It’s all about the money. When it comes to getting a new product off the ground, raising money for a cause, exploring growth opportunities for your small business and building your brand, crowdfunding offers a nontraditional way to reach non-conventional investors. Crowdfunding reaches a larger and more diversified pool of interest than many standard methods of raising capital. It invites investment at any level, small-dollar and big. And, it helps you do something new and important for yourself and your investors. Plain and simple, it just makes sense to explore the marketing side of crowdfunding.

DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) has a proud history of making seminal investments in breakthrough technologies that ultimately became critical components in our electronics-filled world, from flash memory to radio frequency (RF) semiconductors to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). But DARPA does not develop technologies on its own. The Agency’s approach is to set extremely challenging goals and then offer innovators at universities and companies the support they need to pursue those remote but exciting frontiers.

A photographer on a dive off of the coast of Tonga captured an incredible moment with a humpback whale.

Australian photographer Beau Pilgrim was on a group snorkeling tour when he managed to capture a humpback whale breaching the water's surface just a few feet away. Pilgrim also captured the lead up to the whale's impressive display, giving the viewer a glimpse into the power and speed it takes for a large humpback whale to breach the water's surface. 

Image: http://mashable.com

Your brain takes mental shortcuts all the time in order to make decisions efficiently. Because that takes place unconsciously, we can never fully control these "cognitive biases" that help us deal with the outside world—and, ultimately, survive in it. As practical as they may be, though, some of these biases can be problematic.

But the first step toward gaining a little more leverage over how your brain—and others' brains—make judgments is simply to understand the rules it follows to do so. Getting better acquainted with these three may help you become more influential with others.

Pandas were taken off the endangered species list earlier this year, but unicorns seem to have been added to it lately. VC-backed billion-dollar companies have exited more than new ones have been funded this year. This suggests investors are a lot more cautious about investing in startups than they used to be, preferring to get their older investments sold or sent public.

That means new startups courting investors may face even more scrutiny and skepticism than they would have even a year ago. These seven venture capitalists explain what their due-dilligence tests consist of right now, and what it takes to pass them.

Image: Flickr user w a n t o i i

After the Columbia shuttle tragedy in 2003, when the orbiter lost part of its heat shield at launch and, as a result, disintegrated upon re-entry, NASA engineers developed a repair kit and methodology for identifying issues and replacing lost heat-resistant tiles while still in orbit.

What makes the project even more interesting was that the fix was literally developed in a garage, off NASA premises, by a team of engineers and scientists brought together to brainstorm and test solutions. One of the project’s leaders, Dr. Charles Camarda, senior adviser for engineering development at NASA, actually flew in the next shuttle mission two years later to test the fix.

Image: Dr. Charles Camarda, NASA astronaut and innovation advisor. Photo by Joe McKendrick

Every summer in Paris, the city closes an almost two-mile stretch of road along the Right Bank of the Seine and turns it into a beach, complete with sand, beach huts, deckchairs, and parasols. This year, Paris decided not to re-open the road at all, turning the riverside into a permanently pedestrianized area.

The first traffic figures for the "non-re-opening" are in, with detailed numbers for the amount of cars displaced onto nearby roads. And while the traffic on these roads has jumped quite alarmingly during the morning rush-hour, the figures are way lower than Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo expected. Better still, evening rush-hour traffic has seen little to no effect. It’s as if those cars just disappeared. In fact, many of them have.

Globalization and urbanization go hand in hand. The world, I’ve long argued, is spiky. The 40 largest mega-regions produce two-thirds of global economic output and 90 percent of global innovation, while housing just 18 percent of the world’s population.

But we lack solid data on global cities. (My own work uses satellite data on the world at night, which has its own limitations.)

Image: http://www.citylab.com

Hollie Russon Gilman, and Jessica Gover at the Beeck Center: “Technology is transforming how we live our lives—from new solutions in health, education, defense, and beyond. The private sector provides user-centric, digital, customer-oriented solutions—in real time. We should expect the same from government. The government needs to evolve to keep up with these rapid changes in technology and data use. We need a government that is nimble and adaptive to change. More importantly, we need to create a culture within government that allows for a culture of innovation that leads to outcomes. At the same time, innovation—new technologies, data, and partnerships—have also triggered a need for rapid change in governance and public policy. With the election only a month away, the next president has the opportunity to pivot—to adopt a governance structure that proactively drives change and delivers results.

MITRE and our government sponsors support the challenge model as a proven approach to quickly and efficiently gather new ideas to address a specific problem, drive technical innovation, and accelerate learning.

As a not-for-profit corporation that manages federally funded research and development centers for the government, MITRE is an ideal organization to host challenges. We do not market or manufacture goods and have no financial investment in the results. Our goal is to work with industry, academia, and government to find solutions that benefit all stakeholders and provide our federal sponsors with the capabilities they need to be successful in their missions.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) has gained popular attention in the five years since we first published on the topic,1 it has also beguiled executives. When physical assets equipped with sensors give an information system the ability to capture, communicate, and process data—and even, in a sense, to collaborate—they create game-changing opportunities: production efficiency, distribution, and innovation all stand to benefit immensely. While the consumer’s adoption of fitness bands and connected household appliances might generate more media buzz, the potential for business usage is much greater. Research from the McKinsey Global Institute suggests that the operational efficiencies and greater market reach IoT affords will create substantial value in many industries.2 (For more, see the video “What’s the one piece of advice for a business leader interested in the Internet of Things?”

Ever since Samuel Slater brought the secrets of the English textile industry to America, manufacturing has been a big part of the American economy. From the New England textile mills to Pittsburgh’s steel and Detroit’s automobiles, manufacturing has long been a source of employment for American workers. But for a variety of reasons America is not the epicenter of manufacturing that it once was and some communities have suffered badly from the loss of manufacturing jobs. But it is not all doom and gloom. Some places in America are bucking the trend and are in fact great places for someone who wants to work in manufacturing.

Image: https://smartasset.com

Wherever the best engineers, programmers, and designers in the tech industry go, investment dollars, successful products, and revenues may often follow.

The flow of talent in the technology industry is complex, but it can also serve as a key indicator of potential future success. The technology firms that are identified as having the best talent in 2016 are also some of the highest performing tech companies in the world. Topping the list, according to a recent study by Paysa, is Uber, followed by Airbnb, Google, Pinterest, Facebook, Dropbox, Square, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Salesforce.

In early 2001, I was asked to prepare a presentation for senior executives at Microsoft. Our goal was to determine why our sales education programs were seeing such low adoption rates, explore options to remedy the situation, and ultimately expand our global relationship. The only thing was, I'd barely logged 60 days in my new role.

Were three of the thoughtfully selected questions asked by a bright young woman named Tong from The Washington Center internship program today as she ponders her career path.

The Millennial generation (born 1980 - 2000) is coming of age, and many of today’s young adults are finding themselves in their first real positions as professionals or on the cusp of starting families. As they graduate college and find jobs in their field, many younger Millennials are looking to their mentors to help guide them through this turning point in their professional lives and help them navigate the somewhat turbulent seas of the workplace.

Image: http://us12.campaign-archive2.com 

Jeanne Calment outlived her daughter and grandson by decades, finally succumbing to natural causes at the ripe old age of 122. Calment, who was French and died almost two decades ago, is thought to be world's longest living person. But if subsequent advances in medicine have lulled you into thinking that you might exceed this record, think again.

An analysis of global demographic data published in Nature suggests that humans have a fixed shelf life, and that the odds of someone beating Calment’s record are low—although some scientists question this interpretation. They say that the data used in the analysis is not unequivocal, and that the paper doesn’t account for future advances in medicine.

Killing time before your flight can be a serious drag, but traveling just got a lot less painful thanks to this airport Wi-Fi map.

Travel blogger and computer security engineer, Anil Polat, understands the struggle of sitting in an airport without free Wi-Fi, so he created a handy interactive map for airport-goers to easily find Wi-Fi passwords.

Image: http://mashable.com 

Investments in traditional leadership development are often misguided and a waste of money.

It’s not that development itself isn’t important. In a Deloitte study of 7,000 organizations this year, 89% of executives rated “strengthening the leadership pipeline” an urgent issue. That’s up from 86% last year, and the trend makes sense. Organizations are continuously promoting people into management, and those new leaders struggle with the transition. To help them in their new roles, companies spend almost $14 billion a year on courses, books, videos, coaches, tests, and executive education programs — and such spending rose 10% last year.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- It's a place hundreds of people go each day to see their doctor, have surgery and medical tests, but Albany Medical Center is much more than one of the area's largest hospitals.

"I think it could be answered in one word: innovation," said Senior VP for Business Development and Strategic Partnerships Kevin Leyden.

Albany Med is also northeastern New York’s only academic health sciences center, and home to the new Bio-Medical Accelerator and Commercialization Center.

Image: http://www.twcnews.com 

Upwork in partnership with Freelancers Union today released the results of "Freelancing in America: 2016," the most comprehensive measure of the U.S. independent workforce. The study analyzes the size of the freelance economy and provides insights into the lives of independent workers and their potential impact on the 2016 Presidential Election. The third annual year of the study is a landmark year since trend data is now available.

Image: http://finance.yahoo.com