The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by Bobko  

Joined: 13 Mar 2017 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - O
Last Post: 3 hrs ago
Threads: Total: 27 / Live: 23 / Archived: 4
Posts: Total: 2063 / Live: 1987 / Archived: 76
From: New York
Speaks Polish?: Y
Interests: reading, camping

Displayed posts: 2010 / page 58 of 67
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Bobko   
29 Jun 2022
News / Strange object over Poland's Silesia [27]

@GefreiterKania

Oh sh!t. You told me you were a Pomeranian, but I did not think you were from Gdańsk. Nice man! I really want to visit Gdańsk - all my life been wanting to go there.

Rapidly moving on. It seems you have a somewhat dismissive attitude to Poland's history vis-à-vis unidentified flying objects. Is it so fantastic to you, that people would want to travel the galaxy only to abduct a Polish farmer? Some people already claim that Polish people are extraterrestrials - and if you follow the evidence you will begin to see that it is more than just rumor. Don't hate, if you don't understand.
Bobko   
29 Jun 2022
Food / Polish Pizza !! The best in the world? [330]

have you ever had a slice from Lombardi's?

I have, but it's quite far from my apartment and so I have to make an effort to go there. Never ordered delivery from there either. One place I like, out of the "famous" places - is "Artichoke Pizza" down in NYU-land below Washington Square Park. They're famous for their artichoke slices, but also have normal style pies. It sounds terrible, but an artichoke pizza is actually not bad.

Pizza in Moscow is also quite good. I was only poking fun above. Most of the ketchup pizzas disappeared in Moscow by the 2010s. I'm sure it's the same in Poland.

In general - ketchup is good, ketchup is life. At least to us, in Russia, it was a symbol of something exciting and new when everyone first started trying it. Some compared it to our Georgian salsa-like condiment - Adjika. Others claimed they could make it at home, better than Heinz, by using some homemade recipe involving tomato paste, vinegar and salt (imho these experiments always failed).

As a kid I put ketchup on everything. Didn't matter if it was savory, sweet, bitter. I could probably eat ice cream with ketchup on top, back then. If stocks of provisions were low, I would often happily eat some bread with ketchup on it. If I was feeling very wealthy indeed, I would squirt a quarter bottle of ketchup, and a quarter bottle of mayo into a bowl, and make a very nice bootleg "chipotle" sauce, that's orange in color, and goes very well with fries. Incidentally, nobody here in the states puts mayo on their fries, whereas in Belgium or France - they never seem to bring you the ketchup.
Bobko   
29 Jun 2022
News / Strange object over Poland's Silesia [27]

High on my list of places to visit when I will be in Poland, is the monument to the Emilcin Abduction incident in Emilcin, Lublin Voivodeship.

It was there, that farmer Jan Wolski was famously abducted in May 1978 by two green men, and then forced to sit in a spaceship naked while being offered icicles to snack on.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilcin_Abduction

Please share your own abduction stories here, but only if they happened in Poland.


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Bobko   
29 Jun 2022
Food / Polish Pizza !! The best in the world? [330]

@pawian

Oh this is simple. We have sanctioned pepperoni, mushrooms from the cellar, olives that we grow in greenhouses, and ketchup!
Bobko   
28 Jun 2022
Food / Polish Pizza !! The best in the world? [330]

And people who think pizza + ketchup are a good idea shouldn't talk about the best pizza in the world, lol.

We Russians, also love our ketchup to be served with pizza. Mmmmm... delicious.

First photo is a photo of a very delicious looking Polish pizza I found online. Second is a delicious Russian pizza - with ketchup of course.


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Bobko   
28 Jun 2022
Life / Poland's birthrate on the decline [480]

@Miloslaw

Better for the climate, and for the critters which we are driving extinct. The forests will come back, and the bison will roam.
Bobko   
28 Jun 2022
Life / Life in Poland - ECONOMY [42]

Your talking as if crypto has no use

It's good for paying for drugs, or sex - as I've said. It's good for avoiding sanctions. For pretty much everything else, fiat is better as a currency.

Most people who HODL coins, don't use them anyway. Why would you use BTC to pay for something, if you know your BTC will be worth more tomorrow?
Bobko   
28 Jun 2022
Life / Life in Poland - ECONOMY [42]

@cms neuf

Another downside of an appreciating zloty - if that's what one wants - is it will be a Polish export killer. This is the reason why Japan is continuing with its negative interest rate of -0.1% as if it is 2011 outside, and inflation doesn't exist. Because their priorities are different. They want a cheap yen, to protect their companies competitiveness.

At the same time, a strong dollar is terrible for American exports. But after 15 years of a very weak dollar, the change was overdue - though it will be painful.
Bobko   
28 Jun 2022
Life / Life in Poland - ECONOMY [42]

Złoty is going to change for the worse I reckon, going to put my earn money in crypto

That would be really stupid, IMHO. Bitcoin, and all the sh!tcoins that followed it, was created after The Great Recession of 2008. This is its first real test against a recession, and it has show what a great "inflation hedge" or "durable store of value" it really is. It's doing worse than the worst parts of the stock market, and weekly we hear of yet another project going belly up. If you hold on to your crypto, you're risking a total wipeout. I don't think crypto will ever go to zero, since drug dealers and prostitutes will always have a use for it - but a price of $200-300 is enough for this function.

The zloty ones are now worth 14% less than they were, the euro ones are worth 6% less.

All major currencies in the world are declining against the US dollar, except for the Ruble (for reasons everyone knows) and a handful of smaller currencies of commodity rich states. The reason for this decline is that the US Federal Reserve has decided to take the threat of inflation seriously, and has begun seriously hiking rates. The era of infinite money is coming to a rapid close. The 0.75% rate hike at the meeting two weeks ago, was the largest such hike since 1994. At the same time, the European and Japanese central banks have been more cautious (the ECB is looking at a 0.5% hike, which would be the biggest since the year 2000). This situation, where the US is leading the pack in fighting inflation, and others are still working under the old "infinite money" regime, is creating serious divergences in rates. If you can earn 3X more money holding US treasuries than German Bunds (I don't know what the exact number is now, just speaking figuratively), then of course money will flow into USD denominated assets.

If you want the zloty to be appreciating against the dollar, then you should also be prepared for the Polish CB to raise interest rates to 10-12%. This would mean mortgages, car payments, credit card bills, etc that are twice as expensive. It would mean a huge squeeze in investment by private capital, since bank loans would be out of reach for a lot of companies that were still able to borrow when rates were 6-7%.
Bobko   
26 Jun 2022
History / POLISH AND RUSSIAN FRIENDSHIP WILL LAST FOREVER [513]

Yes, he`s an angel, in fact.
The Angel of Death.

Whoa! Very quickly I graduated from "charming Nazi officer" to "Angel of Death". The irony that the policies Paulina and Pawian advocate for the world to pursue will bring 10x more death - is somehow lost on everyone. But hey, it feels good and it feels right!

If only you guys knew what a doofus I am in everyday life.
Bobko   
25 Jun 2022
History / POLISH AND RUSSIAN FRIENDSHIP WILL LAST FOREVER [513]

1 pro russia Ukrainian

You know what? It's very strange that there isn't even one publicly-Ukrainian poster on PF. There are three Russians at the moment. Yes, our population might be larger by 3X, but their relationship with Poland is also probably stronger than 3x of ours. Also millions of the men are sitting at home with fcuk all to do at the moment, why not give forums a try. Even more so for the millions of Ukrainians in Poland. You would think they would show up here sooner or later, but still no.

I suppose the answer is that the level of commonality and mutual facility in language, precludes them from having to enter the expat forum loop entirely.

They have however infested all Russian forum boards and news comment sections. Perhaps that's why they don't have time for PF. It would be amazing to have a Ukrainian here that could set people straight on the facts, doesn't have to be pro-Russian.
Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
History / POLISH AND RUSSIAN FRIENDSHIP WILL LAST FOREVER [513]

Russians and Ukrainians got to come to their senses.

Agreed. Surprisingly sober account, except I don't think Russia has any genuine ambition to play China off America. More of a kind of "forced embrace". First of all, we wouldn't know how to "play them off" each other, given that our leverage is mostly energy and commodities. Secondly, as you said - I think we're well aware of the problems inherent in trying to sit on two chairs at once.
Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
History / POLISH AND RUSSIAN FRIENDSHIP WILL LAST FOREVER [513]

Nazi officer had a pleasant chat with you about ballet and literature, he would give some compliments and then shoot your sister in the head

Absent the shooting the sister in the head part, this is the stuff of film and literature. Not to overuse the Bible, let's use Hollywood as a gauge of what people respond to. The Pianist, is literally about a Jew and a German officer in Poland finding a mutual respect despite everything else going on. Schindler's List won an Academy Award for showing how a German entrepreneur and his Jewish deputy saved thousands of lives. What is so terrible or fantastical about people reaching out across the lines? Small people, encountering each other, and not allowing the outside context (which is admittedly terrible) to color their interaction?
Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
Off-Topic / Funniest stuff said on PF! Please post the funniest convos, remakes, responses, name calling or whatever. [93]

@AntV

Still ranks behind dozens of American and British colleges according to current rankings published :(

Now the Times have stopped even including them in their annual ranking. The reason we get a low score typically is because of the publication rate. Not enough being translated into English and published in journals like The Lancet, Nature, etc.


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Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
Off-Topic / Funniest stuff said on PF! Please post the funniest convos, remakes, responses, name calling or whatever. [93]

And I am impressed indeed with your core curriculum :)

Imagine my disappointment when I sit with my family of Moscow State University graduates and still feel like the stupidest person in the room. You should see the historical reading list for people that graduated from the faculty of Political-Economy at Moscow State. Somehow, the people in the Kremlin didn't worry about how these people read their books and how they discussed it. After seeing the result of my education at Columbia my father was left only with bitter disappointment.
Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
Off-Topic / Funniest stuff said on PF! Please post the funniest convos, remakes, responses, name calling or whatever. [93]

@AntV

No need to pay crazy money, the whole reading list is accessible online. What's missing of course is the classroom discussion, but that can be overcome if one is curious enough:

college.columbia.edu/core/core

@AntV

Re: being currently unfashionable, ours was created more than a century ago in the wake of the shock of The Great War. Our campus has two prominent monuments to students that died in WWI. Our graduates contributed a disproportionate amount of officers to the American war effort. Thousands died. Whatever they call a Core Curriculum in the rest of America has nothing to do with ours, though it served as the template for many other such programs at other places.
Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
Off-Topic / Funniest stuff said on PF! Please post the funniest convos, remakes, responses, name calling or whatever. [93]

KJV!

The only way to read the Bible, IMHO. No Standard Revised Version for this atheist.

I actually only became familiar with the Bible through college. At Columbia we're very proud of something we call the "Core Curriculum", which is basically a quick walkthrough of Western Civilization's foundations. We start with the Iliad, go on to Plato and Socrates, then the Aeniad, Cassius Dio, etc. From there, it's a quick jump to Thomas Aquinas, Machiavelli, Dante. Then comes my favorite part with Montaigne, Rousseau, Vico, Hume, Smith, Hobbes, Luther. It keeps going through Hegels and Kants, but the key is that to be able to read any of it and make sense of it, you typically need a good working understanding of the Bible. Otherwise all the allusions, allegories, etc don't make sense (even Yerofeev, is inaccessible without the Bible, Kania). So that is where we start typically, and then always come back to through the first two years of study. Many, many hours spent debating scripture between Jews, orthodox, Catholics, Muslims. This truly was special.

As literature, the Bible is the greatest achievement of mankind. Just because it's written by people with a ridiculous outlook by my standards, doesn't mean I can't appreciate the enormous depth of wisdom in the proverbs or the beatitudes.

We also read the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran, and the Annals of Confucius.
Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
History / POLISH AND RUSSIAN FRIENDSHIP WILL LAST FOREVER [513]

I think it's very true.

Do something then? You think telling me I'm an orc and a baby rapist will count when you meet St. Peter at the pearly gates?

Jon says I'm a Russian troll, on a mission to discombobulate the good people of neighboring Poland. Novichok says I have Buddha levels of patience in the face of constant abuse.

The answer is simple. I'm here to try to show people the Russian perspective, no more, no less. It's why I don't abuse posters, though many are deserving. I want you to see that there are thinking people on both sides, and I think being nice is the better approach in this department. The reason I don't care when I get abused is because these people are nobody to me, just as I am to them. Nothing elitist, or snobby - it just doesn't matter to me what they think or who they are. I am a thousand times grateful, however, when I come across a person that treats me with respect, and I try to reply in kind. These people I care about, and what they say does have the potential to adjust my thinking.

If you really wanted to change Russians, even in your own little way, you wouldn't be behaving the way you are Paulina.
Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
History / POLISH AND RUSSIAN FRIENDSHIP WILL LAST FOREVER [513]

most people still like to blame "the Germans" for not doing more, for not stopping it back then

It's a very specific club though, isn't it? It consists pretty much of Poland and Israel.

The Baltics are quietly happy that no one seems to bring up that they were the cruelest Jew-killers of them all.

Russia, which lost 26M people to Germany, is constantly being accused of being in bed with Germany.

Ukrainians stick German shoulder patches on to their uniform, for whatever reason. Enough said.

America is 30% German, so there's that.
Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
History / POLISH AND RUSSIAN FRIENDSHIP WILL LAST FOREVER [513]

@Bratwurst Boy

As Stalin said, "Hitlers come and go, but the German people and the German state remain". It's important to separate the innocents from the perpetrators, regardless of how comfy those innocents were.


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Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
Off-Topic / Funniest stuff said on PF! Please post the funniest convos, remakes, responses, name calling or whatever. [93]

Also I thought it was funny yesterday, when a character I'm not familiar with - Espana - arrived, and proceeded to immediately sh!t on everything Polish to great adoration from all locals. In the end, it seems Poles do have a sense of humor about themselves, and this is heartening.

I think the final exchange was something like:

E: the best source for learning Polish is a roll of toilet paper

A: welcome back you son of a b!tch!
Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
Off-Topic / Funniest stuff said on PF! Please post the funniest convos, remakes, responses, name calling or whatever. [93]

@GefreiterKania

The simple fact that there is a thread called "Serbia etc. thread 2", with 56 pages of posts, while at the same time we have a moderator named Vincent who is very particular about what is germane to PF - is proof that Crow either owns this forum or has had his genius recognized unanimously. If you ask me, I think it is not likely that Crow owns this forum. Simply, he has defeated the system. He is like Neo, and Vincent is Agent Smith.

Remember the boy in The Matrix that could bend spoons? The trick is that, "there is no spoon". Crow managed this, not with spoons, but with something much deeper. "There are no Europeans, only Serbs."
Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
Off-Topic / Funniest stuff said on PF! Please post the funniest convos, remakes, responses, name calling or whatever. [93]

The funniest conversations are when new people bump into Strelecz35.

Next is when Milo begins to argue with Crow about how Serbs are purveyors of genocide. I don't know how, but Crow always manages to strike perfect comedic timing in his response, with the help of his trademark "a bird told me", "all is well in the universe", and "have faith in Svetovid".

It is funny to watch people fruitlessly try to learn the rules of the forum after 3-7-10 years of being here.

It is funny to imagine how an amateur genealogy researcher feels, when they first open an account, look under the rotten old log that is "Random Chat", and see the wondrous contents of what is JR's very own thread.

It is funny when an Indian man from New Jersey tries to pretend that he is Jewish and has connections in the Italian Mob all the way up to top.

It is funny to see that a grand total of three women have stayed on this forum consistently, and this experience has made them into some of the most fire-breathing ladies I've encountered.

Many, many things are funny here without being necessarily quotable.
Bobko   
24 Jun 2022
History / POLISH AND RUSSIAN FRIENDSHIP WILL LAST FOREVER [513]

A little news digest for the "Russia's Collapsing" team.

Yesterday, Putin participated in his first summit with foreign leaders since the start of the war. He joined the leaders of Brazil, India, China and South Africa at the annual BRICS summit. Link to article:

cnn.com/2022/06/22/asia/brics-summit-china-russia-beijing-2022-intl-hnk-mic/index.html

So much for isolation.

Special item for Jon, here:

bbc.com/news/world-africa-61802498

A BBC article titled "How Russia Outflanked Ukraine in Africa". Add another 50 countries to the list of nations that don't subscribe to the West's interpretation of events.

A funny article for the Witnesses of St. Javelin and the Pious Bayraktar. The title is "Turkey's Wartime Bridge to the West is Collapsing". The eggheads at the Atlantic Council ruefully observe that after what seemed a promising start in February, Turkey is now definitively tilting towards supporting Russia. The chance to get in the good books of the US and "on the right side of history" may be squandered, the analysts worry.

atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/turkeysource/turkeys-wartime-bridge-to-the-west-is-collapsing/

Finally to round things out, Pope Francis thinks this war may have been provoked (the news is a little old, but just in case).

theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/14/pope-francis-ukraine-war-provoked-russian-troops

Quote from article:
[...] the pontiff condemned the "ferocity and cruelty of the Russian troops" while warning against what he said was a fairytale perception of the conflict as good versus evil.

"We need to move away from the usual Little Red Riding Hood pattern, in that Little Red Riding Hood was good and the wolf was the bad one," he said. "Something global is emerging and the elements are very much entwined."


Heeeeey, maybe this Kania guy is onto something. The Pope seems to be reading his PF posts.