I don't normally post my own things here, but I wrote something that I think I'm actually a world expert on:

• Why do so many far-flung and competing religions seem to have the same tradition of using beaded necklaces as prayer tools?

I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the topic. I looked at how prayer beads were written about in specialist and some non-specialist encyclopedias as a case study of how Protestant scholars of religion used rituals as an Anti-Catholic critique, which essentially went on until the 1980's. I think it makes me probably one of maybe half a dozen people in the world who could answer that question, though I unfortunately had to write it quickly. But my undergraduate thesis was great: it's the first time I felt, "I know something that no one else in the world knows."

Here’s a quick look back at the theme of the week! What did we learn about corruption?

/u/AlviseFalier talked about corruption in Italy during the Renaissance

/u/Laksafoss talked about the possible reasons for low corruption in Dennmark

/u/caffarelli and /u/GargamelTakesAll talked about corruption amongs the Chinese eunuchs

Rundown:

• /u/rhodis on "If Henry Tudor had been killed alongside Richard III at the battle of Bosworth, who would be next in the line of succession?"

• /u/yodatsracist answered "The Qu'ran seems to assume the reader/listener is familiar with the stories of the Old Testament. How familiar would pagan Arabs have been with these stories, and how would they have heard them?"

• /u/pangerandipanagara went above and beyond in the answer to "How did Indonesia and Malaysia become majority-Muslim when they were once dominated by Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms?"

Hope everyone’s weekend is going great! Here are some of the popular and/or interesting questions from last week, which did not get an answer yet:

/u/Ranolden wants to know more about the 1577 milk riot in Vienna

/u/malta3 asked about the population of the Kazakhstan region around 1000 - 1200 CE

I asked about the inner workings and the monitoring of Soviet state travel agency

To add to Zhukov's list:

/u/DYGT on Why does 'Liberal' have a different meaning in the US than in Europe?

/u/400-rabbits on How unusual were the Aztecs' practices of human sacrifice, cutting out hearts, wearing the skins of sacrificial victims, etc?

/u/iguana_on_a_stick on Could Roman soldiers see significant promotion, or was that reserved to the upper classes?

I wanted to give a shout-out to the answer for my question from last week "Read about the recent death of the creator of the Pinyin system and was curious - how long did it take for non-Chinese academics to use Pinyin more than Wade-Giles? Is Wade-Giles used much at all today?" given by /u/voorface

/u/LukeInTheSkyWith asked about Ada Lovelace's first program which I answered... three days after it was asked