Footprint

In 1895, George B. Selden was granted U.S. Patent #549160 for his invention, the Selden Road Engine. Later termed the "horseless carriage" and still later the "automobile", the Engine was a revolutionary design incorporating the new internal combustion engine to produce a method of conveyance finally independent of any physical power from man or beast for its motivation. Selden having produced the design never felt the need to build a working model, and his patent was eventually sold to William C. Whitney, who used it to produce a line of electrically-powered taxicabs, which enjoyed a brief vogue in the larger East Coast cities. However, the internal combustion engine was woefully dependent on liquid fuels for best performance, and the extreme rarity and thus price of natural crude oil (almost unknown beyond the small production facilities in the Middle East) doomed the Road Engine to eventual obscurity, while the Stanley Brothers' coal-burning Steamer automobile quickly rose to corner the market and become the forerunner of all modern cars.

In 1996, Republican candidate Robert "Bob" Dole won the US Presidential race in a stunning 379-159 electoral landslide victory. Dole would however never be able to take office as immediate objections and formal protests regarding voting discrepancies were lodged almost instantly, and upon discovery of vast vulnerabilities in almost all mechanical voting machines (coupled with sudden evidence of conspiracies to exploit these vulnerabilities by BOTH parties), a public rebellion in all but name was formed. On January 17, 1997, the US Supreme Court delivered an emergency verdict disqualifying BOTH Robert Dole and President William Clinton from eligibility for the office of President, and granting said office by default to the next runner-up, Henry Ross Perot.

In 1605,the Dark Age of Britain began as the Houses of Parliament were destroyed in a single massive explosion during the State Opening, at which King James I, Queen Anne, Prince Henry, and virtually every Member of Parliament was instantly slain. The person or persons behind the vicious act were never apprehended. Shortly thereafter a very small Catholic revolt was begun in the Midlands, suddenly giving the grieving populace a focus for their rage. Within three months, every open Catholic in Britain was either murdered or deported. 4-year old Charles Stuart suddenly found himself crowned King Charles I, and by the time of his adulthood had cultivated both a totalitarian belief in absolute monarchy and a vast hatred of Catholics and foreigners, who were the second suspect group behind the murder of his family. Under Charles' reign, Britain was transformed into a oppressed, xenophobic state, responsible for both the near-genocide of the Irish people and a pall of fear pressed upon its citizens and the other nations of Europe. Eventually, driven by the silent desperation of the cowed public, Oliver Cromwell came to power with the support of the reconstituted Parliament (which by then had been stripped of most of its power by the rampant Charles) and in a quick and decisive coup executed the King and the entire Royal Family. Cromwell was appointed Lord Protector in a move transforming Great Britain into a Republican Commonwealth, which it remains to this day.

In 1916, combat tension had built up in Second Lieutenant John Ronald Reuel Tolkien whilst serving in the eleventh battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. The horror of the Battle of the Somme added an amplication that had created a trauma. Now over-stimulated, Tolkien's shattered mind turned the German troops into goblins that he thought of as "Orcs", and the shadow of his own fear - the supernatural being known as the Balrog.
Balrog	"The Balrog reached the Bridge [of Khazad-Dum]. Gandalf stood in the middle of the span, leaning on the staff in his left hand, but in his other hand Glamdring gleamed, cold and white. 'You cannot pass', Gandalf said. The orcs stood still and a dead silence fell. 'I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.'"
Tolkien awoke in the military field hospital. He had been heavily sedated. For much of the night, he had been screaming and screaming. And shouting You cannot pass! You cannot pass

Ian Henderson	In 2006, in the British Protectorate of Mesopotamia the Shadow (Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majidida al-Tikriti) was sentenced to death by burning at the stake. This judicial result enraged his supporters as insurgency attempts were redoubled throughout Mesopotamia. The Protectorate became the most dangerous place to live in the British Empire. Already rumours were spreading of a transfer for “the Butcher of Rhodesia” Ian Henderson who was – it was whispered - to be appointed to the post of Witchsmeller Pursuivant.

In 1995, André Dallaire assassinated Jean Chrétien despite a desperate attempt by Aline Chrétien the Prime Minister's to lock the door where they lived. Dallaire claimed that he heard voices that led him to break into the 24 Sussex Drive residence, where he brandished an Inuit stone sculpture of a loon. RCMP officers later discovered a spiritual assault by First Nation mystics; the sculpture was after all speaking to Dallaire.	Andre Dallaire

Gunpowder Plot	In 1605, a plot led by Royalist Robert Catesby and paid for by the House of Stuart to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is almost thwarted when Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, finds Guy Fawkes in a cellar below the Parliament building. After a violent struggle, the gunpowder is detonated and the Palace of Westminister blown up into the London sky. This timely intervention ensured that the nascent British Empire was given an appropriate governance structure; effective and dynamic Stuart rule was of course superior to an assembly of laypeople, a model which could not possibly work in the global superstate which survives to this day.

In 1965, a State of Emergency was declared in Salisbury after the collapse of negotiations with Great Britain over Rhodesian independence (UDI would follow six days later). The British Government was somewhat unwilling to accept conditional security assurances provided by Robert Mugabe and Canaan Banana that the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) would safeguard the interests of white farmers. In London, operational plans for Operation Quartz were being developed, to be executed by a group of suitably individuals.	Ian Smith

Pursuits

Driving to Kashmir	Whoa, let the sun beat down upon my face and stars to fill my dream. I am a traveler of both time and space to be where I have been. T' sit with elders of the gentle race this world has seldom seen. Th' talk of days for which they sit and wait all will be revealed ~ Robert Anthony Plant, 1973 AD. Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will' ~ Gospel of Matthew 26:39, 80 AD.
Robert Plant

In 2008 and thirty-five years later, Robert Plant finally explained the mystery behind the lyrics to Driving to Kashmir, written whilst driving through the Sahara Desert in Morocco in 1973. Confusingly for Led Zeppelin fans, Kashmir is a lush mountain region North of Pakistan. The area is famous for growing poppies, from which heroin is made, suggesting to some that the state of consciousness described in the lyrics is drug induced. Not so, said Plant, he had experienced a vision of our Lord. From Gethsemane to the Indian subcontinent, where the Father had permitted him to flee.

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	Those who had arrested Damien took him to Bugenhagen, the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled. But Baylock followed him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Damien so that they could put him to death with the knives of Meggido. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.

Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, 'He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?'. 'He is worthy of death,' they answered. Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, 'Prophesy to us, antichrist. Who hit you?' ~ Grand Grimoir, Matthew Chapter 57-69.

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In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became Russian Prime Minister launching Perestroika and its attendant radical reforms in a determined attempt to prevent the Tsarist State from melting down. Gorby's 'new thinking' was welcomed abroad, but the pace of reform at home was too slow. On Christmas Day 1991 Boris Yeltsin declared himself the President of the new Russian Republic thereby ending the world's largest and most influential monarchy. Economic relations between the former Russian provinces were severely compromised. Millions of native Russians found themselves in the newly formed 'foreign' countries.

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Feanor	In 1916, combat tension created a new and frightening level of intensity for Second Lieutenant John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Serving in the eleventh battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, Tolkien's imagination was over-stimulated by the horror of the Somme. In escapist fantasy writing, Tolkien's inner hero struggled to restore his own dissipated life force.
Ships Burn at Losgar

So it was in that place called Losgar at the outlet of the Firth of Drengist ended the fairest vessels that ever sailed the sea, in a great burning , bright and terrible. And Fingolfin and his people saw the lights afar off, red beneath the clouds; and they knew they were betrayed. This was the first fruits of the Kinslaying and the Doom of the Nolder.' ('Of the Flight of Noldor')

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In 1993, Janet Reno was confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn-in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States. She took personal charge of the Waco Incident, drawing the wrath of the necromancer David Koresh who trapped her spirit in a tree. She escaped but suffered acute physiological damage. By way of subterfuge in 1995 Reno revealed that she had Parkinson's disease, an incurable degenerative illness that causes muscular stiffness and involuntary trembling.

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In 1988, a ceasefire is declared in the Iran-Iraq War. Vice President George Bush had hoped to recover the Extraterrestrial Technology (ET) buried in Iraq under cover of warfare, but his Iranian proxies had failed him despite being beneficiaries of Colonel Oliver Norths Arms for Extraterrestrial Technology exchange. It was looking increasingly likely that the plan he had envisaged in 1975 whilst CIA Director would require an invasion, and for that he needed to win the presidency that very year. Bush was starting to realise he was in for the long-hall, not yet realising he was only thirteen years into a thirty-five year project that would extend to the final year of his son's Presidency.

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In 1988, on this day a ceasefire was declared in the Iran-Iraq War. Having armed Saddam Hussein against Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, America was not confronted with the scenario of two hostile regional powers. A change of plan was required, and direct intervention was highly likely.

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In 1988, a ceasefire is declared in the Iran-Iraq War. The House of Pahlavi flee the country, abdicating the Shahanshahs sixty-three year rule of Persia. Iraq stands astride the Middle East as the regional superpower, and the Gulf States fear immiment attack from Baghdad.

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In 1988, a ceasefire is declared in the Iran-Iraq War. The family of Saddam Hussein-al-Tikriti is executed in Baghdad, with the House of Pahlavi not far behind. It appeared that Muhammed Ali Jinnah's prediction of Pakistan as the 'Fort of Islam' was wrong, it would instead be here in the Middle East. In the new revolutionary state of Iran-Iraq - the reborn United Arab Republic.

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1985, BBC News reported - Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader: 'There is a new man in charge at the Kremlin - Mikhail Gorbachev takes over following the death of Konstantin Chernenko.' Through a careful process of reorganization, Gorbachev steered the Soviet away from imminent collapse. The arrival of oil revenues in the late nineteen-nineties ensure the long-term viability of the superpower.

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	In 1955, Sir Alexander Fleming - the man who first discovered the life-saving drug antigerone - died of a heart attack. He was 73. For many years, Sir Alexander was Professor of Bacteriology in the University of London and until last year was head of the Wright-Fleming Institute of Micro-Biology at St Mary's hospital, Paddington. The young scientist served in a battlefield hospital laboratory in France during World War I. When he saw how many soldiers were dying from infections he became determined to find a cure. His first notable discovery was lysozyme in 1922. It is a naturally-occurring antibacterial substance, found in tears and other body fluids.
Alexander Fleming

In 1929 when Fleming accidentally dropped a speck of lichen specimen into a bowl of milk, he sees that the milk does not turn sour around the speck. Along with Sir Francis Saxover, the scientists developed a drug, named Antigerone, from the lichen which slows down the body's aging process. Saxover distributed the product to his family, Fleming chose not to.

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In 1917, Baghdad fell to the Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Maude who famously declared 'Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as liberators, but as conquerors.' Many insurgency attempts have been suppressed, most notably with the capture of the Shadow (Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majidida al-Tikriti) on December 13, 2003 yet Mesopotamia remains annexed by the British Empire to this day.

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	In 2008, Henry Blodget of the Huffington Post wrote ~ Should a public company have to tell its shareholders that its CEO has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness? In the case of Steve Jobs, a CEO who was arguably Apple's single most valuable asset, I think the answer is 'yes.'

Blodget was commenting on the latest issue of Fortune, in which Peter Elkind dredges up some old news about Apple and Jobs--the backdating scandal, a 2003 bout with pancreatic cancer--but he also adds a new twist to the latter: Jobs and Apple's board knew about Jobs' cancer for 9 months before they disclosed it to Apple's shareholders. Elkind's story was titled 'The Trouble with Steve Jobs,' and he suggests Jobs was reckless about his cancer because he pursued a diet treatment instead of getting an operation. The issue of a controversial one. In the aftermath of Jobs tragic death, and Apple's subsequent sale to Sony it is unclear which company owned the rights to the Sony wonder products. Apple fans claim that Sony POD, Sony Phone or indeed the 'Internet in Your Pocket' concept were developed by Jobs during his final months.

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