Europe Pub

Apparently it’s possible to pay cash to a Google Pay retailer and top-up the account without having a bank account. But it’s not a global option.

Anyone know if this is possible in Belgium? Looks like Carrefour and MediaMarkt accept Gpay, but I’m not sure if that also means they can top-up Gpay. If yes, then the next question: is it possible to do that without a smartphone?

Anyone know of any conventional banks offering free accounts these days? By “conventional”, I mean a bank with a vault that is not strictly digital/cashless, where you still have at least a fighting chance at getting over-the-counter cash services (to withdraw and deposit cash).

Or if none are free, what would be the bank with the cheapest fees spanning a year?

Ouch, these two are brutal to each other sometimes with their sandbagging

There had been calls for Israel to be excluded over the conduct of the war in Gaza.

It’s gradually rolled out, so maybe you don’t have access to it yet but it’s coming

I would be very surprised if Iceland vote to stay in the competition while Israel are allowed. Could be that the dominoes are starting to fall.

THE ARTICLE:

Iceland will determine its participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 next week.

The board of Icelandic national broadcaster RÚV has confirmed that they will be discussing the Nordic country’s participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in a meeting on Wednesday, December 10. It is expected that a decision on whether Iceland withdraws from the contest will be made on that date. This comes after today’s EBU General Assembly vote confirming that Israeli broadcaster KAN would be allowed to participate in this year’s contest.

Last week, the RÚV board approved a recommendation calling for the EBU to remove Israel from the competition. Meanwhile, a survey in October revealed that nearly 60 percent of Icelanders prefer the country to withdraw from Eurovision were Israel to remain in the contest.

Continue reading here - https://eurovoix.com/2025/12/04/iceland-ruv-board-to-discuss-eurovision-participation-next-week/

Sometimes its fun to headcannon your killers

a quick couple of Killer matches to get into the festive season spirit!

BHVR managing to top that one awful pallet on forgotten ruins with this update. The one that can spawn between shack and tower on the corner IYKYK

When a hyphen is involved in a Belgian address, it can be confusing because apparently there is ambiguity. There are addresses with these forms:

1. rue Whatever 62-64
2. rue Whatever 24-1
3. rue Whatever 1-2
4. rue Whatever 3-1
5. rue Whatever 6-8
6. rue Whatever 6-10
7. rue Whatever 6/8
8. Boulevard du Roi Albert 2 8-10

I believe sample 1 means there is one address or mailbox for two adjacent buildings.

Sample 2 apparently means mail box/slot 1 at building number 24

Sample 3 is tricky, but I would assume an odd and even number would never reflect adjacent buildings because usually odd and even are on different sides of the road. So is it fair to say that’s the same as case 2?

Sample 4 is more ambiguous because 1 and 3 could be adjacent buildings, but it’s perhaps bizarre to give a decreasing range. So I would guess it means box 1 at building 3. Correct?

Sample 5 is the most ambiguous. Does it mean box 8 at building 6, or building 6 and 8 combined? The only difference between case 1 and 5 is the size of the number. If the number is large, it becomes less likely to be a box number. But still it’s just guesswork.

Sample 6 could be a range of 3 buildings, or box 10 at building 6.

Sample 7 is rare, but has the same problem; though less ambiguous. I’m more inclined to say it means box 8 at building 6 because “/” would hopefully not be used to list building numbers.

Sample 8 is the ugliest, most confusing. The “2” is using an arabic digit rather than the roman numeral “II”. Note the very critical space between the 2 and the 8. Fuck whoever writes an address that way. Whenever the leading digit is a 2 or a 3 there is a risk that it’s part of a street name in someone’s honor. Without the critical space, it would refer to King Albert the 1st, building 28.

I use very unreliable email forwarding services for protection and control. Rationale:

• to detect data leaks (every email address I disclose is unique to the recipient)
• to disable an ephemeral address when it is abused

I pay no fees. My forwarding providers are likely running in some kid’s mom’s basement. Lots of messages get lost. It’s usually the worst kind of a loss: a blackhole. Which means the sender successfully connects and receives a well-sent status. The messages are lost after the sender is left with the false idea that it was delivered. I have no idea if the messages are lost by the forwarding provider or the email server of the ultimate destination.

In one case I discovered that a forwarding provider was silently dropping all messages no matter what email service I use. It’s a gratis service, so the idea of suing or taking action against the shitty provider would be controversial and likely unsuccessful. It could have been happening for months or even years before I discovered it was happening.

Email is inherently unreliable. It is what it is. But at the same time, Belgium has decided that sending an email carries the legal weight of a registered letter. Yikes! Indeed, something officially important for which my attention is critical and has legal consequences has a good chance of going to a black hole without my knowledge.

To worsen matters, the post service charges ~€10 to send a proper registered letter. That extortionate cost sufficiently drives senders to use email instead.

I use very unreliable email forwarding services for protection and control. Rationale:

• to detect data leaks (every email address I disclose is unique to the recipient)
• to disable an ephemeral address when it is abused

I pay no fees. My forwarding providers are likely running in some kid’s mom’s basement. Lots of messages get lost. It’s usually the worst kind of a loss: a blackhole. Which means the sender successfully connects and receives a well-sent status. The messages are lost after the sender is left with the false idea that it was delivered. I have no idea if the messages are lost by the forwarding provider or the email server of the ultimate destination.

In one case I discovered that a forwarding provider was silently dropping all messages no matter what email service I use. It’s a gratis service, so the idea of suing or taking action against the shitty provider would be controversial and likely unsuccessful. It could have been happening for months or even years before I discovered it was happening.

Email is inherently unreliable. It is what it is. But at the same time, Belgium has decided that sending an email carries the legal weight of a registered letter. Yikes! Indeed, something officially important for which my attention is critical and has legal consequences has a good chance of going to a black hole without my knowledge.

To worsen matters, the post service charges ~€10 to send a proper registered letter. That extortionate cost sufficiently drives senders to use email instead.

Fun series from puff. I have found a bunch of great creators from this

Fantastic huntress game by Cru5h, not just a survivor main it turns out

Rough to hear this from one of the consultants. Operation health really was kind of a bust. They promised to work on tunneling and slugging, along with QoL and bugfixes instead of new content. Instead we've got no new content and they changed pallet density and loops. I feel like every creator has their own pet bug that never goes away. Otz is Knight's getting stunned while laying a trail. Slate hates Ghost face's camera disappearing during the mori. Puffalope hates the Deathslinger aim animation being broken for survivors. Creators shouldn't have to choose a bug from your game to adopt as their hobby horse BHVR

Photographer Owen Harvey explores belonging and identity in his work, and as the pearlies reach a major milestone, he decided to capture their traditions and discuss their future