This need to know bit sounds ominous. Is there something you would like to tell us anw_rev?
Let me talk about the second half of the list. Note this is off the top of my head (not looking at Wikipedia etc.)
E) Depending what is in the bomb, low levels of contamination could persist for...
I did not know this. Without Saddam Hussein, by the late 90s the US would no longer be expending political capital for sanctions so they would be de facto gone. I assume another Sunni Dictator (likely Baathist) eventually rises to the top. Since it is unlikely that he would be as flamboyant...
There are very few politicians that can bequeath a Senate seat or even a party nomination. Moynihan was not one of them. While an extremely smart and popular man, he never had that much pull in the NY Democratic Party (in contrast to current NY Senator Chuck Schumer), also he was considered...
Governor of IL.... three years out of Law School, having never lived in the state before. That is some rise.
In this thread, he had 6 years of executive experience before he entered the Oval Office as Governor of Illinois. So I gather he would do a better job and be a different person after...
The only way I can see Lazio winning, given that he was a bland unaccomplished sub-par candidate, was that if Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination in a bruising primary fight, rather than a walk over. Given that there are plenty of outspoken Democrats that are native to NY and have...
Not with a POD post 1900 barring an atomic war.
If the American Civil War never happened and settled the question of states right it is possible to have a civil war in the 1930s for instance. However then we get into the questions of Butterflies for such a big change.
No change. Once the Hydrogen Bomb is tested circa 1950 it is clear that these are doomsday weapons, even to those even without imaginations. Even in the old style A-bombs were not considered just another stick of dynamite. It did not take us that long to learn about Fallout and radiation...
Why is this hard? People are afraid of nuclear weapons. Even when nations are in extremis like Israel in 1973 they have not been used. Do you think if America and China got into a war over the invasion of Taiwan today that America or China would start tossing nuclear bombs?
Using Nuclear...
Very Interesting Post.
So relating it to my two sample PODs
For Xerox PARC -even though they were two generations ahead they did not own all the processes required, and IBM even though they were behind could have duplicated the hardware. Although this raises the question What if a computer...
So in my American-Nazi Cold War POD, basically every the sale of every complex item not owned as a household item would have to be restricted like we do now for items that have military use. So you need to have a security check before you bought a copying machine or any capital equipment, along...
I guess, but that is a very expensive strategy. First, early adopters are willing to pay more, often a lot more for the product. You are losing all that extra profit and releasing delaying the introduction of product.
However, I can see this working for items that are massed produced and have...
Thanks, that is a very good point.
I guess a good example if that would be in automobiles. Think how long it took Detroit to catch up to Japan in manufacturing technique/reliability and Detroit was never 2 generations behind. I am sure Detroit understood the engineering behind the Japanese...
If you are two generations ahead, in practical terms you have a monopoly. Imagine if Xerox PARC came out with the personal office computer and office suite software in the 70s. The IBM PC did not even come out till 1984.
You can charge monopoly prices and people will willingly pay it. Thus...