21. oktober 2002

Exaggerated Headline of the Day "How The Irish Saved Civilization" (Forbes) FYI: It's about the Irish vote to allow EU expansion as outlined in the Nice Treaty, not the invention of Guinness. 10:08:48 PM    comment []

Dumbing Down "Eleven percent of Britons questioned could not name a single world leader, but nearly half can list five characters in the BBC soap hit EastEnders." (CNN)  This problem is certainly not unique to the UK. How can we expect our democracy to work when a larger and larger proportion of the population doesn't care about how society is ruled and organised? There are generations of hard work behind the leasurely lifestyle many now take for granted. If not a sufficient number of people pay attention to it, the few people who do care, who may well be a minority of religious fanatics, can rule unopposed. 9:55:14 PM    comment []

Why did Europe Conquer the World and Not Vice Versa? Edge is one of my favorite sites on the net for information on cutting edge research, especially on the big issues. The big issues, as I call them, is the understanding of human culture. The prestigious hard sciences has generally avoided the 'big issues' and left them to the social sciences. Social scientists have, in my opinion, often neglected to take input from the hard sciences. Attempts to apply knowledge from evolution and biology to history or human culture has often been met with harsh opposition. Jared Diamond, a biologist, outlined some reasons why history has taken a different course on different continents. Europe, or, rather, Eurasia, has developed technology and levels of sophistication that allowed its inhabitants to conquer and subjugate the peoples in Africa south of Sahara, in the Americas, and the Australian aboriginals. Is there a particular reason that the Spanish conquered the Aztecs (picture right) and not the other way around? Or was it just a fluke of history? Diamond outlines a number of explanations that I find very convincing. Eurasia contains a larger stock of bigger animal species, some of which were suitable to domestication. Domestic animals for work and food was a prerequisite for the development of modern civilization. Eurasia is primarily arranged east-west, while the Americas' primary orientation is north-south. This means more uniform distribution of domestic animals in Eurasia. Thus, animals domesticised in one part of the Americas were not suitable for other parts. In Eurasia, on the other hand, domestic animals could spread over larger areas. Even Southern Africa, for all its large animals, has very few suitable for domestication. For Australia, this is even more true. Domestic animals allowed more sophisticated political systems, allowing larger organizations, again supporting larger armies and more powerful technology, for example writing and seagoing vessels. Many of the most nasty germs and diseases actually spread into the human population through domestic animals. Initially devastating to the Eurasian population, it allowed us to develop immunity. When these diseases spread to the new world, the effect was totally destructive, while diseases from the new world were far less so in Europe. The difficulties in north-south orientation (which applies both to Africa and the Americas) is perhaps even more important for crops. Crops growing in one part of the region could not grow in other parts. A stable food supply was fundamental for the development of a more sophisticated level of labour division. Hunter-gather societies could not develop above a certain level of technology. I recommend Diamond's thought-provoking article. I can think of one more possible reason: the tropical climate of Africa has been much more fertile for Malaria, perhaps the biggest single killer of humans all through history. Malaria has not had a significant impact on Europe or the Northern parts of Asia. 7:48:18 PM    comment []

Possibly Three Bombs in Bali Police are investigating the possibility there were two near-simultanous bomb blasts in pub that was devastated on Bali. Reports about the make and type of bomb used have been highly conflicting and confusing. If these later theories prove correct, it surely indicates a high level of sophistication and coordination in the attack. Reportedly, a smaller blast went off inside the pub shortly before the massive blast in the car outside. Perhaps the first was intended to make people run towards the first, to kill as many as possible? 7:06:03 PM    comment []

Sniper Related Arrest US police has arrested two men in connection with the sniper cases. I just hope this is the end of it. 5:05:20 PM    comment []

Pinch me, I'm dreaming! The Pentagon wants to scale back the military side of the war on drugs. Read the background and get the links at The Raven's blog.  5:59:15 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2002 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.11.02; 00:16:50.