Did the Norman aristocracy of the Kingdom of Sicily still considered themselves Norman in the 12th century? How different where they from the Normans in Normandy? How much emphasis was laid on the aristocracy's "Norman-ness"? Did any Norman institution take roots in the kingdom?

I certainly hope this is not offensive to anyone, as that is surely not my intent. I simply hear this statement a lot and would like to be able to give an educated response.

The assertion is that slave owners would select slaves to reproduce based on their traits of strength, speed, and endurance, all of which would result in theoretically superior workers. It is said that this, over time, resulted in the black race (in early America as well as other places where slaves were brought to from Africa) as a whole becoming more athletic. This is stated as the reason why black people are so highly represented in many professional sports (especially sports that require a combination of size, strength, and speed, such as basketball - I believe almost 80% of current NBA players are black.)

Is there any truth to this, or do we have historical evidence that any perceived athletic differences between the races is a result of some earlier branching in our evolutionary tree?

I need help finding good surces about the nazi human experiments, I would appriciate some info about the malaria experiments and high altitude experiments.

I have already writen about the hypothermia experiments done by Sigmund Rashcer in dachau but would still appriciate more information about it.

If it is possible I would really like to know if any of the experimental results is used in modern sciens.

Excuse my spelling, having a hard time writing With a swedish auto correct

In the 16th century the Ottoman Empire was truly one of the premier empires in the world. What caused their gradual decline? How did the Ottomans , with one of the finest armies in the late medieval period become the 'sick man of Europe'? They weren't shy from scientific advance and were close to all the action Europe.

Before AC and what not? It seems that all the pictures I see of them they're bundled up in fairly thick looking long pants and long sleeve shirts.

How did they survive that? I've been to phoenix in the summer and in an AC'd car it was horrible.

Hello. I am trying to find out some information on the year 1398 in Cumberland England. I need to know if what the Lord's and Ladies ate off were called plates.

Short version: Help me find a historic noble who lost his heir, and had to settle for another person, ideally much less competent/appealing/

Long version: My English teacher is a big history fan, and as one of our assignments, we are to act out scenes of medieval life (as noble, should they be counts, dukes, kings, anything really).

My idea was to play a king who had lost his son, and now had another son as heir. However she wants us to bring in sources, and here's where I need you guys.

The information I need:

• A historically real (sorry English is not my native) male nobleman
• His House, his name
• A geographical location (a country is good enough)
• A son (yes he has to be real), his name
• A second son, brother, uncle, anyone who will inherit instead of said dead son
• General character characteristics

The purpose of this oral is to demonstrate how dysfunctional royal families were. My main idea was to make the father sound "pissed" that his son had passed, rather than mourn his death. If that doesn't fit with the facts, I'll change my approach.

Thanks in advance.

I've heard that Nazi Germany had a heavy hand in steering German culture during the years it was in charge of the country. Do we have examples of what kind of "humorous" cultural activities the Nazis endorsed? Like comedy venues or satirical plays or something.

Informal attacks like the car bomb in front of the US embassy (I think March 30 1965) were very effective in destabilizing the south and making it hard to live a normal life for the civilians. Why did the US not send S. Vietnamese troops north in plain clothes to do the same? Or did they?

I've been reading a lot on the Yugoslavian Crisis (which barely fits into the 20-year range, but is clear by a few years, at least for part of the conflicts), and had a question similar to that of why Jews couldn't blend in and "pass" during the Holocaust. How did the Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians distinguish between one another? There are reports and claims of ethnic cleansing, especially by the Serbians according to the text I'm reading...but how did they figure out who was who? Was it based on language? Did the people of each part of Yugoslavia all get categorized based on what region they lived in (before independence was claimed)? And if so, then how did Serbs distinguish between Bosnian Serbs and just regular Bosnians?

Thanks for the help and clarification in advance!

Just trying to understand the difficulty of obtaining that rank.

I was walking through the Chicago airport the other day and heard a piano. Excited that the airport was so progressive and arts-minded, I went to go check it out. Turns out, it was a real instrument, just played by some fancy computer machine.

This got me thinking - how did musicians respond when the first player pianos were introduced in the late 1800s? Did these machines get popular enough to feel threatening to musicians - barroom or otherwise? Or, were these machines just a novelty for the wealthy? Did anyone publicly speak for or against player pianos?

Hey guys I've been doing a bit of reading on the "10 Year War", but I'm kind of struggling to understand why the Soviet Union even wanted to invade in the first place, I'm also kind of stuck on understanding the aftermath of the entire thing. Hopefully you guys could throw some bullet points my way, or anything for that matter! Thanks