After reflecting over the past few weeks on Turning 45 as well as Death and Dying, I’ve reached a conclusion that I’ve said out loud several times: “My life is most likely more than half over.”  The singularity not withstanding, the chances, at least today, that I’ll live to be over 90 aren’t great.

Over the weekend, I saw two blog posts from friends – one from Joanne Wilson about her mom passing away titled Judy Solomon, Entrepreneur and one from Ken Smith (I’m actually close to Ken’s brother Keith, the CEO of BigDoor) titled A Eulogy for Elmer Smith.  Both are beautifully written – Judy was 73 and Ken was 97.  Joanne starts off with a very insightful statement:

“Old enough to have lived a full life yet young enough to have had her life cut short.  I always thought she would live to the ripe old age of 90 something, but life doesn’t always turn out as expected. “

SITKA, ALASKA (2010-12-20) The Juneau Economic Development Council and the US Forest Service are collaborating on a new tool to guide development in the panhandle. The Southeast Cluster Initiative should help communities and businesses visualize opportunities for sustainable growth based on population, resources, and broad economic trends.

Visit the Juneau Economic Development Council website.

 “A cluster is a straightforward concept: It’s a set of firms in a related field that collaborates together to address common problems.”

Brian Holst is the director of the Juneau Economic Development Council. He took an hour recently to explain to the Sitka Chamber of Commerce how identifying and focusing on a region’s strengths was critical to boosting economic growth.

SAN FRANCISCO — Signs you’re an old fogey: You still watch movies on a VCR, listen to vinyl records and shoot photos on film.

And you enjoy using e-mail.

Young people, of course, much prefer online chats and text messages. These have been on the rise for years but are now threatening to eclipse e-mail, much as they have already superseded phone calls.

Major Internet companies like Facebook are responding with message services that are focused on immediate gratification.

Nearly every week from last February until mid-May, Google trotted wide-eyed visitors into a small room at its colorful headquarters in Mountain View, California. Inside were a comfy couch and easy chairs, a tall fabric houseplant in a corner, and a large high-definition television set atop a credenza. Under the watchful eyes of engineers and product managers on the other side of a mirrored window, the visitors would settle in with a wireless keyboard. They would search for and tune in to All My Children on ABC, catch a Glee episode on the Web, watch a recording of The Daily Show from a digital video recorder, or surf over to those witty Old Spice ads on YouTube—all on that nice big TV screen.

The company was testing one of the boldest bets in its 12-year history: Google TV. It is software that aims to give people an easy way to access everything available on regular television channels and the vast sea of content on the Internet, all on the biggest screen in the house—a bid to reinvent television for the Internet age. The initiative was set for its first public demonstration on May 20, and Google's geeks had to make sure the product would appeal to the average viewer, who watches about five hours of television a day. So week after week, the Google TV team would try out countless variations on everything from the look of the search results to the background colors for the screen, hoping to learn what worked best.

The game has changed. Economies around the globe are faltering. Creation and commercialization of new technologies can hardly keep up with demand. The climate is in peril. But at the same time, organizations and individuals are increasingly recognizing the need to collaborate and progress together in some fashion.

Accelerating innovation to the marketplace requires scalability with unprecedented speed. To achieve this with yet higher levels of success, we must change our paradigm by expanding the possible routes to the pinnacle. We are coming to understand that stakeholders with common technology commercialization goals must cooperate to some degree in order to remain competitive globally. This is not an oxymoron. Whether it was villagers of times long gone, or trade associations of a more modern era, this is an understanding we have long held.

Harvard University offers a fascinating and important class on Commercializing Science. The class is taught jointly by Harvard's Business School, Law School, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Kennedy School. The diverse disciplines are part of what makes the course so significant. In the "real world," successful commercialization efforts require effective alignment of many corporate functions. This fall, I was asked to serve as an expert advisor to the program.

For the first 75 minutes, the class follows the traditional HBS case study method. For the rest of the class, the students work in cross-discipline teams. These teams were tasked with developing a commercialization plan for some of the ideas emanating from Harvard's labs. Their "final exam" consists of presenting their recommended commercialization plan to about 200 faculty members, students, and potential investors.

Above is a lighthouse in Cleveland, Ohio. The spray from Lake Erie froze layer by layer until the structure was encased in ice. WKYC.com has a gallery of photos by George Payamgis. "Frozen Cleveland lighthouse draws visitors"

A pugnacious CEO once told me that there are three ways to lose money: gambling, divorce, and innovation. With annual U.S. research and development spending amongst Booz & Company's Global Innovation 1000 at over $500 billion, companies are paying heavily for the ambition to create. But how do you plan for new growth and innovate in those markets where too many businesses are armed against commoditization with glib value propositions and over-reliance on cost containment, promotions, product extensions, and price competition?

According to a global study by IBM, today's CIO spends an average of 55% of his or her time on activities that spur innovation, and the key component underpinning all successful innovations is the business model. For a business model to be of value, it must have three core elements: a unique central idea that defines who you are, a grasp of future market trends, and profitability from either lower cost base or an offering that cannot be easily copied. An example is Gilt Groupe, whose business model covers all three, and has allowed them to continue to innovate across several categories. One of the hottest startups in New York, they expect to generate up to $500 million in revenue this year, up from $170 million in 2009.

The idea of “smart growth” should be like mom and apple pie. But take a closer look and you find, for the most part, that smart growth policies often have unintended consequences that are anything but smart.

If housing is unaffordable, the cost of living is high and people are leaving, it probably means that a state rates higher in smart growth policies. That's the story from an analysis of the new Smart Growth America state ratings on transportation policies the organization believes would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The new ratings are based upon strategies recommended in Moving Cooler, a smart growth oriented report authored by Cambridge Systematics in 2009 (Note 1).

A large share of venture-backed companies expect to hit the funding trail in 2011, but they may find the path treacherous if they’re not operating in a few choice industries.

According to a new survey from the National Venture Capital Association and Dow Jones & Co., 64% of the 182 chief executives polled plan to raise additional funding in the new year. These CEOs, spread fairly evenly over a number of industries, also expect the dollars to flow - 58% project overall venture investments will increase in 2011 while just 14% think they will decrease.

Venture capitalists aren’t as optimistic, the same survey found. Of the 338 VCs who participated in the survey, 51% believe dollars will increase and 24% see a decline.

The geeks on your gift list are always hard to buy for. They already have the latest gadgets. Gift cards can seem lame. And a batch of homemade fudge just won't cut it for that special scientist in your life.

Luckily, there are plenty of great gifts out there on the Internet that will fit the bill for even the most discerning researchers on your list.

Fa-la-lassa fever
Killer microbes seem much less threatening when they're stuffed and cuddly. Giant Microbes, makers of the popular plush microorganisms, have released a set of limited edition Christmas ornaments featuring the neuron, the common cold, E. coli, Epstein-Barr Virus, and the Red Amoeba, decked out in festive holiday garb.

Opera Software has released its State of the Mobile Web report for November 2010 today, but has also taken the opportunity to look back at the preceding months to summarize trends and statistics related to global mobile Web usage for 2010. The findings? Mobile Web surfing is way, way up.

Opera served 340 billion pages during the first 11 months of the year compared with only 129 billion pages during the same period in 2009. There are now 80 million users on the mobile Web using Opera's Mini browser - a 91.8% increase from last year. And Facebook and Google are still top Web destinations, but the two have swapped the number 1 and 2 slots as 2010 draws to a close.

Opera releases its "State of the Mobile Web" reports after each month ends, so this will be the last report released in this calendar year. That means this year-end report is shy one month: December. However, there's still a lot of data that can be analyzed from the first 11 months of the year.

Earlier this year, 500 Startups, the seed fund run by Dave McClure, announced that it was creating a $250,000 micro-fund dedicated to companies that were based on Twilio’s telephony platform (Twilio is one of 500 Startup’s portfolio companies). Today it’s announcing the first three winners, each of whom will receive $10,000 in return for a 1% stake in the company.

The three companies are Textaurant, OrderMapper, and Voicendo. Textaurant is a service that lets restaurant customers ‘put their names down’ for a table without having to sit around on a restaurant bench for 20 minutes. Instead, they receive a text or voice message (via Twilio) when it’s their turn (this sounds like an alternative to those vibrating gizmos that some establishments hand out). The company says that there’s been a 5-15% decrease in no-shows for restaurants on busy nights that use the service, and that most customers are happy to give the restaurant their phone number to take advantage of it. Come to think of it, I’m surprised this kind of SMS-service hasn’t taken off sooner.

Sorry, we like toys around here and we don’t care what you think. Tonka trucks, robotic spiders and portable gaming systems should make everyone smile. These things are just for young kids anymore. Just think about the rage you can unleash on your office with a motorized Nerf gun.

CrunchGear saw plenty of new toys in 2010 but the following video reviews were our favorite. Join us on a look back at the year’s best toy videos.

There are over now 85 million people that belong to the Linkedin Social Network. Who are some of the most "connected" innovators among Linkedin? Searches on Linkedin reveal that SolutionPeople Innovation's Gerald "Solutionman" Haman is ranked as the 14th Most Connected Person on Linkedin. With 30,000 Direct Connections Haman, now has over 5 million Level 2 Connections and almost 18 million Level 3 Connections on Linkedin.

Running a start-up is anything but a life of wine and roses. Seasoned entrepreneurs know that, but budding ones are often a bit naïve. After running down five ugly truths of the startup world last week, Jason Baptiste is back with another half-dozen truths that can help prepare people for their entrepreneurial endeavors.

There is no silver bullet - There shouldn’t be (and usually never is) a single deal that can make your company. Certain deals or customers can take you to another rung on the ladder, but there are still many more rungs to climb along the way. Don’t look at a deal as the end game to the startup, but rather as a means to a specific milestone that is in the near future. It’s much easier to lose a deal than it is to secure one. By training yourself to diversify your risk and the milestones that advance your company, you control the destiny of your company, not any single partner. The success of a startup is the compilation of luck infused with many little wins along the way.

Last week, in the spirit of a season in which most of us look at the end of one year, and the start of a New Year, as an opportunity to reflect on our jobs, I offered a set of questions to help you figure out whether it was time to move to a new company or even a new career. This week, in that same spirit, I’d like to address myself to leaders at every level of the organization who want to keep their best people and get the best effort out of them.

Here, then, are five make-or-break questions for leaders who want to make a fresh start for the New Year.

Last night was there was a rare total lunar eclipse, which occurs around once a year.

This is when the earth blocks the sun from the moon. The result, which can be seen from many places around the world for over an hour, is a darkening moon as the eclipse begins and a red moon when the sun is mostly eclipsed and the reddish reflection of the earth shows on the surface.

This was also the first time a total lunar eclipse occured on the winter solstice since 1638, meaning the moon was especially high in the sky.

Check out photos below:

2011 will be the year of the municipal default. At least that's what analysts like Meredith Whitney predict, as do bond investors that have been fleeing the muni market.

There are many reasons to be worried. First, the expiration of Build America Bonds will make it harder for cities to raise funds.

Second, city revenues are crashing and keep getting worse. Property taxes haven't reflected the total damage from the housing crash. High joblessness is cutting into city revenues, while increasing costs for services.