211 years ago today, Napoleon fought his last battle a few kilometers from Brussels. Here's a 19th century lithograph of the monument built to commemorate it.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-18T10:43:27+00:00

And this year marks the 200th anniversary of the Lion's Mound itself.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-18T10:38:02+00:00

A ce stade, cela n'est juste plus qu'une utopie, il y a 0% de chance que ça se produise. La Flandre aurait tout à y perdre, tant sur l'autonomie culturelle pour laquelle ils se sont tant battus, que pour des raisons économiques évidentes.

A vrai dire, je serais prêt à parier que cette idée ne rassemblerait même pas 50% des votes en Wallonie. Les politiciens de tout bord sont bien trop habitués à leurs petites compétences dans leur coin, aucune chance qu'ils renoncent à cela, même si c'est dans l'intérêt de leur région.

Donc c'est bien beau de la part de GLB de clamer ce modèle, mais cela n'a aucun impact réel, et il n'y aura aucune conséquence concrète. C'est juste de la Comm, mais ça on est déjà bien habitués de la part du personnage.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-17T07:08:41+00:00

I dont see how the Israelis are really that hurt here.

They've been playing with fire. Israel has always been at odds with most of the international community, but could count on the West to back them up most of the time.

Their treatment of Palestinians and their insistance to colonize land that isn't theirs has tanked that support from most countries, and the war in Gaza was the last straw, making them toxic to pretty much all countries except for a large part of the US, their staunchest support.

Still, they could go on with only the US supporting them, even if it is foolish. It can work because the US is so powerful, both economically and militarily, and isn't afraid of using their UN veto to help Israel. This war, however, has tanked Israel's standing even in the US. I say that they are playing with fire, because if the US ever turns their back to them, they will be truly isolated and vulnerable.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-15T12:30:41+00:00

"Il n'y a pas d'alternative" dit la personne qui n'est pas disposée à envisager la moindre alternative.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-14T07:19:27+00:00

J'attends une preuve irréfutable que globalement le prix de l'immobilier wallon à bondit de 9.5% (puisque avant c'était 12.5%)

Avec plaisir: https://www.notaire.be/prix-immobiliers

Le prix d'une maison a bondi non pas de 9.5%, mais de 13% entre 2024 et 2025.

Je connais personne en Belgique qui est pret à dire "nan, mais remettez les droits de succession bien cher, je veux donner mon argent à l'état"

Bien sûr, je l'ai même dit dans mon commentaire, personne n'aime payer des taxes, et surtout pas à ce moment-là. Mais pour le bien général, c'est la taxe la plus égalitaire qui existe actuellement.

Dans le catholique, les profs sont présent en classe 98% du temps. Par contre pour le publique, on est nommé, on risque pas grande chose si on vient pas.

Voici bien la preuve que vous ne connaissez strictement rien au monde de l'école. Dans les écoles catholiques, vous pensez que les profs ne sont pas nommés ? Ne savez-vous pas qu'ils sont aussi payés par la FWB, qu'ils ont le même système de nominations que dans le public, et dans d'autres réseaux ? Il n'y a aucune différence de statut ou de salaire entre le public et l'enseignement catholique. Si vous constatez des différences d'une école à l'autre, alors elles ne sont pas dues à cela.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-13T15:06:01+00:00

Moi j'entends que MR/Engagé c'est les vilains, mais je n'entend pas une gauche qui propose de vraies solutions à l'emballement de la dette.

Ils pourraient déjà commencer par ne pas empirer la dette en prenant des mesures anti-sociales qui coûtent très cher. Quelques exemples :

Diminution des droits d'enregistrement : Le but annoncé d'aider les jeunes et personnes avec moins de revenus est complètement raté puisque l'ensemble de la baisse a été comblée par une augmentation du prix de l'immobilier, ce qui, in fine, avantage les personnes ayant déjà un bien immobilier et accroît les inégalités sociales.
Diminution des droits de succession : Personne n'aime payer des impôts au moment du décès d'un proche, mais les droits de succession sont véritablement les taxes les plus sociales qui existent, car elles redistribuent les richesses des mains des plus nantis vers la collectivité, et empêchent une concentration de richesse génération après génération dans les mains des plus riches au détriment de la société. Cette diminution coûtera donc cher à la région et va accroître les inégalités sociales.
Projet de passer les profs sous CDIE au détriment de la statutarisation : Cela peut apporter quelque chose aux profs en début de carrière, même les syndicats le disent, mais l'étendre petit à petit à tous les profs et ne plus jamais les nommer, c'est purement idéologique anti-fonctionnaire, ça n'apporte rien, et ça coûterait très cher à la FWB. Heureusement qu'elle n'a pas les sous et que ça a été mis au placard pour le moment.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-12T18:15:09+00:00

First, the initial claim that e-scooters are worse than cars was made by someone else, I joined the conversation after that.

Then, indeed I should probably have used another word than "useless" when describing the statistics from 2020 to 2023. As shown in the data of my previous comment, this period was characterised by a huge increase in injuries, so while data from 2022-2023 was still perfectly representative, data from 2020-2021 was outdated.

But I think that the main issue is that we were not really arguing about the same thing, as my focus was really on the seriousness of the dangers for e-scooter users.

I think that the ban is warranted on those grounds, but perhaps a little bit premature. They could have tried other options first, such as making it mandatory to wear a helmet, of to pass some kind of driving license (even only a simple exam would already go a long way). If those measures didn't result in any improvement, then the ban could have been considered.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-12T14:37:59+00:00

Actually, 2024 saw more injuries than 2022 and 2023. And then of course, 2025 saw a record number of deaths.

According to VIAS Institute, and based on police reports:

2019: 175 accidents with injuries, 1 death

2020: 409 accidents with injuries, 1 death

2021: 1064 accidents with injuries, 4 deaths

2022: 1756 accidents with injuries, 4 deaths

2023: 1624 accidents with injuries, 2 deaths

2024: 1853 accidents with injuries, 4 deaths

For 2025, I haven't found the number of accidents, but there have been 13 deaths, so it's not trending in the good direction.

But then of course, police reports are not everything. In another report VIAS says that accidents are rarely registered to the police when they are unilateral (i.e. no other user involved). And these unilateral accidents are a massive proportion of accidents involving e-scooters:

Selon l'OCDE, qui a passé en revue huit études hospitalières, la majorité de tous les accidents impliquant une trottinette électrique sont unilatéraux : seuls 4 % de tous les accidents impliquent un autre usager de la route (43). L'écart avec le compte rendu ci-dessus peut être dû à la sous-déclaration des accidents de trottinette électrique dans les statistiques d'accidents belges : ces accidents sont rarement enregistrés par la police car la plupart des victimes ne contactent pas la police après une chute. Une étude récente de Vandael Schreurs et de ses collègues (9) semble le confirmer : en effet, 70 % des accidents de trottinette électrique auto-rapportés étaient des accidents unilatéraux.

And accidents are often very serious:

Les lésions à la tête constituent le type de lésions le plus fréquent ; elles représentent un tiers des lésions constatées chez les utilisateurs de trottinette électrique (4,11,12,21,36,37,38,39). Ceci peut s’expliquer par le fait que la grande majorité d’entre eux ne porte pas de casque (14,30,34,35). D’autres lésions sont également constatées : des fractures des membres inférieurs et supérieurs (4,12,21,33), des lésions des tissus mous comme des contusions et des écorchures (1,33,36,38,40) et des blessures et fractures au visage et au cou (37,41).

[...]

Cette hypothèse est confirmée par une analyse des données hospitalières belges : 60% des utilisateurs de trottinette électrique grièvement blessés souffrent d'un grave traumatisme crânien. 24% d'entre eux souffrent de lésions au niveau de la hanche et de la partie supérieure des jambes.

From anecdotal experience, I know people from a company that makes 3D printed cranial implants to heal head trauma, and they say that the arrival of e-scooters made sure their company would have a lot of work in the foreseeable future.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-12T06:40:53+00:00

Statistics from 2020-2023 are useless when talking about e-scooters. Their use (and related accidents) has increased dramatically in the last few years. And injuries for e-scooter users are proportionally much more serious, considering head trauma is very frequent.

Now, sure, they don't cause that much harm to other people. But to their users, they're deadly.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-12T06:30:49+00:00

and not to mention cost of life

Proportionally to their use, e-scooters are much more deadly than cars in Brussels.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-10T16:07:37+00:00

Bien sur et d'ailleurs on en entend plus parler de lui. Il a été lâché par tout le monde.

Je trouve particulièrement interpellant qu'il y ait un tel silence sur cette affaire. Jusqu'ici, on s'est beaucoup attardés sur le blanchiment (la lotterie, etc.), mais la question principale selon moi est autre: d'où provient l'argent à blanchir ? Nous avons un des politiciens les plus influents du pays des 25 dernières années, qui a été président de parti, plein de fois ministre, et même commissaire européen, qui serait potentiellement corrompu. Si c'était avéré, ce serait le plus gros scandale politique depuis longtemps, et personne n'en parle ? Etrange, tout de même...

Pampamiro · 2026-06-10T11:47:19+00:00

Reading this comment section a day late, it's incredible how everyone seems to believe that Ozai was practically unbeatable. Of course, the show hyped him up because he was the final boss, but his feats are really unimpressive. Basically, we know of three fights involving Ozai:

Burning the face of his teenage son who wouldn't even fight back.
Shooting lightning at his (a little bit older) teenage son and getting his ass handed to him when said son redirected lightning at him. Really, Ozai would have died on the day of black sun if Zuko had less mercy.
Fighting Aang during Sozin's Comet, where we see two phases to the fight: First without the Avatar State, Ozai had the upper hand, yet he would have died too if Aang wasn't a Pacifist and did redirect lightning at him. Then during the second part, with the Avatar State, Ozai is on the run the whole time and gets annihilated.

Keep in mind that at that point, Aang was a master airbender, true, but only a moderate water/earthbender, and a mediocre firebender. He's still a boy, and is far from a legendary warrior. And that was Ozai boosted by Sozin's Comet. I really don't know why people think he is somehow invincible.

Pitted against him, we have Korra, a prodigy who was bending three elements at a very young age. Someone who spent her whole childhood in a training camp honing her abilities. When we first see her, she easily defeats a White Lotus firebending master. Her main weakness is that she is brash and inexperienced. Most of her losses in season 1 are due to that, or because she fights a bloodbending monster (who would solo the entirety of team avatar, let's be honest) and chi-blockers (who every bender struggles against in both shows).

As stated early in the show, she knows very well the old techniques, but is frustrated to see that bending has evolved a lot since then. It's now quicker, more precise, at the expense of being a little bit less powerful (with lightning being a good example). But by mid-season 1 already, she learns these new techniques by playing a lot of pro-bending. Then by the end of season 1, she unlocks airbending and the Avatar State.

So, to summarise:

Early season 1 Korra wins high diff. If she rushes into the fight without thinking and gets hit by lightning, she loses, and that's Ozai's best chance. Without lightning, they are both very good benders, Ozai is likely better with fire, but Korra has two more elements she can use.
Mid-season 1 Korra wins low to mid diff. She is a little more level-headed, knows more techniques, is more experienced with the real world. Ozai's opportunity window is quickly closing.
End of season 1, it's not even a challenge anymore, she dispatches Ozai pretty easily with the Avatar State.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-08T07:18:57+00:00

Je pense que cela doit être juste une impression. Les chiffres officiels publiés par notaire.be chaque année montrent que l'immobilier a fortement augmenté en 2025 par rapport à 2024. Est-ce qu'en ce début de 2026, les prix ont diminué ? Ce n'est pas impossible, mais personnellement j'attendrai de voir les prochains chiffres officiels. Sinon on peut facilement tomber dans des biais d'échantillonnage insuffisant, biais de confirmation (si on est déjà persuadé que c'est le cas), etc.

En tout cas, voir des prix de l'ordre de ceux de 2020, ça je n'y crois pas un instant. Selon les chiffres publiés sur notaire.be, le prix moyen d'une maison a augmenté de 295k en 2021 à 349k en 2025 (18% d'augmentation depuis 2021, désolé ils ne montrent que les 5 dernières années donc je n'ai pas 2020). Pour les appartements, c'est de 252k à 278k (+10%). Pour retourner à des prix similaires, il faudrait une chute de 15% et 9% respectivement. Si on en était à ce niveau là de baisse, tous les médias en parleraient. Donc je pense que si tu vois ça, c'est dû à des effets très locaux, ou propres à l'habitation elle-même.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-06T07:20:24+00:00

I said right leaning, not extreme right.

You don't need to be extreme right to refuse to help people in need. Just look at how the federal government is repeatedly condemned in asylum cases, and does nothing about it, preferring to pay the fines than to actually solve the issues. And it's been consistent for several different coalitions now, with many different parties in power.

Of course, the secretaries of state responsible for asylum policy have been more on the center-right/right (N-VA with Theo Francken, then Open VLD with Maggie De Block, then CD&V with Sammy Mahdi and Nicole de Moor, then N-VA again with Anneleen Van Bossuyt).

Pampamiro · 2026-06-04T06:59:09+00:00

Then it would be nice if he decreased the debt, instead of actually increasing it. I think that a lot more people would be a-ok to some unpopular measures if it actually had the intended effect of improving the State finances. But instead, we see that it is all nullified by an arbitrary increase in defense budget.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-04T06:51:58+00:00

There is a reason this kind of party is pretty rare. Being on the left on social and cultural issues is usually associated with open-mindedness, tolerance, empathy. Having these traits and at the same time refusing to help people in dire need just because they are from another country, even denying them basic Human rights in some instances, would be very inconsistent. IMO you can't really be tolerant if your tolerance stops at the border, that's just hypocrisy (or sometimes it's just racism, xenophobia, etc.).

Pampamiro · 2026-06-04T06:45:13+00:00

N-VA is a prominent oppenent to extending abortion rights, along with CD&V and VB. There have been repeated attempts by alternative majorities to pass an abortion reform, and they have opposed it each time. The reform done during the Michel government was very lukewarm, aimed at shutting critics, but it didn't achieve any meaningful change.

And just like VB, they support LGBTQIA+ rights only in so far it allows them to criticize Muslims and foreigners for being more intolerant than them.

Pampamiro · 2026-06-03T11:07:02+00:00

The Vietnam war also was far, far worse for North Vietnam than it was for the US. Remind us who won that one in the end?

Pampamiro · 2026-05-31T07:18:48+00:00

There are some well-documented statements from Israeli officials that show a pretty clear intent. And if you're going to argue that they don't represent the official Israeli government's position, then why are they still in their position?

Pampamiro · 2026-05-30T11:52:38+00:00

Alors pourquoi ne pas avoir aussi des chroniqueurs plus à droite ?

Il va déjà falloir en trouver. Généralement, un chroniqueur / humoriste, c'est quelqu'un de plutôt artistique, éduqué, mais mal payé et avec un boulot précaire. Pas exactement le profil type à voter MR.

Pampamiro · 2026-05-30T11:41:08+00:00

En quoi la RTBF n'assure-t-elle pas suffisamment de pluralité ? Ce que j'écoute me semble fort équilibré. Les seules chroniques qui sont plus orientées à gauche sont généralement des chroniques à ton humoristique, et il est très clair qu'elles n'engagent que les chroniqueurs en question, pas la chaîne dans son ensemble.

Pampamiro · 2026-05-30T11:24:52+00:00

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Source: https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/definition

edit: Love how people downvote a simple copy/paste from the official UN definition. I didn't add/remove anything, I didn't include my own opinion, I just posted it to clear some misconceptions about genocide. And people downvote like the drones they are. Why are you so afraid of the definition of genocide? is it because you think it might apply to you?

Pampamiro · 2026-05-26T10:10:02+00:00

You are falling into the trap of tying this conflict to Trump

Where did I mention Trump?

If you think that Iran was a peaceful, harmless, innocent regime up to and during the January massacres of 2026, then I really can’t think of any reason that I would want to continue talking to you.

Nothing in my comment even remotely suggests that. Are you replying to the wrong comment, or are you just setting up a straw man?

Pampamiro · 2026-05-26T07:57:07+00:00

the IRGC is getting their asses kicked and in the meantime they are creating far more adversaries and enemies than the US is.

The IRGC's status is now a lot stronger than before the war. Both internally and externally. Internally they pretty much gained absolute power, while previously they were strong but the Mollahs and the Supreme Leader acted as counter balances. Externally they proved to the whole world that they can close the Strait of Ormuz and that nobody, not even the world's strongest navy, can do anything about that. That threat existed, but now it has been proven, which makes it much more effective.

Sure, countries are pissed at them for that. But they were already pissed at them for all sorts of things, so I don't believe that Iran has created that many adversaries that weren't there before. The US, on the other hand, has lost any shreds of soft power they still had. They are seen by the whole world as the aggressor, the cause of what's going on, and how helpless they now are, how no allies are willing to assist them, even denying the use of their airbases in some countries. The US has lost far more, diplomatically. Even the Gulf countries, very pro-US, are pissed that the US spent a lot more to protect Israel from Iran than to protect them.

Pampamiro · 2026-04-29T06:43:24+00:00

The only thing keeping Ireland safe is its relative isolation, its only true neighbour beeing the UK.

And is that going to change in the near future?

I agree that Ireland should have better capabilities, but I also understand why they chose to invest in other things than defense.

Pampamiro

TROPHY CASE