VOL III No 51 May 30, 2004: CYBERZONE/BIOZONE CALENDAR

A SERVICE OF CREATIVE RESOURCES, INC. by MARTY PLOTNICK

HAWAI'I CALENDAR:

****NEW****Tuesday, June 1-- 5:45 p.m. CYBERPIZZA -- U.H. MARINE SCIENCES AUDITORIUM.
Speakers: Two experienced Applications Engineers from Canoga Perkings (http://www.canoga.com) Topic: Ethernet Extensions , Fiber Modems , WDM and Video transport over Fiber (both h.323 and MPEG).
http://www.cyberpizzahawaii.com/upcoming.html for details and parking information.

****Friday, June 4, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. "The Future of Information Security: Strategic Insights from Steve Northcuttî.
Presented by Infragard Honolulu, the Hawaii FBI field office, and the SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security (SANS) Institute. Sheraton Waikiki Hotel FEE: $20.00 payable to Infragard Honolulu Registration confirmed upon receipt of payment.  Registration Deadline: Register and pay by Wednesday, May 26, 2004.  No refunds will be made but substitutions will be allowed by notifying the program coordinator, Wayne (931-8288).

****NEW****Sunday thru Thursday, June 6-10. GLOBAL GRID FORUM & IEEE SYMPOSIUM.
Hilton Village.  http://216.239.53.104/searchq=cache:AjN0JEEdu2gJ:www.ggf.org/Meetings/GGF11/Documents/GGF11_ADV_FAX_REG_FORM_v2.pdf++%22GLOBAL+GRID+FORUM%22+HAWAII&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
 

General East-West Seminar information: Marilu Khudari, khudarim@eastwestcenter.org, or phone 944-7384.

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

THINK ZONE

MOLECULAR BASIS FOR MOZART EFFECT REVEALED New research has revealed a molecular basis for the "Mozart effect" - the observation that a brief stint of Mozart, but not other music, may improve learning and memory. Rats that heard a Mozart sonata expressed higher levels of several genes involved in stimulating and changing the connections between brain cells, the study showed. The team, including the researcher who first proposed the Mozart effect, hope the results will help them design music therapy treatments for people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

The Mozart effect first came to light in a 1993 paper reported that college students who listened to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major for 10 minutes performed better on a spatial reasoning test than students who listened to new age music or nothing at all. The findings sparked excitement from the general public - specially designed Mozart CDs leapt up the music charts - and some scepticism from the scientific community.  http://www.newscientist.com/news/print.jsp?id=ns99994918

CYBERZONE

COMCAST TO OFFER VoIP SERVICE OVER CABLE IN 2006 Comcast Corp. said it will offer telephone service to more than 40 million households by 2006, as it follows a host of other cable operators challenging local telephone companies. Comcast, the nation's largest cable television company, said it would begin an aggressive roll-out of telephone service with a technology known as VOIP, or Voice-over-Internet protocol, which allows phone calls to be transmitted using a cable modem over high-speed data lines.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-media-comcast.html?pagewanted=print&position=

TO STUDY HISTORY, PUPILS CAN REWRITE IT
A company called Muzzy Lane Software thinks they could help high school and college students learn about history and develop thinking skills. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/27/technology/circuits/27teac.html?8cir

RFID ZONE

MUNICH FACES RFID-CONTROLLED CONGESTION CHARGE The German Green Party intends to designate the centre of Munich as a tolled zone to significantly reduce the amount of traffic on its streets, and has suggested using RFID tags for car registration.
Every vehicle would have to carry a RFID transponder card emitting a unique registration code. The number plates of unregistered cars entering the city would be photographed, so they could be charged later.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/24/munich_congestion_charge/

WHAT RFID CAN DO FOR CONSUMBERS
Eventually, RFID will be the bedrock of supply-chain processes, says Gartner's Jeff Woods. "RFID will change the course of business over the next 20 years." But how will it look to consumers?... http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=24123

BIO/NANO/MEMS ZONE

SON'S LOSS OF SIGHT INSPIRES DAD TO INVENT EASIER WAY TO CHECK RETINAS Five-year-old Leif Anderson of Scotland had been undergoing regular eye exams for some time because he was severely nearsighted. Nevertheless, he went blind in one eye in 1990 after suffering a spontaneous retinal detachment that doctors couldn't detect in time. That experience inspired Leif's father to devise a quicker and easier way for eye doctors to examine patients, especially children.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/24/BUGNG6PM451.DTL

RESEARCHERS ZERO IN ON A CAUSE OF AGING
Taking a major step toward identifying one cause of aging, researchers have shortened the life of mice and created signs of old age by injecting a small genetic defect in the mice's mitochondria, the tiny power plants within each cell.

The experiment in Sweden offers the first hard evidence of a decades-old theory that mutations in the mitochondria are one of the causes of age-related illnesses. Earlier research had shown that such defects build up in people as they grow old, but scientists were not sure whether that was a cause or a symptom of aging.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/05/27/researchers_zero_in_on_a_cause_of_aging/

NANOPARTICLES ILLUMINATE BRAIN TUMORS FOR DAYS UNDER MRI A research team from Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center is demonstrating some of the world's first clinical applications for nanometer-size particles in the brain. http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacemedicine-04z.html

SYSTEM CONVERTS SMOKESTACK HEAT TO ELECTRICITY If it works, the technology would boost the efficiency of power stations, drastically cutting carbon emissions  http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99995039

SMALL-TECH TRIO FACES STIFF COMPETITION IN MIT'S $50K CHALLENGE Advanced Diamond was one of three small tech business plans to squeak into MITís famed $50K Entrepreneurship Competition this year, with its diamond-copper composite that acts as a coolant for microchip components. Other small-tech finalists were Active Spectrum, using MEMS to build a transceiver for wireless devices, and LumArray, with a nanoscale lithography technique that eliminates costly design masks.
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=7955

MICRO FUEL CELLS HEADED TO MARKET, AND A SHOWDOWN "Buy a micro fuel cell and get a free laptop computer," runs the insider's joke. Efforts to miniaturize fuel cells for notebook computers have been beset by cost and performance problems that have delayed debuts and inspired the industry's black humorists. But two small companies in New York intend to have the last laugh in what is shaping up to be a market showdown.  http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=7971

BIO BRIEFS ZONE

Atlanta--Medical Alert: Georgia climbs to No. 8 among biotech leaders
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/865392

Raleigh/Durham--A legend in biotech business, Burrill still an active investor
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/865393

South Florida--Inaugural biotech conference planned
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/865394

St. Louis--County bails out wet labs: Desco would receive $185,000 in annual tax breaks for biotech labs
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/865395

St. Louis--Washington University in the fight to beat SARS: One of only 16 academic labs in the nation to receive the virus
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/865396

CHINA ZONE

CHINA MOBILE [CELL] SUBSCRIBERS MORE THAN U.S. POPULATION Number of mobile phone users in China has overtaken the US population and it is still a growing market. China Mobile and China Unicom are the dominant cell phone service providers in the country and add two customers every second. According to estimates, the number of mobile phone users reached 296 million in April overtaking the US population. According to analysts, the country's mobile phone sales may touch $25 billion in two years.
NO CLICK THROUGH

IN 26 YEARS, 700,000 CHINESE HAVE STUDIED OVERSEAS Over 700,000 Chinese have furthered their studies in foreign countries since China implemented its reform and opening up policy in 1978, and the number keeps increasing, according an official of the Ministry of Education. 170,000 students have found jobs in China after they finished their studies, 350,000 are still studying or doing research abroad and the rest chose to work in foreign countries.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn//200405/23/eng20040523_144136.html

THE WORLD DISCOVERS CHINESE TOURISTS
Travel industry scrambles to cash in on the 25 million tourists expected to travel from China this year.
http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W4RT0584506000E3B2B653FD8BDA80

CHINA's CYBERPOLICE
A cat-and-mouse game with China's cyberpolice highlights the unique challenge the Internet poses to the ruling Communist Party as it struggles to build a free-market economy while preserving the largest authoritarian political system in the world.
http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W4RT05BB2B0630E3B2B653FD983800

CHECKING CHINA's IMBALANCE IN GENDER RATIO One finding of China's 2000 national census has upset demographers.
It is the imbalance in ratio between female and male newborns. At 100 girls to 117 boys on national average, the ratio is far beyond the normal ratio of 100 females to 104-107 males.

The gender ratio in the world's most populous country has risen from 100:108 in the 1982 census and 100:111 in 1990, observes the department of the National Population and Family Planning Commission.

Southern China's Guangdong and Hainan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region now share the most marked imbalance in the country at 100 girls to over 130 boys. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn//200405/26/eng20040526_144450.html

10 MILLION CHINESE KIDS LACK PARENTAL CARE
An estimated 10 million minors in China under 15 lack the care of one or both parents and nearly half of them did not do well in school as their parents left home as migrant workers, "China Youth Daily" reported.  In a headline report as part of its publicity drive on the country's 167 million minors, the newspaper said those 10 million kids are under the custody of their mother or father only, grandparents or their relatives as one or both of their parents work far from home most of the year.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn//200405/26/eng20040526_144460.html

ANHEUSER-BUSCH BEGINS US$8 MILLION FUND IN HARBIN Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. has agreed to put $8 million in a trust fund to promote economic development in Harbin, China, the site of Harbin Brewery, in which it just bought a 29 percent stake, according to reports.
http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2004/05/24/daily24.html

HARBIN PINS REVENUE HOPES ON SPRAWLING TRADE CENTRE Harbin's first international conference and sports centre boasts a 100,000-sq-m underground shopping mall that is said to be Asia's biggest. To circle the entire mall, you have to travel in a tram for
15 minutes. Officials in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, proudly proclaim the 63ha Harbin International Conference, Exhibition and Sports Centre as China's largest conference space. It opens officially on June 5 to bated breath from the city's nine million residents.
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,252571,00.html

HARBIN CENTRE RETRAINS JOBLESS WOMEN
It has helped more than 30,000 women become nannies, kitchen helpers and even entrepreneurs The centre, which retrains unemployed women for new jobs, gave one woman the maximum of 20,000 yuan (S$4,100), interest-free and repayable within two years, and this paved the way to the opening of her home for the elderly. http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,252706,00.html?

DOING THE DINK
DINK, which means "double income and no kids," has become a new lifestyle for young couples in big cities. DINK families have been growing steadily in number since the 1980s. There are now at least 600,000 DINK couples in China, mainly in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou. In Beijing, about 10% of young married couples say they do not intend to have children.

A recent survey by horizonkey.com found that since 1997, the number of couples in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan choosing to have children has fallen by 11.3%, while people aiming for DINK status increased by 1.1% to 10.51%.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-05/25/content_1488831.htm

WIRELESS & HOTSPOT HITS ZONE

BEING A HOTSPOT, PART 1
In our first look at what businesses with public venues must consider to become a Wi-Fi hotspot, the first thing we'll look at is the perennial question: Should you charge or give access away? http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,wtt,1,noh,ibqo,jcj3,9ffi

BEING A HOTSPOT, PART 2
Picking the type of connection your hotspot has to the Internet might be the easy part; the hard part is dealing with the security issues. Or maybe not dealing with them. http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,x6t,1,dbt5,3d1j,jcj3,9ffi

TowerStream TAKES THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING Wireless provider lands a juicy piece of real estate for a broadband PoP.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,xbd,1,36zd,ba9w,jcj3,9ffi

CHRYSALIS WiFi SEEKER/WiFi SIGNAL LOCATOR Inarguable this product is the smallest WLAN locater out there; arguably, it's also the best. http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,xbd,1,1cig,gv1q,jcj3,9ffi

Hotspot Hits

Portsmouth's free hotspot reopens; Microtel inns will offer free wireless; No official Wi-Fi at the Olympics; and more.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,x30,1,l0p5,ecft,jcj3,9ffi

Philly's first outdoor hotspots coming; Minnesota town unwires 16 square miles; WeRoam expands into Berlin; and more.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,x6t,1,l0p5,ecft,jcj3,9ffi

TA Travel Centers go totally wireless; Una Mas restraurants will be free hotspots; WeRoam adds Brazil-based locations and more.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,xbd,1,l0p5,ecft,jcj3,9ffi

SITE CITES

THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING
You're breathing heavily, your heart's racing, your palms are sweaty,
you're starting to blush. Are you falling in love, or telling a lie?
The signs can be the same. But can science make a lie detector that
tells the difference? And what's it got to do with Wonder Woman?
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/buzz/stories/s1113453.htm
 

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