Today I discovered that - ironically - I can't define the word "irony" without using the word "irony" in some fashion...
After some thin years, it really looks like POD is getting back on a regular schedule - which is good. Now, if we can just hunt up some more members, we'll be back in full operation.
We've just finished up our annual Road Trip. This one was - once again - to Arizona and New Mexico (heavy on the New Mexico) and involved food, Route 66 tracing, and doing terribly touristy things. Like Meteor Crater and buying t-shirts with the town's name on it and geeking-out over the fact that the Roadway Inn we stayed at one night was obviously a renamed (and well maintained) Route 66-era motel.
We came home with chile-related seasonings, an ammonite fossil,1 volcanic rocks, odd souvenirs, cake from Diane's and lots of pictures...
...it would have been even more fun if we hadn't spent the entire time with colds - me the first half of the trip, Dee Dee the second.
Meanwhile, we've gotten our bathroom and backyard back together and in a shape we like. Ironically, in spite of the fact the bathroom was basically torn-apart and rebuilt, it's the backyard that shows the most differences - and they'll make for better summer BBQs.
Mind you, the cats are still going to the back door and stopping on their way out to go "what the heck have you done to our yard now?"
Finally, after the comment section, you're going to see a new timeline I've been writing - a rather long one. Oh, it wasn't meant to be that long. Heck, I was originally just writing it as a guideline to what I would be writing about it. But it kinda got out of hand - something I realized when I hit page fourteen2 and was just getting up to 1970...
...hopefully, it's not so long it'll bore the pee out of people not as geeky about its central theme as I am.
But, amazingly, it has not one trolley in it...though I have to admit they are mentioned.
On with the show!
After some thin years, it really looks like POD is getting back on a regular schedule - which is good. Now, if we can just hunt up some more members, we'll be back in full operation.
We came home with chile-related seasonings, an ammonite fossil,1 volcanic rocks, odd souvenirs, cake from Diane's and lots of pictures...
...it would have been even more fun if we hadn't spent the entire time with colds - me the first half of the trip, Dee Dee the second.
Meanwhile, we've gotten our bathroom and backyard back together and in a shape we like. Ironically, in spite of the fact the bathroom was basically torn-apart and rebuilt, it's the backyard that shows the most differences - and they'll make for better summer BBQs.
Mind you, the cats are still going to the back door and stopping on their way out to go "what the heck have you done to our yard now?"
Finally, after the comment section, you're going to see a new timeline I've been writing - a rather long one. Oh, it wasn't meant to be that long. Heck, I was originally just writing it as a guideline to what I would be writing about it. But it kinda got out of hand - something I realized when I hit page fourteen2 and was just getting up to 1970...
...hopefully, it's not so long it'll bore the pee out of people not as geeky about its central theme as I am.
But, amazingly, it has not one trolley in it...though I have to admit they are mentioned.
On with the show!
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Divergent Opinions - Comments on P.O.D. 46
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Section One
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James Fulkerson
ct: Kawato:
To my mind, barring the possibility of Douglas Adams's "teasers," the probability that "UFO's" are "something from somewhere else" is hideously low. Anyone with the tech to get from star to star is not going to be seen if it doesn't want to - and if it wants to, there's going to be no doubt about it being seen.
"...and by now many people have grasped that the 'classic' flying saucer is only one of a myriad of reported shapes for UFOs" well, they've heard it. And if asked specifically, will probably even be able to tell you that. But the first image that's going to come to mind when someone says "flying saucer" is, well, a saucer...flying.
"...and by now many people have grasped that the 'classic' flying saucer is only one of a myriad of reported shapes for UFOs" well, they've heard it. And if asked specifically, will probably even be able to tell you that. But the first image that's going to come to mind when someone says "flying saucer" is, well, a saucer...flying.
Rich Rostrom
re: VP Richard Johnson became President:
Well, he's got the right kind of name to become President...;)
He (and his family) also show up in Flint's 1824: The Arkansas War.6
As to what would happen...an excitingly big mess is my best guess. I would not rule out him ending up our first assassinated President. At the very least, I'd expect someone(s) to try and come up with a version of the "Pocahontas exception"7 to show that, well, the daughters weren't really black.
'course, that would open up a whole new can-O-worms itself.
I strongly suspect his daughters (and son-in-laws) would be "welcome" at society to-dos and such right up until he left office - at which point they would drop into invisibility amongst all the "right people."
Politically, it might both advance the abolitionist's cause (admittedly, mostly to stop the birth of all these "mulatto" kids who were screwing up the nice clean lines of who you should associate with) and possibly screw up some of those "compromises" that littered the 1850s.
Still, I'm cynically predisposed to say that it wouldn't have a lot of effect on things before the Civil War (which is still probably a given - and probably still at roughly the same time) and even less afterwards
He (and his family) also show up in Flint's 1824: The Arkansas War.6
As to what would happen...an excitingly big mess is my best guess. I would not rule out him ending up our first assassinated President. At the very least, I'd expect someone(s) to try and come up with a version of the "Pocahontas exception"7 to show that, well, the daughters weren't really black.
'course, that would open up a whole new can-O-worms itself.
I strongly suspect his daughters (and son-in-laws) would be "welcome" at society to-dos and such right up until he left office - at which point they would drop into invisibility amongst all the "right people."
Politically, it might both advance the abolitionist's cause (admittedly, mostly to stop the birth of all these "mulatto" kids who were screwing up the nice clean lines of who you should associate with) and possibly screw up some of those "compromises" that littered the 1850s.
Still, I'm cynically predisposed to say that it wouldn't have a lot of effect on things before the Civil War (which is still probably a given - and probably still at roughly the same time) and even less afterwards
Dale Speirs
Well, I must admit, I'm thrilled...;)
I'm amused by the thought that a "shock absorber" will lengthen the life of your typewriter. Long before you see any problems caused by "shock," simple wear issues from parts moving against other parts will have made the machine unusable.
And the glorifying how "secure" the "Mann Yale Lock Typewriter Book" is - when even they admit you can still just tear the pages out - is just bizarre.8
Of course, a lot of modern "security features" are no better - just ask Bruce Schneier!
I'm amused by the thought that a "shock absorber" will lengthen the life of your typewriter. Long before you see any problems caused by "shock," simple wear issues from parts moving against other parts will have made the machine unusable.
And the glorifying how "secure" the "Mann Yale Lock Typewriter Book" is - when even they admit you can still just tear the pages out - is just bizarre.8
Of course, a lot of modern "security features" are no better - just ask Bruce Schneier!
Wesley Kawato (41)
Whoa! Something screwed up your xeroxing big time. Be informed: I'm guessing what every fifth line says here.
ct: Rittenhouse: "Also, in 1969, China only had tactical nuclear weapons. I can't see the radiation from such a war affecting Japan in a big way." China had been testing 3+ megaton fusion weapons since at least 1967,9 so you either have a rather broad idea of what constitutes "tactical" or one of us has the wrong data - and since I just looked it up, I'm not betting on me...
Besides, fire enough "tactical" weapons (especially 1969 Chinese ones - which weren't particularly clean) and you release enough radiation to be a problem downwind.
That said, I also have trouble with Russia and China going nuclear while leaving the United States out of it - but stranger things have happened.
ct: Rittenhouse: "Also, in 1969, China only had tactical nuclear weapons. I can't see the radiation from such a war affecting Japan in a big way." China had been testing 3+ megaton fusion weapons since at least 1967,9 so you either have a rather broad idea of what constitutes "tactical" or one of us has the wrong data - and since I just looked it up, I'm not betting on me...
Besides, fire enough "tactical" weapons (especially 1969 Chinese ones - which weren't particularly clean) and you release enough radiation to be a problem downwind.
That said, I also have trouble with Russia and China going nuclear while leaving the United States out of it - but stranger things have happened.
Dale Cozort
re: "Grow an Alien Brain":
I once said of human's development of big brains (and intelligence) "with it, hominids could adapt in years (or even days!) to changed conditions that would have taken millennia (at least!) to adapt to by the more standard pure physical evolution."
As you point out, of course, there are costs - and it seems to me that the costs are potentially higher (at least, in marginal situations) for animals of less-than-human but greater-than-average intelligence.
To kinda explain: In bad situations, the dimmer animals put less stress on reduced resources, while the hominid-level ones are bright enough to develop new resources - or up and move to a whole new area. Middling intelligences, though, both require more resources and are more locked in to their life styles.
This may make this level of intelligence a kinda "hump" that's hard for species to get over except in just the right circumstances (both apes and elephants - both "hump" species - were once a lot more widespread than they are now and their decline may be related to this).
"So a species or two of Ape or Old World Monkeys gets to America. They adapt to warm temperate climates..." wouldn't they almost have to be already adapted to such, just to get over even the relatively mild lands of Miocene Beringia?
Anyone know why bears never made it big in Africa?
re: FAPA Sampling: "I really enjoyed Trolleyworld, for example, and would dearly love to see a finished manuscript of it." You and me both...?
I've heard of FAPA - in a if-you-mention-it-I'll-remember-I've-heard-of-it-before sense. Details of it, though (minac, number of copies, where to send it, etc.), are totally lacking in my head. So, yes, they're probably missing out on some potentials by not doing any "advertising."
re: Rif War: You're right - it is an atrocious ditty...
...an interesting article in spite of that.
re: The Guam Option: It occurs to me that if the U.S. is moving forces to Guam, it is likely to set them on a higher alert level, due to fact that they I this will tick the Japanese off. This makes a *Pearl Harbor attack much harder for the Japanese to pull off.
If nothing else, a lot of the ships that were at Pearl (or in the area, like the carriers) might well be off doing duty on the Guam supply run, which would make it nearly impossible for the Japanese to think of the attack as a "knock-out blow," since they'd know a lot of ships would escape. I'm not sure what kind of strategy they'd come up with to try and get around it...but I'm pretty sure they'd still try something.
re: Scenario Seeds: "What would it have taken for [Napoleon] to try building a railroad system?" Off the top of my head? A source of really cheap iron.
You don't need full iron (or steel) rails to do a railroad (assuming light cars), wooden ones would do - if you strip the tops with iron. Still, that's a big chunk of metal for that time period, one that Nappy (or whoever's the big railfan pushing this) would have a hard time arguing wouldn't be better off used to make more guns and cannon.
It also uses up a huge supply of wood. Until they developed creosote preservatives, railroads in the U.S. had to replace ties every five to seven years - and here, it would be rails as well! A lot of forestry companies were started solely for the purpose of supplying lumber (and fuel wood) to railroads.
Any sort of steam power is out - the railroad would run on horse (or more likely, mule) cars. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be better than carts and mud roads, it would...as long as the route was real level and you remembered that once you got to the end of the line, unless you were very lucky, you still had to load stuff on mule-back to take it where ever the final destination was.
So, it'll improve transport - where it can be built - both in terms of tonnage hauled and time to haul it. If Napoleon, say, builds them between French cities (especially between ports and inland), you'll probably have a stronger French economy. That would help his wars (more money always does), but it would come at a huge cost in materials that themselves could be used in wars.
And it's unlikely they could build many miles of track. We're probably talking a couple of hundred miles worth total, broken up into several dozen short lines, designed to get stuff from a fairly close together point "A" and "B". Linking all these lines is unlikely, both because that would require even more resources and because of that "level ground" kicker I mentioned above.
Total affect on the wars would be minor (especially since few if any lines would get built outside of France proper). Any economic improvements will probably be more than countered by resources lost to the army to build the thing.
Not sure about starting the I.R. sooner, but delaying it a couple of decades could be possible if Britain didn't lose the colonies. In simplest form, more wood, less need to play with coal as soon or as hard. Industrial Revolution, delayed.
re: "Bear Country": Oooo! I like the twist with the surveyor - adds a nice level of new complexity to the whole story. And we're getting into some more motivations for the characters too, which rounds them out as well.
ct: Me: "I envy you for having a Worldcon only 40 miles away." Well, it does save on transportation costs, that's for sure. Though we still stay at the hotel (and eat out) even though we're only forty miles from home. I commuted to my first L.A. Con and I really don't recommend trying to put in eighty-mile round trips every day on top of going to a big con. Let's just say it's a good thing I was only twenty-six at the time...
My definition of a planet is, if it orbits a sun and it's round, it's a planet. Even a definition that simplistic will have exceptions,10 but it works for me. I honestly don't care if the number of "planets" in the Solar System is in single, double, or sextuple digits. If that's how many there are, that's how many there are.
Problem with "rewilding" is that in order to rebuild a stable Pleistocene ecosystem, you almost have to introduce analogs as there's no "identical species" for most of the animals that made that ecosystem up. If you don't, what you've basically got is "Lion Country Safari" writ large.
It's dangerous, but it is possible to introduce analogs and have it work. Like I said to Robert Alley below, the current "wild" mustangs are an accidental - yet successful - rewilding attempt.
(now, had the Cavalry's attempt at a Camel Corps succeeded, we might have had a second Pleistocene rewilding introduction - again, just as accidental. That'd be interesting! The old mining/Route 66 town of Oatman, Arizona could have "wild" camels stalking the streets to go along with its current "wild" burros).
As you point out, of course, there are costs - and it seems to me that the costs are potentially higher (at least, in marginal situations) for animals of less-than-human but greater-than-average intelligence.
To kinda explain: In bad situations, the dimmer animals put less stress on reduced resources, while the hominid-level ones are bright enough to develop new resources - or up and move to a whole new area. Middling intelligences, though, both require more resources and are more locked in to their life styles.
This may make this level of intelligence a kinda "hump" that's hard for species to get over except in just the right circumstances (both apes and elephants - both "hump" species - were once a lot more widespread than they are now and their decline may be related to this).
"So a species or two of Ape or Old World Monkeys gets to America. They adapt to warm temperate climates..." wouldn't they almost have to be already adapted to such, just to get over even the relatively mild lands of Miocene Beringia?
Anyone know why bears never made it big in Africa?
re: FAPA Sampling: "I really enjoyed Trolleyworld, for example, and would dearly love to see a finished manuscript of it." You and me both...?
I've heard of FAPA - in a if-you-mention-it-I'll-remember-I've-heard-of-it-before sense. Details of it, though (minac, number of copies, where to send it, etc.), are totally lacking in my head. So, yes, they're probably missing out on some potentials by not doing any "advertising."
re: Rif War: You're right - it is an atrocious ditty...
...an interesting article in spite of that.
re: The Guam Option: It occurs to me that if the U.S. is moving forces to Guam, it is likely to set them on a higher alert level, due to fact that they I this will tick the Japanese off. This makes a *Pearl Harbor attack much harder for the Japanese to pull off.
If nothing else, a lot of the ships that were at Pearl (or in the area, like the carriers) might well be off doing duty on the Guam supply run, which would make it nearly impossible for the Japanese to think of the attack as a "knock-out blow," since they'd know a lot of ships would escape. I'm not sure what kind of strategy they'd come up with to try and get around it...but I'm pretty sure they'd still try something.
re: Scenario Seeds: "What would it have taken for [Napoleon] to try building a railroad system?" Off the top of my head? A source of really cheap iron.
You don't need full iron (or steel) rails to do a railroad (assuming light cars), wooden ones would do - if you strip the tops with iron. Still, that's a big chunk of metal for that time period, one that Nappy (or whoever's the big railfan pushing this) would have a hard time arguing wouldn't be better off used to make more guns and cannon.
It also uses up a huge supply of wood. Until they developed creosote preservatives, railroads in the U.S. had to replace ties every five to seven years - and here, it would be rails as well! A lot of forestry companies were started solely for the purpose of supplying lumber (and fuel wood) to railroads.
Any sort of steam power is out - the railroad would run on horse (or more likely, mule) cars. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be better than carts and mud roads, it would...as long as the route was real level and you remembered that once you got to the end of the line, unless you were very lucky, you still had to load stuff on mule-back to take it where ever the final destination was.
So, it'll improve transport - where it can be built - both in terms of tonnage hauled and time to haul it. If Napoleon, say, builds them between French cities (especially between ports and inland), you'll probably have a stronger French economy. That would help his wars (more money always does), but it would come at a huge cost in materials that themselves could be used in wars.
And it's unlikely they could build many miles of track. We're probably talking a couple of hundred miles worth total, broken up into several dozen short lines, designed to get stuff from a fairly close together point "A" and "B". Linking all these lines is unlikely, both because that would require even more resources and because of that "level ground" kicker I mentioned above.
Total affect on the wars would be minor (especially since few if any lines would get built outside of France proper). Any economic improvements will probably be more than countered by resources lost to the army to build the thing.
Not sure about starting the I.R. sooner, but delaying it a couple of decades could be possible if Britain didn't lose the colonies. In simplest form, more wood, less need to play with coal as soon or as hard. Industrial Revolution, delayed.
re: "Bear Country": Oooo! I like the twist with the surveyor - adds a nice level of new complexity to the whole story. And we're getting into some more motivations for the characters too, which rounds them out as well.
ct: Me: "I envy you for having a Worldcon only 40 miles away." Well, it does save on transportation costs, that's for sure. Though we still stay at the hotel (and eat out) even though we're only forty miles from home. I commuted to my first L.A. Con and I really don't recommend trying to put in eighty-mile round trips every day on top of going to a big con. Let's just say it's a good thing I was only twenty-six at the time...
My definition of a planet is, if it orbits a sun and it's round, it's a planet. Even a definition that simplistic will have exceptions,10 but it works for me. I honestly don't care if the number of "planets" in the Solar System is in single, double, or sextuple digits. If that's how many there are, that's how many there are.
Problem with "rewilding" is that in order to rebuild a stable Pleistocene ecosystem, you almost have to introduce analogs as there's no "identical species" for most of the animals that made that ecosystem up. If you don't, what you've basically got is "Lion Country Safari" writ large.
It's dangerous, but it is possible to introduce analogs and have it work. Like I said to Robert Alley below, the current "wild" mustangs are an accidental - yet successful - rewilding attempt.
(now, had the Cavalry's attempt at a Camel Corps succeeded, we might have had a second Pleistocene rewilding introduction - again, just as accidental. That'd be interesting! The old mining/Route 66 town of Oatman, Arizona could have "wild" camels stalking the streets to go along with its current "wild" burros).
Robert Gill (26)
ct: Cozort:
"I'm curious as to why Stirling had the Soviet Bloc survive [in The Sky People]" If I had to guess, it would be so there'd be conflict...:)
Of course, the fact the book's set in 1988 helps too.
ct: Me: re: Rewilding: Oh yeah - there's lot's of potential problems with reintroducing big carnivores where they could run into people...especially people with cows and sheep and guns. I mean, like I said last disty: ", we can't even get Idaho to stop shooting wolves!"
Still, an economically failing area (and I'm talking about you, New Mexico) might be willing to set aside a "rewilding" area as a way to draw tourists. Livestock may still be a major factor in that state, but at 48th in the nation for personal income, they're pretty much desperate for any new sources of tourist income.11
"Going to see the wild elephants of the Rio Grande" might just be the only hook that could save towns like Hatch or Truth or Consequences...which probably means, of course, that they're pretty much doomed...
Of course, the fact the book's set in 1988 helps too.
ct: Me: re: Rewilding: Oh yeah - there's lot's of potential problems with reintroducing big carnivores where they could run into people...especially people with cows and sheep and guns. I mean, like I said last disty: ", we can't even get Idaho to stop shooting wolves!"
Still, an economically failing area (and I'm talking about you, New Mexico) might be willing to set aside a "rewilding" area as a way to draw tourists. Livestock may still be a major factor in that state, but at 48th in the nation for personal income, they're pretty much desperate for any new sources of tourist income.11
"Going to see the wild elephants of the Rio Grande" might just be the only hook that could save towns like Hatch or Truth or Consequences...which probably means, of course, that they're pretty much doomed...
Robert Gill (23)
ct: Cozort:
"I'm reminded of something a geology instructor of mine once said about the Germans (Weimar era) drilling for core samples on the ocean floor..." Be interesting if - while looking for gold - they accidentally hit the North Sea oil fields.
Mind you, I don't think it would be economic to drill there back then...but I could see the Nazis later getting a big bee in their bonnets about "their" oil, right off shore.
ct: Me: Horta's or no (which I mentioned myself in 42, along with the episode's "McGuffin-class Nuclear Reactor"), I stand by my "Real Strek tech-level mining..." statements even for the "classic" era.
Any culture with FTL interstellar travel, transporters, self-aware computers, and hand held beam weapons is simply not going to be sending men down holes to dig stuff up. It's just not...period.
Well, half of San Francisco would stay on the mainland...the San Andreas goes right down the middle of the peninsula.
re: TIMEQUEST: What if JFK Had Lived?: Time travelers have been saving Kennedy almost since he died.12 David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself has the main character first saving Kennedy, they going back and re-killing him when Kennedy announces the U.S. will be researching time travel.13 Heck, even Red Dwarf did it once (and ended up having to have Kennedy kill himself to both restore the timeline and restore Kennedy's public image. Pity they still forgot the curry).
Mind you, I don't think it would be economic to drill there back then...but I could see the Nazis later getting a big bee in their bonnets about "their" oil, right off shore.
ct: Me: Horta's or no (which I mentioned myself in 42, along with the episode's "McGuffin-class Nuclear Reactor"), I stand by my "Real Strek tech-level mining..." statements even for the "classic" era.
Any culture with FTL interstellar travel, transporters, self-aware computers, and hand held beam weapons is simply not going to be sending men down holes to dig stuff up. It's just not...period.
Well, half of San Francisco would stay on the mainland...the San Andreas goes right down the middle of the peninsula.
re: TIMEQUEST: What if JFK Had Lived?: Time travelers have been saving Kennedy almost since he died.12 David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself has the main character first saving Kennedy, they going back and re-killing him when Kennedy announces the U.S. will be researching time travel.13 Heck, even Red Dwarf did it once (and ended up having to have Kennedy kill himself to both restore the timeline and restore Kennedy's public image. Pity they still forgot the curry).
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Section Two
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Me
Bother! Someone must have turned off the "its/it's" discriminator in my brain, because it looks like for this zine, I fixated on "it's" no matter how wrong it was for the use.
It's14 probably mostly fixed in the web version, along with a host of other errors here and there...
It's14 probably mostly fixed in the web version, along with a host of other errors here and there...
Kurt Sidaway
ct: Dale Cozort: re: "The Despotate of the Morea:
Having Morea an Ottoman client state seems like an even less stable situation than having it an actual separate (if dependent on Western Europe) state. Heck, when you can lose what little sovereignty you have because your ruler is "not man enough," not only are you living on borrowed time, but you borrowed it in very tiny amounts.
Interesting that its survival (even if temporary) could lead to Trebizond's as well. It occurs to me that even if both later get swallowed up, they could reappear15 in later centuries as various empires retreat. We could now be talking about "The Former Soviet Republic of Trebizond..."
ct: Tom Cron: I can't see Mexico trying to nibble off any of the "Territory of the Rio Grande's" ...territory. Even if it's nominally independent, it's just too obviously a client of the U.S. (and under its very big thumb) for Mexico to want to risk it - or for the U.S. to allow it.
After all, Mexico never tried to snag the various Indian territories near or on the border, even though the Indians on them were about as independent as the Rio Grande's ex-slaves are likely to be.
ct: Me: re: Rewilding: "...kept expecting them to go on to propose recreating mammoths!" Well, they may not feel we can do it...and even if we can, I've only ever seen the suggestion that they recreate woolly mammoths16...which would be even less adapted to a recreated Pleistocene Park (especially in the Southwest!) than Indian Elephants.
ct: Christopher Nuttall: "...put your name on it somewhere, Chris!" This would probably be a more compelling demand if your name was somewhere on your zine...:)
ct: Jim Rittenhouse: Congratulations! I don't think anyone's ever done a Caribbean Tsarist Survivor State before. So much more comfortable than those Crimean, Alaskan, Siberian, or Northern California scenarios!
Like the weird map site too.
Interesting that its survival (even if temporary) could lead to Trebizond's as well. It occurs to me that even if both later get swallowed up, they could reappear15 in later centuries as various empires retreat. We could now be talking about "The Former Soviet Republic of Trebizond..."
ct: Tom Cron: I can't see Mexico trying to nibble off any of the "Territory of the Rio Grande's" ...territory. Even if it's nominally independent, it's just too obviously a client of the U.S. (and under its very big thumb) for Mexico to want to risk it - or for the U.S. to allow it.
After all, Mexico never tried to snag the various Indian territories near or on the border, even though the Indians on them were about as independent as the Rio Grande's ex-slaves are likely to be.
ct: Me: re: Rewilding: "...kept expecting them to go on to propose recreating mammoths!" Well, they may not feel we can do it...and even if we can, I've only ever seen the suggestion that they recreate woolly mammoths16...which would be even less adapted to a recreated Pleistocene Park (especially in the Southwest!) than Indian Elephants.
ct: Christopher Nuttall: "...put your name on it somewhere, Chris!" This would probably be a more compelling demand if your name was somewhere on your zine...:)
ct: Jim Rittenhouse: Congratulations! I don't think anyone's ever done a Caribbean Tsarist Survivor State before. So much more comfortable than those Crimean, Alaskan, Siberian, or Northern California scenarios!
Like the weird map site too.
Robert Alley
ct: Dale Cozort:
"Still, God sometimes protects fools, so we can't discount a run of incredible luck for the British & Norwegians." Certainly the Germans had enough luck of their own - so a little book-balancing is probably both believable and in order.
The Norwegian military may be more mobilized (it'd be hard for it not to be than on OTL), but given the POD here, won't most of that mobilization be near where the British are? That could give German landings in the south a lot of time to settle in before those troops could be swung around.
ct: Anthony Docimo: When you're talking about the U.S. taking "Canada" here, do you just mean the area then known as "Canada" or the area now known as "Canada." This is a big difference. Would the U.S. be willing, fer instance, to try and take HBC territory as well? They'd almost certainly want to grab more of British Columbia, but would it be clear up to the Arctic, or just that famous "54° 40'"?
And taking Nova Scotia's probably right out.
Would Seward's Alaskan buyout happen in a timeline where the U.S. already owns millions of square miles of "frozen wasteland" (the primary view of Alaska at the time). I can see the debates in Congress now: "And how much ice for you cold drinks do you need, Senator?"
Northern North America's boundaries could end up looking really weird.
ct: Me: re: Earlier TV: "But this is pretty much how it was picked up in real life. All we basically did was pull the dates back 5-10 years." And all you had to do to do it was eliminate WWII...:)
Now the question is how compatible will then-current standards be towards upgrading if they get locked in by wide-spread use? Even starting earlier, TV acceptance might well be delayed if broadcast standards keep changing or, worse, if older, less viable standards get too much use to be easily replaced (look how delayed using HD standards are in the U.S.). I mean, NTSC's 525 lines standard is poor enough, imagine if they had to go with the earlier 441!
re: Brave Old World: Well, mustangs may not be native...but they are already pretty much an example of this kind of "rewilding": replacing, as it were, the extinct American horse.
The Norwegian military may be more mobilized (it'd be hard for it not to be than on OTL), but given the POD here, won't most of that mobilization be near where the British are? That could give German landings in the south a lot of time to settle in before those troops could be swung around.
ct: Anthony Docimo: When you're talking about the U.S. taking "Canada" here, do you just mean the area then known as "Canada" or the area now known as "Canada." This is a big difference. Would the U.S. be willing, fer instance, to try and take HBC territory as well? They'd almost certainly want to grab more of British Columbia, but would it be clear up to the Arctic, or just that famous "54° 40'"?
And taking Nova Scotia's probably right out.
Would Seward's Alaskan buyout happen in a timeline where the U.S. already owns millions of square miles of "frozen wasteland" (the primary view of Alaska at the time). I can see the debates in Congress now: "And how much ice for you cold drinks do you need, Senator?"
Northern North America's boundaries could end up looking really weird.
ct: Me: re: Earlier TV: "But this is pretty much how it was picked up in real life. All we basically did was pull the dates back 5-10 years." And all you had to do to do it was eliminate WWII...:)
Now the question is how compatible will then-current standards be towards upgrading if they get locked in by wide-spread use? Even starting earlier, TV acceptance might well be delayed if broadcast standards keep changing or, worse, if older, less viable standards get too much use to be easily replaced (look how delayed using HD standards are in the U.S.). I mean, NTSC's 525 lines standard is poor enough, imagine if they had to go with the earlier 441!
re: Brave Old World: Well, mustangs may not be native...but they are already pretty much an example of this kind of "rewilding": replacing, as it were, the extinct American horse.
Anthony Docimo
Okay, these short, sub-two-digit page number Docimo zines are confusing me. I keep looking for the rest of it...:)
Good luck on selling your story!
re: "Lack of Fire": Quick question - if humans colonize one of the "primate" timelines, does one of the "human" timelines blink out to keep the number at twelve, does the colony inevitably fail...or is it a question of only keeping the number of timelines that have humans evolve at twelve?
Anywho, this is an excellent beginning (at least, I assume it's a beginning - it just sort of ends otherwise). I hope we see more.
re: "The Aztec Ending": Another nice one, though there's backstory (and afterstory) here for days that might be nice to see sometime.
Question, though: If exploring other timelines has such risk to those lines, why is it allowed? Or, more correctly, why is it done by someone who obviously cares that a timeline is being wiped out?
Good luck on selling your story!
re: "Lack of Fire": Quick question - if humans colonize one of the "primate" timelines, does one of the "human" timelines blink out to keep the number at twelve, does the colony inevitably fail...or is it a question of only keeping the number of timelines that have humans evolve at twelve?
Anywho, this is an excellent beginning (at least, I assume it's a beginning - it just sort of ends otherwise). I hope we see more.
re: "The Aztec Ending": Another nice one, though there's backstory (and afterstory) here for days that might be nice to see sometime.
Question, though: If exploring other timelines has such risk to those lines, why is it allowed? Or, more correctly, why is it done by someone who obviously cares that a timeline is being wiped out?
Mark Ford
Maybe your copy of POD 42 is going to be like one of those "message in a bottle" thingies where it's found fifty, sixty years later and finally delivered to your enfeebled self at the Home. It's something to look forward to, I guess...:)
ct: Me (POD 40): "The Republic of California has a parliament of around seventy-eight people at the moment. That seems rather small...especially if it has anything like the population of the California you live in." Well, the population's less (my spreadsheet here says around 9.7 million in 2000, compared to OTL's almost 34 million at the same time) so that makes it only about the size of Tunisia or Sweden.
Of course, Sweden's Riksdag has more like 350 members, so I may need to adjust this...
(David goes away and adjusts this)
Okay, RoC now has a parliament of 318. Oh, and I'm swiping your election of ministers by proportional representation idea. All the changes have been made to the webpage of this.
I was amazed myself at the number of different gauges out there - like I said, apart from vaguely knowing that Russia had a really wide one, the only gauges I really knew were "standard" and "narrow."
As for your comments on older zines...gads! I don't even remember half this stuff!
ct: Me (POD 40): "The Republic of California has a parliament of around seventy-eight people at the moment. That seems rather small...especially if it has anything like the population of the California you live in." Well, the population's less (my spreadsheet here says around 9.7 million in 2000, compared to OTL's almost 34 million at the same time) so that makes it only about the size of Tunisia or Sweden.
Of course, Sweden's Riksdag has more like 350 members, so I may need to adjust this...
Okay, RoC now has a parliament of 318. Oh, and I'm swiping your election of ministers by proportional representation idea. All the changes have been made to the webpage of this.
I was amazed myself at the number of different gauges out there - like I said, apart from vaguely knowing that Russia had a really wide one, the only gauges I really knew were "standard" and "narrow."
As for your comments on older zines...gads! I don't even remember half this stuff!
Wesley Kawato (43)
ct: Me:
Actually, no ships crashed at Roswell - it's all myths, misunderstandings, and flat-out lies - but there's so many versions of "what really happened at Roswell" that you can probably shoe-horn in another easily enough.
Heck, your scenario will probably make more sense than most of the supposed "real" versions anyway.
Heck, your scenario will probably make more sense than most of the supposed "real" versions anyway.
The following is a new timeline I've been creating, basically, just for fun (and to amuse Ray Bradbury, should he ever see it). Its probability is probably low - lots of sixes get rolled - but I don't care. It's cool.
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I was just spoiled by the masquerade at my very first worldcon - LA Con II, back in 1984. There were over a hundred costumes - most good costume costumes (rather than hall costumes) - culminating with the Night on Bald Mountain set of costumes that still (to my mind) has never been surpassed. Heck, the first run-through of costumes didn't finish until nearly midnight.3
Admittedly, LA Con II was bigger all around: Almost nine-thousand people. An exhibit area the size of IV's combined exhibit/huckster's room (with a separate huckster's room just as big. And the first ever showing of all three films of the Star Wars trilogy,4 back to back to back.