When do people start work?

A survey shows what time people start work in various EU countries.

In March 2009, over the previous 6 months the average time for German workers was 8.44 and for British workers it was 9.10.

According to the Guardian the survey is by OfficeMetrics, a software company, and covered 80,000 users of their software.

Winter tyre statistics

In the UK, where annual temperatures often range from -15°C to 30°C, usage of cold weather (winter) tyres is far less common, as legislation dictating changeover does not exist. >
In Germany legislation was brought in on May 1 2006. The traffic regulations (StVO) now say that cars must be fitted to suit the weather conditions, including having appropriate tyres. What is "appropriate" is not described in any more detail. If drivers contravene the rule, they pay a EUR 20 fee; if they hold up the traffic, there is a EUR 40 fee and they get a penalty point on their licence.
75% of people in the UK would not consider fitting winter tyres. >
Winter tyres are a mere three percent of the UK's total tyre market. This poor statistic compares with ... 50 per cent in Germany. >
(2006) 77 percent of German drivers have a set of winter tyres; 6 percent use all-season tyres.... 80 percent of those who change their tyres do so when the temperature drops below 10°C; one in ten waits for the first snowfall. >
In Germany, winter tyres are recommended when the temperature (day or night) drops below 7°C. Winter 2007/8 in the UK - The final mean value for the season is 4.9 °C >
(2006) In Bavaria, 90% of drivers have winter tyres, in eastern Germany, 70 percent have them. In western Germany, almost one in five uses summer tyres all year round, and in northern Germany that is the case for one in four. In Lower Saxony 40 percent of drivers use summer tyres all year round. >

Grüner Punkt - the Green Dot

It isn't really a dot, but a circle (often black and white, not green) with two yin-and-yang arrows.

This symbol is actually used in the UK, and called "the Green Dot", but will people instantly recognise this name as they do in Germany?

In Germany if packaging has the Green Dot on it, consumers can usually put it in special yellow bags or bins which are collected for free (organised by DSD GmbH), saving them money on waste collection. The dot means the producer has paid a fee for their products to be collected in mainland Europe.

In the UK, this collection system is not used.

Nonetheless, the dot was introduced in the UK in 2001 when Valpak UK Ltd (the UK company which ensures packaging complies with European norms) entered into an agreement with Pro Europe, the umbrella organisation for European packaging and packaging waste recovery and recycling schemes. In the UK, the dot is only for products sold in mainland Europe.

This has recently caused some controversy, partly as people don't know what the dot is:

"The intertwined arrows of the Green Dot appear on a range of products from soap and detergent dispensers to toothpaste tubes and crisp packets.
It is widely believed to signify that the product can be recycled and may encourage environmentally-friendly shoppers to buy it.
However the sign is not a recycling symbol and has no meaning in the UK. Lucy Yates, the National Consumer Council's policy advocate, said: "It should be removed from all packaging in the UK because it's very misleading." Telegraph, 1 September 2008

But it hasn't caused enough controversy to mean that everyone is aware of the Green Dot being used in the UK:
"in Germany there is something called the Green Dot Scheme" (Martin Wheatley, March 18 2008, House of Lords)

"Consumers in the UK are unlikely to know about the PRN system, because local authorities largely undertake the collection of domestic material" (Europe Goes Green Dot brochure from pro Europe, 2007) - the PRN is a Packaging Waste Recovery Note, the commercial side of the Green Dot.

To sum things up, the Green Dot is not yet well recognised in the UK and needs some explanation.

Lolcat / Kitteh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolcat
Useful vocab:
lolspeak
cat macro
Im in ur noun, verb-ing ur related noun
subjects: i has dem
I has a noun
Invisible noun
[noun] haz a flavr
My noun, let me show you it/them
adjective] cat is [adjective]
Halp
Nom Nom Nom
I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?"

Pronunciation of "cat"

Leo discussions:
pronounciation of cat like "cut"
Dt. Artikel für engl. Lehnwörter

Found a nice site which helps with this pronunciation recently:
BBC Learning English - æ
This part also usefully distinguishes between three similar sounds including æ:
BBC Learning English - Egg, Cat and Cup

Drugs statistics - young people

Taken from
The life of women and men in Europe
2008 edition

Proportion of young men and women aged 15-24 who smoke, 2004

Germany
women = about 44 %
men = about 50 %

UK
women = about 36 %
men = about 32 %

Use of cannabis among students aged 15-16, 2003

Proportion having used cannabis 40+ times

Germany
Girls = about 3 %
Boys = about 6 %

UK
Girls = about 6 %
Boys = about 13 %

respectively

When is it OK to translate "beziehungsweise" as "respectively"?

Collins e-Großwörterbuch suggests "respectively" for one meaning of "beziehungsweise":

b) (= im anderen Fall) and ... respectively; zwei Briefmarken, die 25 beziehungsweise 55 Cent kosten two stamps costing 25 and 55 cents respectively

corresponding to Duden's:

2. und im anderen Fall: ...erhielten die beiden Hauptangeklagten achtzehn b. neun Monate Gefängnis (Prodöhl, Tod 247).

Definition b) has another example where "respectively" is not suggested:
geben Sie in Ihrer Bestellung rot beziehungsweise blau als gewünschte Farbe an state your choice of colour (Brit) or color (US) in your order: red or blue)

Collins e-Großwörterbuch mentions two other meanings of "beziehungsweise":

a) (= oder aber) or
c) (= genauer gesagt) or rather, or that is to say

corresponding to Duden's:

1. oder; oder vielmehr, genauer gesagt

Let's look at Duden's 2: und im anderen Fall more closely. Can we always use "respectively" when translating this?

English dictionaries name two meanings of respectively:

In the order mentioned

Often listed as the only meaning of respectively, in smaller dictionaries:

re•spect•ive•ly in the same order as the people or things already mentioned: Julie and Mark, aged 17 and 19 respectively ©Oxford University Press, 2005.

re‧spec‧tive‧ly in the same order as the things you have just mentioned: The cups and saucers cost £5 and £3 respectively. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

Fowler's Modern English Usage: "respectively is correctly used when the sense required is 'each separately or in turn, and in the order mentioned'".

AHD Singly in the order designated or mentioned: I'm referring to each of you respectively.

Singly, separately
(but not necessarily in the order mentioned)
Listed in larger dictionaries.

New SOED
respectively
2 Relatively to each of those in question individually; singly, separately; each individually or in turn, and in the order mentioned.
SCOTT FITZGERALD The crowd had split into two sections, following, respectively, the man on a stretcher and the girl.
N. MANDELA The last men to be sentenced..received twelve and seven years respectively.

respectively (adv.) means “separately and individually” or “in the order specified,” as in We reviewed each of the three programs respectively.
The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press.

Robert Schoenfeld believes you can only translate "beziehungsweise" as "in the order mentioned", but (he seems to be saying) not as "singly, separately". Is he right? The second lot of dictionary definitions above seem to suggest not, as does the e-Großwörterbuch translation at the top of this post.

The chemist's English By Robert Schoenfeld
"in German usage beziehungsweise applies to a situation where a certain number of entities will vary in properties or behaviour, but this variation is nonrandom. It is not necessary (but it is permissible), in German, to list these entities one by one.
In this lies the key difference to respectively. This word means exclusively "in the order named". In other words, it is obligatory to name the members of the set of entities one by one (E1, E2, etc.) and then match them, in the same order, to the properties P1, P2, etc. An example is provided by the following sentence:
The percentages of iron, manganese, nickel, and zinc were, respectively, 30, 26, 24, and 20."

Modern (post-1990) book examples by native speakers of English where "respectively" does not mean "in the order mentioned"

--> Got up to p16, still not found one

Still working on this!