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What if we gave up after Apollo 1.
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# ? Nov 6, 2015 21:55 |
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# ? May 11, 2024 16:18 |
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foobardog posted:It did, but lol if you think a few dead cosmonauts and explosions would have stopped the Soviets. Yeah but it caused the largest conventional explosion in human history so I'd say they were set back slightly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N1_(rocket) WAR CRIME GIGOLO fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Nov 6, 2015 |
# ? Nov 6, 2015 21:56 |
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Dr. Arbitrary posted:What if we gave up after Apollo 1. we'd all be speaking russian, comrade
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# ? Nov 6, 2015 21:57 |
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LeoMarr posted:Yeah but it caused the largest conventional explosion in human history so I'd say they were set back slightly. Looking at that, the next launch was 2 years later in 1971, while the next Apollo was later in 1969, so you're probably right. I actually didn't know about the N1 explosion. I just want to have my Vengeful Nixon headcanon, OK?
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# ? Nov 6, 2015 22:00 |
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foobardog posted:Looking at that, the next launch was 2 years later in 1971, while the next Apollo was later in 1969, so you're probably right. I actually didn't know about the N1 explosion. Yeah it was a 7KT explosion which is pretty loving huge in terms of conventional explosions.
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# ? Nov 6, 2015 22:11 |
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IIRC the one guy that survived was an officer who left the safety perimeter to smoke a cigarette behind a concrete bunker. I may be confusing that with another Soviet rocket disaster though. Smoking saves lives!
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# ? Nov 6, 2015 23:12 |
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Guavanaut posted:IIRC the one guy that survived was an officer who left the safety perimeter to smoke a cigarette behind a concrete bunker. I may be confusing that with another Soviet rocket disaster though. He's right up there with Stanislav Petrov, who saved the world because he correctly figured that a nuclear missile report was just a false alarm.
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# ? Nov 6, 2015 23:21 |
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What if the Taiping rebellion succeeded and China was a christian empire with ~2,000,000+ soldiers willing to die before surrender
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# ? Nov 7, 2015 00:06 |
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There's an entire forum dedicated to alternate history here. Try it out. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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# ? Nov 7, 2015 00:09 |
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Grouchio posted:There's an entire forum dedicated to alternate history here. Try it out. There's an entire forum dedicated to your posts Here, try it out.
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# ? Nov 7, 2015 00:29 |
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What if Queen Mary Tudor hadn't died so soon or maybe been able to produce an heir? Could her Catholic reforms have taken hold? Sorry, it's a part of history I've recently been studying.
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# ? Nov 10, 2015 07:43 |
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What if Martin O'malley somehow wins the debate tonight?
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# ? Nov 15, 2015 03:01 |
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What if Czar Peter III would have been better at loving? Then his wife and her numerous lovers might not have conspired against him What if George Washington would have gotten his wish and turned the American colonies into a weird presidential monarchy? What if anime was real? What if Pokémon were real? What if Geodude was real, and strong, and my friend?
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# ? Nov 15, 2015 14:35 |
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System Metternich posted:What if anime was real? What if Pokémon were real? What if Geodude was real, and strong, and my friend? Human beings would never have evolved in a world with Pokémon. The predators we had to deal with are powerful, but group tactics and crazy endurance won out (As well a willingness to eat a lot of different things). There is plenty of evidence that at least some Pokémon if not all of them have human level intelligence. Imagine a pikachu Thunder Shocking a human body -- forever.
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# ? Nov 15, 2015 19:52 |
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What if suspenders remained the dominant pants-holding tech? Belts and belt buckles were the domain of weirdos and fantasy authors. Would the t-shirt have evolved the same? Would Rodeo exist?
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# ? Nov 15, 2015 22:19 |
foobardog posted:Human beings would never have evolved in a world with Pokémon. The predators we had to deal with are powerful, but group tactics and crazy endurance won out (As well a willingness to eat a lot of different things). To be fair, I've heard some part of the series implies that some of the legendary Pokémon are essentially gods that created the world so while human beings might not have been capable of technically 'evolving' the way we think of it, in that universe the gods saw fit for them to exist anyway and even entrap their descendants should any one of them prove tenacious and lucky enough. I don't think I ever heard of there being any Pokémon worship in the games or anime series though.
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# ? Nov 16, 2015 00:06 |
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What if America had spent the years after world war two stockpiling nuclear weapons to eradicate the soviet union in one fell swoop? And then forbidden all other countries to research nuclear weapons on pain of eradication. What then?
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# ? Nov 16, 2015 11:37 |
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hakimashou posted:What if America had spent the years after world war two stockpiling nuclear weapons to eradicate the soviet union in one fell swoop? That would have required that American counter-intelligence was strong enough to prevent the atomic secret from being spread to the Soviets, and it's my understanding that the seeds for that failure of the FBI/CIA were sown years before WW2.
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# ? Nov 16, 2015 12:07 |
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hakimashou posted:What if America had spent the years after world war two stockpiling nuclear weapons to eradicate the soviet union in one fell swoop? They tried something like that.
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# ? Nov 16, 2015 12:38 |
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I remember there being some proposals to use the threat of nuclear attack to force the Soviet Union into accepting the Baruch Plan. A more aggressive proposal assumed the Soviets wouldn't accept the plan even under threat of nuclear attack, so might as well strike. And there's no benefit from waiting, just nuke Moscow today. Immediately.
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# ? Nov 16, 2015 16:24 |
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What if agricultural hierarchical societies never supplanted hunter-gatherers?
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# ? Nov 16, 2015 19:01 |
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hakimashou posted:What if America had spent the years after world war two stockpiling nuclear weapons to eradicate the soviet union in one fell swoop? The former was considered, but judged not worth the damage. There was definitely a period where it would have been viable to attempt in the late 40s, inasmuch as the Soviets either had no nukes of their own or so few they could be survived. The latter, I don't know, presumably everyone else would have tried to get nukes on the sly, and when this was discovered the yanks would have had to decide whether to make good on their threats. ZorajitZorajit posted:What if agricultural hierarchical societies never supplanted hunter-gatherers? Then we'd probably still be hunter-gatherers. The mode of development seems to require adoption of agricultural societies, and the very things that make agriculture potent are what allow extended hierarchies, and ones which persist through multiple generations, to form.
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# ? Nov 17, 2015 02:48 |
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What if Reagan dies during his assassination attempt? What if MLK doesn't die from his? (Yes, I've seen the Boondocks) What if Gary Hart doesn't get caught fiddlin' around? What if Jerry Brown goes as far as Jello Biafra thought he would? What if Jello gets elected mayor of SF as he tried to in the early 80's (and finished pretty respectably, 4th in a field of 12)? (For my Canadian homies) What if Paul Martin doesn't get caught in the sponsorship scandal opening up a decade of opportunity for the Conservatives and their dark lich lord? What if Noam Chomsky got a cabinet post? What if Dole had beat Clinton? What if Rush Limbaugh decided he really liked country music or something and spent his whole life as a harmless radio DJ? What if the amendment preventing immigrants from running for office had been repealed in time for Arnold to run for president? What if Jesse Ventura got elected president? What if Pat Robertson got elected president? And finally, because this one's REALLY out there.... What if Ralph Nader got elected president?
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# ? Nov 17, 2015 07:53 |
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El Gallinero Gros posted:What if Rush Limbaugh decided he really liked country music or something and spent his whole life as a harmless radio DJ? I would guess that, with the repeal of the fairness doctrine still happening in the early 90s, we get a few other blowhards, but Rush was special, because he took the Howard Stern model of "say shocking things for ratings" and pointed it at political talk radio instead of morning zoo crew nonsense. Rush really is a special talent who was able to connect with the fans. I'm sure Neal Boortz or a very young Sean Hannity tries to form the coalition that Rush does, but they fail, not having his charisma (whatever sort of charisma one needs to be a right-wing blowhard jerk) Without Rush doing meganumbers, Fox/Murdoch doesn't try to form Fox News as an extension of the RNC, or Murdoch does but it's relegated to the third-tier cable packages, since it makes no money and isn't watched. The Clintons may have been loathed by Republicans, but in the 90s they were bulletproof and both the shutdown and the impeachment backfired horribly. Without the echo chamber to retreat to, I think Bush is unable to motivate his base on a platform of "we will take your social security and prescription drugs away", gets handily trounced by Gore, and 9/11 leads to SEAL teams in Tora Bora, rather than $2trillion wasted in an innocent country.
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# ? Nov 17, 2015 08:13 |
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What if the left didn't split in post WW1 Germany and the Spartacist Uprising actually succeeded?
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# ? Nov 17, 2015 11:38 |
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What if the Fairness Doctrine was never repealed?
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# ? Nov 17, 2015 11:42 |
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Venomous posted:What if the Fairness Doctrine was never repealed? Fox News would be the same, MSNBC would make programs more explicitly conservative than Morning Joe.
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# ? Nov 17, 2015 15:59 |
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Everblight posted:Rush always wanted to be an announcer for the KC Royals. For want of a nail much? Or maybe you're just wistful that the 90s had to end and your childhood with them. What if the boomers retired or died out?
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# ? Nov 17, 2015 16:12 |
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what if china hadn't intervened in toyotomi hideyoshi's invasion of korea.
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# ? Nov 17, 2015 22:34 |
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What if Nazi Germany never invaded any other country and concentrated on just the "undesirables" in their country? Would they still be in charge?
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# ? Nov 20, 2015 22:28 |
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RenegadeStyle1 posted:What if Nazi Germany never invaded any other country and concentrated on just the "undesirables" in their country? Would they still be in charge? Based on Franco they'd probably last for a while before ultimately collapsing. Though you have to remember that part of their national myth was reclaiming stolen land, so conflict was inevitable.
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# ? Nov 20, 2015 22:29 |
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# ? May 11, 2024 16:18 |
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Its hard to overstate how much the nazi mythos required a constant stream of bold foreign policy moves. War was inevitable as long as Hitler lived. e: well Hitler believed that they were absolutely necessary at any rate.
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# ? Nov 21, 2015 06:30 |