature some of them. Were not and my plan was just each day. I'm going through the list and testing kalliopi. And i'm removing or adding things as i go new thinks they would end up in the new things for alex. Section and that section would be My topic of the conversation next weekly call so on our call. I will go through all the things that i added to the new things for alex section and as we discussed them as alex explained whether feature was possible or not to us i would drop some of them into the main section of denote the check. Progress one and that's really how we went. Oh and for myself. I just used to do it. I i used to choice for myself. And i also took a. I really took advantage of the custom plug in that. That that that we built within the one true finn four obsidian and to do integration. Because i wrote. I personally wrote all of the well. Not personally john. John did a lot of work for the app stories. Faq and the club ethic for example but a lot of the communication for the discord for the about pages for the plans pages. A lot of that stuff. I personally wrote in in my obsidian..
Connected
"luxembourg" Discussed on Connected
"Built. Okay kukalai apy yes. Why would somebody build a cms in two hundred twenty one. Why would you do this. Why did you do this. If felt like the culmination of of sort of how changed as a as a business owner and as a creator over the years. I've always you know. I've been talking over the past few years about taking control of all the technologies that i use and refusing just outright refusing to lock myself into proprietary things and so whenever i saw some of my colleagues on other websites get on this fancy new service or now we're going to publish stories on facebook and now we're gonna do google camp now. We're going to do you. Know exclusive subscriptions on apple news. I always refused. Because i knew that ultimately i don't think the services are going to be successful because those platforms. They don't really care about publishing your stuff on the web as much as you think they do and also because i have been obsessed in a good way with being able to leave a legacy behind and so being able to leave all all the things that i've done right all these words that have written all these words that are said to be able to fully control them in a way that i know they will stick around or no matter what. And maybe. that's maybe that's a greenway to look at it but it just makes me feel more comfortable with with the things that i do. You know And honestly building. A cms was the obvious solution for what we have planned for. Mac stories in the future when you think about it now. We have the regular website which is not going away. I've seen a bunch of people ask about this like today. We blog amac's stories like john and i- regular blog posts maximize max stories in the center of everything. We do right with the news. The reviews the stories the links but we also have the club so we have members who one more out of that and we have a bunch of podcasts and we have digital products that you can buy from max stories pixel right we have the icons that you can buy there and in the future. Maybe we're going to have new products as well and we have some ideas for other things that we may want to do in the future like physical objects right physical goods merchandise that kind of stuff and other. Let's call them verticals that we may do us. Part of max oris any felt like it makes more sense to have a platform that he's hours that is unique to us..
Connected
"luxembourg" Discussed on Connected
"Some why they got so much flak for the way they were handling the sam stuff. If as a company you put a flag in the ground about how your better than everybody else innocent thing the places is way you fail will be highlighted because you would you say that you'll better than this and this seems to be some stuff Apple which isn't right. I mean i is maintain my position that they should be more flexible work from now especially after wherever what he's been through over the last couple of years they've proven that it is possible and i feel like it should be decisions that are developed to manages you know Rather than being like a an overall process but again a bit in the weeds hip. I did just want to mention it because it is something that i think could be. A problem for them is going to be ultimately something that he's going to have to change the environment of if he wants to. If he doesn't i mean his as his program of could potentially change the way that they attacked talent passive attention nevertheless. I personally a big fan of tim cook. I think he's I love apple. We will do right. And i think that he has Taken a bunch of steps to make the company continued to be interesting to us. Good abba And his definitely secured its future into the long term like i was thinking about this recently about if one of the things that people say. This is actually of may again. Another mark has the china issue with apple right that they're very linked to china and that is something else to watch out for for the next ten years is to if for how tim cook starts to undo any of that so i was wondering like if they had to pull out of china couldn't make a product. How long could they lost on their cash reserve. If they couldn't sell products. I work out like it'd be multiple years. They could lost four. Yes which is incredible as a thought for a company of this size. If so much cash in the bank they could lost for a long time paying all of their people and not sell a product. I mean realistically. They're never going away right. Seems like that so happy birthday. Tim cook i guess it's the thing. Ten years is a quite incredible though. It's going by fast. It doesn't feel like it right. No this episode is brought.
Connected
"luxembourg" Discussed on Connected
"All like people just in general. Think that oh. I don't like him because of this thing for the company you know like the. I don't like this thing that apple's doing it's tim cook's full you know and i understand why you can say that. Because he's the ceo but not necessarily think. It's as simple as that other time. I think we had this conversation a long time ago. About eddie q. Right that like we were saying that we think that eddy. Cue is gets a bit of a bad rap that people think that he's for some reason not good at his job. I don't really know exactly why. But he obviously clearly is and there was that whole thing. And the steve jobs book about him right about how good of a dealmaker is neck. That is actually his job anyway. Dealmaker so yeah it's fine but anyway what. How do you feel about. Tim cook in general. Ceo of apple particular feeling it. Well i think. I think he was able to step out of steve's shadow honestly that was like the biggest issue in the first couple of years i think e when he started out a ceo. I feel like the general consensus was that it was not a really charismatic person. Maybe but no one could really achieve the same level of personality and charisma of job. Couldn't anyone on the stage next. Whose going because even then next. Best cricketer yogi is not as good. No exactly exactly. But i feel like you know i think he i think he found is his way. And the how you will be remembered. I think also like in the first few years is passed at apple. I think it was influencing opinions about him. Like when you when you used to see like a lot of people saying oh. The operation. sky is now in charge. Y'all county is running. Exactly yes and i feel like so where he came from also influenced people's opinions a few years ago But i think over time. I believe how tim cook will be remembered one and i mean it's not like he's leaving his job or anything but if we were to wrap it up right now He will be remembered as the ceo to capital into this new services era successfully very successfully expanded the product line with airports and apple watch and just in general general yes. The product lines are large. They have more variation revived. The mac pretty successfully so far honestly ends to capital in in a series of new direction so when he comes to privacy and when it comes to be a more socially.
Connected
"luxembourg" Discussed on Connected
"Imagine that like or on of this new fancy like private flights. You know doesn't have to be a nasa astronaut listening to connect to visual proof of that though. Yeah me too. Absolutely if that ever happens and i mean stranger things well no no stranger things happen. They could tell you categorically nothing stranger has happened than somebody listening to show from space. Yeah could happen. Hey i'm convinced at some point in all careers. It will happen but just about win right. I think so too. This episode is brought to you by express. Vpn a few decades ago. It was so easy to be a private person. The internet's change that everything you've browsed. Such full watch tweeted. This data kenobi called for collected aggregated. And this information can be used with without your permission can be solved for advertising people. Buy and sell this data. There are hundreds of brokers out there. This is what they do. They don't have to tell you the selling it to get your consent. Data's available having your life exposed for others to take advantage of. This is something you wouldn't have to worry about in the post but to keep your data private online to keep out date to private online we contend to express. Apn one of the peace information people have gop address. This can be used to uniquely identify. You and your location is very frequently used to sell like geo targeted ads or to track your around the online who have expressed vpn connection gets rerouted through an encrypted server and your ip address mosque so when you turn on express vpn you given a random ip address shed by a bunch of express vpn customers which makes it even more difficult for the parties to identify individual people and try and use that data about them. The best of all of this is how easy it is to use express. Vpn matter what device you're on phone laptop mighty or you have to do is tap one button to get protected. One of my favorite uses of express. Vpn is if. I'm connected to say like hotel wifi or something. I love to be able to turn on to worry about the fact that this free internet Service is given to me. I don't know anything about it. You know it's it's open. People can connect to it. And what i love is i can use express. Vpn get connected. Feel safe and i never even have to worry about my into speaking slowed down like we could still watch video.
Connected
"luxembourg" Discussed on Connected
"Has thirty eight thousand people that live in it. Thirty eight thousand yes okay. That is the official population of monica. So this is the monaco of the of the the grand prix of monaco. Jeff one thing. Okay the monaco because i think somewhat similar to vatican city which i don't wanna get into again it's like was a part of something then became its own thing you know. Yeah so monaco. Has the eight thousand people that live in it. So i feel like even though jerome is one of two people which is unbelievable. The hit rate we have in monaco. I would say that. Monaco is the most peculiar country. Out of this listen to our show from because there is only thirty nine thousand people that live there I dunno the because all of the other all the countries that we're talking about so guatemala. Palestine qatar botswana. But you also gotta consider like the like these the technology available right. We can't make that decision win on smart enough to make that decision. I don't know i. I feel like i really wanted omar to win omar from. What's wanna i mean. It's omar from botswana like sure like jerome from. Monaco means sure. Monaco is like a very small country. But i don't know it's it's not like when you think of monaco. It's not weird right. You see monaco in the news. Pretty frequently right. Ag- how frequently do you have any idea of what's going on in our western society of what's going on in botswana fair. You know so i would look again make in the rules. Here is no official process. I'm like considering uma slice. This federica this one works for me. As far as we're aware ma is literally the only person in that country to listen to show. Omar is the only person in their country located in southern africa. Omar also happens to be live right now listening scored like what are the chances of this happening when you think about it. And here's another thing. I'll tell you saw these on the five. Today i spent some time in photoshop mocking up the connected artwork that will use for the rest of this episode in honor of whoever the weirdest listeners. The botswana flag looks great with. We're on a really good because it's just stripe so it makes sense is blue white and black. i think it has to be botswana. So we're going to go with erma from botswana saying a weirdest listener. Omar you are are winners listener of connected from putz wanna congrats. It's you so now for the rest of this episode. we're going to be flying the botswana flag As part of our outlook. Congratulations ma you of you have brought home this on a field country i would just let you know though houma. You are currently currently always listener. Yes this is not a lifetime on. It's not a lifetime achievement. This could change for any set of circumstances. Oh my god but obama your fish. Oh my yes this lung to realize that link every time it was saying with them like this. This rings a bell of me. And i'm not sure why you are a witness fish. Congratulations to it's always. It's always been you. It's always been you honestly the only case in which i would assign a lifetime. Achievement for a weird listener from somewhere would be an off planet situation like listening from the space. I wouldn't that be great though..
Connected
"luxembourg" Discussed on Connected
"Then when you sign up use the code connected at checkout to get a huge two percent of your first invoice. Thanks to paint over from sola wins for of this show and all of relay. Fm all right. I'm just gonna be honest hair k. Things are about to get real wit for a bit. I just wanna let everybody know this in advance. You can't say didn't one you this next segments gonna be really strange. I mean stranger than other things on the show. Probably not but you know. I feel like i just want everybody to know in advance. This is things about to get wit so our last episode actually over the last few weeks we've had an issue of luxembourg incident. Yes it will forever be known as the lower of the shells diplomatic situation. We have got the luxembourg incident at which ended up leading to a situation where we put out a call on lost episode to try and find listeners which we would be considered to be from the rarest places and i was honestly this is so good for me we got so many tweets and like i loved it it was. It's been fantastic over the last week. I'm sure this is now something we're gonna suffer from. For the rest of our careers people sending cease tweets as they randomly find things. Will you know it's just part of who we are now. I'm fine with that. Especially if this takes off. I don't remember if we came up with a name for this segment. I think we didn't. Maybe this would just be something happens to us In time so but before we get into so basically people have been sending in things. We've been saving them. I have had this whole list of people. It was basically if it seemed like it was pretty easy for me to guess which ones i needed to save right. Like people like from sweden sweden is not going to be one of the the country lists are not not rare in yeah But before we get into these Some listeners i had..
Connected
"luxembourg" Discussed on Connected
"Hundred and sixty today show is brought to you by pinkham express. Vpn and hello. My name is mike hurley. And i'm joined by federal cover. Teach chow mike. How are you. i'm fine my friend finding daddy unfortunately. No stephen hackett with us this week but it doesn't matter because we're still going to talk about things that he thinks so Even wrote an article about safari. Fifteen on the mac and ipad Because i think as a as a primary mac users stephen was upset that people would just say hey safari fifteen old good nail no problem but there are still some things which could be considered lingering with safari on above ipad in the mac. And i'm sure you will probably As a as an ipad us feel some of these issues potentially so couple of things. I wanted to pull out from stevens article. Oh by the way yes. We're still talking about safari Is doesn't like doesn't like color in tabs. He he turned that off. I wanted to know what you thought of that. I turned it off. I thought it was cool. Yeah i thought it was cool. Initially and then and then. I didn't think that anymore. It's very distracting. And he didn't help with like there. Were a bunch of contrast issues with being like some callers on some websites did not help in like properly at least for me to my eyes. Didn't help with some icons in the toolbar like the extension icon for example when you have an extension enabled in safari fifteen and i said and it's like blue and you go to a website that he's also light blue and the contrast they're super bed and by the way i can tell you that unfortunately i just installed eyebrows fifteen beta seven on my ipad and i can tell you it's nothing has changed their shipping like this is their shipping. Electees tattoo design the favorites under the tabs. This is it. Yeah yeah. I think that's done. I think that's like this. It set now i think for me. I mean again having only use on ipad. I kind of like the caller i. I'm gonna try i'm gonna try keep an on for a while. I mean i'm sure it works in some places and some others. It doesn't and i'll just judge over time but i wanna try that because i don't really have an issue with it in theory and i've seen some Screen shots and images is being used to kind kinda liked the look and i do like the look on my ipad. I understand why this is something that people not a fan of..
Leading Saints Podcast
"luxembourg" Discussed on Leading Saints Podcast
"And that concludes this how I lead interview I hope you enjoyed it and I would ask you could you take a minute and drop this link in an email on social media in a text? Wherever it makes most sense and share it with somebody who could relate to this experience and this is how we develop as leaders just hearing what the other guys doing trying some things out testing adjusting for your area and that's where great leaderships discovered right? So we would love to have you share this with somebody in this calling or a related calling and that would be great and also if you know somebody any type of leader who would be a fantastic guest on how I lead segment reach out to us go to leading saints that org slash contact maybe send this individual an email letting them know that you're going to be suggesting their name for this interview will reach out to them and see if we can line them up. So again go to leading saints dot org slash contact and there you can submit all the information and let us know. And maybe they will be on a feature how I lead segment on the leading saints podcast. And remember text the word lead to four 747 four 7 in order to access the three most popular sessions of the liberating saints library. It came as a result of the position of leadership which was imposed upon us by the God of heaven who brought forth a restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and when the declaration was made concerning the all and only true and living church upon the face of the earth. We were immediately put in a position of loneliness. The loneliness of leadership from which we can not shrink or run away. And to which we must face up with boldness and courage and ability..
Leading Saints Podcast
"luxembourg" Discussed on Leading Saints Podcast
"Presidents callings they have the right to receive inspiration to then give to the bishop. And that's awesome. And probably 8 if not 9 times out of ten that will be what the bishopric go with because it generally makes sense. The spirit generally works through different people in the same way. Every once in a while there will be additional context that a bishop or bishopric member will have because of the purview that a bishopric member has of the ward in its entirety. Sometimes it's worthiness but sometimes it's other things as well. And the bishop has the responsibility to receive the revelation on calling and thanking members for callings. And it's important that each ward officer each organizational head trusts in that process. And not just trusts the person who happens to be bishop at that time but trusts the mantle of the bishop that keys are bestowed in certain rights are given with that according to God's order not just according to pride or ego or whatever that might be then interpreted as. But it's what God is wanting to do. And there are times where member leaders organizational leaders might have an opinion and they might feel very passionately about that opinion. They may even say this is revelation that I've received. And it's important at that time to help correct where there might be falsehoods do it in a loving way obviously but to help teach what's stewardship means. That the lord has an order and an organization not to not to be little anyone or to make anybody feel less important but because that's the way God set it up. And if you're receiving revelation outside of your stewardship then there may be a misunderstanding somewhere. And it's okay because everyone isn't perfect and sometimes we do misunderstand things. And by the way maybe you giving that recommendation to the bishop about a certain person allowed for a conversation to happen that allowed for amazing ministering. And that was the only way that God could have allowed that to happen. And that's why he set that up. And that's great. You know recognize that for what it is and the role that you played in God doing his greater work and accept that is happiness right? And accept that as being a tool in the hands of the lord. It's when sometimes we let pride or ego dominate those types of approaches and those types of feelings that suddenly things become much more complicated than they ever needed to be. And then it doesn't become a question of listening to the spirit but more so what do I want versus what do you want? And that takes away from the spirit of God it takes away from what he's trying to build. And there are times where as a leader you have to help somebody recognize where they may need to change where they may need to repent in that thinking and it's hard. And it's very easy for people to get offended and sometimes you even have to use your counselors in a place where maybe it's a little bit too delicate for you as a bishop to do that. But that's okay because you can delegate certain keys and responsibilities to your counselors and the bishopric. That's the whole point of having counselors. But it's not easy but more than anything I've learned and I don't know if this is a bad thing to say. But I've learned to be okay. With people disagreeing with me right? Or maybe even being offended by something that I said very much out of love but it hurt because sometimes truth hurts you know? And I think first year bishop Lewis I had a hard time with that. And I've heard you say many times that as a member of the state presidency you would tell new bishops 20% of the world is going to hate you. There's nothing that you can do to stop that. That's just the reality. I wanted to prove you wrong right? But I've now repented and learned that that's probably a true principle. And as a leader you sometimes have to be okay knowing that you did the right thing but it's going to take a while and maybe even eternity for somebody else to recognize that. And to not let that keep you up at night. To be able to still get up the next day and focus and focus on your family when you need to and then try and love other people and not suddenly change the way that you work with people because you're scared of making someone else upset. It's a hard thing and it doesn't come naturally to people until they're in a leadership position to actually learn how to do that. But it's so important. And that's where sometimes you know we need to show empathy as leaders but then also empathy two leaders and there's a two way street there you know? Yeah yeah. This has been fantastic. I've just looking to book a plane ticket to Luxembourg so I'm coming to visit hopefully that's okay. You're welcome. You can give a talk as well I'll set you up. Okay. Just tell me what Sunday I'll be there. The last question I have for you is you reflect on your time serving as bishop or in any leadership capacity. How is being a leader helped you become a better follower of Jesus Christ? Yeah it's a question I've heard many times to other people on your podcast. I think to be a leader in the church means to try and walk the steps as Christ walk them. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to replicate our master in that context. And I think every once in a while especially as a bishop you're put in a position where you very much represent Jesus Christ you know whether it's different counsels where you're helping members make changes in their lives or when you're doing temple recommend interviews or whatever it might be you're very much representing Jesus Christ. And for little glimpse his little moments you begin to understand Christ from a very real setting and what he must have felt or how he must have been when he was trying to help people come closer to his father. So for me being a leader and the church is one of those it's one of those life-changing opportunities where if you give yourself to the calling in terms of trying to be worthy trying to follow the spirit and trying to represent Jesus Christ it changes you forever. So I've learned who my brother is in a different context in this calling than my last calling and from that calling to the one before because every time I try and get a little bit closer to the source. And I think as a bishop it's one of those special callings where you're asked to represent him in different settings. And knowing knowing what it means to look at a member's eyes and to see them not as Lewis sees them but to see them how crises and to see them how heavenly father sees them there are certain keys I think where sometimes that's necessary in order to help somebody move forward. And those are moments that I will I will hang on to for the eternities. And for me that has been an absolute tender mercy as a bishop where you have all that stress all that frustration all of.
Leading Saints Podcast
"luxembourg" Discussed on Leading Saints Podcast
"Callings in The Church of Jesus Christ of lab today saints to change. We believe in the atonement of Jesus Christ being the ultimate and eternal change agent that people are able to progress and learn and grow and they're only able to do that if they're given the space to make the mistakes that then require change. So that's been part of my learning and at the same time making sure that there's some level of consistency at the board level in terms of the direction we're going and the goals that we have in creating that accountability within word council to follow up and to check and to report those principles that we learn in the temple as well. So not getting in the way has been a work in progress that I'm still working on today. And at the same time not assuming that someone who is called suddenly knows how to get all the answers. And especially in an emerging part of the church it Luxembourg where there's a ton of first generation members. Not everybody knows. And that's okay. And again not wanting to overstep sometimes a leader's reaction to that type of situation might be okay look let them figure it out and we'll see in a year how they're doing. And I remember many years ago before as bishop I remember sitting on a stool in a hotel because we're meeting at a hotel at that time. And speaking with the release society president at the time who was telling me that it's been months and she last had a catch up with her bishop and how difficult it was for her to have that dialog. So something that I decided to put in place really early as bishop is monthly one on ones with your respective person and what counts if you look after. So for myself that would be really society present. Young women's presence my first counselor. It's eldest corn for my second counselor it's primary and Sunday school. And the monthly one on one is a chance to catch up. It's a chance to hear what's going on what the issues are. It's a chance for the ward officer to feel heard and to feel validated. But I tell you what having those monthly wanted ones have saved us so many hard takes because typically our reaction as members of the church is to suffer in silence. If somebody offends you rarely is our reaction. Okay let's talk to that person and figure out usually it's I'm going to take it. I'm going to hate that person silently. And then eventually hopefully I'll forget about it and we'll just move on. And what is monthly one on ones have forced is a behavior of accountability as well as just an openness and transparency. Of course it doesn't always work in some members still don't always feel comfortable. But it gives an opportunity to stop it in its tracks before it gets too far. And that's also in terms of the bishopric because sometimes the bishopric might say something that's misinterpreted taking the wrong way just not the best thing that they could have said at the time. And members might grab hold of that and it stops them for maybe trusting in the bishopric or whatever it might be. These are opportunities that we have to stop that before it festers and before we let Satan. Enough seeds to suddenly derail the work of the lord. So that's been one mechanism that we've put in play in place in order to force a more open dialog. And to stop people from avoiding the tough topics. We need to avoid avoiding the tough topics. And be okay with being a little bit uncomfortable sometimes to be okay with ambiguous situations. And more than anything to be okay with struggling in your calling. If you're struggling it usually means that you're going through a period of growth and that usually means that heavenly father is just waiting for you to reach out to him so that he can sustain you through the atonement of Jesus Christ. In other words it means you're doing it right. And a lot of the time our reaction is to avoid that struggling and to run back to our comfort zone and to want to stay there because that's where we feel best. It's where things are happy. So these types of mechanisms that we put in place to hold people a little bit more accountable but to give them a voice and to make sure that we're not missing the bigger problems have been really great. And it's allowed us to progress I think has award at a quicker rate than if we didn't have them in place. So much there. One follow-up I have is with these you know the monthly wonder ones with. Organizational leaders right? That's something I did and I had the same success. It was just awesome and I recommend that every leader especially bishops do this. The pitfall I see people fall into is they often make them dependent on whether they have something to talk about. And because oftentimes you meet once a month after a few months you sort of feel like well we kind of talk through the big issues. I think I'm okay this month and next one I think I'm okay with this month. But don't make it contingent on whether you have something to talk about just simply sit down. If it's a three minute meeting great. But what I found the moment you sit down and start talking maybe you start to shoot the breeze or you know in the beginning and then you find some things to talk with but most importantly you've connected one to one with that individual they feel supportive supported. They feel heard and they're ready to return to battle on your team and do their part knowing that their leader always has a listening year on what they're struggling with or what they're experiencing. Yeah. And if the only thing you accomplish in that conversation is simply ministering to a person the war to is clearly sacrificing a lot to serve others. What a great blessing that moment is. You know I had a bishopric member a while ago say to me you know yeah so and so is doing great in their organization everything is good. They send me an email every month and they give a report. And I remember having a conversation saying okay that's great. But did you know that they were going through this this and this? And the bishopric member said no I'd actually didn't know that. And I said okay let's remember what the one on ones are actually for. It's not just about getting a report of the activities that were done or different people who had moved into their organization. It's about showing your love to them and giving them a place to speak and to feel heard and to have a bishopric member reach out and care. You know if we're looking at the church and any type of organizational structure if the bishopric can focus on youth and focus on making sure that each of the ward officers are okay that they're feeling heard and they're able to run their organization. It saves the bishopric a ton of the work that needs to then happen within those organizations. And the way that the brethren have restructured those organizations a few years ago is trying to teach us that right is trying to teach us to have autonomy within a release society presidency and within an eldest corn presidency. So that they run the adults of the war. They look after those types of needs. It's been a hard thing to learn. But that is where we as a bishopric need to be trying to force that that behavioral change. Yeah. So going back to this giving autonomy to the different organizations in award. I'm right on with you. I mean we're on the same page definitely there. The pushback I get. And this is a big problem. Like on paper it makes sense and every leader is like oh yeah I'd love to do that. But it's a big problem. I get the emails from. Especially primary presidents who are like I don't feel like I have any say in what's going on. And it's easy to default to that the bishoprics is just simply running the war. They're picking callings. They're picking they're making the final call on things and they may entertain feedback here and there. But at the end of the day. It can come across there and quite literally they're running the ward. And so what the pushback that I often get around that concept is when it comes to calling. So well what do you do if the primary presidency wants person a but then the relief society wants person a as well. And so I just we just need to make that decision and then before you know it you're making every calling right? So how do you handle that in the context of callings? Yeah it's a tough one. And I actually had a pretty difficult situation with that a few weeks ago. So it's good timing for the question Gary. Oh good. The reality is and I go back to the Hamburg again. I was rereading that section of the Hamburg a couple of weeks ago because of the situation I was in. Organizational heads make recommendations to the bishop after prayerfully pondering and reflecting on the names. Within the stewardship of a young women's president primary president I'll just call it well else corn is a slightly different. But within the stewardship of those.
Leading Saints Podcast
"luxembourg" Discussed on Leading Saints Podcast
"Remember the ward council that we had before the branch was created. I literally felt like we were in the UN because we had people from Australia the UK Canada U.S. Columbia Dominican Republic basically every calling in ward council represented not just a different country but a different continent as well. So you know trying to bring those cultures together to come to a consensus and making a decision the spirit is great but culture certainly blocks that sometimes right? And to the point where we would need to have some form of simultaneous translation during war council. You know so you're trying to have a conversation translation is probably going to be 5 ten 15 seconds delayed. It creates a lot of difficulties. So that type of structure it's a great experience and you learn a lot about empathy and working with people at different levels different backgrounds. But it's hard. And it's something that has shaped what the world looks like today. But it's something that you need to work for. Yeah. Wow. And you know it's one thing you know you see these when maybe an apostle comes and there needs to be a interpreter that's standing there and maybe makes her talk a longer. And that's a very like I'm speaking to a congregation. But when it's a council setting where you want a lot of dialog going because that's where you know the revelation is hidden. Yeah man what a complex situation. It's hard. And we went through lots of different things right? Because growing up in the branch of Luxembourg they would always translate at the pulpit. So you would say something in one language and the translator would translate the right kind of as you're mentioning with apostles visiting different places. It's a pretty poor experience for the speaker to have to stop after every sentence. Right. When they're trying to build up momentum and get to the climax of a story in all honesty it detracts a little bit from the spirit. So part of my goal when I was called as bishop was to allow people to speak especially give talks or lessons in their native language. So a lot of Sundays we would have headsets and we would have either French Spanish Portuguese English three of those four depending on who the speaker was would be translated simultaneously into headsets for people sitting down. So you know it felt like general conference where you had to have all of that in place you need amazing skills and just because you speak another language it doesn't mean you're a good translator in that language right? Because to translate it's a skill to listen and to speak at the same time. And that's a hard skill. It takes a lot of practice to get. So yeah there have been amazing members who have had many gifts brought to them through the spirit in order to enable people to hear the gospel and their native language and what a blessing that has been. Yeah. And this I assume is they're calling to be a translator. Yeah we did actually set people apart for that because of how difficult it was. It probably wasn't their only calling just the nature of the war people need to have a couple of callings but it was definitely one that we set people apart for you. Yeah. And then what are the general numbers of your board and as far as showing up to sacra meeting and whatnot? Yeah so it's been again amazing growth growing up. It was a branch of 1520 people where we had missionary serving as branch president sometimes just because there wasn't a brother locally who could do it. When it was turned into award it was around a hundred 110 or so active on a Sunday. Before COVID and before we created the branch we were getting 220 people. We had in the two years prior to COVID we had around 50 baptisms which is just unheard of. It's unheard of for Europe in general but for a country that had had one or two baptisms a year for decades. It was it was a sign that the lord was preparing us for something. And we were in a position that he could trust us to do that. So before COVID we are about two 20 when the branch was created and the ward is now separate from the branch. We're seeing a good 150 people depending on who's watching it online versus who's in person and the branch is somewhere between 60 and 80. So both healthy sizes that can show a lot of great growth moving forward. Yeah. What about with the ministry assignments? What's the I mean. How is that organized or any unique approaches you have to take with ministry? It's a very confusing matrix. So there's a logical aspect to it and a spiritual aspect to it. So you have geography you have languages and then you just have seniority or experience in the church right? Because there's a ton of new converts and first generation members in the ward. You can take the approach of let's group people together geographically. So those in Belgium those in France those in the north those in the south. But then you have to also cater to the language because having a Portuguese speaking brother visit someone who's English speaking and doesn't speak a language that's a hard person to minister to sometimes. So it's a mix of everything. It's not perfect. But it works sometimes right? I think as most places in the church it's not a perfect science. But for those who love they'll do. And I've seen amazing examples of people who don't speak a lick of another language but they just know how to show love. And you see very quickly what the true spirit of ministering is right? It's not needing to prepare an hour long lesson on the most complex gospel doctrines. But it's simply being there and showing the love and that's at the core of what ministering should be today with change. Yeah. Yeah that's great. I'm curious do you you know there's obviously various. Points that influence who we call to what positions. Obviously we want to do so under the inspiration and of the keys and the authority that we have. But do you kind of feel like as you're looking for an elders corn presidency or whatnot like are there certain language requirements that are like a must. Yeah I've seen different leaders take different approaches there. And of course logically it makes sense that you need people who can communicate with at least the majority of the people in their corn where their group right? I've learned. I've learned that the lord qualifies who he wants to call. And within a presidency generally you can have the right mix of languages. But we don't call people because of the language that they speak right? And it's important for me to separate that because otherwise it almost turns into a job interview. You know give me your CV. What's your skills? What's your language? And I think that detracts from what the lord is trying to do with his work. So it's a difficult one and sometimes the balance isn't right and you feel that and changes are made over time. And that's okay when we're not perfect. But you know I try not to have a prerequisite in my mind in terms of what I'm looking for in a leader. I try and trust the lord with that. And in particular the year leading up to the creation of the branch. Portuguese and Spanish speaking it was really clear to me that we needed to put a lot of these brothers and sisters who would most likely be called into this branch into leadership positions that they needed to be trained and learned how to be leaders because they're building a branch from scratch. So that was one moment where it was really clear the types of people the lord wanted us to call. And it was a lot of faith because at that time we didn't know the branch was getting created for sure it was in the planning and we were praying for it and thinking about it. But again the lord called exactly who he needed to prepare. And when that branch was created the vast majority of the people that we had been working with and training and learning together were called into leadership positions and could go from day one you know and that was that was a really cool moment to be able to see that that come to fruition. You don't usually get to see that in the church too often. But that was one moment where you could see the lord had planted seeds. He had orchestrated exactly what he wanted.
Leading Saints Podcast
"luxembourg" Discussed on Leading Saints Podcast
"After ten days and was able to teach from the first day. And then you also grew up just learning French just because of the culture right? And school. So I went to a pretty unique school system that's set up for children of people who work for the European institutions. So every grade had 25 different nationalities sections. So you had a Danish section a Swedish and Italian section. You know so you had all the different sections where you did classes like literature or maths in your native language. And then for classes like history or geography or economics you would do that in your second language which in my case was French with other children who had the same second language. So they taught you the language but then immersed you in the language to do other courses which sped up obviously your ability to speak. Yeah. Yeah that's cool. And we're seeing more and more at least and you tell more of these immersion programs where kids are learning different languages and it's pretty cool. You know it's kind of a way to learn language because as an adult I don't I don't want to learn another language. I'm good. So it's very much synchronous when that's for sure. And so. The Luxembourg is that the name is like luxembourgish. So is that just like some fun traditional language or is there actually is actually used in day to today life? Yeah it's definitely used. It used to be more of a dialect and then it was turned into an official language. If you go to the local school system which I did not that my children have done it. They learned luxembourger. So it's very much from a young age and typically the first few years of school being luxembourgish and then you'll learn German and French on top of that. Most people in Luxembourg come from a Portuguese or Spanish background as well. There's about 30 40% of the population who come from either Portugal or Spain. So they'll speak Italian Spanish or Portuguese on top of that and then English is always learned. So I joke that to work at McDonald's and Luxembourg you need to learn at least 6 or 7 languages. And that's not even false literally most people in Luxembourg will speak three or four languages and no one even beds an eyelid. Yeah. So I just wonder like how does your brain work like as far as thinking like I've learned Spanish from my mission so I sort of understand that dual language the dichotomy but I mean are you only thinking in English or do you just sort of just think of for myself I speak in English when I was in Germany on my mission I called myself dreaming in German and thinking in German so I had to quickly repent and change that back to English but yeah when I speak in French I think in French when I speak German I think in German. But when I'm just by myself I'm thinking in English. It's just crazy. That's awesome. That's awesome. All right anything else like just tell us about the church give us a crash course on what the church is like in Luxembourg. Yeah anything you haven't mentioned. It's changed a bunch. So Luxembourg is a little unique because the ward boundaries actually go into three different countries. So you have the whole country of Luxembourg. You then have about the same geographic size of the country of Luxembourg in Belgium that belongs to the ward boundaries. And then a piece of France as well because we're part of the French Nancy stake. So Luxembourg as award it goes into three countries which is pretty unique. I'm not sure if there's any other word that goes into three countries or not. But it means that especially in COVID when borders were shot across Europe it meant that we physically couldn't go to members and we couldn't help them and they couldn't come to church and stuff like that. So probably for the first time we saw the reality of what that actually looked like. But membership in Luxembourg has been relatively small for the first couple of decades when the church was being built up in the 80s and the 90s convert baptisms maybe one or two a year if you were lucky. And then as I mentioned over the past 15 years or so a lot of expats have started to come in. We've had tremendous success especially within the Portuguese and Spanish speaking communities in Luxembourg hence the creation of the branch recently. So yeah there's been a ton of changes over the past ten or 15 years which has been really really cool to see and to be part of. Nice. Is Frankfurt the closest temple? It is to Luxembourg gas so that the nausea front steak belongs to the Paris temple but we got an exception and we belong to the Frankfurt temple. So we always like to do things a bit different in Luxembourg so yeah. Nice. Well the way president Nelson has gone we want to be shocked if a Luxembourg temple was announced right? Pretty cool. You heard it here first. We're praying for that. That's cool. So just tell me about your being called as a bishop. I mean is there a story behind that? Interesting actually. So I travel a lot for work. And I remember being in Las Vegas in February of the year that I was called to be bishop. And I was called. I think it was in May or June. So a few months after that. And I remember I set a goal that year whenever I traveled to a major city that I would make an effort to go to the temple because typically that's where the temples are. And I remember being in Vegas for a convention with my work and there was another colleague who was also a member of the church. So we worked together to wake up early one morning and take an Uber and to go to the local temple. And I remember sitting in the temple doing an endowment session. I remember all of a sudden a face came into my head. And I remember thinking okay. That's an interesting person to be thinking about. And then a second face came into my head and again I accepted it but I was questioning you know what this was. And then a third phase came into my head. So three different men in my ward came to my head in the middle of the session and the template. I found that a bit peculiar but I remember the feeling being very strong that these were three men that I was going to be working with. And I remember nodding that somewhere in my head as you know this is something I shouldn't be forgetting. And a few months later at stake president invites me for an interview at the church in Luxembourg. And he extends the calling of a bishop and you know as soon as the words came out of his mouth these three brothers faces came to my head again. And the steak president said you know look I'm going to give you a couple of minutes go and Cohen pray and decide to your counselor should be. And it was one of those moments where I already knew. And the interesting thing for me was I had three names right? And obviously you have two counselors in the bishopric. So the first two are the ones that I felt prompted to share. But a couple of years into being bishop we created the second branch in Luxembourg and that counselor was then called as branch president. So his replacement was a very easy pick because it was the third face that had come into my mind those years earlier. So you know I've listened to several podcasts that you've done with leading sains recently about aspiring and those types of topics right? And one of the guests that you had on the podcast talked about the lord preparing you and how as long as we're aspiring to be worthy to serve God that's the right type of aspiring that we should be having. That was one of those experiences for me where the lord was teaching me trust and he was also preparing me so that in the moment I didn't need to worry or fear I was ready with the information that I needed. Yeah that's awesome. That's awesome. And then. Outside of you know some of the just the church in general that you've talked about how would you describe the demographics of your ward? Like you said there's maybe some languages some expats and whatnot so yeah I think before the split before the creation of the branch the demographics were crazy varied. So you had the top executives coming over from a very very wealthy prominent background in the U.S. to Luxembourg all the way down to the humble cleaning lady immigrant who had just come to Luxembourg and is trying to find any Euro that they could find. So it was a very vast demographic in terms of the ward. The last time I counted we had 19 different languages in the world on a regular basis 19.
Leading Saints Podcast
"luxembourg" Discussed on Leading Saints Podcast
"So a jump into the leading saints world. We're glad to have yet. Today I have the opportunity to sit down with Lewis haworth. I say that right Louis. Yeah well done. Well done. Nice. There's all sorts of tongue twisters in your background here because you're from Luxembourg in the Nancy Nancy steak not say that. You're basically a local at this point. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Well and tell us for us ignorant Americans. Where is Luxembourg? Yeah so first off Luxembourg is a real country. I promise you all that. It's in the heart of Europe nestled between France Germany and Belgium. So it's very small country part of the EU the European Union. And interestingly enough there are three official languages of Luxembourg. So you have luxembourgish which again I promise you as a real language and then French and German. On behalf of Luxembourg I'll say moyan bonjour and guten tag so everybody is included in that. That's awesome. That's awesome. And so Luxembourg isn't just a city in fantasy novels. It's a real thing with real people. And real language. So. A little fact for everybody. The capital of Luxembourg is Luxembourg city. So that's an easy one to remember. Oh nice. I can do that. That I can do. And we were talking before we hit record that it takes about an hour or so to drive across from north and south right? And a little bit. Exactly about an hour and a half north to south about an hour east to west. So that's a pretty small country. That's great. And you are currently serving as the bishop of the Luxembourg first ward. Yeah correct correct. Nice. And how many how many wards are in Luxembourg and then how many are in your steak? How many groups or branches or whatever? Yeah so since the 80s there has been a branch in Luxembourg. My uncle actually moved to Luxembourg and set up the first branch here when he was working for the European Parliament and then my family came after and I was born in Luxembourg in the late 80s. So there's been a branch in Luxembourg for all of my young life. And then when I went on my mission around 2000 and ten ish 2008 2009 2010 there was awards that was greatest the branch was transformed into award. And then last year we're actually able to establish a second branch in Luxembourg focused on Portuguese and Spanish speaking community. Nice. And so what language do you speak in your ward? Like officially. Bilingual so it's a mix of French and English. There's a pretty large expat community in Luxembourg because of different international companies who set their headquarters in Luxembourg. So we have a lot of native English speakers and then a lot of native French speakers. So between the two we cope and we get along. Nice. So this is going to sound. Just stupid but my limited European history knowledge like how come Luxembourg has never got gobbled up at some point by one of the surrounding countries. By multiple countries actually that the city of Luxembourg is built around a gorge. So there's a really big valley that kind of protects most of the city of Luxembourg. So during the medieval ages it was always a very good kingdom and a very well protected kingdom and fortress that not many could penetrate. So as always somewhat independent throughout the years the Netherlands has owned Luxembourg Belgium did in World War II the Nazis invaded Luxembourg in about ten minutes and took over the country. So it has been taken over by a different countries and different countries have taken pieces of Luxembourg used to be a little bit bigger. But yeah after the Second World War Luxembourg actually became really important for the creation of the European Union. And the European Parliament court to justice the European investment bank all have different headquarters in Luxembourg. So now it's a relatively important country for a geopolitical perspective which is pretty cool. That's awesome. And what do you do for work there? I work for technology company who have based in Luxembourg. I work for Amazon. They have a pretty substantial headquarters in Luxembourg with thousands of employees. So I've worked for them for the last 7 and a half years. So do you have two day shipping there? We don't believe it or not there's no fulfillment center in Luxembourg. We do a lot of the work behind the scenes but we have to go to Amazon DE for Germany FR for France or B for Belgium. So we're kind of scoping around to get anything which is a shame. But also patriotic. Anyways so and then you say you were born there born and raised there? Yeah born and raised in Luxembourg to an English speaking family so my family are from England and Ireland originally my dad worked for the European Parliament which is why my family moved to Luxembourg. But yeah I grew up in Luxembourg live there till I was 17 when I went over to BYU to go study. Okay. To be what you Provo? BYU Provo yeah. I lived in the complete opposite of what I imagined the Utah Mormon lifestyle to be living in Luxembourg. So I wanted to experience the complete polar opposite to my childhood and see what that gave me. And it was a cool experience. And we think Luxembourg strange and you think Utah strange. So. Nice. And sort of mission? I served a mission in Germany. I was originally called to the Germany Hamburg mission. And about halfway through my mission that mission was merged with the Berlin mission and the Frankfurt mission. So I ended up in the Berlin mission for the second half of my mission. And so what was your language capacity like? What do you want on a mission? Did you already speak German? Was your English as good as it is now? Or yeah so I grew up speaking English. So English is my native language. I learned French from the age of 6. And I speak fluent French. I started to learn German from the age of 11. But being brought up English there was always a patriotism towards England versus Germany. So I was kind of reluctant to learn German. I didn't do great in school when I submitted my emission papers. I wrote down that I learned German for four years because that was the truth. And I guess the brethren were inspired to send me to Germany. And to not send me to the program to see but to send me to the press to empty C which was a ten day crash course in a German speaking district. So I went in not really speaking much German that could get me through. But I promise you if anyone is about to leave on a mission the gift of tongues is real and I am a witness of that. So I went.
Techmeme Ride Home
YouTube Tests Premium Lite Subscription
"What if you just want youtube premium to get atf reviewing and you don't really need all the other bells and whistles while you're in luck. Youtube is trailing when it is calling premium light a subscription that runs six-year-old ninety. Nine cents per month offering ad free viewing across all major platforms currently available only in europe. Quoting verge. google is piloting a more affordable premium subscription tier for youtube that offers ad free viewing without youtube premiums other features like offline downloads or background playback. Premium light is currently being tested in belgium. Denmark finland luxembourg the netherlands norway and sweden premium. Light includes ad free viewing across you tubes main app on web ios android smart. Tv's and game consoles as well as in the youtube kids app however it doesn't include any youtube music benefits like ad free listening and it doesn't include premiums other features like background playback for when you want to switch to another apple continuing to listen to audio from a youtube video or off line downloads. Speaking as someone who hates the amount of ads on youtube but isn't too interested in premiums other features like offline downloads premium. Light sounds like a tempting proposition but at its current pricing it costs around sixty percent of the price of a regular premium subscription while only offering around a quarter of its benefits. Youtube says that the current subscription is in an experimental phase. However and that. It's considering rolling out more plans based on audience feedback and quote.
Daily Tech Headlines
YouTube Tests Premium Lite Subscription
"Youtube confirmed it's testing a premium light subscription offering ad free viewing for six years ninety nine cents a month without other youtube premium features like offline downloads or background playback features currently testing in belgium denmark finland luxembourg the netherlands norway and sweden youtube said. This is an experiment and could real more plans. Based on feedback
AP 24 Hour News
At least 110 killed in massive flooding in Europe
"About the fate of people still missing. Dozens of people are still missing after heavy rains in Western Europe have touched off flooding of those two countries as well as Luxembourg, the Netherlands and northern France. The surgeon general issues an advisory Today We live in a world where
the NewsWorthy
Dozens Killed in Historic Europe Flooding
"Right now. Parts of western. Europe are dealing with devastating flooding. The heaviest rainfall in a century cost flash floods in germany belgium. Luxembourg and the netherlands and more heavy rain is expected in that region today. At least seventy people have died because of these floods so far and thirteen hundred more people are missing. In germany alone rivers have burst. their banks. Buildings have collapsed and entire towns and villages have been left underwater. Several thousands of people have had to evacuate but some didn't make it out in time so first responders police helicopters and hundreds of soldiers are working to help people who are stranded
AP News Radio
EU Court Rules Employers Can Limit Religious Symbols
"The European union's top court has ruled that employers may forbid the wearing of visible symbols of religious or political believe such as head scarves but the Luxembourg based tribunal says in its ruling the courts in the blocks twenty seven member states should weigh up whether the bond corresponds to a genuine need on the part of the employer it also said that they must consider the rights and interests of the employee including by taking into account national legislation on freedom of religion the case was brought before the court of justice of the European Union but two woman in Germany who chose to wear Islamic headscarves at their workplaces one works as a special needs cara while the other is a sales assistant and the cashier I'm sorry a shockingly
Marketplace Tech with Molly Wood
Bitcoin's Energy Consumption Is a Highly Charged Debate
"Lately. There's been a lot more debate about cryptocurrency and how much energy it uses to produce bitcoin in particular uses as much energy per year as all of the netherlands. It's carbon footprint is estimated to be the size of singapore and it generates as much electronic waste as the country of luxembourg all these estimates come from the bitcoin energy consumption index at digit communist dot net. Alex debris is the founder of communist. He says bitcoin mining involves running millions of computations in a kind of coin producing lottery but some cryptocurrencies like him can be created in a less energy intensive way what they'll hope to do is to take out the mining completely. They intend to make your chance of winning the lottery. Depending on your wealth rather than your computational power and if they succeed in doing that you no longer need those energy-hungry devices for being part of this network which would cancel ninety nine point nine nine percent of the energy need so it would be really great if they succeed in making that move but as it stands. They're not expecting it to finish before the end of this year or even the start of next year. So we'll have to see you wendy. I've actually succeed in that. There is a lot more attention on this. Now we've seen in fact. China try to ban cryptocurrency mining activity in parts of mongolia. Do you think we'll get to a point where there could be regulation that speeds up the process of shifting to a less energy-intensive mode of mining. I definitely think that these actions are helping the communities that are driving these changes to realize that this really important that they succeed because if they don't and the energy consumption of these network keeps on growing increasingly likely to see more government
Scuba Shack Radio
Wet Notes - 4-9-21
"This is wet notes here scuba shock radio for april ninth two thousand and twenty one first up today. I'd like to give you an update on new netflix. Documentary see spiracy. You might recall that. I introduced you to this film in a previous segment of wet notes. Well it did premiere on netflix's advertised. And i had a chance to watch. She spiracy a couple of weeks ago. The film is eighty nine minutes long and it can be captivating and controversial. Like i said this is certainly raising a great deal controversy especially as it relates to sustainable seafood and fishing. There's a couple of organizations that they called out into spiracy earth island institute and the marine stewardship council actually marine stewardship council issued a response on their website within days of the premier and every day. I see something more coming out related to the controversy. But i encourage you to watch the film and then decide for yourself about what it is saying like. I said lots of controversy. That's spiracy on net flicks now. Here's something that. I found really interesting. I came across an article that talked about how scientists are using thin wales to map out what lies beneath the sea floor. Now according to to seismologists vaclav kina from the czech academy in prague and john nab elec of oregon state university in corvallis oregon the song of the fin. Whales are loud enough to penetrate the earth's crust and revealed deep structures. I guess they have a network of fifty four bottomed size meter seismometers that the tech sound waves traveling through the ground and they picked up the of whales as they were passing by. Now they have a one hundred and eighty nine decibels song and that song can last from two and a half to five hours as they did more analysis they were able to map the underlying rock structures. According to these guys this is just as effective as those air cannons that are polluting the ocean with all that noise how practical this is yet to be seen. But you've gotta admit it is interesting. Now here's an update on the lectured aluminum tanks situation. You might recall back at the end of february. I told you about luxembourg Decision to exit the aluminum tank business and that they were looking to sell their plants in the us and the uk more. Here's some good news. Metal impact out of elk grove village in illinois is acquiring the graham north carolina luxembourg cylinder plant metal impact is no stranger to scuba tank business. They've been around since nineteen fifty nine and in two thousand fourteen. They purchase worthington. Aluminum cylinders has been providing aluminum scuba tanks to excess scuba and see pearls for a number of years. We've got quite a few from excess scuba over the past couple of years and so we're pretty familiar with metal impacts. This is some good news for the. Us aluminum Scuba tank supply chain. There's absolutely no doubt that. The pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the scuba industry. But i guess it's not all bad news if you happen to be in the right place and it seems that hawaii is those right places especially for new diver certifications. There's a recent article in scuba diving magazine. Titled more hawaiians getting certified than before the pandemic turns out that even though the travel has been restricted to and from the islands more locals are turning to scuba aloha scuba on awad who had reported a one hundred and twenty percent increase in new diver certifications. In two thousand and twenty. They went from twenty seven in two thousand and nineteen to eighty three in two thousand and twenty spurred by whole families going for they're open water certification with some great diving. It certainly makes sense to mask up and dive in our aloha state. Last week i was trying to see if the ocean based climate solutions act of two thousand and twenty was being introduced in this session of congress. Well no update on that yet but i did come across something very interesting. There is a house select committee on the climate crisis now. This committee was created during the one hundred sixteenth congress. That was the last one so it hasn't been around long. But they did produce a climate action plan of two thousand twenty. And that's called the congressional action plan for a clean energy economy and a healthy resilient and just america committee is chaired by representative. Kathy castor from florida and the ranking chair is representative garrett graves from louisiana now. I watched their organizing meeting from march nineteenth. Let's say there's just a little bit of difference on the ideas of how to approach In the approaches in making the us carbon zero by two thousand fifty but as representative castor stated. It's time to turn recommendations into policy. Now i'll be tracking our actions and keep you updated here and finally you might recall. Last year the uss bonham rashard an eight hundred forty four foot long and fibia assault ship burned out of control for five days. Now that was in san diego california. But now senator. Marco rubio from florida is proposing that the ship be used to create an artificial reef down in florida little bit of background. The navy did some cost analysis On what it would take to restore the ship to operational status an estimated that that would be somewhere between two point. Five and three point five billion dollars but the cost to decommission and scrap the bonham rashard would be about thirty million dollars. Senator rubio didn't provide any details on where the ship might be sunk and be become an artificial reef but he did say that it could be done for less than thirty million dollars to scrap the ship. This word Happened it would be. We'll keep an eye on it and see where it goes. Fingers crossed that will have another artificial reef down in florida. Something that big to dive on. Well that's it for this installment of wet notes for april ninth. Two thousand and twenty
Scuba Shack Radio
Wet Notes for 2-28-21
"This is wet notes on scuba shaq radio for sunday february twenty eighth two thousand and twenty one. Well i up today. I'm going to do an update on dry suit talq now ever since i've owned a dry suit i've been using those little pouches of talk to dust my wrist seals and neck seals. And that makes it easier to put on especially if it gets a little humid. Well we used to get these little pouches from magnet who then became gear aid when we could no longer get them from juried. We switched to getting them from diving unlimited international or dui. Recently we ran low on these talca pouches. Wanted to order some more. But do you. I stopped producing those talk pouches. I guess i'm guessing near some concern around. The safety of talk i noticed has been in news over recent years. So donna reached out to peak from dui and he suggested cornstarch to dust are seals. Make sure you do it every time now. That sounds a little strange to me. But it looks like people are using it in place of the talq. We'll give it a try. And i'll let you know how goes cornstarch. It's not just for cooking next up. Is things start opening up and we travel outside the country. We're going to need to get tested for in nineteen before we can come back well. Resorts are out there. And they're starting to accommodate their customers and making it easier to get tested. So for example. I just saw where enroll roett to resorts. The turquoise bay dive resort and the mayan princess beach dive resort are offering onsite cova testing on thursdays and fridays. And then what happens. Is you'll get electronic. Results are available in three hours. And then you'll have a hard copy the next day now you still have to pay for it in a costs about fifty bucks. Then i also check the cocoa view site down there and roett tan and it looks like they are also offering onsite testing but their prices coming in at eighty five dollars so it looks like if you're going to travel to row attend you'll find it easier to get tested for corona virus and get back home as long as you test negative but i think more and more of these dive operators out there are going to provide that cova testing or options for people so that you can go travel and then make it easier for you to get back home. Also last i think a couple of weeks ago. The president of the united states signed executive order. One three nine eight and with that executive order it mandated. That masks are to be worn on all public maritime vessels including ferries. What does that mean for dive boats. Well deana did. Some research and found out that this mandate includes commercial vessels used for dive charters and dive related activities. You'll need to be masked up upon boarding disembarking and the duration of travel. Obviously this can only apply to us. Operators i think this makes sense and i'm sure common sense will prevail given our unique circumstances when we go diving way back in the beginning of two thousand twenty i did a segment on dive travel insurance then in mid two thousand and twenty. I noticed the divers alert network. Dan their travel insurance was not available on their website is back now. However there was a short article on dive newswire that indicated that there are qualified cove in nineteen related cancellation and interruptions covered. There's a lot of detail on their website. You can read through. Essentially they cover prepaid travel arrangements. If you your host at your destination you traveling companion or family member test positive for covid. Nineteen there's also levels of coverage while traveling but you need to do your research. The good news however is that the dan travel insurance is back and it looks like they are helping to try and address the corona virus issues. It's always a good day when i go out to the mailbox and that the latest issue of the journal of diving history has arrived. That happened earlier this week. The cover of the first quarter two thousand twenty one magazine features to five women who made up the team of tech tight to mission six dash fifty. Which was america's first off female saturation team. The five women included peggy lucas. An hurley hotline renata lynch true elena schmidt and sylvia earle the journal of diving history. Formerly historical. diver magazine is the official magazine of the historical diving society. Usa and is part of your membership. I can't wait to dive into all the articles i saw. The other day that there's been a an oil spill off the coast of israel and lebanon and it's impacting over one hundred miles of coastline. Now what's a little disconcerting about this is that they don't know where this is coming from this washing up on the beaches. It's the seems like there's some sort of gag order on the release of information. I'm just not sure why there was. Also a thin whale washed up on the beach apparently with oil in its loans. They say this is undoing. Much of the progress made over the last thirty years. Let's hope they figure out where this is coming from or where it came from. And if they're able to minimize the impacts and finally here's some really big news in the scuba industry especially related to scuba tanks. Luxembourg is getting out of the aluminum tank business on february twenty third. Luxor held their fourth quarter and full year. Two thousand and twenty analysts call and that's where they announced their divestiture of their aluminum product lines now. The rationale according to their press release is that they wanted to focus on high performance magnesium alloys zirconium catalysts and high pressure composite cylinders. Guess to profit margin. Just wasn't there on the aluminum tanks. They plan on selling those two aluminum forming operations in the united states and one in the in the uk. But we don't know who they're going to sell it to just yet more to come on. This is it as it. Unfolds now luxembourg. They produced a lot of tanks. And there's a lot of them out there and we're going to see what that does to the supply chain as we move forward. Well that's it for wet notes for february twenty eighth two thousand and twenty one here on scuba shock radio
Monocle 24: The Briefing
E.U. leaders consider travel bans, faster vaccine rollout to contain coronavirus variants
"And good afternoon from rather balmy zurich. For this time of year we begin. Today's program in this part of the world where you leaders have been holding late night. Talks in a bid to coordinate their response to the spread of virus. Brussels has stopped just short of an outright ban on non essential travel between member states but warned tougher restrictions could come within days if efforts to curb the virus fail. Well i'm joined on this topic right here in zurich by monocle twenty four security correspondent beds banners. Also at the center for security studies at eight hundred are good afternoon. Beco- can often entirely Surprises out of this. But maybe before we get to surprises. Maybe just bring us up to speed what happened amongst all of those same samsung screens. That you leaders had to look into the hours this morning. Indeed was a four hour online summit as one does these days the ninth. Eu summit actually since the pandemic has broken out and well. Let's say we had a fairly good picture even beforehand. What they will discuss. And what the actual positions of countries are we had a number of statements for example by the german leadership chancellor merkel but also her chief of staff saying that they may be forced to close borders even though this is a measure they they will not really want to take. It should be a drastic measure Dustbin luxembourg's prime minister. Probably most outspoken. Saying closing the borders in two thousand and twenty was a mistake. It would be a mistake to now so these were the positions hence also know very clear decisions. It's fairly vague at this stage. What was decided that indeed non essential travel across borders should be restricted. But it's not clear to what extent by what measures where exactly was on the lion. Eu commission president only made one thing. Clear that at this stage but that may change. That should not be blanket closure of borders at least that okay. So what you're saying. The distillation of that is no no no great surprises. We knew or this is going to go Now we also seen other other measures which have of course now been adopted by member. States individually France announcing off the back of this. That they're now going to expect that people will have to have a cronut s going into the country Can't be older than seventy two hours. Of course something which almost seems to be coming standard these days as much as they want to threaten. They were talking in the language of over the next days. But we know that this is kind of a grip on on the virus with the spread of it in the next few days So was this a little bit of. I don't want to say An exercise in pr to be seen to be doing something because the eu stands for sharing the who's built Really the foundations of its brand around the notion of open borders. There is certainly an element of pr in that and understandably so because we all remember last spring when countries unilaterally without coordinating with very neighbors Closed their borders full. Well sometimes even essential travels it was. It was quite strict at times We all remember that and now obviously the eu is trying to to appear that. They've learned from that that they want to coordinate on this. And that's why this summit has the border issue on agendas strongly to actually prevent countries from implementing measures. But as you just hinted these national measures are still really important where the france opposes the requirement to have a negative. Pcr tests for covid. That actually makes a huge difference. For whether belgians or luxembourg ins spanish people across the border to go grocery shopping or apply for jobs and so on so we still have these national measures. They have to be national also. Make sense it's it cannot all be e you wide but certainly there was a political push to appear like there's coordination. We're only seeing that in coming few days of an all. These suggestions that have been made will actually be put into detail and so it all comes down to the detail how this will be implemented.
Chris Plante
Car Plows Into Pedestrians in Germany, Killing at Least 2
"People have been killed, 15 others seriously injured injured in in the the southwestern southwestern German German city city of of career. career. When When a a car car drove drove into into a a pedestrian pedestrian zone. zone. Police Police have have tweeted tweeted that that the the driver driver of of 51 51 year year old old man man from from the the area area had had been been arrested arrested and his vehicle impounded police and rescue crews on the scene there. Authorities telling people to avoid That area. No other details are being released Sure is about 120 miles west of Frankfurt, near the border with Luxembourg. Governor
Coming Out Stories
Patrick's Coming Out Story
"Come out to hear from Patrick who's now a successful Mike artist but he got relentlessly bullied for being gay or growing up in Northern Ireland. I identify as male And I I have an interesting journey with my gender I think because I started doing drag or Soy's drag when I was about fifteen stain kind of progressed. I moved to Manchester when I was eighteen on. I pretty much was wearing full. Face to makeup wakes clothes everything every single day. I think I am used to chester. Oh God I can do this. I'm free to to wear as much as I want. And where did you come from that? You can wear what you want. I grew up in Northern Ireland so I could and I did wanted by think I was always trying to be little bit. Respectful of my parents particularly my mom because she was a little bit uncomfortable at the time about me wearing makeup and bought me wearing weeks and and looking of the Yes. I moved to Manchester and it all sort of exploded e kind of all sort of mixed together. It wasn't really drag. I've never really done to the performances. I tried failed dressing. Dressing up was dressing up and still is for me now and I kind of stopped doing it for a very long time as my career is make posits kicked off. I didn't really have any time. I think there's a good three or four years where I didn't put any makeup on at all but now I'm at a point where I wouldn't even know what it's called I. I'm a man who is gay who likes to wear addresses woman. Sometimes but I don't see myself as a drag queen but juicy self is somewhere on the sort of gender fluid spectrum may be I guess so by just don't feel like home fits with me if you turn because everyone likes putting terms things. These days I would say gender fluid would be appropriate up you would prefer gender. Fluid suspended male. I don't really care. That's the thing that when people these conversations like I think about a lot but I don't ever think about all. This is the term that identify with the most. I'm just I'm just. I'm Patrick and some does I like to lady some days. I looked like a man. Will you go out shopping or go out and make you might just as woman? No I'm on? I think that's probably why the the line is in a sense. I'm why wouldn't see myself as being gender fluid for me? Gender fluidity is someone who I probably would have been more like eight nine years ago when I would go out house with makeup on and with silly outfits on in fact my what am I. University lecturer actually brought me into her office. University and asked me should be cool. You anything different remain is that do we give you a different name? Which would like different pronoun or anything? I thought no and I thought what she questions to ask my. I'm just wearing these clothes. I didn't understand why. Why did he was different? But looking back then I was definitely much more gender fluid whereas these days it's more just address up that's quite progressive really to serve. She was a lovely woman. What's your pronouns? So it's the right way about. Isn't it to actually ask the pers- yeah definitely definitely? I really appreciate. That looking back was a lovely thing of Helen. Do well done Helen so looking back. Can you remember the first time that you may be questioned your sexuality then to know why I think I always questioned bisexuality? Once I knew what sexuality was I knew I didn't fit into the normal. I remember having imaginary friends as really young boy and I always wanted them to be boys. I always wanted to be called Tom. Which is really weird because if my flatmate listen to this my flatmates called so I don't want him to think I have a thing for the boy called Tom. I always want to hug them. I always wanted them to be close. I remember it being because they were boys. We have family video of me when I was a kid. Really really young and our next door neighbor. Child I'm running around child's Charles like calling out for him because I was probably obsessed with and then I think I grew up and I realized what sexuality was. It was like. This is always something that I've thought I've always been attracted to boys and also the messages we getting about people that were male light boys of your school in. Belfast was yes I went to school. It's an all boys grammar. School in Belfast. Very up at south one of these kind of really wheaties for school. Everything around may was telling me that everything that I was into everything I was interested was wrong messages. Where you're hearing. I think proved very young age. I was always some other was like the victim of bullying in a sense. A growing up in Northern Ireland with a British accent With Army family and Camp. So you you were bullied for being English Bison Primary School it was always English and getting a degree because of my accents and then when I went to secondary school turned into A. You're you're gay. Boy Gameboy busted. Dumbo buster bums. The walls was always a catchphrase. That was said when people woods when I would walk down there the corridor. And how old were you I mean throughout secondary school. So from twelve onwards funny because I came out and primary school do yes. It is well. This is an early one. I asked boy to be my boyfriend in Palm. He's GonNa last year of Primary School. I come into how all that would have. Been eleven eleven. The education system is a little bit different Nolan. I think he leave a year or something later. I can't really remember that I recalled. I was very good friends with him and I found him. I won't spend my boyfriend so I asked him. I remember what he said. I gotcha I gave them a note. I remember I remember sort of slipping him tonight. What he boyfriend but I recall what happened after that however I do recall giving him a phone call after school to talk to him because we would every night and his mom picks up the phone and I said speech Cowan please. Is this Patrick. So yes said well. I've heard about this. Fancying thing the what Jamaican and she said. I need to stop disgusting for how this is coming from light. This boy's mum and this is probably one of the youngest coming has gazed. I've heard you were ten or eleven. You try to get a boyfriend boyfriend then. The mother intervene jess and that was kind of that was that because I I remember being on the phone. Remember sitting on my mom's bad being on the phone shutting down the phone. That may be thinking. Oh this is wrong because I didn't really think anything wrong. I guess at the time apartments quite just wants to boyfriend but he obviously thought something wrong with it because he went straight out his mother. I so God what happened with the friendship. I mean that was the end of primary school more or less. Oh I can't quite recall whether or not we stayed friends. We probably did stay friends but when I went to different school you know secondary school so I didn't speak to him again and then there was one boy from my primary school went to grammar school with mate and I remember saying. Don't tell anyone like about the stuff that was kind of kept hush hush and then he's not telling people but don't but not until like our second year of secondary school and then everything's coming out and then I saw his playing to little bit. Once I came to terms with my sexuality and I was afraid of. I think I've sort of jumped straight into it in the sense that I had a boyfriend. I think had my first boyfriend when I was fourteen. Thirteen fourteen and he lived around the corner from my house. So we get the school bus with each other so you did you ever have any girlfriends it right into the boys in primary school. I have so many girlfriends yoga. Yeah in fact. I really love laser device. Full circle moment recently. That my my my main girlfriend primary school I have makeup for recently mostly. Nice but they would just like playing Casey chases and primary school and yeah. It's a secondary school and I had my first boyfriend when I was about fourteen and the dramas about cost because I actually joined the cadet force and my my secondary school And he was one of the one of the sergeants and he was older he must have been bus eighteen when I was about fourteen to. Everybody obviously found out about what was that reaction. Then if they like previously recalling Ubembe boy and abusing you because you are and then they found that you actually had a boyfriend in school and the school in the catas- when I think about those that are times I think buckle news stories. You know. It wasn't all that bad. I got grief everybody. Everybody has something to say. I was ostracized from everybody apart from my very very close knit friends. But I didn't ever quite lucky in a sense I never have enough. I didn't get that much abuse a on me although to be ostracized by the majority of your school colleagues. It's got to be very alienating. Very lonely place to be as well. I think actually is probably the most difficult people some of the teachers to accept or not so. I remember one of my house shooter. Whoever he was obviously being be is to shave my eyebrows off and draw them on again. Of course course I getting a lot of people about and he looks at you. You're not really helping yourself are you. And that was his way of dealing with them. Just GonNa Suck my teeth now just very much that I think about. There's so many stories from my school The head of pastoral care at my school he told my best friend. My best friend was crazy like a piece of artwork and included a picture of the two of us in makeup and to be pulled birth bus into into the school officer. Talk about the fact that we harangue makeup in this picture and he's holding my friend Anton. The Envy's children turned out to be. He gave that he would assign them not the head of Pastoral Care School. Well he's in the wrong job. I know awful. Man Said no support tool then from anyone in terms of authority figures. Yeah but I think very much. My my school wasn't a great place to be gay and with what was this. The nineties noughties The northeast expansively. Brezler not a Northern Ireland so back in in the way I mean. They've only just got marriage. Equality abortion right. Yeah exactly Hallelujah. Thank God but they're so backward. I think of my Johnny was coming out with a little bit easier than of my friends because my family are English. Not to say the Ron. Lots of very supportive very open Irish people because of course there are but I guess my family went as religious especially my dad and I didn't really have thought that traumatic past of of living in Northern Ireland. So what stage did you come out to your parents. Bearing in mind the trying to get boyfriend at the age of ten in progress and then got one by fourteen. I'm guessing he came out quite early to them you well. I came out to my Mama earlier. My Dad moved away to Luxembourg when I was about twelve. I think he moved off work. So this basically he. He wasn't really on the on the scene so I think I was about sixteen came onto him by counts. My Mum probably about twelve thirteen and it was a conversation again. Sat on the same bad. I phoned Calgary from. I couldn't say the words I remember trying to say. I think I'm gay and not being able to say gay and saying I I tell you but I caught sight yet and Saying oh I don't know and then going through listen different questions than eventually. We got to that. She's like Oh you gay. Yes yes let's sets and okay right. I think you're a bit young. So maybe we'll have this conversation when you're older okay. So then every now and then it was a diesel thinking guy and that was. That was pretty much for my mom. I mean my mom was always quite supportive. It's my my older sister is guy I was. My sister had the real hard time coming out so I could. So she came out. I know she came out later. I came up so see is five years older than me. Okay I think she was about nineteen twenty when she came out and it was traumatic. My mom would always say my gay people. I might like gay man. I just can't stand spins. And that was her catchphrase and she's very very much the complete opposite of that now. My sister's marriage has a little boy. My mom loves my sister. I think that's just Hearn prejudice her and
True Mysteries of the Pacific Northwest
A little extra Time
"Welcome to catch myths and mysteries. Shyam your host kid chrome with everybody shelter in place. I thought it might be interesting to talk about time travel and with that in. Mind the paradox of time on time. Paradoxes any logical contradiction that has to do with time travel. The Classic Paradox Time Falls into the classic grandfather paradox. The grandfather paradox who's usually the screenplay turn novel then movie where the U. S. Nimitz is caught in a storm of thrush and back in time to December sixth nineteen forty one. The dilemma is what the crew knows. What's going to happen? But the grandfather paradox of time gets in the way when the past is changed. It creates a contradiction. The time traveller could do anything that did happen but can't do anything that didn't well an aircraft carrier the size of the Nimitz didn't exist back in nineteen forty one so anything they could have done would have altered the future in a big way. Fortunately the storm that sent them back in time reappeared and brought them back to their time before they could decide what to do for a little more detail watch the movie. The final countdown. I think it came out in the nineteen eighties. Should you can listen to Martin. Sheen explained the grandfather paradox. To Kirk Douglas. The topic of time travel bags of big question. How would travelers go forward or back in time? H She wells painted a picture of a time machine with his book. The time machine. It was simply a vehicle for going forward or back with little regard to the visitors passed or impact on the future or past for the past for that matter that then we have screenwriter Richard. Matheson who wrote somewhere in time and takes the issue of time travel to a new level in the movie. Christopher Reeves is a young theater students celebrating the success of his latest production when the party is interrupted by an elderly woman who break Suda crowd of well-wishers Impresa lock into his hand Luxembourg. The says come back to me long story short. He traces Salak at back. To a stage. Actress of Nineteen twelve and her summer retreat that has been restored to pristine nineteen twelve decor. He buys clothes from the era right down to the socks. He wears a pocket wash from that era than rents a room and focuses on all things nineteen twelve and remember. He's surrounded in a room and a facility that is all nineteen twelve and ZAP when he ventures back out into the hall so hours later it is indeed nine thousand nine hundred twelve and elderly woman is there and a romance began one day. It is raining so they decided to have a picnic and Gorse at some point. She asked the time when he pulls out the pocket. Watch a penny from nineteen. Eighty comes out with it and the spell is broken. Well all this talk of time. Travel's seems a stuff of fiction. The what about Deja Vu? The feeling that you've been there before or met that person before done that thing before could it be that you've visited another time and have a flash memory of the person you met. L. Let's bring it home. The was the last time that a day week or month just seemed to Fi- yet your routine hadn't changed. I can remember going to the gym a specific time day or I would meet a friend. We always did the same routine but after a year or so. We noticed that we were finished sooner than before our next meeting. We TIMED ISH. Exercise routine and the gaps between each workout. The Times were always the same yet. We would finish at different times out of that work at one meeting. We had to stop and re park our cars yet. We completed our usual routine at the same time we had established and still finished early. Not Time travel but perhaps time slip. The Earth spins at Specific Rate. Plants grow in predictable period of time. Are we humans of variable our perception of time altered for seemingly? No reason when I was in grammar school failed to complete my homework. I could still hear my teacher telling me that we all had the same twenty four hours in the day but do we. The world's most accurate clock has neatly shown how right Albert Einstein was a hundred years ago when he proposed that time is a relative concept and the higher you live above sea level. The faster you should age. Einstein's theory of relativity states at time and space are not as constant as everyday life would
99% Invisible
Map Quests: Political, Physical and Digital
"GonNa talk about actually of your favorite graphical oddities and that's ex- claves and enclaves and these are bits of land cut off from their home countries in various cool ways. Yeah and they take a lot of forms and it gets complicated pretty fast so I just wanted to start with something simple. You know listeners out there might recognize when you look at a map of the United States. There's this little bump up in the middle and it's called the northwest angle and it sticks up from Minnesota into Canada. Okay I know that one. It's basically how like non MINNESOTANS NOWHERE. Minnesota's like does it from the other. The other states up there is going to break this like clean straight. Canadian border running along the Western. Us and then when it hits the Great Lakes this bomb exactly so like on the left. It's all kind of a straight line and on the right it starts getting zigzagging and it has a really Kinda neat origin story. But I'm not going to go there today and Suffice it to say heart graphical errors were made and for me growing up in Minnesota. I actually always tended to picture this notch as a piece of land like a solid. Because you know it's like part of the shape of the map Marin right but it's actually not or at least not entirely so. The southern portion of the angle is water and above that there is a patch of land. And that's what's known as a practical exclave a practical exclave so into the basics of excavation enclaves these are areas in the isolated or separated in some way from the rest of the country but what is a practical exclave mean like in this case basically the land in the angle is surrounded by Canadian land on most sides blow. It has this area of American territorial water. Which is you know basically a really big lake so practically speaking someone who wants to go directly there without leaving the US they could do it by boat but on land. They'd actually have to drive through Canada to get back into the slice of America which isn't impossible. It's just impractical. Okay that sense. This actually reminds me of point Roberts which we actually sent to do ago where he was you know went to the post office that people go to and on. Point Roberts. That's that's pretty cool. Yeah and it's totally in that. Same category of Exclave Point Roberts. Though in the details are really different. The angle is huge. It's much bigger. It's relatively remote and it's really sparsely populated by comparison so it only has around a hundred permanent residents or so and the crossing stations are correspondingly pretty minimalist. So what does it take to cross the border at the Northwest Angle? For a long time you had these little shack. Like buildings called outlying area reporting stations or or is a video call with border. Yes you basically skype into the border patrol. They kind of you know looking over you. Show your passport and you're on your way. It wouldn't be practical staff. Yeah Yeah and then. I've been reading about this because I haven't been up there in a while and apparently over the last few years they've been working on streamlining things with the mobile APP. Called Rome Spelled R. O. Am The way that you can check in without really going through all these hoops. That's that's so your point Roberts you have the Northwest Angle You know these are fairly regional example. The people that live there interact with them but most people don't interact with them. Are there ones that have like bigger impacts on the world in general? Yeah I mean there's ones that people never really think about and a really good example is the whole state of Alaska so Alaska is considered to be what's called a semi exclave and it's actually the largest of its kind in the world and it's got this semi modifier because even though it doesn't border the lower forty-eight it does have this really long stretch of international coastline so it really has direct access to international waters right so those are X. Claims. I think those are pretty easy to understand so describe what enclaves are because those can be pretty strange the really can and I. I should note here that there are some nuances. How this a lot of complexity like some enclaves are also exclave but like in the simplest and most general terms enclaves are countries or parts of countries that are entirely contained within another countries territories. They're totally surrounded. So North West Bengal in point Roberts and Alaska. They don't count because they are cut off completely from the. Us You can still get these places by boat. For example yeah exactly whereas enclaves are fully enclosed so San Marino in Europe is a classic example. It's this relatively small country and it's completely enclaved on all sides by Italy. I mean maybe it's because the. Us is so isolated and on its own and surrounded by water that that feels weird to me to be enclosed in another country. And he may be if. You're like the Czech Republic. You're surrounded by the country's de Luxembourg one country. It's pretty small but there's still something special about being a country completely inside one other countries. Yeah Yeah Yeah. You're dependent on them in. Yeah and certain curious ways And that sort of just the first level of this to these things get even more complex and even more small and a lot of cases For example with counter enclaves which are an enclave in another clave or more specifically like a piece of the Netherlands inside a piece of Belgium that Zits self in the Netherlands like second-class enclaves in Anglaise glaze. All the way down all the way down and his crazy as those are. It doesn't stop there. Consider counter counter enclaves like a piece of India inside a piece of Bangladesh inside a piece of India inside of Bangladesh and in fact that triple enclave example is the only known third order enclave in world history. Yeah well that makes sense that it'd be so absurd. It's pretty I mean it's it's pretty hard to pictures. How does that even work in the real world so basically for a long time? They were villages within villages and at the middle of it. All was this two Acre parcel that was owned by Bangladeshi farmer who lived in the surrounding enclave and he would just wake up in the morning crossing India to farm his tiny Land in the middle of the zone and then he would cross back into Bangladeshi. Tonight in two thousand fifteen India in Bangladesh finally agreed to this really big cross-border land swap to essentially tidy up all these enclaves within enclaves and essentially they ended up handing over dozens of enclaves to each other totaling thousands of acres. Does that mean that? They're like Indians now living in Bangladesh and vice versa. I mean yes in some cases and I actually thought they handled it pretty well and pragmatically. They basically offered residents of these former enclaves choice. They could either stay where they were and basically be in a different country than they had been before or they could move quote unquote back across the border to their official country of citizenship. And did all kinds of reminds me like this isn't quite technically an enclave and exclave thing but once you start thinking in these terms there are some other interesting geographical mind benders out there. So I've got one more for you and as far as I know this place has no official name so I've just been calling it inception island and it's pretty normal island located in Canada but apparently as far as I can tell it's also the world's largest known island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island it's like inception like there's a dream within a dream within. That's where you calling it kind of blows my mind in the same way to mental accounting to keep track of the woods within. What as you go
Why It Matters
A Brief History of NATO
"If you drive today from France to Germany you may see a few sheep. But you won't see a Border Guard. You won't change money and you will see no tanks and soldiers that border is undefended. That border is the site of untold bloodshed. It's today undefended because NATO and the European Union and processes of integration have made those borders geopolitically inconsequential. You know what I never actually thought about it that way. You know how last summer I was on that train from Paris to Berlin. I didn't even know when I left France and entered Germany. No soldiers incite. Yeah okay wait. Can we just start with what NATO stands for? Nato stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO NATO alliance North Atlantic Treaty Organization and it is a body formed in one thousand nine hundred forty nine to commit the members of the alliance to Collective Defence. I E an attack on one is an attack on all we are in this together. It is an institution that keeps US safe. We don't lie awake at night worrying that somebody is going to invade that we look out the window and see tanks and troops coming and that's in part because starting in nineteen forty nine. The United States reached out to Canada reached across the Atlantic to its democratic partners in Europe. And said we're going to hang together. We're going to unite against threats to the peace that alliance has been around ever since nineteen forty nine and it has succeeded in keeping this community of Atlantic democracies since April four ninety nine critic was by Norway Denmark Belgium Luxembourg France Italy Portugal United Kingdom Iceland Canada and the United States. This Union of qualifications became known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or more simply NATO. So let's go back to the beginning a bit. How did this all start? How did NATO form? Well you have to go back to the nineteen thirties. When the United States basically became a passive bystander and was staunchly isolationist as fascism began to spread all over the world mainly in Europe and Asia but also began to spread its tentacles further and the United States. Tried to stay out of it. That strategy didn't work Pearl Harbor. We all know the story of the. Us enters were to be some some nine thousand nine hundred forty one eight date which will live in infamy United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by Naval Air Forces of the Empire of Japan at the end of World War. Two we go into this big debate about well. What do we do now? Do we go back to being a hemispheric power. Do we bring back all the troops and pull out of Asia and Europe or do we stay put and that question was answered by the Cold War. By the fact that the Soviet Union which was our ally in World War Two became our chief adversary by the late. Nineteen forties when peace returned the western Allies de mobilized the Soviet Union maintained an overwhelming military superiority on the European continent. Both during and immediately after the war the Soviet Union forcibly brought under its control the whole cities of countries in eastern Europe and it was because of fear that if the United States did withdraw from Europe that the Soviets would overrun Germany France Britain and the industrialized powers of the West. That we basically say we're staying put and we are going to form an alliance with our key partners in Europe to prevent the Soviet Union and Communism