Mike-C:
Sigh…The Ancient Greeks knew the Earth was not flat, they also knew it wasn’t the centre of the Universe ,not sure where you get these facts from.
From the sources that happen to notice that between Ancient Greece and 1500s there was around 1500 years of Christianity, and that Christianity was spreading their version with fire of sword. The books like Aristarch’s works and Ptolemeus astronomical works were banned. Ever seen “The name of the Rose” with Sean Connery?
Even in the times of Kopernik it was still dangerous to say things like that - this is why he allowed his book to be printed only when he was on his death bed.
Some Wikipedia pages for you: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno
But if you have some spare time, pop over to Wikepidia and sort out the controversey for them as they seem to have some doubt that Kopernik was Polish, infact they think he was German.
They might think so, but the facts will prove them otherwise. You know, since Kopernik is one of the biggest Poles in history, every child learns about him at school. But especially for you, I do some mini-research. I have acutally to prepare something for my Czech oral class, so I can do the stuff about Kopernik. So, lets see:
-
Kopernik’s father was Polish. His name was also MikoÅ‚aj. He was from a family of Kraków merchants but he moved to ToruÅ„ after he was asked to lend some money to the city to help it fighting the Teutonic Knights known also as Deutschherrenorden. Deutsch means German in German, in case that you don’t know.
Kopernik family was from Silesia, from the small village of Koperniki (hence their family name), near Nysa. Nysa is a Polish town today, but back in 1300s it was Czech. Kopernik’s branch of the family moved to Kraków in 1367 and then to ToruÅ„, as being merchants they were willing to trade with Teutonic Knights.
-
Kopernik’s mother was Barbara de domo Watzenrod. A daughter of the rich ToruÅ„ lay judge, that supported the city with enourmous (as for these times) amount of money in their fight with Teutonic Knights. The family name is German, but unlike with Britain, that is an island, in Europe nations are mixing with each other so it’s not unusual to have the name typical for another nations. Just to do not look too far, Sarkozy, former French president’s surname is Hungarian. Current Czech president is Vaclav Klaus etc etc. But the political views of Åukasz Watzenrod states clearly part of which nation he considered himself.
-
Kopernik himself was performing political functions in Prusy Królewskie (aka Königlich-Preußen or Polnische-Preußen) - the province that was under Polish King after Poland won the war with Teutonic Knights and signed Toruń peace treaty. Mikołaj Kopernik was a negotiator in political tensions between Poland and Teutonic Knights). He moved to Frombork, where apart from his political and church duties he was leading astronomical observations. During Polish-Teutonic war of 1520s, he was calling for Polish king to come and help and he personally wrote a letter.
So both family lines as well as political views of his parents and grandparents show clear that he was not filling at all related to Germany. But I am not surprised, that Germans try to say that Kopernik was German. I bet if I become a famous man who changed the fate of the world, Scots in 500 years woudl also try to claim that I was Scottish 
Now i’m sure you checked these facts thoroughly as indeed you did your others and VOSA are unfairly targeting EE trucks
Now I’m sure that you might reconsider your assumption, that I am wrong in everything I say.
bigvern1:
He’ll convince us Hitler was Polish next!
Even if I had a reason to do that, I am afraid I would fail in this task. Hitler was born in a family of Austro-Hungarian civil servant and his family had a long history of being German
jayseabea:
I have to say Orys, I’m impressed with your persistance and belief in the power of reason over fear and prejudice.
I wish I had your talent for language and patience. You’re obviously educated to a higher level than most people on the list.This in itself will be taken as a disadvantage and treated with suspicion by the working class in Britain and, like it or not, lorry driving IS a working class job. Skilled yes, but NOT a “profession” in the accepted sense.
Keep it up.
Thanks for the nice words. It’s not my fault that because I happen to know more on some subject, they are more hostile towards me. I am always happy to learn, and trucknet was a great source of education for me.
billybigrig:
Many of the offences actually result from a lack of harmonisation. A vehicle that was legal for the first part of it’s journey may suddenly be 1,000kgs over weight on the pin. Sounds very dramatic but it’s well within manufacturers safe thresholds and that of other EU countries. You could also load up to 40,000kgs but forget that you will be filling up with a big chunk of diesel before crossing the channel.
I guess this might be a reason why the percentage is higher - the problem with disharmonisation. UK has very different regulation in many things, not only trucking. So yes, you might be right, this might be the reason why there is a bit higher percentage of the offences. I am sure that for the same reason UK trucks have slightly higher percentage of offences in France than French trucks…
Likewise with say the rules in regard to wing tops on mudguards and how VOSA call that one, so again legal perhaps until you get off the ferry.
Actually, VOSA cannot do nothing if vehicle is legal in country of registration. Vienna convention ensures it. Otherwise French and Dutch trucks with yellow headlights will have trouble everywhere they go, British style blue bulbs in contour lights will have to be replaced with white in Dover and it would be illegal to drive British or Irish vehicle in Poland or Latvia, because according to the law in this country, vehicle with steering wheel on the right side can’t get homologation. If VOSA targets foreign trucks for that they have their vehicles up to specifications in their own country, I am sure that there has to be something wrong with it.
Also the UK authorities have made great efforts to knock off things like per KM pay, unpaid waiting time etc where as that is, as you say, still prevalent in some EE countries. Despite a small minority of ■■■■■■■■ cowboys most UK operators are these days so [zb] scared of losing there O licence that things are squeakier clean than ever. In many instances the EE drivers who get caught are under tremendous pressure from employers in much the same way some of us were 10 or 20 years ago.
This is the thing I am trying to show you. These changes are happening also in Poland and they happen in much faster pace… At the moment many Polish companies are also looking very strict at legalities, especially since introducion of the new toll system that is used by ITD (Polish VOSA) to track truck’s movement and compare it with tacho records. Off course there is still many cowboys, but their percentage is much lower than most of trucknet users seem to think.
Moreover, as rightly spotted by Harry Monk in one of our previous discussions, Poland became a field of play for big players (just like Wolter Koops and likes) that think that they can exploit Polish drivers at the expense of both Polish and Western markets. Yes, still many of Polish truckers have to work for such outfits, but if you are good and have some experience, you can easily find a proper job in decent company - and that is still much, much easier than here in UK, while money, in some cases, can be even better. But go to any Polish forum and see: Working for Koops, Raben or Rico in the past is not the dream of Polish driver. If he will have a choice to go on the dole or go work for them, he will work, but as soon as he will get better job, he will be off that place without looking back.
As I’ve said with the immigration thing as a whole, it’s OK to hate the game but not the players. In this case the players are stuck in a bad but slowly improving game as we were once. 
I am happy that we agree on that.
Happy Polish Independence day, by the way 
Thank you
One more thing:
Roadworthiness check results for 2008/9
See, this is another thing. Gas Gas claims to give you latest data. You operate on data 5 years old. You have to take into consideration that Poland is now in period of very rapid changes, 5 years in Poland economy is a whole epoque. This is what I tried to explain to trucknet in “operating truck from Eastern Europe” thread: Poland five years ago was completely different than it is now!
, is saying all EE drivers are bad but your dogged defence of undeniable truths really ruins what I consider to be the good discussion we’re having here, Orys.
