CYBERZONE

YAHOO TARGET SKYPE WITH VoIP IM SERVICE

Yahoo on Wednesday introduced a public beta of its instant messaging suite with voice capabilities. Consumers can now get a local telephone number in their city of choice for just US$2.99 a month. Yahoo Messenger with Voice is going head to head with Skype with a monthly price tag that runs about $1 less than the eBay property's fee.

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/49506.html

INTERVIEW ZONE

NICHOLAS NEGROPONTE: "THE INTERNET INDUSTRY NO LONG EXISTS"

I think the Internet industry no longer exists. Innovation is embodied in applications, services and a gaggle of devices, large and small. We will see enormous changes in banking, dating, buying, selling, entertaining, educating, aging and on and on. Rarely will people think of these as the Internet industry and rightfully so.

http://english.people.com.cn//200603/21/eng20060321_252243.html

VERIZON HIGH SPEED SERVICES DEREGULATED The Federal Communications Commission yesterday deregulated a host of high-speed data services that Verizon Communications Inc. offers to business customers, a move critics said could sweep away decades of rules governing the company's pricing and practices. The agency exempted Verizon from having to file proposed prices with the government and lifted the requirement that it provide competitors access to its high-speed business lines.

http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W2RT0301AD64209A7C77F329750470

WATER TECHNOLOGY PLANS RANGE FROM SIMPLE TO SPECTACULAR Towing freshwater icebergs from the Antarctic, building a huge canal to link two seas, catching fog in the desert and half-flush toilets the search for ways to bring water to thirsty parts of the world is becoming increasingly ingenious and frantic. As demand for fresh water outstrips supply across much of the planet, ideas on how to conserve the precious resource are taxing the minds of planners and inventors alike, yielding ideas from the spectacular to the simple http://english.people.com.cn//200603/22/eng20060322_252566.html

SUN LAUNCHES GRID FOR HIRE

Sun Microsystems now offers pay-as-you-go access to its Sun Grid Compute Utility to U.S. customers. The new service is similar in concept to that provided through contracts between Sun and a number of organizations including Princeton University. Under those contracts, customers could buy processing power from Sun and only pay for processing cycles that they use. With its new offering, Sun will bill users $1 per hour per CPU through online payment service PayPal. The service, which is available through an online portal, is reportedly the first grid utility that can be accessed through a personal computer, though users must have AMD Opteron or Sun UltraSparc computers to use the new grid utility. Sun said the service would be available internationally later this year.

Internet News, 21 March 2006

http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3593156

SCIENCE ZONE

PENTAGON PLANS CYBER INSECT ARMY

The idea is to insert micro-systems at the pupa stage, when the insects can integrate them into their body, so they can be remotely controlled later.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4808342.stm

CHILLIES TURN UP THE HEAT ON TUMORS

Capsaicin, the component of hot peppers that provides their bite, triggers the death of prostate cancer cells in the lab http://www.prq0.com/apps/redir.asp?link=XcdhadgfCG,ZccdgbjehiEC&oid=UcjjbCB&iclitemid=YcdhbbjdeDA&tid=WicgfeeCJ

WARMER WATER EQUALS STRONGER HURRICANES

Since the 1970s, ocean surface temperatures around the globe have been on the rise--from one half to one degree Fahrenheit, depending on the region. Last summer two studies linked this temperature rise to stronger and more frequent hurricanes. Skeptics called other factors into account, such as natural variability. But a new statistical analysis shows that only this sea surface temperature increase explains this trend.

http://cl.exct.net/?ffcb10-fe5c11777661067c7c17-fdfb15737467027b72147874-ff3310707762

ADVANCING HYDROGEN

In an effort to make hydrogen-powered cars a reality, chemists at UCLA and the University of Michigan have discovered a new "crystal sponge" material that can store in its pores almost three times more hydrogen than any previously known substance. The fully saturated sponge is 7.5 percent hydrogen by weight.

It is the first material to achieve the storage capacity required to make hydrogen fuel practical not only for cars, but also for cell phones, laptops, and digital cameras as well. The material is a metal- organic framework with a crystal structure that looks like a scaffold made of linked rods. This gives the rods a multitude of pores to which gas molecules can attach.

http://link.abpi.net/l.php?20060321A8 .

OPTIC NERVE REgROWN WITH A NANOFIBRE SCAFFOLD Blinded hamsters have their vision partially restored - the research offers cautious hope that humans may one day benefit from the technique http://www.prq0.com/apps/redir.asp?link=XcdhadgeCF,ZccdgbjehiEC&oid=UcjjbCB&iclitemid=YcdhbbjdeDA&tid=WicgfeeCJ

FOR ROBOTS, FUEL CELLS THAT DOUBLE AS MUSCLES Ray H. Baughman has built something that will be crucial for future

androids: artificial muscles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/science/21find.html

BIO BRIEFS

Mass High Tech--Life-sciences center bill could get hearing

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/22027753

Mass High Tech--Vermont collaborative lands $16.5M, largest-ever NIH grant

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/22027754

Cincinnati--Health Care: CTI importing business from overseas biotech companies: Firms seek consulting service as products developed for U.S. http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/22027755

East Bay--Viper's venom may help Emeryville biotech treat stroke

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/22027756

Greensboro/Winston-Salem--Tiny teammates: Nanobiotech -- a niche for the Triad?

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/22027757

Philadelphia--Hurdles ahead for Cephalon

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/22027758

Raleigh/Durham--Deal that could bring NCSU, UNC $100M hits IP snag: Proposal for biomedical institute raises quandry over ownership of knowledge http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/22027759

Raleigh/Durham--Local biotech raises $10M; part of $22M round http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/22027760

Seattle--Science stars bring success with them: Recruiting a top CEO is imperative

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/22027761

Seattle--Seattle biomedical researchers received millions to find a cure for malaria: In the swamp

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/22027762

Seattle--Legislature pondered aid to bioscience manufacturers

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/22027763

ASIA-PACIFIC ZONE

DoCoMo PAY $71.8 MILLION FOR GUAM MOBILE OPERATORS NTT DoCoMo extends its reach to Guam Japan's leading telecom carrier NTT DoCoMo would finalize the purchase of Guam's cellular phone companies, Guam Cellular & Paging and Guam Wireless Telephone. The deal is valued at $71.8 million. The acquisition will increase its net earnings by providing I-mode mobile Internet services in Guam. The Japanese telecom giant intends to create a holding company to acquire the outstanding shares of Guam Cellular and plans to purchase Guam Wireless's business through Guam Cellular. NTT DoCoMo would merge the two mobile operators in the near future. These two carriers offer wireless phone services in Guam and in the Northern Mariana Islands. These two places are popular Japanese tourist locations. NTT aims to introduce 3G service soon, capable of high-speed data transmission, based on the W-CDMA standard. Guam Wireless and NTT DoCoMo already collaborate for roaming services, helping NTT DoCoMo mobile subscribers from Japan to use their phones in Guam and Saipan for communication.

http://email.electronicnews.com/cgi-bin2/DM/y/epnZ0HRQ8K0DbD0Ckqa0E6

MOTOROLA VC FUNDS THREE SHANGHAI TECH COMPANIES Motorola Ventures, venture capital arm of Motorola announced investment in three Chinese tech firms, Shanghai NewMargin Venture Capital Enterprise, Shenzhen Shenxun Information Technology Development, and Legend Silicon. Motorola declined to reveal the financial details of the deals. Motorola has become the leading investor in Shanghai NewMargin Venture Capital Enterprise. Shanghai Venture was commenced with a private equity investment of $35-million. According to Motorola, the venture fund would continue its focus on high-tech firms and high-growth or high-potential opportunities in China. Warren Holtsberg, Motorola's corporate VP for equity investing said, that the company aims at providing new services to its customers in China.

S KOREAN CABLE COS CAN'T GET CUSTOMERS TO SWITCH TO DIGITAL Cable operators in S. Korea face difficulties in shifting users from analog to digital During Korea Digital Cable TV Summit the panelists stated that the cable operators in South Korea are facing problems shifting the customers from analog to digital. The digital cable TV industry has become sluggish while the cable TV industry is growing at a fast pace due to consolidations, growth in advertising and increase in subscribers. The subscriber base for analog services has gone up to 13.2 million as against 51,000 digital cable customers. The proposed launch of IPTV by KT is likely to further obstruct the growth of digital industry.

WIRELESS ZONE

LOBBYIST WANT WiFi SHUT DOWN IN NEW ORLEANS Talk about a bad public-relations move. Telecom lobbyists are trying to shut down New Orleans' WiFi network, which has proven to be an invaluable service in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. State law prohibits cities from providing more than a 128 Kbps network, and it looks like the state legislature will agree. City officials estimate that about 15,000 customers use the network since Internet access is still down in more than half the city. New Orleans was trying to expand the network through corporate sponsorships from folks like Google and Yahoo, but the interested parties began hedging. Then lobbyists began to work to shut down the network. BellSouth wouldn't comment, but not to worry, it already sells city-wide wireless broadband services in five markets including New Orleans for $70 per month using a proprietary technology and will look to offer a WiMAX backup solution for $30 per month for those broadband customers who lose their fixed broadband connections.

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=16232&hed=Wi-Fi+Fight+Brews+in+Big+Easy

EARTHLINK WINS CALIFORNIA CITY WiFi DEAL EarthLink continues to push forward in the municipal Wi-Fi space. The

latest: the ISP signed a deal to build a wireless broadband network for Milpitas, Calif.

http://email.wirelessweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/evET0C1swl0B4I0ENaq0Em

NEW ORLEANS' WiFi NETWORK NOW A LIFELINE When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the only communication system that hadn't broken down was the wireless mesh network deployed in the downtown area to support surveillance cameras used to deter crime before the storm. Now that network carries VoIP traffic that is the lifeline for many city businesses.

http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/367004/1423585/12401/2/

CLEARWIRE RAISES ANOTHER $360 MILLION

Clearwire, wireless entrepreneur Craig McCaw's newest venture, has raised $360.4 million in a debt offering, just the latest staggering figure the 2 ˆ-year-old company has attracted. The last time the Kirkland company received significant funds was in August, when it raised $260 million in debt. That offering was structured so that it could increase to more than $520 million. Documents in both offerings said investors can buy shares at a later date through warrants.

If the company was able to double its money from the August filing, it probably has raised more than $1.1 billion to date. But the total may be larger because some investments have not been made public.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002857942&zsection_id=2002119995&slug=clearwire11&date=20060311

SITE CITE

PASSING ON THE YAWN

Why do we yawn when we are tired? And why does it seem to be contagious?

http://cl.exct.net/?ffcb10-fe5a11777661067c7c11-fdfb15737467027b72147874-ff3310707762