Most Popular
1500 questions
87
votes
3 answers
What is the first recorded dog name?
Dogs have an age-old relationship with humans, and nowadays almost all dogs have a name given to them. In Homer's Odyssey (8th century BCE), upon Odysseus' return, his beloved dog Argos is the only one to recognize him.
Aptly named
"man's best…
Tom Sol
- 2,257
- 3
- 16
- 42
87
votes
16 answers
Why did North America economically prosper, and maintain stable government and South/Central America didn't?
Disclaimer: I understand this is a generalized statement and doesn't account for every scenario (for example: the US civil war).
In general, why, over the course of our whole history, have the United States and Canada had stable governments and rich…
Scott Taylor
- 933
- 1
- 6
- 6
86
votes
15 answers
Why do western monotheistic religions seem to be so full of conflict over dogma?
This could be a totally false premise. But clearly when Christianity was starting (and even to this day) there were serious conflicts about ideology. You had the Arians, Monophysites, etc. all at each others' throats. I noticed that this was similar…
ed.hank
- 6,685
- 1
- 28
- 48
86
votes
7 answers
Did Bill Gates steal the GUI concept from Steve Jobs?
The Jobs movie alleged that Bill Gates swiped the idea of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) on a personal computer (PC) from Steve Jobs. Can anyone explain to me the exact story on what happened in a more clear way? I had surfed google about it, but…
user19723
- 887
- 1
- 6
- 4
85
votes
5 answers
Did medieval stores have names?
Re-posting this question of mine from the Worldbuilding Stack Exchange:
I know it's common for shops and stores to be named in D&D and other fantasy settings, but how common was that practice in the medieval era (say, from 1000 AD onward)? It seems…
Adamant8765
- 759
- 1
- 5
- 6
85
votes
2 answers
Why did the British scuttle the u-boats surrendered after WWII?
Between November 1945 and February 1946 the British scuttled 116 of the 156 German u-boats surrendered at the end of WWII during Operation Deadlight. They were towed to deep water off Ireland and sunk. The intention was to scuttle them with…
Tom
- 930
- 1
- 6
- 11
85
votes
9 answers
Did Russian winter seriously contribute to German defeat on the Eastern Front in WWII?
When people discuss the causes of Hitler's defeat in Russia, one topic is frequently mentioned: climate. People claim that winter contributed significantly to the problems of German army on the Eastern front.
However, to me this argument looks…
user23839
85
votes
8 answers
How accurate or supported is Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel"?
Jared Diamond wrote a fascinating book that purports to explain, in a very broad way, the development of civilization. It has several explanations for the development of Eurasian civilization rather than American civilization.
Domesticated…
David Thornley
- 3,757
- 1
- 19
- 21
84
votes
4 answers
What were paper airplanes called before there were real airplanes? (i.e. untethered winged flyers, not kites or balloons)
According to the Google Ngram Viewer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Ngram_Viewer) the English word "airplane" was practically unused before the year 1900. Given that paper is credited with having been invented over two centuries before what…
dhinson919
- 809
- 5
- 7
83
votes
7 answers
Why bother to attack in trench warfare?
At least on the western front, trenches were heavily defended. Any charge was just suicidal, with heavy losses for the attacker and much smaller losses for the defender. As there is a big strategic advantage to be the defender and not the attacker,…
Kepotx
- 997
- 1
- 9
- 17
83
votes
2 answers
Why were ships-of-the line not supposed to open fire on frigates during fleet actions?
Found this passage in the book Patrick O'Brian's Navy (p. 57)
In the era of fighting sail there was an unspoken convention that line-of-battle ships did not fire on frigates during any fleet action unless the frigate opened fire first. [...] This…
user69715
- 7,090
- 4
- 36
- 67
82
votes
2 answers
How much smaller were medieval farm animals in England than today?
According the Medieval Life and Times website,
Farm animals were small, for scientific breeding had not yet begun. A
full-grown ox reached a size scarcely larger than a calf of to-day,
and the fleece of a sheep often weighed less than two…
Lars Bosteen
- 107,936
- 20
- 483
- 554
81
votes
3 answers
Why exactly did telegraphs have to use "STOP" instead of a period and "QUOTE" instead of a quotation mark? (Or special codes.)
I've seen/read numerous old telegraph messages. They contain a lot of spelled-out punctuation. Why didn't they simply have the most basic few characters as part of the code, or at least turn a "STOP" into "." and "QUOTE" into a '"' on the other…
Jolin
- 651
- 1
- 5
- 4
79
votes
13 answers
Why didn't France and the UK invade Germany in September 1939?
On September 3rd 1939, when UK and France declared war on Germany, both ordinary Polish people and government officials became enthusiastic. There were spontaneous demonstrations of support for the French and British allies. People truly believed…
Jake Jay
- 2,869
- 2
- 21
- 17
78
votes
12 answers
Why, in the US, is Japanese brutality ignored compared with the Nazi brutality in WW2?
Instead of accepting too much of what I have read in my textbooks, I have read up a bit about WW2 on my own and have always pondered, why in the USA is the brutality and actions of the Japanese during WW2 always downplayed compared with the…
Fixed Point
- 1,159
- 1
- 9
- 9