Recent patent filings have shown Bill Gates and his friends exploring subjects as diverse as electromagnetic engines and beer kegs. Now they’re thinking even bigger — trying to stop hurricanes.

Microsoft’s chairman is among the inventors listed on a new batch of patent applications that propose using large fleets of vessels to suppress hurricanes through various methods of mixing warm water from the surface of the ocean with colder water at greater depths. The idea is to decrease the surface temperature, reducing or eliminating the heat-driven condensation that fuels the giant storms.

The filings were made by Searete LLC, an entity tied to Intellectual Ventures, the Bellevue-based patent and invention house run by Nathan Myhrvold, the former Microsoft chief technology officer. Myhrvold and several others are listed along with Gates as inventors.

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and Amazon: Calling all startups  

Amazon.com is making plans for its third annual start-up challenge, in which tech companies compete to show which can best leverage Amazon’s cloud computing services. The winner gets $100,000 in cash and credits. Startups were an early customer base for Amazon Web Services, and Amazon continues to actively court them, despite its more recent efforts to bring large enterprises, scientists, and others into its cloud.

Amazon is seeking to expand participation in the contest, inviting developers from the U.K., Germany and Israel to take part. The company also set up a separate challenge for using its Flexible Payments and Simple Pay services.

Last year’s winner was Yieldex, a New York-based online ad optimization engine for web publishers. The year before that, the top prize went to Silicon Valley video distribution startup Ooyala. Amazon, Madrona Venture Group, and others ended up investing in Yieldex after last year’s startup challenge — a sign that the contest can bring other benefits.

Online applications for this year’s competition are due by August 26.

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and Roseman out as CEO of Evri, but retains ties to Paul Allen’s Vulcan  

Neil Roseman is out as CEO of Evri, the Paul Allen-backed startup that helps readers discover related content on Web sites such as The Washington Post, The Times of London and TechFlash. The move comes four months after Evri — backed with $8 million from Allen’s Vulcan Ventures — laid off a quarter of its staff.

The new CEO is Will Hunsinger, the former CEO of online advertising company Adeze and a former entrepreneur-in-residence at Seattle’s Maveron. He also previously held executive positions at the Gap Online where he managed business operations for the online retailer. Before that, he worked at Overture Services.

Roseman — who joined the Seattle startup from Amazon.com in 2007 — plans to stay on board during the transition and remain a part of the company’s advisory board. Roseman plans to return to Vulcan as an entrepreneur-in-residence with the goal of uncovering "new early-stage consumer Web opportunities."

"We are very excited to welcomeWill Hunsingerto join this great team as CEO," said Paul Allen in a statement. "Will’s experience in marketing and business development will help us take our great products to the next level, showing consumers the power of Evri and building more partnerships with the Web’s leading information sources."

Steve Hall, managing director of Vulcan Capital, said that Roseman "has done a fantastic job as an early-stage CEO bringing Evri’s product vision to market and setting the stage for broader platform integration with a range of partner companies."

Hall also said that the firm is excited to have Roseman working with Vulcan as an EIR.

John Cook is co-founder of TechFlash. Follow on Twitter @johnhcook.

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Why Seattle VCs don’t blog  

Why don’t more Seattle venture capitalists write blogs? I’ve asked that question in the past, pointing to excellent VC blogs from the likes of Fred Wilson of A VC (who happens to be speaking at tonight’s Naked Truth event) and Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed.

I’ve also pointed out that there’s a room for a venture capitalist or two from the region to cut through the crap of the industry and really tell it like it is. That’s even more of the case today with the industry in flux and many entrepreneurs debating whether venture money is necessary. But for whatever reason, most Seattle VCs remain silent.

Can OVP Venture Partners emerge as that voice? The Kirkland firm — one of the oldest in the region — recently started a blog where one can read headlines such as "Health Care is Not a Right" and "Behind Closed Doors." The firm is also asking for guest columnists to submit pieces.

Blogs can take many forms — opinion, news, aggregation.

It will be interesting to see where OVP takes theirs. But, one thing is clear, a successful blog takes time. And even though VCs aren’t deploying capital like they were a few years ago, they still have their hands full.

Take Madrona Venture Group’s blog as an example. Madrona started it last fall, but it’s been nearly two months since their last post and that happened to be an article that also ran on TechFlash.

There are also a few VCs who blog on the side, including Peter Zaballos of Frazier Technology Ventures who writes "Open Ambition" and Andy Sack of Founders Co-op who writes "A Sack of Seattle."

But it still feels like something is missing. Maybe it’s because Seattle’s venture community is small and collegial, and therefore no one really wants to upset the apple cart with a blistering post or two.

Or maybe the underside of the business really looks bleak.

Anyway, there’s opportunity for a VC in town to explain what is really going on in the venture industry in clear and concise terms with no BS. I, for one, would read that.

John Cook is co-founder of TechFlash. Follow him on Twitter @johnhcook.

[Flickr photo via dabawenya]

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