query stringlengths 19 300 | pos list | neg list | task stringclasses 1 value | instruction dict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
European medieval (~1200) - books with picture request. | [
"Visual source documentation of fashion prior to 1300 is very scant: archaeology can't help (clothing degrades), preservation wasn't an apparent concern until late middle ages, and visual resources are thin (manuscript imagery is not in full gear yet, painting hadn't taken off yet). Some also argue that 'fashion' hadn't taken off yet, either - or at least that is the argument of this book: * Sarah-Grace Heller, *Fashion in Medieval France* (Boydell & Brewer, 2007) This book covers the 'start' of fashion in the 13th century and, this is the frustrating part typical of academic work, it lacks illustrations. However, the bibliography is huge and has some very good resources. If you want the bibliography I can scan it for you - just PM me. Again, bear in mind that you will be working with a time period with a lot of guess work."
] | [
"It already meant a large quantity of material, when it was then used in the 1700s to describe a great quantity of sound. _URL_0_"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
It's a common theme in fiction, but are there any actual instances of ideas or legends that are consistent across distant cultures? | [
"Many cultures have their own Cinderella stories. The version we know (and the version Disney movie was based on) was written by Charles Perrault. In ancient Greece there's [Rhodopis](_URL_9_), a slave girl who ended up marrying the pharaoh who found her sandal. In ancient China there's the story of [Ye Xian](_URL_8_), who was treated harshly by her stepmother. She married a king who found her golden shoes given to her by a magic fish during a new year celebration. In ancient Korea there's [Pear Blossom](_URL_6_), she married a nobleman who found her shoe at a festival. There are several similar stories in versions of Arabian Nights. In Germany there's Aschenputtel. In the Caribbean there's [Cendrillon](_URL_7_), etc (although the later ones are probably adaptations of each other)."
] | [
"The theory of the collective unconscious is that all humans maybe all creatures are connected at a fundamental level. Ideas can pass from one person to the next like a virus without a word being said. This extra sensory perception is often used to explain mass hysteria or zeitgeist. It has also been the hypothesis for how identical ideas like calculus, the steam boat or airplanes can be invented at the same time by completely unconnected individuals."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Did Normans use stirrups using their conquest of England, and was it important? | [
"This image from the Bayeux Tapestry (depicting the Norman conquest of what we now know as England) clearly depicts a Norman horse soldier using stirrups. _URL_0_"
] | [
"Mounted archers from horse cultures were probably the most effective units in all of warfare till gunpowder. See the Battle of Carrhae for a very cool example. And the whole Mongols thing."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Can anyone suggest a good book on the history of Colonial America? | [
"*American Slavery, American Freedom* by Edmund S. Morgan is a great read and is one of the main reasons he is considered one of the best historians of the 20th century. The book has some excellent analysis about the role of economics, constructions of race, and how the two related to each other. Also, although I haven't read it, you could check out Bernard Bailyn's new book *The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America, 1600-1675*. Bailyn is right up there with Morgan as one of the most reputable colonial era historians."
] | [
"Just asked this in the other sticky, but maybe this is the better place for it: Does anyone have any good book recommendations about the Nigerian Civil War or about Biafra as a country?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title about Education:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence about Education:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence about Literature:"
} |
How can we explain the representation of bearded men in many Olmec sculptures? | [
"Beards are less common in Mesoamerica, and often less thick, but they still had them. Quite often it was simply not fashionable to have beards. Take a look at this depiction of 11th century Mixtec warlord [Nacuaa Teyusi Ñaña](_URL_0_). He had a beard. The symbol floating above him (which looks like a floating disembodied head) is the symbol for \"wind.\" It's based on a picture of the wind god (Aztecs called him *ehecatl*, not sure the Mixtec name), and he has a beard as well."
] | [
"They thought the Human body was divine and beautiful. The renaissance just copied them. There are plenty of clothed statues as well."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
What is the oldest known (unproven) Conspiracy Theory? | [
"Its certainly not the Oldest, but a nice example is the **Donation of Constantine.** This supposed Roman imperial decree said that emperor Constantine transferred power over Rome and the Western empire to the bishop of Rome (the Pope). This was later used to legitimize papal political authority, especially in the 13th century. However it was met with suspicion. It would take until the Renaissance for it to be proven a forgery by humanist Lorenzo Valla. [Here](_URL_0_) is some nice further reading if you're interested."
] | [
"You may get better answers in /r/AskAnthropology. The earliest smelting pre-dates history, back around 9000 BCE. So we don't have a written record of why or how the practice started. That makes this more an anthropological/archeological kind of question."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
[Meta] Come check out /r/HistoryReviews | [
"Official mod comment: We're very interested in seeing such a subreddit succeed, and we hope that those of you who feel the same will be willing to check it out and contribute!"
] | [
"You might want to crosspost this to /r/AskScience."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Did G.F. Handel ever hold a soprano out of a second story window? | [
"It's a \"real legend\" if that's what you're asking! Hard to say if it really happened however. Handel was *not* an easy man to work with though, he got in tiffs with other singers, you can rattle off about every big singer of the era as someone who once pissed him off, even my username Caffarelli, Caffarelli was perhaps even finally the singer that pissed Handel off enough to make him quit doing opera, because he did stop pretty close after working with him (probably not the reason though). But it certainly fits with Handel's character for him to get super mad at a singer. The legendary almost-defenestrated soprano was Francesca Cuzzoni, but it's not for Messiah, teacher was wrong there, the legend is attached to the rehersals of *Ottone.* [It's mentioned in Cuzzoni's wikipedia page as its so well known.](_URL_1_) [And here's a bad dramatic reenactment by a famous modern opera singer!](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"He's warming up for the eventual possibility that you are going to drop him in water. Why else are you holding him over the water anyways."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
I'm a miner in the newly conquered land of Spain during the late Roman Republic. What would I be mining for the Roman state and what are my working conditions like? | [
"hi! there's lots of room for more input on this question, but FYI, there is a related section in the FAQ* - check it out for previous discussions: [Mineral resource extraction](_URL_0_) *see the link on the sidebar or the wiki tab"
] | [
"I'd like to hijack this and ask a follow up question: What sort of laws did the Romans have regarding treatment of slaves as opposed to the USA?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How did the IJN react after sinking the USS Houston (CA-30) only to hear that the USS Houston still afloat (CL-81) | [
"Did sailors generally know the name of the ships they're fighting?"
] | [
"Over the weekend it was announced that Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, had actually made another major undersea discovery following up on their 2015 discovery of the wreck of the IJN battleship *Musashi*. Allen and his team with aid from the US Navy found the site of the *USS Indianapolis* in the Philippines Sea. Famous for both its service prewar as a flagship, and its delivery of the components of the Little Boy bomb to Tinian in summer of 1945 and later sinking(with the tale of the survivors related by the character of Captain Quint in Jaws). The ship rests at nearly 5500 meters down, which also should hopefully protect it from thee scavengers that have worked over many of the wrecks elsewhere in the Pacific that were in shallower waters. [USNI article announcing the findings and a few pics of the wreck](_URL_0_)."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
What did it take 7 centuries to drive out the Moors from Spain? | [
"Well it wasn't an either-or thing. There *was* a concerted, international effort to retake Spain from Muslim rule, sometimes involving crusading rhetoric and promises of indulgence from the Church. In fact, the city of Barbastro was retake by Christians (Spaniards and Normans) in 1064, and it would not be improper to think of it was the *actual* first crusade (or maybe Crusade Zero) as it was a papally-sanctioned expedition with \"protecting Christendom\" rhetoric supporting it. As for why it took seven centuries...I'm not sure I can really answer that without taking all day, but the short version is that there was a lot of resistance by Muslims and nor always a lot of unity among the Christians. For a while there was a powerful caliphate in Córdoba, and there were multiple waves of reinforcements (who effectively took over) from Morocco."
] | [
"Why would you assume that America is like the rest of the world?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Did the Allies have a contingency plan in the event Overlord was a failure? | [
"On a related note, Eisenhower prepared a statement against the possibility that the D-Day landings failed, taking full responsibility for the repulse (see: _URL_0_ Note how he edited it to strengthen the wording) \"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.\""
] | [
"It wasn't the most fortified place in France at the time. That would be the Pas de Calais, the most obvious place to invade (you can see England from there). The point of allied deception operations was to convince the OKW that the landings in Normandy were actually a feint, and that the real push would come with General Patton landing a (completely fictitious) First US Army Group near Calais. A lot of effort went into this. Historians are sort of divided on how much the Germans actually bought it, but in any event the precious German armoured divisions stayed out of the fight long enough to allow a real beachhead to be established, and the rest is, as they say, history."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
I'm trying to identify an important-looking man with a medallion around his neck in my grandfather's photograph. | [
"If this was in the UK, the man with the chain would almost certainly be the mayor of a town or small city. He could be the president of a professional association or a service organisation who may also wear such chains, but the formal suit when others are not wearing one makes it seem more likely that he is a mayor. The people do not look British. I do not know how widespread such \"chains of office\" are for mayors, beyond the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway. Here is a picture of a [Swedish mayor wearing his chain](_URL_0_). Your picture would appear to be someone from a less rich town. Does the presence of a sailor from the US Coast Guard make it more probable that this picture was taken in Canada? Although some did serve far from the US coast in WW2. EDIT: It would seem that mayor's chains in Norway (and probably Sweden) are a post-war fashion."
] | [
"Far left is a sticker for participating in a 10k run, mid-right is a turtle, far right appears to be an identification tag of some sort, and I don't know what mid-left is."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question about history:",
"pos": "Represent the comment about history:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Locations of "miles-long, curving lines of rubble, found in parts of Europe and North America..."? | [
"Hello! Token Geologist here! The kind of feature you describe sounds like it might be terminal moraines. Those are litterally aprons of glacially plucked and polished debris at the southernmost extent of glacial advances. They aren't necessarily always well preserved, as later peri- and post-glacial events can rework those deposits. You'll find a map of their distribution (for the last glaciation in the Wisconsinian) in N America [here](_URL_0_). You'll find a section through the terminal moraine in New York here: _URL_1_ - poorly sorted silty/sandy mud with unsupported cobbles. And what the surface topography of these deposits looks like here: _URL_2_ It basically looks like a bunch of stuff was dumped in irregular mounds where the glacier stopped. Furthermore, the material is very poorly sorted, with a large silt/mud fraction, which makes for poor drainage (hence the lakes and ponds)."
] | [
"They were formed in a similar manner as other mountain ranges. Their unique shape, however, is the result of glaciation. long ago, huge sheets of ice carved the mountain range into the unique shapes that are seen today."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
What technological advancements would made life more comfortable for a well-to-do person in the 1700s compared to the 1600s? | [
"Being more specific with your geography would greatly assist in the answers you receive."
] | [
"The Middle Ages is a pretty huge period that spanned centuries, so you might want to refine your question. The daily life of a monarch in the 8th century was incomparably different from that of a 16th century one."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
How did the Berlin airlift function and how effective it was? | [
"Diane Canwell wrote a comprehensive account in her book \"The Berlin Airlift\" back in 2008. The problem that worried the Americans the most was how to deliver coal to Berlin for home heating during the winter. When they asked Curtis LeMay if the US Air Force could air lift the coal, he replied \"This Air Force can deliver anything.\" Yet it was a very difficult job that taxed the air transport resources of the RAF and US Air Force to the limit. It improved considerably during the Air Lift as newer larger planes were introduced and better ways to unload the planes quickly were developed. They also used radar for air traffic control for the first time on a large scale. In the end, the Berlin Air Lift was effective."
] | [
"Was any Asian country capable of helping the United States during the revolutionary war?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What candies were popular during the Victorian age? | [
"Have I got some resources for you! [The Complete Confectioner, 1864](_URL_1_) [The Candy-Maker's Guide, 1896](_URL_0_) Lots of fruit flavored or herbal flavored things (horehound, violets, coltsfoot, maidenhair, and angelica, for instance). Honey and molasses appeared more often than they do today, but white sugar certainly wasn't left out. Nuts and various dried fruits were more popular. Rosewater and orange blossom water were used almost exclusively, in places where we would use vanilla."
] | [
"So when and where did playing cards as we know them come into being anyways?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Today, My Prof Emphasized that the debate over Slavery was Only a small part of the Secession and reasoning for the American Civil War. Is He Accurate in Any Way? | [
"This is a pretty popular topic, so there are several good threads on it in the [FAQ](_URL_0_). I'm especially a fan of [this one](_URL_1_)."
] | [
"I don't think there was much of an Empire as we know it before finding and Colonising the Americas (and the Indies), most of what is considered the British Empire was sought out and colonised after and because of losing the Thirteen Colonies. I think, from what I've read, Canada and The Thirteen Colonies are referred to by some Historians as the \"First Empire\" and the Revolutionary War marks the Transition to the \"Second Empire\" (which eventually led to \"The Imperial Century\" which is the height of the British Empire) I can't find anything about the thoughts of people on the state of the Empire at this time, except for the Government at the time, who just turned their attention to finding new Territories to replace those they had lost. I don't know if that helps answer the question at all, but I hope it's a useful starting point. Source: Oxford History of the British Empire, Volume 1 _URL_0_"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about history:"
} |
I read in a book that Oceania hasn't always been at war with Eurasia and that there was a time when Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Can this be true? | [
"CITIZEN AIMHERE. REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE. A PARTY MEMBER WILL BE ALONG SHORTLY TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION IN DEPTH. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MATTER WITH ANYONE, AS YOU LACK THE PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF INGSOC TO TELL OTHERS. AGAIN, PLEASE REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE. REMEMBER, BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU."
] | [
"Socialism and communism are very closely linked -- in fact, socialism is a stepping-stone on the road to communism. The party that ran the USSR was the Communist Party. You shouldn't pay too much attention to names, though. The official title of North Korea is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and \"democratic\" is one thing it most certainly is not."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Did Cortés reuse materials from his scuttled ships to build the brigantines used in the siege of Tenochtitlán? | [
"Cortés did indeed reuse materials from his scuttled ships, such as sails, anchors, chains, etc. Both Cortés (in his 2nd Letter to Charles V) and Bernal Diaz del Castillo describe how they had Indian porters carry these materials from the coast into the Basin of Mexico. There they were brought to Texcoco and assembled into new ships. The woodworking for the brigantines was done by Indian carpenters under Spanish supervision."
] | [
"I don't know about Columbus, but with Cortes many of the survivors were given lands in Mexico once the conquest of Mexico was complete. Many went home to Spain. Example - Bernal Díaz del Castillo - a foot soldier in the conquest of Mexico with Cortes. As a reward for his service, Díaz was appointed governor of Santiago de los Caballeros, present-day Antigua Guatemala. Died in Guatemala City Example - Pedro de Alvarado - captain of one of the ships/ second in command during the expedition's first stay in the Aztec capital, took part in later expeditions, received a Royal Cedula naming him Governor of the Province of Honduras. Died in Michoacán Mexico"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Was Trudeau (sr.) spurred by a British Privy Council ruling on human rights in Rhodesia to create the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? | [
"Honestly that explanation seems to discount the very-Canadian problem that until The Charter, our Rights and Freedoms were enshrined in a very vulnerable [*Bill of Rights*](_URL_0_). Like any legislation, its incredibly easy to amend. Its not entrenched, and that's part of the reasoning behind entrenching something very similar to this Bill in the *Constitution Act* - Namely, the Charter. This is undoubtedly at least part of the national context surrounding the 1982 repatriation. You're also right on the Privy Council no longer having jurisdiction. It was officially removed from the hiearchy of the Courts in 1931 via the *Westminister Act.* Until that time, Supreme Court decisions could be appealed to the Privy Council. IIRC however, no appeals to the Privy Council had been made since 1929, as you remember. This is not the explanation either, therefore."
] | [
"Why is the US so upset over the labeling of US treatment of Native Americans as a genocide?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
What percentage of military conflict since World War 2 has involved the United States? | [
"Firstly, we cannot really accurately list all military conflicts. It's such a broad concept, and can include everything from border wars to drug wars. After some research, I do have some numbers though. But, according to _URL_0_, there have been \"over 250 major wars\" since 1945. So, we'll use that number. Of all these wars, the US has been involved in 43 of them, which may surprise some as they would think the US has been involved in almost all of them. So, assuming there have been 250 wars since 1945, the US would have been involved in 17.2% of all military conflict since World War 2. Hope this helped!"
] | [
"Was any Asian country capable of helping the United States during the revolutionary war?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
The aerospace industry influenced the economics of Southern California, but did it affect the culture in the area in any significant ways? | [
"One immediate factor that comes to mind is the influx of working women for wartime manufacturing. Anecdotally in California history texts I have seen it mentioned as a factor driving later feminism movements locally. As both of my grandmothers were California \"riveters,\" I would appreciate any further reading or insight from those more familiar with the topic."
] | [
"I can't offer any quality criticisms on the actual content that would be in line with the 20 year rule we have here, but my main issue with this description of Detroit's history is that it fails to contextualize Detroit with any comparisons to the US economy as a whole or other American cities that also suffered from the shift away manufacturing."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
After alcohol prohibition ended, was there an uptick in hospital visits due to inexperienced consumption of the devil's brew and did the rate of trouble subside after the general public figured out that tequila shots are not always a good idea? | [
"Don't necessarily assume that greater number of hospital visits is the same as increased incidence. There may have been many cases where people avoided the hospital when there could have been legal repercussions. There are reports that hundreds died from methanol poisoning due to finding denatured alcohol or from amateur stills."
] | [
"The simplest response: booze! Back then, there was a very poor to limited understanding of water quality leading to illness. There would not have been attempts to purify the water, since it was not understood that this needed to be done to have potable water. The concept simply didn't exist. However, it was noted that drinking alcoholic beverages or diluted beverages did noticeably reduce the rate of illness. As a result, people learned to harness fermentation to provide themselves with something to drink that wouldn't kill them. This didn't always work, as in the cholera outbreaks in England when drinking alcohol 24/7 was not an option and many still had to rely on plain water. However, much of our culture's association with alcohol is in part due to the discovery that it was safer to get a little buzzed than to crap your guts out by drinking plain water."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Historians, what is the best way for a non-professional with limited resources to conserve/handle old pictures and documents? | [
"You can try /r/Archivists, or me, for I am here as well. 1. How old are the documents? 2. How many are there? (Roughly) 3. How much money are you willing to spend?"
] | [
"This is fascinating. Do you have more details on how they came to be in her possession? The relationship between the photographer and Mussolini? What kind of \"intelligence\" were they involved in? What kind of condition are they in? A full story would really help."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Archiving:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text about Archiving:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
Alfred of Wessex is, to my understanding, credited with advances in the administration of kingdoms and general logistics. What were the nature of these? Can you recommend a layman's-terms book on this subject? | [
"I'm currently reading \"In search of the Dark Ages\" By Michael Wood, it covers English history from Boudicca's revolt to the Norman conquest, and about 20% of the books is on Alfred, while it of course also talks about his wars with the Vikings it also does contain information about his reforms to education and administration. It's very readable and Michael Wood writes very well. I would recommend that as a starting place."
] | [
"Haha, this is a fun and difficult question. There are thousands to choose from. Let me ask a few follow up questions: What time period (medieval, modern, etc.)? What type of history? Do you simply want a political history that discusses how the structure of the kingdom changed form monarch to monarch, or do you want something about how the monarchy was perceived by the people, etc.? Do you want one that's fun to read, provides exacting citations and research, or both? Do you want one with comprised of primary source material or an academic monograph? Do you want a recently published book or does the publication date not matter?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What would the leaders of the American Revolution have expected to happen should the revolution have failed? | [
"In *Washington: A Life* (Pulitzer Prize for Biography 2011), Ron Chernow says that George Washington planned to flee to his lands in the Ohio Valley that he acquired between the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. Chernow didn't go into much more detail than that--such as how he expected to stay safe once there, which Washington probably hadn't considered either--but that was his plan."
] | [
"Because realistically slavery was the single biggest issue by a wide margin, and in spite of all of the other issues, if slavery was not among them, it's very possible that the South would not have tried to secede at all."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
Why did outhouses have moons on carved into them? | [
"There are authors who claim the practice began during the colonial period as an early \"mens\"/ \"ladies\" designation for an illiterate populace (the sun and moon being popular symbols for the genders during those times). The book : *The Little Red Schoolhouse: A Sketchbook of Early American Education* has the following insert : \"The woodshed was often a lean-to attached to the schoolhouse, but the most accepted arrangement was to place it between the schoolhouse and the privy, with a fence separating the boys' entrance from the girls'. The ancient designation of privy doors was to saw into them a sun (for boys' toilet) and a moon (for girls' toilet).\""
] | [
"People used all sorts of stuff throughout time. The ancient Greeks used stones and pieces of clay. The ancient Romans used a sponge at the end of a stick that was shared by the community. When not in use, it was stored in a bucket of heavily salted seawater. Fast forward to colonial America and people would use things like corn cobs. Until later, they began to use old newspapers and paper products. After all, the whole reason there is a hole in the corner of old Farmer's Almanacs was to hang on a hook in their outhouses."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
What was the ancient Roman stance on incest? | [
"/u/heyheymse, who specializes in Ancient Roman Sexuality, had this to say about incest: > Incest was indeed taboo in Rome. There's mention in Martial's epigrams of a guy who was a little too close to his sister, and it's treated in the same way that we would have looked at it. Martial's response is basically (and I'm very much paraphrasing here): that's some fucked up shit."
] | [
"Welcome to the one of the strongest arguments against the prohibition of firearms."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How did -tion end up sounding like -shun? Like in the word 'nation' | [
"This would be a better question for /r/linguistics."
] | [
"Words like \"decriminalize\" are Latinate constructions; Latin through and through. The words \"head\" and also \"behead\" are old English; the \"be\" prefix denoted taking away. Another example is \"bereft\". edit: technically the \"ize\" in \"decriminalize\" is Greek."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Honestly, what do you do with a BA in Asian History? I have 3.5 semesters left and would love some advice. | [
"I am in Library Science Grad School and you're actually pretty well qualified to go into that as an Asian Studies Specialist. I work at an International Studies library and we have 3 Asian Studies Librarians (tenure or tenure track) and 2 Asian Catalogers on staff. Your GPA is a little low but you can get into *some* grad school, probably not one of the top ones, but I don't think what lib sci grad school you go to is a big deal after you graduate, everybody pretty much learns the same stuff. (I go to the top ranked lib sci grad school so I'm not just saying that to make myself feel better.) Libraries aren't for everyone though! But if you a) like the act of researching, b) like helping doofy undergrads and c) like working with technology isn't not a bad option for you."
] | [
"1. If you stick with traditional history, you will have a hard time getting any history related job without an MA. If you study public history, more opportunities open up, such as jobs with the National Park Service, various archives, and government agencies. To be honest, I do not see how a person with only a BA in history could get a history-related job that pays a living wage. 2. Pretty much shit. I also have an advanced degree in a technical field. Jobs I see for that field are easily double the salary of history, but... 3. I love everything about what I do. Public history is such a varied amazing world there's no way you could get bored of your work. The field is so deep I am still learning new things every day (and I've been doing this as a graduate level for over three years). These are just my first thoughts."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
What was Rosemary Kennedy's condition pre-lobotomy? Did she have a diagnosed illness? | [
"Follow-up: to what extent did any diagnosis that was suggested for her conform to diagnostic standards for the time? What kind of treatment, if any, might the doctors available to the average citizen have been in favor of for a patient like her?"
] | [
"Neither Down Syndrome or Autism are mental illnesses. Could you clarify what you mean by this question? Do you mean disorders such as Down Syndrome or Autism, or mental illnesses, more along the lines of depression or schizophrenia?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How did people in the ancient world or the middle age identify themeselves? | [
"Why would you need some kind of ID when you had a retenue and all the very expensive trappings of royalty? And if you had those, why would you pretend to be king when it was an obvious act of rebellion and you were one of a very small number of people who had the requisite wealth, and were so easily identifiable, particularly since anyone of a similar rank who you might interact with would almost certainly recognize you or one of your retenue? In short, there was no need for ID because it wasn't a problem. Forgery of documents, however, was a problem, and documents such as [this papal bull](_URL_2_) from Harvard's Houghton library used a highly stylized chancery script requiring a high degree of scribal ability to prevent forgery. Another example can be seen [here](_URL_0_). For more on this, see: [Latin Paleography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages](_URL_1_) by Berhard Bischoff."
] | [
"Follow up question (please don't delete) how influential were nobility titles on economic upward mobility in the Europe of that same time?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Was Physical Education (PE) in schools originally designed with the objective of providing a Nation-state's military with a physically fit population? | [
"It's doubtful that it was *specifically* created for military preparedness. Rather it was intended to create a healthy population as a whole, of which future soldiers would be just one component. However many youth groups *were* created with that objective in mind. The Hitler Youth is an obvious example, but even the Scouting movement had its origins in preparing youth for future military service. One of the earliest versions of \"Scouting for Boys\" stated [\"BE PREPARED to die for your country if need be, so that when the moment arrives you may charge home with confidence, not caring whether you are going to be killed or not\".](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"Because in theory some of those cultural traditions may have been used or where interwoven with methods to oppress the masses in the old regime. In practice it has more to do with removing threats to your new regime by having your ideology being the only thing left."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
How did The Great Gatsby come to be considered such an important piece of literature? | [
"Between initial publication in 1925 and the second world war only twenty thousand copies have been sold. Then one hundred fifty-five thousand copies were distributed to American soldiers. That book owes it's importanc to the fact it's been one of the novels picked up by the Amercian «Council on Books in Wartime». [source](_URL_0_) Which in turn might have been influenced by the death of Fitzgerald in December 1940."
] | [
"What are the must read books about the American revolution published within the last five years? What are the current arguments being discussed by historians who study the era?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument about Literature:"
} |
NATO's Cold War strategy has been described as "fight like hell for three days, then blow up the world." How did they come to the conclusion that they could only hold out with conventional arms for a few days? | [
"A quick clarification question: where are you getting the \"three days\" quote from? From what I've read, NATO planners planned on being able to hold out for two to three weeks against an all-out Soviet attack, before having to go back to their respective governments for authorization to use nuclear arms. Now, three weeks still isn't a lot of time, but it's a lot longer than three days."
] | [
"They aren't. In a conventional war the US could handle multiple Russias at the same time. However the war wouldn't be conventional because Russia's policy on nuclear weapons is that they will use them as a first strike against enemy soldiers that are at war with Russia. This would force the US to retaliate with their own nukes, and before you know it there are no more Russians and no more Americans. Because of this the countries have to be careful not to actually engage each other in combat."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Can you help identify these signatures on Confederate currency? | [
"Unfortunately for your purposes, because Robert Tyler (son of John Tyler) and Edward Elmore, the Register of the Confederate Treasury and the Treasurer respectively, could not reasonably be expected to sign all of the bills, they successfully petitioned Congress so that they did not need to sign the bills but instead, that clerks could sign the bills *for* them. If you take a look at your bills, you should see that it says \"For Register\" and \"For Treasurer\" instead of \"Register\" and \"Treasurer.\" Clerk jobs went to wounded veterans, widows, children of deceased soldiers, etc. and so it is likely impossibly that the signatures can be identified."
] | [
"I live in Wisconsin. Is there anywhere in the state where I could see first hand items from this era? Infrastructure or left over commercial areas?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Pipin of Herstal to Charlemagne, inclusive: best primary and secondary sources? | [
"The [Fordham Medieval Sourcebook](_URL_0_)has a decent collection of sources (although many are merely excerpts, you can use them to point you to the full texts). Einhard is the most obvious source to check out."
] | [
"\"et to Brute\" is a quote from Wm Shakespeare's play, not history Historical quotes are generally based on the most reliable written sources we have from the period, often cross referenced between sources."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Putting plastic surgery and cosmetic treatments aside, are people objectively more attractive now than they were, say, 2000 years ago due to people over the years choosing attractive mates producing more attractive children? | [
"Not to discourage further discussion, but about a month ago, u/PlusTwoToCha and u/skadefryd [answered a similar question](_URL_0_), explaining how much beauty standards have differed between times and places."
] | [
"Being attracted to developed boobs and butts means you are attracted to a female capable of producing offspring (healthy women in their child-bearing years) which increases the odds of your genes being propagated. That is enough of an advantage that the trait will after several generations be much more common than attractions for underdeveloped females (sickly, too young, or too old) or men. From an evolutionary standpoint, this explains why it is more common for men to be attracted to healthy young women than anybody else."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Was WW2 the reason USA is a superpower of today? | [
"People will expand on this in much greater detail than I, but the very short answer is that the United States came out of WWII with virtually all of its population and industrial capacity entirely unharmed, while the rest of the industrialized world in Europe and Asia had been devastated to varying degrees by the war. It was far from the only factor, but this made the U.S. uniquely positioned to become the economic and geopolitical superpower it became in the latter half of the 20th century."
] | [
"The United States are *not* the wealthiest or most advanced country on the planet. And what exactly do you mean by anxiety?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
What is the origin behind western formal table manners/etiquette? (Table manner origins from other cultures welcome) | [
"Everyone here would ~~stare~~ politely refrain from comment when you shifted your fork into your right hand and started shovelling food into your mouth."
] | [
"Might want to resubmit the question with a different title to indicate the topic (ancient Britons/Anglo Saxons) in the header."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Mitch McConnell claims there is "... a tradition in America, which is that if you have... a Senate of a different party than the president you don’t fill a vacancy created in a presidential year. That went all the way back to 1888.” Is this accurate? | [
"This is also some slight of hand. McConnell was also referencing the so-called “Biden Rule” named after then-senator Joe Biden spoke on the Senate floor in 1992 indicating as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee he would not vote on a nominee to SCOTUS until after the upcoming election that was about 5 months away at the time. The catch here is that there was no vacancy on the Court. Biden was indicating what his position would be *if* a vacancy were to happen so its hard to point to it as evidence of consistency since the “Biden Rule” was never put to the test prior to McConnell citing it."
] | [
"He has, he's nominated Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The decision of whether to accept or reject that nomination is now in the hands of the US Senate, and they've said they won't act on it until the election has happened."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
I'm a soldier who just lost his arm in battle and is heading back to my rural village in medieval England. What kind of life realistically awaits me? | [
"Follow up question: What were the chances that he'd survive both the \"disarming\" injury *and* whatever treatment he received? (I have heard that amputation was quite likely to kill the patient before Antibiotics became available)"
] | [
"Also, would her military experience be any useful in finding a job? Did women serve in the British military during World War 1 and if so, did they go back into the workforce afterwards?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How far back in time would we need to go before the average living conditions in the world were worse than in, say, Somalia today? | [
"You've kind of answered your own question by showing how unanswerable it is. > average living conditions > Somalia What are the average living conditions of a human alive today? Certainly worse than most americans but better than a subsistence farmer in Angola. How do you measure quality of life? Literacy? Access to healthcare? Access to technology? What were the average living conditions like under the Roman empire? Or the Xin dynasty? There are people living in Somalia with better quality of life than most Americans. How do you account for that?"
] | [
"Because our country is so wealthy even the poor are pretty well off compared to the middle class in most other countries."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Why was the US Army base Fort Worden named after Navy Rear Admiral Worden? | [
"You are probably on the right path with the secret society idea though the society I suggest wasn't exactly secret. John Lorimar Worden, Thomas Lincoln Casey, and Daniel Webster Flagler The three individuals with forts named after them in the \"triangle of fire\" were all members of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Though practically every Union war hero also was as were several presidents. In 1893 The Quartermaster General Richard Napoleon Batchelder suggested that all forts be named after war heroes. It's possible that the suggestion made it's way into a list for use by the Secretary of War. It's also possible that the list was composed by the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States."
] | [
"No. Al Capone, gangster, is referred to by two names. Same goes for Jeffery Dahmer, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, Saddam Hussein, and Elizabeth Bathory. Hitler and Stalin just get one name. Sometimes people just go by three names, like Jamie Lee Curtis, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Neil Patrick Harris. As far as I know, none of them are considered infamous."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What are some of the lesser known controversies of the American Satanic Panic? | [
"If I can ask a follow-up: How did these companies respond to being targeted?"
] | [
"Just asked this in the other sticky, but maybe this is the better place for it: Does anyone have any good book recommendations about the Nigerian Civil War or about Biafra as a country?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Literature:"
} |
When was the act of naming one another instituted between humans? | [
"We have addressed this question, and similar questions, here before: * [When did people start using last names?](_URL_3_) * [At what point did human history did people start identifying themselves with first and last names?](_URL_2_) * [Have we always had names?](_URL_1_) However, this might be more of an [r/Anthropology](_URL_0_](_URL_1_) question. It's very likely that people have had names for longer than we've had written history."
] | [
"The people who made the laws had a different opinion on what was acceptable at the time than you do now."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Unrecognized and/or closed historical sites in the US. | [
"This is a great question, thank you for asking this. I would love to see some other answers. I'll come back in a few hours to see if it's gotten any more interest. I'm going to go with the Hanford Site in central Washington. It's huge acreage, and during the Manhattan Project there was an entire town (since abandoned, mostly ruins now.) There are decommissioned reactors, plutonium plants, and everything else you can imagine from an abandoned nuclear town. Besides that, there are also a lot of Indian archaeological sites and pictograph sites that are totally and completely undisturbed, waiting for a team to get in there and catalog. This is also the only place on the entire Columbia that hasn't been dammed, where it runs wild like you would have seen the river before the 1950's. The Hanford Site is a really fascinating place, but unless you are part of a cleanup crew you won't be able to see it."
] | [
"They were made in chronological order from when the state became part of the US."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Thursday Reading & Research | May 17, 2018 | [
"I've finally gotten around to starting Mike Loades' *The Crossbow*. I'm maybe a third of the way through it so far. It's a decent introduction to the subject. I inevitably have things I'd quibble with him about, but for the most part it has a reasonable level of detail and represents a good synthesis of the scholarship so far. It's certainly the best introduction to the subject currently available. If I have two faults with it they are that the references are rarer than I would like \\(a product of it being an Osprey book intended for popular audiences\\) and use my least favourite style \\(in text citations, blech\\), and that for the most part the physical crossbows he uses in his book are nothing new to me \\(it's probably unreasonable for me to expect they would be, but I'm always looking for new crossbows and I was hoping there would be more\\)."
] | [
"It's a bit unclear what you're interested in. (Early US education? Mann? Cremin's perspective?) But here are some resources that may help: > Binder, Frederick M. The Age of the Common School: 1830-1865. New York: Wiley, 1974. > > Glenn, Jr., Charles Leslie. The Myth of the Common School. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988. > > Howe, Daniel Walker. “Church, State, and Education in the Young American Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 22, no. 1 (April 1, 2002): 1–24. > > Kaestle, Carl. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860. 1st ed. Hill and Wang, 1983. > > Spring, Joel. The American School: From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. > > Katz, Michael B. “Horace Mann: What Went Wrong?” Reviews in American History 1, no. 2 (June 1, 1973): 218–223. > > Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Literature:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Literature:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What was the response of Gilded Age academics and university professors to anarchism and the labor movement? | [
"What are some of the primary sources that you have found? This sounds interesting. Would you recommend any books for a fun read?"
] | [
"How revolutionary was the general populace in areas controlled by the anarchists? Did they actually believe in the anarchist ideals? To what extent were those ideals actually carried out?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Sword guns?!? And other apparently historical weapons - pictures linked. | [
"They were pretty common as an exhibition of a weaponsmith's skill. Many are given highly decorative treatments, which shows that they were designed as showpieces or were expensive novelties for the wealthy. Like other artful objects, they are present in many museum collections around the world, but are much less common among the simple practical weapons of the common soldier. It's difficult to say how useful they were. On the face of it, they would seem to be not very good at either function - extra weight for a sword to swing around, and dangerous sharp edges to hold onto when aiming the gun. But the idea simply refused to die, so maybe there was something to it. [Lord Nelson had one made in 1805](_URL_1_), for instance. [And here's a crazy one from the 1940s](_URL_0_). Edit: a friend of Lord Nelson anyway, provenance cannot be definitively traced to Nelson himself."
] | [
"Now you too get to see the terrible deleted comments! Welcome!"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
[Q] Casual writing hands 14c.-20c. (follow up from /r/calligraphy) | [
"Notarial hands, the most common examples we have from the fifteenth century of people \"just writing\" were what is now called a late Gothic cursive. In terms of the *ductus*, the way the letters are formed, this script is directly related to the stately and highly stylized book hands of the day, but deviates substantially in appearance due to the speed of writing. This sort of script is also usually abbreviated in the extreme. The best summary of Gothic scripts is the Derolez book found in our [list of books on paleography](_URL_1_). [Here](_URL_0_) is a great (and fairly neat) example, which also will allow you to practice reading the script!"
] | [
"hi! you may be interested in this section of the FAQ (link on sidebar): [Why Red vs. Blue?](_URL_0_)"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Political Science:"
} |
How do you determine which hand goes on top in a traditional Chinese greeting? | [
"Yes, there is a rule for it (as with most things ceremonial Chinese). In the *Book of Rites*, it clearly states that for males the left hand is to cover the right hand when greeting, while the opposite is done for females. This is because male (yang 阳) is linked to the left, while female (yin 阴) is linked to the right. When doing a proper greeting, the arms are raised away from the body, with the covering hand's thumb hiding the other hand's thumb (ie. for males, the left hand's thumb would cover the right hand's thumb in addition to the left hand being placed over the right hand). The only circumstance when the greeting is reversed is when it is done in mourning (at a wake, in times of disaster, etc). [from *Rites of Zhou*]."
] | [
"They don't; you're thinking of a different kind of battery."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Timekeeping before widespread clockwork? | [
"Take a look at [this](_URL_0_) section of the popular questions page, especially the \"Hours, minutes, and seconds\". Of course, new answers in this thread are always welcome."
] | [
"Switzerland was involved with watchmaking from the start, and even earned a reputation for making fine watches as early as around the 16th Century, setting a standard for quality. Swiss inventors helped move along the history of the watch, with a particular involvement in automatic or self-winding watches. In the 20th Century, which saw a still-growing popularity of watches, Switzerland had a hand in innovating and driving new watch technology. The introduction of electronic technology into watches continue to advance to this day, as GPS watches become more popular."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
During the cold war, how did the U.S. manage to place its own missiles in Turkey aimed at USSR? | [
"Turkey joined NATO, since the Turkish government was worried about Soviet-backed communist instigators in their own nation (Greece joined NATO for the same reason). The placement of [Jupiter](_URL_0_) mid-range nuclear missiles in Turkey, as well as Italy, was one of the main reasons why the USSR sought to place their own nuclear missiles in Cuba, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis was ended when, among other things, the US agreed to withdraw those missiles from Italy and Turkey. This was done in secret, however, which is why the US, and President Kennedy, was - and still often is - seen as the \"winner\" of those negotiations. Even today, many textbook histories of the Cuban Missile Crisis ignore those Turkish and Italian missiles."
] | [
"This is asked frequently, the short answer is that no, the Soviets did not try to penetrate the U.S. This was due to them having long distances to get there and also having to have to go through Canada, which would notify the U.S. Instead the Soviet Union took advantage of the fact that the United States is an open society: They sent KGB agents into the US and tried to subvert it from within. The U.S. had to do overflights because the U.S.S.R was a closed society and they couldn't get agents there."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why United States 'Congress' and not 'Parliament'? | [
"The word \"congress\" existed long before the US, and it means to meet together. In this case it was a body being put together from several nearly independent states. It expresses the desire for unity without necessarily subordinating the states. I've never heard it called Congress at the state level. It is usually called the Legislature or Assembly or in some New England states General Court."
] | [
"Where do you mean? Europe? The US? Middle East? Africa? Eastern Asia?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
Is there any particular reason why the Founding Fathers chose the term "Congress" instead of "Parliament" or another term? | [
"Historically, a \"congress\" is a meeting of different states, nations, independent units, etc. It was used by the Continental Congress to emphasize the sovereignty of each state. It was carried over from there to as the legislature of the United States."
] | [
"They're not *descriptive* terms, they're *nominative* terms. That is to say that it's not a \"church of Christ\", it's a branch of [The Church of Christ](_URL_0_) - a denomination of Christianity. It's like saying \"Catholic Church\" (literally meaning \"universal\") or \"Episcopal Church\" (literally means something about Bishops). In a more secular parallel, look at American politics. The two main parties are the Republicans and Democrats. Their ideologies aren't particular tied to democracy or the republic more than the other party, they're chosen to sound good."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
Has ancient medical techniques ever proven successful? | [
"Here are some older answers by u/BedsideRounds that may interest you: [If bloodletting was rubbish, why was it considered as a medical procedure for such a long time?](_URL_4_) [What was trepanning for?] (_URL_4_) If I'm permitted to add an individual example, there's [the Anglo-Saxon salve that was experimentally, at least, effective against MRSA](_URL_3_) (link to conference paper in article)"
] | [
"It is still in question. Many studies of chiropractic treatments have had inconsistent or conflicting results. It is generally not accepted as a form of real medicine. It has much more support and acceptance than homeopathy, though."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What is the name of this seemingly common handgesture in old paintings and what is its significance? (Suleiman the Magnificent for reference) | [
"Have a read of this previous thread, which talks about the symbolism of the raised hand as it relates to Christian, Buddhist and Hindu iconography. I'm not sure why specifically a Muslim ruler of Suleyman's period would be using it, whether it refers to Islamic symbolism (the hand of Fatima) or whether it's an imitation of European Christian portrait styles. _URL_0_"
] | [
"While Ask Historians is not here to do homework for people, I think it's probably ok if I point you in the right direction to find more information on that item (the mods obviously will correct me if I'm wrong!) The scene on that souvenir there is taken from the wall of the tomb of Horemheb, a pharaoh of the 18th dynasty. It features the goddess Hathor (far left) and her consort, Horus (third from left). Also, just as an additional item so you have the terminology you're seeking correct, a \"hieroglyph\" would refer to each individual symbol in the writing - think of it as roughly synonymous with \"letter\" as in \"the letter A.\" The overall scene is a painting that includes numerous hieroglyphs. I think that should be enough to get you on the right path!"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
I found a random fact book that claims that kissing was once an Olympic sport. Is this true? | [
"you say random, but can you name the book or author please?"
] | [
"As a Brit, I've certainly not come across the idea that it was accidental. Quite the opposite. Where is that interpretation taught?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
What implications does the newly discovered Viking site in Canada have? | [
"It's a bit too early for an understanding of the implications of the Point Rosee site. It hasn't even been confirmed to be Norse yet and nothing has been formally published on the matter. If it is a Norse site, that alone isn't shocking. The Vinland sagas talk about 2-3 Norse encampments in Vinland (someone who is more familiar with the sagas themselves can hopefully give the specific number). So finding additional sites in Newfoundland was always a reasonable possibility. If Point Rosee is Norse, it was probably only inhabited briefly, just like L'Anse aux Meadows and the handful of known Norse encampments on Baffin Island (Nanook / the Tanfield Valley site being the best known). If it turns out to be Norse *and* it was inhabited for a significant amount of time, that would be a departure from our current understanding of Norse interaction in the area. If the site isn't Norse but something else, well, then we'll have to wait and see."
] | [
"Could the rebuilding of Japan after WWII be considered a partial colonization by the United States?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
During the Gulf War, did TV Broadcasts aid the Iraqi army in aiming their missiles? | [
"I don't know about the Gulf War, but a fox news correspondent was [kicked out of iraq](_URL_0_) for compromising troop locations."
] | [
"Most Likely the US and European Countries in NATO will conduct air raids on Syrian military and government positions like what happened in Libya."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
Was having a six pack always the standard for male beauty? | [
"Here I think some of the best historical references for this question would be art depicting men. I'l admit to not being an expert, but many depictions of men, whether as leaders, heroes, gods, or just as being male - in the instances where they had their torsos exposed - usually showed them to have defined muscles and abs. They maybe weren't shown to be \"chiseled\" quite in the way we might think of the ideal male today, but they still showed the muscles of an individual with great strength, which is what one wanted from a man in those times. Women, who were needed to be child bearing, didn't need defined muscles, or the slender form so often promoted today, so in art they often appeared plumper than in art of today. Can an expert better support this amateur's assessment?"
] | [
"Are we talking about the clothing that goes on your head, or the drink served after dinner?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
If we use miles and kilometers in this day and age, what did the Romans use? | [
"Miles are a Roman measurement actually. They were used to describe soldiers' patrol routes, as they're equivalent to a thousand paces."
] | [
"Too expensive, little or no benefit. The people that benefit from metric (scientists, engineering) already switched over long ago. For everyone else: Does it really matter if the speed limit is in mph or kph? Are you having trouble converting the speed limit to feet per second on a daily basis? No? Then we're fine."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Suppose I suffer a non life threatening wound (like suppose I get stabbed thought the hand in a fight) and I live in London in AD1000. What are my odds of dying of an infection? Do I have better or worse odds of getting a than a country dweller in the same circumstance? | [
"In a related question, what are the odds of surviving being stabbed in the belly and falling into the river which runs through a major city in the same time period?"
] | [
"None of those conditions are inherently fatal, although under the right circumstances any of them, save the common cold, *could* kill you. There is no reason to believe that you couldn't have survived those conditions when humans were still roaming the African plains 150,000 years ago, as long as things went your way - i.e. not severe breaks, no especially bad strains of the flu, chickenpox at a young age, mild acute pancreatitis, etc. But maybe you're asking a different question?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph about Science:"
} |
There are a lot of "[Famous historical figure] actually had [disease]" theories - which ones do historians agree are the most plausible? | [
"Abraham Lincoln wrote pretty extensively and frankly, and describes symptoms of depression pretty accurately. [Here's a good article about it](_URL_0_). His wife was also likely bipolar."
] | [
"There's no clear cut answer, but a theory I've heard is that ancient peoples found dinosaur skeletons and drew their own conclusions. I have no idea if this is true, but it seems reasonable."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
What is the story behind January 1st being designated the New Year? | [
"a similar question came up last week: [Why doesn't our calender coincide with the seasons?](_URL_1_) and here are a couple of older ones: [Why does the new year start 10 days after the solstice?](_URL_2_) [Why is the start of year (1st of January) in Julian / Gregorian calendars not linked to any natural phenomenon?](_URL_0_) and of course there's the FAQ*, which has lots of information on calendars: [Calendars and Timekeeping](_URL_3_) *see the \"popular questions\" link on the sidebar or the \"wiki\" tab above"
] | [
"Dec 21 is the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
In a period between 1918 and 1939 how was the World War 1 reffered to? | [
"In France, it was called \"La Grande Guerre\", \"The Great War\". This was due to the fact that it was the largest scale war the world had ever known. The fact that it was called \"La Grande Guerre\" can also be supported by \"La Der des Der\", a common expression to describe the Great War in France, which can be translated to \"The Last of the Last\" (Der is the prefix of Dernier, which means last in french) Indeed, the hope was that The Great War would be the last war of such a scale."
] | [
"Do you mean: \"Did the fear of communism enable the working class to obtain improved social conditions in 1950s until the 1980s in Western Europe?\""
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Book Recommendations: A History of European Unification? | [
"I suspect you might enjoy Mark Mazower's *Governing the World: the History of an Idea* (New York: Penguin, 2012), which examines the idea of global governance in Europe from the Concert of Vienna in 1815 to the present. Be sure to check his endnotes for further reading. You might also like Michael Barnett's *Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanitarianism* (Cornell, 2011) in which the author looks at the long history of institutionalized intervention. While not necessarily looking at the growth of the European community, Barnett tacitly shows how organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, contributed to NGO growth and, in some ways, a more cohesive community in Europe and beyond. The book is not without its problems, however. I hope this helps."
] | [
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
In 1967, the third season of Batman replaced a white actress with Eartha Kitt, an African-American woman. What was the response to this? Was it a controversial decision? | [
"I've never rewatched the series since being a kid (when it was in syndication); did they maintain (or even pay lip service to) Batman's sexual tension with Eartha Kitt's Catwoman?"
] | [
"Hollywood has long been criticized for not providing enough roles for minority actors, and for rarely casting them in leading roles outside of ethnic movies. So when a minority character is played by a white actor, it is seen as perpetuating this inequity. If a Native American actor can't even land the part of a Native American in a movie, what chance do they have getting any other role?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
When and why did Dr. King's more radical views disappear from the public conception? | [
"It might be helpful if you explain what you mean by MLK s radical views. Which positions are you talking about specifically?"
] | [
"He later dedicated his life to non-violent means of resistance and helped to bring about a largely peaceful end to apartheid. Does that make him Gandhi? No. But the end of his story has ended up being more important to his legacy than the beginning."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Is it plausible that at any point in history, humans could have rode a woolly mammoth? | [
"this question would be a better fit for /r/AskAnthropology"
] | [
"It didn't \"appear from nowhere\". It suddenly developed the ability to crossover into humans from the species that it evolved* in, which was probably chimpanzees."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Were people in the past more turned on by bodyparts we now consider to be non-sexual? | [
"Do you have a particular geographical region or time period in mind? You're more likely to get a good answer if you are more specific than \"people in the past\"."
] | [
"Sex is taboo. Penises and vaginas are actual sex organs. Just like butts, which aren't censored either, nipples/boobs are only sexual objects according to circumstance and culture."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
When is Ragnarök meant to occur? | [
"There was a discussion about this recently; I thought the post was \"When did Loki die?\", but it's defying my google-fu. Meanwhile, here's another old one that links to a discussion in /r/norse: [Did adherents to the Norse religion believe they were living before or after Ragnarok?](_URL_0_) Edit: OP, there was a [lecture series](_URL_2_) posted in another thread, [How did the Norse treat people with dwarfism?](_URL_1_) , which includes a brief discussion of Ragnarok in [part 3](_URL_3_) @ 0:57:20"
] | [
"So when and where did playing cards as we know them come into being anyways?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
In the 476 start date for the Extended Timeline mod for the game Europa Universalis IV, the Western Roman Empire starts off controlling some Mediterranean coast next to the Ostrogoths. How true is this? | [
"That's a reference to emperor-in-exile Julius Nepos, who had been driven out of Italy in 475 to Dalmatia (the modern Croatian coastline) and spent 475 to his death in 480 asking Zeno and Constantinople to support his claims to the throne, but no one was interested in doing so. Some Nepos partisans even now would claim that we should date the end of the Western Empire to Nepos' death in 480, but 476 is traditional by this point."
] | [
"United States of Central America, Gran Columbia, The British Empire( for that matter all of the imperial empires after the second world war), the Soviet Union to name a few that immediately come to mind. An argument could be made that the Western Roman Empire never really \"fell\" but experienced a transformation. Edit- Austria-Hungary, Russian empire. The Ottoman Empire ( contrary to popular opinion the Ottoman Empire continued past the first world war abit with much less territory). 19th Century Spanish Empire. External conflicts all contributed to the fall of these empires to a certain degree, but the breakups occurred from within"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Is this Nazi identification document that my Ukrainian grandfather carried during WWII a generic item, or is it of more significance? | [
"I'm not a Historian, but I can read German. The document is a hunting permit. Page 2 explains how to carry and use your gun. Page 3 lists the different kinds of animals you can hunt during which time of the year. Page 4 lists more general restrictions and lists the price of the permit."
] | [
"Holzminden Internment Camp was a camp for foreign nationals within Germany during WWI; French, Belgian, Polish, even some British civilians were interned there during the war. As to why the medal was given out, it could be a commemorative piece; beyond that I'm afraid I can't help you."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Holland is famous for its windmills. Did flour prices in medieval and early modern Holland fluctuate based on how windy a month was? Did millers mill more grain when it was windy and build stockpiles? | [
"While u/amp1212 has provided a great answer, it is also worth noting that the association of the Netherlands with windmills is also due to their widespread use in the creation and maintenance of polders and reclaimed land, where they pump out water. Most existing Dutch windmills were used for this purpose."
] | [
"Short run: other market actors haven't yet had time to react (other than on-the-spot things like raising or lowering prices) to the change or decision we're discussing. Long run: other market actors have completed their changes and adapted to the new conditions, including one another's actions. Imagine that the island of Madagascar abruptly sinks into the sea, like Atlantis, taking its vanilla plantations with it. In the short run, the price of vanilla will skyrocket, because about half of the world's supply just disappeared, while all the original customers are still out there. But in the long run, farmers in other spice-growing regions like Indonesia, wanting to cash in on the new high prices that vanilla fetches, will plant new vines, and as their plantations begin to produce crops, the price of vanilla will come back down- probably to a somewhat higher level than before, but not *as* high as in the first few years after the event."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
So I saw this picture which sums up European History in a pretty comical collection of little circles with national flags on them, in different years. Could someone explain the events of the years that are portrayed? | [
"i_like_jam did exactly that (well, mostly) 7 hours ago in [this thread](_URL_0_)."
] | [
"The ones I know from my head: On the USA flag they stand for each state. On the Australian flag you have the Southern Cross constellation and the federation star. The New Zealand flag also has the Southern Cross. The Chinese flag has the communist party for the big star and the four classes for the little ones. The flag from Brazil has the various constellations visible over Rio over them. The stars in the flag of Syria is for the (ruling?) dynasty and represent Egypt and Syria. So, they more or less all mean something else based on the country you are talking about. See _URL_0_ for a list of all flags with stars, a quick google search will tell you what they mean for a specific one."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Were swords/bows/etc.. controlled from general masses in any given periods? | [
"FYI, you'll find a few examples in the FAQ to get you started * [Gun (and other weapons) control](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"Follow up question: was the sacking/genocide/mass murder of Carthage an unusual occurrence or where there any other such gigantic mass killings of entire populations in pre-modern times?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Why the American obsession with the US constitution? | [
"The US Constitution isn't really a list of laws for the people, it's a list of laws for the government. The most famous part, the Bill of Rights, is the highest law of the land and identifies the people's human rights (freedom of speech, religion, assembly, etc), preventing the government from creating laws restricting those rights. The rest of the Constitution focuses of government structure and maintaining separation of powers between the three branches to prevent anyone from becoming too powerful. It remains so important today because it still protects our human rights from persecution and keeps our politicians from gaining enough power to surpass these restrictions."
] | [
"Because China cares less about footie than the USA does."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Are permanent land grants still valid? | [
"I work with legal documents for a living so I can chime in here to some extent. If a document states that something is to pass on the heirs and assigns (or one of a dozen different legal phrases) then yes, that carries weight in the eyes of the law. It would be important to adverse the person who reserved it in order to make sure that they don't convey it out and on down the line (i.e. Grandpa reserves it, so you look to make sure he didn't sell it. Look to make sure dad didn't sell it etc) I don't know how the whole republic of Texas thing would work, but without reading the documents, this is, generally speaking, how it would work"
] | [
"Depends on the local government and its laws. For example in Hawaii, any new land area becomes state property regardless of what's behind it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
My grandfather died last week. He was in the 101st Airborne as a paraglider in WWII. What was life like for him during that time? Please take into account his being a Choctaw native american if posible. Thank you. | [
"To the best of my knowledge, though the 101st did technically have glider borne units, the only American troops to actually use gliders during the invasion of Normandy were part of the 82nd Airborne. That said, there is still a lot that we would need to reconstruct what life would have been like for your grandfather outside of cursory details which wouldn't distinguish him much from GI Joe. A few things would help, * Was he actually in the invasion of Normandy? * Can you find out what part of the 101st he was in? * Was he an enlisted man or an officer? * Did he serve with the 101st through the end of the war?"
] | [
"A follow up question, how was General Pershing viewed by American generals during World War 2? Was he involved in raising war bonds or other positions away from the front lines or back at home? Thank you in advance!"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why was Henry VIII's groin area in his armor so...large and extended? Was this common in those times? | [
"Here we are just looking at one big armored codpiece. Codpieces began as a piece of cloth to protect/conceal the genitals as the cut of doublets started to work their way up, leaving that area unprotected. The codpiece became prominent during the reign of King Henry VIII and during this time, codpieces became something used to accentuate and emphasize what was contained in the groin area. Codpieces grew to enormous proportions before they fell out of fashion late in Elizabeth I's reign. The codpiece here, although made of metal, is just another example of Henry VIII showing off as he so often did. [Modesty to Majesty: The Development of the Codpiece](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"Like most of our incorrect impressions of the medieval era, it came from the Victorians. Real knights would have worn something like a coat of plates, which is basically a thick vest with metal plates sewn to the inside. _URL_2_ Really rich knights might supplement that with mail, a bunch of rings woven together. _URL_0_ Really, really rich knights and nobles like counts or dukes would have worn more like what we think of knightly armor. And only then, very late in the period. _URL_1_ Then Victorian England came along and thought the whole idea of the medieval era was terribly romantic. They pulled most of their ideas of knightly behavior and armor from very late period, very rich nobles. If you look at the armor Victorians used to decorate their houses, almost none of it was actually functional. It was so over embellished, you wouldn't have been able to move while wearing it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How long would evidence of a pre-industrialized society last? | [
"Given that we have [evidence of humans (Homo erectus) using fire from 1 million years ago](_URL_0_), and that is far from the oldest evidence of hominin activity on the planet, I would say that it would last for a very, very long time. I was just on an excavation this summer that demonstrated evidence for human occupation at the site of [Ashkelon](_URL_1_) from around 3000 BC (Chalcolithic-EB1 transition). There is no doubt that evidence of human occupation can stick around (and does stick around) for millions of years. An exact number would be difficult, but would be quite high."
] | [
"It's true that we wouldn't be able to detect a current civilization, but evidence of an ancient civilization (perhaps in the form of radio waves) would still be an enormous discovery."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Was the Morse Code symbol for "V" chosen as an intentional homage to Beethoven's 5th Symphony? | [
"[For those who were confused, as I was, Morse code for \"V\" is dot, dot, dot, dash. Which mimics the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.]"
] | [
"I believe your thinking about Bach, who went blind, and Beethoven, who went deaf. The answer is they both became disabled later in life, albeit Bach lost his vision just a few months before his death so it didnt impact him much. Beethoven, on the other hand, was totally deaf for the last few years of this life, including when he composed his masterpiece: The 9th Symphony. He was just THAT good. FUN FACT: when the 9th was first performed publicly, the song finished and Beethoven was several measures behind, furiously gestulating to a silent orchestra. A flute player had to get up and turn him around to see the biggest standing ovation in his life. :)"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Question about majoring in History | [
"I went to a big state university and I took some fairly specific undergrad classes. Even some of my general requirements could be filled with upper level courses. Since I made consistently high grades and was pretty set on a specific area of study, my advisors didn't have any qualms about signing sophomore me off on 4000-level material. If you go in with a plan, often advisors will be that much more willing to work with you. Look into study abroad programs; naturally the course offerings of a campus abroad will include more region-specific classes. The U I went to had a couple of study centers that they put a lot of effort into, and thus designed some special minor programs around studying there, with even more in-depth classes. I would definitely recommend doing some time abroad if you can swing it financially!"
] | [
"It has a few different meanings in different contexts. What setting are we talking about?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about finance:"
} |
What can I do with a major in history? | [
"The question has been asked before and the following links should shed some light. I recently dropped my architectural course in favour of a business/history double major because architecture in uni... sucks. But ye, the following links cover all manner of different reasons and should give you a heads up on what to do with a history degree. _URL_4_ _URL_1_ _URL_3_ _URL_2_ _URL_0_"
] | [
"Well, what are you interested in? That's where you should start. Is there any particular area that gets your attention? A decade? A century? A country? Something?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Redditors, where to start learning history? | [
"As someone who has had a love of history since a young age, find an area you think the most interesting and start there. For me, with a grandparents who fought in WWII, it was WWII. And I still love studying it. The reason I suggets a specific area is because the generalized \"world history\" books skips *so much.* You would be better to start with small chunks. Get a detailed idea of things, and then move to the next \"chunk\" and so on."
] | [
"And more importantly how do I get one for myself?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query about Education:",
"pos": "Represent the answer about Education:",
"neg": "Represent the answer about biology:"
} |
Looking for a document about WWI. | [
"I found it in german : [Ludendorff Brief](_URL_0_) Try to google translate it, if there are questions left, tell me here and i ll translate the specific passages by hand."
] | [
"Arbitrary, likely measured from FPOC with the surface."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text about Science:"
} |
suppose you suggested to a American living 200 years ago, that in all likelihood a black man raised in the same environment as a rich white person would be just as intellectually capable as a typical rich white person. would he have likely conceded to that? | [
"No. Slavery was based on the understood racial inferiority of blacks. Even those who were against slavery were likely to agree that black people were inherently less mentally capable than white people and abolitionists even used the inferiority argument to further their cause. This was based on scientific racism, the idea that there were biological differences between the races that proved inequality. So no, if you told a white person in the early 19th century that a black man raised as well as a white man would be intellectually equal, they would have thought you were not only wrong but crazy."
] | [
"Yes but not nearly the percentage today. Most of the 42 million members of the African-American community descend from slaves. From the 1999 census, only 13 % of people identifying themselves as black in the US were first or second generation immigrants. So of course the United States would have black people but not nearly as many. However, since we do have that black mark due to slavery perhaps more people would have immigrated if we were known to be more tolerant of african immigrants. So essentially, I really don't think there is a way to answer your question with a estimated number of african americans only that clearly some africans would have immigrated to the US and other parts of America."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Was the "Viking Era" named contemporaneously or retroactively? | [
"Retroactively. The idea that we live in different eras of culture and technology is a modern concept, developed during the Renaissance. Most people at the time would have thought of themselves as living in the Christian era, if they had a notion that people had lived differently than them."
] | [
"Coincidence. _URL_0_ Africa is named after the Roman province of Africa, meaning \"land of the Afri\". There are several possible sources of the word Afer/Afri. America is named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (latinised to \"Americus\"), who showed that America was a new land mass and not part of Asia. \"Australia\" comes from \"terra australis\", meaning \"southern land\". Before the discovery of Australia, this \"terra australis\" was hypothesised to exist and given this \"technical\" name. After its discovery, it was variously known as New Holland or New South Wales until the name \"Australia\" came into general use at the beginning of the 19th century and \"New South Wales\" was relegated to being the name of the first colony and not the entire continent. \"Asia\" comes from the Greek version of the Hittite word Assuwa. \"Antarctica\" simply means anti-Arctic, anti meaning \"opposite\" and not \"being against something\" here."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
I'm going to live in China for a year to teach English. I know nothing. What are the best books I can read before I move? | [
"Hello there! The best thing you could do is check out our [book list's section on Chinese history](_URL_0_) as it contains both general works and more period/subject specific books. Hopefully that gives you a good starting point."
] | [
"Currently in Korea on a Fulbright grant. I'm going to be assisting in some research on Korean Bronze Age artifacts. I've never done any kind of archaeology stuff before so this is going to be interesting. Is there anything I should know about academic archaeology?? I'd love to hear from some experts around here. Either way, I'm excited to be helping out with some honest research. Hope this is the right place to post this!"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
How bad was it at Canadian Native residential schools compared to other boarding schools? | [
"Not to discourage any further answers, but you should read /u/UrAccountabilibuddy's response to [I am a young Canadian native and am being sent to a residential school. When would my schooling end and what would one experience during my stay?](_URL_4_) > the overwhelming majority of the children who were sent experienced long periods of deprivation including food scarcity and limited contact with friends and family, physical and sexual assault, and an unwavering intolerance for their culture, language, name, and experiences. In effect, if you were a Canadian First Nations, Métis, or Inuit child or teenager at a residential school, you'd experience adults using every bit of power they had over you to erase the things that make you ... you."
] | [
"Why is the US so upset over the labeling of US treatment of Native Americans as a genocide?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Is the American South fading? | [
"Well, I actually lived in Washington, DC for a while. I think in the urban areas around DC you're right in that it definitely doesn't have much of a southern \"feel.\" However, get outside the urban areas and many areas still do have the southern feel. Even in Maryland. Hell, even in Pennsylvania. I have some friends who live in central PA and they call it Pennsyltucky. So I think it's more an issue of demographics in the urban vs. rural spectrum. However since you added a great quote, I will tack this on too: During my time in DC I heard plenty of people from NOVA (Northern Virginia) talk about how they would love to separate from Virginia and form a new state with DC. It's probably completely unlikely, but it does illustrate something of the mentality of some NOVA residents and how they \"look to the north\" as it were."
] | [
"Why would you assume that America is like the rest of the world?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
When talking about Japan's WW2 surrender Robert Powell states "it took weeks for the news to reach isolated troops,some Japanese soldiers would remain hidden in the jungle for more than 30 years". How true is this statement? Do we know how the troops felt & adapted to normality when they resurfaced? | [
"There were in fact a number of Japanese holdouts in the post war period. From Lieutenant Ei Yamaguchi on Pelilu, who had to have his old commanding officer sent out to convince him to surrender in 1947, to Teruo Nakamura who surrendered in Indonesia in 1974, many Japanese soldiers either did not get the news that the war had ended, or dismissed it as propaganda. We do have a number of accounts on their thoughts and lives during that time period due to a number of them having written autobiographies, most famously Hiroo Onoda's \"No Surrender: My Thirty Year War\". Shoichi Yokoi's book, \"Private Yokoi's War and Life on Guam, 1944-1972\", was published in English in 2009."
] | [
"His Island Hopping campaign strategy against the Japanese during WW2 was brilliant and was covered extensively by the press. He would simply bypass any strongly fortified Japanese strongpost islands and move on to attack the ones behind it which were much weaker. Then, with their supply lines destroyed, the strongpoint islands were left to starve and wither for a few months. When they finally *were* attacked, the defenders were too weak from starvation to mount a credible defense."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why didn't Bermuda participate in the American Revolution? | [
"Why would they want or need to? Their trade and indeed their whole economy was dependent upon Britain. There also wasn't the emerging economic and political elite in Bermuda, such as existed in the 13 Colonies, who saw personal advantage in separation from Britain. Without the political self-interest of the \"Founding Fathers\" guiding the politically and economically active American people towards independence, would most Americans have participated in the American revolution? It took a considerable effort in propaganda to create an atmosphere in the 13 Colonies that was favourable to the idea of Independence. Even then there was a considerable minority of Tories who still opposed separation from the UK. As far as Bermuda was concerned, of what advantage would it be to them to rebel? Even if they had, they would have far too vulnerable to Naval blockade, and, of course, vulnerable to being snapped up by Spain or France."
] | [
"Was any Asian country capable of helping the United States during the revolutionary war?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
British lose the Battle of Britain, Halifax makes a deal? | [
"I cannot answer your question on Halifax. > Fighter Command was on its knees when Goering switched to bombing British cities in retaliation for Bomber Command's raid on Berlin I disagree with this assertion. The Battle of Britain was a battle of attrition between the RAF and the Luftwaffe, and it was one the RAF was winning. [You can find most of my rationale here](_URL_0_). The British consistently overestimated the strength of the Luftwaffe while the Germans consistently underestimated the strength of the RAF. Also, the RAF was able to replace its losses in fighters and pilots during the Battle of Britain while the Germans were unable to do so. The *perception* was that the RAF was on its knees and they were hard pressed, but the *reality* was that the RAF was winning the Battle of Britain throughout its duration. > Was this the critical mistake its made out to be or would the RAF have won anyways? The above link gives my answer to this question as well."
] | [
"He was ambassador to France at the time."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
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} |
/r/ArtHistory is currently running an AMA about Art History related careers with several museum professionals and an art conservator. Feel free to come by and ask them anything! | [
"HELLO! I'm ecstatic to meet this post on the front page. If there is anyone here who specializes/obsesses over early Netherlandish painting please get nerdy in response to this, also... I'm an art history major/studio art minor in NY and I miss learning about/discussing art history with others who share the same love for this type of stuff... is there a club/place/outlet to do so (other than the slightly obvious MET, oter museums, MA program, etc.,) to exercise this passion? also... I'd be more detailed and passionate but who would care? THANK YOU!"
] | [
"There's literally an entire subreddit dedicated to your question: /r/Anarchy101 Check it out. Read the resources in the sidebar & then ask questions if you're left wondering about anything."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Is there anything Ken Burns got wrong in his Civil War documentary? | [
"One of the biggest critiques of Burn's documentary came from Eric Foner, whose concern was about omission, specifically in regards to the black experience. His article is republished in his book *Who Owns History?: Rethinking the Past in a Changing World*. I would pull the original article citation from JSTOR but apparently our institution has decided Sunday is a lovely day for redoing our server."
] | [
"Don't consider this a full and proper answer, but it seems relevant to point out that the movie in question was largely based on a book about Lincoln's cabinet and political work during the Civil War, also touching on his election and position within the Republican Party. Check out Doris Kearns Goodwin's *Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln* if you're interested in further reading."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Byzantine Klibanion (κλιβάνιον) vs. Early guns | [
"This is one of those REALLY tricky questions. First of all, are we talking about only a Klivanion OR a double mail or are we talking the cumulative protection from both? Mail armor typically offers little protection from piercing attacks, it's easy for narrow spear, dagger or arrow to punch through since all it takes is one ring breaking. The larger the area, the better the protection. This is why a ring mail offers excellent protection against slashing attacks. To answer your question, up close, it would probably not be very effective. A Kilvanion MIGHT stop a bullet at range if it strikes at an angle. Metal has that effect. A double mail could also stop a bullet at range. Both are pointless against modern weapons."
] | [
"The first is catalogued as *Salamine de Chypre XIII* (ed. Pouilloux & Marcillet-Jaubert), inscription 29: > [— —] κ̣τημάτ̣ων καὶ καταδικΙ[— — — — — — —] [— —] ζ̣ημιωμάτων εἰδότε[ς ὅτι — — — — — — —] [— —] ἀ̣κολούθως τοῖς ὑπερφυ[εστάτοις(?) — —] [— λ]ιβέλλων ποιεῖτε ὅπως μ̣ὴ [— — — — — — —] > [...] of possessions and ... condemn[...] [...] of fines, knowin[g that...] [...] in accordance with [the most] extraor[dinary...] [...] of petitions, take care to avoid [...] The second is *Salamine de Chypre XIII*, inscription 203: > [ἐπὶ τοῦ δεσπό]του(?) μου Φλ(αβίου) Ἀντιόχου Ἀμμιαν(οῦ) Οὐαλερίου [ἐμαρμ]αρώθη ὁ πάτος τῆς βασιλικῆς. > [In honour of] my [mas]ter Flavius Antiochus Ammianus Valerius the path of the basilica was [covered in mar]ble. Text from _URL_0_, translation mine."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
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