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[martinuzz]

Some of our cities have now forbidden the use of face-covering garments outside on the streets, including facemasks.
Police want to be able to recognize potential rioters on security footage, and be able to judge intent by facial expression when on patrol.

So if you now go to the supermarket, you can get fined for wearing a facemask on your way there, and you can get fined for not wearing a facemask inside the supermarket.

EDIT: dutch indeed. No, our ultras never were particularily bananas. This whole situation is unheard of. Football supporters sometimes riot and throw fireworks at the police, but we've never seen trashed shops or plundering before.

[LordBaal]

So facial shields?

[Bralbaard]

Pretty quiet evening in the Netherlands.
Odd thing that the football supporters have seemingly switched sides tonight, there were reports of them being part of the riots over the last few days, now they seemingly support the police.
I'm as uncomfortable as Martinuzz with this sudden development, though I guess I should not complain if it means the end of this foolishness.

The decline in covid cases is slowing down now that the "british" variant is gaining ground. Better hope that this whole curfew thing is actually worth all the trouble. We should see the effects in a few days.

[martinuzz]

The football supporters thing is not completely unsurprising. Usually when they go out and make amok, they go to the rivals' cities when their club plays there.  Now the rioters are trashing ' their town'.

[martinuzz]

As a side effect of the global anti-corona measures, the flu has been nearly eradicated.

https://www.who.int/influenza/gisrs_laboratory/updates/summaryreport/en/


Makes me slightly worried though. If the corona lockdowns are over, how much more ill are we going to get from the flu for lack of training of our immune system with it when it comes back?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Influenza has been with humanity so long that this effect is negligible now.

The thing that interests me is if any of these flu strains lack a non-human reservoir. If so, we may have knocked out some of these strains permanantly.

[wierd]

Flu is unusual as a virus.

It is actually something like 4 distinct DNA entities, bundled together.  This is how it can change so radically fast. (after a single infection)  If you catch more than one strain of flu at once, the DNA that makes it into the flu capsid can be shuffled from the "deck" of DNA entities available, mixed-and-matched, allowing the next iteration of the virus to have different parentage, and different qualities.

For this reason, viral reservoir in say, birds, swine, and co, can sustain a wide variety of such combinations, when taken together.

COVID does not seem to have such "discrete DNA entities", and is instead just a single loop of DNA.  It would suffer from not getting "sexual-like recombination in the host" that flu does.

[martinuzz]

Starting this weekend, children under the age of 12 in Belgium are no longer allowed to have more than one hobby.  They will have to make hard life choices whether they rather play football or guitar. Hobby groups are not allowed to be greater than 10 (so I guess football is a no go anyways).

Children older than 12 on the other hand, are getting more freedom. After months of solitude, they will be allowed again to meet with maximum 10 friends, as long as it is outdoors.

[Starver]

As a side effect of the global anti-corona measures, the flu has been nearly eradicated.

Spoiler: 13/May/2020 (click to show/hide)

[TamerVirus]

'Member "Worry more about the flu, bro"?

[wierd]

Why the hell should it matter how many hobbies the kidlings have, as long as they are indoor ones, that do not require socialization?


EG, I draw, I knit/crochet, and I do tech-stuff.  None of those require me to go be elbow-to-asshole with other people.  I can just decide which I want to do that day, and do it, and stay happy and safe indoors, and socially distanced from anyone else.

Now, for those families that want their kid to be GREAT at soccer, AND at basketball, AND at baseball, AND take them to Judo, AND ... AND...  where all those "AND" situations involve ANOTHER social setting, packed to the gills with more kids who's parents insist that they go and do those things---

SURE-- YES-- PLEASE LIMIT THAT.

But "hobby" is not the same thing as "Shit I make my kid do to keep them occupied, and out of trouble, that keeps them so engaged socially that they have no time to think or do anything else."

 

[martinuzz]

Belgians have always been good at inventing completely ridiculous laws and rules.


For example, take the Belgian elections.. Over here in the Netherlands, we vote every 4 years to determine which of the political parties are going to form the new government for the coming 4 years... In Belgium, they vote every 4 years to determine which of the political parties are going to fail to form a new government the coming 4 years.

[Starver]

Starting this weekend, children under the age of 12 in Belgium are no longer allowed to have more than one hobby.  They will have to make hard life choices whether they rather play football or guitar.

They should take inspiration from (if they don't want to actually take up) Chess-Boxing... All hail the rise of Frisbee-Skate-Stamp-Painting-Fishing-Treehouses!

[Frumple]

It might (and sounds like) be something more specific than just a hobby as a general thing? Something getting lost in translation or summation. 'Cause that sounds more like a limit on hobby groups or after school programs or somethin' along those lines than some kind of you-can't-knit-and-handegg-only-one thing.

And, like, limiting how much group stuff the folks in society least capable of following basic precautions is getting up to isn't really that bad of an idea, in the abstract, y'know? Implementation sounds like it might be sorta' scuffed, tho'.

[martinuzz]

Nah no translation garble. The word for hobby in both Belgian and english is hobby.

As for enforcement, the Belgian government has said that they trust the parents to be responsible.
Haha. We've seen were that has lead to here, saying to trust the people to be responsible.

THEY KILL POOR INNOCENT PIANOS.


EDIT: in other news, the row between the EU and AstraZeneca escalates. AstraZeneca refuses to talk to Brussels.

Merkel is now preparing the German troops to invade the UK, to secure the vaccin.
This should be a breeze now that the UK is grounding all it's planes.