Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [415]


As far as I know - yes, they do, because high quality examples are somewhat rare.

Study / 90% of Poles have university degree? [57]


However - it is true that there are adverts here demanding a Masters just to work as a receptionist, which is a joke!

Work / Questions about teaching in Elblag or Opole? [23]


It's a very devious thing to do - I appreciate that some people simply demand too much and then feel hard done by - but schools should leave it alone rather than proactively trying to remove content.

What are they offering you, out of curiosity? Feel free to PM me :)

Work / Questions about teaching in Elblag or Opole? [23]


I can only tell you the facts - there's a forum that is probably the definitive forum about ESL called "Dave's ESL". Regent School have been very very proactive in making sure that any criticism of them is removed from the site - do you really want to work for a school that does such a thing?

I also know puddddddin quite well - and she was left with a very unpleasant taste in her mouth about the place.

There's also the fact that if you have problems there, it's going to be a lot harder to find another job/hours there than in a major city - essentially, you'll be tied to the school.

The "word on the street" is that they resort to hiring teachers blind because no-one in the country would go near such a place. They also seem to hand out a lot of "job offers" in the true Polish style - it really isn't worth anything unless you get a signed and sealed contract.

Work / Questions about teaching in Elblag or Opole? [23]

Don't go there - it's as simple as that.

Study / Medicine study - good Polish University for international students; study in English? [38]


If you don't speak Polish to a near-native level, it is incredibly unlikely that you will fufil the Polish language requirements for medicine.

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]

The article is complete rubbish. For a start, the computers and memory sticks will all have been secured using AES-128 as a bare minimum, if not AES-192. After all - why the hell would a NATO military fly into an unfriendly territory without having everything secured?

Then the talk about "interim government" - what interim government? The PO-PSL coalition is holding up fine. Surprise - Americans fail to understand that the Polish president isn't part of the government.

Poland has also stressed repeatedly that they enjoy full access to the investigation - so more nonsense.

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


Ah, so you're really not too informed, because it's already been discovered that the "sirens" aren't actually sirens at all.

Cordial invitations by Harry, points about agent orange and Ukraine, fighting for Poland and various other off topic posts, comprising nine pages, removed.

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]

Tell me Olga - either the video is accurate or it isn't. The video that you posted clearly shows fog - so is it accurate, or has it been tampered with?

Your call. :)

By the way, I'm still waiting for more proof about the video creator being killed in Kyiv. Why hasn't any of the Polish media picked up on this yet, Olga?

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


Did you even read the article? The tests were performed on behalf of the Russians, who have the sole right to conduct the investigation under the relevant international law. The black box has been decrypted and the results passed to the Russians - as you would expect, as it may help them in their investigation. Given the openness so far in the investigation, what would it achieve to withhold the data from the Russians?

Obviously the box was given back to the Russians because the investigation is - well - being carried out in Russia. It's rather useless to them anyway, but it doesn't make sense to have parts of the plane's equipment in Poland.

Then again - I don't expect you to know a damn thing about military encryption or how it works. You struggled enough with the concept of why the TAWS system didn't work as it was supposed to - military encryption might just be too difficult for you.

(go on : tell me that the Russians can break AES. Please, please...)


It's what makes me laugh about the CF crowd - they refuse to accept that these kind of things can actually happen out of nowhere. It wouldn't be the first time that something has crashed due to the sudden onset of thick fog!

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]

You're starting to show how little you actually know about aviation. Given that the box is a Polish military device, it's highly likely that it will actually contain a significant amount of details about the instrumentation, especially if there was a sudden catastrophic failure that suggests external interference.

One thing that you quite probably don't know about is the fact that many modern aeroplanes automatically "phone home" with details of problems. It's this which has allowed a reasonable guess to be made about the fate of AF447, and I'd be surprised if something similar didn't exist on the TU-154.


Has AES-192 been broken? No? There's your answer. It would be incredibly sloppy and lax of the Poles to have a military piece of equipment not using the highest grade of encryption available to them. The fact that the Russians openly said that they couldn't read it suggests that it was indeed encrypted using AES-192 or at least AES-128.


Something that has been 'enhanced' is not identical to the original.

Anyway, if you admit that the enhanced video is the same as the original, then if the dialogue is translated accurately (it's not, but anyway) - then you also admit that the weather conditions are accurate. That means you admit that there was fog at the time of the crash. Cute :)


Where has it been stated by anyone involved with the investigation that this is the case? Or are you still insinuating that the Polish military prosecutors are in fact liars and Russian traitors?

Olga, hey, while we're at it - did you ever find one single remotely credible news source for the story about the cameraman being killed? Even Nasz Dziennik hasn't reported it!

Nice video by the way - taken 2 days after the plane crash :) Or have you chosen to conveniently forget that the wreckage was left in place for a few days?

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


I said that Kaczynski's man is leading the Polish side of things. Or is my language too difficult for your conspiracy-filled brain?


Yes, which any good investigator will be able to tell a significant amount from.


Russia couldn't do anything with it regardless. They don't have the know-how or ability to tamper with it - as has been previous stated on here, the Poles will be using AES as a minimum for military hardware.


Digitally enhanced and thus tampered with? :) Well done, you've just shown us that the conspiracy theorists are actually tampering with the video!


From your link.


The black box that the Poles have will tell us quite comprehensively about whether or not the plane had engine problems - unless you're suggesting that the Russians are capable of breaking AES encryption AND that they're capable of leaving no traces of this. If so, then NATO is quite frankly ******.

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


Would this be because Tusk wants the investigation to be independent of politics, and that in fact, a man chosen by Kaczynski is in charge?

Or are you also suggesting that a Kaczynski man is actually a Tusk puppet?

Here's a question : Poland has sole custody of a 3rd black box, used by the Polish military. Are you really going to tell me and everyone else that the Polish military is participating in a cover up to help Russians?

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


The weather data backs this up as well, unless of course, CNN was participating in the cover up almost from the first hour.

Actually - I was driving home last night and was suddenly enveloped in thick fog out of seemingly nowhere. For about a kilometre, there was really thick fog - visibility maybe around 200m or so. Yet it lifted as quickly as it came - and people believe that such a thing was impossible at Smolensk?

I'm still waiting for Olga and her kin to produce one credible shred of evidence to suggest that this was murder and not a tragic accident.

Law / What are the bike laws in Poland? [30]


Of course it exists - it's still being issued to all non-EEA/CH citizens. Effectively, it is good enough to act as ID - how many foreigners are really carrying around their passports?

There's no guarantee that it didn't - you need to check this with the local police station to see if there's any points recorded against the PESEL. You can't be certain that it didn't get linked somehow - it's quite elementary to link your personal details to the PESEL number.

Law / What are the bike laws in Poland? [30]


Yes, it's actually connected with your PESEL. The system works on the basis of your PESEL number being used to identify the driver, hence why you go to the police to get a copy of your driving record rather than to the driver licencing office. Same reason why your PESEL is on the Polish licence.

As for the police picking up on the fact that you have a PESEL - I've heard reports that they are able to access residency information over the radio - so they'll know if you have a PESEL or not. Certainly for non-EU citizens, they will have the number on the Karta Pobytu - which the police will undoubtably want to see. EU citizens is a different story - and I don't know for certain if they can link the points to your personal details (the Germans can, I know this) if you don't have a PESEL.

So - a British licence is no defence if you have any sort of paper trail in Poland.

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


That's what I thought, too :(


Sadly, if 8km of visibility is accurate, then the conspiracy theorists will run wild :(

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]

The government didn't get wiped out. In fact, calling the President "government" is a bit of a misleading description, because the President has no executive power and can only do things on the basis of what the Government (which is headed by the Prime Minister) recommends. I'd also hardly call the boss of the IPN and NBP "government".

It would be more accurate to say that the top military command was killed - but as always, with military situations, there was deputies ready and waiting to take control.

So - the guy was obliterated in the crash. Don't you think that there's a possibility that the laptop was equally destroyed?

Real Estate / House prices in Poland to drop more or rise again? [228]


Dunno Mark, why don't you tell us why you don't own property if prices are so low?

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


Yes, because that newspaper isn't known at all for printing absolute rubbish to increase sales.

Travel / Best way with car from Szczecin to Bielsko-Biala? [6]


Not recommended at all - DK5 from Poznan to Wroclaw is a horrific road - you would be far, far quicker to go via Lodz.

Travel / Best way with car from Szczecin to Bielsko-Biala? [6]

Oof, horrible journey. You actually are best to go through Germany - it's maybe 120km further, but you'll considerably make up for it in time wasted on single carriageway roads from Szczecin to Wroclaw. The single carriageway route is simply tedious and full of trucks - going through Germany will be much easier and painfree.

One interesting alternative may be to go via Poznan - you can pick up the A2 there, and it's dual carriageway standard all the way from there. Certainly, it's probably the least stressful route - the DK3/S3 from Szczecin to Gorzow isn't too busy, the DK92 is very quiet between Gorzow and Poznan, and the A2 isn't very busy at all.

But for sheer speed, it'll be hard to beat the German route.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


Depends on how intelligent you are, really. A bright person will be able to learn it far quicker than your average idiot, mainly due to the way that it can't be mastered through mere exposure - unlike Italian for instance.


Quite simply, the best schools are looking to provide the best challenges for their children. It's the same reason that Latin is kept in the very elite private schools - it's not a language for stupid people.

I think we can agree that Polish, for an English speaker, is certainly much more of a challenge than French or Italian!

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


Makes it a language for intelligent person to learn, really. Explains why some of the better schools in the UK are now teaching Polish as a second foreign language.

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


Quite the contrary - they may have attempted to go for it to show off to their superiors what they were capable of.

Travel / What to do in Wroclaw! [49]


Which is non-transferable. You cannot use the existing work permit to work legally in Poland for another employer - you'll have to get another one.

News / THE ARMY OF POLAND - THE REALITY [493]


And very inefficient - you can be assured that professional troops will fight, whereas you can't rely on conscripts to actually fight.

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


And now it looks like the "4th attempt" is a mistranslation from the Russian "final turn" - which points even more at pilot error.

I notice there's quite a few animations going round...all showing different things. The swift announcement from the Russians that there was no technical failure is also interesting - and it would seem that they may be deliberately holding off on revealing what they already know.

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]

There's an interesting bit of information that isn't really being reported - seemingly, communication was lost with the plane 6 minutes before landing. Given that the plane would be gliding in at that point, there could very well have been mechanical failure - I don't know what, but it's a possibility.

I think the '4th attempt' story is just that - a story. There's been no official statement about it, and it seems to be rumour more than anything else.

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


There's something curious not being reported well, but being mentioned (by the BBC among others) - seemingly the plane couldn't be reached for 16 minutes before crashing. Odd.