PeterRS

Yet ironically as the war was about to start, the Germans were ahead in the race to build the "bomb". In 1939 a host of German scientists and physicists like Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann, Otto Frisch and others had cracked the code for nuclear fission. These ideas were pubished by Niels Bohr and the American John Wheeler two days prior to the outbreak of war and became the classical anaysis of the fission process. The German nuclear programme was presided over by Werner Heisenberg. Although it was wound down for reasons of cost, this German Uranverein project became the primary incentive for the USA and Britain to pursue the goal of a nuclear bomb. It was also their reason for mounting the raids on the German-occupied Norwegian heavy water plants. Soviet scientists quickly discovered what Germany, Britain and the USA were up to. It took time but by 1942 they had convinced Stalin to start up a nuclear resarch programme. Although too late to affect the outcome of WWII, following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki much greater effort was put in by the Soviets. The city of Chelyabinsk-40 was constructed to house the new plutonium reactors - later renamed Cheyabinsk-65, the first of ten highly secret Soviet cities to house its nuclear programme. Had the Soviet scientists been quicker off the mark, who knows which country would have been the first to use the bomb and how WWII might have ended?

As he promised!

I fully understand. But the day after my departure my excellent guide in Iran was to be picking up a party of 20 Americans who were visiting iran on a 10-day tour! It was not dangerous then, although it had been occasionally in the past. I accept it is very dangerous now but who knows when the international situation will change? Also we should note that Iran is undergoing a massive water shortage at present and there is even talk that parts of Tehran will have to be evacuated. https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/rain-autumn-falls-irans-capital-drought-ravaged-nation-128268554

In another thread @Olddaddy made it clear he does not like to use google when he asks questions on this Board. He seeks personal experiences.

Total madness! Where are the MAGA crowd going to find the staff to go through what will be 99.9999% junk when they have already fired a lot of them? And what will they be looking for? After 32 or 33 visits, no more USA trips for me.

Such a shame you did not visit Iran before the present diplomatic and wartime impasse. I was there in 2018 for two quite amazing weeks. One of the most stunning countries. And my guide even got me a bottle of red wine (totally forbidden in that country). His father made it at his home in Shiraz! Should relations become more normal, I'd certainly suggest coupling Iran with somewhere like Jordan with Petra, Wadi Rum, Jerash and Mount Nebo if you have never been.

You again cannot and do not want to read. My initial posts were requests for your answers. But you never answer. End of discussion. And I am not your "dear"! End this ridiculous diatribe!

A Report by RootsAction has thrown further mud Kamala Harris' way for losing the last General Election. - She made a major mistake in trying to court moderate Republicans rather than appealing to the party's base of working class Democrats. This strategy articulated by Chuck Schumer in 2016 - of trading one blue-collar Democratic voter for two Republicans in the suburbs - failed then and failed again; - She adoped a "joyful message" campaign and "sunny talking points" when nearly 70% of the country were voting the economy as "poor" or " not so good"; - She failed to woo American foreign policy away from 100% support for israel, in essence following Joe Biden's approach, and lost a large chunk of Arab American and Muslim voters. In the election, Harris lost all seven swing states, whereas Biden had won six. Harris dropped 6.8% of voters compared to Biden in 2020 whereas Trump gained 2.8%. And so it goes on. If she tries to run again, all this and more will come back to haunt her. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/10/kamala-harris-election-autopsy

A non-medical individual inserting mooks in a car, no matter how sanitised, is horrific enough, but the same non-medical individual undertaking circumcisions is horrendous!

Sorry to say if the karaoke is in the inside bar area, that rules me out. If in a separate soundproof room, I'll visit with friends.

You cannot even read! Whenever did I bring up the Jeju uprising? I didn't! Fact! Or does Jeju in Russian sound like Katyn or Mickey Mouse Chernobyl? You yet again deviate because you don't - and won't - answer legitimate questions. But then we know this is your usual practice. No one pays any attention!

You "appear" to confuse "appeared to be" with "was"!

And the one who to many appeared not to be a butcher, Nikita Khrushchev who denounced Stalin, was denied burial in the Kremlin Wall and instead lies in peace inside Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery. (Of course during the Stalin era he had followed the Kremlin's orders). And that's perhaps appropriate because there he is in the presence of truly great Russians like Chekov, Gogol, Shostakovich, Chaliapin, Prokofiev, Rostropovich and his wife Vishnevskaya, Ulanova and so many others, including Stalin's wife who shot herself in 1932 aged 31. Graves of Khrushchev (above) and Stalin's wife (below)

Two days before the 2011 9.1 mega earthquake off Japan's east coast near Sendai which devastated much of that part of the country, a 7.3 quake had occurred off the east coast of Iwate province, very close to the area of the Sendai quake. Two days ago another less powerful quake hit Aomori province in the north of the country. But 7.5 is still a major quake and there are fears that as in 2011 this might be the prelude to another mega quake in the region. The one that most earthquake watchers are waiting for is a mega quake virtually under Tokyo similar to the Great Kanto quake of 1923. Although it was only 8.0 on the Richter scale, it was followed within the space of only five minutes by two other major quakes of 7.2 and 7.3 magnitude. The result was devastating. Over half of Tokyo and all of Yokohama were destroyed. Up to 140,00 died and 2.5 milliion made homeless. It must be stressed, however, that Tokyo and Yokohama then were very different cities. Houses were constructed mostly of wood. Today's building standards in Tokyo take into account major quakes and the newer taller buildings around Shinjuku, for example, should withstand very strong quakes with only shaking. However, the 31 meter height limit for buildings in the city was only abandoned in 1963 and the Building Standards Act only came into force in 1971 following a 1968 earthquke. And despite the effects of the 1923 quake and the American fire bombing of Tokyo towards the end of WWII, there are parts of the city which would virtually collapse in a mega quake. The reason for Japan being so prone to earthquakes is because it sits atop no less than three tectonic plates each pushing in different directions. This diagram from a 2011 edition of The Daiy Telegraph illustrates what is going on under the surface.

Poland certainly remembers the Katyn massacre as in this memorial in Krakow.