Whither Blimps?

On Earth, every time you see a hint of something involving an alternate world, you see airships.  Now think about this.  It might be a striking visual.  And, I mean if some insane person from 1800 went into a coma saw the next 200 years and tried to rewrite history in his image then, sure, blimps would make sense.  But some things are pretty likely to happen; when you take hydrogen and put it in a thing that floats up in the air without some pretty advanced technology, you're going to get a fire.  The USS Taft Disaster, was just bound to happen.  That's why Terra doesn't have airships either.  In fact, we didn't even have the good year blimp.  Just bad luck.   Though, curious side note, we don't have the weird triskedescaphobia you have.  We have a 13th floor.  I mean, sure, there are SOME people with the fear of 13, just like there are some people that are afraid of bats, or dogs or horses.  You have them.  We have them.  We just don't let it affect our architecture.

Another example, remember the Republic of Texas? (Sorry...as of last week, it's the State of Texas again, for at least a year or two until they decide to secede again)  Well, as crazy as they might sound to you, they also did something smart.  Smarter even than your North Dakota.  In your world, your Norway has something called the Sovereign Wealth fund.  It's huge and as a result Norway is rich.  Well, that doesn't hold a candle to the Texas Holdem Fund.  Sam Houston died four years later in our reality, and thus all the oil discovered on state land went to an independent commission that even a hundred and fifty years of mostly crazy governors hasn't been able to screw up.  How do you think they can afford to keep going to war with the most powerful nation on Terra?

Still, lots of things I like about your world.  We got Netscape two years later, and while it is the dominant browser here, two years of internet is huge...we're more like five years behind you in IT.  Except for our liquid transparent displays. All those high tech government facilities you see in the movies? We really have them because those neat gleaming lights are really the cheapest alternative.  Even cheaper than the 20 year old monitors your government uses (when you factor in electricity.)

Truth really is stranger than fiction.