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I've seen spouted in many o' political discussions on many sites that the ideologies of the two main US political parties have basically switched in the last 150 years or so. Is there any validity to that claim?

Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Haydn, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Strauss, Schumann are all German composers. Why do Germans seem to dominate this field?

Or, perhaps a better question, why does our modern perception of classical music focus on German composers?

When I think of music from the past, I think of church hymns, classical music like Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Beethoven, Vivaldi and the like, Opera and national songs like Waltzing Matilda (Australian), Amazing Grace (American) or Катюша (Russian). The themes are typically religious, nationalistic, cultural or an attempt to capture some kind of concept (like Vivaldi's Four Seasons).

When I go through say the top 100 songs on YouTube or Spotify, few of them have anything in common with the music I know from the past. In particular, some common themes are the sexual exploits of the artist, the physical attributes of a potential partner or a commentary on the artist's feelings in a casual relationship (here I mean girlfriend/boyfriend as opposed to wife/husband).

This trend doesn't seem to be limited to North America (where I currently reside) either. I've noticed similar trends in Japan, Russia, Australia and much of Europe as well (listening to the music on their respective top music lists).

How did these themes become so prevalent? Is this new or have we simply lost similar music from the past?

To be clear, though I mention YouTube and Spotify, I acknowledge that the 20 year rule may exclude much of what we see today but I believe the question is still valid considering only history up until 1997.

EDIT: I'm not sure how my post got a "Balkans" flair, perhaps the mention of Russia?

Is there any evidence of bronze armor being used in combat significantly after the Bronze Age?

Did Martin Luther really nail his 95 Theses to the Schlosskirche (Castle Church?

Didn't they break the treaties a bunch of times and take more of Czechoslovakia than agreed? Hitler also overthrew the goverment and became Fuhrer so I'm very interested.

In short why didn't they ever make any weapons out of metal? I read somewhere they did discover Metallurgy. Or it doesn't seem like it was mass produced.

Also was there a lot more breeding between Spaniards and Meso Americans. Compared to North American Natives and the Europeans that invaded North America? This seems quite evident considering Mexicans can seem pretty mix.

This question also applies to Soviet arms and guerrillas/terrorists/insurgents/freedom fighters as a whole.

I live in Hamburg. A couple of weeks ago I had my day screwed over because a bomb was dug up in the city and public transportation went haywire for a day. Last December, Augsburg evacuated 54,000 because of another WW2 era bomb they dug up. When I said this to a local, they responded, "Ja. That happens all the time." I stressed that it was the largest evacuation since the War, and they shrugged, "Meh."

I've only lived in Germany for six months and this has happened twice. I lived in Korea for two years and this never happened. Even though (a truthism?) "more bombs were dropped on Korea than on the entire Pacific theater."

I have my own conspiracy theories about infrastructure in Korea, but that's beside the point. What gives? Were the types of bombs dropped on Korea different from the kind dropped on Germany? Did Korea manage to clean up their battlefields more thoroughly (and with less time) than Germany (and despite their comparative instability)? Were US/UN bombs really THAT concentrated on the north that the south wasn't nearly as affected?

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I'm trying to think if Heaven's Gate was an outlier or perhaps the peak of a trend at the time. I'm wondering if these 90s cults were even prevalent or perhaps that was pop culture reflecting the shock of Heaven's Gate

One of the many German stereotypes, apart from working hard and being generally stoic, is the prevalence of kinky and fetish-based sex. Where did this start and what is behind the stereotype?

Are there any examples of localized micro-conflicts in Mexican history that led to small scale wars and intervention from federal forces to stop it?

To get a better idea of what I am talking about, I will provide examples of localized conflicts in American history. One example is the Lincoln County War of 1878, where competing business interests in Lincoln County, New Mexico decided to use partisan violence to suppress the activities of their rivals,culminating in the battle of Lincoln, which has been featured in the film “Young Guns”. Federal troops intervened to stop the fighting. Another such conflict occurred in Johnson County, Wyoming, where a large scale cattle grazing interest tried to muscle out the smaller ranchers in the county, leading to two ranch sieges before the US 6th Cavalry intervened to stop the violence. Were there similar examples of localized micro-conflicts escalating to open warfare in Mexican history?

Brian Ghilliotti

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