works for me now

The police intend to eliminate blind spots in the current ANPR network (of more than 800 cameras), it is stated.

“Blind spots”. Yikes.. because everyone’s every movement should be on record.

losing capacity due to ongoing scanner breakdowns

Losing capacity? Meaning, they must scan every single person? What for? A: cocaine. To make sure they screen every single person for cocaine, everyone /not/ trafficking cocaine must pay a price in time and convenience -- as opposed to using dogs.

I get “413 Payload Too Large” when trying to visit that page.

and the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB)

lol.. the very people who we expect to guide us through a cyber attack or inform us of vulns has put their tail between their legs and ducked their duty.

Grabbed the PDF and commented over here with:

The Norweigans missed the most important (and easiest!) action:

• Public services themselves need to get off Facebook & Twitter. If they can’t walk the walk and take their own advice, it’s not just an optical embarrassment. As someone who already boycotts the shitty gatekeepers (Cloudflare, google, ms, fb, apple, twtr), I am already free from enshittification --- except when I must interact with a public service.

WTF?! The only unmanagable evil force I must deal with comes from the gov itself, who imposes shitty gatekeepers in the course of doing public tasks. I can’t boycott the government.

Belgian public services ALL use Microsoft for their email. So you should do everything on paper in Belgium. But what do they do? They scan paper letter/form/submissions and then they email it to themselves via Microsoft’s server. I shit you not. Microsoft is inescapable even by the most disciplined. And it’s only because the government itself will not ditch the motherfuckers.

Exceptionally, it’s somewhat redeeming that the Norweigans mention that public services should use open source. But that just scratches the surface. The very first thing they should do is get off Facebook and Twitter.

Good news. Let’s put this to the test.

For some reason I thought Brussels had no gov, which would make petitions useless. OTOH, it was a competition. Perhaps no gov outperforms the rest of European democracies after right-leaning autocracies took power.

Expect to see signs like “need money to pay my €500 begging fine”.

The rules also prohibit “aggressive, intrusive or intimidating” begging across the entire city for a two-year trial period, after which the policy will be reviewed.

WTF? Why is that just a trial? I have been sitting at a restaurant and had beggers get in my face when I ignore them, waving their hand in front of my face as if to check whether I am blind. That kind of shit should carry the highest penalty.

Also when they find a high-traffic bottleneck, they sit right in the bottleneck to make it even harder to walk along with a crowd of tourists who have to squeeze through a choke point. Tolerance should be lower in those cases.

Opposition parties, including Greens and left-wing groups, voted against the measures.

Yikes. Should be the other way around. Right wing groups oppose welfare but advocate begging because it puts the payers in power. Left-wing groups are smarter, and advocate for fair distribution of wealth. Giving to beggers is contrary to that, as those who create the biggest eye sore get paid, not those who need help the most. As a liberal, I want to see a fair distribution. Every payment to a begger is unfair.

I have no 1st-hand experience with being homeless but Belgium appears to be on the ball with welfare. They have shelters, social housing, and food. I would be surprised if anyone was starving.

I think the homeless shelters exclude drunks. So I can see how a alcoholics might fall through the cracks on that and I believe this is why we see some people sleeping on the street. If the shelters were open to drunks, that would fail to incentivise fighting the addiction. But I don’t imagine that drunks are denied food. In any case, I don’t see how giving to beggars is a good solution. I would sooner look for a charity that tries to address any shortcomings and give to them because they will ensure the aid is better allocated than ad hoc begging.

Considering De Lijn unlawfully refuses cash payments in Brussels, those looking to dodge De Lijn’s fares would be wise to simply offer cash. When the driver refuses, (and they will), the consumer has a strong case for not paying a fine.

Note this trick only works in Brussels. In other regions, De Lijn has a shop that accepts cash.

The claim is that poor people have a human right to beg. I’m skeptical but suppose it’s true. Brussels has professional beggars. Beggars who are not poor cannot use the human rights defense.

As for genuinely poor beggars, they should be getting social aid. The aid should account for level of need, number of dependents in the family, etc. Begging abuses that balance and disproportionately rewards those who create a public eyesore. Donors who go through a charity have some confidence that there is an even distribution and a vetting process to weed out the non-poor beggars. Doesn’t the social system satisfy the human rights of the poor? If not, why not?

(edit) Past thread about brussels enforcing the anti-begging rule:

https://belgae.social/post/1415474

I use cornstarch in stir-fries quite a bit by dissolving in sherry. It’s a good thickener. I didn’t realise it could emulsify cheese. I came across a post or article recently that mentioned cornstarch for mac and cheese but I was skeptical. Maybe I should try it.

I have never used sodium citrate. I was just reading about it because my mac & cheese always comes out as a clumpy mess.

I have no Sunday brunch suggestions that involve waffles.

My favorite Liege waffles come from “Galet” on Rue Neuve next to C&A. It’s a grab and go place, no seating. They stuff chocolate sticks into the waffle so the chocolate melts inside. No mess, you can hold it in your hand w/out utensils. They are the only place I know of that serves waffles that way but they would be closed on Sunday.

One of the best Sunday brunches I experienced in Brussels was at www.leslarmesdutigre.be. I have not been there in many years so I cannot confirm that it’s still as great as it was. It was a quite nice Thai buffet with a nice ambiance. Slightly high-end but affordable. The website is either down or they are blocking Tor now.

It should be in here:

https://refli.be/fr/lex/1994000357

AFAIK there is no English translation published.

“the non-profit that has been campaigning for years for places to swim outdoors in the capital.”

Interesting to see what an uphill battle a simple and non-controversial change is.

It’s bizarre that a liberal party politician is praising this, considering Deutsche Bank is relatively evil for anyone who is progressive. It has ties to Bank of America and heavily finances fossil fuel.

The Norweigans missed the most important (and easiest!) action:

• Public services themselves need to get off Facebook & Twitter. If they can’t walk the walk and take their own advice, it’s not just an optical embarrassment. As someone who already boycotts the shitty gatekeepers (Cloudflare, google, ms, fb, apple, twtr), I am already free from enshittification --- except when I must interact with a public service.

WTF?! The only unmanagable evil force I must deal with comes from the gov itself, who imposes shitty gatekeepers in the course of doing public tasks. I can’t boycott the government.

Belgian public services ALL use Microsoft for their email. So you should do everything on paper in Belgium. But what do they do? They scan paper letter/form/submissions and then they email it to themselves via Microsoft’s server. I shit you not. Microsoft is inescapable even by the most disciplined. And it’s only because the government itself will not ditch the motherfuckers.

Exceptionally, it’s somewhat redeeming that the Norweigans mention that public services should use open source. But that just scratches the surface. The very first thing they should do is get off Facebook and Twitter.

I’m confused by the relationship between your 1st and 2nd sentence. Your 1st sentence is about making a long stop and your 2nd is about taking an indirect route.

An SNCB worker told me the EU law which allows people to stop at a station along their route and take a break and return to the itinerary has been eliminated. So we no longer have that right under EU law but you seem to be saying Belgium gives passengers the right to stop when travelling within Belgium, correct?

About the app… I have no clue. Google maps with public transport option on?

I should clarify that I would never download an app from Google playstore or use Google Maps (or any google service). I was asking for tools (or “apps”) that can be run using a browser (most websites are actually javascript apps these days). And I would be open to f-droid apps or other free software.

Anyway, since the EU law was dropped my hunt for a resource that lets me pin a waypoint but not the destination is somewhat moot. Although perhaps still interesting in light of the Belgian law you mention.

Should people jailed years ago for smoking/selling marijuana be kept in jail after marijuana becomes legal in a country?

To be a comparable analogy, it would have to be the flip of that. Where we decide to remove the right to smoke mj and then prosecute past users. A real world example would be in the US where the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade then started prosecutions of those who had abortions before the overturn.

Anyway, the ethics aren’t so interesting to discuss. I am just looking for info about how to counter the EU refusing to protect a liberty because (the Commission hopes) we might lose the liberty in the future anyway.

(edit) well, I should say I don’t mean to dismiss the ethical discussion. I don’t suppose it’s realistic to expect a law expert to bring insight here anyway.

In the US they revised sentences of drug offenders because you had situations like a black man doing 20 years for posession of a joint. And while they were doing absurd amounts of time, the policy got smarter (more lenient). Then at the same time prisons were ram-packed with those who had minor drug offenses and there was also a need to free up their rooms because they could not build prisons fast enough. So if they were to decide /not/ to revise sentences to match modern leniency, that would have been reckless for a number of reasons. It makes sense to prioritise the prison space for offenders who are most needed off the street.

I suppose it doesn’t help that when people install their own solar panels, the injection rate in Brussels is a small fraction of the consumption rate. IIRC, I think I pay around 30 ¢€ per kWh. If I injected energy from PVs, I would get 2 ¢€ per kWh.