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Things that look like alternate history but aren't

Doctor Sulemain said:
"'Ti's Death to counterfeit" tickled me.
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That was quite common on American money at the time, both loyalist and rebel.

279px-US-Colonial_%28NJ-179%29-New_Jersey-25_Mar_1776_REV.jpg


They don't mess around in New Jersey.
 
I mentioned in today's frontpage article that Tony Jones' Cliveless World (as seen in "The Plague Policeman") features asymmetric aircraft. There are relatively few real-life examples, but one is the prototype German recon aircraft, the Blohm & Voss BV 141. It never went into full production due to lack of engine availability.

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Stateless said:
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Imagine if it had taken off (like an asymmetric airplane).
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See, this one is an interesting one because ITA wasn't meant to be a spelling reform wholesale but a pedagogical tool- it just wasn't/isn't very good for that, as the ability to spell things in ITA doesn't really translate to being able to spell them in standard English.

I think scenarios like EdT's Syndicalist Britain could have a solid chance of developing weird English language reforms, and OTL's America got close a few times.
 
Just watched Technology Connections' new video on old relay-based pinball machines (which is itself a source of fascinating ideas about alternate technological pathways). However, I mainly mention it because of one side point - the pinball machine he was showing, from the late 1970s, had a built-in difficulty setting (which only the proprietor could set, as it was on the inside). But rather than EASY, MEDIUM or HARD as one might expect from modern video games etc - to the point that we might wonder what other possibility is there - the choices were LIBERAL, MEDIUM (or MODERATE? not sure) and CONSERVATIVE. There's an interesting what-if - if that had stuck around for game difficulties, it might mean people don't associate those words purely with partisan politics and not think about what their inherent meaning is.

JesterBL said:
I think scenarios like EdT's Syndicalist Britain could have a solid chance of developing weird English language reforms, and OTL's America got close a few times.
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There's a fair few from 1950s America which just got brushed over, but make some things written at the time look well weird now - 'thru' for 'through' is a fairly well known one, but also 'prex' for 'president' springs to mind.
 
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Thande said:
Just watched Technology Connections' new video on old relay-based pinball machines (which is itself a source of fascinating ideas about alternate technological pathways). However, I mainly mention it because of one side point - the pinball machine he was showing, from the late 1970s, had a built-in difficulty setting (which only the proprietor could set, as it was on the inside). But rather than EASY, MEDIUM or HARD as one might expect from modern video games etc - to the point that we might wonder what other possibility is there - the choices were LIBERAL, MEDIUM (or MODERATE? not sure) and CONSERVATIVE. There's an interesting what-if - if that had stuck around for game difficulties, it might mean people don't associate those words purely with partisan politics and not think about what their inherent meaning is.
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ATL 2020s: "There's no shame in playing on Liberal mode."
 
I recognize that people can have whatever accents they have and I’m in favor of immigrants getting involved in politics, but there’s something about the combination of the use of “Parliament” and the American accent here. Feels like this is from a timeline where either British accents developed differently or the Framers chose a different term for the American legislature
 
TheHatMan98 said:
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For context, this is the County Sessions House on William Brown Street, Liverpool, and the above photo is from a film shoot in the 1990s

(I walked past it every day on my way to work for six years, so this particular bout of chronausea hits quite close to home!)
 
Ed Costello said:
For context, this is the County Sessions House on William Brown Street, Liverpool, and the above photo is from a film shoot in the 1990s

(I walked past it every day on my way to work for six years, so this particular bout of chronausea hits quite close to home!)
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Was the film shoot Fatherland?
 
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