Precious

Albino Alligators	In the Gorean month of En'Kara, an exquisite sale was made at the great market city of Corcyrus - seven rare albino alligators. Ligurious paid the counter-earth smuggers in Double-Weight Gold Tarn Disks. En route to their new owner, the Tatrix, Sheila, the alligators broke lost and escaped into the Vosk River. The current whereabouts of the alligators – and also Ligurious – is uncertain, although they are presumed to be at liberty in the southwest of Ar.
Missing

On the other side of the sun, law enforcement officers in Brazil continued to investigate the other side of the transaction - the disappearance of the mammals from a university zoo in the western state of Mato Grosso. Their theory – which was close to the truth - was that they may have been stolen to be sold abroad. The animals, said by officials to be worth around $10,000 (£5,070) each, have no skin pigment and their eyes are a distinctive pink. Most of albino alligators born in the wild do not survive because their skin colour makes them vulnerable to attack. They were last seen when they were fed on New Year's Eve, but they were missing when a zoo official went to feed them again on Wednesday morning. Police say there was no sign of a break-in at the zoo which contains more than 800 animals spread across 11 hectares (27 acres) hectares of parkland. The alligators were said to be young with an average age of around two years, and only one albino alligator is now left at the zoo. Police say the rarity of the alligator will make the investigation difficult as the people involved in the illegal trading of such rare species are very secretive. The apparent theft also highlights a wider problem. Animal rights activists say Brazil accounts for 10% of the world's illegal trade in animals, mainly parrots and other birds, which are often sold in Europe and the United States. Or further afield, shall we say. In their contentions with Priest-Kings, Kurii, savage denizens of the Steel Worlds, concealed within the asteroid belt, have frequently had recourse to human allies, and subversion. In accord with such projects, Kurii have occasionally sought to place and support congenial administrations in key cities. One such city is Corcyrus. Corcyrus is ruled by a beautiful woman, the cruel, arrogant, much-hated Sheila, an agent of Kurii.

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In 1477, Charles the Bold is the victor of the Battle of Nancy, sustaining the Duchy of Burgundy which persists to this day as a polity inside the European Union.

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In 4288, Shehzaada Khurram, venerated Indian governor for the Chinese Empire, was born in Agra. His patronage was responsible for the creation of the finest art and architecture to grace southeast Asia. The Taj Mahal, his greatest achievement, is almost as impressive a palace as the Forbidden City, itself.

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Balrog	In 1916, combat tension combined with an over-active imagination amplified by the experience of the Battle of the Somme had traumatised Second Lieutenant John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, eleventh battalion Lancashire Fusiliers. "Gandalf lifted his staff, and crying aloud, he smote the the Bridge [of Khazad-Dum] before him. The bridge cracked. Right at the Balrog's feet it broke. With a terrible cry, the Balrog fell forward, and its shadow plunged down and vanished. But even as it feel it swung its whip, and the thongs lashed and curled around the wizad's knees, dragging him to the brink. He staggered and fell, grasping vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss".
Tolkiens Phantasm

Inside a military field hospital Tolkien fought a mental battle to defeat the phantasmagoric projections of the Somme. A battle, he would both win, and lose, and win again. Like Kurt Vonnegut fifty years later, Tolkien's need for expression sought out escapist literature, and his own fight was portrayed in this animated scene from the Mines of Moria. And also later, when he finally defeated the Balrog in the well of the Abyss.

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In 1994, former Speaker of the House Thomas ‘Tip’ O’Neill dies at his home in Boston. O’Neill had a short reign at the top of the House’s hierarchy after being elected to the position in 1977. He feuded with the newly elected President Carter, and was notoriously unhelpful in passing the Democratic president’s agenda. He was replaced in the next election cycle by Texas Representative Barbara Jordan, who was much more willing to stand up for the party’s values.

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Nelson Mandela	“Believe”, Nelson once said to me, “you must always believe.” ”I believe the time has come.” ~ Samson Zola. In Laura Resnick's dystopia, years of civil war had torn apart the dream of a Rainbow nation. Samson Zola prepared to assassinate the President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. Even though he loved him like a father, he saw the need to return South Africa to its people.
Alternate Tyrant

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Stephen R. Donaldson	In 1968, Stephen Reeder Donaldson languished in Vietnam. By inclination a conscientious objector, he had been compelled to serve in the armed forces. Much later, and after dropping out of his Ph.D. program and moving to New Jersey in order to write fiction, Donaldson made his publishing debut with the first "Covenant" trilogy in 1977. That enabled him to move to a healthier climate. He now lives in New Mexico. Donaldson's two year compulsory military duty would be the deep undercurrent of his escapist fantasy writing. In “The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever”, the protagonist was a leper struggled with disempowerment in a Land he did not really believe in.
Unbeliever

Mud?" His leper's caution quivered. "I need soap, not more dirt." "This is hurtloam," repeated Lena. "It is for healing." She stepped closer and thrust the mud toward him. He thought he could see tiny gleams of gold in it. He stared at it blankly, shocked by the idea of putting mud in his cuts. ~“Golden Boy”

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In 1986, the Asimov Plan came close to failure because of the arrival of an agent of the random, Mikhal Gorbachev. Asimov had not forseen that an individual could arise who would be both committed to the interregnum's political philosophy, yet a gambler who was prepared to risk all to save the future. The agent of the random was eventually lured to his south russian dachi in August 1991 to destroy the Second Foundation. However, in so doing, he left his main fleet, which was turned against him by Second Foundation agents in his absence, thus ending his rule.

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In 1781, American rebel Benedict Arnold sacks the city of Richmond, in one last act of defiance before fleeing to Canada. With the American revolution largely at an end, Arnold and his revolutionary comrades felt that a statement had to be made against those who capitulated so quickly to the British. General Arnold, of course, was an instrumental figure in the fight for Canadian independence.

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In 1953, the side-splitting slapstick comedy En Attendant Godot by the playwright Samuel Beckett, made its debut in Paris. Widely regarded as Beckett’s masterpiece, it has been translated and filmed in several languages, delighting audiences around the world.

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In 1781, Thomas Gainsborough completed his masterpiece The Two Georges, depicting King George III and General George Washington's historic agreement which established the British North American Union. The Sons of Liberty considered Washington a turncoat. Two hundred and fifteen years later they would succeeed in snatching this symbol of national unity just before the arrival of King Charles III's visit to the State capital of Victoria.

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Larting

August 17th, 2007

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The Announcement

Don't forget - Birthday Contest for Steve – November 22, 1967. Send in an alternate birthday for him for us to post!


I'm sort of an enigma in the circles I travel in. Most of my friends, they're looking for something like a nation that was lost to time, or a people that never rose to greatness, or The Perfect World. Me, I'm looking for the Porno Universe.

It's a small dream, but it keeps me going.

You might think this was a waste of the talent, that I should be doing something noble and beneficial to the multiverse at large. You might be right. I don't care. Because, when it comes right down to it, all those ennobling and beneficial things already exist somewhere, and somebody's already figured out how to get them to everybody. All I can do is try to find some way and some place to be happy myself, and I've chosen the Porno Universe.

I mean, think about it. In the Porno Universe, (or how I envision it, at least), there's no violence against other men, no violence against women, no frustration, everybody is devoted to happy sexual congress and doing anything necessary to keep everybody satisfied. It's the ideal world.

Yeah, I know, it's a rationalization. Bite me. It's my rationalization. When you've been roaming around the planes as long as I have, all the others tend to wear thin. I needed something primal to keep me going.

My buddy Patrice, who's been hanging out with me for a while now, is looking for the African planes, where Africa took over the world in the same way that Europe took over the world in the planes we're both from. He's always wanted to see European slaves being whipped to work by African overlords. He wants to own a few Europeans himself. He's kind of a racist, when you come right down to it, but a nice enough guy otherwise. Sometimes he's been close, but never gotten quite the world he likes. I've been his 'servant' quite a few times, but there was always an equality movement in those worlds, about to succeed, too, and he didn't feel like sticking around to fight it, and possibly lose.

I can understand that. I found a Sado-Masochist Porno Universe once, and I couldn't get out of there fast enough. When you can do what we do, why bother settling when you can have the whole dream?

We were out in the mid-planes, just trying to find someplace palatable for a little rest. We'd just come from one of those worlds where aliens had taken over in the Middle Ages, you know, where the Non-Interference Pact between the T'Kung and the Bisli hadn't been made, and earth had become a staging ground for their war. After spending a few days in Enviro-suits because of alien terraforming, we both needed a vacation.

"How about that one over there?" Patrice pointed at a tidy little planar conjunction, and I scanned it for a minute.

"Nah, it feels like one of those places where the Nazis won."

"Oh, I hate those places. You have to dye your hair blonde, I have to color my skin and wear contacts - "

"Yeah, not today." I scanned another conjunction a bit further off. "That one feels a little different. Not quite a world-vision place, but close."

"I do notice a distinct African strain in it," Patrice said hopefully. "Let's try it out."

We moved into the conjunction, and felt our body chemistry shift slightly to accommodate the new world we were coming into. It gives you a kind of giddy high for a few minutes; a few of the newbies'll just spend days popping in and out of conjunctions. It's hilarious to see them when they finally come down off it. There's no hangover like a dimensional hangover.

We came out of the conjunction into a decidedly non-technical city. Most of the buildings were one story high and kind of a rustic, just-post-air- conditioning level of architecture. A couple of buildings did have a grander look to them, but there was one building that caught both of us right away. It was at least 500 feet high, and it was an African pyramid.

Patrice was in Heaven.

"I think this is it, I think this is it !" He was jumping up and down, shouting thanks to several African deities. "I can feel the blood of the motherland all around me!"

I took his arm and pointed off towards the pyramid. "Then, how do you explain those guys?" Coming from the grungier buildings were a line of people who, while not exactly Aryan types, were a lot paler than Patrice was. I didn't see anybody who looked like they were of pure African ancestry.

"Slaves," he said, quite confidently. "Look over there, where they're lining up."

Off in the distance, on a road that led towards the pyramid, there were a group of African men herding the paler, plodding types into an elephant-drawn truck. The white boys didn't seem any too happy about the situation, but didn't resist. A couple of times, one of them said something that one of the Africans didn't like, and they were beaten until they couldn't stand anymore. Then, they were picked up and loaded onto the truck by their fellows.

"Great. I get to play your houseboy again."

"I don't think you're going to want to stay here, Gabriel. I'm getting the download about this dimension right now, and it's not looking very good for people of European ancestry here." He motioned me behind one of the buildings, out of sight of the slaveloading operation. Raising his hand, he projected an image of the world on the wall. Several lines were drawn between Africa and Asia, and a few routes were shown between Africa and the Americas, but virtually everything looked to be under the colonial control of about fourteen African nations. Europe was split into bits and pieces, with no indigenous governments controlling anything. Asia was allied with Africa, but was definitely the junior partner. "Europeans are the key to economic prosperity here. There are about 200 million of them, and they do all of the muscle work, leaving the Africans and Asians free to pursue more intellectual goals." A broad smile appeared on Patrice's face, and looked like it'd never leave. "It's paradise."

I had to laugh. "Yeah, it's what you've been looking for, all right. But, is there a freedom movement for the Europeans? Or, an abolition movement among either the Asians or Africans?"

"There was one, about a hundred years ago." He pointed at south Asia. "The Chinese emperor had a European concubine, and apparently fell so much in love with her that he began to have second thoughts about the entire European situation. He began emancipating Europeans, even gave them a small chunk of China to call their own. After his death, though, they fell under the influence of Koreans who wanted to free themselves from the empire, and, in the war that followed, the Europeans were put back under the yoke, along with the Koreans. Since then, no other European emancipation program has been enacted."

"Have you got the local language imprinted, yet?"

He held a hand to his head. "I'm getting it now. It's very similar to pre-Arabic Egyptian, with a little pre-Arabic Ethiopian thrown in."

"Are personal slaves expected to speak?"

"Only when they're spoken to." He pounded my back. "You'll finally get to show me the proper respect."

"Yes, master." I started accessing the download from him and assimilating the language, and any pointers about how I should act as Patrice's boy. It wasn't too different from how slaves are supposed to act everywhere. Abasement, deference, and quickness to obey orders are what people want of a slave no matter what culture is dominant. It's sometimes a little sad to see that the bad side of our nature remains so constant.

But, philosophizing doesn't get you any closer to the Porno Universe.

Geezer Butler	Look how people pay money to see scary movies, we should try writing scary music and change our name to Black Sabbath? ~ Geezer Butler - Click to Watch Sample
Black Sabbath

In 1969, the British Police closed the case file on Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler (his nickname supposedly arose from a habit as a teenager of referring to everyone as "Geezer"). The recent death of the thirty year old was ruled misadventure. Other members of the band Earth provided a more sinister explanation based on recent occultist influences the band had been flirting with. According to the vocalist John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne, the band had been working on a new signature tune “Black Sabbath” which was inspired by an experience that Geezer Butler related to Osbourne. Geezer had painted his apartment matte black and placed several inverted crucifixes on the walls. Then, one day, Ozzy brought round a book about Witchcraft, which Geezer became extremely fascinated by. One night, he read the book and fell asleep. He recalled waking up and seeing a black figure and, as he put it, "cr*pped myself". He then told Ozzy, who wrote the lyrics to what would become Black Sabbath: "What is this that stands before me? Figure in black which points at me". He repeated the story over the coming weeks before being found death by Osbourne. Even though he had just turned thirty, his hair was completely white. And the witchcraft book was missing. The lyrics are available at at Lyricsdomain

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

In 2008, English-born Canadian Steve Payne was sued by BlueberryPie for alluding to Freudian motives for owners of the EyeFone Quartz Midnight who he suggested suffered from Psychosexual under-development. Simon Works the President of BlueberryPie dismissed this recalcitrant as a “lowser that wants larting*. The guy should spend less time in the Muffin shop dizzing the product and more time down the gym working off those six bellies where you could tuck a dozen EyeFones and smuggle them out of the country”.

~ entry by Co-Historian Steve Payne

Larting: Lowser-Attitute-Readjustment-Tool e.g. Soft baseball bat over the head, term of alleged empathy used by IT staff all over the world to describe technically “challenged” end users.

In 2002, Chris Bunch's Tarnished Glory contemporaries Custer and Patton were appointed to Supreme Allied Command following a plane crash killing Eisenhower and Bradley. Much like the appointments of Hindenburg and Ludendorff to German High Command in World War I, the dynamics of war-time had delivered an unexpected historic opportunity that was seized by second choice mavericks.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

In 2010, techno tragedy struck down a talentless middle-aged author in the wilds of Canada. For many years, the deceased had been guilty of "eating the shopping". This obscure crime involved premature consumption of the goodies part of the weekly groceries. Recently, the fridge had been micro-chipped with a Java appliance which automatically re-ordered shopping items for home delivery as they approached minimum stock levels. Predictably, this device had unleashed a six month binge. Colleages from the Academy paid their respects, indicating that the Co-Historian had copied Editor's note: Surely "created"? some quality work before his fingers had become infeasibly porky, preventing the effective use of Control-C, Control-V. Some of his better plagiarisms were run on the Today in Alternative History web site for a week of tributes.

~ entry by Steve Payne.

In 2002, RM Muleuch published Twelve Legions of Angels. Disgraced Air Marshall Hugh Dowding challenges the conventional wisdom that the Big Wing theory was doomed, asserting that a Battle of Britain could have been won.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

Admiral Tirpitz	In 1991, on this day Robert K Massie published U Boat: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War. Massie begins with the birth of Queen Victoria, and follows the chronology of the royal families of Europe, culminating in the unification of Germany ..
.. by Bismarck and the crowning of Kaiser William II. With the stage set, Massie describes the series of people and events that contributed to the ultimate outbreak of war, including Alfred von Tirpitz and his ultimately successful plan to starve the British into defeat by sinking their convoys.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1945, on this day “The Dawn of Liberation” was published, containing Churchill's 1944 speeches on the road to victory, from "Preparation, Effort in Resolve” to "Hope for Victory” as part of the three volume definitive edition, “The War Speeches”. The events of “Churchill's Last Stand” ..	Winston Churchi..
.. are described in some detail. Churchill pinpoints the key moment as the creation of the State of Israel from the British Mandate in Palestine, an act which forged the alliance with Moshe Dayan's Hagannah forces. Heavily supported by Indian and Australian divisions, Bernard Montgomery created the first truly multinational army which triumphed over the Axis powers over the course of the next two glorious years.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Columbus	In 1923, Amerindian explorers had landed in Andalusia to find a fallen civilization. After a day's march, they discover the truth. When Cristoforo Colombo returned on March 15 1493, he and his men spread the Smallpox, typhus, influenza, diphtheria, measles, malaria, and other epidemics that had plagued them since first contact. ..
.. The pandemic had resulted in the depopulation of the continent.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1976, offices of the publisher Doubleday in New York City are closed by an executive order of President George Wallace and Vice President Curtis LeMay. Copies of “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” are seized just two hours before publication. Federal Agents commanded by Chief Investigator Oliver North order ..	Roots
.. staff at gunpoint to recall copies from retail outlets throughout America. In a televised speech that evening Wallace denies charges of Jim Crow censorship. Alleging that the book was a blatant copy of a work of fiction, “The African” by Harold Courlander, Wallace said he had a duty as President to prevent bicentennial celebrations planned for the following year to be ruined by a “cheap piece of plagiarism”.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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