Those were traditional classics of cinema, being the orientalese equivalent of the convenient bar room brawl where the 8 black hats circle the protagonist warily; showing a realistic fight might not seem to gel with audience expectation.
It has its misbegotten descendant in the modern tendency for Every Single Major Medieval/Fantasy Battle to devolve into two masses rushing at each other and descending into a series of individual melees, without any thought to tactics or differences across times and worlds. The same headlong infantry rush occurs in the deep past of Earth in Middle Earth/Lord of the Rings and in the far future of Dune.
Simon's dislike of certain cinematic cliches aside, in this case, it is Chuck Norris. Having the cliches be true in his case is permissible, by the Rule of Chuck.
As for the other snippets (a further ~ 51 to come), there are a few mini Easter Eggs littered among them:
- The theory of James Bond being a codename/identity passed along through different men applies here, with a bit of a DE flourish
- Paul Kersey's wife and daughter survive
- Travis Bickle ends up as a driver for Harry Chapin, who is arguably best known for 'Taxi'. Film title references aside, he actually gets help rather than alienation from society, which is a bit of a meta-comment/Easter egg in its own right with regard to the position of Vietnam veterans in DE America
- Corleone gets his just desserts long before he can rise to a position of causing greater misery for society, and having his grubby misdeeds glamourised and fetishised for a different future public
- The Bandit doesn't end up in an alcoholic heap between S&tB films, motivating Carrie/Sally Field to leave him
- Jackson doesn't end up with a life in the spotlights, which could well lead to some very different development in the next stage of his formative young adult years
Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
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Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
-
Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
Collated Mid 1970s Cultural and other Errata
NHS and General Health-related Errata
- Dentistry has been fully covered under the NHS since its inception. This, in concert with fluoridation, lower intake of added sugars and advances in cosmetic dental treatment over the last two decades, has resulted in no major level of difference in the general prevalence of modern dentistry between American and British patients
- A number of additional kinds of eyeglasses are provided by the NHS in addition to the Windsor/granny glasses style and the thick rimmed NHS 524s, including clear aviator-style frames, and something that looks very similar to Michael Caine's Curry & Paxton Yvans which he sported as Harry Palmer in @, but which can be distinguished from the same through the lack of the hexagonal pinwork on the hinged temples; now there's not that many people that know that
- Historically, circumcision wasn't covered by the NHS, largely under the influence of paediatrician Donald Gairdner in the late 1940s, resulting in a drop over the subsequent generations from a pre WW2 level of ~ 35%. Here, Gairdner doesn't quite get the opportunity for the same influence over a lot of paediatrics due to being a 'true blue Socialist' (to take a description from his obituary) right at the wrong time of a Red Scare. By the 1970s, British rates are similar to those in Canada, Australia and the United States
- Prescription charges have never been introduced, with all commonly available medicines free at the point of supply as per the original intent of the health service
- There hasn't been a major decline in the number of hospital beds as started to occur over our 1970s. Whilst there has been a contraction in the need for some for once lengthy recuperation periods, there hasn't been the same level of deinstitutionalisation from psychiatric hospitals that began in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and, most significantly, as the population has grown, more people are getting to be older, and requiring care. Levels are broadly analogous to ~ 1970 on Earth, where they were roughly around 9.6 beds per 1000 people; there is an intent to improve this ratio
- Dietary recommendations, in concert with the Ministry of Food, come from the rather ironically named COMA (
Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy) Report of 1975 (vs 1974 historically). It encouraged reduction in consumption of added sugar; appropriate moderation in consumption of alcohol; increasing consumption and variety of vegetables and fruit, including potatoes; maintaining and where appropriate, increasing healthy consumption of meats and fats and dairy products, particularly for children; increasing fish and seafood consumption; and reducing consumption of heavily processed carbohydrates. Like the USA, there is use of a 'Daily Plate' for educational imagery, consisting of 1/3 vegetables and potatoes, 1/6th meat and fish, 1/6th dairy, 1/6th fruit, and 1/6th grains and sugars. Despite efforts, there has been a bit of a shift against margarine and various oil based foods after some scare articles put out in the late 1960s in America, which some journalists believe to be the work of Big Butter in Wisconsin
- Whilst seatbelts are now near universal in British cars as they are in American ones, cyclist helmets are still a distinct oddity (as compared to motorcycle crash helmets, which are compulsory)
More General Errata
- The homicide rate, at ~ 0.067, is analogous to modern day Singapore. The general crime rate of 525/100,000 vs 4500 at this point in @, is closer to the standard pre WW2 level
- Whilst one might be able to buy bottles of beer or scotch from an appropriate off licence, there hasn't been any loosening to allow for the sale of alcohol in supermarkets, nor has there been the same increase in the popularity of wine as could be noticed in OTL from 1965-1975
- Sunday trading is not permitted, with very narrow exceptions for chemists and certain goods from corner shops. Some chafe at these restrictions, others like them. The chances of them being changed any time soon are fairly slim, given the general prevalence of Christianity, and traditionalist Christianity at that, across significant swathes of popular culture; the 'New Revival' is resulting in some interesting changes of general trajectory compared to @
- Productivity growth is at 6.2%, and there is a Gini coefficient equivalent of 0.24. As a general rule, there is far less inequality of wealth and incomes compared to what developed on Earth in the 1980s and 1990s; it is quite unlikely that a philosophy akin to 'A company's only social responsibility is to deliver a profit to its shareholders' would take hold here, with it likely to be looked at as a rather bizarre idea
- The British economy has not and will likely not undergo any significant 'financialisation', or disproportionate growth of the relative position of the banking and finance sectors of the national economy. There is unlikely to be any analogue to the 'Big Bang' of 1986 or the prior and subsequent wave of financial deregulation; whilst The City is a key strength and an area of economic importance, it is not the area of paramount economic significance
- One manifestation of a quite high trust society is that, by and large, cars and bicycles aren't usually locked, beyond the innermost areas of the major cities in the case of automobiles. As a general rule, there is a still a fair bit of trust in the Establishment and its organs, with children taught to find a policeman if they get lost
- Public information posters are quite common, ranging from being displayed in some Tube and bus stations to general exhibition on appropriate parts of public buildings
- There remains a very clear line between adult and child popular culture, rather than very much starting to blur as the Baby Boom generation generally began to enter majority and adulthood. This is seen in films, television, fashion, music and even the language employed on news broadcasts and in newspapers, which is still rather more sophisticated, mature and built upon shibboleths of knowledge, idiom and experience
- The 'stiff upper lip' or emotional restraint is still the general rule of the day, and extreme expressions of positive and negative emotions or even just being inordinately loud can often be met by silent social disapproval. There are exceptions made for eccentrics, as has long been the case in English cultural history
- As of the mid 1970s, there is something of a different fashion boom emerging, with an emphasis upon bright colours (mainly for ladies, but there is increased incidence of bright waistcoats and ties for gentlemen) and distinctly new styles, some which might seem to be reminscent of ones from 'our' 1950s, but then on closer appearance seem like an amalgam of that and some Edwardian or Victorian elements; some have termed those young ladies who wear such get up as 'Teddy Girls'. Walking down the streets, an observer would definitely see a lot of uniforms - military ones, plenty of school uniforms, postmen, policemen, traffic wardens, work uniforms, Scouts and more. One thing that may surprise is seeing a fair few more nuns, monks and friars, or at least, quite a few more than our 1976 Britain, which is one manifestation of the lack of the Dissolution of the Monasteries
- This level of both eccentricity and distinct fashion is particular apparent in London's Bohemian underground fringe, which is quite literally underground, with clubs, apartments, shops, arcades and bazaars in the reaches below the metropolis
- Just as there is a very distinct West End and East End of London, there is a very strong and distinct subculture/local culture within North London and South London, and even some level of competition between groups from each area
- There was something of a school of thought between the mid 1880s and the Great War that, as the USA and Germany caught up and in some measures eclipsed Britain economically and industrially, that the Empire was in a period of decline, but this was ended by the circumstances of the War and the subsequent shifting of national attention. Germany's relative recovery in the 1930s was again obscured by who was in charge of it, and the subsequent focus on external events vs internal weakness, and Britain grew markedly during the war. Whilst there was substantial damage to some parts of the country and institutions, what emerged from 1945 was not a weakened Empire, but one that rebuilt and reimagined itself. New industries, new technologies and new frontiers opened up, and every decade has seen a marked improvement in the everyday life and prosperity of Britons at home and no markedly significant decline in general British power and influence abroad from 1945. The late Victorian/fin de siecle period aside (and that was one where economic indicia were somewhat eclipsed in general perception by the huge successes in space exploration and general imperial expansion), there hasn't really been a sense of a 'lost decade' at any point, or of position slipping away
- Most television news programmes now include a talking dog or cat reporter, and sometimes both, for covering what we'd term 'humourous human interest stories'
NHS and General Health-related Errata
- Dentistry has been fully covered under the NHS since its inception. This, in concert with fluoridation, lower intake of added sugars and advances in cosmetic dental treatment over the last two decades, has resulted in no major level of difference in the general prevalence of modern dentistry between American and British patients
- A number of additional kinds of eyeglasses are provided by the NHS in addition to the Windsor/granny glasses style and the thick rimmed NHS 524s, including clear aviator-style frames, and something that looks very similar to Michael Caine's Curry & Paxton Yvans which he sported as Harry Palmer in @, but which can be distinguished from the same through the lack of the hexagonal pinwork on the hinged temples; now there's not that many people that know that
- Historically, circumcision wasn't covered by the NHS, largely under the influence of paediatrician Donald Gairdner in the late 1940s, resulting in a drop over the subsequent generations from a pre WW2 level of ~ 35%. Here, Gairdner doesn't quite get the opportunity for the same influence over a lot of paediatrics due to being a 'true blue Socialist' (to take a description from his obituary) right at the wrong time of a Red Scare. By the 1970s, British rates are similar to those in Canada, Australia and the United States
- Prescription charges have never been introduced, with all commonly available medicines free at the point of supply as per the original intent of the health service
- There hasn't been a major decline in the number of hospital beds as started to occur over our 1970s. Whilst there has been a contraction in the need for some for once lengthy recuperation periods, there hasn't been the same level of deinstitutionalisation from psychiatric hospitals that began in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and, most significantly, as the population has grown, more people are getting to be older, and requiring care. Levels are broadly analogous to ~ 1970 on Earth, where they were roughly around 9.6 beds per 1000 people; there is an intent to improve this ratio
- Dietary recommendations, in concert with the Ministry of Food, come from the rather ironically named COMA (
Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy) Report of 1975 (vs 1974 historically). It encouraged reduction in consumption of added sugar; appropriate moderation in consumption of alcohol; increasing consumption and variety of vegetables and fruit, including potatoes; maintaining and where appropriate, increasing healthy consumption of meats and fats and dairy products, particularly for children; increasing fish and seafood consumption; and reducing consumption of heavily processed carbohydrates. Like the USA, there is use of a 'Daily Plate' for educational imagery, consisting of 1/3 vegetables and potatoes, 1/6th meat and fish, 1/6th dairy, 1/6th fruit, and 1/6th grains and sugars. Despite efforts, there has been a bit of a shift against margarine and various oil based foods after some scare articles put out in the late 1960s in America, which some journalists believe to be the work of Big Butter in Wisconsin
- Whilst seatbelts are now near universal in British cars as they are in American ones, cyclist helmets are still a distinct oddity (as compared to motorcycle crash helmets, which are compulsory)
More General Errata
- The homicide rate, at ~ 0.067, is analogous to modern day Singapore. The general crime rate of 525/100,000 vs 4500 at this point in @, is closer to the standard pre WW2 level
- Whilst one might be able to buy bottles of beer or scotch from an appropriate off licence, there hasn't been any loosening to allow for the sale of alcohol in supermarkets, nor has there been the same increase in the popularity of wine as could be noticed in OTL from 1965-1975
- Sunday trading is not permitted, with very narrow exceptions for chemists and certain goods from corner shops. Some chafe at these restrictions, others like them. The chances of them being changed any time soon are fairly slim, given the general prevalence of Christianity, and traditionalist Christianity at that, across significant swathes of popular culture; the 'New Revival' is resulting in some interesting changes of general trajectory compared to @
- Productivity growth is at 6.2%, and there is a Gini coefficient equivalent of 0.24. As a general rule, there is far less inequality of wealth and incomes compared to what developed on Earth in the 1980s and 1990s; it is quite unlikely that a philosophy akin to 'A company's only social responsibility is to deliver a profit to its shareholders' would take hold here, with it likely to be looked at as a rather bizarre idea
- The British economy has not and will likely not undergo any significant 'financialisation', or disproportionate growth of the relative position of the banking and finance sectors of the national economy. There is unlikely to be any analogue to the 'Big Bang' of 1986 or the prior and subsequent wave of financial deregulation; whilst The City is a key strength and an area of economic importance, it is not the area of paramount economic significance
- One manifestation of a quite high trust society is that, by and large, cars and bicycles aren't usually locked, beyond the innermost areas of the major cities in the case of automobiles. As a general rule, there is a still a fair bit of trust in the Establishment and its organs, with children taught to find a policeman if they get lost
- Public information posters are quite common, ranging from being displayed in some Tube and bus stations to general exhibition on appropriate parts of public buildings
- There remains a very clear line between adult and child popular culture, rather than very much starting to blur as the Baby Boom generation generally began to enter majority and adulthood. This is seen in films, television, fashion, music and even the language employed on news broadcasts and in newspapers, which is still rather more sophisticated, mature and built upon shibboleths of knowledge, idiom and experience
- The 'stiff upper lip' or emotional restraint is still the general rule of the day, and extreme expressions of positive and negative emotions or even just being inordinately loud can often be met by silent social disapproval. There are exceptions made for eccentrics, as has long been the case in English cultural history
- As of the mid 1970s, there is something of a different fashion boom emerging, with an emphasis upon bright colours (mainly for ladies, but there is increased incidence of bright waistcoats and ties for gentlemen) and distinctly new styles, some which might seem to be reminscent of ones from 'our' 1950s, but then on closer appearance seem like an amalgam of that and some Edwardian or Victorian elements; some have termed those young ladies who wear such get up as 'Teddy Girls'. Walking down the streets, an observer would definitely see a lot of uniforms - military ones, plenty of school uniforms, postmen, policemen, traffic wardens, work uniforms, Scouts and more. One thing that may surprise is seeing a fair few more nuns, monks and friars, or at least, quite a few more than our 1976 Britain, which is one manifestation of the lack of the Dissolution of the Monasteries
- This level of both eccentricity and distinct fashion is particular apparent in London's Bohemian underground fringe, which is quite literally underground, with clubs, apartments, shops, arcades and bazaars in the reaches below the metropolis
- Just as there is a very distinct West End and East End of London, there is a very strong and distinct subculture/local culture within North London and South London, and even some level of competition between groups from each area
- There was something of a school of thought between the mid 1880s and the Great War that, as the USA and Germany caught up and in some measures eclipsed Britain economically and industrially, that the Empire was in a period of decline, but this was ended by the circumstances of the War and the subsequent shifting of national attention. Germany's relative recovery in the 1930s was again obscured by who was in charge of it, and the subsequent focus on external events vs internal weakness, and Britain grew markedly during the war. Whilst there was substantial damage to some parts of the country and institutions, what emerged from 1945 was not a weakened Empire, but one that rebuilt and reimagined itself. New industries, new technologies and new frontiers opened up, and every decade has seen a marked improvement in the everyday life and prosperity of Britons at home and no markedly significant decline in general British power and influence abroad from 1945. The late Victorian/fin de siecle period aside (and that was one where economic indicia were somewhat eclipsed in general perception by the huge successes in space exploration and general imperial expansion), there hasn't really been a sense of a 'lost decade' at any point, or of position slipping away
- Most television news programmes now include a talking dog or cat reporter, and sometimes both, for covering what we'd term 'humourous human interest stories'
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Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
A little September 1976 preview:
September 1: Noted turophilean Lancastrian inventor Wallace Stuart-Houston, his loyal canine companion Grommit and their occasional ovine offsider Shaun the Sheep return safely from the uncivilised wilds of Darkest Yorkshire, having aided the escape of a flock of chickens from a farm run by two Soviet sleeper agents and then uncovered the secret of the mysterious haunting of the monks of Wensleydale Abbey. In gratitude for their assistance, Abbott Costello allowed them to take home the now inanimate remains of the dread Cheese Golem, whilst Shaun was rewarded with a ton of clover and a lifetime supply of carrotapples; all in all, ‘twas a rather grand day out.
September 2: Joint formal design work on the United States Navy/Royal Navy Medium Aircraft Carrier begins, with a view towards ships possibly being authorised for FY 1979, whilst the first operational squadron of F/A-18s goes to sea aboard USS Intrepid and the XBQM-108A Vertical Attitude Take-Off and Landing unmanned fighter, the brainchild of the Naval Ship Research and Development Center, is tested aboard USS Caine. Across the Atlantic in Britain, HMS Unicorn, the Royal Navy's latest atomic supercarrier, is commissioned in a ceremony at John Brown on the Clyde, with her sponsor, Princess Victoria of Wales, being in attendance at the service conducted by the Chaplain of the Fleet, the Very Reverend Father John Shandor.
September 7: A clandestine special reconnaissance commanded by Colonel James Braddock and Captain John Rambo secretly lands in North Vietnam to investigate reports of American MIAs being held in Communist captivity, despite open protestation to the contrary by Hanoi. Utilising new cloaked helicopters, the 12 man team is to observe and investigate a range of suspected camps deep in the rugged hills and jungles of North Vietnam and North Laos, but have not been authorised to take any direct or indirect action under exactingly specific rules of engagements.
September 15: Royal South African Air Force radar operators reports intermittent contact with a very high altitude, extremely fast unidentified flying object over the Kalahari Desert. The pattern of the contacts seems to indicate that the craft may have been searching or scanning for something on the ground, and at one stage descending from over 180,000ft to just 10,000ft over particular desert areas near a large meteor crater, before it disappeared on an approximately southeastern trajectory. A subsequent meeting of South African, British and US officials in Victoria agrees upon a conclusion that the flights do not seem to be hostile in intent, but that any subsequent incidences are to be monitored and, if possible, intercepted by Royal Space Force assets and escorted to land.
September 20: Exercise Labyrinth, the Royal Navy's autumnal large scale fleet maneuver, begins in the Western Approaches to the southwest of Ireland. It is to pit two task forces of three carriers apiece against an enemy invasion fleet of carriers, battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft, and different stages of Labyrinth are to involve nearly all types of vessel of the Royal Navy's surface fleet, from Coastal Forces and minesweepers to the escort fleet and cruisers, including the recently purchased large frigates Mermaid, Nereid, Dolphin and Porphyrios, which had been being built for Siam prior to cancellation of the order due to political issues in Bangkok. In accompanying naval developments, the first of the Navy's new cruisers, Spartan, Orion, Neptune and Lionheart, are laid down at Portsmouth Royal Navy Dockyard, Swan Hunter, Beardmores and Harland & Wolff, and a licensed production agreement is reached between the Fairey Aviation and McDonnell-Douglas regarding the latter's Skyhawk II.
September 24: Establishment of the Costco membership-only warehouse club in Seattle, with the intent of building up an operating base to provide an eventual competitor to the novel Price Club retail warehouse in San Diego. Providing both homewares and bulk foodstuffs, the relative success of the Californian business has lead some to deduce that there is an emerging market hole that could be filled. The relative renaissance in what has been termed 'Classic American Food', or modern variations upon traditional cuisine, with its emphasis upon very generous quantities of excellent quality ingredients and little of either the frippery found in French-inspired dishes or the motley medley found in charming Italianate food, has lead to sustained trends in the purchase of considerable volume and variety of ingredients. The relative increase in the popularity of home cooking, inspired in part by the televisual gastronautic adventures of Julia Child, Graham Kerr, Jacques Pepin, James Beard, Betty Crocker and Robert Carrier, has lead some executives in the fast food business to consider possible approaches to broadening their fare.
September 30: Completion of the domed city of Elizabeth in Alaska, Canada, which will accommodate a population of 50,000 on Mackenzie Point, being completely self sufficient in power through its fusion reactor and connected by monorail and aerial tramway to Anchorage. No cars are to be permitted within the domed city, with transport provided by the tramway, integrated bicycle paths and moving pavements, and plentiful park space is to be provided in the controlled internal climate, which has been promoted as offering Alaska's only year-round 'outdoor' swimming bath. Initial studies have found a reasonable degree of interest in living in the planned community, although some very small levels of psychological disturbance during testing were ameliorated by regular trips outside of the dome. The success of Elizabeth is being carefully observed by urban planners and architects in Japan, who are considering their own arcology proposals (such as the so-called 'Neo Tokyo') as a future means of accommodating Japan's ever-increasing population.
September 1: Noted turophilean Lancastrian inventor Wallace Stuart-Houston, his loyal canine companion Grommit and their occasional ovine offsider Shaun the Sheep return safely from the uncivilised wilds of Darkest Yorkshire, having aided the escape of a flock of chickens from a farm run by two Soviet sleeper agents and then uncovered the secret of the mysterious haunting of the monks of Wensleydale Abbey. In gratitude for their assistance, Abbott Costello allowed them to take home the now inanimate remains of the dread Cheese Golem, whilst Shaun was rewarded with a ton of clover and a lifetime supply of carrotapples; all in all, ‘twas a rather grand day out.
September 2: Joint formal design work on the United States Navy/Royal Navy Medium Aircraft Carrier begins, with a view towards ships possibly being authorised for FY 1979, whilst the first operational squadron of F/A-18s goes to sea aboard USS Intrepid and the XBQM-108A Vertical Attitude Take-Off and Landing unmanned fighter, the brainchild of the Naval Ship Research and Development Center, is tested aboard USS Caine. Across the Atlantic in Britain, HMS Unicorn, the Royal Navy's latest atomic supercarrier, is commissioned in a ceremony at John Brown on the Clyde, with her sponsor, Princess Victoria of Wales, being in attendance at the service conducted by the Chaplain of the Fleet, the Very Reverend Father John Shandor.
September 7: A clandestine special reconnaissance commanded by Colonel James Braddock and Captain John Rambo secretly lands in North Vietnam to investigate reports of American MIAs being held in Communist captivity, despite open protestation to the contrary by Hanoi. Utilising new cloaked helicopters, the 12 man team is to observe and investigate a range of suspected camps deep in the rugged hills and jungles of North Vietnam and North Laos, but have not been authorised to take any direct or indirect action under exactingly specific rules of engagements.
September 15: Royal South African Air Force radar operators reports intermittent contact with a very high altitude, extremely fast unidentified flying object over the Kalahari Desert. The pattern of the contacts seems to indicate that the craft may have been searching or scanning for something on the ground, and at one stage descending from over 180,000ft to just 10,000ft over particular desert areas near a large meteor crater, before it disappeared on an approximately southeastern trajectory. A subsequent meeting of South African, British and US officials in Victoria agrees upon a conclusion that the flights do not seem to be hostile in intent, but that any subsequent incidences are to be monitored and, if possible, intercepted by Royal Space Force assets and escorted to land.
September 20: Exercise Labyrinth, the Royal Navy's autumnal large scale fleet maneuver, begins in the Western Approaches to the southwest of Ireland. It is to pit two task forces of three carriers apiece against an enemy invasion fleet of carriers, battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft, and different stages of Labyrinth are to involve nearly all types of vessel of the Royal Navy's surface fleet, from Coastal Forces and minesweepers to the escort fleet and cruisers, including the recently purchased large frigates Mermaid, Nereid, Dolphin and Porphyrios, which had been being built for Siam prior to cancellation of the order due to political issues in Bangkok. In accompanying naval developments, the first of the Navy's new cruisers, Spartan, Orion, Neptune and Lionheart, are laid down at Portsmouth Royal Navy Dockyard, Swan Hunter, Beardmores and Harland & Wolff, and a licensed production agreement is reached between the Fairey Aviation and McDonnell-Douglas regarding the latter's Skyhawk II.
September 24: Establishment of the Costco membership-only warehouse club in Seattle, with the intent of building up an operating base to provide an eventual competitor to the novel Price Club retail warehouse in San Diego. Providing both homewares and bulk foodstuffs, the relative success of the Californian business has lead some to deduce that there is an emerging market hole that could be filled. The relative renaissance in what has been termed 'Classic American Food', or modern variations upon traditional cuisine, with its emphasis upon very generous quantities of excellent quality ingredients and little of either the frippery found in French-inspired dishes or the motley medley found in charming Italianate food, has lead to sustained trends in the purchase of considerable volume and variety of ingredients. The relative increase in the popularity of home cooking, inspired in part by the televisual gastronautic adventures of Julia Child, Graham Kerr, Jacques Pepin, James Beard, Betty Crocker and Robert Carrier, has lead some executives in the fast food business to consider possible approaches to broadening their fare.
September 30: Completion of the domed city of Elizabeth in Alaska, Canada, which will accommodate a population of 50,000 on Mackenzie Point, being completely self sufficient in power through its fusion reactor and connected by monorail and aerial tramway to Anchorage. No cars are to be permitted within the domed city, with transport provided by the tramway, integrated bicycle paths and moving pavements, and plentiful park space is to be provided in the controlled internal climate, which has been promoted as offering Alaska's only year-round 'outdoor' swimming bath. Initial studies have found a reasonable degree of interest in living in the planned community, although some very small levels of psychological disturbance during testing were ameliorated by regular trips outside of the dome. The success of Elizabeth is being carefully observed by urban planners and architects in Japan, who are considering their own arcology proposals (such as the so-called 'Neo Tokyo') as a future means of accommodating Japan's ever-increasing population.
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Bernard Woolley
- Posts: 1416
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 4:06 pm
- Location: Earth
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
I say, Old Chap, what does this word 'offsider' mean? Something from the Colonies? Not the King's English, I'll wager. 
That name concerns me for some reason. Something to do with someone whose name begins with A.(such as the so-called 'Neo Tokyo')
“Frankly, I had enjoyed the war… and why do people want peace if the war is so much fun?” - Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart
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Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
It is an Australianism in @, meaning helper, assistant or infrequent collaborator, but due to greater flows of manpower to Britain in the World Wars and to Australia in Round Two, it has slipped into the general argot. Out of character, it had to be done to get the alliterative effect following on from 'occasional ovine', so the language itself changes to suit the needs of its sheep. And yes, we have sheep tea.
I wouldn't be too worried about the scary 'A word' (anime) much at all. The general DE principle is that fictional elements from a host of tales, stories and properties can exist, but they may not be quite in the same form or power level as in their own stories; to put it another way, they aren't necessarily the main characters here.
Neo Tokyo is the first Akira reference, or reference to other quite crazy Japanese works, like 20th Century Boys, but I haven't spent almost 20 years writing this stuff just to blow it up with anime!
I wouldn't be too worried about the scary 'A word' (anime) much at all. The general DE principle is that fictional elements from a host of tales, stories and properties can exist, but they may not be quite in the same form or power level as in their own stories; to put it another way, they aren't necessarily the main characters here.
Neo Tokyo is the first Akira reference, or reference to other quite crazy Japanese works, like 20th Century Boys, but I haven't spent almost 20 years writing this stuff just to blow it up with anime!
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Bernard Woolley
- Posts: 1416
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 4:06 pm
- Location: Earth
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
I'm familiar with it from watching stuff like Highway Patrol. I'm just having you on a bit.
Akira was the first anime that I saw which I realised was anime, if that makes any sense. Looking back, there were a few things that I had seen before it that were either anime, or anime adjacent.
I will wait to see if any kind of 'gate' opens in Ginza, btw.
Akira was the first anime that I saw which I realised was anime, if that makes any sense. Looking back, there were a few things that I had seen before it that were either anime, or anime adjacent.
I will wait to see if any kind of 'gate' opens in Ginza, btw.
“Frankly, I had enjoyed the war… and why do people want peace if the war is so much fun?” - Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart
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jemhouston
- Posts: 6432
- Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:38 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
One subplot of Oath of Fealty by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle was doing an arcology in Canada. The was carved out of the southern face of mountain.
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Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
They show you lot Highway Patrol? As if things weren’t bad enough with snowstorms in winter and heatwaves in summer, but you also get “I was just waiting for a mate”. I am sorry.Bernard Woolley wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2026 4:51 pm I'm familiar with it from watching stuff like Highway Patrol. I'm just having you on a bit.
Akira was the first anime that I saw which I realised was anime, if that makes any sense. Looking back, there were a few things that I had seen before it that were either anime, or anime adjacent.
I will wait to see if any kind of 'gate' opens in Ginza, btw.
I’d probably be in the same boat for Akira, only it didn’t really do anything for me and my reaction was a bit like Will Byers in Stranger Things - ‘Can we please just play D&D now?’
Knowing about Gate from questions on AH.com 8 years ago, it isn’t likely, and no one may really notice much. They’ve already survived Godzilla attacking and a dragon destroying the Budokan and the Yasukuni dog track!
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Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
This is a far more conventional one, and, in the manner of all types of unlikely things, was a historical proposal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seward%27 ... ss,_Alaskajemhouston wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2026 4:51 pm One subplot of Oath of Fealty by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle was doing an arcology in Canada. The was carved out of the southern face of mountain.
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Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
A very short pre-work bit of (largely naval) explanation:
The Mermaids are similar in concept to the Black Star/Mermaid/Hang Tuah of @, with the difference being that a Siamese government ordered four enlarged Type 21s back in 1970, with the ships being light destroyers in practice. They were then suspended in 1973 when there was a change in government personnel, and the RN purchased them so they could be completed, with a possible view towards selling them to a third country, such as Persia, in due course. At 5900t, they are big for frigates, and heavily gunned with four single 125mm mounts, but ultimately there are a few too few of them for Britain to maintain them in service.
The British cruisers are similar in size to the USN Los Angeles class (~26000t), and are similarly nuclear powered, with their gun armament of 9.2" automatics now being secondary to their assorted missile batteries.
The Fairey Skyhawk may or may not turn out to be a passable idea, but Fairey are looking to broaden their sales base.
The XBQM-108A VATOL ultimately won't go anywhere, but the concept of a vertically launched unmanned robotic drone fighter will stick around. Note the ship it was tested from, which had previously been best known for a mystery of disappearing strawberries...Ah, but the strawberries! That's - that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes, but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with - geometric logic - that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox DID exist!
The Mermaids are similar in concept to the Black Star/Mermaid/Hang Tuah of @, with the difference being that a Siamese government ordered four enlarged Type 21s back in 1970, with the ships being light destroyers in practice. They were then suspended in 1973 when there was a change in government personnel, and the RN purchased them so they could be completed, with a possible view towards selling them to a third country, such as Persia, in due course. At 5900t, they are big for frigates, and heavily gunned with four single 125mm mounts, but ultimately there are a few too few of them for Britain to maintain them in service.
The British cruisers are similar in size to the USN Los Angeles class (~26000t), and are similarly nuclear powered, with their gun armament of 9.2" automatics now being secondary to their assorted missile batteries.
The Fairey Skyhawk may or may not turn out to be a passable idea, but Fairey are looking to broaden their sales base.
The XBQM-108A VATOL ultimately won't go anywhere, but the concept of a vertically launched unmanned robotic drone fighter will stick around. Note the ship it was tested from, which had previously been best known for a mystery of disappearing strawberries...Ah, but the strawberries! That's - that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes, but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with - geometric logic - that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox DID exist!
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Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
September 1976
September 1: Noted turophilean Lancastrian inventor Wallace Stuart-Houston, his loyal canine companion Grommit and their occasional ovine offsider Shaun the Sheep return safely from the uncivilised wilds of Darkest Yorkshire, having aided the escape of a flock of chickens (who didn't even like gravy) from a farm run by two Soviet sleeper agents (who are now rather more somnolent than before, having been fed a sumptuous repast of the notoriously sopoforic Venezuelan beaver cheese) and then uncovered the secret of the mysterious haunting of the monks of Wensleydale Abbey. In gratitude for their assistance, Abbott Costello allowed them to take home the now inanimate remains of the dread Cheese Golem, whilst Shaun was rewarded with a ton of clover and a lifetime supply of carrotapples; all in all, ‘twas a rather grand day out.
September 2: Joint formal design work on the United States Navy/Royal Navy Medium Aircraft Carrier begins, with a view towards ships possibly being authorised for FY 1979, whilst the first operational squadron of F/A-18s goes to sea aboard USS Intrepid and the XBQM-108A Vertical Attitude Take-Off and Landing unmanned fighter, the brainchild of the Naval Ship Research and Development Center, is tested aboard USS Caine. Across the Atlantic in Britain, HMS Unicorn, the Royal Navy's latest atomic supercarrier, is commissioned in a ceremony at John Brown on the Clyde, with her sponsor, Princess Victoria of Wales, being in attendance at the service conducted by the Chaplain of the Fleet, the Very Reverend Father John Shandor.
September 3: In one of the most surprising upsets in the history of the Soviet Cup, the Dynamo Moscow soccer team, who had swept all other competitors before them in a dominant season, are defeated 3-0 by FC Dinamo Tbilisi in a stunning final before a crowd of 65,000 at Lenin Central Stadium in Moscow. One rather surprised spectator is overheard commenting to his neighbour that apparently the Georgian chekists were superior to the Moscow chekists, or else they were all off on missions in the West, and is subsequently denounced by eight separate informers, including his neighbour, his wife, his son-in-law and his neighbour's wife's son-in-law, arrested later that night by officers of the KGB wearing Dynamo Moscow scarves, and sent to the gulag for anti-Soviet behaviour. His sentence of ten years imprisonment is later commuted to writing out "I must not doubt Soviet sporting integrity" five million times.
September 4: The 1500th anniversary of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire is marked by solemn ceremonies in Rome and Constantinople, as well as by classical scholars across the Western world. The BBC carries an interview with Master Aetheus Solarion, one of the nation's best known academics specialising in the ancient and classical world about his experiences as a contemporary of the Fall, following the earlier withdrawal of Roman troops from the then-Britannia in 407 A.D., the subsequent Rescript of Honorious and the failure of the Groans of the Britons. Master Solarion comments that the actual Fall of the Western Empire in 476 was thus perhaps one of the few natural examples of a posthumous demise, with Rome never recovering from its sack by Alaric.
September 5: Soviet Air Force MiG-25 fighter pilot Lieutenant Viktor Belenko, facing an imminent divorce and loss of his 3 year old son, and his suggestions to boost morale being derisorily ignored by his regimental zampolit, takes off from Chuguyevka Air Base in the Soviet Far East in his Foxbat on a training mission, and then descends rapidly to sea level as he heads off out over the Sea of Japan with the intention to defect. His MiG-25 is picked up by Japanese radar, intercepted by four Imperial Japanese Air Force Mitsubishi F-6 Shinden fighter-interceptors and escorted into Chitose Air Base utilising their extensive radar tracking systems. Belenko requests political asylum in the United States upon landing, with the Soviet Union demanding the return of himself and particularly his fighter. After being completely disassembled and examined by Japanese and American technicians, the Foxbat is packed into 67 boxes and returned by sea to the USSR on November 15 along with a complimentary Allen wrench.
September 6: Beginning of the annual NATO REFORGER exercise, with the 1976 edition, Exercise Gordion Shield seeing the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry, 2nd Armored, 3rd Armored, 9th Infantry, 12th Infantry, 26th Infantry, 75th Infantry and 90th Infantry Divisions being moved across the Atlantic by sea and air, along with elements of the XVIII Airborne Corps and USMC 2nd MAF deploying to Denmark, Norway and Sweden under Exercise Dawn Fulcrum and the Canadian IV Corps as part of Exercise Maple Fever. Gordion Shield and the subsequent field battle simulation Lares Team are the first major exercises to feature the new UH-60 Blackhawk general purpose helicopters and the larger Boeing CH-62 Cherokee superheavy lift helicopter, along with medium tank versions of the M2 Bradley armoured fighting vehicle.
September 7: A clandestine special reconnaissance commanded by Colonel James Braddock and Captain John Rambo secretly lands in North Vietnam to investigate reports of American MIAs being held in Communist captivity, despite open protestation to the contrary by Hanoi. Utilising new cloaked helicopters, the 12 man team is to observe and investigate a range of suspected camps deep in the rugged hills and jungles of North Vietnam and North Laos, but have not been authorised to take any direct or indirect action under exactingly specific rules of engagements.
September 8: American mountain climbers William Unsoeld, his daughter Nanda Devi and her fiancee come to grief whilst attempting to climb the eponymous Nanda Devi in India, as she is beset by a dangerous blood clot bought on by high altitude sickness at 25,000 feet. However, before the desperate situation can result in tragedy, they are rescued by a trio of Yeti who emerge out of the snow and swiftly carry Nanda down to a lower altitude, feeding her a concoction of herbs and grasses along the way, whilst attempting to communicate with the indecipherable characteristic ooking. After the near disaster, Unsoeld adds his name and support to those pushing for a study of connections between the yeti, sasquatch, yowie, mapinguary and the wodewose in order to fully understand what could be some of mankind's nearer relatives. The yeti, their benevolent rescue complete, disappear back into the snow and ice, accepting only their customary chocolate bars as a reward for their kindness.
September 9: Reverend Elvis Presley successfully infiltrates the lair of the Remuant Plaisantin in an abandoned byzanium mine deep beneath the Ozarks with the aid of an inquisitive Great Dane and his human friends, retired silent film icon Rudolph Valentino and the newly established Nuclear Emergency Search Team, subdues the dastardly Frenchman with the combination of a moving ballad and his mastery of karate , and manages to retrieve sealed envelopes containing both the list of the 12 nominally secret herbs and spices of Kentucky Fried Chicken and the formula to Coca-Cola from his trapped treasure chest before delivering the bound and gagged miscreant to the Arkansas authorities. Colonel Sanders, overjoyed at the return of the secret list, promises the good Reverend a lifetime supply of fried chicken for his flock, with Presley accepting on their behalf, demurring that he prefers his momma's recipe to black and white pepper, salt, thyme, basil, oregano, dried mustard, paprika, ginger, garlic powder, celery salt and Accent, and offers the Colonel a jar of his own spice blend to sample.
September 10: TWA Flight 355 from New York to Chicago is hijacked after takeoff by a purported group of Croat separatists who claim to have planted a time bomb in a locker at Grand Central Station in addition to having explosives on board the flight. This combined threat results in the onboard undercover sky marshal not taking direct action against the hijackers, who divert the plane to land at Montreal, hoping to refuel it for a flight to Europe and thence to the Middle East. Instead, after the station bomb is rapidly located by a quick thinking Pinkerton and the NYPD's bomb detection marmot, the aircraft is stormed by a team from the Canadian Special Air Service Regiment, accompanied by U.S. Delta Force Captain Scott McCoy, and the four hijackers subdued by fire from their new PHASR stun guns.
September 11: Volvo begin offering the Volvo Elbil for sale, with the small town car being equipped with 200kg of special new batteries which provide it with a range of a purported 120km, but at the cost of significant trunk capacity or being able to seat more than two people. Electric cars are thought to offer considerable potential room for development once the 'battery conundrum' is finally resolved, but the accompanying requirement for supporting infrastructure development is thought to be a significant constraint on practical employment in the near future, with some scientists claiming that, given the scale of new construction involved, there is an open question of whether the cars of the year 2000 will run on electricity or hydrogen.
September 12: Conservative MP for Dunny-on-the-wold, Sir Edward Blackadder, second son of Earl Blackadder of Salonika and grandson of the deceased hero of the World Wars, and recently appointed Parliamentary Undersecretary for Migration, gives a speech to the annual meeting of the British Imperial League at Blandings Castle on future patterns of migration to Britain. He states that the policy of voluntary repatriation is anticipated as seeing a steady annual increase for the next five years, given the generous subsidies being offered, such that the migrant populations from India and the West Indies could fall by as much as a sixth each, and that whilst current levels of just under two people in every thousand did not seem concerning, or even noticeable, that it represented a marked growth over less than a generation - in the 1961 census, there were 15,000 West Indians and 18,000 Indians compared to 145,000 and 120,000 in 1975 - so that there is potential for those levels to rise dramatically over the next two or three generations, with all of the issues that would entail for social cohesion and stability. His speech is met with generally positive reception by the League, but there is some disquiet from some sections of the Liberal Party regarding the practical manifestation of the policies discussed.
September 13: Commonwealth and European falconry champion, 22 year old Billy Casper of Barnstoneworth in South Yorkshire, wins the prestigious Royal Falconry Championship at Riyadh in Arabia, with his kestrel, Kes, and is awarded the Golden Glove by the thoroughly impressed King Rashid, Sultan of all Araby. His Majesty subsequently invites Casper and his family to spend a year at his court as a visiting master falconer, with his love for birds of prey being well known across the world, but he demures, saying that Kes is more accustomed to the cooler climes of Yorkshire than the desert kingdom. The Sultan, moved by his concern, sends him back to Britain with his blessing and a chest of gold and gems to show his esteem.
September 14: An F-14 rolls off the deck of USS Shiloh 75 nautical miles off the northwest coast of St. Kilda after a catapult accident and sinks to the ocean floor over 2000ft below, whilst the pilot and his RIO safely eject. A nearby Soviet intelligence gathering trawler remains around the area of the accident, sparking fears that the Soviets will attempt to salvage the Tomcat and particularly her nuclear missiles, leading to an emergency deployment of the atomic submarine USS Bonefish from Holy Loch to recover the lost armament on September 17th. Soviet rescue submarine BS-486 subsequently recovers the airframe of the F-14 five days later, with the act of permitting the Soviets to salvage the plane thought by some to be part of the backchannel negotiations over the Belenko incident.
September 15: Royal South African Air Force radar operators reports intermittent contact with a very high altitude, extremely fast unidentified flying object over the Kalahari Desert. The pattern of the contacts seems to indicate that the craft may have been searching or scanning for something on the ground, and at one stage descending from over 180,000ft to just 10,000ft over particular desert areas near a large meteor crater, before it disappeared on an approximately southeastern trajectory. A subsequent meeting of South African, British and US officials in Victoria agrees upon a conclusion that the flights do not seem to be hostile in intent, but that any subsequent incidences are to be monitored and, if possible, intercepted by Royal Space Force assets and escorted to land.
September 16: A trolleybus crashes into a water treatment reservoir adjacent to Lake Yerevan in Soviet Armenia and begins to sink in the sewage laden waters. Noted swimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan had been jogging nearby and dived in, swam down the 30ft to the stricken vehicle, kicked in the rear window, and proceeded to swim 46 of the 92 passengers onboard to safety, prior to the arrival of Soviet costumed superhero Krasnyy Strazh, who hauls the bus to the surface. 39 people survive the accident thanks to Karapetyan's bold intervention, which results in him being hospitalised for 45 days with pneumonia and sepsis. Upon his recovery, he is awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and granted the Order of Lenin for his heroism.
September 17: Thirty-six communists are arrested in Special Branch raids across London on suspicion of involvement in sedition, seditious libel, scandalum magnatum, praemunire, espionage and treachery after the defection of a Soviet GRU agent in the Finnish city of Vyborg. The raids constitute the most significant series of arrests of a suspected spy ring in recent years, and comes after recent indications of a decline in the influence of more radical Soviet sympathisers in the fringes of the labour movement and Socialist Party due to the deft approach of the Barton government to such issues; a proposed strike by dockworkers at Tilbury in February was resolved through the novel action of an agreement to temporarily recall the workers to the Army, allowing them to be given a temporary pay rise in addition to their active service stipend.
September 18: A car bomb in Rosario, Argentina kills ten policemen and two civilians, blowing up a police bus on a busy public street. Responsibility is claimed by the Movimiento Popular Montonero , or Monteneros, whose ideology appears to be a combination of Guevarism and the militant Catholic heresy of Camilo Torres. Premier Rodriguez reacts swiftly, declaring martial law and a state of emergency in Santa Fe Province, and deploying over 35,000 troops to join in operations searching for the perpetrators; in private, he authorises a number of extraordinary measures to suppress the leftist guerrilla group, including indefinite detention of suspects and their associates without trial, creation of countergangs and internal exile for the families of terrorists.
September 19: Prime Minister Sven Tyrsson’s Christian Democrat-Conservative-Centre-Liberal-National coalition government is returned to power with an increased majority in the Swedish general election, gaining 18 seats from the Social Democrats in a barnstorming upset. His successful campaign was built upon his popular rallying cry of Bevara Sverige bra (Keep Sweden good) which advocates unity and law at home and fighting for freedom and democracy abroad, and his policies of reducing income taxes, growing the national sovereign wealth fund and cutting public debt to secure the future, and means that a generation of Swedes have only known him as their Prime Minister.
September 20: Exercise Labyrinth, the Royal Navy's autumnal large scale fleet maneuver, begins in the Western Approaches to the southwest of Ireland. It is to pit two task forces of three carriers apiece against an enemy invasion fleet of carriers, battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft, and different stages of Labyrinth are to involve nearly all types of vessel of the Royal Navy's surface fleet, from Coastal Forces and minesweepers to the escort fleet and cruisers, including the recently purchased large frigates Mermaid, Nereid, Dolphin and Porphyrios, which had been being built for Siam prior to cancellation of the order due to political issues in Bangkok. In accompanying naval developments, the first of the Navy's new cruisers, Spartan, Orion, Neptune and Lionheart, are laid down at Portsmouth Royal Navy Dockyard, Swan Hunter, Beardmores and Harland & Wolff, and a licensed production agreement is reached between the Fairey Aviation and McDonnell-Douglas regarding the latter's Skyhawk II.
September 21: Debut of Baa Baa Black Sheep, a televisual dramatisation of the experiences of then USMC Major Greg 'Pappy' Boyington and VMF-214 during the Solomon Islands Campaign of the Second World War; initial reviews of the pilot comment approvingly on the aerial action sequences, comparing them favourably to those of Midway, Tarawa and I Shall Return, amongst other Pacific War pictures. It comes amid increasing popularity of World War 2 films across a variety of genres, particularly Last Tango in Paris, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis's latest madcap caper set around the Liberation of Paris in early July 1944, and the beginning of production on a number of other pictures by Hammer and TSR Film Productions, including Hawk the Slayer, Thongor in the Valley of the Demons, The People That Time Forgot, Warlords of Atlantis and Ravenloft.
September 22: The marriage of Prince Karl Franz of Prussia and Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of the Imperial House of Romanov takes place in the chapel of Hohenzollern Castle in the Swabian Alps of Baden-Württemberg, marking the first union between the houses in the 20th century and a sign of the generational warming of relations between the erstwhile foes of the Great War. Both Kaiser Wilhelm V and Tsar Sergei are in attendance for the marriage of their cousins, with the British Crown and House of Windsor being represented by His Royal Highness Prince-Consort Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
September 23: In the first US Presidential debate, President Reagan records a narrow but clear victory over his challenger, Democratic candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Reagan was able to draw upon his record in his first term, pointing to strength abroad and economic success at home, whilst portraying his trademark sunny optimism for the future, whilst Kennedy, who probably excelled more over the course of the debate in terms of classical oratory, was unable to land any telling blows on the President, who as ever has been able to prevent public criticism from sticking on him in any lasting fashion. Reagan's concluding question to voters of 'Are you better off today than you were four years ago?', followed by the list of positive accomplishments made in his first four years in office, ultimately proved too simple yet effective for Kennedy to counter. The independent presenting panel, made up of Jim Lehrer, Chet Huntley, Clark Kent, Howard Beale and Kent Brockman, concludes that neither candidate landed a knock-out punch, but the first bout unanimously went to the President.
September 24: Establishment of the Costco membership-only warehouse club in Seattle, with the intent of building up an operating base to provide an eventual competitor to the novel Price Club retail warehouse in San Diego. Providing both homewares and bulk foodstuffs, the relative success of the Californian business has lead some to deduce that there is an emerging market hole that could be filled. The relative renaissance in what has been termed 'Classic American Food', or modern variations upon traditional cuisine, with its emphasis upon very generous quantities of excellent quality ingredients and little of either the frippery found in French-inspired dishes or the motley medley found in charming Italianate food, has lead to sustained trends in the purchase of considerable volume and variety of ingredients. The relative increase in the popularity of home cooking, inspired in part by the televisual gastronautic adventures of Julia Child, Graham Kerr, Jacques Pepin, James Beard, Betty Crocker and Robert Carrier, has lead some executives in the fast food business to consider possible approaches to broadening their fare.
September 25: Geelong defeat Hawthorn in the VFL Grand Final at the M.C.G. in front of a crowd of 183,529 spectators 24.10 (154) to 16.22 (118), with Larry Donohue leading the way for the Cats, kicking 6, along with 4 to Malcolm Blight and Rex Hunt, and 3 apiece to young Gary Ablett and Terry Bright, whilst Peter Hudson kicked 5 for Hawthorn, ably supported by Knights, Moncrieff and Crimmins with 3. Geelong ruckman Sam Newman was adjudged best man on the ground and is awarded the inaugural Norm Smith Medal, narrowly beating out Blight, gun recruit Brian Peake and Ian Nankervis. The high quality premiership decider comes on the back of a successful season, which saw the funding supplied by the game's millionaire American benefactor starting to flow down into the renovation and expansion of many suburban grounds, grants given to grassroots clubs, player payments increased and a special trust established to eliminate existing debt held by all sixteen VFL clubs by 1980.
September 26: A team of Palestinian Arab guerillas storms the Hotel Semiramis in Damascus in an act of armed protest against what they characterise as the Syrian regime's appeasement of Israel and Western colonialism, taking over 100 guests and staff hostage. The Syrian Royal Guard is immediately ordered by the King to recapture the hotel, and an intense gun battle ensues, supported by light tanks spraying tear gas. Five terrorists are killed in the fighting, along with eight hostages, with a further 42 guests wounded in the intense crossfire. On the direct order of the King, the seven captured terrorists are immediately hanged on a makeshift gallows outside the Semiramis in a gesture meant to deter such future outrages.
September 27: A White Paper on Education is commissioned in Britain by Minister of Education Margaret Thatcher, fulfilling the first step of one of the key campaign promises of the new Conservative government. It is expected to explore and set out the ways, means and proposed timetable for a significant increase in school funding, both for capital buildings and equipment and teaching staff, in order to meet the challenges of the coming larger generations of British children amid the rapidly developing technological revolution of the final decades of the 20th century. Among options being considered are the transformation of the Eleven Plus into a universal national examination; introduction of an interim national scholastic aptitude test for third form; widespread introduction of computers along the lines of U.S schools; appointment of talking school dogs to improve literacy achievement in the middle primary years; and the development of a national curriculum.
September 28: Heated debate in the Katangan regional parliament takes place regarding the separatist issue, with growing support for a more formal declaration of autonomy in some factions being decried by elements loyal to the central government in Leopoldville, and some open threats of armed conflict being countenanced in factional newspapers. The strong links of the Katangan separatists with Rhodesian, Belgian, British and with U.S. interests have continued to arouse the ire of the Soviet-leaning Congolese government, but there remains a reluctance to actually move from heated words to outright action, given the escalatory potential of any conflict. Some Congolese government officials are pushing for a more strident line on the troublesome border province in the light of the substantive reductions in the British African Army, which is to be cut to two divisions and a number of separate units, but others urge caution on account of the growing presence of certain American military forces in Rhodesia and South Africa.
September 29: Arrival back to Earth orbit of Orion 6, with General Edwin Aldrin's 60 bold explorers of Uranus and Neptune having conducted an experimental high energy maneuver from their interim position passing Mars in July, in both a means to bring the heroes home sooner rather than later, and testing the capacity of the Orion type engine in a high acceleration/high deceleration capacity for possible use in evolving moves in the future exploration of other solar systems. After docking with the USSF space station Columbia, the first echelon of the Orion crew, lead by Aldrin, fly back to Earth aboard a Boeing Super Astro Clipper, and land to a rapturous reception at Washington National Spaceport.
September 30: Completion of the domed city of Elizabeth in Alaska, Canada, which will accommodate a population of 50,000 on Mackenzie Point, being completely self sufficient in power through its fusion reactor and connected by monorail and aerial tramway to Anchorage. No cars are to be permitted within the domed city, with transport provided by the tramway, integrated bicycle paths and moving pavements, and plentiful park space is to be provided in the controlled internal climate, which has been promoted as offering Alaska's only year-round 'outdoor' swimming bath. Initial studies have found a reasonable degree of interest in living in the planned community, although some very small levels of psychological disturbance during testing were ameliorated by regular trips outside of the dome. The success of Elizabeth is being carefully observed by urban planners and architects in Japan, who are considering their own arcology proposals (such as the so-called 'Neo Tokyo') as a future means of accommodating Japan's ever-increasing population.
September 1: Noted turophilean Lancastrian inventor Wallace Stuart-Houston, his loyal canine companion Grommit and their occasional ovine offsider Shaun the Sheep return safely from the uncivilised wilds of Darkest Yorkshire, having aided the escape of a flock of chickens (who didn't even like gravy) from a farm run by two Soviet sleeper agents (who are now rather more somnolent than before, having been fed a sumptuous repast of the notoriously sopoforic Venezuelan beaver cheese) and then uncovered the secret of the mysterious haunting of the monks of Wensleydale Abbey. In gratitude for their assistance, Abbott Costello allowed them to take home the now inanimate remains of the dread Cheese Golem, whilst Shaun was rewarded with a ton of clover and a lifetime supply of carrotapples; all in all, ‘twas a rather grand day out.
September 2: Joint formal design work on the United States Navy/Royal Navy Medium Aircraft Carrier begins, with a view towards ships possibly being authorised for FY 1979, whilst the first operational squadron of F/A-18s goes to sea aboard USS Intrepid and the XBQM-108A Vertical Attitude Take-Off and Landing unmanned fighter, the brainchild of the Naval Ship Research and Development Center, is tested aboard USS Caine. Across the Atlantic in Britain, HMS Unicorn, the Royal Navy's latest atomic supercarrier, is commissioned in a ceremony at John Brown on the Clyde, with her sponsor, Princess Victoria of Wales, being in attendance at the service conducted by the Chaplain of the Fleet, the Very Reverend Father John Shandor.
September 3: In one of the most surprising upsets in the history of the Soviet Cup, the Dynamo Moscow soccer team, who had swept all other competitors before them in a dominant season, are defeated 3-0 by FC Dinamo Tbilisi in a stunning final before a crowd of 65,000 at Lenin Central Stadium in Moscow. One rather surprised spectator is overheard commenting to his neighbour that apparently the Georgian chekists were superior to the Moscow chekists, or else they were all off on missions in the West, and is subsequently denounced by eight separate informers, including his neighbour, his wife, his son-in-law and his neighbour's wife's son-in-law, arrested later that night by officers of the KGB wearing Dynamo Moscow scarves, and sent to the gulag for anti-Soviet behaviour. His sentence of ten years imprisonment is later commuted to writing out "I must not doubt Soviet sporting integrity" five million times.
September 4: The 1500th anniversary of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire is marked by solemn ceremonies in Rome and Constantinople, as well as by classical scholars across the Western world. The BBC carries an interview with Master Aetheus Solarion, one of the nation's best known academics specialising in the ancient and classical world about his experiences as a contemporary of the Fall, following the earlier withdrawal of Roman troops from the then-Britannia in 407 A.D., the subsequent Rescript of Honorious and the failure of the Groans of the Britons. Master Solarion comments that the actual Fall of the Western Empire in 476 was thus perhaps one of the few natural examples of a posthumous demise, with Rome never recovering from its sack by Alaric.
September 5: Soviet Air Force MiG-25 fighter pilot Lieutenant Viktor Belenko, facing an imminent divorce and loss of his 3 year old son, and his suggestions to boost morale being derisorily ignored by his regimental zampolit, takes off from Chuguyevka Air Base in the Soviet Far East in his Foxbat on a training mission, and then descends rapidly to sea level as he heads off out over the Sea of Japan with the intention to defect. His MiG-25 is picked up by Japanese radar, intercepted by four Imperial Japanese Air Force Mitsubishi F-6 Shinden fighter-interceptors and escorted into Chitose Air Base utilising their extensive radar tracking systems. Belenko requests political asylum in the United States upon landing, with the Soviet Union demanding the return of himself and particularly his fighter. After being completely disassembled and examined by Japanese and American technicians, the Foxbat is packed into 67 boxes and returned by sea to the USSR on November 15 along with a complimentary Allen wrench.
September 6: Beginning of the annual NATO REFORGER exercise, with the 1976 edition, Exercise Gordion Shield seeing the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry, 2nd Armored, 3rd Armored, 9th Infantry, 12th Infantry, 26th Infantry, 75th Infantry and 90th Infantry Divisions being moved across the Atlantic by sea and air, along with elements of the XVIII Airborne Corps and USMC 2nd MAF deploying to Denmark, Norway and Sweden under Exercise Dawn Fulcrum and the Canadian IV Corps as part of Exercise Maple Fever. Gordion Shield and the subsequent field battle simulation Lares Team are the first major exercises to feature the new UH-60 Blackhawk general purpose helicopters and the larger Boeing CH-62 Cherokee superheavy lift helicopter, along with medium tank versions of the M2 Bradley armoured fighting vehicle.
September 7: A clandestine special reconnaissance commanded by Colonel James Braddock and Captain John Rambo secretly lands in North Vietnam to investigate reports of American MIAs being held in Communist captivity, despite open protestation to the contrary by Hanoi. Utilising new cloaked helicopters, the 12 man team is to observe and investigate a range of suspected camps deep in the rugged hills and jungles of North Vietnam and North Laos, but have not been authorised to take any direct or indirect action under exactingly specific rules of engagements.
September 8: American mountain climbers William Unsoeld, his daughter Nanda Devi and her fiancee come to grief whilst attempting to climb the eponymous Nanda Devi in India, as she is beset by a dangerous blood clot bought on by high altitude sickness at 25,000 feet. However, before the desperate situation can result in tragedy, they are rescued by a trio of Yeti who emerge out of the snow and swiftly carry Nanda down to a lower altitude, feeding her a concoction of herbs and grasses along the way, whilst attempting to communicate with the indecipherable characteristic ooking. After the near disaster, Unsoeld adds his name and support to those pushing for a study of connections between the yeti, sasquatch, yowie, mapinguary and the wodewose in order to fully understand what could be some of mankind's nearer relatives. The yeti, their benevolent rescue complete, disappear back into the snow and ice, accepting only their customary chocolate bars as a reward for their kindness.
September 9: Reverend Elvis Presley successfully infiltrates the lair of the Remuant Plaisantin in an abandoned byzanium mine deep beneath the Ozarks with the aid of an inquisitive Great Dane and his human friends, retired silent film icon Rudolph Valentino and the newly established Nuclear Emergency Search Team, subdues the dastardly Frenchman with the combination of a moving ballad and his mastery of karate , and manages to retrieve sealed envelopes containing both the list of the 12 nominally secret herbs and spices of Kentucky Fried Chicken and the formula to Coca-Cola from his trapped treasure chest before delivering the bound and gagged miscreant to the Arkansas authorities. Colonel Sanders, overjoyed at the return of the secret list, promises the good Reverend a lifetime supply of fried chicken for his flock, with Presley accepting on their behalf, demurring that he prefers his momma's recipe to black and white pepper, salt, thyme, basil, oregano, dried mustard, paprika, ginger, garlic powder, celery salt and Accent, and offers the Colonel a jar of his own spice blend to sample.
September 10: TWA Flight 355 from New York to Chicago is hijacked after takeoff by a purported group of Croat separatists who claim to have planted a time bomb in a locker at Grand Central Station in addition to having explosives on board the flight. This combined threat results in the onboard undercover sky marshal not taking direct action against the hijackers, who divert the plane to land at Montreal, hoping to refuel it for a flight to Europe and thence to the Middle East. Instead, after the station bomb is rapidly located by a quick thinking Pinkerton and the NYPD's bomb detection marmot, the aircraft is stormed by a team from the Canadian Special Air Service Regiment, accompanied by U.S. Delta Force Captain Scott McCoy, and the four hijackers subdued by fire from their new PHASR stun guns.
September 11: Volvo begin offering the Volvo Elbil for sale, with the small town car being equipped with 200kg of special new batteries which provide it with a range of a purported 120km, but at the cost of significant trunk capacity or being able to seat more than two people. Electric cars are thought to offer considerable potential room for development once the 'battery conundrum' is finally resolved, but the accompanying requirement for supporting infrastructure development is thought to be a significant constraint on practical employment in the near future, with some scientists claiming that, given the scale of new construction involved, there is an open question of whether the cars of the year 2000 will run on electricity or hydrogen.
September 12: Conservative MP for Dunny-on-the-wold, Sir Edward Blackadder, second son of Earl Blackadder of Salonika and grandson of the deceased hero of the World Wars, and recently appointed Parliamentary Undersecretary for Migration, gives a speech to the annual meeting of the British Imperial League at Blandings Castle on future patterns of migration to Britain. He states that the policy of voluntary repatriation is anticipated as seeing a steady annual increase for the next five years, given the generous subsidies being offered, such that the migrant populations from India and the West Indies could fall by as much as a sixth each, and that whilst current levels of just under two people in every thousand did not seem concerning, or even noticeable, that it represented a marked growth over less than a generation - in the 1961 census, there were 15,000 West Indians and 18,000 Indians compared to 145,000 and 120,000 in 1975 - so that there is potential for those levels to rise dramatically over the next two or three generations, with all of the issues that would entail for social cohesion and stability. His speech is met with generally positive reception by the League, but there is some disquiet from some sections of the Liberal Party regarding the practical manifestation of the policies discussed.
September 13: Commonwealth and European falconry champion, 22 year old Billy Casper of Barnstoneworth in South Yorkshire, wins the prestigious Royal Falconry Championship at Riyadh in Arabia, with his kestrel, Kes, and is awarded the Golden Glove by the thoroughly impressed King Rashid, Sultan of all Araby. His Majesty subsequently invites Casper and his family to spend a year at his court as a visiting master falconer, with his love for birds of prey being well known across the world, but he demures, saying that Kes is more accustomed to the cooler climes of Yorkshire than the desert kingdom. The Sultan, moved by his concern, sends him back to Britain with his blessing and a chest of gold and gems to show his esteem.
September 14: An F-14 rolls off the deck of USS Shiloh 75 nautical miles off the northwest coast of St. Kilda after a catapult accident and sinks to the ocean floor over 2000ft below, whilst the pilot and his RIO safely eject. A nearby Soviet intelligence gathering trawler remains around the area of the accident, sparking fears that the Soviets will attempt to salvage the Tomcat and particularly her nuclear missiles, leading to an emergency deployment of the atomic submarine USS Bonefish from Holy Loch to recover the lost armament on September 17th. Soviet rescue submarine BS-486 subsequently recovers the airframe of the F-14 five days later, with the act of permitting the Soviets to salvage the plane thought by some to be part of the backchannel negotiations over the Belenko incident.
September 15: Royal South African Air Force radar operators reports intermittent contact with a very high altitude, extremely fast unidentified flying object over the Kalahari Desert. The pattern of the contacts seems to indicate that the craft may have been searching or scanning for something on the ground, and at one stage descending from over 180,000ft to just 10,000ft over particular desert areas near a large meteor crater, before it disappeared on an approximately southeastern trajectory. A subsequent meeting of South African, British and US officials in Victoria agrees upon a conclusion that the flights do not seem to be hostile in intent, but that any subsequent incidences are to be monitored and, if possible, intercepted by Royal Space Force assets and escorted to land.
September 16: A trolleybus crashes into a water treatment reservoir adjacent to Lake Yerevan in Soviet Armenia and begins to sink in the sewage laden waters. Noted swimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan had been jogging nearby and dived in, swam down the 30ft to the stricken vehicle, kicked in the rear window, and proceeded to swim 46 of the 92 passengers onboard to safety, prior to the arrival of Soviet costumed superhero Krasnyy Strazh, who hauls the bus to the surface. 39 people survive the accident thanks to Karapetyan's bold intervention, which results in him being hospitalised for 45 days with pneumonia and sepsis. Upon his recovery, he is awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and granted the Order of Lenin for his heroism.
September 17: Thirty-six communists are arrested in Special Branch raids across London on suspicion of involvement in sedition, seditious libel, scandalum magnatum, praemunire, espionage and treachery after the defection of a Soviet GRU agent in the Finnish city of Vyborg. The raids constitute the most significant series of arrests of a suspected spy ring in recent years, and comes after recent indications of a decline in the influence of more radical Soviet sympathisers in the fringes of the labour movement and Socialist Party due to the deft approach of the Barton government to such issues; a proposed strike by dockworkers at Tilbury in February was resolved through the novel action of an agreement to temporarily recall the workers to the Army, allowing them to be given a temporary pay rise in addition to their active service stipend.
September 18: A car bomb in Rosario, Argentina kills ten policemen and two civilians, blowing up a police bus on a busy public street. Responsibility is claimed by the Movimiento Popular Montonero , or Monteneros, whose ideology appears to be a combination of Guevarism and the militant Catholic heresy of Camilo Torres. Premier Rodriguez reacts swiftly, declaring martial law and a state of emergency in Santa Fe Province, and deploying over 35,000 troops to join in operations searching for the perpetrators; in private, he authorises a number of extraordinary measures to suppress the leftist guerrilla group, including indefinite detention of suspects and their associates without trial, creation of countergangs and internal exile for the families of terrorists.
September 19: Prime Minister Sven Tyrsson’s Christian Democrat-Conservative-Centre-Liberal-National coalition government is returned to power with an increased majority in the Swedish general election, gaining 18 seats from the Social Democrats in a barnstorming upset. His successful campaign was built upon his popular rallying cry of Bevara Sverige bra (Keep Sweden good) which advocates unity and law at home and fighting for freedom and democracy abroad, and his policies of reducing income taxes, growing the national sovereign wealth fund and cutting public debt to secure the future, and means that a generation of Swedes have only known him as their Prime Minister.
September 20: Exercise Labyrinth, the Royal Navy's autumnal large scale fleet maneuver, begins in the Western Approaches to the southwest of Ireland. It is to pit two task forces of three carriers apiece against an enemy invasion fleet of carriers, battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft, and different stages of Labyrinth are to involve nearly all types of vessel of the Royal Navy's surface fleet, from Coastal Forces and minesweepers to the escort fleet and cruisers, including the recently purchased large frigates Mermaid, Nereid, Dolphin and Porphyrios, which had been being built for Siam prior to cancellation of the order due to political issues in Bangkok. In accompanying naval developments, the first of the Navy's new cruisers, Spartan, Orion, Neptune and Lionheart, are laid down at Portsmouth Royal Navy Dockyard, Swan Hunter, Beardmores and Harland & Wolff, and a licensed production agreement is reached between the Fairey Aviation and McDonnell-Douglas regarding the latter's Skyhawk II.
September 21: Debut of Baa Baa Black Sheep, a televisual dramatisation of the experiences of then USMC Major Greg 'Pappy' Boyington and VMF-214 during the Solomon Islands Campaign of the Second World War; initial reviews of the pilot comment approvingly on the aerial action sequences, comparing them favourably to those of Midway, Tarawa and I Shall Return, amongst other Pacific War pictures. It comes amid increasing popularity of World War 2 films across a variety of genres, particularly Last Tango in Paris, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis's latest madcap caper set around the Liberation of Paris in early July 1944, and the beginning of production on a number of other pictures by Hammer and TSR Film Productions, including Hawk the Slayer, Thongor in the Valley of the Demons, The People That Time Forgot, Warlords of Atlantis and Ravenloft.
September 22: The marriage of Prince Karl Franz of Prussia and Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of the Imperial House of Romanov takes place in the chapel of Hohenzollern Castle in the Swabian Alps of Baden-Württemberg, marking the first union between the houses in the 20th century and a sign of the generational warming of relations between the erstwhile foes of the Great War. Both Kaiser Wilhelm V and Tsar Sergei are in attendance for the marriage of their cousins, with the British Crown and House of Windsor being represented by His Royal Highness Prince-Consort Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
September 23: In the first US Presidential debate, President Reagan records a narrow but clear victory over his challenger, Democratic candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Reagan was able to draw upon his record in his first term, pointing to strength abroad and economic success at home, whilst portraying his trademark sunny optimism for the future, whilst Kennedy, who probably excelled more over the course of the debate in terms of classical oratory, was unable to land any telling blows on the President, who as ever has been able to prevent public criticism from sticking on him in any lasting fashion. Reagan's concluding question to voters of 'Are you better off today than you were four years ago?', followed by the list of positive accomplishments made in his first four years in office, ultimately proved too simple yet effective for Kennedy to counter. The independent presenting panel, made up of Jim Lehrer, Chet Huntley, Clark Kent, Howard Beale and Kent Brockman, concludes that neither candidate landed a knock-out punch, but the first bout unanimously went to the President.
September 24: Establishment of the Costco membership-only warehouse club in Seattle, with the intent of building up an operating base to provide an eventual competitor to the novel Price Club retail warehouse in San Diego. Providing both homewares and bulk foodstuffs, the relative success of the Californian business has lead some to deduce that there is an emerging market hole that could be filled. The relative renaissance in what has been termed 'Classic American Food', or modern variations upon traditional cuisine, with its emphasis upon very generous quantities of excellent quality ingredients and little of either the frippery found in French-inspired dishes or the motley medley found in charming Italianate food, has lead to sustained trends in the purchase of considerable volume and variety of ingredients. The relative increase in the popularity of home cooking, inspired in part by the televisual gastronautic adventures of Julia Child, Graham Kerr, Jacques Pepin, James Beard, Betty Crocker and Robert Carrier, has lead some executives in the fast food business to consider possible approaches to broadening their fare.
September 25: Geelong defeat Hawthorn in the VFL Grand Final at the M.C.G. in front of a crowd of 183,529 spectators 24.10 (154) to 16.22 (118), with Larry Donohue leading the way for the Cats, kicking 6, along with 4 to Malcolm Blight and Rex Hunt, and 3 apiece to young Gary Ablett and Terry Bright, whilst Peter Hudson kicked 5 for Hawthorn, ably supported by Knights, Moncrieff and Crimmins with 3. Geelong ruckman Sam Newman was adjudged best man on the ground and is awarded the inaugural Norm Smith Medal, narrowly beating out Blight, gun recruit Brian Peake and Ian Nankervis. The high quality premiership decider comes on the back of a successful season, which saw the funding supplied by the game's millionaire American benefactor starting to flow down into the renovation and expansion of many suburban grounds, grants given to grassroots clubs, player payments increased and a special trust established to eliminate existing debt held by all sixteen VFL clubs by 1980.
September 26: A team of Palestinian Arab guerillas storms the Hotel Semiramis in Damascus in an act of armed protest against what they characterise as the Syrian regime's appeasement of Israel and Western colonialism, taking over 100 guests and staff hostage. The Syrian Royal Guard is immediately ordered by the King to recapture the hotel, and an intense gun battle ensues, supported by light tanks spraying tear gas. Five terrorists are killed in the fighting, along with eight hostages, with a further 42 guests wounded in the intense crossfire. On the direct order of the King, the seven captured terrorists are immediately hanged on a makeshift gallows outside the Semiramis in a gesture meant to deter such future outrages.
September 27: A White Paper on Education is commissioned in Britain by Minister of Education Margaret Thatcher, fulfilling the first step of one of the key campaign promises of the new Conservative government. It is expected to explore and set out the ways, means and proposed timetable for a significant increase in school funding, both for capital buildings and equipment and teaching staff, in order to meet the challenges of the coming larger generations of British children amid the rapidly developing technological revolution of the final decades of the 20th century. Among options being considered are the transformation of the Eleven Plus into a universal national examination; introduction of an interim national scholastic aptitude test for third form; widespread introduction of computers along the lines of U.S schools; appointment of talking school dogs to improve literacy achievement in the middle primary years; and the development of a national curriculum.
September 28: Heated debate in the Katangan regional parliament takes place regarding the separatist issue, with growing support for a more formal declaration of autonomy in some factions being decried by elements loyal to the central government in Leopoldville, and some open threats of armed conflict being countenanced in factional newspapers. The strong links of the Katangan separatists with Rhodesian, Belgian, British and with U.S. interests have continued to arouse the ire of the Soviet-leaning Congolese government, but there remains a reluctance to actually move from heated words to outright action, given the escalatory potential of any conflict. Some Congolese government officials are pushing for a more strident line on the troublesome border province in the light of the substantive reductions in the British African Army, which is to be cut to two divisions and a number of separate units, but others urge caution on account of the growing presence of certain American military forces in Rhodesia and South Africa.
September 29: Arrival back to Earth orbit of Orion 6, with General Edwin Aldrin's 60 bold explorers of Uranus and Neptune having conducted an experimental high energy maneuver from their interim position passing Mars in July, in both a means to bring the heroes home sooner rather than later, and testing the capacity of the Orion type engine in a high acceleration/high deceleration capacity for possible use in evolving moves in the future exploration of other solar systems. After docking with the USSF space station Columbia, the first echelon of the Orion crew, lead by Aldrin, fly back to Earth aboard a Boeing Super Astro Clipper, and land to a rapturous reception at Washington National Spaceport.
September 30: Completion of the domed city of Elizabeth in Alaska, Canada, which will accommodate a population of 50,000 on Mackenzie Point, being completely self sufficient in power through its fusion reactor and connected by monorail and aerial tramway to Anchorage. No cars are to be permitted within the domed city, with transport provided by the tramway, integrated bicycle paths and moving pavements, and plentiful park space is to be provided in the controlled internal climate, which has been promoted as offering Alaska's only year-round 'outdoor' swimming bath. Initial studies have found a reasonable degree of interest in living in the planned community, although some very small levels of psychological disturbance during testing were ameliorated by regular trips outside of the dome. The success of Elizabeth is being carefully observed by urban planners and architects in Japan, who are considering their own arcology proposals (such as the so-called 'Neo Tokyo') as a future means of accommodating Japan's ever-increasing population.
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Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
September 1976 Notes
- Wallace, Grommit and Shaun the Sheep have a grand day out with some chickens on the run. Note the Venezuelan beaver cheese from a certain cheese shop sketch, the continued existence of Wensleydale Abbey as a working monastery, the rather obvious pun of the Abbot's name, the existence of carrotapples as a hybrid fruit-vegetable, and Wallace's surname; consider the implication of who might be his first cousin twice removed
- Movement on the CVVs starts to pick up pace, whilst the Vought-Republic F/A-18 enters the fleet, providing a useful addition to carrier air wings. The XBQM-108A VATOL isn't a big long term future weapons system, but its son and grandson may well be; note the test ship. Unicorn enters service in Britain, within the range of appointed time and only slightly over cost. The Chaplain of the Fleet is a reasonably well known British character from Dracula: Prince of Darkness and 1970s and 1980s comics
- The participants of the Soviet Cup final are ever so slightly different, allowing for the spectator to confront the reality of informers in Soviet society, and the at-times darkly capricious nature of some of the system's punishments; the latter points towards some sort of different, dark humoured individuals in the loop
- The 1500th anniversary was marked in our 1976 as well, albeit without interviews with eyewitnesses
- Belenko defects, but unlike the historical JASDF Phantoms, their Shindens do have a superior look down-shoot down radar that allows him to be found and lead to his original destination of Chitose
- REFORGER 76 is a tad larger than previous years, starting to bring together many of the advances, force developments and choices into a distinctly different military machine. The CH-62 are related to the historical XCH-62, sort of, and comes out as a larger, longer ranged US equivalent to our Mi-26 Halo. Note the name of the Canadian sub-exercise
- Braddock and Rambo head into North Vietnam...
- Unsoeld and daughter are saved by yeti; there is a suggestion that there is something to the theory on the missing link
- Reverend Elvis, aided by Scooby Doo, a surviving Rudolph Valentino and the NEST, saves the secret recipes of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Coca-Cola from a dastardly Frenchman, partially through the means of song, and from a byzanium mine (Clive Cussler's Raise the Titanic). Elvis knocking back a lifetime of fried chicken indicates that he is on a better wicket in health terms; his disclosure of all of the 12 secret herbs and spices is purely a bit of Presley fun
- Flight 355 doesn't end up flying on from Montreal; Scott McCoy is Chuck Norris's character from The Delta Force
- The Volvo Elbil is a slightly larger car, and with a bit more potential. The question of electrickity vs hydrogen is one that will be debated over time
- Sir Edward Blackadder (occasionally known to pater as 'Edna') is preaching to the choir here and, although useful for political differentiation, there isn't a huge demand for urgent action on immigration; the substance of his speech is just continuing on with previous (and historical) policy that is operating on a smaller base and with more money thrown at it
- Billy Casper, of the 1969 Ken Loach film Kes, has a much better outcome here, and his kestrel friend survives
- The F-14 loss is based on a historical event; here, they've been around for a longer time, so that it is the nuclear AAMs that need to be recovered and the electronics destroyed rather than the airframe itself; there is a suggestion that it was thoroughly, thoroughly sanitised prior to the Soviets being allowed to geet it
- UFOs seeming to search for something over Southern Africa
- Shavarsh Karapetyan's heroism is more properly rewarded here; the Soviet superhero Krasnyy Strazh/Red Guardian is one of many, along with Capitan Kommunist, Tovarich and Serp i Molot
- Spy games and arrests in London, with a plethora of interesting crimes; Vyborg staying Finnish; and an interesting twist on the 'draft the strikers!' approach
- Sweden is in a markedly different situation
- Labyrinth is a big exercise connected with Reforger, including the acquired large frigates, with the cruisers going down in the background and the oft mooted licensed production agreement on the Skyhawk II (a different enough aircraft from the Douglas original as the F-8 wasto the Crusader III) to hopefully fill a perceived light attack role
- Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis have never had their split here. The final five pictures mentioned will all have budgets of over 4 million pounds, courtesy of Hammer and Gary Gygax
- The Presidential debate isn't Reagan vs Carter, but does work out a bit like the historical RFK vs Reagan debate. Note the presenting panel
- A few little hints on the development of American cuisine to tempt the palate
- The annual VFL Grand Final update is starting to build a different picture of the evolution of the game
- There isn't a substantive difference in the fate of the Semiramis terrorists
- The White Paper on Education is going to come out with some features which emerged around this general period, and some very different ones to boot
- Katanga has the potential to go warm
- Orion 6 getting back early comes from an experimental burn to be used in other circumstances
- Historically, there was a domed city in Alaska proposed for the very site of Elizabeth; here, the prospect of fusion opens some doors
- Wallace, Grommit and Shaun the Sheep have a grand day out with some chickens on the run. Note the Venezuelan beaver cheese from a certain cheese shop sketch, the continued existence of Wensleydale Abbey as a working monastery, the rather obvious pun of the Abbot's name, the existence of carrotapples as a hybrid fruit-vegetable, and Wallace's surname; consider the implication of who might be his first cousin twice removed
- Movement on the CVVs starts to pick up pace, whilst the Vought-Republic F/A-18 enters the fleet, providing a useful addition to carrier air wings. The XBQM-108A VATOL isn't a big long term future weapons system, but its son and grandson may well be; note the test ship. Unicorn enters service in Britain, within the range of appointed time and only slightly over cost. The Chaplain of the Fleet is a reasonably well known British character from Dracula: Prince of Darkness and 1970s and 1980s comics
- The participants of the Soviet Cup final are ever so slightly different, allowing for the spectator to confront the reality of informers in Soviet society, and the at-times darkly capricious nature of some of the system's punishments; the latter points towards some sort of different, dark humoured individuals in the loop
- The 1500th anniversary was marked in our 1976 as well, albeit without interviews with eyewitnesses
- Belenko defects, but unlike the historical JASDF Phantoms, their Shindens do have a superior look down-shoot down radar that allows him to be found and lead to his original destination of Chitose
- REFORGER 76 is a tad larger than previous years, starting to bring together many of the advances, force developments and choices into a distinctly different military machine. The CH-62 are related to the historical XCH-62, sort of, and comes out as a larger, longer ranged US equivalent to our Mi-26 Halo. Note the name of the Canadian sub-exercise
- Braddock and Rambo head into North Vietnam...
- Unsoeld and daughter are saved by yeti; there is a suggestion that there is something to the theory on the missing link
- Reverend Elvis, aided by Scooby Doo, a surviving Rudolph Valentino and the NEST, saves the secret recipes of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Coca-Cola from a dastardly Frenchman, partially through the means of song, and from a byzanium mine (Clive Cussler's Raise the Titanic). Elvis knocking back a lifetime of fried chicken indicates that he is on a better wicket in health terms; his disclosure of all of the 12 secret herbs and spices is purely a bit of Presley fun
- Flight 355 doesn't end up flying on from Montreal; Scott McCoy is Chuck Norris's character from The Delta Force
- The Volvo Elbil is a slightly larger car, and with a bit more potential. The question of electrickity vs hydrogen is one that will be debated over time
- Sir Edward Blackadder (occasionally known to pater as 'Edna') is preaching to the choir here and, although useful for political differentiation, there isn't a huge demand for urgent action on immigration; the substance of his speech is just continuing on with previous (and historical) policy that is operating on a smaller base and with more money thrown at it
- Billy Casper, of the 1969 Ken Loach film Kes, has a much better outcome here, and his kestrel friend survives
- The F-14 loss is based on a historical event; here, they've been around for a longer time, so that it is the nuclear AAMs that need to be recovered and the electronics destroyed rather than the airframe itself; there is a suggestion that it was thoroughly, thoroughly sanitised prior to the Soviets being allowed to geet it
- UFOs seeming to search for something over Southern Africa
- Shavarsh Karapetyan's heroism is more properly rewarded here; the Soviet superhero Krasnyy Strazh/Red Guardian is one of many, along with Capitan Kommunist, Tovarich and Serp i Molot
- Spy games and arrests in London, with a plethora of interesting crimes; Vyborg staying Finnish; and an interesting twist on the 'draft the strikers!' approach
- Sweden is in a markedly different situation
- Labyrinth is a big exercise connected with Reforger, including the acquired large frigates, with the cruisers going down in the background and the oft mooted licensed production agreement on the Skyhawk II (a different enough aircraft from the Douglas original as the F-8 wasto the Crusader III) to hopefully fill a perceived light attack role
- Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis have never had their split here. The final five pictures mentioned will all have budgets of over 4 million pounds, courtesy of Hammer and Gary Gygax
- The Presidential debate isn't Reagan vs Carter, but does work out a bit like the historical RFK vs Reagan debate. Note the presenting panel
- A few little hints on the development of American cuisine to tempt the palate
- The annual VFL Grand Final update is starting to build a different picture of the evolution of the game
- There isn't a substantive difference in the fate of the Semiramis terrorists
- The White Paper on Education is going to come out with some features which emerged around this general period, and some very different ones to boot
- Katanga has the potential to go warm
- Orion 6 getting back early comes from an experimental burn to be used in other circumstances
- Historically, there was a domed city in Alaska proposed for the very site of Elizabeth; here, the prospect of fusion opens some doors
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Paul Nuttall
- Posts: 786
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 5:19 pm
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
On the F14 loss, I remember a comic story that had this but involving a large Great White with a harpoon, I think, in its body.....
The Ruskies thought they were hauling up the F14 but found themselves hauling up a rather miffed big Great White.
The Ruskies thought they were hauling up the F14 but found themselves hauling up a rather miffed big Great White.
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Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
That wouldn't be a possibility here, as the Great Whites and the Megalodon have apparently been successfully exterminated.
What they've got themselves is the fuselage and wings, with a lot of the wiring and connecting systems destroyed or removed.
What they've got themselves is the fuselage and wings, with a lot of the wiring and connecting systems destroyed or removed.
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Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
Sneak Peak of October 1976
- A German election with a difference
- Che Guevara strikes again
- Changes proposed for tobacco advertising in some countries, in a slightly different light due to the absence of the carcinogenic concern
- Retired Colonel Paul Tibbets re-enacts the dropping of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima in an air show in Texas three times in a day, albeit without actually playing with atoms today
- A Brazilian ship is lost in the Bermuda Triangle, with a garbled radio signal giving rise to concerns of a kraken
- Discovery of some new species in Africa and South America
- Some extensive reflection on competing schools of architecture, ranging from Soviet socialist classicism and brutalism to American neo art deco, European modernism to British imperial and from Chinese revivalist to Japanese teikan yōshiki
- Interception of an asteroid
- Senior debut of a very young Argentine soccer player, amid darkening conditions in the country
- A mystery in Uganda emerges over the question of who killed Captain Alex
- James Hunt wins the Formula One championship
- Cautious reform in Egypt as the King warily treads an uncertain tightrope
- Some very interesting and very fast train development in Britain
- The Tax Reform Act of 1976 makes a small dent in the tax burden in the United States
- A new Disney picture sees Walt move forward with 'The Disney Strategy'
- Communist troubles in Thailand
- The Airwolf enters service
- Foreign stabilisation forces begin to pull out of Beirut
- A young schoolboy, having been tutored in the Oriental martial art of karate by his apartment block's handyman, wins the Under 18 All-Valley Karate Championship with a very advanced move
- Strange goings on in the Central African Empire
- Swift arrests for a social club fire in the Bronx
- The Moonies are declared a heretical cult
- The Militia makes an organisational comeback in Britain
- A lawsuit is filed that would effectively make video recording illegal by Universal Studios and the Walt Disney Company
- Japanese police begin investigating what appears to be a vampire systematically stalking and killing senior yakuza members
- Ernst Thalmann appoints three young deputies
- Some interesting new films, including a WW2 epic about Bomber Command with an all star cast, spectacular special effects and large scale use of former RAF and RIAF bombers
- A German election with a difference
- Che Guevara strikes again
- Changes proposed for tobacco advertising in some countries, in a slightly different light due to the absence of the carcinogenic concern
- Retired Colonel Paul Tibbets re-enacts the dropping of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima in an air show in Texas three times in a day, albeit without actually playing with atoms today
- A Brazilian ship is lost in the Bermuda Triangle, with a garbled radio signal giving rise to concerns of a kraken
- Discovery of some new species in Africa and South America
- Some extensive reflection on competing schools of architecture, ranging from Soviet socialist classicism and brutalism to American neo art deco, European modernism to British imperial and from Chinese revivalist to Japanese teikan yōshiki
- Interception of an asteroid
- Senior debut of a very young Argentine soccer player, amid darkening conditions in the country
- A mystery in Uganda emerges over the question of who killed Captain Alex
- James Hunt wins the Formula One championship
- Cautious reform in Egypt as the King warily treads an uncertain tightrope
- Some very interesting and very fast train development in Britain
- The Tax Reform Act of 1976 makes a small dent in the tax burden in the United States
- A new Disney picture sees Walt move forward with 'The Disney Strategy'
- Communist troubles in Thailand
- The Airwolf enters service
- Foreign stabilisation forces begin to pull out of Beirut
- A young schoolboy, having been tutored in the Oriental martial art of karate by his apartment block's handyman, wins the Under 18 All-Valley Karate Championship with a very advanced move
- Strange goings on in the Central African Empire
- Swift arrests for a social club fire in the Bronx
- The Moonies are declared a heretical cult
- The Militia makes an organisational comeback in Britain
- A lawsuit is filed that would effectively make video recording illegal by Universal Studios and the Walt Disney Company
- Japanese police begin investigating what appears to be a vampire systematically stalking and killing senior yakuza members
- Ernst Thalmann appoints three young deputies
- Some interesting new films, including a WW2 epic about Bomber Command with an all star cast, spectacular special effects and large scale use of former RAF and RIAF bombers
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Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
Just looking at the level of difference with the historical 1976, we don't see the following events cropping up this month on DE:
- Hurricane Liza (Anti-hurricane and tornado enchantments have made them a thing of the past, save for some lesser developed countries)
- Earl Butz's obscene "joke" about black Americans and his sacking as SecAg by Ford (He isn't in the Cabinet, and political discourse is a tad less coarsened)
- The US switching to metric measures of liquor (No drivers for it)
- An Argentine assassination attempt (Earlier scares make for tougher security and a lack of opportunities)
- The InterCity 125 (British trains being just a tad faster)
- ETA assassinations in Spain (A very different modern history of Spain butterflies so many things, and ETA is one of them)
- USSC electing not reconsider Gregg v Georgia (There being no previous Furman v Georgia or moratorium on capital punishment)
- Arrest of the Gang of Four (No Red China, no Mao, no place for any Gang of Four)
- Cuban Aviation bombing (No Communist Cuba, no Castro and Cuba having been British since the 1790s does butterfly a lot of things)
- The Bush War continuing in Rhodesia (No Bush War anymore)
- White South African rugger players defying apartheid laws (No apartheid)
- Death of Carlo Gambino (Happened a long time ago and rather more electrically, like many of his gangster contemporaries)
- Fighting in the Lebanon (All over, at least for now)
- Emergency Powers Act in the Republic of Ireland (No independent Ireland, no Troubles and certainly no republic)
- Beginning of manufacturing of the Ford Fiesta (Lack of an oil shock not nudging developments towards superminis and hatchbacks, particularly in America)
- Signing of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (Some of the latter day consequences of the longer existence of the Frontier)
- Eva Peron being reburied (Unheard of here, without Juan Peron raising his head in Argentina, or there being the same Argie history particularly from the 1930s forward)
- Declaration of Transkei as an independent bantustan (Again, a lack of the apartheid system makes for a South Africa on a very different trajectory)
- Indira Gandhi postponing elections (A different political development of India over the course of home rule and Dominion status, without the Nehrus ever rising to any public role)
This is now very much an ever stronger trend.
- Hurricane Liza (Anti-hurricane and tornado enchantments have made them a thing of the past, save for some lesser developed countries)
- Earl Butz's obscene "joke" about black Americans and his sacking as SecAg by Ford (He isn't in the Cabinet, and political discourse is a tad less coarsened)
- The US switching to metric measures of liquor (No drivers for it)
- An Argentine assassination attempt (Earlier scares make for tougher security and a lack of opportunities)
- The InterCity 125 (British trains being just a tad faster)
- ETA assassinations in Spain (A very different modern history of Spain butterflies so many things, and ETA is one of them)
- USSC electing not reconsider Gregg v Georgia (There being no previous Furman v Georgia or moratorium on capital punishment)
- Arrest of the Gang of Four (No Red China, no Mao, no place for any Gang of Four)
- Cuban Aviation bombing (No Communist Cuba, no Castro and Cuba having been British since the 1790s does butterfly a lot of things)
- The Bush War continuing in Rhodesia (No Bush War anymore)
- White South African rugger players defying apartheid laws (No apartheid)
- Death of Carlo Gambino (Happened a long time ago and rather more electrically, like many of his gangster contemporaries)
- Fighting in the Lebanon (All over, at least for now)
- Emergency Powers Act in the Republic of Ireland (No independent Ireland, no Troubles and certainly no republic)
- Beginning of manufacturing of the Ford Fiesta (Lack of an oil shock not nudging developments towards superminis and hatchbacks, particularly in America)
- Signing of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (Some of the latter day consequences of the longer existence of the Frontier)
- Eva Peron being reburied (Unheard of here, without Juan Peron raising his head in Argentina, or there being the same Argie history particularly from the 1930s forward)
- Declaration of Transkei as an independent bantustan (Again, a lack of the apartheid system makes for a South Africa on a very different trajectory)
- Indira Gandhi postponing elections (A different political development of India over the course of home rule and Dominion status, without the Nehrus ever rising to any public role)
This is now very much an ever stronger trend.
-
Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
A non-exhaustive list of Dark Earth Superheroes:
USA
Superman
Batman
Spiderman
Supergirl
Superboy
Wonder Woman
Batwoman
The Flash
Aquaman
Doctor Fate
Green Lantern
Hawkman
Captain Marvel
Green Arrow
Captain Atom
Blue Beetle
Star Spangled Kid
Fighting Yank
Ultra Man
Daredevil
Captain America
Incredible Hulk
Iron Man
Commander Zero
The Shield
Blue Marvel
Thunderbird
G.I. Joe
Major Patriot
Uncle Sam
All American
Liberty Belle
Liberator
Yankee Doodle
Captain Freedom
Miss Victory
Minute-Man
Silver Crusader
Hong Kong Phooey
Freeborn/Senator James Norcross
The Blue Falcon & Dynomutt
Birdman
Mysterion
The Lone Ranger
Plastic Man
Chuck Norris
Britain
Captain Britain
Union Jack
Lionheart
Captain Fantastic
Marvelman
Bananaman
Skyblade
John Bull
Doctor Incredible
Nightstar
Astro Man
Gloriana
The Golden Knight
Mr. Marvelous
Excalibur
Fabulous Fellow
Lord Silver
Professor Elemental
Arion
Jetboy
Ace Power
Captain Courageous
Englishman
Helm
The Flashing Blade
Ace Lightning
Supergran
Superted
Danger Mouse
(Apparently, some fellow with a burnt face)
Canada
Johnny Canuck
Commander Steel
Captain Canada
Northstar
Maple Leaf
Grizzly
Cougarboy
Bobcat
Dominion Man
Stormfire
Australia
True Blue
Jackaroo
Captain Oz
Boomerang
Alice Springs
Southern Cross
Jet Fury
South Africa
Mighty Man
Captain South Africa
Impala
Kid Colt
Grensvegter/Rocco de Wet
New Zealand
Captain Kiwi and Super Aries
France
Superdupont
Captain France
Pierre Paris
L'Oiselle
Frenchman
Nyctalope
Gavroche
Kid Charlemagne
Savate Sauter
Le Mousquetaire
Bob Morane
Fantomas
Maugris
Valerian
Gaulois
Roland
Germany
Hauptmann Deutschland
Hauptmann Berlin
Schwarzer Adler
Blitzkrieger
Teutonia
Phantastischer Phritz
Wulf N. Stein
Eisenritter
Konrad
Super Jaeger
Viktor von Hammer
Feuerwalze
Spandau-Tänzer
Schutzwall
Stahlherz
Rheintochter
Puppenspeiler
Blinder Wächter
Mord und Totschlag
Geradeaus
Wagenfahrer
USSR
Krasnyy Strazh/Red Guardian
Capitan Kommunist
Tovarich
Serp i Molot
Red Fury
Red Star
Proletariat
Soyuz
Fantasma
Atomika
Crimson Vanguard
Doktor Vostok
Ironhand
Red Steel
Red Torch
Firebird
Molniya
Octobriana
Vladimir Utoshski
Svoboda
Udaloy
Stakhanovite
Ognevoy
Varyag
Revolyutsionnyy
Osvoboditel
Baltik
Winter Storm
Dobrynya Nikitich
Ilya Muromets
Volga
Polyarnaya Zvezda
USA
Superman
Batman
Spiderman
Supergirl
Superboy
Wonder Woman
Batwoman
The Flash
Aquaman
Doctor Fate
Green Lantern
Hawkman
Captain Marvel
Green Arrow
Captain Atom
Blue Beetle
Star Spangled Kid
Fighting Yank
Ultra Man
Daredevil
Captain America
Incredible Hulk
Iron Man
Commander Zero
The Shield
Blue Marvel
Thunderbird
G.I. Joe
Major Patriot
Uncle Sam
All American
Liberty Belle
Liberator
Yankee Doodle
Captain Freedom
Miss Victory
Minute-Man
Silver Crusader
Hong Kong Phooey
Freeborn/Senator James Norcross
The Blue Falcon & Dynomutt
Birdman
Mysterion
The Lone Ranger
Plastic Man
Chuck Norris
Britain
Captain Britain
Union Jack
Lionheart
Captain Fantastic
Marvelman
Bananaman
Skyblade
John Bull
Doctor Incredible
Nightstar
Astro Man
Gloriana
The Golden Knight
Mr. Marvelous
Excalibur
Fabulous Fellow
Lord Silver
Professor Elemental
Arion
Jetboy
Ace Power
Captain Courageous
Englishman
Helm
The Flashing Blade
Ace Lightning
Supergran
Superted
Danger Mouse
(Apparently, some fellow with a burnt face)
Canada
Johnny Canuck
Commander Steel
Captain Canada
Northstar
Maple Leaf
Grizzly
Cougarboy
Bobcat
Dominion Man
Stormfire
Australia
True Blue
Jackaroo
Captain Oz
Boomerang
Alice Springs
Southern Cross
Jet Fury
South Africa
Mighty Man
Captain South Africa
Impala
Kid Colt
Grensvegter/Rocco de Wet
New Zealand
Captain Kiwi and Super Aries
France
Superdupont
Captain France
Pierre Paris
L'Oiselle
Frenchman
Nyctalope
Gavroche
Kid Charlemagne
Savate Sauter
Le Mousquetaire
Bob Morane
Fantomas
Maugris
Valerian
Gaulois
Roland
Germany
Hauptmann Deutschland
Hauptmann Berlin
Schwarzer Adler
Blitzkrieger
Teutonia
Phantastischer Phritz
Wulf N. Stein
Eisenritter
Konrad
Super Jaeger
Viktor von Hammer
Feuerwalze
Spandau-Tänzer
Schutzwall
Stahlherz
Rheintochter
Puppenspeiler
Blinder Wächter
Mord und Totschlag
Geradeaus
Wagenfahrer
USSR
Krasnyy Strazh/Red Guardian
Capitan Kommunist
Tovarich
Serp i Molot
Red Fury
Red Star
Proletariat
Soyuz
Fantasma
Atomika
Crimson Vanguard
Doktor Vostok
Ironhand
Red Steel
Red Torch
Firebird
Molniya
Octobriana
Vladimir Utoshski
Svoboda
Udaloy
Stakhanovite
Ognevoy
Varyag
Revolyutsionnyy
Osvoboditel
Baltik
Winter Storm
Dobrynya Nikitich
Ilya Muromets
Volga
Polyarnaya Zvezda
Last edited by Simon Darkshade on Mon Jul 27, 2026 10:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
Just a few corrections and different translations that sound more...correct.Simon Darkshade wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2026 5:07 am
Germany
Hauptmann Deutschland
Hauptmann Berlin
Black Eagle Schwarzer Adler
Blitzkrieger
Teutonia
Phantastischer Phritz
Wulf N. Stein
Eisenritter
Konrad
Super Jaeger
Viktor von Hammer
Feuerwalze
Spandau-Tänzer
Schutzwall
Herz aus Stahl Stahlherz or Stählernes Herz
Rheintochter
Puppenspeiler
Blinder Wächter {Blind Guardian...are you a fan?]
Mord und Totschlag sounds like a duo
Gerarderaus Geradeaus (straight) or Geradeheraus (straight sproken)
Wagenfahrer
-
Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
Thanks, Jotun, I'll fiddle around with it.
I've been a fan of Blind Guardian since 2002, and saw them in 2024, even getting a picture with them; they likely have it hanging on their wall. My thinking on Herz aus Stahl was to lift the title of the German version of the Manowar track straight up, but either way works. My third metal inspired hero name came in the form of Puppenspeiler.
The most subtle Easter egg is Wagenfahrer ; I can explain it for the others if you wish.
Mord und Totschlag is a duo of sorts, or rather a Jekyll and Hyde type situation with two distinct personalities coming out of an alchemical accident.
I've been a fan of Blind Guardian since 2002, and saw them in 2024, even getting a picture with them; they likely have it hanging on their wall.
My thinking on Herz aus Stahl was to lift the title of the German version of the Manowar track straight up, but either way works. My third metal inspired hero name came in the form of Puppenspeiler.The most subtle Easter egg is Wagenfahrer ; I can explain it for the others if you wish.
Mord und Totschlag is a duo of sorts, or rather a Jekyll and Hyde type situation with two distinct personalities coming out of an alchemical accident.
Re: Dark Earth Timeline Discussion
I have no idea who Wagenfahrer is based on...but I believe it is so obvious I'll do a nuclear facepalm. Please explainSimon Darkshade wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2026 10:02 am Thanks, Jotun, I'll fiddle around with it.
I've been a fan of Blind Guardian since 2002, and saw them in 2024, even getting a picture with them; they likely have it hanging on their wall.
The most subtle Easter egg is Wagenfahrer ; I can explain it for the others if you wish.
Mord und Totschlag is a duo of sorts, or rather a Jekyll and Hyde type situation with two distinct personalities coming out of an alchemical accident.