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I read somewhere a reference to a Russian acronym, USSR. What is it, and what does it mean? Is there a connection to that other Russian acronym, SSSR? And what does SSSR mean, anyway? Thanks. :)

There are apparently a lot of organizations in the English-speaking world, which have CCCP as their acronym. Which is your favorite, and why? :)

Suppose Napoleon successfully invades England and the Royals flee with most of Parliament. Is that in itself ASBish? But suppose it happens... They can't go to America because the Americans are too hostile. The Caribbean is out because of disease and climate (at least, that's their...

Is there any way for Poland not to be divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1795? Or, for that matter, any other year between 1700 and the present? Or any year between 800 and the present? :) What other countries might have gotten pieces of Poland instead?

The current issue of Smithsonian Magazine has an article on General George Henry Thomas, a Union Civil War general who has been unfairly neglected by history. So I wonder what others think this might have done differently. How would he affect history if he wasn't born, switched sides before or...

In OTL, West Virginia split off from Virginia over the issue of slavery. What other states might have been split, and remained split after the end of the war? Kentucky: There were some slaves in the northern part, the "Blue Grass" region; and some in the south part. Kentucky might have...

Members of the Security Council, especially the US and USSR, have kept working at cross purposes, slowing things down, often preventing or delaying good things the UN might have accomplished. Would it be too unlikely for the members of the Security Council to be more neutral nations? The...

The World Is Flat is a spoof Australian history textbook I read once long ago. I don't know where I got it or what happened to it. It had some amusing stuff but I think it would help to know more about real Australian history. Has anybody else here seen it? The World Is Flat: An Authentic...

If the king of Italy had stood up to Mussolini, or befriends the Allies, if the British had followed orders and let Italy have the League Mandate for Ethiopia, more people would have voted for the monarchy and Italy would still have a king. Any other ideas about this? If Italy had kept its...

Former UM Football coach Gerald Ford died today at the age of 93. His death comes just a month after the death of his life-long friend and fellow UM alumnus, former president Bo Schembechler. Bo Schembechler died on November 17 at the age of 77. After graduating from the University of...

What would it take for a czar to embrace communism, or at least allow the Communists to gain significant power in the government? The Czar would presumably be terrified of losing his own power, or of the Empire collapsing. Maybe Rasputin warns of what might happen... Is this ASB territory?

In one of my AHCOM episodes, somebody mentions a timeline where Britain and the Falklands fight over Argentina. I wonder if this is doable? Columbus sails for England, which sends John Cabot and others to explore the coasts all the way down to the tip of South America. From Wikipedia...

William Strauss and Neil Howe have written some books on generational cycles in history. I felt like putting this here because it is about other people's books, not our writing. Timepage.org is another site about their work. Here is an amazon.com site for another book The History of...

I read that Dick Clark tried to get a cable TV network started in the mid '50s but couldn't get enough money to start it. What if he had? Is there somebody else more likely to start a cable TV network at a different time? Maybe during the 30s, with or without a Depression? Maybe the first...

The SF writer Arthur C. Clarke came up with the idea of the telecommunications satellite in the 40s, but he didn't think to get a patent on it. What if he had? Could he persuade the British government, or somebody else, to start launching satellites earlier? Who would be his business partners...

I saw this paperback at a used bookstore for 50 cents, so I decided to buy it and try it out. This novel is Tirant Lo Blanc, by Joanot Martorell and Marti Joan de Galba, translated by David H. Rosenthal. Paperback edition, 1984. It's a Catalan epic published in the 15th century. The...

I thought it might be interesting to try to create the Mideast situation in an alternate North America. I don't know what would be going on in the alternate MIdeast. We'll figure that out later. Here's one possiblity. Feel free to suggest others. Is this interesting enough for a timeline...

I wanted to establish a thread for the Badger, Mushroom, Snake Timeline. It was originally suggested by KJM in the ASB forum, but maybe it's not as ASB as he thought. :) With Columbus sailing for France, a Thirty Years' War is still possible, but with different players and a different...

What would these and other Nazi officials have done with their lives, if Hitler had died during WW II? Here are some suggestions. What do you think? Joseph Goebbels, Propaganda Minister Newspaper publisher and novelist. Hermann Goring, Commander of the Luftwaffe Member of the...

If Hitler had not died in a traffic accident on December 24, 1920, what is the most likely career he would have had?