Category Archives: Technology

Design and technology GCSE has disappeared from nearly half of schools because teenagers no longer like making things, a survey has found.

Hundreds of schools across the country have axed the subject from the curriculum in the past year alone, according to a poll of teachers conducted by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).

Julie Nugent, chief executive of the Design and Technology Association, said the survey results were worrying, adding that they have been inundated with phone calls from concerned parents whose children are not able to take up the subject because their school no longer offers it.

We know that the subject itself suffers from a bit of an image problem, people see it as a craft based subject, where you just make a bird box or something like that, she said.

The most recent figures released by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) revealed a ten per cent decrease in the number students taking design and technology as a GSCE.

Ms Nugent said that the decline began with the Labour governments removal of the requirement for pupils to study design and technology at GCSE in 2004, but has accelerated in recent years following the introduction of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) which focuses on a narrow curriculum made up solely of core academic subjects.

See the rest here:

Design and technology GCSE axed from nearly half of schools, survey finds - Telegraph.co.uk

The bull market in stocks has now been running strong for eight full years, and investors who have seen major market benchmarks triple from their 2009 lows were in a reasonably good mood on Thursday. Stocks didn't move much, with the Dow rising just 3 points on the day, as a generally favorable market environment was tempered somewhat by declines in U.S. crude oil prices below the $50-per-barrel level.

Yet even though the overall market remained resilient in the face of some threats to positive sentiment among investors, some stocks posted substantial losses. Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS), International Game Technology (NYSE:IGT), and Momo (NASDAQ:MOMO) were among the worst performers on the day. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so poorly.

Shares of Stratasys dropped 9% after the 3D printing specialist released its fourth-quarter financial report. The company said that revenue rose just 1% from year-ago levels, and although it managed to post an adjusted profit of $0.15 per share during the quarter, 2017 financial guidance wasn't quite as upbeat as investors would have liked to see. In particular, Stratasys expects revenue of $645 million to $680 million this year, and even after adjusting for extraordinary items, adjusted net income of just $0.19 to $0.37 per share was also well below the consensus forecast among those following the stock. The promise of 3D printing hasn't translated into lasting gains for investors in Stratasys, and some believe that it won't be able to rebound from share-price declines of roughly 85% since 2014.

Image source: Stratasys.

International Game Technology stock plunged 15% in the wake of the company's fourth-quarter financial report. Total revenue for the quarter was down 3% from year-ago levels, but a big foreign exchange-related gain helped IGT triple its GAAP net income compared to the fourth quarter of 2015. Even after adjusting for one-time items, IGT's bottom line was up more than 40%. Yet investors seem increasingly nervous about International Game Technology's outstanding debt, which includes more than $520 million in senior notes coming due next year and a total of more than $3.8 billion in notes and term loan facilities with maturities of 2020 or earlier. If interest rates do indeed go up from here, then the financing costs associated with IGT's debt could become increasingly difficult to maintain, and that could cause problems for a stock that has been performing extremely well over the past year.

Finally, shares of Momo finished down 12%. The Chinese social networking platform company had been on a huge tear higher after reporting favorable financial results earlier in the week, but on Thursday, investors decided that the stock had run too far, too quickly. Nevertheless, many investors remain extremely positive about Momo, which combines location-based services with social offerings to allow users to meet more easily. In addition, Momo has joined other social media stocks in offering services like live video and mobile marketing, and with expectations for sales to quadruple in the first quarter of 2017 compared to year-ago levels, the Chinese mid-cap could easily keep climbing from here. Moreover, even with today's drop, Momo is still up more than 10% just this week.

Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Stratasys. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

See the article here:

Why Stratasys, International Game Technology, and Momo Slumped Today - Motley Fool

David Pogue, Times Technology Columnist, Leaves for Yahoo |

After writing about personal technology for The Times for 13 years, David Pogue will start a consumer technology Web site at Yahoo. Read more

How will people remember 2013? As the year of the government shutdown? The year the N.S.A. revealed that the enemy is us? The year Miley Cyrus absolutely, positively stopped playing an adorable child actress?

In consumer tech, we may remember this as the year Bluetooth speakers finally outnumbered insects on the earth. Every company and its brother has been cranking out compact, colorful, battery-powered wireless speakers.

And no wonder: these things really are awesome. Every time some company offers a new tablet, laptop or phone, you can bet that it has a better, sharper, brighter screen but what about the sound? Its stuck in 2004: tinny and weak. A Bluetooth speaker neatly remedies that enormous quality difference between audio and visual.

The Jawbone Jambox was one of the earliest hits. Its a sharp-edged rectangular box, $150, that comes in a choice of colors. It pumps out surprisingly loud, clear sound for its size, which is 6 by 1.6 by 2.8 inches.

Then came the Big Jambox, a shoebox-size $300 version with big enough sound for a backyard.

And now comes the Jambox Mini, at $180.

I love this thing. Its actually not all that mini; in fact, its about as long and tall as the original (6.1 by 2.3 inches) but it looks like someone sliced the original in half with a saber. Readmore

Back in March, T-Mobile burned every possible bridge it had with the other cellphone carriers. As I wrote then, it eliminated the two-year contract; you can now quit T-Mobile whenever you like.

It also became the first carrier to eliminate the infuriating 15-second recording of voicemail instructions every time you try to leave a message a waste of your time and your callers airtime.

And T-Mobile also ended the Great Cellphone Subsidy Con. Thats where you buy a $600 phone (like the iPhone) for $200, with the understanding that youll pay the cellphone company the rest over your two-year contract yet after youve repaid it, your monthly bill doesnt drop!

T-Mobile was basically prancing around, demonstrating that Emperors Verizon, Sprint and AT&T have no clothes.

I was pleasantly surprised shocked, really since those con games have been baked into the American cellphone carriers business plans for years. And we, the American sheep, just assumed that we had to accept them.

Apparently, lots of other people were pleasantly surprised, too. The company says that in the second quarter of 2013, it signed up 685,000 new customers more than Verizon, AT&T and Sprint combined.

Well, on Wednesday, T-Mobile did it again. It announced an even bigger shocker: Starting next month, it will eliminate the sky-high, nosebleed, ridiculous, usurious international roaming charges that have terrified and enraged overseas travelers for years. Readmore

If its October, that must mean the holiday buying season has begun and that means Amazon will offer a new color tablet.

Its the Kindle Fire HDX. It costs $230, and its terrific. The battery goes for about 11 hours, or 17 in a power-saving, reading-only mode. The stereo speakers sound great. The plastic case weighs less than the prior version and has narrower margins around the screen. Theres a mediocre camera on the front for video chatting (not on the back on the 7-inch model). The one big misfire was putting the power and volume keys on the back; youll spend the first week hitting the Off button by mistake while trying to turn it up the sound.

The X in HDX is a reference to the screens clarity. It packs in 323 tiny dots per inch, making it sharper than high definition, and making the iPad Minis 163 dots per inch look coarse.

The HDXs screen really is spectacular, if infuriatingly reflective. The trouble is, you can see the new sharpness only when youre looking at source material with resolution that high. The type in books and magazines looks razor-sharp, but most of the 150,000 TV shows and videos in Amazons catalog dont look any clearer. Movies are also the wrong shape for the screen; you see black bands above and below. Readmore

Well, that didnt take long. Only a couple of days after Apples iPhone 5s went on sale, somebody managed to fool its fingerprint sensor.

The headlines and blog comments were predictable and instantaneous: Oooooh, Apple blew it! The star feature of its new phone is worthless!

Ill admit it: I love that darned sensor. You unlock your phone dozens of times a day. Each time is a few seconds of tedium and looking down at it, over and over and over, to enter your password. Its a drag.

And then there are the 50 percent of iPhone users who dont even bother with a password. If youre among them, then your phone and your life are susceptible to snooping should you lose your phone, find it stolen or leave it on your desk while you get coffee.

On the iPhone 5s, you wake the phone by pressing the Home button and then just leave your finger on it for half a second, and boom: it unlocks.

But should we be concerned, then, that the hackers exploits render the fingerprint reader useless?

Not at all. For three giant reasons. Readmore

Updated to clarify how to access the Spotlight search screen.

The big Apple news this week might seem to be the new iPhones. But truth be told, the bigger news is iOS 7.

This is the free software update for iPhones (iPhone 4 and later), iPads (iPad 2 and later) and iPod Touches (fifth generation). Its a radical, huge redesign. Its master architect was Jonathan Ive, the Apple designer who has brought us astonishing hardware designs for many years; now, for the first time, hes been put in charge of a whole software universe.

The look of iOS 7 is sparse, white almost plain in spots. No more fake leather, fake woodgrain, fake green felt, fake yellow note paper. Its all blue Helvetica Neue against white.

The complete absence of graphic embellishments makes it especially utilitarian in both senses of the word. Thats good, because whatever button or function you need is easier to find; its bad, because, well, it can look a little boring.

Then again, the new look is primarily visible at the Home screen, where a jarringly different color palette greets you on the Apple app icons, and on the options screen. The rest of the time, youll be using your regular apps, many of which will look no different than before.

The look of iOS 7 may grab you or not. But once the fuss about the visuals dies down, something even more important comes into focus: the work thats been done on making iOS better. The longer you spend with the new OS, the more youre grateful for the fixing and de-annoyifying on display. Readmore

Technology and air travel have always gone hand in hand, and theyre only getting more intertwined. From security at the airport to the rules about using electronics in flight to the final resting place of the planes toilet contents, airplanes and tech are a constant source of conflict, passion and questions.

If youd like the answers, I highly recommend Patrick Smiths new book, Cockpit Confidential. Mr. Smith is a pilot and blogger; much of the books format and contents are on display at his Web site, AskThePilot.com, or in the archives of the Ask the Pilot column he wrote for Salon.com for years.

But as a frequent flyer, Id much rather have the book, which is a far more comprehensive book of questions and answers about airplanes, airports, airlines and the psychology of flying. Here are some excerpts factoids that every flier should know: Readmore

Tuesday morning, Apple caught up to its own rumor mill. It took the wraps off the two new iPhones that everyone had already predicted: the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S, which will be available on Sept. 20.

The 5C is the budget model. Its basically last years iPhone 5 but with a plastic body (lacquered for extra shininess!), available in five colors. It will be $100 with a two-year contract.

The more exciting new phone is the iPhone 5S. It looks almost identical to the iPhone 5, except that its available in black, white or a classy-looking coppery gold. Its priced the same as last years model, too: $200, $300 and $400 for the models with 16, 32 and 64 gigabytes of storage.

Inside, though, theres a new processor, which Apple says is twice as fast as before. Its also the cellphone worlds first 64-bit processor, according to the company, which is an especially attractive feature for game makers; it can load in new scenes five times faster than the previous chip. Readmore

Everybody loves to hate e-mail. It eats up too much time, its used improperly, its filled up with junk. Entire careers have been launched around the premise of getting your in-box to zero.

I dont agree. E-mail is the hub of life. Its correspondence, collaboration, ideas, news, warnings and congratulations. Its a to-do list, Rolodex and record of past projects. Sure, I try to keep the roar of junk mail to a minimum (I use a program called SpamSieve, and I never, ever enter my primary e-mail address into a form on the Web). But otherwise, e-mail is a pretty great medium.

Maybe, instead of killing it off, the world should be working on making it more useful. A new, free app for iPad and iPhone, bizarrely called PeeqPeeq, is a good start. Readmore

By now, perhaps youve heard: Microsoft just bought Nokias cellphone division for $7.2 billion.

When I mentioned the news last night on Twitter (Im @pogue), my followers were hilariously unimpressed:

Its all snarky but true. What on earth was Steve Ballmer, the departing Microsoft chief, thinking? What is the point of this deal? Readmore

When Im filming a TV series, like the shows I host for PBS, I have to fly a lot. Over the last four years, Ive honed the art of efficient air travel to a sparkling shine.

I could publish my accumulated wisdom in a small book and sell literally dozens of copies. But no: I selflessly offer them to you here, for free.

* Check in with the airline app. If you have your airlines free app on your phone, you can check in ahead of time, even the night before, and save yourself the worry of getting to the airport an hour before the flight.

At that point, the app can also display the bar code representing your boarding pass. No paper. Just set your phone face down on the little T.S.A. scanner, and youre through. Not all airlines have the bar code scanners, but the app will let you know ahead of time. Readmore

From todays mailbag:

Dear Mr. Pogue:

Three years ago, my husband suffered an accident and is now a quadriplegic. He can never be alone without a reliable fully voice-activated phone.

As you pointed out in your column this week, with Android, you have to swipe the screen to reach the mike button, and with the first iteration of Siri, you also had to push the home button all impossible for a quad to do. We bought a Blue Ant device a few years back, which worked nicely (sometimes) with his old HTC. When the phone was last updated, that was the end of a beautiful relationship. I spent hours with both Blue Ant and HTC, and both blamed the other and neither had a solution.

So what do you suggest?

While youre at it: The command to terminate a call doesnt exist yet. When your call goes into voice mail, you cant hang up by a voice command; you must physically terminate the call. We have discussed this problem with multiple brain trusts and no one has the solution yet.

My reply:

Unfortunately, Im afraid I havent done any research on this problem in particular. But the Moto X, as I mentioned in my review, is listening for voice commands all the time you dont have to touch it to start issuing commands.

Among the many Android apps, perhaps theres one that lets you hang up with a voice command?

Ill ask my blog readers. Maybe they know of some solutions!

Moments of Steven A. Ballmer from conferences, commercials and interviews over the years that he was Microsofts chief executive.

By now, youve probably heard: Steven A. Ballmer will soon be stepping down as chief executive of Microsoft.

Its supposedly a voluntary retirement, but that holds about as much credibility as a public officials leaving a job to spend more time with family. Microsoft has been flailing, and many prominent voices have been calling for Mr. Ballmer to step aside.

Many of the factors in his departure stock price, internal politics, shareholder pressure, public relations arent my area of expertise. Im a tech critic, a reviewer of products. But even from my particular angle of examination, Mr. Ballmers time as the head of Microsoft has been baffling. Readmore

I get lots and lots of e-mail. I reply to as much as I can but certain categories, Ill tell you right now, I cant answer. What should I buy? questions, Solve my technical problems questions or Endorse my book, app or product requests. I hope its obvious that theres no way I could answer all of those.

Im increasingly convinced, however, that there should be a consumer technology complaint columnist. Many of my correspondents write to complain about problems theyre having with some product, company or service, and theyd like me to shame the perpetrators by writing about them.

Here are the sorts of things people write about:

Q.

Ive been an enthusiastic user on my iPhone of CoPilot, a GPS navigation program. Recently I noticed that one of the modules for giving text directions would pop off, leaving me with just the map. I decided to re-download the app, now updated. I quickly found out that the new version would not work with my older iOS 5.1 operating system and required iOS 6.

I do not argue that they have a need to update their version in tandem with Apple. But to not support old-time users with the ability to re-install a previous version, is rude and a poor encouragement to brand loyalty.

A.

Alas, the rapid appearance of new versions is simply the cost of playing the software game. As Im fond of saying, buying a software program is more like paying membership dues than buying a vase and owning it. Unfortunately, that seems to be the way the world works. Readmore

A few weeks back, I wrote about special lenses that were developed to give doctors a clearer view of veins and vasculature, bruising, cyanosis, pallor, rashes, erythema, and other variations in blood O2 level, and concentration, especially in bright light.

But these lenses turned out to have an unintended side effect: they may cure red-green colorblindness.

Im severely red-green colorblind, so I was eager to try these $300 lenses. Turns out they didnt help me; the company said that my colorblindness is too severe. They have helped many others, though (their Amazon reviews makes that clear).

After my column appeared, I heard from another company that makes color-enhancing glasses this time, specifically for red-green colorblind folks. The companys called EnChroma, and the EnChroma Cx sunglasses are a heartbeat-skipping $600 a pair.

Our lenses are specifically designed to address color blindness, the company wrote to me, and utilize a 100+ layer dielectric coating we engineered for this precise purpose by keeping the physiology of the eyes of colorblind people in mind.

I asked to try out a pair. (You can, too: theres a 30-day money-back guarantee.) Readmore

Read the original:

Technology - Pogue's Posts Blog - The New York Times

NEW YORK So, you use messaging apps like WhatsApp or Signal, or have smart TVs and PCs. Should you worry that the CIA is listening to your conversations?

The short answer is no. The long answer is maybe, though its still unlikely you need to be too concerned.

WikiLeaks revelations describing secret CIA hacking tools allegedly used to break into computers, mobile phones and even smart TVs could certainly have real-life implications for anyone using internet-connected technology. In particular, the WikiLeaks documents suggest the CIA has attempted to turn TVs into listening devices and to circumvent though not crack message apps that employ protective data scrambling.

But for people weary of a seemingly constant revelations of hacks, government spying and security worries, the news came as no surprise.

Todays leaks definitely concern me, but at this point I have accepted that security risks are an inherent part of our modern technology, Andrew Marshello, a soundboard operator from Queens, New York, said by email. Since that tech is so integrated into our society, its hard to take the reasonable step cutting out smart devices, messaging apps, etc. without sacrificing a part of social life.

While hes definitely worried about deeper implications of governmental hacking and surveillance, Marshello says he wont cut his iPhone or modern messaging apps out of his life. But he doesnt have a smart TV and doesnt plan to get one, he keeps his microphone unplugged and camera covered when hes not using his PC and he has voice recognition turned off on his phone.

Hes not alone. Last year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was photographed with his laptop camera and microphone covered with tape. Some online called him paranoid; others suggested he was just being smart.

WHY IT MATTERS

What everybody should be asking is whether any of this was shared with local law enforcement, said Scott Vernick, a partner at the law firm Fox Rothschild who focuses on data privacy and security. Meaning, whether the CIA shared any of the techniques with the FBI and with other domestic law enforcement agencies that could employ them domestically.

Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director at consumer advocacy group U.S. PIRG, said the news should alert consumers to how vulnerable internet-connected devices are.

You shouldnt be too concerned about the CIA hacking you unless youre doing something illegal, he said. But this should be a wakeup call for the average consumer.

He recommended changing passwords on smart TVs, cameras and other connected devices as often as you change computer passwords. Whether its your refrigerator, smart lights you program from your phone or your baby monitor, the security systems in most internet of things products are actually dumb, not smart.

PRIVACY FATIGUE

At this point, I am so used to reading stories about accounts getting hacked that it is to be expected, Matt Holden, an editor and social media coordinator in Dallas, Texas, said via email. Holden worries about the safety of personal information like his social security number and financial details, but says hes less concerned about the security of his messaging apps.

So long as I conduct myself in a way that would mean I have nothing to hide, then Im not worried about the government taking a look, he said.

In a recent Pew survey , conducted in the spring of 2016 and released this January, 46 percent of respondents thought the government should be able to access encrypted communications when investigating crimes. Only 44 percent thought tech companies should be able to use encryption tools that are unbreakable by law enforcement. Younger people were more likely to support strong encryption, as were Democrats.

If theyre authentic, the leaked CIA documents frame one stark reality: It may be that no digital conversation, photo or other slice of life can be shielded from spies and other intruders prying into smartphones, computers or other devices connected to the internet.

Another reality: Many may not care.

People have fatigue in this area, especially when talking about data breaches, and to a degree, hacking, said Eva Velasquez, president of the Identity Theft Resource Center, who says its difficult to imagine what kind of abuses would force them to abandon their smartphones. People love their fun toys and devices, she said.

THE INTERNET OF SPYING THINGS

We dont know about the CIA role, but we do know anything with a chip in it that is connected to the internet is vulnerable to hacking, said Gartner security analyst Avivah Litan.

A hacking attack in October that disrupted Amazon and Netflix, for instance, originated on internet-connected devices such as home videocams.

Basically the internet of things is vulnerable and has been deployed without thinking of security first, Litan said. Anyone with reason to think someone might be spying on them should think twice about a connected car or a connected camera.

Go here to see the original:

Leaks remind users of technology's vulnerability - Press Herald

Homebuyers of all ages are calling for an increase in technology in their home buying experience, but are not willing to let go of the personal touch loan officers bring, according to Ellie Maes 2017 Borrower Insights Survey.

The survey of homeowners and renters were announced at the annual Ellie Mae Experience conferencein Las Vegas. [HousingWire is live at the event, for more coverage, click here.]

It showed that the majority of homeowners, 57%, applied for and completed their most recent mortgage in person while 28% of homeowners applied for their most recent mortgage using both online and in-person interaction. Another 11% of homeowners completed their last mortgage completely online.

While Millennials are the most likely generation of homebuyers to begin their mortgage application online at 30%, they are not the only generation to do so. Of other generations, 28% of Gen Xers started their applications online followed by 20% of Baby Boomers.

Theres no question that technology is playing a larger role in the home buying experience, said Joe Tyrrell, Ellie Mae executive vice president of corporate strategy.

As we expected, many homeowners are seeking a faster and more streamlined experience, Tyrrell said. And its not just a millennial phenomenon; its homebuyers of all ages and both genders.

But when questioned further about specific improvements they would like to see, about 40% of homeowners said they would like a faster pace with fewer delays, and 20% answered they wanted a shorter, easier to understand application and 11% said they would like more communication with their lender throughout the process.

But whats even more telling is that homeowners still want a personal interaction with their lender, Tyrrell said. They want someone who can answer important questions, and make them feel confident that everything will be handled correctly and on time.

While 27% of millennials identified the speed of the process as the top area to improve their experience, surprisingly 23% cited more face-to-face interaction as the second-greatest opportunity for improvement, he said. By leveraging technology, lenders can provide a more high tech experience to simplify and speed the overall process, while still having the high-touch interactions when and where homebuyers want.

Using data from Ellie Mae, here is a chart that demonstrates what each generation wants most out of the homebuying experience.

Click to Enlarge

(Source: Ellie Mae)

Keep reading HousingWire to see more insights from Ellie Mae and what its unveiling at its conference this week in Las Vegas, or follow our own Sarah Wheeler.

Read the original:

Ellie Mae: Homebuyers prioritize technology, but still want personal interaction - HousingWire

Indiana schools superintendent awards technology grants Sacramento Bee The Indiana Department of Education has awarded grants to 32 school districts to help boost students' use of technology in the classroom. State schools Superintendent Jennifer McCormick announced Wednesday that $2.3 million will be distributed this ... and more »

See more here:

Indiana schools superintendent awards technology grants - Sacramento Bee

The Hindu

Karur Vysya Bank to leverage on technology The Hindu Karur Vysya Bank, which has invested about 80 crore a year on technology for the last two years, will leverage on technology for its next phase of growth. Next five to seven years, will be exciting as we are investing heavily on technology, K ... and more »

Follow this link:

Karur Vysya Bank to leverage on technology - The Hindu

MIT Technology Review

Apple, Samsung and Microsoft react to Wikileaks' CIA dump BBC News Apple's statement was the most detailed, saying it had already addressed some of the vulnerabilities. "The technology built into today's iPhone represents the best data security available to consumers, and we're constantly working to keep it that way ... The Wikileaks CIA Stash May Prove Interesting, But Not Necessarily for the HacksMIT Technology Review Smartphones, PCs and TVs: the everyday devices targeted by the CIAThe Guardian Wikileaks: CIA has tools to snoop via TVsBBC News WIKILEAKS -WikiLeaks -New York Times all 936 news articles »

Go here to see the original:

Apple, Samsung and Microsoft react to Wikileaks' CIA dump - BBC News

In the great quest to get Americans eating healthier, spinach is an unusual success story. Were consuming four times as much fresh spinach as we were four decades ago, as a vegetable once derided as choke-it-down good for you has become a mainstay of home cooking and upscale restaurants. But the spinach boom wasnt driven by changing tastes, or the cartoon exhortations of Popeye. It was driven by technology.

Spinach, like many vegetables, is finicky. If you packaged it in the same airtight bags used for potato chips, the leaves would start to break down before they made it from Californias Central Valley to a supermarket in Chicago. It wasnt until scientists came up with a special bagone that controls how much oxygen and carbon dioxide can seep in and outthat pre-washed, ready-to-eat spinach became something that a shopper could grab in the produce section and dump straight into a salad bowl or smoothie. Spinach, and leafy greens in general, have become so convenient that Americans are actually eating more of theman impressive feat considering just one in 10 Americans eats the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

As the country seeks solutions to the obesity epidemic, theres been plenty of debate about how to get people to eat better. Do we need to improve access to healthy foods? Teach cooking? Tax sugary drinks? But theres one thing thats often left out of the conversation: technology.

It might seem strange to think about vegetables as a technology, but they are. The average supermarket produce aisle represents decades, if not centuries, of agricultural research and development. But in the United States, big-league commodity crops like corn and soy, as well as meat, gobble up most of the agricultural research investment from both the public and private sectors. The U.S. Department of Agricultures dietary guidelines tell us to fill half our plate with fruits and vegetables to maintain a healthy diet, but its research priorities are far different. So-called specialty cropsthe governments name for the category that includes, essentially, all fruits, vegetables and nutsreceived just 15 percent of the federal research budget over much of the past three decades.

Theres nothing more important we can do to improve the health of this country than to invest billions and billions into researching the fruits and vegetables that were encouraging people to eat, said Sam Kass, the former White House chef and food policy guru under the Obama administration who now works with food tech startups.

Agricultural research is fundamental to improving how we raise, grow, harvest, process and ship everything that we eat. It took millions of dollars of public and private research and years of experimenting with limp leafy greens before breathable salad packaging came onto the scene. Consumers no longer have to wash sand and dirt off their greens, remove tough stems and ribs or chop them into bite-sized portions. The same types of technologies have also helped bring us baby carrot packs with dips, sliced apples in McDonalds Happy Meals and ready-to-eat kale salad kits.

Packages of Fresh Express salad wait for customers in a San Francisco grocery store. The technology that keeps spinach and lettuce fresh in breathable packaging was based on government agricultural research conducted in the 1950s. | Getty

The enormous logistical and technological challenges facing so many of the foods that nutritionists tell us to eat make research especially critical for produce, which as a sector is still relatively inefficient. Apples bruise. Berries don't all ripen at once. Cilantro wilts. Cherries can split and crack if it rains at the wrong timea problem that can be so expensive, some growers hire helicopters to fly over their crop to dry the delicate fruit. Many of these crops still rely on increasingly expensive (and oftentimes undocumented) labor to pick them by hand. And water. They need lots of water.

Specialty crops remain specialjust 3 percent of cropland is dedicated to growing themthough they make up roughly a quarter of the value of crops grown in the U.S. because they demand higher prices. This lopsided dynamic means that specialty crops have historically received very little federal research investment compared to their value. It also means the country simply doesnt have a food system that supplies what were told to eat. In 2007, there were about 8.5 million acres of specialty crops in a sea of more than 300 million acres of everything else.

If Americans were to actually go ahead and jump into consuming the amount of fruits and vegetables recommended, wed be hard-pressed to meet that demand, said Sonny Ramaswamy, director of the USDAs National Institute for Food and Agriculture, which coordinates a large part of the governments agricultural research portfolio. Theres an incredible amount of innovation that we need, all the way from the farm to the table.

The imbalance is no accident: In a sense, its built into the mission of the USDA itself, which frustrates both vegetable growers and nutrition advocates. But there are signs its starting to changeif slowly.

THE ROAD TO packaged salad isnt just an example of how research pays off: It shows just how long the process can be, and how much commitment it requires. It began in the late 1920s when a young Berkeley grad named Bruce Church bought a field of head lettuce in Salinas, California, and devised a plan to ship it, packed in ice, by rail across the United States. According to local lore in the Salinas Valley, children as far away as Maine would greet the rail cars excitedly, shouting: "The icebergs are coming! The icebergs are coming!" The name stuck.

After World War II, a handful of USDA scientists stationed in Fresno, California, set out to learn more about how to best handle, store and ship fruits and vegetables. They obsessively measured temperatures, shelf life, spoilage and the rate at which different crops respireor breathewhich is one way of measuring how fast something will rot.

Theyre still alive! explained Gene Lester, national program leader for the Agricultural Research Services food science and technology division. Youre eating a lettuce leaf or a kale leaf, or a string bean, or an appletheyre still alive. Theres still CO2 and oxygen exchanging in those organisms, and thats whats keeps them healthy for us.

A vintage poster for Bruce Church, Inc., the Salinas, California company that helped popularize iceberg lettuce starting in the 1920s. Bruce Church Inc. later morphed into Fresh Express, which pioneered the use of breathable packaging for lettuce and other leafy greens. | Fresh Express

In 1954, researchers published a roundup of everything theyd learned in a massive book, known as AH-66. That tome served as a base of knowledge that preceded major advances in produce innovation for decades afterward. That was kind of a bible for us, said Jim Lugg, a longtime agriculture scientist who in many ways is the grandfather of modern salad technology. The problems werent really with growing the crops, it was with shipping them and keeping them fresh. Lugg, whos now 83 years old, still consults in the industry (and, for the record, still eats lots of salad).

In 1963, Lugg signed on to lead the research division of Bruce Church Inc., which teamed up with a subsidiary of refrigerator-maker Whirlpoola partnership based largely on the hope that they might be able to figure out how to get lettuce from Salinas to the East Coast before it turned brown. After a lot of experimentation, they figured out how to manipulate the atmosphere inside the vehicles in which they shipped the lettuce so that it was more hospitable, providing the right balance of CO2 and oxygen in refrigerated rail cars and containersa hack that took the shelf life of the lettuce from three or four days to 14, as long as the lettuce was kept cold.

Weve put it to sleep, Lugg explained. Its sleeping! Its not breathing at its normal rate.

Bruce Church Inc. eventually morphed into Fresh Express, which in 1989 introduced what is believed to be the first pre-washed, bagged salad in grocery stores nationwide. That first mix, packaged in breathable bags, was chopped iceberg lettuce, with bits of shredded carrots and purple cabbage, a combo that meant home cooks could serve a multi-ingredient salad without chopping a single vegetable. We saw a way to really improve the customer experience with lettuce, Lugg said.

Lugg recalled serving on a board that helped advise the government on investing in specialty crop research in the 1990s. I dont think they were spending very much, he says. (USDA couldnt provide an estimate.) The then-head of [the Agricultural Research Service] was very defensive about all the problems they had getting money and that they had to spend money for things like corn and ethanol and cotton.

Hed sometimes give Ed Knipling, the then-head of ARS, a hard time about the disparity. He would point out how much they spent on this crop or this crop, and wed say Well, how much did you spend on lettuce?

SO WHY DOESNT the nation spend more on better lettuce? The answer lies partly in the history of the U.S. Department of Agriculture itself. On one hand, the department, founded by Abraham Lincoln, is dedicated to promoting and boosting American agriculture as an industry. That means investing in the massive commodity crops that largely fuel American farming, giving us the cheapest, most abundant food supply in the history of the world. But the department is also tasked with encouraging healthy eatingits the agency that gives Americans nutrition adviceand these two major goals can at times be directly at odds.

Public health advocates have long lamented that the USDAs nutrition advice doesnt align with how the institution actually spends its money, and they often point to crop subsidies as the most glaring example. Between 2008 and 2012, for example, fruits and vegetables and other specialty crops got just under one-half of 1 percent of all the subsidies that were doled out. A full 80 percent of those payments went to supporting grains used in all manner of foods, to feed livestock and to fuel our cars, and oils, like what we use to fry potato chips.

The disparity is something that frustrates Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine, who also happens to be an organic farmer. When the congresswoman speaks at food conferences, she often shows a side-by-side graphic comparing MyPlate, the governments nutrition guide, and a plate representation of crop subsidies.

Vegetables are called specialty crops! Dont ask me to explain why, Pingree said as she unveiled her graphic at TedxManhattan back in 2014. The room full of foodies gasped and mumbled disapprovingly.

The idea that junk food is cheaper than produce because of farm subsidies is so often repeated by food movement leaders like Michael Pollan that almost everyone assumes that its true. But the reality is more nuanced.

Subsidies on their own dont explain why processed foods are cheaper than produce, calorie for calorie. Fruits and vegetables, first and foremost, are highly perishable, which makes everything about growing, harvesting, storing and shipping them infinitely more complicated and expensive. Many of these crops also take a ton of labor to maintain and harvest. Economists whove crunched the numbers have found that removing agricultural subsidies would have little effect on consumers food prices, in part because the cost of commodities like corn and soybeans represent just a tiny share of the cost of the food sold in the grocery store.

The U.S. has simply gotten much better at growing corn than lettuce. Today, we get about six times as much corn out of one acre of land as we did in the 1920s, when Bruce Church started his lettuce farm. Iceberg lettuce yields, on the other hand, have only doubled in that time. The USDA didnt start tracking such data for most of the darker leafy greens until the 1990s.

Even if subsidies did make fruits and vegetables dramatically cheaper, its far from clear that everyone would start eating their broccoli. The price of produce isnt the only cost to eating fruits and vegetables; many consumers also lack the time or the skills to prepare and cook their perishables. And increasing fruit and vegetable consumption is hard to keep up as Americans eat more of their food on the go, away from home and prepare far fewer traditional meals on their own.

Moreover, the produce industry doesnt want to be subsidized like Big Corn or Big Soy. When industry leaders come to Capitol Hill, they have been clear that they didnt want traditional subsidies, like price supports, said Glenda Humiston, vice president of agriculture and natural resources at the University of California. They want help with the infrastructure to do their jobs better, she says, including more funding for research labs and data collection that can help industry solve problems on the ground.

Migrant workers pick organic spinach in a field in Colorado. Labor, often from immigrant workers, remains one of the most costly inputs to growing healthy fruits and vegetables. | Getty

Reducing the need for labor is one of the top priorities for the industry, especially with the Trump administrations rhetoric and recent crackdown on undocumented workers. Labor alone can account for half a farms costs and labor shortages are already preventing the expansion of acreage of specialty crops in many regions. Farmers can be hesitant to invest in growing, watering and raising a crop if theres uncertainty about having enough workers to harvest it.

Growers and shippers are going to have to find ways to mechanize, or were not going to be able to harvest our products, and were talking about delicate products, said Steve Church, CEO of Church Brothers Farms, a major grower in Salinas.

The biggest issue we have here is labor, Church added. No question in my mind.

Today, the government is funding research at Washington State University and other universities to design robots that can gently harvest apples and even see or smell when the fruit is ripea potential leap for the kind of mechanization that has so far eluded much of the produce industry.

USDA researchers are also working on a system that drastically cuts down on the need to sort fruit. The prototype is an elaborate, six-armed machine that goes into the field with apple pickers. The apples are fed onto a conveyer belt that uses an infrared system to detect blemishes and even grade the fruit on the spot.

Other research is focusing on improving flavor. In Florida, researchers have cracked the code to make tomatoes taste better, an innovation that could help reverse decades of breeding tomatoes for durability and thick skin that has left the fruit tasteless and watery. The tomatoes, which also have more lycopene, an important nutrient and anti oxidant, have begun being marketed in Florida under the name Tasti-Lee. The company that commercialized the technology says nearly 94 million pounds of the tastier tomato have been sold so far.

We first of all had to have a stable supply. We had to figure out how to get tomatoes from the West Coast to the East Coast, says a USDA scientist, permitted to speak on background. But now we can focus on the whole flavor component.

Making tomatoes tastier is only the beginning. Understanding this pathway, its not unique to just tomatoes, but you can use this as a model for citrus, or peppers or apples or anything else, the scientist said.

THOUGH SPECIALTY CROPS have lagged behind their shelf-stable brethren for much of the past century, the needs of the produce industry havent gone totally unheard in the halls of Washington. The idea that these smaller crops might deserve more attention began to gain some traction in the early 2000s, when California growers became increasingly angry that their state was the No. 1 agriculture state based on value, largely due to high-dollar specialty crops, but they were coming up around 16th in terms of USDA research funding coming into the state.

In 2006, there was also a renewed interest in investing in research after a deadly E. coli outbreak linked to packaged spinach rocked the entire produce industryand consumer confidence. Three people died, and 276 people were hospitalized. The disaster fueled an intense food-safety push across Salinas Valley and the rest of the produce industry. It also helped energize a diverse coalition of growers that had started to organize to ask Washington for a greater share of spending in the farm bill, the law that every five years sets the agenda for the Agriculture Department. They demanded that more money be invested in food safety and other types of research. Producers of commodities like dairy and grains were less than pleased to have another group vying for a part of the federal pie, according to congressional aides.

It was a hell of a fight, said Humiston.

But Big Produces political push has paid off. In 2008, the farm bill for the first time included a section dedicated to specialty crops. Theres now a $72 million fund to promote various specialty crop projects, like building hoop houses to extend the growing season. Fruit and vegetable farmers are also starting to get access to the same government-subsidized insurance policies that other commodities have enjoyed for years. But the biggest growth for specialty crops in recent years has been in research spending.

The USDA now dedicates some $400 million to studying specialty crops each yeara big increase, though still a modest fraction of the nearly $3 billion the government invests in agricultural research each year. That pot of money is spread among USDAs in-house research, land grant universities and other public research institutions. The USDA couldnt provide specialty crop research estimates from before 2008.

The Obama administration and its intense focus on healthy eating was also a boon to the specialty crop sector. The administration not only backed allocating more money to the crops, but it also promoted more fruits and vegetables in school meal programs that serve 30 million children each day, and in the Women, Infants and Children program, which provides nutritional support for half of all babies born in the United States.

While much of the new federal boost for produce investment is motivated more by the industrys business needs than any push to combat the nations crippling obesity epidemic, public health advocates with little political clout are thrilled to see the needle moving, however it happens.

If what we want is for people to eat fruits and vegetables, we have to make it easier, we have to make it taste better, said Marion Nestle, a food studies professor at New York University and author of the popular blog Food Politics.

Its about time produce got some attention.

The rest is here:

The vegetable technology gap - Politico

Mainstream Image-Recognition Technology And What It Means For Marketers Forbes Every day there's a fresh news story about "image recognition," aka "computer vision" terms that have a faintly sci-fi feel to them. The technology can seem almost forbiddingly futuristic and complicated, though the science at its heart has a ...

Continued here:

Mainstream Image-Recognition Technology And What It Means For Marketers - Forbes