Singapore, December 23 – The UN General Assembly on Monday gave its seal of approval to the creation of a new international body to be called the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

The creation of the IPBES caps the end of 2010 - the International Year of Biodiversity - and will expand global efforts to stem the loss of biodiversity and essential eco-systems beyond the realm of research and into the realms of policy-making and action.

In the same way that the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is helping governments and industries assess risks due to climate change and plan for mitigation measures, IPBES is expected to drive action on stemming bio-diversity loss.

The merger of United Airlines and Continental means all the planes in their combined fleet need a paint job. See a video of one aircraft's makeover.

Diet and exercise

Keep the holiday bulge off by exercising, controlling cravings, and paying attention to weight and eating [J Consult Clin Psychol].

Eat right to keep weight off and live longer. You can lower risk your risk of an early death from chronic disease by making healthier food choices more frequently. Eat more frequent amounts of low-fat dairy products, poultry, fruits and vegetables, and fish; and avoid red meat, fried foods, alcohol, high-fat dairy products (ice cream, cheese, whole milk), and sugar sources — breakfast cereals and other refined grains (rice and pasta), sweets, and desserts [J Am Diet Assoc].

Don’t fry fish. Frying fish above 350°F (180° C) destroys heart-healthy omega-3s, which may partially explain why people in Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, and other “stroke belt states” have a higher risk of stroke [American Academy of Neurology], along with use of trans fat and other factors.

One Arm Swimmer wins heat in 25m Fly at 2010 Nashville City Swim Meet

The year is coming to a close, and I can think of no other 12-month period that saw such amazing growth in the scope of mobile gadgets. Of course, this time next year, I’m likely to repeat myself because mobile processors in phones are getting more powerful just as mobile broadband networks are revving up speeds. It’s hard to imagine it was only five years ago that I first experienced 3G data speeds, and today I can surf the web on the go at least ten times faster!

Since I get to play with gadgets on a regular basis, I thought I’d summarize a brief list of my gadgets of the year. While companies often send me devices to review then return, I’ve personally purchased all the gadgets on this list. Of course, we all have different needs and device requirements, so my faves are likely to vary from yours. Be sure to let me know if I missed any that are on your list!

Many people get Christmas Eve off from work, but that doesn’t include Santa Claus — and it also doesn’t include the hundreds of volunteers who spend the day using some of the world’s most advanced military technology to track his movements. (Note: For the purposes of this article, let’s just all agree that Santa Claus is real and delivers presents to good girls and boys the night before Christmas.)

For the 24 hours before Christmas, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (otherwise known as NORAD, previously known as CONAD) takes on the job of tracking Santa’s progress, a tradition that began in 1955 when, according to the official NORAD Santa site:

…a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born.

In May 2010 IBM published an international research study titled Capitalising on Complexity - Insights from the Global Chief Executive Officer Study.

Based on world-wide research with over 1500 CEO's and executives, creativity was identified as the most important leadership competency for enterprises seeking success in the contemporary business world. Business leaders at all levels realise that the complex situations they face cannot be approached in a routine manner, and therefore the quest for creativity starts.

But creativity is sometimes perceived as a fuzzy concept, applied to the use of specific techniques such as ideation, brain storming and so on.

Owen Davis, 45, conceptualized and built three innovative technology companies that were later sold for profit, surviving, even thriving, through the most challenging environment for Internet startups, while most others failed.

Now he’s trying to help other technology entrepreneurs succeed.

As managing director of NYCSeed, a private-public initiative, Davis wants to fund and nurture technology entrepreneurs in New York City and move them from an idea to a marketable product.

“This is my only focus, getting innovative companies off the ground,” Davis says. “This is it, it was something I really wanted to do.”

I promise this is the last SBIR Insider of 2010. As most of you know, we try to not burden you with too many issues, but these extraordinary circumstances warranted it.

I'm sorry to report to you that for all your efforts to help pass the SBIR reauthorization act of 2010, we collectively failed. It was so close, within our grasp, or so we thought. The Senate indeed did its work, while the House did its best to do its worst.

Two of the usual suspects, Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) and her cross aisle counterpart Sam Graves (R-MO) helped derail the efforts. Nydia from a distance due to family health reasons. However, there is now reason to believe that the White House was also involved. Not the President himself, but some in his administration at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP). Fact checking is in progress, but this wouldn't be the first time OSTP took a grim view of SBIR.

Some university organizations are claiming that these greedy SBIR small businesses are trying to steal R&D funds away from them by raising the SBIR allocation from 2.5% to 3.5%. In an emergency letter (Dec 22, 2010) to the House leadership, The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology cried out "This bill would increase the SBIR set-aside by 40 percent…"

What these groups won't tell you is that well over 1/3 (closer to 38%) of all the scientists and engineers in the US work for, or own small high tech businesses but these businesses get only about 4.3% of the government's research dollars, and that's inclusive of the 2.5% SBIR allocation!

In actuality, universities and SBIR small businesses are helping each other more than ever before. Each entity has its strengths and they can leverage each other's assets to improve chances for success.

The 111th congress is now history and we need to look at what's next for the 112th and we'll do that in next year's first issue. However, we have some news that is still pertinent.

Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship ‘Propeller’ Accelerator Fund confirms global and local partnerships with Arizona State University’s Venture Catalyst and Irish based Technology Media Group Techludd

Dublin City University’s Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship in Dublin has agreed a deal with Arizona State University’s Venture Catalyst to offer First Destination access for Irish startups into the United States. Startups who will be undergoing development in the Propeller Venture Accelerator in Ireland from February 2011 will be able to establish a presence in the US market through the ASU SkySong facility in Scottsdale Arizona. Arizona State University is the largest University in the US and a leading US Entrepreneurial University.

“Developing the best venture accelerator for startups is our aim, and the new relationship with ASU’s Venture Catalyst and fantastic SkySong facility is part of the global angle we are taking. At the same time the relationship with an Irish grassroots organisation like Techludd shows the balance between global and local” said Gordon McConnell, Deputy-CEO of the Ryan Academy.

12.21.2010– To help job seekers find rewarding, gainful employment or career-enhancing internships, career experts who met on Twitter are volunteering their time in a collaborative effort they’ve deemed, “Hired for the Holidays.”

“There were 3.4 million job openings on the last business day of October, according to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report,” said Mark Babbitt, founder of Hired for the Holidays and CEO of YouTern. “We know jobs exist. Many people just have a hard time properly marketing themselves and getting noticed by employers. That’s where we come in.”

In early December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported:

• The unemployment rate edged up to 9.8 percent in November
• Average duration unemployed remained about the same at 33.8 weeks (-0.1)
• Nonfarm payroll employment was little changed (+39,000)

Entrepreneurs are all about firsts, and the most important is you making a great first impression – on investors, customers, new team members, and strategic partners. Poor first impressions can be avoided, but I’m amazed at the number of unnecessary mistakes I see at those critical first introductions, presentations, and meetings.

The key message here is “preparation.” People who think they can always “wing it,” bluff their way past tough questions, or expect the other party to bridge all the gaps, sadly often find that what they think is a win, is actually a loss which can never be regained.

We've all met people that we instantly like because of a great first impression, and want to do business with. Here are some common sense things that they do and you can do to maximize the first impression that you impart in any business environment or discussion:

1. Dress appropriately from the perspective of the person you are trying to impress. This one is so obvious that I hesitate to mention it, except for the fact that I see it ignored so often. Maybe you love wearing Hawaiian shirts to work, but when you visit a traditional banker to close on a loan, it will be worth your time to put on a solid shirt and jacket.

It’s that time of year. The time where you start looking at your website and tilt your head wondering if it’s starting to sound a little stale to readers. If it’s been a few years since you’ve updated your content, your site could probably use a good scrub. A lot changes in a year – trends, tools, keywords, methodologies – and you want to make sure your Web site is giving users (and the search engines) the most up-to-date information about your company. The best way to do that is to give your website a quick content audit to determine what exactly it’s saying about you.

Below are five ways to tune up your content for 2011. You want to start the New Year off on the right foot, don’t you?

1. Highlight your strengths.

You’ve probably heard it a lot over the past year – marketing is storytelling. Each sentence on your site should be part of a larger effort to tell your brand’s story and lure readers in. To capture people’s attention, your content has to be telling a story that displays your product/company’s strength and tying it back into how it will solve a problem they’ve expressed. Does the content on your site do a good job highlighting your strengths or is it simply a list of features? Do you show customers how your product will help them achieve a larger goal or are you waiting for them to put it together themselves? If it’s the latter, you need to go in and tweak your message. What’s different about your product or service? What goes above and beyond in a way your competitors don’t? Revamp your copy to include these selling points and clearly outline the benefits you offer to customers.

California has been the number-one state for venture investing for more than 30 years. It doesn’t matter whether you measure VC activity in dollars, deals done, or capital under management. Actually, based on certain measures, California today accounts for a larger slice of the venture capital pie than it did 30 years ago.

California’s Dominance in Venture Capital

National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) data shows that, in 2009, half of all venture capital dollars invested in the United States were deployed in California. And over the 29-year period from 1980 through 2009, the state was responsible for 44.1 percent of all venture capital investment dollars. In no year since 1980 did California account for less than 32.2 percent of the dollars that VCs put into startups.

As companies age, they turn into their predecessors.

As Microsoft started to falter in the early 2000s, it began to look like IBM -- overly safe, overcome with meetings, run by marketers, and bound by process.

Now that Facebook is displacing Google on top of the heap, it's inevitable that Google will begin to look a lot like Microsoft.

Venture capitalists and CEOs are showing renewed confidence in the state of venture capital, especially in the IT, digital media, mobile and cloud computing sectors, according to a recently released survey.

The National Venture Capital Association polled around 330 U.S. venture capitalists and 180 CEOs of venture-backed companies in order to get their predictions for what will happen in 2011. The survey, released Tuesday, paints an optimistic picture of investment in the new year.

Of VCs surveyed, 51% said they expected venture investments to pick up in 2011, compared to just 24% who think it will remain the same and another 24% who think it will decrease. Their optimism spans across both later stage and earlier stage investments, and in fact, 30% of VCs intend to increase their co-investments with angel investors.

In this post on Fast Company, the author Kaihan Krippendorff suggests the 5 new year resolutions that could make you more innovative.

1. To be more innovative, you need more diverse sources of information and inspiration. Resolve to read magazines you've never considered, watch movies you think you'd hate, and attend lectures of topics apparently unrelated to what you do.
2. Innovators are "intense observers" and so are able to spot customer needs and emerging "weak signals." This year put up your antenna. Pretend you are the producer of Jon Stewart's The Daily Show and need to know which issues and topics people care about this week and this month.

The economic downturn has forced cities and states across the country to be more creative as they compete to attract companies and stimulate local economies. In just the past year, local economic development agencies have turned to social media tools and tactics to enhance their efforts nationally and locally.

According to a 2009 survey conducted by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and marketing agency Development Counsellors International (DCI), 57% of IEDC members surveyed said they were using social media tools. Of that, 63% had used them for less than a year. At the time, developers primarily focused their social media efforts on internal or regional uses, such as disseminating news and providing links to resources that support local businesses. LinkedIn (LinkedIn) was the social network of choice.