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--- alternate_history:the_cusanus_game [2023/05/29 16:58] – max_sinister
+++ alternate_history:the_cusanus_game [2024/01/18 11:03] (current) – [The Cusanus Game] ludo globi max_sinister
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 A German alternate history book from 2005 by SF grandmaster Wolfgang Jeschke. Known as //Das Cusanus Spiel// [sic] in the original, and translated into English since 2013/14.
+The titular game is a game Cusanus really invented IOTL: Called ''ludo globi'', it's played on a table onto which concentric circles are painted. You play it with balls the size of an orange and have to throw them so they roll as close to the center as possible. The difficulty lies in the fact that the balls are somewhat irregular, so they don't roll straight but in curves.
 [[https://archive.org/details/cusanusgame0000jesc|Link (English, Login necessary)]]
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 ==== Content ====
-Starting in the year of 2052, [[offtopic:Europe]] is a hellhole or pretty close at least: Global Warming has expanded the deserts, the seas are rising; many refugees try to go to Europe (many [[offtopic:Bangladesh]]is and such in fact have been settled there, either in container cities or their own villages); several fascist movement like the ASEN, the Praetorians or the KKK derivate KICOB try to fight them; the French nuclear power plant in Cattenom has blown up and irradiated huge parts of Central Europe, as far as [[offtopic:Poland]]; the EU has crumbled, states like e.g. [[offtopic:Bavaria]] have proclaimed independence, for better or for worse; and oil has practically run out (although technology isn't dead yet).
+Starting in the year of 2052, [[offtopic:Europe]] is a hellhole or pretty close at least: Global Warming has expanded the deserts, the seas are rising; many refugees try to go to Europe (many [[offtopic:Bangladesh]]is and such in fact have been settled there, either in container cities or their own villages); several fascist movement like the ASEN ("Aryan Sons of the European North"), the Praetorians or the KKK derivate KICOB try to fight them; the French nuclear power plant in Cattenom has blown up and irradiated huge parts of Central Europe, as far as [[offtopic:Poland]]; the EU has crumbled, states like e.g. [[offtopic:Bavaria]] have proclaimed independence, for better or for worse; the terrorist group "Acqua è Vita" protests against the waste of water by drowning millionaires in their swimming pools; and oil has practically run out (although technology isn't dead yet).
 In this world, the Italian botanicist Domenica Ligrina is hired for a very special mission...
-As a bonus for AH fans, [[offtopic:Austria-Hungary]] (incl. South Tyrol, Friaul and [[offtopic:Slovenia]]) has been resurrected. They have the new Vatican, with the pope sitting in Salzburg now, and war [[airships]] named after various Habsburg rulers (and Franz Ferdinand).
+As a bonus for AH fans, [[offtopic:Austria-Hungary]] (incl. South Tyrol, Friaul and [[offtopic:Slovenia]]) has been resurrected. They have the new Vatican, with the pope sitting in Salzburg now, and war [[airships]] named after various Habsburg rulers (and Franz Ferdinand, Prinz Eugen etc.).
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   * 1480: Genoa joins the Italian Alliance between Venice, Milan, Savoy, Florence, Monferrat and Naples.
   * 1486: Giovanni Caboto discovers Terranova for Genoa.
-  * 1492: The Sapienza invents primitive rockets which can be used for war.
+  * 1492: The Sapienza invents primitive rockets (called "red kite" or "fire gadfly") which can be used for war.
   * 1494: Italian Alliance defeats French invaders under Charles VIII.
+  * 1512: Michelangelo complains about pollution from burning spinners and burned naphta.
   * 1620: Counter-reformation fails.
+  * 1630: War between Catholics and Protestants ended by peace of Prague.
   * 1672: First mechanical calculation engine built.
   * 1676: Constantinople reconquered by Christians.
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   * 1763: First motor airplane, "Skylark of Massachusetts".
   * 1780: New England gains independence, thanks to their Arrow airplanes.
+  * 1819: Hamburg evacuated because of the storm flood.
   * 1825: Seas rising - Gay-Lussac suspects that excessive burning of petroleum is the reason.
   * 1845: Breakthrough of electric computers. [[offtopic:Ada Lovelace]] is involved.
   * 1871: [[offtopic:Maldives]] flooded.
   * 1886: First nuclear power plants built by Thomas Alva Edison.
-  * 1906: After the San Francisco earthquake, two Maxwell power plants destroyed. Radiation disease spreads.
+  * 1899: Drought in India, 60 million people become refugees.
-  * 1909: German empire sends four men to the Moon - but the flight back fails, all of them die.
+  * 1906: After the San Francisco earthquake, two Maxwell power plants destroyed. Radiation disease spreads. President of California proclaims national state of emergency.
+  * 1909: Kaiser Wilhelm proclaims the conquest of the Moon. German empire sends four men to the Moon - but the flight back fails, all of them die.
   * 1914: First Paneuropean conference.
-  * 1918: European unification decided, Winston Churchill celebrated.
+  * 1918: European unification - and keeping out Third World refugees - decided, Winston Churchill celebrated.
   * 1923: German nationalists protesting the European unification beaten down, leaders Hitler and Ludendorff killed.
   * 1933: United States of Europe formally founded in Versailles.