Click here for CyberZone Archives
VOL III No 42 March 28, 2004: CYBERZONE/BIOZONE CALENDAR
A SERVICE OF CREATIVE RESOURCES, INC. by MARTY PLOTNICK
HAWAI'I CALENDAR:
****Wednesday, March 31 --12 noon - 1 pm. UOP Brown Bag Seminar:
"Undersea Fiber Optic Cables and Hawai'i." Speaker: Mr. George Schmelzer, Participants will learn how undersea cables are built and operated, who the players are, challenges affecting the industry, and the outlook for Hawaii and its high-tech industry aspirations.
University of Phoenix, 828 Fort St, Room 620. Free. For more information, call 536-2686 ext. 108 or e-mail Steven.Schoen@phoenix.edu.
****May 10-12, Asia Pacific Conference on Emerging
Technologies: The Challenge of the Mobile Revolution and the Digital Divide. Sponsors: East-West Center and the Korea Information Strategy Development Institute (KISDI). Renaissance Hotel in Seoul, Korea. Early Registration Deadline April 26, For more information and registration materials: http://www.eastwestcenter.org/sem-bp.asp
Registration Online: http://www.eastwestcenter.org/index.asp
UH CALENDAR
http://dbserver.its.hawaii.edu/calendar/
HTDC CALENDAR
http://www.hitechhawaii.com/webevents.asp
IF YOU HAVE CALENDAR ITEMS, SEND THEM TO martycri@lava.net
WEB DESIGNER NEEDED:
A Hawaii-based start-up operation is looking for a simple internet presence, that may help to set the right expectation. Contact Gary Payne 808-944-3715 gpayne@spaecom.com
HONOLULU JOBS AVAILABLE
Decision Research Corporation haslopen positions for Business Analysts and Software Developers in their Honolulu offices.
BUSINESS ANALYSTS are needed. Experience in the P/C insurance industry preferred.
SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS are needed for internet enabled application.
Experience with .NET, Java, VB, SQL Server, Oracle, COBOL and Windows platform are highly desirable. Working knowledge of ASP, JSP, HTML, JavaScript, ActiveX, XML, PERL, web services, and object technology.
A bachelor's degree in ICS or MIS preferred
Email resumes to hr@decisionresearch.com. Please include the position and "CZ-0319" in the subject line.
OLD BLACK MAGIC ZONE
HILO, HAWAI'I CALL CENTER TO CLOSE, LAY OFF ALL 172 WORKERS A major call center that was hailed as a solution to Hilo's chronic job shortage when it opened in 1999 will shut its doors in May and lay off all 172 employees.
Pennsylvania-based Penncro Associates Inc., a telemarketing and bill collection company, was enticed to open a Hilo office with state tax incentives and inexpensive office space. The company quickly became the fourth-largest employer in Hilo, making up for some of the sugar industry jobs lost in the 1990s.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Mar/26/bz/bz02a.html
http://starbulletin.com/2004/03/26/business/index3.html
CAPITAL ZONE
BIOTECH UPSTARTS GET INJECTIONS OF CAPITAL Merck, the pharmaceutical giant racing to replenish its drug pipeline, hatched a $100 million partnership in November with a tiny biotech start-up in Cambridge, Mass. Eli Lilly, another drugmaking stalwart, is plunging into the sizzling anti-impotence market ruled by Viagra with help from a young biotech near Seattle. Bristol-Myers Squibb, struggling to replace a cancer drug, is betting on a $2 billion deal with ImClone Systems - a biotech better known for its role in the Martha Stewart scandal.
More slow-growth pharmaceutical firms like these are partnering with fast-growth biotechs for a dose of new drugs battling cancer and other illnesses. Lilly, for one, has launched about 100 partnerships, mostly with biotechs, many in the last five years.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/drugs/2004-03-23-biotech_x.htm
CYBERZONE
VIRGINIA BIOTECH HIGH SCHOOL PLANNED
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute plans to announce today that it will give the Loudoun County school district at least $1 million a year to establish a sophisticated biotechnology magnet program for high school students and improve science education countywide.
The institute, headquartered in Chevy Chase, funds scientific research at colleges and universities across the country through an $11 billion endowment. It broke ground last year for a $500 million research facility on the 281-acre Janelia Farm in eastern Loudoun, lured in part by a $6 million annual tax break.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22204-2004Mar24?language=printer
KNOWLEDGE BROADCASTING CO LAUNCHED BY BELL's GREAT-GRANDSON
For Edwin Grosvenor, the conceptual roots of his company trace back to his great-grandfather, Alexander Graham Bell. Among his many inventions, Bell created the concept of the first popular national membership organization -- the National Geographic Society -- with the mission of increasing and diffusing knowledge. Grosvenor discovered that a few years later, Bell also sketched ideas for seeing by wire into his journal.
Grosvenor's new company, StreamCenter Inc., the latest firm to join the University of Maryland's Technology Advancement Program (TAP), unites Bell's two ideas: aggregating knowledge and offering it via streaming video -- with the goal of creating the largest repository on the Internet of professional education videos and associated documents.
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2004/Mar/1025788.htm
USC TO OFFER DEGREE IN VIDEO GAME DESIGN
Electronic Arts, one of the largest makers of video games, announced a donation of $8 million to the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California. The university will use the money to create a master's degree program in video game design and to fund an endowed faculty chair. The donation highlights the growing need among video game manufacturers for skilled job candidates as the field of programming video games matures to a level that warrants formal academic training. The degree program at USC is expected to start this fall and accept fewer than 15 students a year.
Wall Street Journal, 22 March 2004 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107988471925261088,00.html
WHERE'S THE ROAD TO THE 'LAST MILE'? PERHAPS IN THE PACKAGING
Industry watchers predict 2004 will see progress in getting "fiber to the home" telecom's long-sought solution to the problem of directly delivering high-quality and high-speed video, voice and data. But the rollout still moves at a glacial pace because of the high costs of deploying fiber-optic networks to individual homes and businesses. Two Danish firms hope to offer some price-busting help in a small package.
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=7593
BIO/NANO/MEMS ZONE
HOW GREEN IS MY TEA
THE secret of green tea’s anti-cancer properties has been uncovered. Numerous studies suggest that green tea helps protect against a range of cancers, including lung, prostate and breast cancer. This has been attributed to an antioxidant called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Now Hirofumi Tachibana’s team at Kyushu University in Japan has shown
that EGCG inhibits tumour cell growth by binding to a receptor on cells called 67 LR. A variety of tumours produce abnormally high levels of 67 LR, and the receptor is thought to be involved in the spread of cancers through the body.
As part of the work, the team showed that the growth of human lung cancer cells that have the receptor slows significantly when they are exposed to EGCG at the concentrations reached in the body after drinking just two or three cups of green tea (Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, DOI:10.1038/ nsmb743).
Intriguingly, other research suggested that the 67 LR receptor is involved in the propagation of prion diseases such as vCJD. So finding out how EGCG acts on 67 LR might have implications for treating prion diseases, says the team, as well as leading to new anti-cancer strategies.
[Black tea, too, is thought to help prevent cancer and even heart disease, New Scientist</IT>, 17 July 1999, p 5 It contains different antioxidants known as flavonols.]
http://archive.newscientist.com/secure/article/article.jsp?id=mg16321950.500
BIO BRIEFS ZONE
Atlanta--Biotech bill would raise funds limit to $1 million
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778317
Baltimore--Senators put bio park on hot seat
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778318
Boston--Broad opts for 170K s.f. build-to-suit deal
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778319
Boston--Point Therapeutics looks ahead to landmark year: Drug maker
om: 0"> span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS">expects cancer treatment to spark investor interest
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778320
East Bay--Abgenix recruits workers, files for $250M offering
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778321
East Bay--Chiron drug gets new trial, and new chance for market
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778322
Greensboro/Winston-Salem--Triad's biotech industry growing up
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778323
Honolulu--New UH partnership could lead to more research grants: Maui
computing center will become key player in biomedical research
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778324
Honolulu--In defense of good bacteria: UH researchers advocate new
way to teach biology
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778325
Houston--Genome firm raises $9 million, makes acquisition on same day
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778326
Philadelphia--Cira technology akin to modern-day mining
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778327
Philadelphia--Acuity claims vision for future
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778328
Philadelphia--Protez fights antibiotic-resistant battle
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778329
Portland--New business incubator vies to strengthen bioscience, high tech
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778330
San Francisco--Geron Corp. swaps $43M stock for cancer vaccine technology
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778331
San Francisco--Biotech companies go on hiring binge: Genentech,
Abgenix lead rush as drugs flow through pipeline
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778332
San Jose--De Novo delighted with fund
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778333
Washington--Under the microscope: Troubling reports may jeopardize
future of University of Maryland biotech institute
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778334
Washington--NIH grant is no small to-do for Springfield biotech
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778335
Washington--Keeping it simple: GenVec CEO Fischer rolls with the
challenges and finds his focus in the chaotic world of drug
development
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/778336
CHINA ZONE
SEXUALITY MUSEUM OPENS IN SOUTH CHINA
A sexuality museum opened to the public recently in Danxia Mountain in Shaoguan City of south China's Guangdong Province. The museum, covering 2,400 square meters, is divided into six exhibition areas under twelve themes, including "Sex in Waters and Mountains", "Sex in Phallism", "Sex in Chinese Characters" and "Sex and Literature".
The sexuality museum, believed to be the largest in the country,was established with an investment of 15 million yuan from Humen Economic and Trade School in Dongguan City.
Danxia Mountain is well-known for its special red physiognomy and called "a naked park" for its penis-like big stone, vagina-like cave, rocks shaped like breasts and naked "sleeping beauty". On February 13 this year, the mountain was approved by UNESCO to be included on the first list of 28world geoparks. The museum is a perfect integration of sexual culture and tourism, said the park's head. The museum is open only to adults
www.chinaview.cn (Xinhuanet)
UK's UNIV OF NOTTINGHAM WILL OPEN A CHINA CAMPUS
This £40m project, agreed with the Chinese education authorities, will be the first time a UK university has opened a purpose-built campus in China. The first Chinese students are expected to start courses in September - with the start-up academic staff being deployed from the UK. The university says "internationalisation" is an important part of higher education's future.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3565665.stm
OFFICIAL SAYS CHINA SHOULD BOOST SERVICE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT
China should focus on the development of the service sector in its effort to shift from extensive to intensive growth, said a senior Chinese official Sunday at a forum on China's balanced development.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200403/22/eng20040322_138094.shtml
WATER CRISIS IN DROUGHT-HIT BEIJING, PLANS TO CUT BACK CONSUPTION
Aquatic activities at Beijing's famous Yuanmingyuan Park have been suspended for the first time in history because the lakes are running dry due to worsening drought, state media said. The temporary policy marks a growing trend of water shortages across the city created by years of drought and a dwindling supplies, the China Daily said.
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040319073538.7vdr5usd.html
WIRELESS ZONE
UCSD WINS PENTAGON FUNDING TO DEVELOP AD-HOC BATTLEFIELD WIRELESS
Electrical engineers at the University of California, San Diego will lead a six-university effort to enable troops to set up mobile communications networks on the battlefield, using lightweight wireless equipment during commando raids and in other hostile and
rapidly changing environments.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-comms-04n.html
HUGHES TO LAUNCH NATIONWIDE HOT SPOTS
Hughes Network Systems unveiled plans to launch a nationwide WiFi network. The company intends to leverage its current satellite communications system, DirecWay Broadband, which serves corporate customers such as Chevron, Ford, Pizza Hut, and Wendy's, to offer Wi-Fi Internet access to consumers.
http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=5AC5DC:1F8551F
HOTSPOT HITS
The latest in public access Wi-Fi: A hotspot ad-server launches; Wificom equipment works with Boingo network; Ceritos, California, opens it's city-wide hotzone; a Texas prison gets a mesh network; and more.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,sip,1,l0p5,ecft,jcj3,9ffi
SITE CITES
JUST WHY DOES HUMAN EXCREMENT SMELL SO BAD?
Find out what gives human excreta its stink, and how some species covet the droppings of others.