GLITR Thursday, June 25, 2009

Your report for Thursday, June 25, 2009

Thumb landowners band together to get wind power deal
A group of about 25 Tuscola County landowners who represent over 5,000 acres of property are shopping the land to wind developers. Tuscola County, in Michigan's Thumb, is part of one of four regions identified by a state report released earlier this month by the Michigan Wind Energy Resources Zone Board as parts of the state with the highest potential for large-scale wind power generation. (Pictured here is the existing Harvest wind farm in the Thumb.) More.

Tanner Friedman wins back control of Twitter account
Tanner Friedman, the Farmington Hills public relations and marketing agency established in 2007 by former journalists and PR executives Don Tanner and Matt Friedman, has wrested control of the account @tannerfriedman on the Twitter social media site from the "John Doe" who created the account in January thanks to a federal lawsuit. The company didn't ask for monetary damages -- instead, it asked for the identity of the person who signed up for the account, and it asked to get control of the account back. That identity isn't yet known, but the last known Internet address for that person is a competing PR firm's Web server. More.

UM students create portable device to detect suicide bombers
Improvised explosive devices, the weapons of suicide bombers, are a major cause of soldier casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. A group of University of Michigan engineering undergraduate students have developed a new way to detect them. The students invented portable, palm-sized metal detectors that could be hidden in trash cans, under tables or in flower pots, for example. Compared with existing technology, the sensors are cheaper, lower-power and longer-range. More.

KEDA offers small biz loans, even for startups
The Houghton-based Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance announced Wednesday that it has small business loans available for entrepreneurs starting up new businesses in the region, as well as for established businesses that are expanding. More.

Michigan universities boost commercialization, create entrepreneurs
A program to help Michigan’s public universities create new entrepreneurs and speed commercialization of research is finding success just one year after making its first grants to universities around the state, officials from the Michigan Initiative for Innovation and Entrepreneurship consortium, and researchers said Wednesday at a news conference at the State Capitol. More.

State announces three major economic development deals

State officials Wednesday announced that three more Michigan companies, all based in Kalamazoo, have received loans under the state's Company Formation and Growth fund, an initiative aimed at retaining laid-off Pfizer Inc. life science researchers in Michigan and building new businesses on their talents.

“Our commitment to the growth of a knowledge-based and diversified economy is reliant on keeping our talented work force in Michigan.” Gov. Jennifer Granholm said. “The action taken today will enable Pfizer employees to lend their skills and expertise to help Michigan companies grow and create additional, high-tech jobs.”

The Michigan Strategic Fund board Wednesday approved the funding that will be used by the companies to hire former Pfizer scientists. Two were approved for loans of $100,000 each and a third for a loan of $50,000. To date, the CFG has approved $6.9 million in loans to a total of 32 life-science companies in Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Jackson, Livonia, Kalamazoo and Portage.

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Granholm and Michigan Economic Development Corp. President and CEO Greg Main Wednesday also announced Michigan Strategic Fund board approval of investments in three venture capital funds and one mezzanine fund through the Michigan 21st Century Investment Fund totaling up to $35.5 million.

Granholm also announced a new renewable energy renaissance zone in Alpena that will result in a $23.5 million biorefinery.

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Paradox game picks up GOO from Okemos-based Stardock
Plymouth-based Stardock Corp. Wednesday announced that publishing partner Paradox Interactive has adopted Stardock's Game Object Obfuscation to protect Paradox PC game titles from piracy. Beginning with the Paradox title Majesty 2 and continuing on with other titles for both retail and electronic software sales, Paradox will wrap the games in GOO. Announced by Stardock earlier this year, GOO is a new technology that developers can use to protect their game executable. When a protected game is run for the first time, the player simply needs to enter in their email address and serial number. Once validated, the game can be played normally and typically never needs to connect to the Internet account. More.

New PBS Gridworks software from Troy's Altair
Troy-based Altair Engineering Inc .Wednesday announced the release of PBS GridWorks 10.1, the latest version of its supercomputer and grid computer task management software. This latest version builds upon the proven scalability and resiliency of PBS Professional for workload scheduling; delivers PBS Catalyst, an application-aware job management portal; and unveils PBS Analytics to provide expanded options for visualizing usage data to optimize high-performance computing investments. More.

GR firm's wireless power systems added to furniture
Fulton Innovation, the Ada-based creator and exclusive licensor of eCoupled wireless power and infrastructure partner, Leggett & Platt, showcased several furniture pieces integrating eCoupled technology with Flexsteel Hospitality, KI, Kimball Office, and National Office Furniture at the 2009 NeoCon World's Trade Fair featuring innovative products in various interiors. These furniture manufacturers cover the key markets of residential, office, educational, healthcare, commercial, and hospitality furniture. KI demonstrated delivery of wireless power with eCoupled technology in several market vignettes including a lecture hall, a library media center, and a cafe style business "touchdown" area. Leggett & Platt and KI also partnered to produce a white paper on wireless power for stakeholders in the furniture industry. More.

THE WORLD IN TECH

Study: CEOs not doing enough on social networks
A new study says top CEOs should do a better job managing their presence online, on social sites like Twitter and Facebook and even Wikipedia. Sharon Barclay, who runs the executive public-relations firm Blue Trumpet Group and the blog UberCEO, took Fortune's 2009 list of the top 100 CEOs and found what she calls a "miserable level of engagement" when it comes to social networks. Barclay only found two CEOs with Twitter accounts, and only 13 had profiles on LinkedIn, the social network for professionals. She found only 19 with a personal Facebook page, and while three-quarters had "some kind of" entry on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, many of those entries had incorrect titles, missing information or a lack of sources. More.

News startup expects 10 percent of readers to pay for content
A startup planning to sell news online is hoping to get money from about 10 percent of Internet readers accustomed to mostly free access to newspaper and magazine Web sites since the 1990s. The still-developing venture, Journalism Online, made the projection Wednesday in a New York meeting with reporters that The Associated Press joined on a telephone. Journalism Online's online fee expectations are more optimistic than some other industry studies that have assumed newspapers and magazines probably shouldn't count on more than 2 percent of their online audiences to pay for coverage that has been given away for years. More.

Jobs' liver transplant shows the power of the rich
A celebrity like Apple CEO Steve Jobs scores a rare organ transplant and the world wonders: Did he game the system? The rich have plenty of advantages that others don't. But winning the "transplant lottery" involves more than the size of your wallet -- and true medical need. A Tennessee hospital has confirmed that it performed a liver transplant for Jobs, putting him among the lucky 6,500 or so Americans each year who get these operations. Nearly 16,000 others are waiting now for such a chance. No one can buy a transplant -- that's against federal law. And no one is suggesting that Jobs or the Memphis doctors who treated him bent any rules to show him favor. The hospital said he was the sickest person waiting for a liver when one became available. However, the rich have advantages in getting on more transplant center waiting lists -- because they can afford the private jets to get there quickly, within a few hours, as transplant rules require. More. (And here's a story on his return to work.)

Redbox's machines taking on Netflix's red envelopes
With more subscribers than ever flocking to its DVD-by-mail service, Netflix Inc. is one of the few companies to prosper during the worst U.S. recession in 70 years. Yet Netflix CEO Reed Hastings still has something to worry about: an even cheaper DVD rental service run by one of his former lieutenants. Once just an incongruous experiment amid the burgers and fries at McDonald's restaurants, Redbox has emerged as the largest operator of DVD-rental kiosks, with more than 15,400 vending machines set up to dispense $1-per-day discs in supermarkets and discount stores. More.

Stocks: Fed doesn't surprise investors
Stocks closed mostly higher Wednesday after the Fed said the economy was on the mend and orders for big-ticket manufactured items posted an unexpected increase. Although the Dow Jones industrials fell modestly, the broader market measures ended the day with gains. Bond prices fell after the Fed said it wouldn't step up its spending to purchase Treasurys and other debt to pry interest rates lower. The central bank's decision to leave its key lending rate at a low of zero to 0.25 percent was anticipated but some investors have been hoping the central bank would do more to help revive the economy. Others wanted the Fed to more clearly lay out how it will keep inflation in check. More. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) rose 27.42 points or 1.6 percent to 1,792.34. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) fell 23.05 points or 0.3 percent, to 8,299.86. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) rose 4.42 points or 1.7 percent to 258.08. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) rose 7.52 points or 1.7 percent to 442.95. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) fell 0.22 points or 0.1 percent to 258.83. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index (BTK) rose 12.5 points or 1.9 percent to 677.28. Finally, the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) rose 5.84 points or 0.7 percent to 900.94.

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