Language / Polish language would look better written in Cyrillic Script? [212]


Start pronouncing vowels in Russian correctly and maybe we'll talk, it's voda not vada Moskva not Maskva! Maybe change the spelling to nichevo and sivodnja while you're at it. Russian could sound much nicer with fuller, rather than slurred, vowels.

History / Occupation of Eastern Poland in 1939 [98]

So they should adapt to the countries they're in. It's not a problem unless they want to live like they're in Russia...

History / Where is Helena Wolińska-Brus buried? [52]

Shame to the UK for not extraditing this monster!

Shame to her nasty, hateful memory!

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


This is why I'm against the continued expansion of "intellectual property" rights. 20 years after the death of the creator should be time enough for relatives to cash in. Then it's time to get a real job like the rest of us.

Life / Differences between Irish, British, Polish, American and other nations culture, tradition, music - loose talk [241]


Another one of these figures I've never been able to get into...I love Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Elmore James (favorite guitar players ever) and Lightning Hopkins can be pretty great too (though he has a tendency to... prettify blues maybe a bit too much)

I kind of checked out of most classic/album/acid/prog rock and only dipped back in for (mostly American) punk


Sound is a funny thing, one of the things I love about Elmore James' recordings is that they sound like they were recorded in a giant tin can, very echo-y and tinny but it gives it a much more authentic honky tonk vibe, you can almost smell the stale beer and years old smoke residue on everything.

What audiophiles never understand is... anything that makes things sound good (versus whatever it is they're into)

History / Occupation of Eastern Poland in 1939 [98]


Hey, everybody.... Crow's here (rises eyes, shakes head and heads toward the bar).

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


Sounds like a calling...


It's a non-starter in the US I think because of the current mania for standardized testing. I was thinking more of Poland, but parents are way too meddling here for it to work on a broad scale.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


First, referring to everyone you don't like as "soviet" is old and stale, buy a new vowel.

Second, I have no problem with the connections between Poland and the church, but the church has undoubtedly lost a lot of support over the last 25 years or so, a trend that shows no signs of abating (and can be directly tied to the church acting politically when/where a lot of people don't want it.

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


Yeah, my understanding (possibly wrong) is that it depends on a degree of commitment that might be hard to instill in numbers. A lot of real world teacher training is more about weeding out bad practices (damage control) than installing good ones...


so teachers need something like a calling?

Law / Not able to pay credit card loan from Polish bank. [6]


I certainly hope so! Why do you want to return to Schengen, anyway? To run up more debts that you have no intention of paying?

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


I've heard almost only good things about ME but how scalable is it? How big a system can it support?

And does it level or just raise the playing field? (that is disadvantaged kids get a boost but so do advantaged kids so that inequality remains).

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


Exactly

twitter.com/SteveStuWill/status/1057962306020171777

It's not clear if early head starts and special development have lasting effects (again as children get older nurture plays less of a role than nature in terms of IQ) but you have understand the mechanism of IQ if you want to boost it. Rationalizations trying to wish it away don't help those who could most benefit from intervention.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


This is one of the biggest misunderstandings of Poland and Polish reality.

During the communist period it stood against state power and everyone supported it (even many non-believers) now it's aligned with state power and a lot of people don't like that (or innovations like religion classes in school).

The church has been losing support ever since it threw in its lot with the government - Polish people only like the church when it stays out of politics (or provides a voice against a repressive government).

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


Just disengage, I've decided to not respond to any of their posts (outside of random)

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


It's my understanding that environment is indeed more important early in life but the older a person gets the more genetics take over.

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


There's lots of factors, but the word gap is largely nonsense (and probably dates back to work by Basil Bernstein and his 'restricted' and 'elaborated' codes.

Almost no construct in social science history has had as many people try to debunk it as IQ and no one has really budged the basic theory which remains about the most robust psychological finding ever.

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


To some degree and to some degree it's about.... predisposition to be trained to use them. Some people find puzzles and academic work to be intellectually stimulating and interesting and worthwhile, while others.... not so much.

But efforts to raise the scores of people who are average-ish in intelligence only work when those of above average intelligence are deprived of them. Giving everybody the same training, education etc doesn't eliminate differences in measured IQ...


It's relatively easy to become literate in Spanish so that's not so impressive. But the communist starvation of the intellect (combined with the loss of human capital when he aligned with the soviets) all have their effects. There are also nutrition effects and under-nutrition due to communism. Taken altogether, I wouldn't be surprised if better nutrition would raise it a half deviation or so...

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


That's the dirk problem in a nutshell, emotionally he's stuck at age 12 or so and just starts shooting out talking points he barely understands (or misunderstand) soiling any discussion that has the misfortune of attracting his interest.

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


So about 118 (your high and low are within a standard deviation of that). Notice that you didn't go from 84 to 130 or 126 to 78.

How many who scored 90 in elementary school go on to university? It's not exact but it's real and based in biology. It's a little mutable but not tremendously so and a person whose base is around 90 is never going to get to 120.

Every attempt to 'debunk' the idea of IQ fails against the high correlation of IQ and life outcomes.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

@kondzior

I bet there are some altar boys right now sh1tting bricks....


I know what you mean, but that's funny. And poor Adrian just cannot catch a break lately (even with a two handed break catcher in a field of handicapped breaks)

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Which is failry new, it used to be an West-East division (Polska A, Polska B).

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]

And are very good at predicting a lot of different types of life outcomes. In other words, how a good a person is at IQ tests is a good proxy for.... something very important, whatever you want to call it.


Yes, I take IQ results from some non-industrial societies with a grain of salt but the results for populations in advanced western societies the results are remarkably stable over time.

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]


No they haven't...

twitter.com/SteveStuWill/status/1057962279713435650

IQ test results are among the most robust findings in the social sciences and have survived decades of people trying to disprove them

There can be issues in applying the tests in some times and places, but in advanced western societies those problems don't exist.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


JK was ears deep in the old system (his biography makes no sense without the assumption that his family had party friends and connections) and they have a communist prosecutor in a very public position.

So.... no, PiS is not about removing remnants of the old system.

Food / Do you call it kiszka or kaszanka? [61]


It's never been a thing in western Poland where I am... so Biedronka was the first place I ever saw it on sale. Is kaszanka in Warsaw more with barley or buckwheat?

My favorite kaszanka though was in Hungary where they do two types, blood (veres hurka) and liver (majas hurka) the liver kaszanka is very yummy and the blood version has a hint of chilli and is almost but not quite sweet.

Stores here now have kaszanka with liver (combined with blood) but not just the liver..... : (

Food / Do you call it kiszka or kaszanka? [61]


In modern standard Polish blood sausage is 'kaszanka' (krupniok in Silesia)

kiszka refers more to instestines filled with potatoes (and other stuff)

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiszka_ziemniaczana

History / POLISH AND RUSSIAN FRIENDSHIP WILL LAST FOREVER [513]


You've obviously never followed any Russian forums.... next to Russian nationalists the most past-obsessed people here seem forward looking. But then what else do Russians have besides an imagined glorious past and the ability to screw up other countries?

Poland has a future that is different from the past - Russians.... not so murch...

UK, Ireland / Ireland and Poland - ways of struggling for independence [43]

WELL DONE IRELAND!

wsj.com/articles/ireland-set-to-overturn-constitutional-ban-on-blasphemy-1540626649

Ironic that this comes so close to the absolutely shameful decision by the European court of human rights in Brussels!

Long live Ireland! Long live freedom of speech!

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]

The population is slowly westernizing (a process that sort of dates to the orange revolution when they learned they can have an influence on the government, an influence that the Russian population, modern serfs, neither has nor wants).

It's a slow process and beset with lots of problems but it is progressiing and the western slavic countries can be some help. It's obvious how much better off Poland is outside the Russian sphere of influence than inside it, and that's the immediate aim, to stop being a Russian vassal state.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]


Maybe the closest, but still lots of problems (from a former sort of colleague who lived there many years) too many unresponsive, incompetent governments in a row.

I've only been to Ljubljana, which is a very pleasant city (more bookshops per capita than anywhere else I've seen... and I have a weird affection for their oddball language) but it's also too different a culture area from Ukraine to be useful as a model.