Tuesday, July 7, 2026

7 July 2026: Germany: 7 Stories

 1.  About a week or two ago...I essayed a piece over the Job-Center in Bremen fixing up a special room in the building...called the 'creative-room'.  At the time....folks were saying around 100k Euro was spent.

Well....days passed and finally a picture was feature of the room, and added details.....so it's closer to 1-million Euro, than 100k Euro.

If you asked me to 'project-it'....I probably could have done a decent similar job for 30,000 Euro (that couch is ultra-special....that's one key problem....probably over 50,000 Euro just for it to be bought/delivered and assembled.

2.  I  watched the ZDF/ARD nightly news last night (Monday)....leading story....Trump/US red-card chatter.

They both waste around 3 minutes telling a 1-minute story.....with the next four stories being of more significance.

On the positive.....they kept German TDS-levels hyped-up.   

Amazing side-story....about 90-percent of Americans have no idea what the hell a yellow-card or red-card is about.   Same group hearing about FIFA for the first time....probably thinking it's some new rap-group.  

3.  From 7 July 2026, all new passenger cars and vans across the EU will require these built-in features: advanced emergency brake detecting pedestrians and cyclists, advanced driver distraction warning system, better forward vision, a new test for worn tires, and expanded safety glass area designed to protect pedestrians during accidents.

Extra cost for this?  Unknown, and not projected by the EU.  I would be guessing....you can figure 1,200 Euro added in cost.

4.  I looked up average sick-leave usage from around Europe.  Germany leads with 20.  France?  14.  Italy?  8.

Greece at 3 days is the lowest.

There's probably some breakdown of how it relates to stress and non-stress...I've yet to find it though.  

5. Focus....some story that low-level Russian  'spies' are all over the place in Germany.

If you asked me to break it down....most simply gather data and pass it on.....with some office in Moscow getting 10,000 reports a day....most of which....is worthless.

On numbers of spies?  Wouldn't shock me if there were a thousand walking around Germany daily....reporting late trains, useless economic data on beer pricing, and passing heat-wave records.

6.  SPD Party trying to keep mini-job category 'alive'....for students desiring part-time jobs.

7.  Heat-wave 'lite' approaching?  For Sat/Sun/Mon approaching....my local temp is estimated at 32 C....warm but not awful hot.  On the negative side.....the grass is dead and half the leaves on the cherry tree are dead/laying-on-the-ground. Grass-mowing?  Forget about that necessity for July.

No comments: