In regards to your argument about the White Sox, I would state that considering the Sox have an overall record of 4-20 versus the A's over the past 24 games, it's the A's who have spread a smallpox on the Sox. Even in this glorious year where the WHite Sox are winning games they shouldn't, they are 2-4 versus the A's.

I have to say that I feel little guilt about outperforming the Adjusted standings, as the White Sox have generally been in the negative almost every year, as the Twins have been the masters of beating the Adj. standings.

I have the book and I didn't feel that it showed an anti-European bias. I'll reread it and repost if my feelings change...but I don't think they will. From what I remember, societies became dominant/more advanced due to the geography of the lands they occupied. Societies in more isolated areas didn't have as many tools as did people who could move more freely.

http://www.agron.iastate.edu/courses/agron342/diamondmistake.html

My recommendation for Mr. Diamond is that he get the hell out of polite society and head toward some primitivist idyll -- the prison known as Cuba, for instance, or the remoter parts of the Amazon.