Last week I was happy to report that I had been accepted to present a paper at one of my most anticipated conferences of the year (the Canadian War Museum's international conference on Canadian First World War literature, July 31st - August 3rd, 2014); this week I am even happier to report that yesterday my proposed chapter for an upcoming volume on the place of war in horror writing was accepted for publication.

This is going to be a busy year -___-

So I got a new research assistant a few weeks ago, but so far he's only hurt productivity. Anyone have tips on training them?

I only really realized over the past couple weeks the terrifying power a flair has over thread position (controlled by voting). I am kind of curious what causes people to upvote posts, particularly if it is outside of your area of interest. Do you go by "feel" and tone, whether the writer seems to be arguing it well with evidence, whether they have a flair, or whether they have sources?

On a lighter/more irritating note, I learned this week that lateen sails don't confer inherent advantage over square sails in upwind sailing (spritsail rigging does, however). I am kind of irritated by that.

I've been getting this for a while, but recently it's been annoying me incredibly; regarding the OP's (Doing a great job there, AutoModerator, love your work) post and the mention of the Doge of Venice. It's an incredibly sad state of affairs when I read anything on Venice or the Doge's thereof, I don't picture a Dandolo, Morosini or a Gradenigo but instead a Shiba Inu.

Curse you, internet.

I never did find an answer to my question about how Ptolemaic astronomers explained the solstices. It's still bugging me.

I had an awesome idea for the Day in History this week about the daily life of a newly married Central Asian bride who lived in the Silk Road circa 17th ~ 18th century but missed the actual time by 24 hours or something. D:

ALSO!

Someone the other day asked Did Japanese or other Asian forms of writing inhibit their progression into the "Modern Age?" and it had no answers. Someone brought it to my attention via PM so i wrote up an answer but it was deleted before I could post it.

Is this an okay place to post that response?

I dove into Calloway's One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West Before Lewis and Clark while on break from school. Thus far, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the history of Native American populations west of the Mississippi.

How about you guys. Read any fun history over the winter break?

I'm looking for a history of the black plague (Or another plague) that goes deep into the social/political and/or economic effects.

Here's a question that I've been wondering about:

In the medieval period in western Europe, what did towns traditionally spring up around? I figured they'd generally spring up around a harbor, a crossroads, or a central point in between farms, or maybe a castle, but I wasn't sure. I'm specifically thinking about how these towns were built over time.

What fictional books have you learned a lot of history from, or thought were as good/better than a non fiction work at conveying historical information?

To start off: The Guns of The South By Harry Turtledove. Story of radical Afrikaners building time machine and giving R.E. Lee's army AK 47s. Thought it was a great depiction of Lee.

And...crap...can't find the name. Anyway, relatively recent SciFi novel about the crash landing of a spacecraft in medieval Germany during the black plague. Got a real sense of medieval life, and what it must have been like to live during the plague.

I know there have been a lot of questions here about how and when Arabic/Indian numerals became the dominant numeral system in the world, but what other numeral systems were used before this happened and where were they used? The only other one I've heard of is Roman numerals, but I assume that wasn't used much beyond the boundaries of the Roman empire.

Indian historians...where art thou?!

I would just like to announce the launch of /r/streetfinder

You can post images and we will do our best pinpoint the location on Google Maps and Google Streetview.

Some are easy, some are extremely challenging, some are near impossible ... but pinpointing a location is very rewarding!

Thank you.

What are good ways to establish if a source is genuine?

I for an example had an argument with my father about whether or not the Genesis flood actually happened, he used as one of his arguments that an Assyrian king called Ashurbanipal said

"‘I read the beautiful clay tablets from Sumer and the Akkadian writing, which is hard to master. I had the joy of reading inscriptions on stone from the time before the flood.’"

I looked it up online and found out that they pulled it out of a book called "Thompson Chain Reference Bible"

So, how do I properly counter that argument since there is almost no way for me to disprove it?

So if I'm late, but I was curious on how exactly the term "negros" came to be embraced. I mean, this was a Mexican term, I'm just a little confused on how it came to be.

A story about a recent WWII bomb explosion in Germany referenced the previous disposal in Koblenz of an Allied fog producing device designed to obscure the view of AA gunners. I had never heard of such a device. Does anyone have more info about it? Thanks!

I'm interested in the history of journalism and its impact on American life and politics, specifically from 1870-1914. Can any recommend some good books or other sources for this subject?

Is the distinction between slavery and conscription always clear? I ask because I've seen Janissaries described as both and I'm curious about the distinction in other situations.