The content and tenor of debate in this presidential-election season has Washington’s pro-trade establishment in a panic, wondering what has happened to the previous consensus about the merits of global economic integration. Yet rather than question their long-held assumptions, establishmentarians have concluded that the problem must be with the American people and the political demagogues leading them astray. The less charitable among them dismiss opponents as “less educated” isolationists, nationalists, or ethnocentrists. The more charitable assume that if trade supporters would just slow down and enunciate clearly — Trade is good! — then maybe the unwashed would get the message.

US tech giant Google on Thursday asked for applications to attend the next session of its Launchpad Accelerator programme through which startups can utilise Googles mentorship and product access to scale business and capitalise on local markets, while also tapping into new global opportunities.

The Launchpad Accelerator is a specially-designed class to help startups in emerging markets find solutions to their business challenges and successfully scale.

Image: http://gadgets.ndtv.com

Startups in the medical device industry are on pace for an uptick in financing, thanks to interest from private market investors, including corporates. We put together a periodic table of medical device companies to highlight promising startups, industry categories, exits, and active investors in the category.

The table is meant to serve as a guide to navigate the key players in the space. The 140 companies and 10 investors in the table were chosen using CB Insights data on total funding received by each company, number of investors’ unique investments in the category, and exits data.

Image: https://www.cbinsights.com

In the last few years, startup activity has risen, reversing a five-year downward trend, according to the 2015 Kauffman Index.

The rate of new entrepreneurs in the United States has increased about 10 percent, to the tune of nearly 6.3 million new business owners a year.

Very few entrepreneurs are willing to acknowledge the legal realities of running a business. Many are simply unaware of it. While this is mostly for good reason, ignorance is not an excuse. The fact that most legal documents are worded in complex and difficult-to-understand language makes it an uninteresting aspect of business for many founders.

Image: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Since the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act was signed into law in April of 2012, the securitized world of publicly raising investment capital has opened to you and me!

In May of this year, the “Crowdfunding Regulation” became law allowing American business starters to raise investment capital using Crowdfunding portals such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo (there are now hundreds).

Before May, it was actually illegal.

It didn't really hit the radar when my former SCVNGR colleague Nicolas Warren set his own course by commercializing Perfect Fuel Chocolate, delicious cocoa morsels he was cooking up in his home kitchen on nights and weekend. I thought it was smart when engineer Joe Lind, after concluding his time at SCVNGR, opened up Terrible Labs and took with him Cort Johnson and later Smith Anderson.

Jeff Robbins, an IEEE Life Member and active IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology member for over 30 years, admits he pursued engineering for surprising reasons: he first studied the subject “because the three older boys next door did,” and later enrolled in graduate school at the University of New Mexico due to another twist of fate, when his car broke down in Albuquerque. “Of course, it’s not so toss of the coin as that,” he says, citing a passion for “understanding how things worked, the universe included.” A problem identifier and solver from an early age, Robbins conducted experiments with his friends: “Long before solar energy, long before climate change was on the world’s tongues, a fellow student and I came up with a solar energy project that generated electricity — we also cooked a hot dog using a parabolic antenna we bought in New York City’s Chinatown.”

Image: http://sites.ieee.org

Architectural Digest is revealing its top five game-changing talents in design. Features editor Sam Cochran joins Lunch Break with Tanya Rivero to discuss what makes these designers so unique. Photo: Condé Nast

SYDNEY (9 September 2016) — Whether “starting from scratch” or repurposing an existing precinct, a successful innovation ecosystem requires four key elements to succeed, according to a new report released by integrated infrastructure firm AECOM. The Transforming Australian Cities with Innovation report, launched last night in Sydney, found the best economic and societal outcomes are achieved when government provides a flexible platform and vision for commercial, residential and academic tenants through integrated planning for transport, technology and essential services.

Image: http://www.aecom.com

PwC have today released research which shows that research, development and innovation (RD&I) has a crucial role to play in an era where future business success will be more than just about delivering financial profits and prioritising multiple stakeholder needs.    This is according to PwC's 2016 CEO Pulse Survey which interviewed 255 Irish CEOs. Nearly a third (30%) of CEOs in Ireland reported that maintaining Ireland's status as an attractive location for RD&I is critical to increasing their investment in Ireland. This shot up from 14% last year demonstrating the increased urgency for Irish companies to remain relevant in the new value chain.

Image: https://www.businessworld.ie

Anchor: The government has unveiled a comprehensive policy package aimed at making South Korea one of the world’s top seven biohealth powerhouses. The government is hoping to double industry exports by 2020.  Our Bae Joo-yon has more.   Report: The government has announced plans to double the nation's biohealth exports by 2020 to 20 trillion won, or about 18 billion U.S. dollars.

Chaired by Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, officials of the Health and Welfare Ministry and other related agencies on Thursday finalized their plans to overhaul the biotechnology and healthcare sector.   

Image: http://world.kbs.co.kr/

Wouldn’t it be great if we humans could program our minds to dream of practical things? My answer - hell no! Although I believe many wish they could. In this information-driven world, we can learn so much today that we had no concept of yesterday. This fact is multiplied when we welcome time for our imaginations. So many of us get stuck in the routine commonality of what they do, their reality, they forget to nourish their most valuable asset their Imaginations. Things which are practical are always known, things which are revolutionary usually have no history to help us decide the merits of taking action. So those who stifle their imaginations or live with tunnel vision, will believe that sticking with what they know is a better gamble.

If there’s one thing that I’m getting sick of hearing about, it’s the skills gap. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a very real situation happening here: as of the last business day of June 2016, there were 5.6 million jobs available in the U.S. according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for said month. At the same time, the U.S. unemployment rate currently sits at 4.9%, which equates to about 7.77 million people. Why is it that we can’t fill these jobs? Why is it that we can’t cut unemployment down to half its current rate? The infamous skills gap, according to the internet… but what if I told you that this whole “skills gap” thing is a myth that those in power are clinging to, hoping to keep the “old way of doing things” alive while fiercely resisting change and innovation? A disclaimer: I’ve written about the skills gap before, what it all means, how to overcome it, etc. It’s only as I’ve grown older, watched the situation develop, and decided to dive into the origin of the skills gap that I’ve realized what a confused web has been woven.

There’s big trouble in venture capital land, with allegations of wild spending, electronic snooping and unhinged management dragging a slew of funds through the mud. That could be a shocking foretaste of a coming VC massacre, according to some analysts.

In just the past few months, one $100 million VC fund linked to Harvard University was ripped open by claims of violence and fraud; a Silicon Valley fund is accused of spending itself into insolvency; and a Bay Area fund disintegrated amidst petty infighting and arguments over travel expenses.

Nope, this isn't a scene out of Free Willy.

It's actually taking place in the Army Bay, New Zealand, where a kayaker casually jumped out of his vessel to hang out with a curious orca on Monday. Tim Stewart is said daring kayaker, who told the NZ Herald he went down to the ocean after he heard of orca sightings in the area.

S. 2812 would permanently authorize and expand the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. Those programs help small businesses compete for research and development contracts. The bill also would authorize federal agencies to use a portion of their funding for research and development to cover administrative costs of the SBIR and STTR programs. S. 2812 also would direct the Small Business Association (SBA) to develop a pilot program to provide grants to establish regional collaboratives to help small businesses increase their competitiveness for awards from these programs and would authorize a variety of other activities.

I’m amazed about Americans’ debate regarding immigration.  And all the rhetoric from candidate Trump about the need to close America’s borders.

I was raised in Oklahoma, which prior to statehood was called The Indian Territory.  I was raised around the only real Native Americans.  All the rest of us are immigrants.  Some voluntarily, some as slaves.  But the fact that people want to debate whether we allow people to become Americans seems to me somewhat ridiculous, since 98% of Americans are immigrants.  The majority within 2 generations.

Smart money VCs are on pace to participate in fewer cybersecurity deals through the end of this year, compared to 2015. This year, through Q2’16, the top two dozen smart money VCs participated in nearly 30 cybersecurity funding rounds — deals that totaled $657M in aggregate.

By year-end, 2016 is on track to see roughly 50 cybersecurity deals with smart money VCs involved, deals that together are projected to account for nearly $1.2B in funding. Last year we saw these VCs involved in 56 deals worth nearly $2B.

The Georgetown-based Halcyon Incubator celebrated the commencement of a new cohort on Thursday with another announcement — two years ago, to the day, the incubator itself was launched. In that time, S&R Foundation COO Kate Goodall informed the gathered crowd, the incubator has served 32 ventures, which have raised a collective $10 million in funding and “impacted” 2 million lives around the world.

Image: The Halcyon House. (Photo by Tajha Chappellet-Lanier)