The TV series Guns, Germs and Steel, based on Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize-winning sci/history book, premiers tonight on PBS. The companion Web site covers a lot of thought-provoking ideas that are interesting whether you read the book, never heard of it, or, um, didn't finish it. From the overview:
Inspired by a question put to him on the island of Papua New Guinea more than thirty years ago, Diamond embarks on a world-wide quest to understand the roots of global inequality.
* Why were Europeans the ones to conquer so much of our planet?
* Why didn't the Chinese, or the Inca, become masters of the globe instead?
* Why did cities first evolve in the Middle East?
* Why did farming never emerge in Australia?
* And why are the tropics now the capital of global poverty?
UPDATE: Jared Diamond is speaking in San Francisco this Friday as part of The Long Now Foundation's free seminar series. Link
