News / Polish Pegasus Spyware Scandal [40]

@Cojestdocholery
Was their investigation in other cases in other countries also a joke? Like the Saudis murder? Was Apple's information also a joke?

You're doing a strawman fallacy here and referring only to the part of the argument. Prosecutor's office should begin an investigation regardless of how jokey is something considered.

Also would be good if you have some citation on "it might have been used". Which btw should also be good enough reason to trigger general prosecutors investigation

@mafketis and anyone else, if you are interested in the topic of NSO group and Pegasus check Darknes Diaries podcast episode 99 and 100

News / Polish Pegasus Spyware Scandal [40]

They were literally informed by 2 sources Apple and Citizenlab. Citizenlab has been involved in helping opposition and reporters in countries with dictatorships for years. Finding truth about them being hacked, anything around digital warfare. They were involved in the investigation of Jamal Khashoggi's death. You can't get better than that. Poland should NEVER have gottem under their crosshair - its grouping us with a really unruly crowd.

Citizenslab reports contain details on how these hacks were uncovered and how they were able to eavesdrop on servers communicating with the victims (afair). These reports can be googled.

If someone has trouble believeing that, then no proof will ever change their mind, unless great Kaczynski comes clean. And that's an illness without a cure. At that point its easier to believe in another international plot to overthrow Poland.

Life / Moving from India to Wroclaw [53]

Depends on your lifestyle.

Life / Hosting home party for my Wroclaw colleagues. How much drinks and food to prepare? Any activities/games? [14]

It really depends on the people. I'm not sure who you're inviting, but based on the type of people board games/ party board games/ card games can be sometimes a good idea. With people you don't know well I supposed drinks and conversation are fine.

Wine + Vodka + Beer sounds like a lot of mixing, not everyone likes mixing. Wine is a must if there are girls, cause that's what they, most of the time, prefer.

If the people you are inviting don't have gourmet tastes in terms of alcohol - then some blended Whisky like Red Johnny Walker and coke can be a good idea for some simple drinks. One bottle of wine can be a good idea for the odd person that likes wine ( if there are no women ) - a simple red Carlo Rossi is the type of mass produced wine that is not too cheap, it's not that bad and at the same time tastes ok.

Crisps, snacks etc are good idea and during the party you can always ask people if they'd like to order a pizza.

Classifieds / Random Classifieds Ads Poland [261]

What is the project about?

Study / "MAGISTER" OR "MASTERS DEGREE" - ARE THEY THE SAME? [75]

As far as I know most Unis in Poland follow the ECTS system and a 5 years day course usually has ~2000 hours. According to wikipedia 1800 is a standard for British Unis as a requirement for the Master. I had between 1900 and 2000 as part of my Magister. I suppose the weekend courses have less. Maybe that's what you are thinking of.

Life / Why do Silesians hate Poland? [41]

Silesians don't hate Poland, I'm Silesian I don't hate Poland and none of my friends from Silesia do. Some Silesian people do feel a degree of unfairness. It's due to the fact that Silesia was the heart of Poland for a very long time due to heavy industry, coal mining and smelting going. All of the profits were going to Warsaw - they would like Silesia to be partially autonomous - in terms of ability to make important decisions about the region.

Travel / Where to eat best donuts in Wroclaw? (Bakery, local places, etc) [10]

If you're asking about classic polish donuts I'd go with "Cukiernia pod Trumienką". Otherwise - we need to wait for Dunkin Donuts supposedly they are planning big expansion to Poland soon ; o

Work / What kind of CV for a job in a multinational company in Poland; Europass or traditional one? Address problems. [19]

I've sent my cv to a multinational company without a photo, I'm interviewing guys who are not adding photos to their CVs. Nobody cares about the photo as far as I know at least in the IT business. Not sure about other markets.

Work / What kind of CV for a job in a multinational company in Poland; Europass or traditional one? Address problems. [19]

I've seen many Polish CVs and not all of them had photos or age stated. I haven't put them in myself when I've prepared my CV. I'd say it depends. In IT where there's scarcity of potential candidates no one will take such trivialities into consideration when assessing someone. Not sure about other areas though.

History / Polish mathematicians who solved the Enigma machine [86]

I like how wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine describes both the Polish role and the British role, I feel like both were substantial. There's a monument at Bletchley Park for Polish mathematicians - which many Poles seem to forget about. I also feel like inclusion of any "Polish" specific information in the movie would make it overcomplicated. Movies are supposed to tell a story and stay coherent throughout.

I also feel like the movie was more about Alan Turing, than about Breaking Enigma itself. It's good he got posthumously cleared out of anything that was staining his name, shame it was so late.

I actually feel like the part where Turing mentioned Polish mathematicians slightly forced. Like "lets hope this will be enough for all the whiners". It all would feel slightly more consistent without that.

Travel / Being Transgender and visiting Wroclaw [467]

I'm not sure haven't checked. Have been there only once mid-day for a cup of coffee. The lgbt crowd gathers mostly in the evenings as far as I know, for events and concerts.

Travel / Being Transgender and visiting Wroclaw [467]

There's LGBT centric club in the old town's market square called Coffee Planet, coffeeplanet.pl Strict city centre, very safe.

Life / Paintings of artists from Poland? [192]

I remember a copy was hanging in my grandmas house, I think the flood in 97 took it though.. couldn't find any place selling print outs ;o

Life / Conflicting views about life in Poland? [45]

IT jobs in Poland actually pay really good, they can give you salary to payments ratio similar to the one in Ireland or UK and quite high quality of life factor in bigger cities like Warsaw, Cracov or Wroclaw.

Life / Video games centers and culture in Poland [22]

I'm not sure what the median is in Poland , but I think the oldest gamers are in their 30s right now. What was quite different from US in the introduction of gaming in Poland was that gaming consoles such as nintendo or sega mega drive and so on were much less popular. Poland was all about computers such as Atari, Commodore 64 or Amiga. From what I know that's how it was in most of the europe.

Additionally poland was quite delayed with electronic entertainment, mostly due to the iron curtain with years of communism. Every game was released with a 2-5 year delay in that times. Due to the lack of anti-piracy laws in the 90s most people bought their pirated games at market stalls.

I remember quite vividly buying them - something along - "Please could you give me 16 disks of video games". We didn't even know the titles. You could get 4 games each on 4 disks or 16 games, it was all quite random.

Because of that computer games piracy we always quite a problem in Poland, and supposedly because of that many gaming services such as xbox live are introduced here with delays. But it's getting beter :)

Life / If I'm agnostic, deist, atheist - can I say that to Polish people in Poland? [72]


How often do you show your ID to random people? Likelyhood of showing your ID to a simpleminded police officer is negligible. I really think it's making a storm in a teacup.

Life / If I'm agnostic, deist, atheist - can I say that to Polish people in Poland? [72]

I wonder what's the thinking behind this thread. I mean, you usually don't talk religion with people you've just met. I can't imagine a situation where you casually walk up to people tellng them what's your choice of faith or lack of it. And people you know longer are your friends or colleagues, they shuold not care about your choice of fix...

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]


I'd say a PIS comeback would be possible, if some kind of a big disaster hit Poland. That's the only chance for Kaczynski to get more votes, by preying on people who are in distress. And any gov that raigns during the time of distress is automatically getting a thumb down from the hoi polloi.

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

Kaczynski would declare war against Russia, that's what you call "strong politics", god forbid him from getting to reign over Poland.

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

Interesting read pawian. The problem is you won't change anyone's mind. And to have a sensible conversation with somebody who's a tenacious pis voter is a no can do. I wonder where are the roots of this hatred Poles tend to guide towards each other.

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]


I meant it in the opposite way. They avoid these costly blunders, as you called them, but in the same time they shun important (and costly) "difficult" reforms. They avoid reforms which could lose them votes. Tusk understands that huge junk of electorate thinks about now rather than later, hence he will prefer taking money from OFE over the reforms of KRUS or public service sector workers to name but a few. It's a very slow walk of making small and often pointless reforms and preserving the electorate.

I'm afraid that in the current situation, whoever wins the election will not have enough votes to push through difficult reforms. The moment they form the gov they'll think how to extend their time onto next and next elections in the years to come.


bottoms up!! ;)

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]


Costly blunder and big reforms at the same time, which is a big downside of his gov, imo

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]


Me neither. I just remember some highlights, I know there were more but I'd have to google and look for them, I like watching the news every now and then but I'm not someone who read every political blog and newspaper and learns by heart every political fact. All these threads change to "who googles a political fact first" arguments anywyas ; o

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

To be fair, I think it was Ewa Kopacz who had the largest part.

And from what I remember PiS members were crying about how swine flu is going to roll through Poland. (acting along the good old pis rhetorics to oppose everything po does)

News / Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government [538]

Not succumbing to the swine flu plot.

Life / Exam for Drivers License in Poland; English? [99]

There you go, the image that illustrates what delphi mentioned above.

Life / Walking on other people's property in Poland - cultural difference? [51]

You'd get stabbed with a pitchfork if you were walking around somebody's property anywhere in the countryside. Highlanders are especially protective about their land.

In the city - it is rather boorish and chav-like behaviour as someone already mentioned...

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

What are you on about? Who doesn't threaten other countries? Where were you for the last 10 years.. Of course North Korea is a glorious innocuous country, so is Lukashenko with his puppet show. I'm not gonna delve any further into this rubbish conversation. Have a good carp.

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


Except for the fact, as I mentioned earlier, they don't have enough power to do so. As for now they are only a threat to their own folk.