Winding Road of Davos Conversation

While most conversations in WEF start off paying homage to the E of economics, delegates get burned out quickly. By Thursday afternoon, talk of markets and finance can take a back seat.

I approached Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson with an eye to asking him about his latest book. "Civilization: The West and the Rest" is an examination of 600 years of history and how the West managed to dominate. A fascinating topic.

The big take away? He's glad he's finished writing it and the proofs are out and now he lives more normally.

Heard in Davos 2011 - Dispatches From The Conference

Ferguson was more interested in my experience in London and if I've tried the "Boris Bikes." That's the government-supplied bike system in the city. How do you pay? What are the pitfalls?

Quickly, he had decided there must be an app to find out if the posts where you park the bikes are full.

While big in the iPhone, he's been severely neglecting his Twitter account, not Tweeting since Nov. 16. He said he plans to get back on the horse, though, because his kids warned him his followers would assume he's dead.

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