Skepticism over Prius pandemonium

Toyota struggles to find Prius fix | detnews.com | The Detroit News: "On Monday, a California Highway Patrol officer helped a motorist on Interstate 8 slow a Prius from more than 90 mph to a stop, after the accelerator pedal got stuck. 'I was laying on the brakes but it wasn't slowing down,' said motorist James Sikes, who told reporters his accelerator pedal got stuck as he was going 94 mph in his 2008 Prius."

Comment -- Actually, I think the real news story is that the driver got his pokey Prius all the way up to 90 mph! Heh heh...

It was interesting that the Wall Street Journal quotes a cop as saying that he pulled up next to Sikes' car and told him over the loudspeaker that he should try to shift into neutral and/or shut off the ignition. The story says that Sikes "shook his head to indicate that neither action worked."

So, the car accelerates out of control, the brakes don't work, and Sikes can't shift into neutral or turn off the ignition? Really, what are the odds of that happening all at the same time? I would think that such a catastrophic array of software/electronic/mechanical problems would probably lead to the car not running at all -- rather than it accelerating out of control.

I could be wrong, but this story doesn't pass the smell test. Prius pandemonium indeed!

Taking a bite out of Jennifer

Jennifer was poking around this toothy fellow at the California Academy of Sciences library. From the looks of those teeth, he flossed well.

These hills are actually on the roof of the Academy building. It's one of the "greenest" buildings on Earth.

Eventful weekend

The MSU basketball home season concluded Sunday afternoon at Breslin. We stomped (again) the hapless Wolverines. After the game, Izzo saluted the three MSU seniors. He then invited the crowd to come down to the floor of the arena. Jennifer shot this photo of me standing in front of one of the baskets. Now I have more fodder for my dream fantasy of running out of the stands to play hoops for MSU!











Friday night we attended Ignite Lansing 3.0. It was held on the first floor of the old Knapp’s department store building. The highlighted part of the Lansing State Journal photo shows Jennifer and I sitting in the audience, watching one the dancers who was brought in to fire up the crowd. In fact, the crowd was so fired up by the dancers, laser light show, beverages and loud music that they never settled down and paid much attention to the presenters.

Animals, alive and dead

This eel slithered out of the coral at the California Academy of Science aquarium and bared its teeth at me during our visit. I grinned back and told him that I’d eaten his cousin raw on a piece of sushi in Half Moon Bay.

This 87-foot skeleton of a blue whale hung from the ceiling of the Academy. I did not see any posters that explained where the skeleton came from. But a guy at our astronomy club meeting last night said that when he lived in the Bay Area about 15 years ago, a huge whale carcass washed ashore near Golden Gate Bridge. He said the carcass was buried for a decade, then dug up and rendered into the skeleton, which now hangs around in the Academy.

However the company that restored the skeleton says the bones are actually 55 years old. And this news release says the Academy has owned the skeleton for 95 years! The truth is out there...

Lots of butterflies

A highight of the California Academy of Science's rain forest was the dozens of butterflies (of various varieties.) This photo shows people taking...photos of the butterflies.

There were many signs that asked visitors to please check their hair and clothing to make sure no butterflies hitchhiked out of the rain forest into the main museum.

Vanessa's company closer to IPO?

As predicted, Silver Spring preps for IPO | VentureBeat: At the start of the year, when everyone was throwing out predictions for the rapidly growing cleantech sector, Tesla Motors and Smart Grid networking provider Silver Spring Networks were pegged as the companies most likely to go public in 2010. Less than a month later, Tesla filed for a $100 million public sale. Now, unsurprisingly, Silver Spring has tapped bankers for its own IPO.

The Redwood City, Calif. company has retained Morgan Stanley and Jeffries & Co. to underwrite a public sale, according to Dow Jones Clean Technology Insight (subscription). So far, it’s unclear what amount it will be looking for, though it has raised nearly $300 million in capital, and may be valued as highly as $3 billion (again, according to Dow Jones).

Silver Spring Networks provides a vital segment of the emerging Smart Grid: the equipment that creates wireless networks to transmit energy consumption between meters, consumers and utilities.

Comment -- Vanessa is a Senior Project Manager for Silver Spring Networks. The sentence above is a pretty good explanation of what her company does. I'm going to tattoo it on my wrist so I'll have a ready explanation next time someone asks me what Vanessa does!

Just hangin' around

This sticky-footed lizard clings to a glass wall at the California Academy of Sciences. Part of the rain forest exhibit.