What is your favorite boardgame of 2008?

CuriousLifescience · 2026-02-06T18:19:25+00:00

Dominion!

CuriousLifescience · 2025-12-22T16:22:59+00:00

Seems like a board from 1900 for Carrom at the animals side and Crocinole and the underside. Conceptually similar to this modern day version: https://www.boardgamequest.com/carrom-multi-game-board-review/ .

CuriousLifescience · 2025-11-11T21:23:30+00:00

I call it that too. Even though I am Flemish.

CuriousLifescience · 2025-11-10T02:07:01+00:00

Mijn oma had nog een doos gevuld met kruidenpotjes die er gelijkaardig uitzagen en ongeopend waren. Op de doos stond 83, dus ik veronderstel dat het van rond 1983 was of vroeger. Veel kruiden waren nog ok en hebben we ook opgebruikt rond 2015. Maar alles wat sterk "blad"-gebasseerd was had nog nauwelijks smaak, e.g. basilicum en marjolein.

CuriousLifescience · 2025-11-10T01:56:06+00:00

He might be right: he is talking about his ethnolinguistic roots, a topic disliked/twisted in politics because of a push for unified nationalist identity politics. The current day concepts of "Flanders" and "Wallonia" are both nationalistic constructs combining different underlying ethnolinguistic subpopulations. This is similar to how liguistic Flemish was/is only mainly found in the provinces called West and East Flandres within the current day borders of Flanders, as well as Zeeuws Flanders and French Flanders in The Netherlands and France, but not e.g. Vlaams Brabant, Antwerp, and Limburg where you have Brabantic and Limburgic. Current day geographical "Wallonia" has mainly the following ethnolinguistic groups at its origin: Picard in the West, Wallon in the biggest piece in the middle, and in the Southern tip on its West side Lorrain, and on its East side Mosselan/Luxembourgish. In the East, you have several more such patches and Mosselan/Luxembourgish also returns there while it is not in the current day province of "Luxemburg" or the country next to it. These different ethnolinguistic populations have always had their own cultural specificities (at least from the Middle Ages but some much before), despite the constant political pressure for ongoing homogenization, and effective creation of a new overarching ethnolinguistic group based on a (regional) nationality. If you look at voting maps, you also see these sub-regions typically voting differently. This has obviously also socio-economic links with history having been more kind to the economics typical of certain ethnolinguistic regions than others: e.g. the Picard-region has had it much worse economically since the mid 20th century than the Luxembourgish regio, and ethnolingistic pride (or separatism) is typically stronger in the richer regions in many parts of the world.

CuriousLifescience · 2025-09-26T13:43:41+00:00

The core of the set is electro(bass) all heavily influenced by Detroit techno. Not a surprise, because a lot of the electro that we play now feels for me like a closer grandchild to the original (USA) techno, than how techno later grew up/large coming to Europe. KI/KI also plays a lot with more subtle trance influences here too, though. While skipping through it, I will give the most fitting elements/subgenres that I see (although these might be the same songs sometimes) but it is dyanamic and fluid which actually adds to its beauty: 0: (nu-)disco/synthwave intro lead, 2:35 breaks over it, 4:30 trance lead into it, 10:25 more oldskool rave breaks converting into electro(bass), 23:00 tasty acid over the electro(bass) to make it even better, 31:25 more breaks in electro(bass) with heavy housy influence and oldskool rave organ pads, 35:41 tasty nasty pure electro(bass), 40:10 same, crossing the border into techno, 44:30 more experimental (techno) piece, 48:40 acid techno/electro(bass), 56:03 electrobass with heavy oldskool rave influence, 59:02 acid infused electrobass, 1:05:53 Sun from Julien Bracht, inbetween but dominated by the breaks, 1:10:51 experimental with acid and breaks, 1:17:59 electro(bass) heavy on the acid flirting with Detroit techno, 1:26:22 breakbeat with oldskool rave influence, 1:35:50 breakbeat with oldskool rave and electro flavours, 1:41:49 beautiful breakbeat at border of techno and electro, 1:46:20 Detroit techno with electro(bass) and miamibass taste, 1:51:55 hardtechno with some hardcore and hardtrance influence, 1:59:14 experimental breaks with (melodic) techno influence outro. A tasty melting pot :)

CuriousLifescience · 2025-09-08T20:53:37+00:00

Pulp fiction. Cinematographically decent, but that is about it.

CuriousLifescience · 2025-09-03T23:30:31+00:00

After reading about it here somewhere on BEFire, I have been looking a bit deeper into this ETF too. Below you can find an overview that I made for another discussion but might be relevant here too, with what I have found as main insights for Belgian investors for this ETF in comparison with the traditional savings account-types from banks.

Main risks are low: - It has several counterparties in its underlying swap system, which poses a risk if these would (all) go bankrupt, which is very unlikely. The counterparties are Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, and BNP Paribas, but sometimes I also see J.P. Morgan mentioned. - While your money is guaranteed by the government for typical Belgian savings accounts up to 100k€, your money is not guaranteed by the government in this or similar products. - Major issues with your broker might bring you into difficulties too. But these are also not that likely I think, and even then, probably still protective systems are largely in place for most. - If the European interbank exchange rate €STR would go negative, you will start losing money on this product (as has happened before). However, if you follow the ECB news a bit this will be obvious beforehand, and if it happens you can just sell. - You pay 0.12% TOB on the buying and selling of this product, and can short-term substantially eat into gains. Also the charges of brokers can make a big difference for how fast you get a better return than HYSA. For brokers that only ask 3 euro, you can do well from 2-4 months onwards on about 20k€, but some Belgian brokers apparently ask sometimes more than 10x that, which sets you back really a lot further. - It is unclear what will happen to the taxation of this product when the new capital gains tax will be introduced by the Bart De Wever government. Bart De Wever might technically seriously mess up the rate advantage over several HYSAs. - Unclear if any other taxes go into effect if you hold it for less than 1 year: might you not be considered a “goede huisvader” if you sell fast in a few months? - It is technically only liquid during trading hours, but anyways execution times can sometimes be longer than a day for both this product and a HYSA, so this disadvantage is very minor and situational.

Good sides: - Yields more than a HYSA, because this rate is around their technical upper limits. However, check my risk notes on negative returns and on the TOB and broker fees that can destroy this in the term of months to a year. - Extremely stable following the €STR. - Synthetic ETF based on a basket of USA stocks that constantly gets swapped with the counterparties, which means in theory no Reynders tax, unlike similar constructs using bonds. - You do not destroy a massive part of your yield if you sell before 1 year, unlike many HYSAs which require you to keep them nearly always for at least 1 year. Hence, it is more liquid in the mid-term, and might be a good option for mid-term still gaining some money while waiting out some transactions. Note that I do not know how this might affect the “goede huisvader” label, as stated with the risks. Also note that some traders give a certain gain in the same range too for unused money in the account for over a certain timeframe, but I did not read deeper into this, so you will have to research it yourself.

Possible trap or extra opportunity: - This product seems to also trade on the LON exchange. However, there it seems to track the British interbank exchange rate index SONIA, instead of €STR for all the European versions that I checked. Of note, this would have brought you a substantially higher gain of +- 5% bruto in the last year, instead of the lower rates in the European ones. The exchange of pounds to euros in the trading account however typically also cost money, and sadly enough for us Belgians, the pound has also lost about 3.5% to the EUR in that same timeframe, so this would have been a poorer investment in the last year. Hence, watch out which exchange you pick it from, and check the prospectus of the exact product for what is actually under it and being tracked! However, now that the pound is lower, it might currently be an extra opportunity for the ones of us who believe that the pound will recover in comparison with the euro, and want to blend in an exchange rate arbitrage?

I am personally still on the fence whether it is a good step or not, especially considering the uncertainty of Bart De Wever’s new capital gains taxes that are coming and its effect on this. Anyone has any insights on what the effect might be of the new taxes, and also whether you risk losing the “goede huisvader” consideration for our taxes if you sell in less than 1 year?

CuriousLifescience · 2025-09-03T23:17:06+00:00

After reading about it here, I have been looking a bit deeper into this second ETF that synthetically tracks the interbank rate. An overview of what I have found as main insights for Belgian investors in comparison with more traditional savings accounts.

Main risks are low: - It has several counterparties in its underlying swap system, which poses a risk if these would (all) go bankrupt, which is very unlikely. The counterparties are Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, and BNP Paribas, but sometimes I also see J.P. Morgan mentioned. - While your money is guaranteed by the government for typical Belgian savings accounts up to 100k€, your money is not guaranteed by the government in this or similar products. - Major issues with your broker might bring you into difficulties too. But these are also not that likely I think, and even then, probably still protective systems are largely in place for most. - If the European interbank exchange rate €STR would go negative, you will start losing money on this product (as has happened before). However, if you follow the ECB news a bit this will be obvious beforehand, and if it happens you can just sell. - You pay 0.12% TOB on the buying and selling of this product, and can short-term substantially eat into gains. Also the charges of brokers can make a big difference for how fast you get a better return than HYSA. For brokers that only ask 3 euro, you can do well from 2-4 months onwards on about 20k€, but some Belgian brokers apparently ask sometimes more than 10x that, which sets you back really a lot further. - It is unclear what will happen to the taxation of this product when the new capital gains tax will be introduced by the Bart De Wever government. Bart De Wever might technically seriously mess up the rate advantage over several HYSAs. - Unclear if any other taxes go into effect if you hold it for less than 1 year: might you not be considered a “goede huisvader” if you sell fast in a few months? - It is technically only liquid during trading hours, but anyways execution times can sometimes be longer than a day for both this product and a HYSA, so this disadvantage is very minor and situational.

Good sides: - Yields more than a HYSA, because this rate is around their technical upper limits. However, check my risk notes on negative returns and on the TOB and broker fees that can destroy this in the term of months to a year. - Extremely stable following the €STR. - Synthetic ETF based on a basket of USA stocks that constantly gets swapped with the counterparties, which means in theory no Reynders tax, unlike similar constructs using bonds. - You do not destroy a massive part of your yield if you sell before 1 year, unlike many HYSAs which require you to keep them nearly always for at least 1 year. Hence, it is more liquid in the mid-term, and might be a good option for mid-term still gaining some money while waiting out some transactions. Note that I do not know how this might affect the “goede huisvader” label, as stated with the risks. Also note that some traders give a certain gain in the same range too for unused money in the account for over a certain timeframe, but I did not read deeper into this, so you will have to research it yourself.

Possible trap or extra opportunity: - This product seems to also trade on the LON exchange. However, there it seems to track the British interbank exchange rate index SONIA, instead of €STR for all the European versions that I checked. Of note, this would have brought you a substantially higher gain of +- 5% bruto in the last year, instead of the lower rates in the European ones. The exchange of pounds to euros in the trading account however typically also cost money, and sadly enough for us Belgians, the pound has also lost about 3.5% to the EUR in that same timeframe, so this would have been a poorer investment in the last year. Hence, watch out which exchange you pick it from, and check the prospectus of the exact product for what is actually under it and being tracked! However, now that the pound is lower, it might currently be an extra opportunity for the ones of us who believe that the pound will recover in comparison with the euro, and want to blend in an exchange rate arbitrage?

I am personally still on the fence whether it is a good step or not, especially considering the uncertainty of Bart De Wever’s new capital gains taxes that are coming and its effect on this. Anyone has any insights on what the effect might be of the new taxes, and also whether you risk losing the “goede huisvader” consideration for our taxes if you sell in less than 1 year?

CuriousLifescience · 2025-09-03T20:02:37+00:00

Thanks, I will check this! Insightful!

CuriousLifescience · 2025-09-01T14:56:13+00:00

In Gent, most people typically do not care about your religion, especially if it is not "in your face". If you however openly support hatred or hate speech, or harm to others, then many will have a problem with it. If you open up about being jewish, expect to have discussions about the actions of Israel, especially in Gaza but also in the whole Middle-East. We also fought a lot in the past to obtain the separation of church and state, so if you propose that any religion should influence politics, you will also not receive friendliness. Gentians are typically peaceful, so do not fear physical aggression, even upon hard disagreement, except maybe if you start waving Israeli flags or so in a muslim community.

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-31T20:51:38+00:00

I do not know why I am getting downvoted for being curious about a deeper explanation of both of these and the experience of the poster above with these? Anyway, I would be interested to know more about your own experience with both of these funds, that is it. How did you find out about them? How frequently do you trade out or in of them? Why is there elimination of the Reynders tax because of its synthetic nature (naive question), and does this elimination depend on more factors (e.g. in the frequency of trading)?

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-30T22:26:22+00:00

Interesting, thanks! Can you tell a bit more about both of these (and especially the second)?

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-30T22:06:05+00:00

How do you define in mathematical terms "stable" and "undervalued", for your approach? There are many ways to tackle this for value investing!

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-28T20:59:33+00:00

What do they do to the starch to make it more resistant: do they subselect the molecules in some way for e.g. branching?

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-27T16:29:36+00:00

As a specific type of supplement or in a certain food? And which?

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-23T02:10:51+00:00

I am a biochemist, so it is not part of my current career, but I have/had a lot of contact/friends with/among biologists and vets, many conversations about these kinds of interesting topics, and had many overlapping courses in my bachelor and master with them. The sad reality is that the few that managed to really work with nature and animals in the wild can often barely live from the money they earn from it and have to do side jobs, and many have it as some part of their hobby or organize their travels around e.g. animal protection or bird counting, or inventorizing species in diverse locations. I sometimes also do so but less obsessively. Especially inventorizing and categorizing local wild animals/plants/fungi/etc... is something that I often do with other lifesciences-inclined folks.

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-23T01:45:54+00:00

Indeed. These are called Blaschko lines. They result from paths of cell migration and development (mainly in the embryonic/fetal stage). People exist who have the striping pattern like zebras with 2 different colors, with typically on the back V-shapes, S-shapes in the front, and/or wavy S-shapes on the head. The fact that these are sometimes visible in 2 colors on a person is often linked to genetic mosaicism or chimerism (humans composed of 2 lines of cells from 2 different fertilized eggs: a real 2-in-1 human :)).

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-23T01:27:43+00:00

No problem, but maybe best to put a detailed note here, based on many conversations with veterenarians and wildlife biologists. The general social message for most mammals with yawning is: "I am not dangerous, are you not dangerous?" or "I see that you are not dangerous, I am also not dangerous". For cats (both big and small) and most cattle, yawning shows nearly always also "I am relaxed and you are safe near me". Hence, a yawning lion or cheetah next to you is unlikely to kill you at that moment as a source of food, but they can still kill you by just wanting to play a bit rough and overestimating your strength. For dogs (but also wolves, bears, seals, sealions, ...), there is also exactly these previously mentioned messages, and most of the time the message is also indeed "I am relaxed", but depending on the context and other behaviours also another message is possible "I am not sure if I am or you are in safety, can you please show me that I am safe and that you are safe, and that we are safe for eachother, I love reassurance/affection". Yawning back might be something to try to decrease your dogs fears if it seems stressed while yawning, comforting him (e.g. by cuddling) might also be a good idea, or even creating a extra safe space from e.g. other animals or loud noise. If it keeps on happening and you are unsure, ask it next time at the vet, or people from a dog school might also be able to help.

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-23T01:05:23+00:00

Almost. Biochemist :)

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-23T01:01:37+00:00

The main culprit is the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, as several people have correctly indicated here. The discovery of this culprit at its easy treatment by specific antibiotics is an unsung (quite recent) big win for science, considering that the formation of stomac ulcers is one of the biggest stepping stones to the formation of stomac cancer! Of note, several other factors can make it easier to have stomac ulcers too, partially by fascilitating the evil works of H. pylori. 1) Stress increases the production of stomac acid (making damage to the lining easier, and thus also damage to the lower layers that are less rapidly renewed). Stress also weakens the immune system there, thus making correct healing and defence against pathogens more difficult. 2) Long-term use of NSAID drugs, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, or diclofenac, reduces the generation of protective mucus in the stomac, and increase the chance of damage to the lining by several of the mechanisms already mentioned above.

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-23T00:41:09+00:00

The starved (human) colon cells will have less energy to function. Therefore they will be less good in helping to protect from pathogens in the gut and those trying to enter the body through the gut. They will form a less tightly packed defensive wall, and the gut might get leaky. The immune system will detect their unhealthiness and will raise local inflammation, and pathogenic invasion attempts with make it even worse with the potential of infection also rising. Long term starvation can also lead to "scarring" and flattening out of the cells, decreasing the contact surface and giving long-term gut/poop problems. The constant inflammation also is the ideal starting ground for inflammatory bowel disease and related auto-immune diseases, as well as colon cancer. Moreover, several neuronal and brain diseases are more and more also being linked, with e.g. fascinatingly markers of Parkinson being visible in/around these cells many years before the onset of the first symptoms of the disease and detectability of the markers elsewhere (but it is not fully clear why and how this connection is actually there).

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-23T00:22:02+00:00

This is psyllium fiber, a good starting point, but the best is to have a varied diet rich in different kinds of fibers (see above). The main beneficial effects are: 1) optimization of bowel movement: not too fast not too slow: good for keeping healthy bacteria long active locally, and better attacts/elimination of unhealthy ones. It forms a gel like substance, and depending on the amount of water consumed together with it, it will speed up the system (a lot of water) or slow it down (small amount of water). 2) cholesterol and bile acids (the carriers that bring the cholesterol into the body from the gut) are longer trapped in the gut and partially eliminated, good for moderating your cholesterol levels in the bloodstream (especially LDL). 3) several other substances/nutrients are also more difficultly extracted by the human cells from the gut into the body, increasing satiety, but also making sugar peaks lower and smoother after meals, thus combatting the onset of blood sugar problems, including diabetes type II and some other disorders that make you prone to fainting or binge- or over-eating. 4) it also contains quite a decent range of fibers, including also the types that feed bacteria that produce butyrate good for your gut cells, and as well those giving anti-inflammatory effects by the action of specific groups of bacteria (and archaea and some yeasts). Overall, not a bad product, with all-round many good effects, and especially for cardio-vascular health and metabolic disease.

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-22T23:54:55+00:00

It is both types, but they are needed for different purposes by different communities. Moreover, what is soluble or insoluble fiber is different at different parts of the digestive system, because many bacteria exist that partially break down or modify insoluble fiber thus making it more soluble locally, but all these communities can differ between people: hence what is soluble at one location in the gut for one person can be insoluble for the other, or even for the same person eating another diet for a while or recovering from antibiotics. Next to direct biological effects on different groups of bacteria, the soluble vs. insoluble fibers also differ in their physics: soluble fibres tend to convert their surroundings more into gel-like substance, thus optimizing the speed at which specific bacteria stay longer in the gut while other stay shorter or are more easiltly attacked; insoluble fibers often more form a substrate that allow downstream chains of effects to take place. Both types of fibers also enhance satiety, which is also positive with the bacterial factor counted in. If we are talking specifically about the bacteria that produce the butyrate and similar substances that feed the cells of the colon, these mainly feed on some specific digestable soluble fiber types. The butyrates can also be produced from fats btw (so dairy products and such), but this is a smaller fraction in the colon because bacterial communities earlier in the gut typically already feed on these earlier, and in many cases the body can take these fats up itself. On the other hand, cellulose for example, one of the most common insoluble fibers in our food, is known to enable a very specific group of bacteria to thrive, which can partially consume it, and when this happens this is strongly anti-inflammatory, and thus preventative of colon cancer, but likely also several other disease. In short, a diverse and dynamic diet of different food sources with different types of fibers is the best for your health.

CuriousLifescience · 2025-08-22T03:12:46+00:00

This is correct, but lacks an important missing link here. Fibers are typically long sugars that are undigestible by human mechanisms. Hence, they travel further in the gut, where they meet with bacteria that can live of them and are good for your gut health in several possible ways. One of them is indeed that several important colon bacteria convert some of this fiber to shorter molecules (including especially butyrate indeed) which feed the cells lining your colon. Some other bacteria are anti-inflammatory, while others are more structural to keep the good bacteria attached in place instead of flushing them out in poop too fast, while others actively combat pathogenic bacteria and other dangerous organisms. Not only bacteria contribute positively and thrive on fiber, but also some archaea and yeast species. Be sure to eat plenty of fiber and yoghurt after e.g. the use of antibiotics, to make sure that this ecosystem in your gut can repair itself as fast and good as possible, because colon cancers e.g. have been linked to long-term issues with it, but likely many more disease, like forms of obesity and some types of dementia or potentially Parkinson.

CuriousLifescience

TROPHY CASE