Ford has identified the 25 most electric vehicle (EV) ready cities in the U.S., based on the company’s latest research. The 25 cities are dotted all over the country from Hartford to Honolulu. A previous Pike research report highlighted 6 cities expected to be early EV adopters: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas and Houston.

Ford used measures such as a streamlined permit process, utility rate structures that support nighttime charging, incentives such as high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, preferred parking and tax incentives to determine the rankings. Ford also took into consideration specialized measures some cities are taking to support electric vehicles.

A number of cities are putting special parking in place for EVs. In Honolulu all parking facilities with 100 parking spaces or more must designate at least 1 percent for EVs by the end of the year. Los Angeles will have designated charging spots throughout California where EVs can park after paying a $17 application fee.

A Kalamazoo-based venture fund has raised $15 million to invest in lifescience companies that have a significant presence in southwest Michigan, said the fund’s managing director on Wednesday.

SWMF LifeScience Venture Fund intends to raise another $35 million, said Pat Morand, adding that six years ago, the fund raised its first $50 million.

While Morand is the managing director, three other individuals hold the position of director in the fund: William Johnston, William Parfet and Goran Ando, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.

Pop quiz: True or false?

• The different cell types found in a given individual's body contain different DNA.

• Mountains form by the piling up of pieces of rock.

• Some living parts of organisms are not made of cells.

More than half of the thousands of middle and high school students tested in nationwide examinations think the above statements are true (58 percent, 52 percent and 75 percent, respectively). They are not. Also false: Earth's plates are under the surface and are not visible (49 percent of students think is true); and air is carried through the body in "air tubes" (43 percent).

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Florida Economic Gardening Institute reached another milestone this week when its GrowFL initiative accepted the 200th company into the advanced technical assistance program. As the only program in the country to earn official accreditation in economic gardening, GrowFL provides client companies with a suite of economic gardening tools including sophisticated market research and recommendations to prepare second-stage companies to grow to the next level. Collectively, the 200 companies that have received assistance from the program generated $860 million in revenue and employed 4,725 workers in 2010.

The newest company to receive this free assistance is Telovations, a Tampa-based telecommunications company that provides business communications services in the cloud. Telovations has already been ranked 213th in Inc. magazine’s Inc. 500, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.

WASHINGTON - Hispanics now outnumber African-Americans for the first time in most U.S. metropolitan areas, shifting the political and racial dynamics in cities once dominated by whites and blacks.

Census figures released Thursday highlight the growing diversity of the nation's 366 metro areas, which were home to a record 83.7 percent share of the U.S. population. The numbers from the 2010 count are already having a big effect on redistricting in many states, where district boundary lines are being redrawn based on population size and racial makeup.

Hispanics became the largest minority group in 191 metropolitan areas last year, their population lifted higher as blacks left many economically hard-hit cities in the North for the South and new Latino immigrants spread to different parts of the country. That's up from 159 metro areas when the previous Census was taken in 2000, when Hispanics were most commonly found in Southwest border states.

Champaign, IL -- Wednesday, April 6, 2011. World Tea Media awarded Tiesta Tea, a young startup company sponsored by the University of Illinois, the Best New Product in the category of Packaging for the 2011 World Tea Expo. The award commemorates the design and functionality of Tiesta Tea's tins.

"The design and functionality of the tins is superb," said Kim Jage, Executive Vice President of World Tea Media. "We loved the 'peek-a-boo' sides that offer a glimpse of the tea's special quality, while the packaging itself safeguards its freshness."

"No tea company has ever created tins with UV protected windows and a mechanical clasp on top," said Patrick Tannous, CEO of Tiesta Tea and former University of Illinois Chicago student in Communications. "I guess we were innovators."

We are talking about angel investors here, meaning people who invest their own money in early-stage startups for a share of the equity. These people are highly focused on investment areas they know, which have a large opportunity for growth, revenue projection of $20M or more in five years, and a high return that can be realized via an exit within five years.

Generally, the same criteria applies to venture capital investors, although they invest other people’s money, at a later stage, in larger amounts. Both are excited by innovative new products and services, and neither is normally interested in deals in the following domains:

* Consulting services. This type of business is usually based on the expert skill and reputation of an individual or small group. Such a business shouldn’t need a large investment to get started (no product to develop), and it probably won’t scale quickly (limited supply of experts). Accordingly, investors will decline.

If you ever find yourself having to persuade others of the goodness of your cause, you can do no worse than to follow the example of the actor, Kevin Spacey.

In Washington to deliver the 24th annual Nancy Hanks lecture on Arts and Public Policy, Spacey took time to advocate for continued federal funding of the arts, which, like many cultural and social programs, is on the chopping block. Spacey’s advocacy in Congress and to the Washington media was an example of how to present yourself and your case in ways that make people sit up and take notice. Watching Spacey on MSNBC’s Hardball was like taking a master class in persuasion.

One skill that every designer must learn — and quickly — is how to be creative on-demand. While there will always be specifications that guide a project as well as tried and true methods of solving common visual problems, one must still be able to get focused, get creative and produce work that doesn’t end up looking formulaic or forced.

Unfortunately, though, not every project will be tantalizing and fun, and there will be days when you simply don’t want to go to work, no matter how much you love your job. How do you keep the creative spark going when you’re not feeling particularly inspired? We have 12 simple tips you can use to foster a more creative mindset.

Whether it's the latest tablet computer, electric sports car or other cool new product, Americans get very excited about innovation—and more often than not these innovations are brought to market by engineers working in technology hubs like Silicon Valley.

An innovation engine has many moving parts and all of them have to mesh properly for the engine to run smoothly. In Silicon Valley, and elsewhere in the United States, the engine requires sources of trained professionals (engineers, scientists, business people), sources of capital (venture capitalists, fluid stock markets), and new and existing companies that form a mutually reinforcing ecosystem.

Although women play a major role in the economic development of emerging economies, they have the least access to capital and credit compared to their male counterparts. Giving more credit to women has been mooted as one of the fastest ways to reduce poverty in emerging economies. The virtues of female entrepreneurship have been extolled over the last few years although a lot still needs to be done to make this a reality: without capital or credit entrepreneurship is hardly possible so this means that solutions need to be found that enhance this capacity rather than talk about it and do nothing about it.

Crowd funding is definitely one of the solutions that could be put forward that could increase the likelihood of increasing available capital to women. Crowd funding in this sense refers to the process of providing small loans to female owned businesses which enables them to expand and grow their businesses. This also means that they reinvest the proceeds of their business into the nutrition and education of their families which results in an increase in the quality of life of their society and community. This correlation has been supported by evidence from the World Bank and IFC stating that women reinvest 90% of their profits in the home whilst mean reinvest only 60-70%.

As the online sectors continues to mature, there are more ways to finance your business and increase your growth without sacrificing a large amount of equity. By financing several fast-growing websites, my company has gained a perspective on how the landscape is changing. Here are a few lessons we’ve learned along the way.
1. Most Capital Raises Have Gotten Smaller

We’ve all been reading about the series of huge raises that Groupon, Zynga, Facebook and Twitter have completed recently. However, on the other end of the spectrum, startup capital isn’t as big budget as it was in the ’90s. The technology to manage and monetize websites has gotten a lot cheaper and easier to deploy. While this means that there are fewer barriers to entry nowadays, the downside is that investors simply don’t want to invest as much, even in very strong ideas.

Watson is of little use beyond the game show's set. But some of the techniques that helped the computer defeat two human Jeopardy champions in February are showing promise in a new context: the hospital. Researchers in Canada are using analytics like that which helped the computer decipher the language of clues to provide an early warning when babies in an intensive care unit acquire a hospital-borne infection.

As you would expect, babies in an ICU are surrounded by equipment that tracks their vital signs, but much of that data is wasted, says Carolyn McGregor, a researcher at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. "They produce constant streams of data," she says, "but that information is often distilled down to a (nurse's) spot reading every 60 minutes, written on paper."

What's the secret sauce for job creation? Step one is to identify who actually creates jobs (hint: entrepreneurs), and it seems like all parties in Washington finally agree on this one. Step two is to find the best way to, if you can forgive the term, stimulate them.

Imagine my surprise when a colleague sent me a congratulatory email for being cited in the 2011 Economic Report of the President on step one. Democrats historically look out for workers, while Republicans tend to look out for corporations. The problem is, entrepreneurs are neither and/or both at once. Chapter seven of this year's ERP is fully dedicated to the issue of entrepreneurship, and I was tickled that my paper -- part of the Kauffman Foundation's series on job creation -- was mentioned.

A new hookup site for Yalies is strictly business.

CoderHeap, a startup that connects business innovators with Web developers, was made available to students at Yale and Villanova last Wednesday. Over 80 Yalies have signed up to use the service, which is in its alpha — or initial testing — phase. Businesses seeking to improve their Web presence can post job openings on the site to attract developers and designers.

“I wanted to give people inside a network the ability to connect,” said Thaddeus Diamond ’12, who founded the site. “Whenever you give people the opportunity to find talent, you have a useful product.”

Whether it's the latest tablet computer, electric sports car or other cool new product, Americans get very excited about innovation—and more often than not these innovations are brought to market by engineers working in technology hubs like Silicon Valley.

An innovation engine has many moving parts and all of them have to mesh properly for the engine to run smoothly. In Silicon Valley, and elsewhere in the United States, the engine requires sources of trained professionals (engineers, scientists, business people), sources of capital (venture capitalists, fluid stock markets), and new and existing companies that form a mutually reinforcing ecosystem.

If you are used to setting financial goals for your business you undoubtedly have a revenue goal. In other words, you’ve set a figure for how many dollars your business is going to bring in this year.

But according to Carissa Reiniger, CEO of Silver Lining LTD, that’s not good enough. If you want to achieve a financial goal in your business, you must break your goal down into “units of sale” rather than an annual, quarterly or monthly revenue number.

Growco Stage

Last week (April 6-8, 2011) I attended the GrowCo Conference put on by Inc Magazine. I was inspired and as always when I attend events, I learned a few things. (Many thanks to UPS, which subsidized my attendance.) In a series of posts this week, I’d like to share with you some of what I learned at GrowCo.

Akron, OH (Vocus/PRWEB) April 13, 2011

Summit Data Communications, a manufacturer of industrial-grade and medical-grade wireless modules, today was named the 2011 Outstanding Incubator Client in the technology category by the National Business Incubation Association. A client of the Akron Global Business Accelerator in downtown Akron, Summit bested more than 1,000 international entrants, including two finalists from Hong Kong.

“Summit Data Communications is part of an energized and growing technology community here in Northeastern Ohio,” said Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic. “Summit continues to build upon the wireless communications legacy that began here some 30 years ago with Telxon, and is leveraging the investments we're making to help build healthcare technology companies in the region.”

I just learned about Project Skyway, Minnesota’s First Tech Accelerator Program. I've been interested in accelerators and acceleration programs for some time and an email from them came at just the right time.

Here's what caught my eye and what makes this program different:

First, Project Skyway is the only tech accelerator program that will accept single founders (at least from what I've found).

Second, Project Skyway will accept non-technical teams. This part is huge. Huge. Two full-time software developers will be allocated per company throughout the three-month cycle (for free), which means having a "techie" on the team is not a must. Almost any other accelerator program will bounce you if you don’t have a tech co-founder as part of your team. Project Skyway is seeking applicants with the ability to execute over the ability to code the viable and fund-able prototype themselves.

The Allen Institute for Brain Science has released the world’s first anatomically and genomically comprehensive human brain map, a previously unthinkable feat made possible through leading-edge technology and more than four years of rigorous studies and documentation. The unprecedented mappings are the foundation for the Allen Human Brain Atlas, an online public resource developed to advance the Institute’s goal to accelerate understanding of how the human brain works and fuel new discovery among the global research community.

In developing the Allen Human Brain Atlas, the Allen Institute has now thoroughly characterized and mapped the biochemistry of two normal adult human brains, providing opportunities for scientists to study the brain with new detail and accuracy. The data reveal a striking 94 percent similarity between human brains, establishing strong patterns as a critical foundation for translational and clinical research. In addition, data analysis from the two human brains indicate that at least 82 percent of all human genes are expressed in the brain, highlighting its tremendous complexity while also providing an essential genetic blueprint to understand brain functionality better and propel research in neurologic disease and other brain disorders.