In the "Manhattan" pilot, a character goes through a physical and the doctor checks him out with a geiger counter. He clicks what sounds like a good amount but the doctor says the levels are acceptable. Elsewhere we see them conducting tests with what looks like nowhere close to enough safety precautions.

Has there been any research that looked back at how often people who worked on the project came down with cancer? If the depiction of working conditions are correct, it sounds like it should be. Were there more safety precautions taken than depicted on TV?

I couldn't find the technical reason on Google. I'm watching a show on roaring meg, and the add powder, the ball, then hay. Why?

East Asia being defined as the countries of the Pacific Rim (China, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc). Not counting Russia.

I was just curious. Did they all choice it because it looks nice, or is it have some meaning behind it?

Hitler's rise to power was through the use of scapegoating not only the Jews but also the Communist and Communist sympathizers, as seen through his speech on the November criminals.

I was wondering what sparked Hitler's vehement hatred of communists/communism. It seems that he blames them to be the cause of Germany's loss during WWI, but didn't Germany smuggle Lenin into Russia to destabilize the Czar's empire in order to win the War?

It doesn't seem that most Americans know we fought with the Chinese. I consider myself to be pretty cognizant and had no idea until I was late into my BA in history.

I was reading about "This Land Is Your Land" which was reportedly written by Guthrie as a response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" which he thought was "unrealistic." But looking at the lyrics I don't understand where his issue was, or what sentiments are contained therein that he didn't concur with in "This Land Is Your Land."

Can someone explain exactly what his issue was? Is "This Land Is Your Land" meant to be taken sarcastically? I'm hoping that by understanding the disagreement I can better understand the mood and protest of folk singers in general at the time.

How did the Soviet Union compare to USA in terms of economic output?

I've heard that in the early post-war years a lot of economists believed the Soviet Union would over take USA's standard of living. Was this ever considered a real possibility?

At what point did it become clear that the Soviet Union could not match USA's economic output / standard of living ?

Were Vikings/Norse/Danes/Svear/Frisians actually capable of becoming berserkers? If so, how did they do it? I had read that some people 'trained', some sources claim that the trait was hereditary, and others claim that they ingested psychadelic drugs prior to battle? Can someone please explain, thanks!

"Berserkers (or berserks) were Norse warriors who are primarily reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk. Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources. Most historians believe that berserkers worked themselves into a rage before battle, but some think that they might have consumed drugged foods. The Úlfhéðnar (singular Úlfheðinn), another term associated with berserkers, mentioned in the Vatnsdœla saga, Haraldskvæði and the Völsunga saga, were said to wear the pelt of a wolf when they entered battle.[1] Úlfhéðnar are sometimes described as Odin's special warriors: "[Odin’s] men went without their mailcoats and were mad as hounds or wolves, bit their shields...they slew men, but neither fire nor iron had effect upon them. This is called 'going berserk.'"[2] In addition, the helm-plate press from Torslunda depicts (below) a scene of Odin with a berserker—"a wolf skinned warrior with the apparently one-eyed dancer in the bird-horned helm, which is generally interpreted as showing a scene indicative of a relationship between berserkgang... and the god Odin[3]"—with a wolf pelt and a spear as distinguishing features.[4]"

The Pacific Northwest is usually defined as the US states of Oregon and Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Many people would also include the panhandle of Alaska.

The region shares economic and cultural ties stretching back millenia.

/u/retarredroof will focus on pre-contact peoples of the Pacific Northwest, with both historical and anthropological methods. Anything from ten thousand years ago up through modernity depending on the question.

I will be specializing in post-contact: exploration, colonialism, the economic boom-bust cycle that marks the region, and whatever you can think of ranging from the history of craft beer to engineering.

AUA!

Thanks for the quality questions everyone. Good night!

Otto von Bismarck is famous for declaring in his later years that the next great war would be cased by "Some damn (foolish) [depending on source] thing in the Balkans".

Was this really so insightful, though? If a great leader declared a decade ago that "Bad stuff is going to go down In the Middle East" or "Watch out for Russia, yo", he'd be just as right as Bismarck, but for his contemporaries, it almost went without saying anyway.

Were Bismarck's predictions uncommon at the time? Or was it already taken for granted that the Balkans were an unstable political nightmare?