It may come as no surprise that the job of newspaper reporter is going the way of the buggy whip maker -- but the forces of modernity have placed some unexpected occupations on the endangered species list as well. Using statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook 2010-2011, we identified 10 of the most surprising job categories whose numbers are projected to shrink in the coming years, plus a few that will grow so slowly that you might as well be sending your resume to Greece for a civil service job.

Entrepreneurs often wear every hat. Problem is, few entrepreneurs have tried all those hats on before they start a company, so sometimes they fit very poorly—if at all.

Since the best way to learn is by doing, here are five jobs every budding entrepreneur  should hold, even if just for a few months. The lessons learned last a lifetime.

1. Sales. A business without customers isn’t really a business. That’s why every business owner is in some way involved in sales. An entrepreneur who lacks basic sales skills faces major challenges. If you can’t clearly explain the logic and benefits of a decision or action—because that’s what “sales” really means—you’ll find it almost impossible to land financing, establish partnerships, motivate employees… and most importantly, land your first customers.

On 20 July 1969, Astronaut Neil Armstrong announced to an enthralled America: “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” His pronouncement of humankind conquering the moon in many ways ended the Space Race and brought about an era of space exploration and research unparalleled in history, although recent budget cuts to NASA and confused vacillations in America’s strategic plan for space potentially signal an end to our leadership.

Today, America faces the Innovation Race – the race to out-innovate our global competitors and continue our dominance in the global marketplace in the face of emerging nations and economies. While many lament the putative decline in America’s competitive advantage, especially as regards the condition of our innovation ecosystem, the National Science Foundation (NSF) potentially has taken “one small step” that will result in “one giant leap” for innovation in America. While others talk the talk, NSF has begun to walk the walk on innovation.

We spent the last two weeks asking venture capitalists what's on their holiday wish lists.

Here are the coolest gadgets they use and where you can buy them.

“This company needs to be more innovative!” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? But what happens next? Because a true change in how innovative a company is must also reflect a change in the skills of employees that are related to innovation. Which, of course, begs the question: Is innovation a skill set that all employees can acquire? Can employees that are not innovative learn how to be? And, if so, what are these skills? How are improvements in them measured? In this article Dr. Mark Juszczak attempts to provide HR practitioners with some guidelines and a background into the competencies linked to innovation and the extent to which such competencies are teachable.

Having a remote workforce can be a huge benefit to organizations, reducing office space expenses and environmental footprints. Companies can reap the benefits of talented individuals all over the globe who are able to do work that excites and engages them and do it in a place they want to live.

As attractive as this working arrangement sounds, it takes a lot of planning and preparation to implement. Businesses must thoroughly discuss the terms of working remotely before launching such an initiative including work schedules, home offices, secure computer networks and job responsibilities. One thing is for certain: Being able to communicate effectively and efficiently with remote employees is the key to success.

Lehigh University, Philadelphia University and Thomas Jefferson University were each awarded $200,000 in the fourth round of the University City Science Center's QED Proof of Concept Program, the Science Center announced Dec. 12, 2011. It was the first time any of the three universities have received a QED award. The QED Program is designed to facilitate commercial investment in early-stage life science technologies with high potential in the healthcare industry.

The projects receiving awards include a fabric that resists bacterial contamination developed at Philadelphia University, a portable device for delivering oxygen to critical care patients developed at Lehigh University, and a breakthrough diagnostic test for pancreatic cancer developed at Thomas Jefferson University. The projects were selected from 10 finalists by an independent group comprising industry and investment professionals.

A motley crew of backers is pushing Congress to loosen restrictions on crowdfunding, the new capital-raising method that uses the Internet to solicit start-up investment, despite warnings about the potential for fraud.

Popularized by online platforms such as Kickstarter and Kiva, crowdfunding currently relies on a donation-style model where fans of an artistic project, venture or nonprofit campaign pledge money in exchange for early product or philanthropic fulfillment.

It seems in Washington, almost everyone is a fan, from conservative Republicans to grassroots liberals; a recent House bill to ease crowdfunding restrictions passed 407-to-17.

The federal government is concluding arrangements to establish    Information Technology (IT) Business incubation centres in five states across the federation to among things unleash local talents to drive the ICT industry.

Although the IT business incubation is expected to be established in other states across the nation, Vanguard Hi-Tech learnt that  the five states that would benefit in the first phase of the capacity building initiative are not limited to Abuja, Lagos among others.

Just last week in Abuja, the  Honourable Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson had  inaugurated the Development Committee for Information Technology Business incubation centers in Nigeria. The IT business incubation committee which has 19 member  head by Adedotun Sulaiman it was learnt,  has bee given six weeks to submit their report to the Minister of Communication Technology.

In just the blink of an eye it will be 2012. And with that comes the opportunity for us to focus in on the hottest trends of the upcoming New Year, and maybe even those that eluded us in years prior. While you’re putting the finishing touches on your action plan for 2012, let’s dig into some of the hot Internet trends for SMBs to watch over the next 12 months. After all, you want to kick off the New Year on the right foot, don’t you?

Of course you do.

Yesterday we grabbed coffee with Chloe + Isabel founder Chantel Waterbury.

Chloe + Isabel is a jewelry website that turns each of its users into mini entrepreneurs.

Users are encouraged to sell the Chloe + Isabel jewelry lines to friends and at house parties. Chloe + Isabel designs and creates the jewelry, provides online training for its users/salespeople, gives them marketing tools and helps them build e-boutiques.

When I ask business leaders to identify which part of the innovation process their organizations struggle with the most, I typically get one of three answers:

• We have a lot of ideas but most of them get judged as impossible or too hard to implement based on changing the way things currently are
• We have a hard time deciding which idea or opportunity to pursue
• We come up with a lot of good ideas but can’t seem to execute on them

Watching videos online is usually considered fun, but generally a waste of time. Not so with TED videos, which are uniformly interesting, educational, inspiring, and enjoyable. If you haven't spent much time (or any) checking out TED videos, you should – and to help with that, I've compiled what seem to be the very best 10 TED videos of 2011.

It was a grueling task, combing through the cream of the crop on the TED site, but somebody had to do it.

Some of the talks may have been filmed prior to 2011 but all of the talks here were posted in 2011. Unless you were lucky enough to attend the TED event in question, it's still new to you. Enjoy!

Venture capital (VC) serves as the lifeblood for early-stage businesses as they prepare to launch ideas onto the completive marketplace.  VC investment allows innovators to test prototypes, fine-tune products and build their workforce and attract customers.  The Ohio Capital Fund is working to build a healthy venture capital ecosystem to support Ohio entrepreneurs building businesses in the state.  A new study, conducted by The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business, is evidence of Ohio's success in this key resource for growing businesses in high growth economic sectors.  In fact, results indicate that growth of Ohio's VC investments last year outpaced national levels by four to one.

"Every day The Ohio Capital Fund works to nurture Ohio's entrepreneurial ecosystem by attracting venture capital to support innovation," said Paul Cohn, Regional Director of Fort Washington Capital Partners Group, the manager of The Ohio Capital Fund. "It is exciting to see these tangible results which demonstrate our progress."

With the 2012 presidential election season officially kicking off in Iowa on January 3, the focus has increasingly been on the state as a leading indicator of Middle America where rural and suburban voters value simplicity and authenticity over whiz-bang political posturing. That was the story that came out of the big Republican debate in Des Moines on Saturday when Romney made his $10,000 wager, and it will likely be the case again in the second Iowa debate in Sioux City on December 15. But that storyline ignores an important fact – cities across America’s heartland such as Des Moines are fast emerging as forward-looking innovation hubs in their own right, no longer content to co-exist in the shadow of Silicon Valley.

In short, Iowa is no longer flyover territory.

South Dakota State University leaders and many of their colleagues at other large public universities recently reported strategies they have initiated to support regional economic growth.

The reports, compiled by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, demonstrate continued initiatives developed to foster and promote innovation, entrepreneurship and technology commercialization throughout the United States.

The initiatives at South Dakota State stem from a collaborative effort of colleges and departments throughout the university in support of the university's strategic plan, "Achieving National Distinction, Strengthening Local Relevance." Each program allows for the potential of regional innovation partnerships with other research-based universities, collaboration with existing companies to commercialize federally-funded research, or opportunities to nurture startup companies, attract new talent to the university and train a world-class workforce.

Budding entrepreneur Eric Bolden had never met an angel investor until he tried pitching a business idea to a few of them.

Last week, the retired prison guard showed up at a midtown New York loft for an event that connects entrepreneurs with investors to see whether he might get, say, $50,000, from the angels—wealthy individuals who provide capital to start-ups with the potential for fast growth.‬

Mr. Bolden, dressed in a suit and tie, took to the microphone for a two-minute pitch, clutching his crumpled notes of the key selling points for his idea—a police handgun identification signal, complete with a flashing alert. The proposed device is meant to protect plain-clothes officers from friendly fire.‬

Pressure BioSciences (PBIO) is a research products and services provider for the life science industry. The Company is engaged in the research, development and commercialization of a novel, enabling platform technology called pressure cycling technology (PCT).

PCT uses cycles of hydrostatic pressure between ambient and ultra-high levels (≥35,000 psi) to control bio-molecular interactions. The current product portfolio includes Barocyclers, PCT based instruments, and consumables, which include PULSE (Pressure Used to Lyse Samples for Extraction) Tubes as well as application specific kits (which include consumable products and reagents). The instruments and the consumables together make up the PCT Sample Preparation System (PCT SPS).  The system follows the highly successful and profitable “razor and blade” business model.

For City of Hope Medical Center’s Beckman Research Institute, the “Cabilly patents” are the gift that keeps on giving

And they’re also the overwhelming reason why City of Hope again finished first in licensing income among hospitals and research institutions in the 2010 annual survey by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM).

Duarte, California-based City of Hope pulled in $202 million in licensing income in 2010, up about 3 percent from the prior year. City of Hope’s 2010 haul exceeded runner-up Sloan Kettering Institute by 45 percent.

As I jogged down Wall Street in New York in October through the barricades, police horses, and thousands of activists, something became clear. The masses had self-organized and social media had added yet another social movement to its résumé. At the same time, something else became clear to me. Much higher than street level, in the boardrooms of America’s largest companies, social media expertise was far from entering the résumés of most C-suites.

Why is there confusion inside these glass fortresses around the world? Senior executives are struggling to get a grasp of what to do about the social opportunity for their kingdom. But hey, it’s new, right? The kids only started signing up eight years ago. For lots of people, the biggest concern with technology is figuring out how to operate their BlackBerry in the post-trackwheel era.