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Search RuthAndJohn.com NOTE: click on the link then put your search words inside the quotes on Google
Kit Kat Status Report 1 yr 3 months:
Charlie 9.8, Buster 11.6, Tommy 20.2 lbs
Yes, John and I still use Imperial measurements.
The first photo below is of Charlie and Buster asleep in the window. Well, Charlie is a light sleeper and woke up as I came near.
Tommy is doing better. He chases the kit kats and they chase him and, for the most part, everyone seems happy. So we are happy. John melts over the kittens
everyday. That's so sweet.
A Frenchie guy took pics of the window dolls & kit-kats with a fancy camera. John said they're gonna be in Le Monde. Yeah, right.
Melons are finally available in Rennes. Produce is imported from Spain & Italy but not melons, nectarines or plums. I wonder why. And cherries are here. We
love cherries.
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| Charlie and Buster enjoying the midday sun. | Buster always imitates his Uncle Tommy. | Charlie in a box. |
COVID travel passports
Vaccination update: John and I received our QR codes
which allow us to visit any EU country.
How EU vaccination passport works.
We are going to continue to be cautious for a while. The Delta variant and other possible mutations in the near future are
a world-wide concern. There are several variants of concern or variants of interest which demonstrate a need for continued caution even if fully vaccinated.
The infection rates in France have dropped dramatically notwithstanding the poor vaccination progress (as of June 17 only
23% of the population was vaccinated). But France is opening up again and with less than
40% of the population
fully vaccinated the low infection rate may not hold. For the last few weeks France has been fully vaccinating another 10%
of the population every 24 days but vaccine hesitancy is getting in the way of continuing at that pace.
The Frenchies are among the most anti-vaxer people in the world but they are doing better than usual for these vaccines.
Other than UK, the rest of Europe is doing about as poorly as is France.
I've been seeing a lot of news about people in South Africa desperate to get vaccinated. This is why there are variants of
concern. This is why there will be more and more variants of concern and why they may become of greater concern. "This IS INSANE" :
Africa desperately short of COVID vaccine.
Did you know that the Delta variant has now been found in all 50 US states? That variant accounts for 40% of the new cases in France.
The variant has now spread to at least 85 countries worldwide. It is estimated to be 40-60% more transmissible than the Alpha variant,
first detected in England. Delta variant prompts new travel restrictions across Europe.
The US is on green list for travel to Europe. Here are the European countries' lists of travel restrictions.
Bats
In France there are 34 of the 41 bat species present in Europe. This link
is
to a web page which has the French file for each bat species in France and a map indicating the species' presence as well as providing full information.
NOTE: Bats near livestock (as is the case in Brittany) are a danger for inter-species virus transmission, which has us a little spooked.
Twitter post
"As a Dutchman I get universal health care, excellent roads, good public transport and easily accessible high quality education.
As an American you get to dream that you too will be rich some day."
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| There was a healthcare workers strike promoting the hiring of more healthcare employees. | The rain did not dampen their spirits. |
On a trip to the grocery, John took a break to enjoy a small park near the Fine Art Musuem in Rennes.
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| Square Joseph Loth is a little park adjacent to the Fine Arts Museum. | Summer blossoms |
This little park is a nice place to rest near the Fine Arts Museum. |
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French cities have little parks like this every few blocks. |
John and gout
John had his first ever flare-up of gout and it was very painful. He got some crutches and was then able
to leave the house, but he moved SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO slowly. In the photos you'll see a snail that was out-pacing John for awhile.
Gout crystals form in joints (most often the big toes) which feel like you're being cut. You can't walk,
sleep or concentrate. A strong genetic component is one cause although high purine foods may be another.
A gout diet (guidance of which is conflicting even by several highly regarded medical resources) is recommended. 60% of
the people who have had one gout attack will have another. If, when and why is unclear. John is doing better
now but he's still in pain and having difficulty walking.
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| John on his way to a doctor's appointment for bursitis, but it turned out to be gout. |
Ruth took this photo to prove that the snail was moving faster than John. |
Friends
Our friend, Kathleen, writes a blog every few weeks about her travel in Europe.
Her most recent blog post is about her adventures in the
archaeologically rich area of France, Dordogne River valley, aka the Perigord Noir. Kathleen's images are always beautiful
Climate Change
Our friends in Eugene and Salem Oregon went through incredibly high temperatures recently. We were concerned.
Everyone made it through OK but it's frightening to know that the situation will only get worse. And, of course,
climate change doesn't just cause temperatures to go up. It also causes more powerful storms, flooding, drought,
extreme cold temperatures and threatens ocean currents which moderate weather. If you live in the United States or
Canada and you need help dealing with climate change (or pretty much any other kind of help) call 211 or email help@211.org or
visit the website www.211.org.
France has mostly nuclear as it's energy source but they still haven't created a safe means of nuclear waste disposal.
France produces more nuclear waste per-capita
than any other country.
With almost 72 percent of its electricity coming from nuclear energy-the most in the world-it generates 2 kilograms of radioactive waste
per person each year. France has the largest amount of spent nuclear fuel in Europe and, like the rest of Europe, they recycle some and bury some.
Only 25% of spent nuclear fuel in France is recycled. (None is recycled in the US, which was the cause of much of the anti-nuclear protests there).
STEM
I gave another STEM presentation (my fourth) on June 15. This one was about difference in electricity delivered
to the home in Europe as opposed to USA. Here's the pdf for that presentation.
Recently I found on the Smithsonian website a collection of online
Kids' STEM games for grades 3-12.
I thought I would share them with you so you can share with your friends and family.
French regional elections
There was concern that Le Pen's party, National Rally (formerly National Front) would win the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in the recent elections but they did not.
That was encouraging but Europe and France have seen a strengthening of the far right.
"Eric Zemmour recently made news by suggesting that parts of northern Italy rightly belonged to France." Zemmour said,
"There is no difference between Milan and Nice. It's the same people, the same town, the same architecture, the
same state of mind."
"It would be one thing if the person fantasizing about moving France's borders roughly 200 miles
into a neighboring country was just some crackpot talking head. But Zemmour is contemplating a run for the French
presidency and is already polling at more than 5 percent while positioning himself to the right of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally."
The biggest winners in the regional elections were the center-right parties which are for the wealthy but not as racist as the far right.
Other French politics
In 2018, under Macron, wealth taxes were cut severely in France. A new report
highlights the impact of a controversial government policy to reduce taxes on the wealthiest people in French society.
It concludes that instead of economic growth, as envisaged, the very wealthy have just got richer.
Le Monde called it a "highly flammable report" particularly at a time when "more and more households are being pushed into poverty."
In December 2018, President Macron's government abolished a wealth tax called the ISF (impôt sur la fortune, translated
literally as "taxes on someone's fortune"), and instead introduced a flat tax of 30% on wealth and a tax on real estate.
People would no longer be taxed on share dividends and it would impact people who had a fortune exceeding €1.3 million ($1.5 million).
The aims of the reform were to "encourage business growth and stimulate innovation"
with the rationale that the richest people, if they were taxed less, would invest more in the economy.
It's a theory called "runoff" in France or "trickle down economics" - that everyone benefits from a healthy, vibrant economy at all socio-economic levels.
The new study was undertaken by the Tax Reform Review Committee, for France Stratégie to follow up on a review undertaken
one year ago. That review was inconclusive on the impacts of France's fiscal reform, while the new report is much more negative.
The authors reported that the incomes of the wealthiest 0.1% of French people have sharply increased; this amounts to approximately 3,800 households. It has also
led to an explosion in people receiving company dividends, which relates to many more people.
French Colonialism
All colonial powers were horrendous and cruel. I don't know all the details of the various oppressors but I know they were cruel.
I recently learned that France was not only cruel to Haitians but extorted (today's equivalent of ) $21 billion dollars as indemnification
for slaves rebelling and gaining their freedom. France continued to take those payments until 2010 when the whole world was trying to help
Haiti recover from that devastating earthquake. Only then did France "forgive Haiti's debt." France needs to repay the $21 billion AT THE
BARE MINIMUM but really should also pay interest, damages for the extortion and reparations for the slavery. And it needs to do it now.
When I saw that France kept demanding those payments after MANY entreaties by Haiti and others to "forgive Haiti's debt" up until only
5 years before we moved here - and then only because the whole world was trying to help Haiti after the earthquake at the time France
was still sucking them dry AND France refuses to at least pay back the money they extorted - it's hard not to be enraged. Not sure
what I will do other than write an editorial and some letters to politicians.