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.

Hip to Be Square...Maybe

Over 30,000 users of the American social networking site Badoo.com have rated nations based on their "coolness."  Not at all surprisingly, the U.S. was voted coolest.  But at the opposite end of the scale, to me very surprisingly, is Belgium.  It's now semi-official: Belgium is the least cool place on earth.  Obviously, no one has checked out our weather this summer; otherwise, we'd be right up there with Oslo, Seattle, and maybe Minsk.
Actually, I'm surprised that 30,000 Americans could even identify Belgium.  Fortunately, they weren't asked to place it on a map prior to being allowed to vote.
A local Belgian newspaper has taken issue with the not-so-scientific results and has come up with several areas where Belgium truly is cool.   Among these "assets": Belgium has the world record for the longest stint without an elected government (something like 15 months, but this may actually be coming to an end!), and, my personal fave, Belgium can lay claim to having the world's ugliest city: Charleroi.  Evidently someone somewhere actually votes for such things.

Another New Label

Europeans are famous for labeling requirements on thousands of products, providing you everything from mundane figures for calories and fat in food to exhaust emissions per kilometer driven by new cars.  Now, Belgium has just passed a law requiring that all cell phone advertisements must include the device's "radiation value," which will range from 0 to 2 watts.  Doesn't seem like a very wide range there, but I guess it's the labeling that counts.  Or the passing of yet another new law...

Very Fitting

What do you call an obviously intoxicated jerk who makes a noisy, public spectacle of himself?
See below...

Actually, and this may say quite a bit about the Polish folks, signs such as this one loudly brag about their main product, all over the streets of Krakow, which we visited earlier in the week.

Twilight in Paris

Taken on Saturday evening...