America

---

It makes me feel gooooood. You're still here though, so I must not be that successful a repellant.

How old are you steve?

Sadly we do not have Tex-Mex here, but the other night I went out for dinner and had a €16 Bangers & Mash.

Old enough to know better?Hey, wait a minute, are you hijacking this thread?Old enough to know better in America.

OMG, now there's a business opportunity. Mexican food kicks butt. If Asian food could go over big in England, then Mexican food can go over big in Ireland. I think I can find some Mexicans who can cook. There the little issue of the weather, though....

Chinese is massive here, mostly because of our ever increasing Chinese population. I have 2 Chinese friends, one whose family owns a Chinese take-away and one that owns two take-aways. In my hometown we have 7 Chinese restaurants and 3 Thai.

I know a Thai woman who has an Italian-American stepfather (who's a hard-driving business guy), and who is an amazing Thai chef...and Italian chef. That's a typical ethnic family mix-up in America.(Also, most of the people I know, including everyone in my family, married someone of a different religion.)Does Ireland have much Spanish food?

Not a lot of Spanish food (apart from my weekly Spanish Omelette) but there is lots of Italian.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, Mexican Food!!!!! The authentic stuff is the greatest... You Irish people have no idea what you're missing.

See Bob, even people who practically live in Canada like it. I'm telling you, there's a great opportunity there.

mostly because of our ever increasing Chinese populationThat's interesting. I wonder when people seek to emigrate, where do they wish to go? Serbia has always been very much a "white" (Lily-white? LOL) country if you exclude the Roma/Gypsy's. The occasional black person stuck out like a sore thumb. However, after the wars there, there has been a massive influx of Chinese. Serbia, to me, just seems like a strange destination for immigrants. But now, there is/are an established Chinese quarter(s). I guess this pattern is similar throughout Europe.Serbia's biggest Chinatown is located in the newer part of Belgrade. There are many Chinese stores all over the country. They sell many products at low prices, especially in Novi Pazar. Serbian Chinatowns don't have any special name; the term used is kinezi, which refers to Chinese people. Most of these immigrants tend to mainland Chinese, a legacy of Slobodan Milošević relaxing immigration restrictions when he made diplomatic approaches to China during the 1990s. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/685566.stm supplies more information.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatowns_in_Europe

WTF? You attacked Steve, and he was actually staying on topic.

6 - The dropping of the A-bomb on Japan saved an estimated 4 million lives. About a million (I think) died as a result of the blast and the subsequent radiation effects. The invasion of Japan would have cost us a million lives and the Japanese 4 million (estimated). Based on that, I think it was a good idea. Add to that the fact that we didn't know all the ramifications of an A-bomb blast at the time...it had never been used before. Again (as I mentioned in another thread) we didn't completely know then what we do now...but not completely knowing what we are/were doing is a world-wide phenomenon (not limited only to the US). Hindsight is 20/20, as they say.17 - No.

and didnt they only create them at albert einsteins request for fear of the nazis research into it? now i dont know much about it but if thats the case id rather we had it than nazis

It's estimated that Hitler was about a year behind us in developing the A-bomb...one of the reasons the Allied powers made taking out Germany top priority over Japan. Just before the end of his life, Hitler sent what info they had on the A-bomb to Japan by submarine. I don't know what happened after that, but it was another of several good reasons to bring an end to the war with Japan quickly.

From all I have read Germany was far more than a year behind the U.S. in their development of a nuclear bomb. While German scientist did indeed have the majority of knowhow, by the time Germany invaded the U.S.S.R. and declared war on the U.S. they simply lacked the vast resources necessary to build the bomb. Even had the war dragged on in Europe, Germany could not have produced a bomb anything like what was dropped on Japan.More importantly though the Nazi elite showed little interest in it. Up until the time it was to late the Nazis had no need of such weapons, the blitzkrieg had worked just fine for them. The leadership of Germany seemed to only understand the A-bomb as a big bomb they didn't comprehend what it meant, probably like most people of that time. Here's a link for a little reading on the subject. >>>"...one of the reasons the Allied powers made taking out Germany top priority over Japan."I have my doubts about this. The most tangible reason is that a navel fleet was needed to fight in the Pacific where as in Europe grunts on the ground where more valuable. It took a little time to rebuild the Pacific fleet after Pearl Harbor. Either way V.E. day and V.J. day where only four months or so apart, that doesn't seem to suggest focusing on one theater of battle over the other.>>>"Just before the end of his life, Hitler sent what info they had on the A-bomb to Japan by submarine."I'm intrigued. I've never heard this, could you tell me where I might find some more info on it.

> The dropping of the A-bomb on Japan saved an estimated 4 million lives.

You say that as if it's an obvious fact, like 2 + 3 = 5. It's not. Good cases can be made that dropping the first bomb saved lives or cost lives. However, it's much more difficult to make the case for the second A-bomb, dropped on Nagasaki.

In any case, 4 million lives saved sounds absurdly high. Once again, do you have any references (with functioning links this time)?

It was based on US military estimates when making plans for the invasion of Japan...which would have been necessary had the US not dropped the bombs. It was estimated that 5 million lives would have been lost...4 million of them Japanese, and many of those children. Like the Germans at the end of the war, Japan was dipping into its youth to continue the war at the behest of the warlords. It was the Japanese Emperor who finally stepped in and put a stop to it all. You can do the research yourself...I didn't find it on the web. We had planned to drop about 5 bombs (I believe) but refrained from dropping the other three when Japan decided to surrender.History is filled with "what if's"...nothing can prove them right, or wrong. But unless you can read the minds of dead Japanes warlords (or the emperor), you are in no position to conclude that the dropping of the second bomb was or was not necessary. The US military minds at the time determined it was.Oldfolks - I remember seeing it on a documentary concerning the issue several years ago...perhaps the History Channel. That's the best I can give you. Nothing was known if the sub ever reached Japan, but records of its cargo and destination were obtained. One must conclude that if they bothered to send a sub to Japan to carry this info that there must have been something they thought was worth sending.

I very much disagree with your contention of 4 million lives saved by dropping two atomic bombs on Japan. There is no justification, strategic, tactical, or moral, for dropping the second one.Now we live in infamy as the only nation to use atomic weapons against another country. We now have a huge arsenal of atomic weapons. I have no idea why we think countries like Iran and North Korea should listen to us when we tell them to get rid of theirs.

There’s Burritos ‘n Blues in Ranelagh; you must just be one of those northsiders who never ventures south of the Liffey Bob! And there's El Paso in town, but that's not great..