Very Minor PODs
- Thread starter Emperor Norton I
- Start date
TR's telegram to Taft advising him of a Supreme Court appointment in 1902 is worded just a bit more persuasively-enough so that Taft is persuaded to take the appointment after resigning the governorship of the Phillippines.
Many people's, cities and objects names are really random when you think about it. Imagine an alternate dimension otherwise identical to ours but where DiCaprio's first name is Sandro or the Tyrannosaurus rex is known as Dynamosaurus imperiosus for example.
Whodoyouthinkiam
Banned
Maybe I'm just being naive, but wouldn't that have butterflied WWI?
Well, not butterflied it completely, because trouble had been brewing in Europe for decades, but it would have postponed it, and given it another cause. Hardly minor?
Those are good, too.
Well, it was a minor POD that would seemingly not mean anything, except that, as you said, the event sparked WWI. WWI was probably eventually going to start up, regardless, but it could have been completely different. A minor POD ends up causing huge differences.
I don't think people dying can count as minor PODs. After all, a death is not comparable to a coin toss
What about people not dying as they did OTL?
Sandro DiCaprio. I like it. It might be harder to get famous without a Ninja Turtle name, however.
Is it true that when Armstrong walked on the moon, he forgot what he was going to say and made up the "One giant leap for mankind"? If it is, then whatever he was going to say would probably have been just as poetic, but longer.
What if in stoplights, the yellow/amber ones were purple?
Could negative electric charges have been called positive and positive charges negative?
What if Hitler didn't have a mustache, or Lincoln didn't have a beard? That would have made them look less interesting, but isn't likely to change much. Except that no one would think Hitler and Chaplin resemble each other, butterflying away The Great Dictator. That could have some consequences.
Is it true that when Armstrong walked on the moon, he forgot what he was going to say and made up the "One giant leap for mankind"? If it is, then whatever he was going to say would probably have been just as poetic, but longer.
What if in stoplights, the yellow/amber ones were purple?
Could negative electric charges have been called positive and positive charges negative?
What if Hitler didn't have a mustache, or Lincoln didn't have a beard? That would have made them look less interesting, but isn't likely to change much. Except that no one would think Hitler and Chaplin resemble each other, butterflying away The Great Dictator. That could have some consequences.
Or what if the top light on a vertical stoplight and the left light on a horizontal stoplight was always green instead of always red?
That wouldn't make sense.
The electric charges make total sense. Electrons are what carry charge they SHOULD be positive. The guy who named the charges gueessed wrong. It would be pretty trivial to have the guess go the other way.
I think what the OP is asking for is not "minor change, huge butterflies", but "seemingly significant change, minor effects".
So, for example, Bush selecting, say, John Danforth as VP instead of Dick Cheney seems like a big change, but probably doesn't effect much -- Cheney remains one of Bush's close advisers, and the administration goes on much as OTL -- the big change being that Cheney doesn't become nearly as hated by the left as in OTL.
Likewise, Obama picking Sebelius or Kaine instead of Biden probably doesn't change much. (Aside from depriving us of the "not a witch" campaign.)
So, for example, Bush selecting, say, John Danforth as VP instead of Dick Cheney seems like a big change, but probably doesn't effect much -- Cheney remains one of Bush's close advisers, and the administration goes on much as OTL -- the big change being that Cheney doesn't become nearly as hated by the left as in OTL.
Likewise, Obama picking Sebelius or Kaine instead of Biden probably doesn't change much. (Aside from depriving us of the "not a witch" campaign.)
I'm asking for minor PODs, with either changes or absolutely no changes at all. So, for example, a coin flip going different. I do personally find the no change PODs interesting*, but do whatever, so long as its a minor POD.
*It's nice to see a response to our idea of a change in history altering history with a response of "This changes, and no one would give a sh*t, so nothing else changes".
*It's nice to see a response to our idea of a change in history altering history with a response of "This changes, and no one would give a sh*t, so nothing else changes".
I'm just trying to think of minor changes that would lead to somebody noticing they're in a different timeline but have small effects. I could list a POD where I didn't pet my cat just now after he fetched a teddy bear, but that POD would likely have no changes at all, and therefore be boring.
I do like the idea of seemingly major changes that are in fact minor, and will try to think of some on my own.
I do like the idea of seemingly major changes that are in fact minor, and will try to think of some on my own.
Last edited:
Archibald
Banned
Let me try one...
Mariner 4 Atlas-Agena has a minor glitch, and the launch get postponed by some minutes or hours. As a result months later the very first close photos of Mars are different - showing, not the barren / boring side of the planet, but rather things like Olympus Mount or Valley Marineris.
The deception is much less severe, and NASA (nascent) post-Apollo planning is better organized.
Then who knows ?
Another one
On Apollo 12 Alan Bean doesn't ruin the first color camera by pointing it straight into the sun. As a result, stunning pictures and videos of the Moon are available in November 1969 (and not in January 1971 with Apollo 14.)
This is enough to tip Nixon feelings about the space program in a better direction, just in time. Apollo 20 still gets canned in January 1970 to make room for Skylab, but
- Saturn V production line is not shut down
- apollo 18 and 19 are not canned in September 1970
Another minor POD I like very much is USS Pompon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pompon_(SS-267) being sunk in November 1943 with all his crew... including a certain Thomas O. Paine, the worse administrator NASA ever had (in 1969). Briefly, he angered Nixon by calling for a manned Mars shot when the top priority should have been to save Apollo and the Saturn V...
Just one more submarine sunk. And another man at General Electric in the 50's. Yet with that very minor POD we might have a base on the Moon today...
Mariner 4 Atlas-Agena has a minor glitch, and the launch get postponed by some minutes or hours. As a result months later the very first close photos of Mars are different - showing, not the barren / boring side of the planet, but rather things like Olympus Mount or Valley Marineris.
The deception is much less severe, and NASA (nascent) post-Apollo planning is better organized.
Then who knows ?
Another one
On Apollo 12 Alan Bean doesn't ruin the first color camera by pointing it straight into the sun. As a result, stunning pictures and videos of the Moon are available in November 1969 (and not in January 1971 with Apollo 14.)
This is enough to tip Nixon feelings about the space program in a better direction, just in time. Apollo 20 still gets canned in January 1970 to make room for Skylab, but
- Saturn V production line is not shut down
- apollo 18 and 19 are not canned in September 1970
Another minor POD I like very much is USS Pompon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pompon_(SS-267) being sunk in November 1943 with all his crew... including a certain Thomas O. Paine, the worse administrator NASA ever had (in 1969). Briefly, he angered Nixon by calling for a manned Mars shot when the top priority should have been to save Apollo and the Saturn V...
Just one more submarine sunk. And another man at General Electric in the 50's. Yet with that very minor POD we might have a base on the Moon today...
"That's one small step for - You should kill us all on sight - man, one giant leap for mankind."
On a more serious note, how about for annoying:
Muhammed is born left-handed. So everything proper is done with the left hand, and the right hand is used for wiping and insults. Presto, 90% of all Muslim have to train themselves to use their left hand as the dominant hand.
Man, the Silence were probably my second favorite villains, after the Weeping Angels."That's one small step for - You should kill us all on sight - man, one giant leap for mankind."
Oh, that's a good one.