I spent the weekend in Louisville, Kentucky thinking about analogies (and how new things are like old things.) Amy and I took four friends to the Breeders Cup (also known as the Super Bowl of Horse Racing.) I’m not a horse person (I’m actually afraid of them), but I like to humor my wife whenever I can. We had a great time and – as I looked around the very expansive race track (that I’d been at once before for the Kentucky Derby) – I realized that horse racing is “NASCAR for Snooty People.” I was down $40 for the day (I quit betting after I lost my second race in a row – I still can’t figure out how to bet a trifecta.)

Given my attempt to run the North Pole Marathon, I’ve gotten involved in a project called International Polar Year. While this is a major worldwide scientific research project that’s occurring over the next two years, there’s a concentration of scientists in Boulder – including several of the people at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at CU Boulder. Mark Parsons – one of the guys at NSIDC – is deeply involved in figuring out how to manage all the data associated with IPY. A few weeks ago, we talked about the massive challenge associated with this project. I asked Mark to write up an overview so that we could start to think about who in the tech business might be able to help us deal with the massive amount of data IPY is going to try to organize. Following is his summary:

Finally, some brilliance in the travel quart-size plastic-bag absurdity. At LaGuardia in the US Airways TSA checkpoint. Thanks Wal-Mart and US Airways – you both scored points with me today for helping with this absurd restriction.

A few days ago I wrote about the transition from a small to medium to large business. I had a few people write to me with additional questions, including requests to define the sizes, talk more about the issues during the transition, and make suggestions about how to address things. One of the notes came from a long time friend – Barry Culman – who is currently the president of SPADAC (Spacial Data Analytics Corp.) I’m not involved in SPADAC, but Barry shared a framework that he used recently at a management retreat to explain his view of the evolution of a company. Following is a quick summary of the stages according to Barry.

Congrats to my friend (and world traveler) Ben Casnocha for being highlighted in BusinessWeek as one of the best entrepreneurs under 25.

Amy just blogged about her trip last week to New Orleans. Neither of us had been there since Hurricane Katrina. She went as an attendee at a conference organized by the Women Donors Network called Revitalizing Democracy: What We Can Learn from Katrina. We were together in Boulder over the weekend and had plenty of time to talk about her experience during the few days she was in New Orleans. Her post summarizes her thoughts well and end with some concrete suggestions about what she (we) are going to do.

I love my two giant golden retrievers (Denali and Kenai). I’m definitely “a dog person” – I once had a cat named Tiny (who of course was huge) and when I got divorced from my first wife I offered to give her the left half or the right half (or the front, or the back – whatever she preferred.) While no animals were actually harmed in the divorce settlement, I’ve never had a cat since, although I’ve become more respectful of my cat friends and rarely pull their cats’ tails anymore. When Amy suggested we get a dog, I agreed as long as she was willing to take care of it. I don’t do vomit and shit very well, but these guys have definitely become two of my best friends.

My mom (Cecelia Feld) is having another exhibition this fall in Boulder at Blink Gallery. The show is called In The Mind’s Eye and includes photos from mom, paintings by Patricia Bramsen, and ceramic sculpture from Caroline Douglas. The opening reception is on Saturday November 11th from 6pm to 9pm at Blink Gallery – 1011 Pearl Street – in Boulder, CO. Come join us and say hi to me and my mom (and buy her art.)

I’m sitting in first class on an evening flight from Denver to New York. I’m in row 6 and just got up to go to the bathroom. As I stood up I had a nice view of the 20 people in front of me. Eight of them (nine including me) are on their computers. They are a mix of Dell and IBM laptops. Every single person is working in a Microsoft Office app – about half are in Outlook, a few in Word, and one in Powerpoint. No Macs. No “online thingys” (we’re on an airplane – that online thingy doesn’t really work so good without connectivity.) Fascinating. And – yes – it’s United and the bathroom – even in first class – is filthy.