Why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents for the last 13,000 years?

[T]he values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs.

Australia is the most isolated continent.

To dismiss the current extinction wave on the grounds that extinctions are normal events is like ignoring a genocidal massacre on the grounds that every human is bound to die at some time anyway.

In the latter case it is often government that organizes the conquest, and religion that justifies it.

I'd rather spend my leisure time doing what some people call my work and I call my fun.

African cavalry mounted on rhinos or hippos would have made mincemeat of European cavalry mounted on horses. But it couldnt happen.