Twitter’s hockey stick growth has flattened over the last few months, but it’s interesting to note the emergence of South East Asian countries in the usage of Twitter.

Sysomos compiled a report on top tweeting countries (based on data between mid-October to mid-December, 2009 and data from 13 million tweets) and an interesting finding is that majority of users aren’t using the geo location API tool.

Below is a collection of videos assembled by the team at Anthill.  Enjoy!

Three-year-old Chinese girl solves Rubik’s cube in 114 seconds

In more than 30 years, I’ve never managed to solve it (bar the sneaky sticker-removal method). However, this three-year-old Chinese prodigy has mastered the way of the Cube, completing the famous challenge in a staggering 114 seconds! And she even looks a little bored.

This is why the Chinese will dominate this century.

In 2009, we saw a renewed engagement with ethical questions about how we regulate biotechnology, watched the conservative war on science continue on new fronts, and witnessed renewed commitments to grow U.S. prosperity with investments in science and technology.

Timeline: A Brief History of Stem Cell Research
One of our most popular features ever, this interactive timeline marked key moments, beginning the in the 1970s, from the interrelated stories of human embryonic stem cell research and the policy governing that work. The piece collects research featured in the Center for American Progress report, “A Life Sciences Crucible: Stem Cell Research and Innovation Done Responsibly and Ethically.” The Obama administration’s final stem cell policy closely resembled the one recommended in the paper.

Change.org: What cause or causes would you most like to promote as a Changemaker and why?

Social innovation and entrepreneurship. We need new and innovative 21st century approaches to solving our social problems. Most of our social issues (education, health care, etc.) are using models and solutions that were created decades ago, are old and lack innovation, and are based on old assumptions of policy makers. We need community engagement and out of the box thinking that breaks silos and engages all sectors.

To greater and lesser degree’s others have seen unique opportunities at transformative moments and reaped enormous attention for issues as well as truly creating real social change. Both FDR and JFK found themselves in such a time and leveraged this opportunity to make history--but --change takes time and more importantly it will require a committed band of passionate citizens to make it happen.

Alan Kaufman says that the idea for the Nubrella -- a radical reimagining of the staid old umbrella -- occurred to him as his prior business was imploding.

In his twenties, Kaufman started The Wireless Company in Newton, selling cell phones and service plans, and advertising heavily on local radio. Later, he ran Cingular Wireless authorized re-seller stores in the Boston area and Manhattan. But his expansion to New York ended in a lawsuit and arbitration with Cingular. About the time he was acknowledging that he'd have to shut his five New York outlets, he was walking around on "a miserable, rainy, windy day, watching people struggle with their umbrellas." He drew a stick figure wearing a new type of aerodynamic umbrella that would better block the wind -- and wouldn't be blown inside out by a serious gust.

US Commerce secretary Gary Locke has backed research and development (R&D) as a key tool for improving the US job market. Speaking on 7 January at a meeting of the Presidential Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST), Locke stressed that the US must regain the initiative in IP commercialisation if it is to harness the nation's workforce and compete with overseas players. While he criticised patent delays at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as a hindrance, Locke also outlined a range of potential solutions to boost the US R&D landscape.

'The issues being explored by PCAST are of singular importance for putting Americans back to work in the types of good-wage jobs that can support a family,' said Locke in his address to the council. These types of jobs, he added, 'have been disappearing for many, many years. We can talk all about the structural factors that have made these jobs disappear – be it global competition, productivity gains … or the recent folly of building economies on the ephemeral surface of a bubble'.

Anything with the word “NASA” attached to it instantly conjures up phrases of “rocket science”, “aerospace engineers”, “scientists” and “astronauts”. But many of you may also imagine “Star Trek” and “Star Wars”, works of imagination and science fiction, as far removed from the reality and practicality of the scientific and technologically advanced aura of NASA as can be. Or are they? NASA is about space exploration, the need to discover the unknown and to create the instruments and vehicles to make such exploration happen. But before such technologies can exist, you need imagination, ideas, creativity, innovation, and dreams.

Such is the beauty of the TEDxNASA event, where aerospace engineers, musicians, artists, authors, innovation consultants and neuroscientists come together to explore what it means to be creative and innovative. Steve Shapiro, our VP of Strategic Consulting, was one of the presenters to speak about innovation. His session was titled “Open Innovation for Rocket Scientists” and you can see the video here.

Over the course of 2009, Floridians came together to develop the 2010-2015 Roadmap to Florida’s Future, the statewide strategic plan for economic development. Over 1,500 people—representing business, industry/trade associations, international commerce, education and workforce, transportation, arts and culture, government, economic development organizations, and others—provided input to help shape Florida’s economic future.

The Roadmap presents 24 sets of recommendations to help establish Florida as a leader in the global innovation economy commensurate with its standing as the nation’s 4th largest state and the 20th largest economy in the world.

A new study from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation attempts to debunk the common notion that recessions lead to fewer new start-ups while economic booms encourage them. In fact, according to the study, the number of newly created start-ups remains steady throughout an economic cycle.

The report, authored by Kauffman Senior Analyst Dane Stanler and Senior Fellow Paul Kedrosky, analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau which tracked the annual number of new businesses from 1977 to 2005. The annual totals remain rather consistent, fluctuating by just 3% to 6% each year. (See chart below.) Within a year, the number of people starting new businesses each quarter remains even steadier.

When you look at the administration's long-term jobs forecasts, the next ten years look eerily like the last ten years. Health care and education jobs continue to grow. Construction comes back. But no industry emerges to take over the most devastated pockets of the US economy.

And this is not good news: The number of individuals starting new businesses in the US fell by 24% in 2008 -- that's twice Spain's collapse and four times worse than the UK.

When I saw this graph about the toll the recession has taken on entrepreneurs, the first thing I thought of was green energy.

Nearly a century before the Internet brought online learning to college and university life, American philosopher and progressive education champion John Dewey recognized that traditional classrooms often stand in the way of creative learning. Troubled by passive students in regimented rows, Dewey worried that students who accepted the unquestioned authority of teachers not only undermined engaged learning but also thwarted democratic practice in the social and political life of the nation. Instead, Dewey called for a “spirit of free communication, of interchange of ideas,”1 encouraging “active, expressive” learning.2

Taking up ideas suggested by Dewey and others, progressive educators in the 1920s proposed that students learn best by performing real-life activities in collaboration with others. Experiential learning — learning by doing — coupled with problem solving and critical thinking, they claimed, is the key to dynamic knowledge acquisition. Rather than respect for authority, they called for diversity, believing that students must be recognized for their individual talent, interests, and cultural identity.

Two years ago, I [Ali Davar] was a young lawyer living in Barbados – my workweeks short, salary high, and life blissful. However, a part-time project I’d started years before with researchers at the University of British Columbia was gathering steam. A large grant from the Canadian government had just come through, the technology prototype was showing promise and the development team was starting to gel. I was confronted with a decision: Should I leave my day job and become an entrepreneur?

As you might have guessed, I did – but it was no easy task translating my business idea into a full-time venture. As entrepreneurs often find, the pieces are rarely in place: You have minimal funding, there are holes in your team and the business has shown little or no traction. Reaching stable ground requires a full-time investment of your intellectual capital and everything else you have to offer.

Nine Maryland technology startups have received $674,997 from a state-run investment fund designed to transfer work from university and federal government laboratories to the private sector.

The startups are developing a range of medical, diagnostic and software applications, the Maryland Technology Development Corp., which oversees the fund, said Wednesday. Each firm received about $75,000 from Tedco’s Maryland Technology Transfer and Commercialization Fund to further their work.

Here are the companies receiving funding:

More than 2,000 UK technology companies have bid for small grants to fund proof of concept projects, in a competition organised by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB). As a result more than 180 small and medium-sized companies have won funding to carry out 153 feasibility studies in areas such as advanced materials, biosciences, information technology and nanotechnology.

These are short, sharp cash injections. Each project is receiving up to £25,000 with the work due to be completed within about three months. A further 31 feasibility studies in the field of regenerative medicine will receive up to £100,000 each for studies taking up to six months.