Only 40 years ago it was widely believed that if you lived long enough, you would eventually experience serious cognitive decline, particularly with respect to memory. The implication was that achieving an advanced age was effectively equivalent to becoming senile—a word that implies mental defects or illness. As a graduate student back then, I was curious why such conclusions were being drawn about the elderly. I had only to look as far as my own great-grandmother and great-aunt to begin questioning the generalization. They lived to 102 and 93, respectively, and were exceptionally active and quick-witted enough to keep us twentysomethings on our toes. A closer look at the literature didn’t give me any confidence that either the biological basis of memory or how it might change with age was well understood. Many discoveries made in the years since have given us better tools to study memory storage, resulting in a major shift away from the view of “aging as a disease” and towards the view of “aging as a risk factor” for neurological diseases. So why do some people age gracefully, exhibiting relatively minor—and at worst annoying—cognitive changes, while others manifest significant and disabling memory decline? Answers to these questions are fundamental for understanding both how to prevent disease and how to promote quality of life.

A while back, when a startup founder mentioned to me that he wasn’t sure he had the personality to be an entrepreneur, I realized how important that insight was. My first thought is that if you are more annoyed than energized by expert advice, team suggestions, and customer input, then you should probably avoid this line of work.

Actually, it’s more complicated than that, but that’s a good start. After working with entrepreneurs for almost a decade now, I have developed a good “radar” to quickly recognize mentalities that will likely pass the test of investors, employees, and customers.

All good managers understand the importance of making sure that every member of a team feels personally motivated and necessary throughout the workday, lest their work should stagnate and suffer. But what's the key to igniting creativity, joy, trust, and productivity among your employees? According to recent research, the single most important factor is simply a sense of making progress on meaningful work. But creating an environment that fosters progress takes some careful effort.

In their new book, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, authors Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer discuss how even seemingly humdrum events can make huge differences in employees' emotional and intellectual well-being.

BEN Dalton has found the perfect way to combine his pleasures of surfing and painting - he paints his surfboards.

The Mooloolaba artist was enjoying a surf a couple of years ago when he looked at his surfboard and discovered "the perfect canvas".

He began painting various beach scenes, first for himself, then for a friend who was getting married.

"It was of Alexandra Headland," Mr Dalton said.

"I paint beach locations, waves and beach scenes."

Technology that would allow cars to talk to each other—to help prevent accidents and improve traffic flow—is about to get a real-world road test following new funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Many high-end cars already come with sensors capable of spotting a vehicle in a driver's blind spot, or warning that the car is drifting out of lane. However, these technologies, which use radar, laser, or video sensors, have a limited view. Car-to-car communications could provide even more sophisticated earlier warnings—for example, when a car several vehicles ahead brakes suddenly.

Most college students studying for degrees in science, technology, engineering or math make the decision to do so in high school or before -- but only 20 percent say they feel that their education before college prepared them “extremely well” for those fields, according to a survey released today by Microsoft and polling company Harris Interactive.

The survey, which asked college students pursing STEM degrees and the parents of K-12 students about attitudes toward STEM education, also found that male and female students enter the fields for different reasons: females are more likely to want to make a difference, while males are more likely to say they’ve always enjoyed games, toys or clubs focused on the hard sciences.

Ready to sell your business, but not sure how to go about doing it? Naples News has a few tips that will help you get your exit strategy mapped out.

There are several methods to consider. You can slowly downsize, liquidate inventory and withdraw as much cash as possible over a period of several years. This method usually entails letting good people go and that can be a tough decision in this economy.

In the “if you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at” category, I present the video I’m A VC. The formal press release, Foundry Group Premiers Documentary Film About Secret Lives of Venture Capitalists, explains things more fully.

My partner Jason Mendelson created, composed, wrote, sang, and produced the whole thing and explains the back story of I’m a VC on his blog. It’s awesome working with incredibly talented people who have a sense of humor and a willingness to make fun of themselves while letting me make fun of myself. And no – I can’t dance for shit, nor can I sing.

Many great breakthroughs have come in dreams.

Rene Descartes got the concept for the Scientific Method in a dream. Elias Howe came up with the final design for the lock stitch sewing machine in a dream. August Kekule arrived at the formulation of the Benzene molecule in a dream.

In the dream state, the subconscious mind arrives at solutions that the conscious mind is unlikely to discover during the daily grind -- no matter much it obsesses, gathers data, or blames the "organization."

I was recently asked by an entrepreneur what my advice would be on how to handle a contract negotiation between his company and a large, Wall Street financial services firm.  He was a bit concerned by the rather one sided terms being proposed by in the initial draft of the contract.  He was also getting annoyed that every time he tried to push back, he inevitably found himself arguing with their lawyers instead of the principals themselves.  And for the past week, they had stopped returning his emails and phone calls altogether.  Needless to say, the entrepreneur was concerned that his push back had soured the deal.

I told him to take a deep breath and relax, while I acquainted him with the realities of a Wall Street Negotiation.

Some individuals feel that in order to become an entrepreneur, the proper course of study to choose in graduate school is a master of business administration (MBA). This credential can give students the skills and knowledge they need to become entrepreneurs, especially with many programs now offering concentrations in entrepreneurship. For example, the University of Louisville and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offer similar concentrations within their MBA degree tracks, according to their websites.

The Small Business Administration today presented the White House with suggestions on how to reduce barriers to entrepreneurship, gathered from eight roundtables it held around the country as part of the Startup America initiative.

About 1,000 entrepreneurs and investors participated in these roundtables. The SBA forwarded around 200 distinct ideas, including ways to reduce regulatory burdens, to the appropriate federal agencies. An interagency committee will work with President Barack Obama’s Jobs and Competitiveness Council to develop a short list of high-impact proposals.

Ever since Tim Ferriss wrote The Four Hour Workweek, the small business owner market has been aware of outsourcing and its benefits.  Find a virtual assistant or contractor of just about any flavor and your work life will be easier.

That’s the promise. The reality is a little different. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right person (as in regular employment), and it often takes more management than you expect, especially when the person is working from a remote location.  However, I have used several of these services as a business owner and can attest to their value.

From renewable energy sources to the latest in entertainment technology, Utah’s universities have a plethora of interesting research spinning out of their laboratories. The potential for profit has attracted entrepreneurs who are interested in turning that technology into marketable products. Here are nine notable companies in various stages, from those developing product prototypes to those with a firm market presence, all based on technology from Utah’s research institutions: the University of Utah, Brigham Young University and Utah State University.

San Diego’s life sciences and biomedical communities showed their support today for California Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax plan, which he has offered as a way to promote statewide job growth by closing a “toxic tax loophole” and offering other incentives for companies to add jobs.

“The majority of Biocom’s members are smaller companies within Southern California, and those companies will realize benefits from each of the three components of the package,” Biocom CEO Joe Panetta (and a San Diego Xconomist) told the governor during a news conference today at Gen-Probe (NASDAQ: GPRO), the San Diego-based medical diagnostics company.

State and local governments may be winners under the jobs plan President Obama is set to announce before a joint session of Congress on Thursday (September 7), according to media reports.

The plan, which is now reported to come with a price tag of $300 billion, will focus significantly on tax cuts, an extension of government benefits for the unemployed, and economic development initiatives — including, as Stateline reported last week, a version of a popular Georgia program that places job seekers into training positions with employers who are hiring. But the plan also is expected to include direct aid to state and local governments, which have contributed to the nation's 9.1-percent unemployment rate by laying off thousands of public workers of their own.

Government incentives big attraction

Quebec has become a preferred destination for some of the hottest videogame makers to set up shop, thanks to government incentives coming their way, reports Reuters in this piece.

Companies ranging from Electronic Arts to Ubisoft have been drawn to the province as a result of a refundable tax credit that subsidizes 37.5 per cent of a videogame company's payroll. And that's not all: There are more credits for companies that make French versions of their games, the piece reports.

That's had a big impact: citing economic development agency Invest Quebec, Reuters reports that 86 companies and 8,236 jobs have moved to Quebec as a result of the program, on which Quebec spent $100-million last year, up from $83-million in 2009.

Tablets and e-readers and connected electric meters … oh my! As device makers embed broadband into more and more gadgets, and consumer demand for ubiquitous broadband skyrockets, operators are realizing they aren’t in Kansas anymore, and traditional financial metrics and ways of running their businesses won’t cut it. The solution to an influx of devices and accelerated demand unfortunately isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, but will require an operator to take several steps, including working more closely with device makers and application companies.

The next hot venture capital hotshot? Justin Bieber. Say whaaaat? Bieber’s been a mogul for some time, with a licensed perfume business to accompany his record career. Now, he’s apparently funding a web startup. What kind of startup? Good question.

Business Insider reports, “All we can tell you is that the Bieber-backed startup will be a good-natured Zynga, and it has other high-profile celebrity backers on board.” A “good-natured Zynga?” What does that mean? We asked the reporter for more details, who could only tell us, “Wish I could elaborate.”

With the rising tide of WikiLeaks-style attacks and increasingly sophisticated hackers, it’s more important than ever to be especially diligent in protecting your company’s sensitive information. If your intellectual property (IP) gets into the wrong hands or you suffer a data breach, not only does it put your credibility and competitive edge at risk, it can also jeopardize your company’s financial viability.

Even more concerning, according to the 2011 Verizon data breach report, cybercriminals are now targeting companies with 1 to 100 employees. To make matters worse, these criminals are more interested in sensitive company data than financial/credit information. This trend is putting IP in more danger than ever before.