Lest those islands still seem to you too remote in space and time to be relevant to our modern societies, just think about the risks... of our increasing globalization and increasing worldwide economic interdependence.

Think of all the human suffering caused by the sad truth that beautiful sexy women or handsome Porsche-owning men often prove to have miserable genes for other traits

The United States has long thought of itself as the land of infinite plenty, and historically we did have abundant resources. But now we are gradually exhausting our fisheries, our topsoil, our water. On top of that, we're coming to the end of world resources.

All recognized famous inventors had capable predecessors and successors and made their improvements at a time when society was capable of using their product.

All human societies go through fads in which they temporarily either adopt practices of little use or else abandon practices of considerable use.

Take air quality in the United States today: It's about 30 percent better than it was 25 years ago, even though there are now more people driving more cars.

Rhino-mounted Bantu shock troops could have overthrown the Roman Empire. It never happened.