Lost in Thought

An old man has this small side street in Strasbourg, France, all to himself and his thoughts.

Bureaucracy Kills!

Euthanasia is at least in some form or another legal in several European countries, probably most notably the Netherlands and Belgium.  Apparently, a formal request for euthanasia must be submitted to the government, prior to approval.  Almost half of the requests (48%) ended up being approved here in Belgium last year, but, ironically, in 23% of the cases the patient actually died before the approval was given.  No comment.

Baby Talk

A whole month without a post here - my bad.  Too much travel and family goings-on.  I'll try to do better...
Here's an interesting new statistic just released in Belgium: nearly 70% of Belgian 10 year-olds have their own cell phone; nearly 100% of 12 year-olds do too!  The kids only make about 10 phone calls per week, but send over 90 text messages every 7 days. 
This seems a bit hard to believe and, since it is based on a survey conducted by a consumer organization, it might be simply wishful thinking on the part of a lot of 10 year-olds.  But, maybe not.