News / Should rape carry a life sentence in Poland? [146]


Which ones?

I know that the page I linked isn't the most reliable, but it is not easy to compare crime statistics of different countries.

In any country, crime is usually concentrated in areas, particularly cities.


Let's all talk about eachother's countries' laws. That way, we might see where our own countries are doing better or worse than others, and even if we can't make a difference to the legal systems of our own countries, we may at least learn something.

News / What is the future of Catholic church in Poland. [154]

gadać? That's the more polite term.

I was actually drinking T.T. Landlord and Bombardier. No visions or effigies appeared, if truth be told.

News / What is the future of Catholic church in Poland. [154]

Every sperm is sacred. If any sperm is wasted, the Lord gets quite irate.

I bought a pint of Guinness, and the barmaid drew a picture in the head of the virgin Mary. I drank it anyway, but the bubbles left on the side of the glass after I had finished left a series of pictures of the stations of the cross, Moses and his mountain and a little depiction from the book of Revelations.

News / Should rape carry a life sentence in Poland? [146]

The site I just linked does in fact report a lower crime rate in Poland, despite the murder rate being much higher than in the UK. However...

I picked on murder rate, partly because it is one of the most heinous of crimes, but also because murders are generally noticed. Rape victims often do not report the crime for reasons such as fear of having to give evidence, shame or whatever. Many other crimes can go unreported if it is felt that nothing will actually be done about it. The finding of a body or the unexplained disappearance of a person is more often than not, at least noticed and recorded.

The law is not the greatest deterrent. The knowledge by almost the wntire human race that acts such as murder, rape, theft and smoking in a designated non-smoking area, is a much greater deterrent.

Am I still drunk?

News / Should rape carry a life sentence in Poland? [146]


Poland has a higher murder rate than the UK, doesn't it?

nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita

History / Scotland and Poland. Mutual connections since 1576 [45]


Off-licence (liquor store) that sells Polish beer.

Love / Are all Polish women the same..... [81]


Ever seen the loading bay at a mannequin factory?

History / Scotland and Poland. Mutual connections since 1576 [45]


On and off.

UK, Ireland / What is in Poland that England doesn't have? [142]


I thought everyone had to pay tuition fees - no means testing involved. It now comes out of the student loan. It is curious that once a young adult decides to start higher education, they are looked upon as a child. Parents have no legal obligation to pay a single penny, but their income is still taken into consideration. Vocational courses have always had to be paid for out of the student's pocket (or at least I think so).

12, 15, 18 years old for various films.
16 for cigarettes (or has this changed yet?)
18 for alcohol and pornography
?? for not having one's parents' incomes means-tested for university funding?

When am I entitled to wear slippers?

My soon to be ex-lodger (Polish) wears slippers and he's only 20. That's just not the British way! Is this one of the differences we are supposed to be highlighting in this thread?

UK, Ireland / Integrating Polish people into the British society [150]

I thought that was what...


might have meant. But then there was


as well. You live in London according to your profile, so I imagine talking to strangers would mark you out as a nutter.

I don't do smileys, but I do smile (insanely).

UK, Ireland / Integrating Polish people into the British society [150]


Even if I was only joking?

Not the best bit of joking I've ever done, I know.

Life / "K*rwa"-why do young Poles find this word so cool ? [67]

One of my colleagues is 70 years old. He said kurwa. Just once though.

UK, Ireland / What is in Poland that England doesn't have? [142]


The mistake I made was assuming that because I have travelled across Poland (in a linear fashion) a couple of times along major roads, I could give some sort of opinion about what the countryside is like. Poland has flat bits, mountainy bits, boggy bits, woody bits, big farms, little farms and a variety of urban areas ranging from tiny to really quite big.

England has flat bits, hilly bits (you have to go to Wales or Scotland for mountains). It has big wide open places as flat as a pancake with endless fields and endless skies (like much of East Anglia, the East Midlands and so on). It also has little patchworks of woodlands and fields with little windy country lanes like you find in parts of the south. Then there are the wilder areas like the North York Moors, the Peak District, the Cheviots or Dartmoor. I believe someone has already mentioned some of our henges. You can't beat a good henge.

I happen to love the countryside, but having lived there as much as I have, it can be a boring place to live, especially if you can't get out. I like big cities, urban and industrial landscapes, modern architecture and old cobbled streets they forgot to tarmac over.

I have never seen a man on a bicycle leading a cow down the road on a leash in England.

Life / Is Dining Out Popular in Poland? [9]


Aren't you even going to cook it first?

Life / help me find some Polish music I like (Doda genre)... [18]

Liking Doda has nothing to do with how few clothes she wears then?

News / Adult movie producers looking for 'actresses' in Poland or just a weirdo? [120]


Who know if our goats are safe?

The bloke was obviously a perv of some sort. It certainly would be recommendable to inform the police but not to expect sirens and to see him being dragged away in handcuffs. I'm sure many of us have seen the lady in the Simpsons who, at the slightest sign of ensuing panic, leaps up and screams

THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

News / This is horrible... Baby farm in Poznan!!!! [41]

I certainly agree with the last two opinions (the last three, without counting Joe's and Bob's as the same). Add to that the fact that there are children in need of adoption from every country, and the best place for adoption is within their own country. But they're more often than not, the more difficult older children who have already learnt suffering. A few handy pounds, euros or dollars can buy a fresh one... it makes me sick. Humans are not commodities. Slavery was supposedly banned how long ago?

UK, Ireland / What is in Poland that England doesn't have? [142]


Some new sort of tuition fee has come in over the last couple of years where it is paid directly out of student loans, I think. Notice that a student loan is a kind of loan, so eventually it does have to be paid back. I don't suppose it's enough to live off either. When I was a student (a couple and a bit years ago), I received a grant which was means-tested by my parents' incomes. They did count my mother's pension as income, but it did cover the tuition fees. It was a long time ago though, and I p!ssed all the money away and failed my course, so you shouldn't ask me anyway.


You didn't see England around easter this year.

History / Who were European natives? What happened to them? Where they are? [79]

It had better be a good library. The local one has a lort of Mills & Boon and Arthur C. Clarke. I wonder if my own personal library actually beats it, especially with the 1962 Readers Digest Atlas of the British Isles, Brewer's Phrase & Fable and a wide selection of Mr. Men books.

News / This is horrible... Baby farm in Poznan!!!! [41]


I didn't say that. Ask the £uki about that one.

I know it's an article about the subject, but thought it worth mentioning that the article is not about Poland.

History / Who were European natives? What happened to them? Where they are? [79]


Ever read a book?

UK, Ireland / Integrating Polish people into the British society [150]


Maybe I don't want to know you either!

News / This is horrible... Baby farm in Poznan!!!! [41]


Poland is not mentioned in that article.

History / Who were European natives? What happened to them? Where they are? [79]


Every living human today is Homo sapiens sapiens.
Cro-Magnon man was also Homo sapiens sapiens.
Neanderthals were Homo sapiens neanderthalensis or Homo neanderthalensis.

Cro-Magnon mtDNA has been found to be of Haplogroup N, one of the two strains (along with Haplogroup M) that migrated out of Africa, from which all other non-African and some African haplogroups descend.

No, we're not exactly Cro-Magnon these days, but it is possible that modern Europeans, at least in part, descend from this group of prehistoric people.

UK, Ireland / Integrating Polish people into the British society [150]

What is actually meant by the term integration?

I rarely go to the pub nowadays, but there are other ways of doing things with other people - the other people I refer to are the British ones. I grew up in a village with three pubs, two churches, a village shop, a sports club that included football, cricket, tennis, rugby and other stuff. It also had numerous people who walked their dogs around the area.

I don't go to the pub much, but I do still meet people. I talk to people in bus queues, I chat with the greengrocer, pop round to see the neighbours and have a cup of tea. If I had neighbours who didn't want to share a cup of tea and a chinwag, I wouldn't go round there, but that wouldn't mean there wouldn't be other opportunities to do things with other people.

Could any of those things be what being integrated is all about?

I have decided to draw up a list of ideas for those who would like to know how to integrate. Let me know how you get on!

1. Go to a pub, preferably neither a really loud pub nor a really quiet old man's pub, and not in a large group.
2. Say good morning to the peole in the bus queue when you arrive.
3. Go to a sports club and find out about joining. Not something I know much about, to be honest.
4. Get a dog and take it for walks when other people are doing the same.
5. Make excuses to talk to the neighbours.
6. Develop some sort of British-style eccentricity. Something like building a motorised garden shed or sticking a giant shark sculpture in the roof of your house (don't worry about the landlord).

7. Put milk in your tea even if you think it's disgusting.

USA, Canada / Polish-American Pizza Man [3]

A mate of mine who still delivers pizzas had a similar story, only the woman he delivered the pizza to was Slovakian, didn't move out after the interesting rendezvous, then somehow got his phone number and kept hassling him drunkenly! Perhaps it's a rite of passage for pizza deliverers the world over.

History / Who were European natives? What happened to them? Where they are? [79]

What happened to all the caves though?


There was a similar story about a man in Cheddar. No, not the cheese - a small town in the southwest of England. This chap's DNA matched that of the remains of a prehistoric bloke found in... um... a cave!


The similarities and the differences are what tell us things about the people who people who practised them. Indo European religions were a lot more similar to eachother than those of other cultures from neighbouring regions and from what can be learnt about the belief systems in Europe that preceded them.

History / Who were European natives? What happened to them? Where they are? [79]


Not wrong. The ice may well return. What is native and what is not, is a far more complicated thing. What I said about arctic foxes was simply to remind you of that in a more interesting (and hopefully humourous) way.

Anyway, there are far more indigenous bacteria than humans. So what? Some of them need us and our filth!

History / Who were European natives? What happened to them? Where they are? [79]


Poles should think carefully before reading the name of this tree aloud.

Pinus.

Seeing as more of the Quarternary has been glacial rather than interglacial, perhaps Europe's true natives should be reindeer, arctic foxes, polar bears and lichens that can grow on snow.


Read up about all the different Indo-European pre-Christian belief systems then. Then read up about how before the Indo-European culture arrived in Europe, things were quite different - if they were not predominantly matriarchies, they were at least a lot less strongly patriarchal and a lot less war-like, even after the introduction of agriculture.

People resettled Eruope after the last ice age, just like our friends Quercus robur and Corylus avellana, from a small number of refuges in Iberia, Italy, the Balkans and north of the Black Sea. And then there was the palaeolithic, and so on and so on.

History / Who were European natives? What happened to them? Where they are? [79]

Quercus robur, Q. petraea, Betula pendula, B. pubescens, Tilia cordata, T. platyphyllos, Pinus sylvestris, P. nigra, P. mugo, Alnus glutinosa, A. cordata, Crataegus monogyna, Castanea sativa, Acer pseudoplatanus, A. platanoides, A. campestre, Ilex aquifolium, Taxus baccata, Buxus sempervirens, Fraxinus excelsior, Fagus sylvatica, Carpinus betulus... and that's just a tiny few of Europe's natives who are all still here.