Future timeline I created.

[Sidewinder]

You need a better reason for "devastate North America and erase the US of A as a political entity" than a fucking geographical explosion at Yellowstone National Park. Seriously, what's so scary about a geyser that would have a devastating effect on something 500 miles away? If it caused an earthquake, I doubt the shock waves from will be noticeable by normal humans from 200 miles away from the epicenter. If it sent out deadly clouds of superheated steam, the steam would cool down and cease to be deadly after travelling a few miles. (There's a reason Gainax changed the cause of the Second Impact from the evaporation of the Dead Sea to the sudden melting of the Antarctic Ice Cap!)

And the replacement of national governments by the Freethought Alliance... sorry, it sounds too much like the UN-wanking I keep seeing in anime. Any attempt by the Freethought Alliance to enforce order in a nation that doesn't want to join will quickly resemble US efforts in Iraq, i.e., sniper and terror bomb attacks whittling away at Freethought Alliance occupational forces while Freethought Alliance citizens protest against the government for getting their sons and daughters killed. And the idea that the Freethought Alliance can be a meritocracy... Every government in this world tries to be a meritocracy, but they run into an impenetrable barrier known as "human nature." The Freethought Alliance will run into the same problem, and will have the same problems with corruption, nepotism, and incompetence that plague governments in this world.

[Sidewinder]

The only thing I was able to stomach was the idea that aliens put God Machines on Earth to suppress the human race's inherent psychic abilities. Just focus on that, and cut out all the bullshit about that leads to the establishment of the Freethought Alliance. You can leave the Freethought Alliance in as the psychics' idea of utopia, comparable to Karl Marx's idea of a state under perfect communism, but it should be obvious that human nature makes it impossible to establish the Freethought Alliance as the psychics imagined, just as real-world communists found it impossible to establish the utopia Marx had in mind.

[Steve]

It actually occurs to me that there is a race out there that could, thematically, develop the super energy resource.

Dear God almighty, have mercy on our souls..... they have GNOMES!!! Azerothian Gnomes! WE'RE ALL DOOOOOOOOOOOMED!!!!!!!

[CaptainChewbacca]

You need a better reason for "devastate North America and erase the US of A as a political entity" than a fucking geographical explosion at Yellowstone National Park. Seriously, what's so scary about a geyser that would have a devastating effect on something 500 miles away? If it caused an earthquake, I doubt the shock waves from will be noticeable by normal humans from 200 miles away from the epicenter. If it sent out deadly clouds of superheated steam, the steam would cool down and cease to be deadly after travelling a few miles. (There's a reason Gainax changed the cause of the Second Impact from the evaporation of the Dead Sea to the sudden melting of the Antarctic Ice Cap!)

An explosive eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera (not a geyser) would bury over half of North America under 10-300 feet of ash, depending on how close you were to the volcano. Everything within 500 miles is guaranteed dead, everything within about 1500-2000 is seriously screwed.

Its one of the few things he got right. Sorry, your gripe is invalid.

[Duckie]

Ok, I feel bad for Oni since this obviously was not a well thought out post. So I'm going to post my own constructive criticism. I got all my sarcasm out of my system beforehand.

Alright, I wanted to create my own future science-fiction scenario as a setting for some stories I eventually planned to write. I figured the best way to do this was establish a timeline that, at the very least, doesn't suspend too many peoples' SOD.

You're probably best making shit up. Plausable timelines, especially in the near future, are very hard to make. As you will soon see, unfortunately.

So I came up with the following after a night of too much caffeine and too little sleep. I'm open to any thoughts and/or suggestions, and especially open to having any glaring holes, inconsistencies, or scientific errors (I tried to avoid using any sort of hard numbers and keep things vague enough for the scientific and technical-minded to fill the gaps with something workable, because I sort of suck at the science).

It's best not to get involved with science, yes.

So anyways, my as-of-yet unnamed future timeline:

2012 - Economies around the world shudder as peak-oil hits hard. Great Britain, Australia, and the US are hit hardest by it, their economies taking nosedives. China and Russia are also hit by the oil-shortages, but manage to scrounge along better thanks to easier access to the dwindling reserves.

While perhaps a good thematic estimate, a collapse of the world economy by 2012 is unlikely. Having asked one of our resident Peak Oil experts, the Duchess of Zeon, I have been informed that a better date would be 2030 or 25 before Oil Production becomes completely unsustainable. 2012 is likely to be the world peak, but reduced production and economic intertia will likely hold out.

The Bush Junta, rallying around a popular cry of restoring a traditional america, stages a military coup and manages to take control of the US government, declaring martial law.

No. First off, politics aside, I will assure you that I am as radical and left as just about anyone. Just mention the word "Corporate" around me. But. Using "Junta" to refer to a democratically elected government, competant or not, is bad taste and also marks you as a bit of wanker.

While a military coup of the united states is possible, despite being unlikely due to the constant populist indoctrination of the citizenry with "VOTE VOTE VOTE ON EVERYTHING", I hesitate to say that a particular adiministration.. especially one who can't be reelected in time for 2012, much less 2025-2030, is a very good choice of terminology.

If you are insistent, I suggest using a more complex but nuanced term such as the alliance between the Neoconservative and Religious Right wings of American Reactionary Politics.

The middle-east, nearly a constant battleground for the better part of a century, sees unprecedented levels of violence as the economic backlash destabilizes some of the governments there.

No objections.

2020 - After the overly vocal minority had shouted, the silent majority in the US finally begin raising their voices against the Bush Junta and the dictatorship/military rule the country is now under. Large segments of the military agree with them, and in true irony, large segments of the northern mid-west and western US declare secession from the country.

If somehow a military coup did seize control, regional secession both for autonomy and as a rival restorationist government attempt would be likely. Political sniping aside in the beginning of it, I am wondering why this took eight years to accomplish save that 2020 is a round number.

These factions are declared 'terrorist cells' by those in power, and the promise is made to free those unfortunates living under the radical dictates of the treasonous unamericans.

Terrorists typically are not in command of nations. This is a rather blatant anachronism to current politics and probably should be something more like 'illegal revolutionaries' or something.

This is easier said than done, as several prominent generals had deserted to the secessionists, taking their troops with them. 'Border' cities experience massive amounts of civil-warfare, guerilla tactics, and urban combat between the secessionists and Washington loyalists, much like Baghdad several decades before.

Baghdad mention aside, I question whether a military coup can survive if many prominent members of the military and their intensely loyal (why are people defecting as regimental blocs in the chain of command) troops opposed it.

Though the secessionists have much greater numbers, militarily, they are also split into several different factions, depending on geographical location and general ideology. Washington also has far better access to the increasingly precious oil, ransoming it from the middle-east under threat of the largest nuclear stockpile in the world. On top of that, they also continue to run their elaborate propaganda-machine relentlessly, and many under their shroud remain ignorant and unaware of the greater conflicts about them.

This is actually a fair estimate, in that secessionists always have a disadvantage, but running a military campaign of any non-guerilla sort takes IMMENSE quantities of oil. Think about that for a second.

Iran's economy and government begin to crumble under the strain of Peak Oil. Isreal, sensing weakness, and still having US backing, initiate full hostilities. Many middle-east territories fall to this alliance, further polarizing the middle-eastern conflict.

Iran as a regional superpower is not that far fetched.

Japan and South Korea form an alliance, moving together in a relatively casualty-free annexing of North Korea, gutted by poverty and civil-war. This alliance finds evidence of massive genocides covered up by Kim Jong's junta before the government finally imploded under its own economic strain.

The sicilian would probably have been told by now, so I am telling you: I am not sure you know what "Junta" means.

Also, genocides? There is only one race in North Korea- Koreans. How many races can he exterminate?

Further, Japan, a race of xenophobic dicks supported only as a regional power by their economy and american hegemony, are not going to be worth shit in a post-peak-oil universe where the US inexplicably, as the US is wont to do because it makes for interesting reading, splits into pieces.

North Korea has one of the largest land armies in the world (not one of the best, but one of the largest) and ridiculous amounts of artillery trained on all parts of the DMZ and especially Seoul. Casualties won't be light unless everybody in NK starves to death before the invasion. Peak Oil also won't affect North Korea much as they don't have many resources to lose anyhow.

Africa, always a brewing-ground for disease, is now struck worse than ever. Several highly virulant plagues sweep across the continent, leaving death and chaos in their wake. By 2025, an estimated 40% of the continent's population is dead.

No problem with that, although AIDS would probably have done this itself given a bit more time.

The European Union has sealed its borders, no longer allowing the exponentially growing tide of immigrants through. Despite the growing number of terrorist-style attacks from within, this continent fairs better than most of the world, responsibly (relatively speaking) managing its own dwindling oil reserves and enforcing social order.

Where has the massive Muslim population of europe gone? Further, why is Europe completely united and not squabbling? The power of liberalness? I won't lie- even though I don't want to insult or demean you, this entire story is just masturbation to the power of atheism and liberalism to defeat religion. As we shall see.

Canada begins following the US in economic decline, but its central government holds the territories together far better than the US did. Quebec threatens to secede many times, but is shouted down both from without and within each time and never actually follows through.

Quebec would not secede in this era, not normally, as it is dependent economically on the rest of Canada as is for all the money they give it to placate it. Further, why is the US worse than Canada? Is it because there's less religion in it and thus less forces of evil? There's more artful ways to make a story showing the excesses of religion...

2050 - The Bush Junta fractures from the inside. It's leader now dead after a long bout with liver-cancer, and many of those who originally held the personality-cult together long gone, internal rivalries take over and a power struggle takes place. Eventually an impotent figure-head is installed as leader on the agreement that he's too incompetent to deliberately further the agenda of any specific faction. The rest in power know that this is only a temporary measure, though, and continue plotting to seize their own power and hopefully retake the entire nation from the secessionists.

I sincerely hope this is not some kind of parallel to Nazi Germany in Fatherland on purpose.

What's left of the US joins into an alliance with Great Britain and Australia. The former having long seceded from the EU and the latter on the verge of complete collapse. This new alliance is held up partially by what little economic clout Great Britain has left, and by the stockpile of nukes the US still controls.

What purpose has the EU, assuming Britain is still in it, and the Commonwealth of Nations for involving themselves in a war they won't gain anything from?

The New Confederate States of Christiania, originally secessionist states from the bible-belt area of the US, ally themselves with the Washington Loyalists, on the condition that the Baptists be made the official religion of both countries.

Just... no.

Global warming has been showing more and more noticeable affects during the past half-century. But now it takes a dramatic step upwards as both the Gulf of Mexico is decimated by multiple hurricanes, far worse than anything seen before, and the west coast of the US is hit with flooding of a magnitude never before equaled.

Fine, fine. Sure. It's just a laundry list of liberal talking points (not that I have anything wrong with global warming, but the message isn't the point, it's the execution), but it's not technically impossible. Although the link between global warming and increased hurricanes is somewhat tenuous.

The African plagues find their way overseas, despite attempts at quarantine. South America and Mexico are struck hard, quickly suffering the same fate as Africa. Africa is now almost completely devoid of human life, the last estimates before borders were declared completely sealed by joint military action placing the death-toll at about 98% of the continent's population.

98? Have you studied logistical growth at all? Even assuming nobody has immunity, population density in africa would have to be immense for any deadly disease to spread that far before burning out. Airborne Ebola would not, for certain.

The European Union enters progressively more militaristic regimes to counter the rising terrorism, social dischord and economic crumbling thanks to Peak Oil and their increasingly isolationist nature. Again, despite this...or because of it, the average citizen of the EU is far better off than pretty much anywhere else in the world.

In this universe, the EU has 'regimes'? Also, why is the average EU citizen better off, when the EU isn't doing anything special except being liberal and more atheist?

Russia regains a little power and influence in world-politics by trading away some of its oil-fields, the last remaining fields in the world, and its few viable nukes. China, on the other hand, collapses thanks to a two-front cold war with Russia and the Korea-Japan alliance. Singapore and some of the few relatively affluent nations of southeast-Asia join this growing alliance.

Singapore won't be affluent after an economic collapse, it is entirely dependent upon foreign trade and its legacy from britain making it a non-3rd world country.

The African plagues also spread northeast. India, economically worse than before, though not completely devastated, and many areas of the middle-east start reporting cases of the plagues.

India is more dense than Africa. Any plague that kills 98% of africa will literally exterminate India, China, and most of Europe.

Isreal's offensive against the entirety of the middle-east comes to a faltering halt as aid from the US dwindles to a trickle.

It wasn't a trickle while the US was involved in a huge civil war a decade or more ago?

Sensing the weakness, many arab nations strike back hard, taking back much of the territory they lost. Several nuclear detonations are reported in the area, who set them off, where they precisely occured, casualties, etc., were never reported. Much sabre-rattling on all sides ensues and the world is poised at the brink of complete, mutual nuclear bombardment.

I find it unlikely nobody is capable of locating where a nuke went off on the map and/or knowing who did it in the middle of a clear 2-sided war.

2080 - The Calamity occurs. Just as the world was about to annihilate itself with nuclear war, nature pre-empts it. Yellowstone Park, always a hotbed of geological activity, simply blows up. Not nearly as badly as it could have, thankfully, but enough to turn pretty much the entire US and all its secessionist states into a wasteland.

I am not certain of the severity of the Yellowstone theoretical Eruption, but I doubt it is this severe.

The entire western hemisphere...the parts that survived the eruption, following winter, and those that survived the plagues still ravaging Mexico, Central, and South America, are reduced to pre-industrial technology levels. Around the world temperatures drop sharply, an almost welcome change from the steady rising global-warming had caused. Heavy cloud-cover from eruption-detritus causes an almost constant cold-gloom to settle over everything.

Like I said, this appears to be barely-not-extinction level for the earth by perhaps an order of magnitude. Somehow that makes me doubt the next developments.

The EU continues to decline, finally beginning to succumb to the effects of Peak Oil and split at the seams. Rioting increases, as does terrorist activities, and the EU begins to fracture from within, still desperately trying to hold together.

Why is the EU able to keep using oil for 40 years after oil runs out for the rest of the world? Is it because they're atheists?

The middle-east and southern Asia actually calm down somewhat, militarily. But that is only because the plagues are spreading, and a majority of the population is finding out that massive internal hemorraging is a bit more pressing than religiously-motivated warfare.

Why is there no ethnic strife, only religious war?

Great Britain, suddenly severed from the US by the Yellowstone eruption, collapses from within. London is burned down, again, this time due to rioting, bombings, and famine.

Great Britain was powerful and economically stable enough to support the US federal government in a war, but once the US federal government is hit by a massive doom volcano it collapses out of sympathetic pain for their anglo-saxon brothers?

The Korea-Japan alliance, on the other hand, seems to maintain its holdings with little trouble at all. Though they don't seem to have the might to continue aggressively expanding, any attempts at hostility against the alliance are decisively turned away with overwhelming force. Those few outside the alliance who are still in an economic position to observe note that the Korea-Japan alliance seem to have an outside supplier keeping them afloat, though no one has any idea who it could be.

Aliens are giving Japan Oil, so that Japan can continue its Greater East Asian Co Prosperity Sphere. Because?

Australia continues to decline, but no one gives a shit about them. Fucking kangaroos.

No problems with this.

2100 - A new force appears rather suddenly. A government operating out of bunkers and protected areas in several provinces of Canada. The government is a meritocracy of scientists, engineers, and social and psychological experts.

What sort of time warp put the Foundation in your universe?

They reveal that they had been building power in secret for several decades now. Having predicted the Yellowstone eruption, they were able to take measures to survive it far better than the rest of the continent. During the past half-century, their technological and scientific progress had continued advancing, mostly in secret, while the rest of the worlds' declined. They had entered into a pact with the Korea-Japan alliance thirty years ago, trading technology and military supplies for raw materials for construction of more.

Nobody notices this? How oblivious is the rest of the world. Also, why did predicting the Yellowstone Eruption using their psychohistory let the foundation survive an explosion that almost sterilized North America and caused fallout clouds to block out the sun for lengthy periods of time?

Further, why is the foundation the only power to not have declining technology levels? Is it because they're liberal, or because they're atheists?

This new government expands aggressively, quickly taking over a mostly-helpless and decimated North America. The Korea-Japan alliance also does so with Asia, now openly aided by the New Montreal Protectorate.

Ok.

It turns out that the NMP had developed a new sort of power. Vaguely related in ways to both nuclear and petroleum power, this new energy-source combined the best of both. Like nuclear power, it was massively efficient, even exheeding it by several orders of magnitude. Like petroleum-power, though, it could easily be scaled up and down to power anything from small electronics to massive cities.

Nuclear and petroleum are not at all alike.

With a fuel-source literally millions of times more efficient than gasoline, the NMP and KJA encountered very little resistance to their expansion.

They also should solve every problem on earth with this quite quickly, if not usher in a technological singularity. Which they appear to do, actually.

They offered a simple deal to the countries they invaded: Either allow occupation and integration into the alliance (which included submitting to state-sponsored non-denominational schooling and disbanding of all state-sponsored religions), or have their borders sealed and quarantined. Citizens of resistant countries were offered open access to the alliance's benefits if they 'converted'. Otherwise, enough food and supplies to barely subsist on were allowed into quarantined countries and no more.

In a post-apocalyptic world where billions of people are dying from airborne ebola, lack of gasoline, religion, lack of atheism, and religion, why in the world is stopping prayer at football games so important to the Foundation?

Also, why not offer and then invade. Offering a deal after shooting someone in the face is probably worthless, since having 1,000,000 times the energy resources and better technology makes you the equivalent of the Tripods.

The crumbling EU is approached with an offer for membership in this new alliance. In return, they are offered economic re-vitalization, military aid to put down insurrection, and relief-efforts in their more poverty-stricken areas. Some in the EU power-structure insisted they remain independent from this new power, consequences be damned, but more reasonable minds prevailed, and the EU is integrated into the newly-dubbed Freethought Alliance.

Nationalism be damned, it appears. Europe is, after all, only a single country.

I'll finish tomorrow, it's late and I have stuff to do. I'm sorry if my criticism is a bit biting, it has to be horrible as a writer to submit something and have it torn apart. That's why I don't submit anything to anybody.

However, I must again, if you didn't notice, question your motives.

Do you want to write a story about how religion and conservatism are evil and liberalism and atheism will triumph, or do you want to write a tract?

The latter is what you have, and I've seen one similar before. It's called The Probability Broach.

[Duckie]

You need a better reason for "devastate North America and erase the US of A as a political entity" than a fucking geographical explosion at Yellowstone National Park. Seriously, what's so scary about a geyser that would have a devastating effect on something 500 miles away? If it caused an earthquake, I doubt the shock waves from will be noticeable by normal humans from 200 miles away from the epicenter. If it sent out deadly clouds of superheated steam, the steam would cool down and cease to be deadly after travelling a few miles. (There's a reason Gainax changed the cause of the Second Impact from the evaporation of the Dead Sea to the sudden melting of the Antarctic Ice Cap!)

An explosive eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera (not a geyser) would bury over half of North America under 10-300 feet of ash, depending on how close you were to the volcano. Everything within 500 miles is guaranteed dead, everything within about 1500-2000 is seriously screwed.

Its one of the few things he got right. Sorry, your gripe is invalid.

Gripe on how severe the eruption is retracted.

Further, though, I'd like to add- Why did oil run out for europe 40 years after the rest of the world as soon as the liberalness of the government of europe eroded away?

Also, I knew that aliens weren't funding Korpan. I was being fascetious as to why The Foundation was.

[18-Till-I-Die]

I would like to point out one thing that is REALLY bad about this...

For me, it's not the wankyness of it. I dont really care about wank much, i have a very high limit.

It's this...

They offered a simple deal to the countries they invaded: Either allow occupation and integration into the alliance (which included submitting to state-sponsored non-denominational schooling and disbanding of all state-sponsored religions), or have their borders sealed and quarantined. Citizens of resistant countries were offered open access to the alliance's benefits if they 'converted'. Otherwise, enough food and supplies to barely subsist on were allowed into quarantined countries and no more.

Wait, so, let me get this straight...

This benevolent, wonderous alliance of utopian dreamers are so benevolent and loving that they...let people starve (barely survive on food that is just sufficient to live, anyway, same difference) just to prove how EVIL religion is.

Wow.

They must be the most amoral cunts in history. Seriously this is an insult to atheism, and i'm not even an atheist. Really this whole line just makes them seem like myopic bastards who are too focused on their own idealology to help mankind while the world is collapsing into dust. And for what? To destroy religion? So people would starve to death to prove how bad religion is? What?

Either their uber-energy source releases radiation that causes a person to completely lose all objectivity, or they're just as psychopathic and fanatical as their supposed enemies. "Enemies" who, by the way, were invaded by them. Not the other way around. Let me hammer this point home...they go into OTHER countries, and hold a gun to their head, threatening to let them starve by the millions if they dont submit to their "rightful" rulers, the glorious Alliance. So basically they're the Persian Empire from 300 but with less style.

Honestly people are going to think this is the Turner Diaries but with less style. It's almost like some mirror universe Chick Tract.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

You need a better reason for "devastate North America and erase the US of A as a political entity" than a fucking geographical explosion at Yellowstone National Park. Seriously, what's so scary about a geyser that would have a devastating effect on something 500 miles away? If it caused an earthquake, I doubt the shock waves from will be noticeable by normal humans from 200 miles away from the epicenter. If it sent out deadly clouds of superheated steam, the steam would cool down and cease to be deadly after travelling a few miles. (There's a reason Gainax changed the cause of the Second Impact from the evaporation of the Dead Sea to the sudden melting of the Antarctic Ice Cap!)

An explosive eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera (not a geyser) would bury over half of North America under 10-300 feet of ash, depending on how close you were to the volcano. Everything within 500 miles is guaranteed dead, everything within about 1500-2000 is seriously screwed.

Its one of the few things he got right. Sorry, your gripe is invalid.

Prevailing winds, however, would push the ash eastward, tending to spare the west coast (which is protected by two immense mountain ranges, after all!), while guaranteeing the total devastation of everything west of the Mississippi river and severe effects to everything between the Mississippi and the Appalachians.

[CaptainChewbacca]

The Duchess is right. Its not an extinction-level event, but you'll have about 5 years of winter for the Northern Hemisphere, and America will be pretty well buggered.

Thankfully, the most liberal and atheistic parts of America will survive to be inducted into the doubleplussgood Foundation.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

Remember this, Oni. The Soviet Union was Atheist, and it was socialist. That did not stop them from being murderous, totalitarian, corrupt, and ruthless. It also did not magically save them from the effects of economic collapse.

The Freethought Alliance would really be quite Orwellian in the real world. Even in this tract they starve and conquer other countries throughout the world to satisfy their greed and bottomless ambition. In the real world they'd probably be like Nazi Germany, Take Two.

[Stuart]

Alright, so there are a decent pile of fundamentally unworkable parts of the near-future that I'll obviously need to make some drastic changes to, thanks for the advice there. Now, what about the latter half? Can I take the complete lack of commentary on that as an indication that you thought it was halfway-decent, or merely that the first half was so unintentionally bad that the second half looked tame in comparison? And yeah, it was at the very least a semi-serious attempt at a plausible future storyline, but I obviously failed at that, so I'll be making quite a few changes.

OK. I read the balance. My advice would be to scrap the whole thing and start again. The idea of a Yellowstone super-eruption causing a national calamity isn't bad. In fact, what I would do is discard everything else and start from that point. The Yellowstone super-volcano erupts, plot the consequences of that. Follow through what it would mean for various parts of the world. For example, how would India cope with the five years of dramatically-reduced crops? What would the impact be on their society? With the super-volcano eruption taking place, "global warming" is a thing of the past, we'd be doing well to escape another ice age. Certainly, the weather goes crazy. How do coastal regions cope with that? With the U.S. an economic cripple, the whole balance of world trade and finance changes.

Just the Yellowstone super-eruption gives you enough material for a whole line of stories. Pretty much everything else you mention can be junked.

[Jadeite]

To expand on Stuart's post, I've found the key to creating alt-history timelines is to look in detail at a nation, create a scenario, and then decide what that nation would naturally do from there. It's typically best to start with one event and then let things flow from there, with deciding how each nation or group in the timeline would logically respond to the previous event.

For example, in a future timeline that one of my friends is writing for the fun of it, China engages in a border war with Russia over the resources of Siberia. Pro-independence politicians in Taiwan seize the moment of China's distraction and declare independence. The US backs Taiwan, and faced with the prospect of a two front war, China grudgingly lets Taiwan go without a fight (for now).

Sometimes your timeline will start to go in a direction that wasn't what you initially wanted, but if its more realistic, then maybe you should allow it. With the China/Taiwan scenario, the possible choices were that China lets Taiwan go without a fight, that China attacks Taiwan and the US intervenes, and that China attacks Taiwan and the US turns out to be bluffing. Each of these had their own spin-off effects, and so on.

Despite the fact that he wanted a Russia/Amerian vs Chinese war, we debated it and decided that the Chinese leadership would probably be more concerned with their war with Russians, would realize that they can't win a two front war, and simply vow to repay Taiwan for the humiliation at a later date.

What you've done is created too many events that obviously take place only because you wanted them too, such as the American coup, Civil War, and Yellowstone eruption. Disbelief is created because its painfully obvious that your timeline has the express purpose of shitting on the US and finding ways to miraclously salvage the EU.

[fgalkin]

Dear Emperor, it's The Probability Broach but with LIBERAL ATHEISM instead of LIBERTARIANISM.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Joviwan]

The Duchess is right. Its not an extinction-level event, but you'll have about 5 years of winter for the Northern Hemisphere, and America will be pretty well buggered.

Thankfully, the most liberal and atheistic parts of America will survive to be inducted into the doubleplussgood Foundation.

Wont the erruption cause tectonic movement? My mind imagines that something that enormous would kick the San andreas fault in the teeth.

[CaptainChewbacca]

The Duchess is right. Its not an extinction-level event, but you'll have about 5 years of winter for the Northern Hemisphere, and America will be pretty well buggered.

Thankfully, the most liberal and atheistic parts of America will survive to be inducted into the doubleplussgood Foundation.

Wont the erruption cause tectonic movement? My mind imagines that something that enormous would kick the San andreas fault in the teeth.

It might cause tremors, but its far removed from the San andreas fault. Look at a map of the US, and see how far it is from the coast of California to Northern Wyoming. A caldera eruption is (seismically) an intense local disturbance which isn't felt more than a few hundred miles away.

The Long Valley Caldera, now, that might just do something.

[Joviwan]

The Duchess is right. Its not an extinction-level event, but you'll have about 5 years of winter for the Northern Hemisphere, and America will be pretty well buggered.

Thankfully, the most liberal and atheistic parts of America will survive to be inducted into the doubleplussgood Foundation.

Wont the erruption cause tectonic movement? My mind imagines that something that enormous would kick the San andreas fault in the teeth.

It might cause tremors, but its far removed from the San andreas fault. Look at a map of the US, and see how far it is from the coast of California to Northern Wyoming. A caldera eruption is (seismically) an intense local disturbance which isn't felt more than a few hundred miles away.

The Long Valley Caldera, now, that might just do something.

I'll take your word for it, though I still don't trust the san andreas, considering its also supposed to go in the future (at least according to what I've heard).

As for being on topic, if you really want the US to suffer, a long valley erruption that did manage to kick the san andreas in the teeth would be awesome. california suddenly humping nevada and arizona while the country is blanketed in ash... mm, good times.

[Erik von Nein]

I'll take your word for it, though I still don't trust the san andreas, considering its also supposed to go in the future (at least according to what I've heard).

As for being on topic, if you really want the US to suffer, a long valley erruption that did manage to kick the san andreas in the teeth would be awesome. california suddenly humping nevada and arizona while the country is blanketed in ash... mm, good times.

What're you talking about? Do you mean "kicking" the San Andreas by forcing it to release a huge amount of pent up pressure and there being an earthquake similar to the Indian Ocean on a few years back? Because, even with that the actual land isn't going to be going anywhere near Nevada.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I'll take your word for it, though I still don't trust the san andreas, considering its also supposed to go in the future (at least according to what I've heard).

As for being on topic, if you really want the US to suffer, a long valley erruption that did manage to kick the san andreas in the teeth would be awesome. california suddenly humping nevada and arizona while the country is blanketed in ash... mm, good times.

Joviwan, your science is bad and a crime against the geotechnical arts, and I must ask you to cease and desist at once in the name of the high Chancellory of Geo-Dudes.

[Joviwan]

I suppose I might be suffering the delirium of all those end of the world tv programs, but I was under the impression that the san andreas fault line was a HUGE disaster waiting to happen for the west coast? Am I mistaken with this assumption?

As for humping other states, that was mild hyperbole. I've just been operating under the assumption that the fault line giving in would be sort of catastrophic.

[Joviwan]

Ghetto edit: Yeah, sorry. From now on, anything geological coming from my lips should be marked as "completely uninformed" and "potentially nonsensical"

[Erik von Nein]

I suppose I might be suffering the delirium of all those end of the world tv programs, but I was under the impression that the san andreas fault line was a HUGE disaster waiting to happen for the west coast? Am I mistaken with this assumption?

For the entire west coast? No, not really. It'd have to be an earthquake the magnitude of the Indian Ocean one I mentioned earlier, and even then it'll fuck over whatever's near it and within a several hundred miles, but it's not going to devastate the entire west coast. Do you know how earthquakes work?

Yes, the San Andreas happens to be one of the most active faultlines, especially in the United States. It's great for studying but I haven't heard any about how it's building up this massive, coast-destroying earthquake.

Yeah, you probably should stop watching shit like "10.0" or whatever that retarded, impossible-to-achieve earthquake movie was.

[Illuminatus Primus]

A nerd/progressive wishlist and sociopolitical screed does not an interesting premise make.

[Joviwan]

I suppose I might be suffering the delirium of all those end of the world tv programs, but I was under the impression that the san andreas fault line was a HUGE disaster waiting to happen for the west coast? Am I mistaken with this assumption?

For the entire west coast? No, not really. It'd have to be an earthquake the magnitude of the Indian Ocean one I mentioned earlier, and even then it'll fuck over whatever's near it and within a several hundred miles, but it's not going to devastate the entire west coast. Do you know how earthquakes work?

Yes, the San Andreas happens to be one of the most active faultlines, especially in the United States. It's great for studying but I haven't heard any about how it's building up this massive, coast-destroying earthquake.

Yeah, you probably should stop watching shit like "10.0" or whatever that retarded, impossible-to-achieve earthquake movie was.

Duely noted. It shames me to admit that I've watched that kind of crap too much (I love popcorn flicks). I'm going to dub it Michael Bay syndrome.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Duely noted. It shames me to admit that I've watched that kind of crap too much (I love popcorn flicks). I'm going to dub it Michael Bay syndrome.

Irwin Allen Syndrome would be probably more applicable.

[Joviwan]

Or whoever the assholes where that wrote/directed "The Core."

Damnit.