really? I wonder if we have a similar divide about lectures and seminars. when I'm silent it just means, ok, you know much more about that than I do, and I'd just make an ass of myself if I said anything (and I always do make an ass of myself). I genuinely don't think idiocy is always or even mostly what silence means (unless we mean the idiocy of the person being silent). Either that or, yes, I agree, but I have nothing more to add.