After having Covid, your body retains antibodies against it for only a short period of time. Why does the body essentially "forget" these antibodies? (old.reddit.com)
How knowledgeable would the Romans, Greeks, Carthagians, etc. have been about the geography of Sub-Saharan Africa? Did they know about coastal west Africa, the Congo rainforest, or the African Great lakes? What about even further south? (old.reddit.com)
Latin was, "the primary language of Europe until it was killed off by renaissance scholars who complained that Modern Latin was nowhere near the strength of classical Latin." How true is this? (old.reddit.com)
Francesco Morozini, Doge of Venice (1619-1694), had a Bible with a hidden gun in it. He could fire by pulling on the bookmark. Were clandestine weapons more widespread than one eccentric doge's Bible gun? Was there good reason for powerful people in the 17th century to have weapons like this? (old.reddit.com)
Why isn’t sign language taught in elementary school? It seems so useful even if you’re not deaf, but also deaf people would be able to communicate with pretty much everyone. (old.reddit.com)
In Feudal Japan, did people see themselves as part of an overarching Japanese nation headed by the Emperor (or Shogun) or did they primarily see themselves as subjects of the local daimyo, seeing neighboring (Japanese) people as foreigners? (old.reddit.com)
Does anyone else ever set their alarm 2+ hours earlier than when you’re supposed to wake up so you can look at your phone and feel relieved that you still have time to sleep? (old.reddit.com)
Is adults jokingly insulting each other a common thing in the USAs culture? It happens a lot in movies and TV shows, and I'm wondering if that reflects reality. (old.reddit.com)
In nuclear pasta all the electrons merge with protons so what dictates nuclear pasta’s chemical properties? Please explain in simple terms because I am not an astrophysicist :) (old.reddit.com)
Completely separate cultures show women wearing skirts and men wearing pants. Is this an example of Convergent Evolution or a long standing gender role? (old.reddit.com)
Now I'm aware of how racist Woodrow Wilson was but how racially tolerant or open minded were American Presidents/politicians around the turn of the century (late 19th/early 20th century)? Did any seek African-American voters? Were any quite simply, "a friend of the Black community"? (old.reddit.com)
When and why did Congress start passing so much legislation through massive omnibus spending bills instead of stand-alone, issue-specific bills? (old.reddit.com)
Women who have experienced a miscarriage, what were the most helpful ways you were comforted, and what were the most insensitive responses? (old.reddit.com)
In the HBO miniseries "John Adams", Louis XVI is portrayed as at first being surprised and then completely amused by the fact that Adams could not speak French. Would the prospect of someone of Adams' social status or political importance not speaking French really be such an oddity? (old.reddit.com)
Australia, New Zealand and Canada all switched from currencies called "Pound" to currencies called "Dollar" in the 20th Century. Was this to gain diplomatic and economic favours from the USA or was there some other reason? (old.reddit.com)
What did Tolkien think of the fact that Led Zeppelin wrote several songs about the Lord of the Rings? Did he know about (or like) any of them? (old.reddit.com)
Does anyone else get unreasonably self conscious about how fast their windshield wipers are going compared to other cars during a rainstorm? (old.reddit.com)
In The Great Gatsby, Tom reads white supremacist books and goes off on a racist tirade against interracial marriage. Nowadays we see this as proof he's a scumbag, but what would Fitzgerald's original audience have thought of it? (old.reddit.com)
Women of Reddit, how do you distinguish the line between accepting flaws in your partner and your partner simply not being a good match? (old.reddit.com)
In a 1515 letter, Erasmus complained about how disgusting the floors of English houses were, claiming they harboured "... expectoration, vomiting ... and other abominations not fit to be mentioned." Was Erasmus just being a grumpy tourist, or were English floors particularly unsanitary? (old.reddit.com)
The Colorado river "has rarely reached the sea since the 1960s." How has this changed the gulf of mexico ecologically or climate wise, etc.? (old.reddit.com)
Why is it that the majority of people act like they are the most empathetic people on the planet right up until someone disagrees with them? (old.reddit.com)
Did you ever wake up from a intense dream so real, one that made you happy and then sad and angry when you woke up because it wasn‘t real? (old.reddit.com)
History Lesson Please! AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told POLITICO last week that the filibuster is “An artifact of Jim Crow. A creature of white supremacy. A procedure that was said to encourage robust debate but has turned into an instrument of government paralysis.” Can someone provide input? (old.reddit.com)
Does anyone else get disappointed when they feel like they’re about to sneeze but then at the last second they don’t feel like they need to sneeze anymore? (old.reddit.com)
Why when we’re busy, do we get excited for all the things we can accomplish in our free time, but when we have free time we aren’t motivated to do those things? (old.reddit.com)
You are playing 20 questions and are a fictional character, and the question asked is “are you alive?” - would you answer Yes or No. please include why, or what circumstances may drive your answer? (old.reddit.com)
How were Soviet computers programmed? Did the Soviet Union have their own “communist programming languages” and a soviet ASCII? Did they create an alternative “Soviet FORTRAN/C/ASSEMBLY”? (old.reddit.com)
Haile Selassie was an incredibly controversial figure, seen by some as a cruel tyrant and by others as a national hero. How do today’s historians evaluate his reign? (old.reddit.com)
Why do I have to go through smile.amazon.com to have proceeds donated, instead of designating a charity on my main amazon.com account? What are the technical or business reasons behind this? (old.reddit.com)
UK women of Reddit (and those who follow UK news), how are you doing after the shitshow of a week we’ve had? What are you doing to look after yourselves? (old.reddit.com)
Is suicide a purely human concept, are there historical cases of other species who posses reflection enough to intentionally take their lives? (old.reddit.com)
Is it possible for a planet to be tidally locked around a star, so that one side is always facing its sun, and the other always facing darkness? (old.reddit.com)
When people colorize old photos, do they just choose whatever colors they want/what they guess would look accurate? Is there a way to know the precise colors of the photo? (old.reddit.com)
You have to choose one person from all of human history to shit their pants, at a time so as to change the course of history as much as possible. Who would you choose, when and why? (old.reddit.com)
In 1792, free people of colour in France were given equal rights to their white counterparts. Who were these people? What was life like for the typical French (or European more broadly) POC at this time? (old.reddit.com)
I am Dr. Michael Taylor, historian of the Roman Republic and author of Soldiers and Silver: Mobilizing Resources in the Age of Roman Conquest; expert on Roman warfare and imperialism--AMA! (old.reddit.com)
Does anyone else feel like if they comment on a post, there is always someone waiting to comment negatively to try and bring you down? (old.reddit.com)
Women, what is something you wish you knew sooner about your body? Or even, what is something you are ashamed to ask about your body and still don't have an answer to. (old.reddit.com)
My German great-great-grandfather refused to evacuate Poland at the end of WWII as he believed there would be fellow Freemasons in the Red Army who would recognise him. Was this a common belief among Masons in WWII? (old.reddit.com)
In the original Star Wars: A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi instructs R2-D2 to connect to the Imperial network to gain access to the whole system. Did the concept of an interconnected vast computer network exist in 1977? What were the largest government and corporate computer systems used for in 1977? (old.reddit.com)
How would you feel about a global No Ad Day where the entire internet is completely Advertisement free and all services must comply or be shut down? (old.reddit.com)
English has a series of obscure collective nouns ostensibly used to describe groups of animals e.g. "a murder of crows." What is the background to these words? Were they ever in common use? (old.reddit.com)
How would you feel if Reddit added a feature where you could still use your normal account, but then have an option to press a button on your account and post anonymously rather then creating a throwaway? (old.reddit.com)
Experts say 70% of a population needs immunity to reach the herd threshold. Where I live, in Texas, polls say 1/3 of people refuse to get the vaccination. Can we reach herd immunity? (old.reddit.com)
In a world where body shaming and sexual comments against women are rightfully not tolerated, why are small penis jokes still fair game? (old.reddit.com)
The Sumerian king list contains a single woman as ruler, a former alewife called Kubaba. Do we know how this was interpreted by Ancient Mesopotamian societies? And what significance did an alewife have? (old.reddit.com)
Geopolitical debates in the 19th century were often framed around “questions” (the Irish Question, the German Question, the Eastern Question, etc.). What is the origin of this terminology? (old.reddit.com)
In his novel "The Secret Agent", Joseph Conrad describes Italian restaurants as a "peculiarly British institution." Are these the same Italian restaurants we're familiar with today, and if so when and why did they stop being associated with the United Kingdom? (old.reddit.com)
Your spouse calls you middle of the day, asks you to trust them, don’t ask questions, grab whatever you can, grab some cash and leave the city. Don’t stop, don’t call anyone, just disappear for a few days. What do you do? Question to know more or trust and disappear? If later, how will you do it? (old.reddit.com)
If selling girl scout cookies is about teaching young ladies responsibility and entrepreneurship then why do I always just see the mothers peddling the cookies for them and never the girls actually selling the cookies themselves even if the consequence is bad sales volume? (old.reddit.com)
My sister is 88 pounds at 5'2", 28 years old, and is publishing a dieting book where you don't eat once a week every month and eat a diet of mostly raw vegetables and no starch. Am I an asshole for not wanting this to sell well? (old.reddit.com)
On July 31st 1715, A Spanish Treasure Fleet bound for mainland Spain set off from Havana, Cuba. 7 days later, 11 of the 12 ships were sunk off the coast of Florida in a fierce storm. Just how impactful was the loss of the treasure fleet for Spain, and how much of a news event was it? (old.reddit.com)
Can someone explain why this sub was temporarily banned today? What made some dumbass admin decide to terminate an active sub with 1.3 million users? (old.reddit.com)
In the immediate aftermath of WW2 were the American soldiers that fought in Europe viewed or treated differently than those that fought in the Pacific? (old.reddit.com)
To women who have close male friends, have they ever made comments about women (appearances, certain traits, etc.) that has made you uncomfortable? If so, how did you deal with it? (old.reddit.com)
In 1537 the Pope banned the enslavement of Native Americans and any unknown-yet people. Did this Papal Bull actually have any effect, and if not, why not? (old.reddit.com)
With the introduction of vaccines, even if a variant isn’t strictly “covered” by the vaccine due to changes in proteins, would there be enough “training” of the body’s immune system on how to deal with a corona virus that the body would be more efficient if infected later? (old.reddit.com)
On the Wikipedia page for 9/11 where it lists various international responses, it is mostly an outpouring of support. However the section ends with some Greek soccer fans trying to burn an American flag. Was this hooliganism, or a sign of some broader antipathy toward the US in Greece at the time? (old.reddit.com)
Bilingual speakers of reddit, what’s one scene in a foreign show or movie, that the subtitles say something wildly different from what the character actually says? (old.reddit.com)
Mexico was ruled by the same party, the PRI, for over 70 years since the end of the mexican civil war until the year 2000. Including the entirety of the cold war. Did that present a concern to the US at some point? (old.reddit.com)
Margaret Thatcher criticized the gov of Argentina for being a military junta during the Falklands War, yet she received support from Chile, which was also being run by a military dictatorship at the time. How did that work? (old.reddit.com)
Why was the use of lead and asbestos so widespread in the modern period (and earlier) when their detrimental effects have been known for centuries? (old.reddit.com)
I'm new. I wanted to join subs for talking about stocks and the stock market. I can't post anywhere because my account isn't old enough and I don't have karma. Why is this a requirement on so many subreddits? Does it make sense to anyone? (old.reddit.com)
Tiny Greek city states with 10-20k in population managed to build grand temples, bath houses, walls, and other monumental-scale buildings. Was this level of architectural achievement at low population levels common in the ancient world? (old.reddit.com)
In the 1950’s section of WandaVision, no one is bothered by Wanda’s (fictional) Sokovian nationality; while this episode was based on sitcom logic, how would Suburban Americans actually have reacted to an Eastern European immigrant? (old.reddit.com)