I read that Russia has always struggled to have or maintain warm water ports; a critical requirement to being a superpower. How were the Soviets able to have a navy powerful enough to concern the West with nuclear subs, or to deliver nuclear missiles to Cuba if Russia has always had trouble with warm water ports?

Striped shirts like the breton shirt are seen as iconic nautical wear, and so many Navies all over the world have stripes in their uniforms (especially white shirt, blue stripes). I am just wondering the history behind it, and what caused it to become such a widespread thing.

I believe this was mentioned in Apocalypse Now. If this actually occurred, how widespread was it? Was it an organized movement? Did any trade unions or worker groups officially or unofficially endorse it?

Did Hitler have a genuine belief that the Jews were subhuman? Or was everything he did in the name of expanding his own power?

Basically, was Hitler aware of the falsehood of his own propaganda?

How was 19th century Russian classical music perceived in Soviet Russia considering the very Western European influence (like Tchaikovsky) or the cultural forces behind the music (being strongly influenced by the upper and middle class).

The Holy Bible has existed for a long time. In this duration, it has also been translated to every language I can think of.

Given how different languages have different ways to express words, I couldnt imagine that at least "some" of the source-language material got the thread title "lost in translation".

This would include, but not limited to; Some or alot of the original intention (in this case, the original words written down by the different evangelical authors of the bible, word of God himself, etc.) after the translation to a given language somehow got lost due to the contextual, grammatical and meaningful differences we have between languages.

I am asking this because, if a Japanese bible translators sat down and translated the english bible, how can we be sure that the integrity of the english version is "correctly" jotted down into japanese?

Or two completely different languages?

How can we be sure that all nations across the world are actually able to read and interpret the same contextual intention of the source material, regardless of how cultural differences affect how each nation approach the Bible?

My understanding is that prior to the last couple centuries, the main fuel that people used was wood (and maybe oil in lamps). Was the amount of smoke a problem for people living in cities? I've heard that Rome had a population of more than a million people at its peak, and cities in China or India may have been even larger. It seems like there must have been a lot of fires going a lot of the time just to produce enough cooked food for everyone. Was smoke/smog a problem? Did they have some way of dealing with it?

I'm a little hazy on what people mean when they say that Hitler hated the Jews. For instance, would Hitler have hated a Christian man with Jewish ancestry? What about a person who practices Judaism, but has little to no Jewish ancestry? (I don't know to much about conversion to Judaism so I don't know what sort of hypotheticals are reasonable here.) Thanks for any information that could clear this up.

I'm doing a paper on the vietnam war and what kept the US engaged in the conflict, and looking at it economically I'm wondering if the two nations were trade partners prior to the war.

I've found a press conference that Eisenhower held in 1954 (april 7th to be exact) in which he mentions that certain products from the area [Indochina] are important to the world, these products inlude:

• Tungsten
• Tin
• Rubber

What I'm wondering is whether or not the US specifically got these products from Vietnam (or from other areas in southeast asia) before the war, or if the US got such materials from other trade partners. Were the US and Vietnam even tradepartners prior to the conflict?

I'm having a lot of trouble finding any info on this so I asked in here instead. i hope it doesn't violate your homework rule, or any other rules for that matter.

I'm an American that is going to graduate school in Argentina. One thing that I noticed about the university where I'm studying is that there is no "liberal arts" education. If you are in school to study architecture then you study architecture, if you're studying translation then you study translation and as much law as you have to in order to translate legal documents, if you're studying medicine then you study medicine, etc. My girlfriend is from Brazil and she was telling me that it is the same way in Brazil.

Also, it seems like the equivalent to a bachelor's degree takes longer to earn here. For example, getting a bachelor's degree in economics would take 5/5.5 years of study.

I also believe that Bachelor's degrees didn't even exist in a lot of European countries until the Bologna Process was implemented to try and standardize education across Europe.

So I'm wondering, how did the 4 year liberal arts degree where you spend half of your time taking classes in things that have nothing to do with your chosen area of study become the norm in the US?

Every time I see a king, or potential king, leading the charge into battle in a movie all I can think is that he would be killed almost instantly. Is there any evidence of crazy leaders running ahead of his army and attacking another army head on? Did he survive?

I've been wondering this for a while especially after watching an episode of The American's where they show Phillip having sex with multiple men/women and I'm curious is any of this accurate?

I'm specifically looking for information regarding how Jewish women would dress and wear their hair (especially those that were unmarried and therefore didn't cover their hair) but am interested in the larger topic as a whole. Much of what I have to go off of regarding the fashions of the times seem to be of the more well-to-do people.

I know that it was a very shortlived invasion, but it still seems to be a pretty famous event and one held up as very significant to the Middle East's history. How is it so important if Napoleon was gone within two years?

Hi everyone, In the past year I've become pretty invested in the hobby of cocktail making, and as such I've come across a few books that include some relevant history along with their recipes, with some more contemporary than others. For instance, Jeff Berry's work covers the evolution of rum drinks up through the rise and fall of the tiki bar, and David Wondrich's Punch!, which I'm currently reading, discusses the creation and culture surrounding punches.

As I've been reading them I've become pretty interested in that particular slice of history, particularly as it shows a bit of day to day life. So I was wondering if you folks knew of any good sources that cover either the history of a kind of drink, or the history of "drinking culture" in a particular time?

Between the books I've read I feel that post prohibition I've covered fairly well. I'm particularly interested in, the age of exploration up through colonial and post revolutionary America, but I'd still love to see examples that fall outside of that.

Was there any connection between the two practices?

I am writing a novel partially set in Edinburgh, Scotland and am trying to get a feel for the city's atmosphere in the late 19th century. Any information people have to offer on any aspect of late 1800's scotland is welcome.

EDIT: Not sure how to get rid of the literature tag