Week 27 An epiphany

Week 27

Things I'm reading

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/average-height-by-country

Studying the history of a country or region’s physical health is challenging, as consistently collected indicators of health are hard to come by. However, our recent study looked at the clear link between a population’s health and one simple, widely recorded piece of information – body height.

For most of human history, height remained relatively stable. Until 1800, the average height in Europe hovered between 165 cm and 170 cm, but over the past 200 years something remarkable has happened: heights, globally but particularly in Europe, have increased dramatically. Many European countries saw increases in average heights of over 15 cm, and this has been especially evident in the Netherlands – the average Dutch man has grown from 166 cm in 1810 to 184 cm today, an increase of 18 cm in just two centuries. Dutch men are currently the tallest in the world.

https://www.theglobalist.com/united-states-capitalism-politics-donald-trump-wealth-inequality/

I had an epiphany with this one :-) 

a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something. (2) : an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking. (3) : an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.

 - and I learnt a new word "monetocracy"

It used to be that the United States prided itself on being a meritocracy. No more. It is increasingly a country with a cult of money and rule by moneyed elites. Not so much an oligarchy as a monetocracy.

It is a country of public poverty and obscene private wealth. According to Bloomberg, the ten richest Americans are collectively worth over $1.6 trillion.

Coincidentally, that amount is higher than the annual GDP of all but the top 12 largest economies in the world — more than Spain and Saudi Arabia and twice as high as Switzerland.

The fallout (now there's an unfortunate word) remains the big question. Perhaps the millions of people left behind are right to want changes. Pity it's going to affect the rest of the world...

But, to more earthly matters on this sunny Sunday morning :)

I have some more information about Lizzie Peelman (Great Grandmother) Friend Andrew put me on to the Linton Historical Society and Leigh was able to follow it up with them, as he has much more information. I'll update The Lizzie Letters Blog shortly.

Tjeerd and I spent two days masking off the house interior, getting ready for (spray) painting.

...and then the painting was finished in just a matter of hours. 

Michel the painter said that it takes 3 times the amount of paint doing it this way.

Things are really taking shape now...

 I had to do a bit of my own painting on the stairway landing...I couldn't reach it without making a scaffold of sorts...

...but I did it!...with the thought of "old men and ladders" giving me a bit of caution.

I even had to put my paint brush on a stick!

This part of the stairway needs to be covered - so we made another "supporting beam look" with some oak planks

Janny did some wall-papering...

The new doors arrived...they are unbelievably heavy - even Tjeerd struggled with his end - as I tried not to show it at my end :) we had to get them inside out of the weather.

Ben came home for a couple of nights because he had a dentist appointment.

I was able to question him about his new "Government" job.

The gist of it is that there are 140,000 Government employees - and the Human Resources Department has 300 people working in it. Their job includes being able to answer any questions that may arise about working conditions, salaries, leave, etc. The whole HR thing.

Ben is Team Leader of a group trying to make/improve an online resource that the 300 can use to access the information. It is already there, but Ben says it is fairly unimaginative - but this is OK as it needs to be servicable rather than flashy - no need to drive traffic or get clicks like so many other things these days.

I remarked that 300 seems to be a lot of people! Ben agrees and thinks that the end result of their work could mean that fewer people are needed, but that is not yet a driving force or (stated) aim.

Ben went to a Taylor Swift Concert in Amsterdam - good value at 3.5 hours! He's taking Janny to a Pink Concert next week - Thankfully, I get left behind :)