One of the best ways to stifle creativity in a company is to punish people for being wrong. Big leaps offer big rewards, but also increase the risk of falling short.

Basic science attempts to make the biggest leaps of all, to fundamentally change the way we see the world. Yet financial incentives that favor early results and rapid commercialization may be making researchers risk-averse.

I wish I'd written this one. Michael Malone lets the air out of the nanotech hype.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the founders of modern photography, has died. It's strange to be reminded just how young an art form photography is.

(The first link is a French language site. It is very slow, probably due to server overload.)

Do stars succeed because of their own abilities, or because they are surrounded by great teams? It helps to know before you hire them.

Evolution happens in small steps, each making the organism slightly more fit. Likewise, sometimes the most important business innovations are the smallest.

EUV takes another step forward, with Intel's installation of an EUV micro-exposure tool. The company plans to use EUV beginning with the 32-nm node in 2009.

(Silicon Strategies link. Free registration required.)

TiVo is asking the FCC for permission to add Internet sharing to its boxes.

Wait a minute. TiVo, an innovative entrepreneurial company, is asking the FCC, a government bureaucracy, for permission to innovate? What's wrong with this picture?

As the article notes, "if a programmer or an engineer with a bright idea has to go to Washington, hat in hand and lawyers in tow, to request permission to sell a better product -- and is then told "just wait awhile" -- we are on our way to suffocating innovation in this country."

Some great advice on creativity from a cartoonist who found his niche.

China's urban economy is booming, a bright example for the rest of the region. The rural economy, on the other hand, isn't.

(New York Times link. Free registration required.)