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Old 09-02-2017, 12:39 AM   #2771
fchase8
 
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

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Originally Posted by TGLS View Post
How'd they get satellites up if they're at TL6?
Ack - good point. I guess I should scrap it.

I just really liked the idea of a bunch of pole-to-pole satellites (as opposed to the regular equatorial orbit ones). But not having weather satellites would not only fit, tech-wise, but make more mysterious the temperature rise - and what's going on in the old tropics.
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Old 09-02-2017, 03:17 AM   #2772
johndallman
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Originally Posted by fchase8 View Post
The ‘Southern States’ are exploring Antarctica, and have reconnected with the ‘Northern Powers’, while the tropics remain a mystery.
Presumably the connection is by radio, and the surviving submarine cables? That may be a reason why Britain is still useful to Canada, since much of the cable network that was laid before things got warm is centred on Britain. There's a map at the Wikipedia link.

Infinity will be interested in the effects on the circulation of the oceans. There's potential for the Gulf Stream to shut down or change course, in which case Western Europe should cool to temperatures similar to Canada.
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Old 09-02-2017, 11:32 AM   #2773
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Presumably the connection is by radio, and the surviving submarine cables? That may be a reason why Britain is still useful to Canada, since much of the cable network that was laid before things got warm is centred on Britain. There's a map at the Wikipedia link.
...
That, and sentimentality. Even in OTL, Canada was ready to help both the UK and France whenever either needed help in the first half of the 20th century (which is why we were involved in WWI and WWII before the USA was). Add a newfound agricultural wealth beyond what we had in OTL, and Canada has both the resources and the mindset to help out.
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Old 09-02-2017, 12:56 PM   #2774
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Try this idea, have their be evidence that the mana level was higher recently. Rasputin's claim to have caused the warming might be true, which would leave the anomalies in place.
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Old 09-02-2017, 01:23 PM   #2775
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Having just read The Perilous Question which is about the Reform Act of 1832, I noticed some interesting facts. First, although William IV is generally held to be infertile, he had many bastards, it was his royal brides who were infertile. Second, the German royals that were brought in to wed the British kings seemed to be bigoted against Britain. William's wife Adelaide seemed to loath the very idea of Brits having a right to vote and madly seemed to blame the British people for Marie Antoinette's execution. Queen Victoria's mother The Duchess of Kent loathed Britain and raised Victoria to be a German princess. Victoria and Albert raised their children as German speakers letting them learn English only later in life.

Try this change. Have William's mistress die early and William fall in love with an Anglo-Irish woman who was a recognized and admired member of the upper nobility. The Privy Council approved, if William's family was less than pleased. William and his wife have several healthy heirs.

Now the scenario can go in two ways from here. Propose William has a healthy son. Hanover, which can only be ruled by a man, stays linked to the British Crown. This radically changes the politics of 19th century Europe. If William has a bunch of daughters, then you have an altered Victorian England. Victoria was raised to be an ultra-Tory by a mother that feared and loathed Britain and felt abused by the royal court. William's daughter would have been raised with Whig sympathies and taught that the people of the British isles deserved her respect.

Either way you get a radically different 19th century Britain.
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Old 09-02-2017, 07:39 PM   #2776
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Presumably the connection is by radio, and the surviving submarine cables? That may be a reason why Britain is still useful to Canada, since much of the cable network that was laid before things got warm is centred on Britain. There's a map at the Wikipedia link.
I hadn't realized that so many oceanic telegraph cables had been laid down by 1901. I had been thinking radio for communication, but cables could definitely work.

It also fits into an idea I had where there's some cross-equatorial oceanic traffic - by submarine. It would only be for high-value cargo - such as diamonds & rare minerals from southern Africa & Australia to the north, and high-value manufactured goods to the south. Plus individuals, if they can afford it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Infinity will be interested in the effects on the circulation of the oceans. There's potential for the Gulf Stream to shut down or change course, in which case Western Europe should cool to temperatures similar to Canada.
That's one of the 'weird things' - the oceans haven't been affected as much as Homeline models would have predicted. For instance, there are bad storms, but not apocalyptic (maybe in the tropics, but no one knows). Warm air still comes up from the Caribbean to Europe - even warmer, rendering southern Europe as hot as the old Middle East.

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Originally Posted by robkelk View Post
That, and sentimentality. Even in OTL, Canada was ready to help both the UK and France whenever either needed help in the first half of the 20th century (which is why we were involved in WWI and WWII before the USA was). Add a newfound agricultural wealth beyond what we had in OTL, and Canada has both the resources and the mindset to help out.
Definite sentimentality.

Also, a lot of British and French emigrated to Canada, creating a constituency with sympathy for the Old World. Those that emigrated were the best & brightest & richest, making for a powerful constituency.

Britain also isn't as crippled as the rest of Western Europe. London might be hot as hell and flood regularly, but northern industry still works, and the Scottish Highlands are more habitable. Ireland and Northern Ireland were made into self-ruling dominions in the teens, at the urging of Canada.

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Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Try this idea, have their be evidence that the mana level was higher recently. Rasputin's claim to have caused the warming might be true, which would leave the anomalies in place.
I had been leaning against the 'magic did it' idea, just because there are other worlds where magic has affected the environment.

But evidence of the mana level having previously been higher is interesting - could explain why it all stopped. And can't really mention Rasputin without him being a least worthy of a mission to St. Petersburg, to try to find out the truth under the noses of Imperial German forces in the capital of their protectorate.

And maybe there's mana in the tropics...
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Old 09-02-2017, 11:21 PM   #2777
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Instead of submarines which in that era are really only submersibles that still have to spend most of the time on the surface use air-conditioned ships. You have the ocean to use as a heat sink so you just need to add radiators to the submerged part of the ship and button up.
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Old 09-03-2017, 12:21 AM   #2778
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Instead of submarines which in that era are really only submersibles that still have to spend most of the time on the surface use air-conditioned ships. You have the ocean to use as a heat sink so you just need to add radiators to the submerged part of the ship and button up.
Submarines could have been developed later on. The divergence point is 1900, but present day is 1950, more than enough time to invent submarines.
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Old 09-03-2017, 12:23 AM   #2779
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Having just read The Perilous Question which is about the Reform Act of 1832, I noticed some interesting facts. First, although William IV is generally held to be infertile, he had many bastards, it was his royal brides who were infertile. Second, the German royals that were brought in to wed the British kings seemed to be bigoted against Britain. William's wife Adelaide seemed to loath the very idea of Brits having a right to vote and madly seemed to blame the British people for Marie Antoinette's execution. Queen Victoria's mother The Duchess of Kent loathed Britain and raised Victoria to be a German princess. Victoria and Albert raised their children as German speakers letting them learn English only later in life.

Try this change. Have William's mistress die early and William fall in love with an Anglo-Irish woman who was a recognized and admired member of the upper nobility. The Privy Council approved, if William's family was less than pleased. William and his wife have several healthy heirs.

Now the scenario can go in two ways from here. Propose William has a healthy son. Hanover, which can only be ruled by a man, stays linked to the British Crown. This radically changes the politics of 19th century Europe. If William has a bunch of daughters, then you have an altered Victorian England. Victoria was raised to be an ultra-Tory by a mother that feared and loathed Britain and felt abused by the royal court. William's daughter would have been raised with Whig sympathies and taught that the people of the British isles deserved her respect.

Either way you get a radically different 19th century Britain.
That sounds a lot like Britannica-6, where Princess Charlotte survived, had lots of children, and allied with the Whigs.

Queen Victoria was more German than is thought. I remember a Monty Python sketch where Michael Palin played her, with a thick German accent.
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Old 09-03-2017, 02:23 AM   #2780
johndallman
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

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Submarines could have been developed later on. The divergence point is 1900, but present day is 1950, more than enough time to invent submarines.
To build a submarine that can travel long distances without surfacing or snorkelling, you need nuclear power, and some serious environmental control technology. Both are really TL7.
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