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  1. WI: Coffer Dams on Yangtze collapse

    Though the Yangtse isn't as infamous as the neighbouring Yellow for drastically re-drawing the map (*), it still has a nasty habit of bursting its banks and flooding vast areas... My best guess would be a frantic scramble to evacuate several million people from the area at risk. If it coincides...
  2. Why Are Pistols Larger Caliber Than Rifles?

    Um, didn't Churchill, while an 'embedded correspondent' during Boer War, famously use one of those scary German pistols with a box-mag *in front* of the trigger grip ? Mauser ?? You could fit a bigger, longer 'pistol' round into such and, IIRC, the weight distribution meant the gun did not...
  3. Effecta of a surviving kingdom of Jerusalem

    IMHO, the Ottomans would tackle Jerusalem en-passant before tackling Byzantium, long, long before besieging Vienna.
  4. What was the Dustbowl and could it have been avoided?

    IIRC, things didn't settle down until the drought eased, when contour plowing and other mitigations were introduced via federal schemes...
  5. Question about Cavalry vs Napoleonic square

    Oh, dear... IIRC, Agincourt was picked for the battle as a 'perfect storm' for the attackers' cavalry. Soggy bottom-land, a forest of sloping stakes and a nice, dry slope to give the defenders' long-bow archers clear line of sight... Same slog through the soft ground, same spiky hazards for...
  6. WI/AHC: The Land War spreads across the UK

    The irony of the 'Land League' thing was that many aggrieved tenants withheld their rent, but expected their sub-tenants to pay in full and on time. Or else... === Irish history grim ?? Oh, yeah... Happens there's a cautionary tale in our extended family... "Remember, those Ancient Greeks...
  7. Operation Tannenbaum Outcome?

    Um, it may seem a silly question, lionhead, but have you seen those passes' pinch-points ? Think 'Canadian Rockies'--- A steep valley, a road, a rail-line and LOTS of avalanche warning signs. Yes, yes, the Swiss won't have 'Marshal Winter' to help during 'Panzer Season', but they do have lots...
  8. WI/AHC: The Land War spreads across the UK

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_National_Land_League That's a grim chunk of 'recent' history that was totally new to me. Live and learn...
  9. WI: A Currencyless Economy?

    Think how UK wartime rationing system worked with coupons-- But, of course, you had to *pay* for the stuff your coupons allowed, and 'through the nose' for anything more. IIRC, several Marxist / Communist states tried the money-less route, and a parallel economy promptly developed. Barter...
  10. Operation Tannenbaum Outcome?

    "All these comments make me wonder how tough an Axis Switzerland would be to crack." IMHO, it would make AH's proposed 'Eagles Nest' redoubt look like a kiddies' sand castle. That, the Dambusters could have stomped with those 'tallboy' silo-busters. Dug-in Swiss must either be starved out or...
  11. Operation Tannenbaum Outcome?

    May be urban legend, but one of the German generals reputedly spoke to his Swiss counterpart pre-war. "You can muster a quarter-million men under arms. How would you fare if I arrive on your border with an army of half a million ?" "Oh, we'd all shoot twice, then go home..." Perhaps more...
  12. Technical question about extended range artillery ideas applied to AAA

    Surely proximity fusing trumps both timing and altitude ??
  13. Is there any particular reason as to why the North is more Industrial than the South?

    Until folk found oil in the Deep South, mineral wealth and associated manufacturing tended to come from hilly country, convenient for exposed strata, adits etc. IIRC, the Mississippi Basin overlays what was the 'North American Seaway', so there's a LOT of sediment between would-be miners and...
  14. Radioactive Venting at Fukushima?

    "man is a smug creature who thinks he has tamed nature, until it bites him in the proverbial rear" "Also contributing factor was an absolute absence of individual courage/initiative." Yup. That's a dangerous combination... IIRC, Fukushima staff often dined at a little port up the coast where...
  15. Kitty Cats

    Um, can't remember the source, but the ancient 'Adriatic Coast' Greeks may have called their small ports' and little ships' 'working cats' by 'psipsina'... Think 'Barn Cats' on modern farms-- The kitties are *so* cute but you cannot handle them beyond three or four months' age...
  16. No Dr. Morell

    Didn't Dr Morell get his hands on Mussolini, too ??
  17. Radioactive Venting at Fukushima?

    Snag was the site design suffered from a *nasty* attack of 'tunnel vision'. Despite historical records of bigger Japanese tsunamis, their sea-wall was considered adequate. Then, rather than respecting 'Murphy's Law', they put *all* the essential back-up generators at ground level, thus ensuing...
  18. Reality Check: Could NASA build Shuttle like Energia/Buran ?

    IIRC, it was one of the zillion options considered. Snag was OTL's design was meant as 'one size fits all', able to hoist long hab modules for NASA, those REALLY BIG spy satellites for the TLAs and BIG, JUICY upper stages to boost space probes. Sadly, the design turned out to be a 'bridge too...
  19. AHC: make American population no bigger than 50 million by 1914

    Lyme disease ? Some nasty pox carried by eg black-foot ferrets ? Plagues of passenger pigeons ? Worse plagues of locusts ?? No kidding on the locusts; wasn't until settlers serendipitously destroyed their breeding grounds in a *few* mountain valleys that they stopped swarming every decade or...
  20. Ideas for British Argentina TL

    Corned Beef ??
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