Mainly, how did someone know their clock was well regulated, especially when many clocks could lose seconds to minutes every day. Was there some sort of master clock in the city square that everyone used as a reliable reference to set their clocks to?

Examples:

• John to Johnny
• Tom to Tommy
• Jeff to Jeffrey
• William to Willy
• Frank to Franky
• Mat to Matty
• Joe to Joey

Also, there are some instances of an -ie suffix:

• James to Jamie
• Jessica to Jessie
• Sophia to Sophie

The saying that generals always prepare to fight "the last war" is stuff of legends. It's certainly so for a country that's victorious, as its armed forces and victorious generals have a vested interest in strengthening the same thing that got them there the last time (it's not quite the case with the losers). Yet, the US, the victors in the first world war, seemed uncommonly prepared to fight "the next war" in the pacific with fast battleships (north carolinas), carriers, and most importantly, sufficiently fast and powerful monoplanes. Much more so than, let's say, Britain, France, and Netherlands, some of which seemed to want to replicate the battle line at Jutland. How did the US Navy have the foresight to do that? Was someone important present at Taranto and drew the right conclusions? Did someone young and new write the right papers and got promoted? Or was it just the case of throwing everything at the wall (iowas?) and seeing what sticks?

While delving into the history of the holocaust I came across the illustrations of David Olere.

The images he produced are ghastly and shocking. I think I first saw them in a couple of documentaries.

Olere worked was placed to work in a sonderkommand in crematorium III.
I recently read Miklyo Nyzsli's eyewitness account of his time at Auschwitz where he worked closely with the sonderkommando at crematorium II. He recounted the "turnover" where after about four months the men would be killed and replaced.

Is anyone here familiar with the life of Olere?

The bios that I've found online of Olere don't provide an account of how he was able to survive working in a unit that had a lower survivability rate than did the general population of Auschwitz.

It's a small detail in Olere's history, for sure.. But recently I've become interested in eyewitness testimony of the few sonderkommando survivors. (And also the sonderkommando men who didn't survive. I only learnt today about the "Auschwitz scrolls")

Thanks.

The Sharpe novels take place during the Napoleonic War, but I'm interested in any time period where structured duels took place.

I read an article today where the author mentioned utilizing a PhD student who was a “citation tracker” to specifically find the source and context of a study through research into the original source. I’m super intrigued by this role. Google just gives me research tips and websites that will do it for me. Has anyone heard of this role before or know what focus would allow someone to do this?

Can anyone help me with research on Jack the Ripper please. Mainly around his style and his clothing and his letters

Reading about early development of agriculture, there's a lot of uncertainty about domestication being deliberate and conscious or not. When do we have some certainty?

I was mostly interested if there are any good sources or readings about Achaemenid Eunuchs? I'm guessing not too much info exists, but I was intrigued after I had learned of Bagoas (the Bagoas who supposedly served both Darius and Alexander the great).

I think I read somewhere that they may have adopted the practice from the Assyrians or Babylonians. and I would also be interested in any further readings or knowledge about them!

I imagine a lot of what we know about him and his movement was written by his enemies so it's hard to pin down what he believed as a lot of what the wikipedia article claims sounds too good to be true. The idea that a major religious reformer challenging social inequality would find the favour of an emperor sounds bizarre; did this actually happen and what led up to it? And did the memories of the movement have a longer lasting influence on thought in the area?

I do not want to presume with my title but in my casual viewing of battles during the ancient period. Skirmishing seems to primarily be a set phase. With javelins, slings, arrows etc. being exchanged. Notable exceptions seem to be the mongols or some battles like the defeat of crassus.

But what is the conditions that led to this. Let's for example imagine the Etruscans having a culture of only fighting in a ranged stance. Constantly giving ground while skirmishing. Perhaps with a strong cavalry or mobile wing to counter enemy cavalry.

Again it's not my presumptions or example's I am asking about, it's purely about why "throwing things from a safe distance away from the eneny sword" wasn't a bigger thing. I have a hard time finding bigger engagements where the battle is conducted primarily at range.

• logistics/ammunition ?
• cultural?
• practical?
• military (problems in giving ground, cohesion, etc)
• a wrong presumption by me and the ranged part of battle was a larger part of ancient warfare than I assumed.

From what I understand, by the time the Shahnameh was published, Iranians had mostly forgotten about the Achaemenids and the Medians that preceded them, and instead in the epic Alexander's conquest was preceded by the legendary Pishdadians and Kayanians. Are there really no traces of the Achaemenids in the Shahnameh? [Persia]

Hi, I'm fascinated by the Napoleonic era, but I'm really struggling to find this info. I've been able to find modern British army and navy ranks and roles; and even historical ones for the grand armee, but nothing for the British. What I'm looking for is a full heirarchy - from private through to field Marshall, or whatever the historical equivalent was. Also, I'd love some info about what those ranks really MEANT - was it honorary, did it mean a pay grade increase, did it change your responsibility. Any info at all regarding pay grades, prize shares, command sizes, etc, would be highly valued. In addition, any extra info regarding roles like quartermaster or whatever - did they have a different pay grade? Were they considered equal to a private? Could they pull rank? What other specialized roles were there?

Thank you all so much, I know it's a lot!