The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by jon357  

Joined: 15 Mar 2012 / Male ♂
Last Post: 3 hrs ago
Threads: Total: 74 / Live: 23 / Archived: 51
Posts: Total: 24896 / Live: 14851 / Archived: 10045
From: In the Heart of Darkness
Speaks Polish?: Tak

Displayed posts: 14874 / page 13 of 496
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jon357   
7 Jul 2025
News / Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 23 [1012]

This is no revolution, plus they are opportunists

Just a coup really.

As living standards in r*SSia continue to plummet and inflation rises, there will be far more discontent.

No wonder Putler is afraid to be seen in public.
jon357   
7 Jul 2025
Off-Topic / USA News and Poland - part 16 [706]

Probably you are a zebra.

And probably his death was for the reasons stated, especially in the total absence of any contradictory evidence
jon357   
7 Jul 2025
News / Poland to introduce border controls with Germany and Lithuania [101]

trying to get tourists to visit.

Its location is against it really.

Especially since 2018 neo-Nazis have been organizing their "Shield and Sword" festival there

In which case it's better to douse them all in petrol and set light to them.
jon357   
7 Jul 2025
Law / Gun control in Poland: should Polish people be allowed to own guns? [1070]

fighting chance vs disfigured or dead, I'll take fighting chance.

Zero chance, unless you're the Sundance Kid or Jack Reacher.

The idea that having a firearm stashed away somewhere would protect you from a sudden attack (of the non-existent sort the siller american posters here seem to think happen in Poland) is pure fantasy.
jon357   
6 Jul 2025
Off-Topic / Stock Market Talk and Trading - part 2 [724]

Jon you picked only 5 so you can take one more

I picked 3 I have (RR, Babcock, 3i) and two I don't but may (Pets at Home, M&S).

For the extra one, I'll pick a safe bet that I don't have but may buy, Halma HLMA.L
jon357   
6 Jul 2025
Off-Topic / Stock Market Talk and Trading - part 2 [724]

What they mean is paying the minimum

Minimum??????

It's a fixed payment for that class of NI contributions. No 'minimum', no 'maximum'.

pension system as if it's an investment?

The State Pension? It's not an investment. It's the state pension. My great grandparents fought for it to exist. There were strikes and decades of campaigning. It is my right to pay into and claim the state pension, just as it is yours too since you work there.

The current issue about a specific class of NI payments is because for the last couple of years the government have wanted people with missing or partially missing years to pay into the system.

People who have missing years, usually due to periods abroad, will only receive a partial pension however many of those would need the level making up under the Minimum Income Guarantee. This is costly, as well as there being other costs to society both financial and moral which arise from having elderly people living below the poverty line. Hence the government encouraging people to pay now.

Normally you can pay 8 years in arrears however the reason it's being discussed is because there is a current scheme to allow people to pay for more missing uears, earlier than the last 8.
jon357   
6 Jul 2025
Life / Why there is always around a horrible smell of sweat in Poland [220]

They're still very popular in the UK

And theoretically a building control requirement in a few towns in the north,

Nobody polices people installing the other kind, however in new homes in those areas you'll find two taps installed before the houses are signed off. These are usually in towns where most homes traditionally don't have hot water cylinders.

It's something to do with cross-contamination between hot and cold water
jon357   
6 Jul 2025
Travel / Poland in photo riddles - part 3 [818]

Edale

Edale is lovely; the whole Hope Valley is a treat, even the view from the Sheffield-Manchester railway.

As I recall, a very famous and very long walk starts in Edale.

I'm guessing the tours are all in Polish language though

I think so, however it's mostly just walking through and looking at the exhibits in the mine. It's not like a coal mine (the one you can visit in Poland is excellent) where you have to stay in a close group for safety.
jon357   
6 Jul 2025
Off-Topic / USA News and Poland - part 16 [706]

a third major party

They need a new Ross Perot to take votes from the republicans.
jon357   
6 Jul 2025
News / Poland to introduce border controls with Germany and Lithuania [101]

Polish border guards have already proposed to their German colleagues that if they don't check, the Poles won't check

That would work and I notice that the unions are concerned about this..

A largely pointless move.
jon357   
4 Jul 2025
Travel / Poland in photo riddles - part 3 [818]

Gagat in Polish.

There is some In Poland near Ostrów Świętokrzyskie which used to be mined commercially.

pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gagat
jon357   
4 Jul 2025
Travel / Poland in photo riddles - part 3 [818]

I wouldn't mind a trip there :)

I was on a guided tour of the flint mines in Paulina's region. It was interesting and very worth a visit.

It's only found somewhere in Derbyshire if I remember rightly

Round Castleton however I think there are a few places around the world with it, certainly a mine in Pakistan and a very similar mineral in Iran. There are 4 or five caverns in Castleton that you can visit, a couple of them with Blue John. A big new seam has just been discovered. There's a museum too and a few shops selling it.

I'll be in Whitby and Scarborough in a fortnight and may buy two matching rings with a band of Jet in if the shops have some good ones and if the other party likes them. Not cheap but lovely (and cheaper and less obvious than gold bands!) You can sometimes pick pieces up on the beach like Amber in Poland.


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jon357   
4 Jul 2025
Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [145]

Beksiński's art has themes in common with Goya and Blake.

William Blake, 1757-1827


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jon357   
4 Jul 2025
Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [145]

the price of his paintings increased dramatically

Nowadays, art dealers really start pushing when artists get elderly since investors know the price will go up.
jon357   
4 Jul 2025
Law / Gun control in Poland: should Polish people be allowed to own guns? [1070]

burglary crimes

Are not "home invasions". This is an American term.

If you look for Aggravated Burglary or similar (when the householder is asleep upstairs), you'll find another figure.

Your "home invasions" are vanishingly rare

Someone might cut my "phone line" during a "home invasion". ?

Who even has a phone line nowadays,

The only times I've heard of anything like "home invasions" in Europe have involved extremely wealthy people, usually elderly or perhaps premiership footballers, all of them with safes to open and/or jewellery and valuables. The gaol time for anyone convicted of doing that is so long that it's simply not worth the risk. Plus of course, most burglars don't have guns.

nukes - because illegal drunk crazy rapists

I wonder how Jim's and Rich's home arsenal of weapons would protect them from a Sarmat missile or of course the huge number of alien abductions that seem to happen in their country. All those farmers getting dragged up to the ufo in a tractor beam and being probed all night.

No wonder they live in fear.
jon357   
4 Jul 2025
Law / Gun control in Poland: should Polish people be allowed to own guns? [1070]

a guy with a very big knife breaks into your apartment

This doesn't happen. What sort of life do you lead?

Of course US "home invasions" turn violent - because of the presence of stupid guns

And this is right at the heart of it,

No wonder some of them seem to live in fear. Of course their views are not universally shared over there; they have built a wretched situation for themselves.

It is better in Europe and bizarre that some here suggest worsening it.
jon357   
3 Jul 2025
Life / The Best Things About Poland [65]

It means zero.

Poland has its strengths; homogeneity is not especially either a strength or particularly accurate.