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But Konstantin Tsiolkovski (OTL) published the rocket equation in 1903 and suggested multistage rockets in 1929. By the time the space race began, it would probably be obvious that something like a rocket would be needed to reach escape velocity in several bursts rather than in a single instant.

It's even more implausible than that. 25 years later (around the 25th anniversary) released MoD files suggested that had the Argentinians not surrendered then, Britain was within ten days of surrendering itself. Does the Falklands War count as proof of the existence of ASBs?

Surely, current thinking (as gleaned from the Discovery channel so I couldn't quote the sources) is that white skin is a relatively recent development. Although the gene was there, it was contra-survival in the tropics, not because of problems with heat (darker skinned people are more, not less...

I'd see a Franco-Russian effort, perhaps at Baikonur, but more likely in Senegal or French Guiana. I'd see a British-Japanese combined effort with a launch site in Sarawak. And I'd see a German-led European effort several years behind the other two groupings. I don't imagine the USA would...

Gaddaffi's best way of leading the Jamahiriya is by encouraging "democracy" to develop in Libya (although all parties would be under his "guidance"). This would appeal to the aspirations of Islamic black Africa. Instead of uniting with Egypt or Syria, which (especially Syria) were as much Arab...

I think what happened to the Guanches of the Canary Isles of OTL would probably serve as a template of what happened in TTL. In other words, extermination. By the way, I recognise that the Na Dene were new arrivals in the SW US in OTL, but surely they were new arrivals from Canada, themselves...

Walt Disney.

Some Hindu sects do. Hare Krishna for example is accepted, in India as mainstream Hinduism. Hinduism is big enough and flexible enough that almost all blanket statements about what Hindus do or don't do or believe are meaningless.

How about this. The Catholic Church defeats Luther, Calvin, Zwingli etc and there is no protestant alternative when Henry VIII decides he wants his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled (yes I know he was stupid to do so) and so, when he rejects the church, he has no friends. He considers...

The method suggested in 1968 would have worked (or been expected to work) provided the launch was on the right day in 1982 (I can't remember the date, but it was needed to allow acceleration due to the slingshot effect of passing close to Venus (allowing a trip to Mars in 14 months, and then...

1982. That was the date NASA planned to launch the Mars Mission. If everything went right and congress approved the funding, then that has to be the earliest.

Ahh, but just suppose. Suppose, with this different experience, Lovecraft writes exactly the same (I can imagine that experience in Belgium in WWI might have made the mythos infinitely more creepy but let's suppose nothing has changed). We would never know what changed but some...

It's a really groovy timeline Robert. I never noticed it before.

1783 - Cornwallis surrenders to the Army of the United States. Meanwhile after capturing Richmond, Benedict Arnold does not surrender but declares to his men that, like many of them, his interest is neither in preserving English dominion nor in forming a United States. He announces his...

How about having potatoes native to Europe?

Well... the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are in fact separate territories that happen to be ruled by the King of England. Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man have their own Parliaments. In 1800, the UK was formally created through the Act of Union with Ireland. That's the most...

The Queen's claims (there are separate claims) to sovereignty over Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, Brechou, and Alderney are due to her being the "Duke" (sic) of Normandy. All that would be needed would be a clause in either of the Acts of Union. It seems likely, however, that any such clause would...

Or how about a neolithic Empire. It doesn't drag itself upward until later, but instead, develops some different technologies of its own... Perhaps taming a wider variety of animals and plants. Perhaps using wood, stone and walrus ivory rather than metal as primary materials but developing...

I think the source is this guy... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Velikovsky

Yes it would have made a difference but a man who could say all that would not be Al Gore in the first place. The thing is, why is it the number crunchers, button counters and so on keep getting the Democratic Party nomination? I also think the best outcome would have been if Gary Hart had...