Innovators around the world are scrambling to find ways to make the world a better place. The only problem is their ideas tend to require a lot of money to make and use! What's more is that most of these helpful inventions are made to be used in third world countries where funds are limited.

Solution? Here are five clever people who use simple household appliances to save lives and improve the quality of the planet.

One of the best things that happened to me as a grad student was receiving the gift of a laptop from my brother-in-law. What was great about it was that what was a new computer to me was not, in fact, a new computer at all. In fact, it was quite old: five or six years old. What was so great about this? It didn't have a wireless card in it, so I couldn't get on the Internet. That meant that when I needed to find something online, I had to leave my dissertation study, lock the door, go down several floors in the library, find a computer to jump on, locate what I was looking for, and then go all the way back upstairs. Doing this was such a pain, that I typically found myself staying put and writing for several hours at a time.

It's no longer convenient for me to work with that computer, but there are plenty of times when I miss the freedom that old computer gave me from the temptations of email, Twitter, and the rest of the Internet. Figuring out how to free yourself from distractions so you can do your best work (pace Merlin Mann ) is something that all academics—and all writers—need to learn how to do.

BlackBerrys, iPhones and Droids may dot congressional committee chambers and sometimes — despite rules to the contrary — appear on the House and Senate floors. But a growing frustration still pervades Silicon Valley that there is more than distance separating Washington and Silicon Valley. There’s a gap in knowledge, too. Washington doesn’t get tech.

Some call it Capitol Hill’s own “digital divide” — the growing gap in understanding between lawmakers responsible for resolving the tech community’s most pressing issues and the industry leaders who first call attention to these issues.

The gap is all the more worrisome to tech industry leaders because of the speed with which new devices and practices are clashing with old ways of doing business.

Australia's job creation has been explosive, beating estimates by 200% yesterday. Unemployment is plummeting, already sitting at a level where most economists consider an economy 'fully employed'.

Yet Australian job creation could soon hit the brakes, not for lack of jobs, but for lack of workers.

A new joint report from the Australian Industry Group and Deloitte explains that one of Australian CEOs largest concerns is that a shortage of available workers will crimp their companies' growth prospects.

Running a startup is a combination of luck and skill. The luck part of that you can’t control, but serial entrepreneur and technical innovator Jerry Kaplan notes there are certain qualities that successful entrepreneurs share. He runs down the five most important in this entrepreneur thought leader lecture given at Stanford University. Business acumen is helpful, but to really succeed, he says, people skills are just as important.

Back in January 2010, Google declared that it was no longer willing to continue censoring search results on Google.cn, and that it would possibly shut down the Chinese search page, and potentially even its offices in China. In March, Google backed that talk up by redirecting Google.cn to Google.com.hk, a move that enabled it to keep providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese but from Hong-Kong.

At the end of last month, the Chinese government made it clear to the company that it wasn’t happy with the redirect, and that its Internet Content Provider license would not be renewed if they would keep up this “unacceptable” behavior.

Arizona may be ground zero for the conflict over U.S. immigration policy, but it takes only a few minutes of watching cable television news and scanning local op-ed pages to see how raw and divisive the matter has become in the nation's political sphere.

Yet with all the heated rhetoric about illegals, border security, amnesty, racial profiling, and other incendiary topics, one aspect of immigration isn't emphasized enough: the job-creating potential of immigrant entrepreneurs. They're the vanguard in America's global competition for entrepreneurial talent and innovative ideas. The nation needs to encourage more entrepreneurs from other nations to call America home. Their energy is the elixir of future economic growth.

Take a recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute on U.S. multinational corporations. In Growth and competitiveness in the United States: The role of its multinational companies, the consulting firm notes that big business comprises less than 1 percent all U.S. companies, yet the 2,270 multinational corporations in its database accounted for 31 percent of the growth in inflation-adjusted gross domestic product from 1990 to 2007. Even more important, U.S. multinational corporations have contributed 41 percent of gains in labor productivity since 1990—and 53 percent of the productivity increases during expansions.

Lexington, Mass.-based CommonAngels has reportedly raised $10 million for a new (it’s third) co-investment fund, according to a regulatory filing today. The last time the group raised funds was back in 2005, to the tune of just over $10M.

CommonAngels, named after the city’s historic public meeting grounds, is a group of 75 leading private investors and several dozen limited partners in two co-investment funds (make it three now). Their main focus is on capital efficiency: Series A rounds of $5ook-$5M with total capital less than $20M.

Congrats to James Geshwiler and everyone at CommonAngels on this latest fund raising; this news will certainly excite the innovation economy here in Boston.

We've fallen behind according to studies and my experience as a CEO. Here's how to reclaim our edge.

America is the inventing nation. A stream of inventions helped make the 20th century the American century.

We've always welcomed a diverse group of dreamers from across the globe and offered them opportunities to advance by virtue of their hard work. We believe in the free flow of ideas and built a public education system that was once the envy of the world.

We have also steadfastly maintained a strong business climate that promotes the value of innovation and reinforces Americans' frontier spirit that sees obstacles as challenges to be overcome.

Unfortunately, America's economy is in danger of losing what ...

Comcast Corp. said it will contribute at least $20 million to a venture capital fund that the cable giant is creating to back minority entrepreneurs in developing new media content and technology.

ROBERTS The move is part of Comcast's effort to ease concerns from minority groups about its proposed deal to take control of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal. A marriage of the biggest cable and broadband provider with a huge content company has some fearing that there will be a loss of diversity in both in the programming people see and the executives behind the scenes.

In a letter to Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), Comcast also said it would add to its systems four cable networks whose majority owners are African American.

With a few hiccups, green technology has been one of the bright spots in a lagging economy. But identifying which new technologies are ready for investment has remained a bit of a puzzle.

Recognizing the importance of investment in developing these technologies, the Department of Energy (DOE) has launched a new resource that will help potential investors identify opportunities.

The EERE Technology Commercialization Portal is an online resource that provides key information about energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies being researched by DOE labs and institutions using DOE funds.

The company is developing crops that tolerate salty soils.

Around the world, a billion acres of agricultural land lay abandoned. In the United States, 15 million acres of cropland falls under this category. Decades of repeated irrigation and declining water quality have made much of this once-productive land too salty to support plant growth. Among the strategies to put this land back to use is to develop crops that can tolerate high-salinity soils.

Last week, Ceres, a biotechnology company in Thousand Oaks, CA, announced that it had developed a trait that allows several common crops to grow under highly saline conditions, even in seawater. Ceres researchers have tested the trait in Arabidopsis thaliana, rice, and switchgrass, a hardy perennial that's used as a feedstock for making ethanol and other biofuels. "The fact that we've seen this very high-level salt tolerance in three different plant species gives us a high degree of confidence that this trait will recapitulate itself in other energy grasses as well," says Ceres CEO Richard Hamilton.

Gen-Y’s are today’s face of entrepreneurship. When an idea strikes they bring a level of energy and innovation that is simply unmatched.

In the past it was experience that gave entrepreneurs the ability to predict the next big thing. Now, passion and innovative thinking are the key drivers behind today’s successful entrepreneurs and tomorrow’s most prolific business leaders.

Before I started Redwood Strategic, I saw how companies constantly struggled to effectively build relationships between brands and students. I was passionate about using new media, marketing and the digital world to help them find a solution, and this eventually formed the basis of my company.

In the late 1970s, about 500 colleges and universities offered courses in entrepreneurship. By 2005, more than 2,000 did so. Yet there has been no corresponding surge in start-up activity. "The things we've been trying on campuses have had a marginal impact, if that," says Dane Stangler, a researcher at the Kauffman Foundation. To be sure, there are individual programs that have a proven record of generating real companies. What they generally have in common is a belief that entrepreneurship training is for everyone -- not just M.B.A.'s, but engineers and art students, too.

A good case in point is MIT. The school's students and alumni start 200 to 400 businesses a year. One of the keys to that success is the school's Entrepreneurship Center. Launched in 1991, the center serves the university's five schools, acting as the nexus for entrepreneurship classes, clubs, and activities; connecting business students with scientists; and providing physical space, advice, and access to a network of entrepreneurs and investors -- all with the goal of creating new ventures. "We're the DMZ where the geeks can meet the suits and make companies," says the center's managing director, Bill Aulet.

“America Needs to Make Its Bad Jobs Better” in The Financial Times.

“Why Canada Needs a Great Reset” in Ottawa Citizen.

With the G8 and G20 summits behind us, most Canadians now realize how comparatively unscathed we’ve come through the great economic crisis. But we shouldn’t be too hasty to pat ourselves on the back. Our economy is badly in need of significant structural changes. Without the pressure of a crisis, there’s a real danger that we’ll settle for complacency, instead…

Thanks to Canada’s risk-averse system of financial regulation, its banks are model citizens, admired around the globe; Canada’s housing markets swiftly rebounded and are already booming again. Though Canada’s gross domestic product declined just as precipitously as the U.S.’s did, we got off lightly when it came to unemployment. Some of Canada’s laid-off auto workers are being called back to work at formerly quiet factories from Windsor to Oshawa, and companies from Research in Motion to Loblaw are hiring new workers to support their growth.

Read the full piece here (PDF).

500 young Jewish innovators brainstorm for the community’s future.

What happens when 500 leading Jewish innovators come from all over world to think up creative solutions to the challenges that face the Jewish people?

On Wednesday at Hotel Kfar Maccabiah, participants in the ROI Global Summit for Young Jewish Innovators embarked on an ambitious two-day journey to do just that.

At its annual leadership conference, ROI hosted their first-ever “Community Brainstorm & Action Planning” experiment with the goal of generating potential project ideas and then putting them into action.

ROI, funded by philanthropist Lynn Schusterman, is committed to helping prepare the Jewish community’s young leaders to take the reins from their elders.

“We deeply believe that tomorrow’s innovators will come from the dorm room, not the boardroom.”

That is a quote from Microsoft’s general manager of Education Strategy, Jon Perera. For eight years now, Microsoft has sponsored the worldwide Imagine Cup, a technology competition for high school and college students around the world. This year’s theme is, “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the world’s toughest problems.” Students work in teams to compete in a number of broad categories including software design, embedded development, game design, digital media and IT challenge, which is a systems level survey for managing technology.

This year’s event is being held in Warsaw, Poland home of the astronomer Nicolas Copernicus and physicist Marie Curie-Sklodowska. Opening ceremonies on July 3rd kicked off the competition of projects of teams who have advanced to the worldwide finals. Consisting of several students and a mentor to provide guidance, each team has advanced through several regional events in their respective countries to qualify to appear in Warsaw. For them, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to demonstrate the application of their ideas – ideas that can help change the world.

One year ago, President Obama officially announced the upcoming launch of a Social Innovation Fund (SIF) that would call on “foundations, philanthropists, and others in the private sector to partner with the government to find and invest in innovative, high-impact solutions.” He went on, “Now more than ever, we need to build cross-sector partnerships to transform our schools, improve the health of Americans, and employ more people in clean energy and other emerging industries. These community solutions will help build the new foundation for the economy and the nation.” For more in depth information about this White House announcement read our blog post.

To commemorate this anniversary and in anticipation of the announcement this month of the intermediary organizations that will receive grants from the Corporation for National & Community Service, we have culled through the discussions that have taken place about the Fund over the past year – some congratulating strengths and others pointing out shortcomings or sounding a note of caution. The following viewpoints are a compilation of Nell Edgington, Pablo Eisenberg, Carla Javits, Jasmine McGinnis, Adin Miller, Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Andrew Wolk.

One reason to think that the surge in startup activity in New York City over the past few years isn't just a bubble is that the rise in startup and VC activity has been accompanied by the creation of a robust support network for entrepreneurs.

Startups have a level of access to talent, fellow entrepreneurs, VCs, and angels that is old hat in the Valley, but that wasn't possible in New York during the dotcom bubble.

One recent example: the First Growth Venture Network. Founded by angel investor and venture capital professor Ed Zimmerman, First Growth is a mentoring program for early-stage startups. Accepted entrepreneurs attend a series of talks and roundtables, are paired with mentors from more established startups, and are introduced to advisors and investors from all over the country.

This is the era of tiny companies that operate globally. These micro versions of multinationals outsource almost everything to specialists all over the world and sell to people all over the world through the Internet.

In olden days, “multinational” meant big. And it took a long time to get there. You started locally, then you expanded within a local region, then you went national and finally you went multinational. Now we see companies going global from day one, enabled by the Internet.

We will chronicle the real stories behind this transformation in business. We are interviewing the founders and managers of these micro-multinationals to find out what it is really like to manage a business at the leading edge of this trend.