Of the 14.9 million unemployed, more than 2.2 million are 55 or older. Nearly half of them have been unemployed six months or longer, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate in the group — 7.3 percent — is at a record, more than double what it was at the beginning of the latest recession.

People love to argue about whether entrepreneurs are born or made, with many feeling that success in small business is somehow genetic. My husband has five siblings. An entrepreneur raised all six kids, yet only one became a small-business owner. I had no exposure to business growing up, yet here I am on my second venture. Rather than calling it genetics, I think it has more to do with children of entrepreneurs being the beneficiaries of an early education in business.

There are two kinds of hurdles to get over when attempting to go from start-up to successful operation. One set includes the challenges that are unknown, that you can’t anticipate. Business is not predictable. For example: Will customers flock to your door, and if so, how many? Will your marketing efforts pay off as you hope?

Then there is the other set of hurdles — those that are more predictable and thus more avoidable. You might think of these as the hurdles of ignorance. With these, ignorance is definitely not bliss — in fact, it can be a nightmare.

Does earning a higher salary make you happier? It’s an issue that tugs at many of us: the tradeoff between a satisfying job and a satisfying paycheck. In many ways, achieving the right balance depends on one’s values, priorities, family obligations and spending habits. But according to a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, there is something of a magic number when it comes to income and happiness. Beyond household income of $75,000 a year, money “does nothing for happiness, enjoyment, sadness or stress,” the study concluded.

The Portuguese cork industry, backed by the Portuguese government, is undertaking an American-style campaign with a green twist. Actually, “twist” might be the wrong word, because the campaign seeks to encourage wineries to use cork stoppers rather than aluminum twist-off caps or stoppers made of plastic and other synthetic materials. It promotes cork by playing up what are proclaimed as its significant advantages over alternatives on environmental and sustainability grounds.

With Americans averaging fewer than seven hours of sleep per night—and around 20 percent suffering from sleepiness during the day, according to a recent Stanford University study—many companies have turned to the humble nap in an attempt to stave off billions in lost productivity each year. Following the rise of workplace perks like lactation rooms, gyms, and child-care facilities, Nike (NKE) workers now have access to nap-friendly “quiet rooms” that can also be used for meditation. Google (GOOG), a forerunner in employee perks, has a number of futuristic napping pods scattered throughout its Mountain View (Calif.) campus.

Trader Joe’s is no ordinary grocery chain. It’s an offbeat, fun discovery zone that elevates food shopping from a chore to a cultural experience. It stocks its shelves with a winning combination of low-cost, yuppie-friendly staples (cage-free eggs and organic blue agave sweetener) and exotic, affordable luxuries—Belgian butter waffle cookies or Thai lime-and-chili cashews—that you simply can’t find anyplace else.

Fans of the AMC series “Mad Men,” about the advertising business—and life in the United States—in the 1960s love to analyze each episode and discuss whether the nitty-gritty details are realistic or represent the writers and producers taking creative license.

In the first episode of the current season, the fourth, it was disclosed that the ad agency formed by the characters at the end of the third season was up and running with an office in the Time & Life Building in Midtown Manhattan. The episode was set in November 1964, so that checks against real life because the building was opened in 1959.

Though nearly 35 years of “Star Wars” fandom have yielded all kinds of memorabilia inspired by George Lucas’s outer-space epic, including light saber lookalikes and wearable replicas of Princess Leia’s slave costume, one holy grail has lately eluded fans: a video version of the “Star Wars” films that takes the fullest advantage of their top-of-the-line home theater systems.