NationStates Jolt Archive

Here's how this works, post an historical account. It can either be true or false, if your account makes it 20 posts without being discredited sufficiantly (I'll be on the lookout for judge, but for now I'll judge) then you win... uh... a fluffle. :fluffle:

Good luck goils and boils!

WINNERS:

Losers:
BLARGistania: Arguement defeated by Nadkor

Example:
Don't know where these claims of an asian origin for rock-paper-scissors (a.k.a. Rochambeau) came from. My grandfather (on my father's side) invented the game (along with some friends of his, all of them construction workers in Chicago) around 1925.

At the time, decisions were often made with an "odd/even" finger game. One person would take "odd", the other would take "even." At the count of three, each person would then hold out some number of fingers. If the sum was odd, the "odd" person would win, and if the sum was even... well, you get the idea. According to my grandfather (now deceased), you usually weren't supposed to hold out three, four or five fingers---only one or two were allowed. He thinks it's because it was too hard to immediately distinguish between, for example four and five fingers, so someone could cheat by sticking out an extra one quickly, after seeing the other person's hand. He said that rule wasn't completely standard, though.

This way of making decisions was apparently common, as rock-paper-scissors is now.

Anyway, one day my grandfather just stuck in his fist. "What the hell is that?", his friend asked. "It's ZERO, you idiot", replied my grandfather. This caught on with my grandfather's circle of friends, who liked the quirkiness of using zero.

Once the idea of experimenting with the game came up, they quickly came up with a variant: You could do either a fist or two fingers (for an even number), but ALL FIVE fingers (spread out) to make an odd number. This was their own little private variation, which they used for a while, and felt was fair. But other people (used to the traditional one- or two-finger game) didn't like it, feeling that the asymmetry (two ways to show an even number, one way to show odd) gave either the odd or the even person an advantage, although they never figure out who.

So the experimentation started again. (My g'father was unclear on the exact order. At some point it was decided that two "zeros" should require a re-do, because they add to zero, and it wasn't clear whether that should really count as an "even" number. My g'father wasn't sure whether this was before or after complaints about the asymmetry came up---it may have been an attempt to answer the problem). Anyway, at some point one of my g'father's friends (he knew the name, I forget) suggested a new variant, in which the sum was not important at all: whoever held up the lower "value" won, except that 5 would beat zero. [This seems like a very odd set of rules, but my grandfather saved a Scientific American article from around 1980 that discussed the invention of several number games, and one of them had a similar sort of rule, so for some reason it must have a natural appeal.] Obviously, a tie required a re-do.

Anyway, they still considered it a "number game" for awhile, but it didn't take long before they realized that they didn't need to bother adding stuff up every time: the fist beat a 2, a 2 beat an open hand, and an open hand beat a fist. My g'father says that a long time (years?) went by before anyone called this "rock-paper-scissors", and he doesn't know who called it that. He said he could never figure it out..."Paper covers rock? That means paper wins? Does that make any sense?" Of course, he admitted the original set of rules didn't make much sense either.

My grandfather died several years ago. At the time, I had never heard the game referred to as "Rochambeau", and I'm sure he never did either.

So, now you know the story.

*sits back and waits for Holocaust deniers to come in*

I always wondered what would happen if the US would have stayed out of WWI. Think about it. Without the doughboys WWI could have gone on longer and possibly stagnated. There were already munitions worker's strikes due to the popular discontent in the citezenry. Without a third power coming in and tipping the scales where would Europe and by trickle-down the world be? Say if like so many other wars on that continent it was basically a draw with an armistice and moderate political lossess on all sides.
Would there be a treaty of Versialles? Without one would Hitler ever have come to power in Germany? Would there even be a WWII? Would the lesson be learned that the web of treaties holding the continent together were actually an opportunity for all out war?

the enigma machine was actually stolen and de-encoded by the americans just like in that movie....... oh wait :P

i think you need to post a simple one to give us the idea of what you are thinking of

Due to a miscommunication between Central Command and the nuclear-armed B52 bombers, one did not receive the order to cancel the nuclear attack on the USSR. Which triggered the Soviet's secret doomsday weapon, as described by Dr. Strangelove

Sir Edgar James Brisbee was never actually nighted in accordance with British law. The act of nighting was done by a defrocked priest who did not actually mention the fact that he was defrocked. This 'priest' was able to forge documents with the King's signature for an official knighting of Brisbee. The ceremony took place with all the proper pomp and circumstance, but was never official nor to any magistrates knowledge. Eventually, the action was uncovered, the defrocked priest executed, but Brisbee was never stripped of his title. He held it ceremoniously to his death in 1831.

Sir Edgar James Brisbee was never actually nighted in accordance with British law. The act of nighting was done by a defrocked priest who did not actually mention the fact that he was defrocked. This 'priest' was able to forge documents with the King's signature for an official knighting of Brisbee. The ceremony took place with all the proper pomp and circumstance, but was never official nor to any magistrates knowledge. Eventually, the action was uncovered, the defrocked priest executed, but Brisbee was never stripped of his title. He held it ceremoniously to his death in 1831.
A Priest, defrocked or not, can't knight anybody.

A Priest, defrocked or not, can't knight anybody.
Provide a source and we have our first loser.

America continues world war two into russia and there are now 82 United States of America, newest 32 are ex-Russian and ex-Japanese districts.

Provide a source and we have our first loser.
Clicky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fount_of_honour)

I always wondered what would happen if the US would have stayed out of WWI. Think about it. Without the doughboys WWI could have gone on longer and possibly stagnated.

It probably wouldn't have had much effect, Germany was running out of fuel and munitions quicker than France and England (due at least in part to the US supplying them).

Would there be a treaty of Versialles? Without one would Hitler ever have come to power in Germany?

If Germany had been in a better position militarily and politically at the time of the armistice, they would have undoubtedly been able to receive better terms. Which in turn would have probably prevented Hitler from assuming so much control over the government, if not keeping from gaining office to begin with.

Would there even be a WWII?

Undoubtedly, it just would probably started later, and quite possibly involved a completely different cast of characters, so to say.

Would the lesson be learned that the web of treaties holding the continent together were actually an opportunity for all out war?

Probably not.

i wouldve typed that, but he basically summed it up ^^^^^

Clicky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fount_of_honour)
We have a Loser, BLARGistania has been added to our Losers List. Nice work there Nadkor.

It probably wouldn't have had much effect, Germany was running out of fuel and munitions quicker than France and England (due at least in part to the US supplying them).



If Germany had been in a better position militarily and politically at the time of the armistice, they would have undoubtedly been able to receive better terms. Which in turn would have probably prevented Hitler from assuming so much control over the government, if not keeping from gaining office to begin with.



Undoubtedly, it just would probably started later, and quite possibly involved a completely different cast of characters, so to say.



Probably not.
Sorry guys but I'm calling in some experts on this one. Standby for ruling.

for all your Alternate History Needs, please visit this site. AlternateHistory.com/Discussion. everything from Roman Empire to WWII, but do not talk about Operation Sealion, it has been proven multipule times that it would always end in failure.

OK, what if Operation Desert Shield had never taken place? Iraq takes over Kuwait, and while there are countless UN resolutions passed, no one really comes forward to stop Iraq. Emboldened by this, Saddam Hussein attacks and defeats Saudi Arabia, thus gaining great control over OPEC and the world's oil supply. Unable to effectively counterattack because of the stranglehold over the world's oil, Iraq is able to do as it pleases. It begins to sink giant amounts of funds into training a Palestinian guerilla army. Meanwhile, Saddam also brokers a military alliance with the Syrians. With this, a three-front war is opened on Israel after Israel (the pre-text being a retaliation against an Iraqi nuclear plant a la Osiraq), with Palestinians attacking from the West Bank, Iraq attacking from the south and Syria from the north. Israel, attacked by this huge amount of force, nukes their enemies, and safe to say everything goes downhill from there.