Only half of 30,000 college alumni polled for the Gallup-Purdue Index strongly agreed that their higher education was worth the cost, according to the results of the second annual national survey, being published on Tuesday.

Among recent graduates, the proportion who were unequivocally positive was even lower: only 38 percent of those graduating from 2006 through 2015.

For any organisation, big or small, investments in technology seem like a gamble. Get it right, and you seem like a visionary in touch with the times and will likely be looked to as a leader in your field. Get it wrong, and you’ll be pilloried and spend years paying for your mistakes.

It’s not easy, and even the biggest players can get it wrong, but with the right kind of research you can radically increase your chances of getting it right.

Image: http://memeburn.com 

Have all of the great technology companies already been created? Not even close, insists Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO. The only thing for certain in the future of technology is its dynamism, and that the names and the players are always changing. Ballmer points to smart displays and better human-computer interaction as future areas of exploration. He credits software with having impact on the future of energy, environmental science, and other fields.

Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, predicted that the emergence of free long distance phone calls would be free, and that the large telecoms' reliance on those profits would make them fall like a deck of phone cards. But  Khosla also uses this turn of events as a case study in entrepreneurship, exemplifying it as a demonstration that forward-thinking business investment is the best forerunner of the future.

Jensen describes 3D technology that he expects will become popular in the near future:  lightweight displays that can be worn as goggles allow the user to be immersed in a 3D environment just by looking around.

Fifteen years ago, scientific instigator J. Craig Venter spent $100 million to race the government and sequence a human genome, which turned out to be his own. Now, with a South African health insurer, the entrepreneur says he will sequence the medically important genes of its clients for just $250.

Innovation is central to economic development. In a country the size of India, it is imperative to look at innovation from an international as well as a state and level perspective.

Two recent reports on innovation offer unique insights on fostering innovation in India from these two viewpoints. The first is the 'Global Innovation Index 2015' (GII 2015). The report ranks countries, placing India 81st among 141 countries. The report classifies India as an 'Innovation outperformer' due to India's relatively low per capita income, high 'global innovation score' (GIS) among its peers and being consistently an 'innovation achiever' for the past three years.

Entrepreneurs have an incredible amount of passion. They’re inventors, researchers, programmers, scientists, and your “average joe” like you or me. What unites them is an intense desire to share their idea with the world. But just because they have an incredible idea, it doesn’t mean they are necessarily incredible at building a business. (And even if they have, every new business faces unique challenges.) That’s where mentors come in.

Image: From L to R: Brian Rahill (CourseStorm), Lisa Liberatore (Scratchpad Accelerator), Matt James (CourseStorm), Jason Harkins (Scratchpad Accelerator and Maine Business School), Spencer Wood (Tip Whip, LLC), Vincent Lewis (L&K Manufacturing), Jennifer Hooper (Scratchpad Accelerator and University of Maine), Sameer Pimpalkhute (Tip Whip, LLC), Andrew Katon (L&K Manufacturing), Matt Hodgkin (Blackstone Accelerates Growth Fellow and UMaine student). Missing: Dan Kerluke from Double Blue Sports Analytics 

"Dirty Jobs" and three of "Somebody's Gotta Do It," Mike Rowe has seen hundreds of the toughest, grossest, and strangest jobs in the US.

We spoke with Rowe about the upcoming third season of "Somebody's Gotta Do It," premiering on Sept. 27, and what he's learned from spending the past 10 years with workers who perform some of the most back-breaking work in the country.

Most of us working in innovation will be familiar with the need to constantly improve ROI (return on investment) for innovation spending.  We need to be laser focused against specific business or consumer needs, and target high percentage initiatives. Even if we don’t face a hard pressed manager demanding a breakthrough by tomorrow afternoon, most of us feel the pressure to not only be cheaper, but also faster.

This is an article that truly hits close to home for me.

When I began Chop Dawg, I was only sixteen years old and hadn’t even begun my junior year of high school yet (the 11th grade of school for those reading this who aren’t from the United States).

I remember the days of walking door-to-door in my home town, asking small businesses the opportunity to allow me to create for them a website. The entire first month that I began Chop Dawg, I was turned down over 100 times. Yes that is right; I kept count. It wasn’t until the very last shopping center that I talked to in my town that our first closed contract would be signed – or even acknowledged.

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA — Vasil Kiryienka of Belarus did the ride of his life here on Wednesday at the UCI Road World Championships, claiming his first world title at age 34. He won the elite men's individual time trial by riding 53.5 km in 1:02:29.45. His average speed was 51.368 km/h. (That's 33.2 miles at 31.918 mph.)

It happened in Berlin on September 27, in Chicago it's on October 11, New York City on November 1, and Seattle on November 29. Marathons. Thousands of people of all ages, sizes, cultures and athletic ability will test themselves against more than 26.2 miles of road.

Image: http://www.fastcocreate.com

When it comes to investing in technology startups, anywhere beyond Silicon Valley is considered a “secondary market.” It’s just not possible to find a comparable density of super angel investors, venture capital firms, and tech startups anywhere else. Of the nearly $31 billion that venture firms have invested nationwide through the first half of 2015, the MoneyTree Report found that over $15 billion went to Bay Area deals.

Image: http://www.xconomy.com

Facebook wouldn't be Facebook had Mark Zuckerberg decided to stay a programmer. At a certain point, anyone with talent and a great idea needs to stop executing and start leading others. In fact, if you want to grow by virtually any measure—be it in your life or your career—you'll need to step up as a leader at some point. You might not know when that moment will be, but that's all the more reason to start developing your leadership qualities now. And if you're already a leader who wants to move higher, you should never stop improving those skills.

Women founders with Harvard degrees are raising more investor funding compared to entrepreneurs with degrees from other schools around the country, according to data from a report released Thursday.

The Red Planet is wet, scientists announced today. New evidence from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) confirms that suspicious dark streaks on Mars that appear and disappear with the seasons are created by flowing liquid water. The streaks are made by salty water that runs down steep hills during warm months, when temperatures are above –23 degrees Celsius, and freezes during colder times.

Image: New evidence confirms that liquid water flows on present-day Mars in so-called recurring slope lineae--dark streaks on the Red Planet's slopes that appear in warmer seasons. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Stargazers were treated to a rare sight on Sunday night: a supermoon eclipse. The phenomenon only happens when a full lunar eclipse coincides with the moon’s closest approach to the Earth. Until Sunday night, these events had not occurred in unison for 33 years, and another 18 years will pass before we get to experience a supermoon eclipse again.

Continuing its quest for world domination, Australian software developer Atlassian plans to file for an IPO in the U.S., according to a recent report.

Based in Sydney and with offices in six countries, the company aims to make a public offering in America by the end of 2015, people familiar with the deal told the Wall Street Journal.

The mainland will promote greater use of equity crowdfunding for startups to encourage entrepreneurship in the world's second-largest economy, a cabinet document said on Saturday.

The government has repeatedly said it wants to promote more entrepreneurial activity in the state-dominated economy to stimulate employment, a top priority as the economy slows.

Image: "Crowd business venture start-ups" and "crowd innovation" were among the most mentioned phrases by Premier Li Keqiang during visits to Henan and Liaoning provinces in September. Photo: Xinhua