Debating Guns, Germs, and Steel

It seems that the 3 part PBS series on Jared Diamond's 1997 Pulitzer winning Guns, Germs and Steel has sparked some lively debate and discussion across the spectrum of academic blogs. This piece does an excellent job of summarizing what all the fuss is about and links to the key figures in the debate:

And in the last week, a relatively new blog in anthropology — Savage Minds — has set off a huge debate over the book. Two of the eight people who lead Savage Minds posted their objections to the book, and things have taken off from there, with several prominent blogs in the social sciences picking up the debate, and adding to it. Hundreds of scholars are posting and cross-posting in an unusually intense and broad debate for a book that has been out for eight years.

Mark another reason to hail the blog. Where else and at what other point in human history would you be able to have such easy access to a spontaneously developed and near instaneous scholarly discussion?