There is an old adage that wisely states, “if you’re explaining, you’re losing.”

Just ask Ireland, a country that has been in the hot seat for months.

Things started to get heated when allegations from U.S. lawmakers sparked a firestorm with far-reaching effects reverberating from the slopes of Silicon Valley to the streets of Dublin. Caught in the crosshairs of Congress’s battle with U.S.-based tech companies, Ireland’s tax policies for multinational companies came under close scrutiny, with Ireland suddenly bearing the burden of being dubbed a “tax haven.

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Wisconsin: the land of beer, brats, and, yes, cheese.

Ask a random person on the streets of New York or San Francisco what they know about Wisconsin, and that might be the sort of answer they would give. In my experience, folks on the coasts sometimes can’t even point out Milwaukee or Madison on a map.

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Predictions about the future are always something of a shot in the dark; it's possible to make educated guesses based on what's happening today, but there's no perfect methodology. That being said, U.K. creative consultancy FutureBrand recently came up with a smart way to predict what brands will look like in the very near future, over the next few years: a virtual market where "traders" were encouraged to buy and sell shares in global brands based on potential for growth. The result, claims FutureBrand, is a real-time forecast of brand strength.

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You've probably already heard about the Kentucky man who lost his job at Wamart last month after allegedly trying to bring a little Thanksgiving cheer to an elderly customer. A petition on Change.org has garnered more than 350,000 online signatures, but so far, Walmart hasn't given him his job back, citing a number of other problems with the employee.

A country’s ability to innovate is traditionally measured by things like R&D spending levels, the quality of its universities and the availability of venture capital. These are important factors, but we are not measuring something equally if not more important: the values on which our businesses are built.

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BALTIMORE – Dec. 16, 2013 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC: NYSE) has joined DreamIt Health Baltimore, a collaborative startup business accelerator program with the goal of identifying, validating and developing innovative solutions to healthcare challenges.

Northrop Grumman joins The Johns Hopkins University and BioHealth Innovation Inc. in the Baltimore-based accelerator, which was launched in September by DreamIt Ventures, a seed-stage accelerator based out of Philadelphia.

Startups selected for the four-month program receive $50,000 in seed funding; access to potential beta customers, pilot partners, data and systems; accounting and legal support; and expert guidance and mentoring from the accelerator and its partners.

In my final post of 2013, I summarize my top of mind developments in the world’s entrepreneurship data chest. Next year will herald a new era in evidence-based programming and policymaking as practitioners and policymakers alike—now committed to new firm formation—demand better data and analysis around what entrepreneurship promotion efforts are working and what is hype.

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Investors have pumped $3.6 billion into startups focused on big data this year. Not too shabby: It’s almost three quarters of all the money that’s gone into such companies from 2008 to 2012, according to a new infographic out today from burgeoning site Big Data Startups.

The infographic includes a roundup of the 10 data startups that have grabbed the most funding to date. Here are the top five:

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On Saturday, I read the final draft of a magnificent book by David Rose. The book is titled Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire and the Internet of Things.

I’ve known David for many years. I was a huge fan and an early customer, but not an investor, in one of his companies (Ambient Devices) and we share a lot of friends and colleagues from MIT and the Media Lab. I was happy to be asked to blurb his book and then absolutely delighted with the book. It captured so many things that I’ve been thinking about and working on in a brilliantly done 300-page manuscript.

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As the IPO counter continues to roll, the EY accounting firm says it estimates 2013 will ring up a total of 222 U.S. IPOs (or maybe 223), with cumulative proceeds generating a total of about $59.7 billion.

EY has counted 211 IPOs as of yesterday, and 10 more IPOs are on the calendar for this week, including Houston’s Cheniere Energy Partners, according to the IPO investment firm Renaissance Capital. Two more IPOs are expected next week, but the Christmas holiday should bring an end to the IPO run of 2013.

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Over the past five years, we’ve seen professionals in numerous fields adopt innovative software products that help them work more ffectively and efficiently. While healthcare has always been a conservative sector, it’s currently primed for some dramatic changes.

In my opinion, the biggest winners in this impending disruption will be the companies that can connect practitioners and patients, and improve collaboration protocols — all while navigating a heavily regulated market.

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The Milken Institute’s annual Best-Performing Cities index (released today) ranks American cities based on economic outcomes, not the business climate and quality of life factors that might help create them, so there is no checklist of determinants for success. But if there were, Austin, Texas, would probably tick all the boxes. It has a top-tier university, an educated and growing workforce, a vibrant tech sector, an innovation infrastructure and business climate that promotes growth, and it is the capital of a state benefiting from the resurgence of the energy industry. No surprise, then, that it is No. 1 in our 2013 rankings – reclaiming the position it held two years ago. 

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the launch of the country's largest continuous outdoor free public WiFi network in Harlem Tuesday afternoon. The outdoor network, which will cover 95 city blocks and be accessible to around 80,000 Harlem residents, including 13,000 in New York City Housing Authority buildings, is made possible through a $2 million donation from Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman, co-founder of MSD Capital, through the Fuhrman Family Foundation.

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The United States, a wealthy and technologically advanced country, has divided into two camps: Androids and Dinosaurs. The Androids live in California, New York, and Boston, and in a handful of bubble communities such as Austin and Seattle. They use smartphones with the latest apps, drive Teslas, eat “ethnic” food and think they’re pretty smart. In fact, life in Androidville is brutally meritocratic: the better solution always wins because, well, it’s better, right? So why not?

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"There’s a lot of positives but there’s some red flags,” says Mark Curtis, Chief Client Officer and Founder of Fjord a digital design consultancy owned by Accenture, which released its 2014 Trend Report today. He highlighted healthcare as likely to “work against wholesale trends in the future.”The trend towards better diagnostic tools and big data runs counter to the system of how healthcare really works. “There’s the whole edifice of paying people to look after illness, essentially doctors don’t get paid for keeping you well,” says Curtis. “The scale of the market doesn’t allow that.”“There’s a lot of siloed activity, but no one’s really figured out how you can systemize the whole thing,” says Curtis. “If somebody cracks it then valuation would go through the roof.”

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Our world is changing at an unprecedented pace. To prepare our students, lessons must go beyond the "3 R's" and foster 21st century skills. Skills like critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity will be essential for students to take on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Officials from local business incubators no longer cringe when talking about the state of Ohio's effort to make them give more of their money directly to the companies they serve.

Actually, more than half of them have volunteered to give some of their grant money to their client companies — partly because the state of Ohio sweetened the pot for doing so.

Michigan entrepreneurs and crowdfunding advocates are celebrating momentous news out of the state yesterday. The Michigan intrastate crowdfunding bill championed by State Representative Nancy Jenkins had been unanimously approved in the Senate. It is now headed back to the House for final approval before it moves to the Governor’s desk.

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For the sucrose craftsmen among us, there is no greater Christmas challenge than the nerdy gingerbread house. To make a structure that is simultaneously delicious and true to your beloved culture is a hefty task.

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Is too much money a bad thing?

Not for you or me, perhaps. But in tech circles, there's increasing concern about a flood of venture capital money that could artificially boost the value of startups -- and then lead to a dot-com style crash.

Image: Karl Mondon