Finally finished "Guns, Germs, and Steel." This one was lent to me by Carol Johnson my Mother-In-Law. It was a very interesting and enlightening book. It is great when someone with a broad background can synthesize so much information into a coherent and compelling theory. His argument for geographic determinism as an explanation to technological differences in broad populations is very good. He totally refutes any issue of racial differences. (The fact that there is no such thing as multiple human races is a scientific fact as well, but not covered in this book. There is a genetic distinction to dog breeds; there is no genetic distinction to different human races. "Race" is a purely political term, variations within any human population are greater than the variations between differing populations.) The technological differences between different human populations are determined by the geography, climate, and native resources of the area combined with the laws of human cultural evolution. (When humans began to develop culture, the need for further genetic evolution was virtually removed.) The conclusions derived from history about ideal cultural conditions for technological advancement can be also be applied to government and commercial entities. There are some real patterns illustrated in the book that confirm the superiority of the divinely inspired United States Government system and the extremely successful Microsoft business organization. I really love this type of book which can draw such broadly applicable conclusions. Overall, I found it to be full of fun and fascinating facts and well worth the read.