PeterRS

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.

Certainly he hasn't. The hostitilites have started again. A Thai soldier and 4 Cambodian civilians have been killed. Thailand has launched air strkes and it is estimated several thousand have fled the border area. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c4g5e1p585qt

Bullshit!

Yes, I deny that ridiculous assumption. I actually answer questions. You avoid them and never answer.

Why do you keep spouting such obvious lies? Hong Kong building construction codes are different to such codes in the UK. 1. Do you seriously think any poster believes that UK building codes take into account massive typhoon winds which occur regularly in Hong Kong with wind speeds regularly of up to 200kph? Of course they do not. Construction codes in the South of England allow for wind speeds of around 100 kph. 2. Do you seriously think any poster believes that UK building codes take into account the massive amounts of monsoon rainfall annually in Hong Kong (well over double the average in the UK) resulting in the need for different codes for buildings on hillsides which are prone to subsidence? Of course not. 3. Do you seriously think any poster believes that UK building codes take into account the massive density of skyscrapers in Hong Kong, their effect on wind movements, daylight and other secondary issues. Of course not. 4. Besides, when the Hong Kong tower blocks were conceived, how many in the UK were of a similar height? Answer - TWO! 5. And what is the tallest building in the UK now? The Shard in London competed in 2012 with a height of 309 meters. 6. And what is the tallest building in Hong Kong now. The Intrnational Commerce Centre copleted in 2010 with a height of 424 meters. Quit lying and deviation!

Major deflection once again. You know perfectly well my comment "not other nations" referred exclusively to the disaster at Chernobyl and what caused it. The comment had absolutely nothing to do with Japan. Chernobyl was an accident in a Russian MIckey Mouse nuclear reactor by Russian Mickey Mouse people who did not know what they were doing, nor that their Mickey Mouse experiment had been attempted at other Russian Mickey Mouse reactors and always failed. That is absolutely criminal - and precisely why some senior Mickey Mouse Russian officials in charge of the Mickey Mouse Chernobyl experiment found themselves in a real-life gulag doing hard labour for 10 years. Fact! Second fact. It most certainlly was not an "experimental" reactor as you claimed above.

And that's one of your real problems and why other posters just do not trust you. You just cannot take criticism of any sort.

Deviating once again. If the Russians had not built the Mickey Mouse reactor and attempted a manoeuvre they had tried on other Russian Mickey Mouse reactors which had always failed, and if the Russian sarcophagus had done the job it should have done by containing the radiation for many decades if not a century or more, there would have been absolutely no need for other nations to construct a containment shield in the middle of one of the most dangerous radiation zones in the world. Russia caused the blast and the escape of masses amounts of radiation. Not other nations. I have answred your question. Now you should answer mine. But we know you will not because you never do!

Unfortunately writing a good book - or interesting, sexy, revealing, call it what you like - is no guarantee of sales. I have had a book out on amazon for three years on a subject that is definitely interesting for a lot of likely purchasers, and even with a slew of 5-star reviews, it just does not sell on amazon! Marketing is the key, and that is usually neither easy nor cheap, sadly.

Are your pics of the basic room? Unless its a wide angle lens, it looks more than reasonable to me. Or maybe just official hotel web photos.

I will discuss the reasons if you will discuss why it was that Russia built a Mickey Mouse nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, why it was that Russian officials' cavalier safety culture in Russian reactors then fucked up a simple test and released vast quantities of radiation into the world's air, why it had to evacuate hundreds of thousands, and why thousands, if not many tens of thousands or more, died of radiation poisoning. Even today, people are still dying from the effect of that disaster. That said I take nothing away from the heroism of the Russian first responders, particularly those who entered the blast zone, the firefighters and especially the helicopter pilots, most of whom paid with their lives. The Russian Academy of Sciences estimated that as many as 830,000 were involved as part of the "clean up " teams and that between 112,000 and 125,000 of these had died by 2005. Evidence hidden in Russian hospitals as far away as Moscow and subsequently discovered showed that 40,000 were hospitalised in the summer after the explosion, many women and children. @Moses will inevitably dispute all this - as he always does. So why were six major officials from Chernobyl jailed in labour camps folllowing the disaster? Why was the test at Chernobyl being carried out when it had previously been tried at other Russian reactors when every test had failed? The fact was the operators of the test were not briefed on aspects of nuclear safety which would have enabled them to shut own the test before the catastrophe. Normally for other posters i would add, over to you @Moses. But we know you will claim these are all lies so I have answered for you.

Oh really? That has never been the caase in the past. In this and several other threads I have asked your views on a whole series of facts. In the one above it related to the facts about fires in Russia. But then to you inconvenient facts are simply not facts. They are statements to be glossed over, obfuscated and called downright lies. No one actually believes you!

And @Moses has still not responded to my question last Monday about all the Russian fires. Why were so many in hospitals? Lax Russian fire standards no doubt. But then he never responds when Russia is at fault!