I've been doing some reading lately, and I've noticed that a lot of science fiction works from the early to mid 20th century will combine lots of technological oddities that are (ostensibly) easily-explained as simple advancement of science, while also including some element of extrasensory powers in humans or other lifeforms (ESP, telekinesis, etc), powers that, more often than not, are explicitly described as originating from a natural, biological source, despite such a thing being considered utter fantasy today. (For example, "Dune", Asimov's "The Foundation Series", "The City and the Stars", even Star Wars). What were, if any, the contemporary scientific bases that led so many authors to consider such fantastical abilities to be in the same realm as, say, your average spaceship or laser?

didn't know exactly where to post this, but I'm hoping someone here has a decent answer.

[Sorry, reposting this with correct name in title]

The time period Emperor Nero's reign. The movie shows a gladiator and the stand-up philosopher get asked "Did you [work in your employment] this week? Did you try to [work in your employment]" and then would receive some stipend. The gladiator was warned it was his last week on unemployment insurance and if he cant work [kill a guy] his status will change.

What was unemployment like during Nero's reign? Was there any government assistance like "unemployment insurance?" Were views toward the unemployed/government-assisted (was welfare a thing?) the same as 'modern' views? Were certain professions more likely to receive aid or compensation during uncertain times?

And sorry, I know the stand-up philosopher's true occupational title is bullsh!t artist.

Hello! I'm interested in learning about the world history, but have no idea where to start? Any lectures/books/videos recommendations?

We hear a lot about East Berliners risking life and limb to get to the West. But did any young left-wing idealists in the West ever try to cross the bridge in search of a better life in the East?

I mean, Jan Hus lived just 100 before Martin Luther, and he had basically the same ideas, in a way meaning that the Kingdom of the Bohemian Crown as the first ever protestant country, why did it fail?

I just don’t understand how a religion could buy a piece of land. There is a lot of misinformation surrounding Israel/Palestine in general, so I was hoping someone with expertise could clear this up. I’m pretty ignorant of the conflict in general so any form of context would help.

I remember reading in a book that there were settlement schemes to move Turks into modern day Iraq. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any further reading on this topic. Anyone know where to begin?

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Thanks

War between the brothers was dawning and Carloman was attempting to team up with the Vatican. The sudden death in his young age (20 ish) established Charlemagne's rise to power. The common consensus seems to be that he died a natural cause. Why is that? Not to forget that their mother, Bertrada, obviously favored Charlemagne and schemed against Carloman before. Its just all so incredibly convenient for Charlemagne.

He prooved to be ruthless at a younger age, on the other hand he seemed to very religious and petricide is a major sacrilege.

Hello! I have two names of people who I want to know more about, but they are not found on Google in any way.

I'm really interested in them as I might have an interesting document (a specific Bible) by them, but I am stuck and don't know where to keep looking. Is there anywhere specific other than here where I can find something about people who aren't found on Google? Or am I already at the right place?

If I am, here are the two people I am looking for: "Michil I. Saliverou" and "The Former Kefallinias Spyridon Spyr. P. Sougras". Saliverou was probably the one who printed this bible, while Sougras sent it from Athens to the Holy Synod for them to support Saliverou in distributing this edition of the Bible to all churches. The entire thing is in koine greek, and someone translated the part that wasn't Bible for me so I at least know the names and the context. Any chance I can find out who these people were?

EDIT: These people lived around 1899!

Are there any recipe books from before the maritime expansion in the 1500's?

From what I understand :

The sea people’s invaded Egypt during the Bronze Age collapse and one of the tribes of Sea People’s were called the PLST. They were relocated in the Levant . This happened around the 1200s BC.

There are phillistines references in the Jewish Bible and they are Israel’s neighbor and engage in various wars with them. The OT stories are dated to around starting at the 10th century BC.

The Greeks conquered this land around Alexander’s time in the 4th century BC and called it Palestine and since then Palestine has essentially been conquered by various different empires (Rome, ottomans, British etc).

There is archeological and genetic evidence that the phiillistines originated from Europe and populated the Levant in 1200s BC. This lines up with when the ruler of Egypt relocated the PLST to the area as well. It’s theorized that the sea people’s were various tribes from Europe.

So were the PLST the phillistines who became Palestinians ?

In the wake of the internet and social media, certain names have gained commonly accepted implications and second meanings. Such as Karen having a I-Want-To-Speak-To-The-Manager entitled connotation along with racist implications or Chad now implying a misogynistic frat-boy/fuckboy attitude.

Has this had historical equivalents (excluding the major single cause scenarios like Adolf becoming a far less ideal name in the wake of WWII) and it's just something people do? Or is this a truly modern trend?

Is bacon different today than it was 100-200 years ago? I read books about exploring North America and expeditions where they took a side of bacon with them, clearly there was no refrigeration back then....

There's a lot of information floating around with the newest escalation, and I have a gist of the history except for one thing, it sounds like the Jewish people just kind of, decided to go there, was the existing state welcoming of them in the first place?

My very basic understanding is that the diaspora ended up with Jewish people in the area called Israel and I understand they really didn't have anywhere to exist as a people, Hamas is a big "fuck off settlers" campaign taking it as far as their modern firepower can and Israel is now trying to take more and more of Palestine. Was Palestine ever open to them or has it always been a "go away" vs "we have nowhere to go" situation?

I’m looking for a book that discusses the conflict in the Middle East. The book should have a neutral stand, no personal opinions. I want to read about the history and events that led to the current situation. The Israeli/Palestinian situation.

As far as I know, the essential aspects of slavery is that the slave is the property of the master. If so, anything the slave acquires belongs to the master. So how could a slave ever purchase his/her freedom? Anything he/she acquired could be immediately taken by the master with no compensation. Was there some type of social taboo in Rome against taking such earnings, or was there actually a law that allowed slaves to hold property the master couldn't take?

I just discovered a genuine 19th century African-American melody in an old newspaper. It sounds a bit like "Po' Lazarus" from the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, much more than any 20th century song.

This got me thinking... what sort of genuine African-American music do we know about from the 19th century? I know "Follow the Drinking Gourd" and other famous songs are 20th century creations, but did anyone write down what was actually being sung in those days and have people re-recorded it? Can we observe the changes over time before the 1890s when sheet music became common?