The uni held its annual Sir Douglas Robb lecture series this week, with a series of lectures by Jared Diamond.

The second lecture by Jared Diamond (on Thursday night) was essentially based on his book Collapse. It examines the factors that cause some societies to fail while others thrive.

The third and final lecture by Jared Diamond (on Friday night) was not based on any of his previous books, and was about the need and ability of societies to reappraise their core values.

There was a brief question time at the end of each of the Jared Diamond lectures. Some of the questions were very good and insightful and Jared made some very thoughtful responses. However, others made me ashamed to be breathing the same air as the questioner.

I wrote earlier about the talk by Jared Diamond on the subject of societies collapsing. I have some further thoughts about the book that I wrote months ago but never got around to actually publishing on here.