Oh boy. French Minister Eric Besson just announced that the French government will start a VC fund with $575 million euros, to invest directly in internet startups.

Your writer generally tries to boost France as a startup hub and with good reason, but this is just silly.

The evidence that governments do a terrible job at picking winners and losers in industry is overwhelming, and particularly in high technology businesses.

There is a case for governments investing in venture capital as limited partners to jump-start an innovation ecosystem. It was a tremendous success for Israel (and failed everywhere else, but at least there's a case for the benefit of the doubt). The government already does this all the time in Europe, by the way. Investors we speak to tell us that many VC firms in France and Europe are "zombies" who couldn't raise money from private sector institutional investors but get money from government funds (either France or the EU) and stick around.

Although the goal of good bloggers is to write compelling content that seems effortless, the fact is that effective blogging is more difficult than it seems. The challenge of constantly coming up with new content and pounding it out on the keyboard can take a toll on the mind and body, resulting in “Blog Slog”, a condition which can compromise quality and productivity. Fortunately, there is a remedy for many of the symptoms of “Blog Slog” in the form of regular exercise. Here’s a list of 7 proven benefits of regular exercise and how these benefits can help bloggers become more productive in creating strong content. Note that the operate word here is regular.

1. Exercise gives you more energy

Numerous studies have shown that regular physical exercise boosts daily energy levels. The mechanism is simple. When the body is exerted, the natural response is an increase in heart rate and respiration, both of which help the cardiovascular system to deliver oxygen and nutrients to bodily tissues more efficiently. The net result is an increase in energy which can give you more hours of productive blogging per day.

Even if you haven't been paying attention to the seemingly nonstop stream of wacky weather recently, chances are that your local government has. According to the first Global C40 Cities Report, a look at how 42 of the world's largest cities (including Jakarta, Berlin, Los Angeles, and New York) are preparing for climate change, local governments are moving quickly to mitigate the effects of climate change--and profit from them, too. Few of these changes are happening at the nation level. But because cities can react more nimbly, we may see some of the most innovative responses to climate change coming out of our urban governments:

Plans To Increase Resilience

Twenty six of the C40 cities already have plans to protect their infrastructure against climate change. Sao Paolo has sped up the implementation of a drainage master plan, and Copenhagen plans to become the world's first carbon neutral capital city. Jakarta is taking advantage of an anticipated uptick in rainfall to think about extending green areas.

New Iowa Governor Terry Branstad met with the Iowa MicroLoan Board of Directors to express his interest in and support for Iowa's small business and entrepreneurial sector. An outgrowth of the Iowa Foundation for Micro-enterprise and Community Vitality (IFMCV), Iowa MicroLoan was created in 2007 to assist microbusinesses considered on the fringe of risk-bearing capacity for most traditional financial institutions.

Micro-enterprises—those with five or less employees—account for 86 percent of all businesses in Iowa. In the Internet age, home-based businesses and sole proprietors and micro-enterprises are the fastest growing segment of the entrepreneurial class. Representing a very important investment in Iowa's future, micro-enterprises pay dividends by adding jobs in the near future as well as 40 years down the road, as some grow to become the major rural community employers. In addition, the cost to the state appears to be minimal compared to some other strategies.

“Talent density.”

That’s the formula delineated by Netflix Inc. Co-founder and Chief Executive Reed Hastings for keeping a technology company innovative.

Asa Mathat/AllThingsD.com Netflix CEO Reed Hastings spoke with AllThingD.com’s Kara Swisher at the “D9: All Things Digital” conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

The phrase means employing the fewest number of highly talented technologists, rather than wanting to expand the numbers of computer specialists ad infinitum. With the smaller number, Hastings said, a company can continue to run informally, a recipe for fostering continued innovation.

Speaking at the All Things Digital annual conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Ca., Hastings echoed comments made Tuesday evening by Google’s Eric Schmidt about concerns of corporate leadership of growing technology companies that after reaching a certain level of success, innovation may stall.

Schmidt talked about fighting against the coming of corporate middle age. Hastings today talked about innovative companies “getting long in the tooth” and the challenge of fighting against the complacency that often eventually accompanies the kind of success Google and Netflix have enjoyed.

Which cities are the best for employers, professionals and innovators? Which offer a great quality of life and a business-friendly environment? In short, which cities are flourishing and will offer the most opportunities for you to thrive?

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Cities of Opportunity study crunched the data, examining everything from the number of flights in and out of a city to green space per capita to average classroom size. The result is a list of the top cities in the world.

It was just a little over a month ago that I wrote “We’re In The Middle Of A Terrible Blubble!” – a post about the difference between the Internet bubble of 2000 and the “blubble” (as I call it) that we’re in today. The short version of the post is this: venture capitalists like to declare valuation bubbles to fight rising valuations, and the press eats it up because it’s dramatic.

in 1999 the Nasdaq was out of control crazy with no real relationship between stock prices and operating results. We’re not seeing anything like that today, partially because so few companies are going public. And many of the huge-valuation private companies, like Facebook, Groupon and Zynga, have rumored profits that would justify their lofty valuations. And while Twitter is still too cool for revenue, I’ve considered them the exception rather than the rule.

Raising a pile of cash is a huge blessing for entrepreneurs. But it can also be a serious curse.

When entrepreneurs suddenly have a wealth of capital to grow their business, the decisions about how to invest that capital become difficult. As an entrepreneur, it’s often hard to know whether you’re building value or just burning cash with your “investments.” The line between burning and building becomes blurry because the success of those investments plays out over many months or years. In the meantime, you’ve got to hit numbers and keep your investors happy.

A very interesting place where this burn vs. build dichotomy plays out is in the fast-growth, land-grab mode of customer acquisition.

VCs invest because the company has fast-growth potential. In hot markets and a hot economy, the game accelerates and investors want to scoop up customers as fast as possible. And, of course, management wants to grow, too. But frequently, aggressive growth brings fulfillment problems and a host of management nightmares. All too often, the result of aggressive customer acquisition is a cash bonfire.

iStart, a customizable Web-based platform that simplifies how organizations market and administer business competitions worldwide, is picking up speed as students access the site to fulfill their dreams of becoming successful entrepreneurs.

iStart.org is a single resource that allows student entrepreneurs to share ideas and gain access to an international network of competitions and mentors. For administrators, the platform helps with complex tasks, including managing and monitoring applicant entries, establishing judging criteria and conducting online judging.

Since its launch in 2010, the website, hosted by the Kauffman Foundation, has gathered more than 1,200 businesses ideas from 44 countries, including Albania, Kenya, Afghanistan, Israel and Ukraine. Business idea categories include Internet (websites), Information Technology, Life Sciences, Social Entrepreneurship, Services, Green, Materials, Consumer Goods and Energy.

Biotech venture capitalists could once get away with “Field of Dreams” tactics, but the recent dearth of exits is forcing them to sharpen their strategies.

Venture firms used to assume that if they built a promising biotech company, acquirers and the public markets would come knocking. That was true in the late 1990s and early last decade, when public investors showered these companies with cash. With few biotechs going public successfully, however, investors are now grooming most of them to be sold. This involves getting these companies to know their likely buyers sooner and better.

“One of the things biotechs haven’t done well enough in the past is understand what the customer wants,” said Christopher K. Mirabelli, managing director of HealthCare Ventures. “The customer isn’t the public anymore. The customer is the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.”

The strings are starting to loosen at last. The people with a dream are finding believers.

Investment in innovative start-ups in Delaware and around the country is bouncing back after a moribund time during the recession, raising hope of more growth and vitality in the kinds of business that traditionally create the most change and bring the most buzz.

In Delaware, at least three young firms recently have gotten commitment for millions of dollars in so-called "venture capital" investments, putting their plans on a faster track toward shaking up their old-school rivals and grabbing market share.

MANITOBA is quadrupling its support for technology commercialization with new financial support to help more companies get to market.

The province is launching a broad-based program that will make about $30 million available to small businesses over the next five years.

In the past, the province's technology commercialization program paid out around $1 million a year. The new Commercialization Support for Business program has a $4-million budget for its first year.

"This is a big rethink," said Premier Greg Selinger. "For the first time ever, there will be financial support that takes people right through the innovation process to help them go all the way."

Early-stage innovative companies have faced challenges for years in coming up with the resources required to develop new products or services.

By the time the consultation on the next Framework Research Programme closed on 20 May the Commission had received 750 written responses and more than 1,300 people had filled in an online questionnaire.

The huge number of responses speaks volumes about the importance that people across the EU attach to Framework as the largest single source of funding for R&D in Europe. It also highlights the number of diverging interests that the Commission must accommodate as it wades through the responses in order to give initial feedback at a meeting in Brussels next Friday (June 10).

But a quick perusal of published responses from national governments, research institutions, lobbying groups, companies and individual scientists reveals a marked unanimity – at least in terms of the headline demands - for more money, for simplification of administration, for a focus on excellence and for Framework Programme 8 (FP8) to help with funding large-scale scientific infrastructures.

In 2009-10, public procurement in the UK was valued at over £236 billion, or approximately 15 per cent of GDP. The government is the single largest customer in the country. This magnitude of expenditure provides enormous potential to stimulate innovation and encourage economic growth – a potential which, according to the Committee, is not being realised, in its report, “Public procurement as a tool to stimulate innovation.”

Following an investigation of departments across the government and of the Department for Transport in particular, the Committee calls for a root and branch change in attitude towards adopting innovative solutions throughout the public sector. The report calls for the government to update its approach to procurement to achieve better value for money, promote economic growth, and encourage the translation of scientific research into new goods and services.

PITTSBURGH, June 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnegie Mellon University today introduced "Greenlighting Startups," a new initiative aimed at accelerating CMU's already impressive record of turning campus innovations into sustainable new businesses. Since 2004, CMU has doubled the number of start-up companies created by its faculty and students and now stands as one of the fastest growing entrepreneurial institutions in the United States.

Greenlighting Startups, a portfolio of five new and existing campus incubators, is uniquely designed to further speed the organic growth of company creation at CMU. This initiative creates multiple portals through which the university can help turn research from award-winning professors and world-class students into thriving companies that provide new jobs and solve real-world problems. With Greenlighting Startups, CMU will be in a stronger position to serve as an engine for commercializing innovation, job growth and new business creation.

Over the past couple of years, Kickstarter's growth as a source of disruption in the creative industries has been pretty hard to ignore. Om extolled the site's virtues just the other day, and the concept that anybody who has an idea can try to raise money to get it finished has become a big hit—allowing them to raise millions of dollars for gadgets, fashion, and even films. It's so successful, in fact, that investors are now jumping in to back projects that don't reach their target. Kickstarter for Books?

Given Kickstarter's success, it's no surprise to see new services trying to piggyback on the idea of crowdfunding. So perhaps you shouldn't be surprised to say hello to Unbound, a British startup trying to apply the same model specifically to books.

Chances are you’ve read a few articles in the past couple weeks about Oprah’s success and how it translates to small business.

Wherever your Oprah fandom or non-fandom feelings lie, there is no doubt this business mogul has left an impression on Chicago’s business scene.

She has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to building a small business (or an empire, if you plan to attempt). Here are a few tips you can learn from Oprah's international success.

“The devil in the details” is a quote that we have all heard, and clearly applies to startups, where success in the long run is all about execution. But for you as an entrepreneur trying to get started, the devil is really in your mind, where you must prevent drifting, and maintain that confidence, commitment, and passion, to achieve your business dream.

This is highlighted well in a book just released, “Outwitting the Devil,” annotated by Sharon Lechter. It was written way back in 1938, by the famous author of “Think and Grow Rich,” Napoleon Hill. It was too controversial to publish then, due to religious connotations, but still has key lessons for every entrepreneur today.

Everyone seems to be busy these days. And so, we’re all looking for some life hack that will free up time and make our lives run like well-oiled machines.

In the year since my book, 168 Hours (out in paperback today), was published, I’ve been asked for my fair share of these tips. Should I run my errands in a certain order? Should I file emails a certain way? Should I buy a quicker washing machine?

Well, you can. If you really want to achieve a time breakthrough, though, you can try this. When I talk about my book, I give the audience a copy of a spreadsheet with 168 hours on it. That’s the number of hours in a week. The sheet is blank. The idea is that the person will fill in the cells with her schedule over the next few days. But first, I tell the audience to ponder the sheet’s emptiness. Why?

Because the next week is as much a blank slate as that piece of paper.

The U.S. must move quickly to develop a national innovation strategy if it is to remain competitive in the global economy, a panel of experts said at the AAAS Forum on Science and Technology Policy.

They also outlined the roles that regions, universities, and government can play in developing such a strategy.

“I’m optimistic that we will end up getting it right,” said Rob Atkinson, president of the Information and Technology Innovation Foundation (ITIF). “The real question is, we don’t have all day to do that. We’ve probably got about 10 years. If we don’t get it right in 10 years, we basically will end up like the U.K., (with) very little manufacturing and then struggling to catch up again. It’s just a very, very hard thing to do once you’ve lost it.”