Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
If you can’t catch a breath during the frantic daily grind, don’t blame it on not having any free time.
Americans actually have more leisure time, are less rushed, less stressed, and sleep much more than we think we do. According to sociologist John Robinson, or better known as “Father Time” to his colleagues, most people have around 40 hours of free time per week.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Obesity rates among young children may be declining, but the overall American rate increased in six states this past year, up from an increase in only one state the year before, according to the latest annual report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America’s Health.
Image: The obesity rate among black people is at or above 40 percent in 11 states. David Kidd/Governing
When people ask me whether they should get an MBA if they want to start a company, I respond with: It depends. Do you already have an idea and a team? If not, what type of company do you want to start? Have you started a company before? What do you think you will get out of an MBA that you can leverage in the company building process? The answer to the question depends on where you’re starting from and where you’re trying to go.
The number of California blue whales has rebounded to near historical levels, according to new research by the University of Washington, and while the number of blue whales struck by ships is likely above allowable U.S. limits, such strikes do not immediately threaten that recovery.
This is the only population of blue whales known to have recovered from whaling – blue whales as a species having been hunted nearly to extinction.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Big companies that fail to innovate risk extinction. That's the stark truth in the era of "digital disruption".
Just look at the likes of Woolworths, Polaroid, Alta Vista, Kodak, Blockbuster, Borders... the list goes on. All steamrollered by strings of ones and noughts and changing consumer behaviour.
But why are so many big companies so bad at it?
The United States’ next Chief Technology Officer will be Google executive Megan Smith, the White House announced Thursday.
With years of experience in the Google X research division, most recently as vice president, Smith has played roles in some of Google's wildest projects, from self-driving cars to delivery drones to jetpacks.
Vancouver, BC - Five new commercialization centres are receiving support from the federal government to support their research and development activities.
In Vancouver, for example, the Accel-Rx Health Sciences Accelerator will receive $14.5 million over five years to support new companies that are commercializing Canadian health sciences research. Services include providing access to investment capital, potential partners and business services.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
The American workforce is now 34% freelancer, according to a new study commissioned by the Freelancers Union and the recently-merged Elance-oDesk. Well, sort of: 14.3 million of the 53 million freelancers counted in the survey are “moonlighters” (people with full-time jobs doing independent work in their spare time). Another 5.5 million are temp workers. Here’s the full breakdown:
Image: http://blogs.hbr.org
Roger Martin, former dean of the Rotman School of Management, on why talent’s powerful economic position is unsustainable.
The rapid influx of business incubators and accelerators is expected to result in a shakeout during the coming decade, a founder of a high-profile U.S. business accelerator said Thursday. It’s inevitable that the creation of those business-nurturing entities will slow and be subject to a correction that weeds out the weak ones, said David Cohen, a principal with Colorado-based TechStars LLC.
Image: echStars LLC Managing Partner David Cohen
There are several myths surrounding everything existing in the society and career-building is no exception. Quite often a career aspirant goes by hearsay rather than exploring the options from reliable and concrete sources, which are globally accepted and universal in nature.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Far too often, I read articles about the glamorous life of entrepreneurs – founders mixing with the “who’s who,” crazy exits, trendy offices, and of course… hoodies to work. While that is one tiny section of what entrepreneurship could be, it’s not what startup life is, the vast majority of the time. A more realistic portrayal of life as a founder is a night sweat: feverish anxiety about closing a big client the next day, making payroll, a technology pivot, or ensuring the success of a key hire.
Just because you’re an entrepreneur doesn’t mean that you have to invent the proverbial wheel. In fact, one of the defining traits of an entrepreneur is the ability to take an idea and make it better. And, what better place to get inspired then by companies that have been founded by our fellow entrepreneurs?
When it comes down to it, you only have five minutes to convince people your product is disruptive and something people will actually buy.
As a tech startup, you are probably fluent in the language of investors, tech journalists and entrepreneurs. But sometimes, your needs call for you to step out of the tech bubble and pitch to an audience that, figuratively, speaks an entirely different language.
One could be excused for thinking the value of a college degree is in a downward spiral. With overall student-loan debt topping $1-trillion and tuition racing upward, to college graduates facing high levels of underemployment and stagnating wages, it might appear college simply isn’t worth it.
Image: http://chronicle.com/
Lots of startups think they need to have connections to get angel funding. But that isn’t always the case. There are ways to network and give your startup a better chance to get funded even without powerful connections. David Rose, author of “Angel Investing: The Gust Guide to Making Money and Having Fun Investing in Startups” recently shared some insights with Forbes on the subject explaining:
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
The SoPE Foundation has started a crowdfunding* campaign -Getting Ideas to Patients-to raise $250,000 by the end of 2014 for educational programs and events. The SoPE Foundation is the sole funder for these activities, such as the Blakely Visiting Lectureship Series named posthumously for one of our co-founders, and support for biomedical and health innovators applying for the Innovation Scholars Program.
SoPE's operates on a low-cost membership model to encourage enrollment. With your financial contribution, we will have the funding to do what we set out to do. Every little bit helps, and every larger bit moves us closer to our goal.
These places certainly aren't "untrammeled by man," as the Wilderness Act, which turns 50 today, envisioned. But they represent rare human restraint at a time when we seem to have so little self-control.
We’ve all know how much Philly loves its cheesesteaks. But you know what the data tells us? The most distinctive menu item in Pennsylvania restaurants isn’t the cheesesteak. It’s actually the hoagie.
Co.Design teamed up with food industry analytics firm Food Genius to mine its database of 88,000 menus and 59 million menu items and build this map of the each state’s true crown jewel food. What you’re looking at isn’t the most popular food by state. It’s the food that most distinguishes them from the rest of the pack.
Commerce knits the modern world together in a way that nothing else quite does. Almost anything you own these days is the result of a complicated web of global interactions. And there's no better way to depict those interactions and the social and political circumstances that give rise to them than with a map or two. Or in our case, 38. These maps are our favorite way to illustrate the major economic themes facing the world today. Some of them focus on the big picture while others illustrate finer details. The overall portrait that emerges is of a world that's more closely linked than ever before, but still riven by enormous geography-driven differences.
Image: Quandapanda
