|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Tue Mar 11, 2008 |
"Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy." -- Groucho Marx
2008 Montana Legislature
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Montana GOP lawmakers deny climate-change science
“This is all flawed and it’s based on flawed everything,” said Sen. Dan McGee, R-Laurel, of the science explaining global climate change. “This is a lie. Call it what it is.”
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- Wake Forest wins NSF grant to boost entrepreneurship through community partnerships
“We want to create and sustain an environment that fosters entrepreneurial thinking and action across the entire campus,” Best said. “We at Wake Forest believe that a liberal arts education and entrepreneurial thinking can be mutually reinforcing concepts. The legacy of this project will be realized in programs and infrastructures instituted in liberal arts colleges and universities throughout the country modeled on the best practices that we identify.”
Funding and Building your Business
- Hope to Be the Next Silicon Valley? What Every Mayor Should Know
The rising importance of local economies, and their importance to voters, should make economic growth and competitiveness a high priority for mayors.
Education
- It's All in How You Pitch It - Making Your Pitch to Angel Investors
What do angel investors consider when evaluating an investment opportunity?
- How to save money running a startup, and your workers, into the ground
• Work in the dark--you'll save on electricity, and employees gradually lose the ability to tell day from night, which means they can work longer hours
- Companies benefit from appreciating employees
Employee appreciation shouldn't come only once a year.
- 5 Startups Demo at TECH cocktail Boulder
TECH cocktail Boulder enabled five local startups to showoff by demoing in an expo-style for the crowd.
- 20 Things You Can Do In 20 Minutes to Be A More Successful CIO
There are things you can do in just 20 minutes that can have a meaningful and even a long term positive effect on your IT organization, your career, your technology knowledge, your management skills and your relationship with the business.
- Niche firms add polish to small-business videos
Millions of businesses have sat out the revolution because they would rather not make fools of themselves trying to make their own commercials.
Connectivity & Communications
- Colleges Reduce Out-of-State Tuition to Lure Students
In several states, including Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri, public universities have tried to attract nonresidents by charging them lower tuition if they meet minimum scores on tests like the SAT or ACT. Such tactics can help a college raise its academic standing.
- Math Suggests College Frenzy Will Soon Ease
“For the high school graduate, this becomes a buyers’ market,”
- How Many Billionaires Does It Take to Fix a School System?
There’s a reason that Univac wasn’t able just to become I.B.M., and there’s a reason I.B.M. couldn’t just become Microsoft and Microsoft couldn’t just become Google. We need smart people to invest in solutions that can help illuminate the path forward. At its best, that’s what philanthropy can do.
- 'Magic school bus' of learning
One Arkansas man is leading the drive to get more school children interested in math and science.
- "Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination" Two million minutes is roughly four years, the amount of time high school students have to prepare for life.
The documentary compares and contrasts the education experiences of six students; two from each of the countries of India, China, and the United States.
- Likely brain drain puts aerospace recruitment into high gear
The problem -- almost 60 percent of U.S. aerospace workers in 2007 were 45 or older -- could affect national security and even close the door on commercial products that start out as military technology, industry officials said.
- Colleges majoring in urban renewal
“All of those things that kind of take us beyond our old standard … approach to higher education,”
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- High-speed broadband unlocks the potential of the Internet age. So why is the U.S. so far behind?
The U.S. ranks 15th in the world in high-speed Internet adoption, behind Denmark, South Korea and even sprawling Australia, according to one international study.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- What to Expect from the Open iPhone
Freed to design software for the iPhone, programmers outside Apple plan to revolutionize the handheld.
- Start-Up's Web-Security Tool Is Offered Free to Consumers. Haute Secure Inc.
From Haute Secure's Web site, consumers download a program that works with a computer's Internet browser to detect and stop potentially damaging computer code running on a Web site
- Mind reading closer to becoming a reality
Research could lead to brain-controlled prosthetic devices
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Montana is home to burgeoning art community. "The Craft Heritage Trails of North Central Montana" is your guide
This surge of creativity is a fitting legacy for legendary artist Charlie Russell, who lived and worked in the area.
- The March/April 2008 issue of the Montana Arts Council's newspaper "State of the Arts" is online and ready for viewing
Enjoy
Montana Business
- Ohio angel groups collaborate to make investing simpler, faster
Though there has been sharing among angel groups in the past, this new statewide initiative will make the investing process simpler and faster
Montana Economic Development
- Goodbye, Big Sky: Airline makes last flights. Boss blames lack of security screening for airline's demise
Montana's Hi-Line businesses, hospitals officials struggle to cope
- Feds refocus grants to aid cutting-edge firms - Manufacturing Extension Partnership
The program helps small manufacturers like Cultured Marble Products hire efficiency experts they normally couldn't afford, thanks to a three-way cost split - with roughly a third of the tab paid by the manufacturer, another third kicked in by the employer's state and the rest paid out by the federal sponsor, the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
- Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation honors Rocky Mountain Log Homes for their commitment to maintaining a healthy elk habitat
“Rocky Mountain Log Homes has been really good about supporting the elk foundation, our mission and programs,” he said. “The award is to acknowledge the partnership in working in support of the program and being engaged in programs that support land stewardship. RMLH allowed us to meet our objectives and goals within our new stewardship program and they’ve showed a lot of trust and belief in the foundation. We’re happy to acknowledge and award them for such.”
- TIFID deal: SeaCast seeks lease clarity on Butte building
“(SeaCast) plans to make a lot of improvements to the building with their own money and don’t want to come to the end and have someone else own it all,” Byrnes said.
Regional Economic Development
- Wind plant is boon for Butte, economist says. Fuhrlander AG of Germany
University of Montana economist Paul Polzin, a leading monitor of the state’s economy, says a manufacturing plant that large would immediately represent about 10 percent to 15 percent of Butte’s economic base.
- Four U.N. Ambassadors Talk to Montana's Governor Schweitzer About Energy Issues
Schweitzer says the diplomats visit creates new, global opportunities for Montana's energy future. Partnerships between international investors and Montana resources could be mutually beneficial.
- Missoula solicits comments on rising cost of housing
At 7 p.m. Thursday in City Council Chambers, members of the public are invited to come to a discussion that begins with the airing of a video called “Housing in Missoula: A Community Conversation.”
Utah Economic Development
- 2nd Annual User Workshop For The Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility, 7/22-24, Idaho Falls, Idaho
The mission of the ATR NSUF is to provide nuclear energy researchers access to world-class facilities, thereby facilitating the advancement of nuclear science and technology.
Government Technology
- Utah tourism ads right on target
"It showed we're not just a windshield, drive-through state but a state I want to take my family to and stay as long as we can,"
Idaho Business
- Montana Governor Schweitzer on 'Real ID' Act
Gov. Brian Schweitzer says sometimes it's best to tell the Feds to got to hell.
Wyoming Business
- Boise being considered for new Mexican consulate
The closest Mexican consular office to Boise is in Salt Lake City.
- Does Idaho’s business brand matter?
Today we are a state that is un-adorned with Ore-Ida. We watched as Morrison-Knudsen and Albertsons were mismanaged into the ground. Micron rattled its sabers as if it were leaving. I think it is time to ask if this is important to us, and do we care?
- California-based Wind-turbine maker Nordic Windpower picks Pocatello for manufacturing plant
“Pocatello has a favorable cost of operations, and an excellent work force and location central to potential customers and transportation,” said Steve Taber, Nordic’s CEO and co-founder. “These advantages will benefit our customers in competitive pricing for very high reliability.”
- Boise man sets up book-search program based on writing styles. Booklamp.org
"California was kind of a Hail Mary," he said. "I either had to let the idea go or do something to try and make it happen."
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Wyoming Legislature approves incentives to recruit more doctors
The program would give priority to rural areas where access to health care is limited. The incentive package would include moving expenses, two years worth of medical malpractice insurance premiums and a signing bonus of up to $30,000.
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- Memory Teaser - The Grande Dames of Stage and Screen
How many do you recognize?
- There's a reason why your boss is overpaid; here it is
Harford seeks to find "the hidden logic behind life, the way it is shaped by countless unseen rational choices. … If you do not understand the rational choices that underlie much of our behavior, you cannot understand the world in which we live," he writes.
Small Diameter Timber Utilization
- PPL Montana offering college scholarships
Scholarships will be awarded based on academic record, financial need, extracurricular activities, two letters of recommendation and a brief student essay.
- With the help of local businesses, state of the art X-ray machine adds to Montana State University Billings College of Technology program
Radiologic technology students in Billings soon will be learning on one of the most up-to-date X-ray machines in the state.
Careers
- Government disbursing $4MM in grants for use of woody debris. $1MM going to Montana companies
Montana recipients are Big Sky Shavings in Hall; Marks Ranch and Lumber in Clancy; Osler Logging in Bozeman; and the Kootenai Business Park Industrial District in Libby. Marks will get $211,500 and the others $250,000 each.
Non-Profit News
- New college graduates to find a strong job market
Employers are planning to hire 16% more 2008 college graduates than they did a year ago
Energy
- Donation applications sought from nonprofits in many Montana counties
Last year, $230,429 was donated to nonprofit organizations through the Big Sky CFC. This is a yearly application process, and agencies that qualified in 2007 must submit an application for the 2008 campaign.
- “The State of Corporate Philanthropy”
Corporate philanthropy can help companies meet consumers’ rising expectations of business’s role in society, say respondents to a McKinsey global survey.
Montana Education Excellence
- Solar Company Ausra Says Its Tech Can Power 90 Percent of Grid and Cars
"If we can do storage," Ausra CEO Bob Fishman said, "We can take on coal."
Community
- Helena, Montana's tech-savvy teens share expertise with seniors
Teen Tech Tutors for Seniors is a new program at the library that pairs Helena young people with seniors wanting to learn about e-mail, cell phones, digital cameras, or surfing the Web.
City Club Missoula
- Making Cities More Livable with Bikes
Bicycles may be the best weapon we have for the long campaign to make livable cities in the 21st century.
- City Club Missoula March Forum-Academic And Development Plans For The University Of Montana, 3/21, Missoula
City Club Missoula’s March 21 will feature a presentation by Jim Foley, the University of Montana’s Executive Vice President. Foley will discuss the financial health of the university, new plans on academic and development fronts including the completion of the master plan for the South Campus, and the challenges higher education faces in Montana in upcoming years.
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page
