Below are links to news stories of interest from newspapers that came up during a search today.  These links were active at the time of this e-mail, but should you want to save a story, printing it or cutting and pasting the entire article and saving it to your computer is recommended.

State News

 

Union, service leaders ask legislators to raise revenue  Rockford Register Star – ROCKFORD — An eleventh-hour coordinated lobbying effort by the Responsible Budget Coalition was launched in Rockford and seven other Illinois …   

Responsible Budget Coalition calls on lawmakers to get back to Springfield …  Herald & Review – Nance, 52, was one of about a dozen people who spoke at a news conference called Tuesday morning by the Responsible Budget Coalition to urge state …   

Group calls for `responsible budget’ in Illinois  St. Louis Post-Dispatch -… a “responsible state budget,” according to the Responsible Budget Coalition, a group of teachers, activists, health advocates and civic leaders. …  

Lawmaker and New Coalition Push for Responsible State Budget  MyStateline.com – Stout is looking to protect her employees and her children, which is why she joined 200 other organizations in the responsible budget coalition. … 

WREX.com –Coalition urges Illinois lawmakers to pass …  WREX-TV – Members of the “Responsible Budget Coalition” want lawmakers to raise taxes to balance the budget. Public service agencies say Illinois budget cuts and …   

Lawmakers Urged to Balance Budget  WIFR – ?The responsible budget coalition sponsored an event at Rockford Urban Ministries where speakers explained how state budget cuts and payment delays have … 

Group Wants Answers on Budget Problems  cbs4qc.com – That’s what members of the Responsible Budget Coalition said at a meeting on Tuesday in Moline. They say if things stay how they are, non profits, …  

Coalition urges Illinois lawmakers to get to work ConnectTriStates.com powered by KHQA – The Responsible Budget Coalition is made up of 200 organizations statewide that serve and represent millions of Illinois residents. …  

Responsible Budget Coalition Calls For “Leadership, Not Politics” (VIDEO)  Progress Illinois (blog) – ?Leaders from the Responsible Budget Coalition reminded lawmakers yesterday that citizens aren’t satisfied with the stop-gap budget proposals that are being … 

Agencies Demand Illinois Lawmakers Fix Budget  KWQC 6 – ?… and other Illinoisans who depend on state services from additional devastating cuts,” declared a spokesperson for the Responsible Budget Coalition. …   

Coalition urges Illinois lawmakers to pass responsible budget  Rockford WREX (NBC) 13 –   “We need a responsible state budget, a budget that will take into account the needs of the people in the state of Illinois,” says Rockford Education Association President Molly Phalen. She was there Tuesday fighting for all school districts in the state, feeling the effects of deep budget cuts. The coalition supports a tax increase   

Responsible Budget Coalition: Don’t Dig a Deeper Hole  Marketwire (press release) – ?So say representatives of the Responsible Budget Coalition, who renewed their call for common-sense revenue reforms at news conferences in eight Illinois …

 Teachers Want “Responsible” Budget Fix   Public News Service  –  The “Responsible Budget Coalition” will be rallying again today in Chicago and downstate for a tax increase to fix the state’s budget … 

Peaceful Revolution:  A Budget That a Mother Could Love  Huffington Post (blog) – … finding ways to generate more revenue like HB 174, a comprehensive tax reform package being championed by the broad-based Responsible Budget Coalition. …   

Illinois agencies call for budget deal
Moline WQAD (ABC) 8 – MOLINE, Illinois – The clock is ticking for Illinois lawmakers to come up with a state budget. It’s a $13 billion financial crisis, but they left Springfield without a deal. Now, service providers are speaking out for a solution.   

Map shows disparities in local property tax across Illinois
Medill News Service – This map of Illinois illustrates how the property tax rates that municipalities rely on to fund schools and local services often vary dramatically from town to town.   

Open season on teachers  So you want to be a teacher? The thought of leading a classroom full of kids is an appealing one to you?   

Elgin teacher pact vote Tuesday
Elgin Courier News – Having reached a tentative agreement with School District U46 earlier this month, the Elgin Teachers Association plans to take the proposal to the full union membership for a vote on Tuesday.  The proposed contract is for the 2010-11 school year. Details will not be released until after the vote by the 2,500-teacher union, according to Tim Davis, president of the Elgin Teachers Association.

ROWVA hires back more teachers
Galesburg Register Mail – The ROWVA District 208 Board of Education hired back four elementary teachers, a full-time P.E. teacher and a half-time music teacher at its meeting Monday. The industrial arts teacher was hired back half-time at ROWVA, but will also be working half-time at Galva.   

More parent outreach ahead for Rockford teachers
Rockford Register – Teachers will be required to take more steps next year to notify parents when a student is in danger of failing a class in the Rockford School District   

District’s insurance costs going up
Alton Telegraph –  had a student tell me that they may miss school to help take care of younger siblings to help avoid the extreme costs of ’school-aged child enrichment,’” said Brenda Powers, president of the Alton Education Association. Powers said families with two children needing before- and after-school care through the YWCA would pay $160 per week.   

Dozens of Illinois School Bus Drivers Lose Permits For Drug and Alcohol Abuse
Chicago WFLD (Fox) 32 – Chicago – It was a story that sent chills down the spines of parents: a Mount Prospect school bus driver arrested for driving drunk on the job. So we did some digging to find out just how often Illinois school bus drivers have lost their permits for abusing alcohol or drugs on the job. 54-year-old Betty Burden is the school bus driver Mt Prospect police arrested two months ago for DUI.   

Rock Falls still says no to Race to the Top: High school declines support of state bid
Dixon Telegraph –  The Rock Falls School Board has again decided against supporting the state’s bid for federal Race to the Top funds. Board members Monday agreed not to sign a memorandum of support, citing concerns about a lack of answers to questions that include how teacher evaluations would be tied to   

United resubmits for ‘Race to the Top’
Quad Cities Dispatch Argus Leader –  “Illinois will likely get funded during the second round, although it remains to be seen whether we as an individual district will see any of this money,” he said. The Race to the Top Money is to be used for a variety of efforts to improve education. In other business, the board approved amended budget figures that saw expenditures rise approximately $500,000.   

U of I expected to raise tuition by 9.5 percent  University of Illinois trustees this week will consider an almost 10 percent increase in tuition and a contract that would pay the school’s new president more than $600,000 a year.   

Poshard expects borrowing bill to be signed soon
Southern Illinoisan – Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard said the borrowing bill that has passed the House and Senate will be signed by Gov. Pat Quinn soon and ready for the university to utilize in case of emergency. Poshard expects the bill allowing universities to turn to commercial lending to make up for missing state support   

 5 Vying To Lead Chicago Teachers Union
Chicago WBBH (CBS) 2 – A packed field of five candidates will vie for the presidency of the Chicago teachers Union later this week amid extraordinarily tense times: a record Board of Education deficit, plans to raise class size to 35 and the prospect of salary concessions.

Political News

What lawmakers did, didn’t do this session
Chicago Daily Herald – Although lawmakers skipped town without sending a budget to Gov. Pat Quinn or addressing a $13 billion deficit, hundreds of pieces of legislation swept through – or were sunk by – the General Assembly over the last few months. Lawmakers heralded pension reform   

Gov: Lawmakers will get budget by deadline
Chicago Daily Southtown – Illinois lawmakers are going to cut it close, but Gov. Pat Quinn said he’s confident that legislators will have a budget by the month’s deadline. The Illinois General Assembly adjourned May 7, even though lawmakers have not come to terms on a state    

Quinn reaching out to lawmakers for support on budget
Decatur Herald and Review – SPRINGFIELD – As lawmakers prepare for a likely return to Springfield next week to craft a state budget, Gov. Pat Quinn has been reaching out to Democrats to find votes for the proposals he supports. Democrats have until the end of May to approve a state budget by themselves before they need Republican help.   

Lawmakers Expected to Return to Springfield Next Week
Champaign WCIA (CBS) 3 – Governor Pat Quinn says lawmakers will likely return to the capitol next week to hammer out the final details of a state budget for the next fiscal year.      

State Capitol Q&A: Gaming machines at horse tracks  Last year’s legislative session was the first time in more than a decade that Illinois saw the approval of a capital construction program.   

How can Illinois (aka Greece) climb out of its deep budget hole?
Chicago Now – Tribune columnist Eric Zorn and I debate how Illinois could–if ever–resolve its financial crisis.  To Eric from Dennis:  We have seen Greece, and it is us.  When Greek mobs were rioting over government austerity measures needed to secure sufficient international loans to keep the country afloat, the discussion on CNBC immediately turned to whether the indebtedness contagion would spread to the United States.

Kristina Rasmussen: State can balance budget without tax hike, borrowing
Springfield State Journal Register – For Illinois legislators, it’s a time for choosing. The clock on the regular legislative session is ticking down. When legislators return to Springfield later this month, they’ll be reminded that some choices will be harder than others. How we handle this year’s $4.7 billion budget deficit will continue to be one of the most difficult questions facing state leaders.

GOP candidate for lt. gov. won’t release taxes
Southern Illinoisan –  answer the real issues that voters care about,” Plummer said in a statement. His running mate, Bill Brady, briefly allowed public access to his returns, while Democratic candidates Gov. Pat Quinn and Sheila Simon have provided their returns to The Associated Press. But Plummer and Brady have rebuffed requests to see Plummer’s returns.

Audit finds Blagojevich needlessly used outside attorneys while governor, spread cost among several departments
Decatur Herald and Review – decision to hire outside attorneys was a drain on state coffers. “(T)he same work potentially could have been performed internally by the attorney general for less,” Holland noted. Gov. Pat Quinn, who replaced the ousted Blagojevich in January 2009, has attempted to limit the use of outside counsel. A memo from Quinn’s top lawyer to agencies under the governor’s control issued 

Report rips legal bills Blago ran up as governor
Chicago Sun Times – Unfortunately, Gov. Blagojevich chose to do otherwise,” attorney general spokeswoman Natalie Bauer said, adding that the current administration rarely seeks outside counsel. Gov. Quinn spokeswoman Annie Thompson said that in April 2009, Quinn released a memo to all agencies outlining that “absent exceptional circumstances, the Office of the Attorney General, 

You Paid For It: Blago’s Impeachment Defense
Champaign WCIA (CBS) 3 – all, the governor’s office only paid $21,775 of the total $7.2 million, according to the audit. The audit of the office took place over two years, and includes both Blagojevich and current Gov. Pat Quinn. The Quinn administration claims most, if not all, of the issues listed in the audit happened during the previous administration. A Quinn spokeswoman told WCIA-3 the governor sent out a memo   

Blago Petitions U.S. Supreme Court
NBC Chicago – Attorneys for Rod Blagojevich have filed two petitions with the U.S. Supreme Court, attempting to delay the start of the former governor’s corruption trial until a critical ruling is rendered by the high court within the next six weeks. The petitions, sent by overnight mail, ask the court to order a halt in the proceedings until it rules on the so-called “Honest Services” statute,  

National News  

The Teachers’ Unions’ Last Stand

New York Times – MICHAEL MULGREW is an affable former Brooklyn vocational-high-school teacher who took over last year as head of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers when his predecessor, Randi Weingarten, moved to Washington to run the national American Federation of Teachers. Over breakfast in March, we talked about a movement spreading across the country to hold public-school teachers accountable by compensating, promoting or even removing them according to the results they produce in class, as measured in part by student test scores.

Texas Prohibits Unions Taking PAC Money from Teachers’ Paychecks
Chicago Now – Because the Legislature has not expressly or impliedly authorized school districts to process payroll deductions for contributions to political committees such as TSTA-PAC and NEA-Fund, Texas laws prohibits school districts from processing such contributions. So teachers unions in the Lone Star State will no longer be allowed to forcefully remove money out of teachers’

TIME.com Today’s Top Stories

Incumbents Beware: Primary Voters Send Harsh Message to Both Parties

In quick succession Tuesday night, the jittery inhabitants of Washington’s marble halls found three more reasons to worry about their staying power

Bangkok Siege Ends, But Thailand Faces Deeper Crisis

As Thai troops disperse the protesters who have kept Bangkok in a state of siege for two months, fears grow that the political crisis gripping the country will only deepen

Scientists Escalate Warnings About Gulf Oil Spill

As the oil slick threatens to enter the loop current that curls around Florida and up the East Coast of the U.S., some scientists and federal officials predict increasing harm

Specter, Lincoln, Sestak: The Lessons Learned

Coverage of Tuesday night’s political primaries in several U.S. states. Get more details on The Page

American Idol: Judging the Final Three

In their last American Idol performance before the final, the contestants each call their own tune — and sing tunes chosen by the judges. Who will go home with the bronze medal, and who will advance to the final showdown?

SEC proposes rules to halt another ‘flash crash’
Twelve days after the stock market took a historic plunge that raised fears of another financial crisis, federal officials are still struggling to understand what went wrong even as they offer proposals for how to avoid another “flash crash.”
(By Zachary A. Goldfarb, The Washington Post)

Thai troops advance on protest camp
BANGKOK — After weeks of escalating confrontation, soldiers backed by armored vehicles deployed in force early Wednesday in the center of the Thai capital, moving toward the fortified encampment of anti-government protesters entrenched behind bamboo barricades in this modern Asian metropolis.
(By Andrew Higgins, The Washington Post)

Heavy oil reaches La. marshland
VENICE, LA. — A tide of sludgy oil has begun washing into the fringes of Louisiana’s coastal marshes, officials said Tuesday, as BP continued to siphon some of the oil gushing from a damaged well on the gulf floor but remained days away from trying to cap the leak.
(By David A. Fahrenthold and Joel Achenbach, The Washington Post)

The House Republicans’ Class(lessness) of ‘94
Souder is just one more Republican from the class of ‘94 flouting the values he once touted.
(By Dana Milbank, The Washington Post)

To deflect and serve
To be a waiter working amidst Washington’s powerbrokers means having one’s Social Security number screened weekly if not daily.
(By Robin Givhan, The Washington Post)

Word of the Day for Wednesday, May 19, 2010

habitué \huh-BICH-oo-ey\, noun:

One who frequents a particular place, especially a place offering a specific pleasurable activity.

Having dipped their feet in the waters of electric vehicle sales in Japan once before, Honda’s president of research and development, Tomohiko Kawanabe, said that they still “lack confidence” in demand for electric cars, according to a report from Bloomberg.

“It’s questionable whether consumers will accept the annoyances of limited driving range and having to spend time charging them,” Mr. Kawanabe is quoted as saying. “We are definitely conducting research on electric cars, but I can’t say I can wholeheartedly recommend them.”

(more…)

Apple’s vaunted secrecy appears to be falling to pieces all around the Mac maker as yet another early product leak hits the web today. Only yesterday, it was the MacBook update that did end up coming true, and before that it was not one, but two cases of iPhone version 4 pre-release hardware units slipping through Apple’s grasp.

Today, an iPod touch is the leaked product in question. And the key feature of said iPod touch is the 2.0 megapixel camera featured prominently in the middle of the back of the unit, like a glaring cyclops eye. It’s never been a secret that the iPod touch was likely going to get a camera. The question was only when and in what form.

If the demo unit (which was brought to us by the same Vietnamese site that leaked the most recent iPhone 4 prototype) is any indication, then we’ll be seeing a new iPod touch that looks very similar to existing models, with the simple addition of a relatively underpowered mobile camera. 2 megapixels? What is this, the Nintendo DSi? I expected a lot more from Apple.

Of course, it’s always still possible that the model found is actually an older prototype (maybe from when the iPod touch should’ve received its camera upgrade), but the device’s capacity is 64GB, so it can’t be that old, and I’m willing to bet Apple isn’t above kneecapping a camera-capable touch. Look at its track record.

It’s become fairly evident that the iPhone 3G was probably knowingly underpowered for iPhone OS 4.0, and sold at length during a period in which Apple must’ve known it wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the software it was developing. Compare that to Mac sales. Imagine, for instance, Apple was still selling new PowerPC machines last year while developing Snow Leopard.

Personally, I hope Apple skips an actual production release of this iPod touch. A single, rear-facing 2 megapixel camera (which likely won’t shoot great quality video, if at all) has no added selling power in my opinion. It certainly wouldn’t be enough incentive for me to upgrade from my 1st-gen iPod touch. For a camera to be useful on Apple’s marquee media player, I’d need at least a 5 megapixel still camera that also shoots 720p video.

I’m not sure what’s more disappointing at this point: that Apple had an iPod touch with camera ready to go and shelved it, or that it’s just developed the thing and included a laughably low-powered lens in the new hardware. The 4th-gen iPhone better make up for this mess, that’s all I’m saying.

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Sure, HTML5 is important and all — but let’s face it, most of us are more concerned with the end result. And one of the more impressive things we saw at this morning’s keynote was Sports Illustrated’s HTML5-based web version of its magazine. Let’s talk more about that after the break, and what it may well mean in the Android mobile space.

read more

Don’t be deceived by the peaceful look of a newborn baby asleep in a crib–that little tyke may actually be hard at work, soaking up information about the world. A new study has found that newborns are capable of a rudimentary form of learning while they’re asleep, which may be an important process, considering that infants spend between 16 to 18 hours a day in the land of Nod.

Researchers recruited one- and two-day-old infants for the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. With each sleeping baby, the researchers played a musical tone and followed that by a puff of air to the eyes, a mild annoyance that caused the infant to automatically scrunch up its eyes. As this sequence of events was repeated, the sleeping babies learned to associate the air puff with the tone, and soon began to to tighten their eyelids as soon as they heard the musical note, even if the air puff didn’t follow. Electrodes stuck to their scalps also showed activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in memory.

“It’s surprising how quickly they learned — the study took 30 minutes, but I think they actually learned this in half that time,” said researcher William Fifer, a developmental neuroscientist at Columbia University in New York. “We knew that a baby’s job is to be an information gatherer, a data sponge, but I don’t think we realized this also happens when they’re sound asleep.”

This research is reminiscent of another experiment done by a different set of researchers last year, which found that some coma patients are capable of the same learned response (associating a tone with a puff of air to the eye). Neuroscientist Tristan Bekinschtein, who conducted the study on coma patients, says the work on infants suggests that there may be more gradations of consciousness than we understand.

Unlike adults, who are unconscious when they sleep, he suggests that sleeping babies may be in a semi-conscious state, allowing them to learn. “We do not know much about sleep in babies but it does not look like sleep in adults,” he says [New Scientist].

Related Content:
80beats: Vegetative Coma Patients Can Still Learn–a Tiny Bit
80beats: Mother Tongue, Indeed: Newborn’s Cries Mimic Mama’s Accent
80beats: Even Newborn Infants Can Feel the Beat

Image: Eve Vagg

In his blog, IPWatchdog, patent attorney Gene Quinn reports on a presentation by Linda Katehi, PhD, chancellor of the University of California (UC) Davis, at the 2010 BIO International Convention. Describing the current “Continuum of Innovation” in tech transfer (see graphic below), Katehi said universities engage in basic research, move into translational research, then turn the innovation over to start-up companies or licensees. This process of handling research and innovation is not likely to lead to success, Katehi explained, because companies become involved too late in the process and universities don’t get market input before deciding which basic research to translate into innovations. Additionally, many universities do not properly invest in tech transfer, Katehi said. They see the TTO, rather, as a vehicle to return funds quickly instead of viewing the licensing of university innovations as a long-term endeavor.

“Universities find it difficult to succeed in tech transfer because they have adopted business models that have not been sustainable,” Katehi told Quinn. It’s costly for institutions to file for patents, and there are no clear feedback loops to bring that investment back to sustain TTO operations. Consequently, universities are under pressure to generate revenues quickly instead of investing in those activities for the long term. Katehi suggested a new model (below), which provides public/private collaboration around translational research and offers assistance to start-ups from incubators and innovation centers. She also suggested future efforts to develop a national framework for translational research, create design-build innovation centers, understand the innovation ecosystem and develop a sustainable business model, consider quasi-open innovation models, and expand public-private collaborations to fund translational research.

During an interview with Quinn, Katehi stressed the need for universities to see the tech transfer cycle as a relationship. When they’re involved in local relationships, universities are viewed as partners by industry, leading to the advancement of more university technologies from basic research to commercialization. In turn, these partnerships improve the ability of industry to succeed and return funds to the universities, continuing the cycle. The UC system decentralized its TTOs for this reason, according to Katehi. “Relationships are local,” she said. “The central office realized they needed to allow the campuses to develop their own relationships because that was the only meaningful way of doing it.”

Source: IPWatchdog.com

No description for this product could be found, but have a look over at Amazon for reviews and other information.

Featured: WP Autoblogging Plugin

Sprint’s CFO Robert Brust has gone on record stating that the companies huge push for the Palm Pre launch was a disappointment for the carrier. At an investment conference covered by the WSJ, Mr. Brust apparently told analysts:

“The Pre didn’t work out as well as we hoped”

He went on to acknowledge the phone struggled since its debut and even claims that part of the issue was an unspecified lack of supply. A rather curious remark considering there were very few reported supply issues at and following the Palm Pre launch. When asked about the iPhone, Brust said “we’d love to have it.”

Noah finds a table full of Samsung Galaxy S Android phones at Google IO and goes hands-on. This is one nice piece of hardware.

[JURIST] The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] on Wednesday affirmed the acquittal [judgment, PDF] of former Macedonian interior minister Ljube Boskoski [case materials], while upholding the sentence imposed against Macedonian police officer Johan Tarculovski for alleged war crimes. In 2008, Boskoski was found not guilty [JURIST report] of neglecting his responsibility as a superior to punish subordinates who committed crimes during and after a 2001 police raid against ethnic Albanians in the the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Tarculovski, a former police officer in FYROM, was convicted of war crimes for having ordered, planned, and instigated crimes committed against ethnic Albanians during the raid. The Appeals Chamber held that the Trial Chamber was correct in its findings of fact and law against Tarculovski, proving beyond a reasonable doubt that his police force knew or should have known that the victims were taking not active part in the hostilities and that the prominent objective of the raid was to indiscriminately attack ethnic Albanians and their property. Tarculovski will remain in the Tribunal’s Detention Unit pending finalization of arrangements for his transfer to the country where he will serve the rest of his 12-year sentence.

Boskoski and Tarculovski are the only Macedonians to be indicted by the ICTY. The two men jointly went on trial [JURIST report] in 2007 after being charged [amended indictment, PDF; case backgrounder, PDF] with murdering seven ethnic Albanian civilians in the village of Ljuboten [HRW backgrounder] during a 2001 conflict between local ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Macedonian government security forces. Tarculovski was accused of directing the attack on the village and Boskovski was accused of having command and control over the armed forces at the time of the alleged massacre. The two men surrendered [JURIST report] to the ICTY in 2005 after being charged with war crimes. Boskovski has also been in prison for charges relating to the murder of seven immigrants while he was the interior minister in 2002.

The University of Minnesota (U-MN) has built a center solely devoted to furthering research in the medical device industry. The Medical Devices Center combines brainstorming, development, and testing to turn basic research into medical devices. One goal is to create patentable devices from research that originated at U-MN, says Arthur Erdman, Richard C. Jordan professor of mechanical engineering and director of the center. The facility’s 11 rooms contain the equipment necessary to keep the process under one roof. After brainstorming how to develop a device, a prototype is built, ensuring that everyone involved in its development is on the same page. “Usually the inventor has one idea, but the engineer may be thinking something different,” Erdman points out. A three-dimensional prototype then can be tested at the center. Although testing usually leads to more failure than success, the process conducted at the center takes just a few days. “Everyone stays engaged and excited because [they] are not just waiting,” Erdman says.

Almost all of the material, including catheters, needles and even commercial medical devices, is donated from medical device companies. Undergraduates, graduates, and fellows at the center have access to these materials at their convenience, according to lab supervisor Lucas Harder. Students often dismantle devices worth several thousand dollars just to learn about them. This contributes to the center’s other emphasis, which is to teach students about the medical devices in a practical way. Once the group has acquired knowledge about devices, they observe surgeries and identify new needs for medical devices. “In order to be successful, everything has to be designed with the end user in mind,” says Karl Vollmers, PhD, senior innovation fellow at the center. So far the program, which is in its second year, has produced 20 medical device patents.

Source:  mndaily.com

On E2, an environmental coalition asks the White House to step up its support for clean energy and climate legislation. Here is an excerpt:

“Mr. President, we ask you to urgently convene all stakeholders and lead the effort to craft a comprehensive clean energy and climate policy that will be enacted this year and will move America toward energy independence built on clean American power.” The coalition includes the World Wildlife Fund, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Pew Environment Group and others.

On Grist, Scott Luthcke, a NASA climate scientist, explains how he has spent the last 6 years weighing Greenland. And she has been losing a lot of weight – an average of 183 gigatons, per year, for the last six years – due to ice melt.

Dave Roberts of Grist makes the case for supporting the American Power Act.

“So is it worth doing? Is the bill worth fighting for with the kind of passion that was brought to health care or even the presidential election? I believe the answer to that question is an absolute, unqualified, overwhelming yes. However flawed and inadequate, Kerry's bill would represent a sea change in American life. It would lend desperately needed momentum to the global fight against climate change. Failure would be a tragedy and passage a huge, vital victory.”

Grist also tackles the pressing issue of how the American Power Act will affect farmers.

“Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency predicted that such a program could provide annual net benefits to farmers as high as $18 billion — an amount that could fundamentally change the way America farms.”

On Green we learn that the United Nations has chosen a new head of the climate secretariat: Christina Figueres of Costa Rica.

Climate Progress highlights new NASA data showing that 2010 has had the hottest January to April temperatures on record. A new NOAA report with similar findings is highlighted here on E2.

Ezra Klein explains the implications of the proposal currently being discussed in the Senate which would limit EPA’s ability to regulate carbon.

“Murkowski's bill would disagree with the EPA's finding that carbon is a danger and needs to be regulated.”

A rich source of royalty rate data has gotten richer. ktMINE — an online, interactive IP database that allows you to quickly find true market comparables and deal term benchmarks from its stockpile of license agreements — recently passed the 7,000 mark in documents.

Before an agreement is added to the database, ktMINE analysts review each using a 30+ checkpoint process. During the review process, analysts perform additional research to account for and identify any discrepancies or gaps within agreements. This consistent procedure ensures that all key licensing terms are accurately captured and categorized. The database can be searched quickly and easily to find the right benchmarks for your technology, and results include not only access to the non-redacted documents, but also agreement summaries that list key licensing terms and agreement details, along with charts and tables that quickly reveal big picture context and trends for an entire set of agreements. Complete access to the database is available in cost-effective 2-day and 5-day passes. For details, CLICK HERE.

The University of Michigan (UM) is shifting into high gear the transformation of its North Campus Research Complex (NCRC) into the central hub of the university’s research and commercialization activities. The goal is to double UM’s $1 billion in annual research spending in 10 years and increase the number of start-ups and for-profit jobs created by commercializing university-developed technologies. Speaking to a group of VCs and entrepreneurs at the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium in Ypsilanti, Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, MD, CEO of the University of Michigan Health System, said the university will need about $200 million over the next three years to recruit faculty researchers, finance multidisciplinary research projects, and reopen shuttered lab space at the NCRC, which is the former home of Pfizer’s R&D center. The university acquired the property last summer for about $108 million. The site occupies 174 acres, including 29 acres of vacant land and about two million square feet of office and lab space.

Near-term plans include moving UM’s Office of Technology Transfer, Business Engagement Center, and recently formed Michigan Venture Center to the NCRC from leased space. Ken Nisbet, executive director of UM’s TTO, says the university plans to transform the NCRC into the central hub for the university’s private sector, tech transfer, spinoff, and venture activities. He hopes to complete the transition of the venture center into the NCRC within a year. Preliminary plans are to secure about 10,000 square feet within the former Pfizer facility to include a larger-scale business accelerator. The proposed accelerator would expand the school’s relationship with the venture community by housing entrepreneurs, VCs, angel investors, mentors-in-residence, and others involved with the creation of start-ups based on technologies developed at the university, Nisbet says.

Source: Crain’s Detroit Business

A woman in Albany, NY was gardening in her front yard and uncovered a white plastic bag filled with rocks. Then she found more, over a dozen in all, which turned out to have been placed there by Verizon workers who had removed an old utility pole last month and had run out of sand.

A Verizon spokesman told the Times Union paper that the crew should have emptied the stones from the bags first, and probably shouldn’t have used them at all unless the ground was very wet. Another Verizon rep came out to the property and emptied the bags himself, then said he’d send out a crew to properly fill the hole and repair the damaged lawn.

“No stone unturned in the case of buried bags” [Times Union]

The recent district court ruling in the Myriad Genetics case, holding that because genes are found in nature the company’s key patents covering “isolated DNA” are invalid, is just the latest major test of what is and is not patentable — and that definition appears to be shifting but not settling. Though many experts predict the Myriad ruling will not survive the next round of appeal, when combined with several other recent cases on patentability, some in the technology transfer arena see the patent system continuing a steady trend toward weaker and narrower protection. Given a growing number of cases like Myriad, Bilski, KSR and others, they advise TTOs not to over-react, but to adjust their strategies accordingly as the dust continues to settle, particularly in the quality and breadth of patent claims.

“I generally don’t take a single district court ruling as an impending landslide,” says Jim Baker, PhD, director of technology and economic development at Michigan Technological University, Houghton. “And there appears to be ample room in the Myriad decision for contrary opinions from higher courts. So it won’t have any substantive impact — except to Myriad, of course — until the appeals are over.” If the lower court ruling stands, he adds, gene-based treatments and diagnostic tests will still likely be patentable, as long as they fit within the confines of method patents as ultimately

defined by the Bilski case. “While the genes may or may not be patentable all by themselves, methods involving genes that satisfy post-Bilski criteria will remain patentable.”

Still, the trend toward stricter interpretation of patentability is undeniable, Baker says. “This decision, if upheld, combined with what seems to be expected out of Bilski and what came out of KSR v. Teleflex, does present an arguable erosion of the extent of subject matter available for patenting.” That said, though, he emphasizes that the current

shift should be viewed in the context of swings that have characterized patent law for decades. “Arguments and cases around the balance between a patent system that promotes innovation and one that inhibits innovation have been under way for a long time and will continue. It is too early to tell whether what appears to be the current trend is a good thing or a bad thing, and sound arguments can be made for both cases. There will be winners and losers regardless of where things wind up specifically, and the pendulum will likely swing again at some point,” Baker comments.

Lindsay Adams, IP attorney with New York City’s Day Pitney LLP, sees the pendulum swinging as well, but has a less sanguine view of the long-term impact. “There’s a paradigm shift taking place,” he says. “It’s going to be tougher getting patents going

forward. If you’re a TTO, it’s time to start thinking more about the quality of the patents you’re applying for than the quantity.” In addition to Myriad, Bilski, and KSR, he points to the federal circuit’s recent ruling in Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Eli Lilly, part of which addresses the distinction between basic research results and patentable subject matter. “It’s a game-changer, a shot across the bow,” he says. “There’s a quote in the slip opinion that TTOs should know about: ‘Patents are not awarded for academic theories, no matter how groundbreaking or necessary to later patentable inventions of others.’” Citing another case, Brenner v. Manson, the majority opinion noted that “[a] patent is not a hunting license. It is not a reward for the search, but compensation for a successful

conclusion.” That’s problematic for TTOs, Adams says, because it goes to the heart of a common campus scenario. “PIs want to patent their basic research,” he explains. “Now, though, you’ve got to have it fleshed out in much more detail or you won’t get a patent. That’s a scary one, and I doubt the Supreme Court will touch it, because it’s in line with its current thinking.” An in-depth article analyzing the Myriad case and its impact on TTO patent activity appears in the May issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. To start a subscription, including access to three years of archived articles, CLICK HERE.

Facebook seems to know they’ve stepped over a line—first came the internal privacy powows and second-guesses. Now Facebook’s public policy honcho says that the site will be introducing “simplistic” privacy choices. Oh good! Now what’s that mean, exactly? More »

O mais premiado Land Rover de todos os tempos acumulou, nesta semana, mais um troféu para sua coleção. A revista britânica Diesel Car Magazine elegeu o Discovery 4 como o Carro do Ano de 2010. Na final, que ficou em família, o modelo venceu os irmãos Freeander 2 e Range Rover Sport na categoria 4×4 do Ano.

Para Ian Robertson, editor da Diesel Car Magazine, “não vamos nos desculpar pelo fato de todos os finalistas desta categoria ser da Land Rover, já que os britânicos se reafirmaram com sua linha 2010 como a melhor já produzida pela marca“.”A linha Discovery sempre possuiu habilidades fora de estrada inquestionáveis, mas o atual Discovery 4 carrega também um desempenho no asfalto equivalente, com dirigibilidade boa, acabamento refinado e capacidade para transportar confortavelmente sete adultos, qualidades que poucos veículos reúnem”, completa Robertson.

O Discovery 4 prima pela ampla versatilidade e traz consigo a opção de um novíssimo motor 3.0 biturbo diesel TDV6. O propulsor é 9% mais econômico e 29% menos poluente em relação à versão 2.7.

No Brasil, a linha Discovery 4 está a venda com preço que parte de R$ 179.900

Fonte: Land Rover