Significant Others

Alternate Historian says, construction work continues at the Academy.

From Jan 1 2008 we're releasing a richer story format for TIAH. Also having the story in a yellow shaded area, but underneath will be hyperlinked metadata tags. We're so keen to get your feedback that we've created the first two posts for today in this new style.

The Site metre tells us that the average site visit is around half a minute, so we're got to design for web grazers. Therefore, we're thinking of more whacky ideas for positioning the stories. Perhaps two-on-two magazine style, or a text scrollable with just the first paragraph showing, or perhaps expand/collapse button to see the whole story..

Trouble is the HTML is machine generated by an OpenOffice spreadsheet with a bajillion text functions. We want to finalise the design this month. Before we forget how the HTML is generated, we'd love some feedback from our readers.

Please email the Alternate Historian with your comments on the already underway developments, or better still some new ideas!

In 2012, on this day the City of Mississauga announced an exciting new development in free Internet connectivity services. The following month WirelessMississauga would be upgraded at the Central Library on Burnhamthorpe and Living Arts Drive. Currently, citizens could enter their library pass code and connect their personal client device to the Internet. WirelessMississaugaPlus offered the new feature of Power over Ethernet through WiFi. This new geek heaven was amazing, whilst connected online to a billion webizens, you could really keep your head down. By drawing power from the network, you could sit in a building of a thousand human beings and avoid any form of social interaction at all, not even to quarrel over limited power sockets. It was just a fantastic social opportunity.

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In 1999, author Stephen King saw a lost pet poster stapled to a telephone post on the right shoulder of Route 5 - 'Lost, a gray tabby, loves children, call Center Lovell, Maine 7-7661'. Signs that his old friends were about, the low men in yellow coats.

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In 2010, Adolf Hitler's second successor Austrian-born Kurt Haldweim died in Berlin. His replacement, the new fuhrer Heinz Buckliger was a dynamic young technocrat who planned to introduce a progressive new program of change. Thwarted by conservative elements in the Nazi leadership, instead of guiding the future of the Greater German Reich and the Germanic Empire, Buckliger triggered a Soviet-style crisis.

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

Bachman	In 2010, fans of the author Stephen King received a tremendous shock in his farewell speech in Bangor, Maine. At the beginning of Stephen King's career, the general view among publishers was such that an author was limited to a book every year at the utmost; any more, it was felt, was not acceptable to the public. King therefore wanted to write under another name in order to double his production.
He convinced his publisher, Signet Books, to print these novels under a pseudonym. The originally selected pseudonym was Gus Pillsbury; but at the last moment King changed it to "Richard Bachman" in tribute to crime author Donald E. Westlake's long-running pseudonym Richard Stark. The name Stark was used in King's novel The Dark Half, a novel about an author with a pseudonym. The surname was in honour of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, a rock and roll band King was listening to at the time. The foreword of each of King's books includes an open letter addressed to "Constant Reader". Fans had interpreted this as a personal message to themselves. Not so. At the farewell speech, King revealed that all of the books had been written by his "Dark Half" Richard Bachman and addressed to his alter-ego Stephen King, who was the real Constant Reader.
~ entry by Alternate Historian

In 1977, in a public relations disaster for the studio, 20th Century Fox entered into a badly timed length dispute with the African American actor James Earl Jones. Arising during bicentennial year, the perception was that dramatic impact of the role of Darth Vader had been mis-credited to a Caucasian actor. Director George Lucas never intended to use the voice of David Prowse, who portrayed Darth Vader in costume, because of Prowse's English West Country accent. Instead a voice over was provided by Jones. Jones cited the case of Linda Blair's Oscar nomination for The Exorcist, when there was a campaign for Mercedes McCambridge (who provided the devil's voice) to share the nomination. Jones found this ridiculous, and did not want to find himself put in a similar position with Star Wars. However, when he became aware of the prominence of the credit given to Prowse he was incensed but his request was made too late to alter the early editions of the move and hence the dispute. In fact the real credit was due to Ben Burtt who created the robotic voice of R2-D2 by filtering their voices through an electronic synthesizer. Darth Vader's breathing was achieved by Burtt breathing through the mask of a scuba tank implanted with a microphone

~ entry by Alternate Historian

Golda Meir	In 1972, a parcel bomb sent to Israeli Embassy in London destroys the entire building killing thirty diplomatic staff. Acting on intelligence that the bomb was placed by Syria, Prime Golda Meir appeals once more to the world to "save our citizens and condemn the unspeakable criminal acts committed." Privately she sanctioned an extension to Operation Wrath of God. Hundreds of Syrian nationals are innocent victims over the next decade as Mossad “set the boys loose”.
~ entry by Alternate Historian

In 1976, a Boeing 727 almost flew into a mountain near Isparta southern Turkey. The spiritual beings on the mountain prevented the death of of the 155 people aboard; when the Boeing set down in Istanbul, a relieved crew were greeted by flight traffic pashas of the Ottoman Empire.	Boeing 747
~ entry by Alternate Historian

DC-10	In 1989, a terrorist bomb exploded on-board a UTA Flight 772 in mid-air above the Tùnùrù Desert, Niger. The shrieking spirits of the 171 passengers were trapped in the wreckage of the Union de Transportes DC-10 Series 30 craft until the Sultan of Sokoto could send deep-souls to their succour.
~ entry by Alternate Historian

In 1928, Adam West was born. Witnessing the murder of his parents as a child leads him to train himself to the peak of physical and intellectual perfection, don a bat-themed costume, and fight crime. Unlike most superheroes, he does not possess superhuman powers or abilities; he makes use of intellect, detective skills, science and technology, wealth, physical prowess, and intimidation in his war on crime.	Batman
At a fund-raising party, West met and falls for famous photojournalist Vicki Vale, recently arrived in town to cover the phenomenon and finds the courage to tell her : “I'm Batman”.
~ entry by Alternate Historian

Searching

The state of TIAH

December 6th, 2006

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Alternate Historian's Note: Stephen Payne continues his stint as our Guest Historian while we present our NaNoWriMo novel. We hope you are enjoying this change in format – let us know how you feel about it in comments or by emailing us. This will be the format of TIAH throughout the holiday season, unless we receive a great outcry about it. Speaking of the Holiday Season, keep in mind those who need help year-round and keep yourselves safe and happy, as well. And, should you feel generous inclinations towards our guest historians, you can visit the sites of those who have separate ones from TIAH; generosity towards us here at the Academy is always appreciated, too, and you can find ways to help us out all over the site. Right now, we'd appreciate a lead on a good day job, but any good wishes you have towards us can be emailed here.

in 0, in the town of Bayt La (Bethlehem), Mullah Elijah Rafsanjani considers the interception option. Prehistory suggests the parents travelled from Kfar HaHoresh (Nazareth) to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus only to flee shortly afterwards to Kymeía (Egypt) to escape Herod's Massacre of the Innocents. The interception route could accelerate the flight to Egypt such that a Kymeía-born Jesus was brought up as an exile, unable to connect with the Jewish people. Trouble is, the Mullah knows that the Abrahamic religions are well connected. He might return to 2126 to find Jesus a more central figure in the Koran, altering pre-jihad history to the advantage of the Europeans. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1919, inside the Vatican, the struggle for the mastery of Europe is settled decisively in favour of the great council of magicians led by Maestro. Azâzêl is trapped and sealed inside Michelangelo Buonarroti's Last Judgement painting over the altar of the Sistine Chapel. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1949, at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trial, the Soviet Union charged captured Japanese perpetrators of Unit 731 with manufacturing and employing bacteriological weapons. Included among those prosecuted germ warfare criminals was General Otozoo Yamada, the commander-in-chief of the million man Japanese army occupying Manchuria. The Soviets are very much aware that General Douglas McArthur has secretly pardoned the perpetrators in Allied custody in exchange for their scientific data, some of it obtained by grotesque experiments on Soviet women and infants. Plague-infested fleas, bred in the lab facilities of the covert medical experiment unit were spread by low-flying Japanese airplanes over populated Chinese locations, such as the coastal city of Ningbo in 1940, and the city of Changde, Hunan province in 1941. This military aerial spraying resulted in human epidemics of bubonic plague that killed thousands of innocent Chinese civilians. Unit 731's bio-weapons research resulted in tens of thousands of deaths in China – possibly as many as 200,000 casualties by some estimates Less than a year later McArthur deployed the bio-weapons during the amphibious operation at Incheon, when United Nations forces broke out of the Pusan region through a series of landings in enemy territory in their bid to re-unite Korea. After all, as Brass Hat often said, "There is no substitute for victory". -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1990, after refuelling and following the rapid fitting of a nuclear weapon to his F-16 at Dimona, Israeli Flying Ace Ilan Ramon returns for a do-or-die solo mission to the desert of Western Iraq. Ramon expertly detonates the warhead directly on top of the giant spider which had emerged from the crater at Osirak. The strike is only the third time mankind has launched a nuclear weapon in anger. Unlike the first two launches however, the strike has absolutely no effect. A few orange patches glow briefly on the arachnid's back. The spider emerges from the mushroom cloud, accelerating west towards the State of Israel. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

Before(cont.)
Janice watched the two soldiers walk down the stairs until they finally went through the door at the bottom of the stairwell. She then started her hike up the stairs, trying to keep her huffs and puffs as quiet as she could. It was amazing how much the sound echoed in the stairwell, and each step made her feel like she was giving herself away. She kept looking down to see if the soldiers had come back. Just before she reached the final landing, she heard the click of the door at the first floor opening up, and she sat down quietly.
Looking down carefully, she saw the two hazmat-suited men walking up casually. They didn't seem to be in any hurry, so she was pretty sure that they hadn't seen her. She told herself to make a note in her journal that the Army was apparently lying to its own people and telling them that radiation levels were high in Waco. She was kind of curious as to why they were here; since this was the meteorology building, perhaps they were retrieving some kind of meteorological evidence about the 'explosion'. She almost wanted to spy on them and see what they were doing, but decided that getting her visual proof of Crawford's continued existence came first.
It took them forever, but they finally left the stairwell at the 6th floor. Once the door was closed, she climbed to the top and tried the door to the roof. Naturally, it was locked. She dropped her backpack lightly on the floor and unzipped the top.
She had a tool that was highly illegal that a fellow investigator had donated a couple of years ago, and she pulled it out. It fit over the lock, and was supposed to be able to slice through the mechanism with ease. In practice, though, she struggled with it for a good five minutes, making a huge racket that bounced around the walls and announced her presence like an unwelcome sonic calling card.
When she finally cut the lock out, she looked down the stairwell nervously, half-expecting to see the hazmat men on their way up towards her with guns drawn. But no, she was still alone. She turned off her night-vision goggles and put them into her backpack, then opened the door slowly.
Sunlight blazed over her, making her blink as she slipped onto the roof and carefully shut the door behind her. She took a few minutes to let her eyes adjust, huddled up against the door as the freezing wind whipped at her. She pulled her coat closer around her and wished for thicker pants. Once her eyes were used to the bright light, she stood up again and looked around.
The central Texas countryside spread out before her in chilly glory. She pulled her binoculars out of the pack, and just as a precaution, checked the Geiger counter, too. It still read normal levels of background radiation. She hoped that the guy who sold it to her wasn't just a BS artist who took advantage of her paranoia.
She walked over to the ledge and peered out over Waco. The wind was terribly strong up here, and she was a little frightened of heights, so this wasn't an ideal location for her. According to her compass, she was facing west, so she raised her binoculars to her eyes and started searching for the president's ranch. That kept her mind off the fact that a good wind could knock her down at any second.
After several minutes of fruitless searching, her face was feeling raw, so she packed her things back up and retreated to the stairwell. She put her goggles on and looked down to make sure the soldiers weren't around, then sat down and tried to warm herself back up.
She pulled out her laptop and turned it on. The battery soon had her legs warmed up again. Soldier-boys must have worked some mojo down below, because the building's wifi was working – she was connected to the Internet. She took the opportunity to make a quick entry on her web site and email what she had found out to a few key friends. She also asked the closest paranormal investigator she knew, a guy in Amarillo, if he could drive down to the motel outside of town and keep an eye on Miss Raintree.
She wasn't very hopeful that Miss Raintree was still at the motel, but it didn't hurt to see if somebody could go keep an eye on her. She shut down the computer, then went back to her rooftop search.

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