Real-Life Weirdness

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by dcarson

Apparently still sailing 7 years after he died.

Seemingly only a year: he was apparently updating his Facebook page until then.

[vicky_molokh]

Stavropol, RF. A criminal proceding has been opened against an atheist for saying "there is no god" in social media. Is that an irruption from a timeline where the Inquisition survived to modernity by hiding in USSR?

[Flyndaran]

Of all the bizarre human rights violations I imagine happening in Russia, making hurt feelings criminal was not one of them.

[Anaraxes]

Hail HYDRA.

A rare library of books on witches and the occult that was assembled by Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler in the war has been discovered in the Czech Republic.
...
In 1935 Himmler founded the 'H Sonderkommando' - H standing for Hexe, the German word for witch - to collate as much material as possible on sorcery, the occult and the supernatural.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-50-years.html

[Irish Wolf]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Hail HYDRA.

When David Brin was commissioned to write a short story about a world in which the Nazis won WWII, he said he had trouble with it because he couldn't find a handle on how that could happen - "the Nazis were just such schmucks!" What he finally settled on for "Thor Meets Captain America" was

Spoiler:  

that the death camps were in fact necromantic power sources for a spell to summon the Norse gods to Earth.

He might not have been so far off after all...

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Irish Wolf

When David Brin was commissioned to write a short story about a world in which the Nazis won WWII, he said he had trouble with it because he couldn't find a handle on how that could happen - "the Nazis were just such schmucks!" What he finally settled on for "Thor Meets Captain America" was

Spoiler:  

that the death camps were in fact necromantic power sources for a spell to summon the Norse gods to Earth.

He might not have been so far off after all...

It wouldn't have been all that hard for the Germans to win WW II given only modestly different circumstances and choices by their allies and enemies. It's kind of hard to find any one departure point that does it, but the necessary differences are not huge. It would require different but not all that implausible decisions by German, British, Russian, American, and Japanese leaders, it certainly could have worked out that way.

('Win' in this context doesn't mean conquering the world, of course. A Germany that conquered and held most of Europe for a long time, though, is utterly plausible.)

It's no great secret that there was a strain of interest in magic and the supernatural among the Nazi leadership, esp. Himmler's wing. One of the odder truths of World War II is that among the Nazi high leadership, Hitler was actually one of the moderate ones, at least until the very end.

[Flyndaran]

I don't think the Germans could have won anymore than the South could have in the American civil war. The best that could have been done would have been a draw.
Of course, the Axis powers unified may have just barely won in some fashion, I think. But any universe in which that happened would have had quite different leaders than existed in ours.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I don't think the Germans could have won anymore than the South could have in the American civil war. The best that could have been done would have been a draw.

The only thing lacking for the South to have successfully seceded was a modicum less will in the North, which could easily enough have happened. It came closer to happening than is often remembered now.

Yeah, the North had the power to crush the South, that's not in question, but had a different President been in place at the time, it's perfectly plausible that the conclusion might have been reached that 'this isn't worth it'.

Of course, the Axis powers unified may have just barely won in some fashion, I think. But any universe in which that happened would have had quite different leaders than existed in ours.

Which, again, wouldn't have been all that hard to have happen.

It's easy to say that 'x' was inevitable in retrospect. In practice, there's always more complexity, though.

[Anders]

Octopus escapes from New Zealand aquarium.

All drains lead to ocean.

[Warlockco]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I don't think the Germans could have won anymore than the South could have in the American civil war. The best that could have been done would have been a draw.
Of course, the Axis powers unified may have just barely won in some fashion, I think. But any universe in which that happened would have had quite different leaders than existed in ours.

If Japan hadn't attacked Pearl Harbor and drawn the US actively into the war, Germany would taken over Europe. Yes, there would be tons of resistance fighting, but US being an active participant in the war is what ultimately defeated Germany.