The Feed

Posted by /u/ArgentineBeauty

A Chinese hospital ship has set sail on a 200 day humanitarian mission to provide free medical care across Africa and South Asia, with more than 100 doctors and medical workers offering treatments, surgeries and community outreach

Posted by /u/Thundertushy

What was life as a diabetic like in Rome in 2nd Century AD?

Aretaeus of Cappadocia described life with diabetes as short, disgusting and painful. What would life as a 2nd Century AD person with diabetes have been like? Let's assume that the person is wealthy enough (i.e. prosperous merchant or landowner) to have a physician on staff to s…

Posted by /u/ArgentineBeauty

A Chinese village where people once earned under $100 a year in 2005 transformed its traditional Clothes Drying Festival into a tourism success, with villagers now earning from five income sources and 285 households sharing $900,000 in tou…

Posted by /u/lewisiarediviva

How Ubiquitous Was the Carrying of Fire?

I ran across a factoid some years ago that ran something like: “Up until the modern era, most people were never more than 1000 feet from a fire their whole lives” Without getting too into the weeds on specifics like distance, do we think this is broadly true? Does anyone recogni…

Posted by /u/Wooden_Airport6331

I am an American conscript in Vietnam. I refuse to continue. What happens to me?

In this hypothetical, there is a moral and/or psychological reason that I won’t continue, like PTSD, perhaps witnessing or participating in civilian casualties. Perhaps I believe that my death is already inevitable. I feel that have nothing to lose by deserting. Could I be execu…

Posted by /u/OfficialAli1776

Why are Egyptian ruins so well preserved compared to Greco-Roman ones, despite being older?

Obviously a major exception being a Pantheon, but I went to Greece and Rome and the ruins were, well, ruins. The Athenian Acropolis was in really sorry shape, the Parthenon is barely being held together as just an exoskeleton of its former self (I know about the Venetians blowin…

Posted by /u/optiplex9000

I've been watching Ken Burn's WW2 Documentary and it shows an American news reel from the 40s with footage from the Germans setting up the Atlantic Wall defenses. How did Americans get their hands on this footage from the Germans?

Posted by /u/AdSpecialist6598

New Dad Turns Library Trips with Daughter into Weekly Meetup with Dozens of Local Fathers

Posted by /u/kill4588

If I'm an average shepherd girl living in the Mongolian steppe during the peak days of golden horde, what is the chance for me to have a cat?

It's pretty known for the nomads to have dogs, but how about cats?

Posted by /u/Serious-Musician4235

According to Martin van Creveld (Fighting Power: German and U.S. Army Performance, 1939–1945), Max Hastings (Overlord, Their Wehrmacht Was Better Than Our Army) and Trevor N Dupuy, the German army was vastly superior to the Allies on a tac…

So, this is quite interesting. I don't think any other army in history has garnered as much of a 'following' among analysts and historians as the German army of WW2 (Heer). Decentralized command structure (Auftragstaktik) is often named as one of its main advantages, as is its s…

Posted by /u/SadMongoos

Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights.

Just a quick question, I can’t seem to find if this was a water fast or a dry fast. Obviously for any mere human 40 days without water is impossible, but it never mentions water to the best of my knowledge.

Posted by /u/soupnear

How did average citizens deal with property damage in WW2?

How did the average man who, in one way or another, experienced some kind of property damage pay for it to be repaired or otherwise continue their life? I’m thinking in particular of the blitz, but this could apply to many circumstances. If my home got bombed and was completely…

Posted by /u/platypodus

What is the significance of the "wizard's staff"/"magic staff"?

The earliest examples I can think of would be in the Old Testament. Moses raises his staff to part the waters, of I recall correctly.