More specifically, how did his forces compare to those of Harold Godwinson and William the conqueror? Did William have knowledge of Hardrada's invasion of England before the battle of Stamford bridge, and did he have plans to fight Hardrada in the case of a Norwegian victory? Were there any other claimants to the throne? I hope this isn't against the rules, but what do you believe were Harald Hardrada's chances of success in the war? and of course any other information that you think is relevant to Harald Hardrada/Stamford bridge would be welcome.

Did they realize/understand that a great portion of knowledge had been lost, possibly forever? Or were there still copies of most of the scrolls that were destroyed still extant in ancient times?

How was human hair cut before the advent of steel?

Did the Italian mafia dominate Chicago's organized crime scene during Al Capone's tenure or were other ethnic organized crime groups, like the Irish, opposed to Capone's outfit? Were there any other major racial gangs?

Hollywood always seems to have the Magical Universal Translation of Oxford accented English for every ancient ruler of every country throughout the whole of human history. However, I'd assume with some of the massive spread of real estate guys like Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan had, they must have run into people who didn't speak the Mother Tongue. Did they carry around professional translators as they rampaged and conquered neighboring civilizations? Did diplomacy or assimilation ever fall apart because of difficulty communicating?

When I was young my father told me stories about my grandfather, who was the leader of an anti-aircraft artillery team in the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII. My dad claims that there were competitions between the teams early in the war, and that these competitions would involve flying a banner behind a plane and attempting to hit a target painted on the banner. My grandfather was supposedly on the 3rd best team in Japan - according to my dad.

Is he full of shit? Or did this actually happen?

I am thinking in terms of how Herodotus describes Ethiopia- it's understood to be a real place, but contacted only indirectly, and what facts are known about it are tied up with plenty of myth and supposition (about people with their heads in their chests, for example). Information about both primary and secondary sources related to such would be also appreciated.

Is there a record somewhere that lists a verifiable lineage of some famous people from history? Who are the modern descendents of Roman emperors, Greek philospophers, etc? Who has the largest group of great-great-great... grandkids in the modern world?

I'm not a historian - I stumbled across the terms "functionalism" and "intentionalism" and was immediately skeptical as to whether there was a real debate about whether the idea for the mass extermination of jews came directly from Hitler (or whether it came from the lower level bureaucrats) - or whether the "debate" is just another façade by Holocaust deniers to give their ideas a veil of academic legitimacy.

This is for a creative writing project, and I'm looking for a little accuracy. It's fiction, so it doesn't have to be perfect, but I like to be reasonably accurate in the things I write.

So, here's the question: Assuming the person is wealthy enough and high-status enough to be able to afford nice things and also travel as necessary, and that the person was too high status to know how to glean it from the natural environment, how difficult would it be?

Edit: By German, I mean someone who lives within the Holy Roman Empire, not too terribly far from the Black Forest, at or around the year 1230.

How much was oil a motivation for Japan in the Pacific Theater? I know that Japan targeted the East Indies in part for its resources, including oil, and that a US oil embargo against Japan preceded the war. Was there anything else?

Thanks for knowledge.

I constantly see references as to how USA and the USSR were in a race near the end of the European part of the war in order to grab as many scientists as they could. Why was it that the Germans were always on top of the world in terms of technology before its divide? Even during WW1, German scientists kicked the rest of the world's ass with their mustard and chlorine gas, but how was it that they were able to beat everyone else to create the first manufactured WMD?