Coming Up: Startup Weekend Boulder (Round Two)

Startup Weekend, in which a bunch of people spend one weekend building and launching a tech startup, was created here in Boulder in July 2007 (launching VoSnap). It's now spread to about 15 other cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston and London, and Boulder II is coming up next weekend, March 21-23, hosted by the University of Colorado. Register using the link above, or go read local rockstar-entrepreneur David Cohen's top ten reasons to go.

Just not shaping up to be a great week for CU

First, the Board of Regents votes to accept oil-industry exec Bruce Benson as President of the University of Colorado. Here in Boulder, this move is somewhat unpopular -- from anywhere in town, you can feel a kind of menacing rumbling coming from campus. I assume plans for protests are already underway.

UPDATE: This just in, in a memo from the CU Board of Regents:

The Board of Regents recognizes that this decision is unpopular among some important groups. We believe Mr. Benson will reach out to constituents in the first months of his presidency to build bridges and create partnerships, both inside and outside the university.

That Benson had better be one smooth-talkin' sonnuva gun, I say.

Meanwhile, Max Karson is back again -- locals will remember his name from last year when, as a junior at CU-Boulder, he was arrested, suspended and banned from campus after making 'threatening' remarks about the Virginia Tech shootings. (Wikipedia entry describing several other incidents resulting from Karson's enthusiastic exercising of his First Amendment rights.) The latest news is his 'satirical' anti-Asian column in the Campus Press, which has CU officials stepping all over themselves trying to apologize.

UPDATE: Here is a 2006 article in which Karson explains why he works so hard at being inflammatory.

MEANWHILE, the last surviving faculty member who was fired during CU's McCarthy-era Communist witch-hunt died this week.

Ugh.

More on science, policy, and candidates

Following up on my Science Debate 2008 post, I've discovered a new resource for finding out what your representatives and preferred candidates have said about science and policy (good, bad and ugly): the Science, Health and Related Policies (SHARP) Network. It has a cool interactive wiki interface, and provides more depth than ontheissues.org. (HT: Scientific Activist.)

Related, here in Colorado the House is considering HB 1001, providing money for bioscience proof-of-concept research (following up on last year's HB1360, Bioscience Discovery Grant Program) and commercialization. Colorado is also providing funding for biofuels proof-of-concept work, and rumors abound that more money is coming along to solidify Colorado's foothold in renewable energy/cleantech, maybe from Governor Ritter's office. (Speaking of Ritter, I seem to be the only one who thinks it's funny when he uses his usual bullet-point style to talk about the four key growth areas he's identified for Colorado: Bioscience! [BAM] Energy! [BAM] Aerospace! [BAM] and... Tourism. One of these things is not like the others...)

Small: the new Big?

This trend seems perfect for certain parts of California and Colorado, in that it’s both expensive AND environmentally friendly. I predict it will (someday) revolutionize the real estate market, by making extra-small, extra-high-tech houses like these the new status symbol.

In a major campaign strategy breakthrough, Tancredo finally figures out a way to bring 'the children' into his xenophobic lunacy:

A Tom Tancredo campaign office in Council Bluffs, IA provides this running tally of sex crimes committed against children by illegal aliens since 9/11. (Via Tancredo Watch; TW also explains why we all ought to support Tancredo's presidential candidacy: "The longer he's in the presidential race, the less likely he will be to declare for re-election in Colorado's Sixth Congressional District.")

Colorado Mushroom Blogging

Camped this weekend near Tolland, CO (formerly Mammoth, CO!) and watched the Perseid metor shower. Also, since it's been unusually humid this summer, saw an incredible array of mushrooms, none of which I was allowed to eat. We saw approximately a trillion of these:



The King Boletus, or Porcini. Good to eat, although we didn't try any. Some of these were 10-12 inches across. We also spotted quite a few of these right around our campsite:



As soon as I saw these (Amanita Muscaria), they reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, which it turns out is a correct association. Different varieties are psychoactive, deadly, or most often both (the red/orange type we saw is the most potent). The AM has a fascinating history and is widely considered a good luck token, so this weekend I will go back and collect a few for drying. If I decide to sample them, will report back on results.

Also spotted: Purple Coral, Pear-shaped Puffball, and some kind of pinkish mushrooom that I haven't identified yet.

Campus police blow off threats to CU biology professors

The situation: the University of Colorado biology department has been receiving threats from a middle-eastern religious fundamentalist for teaching evolutionary theory. One letter reads, "EBIO (evolutionary biology) professors are terrorists against America and intellectual and spiritual child abusers of their young and impressionable students..." and an email sent today says that "every true Christian should be ready and willing to take up arms to kill the enemies of Christian society.”

Although they've identified a suspect, the campus police dismiss the seriousness of the threats; here's CU police commander Brad Wiesley: "Just because you feel threatened, it's not necessarily a crime. It's not directed against a specific person, John and Jane Doe. It's more along a line of ideology - if you believe this, we think you're wrong, kind of thing.”

The suspect is an Israeli Christian fundamentalist -- is it cynical to suggest that if he were a middle-eastern Islamic fundamentalist, trying to mobilize religious zealots against an American university, the response would probably be a bit different?

Can we revoke this guy's Colorado citizenship or something?

Colorado's Tom Tancredo in the news again:

Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo knows what he wants. "Oh boy, I'd love a plane," Tancredo said. It's not that the Colorado congressman is enamored with flying. In fact, he's spent enough time waiting to board planes to last a lifetime. And that's the problem.

Tancredo, like the other lesser-known presidential candidates, must make his way to Iowa and other campaign stops by flying commercially. While the leading candidates fly on charter or corporate jets, the rest of the field deals with delays along with other travelers [...].

"It can be very challenging," Tancredo said. "Just from a logistical standpoint it's a nightmare."

A shame that something as trivial as a total lack of serious campaign funding can interfere with the vital business of running for president.

Oh, and Tancredo also introduced today the Optimizing Visa Entry Rules and Demanding Uniformed Enforcement (OVERDUE) Immigration Bill. Are there consultants who specialize in coming up with the all-important cute acronyms?

Colorado Highlights from 2006 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard

Overall, Colorado ranked 15th nationally in energy efficiency policies, according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. (PDF here; free registration required to view the full report.) Score breakdown (points/possible points):

Spending on Utility and Public Benefits Energy Efficiency Programs: 1.5/15
Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS): 5/5
Combined Heat and Power (CHP): 3/5
Building Energy Codes: 3/5
Transportation Policies: 0/5
Appliance and Equipment Efficiency Standards: 0/5
Tax Incentives: 1/3
State Lead by Example and Research & Development: 2/3

_______________________________________________________

Total score: 15/44

The three highest ranking states, with scores of 33, were California, Connecticut, and Vermont.

Colorado on the nano map

This is a nifty interactive map from the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies indicating emerging nanotech hotspots; Denver is listed as one of 12 Nano Metros with over 15 institutions working in this sector (companies, research centers, research universities). Currently the Colorado map is heavy on materials and electronics, with only one medical nanotech company listed, but would imagine we'll see that change in the next several years or so.

Colorado biotech is selling, Big Pharma is buying

Colorado biotech blogger (and my work associate) Adam Rubenstein got some press over the weekend in the Denver Post, discussing drug development in Colorado. Aside from his day job, Adam manages the Colorado Life Science Deal Flow and OnBioVC blogs.

Colorado vs. Finland

Via MR, I see a pointer to this map of U.S. states renamed for countries with similar GDPs. Colorado, with a GDP of $196B, matches Finland (which ranks 35th in the world) and comes in 24th among the states. Other fun factoids:

• California, with the biggest state GDP ($2.15T) corresponds to France, 8th worldwide.
• Wyoming comes in last among the states and has the same GDP as Uzbekistan ($11B, 101st worldwide).
• Brazil, currently my favorite country to be obsessed with for a variety of reasons, ranks 17th worldwide and has a GDP of $621B, which it shares with New York (7th in U.S.).

And some fun Finland-Colorado comparisons:

Finland: 130,558 sq mi (9.4% covered in water)
Colorado: 104,185 sq. mi. (0.36% water-covered)

Finland: pop. 5,238,460 (40 people/square mile)
Colorado: pop. 4,665,177 (41.5 people/square mile)

Finland: 113 murders in 2006
Colorado: 173 murders in 2005

Finland: 22.5 gallons (85 litres) of beer consumed per person, per year
Colorado: 33.4 gallons

Finland: 7.2% unemployment rate (04/2007)
Colorado: 3.5% (04/2007)

Finland: ~1.1 million cows
Colorado: 4.1 million

Finland: 2 official languages (Finnish, Swedish)
Colorado: 1

Finland: granted women's suffrage in 1905 (first major European country)
Colorado: granted in 1893 (fifth state in US, first to grant by popular vote)

New Recommendations for Denver Greenhouse Emissions Open for Comment

Earlier this month the Greenprint Denver Advisory Council, a group created by Mayor Hickenlooper to figure out what Denver should do about its greenhouse gas emissions, released an inventory report asserting that by 2020, Denver should be able to cut its emissions of CO2 by 25 percent. The accompanying draft Action Plan makes a bunch of recommendations for Denver and Colorado. Some of of the Denver recommendations:

4Ask voters to approve a tiered rate structure for electricity/natural gas, similar to how water usage is currently handled; also, waste disposal rates tied to volume of non-recyclable trash to encourage recycling.

4Implement a voluntary travel offset program: a 'small, voluntary fee' paid when you register a car or buy an airline ticket, which would go into a fund used to support carbon neutral travel.

4Require 'green concrete' in all private and public construction projects.

A couple of the recommendations for statewide initiatives:

4Require 'pay-as-you-drive' auto insurance, where premiums are partially based on miles traveled, to discourage car travel.

4Implement a 'fee-bate' system, where fees charged on high-emission vehicles are used to provide rebates on low-emission vehicles.

4Implement a 'cap-and-trade' type program tying Xcel's increasing renewables portfolio to reduced greenhouse emissions.

Happily, the Greenprint Council is requesting public input via email or on its blog discussing the reports.