--A new online recipe application from Seattle's BigOven is climbing up the charts in the iPhone application store, with founder Steve Murch writing to say that it is now in the 9th slot. As of yesterday afternoon, he said there had been more than 100,000 downloads in the first four days. More from his blog where he writes that the application is now more popular than "Google for the iPhone, NY Times for the iPhone and even the always-popular UrbanSpoon for the iPhone."  The instant popularity of the application, which allows people to search through 160,000 recipes, has caused some hiccups in the servers at BigOven, a problem that Murch writes is "good to have."

--Nine days after announcing that it had raised $5.1 million from angel investors, Seattle's Earth Class Mail has announced a deal to license its technology to Swiss Post. The national postal carrier for Switzerland plans to utilize the technology to automate the mail systems for corporations, small businesses, government agencies and others who maintain a Swiss mail address. It is the first national postal operator to deploy the technology, which allows people to view postal mail over the Internet. More from earth2tech.

--Global Market Insite, the nine-year-old online polling and market research firm, has named Luis Salazar as chief marketing officer. He most recently worked at Microsoft where he served as a general manager for marketing and co-founded Microsoft Office Live. Salazar also works as an adviser to Voyager Capital, the Seattle venture firm that is a shareholder in GMI.

-- InEnTec of Bend, Oregon has received a commitment for as much as $150 million from Lakeside Energy to build a new facility -- dubbed a plasma enhanced melter -- in Michigan that converts hazardous waste and other chemicals into renewable fuels. (Via Xconomy)

-- The economic slow down also is hurting biotechnology companies, with The New York Times saying that it has been virtually impossible for any biotechs to go public this year. The story also notes that 25 percent of the 344 companies that face delisting notices from  Nasdaq are in the biotech sector.

--At VentureBeat's "Downturn Roundtable" today, venture capitalist John Doerr offered 11 tips for companies to survive the harsh economic climate. In addition to suggesting having more than 18 months of cash, Doerr also noted that everyone in the organization should be selling from the receptionist to engineers. More on the event here.