I walked to work this morning behind two Chinese girls taking photos of each other in the snow. I could foresee many snowy Blips but with only a few minutes to pause en route before my lecture, I went to my 'standard' view of Central Hall to capture the lovely morning light.

Last week I told my students that the myth that people used to believe the earth was flat was invented by the novelist Washington Irving in 1828 to make his story about Columbus more dramatic. This week I told them it is also a myth that Eskimos have 24 words for snow: they do have several but so does English and we have been able to use most of them today: powder, sleet, slush ...