I discovered Josh Breinlinger’s blog this morning via a tweet from @stefanobernardi. I added it to the Ask the VC blogroll, read carefully through his post  VCs are liars. And so am I, and declared it the VC post of the day.

And – Josh is right – it’s super hard to say “you suck” or “your team sucks” as a reason for passing. Most VCs aren’t willing to do this as they either don’t want to deal with it, don’t have the emotional constitution for it (it’s hard to say no constantly throughout the day, every day), or don’t recognize that’s the actual reason they are passing.

At Foundry Group, our most common reason for passing is that what you are working on doesn’t fit within our themes. We try to pass on these companies in less than 60 seconds. If you assume that you are one of the 1,000 or so companies a year we see that fit within our themes, we quickly narrow it down to about 100 companies that we spend real time on based on one of three reasons.

The following is part of an article from CT Dept. of Economic and Community Development about Casey Pickett, one of Connecticut’s young innovators who is actively looking to grow new and vibrant businesses in our State. Read on.

“Casey Pickett, Innovation Director, Department of Economic and Community Development

Look out, land of steady habits.

Big brother watching. Thing is, it’s not the made up avatar of an overarching, all-powerful, state. It’s far more likely that it’s a piece of software implemented by your company to see what you’ve been doing on social media.

In fact, some 60% of corporations are expected to implement formal programmes for monitoring external social media for security breaches and incidents by 2015, up from the less than 10% that currently do so,

According to tech research firm Gartner, monitoring employees will soon be viewed in the same way as monitoring social media is for brand management and marketing.

Friends tell you what you want to hear. Mentors tell you what you need to hear. When the message is the same from both, you don’t need the mentor anymore. In that sense, you should think of a mentor more like your advisor who has done all he can. You always need the friend.

Also don’t confuse a business mentor with a business coach. A mentor’s aim is to teach you what to do and how, in specific situations, unlike a coach who helps you develop your generic skills for deciding what to do and how. The mentor helps the entrepreneur fill an experience gap, and a coach helps fill a skill gap. Both may be required.

There’s change in the air.  Entrepreneurs I talk to can smell it.  Especially those that are focused on consumer products.  The smell of money.  They whisper about it in hushed tones.

Kickstarter.

Money just waiting to be scooped up.  From consumers eager to buy the “next big thing.”  Before it’s even is a “thing” at all.

In our social entrepreneurship series, The World at Work, Mashable interviewed the faces behind the startups and projects that are working to make a global impact.

These companies are tapping into the public’s power to change the world through tech, whether it’s encouraging others to take up the challenge of living below the poverty line or helping teens give back to their local communities. While the companies are diverse, they are all on a mission to change our lives for the better and improve society.

Arizona is destined for Third World status without better leadership and education, a group of state business and political leaders was warned last week.

William Harris, president and CEO of Science Foundation Arizona, struck that ominous note during a Maricopa Association of Governments meeting aimed at boosting Arizona's role in the world economy.

The meeting was a renaissance of sorts for the so-called Sun Corridor, a concept that hibernated while the Great Recession gnawed at Arizona's economy.

After working with dozens of startup founders, I’m still amazed that some seem to be able to do the job easily and effectively, always in control, while others always seem to be struggling, out-of-control, and fighting the latest crisis. I am more and more convinced that it is the right founder behavior that leads to success, rather than some exceptional intelligence or training.

In that context, startup founders should carefully review the points made by Denny F. Strigl, former CEO of Verizon Wireless, in his recent book, aptly named “Managers, Can You Hear Me Now?” He outlines the behavioral habits he has seen in managers who are successful, versus the bad habits of ones who struggle. These habits apply even more directly to entrepreneur startup leadership:

Forget the company conference room. Coworkers no longer need to be in the same office space — let alone the same time zone — to hold a productive progress reports or brainstorming session. We asked nine young entrepreneurs about how they conduct virtual meetings between their startup teams, and actually get things done while doing so. (Share your own thoughts in the comments.)

Stick to the agenda Since it’s incredibly easy to get off task in a virtual meeting, it’s important to have an agenda, listing only a few goals of the meeting and complete with an overall time limit. Designate someone to lead the meeting and hold that person accountable for making sure everyone stays on topic to move the meeting along.

Social impact accelerator GoodCompany Ventures, now part of GoodCompany Group, has announced the 12 new companies that will be participating in its three-month program this summer. It opened applications in April.

Some of the companies, including Novathermal Energy and Wash Cycle Laundry, already work out the GoodCompany Group incubation space in Center City, confirmed GoodCompany manager Zoe Selzer.

Here’s a brief introduction to each of the companies, though you can expect to hear more from them as the summer progresses:

The editors over at Edge.org asked some of the most influential thinkers in the world — including neuroscientists, physicists and mathematicians — what they believe are the most important scientific concepts of the modern era.

The result is "This Will make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts To Improve Your Thinking," a compilation of nearly 200 essays exploring concepts such as the "shifting baseline syndrome" and a scientific view of "randomness."

Did you know that marketing directors at Google use physics to explain the fundamental theories of branding? That astronomers use software developed by doctors for brain imagery to study the explosion of supernovas? And who would have guessed that the design of one of the fastest trains in the world had been inspired by nature?

In the late 1980’s, Japanese engineer and birdwatcher Eiji Nakatsu studied the splashless water entry of kingfishers and the noise-reduction property of owl wings, and applied this knowledge in the design of the Shinkansen train. The new biomimetic design was not only 10% faster than previous models, it also consumed 15% less electricity and produced much less noise (residents near the tracks were delighted!).

The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), its commercial arm, CDRD Ventures (CVI), and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Canada are collaborating to provide financial resources and drug development expertise to Canadian research institutions. GSK will provide project-based funding to support the commercialization of health research.

The first such vehicle is a “GSK-CDRD Innovation Fund” within CDRD to support certain early-stage projects to be conducted by CDRD and carried out in collaboration with academic investigators at CDRD's affiliated institutions and/or hospital-based research centers. A joint Innovation Committee comprising both GSK and CDRD representatives as well as external reviewers will select projects to be supported from this fund.

Recently, I had lunch with an accomplished and slightly older CEO who had served as board chair of the corporation at which I had my first senior position. Not having seen him in years, I was delighted to catch up. But I was exhilarated when he expressed personal interest in my career, observed my success and challenged me to reach higher. Upon parting, I blurted out an awkward gratitude: “Thank you so much for your advice. It was so great to get, as all my mentors have died.”

Upon reflection later, it hit me that it was true. I have had a phenomenally successful and blessed career. Recently, I have written a successful book and feel I have made a difference on some big national issues. I still push myself harder than anyone else can – with one exception: My wife, a surgeon, pushes harder and lives by the mantra, “you can sleep when you die.” Unlike her, I need sleep.

It’s been a little bit more than three years since in-flight WiFi started to really take to the skies, but it’s already becoming an indispensable tool for many travelers.

I was at San Francisco airport last Friday waiting for a six-hour flight to New York when the gate agent announced that the aircraft we were scheduled to board was having trouble with WiFi. People around the gate were incredulous. As it turned out, our aircraft had other problems, so they swapped airplanes. When we were boarding, another passenger inquired about the status of WiFi on our new plane. (It worked.)

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) seeks to develop a therapeutics discovery pilot program that will explore new therapeutic uses for proprietary drug candidates (Agents) across a broad range of human diseases. This innovative program will match Agents and associated data from pharmaceutical company partners with the best ideas for new therapeutic uses from the biomedical research community.

It was less than a year ago when Canada’s venture capital community was desperately pleading for something, anything, to change so that the country’s startups could find financing.

Today, venture capital funds are popping up everywhere.

The latest fund to launch comes from Round 13, which is led by Bruce Croxon, John Eckert and Scott Pelton, all of whom have experience in Canada’s venture capital market. Mr. Croxon was a co-founder of LavaLife, Mr. Eckert has backed numerous successful startups and Mr. Pelton recently ran the commercialization fund at GrowthWorks.

- in the Maryland Pavilion at the 2012 BIO International Convention Five Leading Biotech Serial Entrepreneurs will also be featured to showcase the Breadth of Montgomery County’s Biotech Sector, Which is Ranked in the Top Five Nationally

ROCKVILLE, MD– June 14, 2012 — The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development will host a press event highlighting the nation’s first local biotech investment incentive program, initiated by Montgomery County government, the role local biotech entrepreneurs, many from County-based federal labs like NIH and FDA, play in the success of the sector and a new, regional, industry-sector led intermediary created to bolster technology transfer into commercial success during the BIO International Convention in Boston.

Sleep is extremely important, but almost nobody gets enough of it. 

Recent studies suggest that lack of sleep may have more serious implications than previously thought. Lack of sleep might make you fat and it could even increase your chance of stroke!

We paired a set of sleep facts with pictures of people sleeping right here in New York City (from my tumblr The Sleepers' Companion).

Companies often hate it when their trademarks are used to describe other products, and see it as a misrepresentation of their brand.

There are advantages too. Brands whose names have been adopted by the public for common use have a huge advantage in spreading their names by word-of-mouth.

All of these brands were trademarked at some point in their histories, but a few have lost their legal protection because they became too much of a common name.