Here stuff for the select group of people discussing the text......;-),
...and some info for non-American English speakers.

1) Gilroy - yes it is in NorCal, word, ! Of course, it lowers Socal garlic prices too. BTW, to credit the "garlic policy" of the Swiss, you can get fresh garlic here at the COOP, which I have not seen at Ralph's or Trader Joe's, nor do I think Whole Foods had it.

2) "CERN made the Internet". Long, long, long before there was the internet, thousands and thousands of PCs and PC-predecessors in the US were connected, with real webpages called "Bulletin Boards", all in monocolor. Maneuvering was not as rapid, there were no hyperlinks, a fat Everett Modem throwned beeping near your giant PC. Once this infrastructure was in place and in heavy use, and as connections became faster, a protocol for rendering fonts better and rendering images automatically was developed at CERN. But if you define the internet as an interaccessible network of computers by private users without a central hub, that was before CERN. Nevertheless, a nice contribution. Incidentally, much of the interactive nature of the web is contributed by Java, and this is an Indian contribution. (From massive, massive cohorts of Indians at Sun.)

3) The Socal-Swiss info sounds like from the show V (!) ( "V" was a US show in which some aliens live in disguise on earth, occasionally they take their masks off, they are cold/unemotional.) I tried listing the diffferences betw. these regions neutrally and objectively, without taking pro or con positions.

4) East Europeans can't be surrounding Western Europe.. Ok, right, but in the West is water.
Remember that all the E.European countries (up till know) pretty much got completely left behind in the industrial revolution. However, their population is by no means stupid or unambitious. This is what creates the problem. There are very large numbers of enterprising, intelligent individuals who have no money, and who are just hours away from the wealthier West European states. Worse, the reason the West Europeans have become so wealthy in the first place is that a work-eager and compliant population is a key advantage for building an industrial society. But when it comes to controlling this wealth, and making sure it is not "sucked dry", the E.Europeans might have done a better job than the W.Europeans.

4)a) "Unreligious" I used the term bec. 20 year old's have not had much time to contemplate the universe, so agnostic or atheistic is too precise a term. Important is that E. European/Russian school systems did not drill religion. There are correlates between religious beliefs and behavior.

(For Non-US English speakers)
5) What is the meaning of "NOOD" ? As in "Canadians and Mexicans might invade the U.S- NOOT". The centrally-distributed portion of popular culture of the world comes largely from Southern California, but is not dubbed, so Socal verbal habits cannot penetrate the rest of the non-English speaking world. "NOOT" after a proposition is a short and elegant way of negating it, after triggering a moment of incredulity. Other examples of "valley-talk" (San Fernando Valley,LA area) are (for females) injecting "OMEEGAAD" (Oh my god) after every third proposition, and for both genders inserting the word "LIKE" 3-4 times in a sentence. "Yeah, like, I like went to the Schilthorn, like, and like, it was, like, DUDE, "wow", like..ok? " (Scholarly papers have been written about these language changes and why they happen).

6) Someone was critical of how I describe the US ("drug maintenance and law enforcement). Socal and Switzerland are my favorite areas, and this was a discussion of how these states go about preserving law and order. But the comparison of the law enforcement issues was not complete.
An additional factor with which the US (here it's judicial system) manages a numerous and potentially violent criminal class is what might be called "ASVR" or "Acceptance of Strong Victim Response".

Let me contrast some cases from the two jurisdictions (Switz.+US.)
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a) Recently, in Zurich, a Swiss man parks his car near an ATM, gets his money, as he returns he finds that it has been blocked by another car with two guys. He asks them to move, upon which they apparently become angry. One of them moves toward him, he retreats inside his car. The other keeps coming, the Swiss now brandishes a handgun. Undeterred, the other apparently enters the car of the Swiss or brings his upper body through the window. The Swiss injures him in the neck with a shot.

Result: 3-4 years jailtime for the Swiss. ASVR = low.

b) In the 80's, there was a lot of subway crime in NYC.One day, a young Mr. Goetz who had been mugged previously, is surrounded by 4 "apparent robbers" who have shown no weapon, and is asked for "5 Dollars". In his police statement later he said " I could see their beady eyes. I laid down a pattern of fire from left to right". He also stated he shot one of them again after he had fallen on a bench, saying "You still look allright".

Result: 3 month jailtime on a weapons possession charge, Goetz later runs for governor. ASVR=very high. Subway crime drops.

c) In 2007, Texas, a senior observes burglars removing property from his neighbors house. He calls police, tells them he is about to shoot these thieves. Dispatch specifically discourages him, explains that shooting here is inappropriate, he should wait for police. Rather than seeing his neighbors property removed, he warns the burglars, they flee, he kills them both. Grand jury cleared him.

Result: ASVR=very high, he was not threatened
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The judicial system in the US recognizes that we can't have cops everywhere, and tacitly sacrifices the rights of minor criminals to prevent future crimes. Until recently, if you killed an intruder in your house in the US, you still had to show that you had reason to feel physically threatened. This provision is gone now, in Calif. and Texas, you can shoot intruders now w.o. evidence of being threatened. (Recently a poor Japanese student got killed ringing a door repeatedly in the US, to give an example of the downside of the ASVR policy).

How is this relevant for Europe and Switzerland ? Western Europe is not a pioneer society like the US, though Switzerland with its natural mountain hazards has some of that spirit, in which a community is capable of defending itself very vigorously if attacked. Europe has low gun-ownership, but in Switzerland, the US model might have a chance to succeed. Every second minor village has a sharp-shooting club, the Tell Saga, and shooting events play a major role in Swiss society, though this is not so visible to non-locals.

In summary, the US has evolved methodologies to keep society very stable, whereas Europe, with a low crime rate and no history of imported slave labor simply has not had to devote a lot of thought to keeping "domestic tranquility". This is a new challenge for them.

Additional Resort info pre-tested for you:

1) Schilthorn has great snowboarding. Be careful with off-piste there: an avalanches may alter terrain there such that distant-off-piste snowboarders can be lead into hazards.

2) Jakobshorn: The best run is the black running down in the rear near the cablecar, few people take that, has great near-piste-freeriding after a 3 minute descent down a mogul field.

The front side is more crowded, if you cross the pipe/snowpark, there is a lengthy mogul field, after about 1/2 mile you reach deep snow. But for this mogul-field cross you get only about 3/4 of a mile deep snow back to the lift. On the other hand there is no avalanche threat in that area.

The private red-frame rental shop in the rear (but part of) of the Jacobshorn station is recommended, replaced 3 special screws in my binding for only 5 bucks, I had expected a lot more, this being Switzerland, took awhile, native English speaking staff. The Rental shop near the railroad station (either dorf or platz) would not replace these screws.

3) Additional Parsenn (Davos) Info: The "Meiertoepfli" is the lift under the last stop before the Weissfluhjoch, this is in my view the best near-piste freeriding I've done here including the other resorts mentioned. Note though that when it comes to closing time in inclement weather, if you are not planning to ride down back to town, you cannot get back to the main cablecar from the top of the "Meiertoepfli". You need to take a long run (10-15 minutes in low visibility) to the bottom of another lift to take you back up to the cablecar.