A friend of ours from Zurich sent this picture to show conditions in Zurich, Switzerland, where he recently transferred to from Seattle. Notice the piles of snow shoveled off to the side.

Meanwhile, here in Seattle, the situation as pictured below is enough to shut the city down. Notice the lack of any real snow and people standing around if there was a disaster to deal with. In fact, most school districts in the area closed yesterday at the mere threat of snow by weather forecasters. As of of 11pm last night, there had been no snow in our school district at all.

As the Seattle Times points out, there are fewer than 30 snow plows in the Greater Seattle Area and far fewer for suburban areas like ours. This means that snow will continue to paralyze the city. Might be time for some investment from the city here. 

I know this video of the hapless George Bush and shoes flying towards him has gone viral, but I am kind of disappointed by the glee with which it is viewed. We are very lucky in the USA to have leaders that mean the best for the country. In many parts of the world, the position of President is a license to extract money from the nation for self gain. For all his mistakes, I do believe George Bush was doing what he thought was best for the country, and we should honor him for that at least. 

Quote

Talking about YouTube - George Bush dodges 'goodbye kiss' shoe-throwing
  

Wow. My college appeared at the top of the 2008 Tompkins Table, an annual ranking of the colleges of Cambridge University (UK) by academic results, for the first time this year. Selwyn College was founded just 125 years ago (very new by Cambridge standards) and has always been one of the poorer colleges.

When I was there between 1993-1997, it was a rapidly improving college both in terms of facilities and academic standing but still ranked at the bottom half of the league of 23 or so colleges. I was a poor student from working class background living off scholarships and Selwyn felt like the best home for me out of the colleges I looked at. Over the last 15 years, the college has focused on attracting the best new entrants from the Top 1% of the UK's 18 year olds, and providing them with great academic mentorship. The Cambridge system is different from most universities in that students receive three or so one hour "supervisions" where they get to discuss papers with professors, so having great professors is a key to improved results. It also sets students up to do well later in life, as interviews often seem a doddle compared to a supervision with some of the smartest brains around!

To be top of a list that includes many older and better funded colleges is phenomenal. I always think back to Selwyn as being the big break that got me started in life and am very proud of how far the college has come. Go Selwyn!

The Tompkins table 1. Selwyn  2. Emmanuel 3. Trinity 4. Gonville & Caius 5. Magdalene