History, Politics And Current Affairs

From what I’m given to understand, 1912 was a particularly bad iceberg ‘season’, extending into May. Here, Titanic’s maiden voyage was in early June, as construction took that bit longer, due in part to its use of (relatively new for liners) steam turbine engines. Additionally, wireless/radio tech was a bit more advanced at this point, allowing clearer communication.

Simon Darkshade wrote: ↑Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:10 am From what I’m given to understand, 1912 was a particularly bad iceberg ‘season’, extending into May. Here, Titanic’s maiden voyage was in early June, as construction took that bit longer, due in part to its use of (relatively new for liners) steam turbine engines. Additionally, wireless/radio tech was a bit more advanced at this point, allowing clearer communication.

Another was Olympic captained by Smith having a collision with the RN cruiser Hawke in the Solent and having to be repaired taking resources from Titanic.

August
August 1: Installation rates of modern home nuclear fallout shelters in the United States reaches 19%, with new construction suburban homes often including the standardised family bunker pioneered by Shield Home Protection (a subsidiary of the Vault Tech Corporation); many older homes have converted facilities in their existing basements and cellars. In combination with the public shelters provided under the concerted investment in civil defence over the last two decades by Federal, State and local governments, the American people are arguably provided with their best level of potential protection since the advent of the Atomic Age.
August 2: A royalist coup topples the government of Ecuador, with the formerly exiled King making a triumphant return to Quito Airport once elements of the Army have seized the capital. Some sources indicate that the Royalist forces were aided by foreign mercenaries.
August 3: Introduction of a scent based library cataloging system in Upper Arlington, Ohio, with the "Stick Your Nose in the Card Catalog" featuring 90 different scents, each associated with a subject or genre.
August 4: The Bristol group is renamed the British Aircraft Corporation, with English Electric Aviation remaining as the other major independent group within the broader BAC arrangement.
August 5: King Hassan of Morocco dismisses his entire cabinet fired as the recriminations from the coup attempt continue to reverberate throughout the country.
August 6: Scottish yachtsman Chay Blyth, dubbed ‘Wrong Way Chay’ for sailing around the world in a westerly direction, returns to Hamble-Le-Rice, Hampshire, where he is greeted by a crowd of spectators including Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Princess Victoria and Princess Anne.
August 7: Actor and mystic Leonard Nimoy is approached to host a television show on strange phenomena as a cover for investigating them and solving ancient mysteries.
August 8: Dissident Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn is stricken gravely ill after consuming poisoned sweets in a KGB assassination attempt in Novocherkassk.
August 9: Washington police discover the drained body of a promising young University of Washington psychology student on the side of an isolated road outside of Seattle, the apparent victim of a vampiress stalking the North West; a number of suspicious items in the deceased man’s automobile add an element of confusion to the death.
August 10: Publication of the first book in Roger Hargreaves’ Mr Men series, ‘Mr. Tickle’, an extraordinarily long-armed and orange-hued man whose predilection for tickling leads to various mischief until he learns its proper time and place.
August 11: A joint operation by the SFPD and LAPD commanded by Commanders Joe Friday and Harry Callahan arrests an infamous drifter known as ‘The Tambourine Man’ for corruption of the youth, child endangerment and possession of a illegal substance, namely black lotus.
August 12: Commissioning of the new RAN aircraft carrier HMAS Perth. The RAN is partway through its modernisation programme, with new construction replacing its wartime and late 1940s escort and cruiser fleet.
August 13: Archaeologists in Spain discover an ancient tomb filled with antediluvian carvings, with the least damaged seeming to refer to a ‘riddle of iron’ according to the translation magics of one particular wizard.
August 14: US inflation begins to rise once again after a brief decline in the second quarter of the year, with low gas prices slightly ameliorating the rising cost of living in other areas.
August 15: An Arizona Ranger shoots dead a young would-be outlaw and murderer in Agua Fria, getting the jump on the hoodlum with his sheer speed and the big iron on his hip.
August 16: Formation of an experimental British Army unit for testing of new tactics, equipment and operations similar to the successful ‘air cavalry’ employed by the United States in the recent Vietnam War.
August 17: The population of Bahrain reaches 300,000, with 110,000 being Bahrainis, the single largest group ahead of Indians, Assyrians, Persians and Europeans.
August 18: Soviet authorities are unable to find a cause for the seeming disappearance of rats from Leningrad, with several expeditions into the depths of the sewers failing to find a cause at this time.
August 19: An American convicted murderer and former New York businessman escapes from a Mexican prison after a helicopter lands within the prison yard to extract him.
August 20: American, British and Canadian land, sea and air forces take part in a joint amphibious exercise in Southern Israel, opposed by units of the Israeli Army and the 10th Marine Brigade.
August 21: British heavyweight boxer John “Little John” Smith knocks out Joe Frazier in the third round in a championship bout in London. Smith, a towering 6'8" and 300lb, becomes the new heavyweight champion of the world.
August 22: A large killer whale held in captivity in Oregon escapes to the wild with a tremendous leap over a breakwater after being befriended by a disaffected young boy, who is friendless apart from his loyal talking dog, Boomer, and a quiet professor named Ted. The boy is rewarded for his kind deed by a nice old man who was visiting the town for a fishing holiday, who reveals himself to be the former Prime Minister and Governor-General of Canada, Sir William Richardson.
August 23: US Space Force satellites detect a double flash over Soviet Central Asia, with USAF airborne sampling aircraft picking up the signature of what is thought to almost certainly be an atmospheric nuclear test.
August 24: The New York Times carries a story on increased American space tourism, with the 1960s seeing a 42% rise in tourist travel to the orbiting stations and the moons, as travel to Earth’s immediate satellites gradually shifts from being an extremely expensive luxury to a merely expensive one.
August 25: Reverend Elvis Presley and his posse arrive in Indiana on the case of the missing schoolboys, having recently returned from a lengthy trip to Central America, where they foiled two coups, discovered a lost Mayan city and recovered a prize winning pumpkin.
August 26: An English tourist, somewhat afflicted by drink, undergoes a horrific experience whilst wandering in the Everglades and enjoying the bright moonlight when he is rushed by …something… from the trees and taken to an unholy place, where he was forced to take part in a ritual dance with the undead. Floridian police, accustomed to their share of strange stories, cable the FBI in Washington for support and paladins.
August 27: Eskimo Rangers patrolling the northern reaches of Alaska discover evidence of suspected Soviet infiltration near the Cape Lisburne Air Force Station, an American run installation of the Distant Early Warning Line; a urgent summons is sent to Qikiqtaġruk to call upon Quin the Mighty, the greatest of their number, whose coming, along with his two famed canine companions Buq and Qakuq Siggu, is always the stuff of great joy.
August 28: The Royal Mint releases its new British coins, ranging from the farthing and guinea to the newest minting of the gold sovereign, continuing to confuse European and American tourists unaccustomed to such an array of coins.
August 29: A photographer is summarily executed by the Prime Minister of Yemen after a tragic incident of crossed telephone wires lead General Al-Amri to believe that he was being pranked and insulted by the hapless Mohsen Al-Harazi. Al-Amri is dismissed by the King for his rash action and flees into exile in Beirut.
August 30: Release of The Road to Miklagard, a lavish, action packed historical adventure epic set in the time of the Vikings directed by Francis Ford Coppola and loosely based on the novel by Henry Treece. It stars Robert Redford as Harald Hardrada, Harrison Ford as Harald Sigurdsson, Max von Sydow as Canute, David Hemmings as Hereward the Wake, Richard Harris as King Harold of England and Robert Shaw as William the Conqueror.
August 31: KGB agent Oleg Lyalin is arrested in London for drunken driving, beginning a chain of events culminating in his defection and a significant espionage scandal.

Some sources indicate that the Royalist forces were aided by foreign mercenaries.

Might those mercenaries have been led by either a Colonel Faulkner, or "Cat" Shannon?

August 11: A joint operation by the SFPD and LAPD commanded by Commanders Joe Friday and Harry Callahan arrests an infamous drifter known as ‘The Tambourine Man’ for corruption of the youth, child endangerment and possession of a illegal substance, namely black lotus.

I like to think that Chief Ironside might have been one of the senior officers who oversaw the operation. And that Lt. Bullit might also have been involved.

August 31: KGB agent Oleg Lyalin is arrested in London for drunken driving, beginning a chain of events culminating in his defection and a significant espionage scandal.

Something that also happened in @.

Commanders Joe Friday and Harry Callahan two very different styles.

Bernard,

It is far more likely to be Colonel Faulkner, who at this point is rather more closely associated with HM Government, which has quite extensive networks and engagements with mercenary forces for operations in the Congo, East Africa and West Africa that allows London to remain nominally not involved.

Ironside was overseeing a different operation at this point, but Bullitt was involved in the pursuit team.

The Lyalin case will lead to some wide reverberations, as in .

Jem,
Their styles are very different - one being very traditional, straight laced and by the book, whilst the other (in the films) is cynical, grimy and twisted by his environment. Here, there isn't that great of a gulf between them as the societies they are from - the 1950s America for Friday and the early 1970s America for Callahan - are very much closer in spirit and everyday reality.

I'd additionally draw the attention of kind readers to August 9, 22, 26 and 27 for a bit of fun trying to spot every egg there.

I must draw up a collated list of all the original films created in Dark Earth; with the rise of AI, creating images from them is quite simple and the scope for actual films is not beyond the horizon.

In addition, there are some more serious plot points seeded over July and August that will grow into trees in time.

Nice work, as always!

The 22nd is an obvious reference to Free Willy.

Don't actually recognize the other three. However, for the 26th, was this song one of those being danced to? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNcQMAHlMB8

Is the 27th a reference to Dr. Quinn, medicine woman?

A whole lot more effort is being put into civil defense in this era.

I particularly like the entry for August 7.

Its nice to the the Aussies are going to maintain their carrier capabilities into the... well... at least the 90's, and probably the 2000's, right?

I assume that the double flash seen in central asia turns out to NOT be an atmospheric test, since the words "Almost certainly" are used which makes me think that its something else entirely!

Also makes me happy that the British are not going to decimalize their currency. Don't know why, but it makes me happy.

Belushi TD

You are welcome as ever.

August 9 sees Ted Bundy picking up the wrong hitchhiker in the form of female vampire and thus never getting to start his ‘career’ of serial murder.

The 22nd is a reference to Free Willy, with Boomer coming from here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here%27s_Boomer and Professor Ted being a quite different Theodore Kaczynski, or rather one without several of the pivotal life experiences up to that point that put him on a path to wickedness and terror.

August 26th is essentially the plot of Iron Maiden’s Dance of Death, which as described here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_of_Death_(album) , is a reference to The Seventh Seal and the Danse Macabre. Iron Maiden may not be everyone’s musical cup of tea, but they do tell good stories, which are transferable here.

August 27th refers to The Mighty Quinn from the 1960s song by Bob Dylan (covered very nicely by Manfred Mann with Klaus Voorman doing the little flute bit at the beginning), which in turn referred to Anthony Quinn in 1960’s The Savage Innocents. An extra little Easter egg comes in the names of his dogs - translated from Alaskan Eskimo, they are Buck (Call of the Wild) and White Fang.

I’m glad that the civil defence issue has been picked up upon. We know that historically, it was downgraded to the point of parody, mockery in comedies such as Yes, Minister and some very ideological opposition from some quarters. This was driven, particularly in Britain, by studies on the H bomb and what 6-9 large ones could do to the British Isles, as well as the deprioritisation of strategic defence in an era of a minimal deterrent and limited budgets. Here, the paradigm is different, through something familiar to us here from @ (ABMs) and some other advances that potentially could change the atomic threat.

This thread runs parallel to a continuation of higher priority and investment in Home Defence (a broad concept bringing together fighter defences, a strong SAM system, local ground forces such as the Home Guard plus Territorial Army and Reserve units and more) that comes from multiple war scares and higher budgets.

This is matched and indeed exceeded across the Atlantic, where the politico-psychological ‘scars’ of Pearl Harbor + ze Germans attacking the Eastern Seaboard in 1941 are deep.

August 7th’s mention of Nimoy comes from my enduring yen for the show In Search Of. In @, it is a large collection of disproven 1970s pseudoscience and what not, but it was still earnest, endearingly cheesy and riveted in a world where there was still some sense of the mists of mystery, where the harsh blandness of reason had not fully extinguished wonder.

The RAN is going to have carriers for a very long time, certainly; they are also going to be building guided missile battlecruisers and are in the line for replacement battleships once the Canadian vessels are done as part of the Commonwealth Fleet Replacement Plan.

Time will tell on the double flash…

On decimalisation, Britain doesn’t really see the need for change just on account of the Europeans and South Americans doing things a certain way. This current of national chauvinism is not limited to Britain, by any stretch of the imagination, but some aspects are more apparent to us due to the changes of @ not cropping up in this period. There is some support for ideas like decimalisation and metricisation in technical communities, but they do not hold the tiller of power.

September
September 1: In a busy day for the Royal Navy, the new nuclear guided missile super battlecruiser HMS Tiger is commissioned at Portsmouth Dockyard, whilst the name boat of the Sovereign class atomic submarines is commissioned at the Vickers shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness and the DLGs Edinburgh and Dublin at Thames Ironworks and Palmers in Jarrow, respectively.
September 2: Chinese scientists discover a strange new species of mushroom in Yunnan that seemingly possesses a prodigious growth and expansion rate.
September 3: A Soviet former KGB officer defects to Canada, leaping from his ship in Vancouver harbour.
September 4: A large sack of flour falls from the sky into Angel Stadium in the middle of a game between the Los Angeles Angels and the Cincinnati Reds, narrowly missing hitting one of the players.
September 5: The United States’ ambassador to the Soviet Union presents the Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko with a note outlining Washington’s concerns regarding the apparent Soviet atmospheric atomic test, which was officially denied.
September 6: 105 members of the Tupamaros escape from Punta Carretas prison in Montevideo through a 50ft long tunnel dug into the prison from a nearby house.
September 7: The War Office announces that the forward deployed strength of British forces assigned to Middle East Land Forces is to be reduced to a two composite divisions at Suez and Aden and an independent brigade in Kuwait in the light of post Vietnam War rationalisation of deployments. Additionally, the capacity for airborne reinforcement by the Imperial Strategic Reserve, the prepositioning of equipment sets for heavy brigades in the Sinai, Jordan and Aden and the reestablishment of Mediterranean Command as a distinct entity responsible for forces in Gibraltar, Malta, Libya and Cyprus are seen as key factors in the decision.
September 8: An abortive prison riot at Attica State Prison is suppressed by use of new electric shock guns and release of the prison’s giant short-faced bear.
September 9: Nikola Tesla begins discussions with a number of firms on the commercial employment of his revolutionary new wireless energy technology, despite the apparent opposition of General Electric.
September 10: Japan goes on high alert after a maritime patrol airship reports a possible sighting of the Pacific Monster 300nm east of Kyushu. Subsequent US and Japanese air and surface ship patrols can find no sign of the creature.
September 11: Scotland Yard Flying Squad detectives ambush a gang of criminals breaking into the Baker Street branch of Lloyds Bank through a tunnel, after being alerted to the plot by an amateur radio enthusiast who had accidentally intercepted their communications. The wretched crooks reportedly took one look at the levelled assault rifles of Inspector Regan and his men and the accompanying police lion and promptly gave themselves up.
September 12: An Argentine man awakes at his own funeral and has a heart attack in profound shock in reaction to the situation; as he lays in hospital, his family commences legal action against the doctor who mistakenly pronounced him dead.
September 13: MCC wizards complete development of a specialised enchantment to protect the outfield of certain cricket grounds in the event of rain, greatly reducing future potential loss of playing days.
September 14: Indian archaeologists discover that a notable hill near Mohenjo Daro is actually artificial and that beneath the outer layer of earth lies a huge pyramid.
September 15: West London businessman Arthur Daley’s minder, former Royal Fusilier Terrence McCann, foils an attempted armed robbery at the O.K. Launderette and convinces the criminals to give themselves up to the heavily armed police outside.
September 16: An immense pile up of over 300 cars and lorries on the M6 Royal Highway kills 10 and injures 84, sparking calls for road safety reforms, including lowering the speed limit from its current 125mph.
September 17: A Honolulu Police Department commanded by Captain Stephen McGarrett operating in conjunction with Carl Kolchak raid the MS Pacific Princess in search of a suspected werewolf. They find no sign of the beast, but coincidentally capture an elusive duo of jewel thieves, who were posing as a pair of married singers.
September 18: Signing of the Anglo-Danish Defence Cooperation Agreement, providing for cooperation in weapons development, rolling deployments of British forces to Denmark under the auspices of the Atlantic Treaty and an extensive arms sales agreement.
September 19: The Canadian Grand Prix is won by Jackie Stewart in a narrow victory over Steve McQueen, whilst Austro-Hungarian newcomer Andreas Nikolaus Lauder and Jim Clark had an enthralling battle for third place.
September 20: SFPD detectives are baffled by a horrific case of strange murder, after the four occupants of a boarding house were found dead without any mark or sign on their bodies; a subsequent autopsy showed that each was missing their heart.
September 21: Premier Allende of Chile meets with the high command of the Chilean Army to discuss the possible declaration of martial law, meeting in turn with some reticence to act without an express order from the King.
September 22: Indian and Persian physicians report dramatically increased cases of a new strain of Venusian flu in the Baluchestan area that straddles their border.
September 23: John Marshall Harlan retires from his position as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
September 24: Muscleman and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger wins Mr Universe for the fifth year in a row, once again dazzling the crowds with his chiseled physique and charming them with his utterly flawless American accent.
September 25: St. Kilda defeat Hawthorn 16.9 (105) to 14.11 (95) in the 1971 VFL GF at the MCG in front of a crowd of 148,117 spectators.
September 26: 125 Soviet diplomats and assorted consular are declared personae non grata and expelled from Britain in the aftermath of the Lyalin defection.
September 27: Emperor Hirohito becomes the first Japanese monarch to travel outside the Empire, flying from Tokyo to Anchorage, Canada in the new Imperial Hawker-Siddeley Concord en route to the United States and Europe.
September 28: Sixteen Communists are detained under the emergency detention provisions of the Internal Security Act of 1950 after agents from the FBI and the highly secretive Special Service Group uncover a plot to sabotage a flight of the B-72 atomic powered bomber over the United States.
September 28: Parking meters are installed in Paris for the first time in its history; a mischievous wizard proceeds to enspell them all to refuse every modern French coin in preference to American currency, ostensibly as a protest against their introduction.
September 29: An Agreement on Measures to Reduce the Risk of Nuclear War is signed by the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China.
September 30: American chess prodigy Bobby Fisher defeats Soviet Tigran Petrosian, qualifying for the World Championship title match against Boris Spassky in 1972.

Simon Darkshade wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 9:36 am September
September 4: A large sack of flour falls from the sky into Angel Stadium in the middle of a game between the Los Angeles Angels and the Cincinnati Reds, narrowly missing hitting one of the players.

What about the chicken?

September 11: Scotland Yard Flying Squad detectives ambush a gang of criminals breaking into the Baker Street branch of Lloyds Bank through a tunnel, after being alerted to the plot by an amateur radio enthusiast who had accidentally intercepted their communications. The wretched crooks reportedly took one look at the levelled assault rifles of Inspector Regan and his men and the accompanying police lion and promptly gave themselves up.

So the police took Rowlands more seriously in DE, or the Flying Squad had better ways of finding which bank the criminals were breaking into than in @?

On a separate note - in DE, is there a separate Foot Guards parachute unit, or do they do like in @, with secondment to an affiliated platoon (or maybe company, since everything seems bigger in DE) in the Parachute Regiment?

1.) The only 'chicken from the sky' and 'baseball stadium' combination I know of was a 2015 event and, in any case, chicken fingers were neither evented in 1971 in @ or DE.

2.) A combination of both - they didn't fob off Rowlands quite so badly initially and then followed up with some divination magics to narrow things down. As it stood in @, the police did check the Lloyds branch in question, but not its vault.

There is a Guards Independent Parachute Battalion, just as there is an Gurkha Independent Parachute Battalion, just as there are Commando units from each. This reflects the @ force structure of the immediate postwar period when there was an active British airborne division, as well as the historical Gurkha para company of 1963-1971 scaled up to reflect the larger Gurkha contingent.

Simon Darkshade wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 11:45 am 1.) The only 'chicken from the sky' and 'baseball stadium' combination I know of was a 2015 event and, in any case, chicken fingers were neither evented in 1971 in @ or DE.

The game where the flour sack fell from the sky also saw the discovery of a loose chicken on the field. The Los Angeles Times wrote: "The grounds crew came out and swept up the flour, which left a large mark on the infield, and then found it had another problem. A chicken was loose near the wall in the right-center field. It was that kind of night. After the flour was removed and the chicken had been surrounded, captured and carried off squawking, the game continued."

Righto, that would have made for an even better story, but we’ll simply say that there were fewer stray chickens around Angel Stadium as compared to @ Dodger Stadium. The latter doesn’t exist under the same name, as the Brooklyn Dodgers are still in NYC.

As of 1971, the MLB teams consist of the Boston Braves, Boston Red Sox, NY Yankees, NY Knights, NY Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Nationals, Cleveland Guardians, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Indianapolis Blues, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, St Louis Browns, Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Pilots, Kansas City Royals, Texas Rangers, LA Angels, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Eagles.

With Nikola Tesla around, things are more interesting.

Considering that he is 115 years old and seen as the epitome of the eccentric genius mad scientist, absolutely. He is onto something regarding the resonant frequencies of the Earth’s atmosphere and their interplay with DE’s ley lines.

Amongst the other stuff, I do like the Minder reference. Is Arthur a business man, or 'business' man?

Simon Darkshade wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 2:30 pm Considering that he is 115 years old and seen as the epitome of the eccentric genius mad scientist, absolutely. He is onto something regarding the resonant frequencies of the Earth’s atmosphere and their interplay with DE’s ley lines.

The fact he's taken seriously is interesting.

They have no reason not to, as he’s never really failed before. America has a tradition of esteeming its scientists and engineers.

Bernard Woolley wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 3:53 pm Amongst the other stuff, I do like the Minder reference. Is Arthur a business man, or 'business' man?

I had been browsing some older episodes of Minder in between sickness and work, so it is good to see it recognised. Arthur is most certainly the latter; nothing truly naughty or involving real rough stuff, but a bounder-ish conman of that old school.