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A researcher at Israel’s Hebrew University has developed an antiviral hand sanitizer to be marketed as “EtoClean” that has been found highly effective against the swine flu virus, according to the Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., the university’s TTO. Developed by Prof. Elka Touitou of the HU School of Pharmacy, the product is being commercialized by Novel Therapeutic Technologies, a Yissum spinoff company. Results of tests conducted on clinically isolated H1N1 virus from patients demonstrated that the composition inactivates the swine flu virus within 15 seconds of exposure, according to Yissum. The tests were carried out according to the American Society for Testing and Materials protocol in an FDA-certified laboratory in the U.S. The product is claimed to have microbicidal and antiviral properties effective for sanitizing a variety of surfaces, foods, and skin using ingredients that are generally regarded as safe and environmentally friendly. In addition, the product inactivates many non-enveloped viruses, such as the hepatitis and noroviruses, which are not susceptible to regular alcohol-based sanitizers.

Source: The Jerusalem Post

An interesting rumor making the rounds suggests that Sprint may be leveraging the distribution of Walmart’s 4,200 retail stores to expand its WiMAX footprint. According to the unconfirmed rumor, Sprint would place a WiMAX tower at Walmart locations across the U.S. as a means of easily and inexpensively deploying new towers. No word on whether Walmart is merely giving permission for the towers of is actively investing in the venture. Interestingly enough, the Walmart idea is not new and harkens back to a similar proposal put forth by Bob Cringely six years ago. Is this just an old idea resurfacing as a new rumor or will you really be able to get some WiMAX at Wally World later this year?

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NetDevil has nailed the LEGO feeling in its upcoming MMO LEGO Universe;  you can tell from the character creation screen. You start with a minifig, and you get to choose the eyes, the mouth, different arms, and illustrations on the chest. As you move the pieces around, the arms and legs flail. In the screen where you choose which character to play, the other minifigs look hopeful, although they sometimes swat at the cursor. When you choose one to play, he or she celebrates, and the rest kick the ground, dejected.

“Everything is moderated,” I’m told as we put our name in. We’ll have a generic name until the name is given the thumbs up. The game is aimed at young boys, “but like LEGO itself, we’re really shooting for kids of all ages,” the representative outside the booth tells me. I begin to lope around the world with my newly created character, building things. In a game about Lego bricks, who exactly is the bad guy?

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Comcast wants “clear rules” from the FCC when it comes to network management, and it wants them so badly that it’s even willing to accept network neutrality as the price of getting them. What the huge ISP does not want is the kind of ambiguity that led to so much acrimony about its P2P blocking in 2008, and which is now being hashed out in a DC courtroom.

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Politics and tech transfer make strange bedfellows, but with jobs and revenues evaporating in many states, it’s increasingly difficult for TTOs to avoid turf wars in the halls of their own statehouses. And some of the battles are getting ugly. Perhaps nowhere in the U.S. have more shots been fired across bordering states in recent months than in the upper Midwest, where the longstanding rivalry between Minnesota and Wisconsin has spilled over into tech transfer. Under the direction of VP for Research R. Timothy Mulcahy, PhD, the University of Minnesota has boosted licensing income and spun off six companies since 2006, and the school is constructing a $292 million Biomedical Discovery District to speed the commercialization of university medical research. However, rancor between the university and the administration of Governor Tim Pawlenty has stalled the development of a unified strategy that could nurture medical technology start-ups — and neighboring Wisconsin is all too happy to capitalize on that disarray. Last year, U-MN start-up Rapid Diagnostek moved across the state line, lured by Wisconsin’s generous tax breaks for angel investors that allowed it to secure a better financing deal. And a planned biotech start-up by world-renowned researcher Doris Taylor, PhD, director of U-MN’s Stem Cell Institute, threatens to do the same. Mulcahy — a former vice chancellor of research policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison — often finds himself in the thankless position of trying to educate state officials about the challenges of transferring technology into the marketplace. He works doggedly to highlight the need to bridge the funding gap for start-up companies that have exhausted federal research grants but have not yet fully commercialized emerging technologies.

“We try to emphasize in the legislature that the state needs to find creative ways to encourage financing for companies if university-based technologies are going to have a chance in start-up development and the job creation associated with that,” he says. “Many elected officials are unaware of the hurdles and the financing history of ideas from the discovery stage to the application stage.” Mulcahy tries to convince lawmakers that the state could play a supporting role in tech transfer by having mechanisms to fund start-up opportunities, policies to encourage angel investment, and matching grant programs to help companies accelerate early-stage research. Elected officials often fail to grasp the potential benefits to a state, however, when university technologies are licensed to companies elsewhere, Mulcahy adds. In a weak economy, TTOs face enormous pressure to license technologies to in-state companies. “We try to do that every chance we get,” he says. “But you go with the companies that can best ensure translation from idea to product.” A detailed article on pushing for political change to support tech transfer efforts appears in the December 2009 issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. To get the complete article and become a subscriber, including access to the entire archive of back issues, CLICK HERE.

The number of entrepreneurs starting new businesses dropped 10% in the wealthiest nations last year and fell 24% in the U.S., according to a report released Wednesday.

“Throughout the world, would-be entrepreneurs reported greater difficulty in obtaining financial backing for their start-up activities, especially from informal investors– families, friends, and strangers,” says Bill Bygrave of Babson College, one of the founders of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, which issued the report.

But sentiment was improving. A quarter of new entrepreneurs in 2009 felt the prospects for their businesses are rosier than a year earlier, according to the report. New entrepreneurs tended to be more optimistic than established business owners.

“Of course, the finding that entrepreneurial activity declined in many countries was not a surprise,” says Niels Bosma, GEM’s director of research and a researcher at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. “What surprised me was that as much as one in four new entrepreneurs in wealthy countries believed that the global slowdown had created more opportunities for their business, not less. This is a significant and interesting group. They are more likely to be young, well-educated and expect to create a lot of jobs for others.”

Confidence alone isn’t sufficient to create new jobs in an economic downturn, and the drop in new businesses highlights the difficulties faced by the job market. About half of the U.S. work force is employed by small firms.

“What is needed is for entrepreneurs to feel comfortable venturing out again, because they are the real engine for creating new jobs. Unfortunately, there is not a silver bullet for entrepreneurs. Each country needs to develop the right formula to encourage business start-ups,” said Kristie Seawright, Executive Director of GEM.

For Immediate Release
January 12, 2010

OTTAWA– Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff released the following statement after reports of an earthquake in Haiti:

Tonight, I join Canadians across the country in expressing my concern and solidarity with the Haitian people as we learned of the earthquake that hit their country earlier today. As we continue to monitor reports and new information from officials on the ground, we stand ready to do whatever we can to offer help to the people of Haiti.

In the days ahead, we must work together to ensure the safety of all those affected by this earthquake, and we offer our support and encouragement for any efforts by the Government of Canada to bring quick assistance to this region.

On behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada and our parliamentary caucus, I offer our steadfast commitment to stand with the people and the government of Haiti, the many Canadian citizens living in Haiti today, and the Haitian community here at home as recovery from this quake begins.

-30-

If you live in a place that is cold and dry right now, do yourself a favor and pick up a humidifier. This particular model from Japan definitely has an elegant “ancient tech” kind of charm.

Carved out of Japanese Cypress, the Mast Humidifier absorbs water from the hull and diffuses it through the air—along with the natural lemony-scent of the wood itself. Its rot resistant and, naturally, electricity free. Plus it’s really nice looking. [Masuza via Spoon and Tamago via Mocoloco]

Filed under: Video, Odds and ends

It’s Wednesday, which can mean only one thing — it’s time for another hour of fun with TUAW TV Live!

Our midweek adventure into everything about Apple starts at 5 PM ET (2 PM PT) here at TUAW. To join in on the fun, just come on back to the site a couple of minutes before the start of the show. We’ll have a post available with a Ustream viewer screen and a chat tool. At 5 PM, the show goes live, and you can use the chat tool to comment, ask questions, and otherwise just join in on the fun.

If you haven’t watched TUAW TV Live yet, this is your chance. Today’s discussion will include an iPhone accessory you can stand on, rumors about the next generation iPhone’s features and release date, joy in app developer land, and a subwoofer for your MacBook. Of course, it will also include any topics viewers are interested in pursuing.

See you at 5 PM ET!

TUAWJoin us this afternoon at 5 PM ET for TUAW TV Live originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just one week after Google launched the Nexus One, its entry into the smartphone field, the numbers are in and it doesn’t look to be keeping up with the competition. We reviewed the iPhone-competitor the other day and see it as a formidable challenger, but its first week sales numbers fall drastically short of those same numbers for other smartphones during their first week, according to statistics from mobile analytics firm Flurry.

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While Flurry’s own analysis of the numbers makes sure to point out that the statistics may not provide an “apples to apples” comparison, the Nexus One’s first week sales were a fraction of its top three competitors.

Flurry details the methods used to arrive at these numbers in its blog post and is certain to call the data an estimate, but if they are even close to correct, the Droid outsold Nexus One by more than 12 times, myTouch 3G by 3 times and iPhone 3GS by 80 times.

Whether it was Google’s lack of marketing, the fact that the phone was only available for purchase online, or its $500-plus sticker price without a service contract, Flurry identifies a number of reasons for the slow start. The company also points to the post-holiday release date and the fact that Google did little compared to Verizon’s $100 million marketing of the Droid.

We see a few other points that could have contributed to the slow start. For those using AT&T, the Nexus One works in slower EDGE mode, not 3G. And for the contract weary, news about Google charging additional early termination fees certainly holds some scare factor.

We’ll have to keep an eye on these numbers as time goes on, but we’re curious – what, if anything, has kept you from taking the leap?

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Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Performance, Marketing/Advertising, Russia

Marussia, which was last seen showing a new car and new colors at the Frankfurt Motor Show, has spent the intervening months being quiet and productive. In addition to putting together promotional packages like commercials and rolling footage, the three-year-old Russian company is now an official partner of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Racing.

The details are scant, but the two parties have signed a multi-year deal with Marussia getting “major on car, driver and team branding.” Taking the Virgin step further, Marussia signed up with Cosworth, Virgin’s engine supplier, and Cosworth will help the Russian company develop gas and diesel engines and drivetrains.

Follow the jump to check out two vids of all three Marussias on track, and the three Marussia commercials along with the official press release. Be sure to watch how the model has to squeeze herself into the cockpit – it looks tiny in there. Hat tip to Greg!

[Sources: YouTube]

Continue reading Video: Marussia shows up on the catwalk, in commercials, and in F1 with Virgin Racing

Video: Marussia shows up on the catwalk, in commercials, and in F1 with Virgin Racing originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Big news from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Microsoft (MSFT) today. The two companies announced a three-year alliance that will see them investing $250 million in a new cloud computing venture. In a buzzword riddled press release, the two companies said they “will collaborate on an engineering roadmap for data management machines; converged, prepackaged application solutions; comprehensive virtualization offerings; and integrated management tools.”

Translation: HP and Microsoft will collaborate on the Windows Azure platform.

“This agreement, which spans hardware, software and services, will enable business customers to optimize performance with push-button simplicity at the lowest possible total cost of ownership,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement. “Our extended partnership will transform the way large enterprises deliver services to their customers, and help smaller organizations adopt IT to grow their businesses. Microsoft and HP are betting on each other so our customers don’t have to gamble on IT.”

Under the terms of the deal Microsoft and HP will collaborate on:

• Virtualization:

• Microsoft is now a preferred provider of virtualization solutions for HP, which will make it easier for a broader set of customers to deploy virtualization solutions that can improve server utilization by as much as 10x and reduce provisioning ties from months to minutes.
• Microsoft and HP will deliver ‘Smart Bundles’ for small and medium businesses. These are a combination of hardware and software, including HP server, storage and networking solutions, coupled with Windows Server Hyper-V and HP Insight software, delivered in a single, cost-effective package.

• Management:

• HP now has the rights to resell and ship System Center as part of HP’s solutions. This solution will be tuned, integrated and ready for customers.
• And coming soon, HP’s Insight Software and Business Technology Optimization solutions will begin to integrate and interoperate with Microsoft’s System Center suite of products. This means that customers with heterogeneous computing environments will be able to more easily and more cost-effectively manage hardware and software from Microsoft and non-Microsoft operating systems and applications.

• Business Applications:

• The companies will deliver a set of pre-packaged and pre-configured data management and email solutions (‘machines’) that will deliver data warehousing, business intelligence, online transaction processing (OLTP) and messaging solutions.

• The Cloud:

•HP and Microsoft will collaborate on the Windows Azure platform, with HP offering services, and Microsoft continuing to include HP hardware for Windows Azure infrastructure.

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$500 million USD monthly, 70% of which goes to developers. Just wow. Go make some apps, eh?

Via: GigaOm

by Duncan Hollis

Back in 2008, I flagged the great service being done by the Squire Law Library at the University of Cambridge in compiling oral histories from some of the more eminent figures in international law. At the time, I focused on the recorded interviews with Sir Elihu Lauterpacht QC (although they’d also done one with Sir Derek Bowett, who passed away only a few months ago). 

Since then, the Library has done at least a couple more interviews that may be of interest.  They’ve posted a short interview with Martti Koskenniemi where he offers views on, among other things, the lasting influence of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht. They also have a more extensive interview with former ICJ President Stephen M. Schwebel, who talks about his own studies at Cambridge under Sir Hersch, Clive Parry and Robert Jennings, plus his early associations with folks like Sir Eli, Sir Derek, and Nagendra Singh.

Now maybe it’s the common connection to Cambridge, but I found these interviews quite striking in how small the international law community (or at least its English-speaking version) seems to have been in the years following WWII.  With all the specialization and fragmentation of the field today, the modern state of international law seems a far cry from the idea of a handful of generalists who taught or studied together.  That’s not to dismiss the utility of these stories or the project as a whole, but it does serve to mark how much the profession has (or is) changing.  In any case, I’m looking forward to seeing who else Cambridge pulls in for interviews in the coming years.

The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) in Worcester has been granted European Patent EP 1,309,726 in the Tuschl I patent series by the European Patent Office (EPO). The newly granted patent is based on one of the earliest applications in a UMMS portfolio covering the research of Phillip D. Zamore, PhD, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and the Gretchen Stone Cook chair of biomedical sciences and professor of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology at UMMS. The patent grant extends the scope and breadth of UMMS’s fundamental IP estate, which comprises numerous issued or granted patents and many pending patent applications that together broadly cover RNAi therapeutics, including small interfering RNAs, or siRNAs — the molecules that mediate RNAi. The patent, “RNA sequence-specific mediators of RNA interference,” is considered the fundamental patent on siRNAs, describing the design and use of duplex RNAs that are too short to induce an interferon response, thereby allowing RNA interference in mammalian cells. The patent is based on a discovery by Zamore; Thomas Tuschl, PhD, now of Rockefeller University; Nobel Laureate Phillip A. Sharp, PhD, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and David P. Bartel, PhD, of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

The Tuschl I patent consists of 19 claims broadly covering RNAi methods, including methods of reducing the expression of a gene — including those of mammalian or viral origin — with double-stranded RNA (dsRNAs) between 21 and 23 nucleotides in length. The patent also includes claims covering methods of examining the function of a gene, as well as the use of both unmodified and chemically modified dsRNAs. “The issuance of this patent is an important step in securing the pathway to the clinic for siRNA-based therapeutics,” says Terence R. Flotte, MD, dean, provost, and executive deputy chancellor of UMMS. “Appropriate patent protection will encourage future investment in innovative siRNA therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, infectious diseases, and other conditions for which current therapies are inadequate.”

Source: PharmaLive

Garden State native son Bruce Springsteen pays tribute to the guidos and guidettes of MTV’s Jersey Shore in the hilarious parody from Barely Political Media, the folks who brought us Obama Girl.

Thanks Alexis…..