USAToday's Academic Team

USAToday, a newspaper whose style makes me long more to burn it than read it (to say nothing of the lack of comics — that's downright un-American), has gone and done something that I can't help but respect deeply. They've named an All-USA High School Academic First Team. And a Second Team. And a Third Team.

One suspects from the students' locations that there is an inherent bias towards certain areas of the country. One way of looking at it is to say that Northern Virginia is surely over-represented. ;-) Of course, the Yanks in Illinois and California have a fair number on there, too, but... Virginia? How did that happen?

Yes, I'm kidding about that, but I do remember a Yank friend of mine who attended a northern technology university and claimed quite seriously that southerners didn't have a valid science research university to their name.

Three members of the First Team are recognized for original results in mathematical research: Brett Harrison, Daniel Litte, and Michael Viscardi. The latter was homeschooled. Most of the first team lists accomplishments in science and/or mathematics. Eunice Butler has also listed an apprenticeship to a Byzantine iconographer.

Excellent. :-) Our country isn't hopeless, after all.