The answer depends entirely on what you're doing and on where your app plugs into the data streams.
The short answer is, 'not really' For stock market and other time series data a key value store like Berkley DB or Mongo is pretty good. Also, a data format like NetCDF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetCDF) will likely serve you better in the long run. It also depends on what kind of access you want and how much time you want to store.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.