Hey all, First, thanks for the praise! I'm glad you like it. Now for the issues... The link again is http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/fluxx/chrono2k.htm From: Jonathan Cogan <coganjd@xxxxxxxxxxx> > One change I'd make is the patch for 2003 an abolition of the > electoral college and build that into someone's identity :) From: Laurie Menke <laurie_menke@xxxxxxxxx> > Ooohh...I like the abolition of electoral college idea! :o) Interesting idea. But is it of enough historical interest to warrant a place on the timeline? Ultimately, how many lives would it impact? I rather like the interplay between the actual event and the patch for 2003. What does everyone else think? From: Laurie Menke <laurie_menke@xxxxxxxxx> > Am I right in assuming that the blue-->green and > purple-->brown color changes as well as the '' > designations after the dates represent the cross into > the future? Correct. On Andy's Mysteries of the Timeline page, he has some thoughts about a possible Chrononauts sequel, set in the future, using a green-and-brown timeline. (He also furnished the graphics and text for the 9/11 linchpin.) I'm using the 'double-prime' designation for future events because these represent ANOTHER alternate history. Since we don't actually know what 2015 in our, real-world timeline will bring, we can consider both 2015' and 2015" as alternate scenarios. From: Laurie Menke <laurie_menke@xxxxxxxxx> > Why does Man Walks on Mars depend on the World Oil > Supply being Exhausted? Is it that they are searching > on Mars for an alternate fuel supply? From: Matthew Sach <matt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Aha, note that it's the Europeans who do the trip, and in Europe there's a > lot of fusion research happening. Series like Peter F. Hamilton's "Night's > Dawn" trilogy mention spaceships with "fusion" drives, but I'm still not > exactly sure how they're supposed to work. > I wondered if it was something to do with work being done on ion-drive > propulsion. Then I realised that you still need a buttload of reaction > mass to get out of Earth's gravity well, and an ion-drive is a bit slow > for humans over shorter distances like in-system travel. I originally imagined the 2015' and 2019' timeline as being 'dominant.' There's already an initiative in China to establish a lunar base, but this would only be possible with a power source as reliable and renewable as fusion. If that technology hadn't been developed by that time, the dominant aerospace program would shift, possibly to a Mars mission. I really wanted something special for the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, and this seemed like a good fit. I felt that a European program would be more successful for a number of reasons. First, NASA (and arguably, the USA as a superpower) is on the decline. The space program was crippled by the grounding of the fleet following Columbia, the Hubble is being abandoned, the ISS is bleeding money and there's little interest in the space program in the mainstream public. The European Union, on the other hand, is rapidly growing as a political, technological, and economic force on the global stage. Private enterprise is gaining momentum, and the British Virgin Corporation has the rights to SpaceShip One and is beginning commercial spaceflight ventures. European renewable energy technology is years ahead of the rest of the world; hydroelectric, solar and wind power could sustain them while the rest of the world is embroiled in a post-industrial age scramble for energy resources. Under these circumstances, a united Europe would conceivably have the power, technology, and motivation to attempt a Mars landing, where no other nation could. From: Matthew Sach <matt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > I was thoroughly impressed, and I'm tempted to print > them out and add them to the game if you're happy with > that? Don't print these out; they have been scaled down for the webpage. I have the original Photoshop documents more than twice the resolution, and once I've finalized these cards I'll make those available to download and print. Additionally you'd need the appropriate cardstock to shuffle in the patches and identities with the rest of the deck, unless you pasted them over your spare Beatles Reunion Albums and another set of Lost Identities. I'm surprised nobody commented on the Identities! I really like them, and there's plenty of room for anyone else's contributions. Pete