"It looks like something good happened" for those who are acqui-hired, but it may be a "false win, " adds David Cohen, co-founder of TechStars, a start-up accelerator based in Boulder, Colo.

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An accelerator based in New York is seeking to cut down that timeframe and increase the possibility of success by maximizing efficiency and providing developmental assistance for film projects it thinks has a real shot at going all the way.

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Oasis500, a Jordan-based seed investor and accelerator backs Masmoo3.

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The result is the social-science equivalent of a particle accelerator or a space-based telescope, says Robert Willis, a University of Michigan economics professor and the survey's principal investigator.

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Meanwhile, entrepreneurship accelerator Bizdom offers seed funding to help grow tech-based local startups.

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For hardware, HP engineered flexible standards-based interfaces into their server cartridge architecture so that nearly any kind of accelerator or processor developer can make a cartridge.

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The Ireland-based company recently opened a San Francisco office and is building up a hardware accelerator program to help startups launch in under a year.

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The accelerator invites entrepreneurs from all over the world to enroll in its annual Massachusetts-based startup competition, which in 2010 attracted applicant startups from 26 countries.

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Toyota, based in Toyota City, Japan, in January recalled about 2.3 million cars and trucks for sticky accelerator pedals.

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