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ChangeQuakes Of The Week

May 15, 2006

TOP CHANGEQUAKES OF THE WEEK

** Kiwi Researchers Claim To Convert Waste To Diesel Substitute
** Lawmakers Propose Opening U.S. Coast For Drilling
** FDA Pushing Big Pharma To Adopt RFID Tracking
** ISPs See High-Def Programming Choking The Web

MORE CHANGEQUAKES TO WATCH

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TOP CHANGEQUAKES OF THE WEEK

Kiwi Researchers Claim To Convert Waste To Diesel Substitute

(DISCOVERY CHANGEQUAKE) -- After eight months of research, an international team of New Zealand-based scientists says it has made a huge breakthrough in alternative fuel by turning sewage waste into a diesel substitute.

www.stuff.co.nz

Lawmakers Propose Opening U.S. Coast For Drilling

(REGULATORY CHANGEQUAKE) -- Plans for foreign oil companies, some from India and China, to drill off the cost of Cuba are prompting calls from lawmakers to ease environmental restrictions that prohibit coastal drilling in most of the U.S., according to a recent report.

money.cnn.com

FDA Pushing Big Pharma To Adopt RFID Tracking

(FDA APPROVAL CHANGEQUAKE) -- The pharmaceutical industry isn't moving very fast to adopt radio frequency identification technology to combat drug counterfeiting, so the FDA is about to apply some pressure to speed things up.

www.informationweek.com

ISPs See High-Def Programming Choking The Web

(TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGEQUAKE) -- Internet service providers warn that as high-definition, streaming video becomes more popular, it will put a strain on the Internet that it wasn't designed to handle, and that beefing up the Internet's capacity to prevent that will be expensive.

msnbc.msn.com

Related story: New Video Compression Schemes Aim To Relieve Web Congestion
www.msnbc.msn.com

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MORE CHANGEQUAKES TO WATCH

TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGEQUAKES

Warner Bros. Embraces BitTorrent For Film And TV Distribution

Warner Bros. will become the first major studio to distribute its films and TV shows over the Internet using peer-to-peer technology developed by BitTorrent, the popular tool for trading pirated copies of movies.

www.msnbc.msn.com

Reports: iPod Morphing Into A Phone

Softbank, Japan's third-largest cellular carrier, and Apple Computer have reached a basic agreement to develop cell phones that can play songs downloaded from Apple's iTunes Music Store, according to press reports in Japan.

www.pcworld.com

MTV Making Online Music Push

For years, MTV sat on the sidelines while Apple Computer, RealNetworks and others racked up sales of music downloads. Now the cable network that helped popularize music videos is entering the online music fray with URGE, a new service that makes its public beta debut on Wednesday.

news.yahoo.com


CORPORATE CHANGEQUAKES

Telecoms Facing Lawsuits For Turning Over Records To NSA

AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon Telecommunications are all facing lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages for the decision to turn over calling records to the government.

www.marketwatch.com

Whirlpool To Cut 4,500 Jobs

Appliance maker Whirlpool announced it will be closing three plants and several administrative offices and will cut 4,500 jobs as it integrates recently acquired Maytag.

today.reuters.com

AOL To Eliminate 1,300 Jobs

AOL announced it is laying off about 1,300 employees -- about 7% of its worldwide work force -- and is closing its call center in Jacksonville, Fla. Other cuts will come from call centers in Ogden, Utah, and Tucson, Ariz.

abcnews.go.com

Microsoft, Yahoo! Keep Trying To Take Down Google

The Internet search engine advertising wars are getting hotter: Vowing to catch up to industry leader Google, Yahoo! plans to demonstrate an overhauled advertising system that promises to generate higher revenue and enlist more clients.

www.usatoday.com

Related story: Google Talk Added To Nokia's Tablet Device
www.businessweek.com


ECONOMIC CHANGEQUAKES

Commodities Crumble On Worries Of Economic Slowdown

Oil fell 3%, gold lost more than 2% and copper dropped nearly 9% Monday as investors feared a rally that has taken many commodities to or near record highs might slow economic growth.

money.cnn.com

Newspaper Sales Dip, But Web Sites Gain

U.S. newspaper circulation fell 2.5% in the latest six months, with paper sales continuing to decline as readers shift to online sources for news and analysis.

msnbc.msn.com

States Look To Space For Economic Boom

The promise of blasting thrill-seeking tourists into space is fueling an unprecedented rush to build snazzy commercial spaceports.

news.yahoo.com


FDA APPROVAL CHANGEQUAKES

FDA And GlaxoSmithKline Issue Paxil Warning

In a letter to doctors, GlaxoSmithKline and the FDA warned that the antidepressant Paxil may increase the risk of suicidal behavior in young adults after recent analysis of clinical-trial data.

www.orlandosentinel.com


DISCOVERY CHANGEQUAKES

Clean Energy Wave: Floating Wind Farms

Huge turbines mounted on floating platforms, which are currently in development, could make wind power competitive with fossil-fuel-generated electricity. And they could be situated far from the shore, avoiding battles with residents who object to the presence of large wind farms.

www.techreview.com

Nanotechnology Used To Create Aluminum Nitride Crystals

Crystal IS says it has developed a manufacturing technique to grow a novel crystal that wouldn't occur naturally on earth, which can be used as a semiconductor substrate for the next generation in optoelectronic and high-power RF devices.

www.eetimes.com

Biotech's Anti-Diarrhea Drug Raises Objections

A tiny biosciences company is developing a promising drug to fight diarrhea, a scourge among babies in the developing world, but it has made an astonishing number of powerful enemies because it grows the experimental drug in rice genetically engineered with a human gene.

news.yahoo.com