off topic - but one of the Decents' fave historians makes an utter tit out of himself here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/20/niall-ferguson-interview-civilizationincluding his seriously describing some of the tenets of colonialism as 'apps', and dismissing the native americans as being of no interest other than the fact they killed bison...sort of on topic in that the Buruma/Garton Ash/H