Friday assorted links

1. Davis Kedrosky defends Jared Diamond, a good piece.

2. Is “war-related” a “factor” in financial market returns?

3. Global inequality in well-being has decreased along many dimensions.

4. Overview of the new ARPA-H.

5. “WWSS?”  Or, “What would Singapore say?”  You don’t have to agree, but the question is usually worth asking.  Here is Singapore on LLMs.  And if you don’t already know it — I covered it years ago — here is one of my favorite videos, namely Singapore Complaints Choir.