USA, Canada / Cigarettes reach nine dollars a pack in New York [109]


It is 2023, and now a pack of Marlboro Reds (the only cigarettes for real men) in NYC costs $16-18.

It seems bad... but in Sydney, Australia it's close to $30.

On the one hand, I'm happy for NY's budget, which must be bursting from tobacco tax revenues (right? surely this policy could not result in interstate contraband?). On the other hand, I'm worried that eventually people will get fed up and stop smoking altogether. We will lose an entire culture then.

How will I explain to my grandkids, what it meant to light a cigarette for a beautiful stranger? How you would cup your hands, just so, to shield the flame. The eyes meeting, and a conversation effortlessly started. Yes, it will be sad when this is gone.

We're already always on our phones, and without cigarettes people will just stop talking to each other - period.

News / R. Trzaskowski, current mayor of Warsaw, future President of Poland [354]


I thought I did... ha! But you're right, I meant natural gas. I understand that LPG is not typically transported by pipeline. However, I did think that it's possible to acquire natural gas in tanks, if a grid connection is not available.

Now I understand that this is not possible. The reason, is that the symmetry of the methane molecule is such that it cannot be easily liquified. You could still store methane in a tank in gas form, but it would be barely enough to prepare a meal.

I'm actually quite embarrassed that I'm learning this only now. It's not really excusable in my situation.

Thanks!

Off-Topic / Russian Views On Poland and Vice Versa [414]


That's why I am so grateful when you teach me!

Off-Topic / Russian Views On Poland and Vice Versa [414]


Tolerance: For what? Jews?

Multi-Ethnic Character: BS. A bunch of different shades of white. Russians at least have Tuvans and Chukchi, etc. If you look at France or Italy closer you will also see a past of many ethnicities, not less than in Poland.

Political Freedoms: For oligarchs, and nobody else. You could find these kind of arrangements in the Lowlands, in the Merchant Republics of Italy, and other places.

I was just showing you how first of all the things you listed are not unique to Poland. However, I also think this is complete historic revisionism to view these things as somehow implicitly liberal (the Roman Empire is then very liberal, and the Mongol Empire). It's just you interpreting it that way, from today's vantage point. In reality - 95% of your liberal or centrist thought is Western in basis and very modern with no root in Polish history.


Hmph! Maybe I'm wrong - ha. This is interesting.

Off-Topic / Russian Views On Poland and Vice Versa [414]

I wasn't sure where to post this, so I will post it here in my trash bin of a thread.

Why is it that all liberals everywhere get all their ideas from the West? Whether they're Chinese liberals, or Russian liberals, or Polish liberals - they all decide to do whatever it is they do after they had been thoroughly brainwashed by sneaky Anglos.

Does it make sense, what I'm saying? Like, they never come up with some uniquely Russian liberalism. I understand why Putin, Xi, Orban etc want to ban all foreign influences, like Soros and Burger King. They prevent our left-brained populations from thinking for themselves.

That is, I'm sure Putin would not ban some uniquely Russian form of liberalism. He's just irritated that the gender matrix and gay-love stuff comes from the West, like many other things some Russians like. As a true patriot, he wants to see indigenous development. For example, if instead of changing the pronouns we use for ourselves, liberal Russians did something original - something nobody on earth had ever done before - like insist on their right to consume vegetables rectally - then I'm sure Putin would defend their right to do so to the death. For Russians, and for Putin, it is important to be first in all things. We are not readers, we are writers - and the copycat liberalism offends our spirit.

TLDR: The problem of liberals in the Non-West is their lack of originality, and constantly looking back at how things are done "over there".

News / R. Trzaskowski, current mayor of Warsaw, future President of Poland [354]


If it is so simple, why does the Polish government not do the same thing? I don't think you appreciate the colossal amounts of money required in building energy infrastructure. Some cooperative of average citizens with initiative will not accomplish anything.

What kind of group of entrepreneurs, regardless of tax breaks, has the capability to cut thousand km long paths through forests and tundra, construct technical roads, build compressor stations, and contract millions of tons of steel.

What the government really has to do, in Russia at least, is liberalize the energy market (more than it has been already). At the moment, Russians pay a comical cost for gas. Gazprom can earn many multiples of what it can on a Russian, on a German or a Hungarian. So, there is very little incentive for Gazprom to invest in bringing more Russians online to the grid. Instead, it will build some stadium, or recreation center, perhaps a kindergarten - so that it can report the government that its doing something socially useful - but not build the pipeline.

As a Russian, I would prefer for the government to build stadiums and recreation centers, and for Gazprom to focus on earning profits and paying taxes. However, that's not how things work in Russia.

Now, if Russians were forced to pay prices for gas that are closer to European prices you would see several things happen:

1) Gazprom would suddenly be interested in working with these customers and investing in the necessary infrastructure
2) People would stop treating gas like it's free, and would start implementing various energy saving approaches
3) The gas that is saved by Russians being more economical (this will be colossal amounts, tens of billions of cubic meters), can be exported to people that actually pay market prices - making more money.

Of course, the average Russian will suffer, and there will be protests everywhere.. but this is still better than the current situation which is just absurd. Russians need to learn that energy is not free.

News / R. Trzaskowski, current mayor of Warsaw, future President of Poland [354]


How much does such an installation cost? I'm assuming you don't have to reformat everything, but just the boiler? Would it still not make sense, even if installation was paid for by the gas company, because there is no connection to the grid or is using gas tanks still an option?

As a Russian, I have to say it's amusing to read a Pole write that his government will likely never bring the grid to his village. If this is the case, then why are so many Poles online constantly trolling Russians that as a gas superpower the country still cannot connect all Russians to gas.

Seems Russia has real issues, not just corruption, if compact Poland struggles to invest in a grid. Try guaranteeing gas access across 11 time zones...

News / R. Trzaskowski, current mayor of Warsaw, future President of Poland [354]


It cracks me up all the time how Poles contract coal in fu&king tons. Do you realize how unusual this is in the 21st century?

The last time I saw a ton of coal was at my grandma's farm in the village in the 1990s. At the time I was obsessed with paleontology, and would spend hours sifting through the coal looking for fossils, but never actually found any.

Was looking for something like in the picture below. Instead, it was crap coal that fell apart in your fingers into a fine dust.

How is it delivered? At my grandma's farm, a Russian KAMAZ truck would come, and dump it all in the driveway in front of the garage. Then my grandpa and I would have to shovel it into a shed situated adjacent. Afterwards, I'd spray the driveway down with a hose (wonder if this is bad ecologically).

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Life / Paintings of artists from Poland? [192]

@pawian

I agree sexist posters are disgusting!

Not every Polish man is proficient on the vacuum cleaner.

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Off-Topic / Stock Market and Trading Talk [1011]


Even a broken clock is accurate, twice a day.

If you bought something he recommended, and simply sat on it - you're 95% likely to have done well. This is because we have just finished living through one of the strongest bull markets in the world's history. Due to nonstop quantitative easing by governments in North America and Europe, stocks have benefited disproportionately. Making rich people richer, and poor people just about as poor as they always were.

However, if you actually did what Johnny suggests with his daily advice of moving stuff around, you would have likely only hurt yourself. Being a day trader in general is a joke, for 99.999% of people. The information asymmetry between an average Joe day trading and a market maker who sees the entire picture is just too great. You're being fleeced by experts, every step of the way.

P.S. - for the paranoid goons around here, I do not work for a market maker firm, and the above is not financial advice. The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained in my post constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Bobko or any third party service provider to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

Off-Topic / Stock Market and Trading Talk [1011]


I'm surprised you managed to make any money at all based on Johnny's tips, since in most instances they run counter to accepted logic within the financial sector. For example, his claim of selling out of everything and sitting on cash in CDs. In the real world, where I live, you have to pay taxes on things you sold at a profit. Either Johnny sells at a loss, or he routinely wipes out his gains through his frequent in and out maneuvers.

Off-Topic / Let's talk about shoes [344]

@Alien

No the problem is deeper. This specific type of Indian shoe, is unlike most other Indian shoes. This is a rare and exotic "Catholic Indian" shoe, which to my knowledge was only ever produced by the Dalit, or Untouchable community. The generations of being unfairly contrasted with the wildly more successful "Hindu Indian" or so-called "Muslim Indian" shoe, has created for better or worse a perpetual feeling of having a "chip on the shoulder".

So while an outsider would expect to find few real differences between these varieties of shoes, there is in fact a world of difference.

News / R. Trzaskowski, current mayor of Warsaw, future President of Poland [354]


Under that criteria, probably a good third of America should be under active supervision of a doctor. I can provide you with a few American websites, with readership in the hundreds of thousands, where "paranoia based on religious fanaticism" can encapsulate 50% of the articles.

Fighting demons, and saving souls is a pretty routine affair in the United States. You have it easy in Europe.

Also, please do not be frightened by people pronouncing a desire to go "underground". In America they have an entire industry dedicated to servicing the whims of these people, so again - they cannot be so unusual, or dangerous if profit-oriented businessmen are able to conduct dealings with them. So they like to live in old ICBM silos. So they dress up a few times a week and march around some forest clearing. So they buy a lot of gas masks and bulletproof vests. Yes, they're sitting on hundred of millions of rounds of ammunition. But is this really a reason to worry? Of course not.

These people are harmless. The real demons no one cares to slay.

Travel / Private Jets in Poland [16]


Spoken like an owner and a pilot. Paying only for gas in this equation, I assume?

Travel / Private Jets in Poland [16]

@Novichok

One day I will charter a private jet for $13K from Warsaw to Paris (one way). Seeing as it fits 6-8 people, I will invite Cargo, Johnny, Joker, Jon, Miloslaw, Pawian and Paulina on this romantic sojourn (I'm leaving one seat vacant because you-know-who is said to be a rather large fellow).

I will request to have a dash cam installed facing the cabin, to record the hilarity that ensues.

Travel / Private Jets in Poland [16]

@Novichok

Even if you lived in Warsaw?

History / Karol Wojtyla, the man who become a pope (video) [58]

@Alien

I meant it as a term of endearment.

Off-Topic / Russian Views On Poland and Vice Versa [414]

More than 8 years ago this war started. Posting a video here of volunteers showing up for the war in 2014, for all the people that argue Russia engineered this thing. Accompanied by nice Don/Kuban Cossack music, and plenty of instances of actual Cossacks (hello Ukraine) visible on screen. The type of Cossacks I like, in uniform, and not some dress-up costume.

youtu.be/SyO33m4b_nQ

History / Karol Wojtyla, the man who become a pope (video) [58]

JP2 was an original gangster.

News / What should Poland do with the problem of Belarus? [1800]


Lol. Now Belarus is a real country too? I thought it was the 90th state of Russia?

Feedback / Feed Back on the Moderating [90]

@Novichok

Sounds eerily close to reality.

Feedback / Feed Back on the Moderating [90]


How much would you be willing to sell the forum for?

Whatever the amount, I'm certain it will represent small change to our local Warren Buffet.

Feedback / Feed Back on the Moderating [90]


Very charitable characterization of your forum colleagues. In the next breath you will claim you have many friends, yes? Always spreading drama. Let me quote from Proverbs for you, then:

"Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth."

Can you receive this Solomonic wisdom, man of God?

Feedback / Feed Back on the Moderating [90]


Indeed, no Byron is he.

Feedback / Feed Back on the Moderating [90]


Jon, you know just how to ruin a romantic atmosphere with some unexpected vulgarity.

Feedback / Feed Back on the Moderating [90]


Here I was, thinking that Bobko showing his ugly side in wars with the Pig might alienate the Gentleman Kania...

Turns out he is as brutal as I am. Recent conversion notwithstanding. It's true what they say.

Po polsku / Staram się polepszać się po polsku :) [85]

My wish has come true. A Ukrainian has finally arrived, and it looks like she's ready to use the big guns.

UK, Ireland / Moving to Poland from UK [39]

Geraniums, guess where?

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UK, Ireland / Moving to Poland from UK [39]


Oh, but Pawian... geraniums are amongst the most beautiful of all! Is this because your are lazy, or you are unwilling to advance in the horticultural skills through some other impediment?