Have you read about the Russian frontier? As soon as it was at least somewhat secure so living on it wasn't a sure-fire way of getting enslaved by Muslim steppe raiders(Tatars), the empty land was filled up by peasants looking for land to farm.

An increase in population led to more slave raids, so Moscow was forced to push the border further south to protect the farmers. In this way the border kept moving south. In 250 years, this mechanism caused the Russian state to expand from Moscow to Crimea.

Paradox is also in the business of making boardgames, albeit with way more elaborate rules.

> your own with a computer, and I think it's worked out really well.

I don't think it has. The AI in Civ series is just bad, and only gets by through rampant cheating. Civ V was out for years, and they haven't managed to do anything decent with the combat AI. Nor prevent the AI from doing stupid things.

No emergent gameplay at all in Civ.

Totally unlike the real world, where ruling or governing is more about figuring out how to exercise power without getting overthrown.

Such a game would be way more interesting.

Yes, of course the word 'psychopath' is abused.

Yes of course it's not an either-or thing, and a lot of law abiding people have some features of archetypal psychopaths.

Any psychiatrist would tell you something like this. So, a lot of 'water is wet' type of filler.

>> The Myth of the Born Criminal argues that, rather than genes, psychopaths' most significant commonality appears to be an abusive childhood, which related research has demonstrated can affect the anatomy of the brain in various and profound ways.<<

The book dismisses all those cases (there are some) where perfectly normal families produced complete monsters. A good share of serial killers weren't abused. It's thought that those are just people who happen to express a set of genes good for social predation. Nice explanation in this abstract:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14786010802159814...

Also, the article has howlers like:

>>It never occurred to me that Gregory’s behavior in Kenya could be the product of anything other than his brain, and thus I never asked or inquired about what might have been going on in his life. I ignored the strong, decades-long relationship he had with our boss, the sort of relationship that psychopaths are supposed to be incapable of sustaining.<<

Because whatever goes on in your life of course cannot affect your brain. Why is this sort of stupid dualism even allowed in the 21st century? A person is their brain, and their body, taken together. You can't separate it.

I'm more interested in when various athletic old people are going to die. Ernestine Shepherd, or Charles Eugster, or any of these ancient japanese bodybuilders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5om6gbDwA8

>>The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.<<

The current fit on part of the intellectuals and media is due to them having lost this power to control the narrative and ideas because they failed to adapt to the new media which have replaced the old.

You can reproduce in excess, but you have to practice primogeniture.

Same if inbreeding is practiced. So, the claim that for example, mid-easterners with their penchant for marrying cousins, or the Swiss with their insular village communities ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2sUW8q7uWI

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanzelka_and_Zikmund .. these guys travelled the world widely in late 1940's. I've read the African book, and it's very funny reading these days.

The both despised the colonialist administrations, and the book frequently mentioned all the injustices done on the native populations. Yet the factual descriptions of Africa at that time make it look a far safer place.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/50799-Democrat...

Multiple times, the travellers found spots where locals would make traps for cars and then ask for money to get the cars unstuck.

The only people who were invariably helpful were priests.

70% of French criminals are of Arab origin. Maybe Arabs are better behaved in the Arab world than they are in France?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/1135...

Maybe it's because the French are really soft on prisoners. That Coulibaly guy was furious they confiscated his playstation. I doubt Morocco or Algeria would have ever allowed him one..

He revealed what everyone interested was already suspecting. The reason Russia shelters him is that he was working for them. It's a reward, and one they have to give out, otherwise no on smart would cooperate with them.

If he wasn't a former Russian agent, it'd be better for them letting America make an example of him, because what would make US look worse than jailing for life someone who is widely considered a hero by a good fraction of population.

Willful, defiant children were considered a good thing by in early American Virginian planter colony..