--- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> >
> One of the Diamond's "cases" - the Norse of Iceland
- went
extinct,
I think you mean the Norse of Greenland. The Norse of Iceland are doing quite well. ;)
Now, that was a civilization, the Norse -- a trading network extending from Finland to North America, and by extension down into what is now New England. Using longboats. Now that is amazing. IIRC correctly some medieval Arabic historian said somewhere that "the Northmen say that if you sail far enough west, you come across small yellow people who hunt whales," or words to that effect.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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