I am currently reading "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari, and in it he talks about homo sapiens arriving in Europe and East Asia "remarkably" quick and that they arrived in Australia about 45,000 years ago. How were they able to cross the open sea in great enough numbers to survive there? The book says that there isn't evidence of boats and other highly crafted objects (oil lamps, bows, arrows, needles, etc) until 30,000 years ago. If they didn't have boats until 15,000 years after they arrived in Australia - how did they survive the journey across the sea?

Modern ships have all the food, non alcoholic drinks, etc. included. I'm watching Titanic on TV and you don't see anyone paying for anything. Did old ships include a basic level of food with the ticket? How did it work? Just curious!

For instance, during the civil war, revolutionary war, and even further back?

If one were to travel into the past, obviously many things a normal person would encounter in daily life would be different (and what constituted a normal person would be different). Can you think of anything that might stand out as being more or less the same as it is today? Is there anything that we're not really any better at now than we were a few centuries ago?

Examples: Personal hygiene, clothing, food preparation, common consumer products, basic construction / repair methods, sanitation methods, medical care, etc.

(150 years was a somewhat arbitrary choice -- feel free to alter if it makes it more interesting for you.)

Not quite sure how to phrase this – I’m looking for a book on the history as well as philosophically and judicial aspects of power, legitimacy, etc. Some question that I imagine could be addressed: How was the divine right of kings justified? When did the idea of a state as legal body originate? How was legitimacy related to symbols and regalia in the middle ages?

Edit: If possible, I'm looking for fairly recent and easily comprehensible books rather than original works of philosophers, etc.

Thanks to anyone who answers I was just wondering about this and thought you guys would know.

This helmet belonged to my grandfather from when he served in World War II. On the back, there are two white lines painted on. I was told by my father that the two lines meant that he was sparred from participating in the Battle of the Bulge (one line meaning he would've been sent). I've been looking around for sources to confirm this, but no luck. Could anyone help me out?

If so, where?

If the original Rome was the first, the Byzantines the second and the Russian Empire the third, is there a fourth Rome by any extent?

From all the documentaries I've seen, it seems like the Nazi government focussed money into aspects of society - most notably to me, healthcare, the military, transport infrastructure and the arts.

How close is this to the reality? How did the policy changes affect people, between pre-nazi Germany to nazi Germany to Soviet east Germany / allied west Germany?

I obviously know about the subjugation and oppression and eventual extermination of many minorities - so I'd appreciate it if it were the average Germany citizen focussed on.

I often to think of the food we get from all over the world and realize that even just 100-200 years ago food would likely go bad before it could be shipped far from where it was grown. As someone living in Nyc in the 19th century would I even know of the tropical fruit I'm missing?

Why has their style remained pretty much the same for such a long time? How far back does the tradition of varsity jackets for high school students go?

It seems like when ever anything 1950s US is shown in the media its shown as men in suits and hats driving new cars to office jobs, women being good house wifes and teenagers hangout in their cars in milkbars and burger joints. So the question is was this a time of a rising middle class, obviously there was still poor and blue collar workers but was this really a time of cultural and financial independence\growth or is there a fair amount of cold war propaganda that has just stuck and now thought to be reality?

To explain a bit better, was there planning involved in the English military wearing red, the French military wearing Blue, the Russian military wearing green etc, or was it coincidental that they all chose different colours?