"A little learning...

is a dangerous thing," George Bernard Shaw once remarked, "but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold." According to a BBC story published today, "Brazilian archaeolgoists have found an ancient stone structure in a remote corner of the Amazon.... Its appearance is being compared to the English site of Stonehenge." This discovery is undoubtedly a significant one, but how does the BBC reporter then make the leap to : "It was traditionally thought that before European colonisation, the Amazon had no advanced societies"? If the author is suggesting that pre-historic England constituted anything remotely resembling an "advanced" society, he'd better take a second look at the facts since his Anglo-speaking cousins are making a strong case that the English-speaking world is anything but advanced.

Exhibit A: