Sublime

As recipients of US foreign aid, it was in their best interest to appear to be supporting the US in its war effort.

Nations or people in a true alliance treat each other as equals. They work together to meet a common goal—defeating or deterring an enemy, for example.

his human flock, and it was thus right and natural for his subjects to obey him

Of course, gifting a daughter or sister not only signaled the conquering ruler’s superiority, it also had the advantage of turning the conquered into long-term clients, at least as long as the marriage lasted. Trying to avoid client status, four of the societies (Egypt, Hawai’i, Aztec, and Inca) eventually opted for royal incest.

These data make a strong case that, as human social networks grow, they necessarily lead to systems that require fewer resources per person, and produce more per person. In other words, the benefits of scale for human groups have always been there.

not vary.

This “prey-switching” behavior is common to generalist predators and turns out to be ecologically stabilizing for the whole food web. As generalists turn their attention to different prey species, the species that were getting depleted get a chance to recover, reducing the risk of extinction.