A few interesting articles...

Why are some nations wealthier than others? In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond pointed to differences in geography.

In his new book A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World, economics professor Greg Clark identifies the main culprit as differences in quality of labor.

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Bruce Schneier discusses correspondent inference theory and why that evolutionary brain glitch undermines terrorism. Schneier based his article on a paper by Max Abrams in International Security titled "Why Terrorism Does Not Work" (PDF). All very fascinating and insightful.

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Joel on Software rants against the scourge of anonymous comments on the web. He's not saying anything new, but it's good to see the backlash continue. Reading long comment threads on most posts is a depressing thing.

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