These countries are home to 93% of the world's women and represent 97% of global GDP. Roll over countries to see how they score on gender equality for the selected indicator.

Turning certain brain cells on and off with light — a technique called optogenetics — is one of the most important tools in neuroscience. It allows scientists to test basic ideas about how brains work. But because waves of visible light don’t penetrate living tissue well, the technique requires the insertion of a conduit for the light into the brain — a very thin fiber optic cable.

Anyone who has seen the ABC hit reality show, “Shark Tank,” would agree Kevin O’Leary comes across as a cold-hearted businessman. He doesn’t think twice about telling contestants they’re “vampire cockroaches” or “bozos” in the business of selling “crap.”

“I am the only shark that tells the truth,” O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful, said in a phone interview this past Friday. “Everybody is so optimistic about what they’re worth.”

If you live anywhere near the Bay Area chances are you have heard of PARC. Many people consider it to be what helped start and fuel the innovation in Silicon Valley. It’s where things such as the ethernet, laser printer, graphical user interface, and the modern personal computer all came from. PARC is wholly owned by Xerox and stands for Palo Alto Research Center. I had the opportunity to speak with their CEO Stephen Hoover (actually, Dr. Hoover since he has both a Ph.D and an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon) for this week’s episode of The Future of Work Podcast. Stephen and PARC are also going to be featured in an upcoming episode of The Future of Work Show.

Without the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), Leesburg-based Disrupt6 wouldn’t exist. Just two years ago Disrupt6 co-founder and CEO Joe Klein was a defense contractor with more than 30 years of cybersecurity experience — he battled his first hacker in the 1980s. But Klein had never been able to get his own business off the ground until he was asked last year to pitch his business idea as part of CIT’s MACH37 initiative to promote cybersecurity startups.

Image: Being accepted into CIT’s MACH37 program allowed Joe Klein to launch his own cybersecurity business. Photo by Mark Rhodes

In just eight months, members of 757 Angels have invested more than $1 million in Hampton Roads businesses looking to grow.

"The goal of the organization is to really be an active part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem," executive director Monique Adams said.

The angel investment group has attracted 86 members — accredited investors and high net-worth individuals — since officially launching in February, Adams said. The nonprofit sprouted from the Hampton Roads Community Foundation-led initiative called Reinvent Hampton Roads, which seeks to help diversify the region's economy to be less reliant on decreasing defense spending.

In the debate over whether people should work in the office, or remotely, the in-the-office folks have one good point. A lot of things happen when we interact face-to-face that don’t necessarily happen virtually.

Human beings had little ability to communicate with those who weren’t physically close to them until the past century, and our brains don’t evolve as rapidly as technology. Fortunately, understanding the science of what happens when people interact in person helps us see what’s best done that way, and when virtual meetings are fine. Here’s what’s going on:

While he was addressing a larger problem, several points in Victor Davis Hanson’s article Is the West Dead Yet? resonate in the context of the assaults on our intellectual property system:

But as in mid-fifth-century Athens and late-republican Rome, there are signs that the West is eroding — and fast. The common Western malady is age-old and cyclical…In the case of modern America, Britain, and Europe, the sheer material bounty spawned by free-market capitalism and legally protected private property, combined with the freedom of the individual, creates a sort of ennui. Boredom is the logical result of that lethal mix of affluence and leisure (emphasis added)…

These and other insights are from Deloitte’s 2015 Global Venture Capital Confidence Survey.  You can download a copy here (PDF, no opt-in, 70 pp.).  Deloitte has also produced and made available infographics of the key findings here (PDF, no opt-in, 4 pp.).

Deloitte & Touche LLP and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) collaborated on the eleventh annual survey, which was conducted in May & June of this year. The study assesses investor confidence in the global venture capital environment, market factors shaping industries and investments on specific geographies and industry sectors. See page 4 of the study for a description of the methodology.

Seek co-founder and prominent venture capitalist Paul Bassat has outlined the path Australia’s venture capital scene must take in order catch up to the likes of the US, describing some of Australia’s processes as “clunky”. and slow”.

Mr Bassat, who founded online job search website Seek in 1997 with brother Andrew, told the ADC Future Summit in Melbourne that advanced start-up markets like the US and Israel have clear rules and processes around investing, something that has yet to happen here.

In James Thurber’s 1942 short story "The Catbird Seat," the boisterous Ulgine Barrows shatters the peaceful diligence of Erwin Martin, head of the filing department at his firm. Barrows, as special adviser to the president of the firm, brays at Martin, using slang he barely understands. Apparently a Dodgers fan, she mimics Red Barber’s ball-field patter, shouting, "Are you tearing up the pea patch? Are you scraping around the bottom of the pickle barrel? Are you sitting in the catbird seat?" Martin eventually hatches a plan to turn Barrows’s ebullience against her, using words alone.

Image: Geoffrey Moss for The Chronicle Review 

If you haven't figured this out by now, please allow me to save you some frustration: Not everyone will care about your dreams. I have been writing about this for a while on my website and shared my frustrations. Not many people really care, but there are some who will listen to your dreams just so they can tell you why you should never chase them. They are jealous. Some have failed endeavors and they don't want anyone else to be a failure, or success.

The Nova Scotia government is creating two new immigration streams aimed at attracting foreigners with money to invest.

The first is called the entrepreneur stream and allows those with a net worth of at least $600,000, and at least $150,000 to invest in a Nova Scotia business, the chance to immigrate. 

Nova Scotia to fast track 300 immigrants who qualify under 'express entry' The second, the international graduate entrepreneur stream, aims to convince international students studying in Nova Scotia to remain here after their university or college studies. 

A new growth agenda is on the floor of public debate in Australia as is a more agile economy driven by companies that can exploit disruptive new technologies. We need to look again at how our university sector can help encourage such new industries in our economy.

One Queensland tech entrepreneur recently suggested we avoid universities altogether, in his championing of a Queensland government initiative with no role for university start-up programs.

Image: http://www.afr.com

Before founding Pandora, the most hiring Tim Westergren had ever done was to recruit four people to play in a rock band.

"You start with a handful (of people)," Westergren tells Fast Company, "and you quickly get comfortable with the process." In its earliest days, Pandora’s staff could be counted on two hands. The company continued to grow and went public in 2011. Revenue in 2014 was just north of $920 million and its ranks have swelled to around 1,700 and counting.

The classic image of a great leader is someone full of charisma and exuberant energy, who can convince anyone to follow their ideas. But these outgoing types aren’t the only ones who exhibit great leadership capabilities.

Introverts, although lacking in outward charisma, may even make better leaders, says Laurie Helgoe, author of Introvert Power. Some of the natural characteristics of introverts can be used to channel the energy of employees, producing some powerful results.

Equity crowdfunding has been gaining momentum as regulated crowdfunding. With its ability to reach a large global audience, many start-up companies are beginning to turn to equity crowdfunding as an alternative to other private equity models. Before launching your tech start-up on a technology-based platform, however, there are a series of steps that you should go through to ensure the highest probability of success.

Image: http://www.equities.com

It's deja vu for Bean Boot fans.

Certain sizes of the popular L.L. Bean rubber boot are already sold out online. 

Although customers can still place orders for these sizes, they're on backorder until October or November.

Bean Boot loyalists will remember that this same situation happened last year, when L.L. Bean had a backlog of 100,000 boot orders to get through and didn't deliver the goods until summer.

Image: Flickr/Anna Chernichko The reason L.L. Bean can't keep its popular Bean Boot in stock is because they're handmade by 500 craftsmen in Maine.

Parisians awoke to the sound of birds tweeting, children laughing and an unfamiliar smell in the air on Sunday as the city implemented its first ever car-free day. The event was a hit on social media and a window into an alternative future, with Parisians sharing thousands of images and stories about how different their city felt. The event came a day before the release of a groundbreaking report entitled “Urban Mobility at a tipping point” from global consulting firm McKinsey & Company which spoke about the new technologies and business models contributing to the quest for better, more efficient urban mobility.

Whether leaders are the captain of a team, the head of a household or the president of a company, their quest usually revolves around one thing: success. Quality leadership skills are often hard to measure on a daily basis, but their long-term effects are obvious and undeniable. Leaders are a lot of things and contain many traits, but there are five essential habits that, if practiced and pursued in an honest and consistent fashion, can help turn anyone into a leader and enable them to create their own success.