If anyone is interested, there is a competition through Brown to write an article about an archaeology subject that appeals to a wider audience. I know some of you are in the field or dabble in the field and thought you may be interested. The grand prize happens to be $5000 if anyone needed a little incentive to participate.

In the few years after 476 AD, when Romulus Augustulus was deposed, did people actually notice that "the Roman Empire" was gone? Did the political chaos of the previous few decades completely mask the event? Did any former Roman generals set up semi-successful fiefs, holdings, or served barbarian kings?

Some might be interested in this thread in /r/askanthropology dealing with the popular perception/concept of evil. The subject represents an overlap with the interests of some of our audience of our fine subreddit here.

During the '60s, why was a 1-man mission to the moon not considered? I know the direct ascent option was passed over because it required a rocket too heavy. But wouldn't it've been possible to have a reasonable direct ascent for one person? Was it considered too risky to not have redundancy? Was the length too long for a person to be alone, in the minds of planners?

Today's odd history find, in the Aug. 8, 1973 Southeast Alaska Empire newspaper:

... The body of Joseph T. Cash, 67, of Petersburg was found lashed to the winch of his troller after a 150-pound halibut had apparently broken his leg and severed an artery when he hoisted it aboard his boat while fishing alone in the vicinity of Eagle Point on Kupreanof Island.

Cash's customary way of handling a large halibut was to shoot it thorugh the head after hooking it, and then to gaff the fish with a shark hook attached to a 10-foot length of half-inch rope.

From evidence gathered at the scene, Cash shot the halibut four times with a .22 and then hauled it aboard. It apparently flopped and in so doing, crippled the elderly man. ...

I proposed a new translation of Iberian coins in a paper sent to the Journal of Indo-European Studies. Its my first-ever peer-reviewed paper I am hoping I at least get some good comments back and helpful (as opposed to dickish) criticisms.

Any recommendations for a good biography of Giuseppe Garibaldi?

Does anyone have a rough estimate of what percentage of people have been devoutly religious or particularly pious throughout history? I have a sneaking suspicion that this portion of the population is both small and relatively constant, but not sure who's writing on this.

Does anyone have a good documentary or source for interesting technologies used in the cold war? I've already seen a pretty cool documentary about SOSUS and I'd like to try to learn more about some different and interesting gadgets.

Just came across this thread over on /r/vexillology and became curious. A little cursory research turned up Eric von Rosens, from whose personal symbol the Swastika of the Finnish AF was adopted, connection both to Göring (as brother-in-law) and the Swedish NSB (National Socialist Block). Does anyone here have information or sources on how deep von Rosens involvement in the creation of the Finnish Air Force was, or good biographies/sources on the man himself and his NS-sympathies?

Hi, I recently came across a book called The Axe and the Oath about ordinary life in the Middle Ages. I already have a book on the subject (The Time Travelers Guide to Medieval England), but this one intrigued me; it's had a greater focus on the medieval psyche and covered a number of topics in much greater detail than The Time Traveler's Guide.

I didn't buy it straight out, instead deciding to try and find some reviews. However, a lot of reviews seem to be decidedly negative, but it's hard to sift the reviews that have genuine disagreements with the text from the reviews that find the writing style hard to work through (in the book's defense, it was originally published in French).

I was hoping someone on here, perhaps even a medieval specialist, might have read it and could tell me what they think? It's a subject I'm really interested in, but I don't want to spend quite a bit of money unless it's a solid work.

Thanks :)

Looking for good books dealing with drug use in film, any suggestions? Specifically blaxploitation B movies of the 1970/80s and hood films of the 1970/80/90s

Is anyone here into silent film comedians? I just discovered Max Linder this week and would love to read up on him, but I can find almost no information beyond his Wikipedia entry. His story is so interesting, is there really no biography out there?

Are there any statistics on flaired users of AskHistorians? I've got a strong feeling that the experts here aren't the stereotypical 60-something pipe smoking professors that I imagine when I think of history, but I can only find statistics on the general user populace of this subreddit.