CYBERZONE

CHICAGO PLANS ILLINOIS' FIRST VIRTUAL SCHOOL The Chicago Board of Education has approved the creation of the Chicago Virtual Charter School. If approved by the Illinois State Board of Education, the new school will become the first online school in the state of Illinois.

http://news.techlearning.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/htw70FjRB80E2V0D3LC0ES

VERIZON CEO STICKS BY COSTLY ROLLOUT OF FIBER-OPTIC NETWORK His company's stock has sunk, its debt has been downgraded, and its investment in a new fiber-optic network is regarded by some as a pipe dream, but Verizon Communications Inc.'s chief executive is certain he is doing the right thing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/31/AR2006013101670.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

IRIS SCANNING TECH CONTROLS SCHOOL ACCESS Elementary schools in New Jersey's Freehold Borough School District identify each parent, teacher, administrator, or school employee who gains access to the schools by taking a digital photograph of the person's iris and comparing it to an image stored in a computer database.

http://news.techlearning.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/htw70FjRB80E2V0D3LB0ER>

CISCO, INTEL & ORACLE CREATE CONSORTIUM TO ACCELERATE MEDICAL INFO Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corporation, and Oracle today announced the formation of a consortium of leading technology companies, medical groups and independent practice associations (IPAs) that will reward doctors that use technology to share information and improve patient care. The consortium is unique in that it is employer-led and bands together thousands of employees and healthcare providers working toward a goal of improving healthcare quality.

The Silicon Valley Pay-for-Performance Consortium brings together Cisco, Intel and Oracle as well as some of the largest medical groups and IPAs in Northern California, including Camino Medical Group, Kaiser Permanente, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, San Jose Medical Group, Santa Clara County IPA, Santa Cruz Medical Foundation and Stanford Hospital and Clinics.

FIVE COMPANIES COOPERATE AGAINST SPYWARE A group of computer security companies is cooperating on an initiative to help consumers combat the growing problem of spyware, which is estimated to be increasing by 50 to 100 percent per year. ICSA Labs, McAfee, Symantec, Thompson Cyber Security Labs, and Trend Micro will initially offer tools that will help users identify spyware on their systems and effectively remove it. That effort will involve developing a common naming scheme for malicious programs and a coordination of various removal tools. Later, the five members of the group will work on tools that can help users avoid spyware in the first place. A related effort called Stop Badware was announced recently by Google, Sun Microsystems, the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and the Oxford Internet Institute.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4669304.stm

SCIENCE ZONE

INTERPLANETARY BROADBAND

Highly sensitive light detectors could enable streaming video from Mars and longer-distance quantum cryptography.

http://cl.exactt.net/?ffcb10-fe6210797264047c7215-fdec1573716c0d7f72137473-ff011674776105

ENERGY IN A BOX

A one-piece rotor/turbine energy unit is self-contained in a closed-loop system that is fitted into a home's ceiling or stored outside the home. The energy-generation process is housed in its own environment, and the system does not use a fixed drive shaft, bearings, or other equipment. The drive medium for the generator can be water, gas, or geothermal energy.

View this technology at: http://link.abpi.net/l.php?20060131A3

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE 2.0

Nova Spivack has proposed a "collective self-awareness" Web service that is "like a 'Google Zeitgeist' on steroids, but with a lot more real-time, interactive, participatory data, technology and features in it. "The goal is to measure and visualize the state of the collective mind of humanity, and provide this back to humanity in as close to real-time as is possible, from as many data sources as we can handle.

http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2006/01/lets_build_the_.html

INTERNET GAME USED TO PREDICT SPREAD OF EPIDEMICS Using a popular Internet game that traces the travels of dollar bills, scientists have unveiled statistical laws of human travel in the United States, and developed a mathematical description that can be used to model the spread of infectious disease in this country.

In the game, participants can register a dollar bill, of any denomination, and monitor its geographic circulation. Using the game data, physicists developed a powerful mathematical theory that describes the observed movements of travelers amazingly well over distances from just a few kilometers to a few thousand. The study represents a major breakthrough for the mathematical modeling of the spread of epidemics.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=/news/news_single.html?id%3D5250

COULD TERRORISTS HIJACK YOUR BRAIN?

According to a new report on biosecurity, technological advances in the not-so-distant future may make it a possibility.

http://cl.exactt.net/?ffcb10-fe5710797d610c797714-fdec1573716c0d7f72137473-ff011674776105

PIGEONS TO SET UP A SMOG BLOG

Twenty of the birds will soon take to the skies above San Jose, California, each carrying a GPS receiver, pollution sensors and cellphone technology http://www.prq0.com/apps/redir.asp?link=XcdbihcjDC,ZccdgbjehiEC&oid=UcjjbCB&iclitemid=YcdhaeehbCI&tid=WicccjaCD

BIO BRIEFS

East Bay--Stedim's cleanroom expansion in Concord spurs growth

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/2091484

Greensboro/Winston-Salem--Biotech work force program seeks future funding

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/2091485

Minneapolis/St. Paul--Alliance looks to define biotech sector, governor looks to support it

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/2091486

Phoenix--Arizona still lagging behind top biotech hubs

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/2091487

San Francisco--Biotech approvals in '05 do little for its health

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/2091488

Seattle--Corus reaches 'turning point' in its court fight

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/2091489

St. Louis--Of mice and men: Coretech grows sales 370% in 4 years http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/2091490

Tampa Bay--Stem cell proponents look for big money

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/2091491

Washington--BioVeris CEO acquires Advanced Vision Therapies

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/2091492

ASIA-PACIFIC ZONE

CHINA TO ADD 48 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS IN 2006 According to Information Industry Ministry China is expected to add 48 million subscribers in 2006, taking the total number of subscribers to over 440 million. The growth is slower than 2005, the Middle Kingdom added over 58 million subscribers in 2005. The forecast also added, by the end of 2006, every third Chinese will have an access to mobile telephony. With the continuous expansion of cellular phone user, telecom sector is expected earn $86.8 billion in 2006, a 10% increase from 2005.

CHINA SETS TD-SCDMA AS NATIONAL TELECOM INDUSTRY STANDARD The Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII) announced in Beijing that it has set home-grown TD-SCDMA as national technology standard for the telecommunication industry. The technology is already mature and ready for manufacturers to move ahead with production, said the ministry. The announcement means that China's home-grown standard for the third-generation mobile communication (3G) would get official support.

http://english.people.com.cn//200601/21/eng20060121_237128.html

WIRELESS ZONE

WHO WANTS PUBLIC WI-FI?

The Digital Communities survey from Government Technology, an IT magazine for state and local governments, says that only 35% of the public consider wireless public Internet access to be "a significant community value." However, 61% think it will be great for the public if first responders have wireless applications while in the field. 51% have communities that are evaluating going wireless with pilot deployments either in place or coming this year.

http://www.govtech.net/digitalcommunities/story.php?id=98226

TRADE-OFF FOR INTERNET USERS: AN AD STRIP AT TOP OF SCREEN MetroFi OFFER FREE SERVICE IN SOME CITIES IN RETURN FOR SCREEN ADS Mountain View's MetroFi announced Monday it was abandoning fees for its wireless Internet service, giving residents in several Silicon Valley cities WiFi for free. The catch? A half-inch-deep strip of local advertising will be at the top of a person's browser window at all times. Customers who don't want the banner, however, can continue paying the going rate of $19.95 a month to get online.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/13753805.htm

NORTHERN ILLINOIS CITIES TO UNWIRE

ROC-net and partners bring Wi-Fi services to Rockford, Illinois, and plans to expand into municipalities in 10 other counties.

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,270t,1,iz12,g5va,jcj3,9ffi

SITE CITE

THIRST MAKES YOU FEEL MORE PAIN

Going without a drink can make you more sensitive to pain, a study has found.

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1556666.htm