US News and World Report magazine recently looked at more than 18,000 public high schools in the United States to arrive at their ranking of America’s Best High Schools.

Using a formula that measured how each school’s students performed on state tests, how well each school’s disadvantaged students did, and whether the school was successful in providing college-level coursework, they determined the top 100 schools.

These top 100 schools earned gold medals, the next 405 schools earned silver medals, and an additional 1,086 schools earned bronze medals.

As with most rankings the order depends on the data used and how it is interpreted. Data from the 2005-2006 school year was used for these rankings. There were 10 states that were not included in the rankings for providing insufficient or no data.

Santa Clara County/Santa Cruz County schools in top 100:

2. Pacific Collegiate Charter, Santa Cruz

59. Monta Vista High, Cupertino

66. Henry M. Gunn High, Palo Alto

72. Saratoga High, Saratoga

73. Lynbrook High, San Jose

85. Palo Alto High, Palo Alto

List of the top 100 Gold Medal schools here.

List of Santa Clara County schools here.

Metroblogging is four years old today. The Metroblogging network that is; not Metroblogging San José, we are not even one year old yet.

Metroblogging started four years ago in Los Angeles as blogging.la with this first post and has since grown with over 50 cities worldwide.

Happy Birthday, Metroblogging!

San Jose is 230 years old today.

El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe was founded on November 29, 1777 as the first town in the Spanish colony of Nueva California, which later became Alta California. San Jose was established as a farming community to support Spanish military installations at San Francisco and Monterey. When California gained statehood in 1850, San Jose served as its first capital.

San Jose has used the nickname The Capital of Silicon Valley and now uses the slogan San Jose, The Fun Never Stops [giggle].

The So You Think You Can Dance Tour on November 25th was the second time this year that I attended an event at the HP Pavilion. (The first time this year was my one and only Sharks game… I believe it was this year.. my how time flies.)

Oh by the way, SYTYCD was *awesome* - if you are unaware of what it is, basically it’s a reality show tour - much like that of the American Idol tour, I assume. But better. (Slightly biased opinion, but you’ll survive.) Where was I? Oh reality… “dancers” and dancers audition, dance, get voted off, someone wins, big tour for top 10-12 finalists. This was SYTYCD’s third season and it was fabulous.

Moving on…
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It’s high time I resumed the Indian restaurant series. At least Gary has been prodding me for long. And it’s good to blog about one of the best that we have — Amber.

It would be difficult to dispute its position as the best Indian restaurant out here. I should say that it’s almost on par with the top restaurants back in India.
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Honolulu, Hawaii is now America’s Safest Big City in the new CQ Press rankings of safest and most dangerous cities. San Jose now ranks third behind El Paso, Texas in the Safest Big City category. San Jose held first place for the past six years.

CQ Press crunches FBI crime statistics to determine the rankings. There are different variables that go into the way the information is reported; one community may report an incident as minor and another report the same incident as being more serious. In addition, a city does not necessarily become unsafe when there is an increase in auto thefts but may fall in the rankings.

The fall from first place for San Jose may be because wearing the ugly new Sharks’ jersey is being reported as a crime. This could be a major factor for the third place ranking.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a very Happy Thanksgiving. May you all arrive at your destination safely, enjoy and cherish your loved ones, and above all, give thanks for the blessings in your lives.

Please add your Thanksgiving photos to the Metroblogging San Jose flickr group.

Saturday, November 17, NASA Ames will host a “Return to the Moon Family Night” at their Exploration Center.

The event will highlight the roles of NASA and Ames Research Center in conducting robotic missions in the near future that include the identification of water on the moon and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission is designed to confirm the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the moon’s South Pole.

Activities and exhibits include:

• animated videos
• moon rocks display
• robotic rover demonstrations
• kids activities
• telescope viewing of the lunar surface (weather permitting)
• presentations by LCROSS experts and scientists

NASA Ames Research Center
Exploration Center
Saturday, November 17
4:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Free admission

For directions and other activities at the Exploration Center check here.

Things got askew at eBay’s Hamilton Ave. campus today when a suspicious package was spotted around 9:30am. It was determined that the package could be destroyed - so it went boom around 12:30pm.

Last November the eBay North San Jose campus was targeted. Someone had left an explosive device strong enough to blow out a window near the PayPal office. Thankfully no one was injured.

Whats with this time of year and eBay?

This Saturday bring in your old electronic devices (computers, TVs, printers, copy & fax machines, telephones - including wireless, etc.) and help the Children’s Musical Theater San Jose.

Funds raised from your recycled electronics will be used to support Honors Night, which is an annual tribute to Children’s Musical Theater performers of the past and recognition of inspirational performers of today.

This is a free electronics-recycling event.

1401 Parkmoor Ave, San Jose
Saturday, November 17
9:00 am - 4:00 pm

For more info about the recycling benefit: 408.464.9999

To learn more about the Children’s Musical Theater San Jose check here.