This entry is sponsored by All Science Projects, a guide to help your child produce a great science project.

Image of Pluto and Charon


Well, it looks like the sensors we’ve aimed into space have finally provided astronomers with enough data to make the judgment: Pluto doesn’t qualify as a planet.

Discovered in 1930, Pluto was thought to be about the size of the Earth (not true, it’s about ~2300 kilometers in diameter) and was thus conferred planet status. As our ability to observe has increased in the 20th and 21st centuries, it’s now apparent that Pluto is one of many such objects in the Kuiper belt at the edge of the solar system.

It’s a good that we’re able to reassess our hypothesises and judgments as new information becomes available. Meanwhile, the hot stock tip of the day: Buy science textbook publishers. (And never take stock advice from anyone, especially me.) What is Pluto now? It’s either a “dwarf planet” or the prototype of a “plutonian object” according to the International Astronomical Union.

Farewell planet Pluto, we hardly knew ya.

Need to complete a science project? All Science Projects can help.

Technorati Tags: Science | Astronomy | Pluto

There was a great article in Business 2.0 today reviewing 20 ideas that specific VCs would invest in with dollar amounts. It may not reach the levels of “irrational exhuberance” seen in the late 1990’s, but money is available for good ideas.

Here’s a condensed list: (read the article for details.)

• Integrated computerized car – $5M
• Lightweight database – $3M
• Ultracapacitors/better batteries – $6M (two separate offers)
• Websheets (web spreadsheets) – $5M
• Mobile Patient Monitoring – $10M
• Repurposed Drugs – $10M
• Mobile Search – $2M
• Location based services – $8M (two separate offers)
• Product placement marketplace/vlogs – $8M (two separate offers)
• Social marketplace – $10M
• Mashup Matchmaker – $4M
• Green Luxury Homes (on a budget) – $5M
• Web Concierge – $5M
• Green Office Services – $1M
• Virus/bacteria detector/sensor – $10M
• Ad arbitrage for the little guy – $3M
• Massively entertaining idea – $5M

That’s a pretty interesting list. I was struck that “green” themes were apparent, but no appetite for alternative fuels was included.

Technorati Tags: Venture Capital | Investment | Ideas

“Black box” or flight data recorder from the aviation industry


These systems for recording and preserving sensor data through air related events have been around since the 1950’s and came into being as a result of mysterious incidents involving the de Havilland Comet jet airliner. The general idea being, it’s good to know what was going on in the vehicle as the event occurred rather than guess or wait for an event to happen again. FDRs have been very successful in the last 50 years to help us understand what has happened in some sort of incident. FDRs come in various flavors some recording just a few sensor inputs like airspeed, altitude, etc. and now most are required to record 88 different sensor inputs. The instrument itself must also be “survivable” – that is specified as being able to withstand 3400 g’s of force for 6.5 milliseconds; as well as fire, crush, penetration, and fluid immersion resistance. They’re pretty durable pieces of equipment.

de Havilland Comet


Now the concept is being introduced to cars. Well, let’s restate that, it’s already in cars and has been there since the mating of the microchip and the motor car in the 1980’s. It has progressed rather slowly from a technology standpoint to where we are today. Systems like OnStar work in concert with the onboard computer to notify a central monitoring center in the case of an event, say air bag deployment, then a human will attempt to communicate with the vehicle via a satillite phone link.

There is a furor over privacy now as a result of a mandate by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that automakers must inform consumers that a black box has been installed and is functional by September 1, 2010. That seems fair, but what about all the black boxes already installed and functional?

Privacy is an interesting thing, in today’s world it’s more of an illusion than a fact. If you’re reading this, you’ve sacrificed some privacy – to gain access to bandwidth, through whatever proxies and filters you might be transiting, through the search or rss/atom feed you used to get here, and finally when accessing this content. If you talk on a wireless hand set or mobile phone, there goes more of your privacy. When is the last time you provided your credit card # or social security # over such a device? And of course, you do shred all your confidential information before disposing of it, right?

The point I’m making is that privacy is an illusion and unless you pay attention to preserving it constantly, you don’t have it. There is potential for misuse of black box data, that is true of all data sources, but I think the benefit tends to outweigh the risk in this case. If there really is a security concern, provide a switch for a consumer to turn it off. It’s that simple. Meanwhile, black boxes in cars is a step forward in my view. I kind of like the idea that someone would a) notice and b) take action to help if the situation merited it.

Technorati Tags: Black Box | Flight Data Recorder | Cars

This post is probably not what you’d expect from the title. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a blues triple-header at Villa Montalvo’s Garden Theater. My spousal unit acquired the tickets for my birthday earlier this year for which I am very grateful. If you haven’t been to a show at Villa Montalvo, you should make the effort. It’s a beautiful spot. The Garden Theater seats around 1,000 people I’d estimate, not a bad seat in the house.

The afternoon started off with Leroy Bell and His Only Friends playing a tight set. Hadn’t heard Leroy before and this was a nice introduction. He definitely has created a Windham Hill Jazz meets Dave Mathew’s band sound with a little blues influence thrown in for flavor. Of his set, the songs that stuck with me were “Voodoo” and “20 years from now.”

Leroy Bell and His Only Friends


The second act is someone I’ve wanted to see, but never had the chance. Charlie Musselwhite, the purported inspiration for Dan Ayckroyd’s Elwood Blues character in the Blues Brothers. The highlight’s of his set were “Church is Out” (in other words, let the party start) and a Brazilian Blues tune. Listening to Charlie conjures memories of Howlin’ Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. Loved his aluminum harp repository, which stayed on stool beside him the entire performance.

Charlie onstage (with harp case)


The first time I saw Etta James, she was at least 300lbs of blues power. That was in 1991 at the San Francisco Blues Festival at Fort Mason. I didn’t know too much about the blues, and it was her performance that prompted me to take a closer look at the genre. 15 years and 2,000 blues tracks later, I caught up with Etta again yesterday. She was about 1/3 the size! Amazing.

Losing that weight had no impact on the power of her voice, she’s still larger than life. She started off with “I just want to make love to you” – mind you, this is a nearly 70 year old woman doing bump and grind stage routines that make MTV hip/hop videos look rated G. She was great. The highlights of the show for me were renditions of “At Last,” “Strung Out” (a Johnny “Guitar” Watson tune,) and “I’d rather go blind.”

Etta James


It was a great way to spend an afternoon and realize that getting older should be no impediment to doing whatever you love. Thanks Ellen.

Technorati Tags: Blues | Villa Montalvo | Etta James

We’re on the eve of another college football season. The teams have been practicing and preparing for the next 4 months of fun. The Bucks had their fall jersey scrimmage yesterday with the defense pulling out a W on the last play, 66-65 retaining the scarlet jerseys until spring. Bucknuts has a great story about the scrimmage with all the gory detail posted here.



Everyone is focused on Texas and Iowa as opponents in the month of September, but the first game and the one all attention should be focused toward is Northern Illinois. Sept 2 the Huskies will take the field in Columbus and it’s not realistic to view this team as a practice squad that the Bucks will simply roll over. On paper, it’s a mismatch. But, experience tells us that weird things happen in early season games. NIU returns a talented tailback in Garrett Wolfe and a pretty deep and experienced offensive line. I don’t think this one is decided until late 3rd quarter with the Buckeyes winning 34-24 in a game closer and tougher than anyone anticipated.

On a related note, English Premiership soccer (football for you Brits) returns this weekend. Chelsea (my adopted team as it seems to irritate those in the know) takes on Manchester City tomorrow. I expect a thorough thrashing with the Blues winning 3 nil. We’ll see!

Technorati Tags: Football | Ohio State Football