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Tuesday, February 26, 2002 |
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Only good thing abou being sick has been hat I've read most of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, The Fates of Human Societies. Diamond takes a scientific look at why some societies and cultures seem to do better than others. The verdict? ancient Western Europeans just happened to be near the place where most domesticable plants and animals developed. Domesticated species meant food surpluses, allowing societies where some members were freed from food gathering to concentrate on things like political organization and developing technology.
Small advantages, operating over long time periods, led to political and technological development, allowing the lucky groups to displace or conquer cultures who weren't so fortunate. Even then, the biggest factor wasn't technology, but germs passed from herd animals to dense Western human populations where they developed over time into virulent diseases. When these people visited other lands, often as conquerors, their germs did more damage than their weapons did. |
 Mary Ann Dolan and Jim Bellows, seen here in the old Herald Examiner newsroom in Los Angeles, are two people I felt lucky to work for. I dug this photo up for Steve Latham, who's making a PBS documentary, The Last Editor about Bellows... Comments 9:25:06 PM 
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Updated 4/16/04; 11:46:47 AM
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Chris Gulker'sUpdated 4/16/04; 11:46:47 AM
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