Oh to be agile, and not just in the sense of physical agility, although that would be nice too. The sense of agility that I'm referring to is, the ability to change focus, change the direction of your life, quickly and with as little impact on your life as a whole.

Being able to quickly change direction, refocus, and get back on track are key qualities to establishing agility in your life. By being agile you're better able to act on ideas, opportunities, and you can quickly start taking these ideas forward. But this is easier said than done, right? How can we become more agile? What if what it takes to become agile isn't immediately obvious to us?

We all know those people: They walk into a room and capture everyone's attention within seconds. Those are the people that get the dates, the jobs, and the investment wins.

These successful types have a few qualities and skills that are psychologically proven to help them make positive first impressions -- and they're skills that anyone can learn.

A $2 million state-sponsored pilot seed fund was approved Thursday by the Empire State Development Corp. to provide investments in high-technology startup and emerging companies.

The project, called the Upstate Regional Seed Fund, was created by Linden Oaks-based Excell Partners Inc., which will invest the grant funds.

Excell Partners, a non-profit formed in 2005 through an agreement with the University of Rochester Medical Center, has invested $2.4 million in 21 new companies since its inception.

How do the nation’s top economics bloggers feel about the state of the economy? This year’s fourth Kauffman Economic Outlook: A Quarterly Survey of Leading Economics Bloggers was recently released, and the outlook is, to put it mildly, not good.

In fact, the bloggers were more pessimistic about the economic outlook than they’ve been all year. The most common words used to describe the economy in the survey were “weak” and “uncertain.” Asked to characterize current economic conditions, 99 percent said that conditions are mixed, facing recession or in recession. (To break this down further, 64 percent said conditions are mixed, 27 percent say the economy is “facing recession,” and 7 percent say it is “weak and recessing.”) Just one respondent said the economy was ““strong with uncertain growth”—the lowest positives in any survey this year.

“I CAN’T decide what I like poking more: you, or these bubbles,” says bubble-blowing Kim Kardashian, a reality-TV star, in a new application for Facebook (see right). Cameo Stars, the company responsible for this innovation, lets Facebookers send to their online friends clips of minor celebrities mouthing generic greetings. Besides enriching the world’s culture, the firm may also make a fortune. But gloomy types wonder if the profusion of highly valued internet start-ups with lighter-than-air business plans is evidence of a different kind of bubble.

For the first time since 2000, internet and technology entrepreneurs can raise seed capital with little more than a half-formed idea and a dozen PowerPoint slides. “There is probably a bubble in the number of start-ups,” says Alan Patricof, a venture capitalist, though he is not yet convinced that there is irrational exuberance in later-stage valuations.

As governments grapple with deficits, the landscape of higher education will change. As has already happened in Britain, public support will shrink. Continuing to deliver high-quality teaching and research will require universities to find additional income streams while improving efficiency.

Before the financial tsunami, the University of Hertfordshire recognized the importance of business engagement. We became what we have termed a "business-facing" university, focusing our educational activities on supporting business and enabling social and economic growth in our communities and nation.

ECONOMICS: As Irish society gears up for a cathartic licking of economic wounds, it’s crucial that we continue the work done by the likes of the Innovation Taskforce and look to build new international relationships, writes CHRIS HORN

SOCIETIES CHANGE. Some behaviours, perfectly normal in earlier generations, are no longer socially acceptable. New understandings about the consequences of some actions on the health and wellbeing of a nation change the conventions of its populace.

Despite supporting Fianna Fáil for much of the State’s history, and rather passively accepting its policies, it appears the citizens of Ireland have decided to imminently remove that party from Government.

I sit through a lot of presentations. It’s usually people wanting to raise money and/or persuade me of something. Many of these are not as effective as they could be.

1. Understand Personality Types – One of the benefits of working for a big company (Accenture) was that we had lots of speakers come in and train us in topics like leadership, creativity, presentations, strategy, etc.  Most of them sucked.  But there were some that broke through and made an impact on me.  One of them was about better understanding personality types.  Not in a Myers Briggs way – we did that, too (I’m ENTP) – but it a more practical way: How people respond in meetings.

The hottest buzzword for startups in 2010 is “pivot.” The term, made popular by entrepreneur and venture advisor Eric Ries in an article on Lessons Learned last year, is properly used to describe successful startups that change direction quickly, but stay grounded in what they've learned. They keep one foot in the past and place one foot in a new possible future.

Over time, this pivoting may lead them a bit away from their original vision, but not away from the common principles that link each step. The pivot has to leverage previous learning about customers, technology, and the environment. The alternative is more risky, simply jumping compulsively from one vision to another, and is likely to lead to a death spiral.

Turning an innovative technology into a successful business can be a complicated and arduous process. Fortunately for would-be entrepreneurs, The National Science Foundation has programs in place to help turn dreams into business reality.

Errol Arkilic leads the software and services portfolio of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. He is one of ten program managers in the SBIR program at NSF where he focuses on IT and Security Technologies. The NSF supports high-risk innovation research projects in four areas: nano- and advanced materials and manufacturing; bio and chemical technologies; information and communications technologies; and education application.

As 2010 winds down, we've noticed an endless amount of online top 10 lists sputtering across the web. Trends, memes, social media celebs, darlings of the Internet--these rankings are eclectic in their range and subject matter. But most share one common thread: some mention of Ke$ha, Katy Perry, or Justin Bieber. These are artists who not only dominate sales charts, but social media, indicating the two have become inextricably intertwined.

We've lassoed all these top 10s--from Apple to Facebook to Last.fm--all in one convenient location. Here's how the year in trends has shaped up.

These life lessons certainly apply during the holiday season. But importantly, they’re life lessons which can help you embrace a more positive, successful perspective every day of 2011 and beyond.

• Recognize your personal limitations and become successful despite them.
• Your greatest challenges can be the seeds of your greatest successes.
• Humility can never be overrated.

Body Browser shows an interactive detailed 3D model of the human anatomy that includes multiple layers, such as the circulatory and nervous systems and the skeleton and muscles. It works like Google Maps, with special tools for viewing different types of body systems (nervous system, circulatory system, etc.), adding text, etc. You can send a link to any images you create by simply emailing the URL that currently shows in the browser address bar, as in this example:

IDG News Service has produced a video review of the year’s robot news, covering home, business, sports, and space uses.