The 10 Most Wanted List
Here's our official list. Remember that these are simply suggestions designed to get you thinking about all the things you have to share. If you have an idea or come up with one, go for it! We'd love to see what you have to share with us. Still not sure? Then contact us, we always try to say yes to submissions, or to help you revise a submission so that it works. For example, we wouldn't accept a news article because news turns over too fast for our procedures to keep up with; however, the issues that a news article deals with could easily be excellent material for an insightful article on the topic. Note that we've also tried to offer suggestions you might not have considered for submitting alternative content like images, audio, and video.
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Food: Trace the popularity of French high cuisine from its origin through the present. Give special attention to its rise as an international fashion. We'd love for you to share your recipes as well.
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Institutional: Italy was the center of Roman civilization. When the Renaissance emerged, it flowed from Italy a full hundred years before it truly penetrated the rest of Europe. However, Italy had dropped from the forefront of powers (even in Europe), was by now hopelessly fragmented, and ruled (if by anyone) by a series of its most depraved and grasping Popes. What factors allowed Italy to generate a movement so culturally advanced, despite it's political collapse. How did it bring Europe back into the front echelon of civilizations and poised to become the dominant culture that would colonize the globe? We'd also love to get images of the great Italian sites, from the countryside, to the villas, to the cities... and yes we'd especially love public domain images of the Roman Forum. Can you blame us?
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Military: Trace the inter-tribal wars of Genghis Khan prior to the unification of the tribes in 1206AD. How did the Mongol military evolve after it embarked on its international campaigns all the way through the death of Timur-i-Leng in 1405AD. How did it stay the same as before all the tribes were unified and how did international war transform it? We'd love images of the highlands too, from the Gobi to the Takla Makan, from Tibet and the Himalayas to the amazing limestone mountains of western China.
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Literature: Trace evidence in Bram Stoker’s notes, letters, or general background that would indicate his vampire was named as a sick joke. Historical research has consistently failed in its attempts to equate Stoker’s vampire in any meaningful way with the historical Dracula, Vlad Tepes. Vlad was a powerful noble, Voivode of Wallachia, and was nicknamed "the Impaler" for his horrific and macabre past times. Most attempts have limited themselves to speculating that Stoker merely liked the sound of the name, Dracula, or that he modeled his plot on historical incidents (though nothing of Vlad's history seems to mimic Dracula and certainly there were few, if any, records of Vlad which Bram Stoker would have had access to). Yet it seems more than coincidence, and perhaps black humor that Stoker’s creature of the night (which is only stopped by impaling it with a wooden stake) is named after the most infamous impaler in European history. We're also always on the lookout for interesting background music and sound effects for our public domain collection.
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Sports: Why is the most famous and popular sport in the entire world, football, so casually disregarded and pathetically played by the US which musters world class talent in almost every other major sport? What programs in the world today are truly world class and what do they do that makes them successful, both institutionally in how they groom and select the teams that compete internationally and what drills and techniques in everything from ball handling to match strategy make them the world's best. This is a great opportunity to share videos of your football techniques, or Flash animations of game strategy.
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Daily Life: What was housing like in various cultures and at different social conditions? (e.g. Pliny the Younger describes his Roman upper class villa in his letters) Or send us a video of how you make your house a home.
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Physics: Many new interpretations of quantum mechanics suggest that time does not exist. What is the mechanism that causes us to think it does, why does it seem so obvious? What alternative interpretations, leave open the existence of time in some form that closely resembles our experience? What are the problems with these interpretations that some physicists find the elimination of time less disturbing? If you have an artistic streak, create a beautiful diagram that help explain an important concept in physics, or even artwork that's simply inspired by the possibilities.
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Industrial: The timing studies that Frederick W. Taylor began in the 1880s were considered one of the monumental adaptations of the scientific method and a major development in the history of industry. What kinds of studies are performed today to make industrial and commercial enterprises more effective? You could also consider submitting a video or Flash presentation about science / technology in industry.
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Political: Trace the history of political campaigning with special attention to the divisiveness of the contests. Recent US politics have left many people feeling that politicians are less civil to one another, yet instances like the Tilden-Hayes affair, both of Lincoln’s elections, and the use of the newspapers by candidates in the early 1800s suggest these were also uncivilized times. Was there ever an Era of Good Feelings in any nation? How divisive have various elections been? In what ways have polarization ultimately helped or hurt these countries? We're also interested in audio recordings of old campaigns or news reports, provided they're in the public domain.
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Historical: Excluding Egypt, the history of Africa (especially Western, Eastern, and Southern Africa) is not covered deeply in most textbooks. How did these areas develop? For the sake of a good argument ;), what era had Africa reached when it’s independent development was interrupted by the Europeans. Formative? Medieval? We'd love to have images and / or videos about Africa from any time in it's history, ancient or modern including religion, art, and culture.