“At Berkeley,” the documentarian Frederick Wiseman’s magisterial examination of the University of California, Berkeley, is conspicuous for not identifying the scores of people shown teaching, studying and exchanging ideas in and out of the classroom. Some may recognize the university’s chipper, ever-smiling former chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau, who retired this year. An even more prominent figure is Robert Reich, the former secretary of labor, now a professor at Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, who delivers an insightful lecture on leadership and the need for self-evaluation.

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For better or worse, frogs are often associated with the French.

But now, sacre bleu! A team of archaeologists has recently discovered remains of one such amphibian—which had obviously been cooked in some manner—at an ancient site in Wiltshire, England, not far from Stonehenge.

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Tucson has built four-mile-long streetcar tracks that will run between the University of Arizona campus and downtown. Only two of the eight cars that will be used to ferry passengers every 10 minutes have arrived, and operations will not start until next year.

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When you think about startups, entrepreneurship, and technology, typically you think of Silicon Valley (“The Valley”), New York City, DC, Austin, and other major cities and towns. However, you are missing one town that is the best kept secret in America: Blacksburg, VA.

Okay. The verdict’s still out on loud. (If my family–myself included–is any indicator, that’s probably a losing battle.) The point is our human capital is plummeting globally thanks to our poor health, according to the World Economic Forum’s new Human Capital report. Our obesity and fast-paced lives are bound to catch up with us with heart disease and diabetes among other chronic disease. But it could come around and kick us where it collectively hurts the most: our already hurting economy.

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Possibly egged on by Hyperloop optimism, an old proposal for turning the Northeast Corridor into a high-speed transit route has risen from the grave.

Investors in the Northeast Maglev (TNEM), an American company with funding from a Japanese government bank, say that a superconducting magnetic levitation train is the future of transportation between Washington, D.C. and New York City. If successful, the Northeast Maglev would carry passengers one way in 60 minutes, and from Baltimore to D.C. in 15 minutes. (Magnets! How do they work?)

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The title Chief Executive Officer is something of a misnomer. The task of a CEO — and for that matter of any manager — is not wholly or even primarily about execution.  In fact, when the CEO starts to “do” things, and starts becoming more “active,” that is usually when a company gets into trouble. An effective CEO makes things happen principally through his executive colleagues, aptly called “Chiefs” too: the CFO, CCO, and COO. Of course, given that these team members are Chiefs as well, they also should not be doing too much, either. Their job is to  make sure that, in turn, their teams do most of the “execution” work. And so on.

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Recently, I read a great book and promised to mail it to a friend overseas when I was done, about nine months ago. Today, I finally wandered down to the post office and mailed it, because the alternative was working on this blog post. This is classic procrastination at work.

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University City Science Center President & CEO Stephen S. Tang, Ph.D., MBA, advocated for more effective ways to maximize the nation’s return on its investment in Federally funded research and development, as he testified at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation on Wednesday, November 6, 2013 in Washington, DC.

The hearing, chaired by Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV), examined why the Federal government must continue to invest in R&D, technology transfer and STEM education, and how these investments drive innovation and the U.S. economy.

An elusive right whale has been spotted off the coast of British Columbia in Canada.

This is the second North Pacific right whale spotted in the area since June, an astonishing fact given that the last sighting before that was in 1951, when whalers killed one of the majestic creatures. The most recent sighting occurred Oct. 25 near the Juan de Fuca Strait near Victoria. 

Image: Credit: DFO Cetacean Research Program

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is reportedly heading to Madison, Wisconsin to sign that state's crowdfunding bill.

With this new law Wisconsin will become the third state in the U.S. (along with Georgia and Kansas) to permit intrastate crowdfunded securities offerings.

Minister of Finance Charles Sousa announced Thursday that Kitchener-based Communitech will receive $15 million in funding from the province over the next three years. 

This marks a renewed commitment from the province, which has supported the start-up incubator in the past. Five years ago the province pledged $26.4 million to Communitech.

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Your job search is full of obstacles to overcome…  not least of these is that recruiters have dozens of other applicants to consider for each resume you send.

Instead of getting lost in the crowd (and in addition to the “Show, Don’t Tell” theory we believe in so much), here are some ways you can fast-track your resume to the top of that recruiter’s resume pile:

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Failure is the taboo, unacknowledged elephant in every organisation — especially in larger companies. When organisations don’t allow their employees to fail, they are paying lip service to innovation. It really is that simple. Innovation is essentially risk taking and success cannot be guaranteed. Innovation cannot happen without failure. Look at Thomas Edison, he failed 1 093 times before developing his version of the light bulb. Would your company have let someone fail so often?

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NXT Capital’s Venture Finance Group (www.nxtcapitalvf.com) today announced the release of the inaugural edition of the NXT Capital Venture Debt Index™. This first-of-its-kind analysis focuses exclusively on venture debt financings between Q1 2012 and Q2 2013. The Venture Debt Index™ reveals the important and growing impact of non-bank debt on venture-backed companies and markets.

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Tristan Walker stands out in Silicon Valley.

Walker is black. Silicon Valley, for the most part, isn't: Research shows that only about 1 percent of tech entrepreneurs in that section of Northern California are African-American.

"There just aren't as many folks who look like me in the industry," the 29-year-old told All Things Considered host Audie Cornish.

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If you’re going to slave away at your desk from early in the morning until late at night — we're looking at you, startup hopefuls — you might as well enjoy the aesthetics.

An effective workspace should facilitate thinking, creativity and productivity, as well as build community. And by looking at the interior spaces of some of the coolest companies, it’s clear that brick-and-mortar offices are shifting away from an era of nondescript cubicles and into a more contemporary, open-environment design characteristic of tech startups.

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Those living in the Washington, D.C., metro area may want to rethink their decision to drive to work. The average commuter in D.C. spent 67 hours stuck in traffic in 2012.

It's not just Washingtonians who have it bad when it comes to traffic, though. Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York commuters each wasted roughly 60 hours in traffic last year.

Image: Mashable.com