■"Secrets of success: America's system of higher education is the best in the world. That is because there is no system," by Adrian Wooldridge, The Economist, 10 September 2005, p. 6.

Interesting survey of global education by one of my favorite Economist writers celebrates that which Tom Friedman seem to dismiss a bit too casually in his "World is Flat" book.

Wooldridge says three reasons account for this: 1) the Fed plays a limited role, unlike in a France or Germany; 2) schools compete for everything, including students and teachers; and 3) our universities are anything but ivory towers, instead being quite focused on practical stuff (Great line: "Bertrand Russell once expressed astonishment at the worldly concerns he encountered at the University of Wisconsin: 'When any farmer's turnip go wrong, they send a professor to investigate the failure scientifically,'" So true, as anyone who's grown up in Wisconsin farmland can attest.)

Two interesting data points: listing of top global universities features 1 from Japan, two from UK and 17 from U.S. Wisconsin, my alma mater is 18 (ahead of Michigan!) and Harvard is number 1.

Also interesting: Of the students who travel abroad, 30 percent come to America. Britain is next at 12%, then Germany, then Australia, then France and Japan. After Australia it's all single digits.

I guess America isn't exactly out of the source code business, at least in the most important software package known to man.