TECHNOLOGY ON THE MOVE

Watch out Siri, Cortana and Alexa, here comes Viv The team that built Siri and then sold it to Apple has created what it believes is a more sophisticated voice assistant that can handle a wider range of tasks than any of today's options. by Lance Whitney, May 5, 2016.  

Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana and Amazon's Alexa may soon face a new competitor: Viv. Viv -- created by the developers who crafted Siri and then sold it to Apple in 2010 -- represents the next step in voice assistants.  The new software, which is designed to handle tasks for you all on its own, will get a public demonstration at a tech conference Monday. For example, Viv's creators have used the software to order pizzas. When one of them starts placing the order, Viv asks if he would like toppings. Other engineers pipe in with their own requests. Viv asks more questions. In the end, four pizzas arrive with the right ingredients and without the team placing a phone call, doing a search or using an app. Voice assistants have been catching on, offering a hands-free and more natural way to ask questions, find information and manage busy lives. Viv is just the latest in a string of virtual assistants that includes Siri, Cortana, Alexa and Google Now. But Viv's creators say their software takes the concept further by understanding your requests and engaging in conversation with you to fulfill them. Viv takes a page from Amazon's Echo, a wireless speaker that responds to your questions and requests via the built-in Alexa voice assistant. Like Echo, Viv can directly integrate with third-party services, with 50 already onboard. So you tell Viv to hail an Uber car , order flowers from FTD and snag your next meal from Grubhub. said Viv co-creator Dag Kittlaus.  he's also chatting with car makers, TV companies and other media firms about integrating their products with Viv. . So far, Viv doesn't exist as something that consumers can buy or use, but there are interested parties. Viv's creators don't yet know whether they'll run with it themselves or sell it to another company, but they envision their creation as something that can be a part of our daily lives. . 

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?

An accident took her sight 21 years ago; another just gave it back By Evann Gastaldo Published May 04, 2016.  

After a car accident injured her spine in 1995, Mary Ann Franco lost her vision. But after being blind for 21 years, the Florida woman fell in her home and hurt her neck ... and woke up from the ensuing spinal surgery on April 6 with the ability to see. "Out the window, I could see the trees. I could see the houses and stuff," Franco said.  Oddly, Franco was colorblind before her car accident, and now she can also see colors. The neurosurgeon who operated on her says he has no scientific explanation for what happened.  it's a "true miracle"-but he has an idea. If an artery in Franco's spine was "kinked" in the car accident, restricting the flow of blood to the part of her brain that handles vision, he may have inadvertently "unkinked" the same artery during the recent surgery, he theorizes. "And when we gave that extra amount of blood flow by unkinking the vessel, it could have re-established the blood flow,  though he notes that none of this is certain. But an explanation doesn't matter much to Franco: "The sun is coming through the trees," she said on a recent morning. "Oh God, it's so wonderful to see. Nature isn't the only sight for her to behold: Franco has seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren who she has hugged and kissed but never seen. 

MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T ORDER THAT

5 things you should never order at a restaurant By Dan Myers Published May 03, 2016.  

Depending on where you're eating, it might be best to opt for bottled water over tap.  Every restaurant has its own specialties, things that it does really well and (if it's lucky) is known for. And while it's fairly obvious that there are some things you shouldn't order from specific restaurants - a lobster roll at a dive bar or a cheeseburger at a Chinese restaurant , for example - there are some things that you should never order from any restaurant, ever, for numerous reasons. Here are five. Tap Water It may be a little more expensive to opt for bottled water, but water left sitting out at room temperature for too long can be a bacterial breeding ground. And if the water you're being served is coming directly from the tap, you never know how clean those taps (and pipes) are.  Who knows when those nuts were last tossed out?  Free Bar Snacks Think about how many people have also had their hand in that container of peanuts. And then think about how few of them probably washed their hands recently, even after using the restroom. Dubious-Sounding Specials While some chefs go out of their way to make sure that specials highlight the freshest seasonal ingredients, purchased at the market that very morning, many see the specials board as a way to use up past-their-prime ingredients. If there's a special that sounds like a random hodgepodge, or sauce-covered bits of meat, stay away.  Really, Guys, Don't Eat Raw Cookie dough. Wagyu/ Kobe Burgers Real wagyu and kobe beef are rare and expensive delicacies, extremely marbled and usually served in very small portions at exorbitant prices. To grind it up like any old piece of beef isn't just sacrilege, it's dumb, and nobody does it. Ten times out of 10, if a restaurant claims that its burger is made with wagyu or kobe beef, it is flat-out lying to you. Don't order it, on principle. Bread While a free piece of bread or two is a nice way to get something into your stomach at the beginning of the meal, having to pay for it (even if it's artisan bread) is pointless. Just be hungry for 15 more minutes, you'll survive. 

SOME GOOD SOURSES OF PROTEIN

5 quick and easy ways to fit your protein in By Tanya Zuckerbrot Published May 03, 2016.  

High-protein diets are great for weight loss, since protein keeps you feeling full for longer. One of the number one complaints from people who struggle to lose weight is that they don't have time to prepare healthy meals. Making healthy meals doesn't need to be a time consuming, all-day affair. With these easy protein packed foods and tips for your kitchen, maintaining a protein packed diet can't be easier. Egg beaters Breakfast omelet, lunch omelet, dinner omelet, whatever time of day it is, an egg omelet is a healthy, low calorie and high protein meal option. Egg beaters contain all the natural protein of whole eggs from the egg carton, without the messy broken shells to contend with. Even more, egg beaters have half the calories, 0g of fat, and 0mg of cholesterol. One serving of egg beaters is a mere 25 calories and contains 5g of protein. Give it a try, and for your next omelet, toss in your favorite veggies to give this meal a nutritious fiber boost. Peanut butter to my jelly Peanut butter, a childhood favorite, is often high calorie and high fat, but it's also a convenient high protein food. Slash the calories and the fat by opting for PB2 powdered peanut butter, which has a quarter of the calories and fat, while still packing in 5g of protein. You can finally enjoy peanut butter again, minus the guilt. PB2 can be enjoyed on top of oatmeal, high fiber crackers, or consumed by the spoonful. Fish: from cans to pouches Fish is a great lean protein and a source of healthy fats for any diet. If prepping fresh fish is a non-option with your busy schedule, opt for canned or pouched fish, such as heart-healthy salmon. One serving of canned salmon is just 60 calories and contains 12g of protein, more than 20% of your daily protein intake recommendation. Save the fat for the fish by choosing a low fat mayonnaise to mix in, or enjoy it plain. 

MORE INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGY ON ITS WAY

Digital glasses help 12-year-old blind boy see mom for first time Published April 29, 2016.  

A Virginia fifth-grader whose eye muscles never fully developed, leaving him legally blind, was finally able to see his mother with a technology called eSight. When Chris Ward, 12, set his eyes on his mom, he gave her a compliment that brought tears to her eyes. "Well when I first saw my mom for the first time, she was pretty," Ward said.  Marquita Hackley, Ward's mother, said, "I just broke down and cried. Ward also got to see words on a page for the first time. "It was just amazing because he's never been able to see details like that," Hackley said.  Ward's digital glasses, produced by Toronto, Ontario-based eSight, operate with a high-speed camera that relays pixels in front of the user and transforms them into enhanced video that is then viewed with LED screens, according to the company's website. Although Ward has tested the glasses, his family's insurance doesn't cover their cost and they can't foot their $15,000 price tag out of pocket.

GO AHEAD-EAT THAT UGLY FRUIT

Ugly fruit might actually be better for you, study finds By Joanna Fantozzi Published April 29, 2016. 

Will an ugly apple a day keep the doctor away?  If you don't judge a book by its cover, then you shouldn't judge a piece of produce by its bumps and bruises. We already know that supermarkets are trying to push "ugly" fruit that's misshapen, bruised, or scarred in some way to cut down on food waste. But now there's even more reason to love your misshapen fruits and vegetables. According to orchardist Eliza Greenmann, an informal study of her produce found that bruised apples had two to five percent higher sugar content and more antioxidants than their perfect-looking cousins.  Why You Should Be Eating Ugly Fruit. Save the Life of A Fruit And a few scientific studies have already been done to support her claim. Thanks to a 2014 review of more than 300 peer-reviewed studies, we already known that organic produce - which has a higher percentage of ugly fruit - contains less pesticide residue and more antioxidants than factory farm-produced shiny apples and pears, according to NPR. Plus, according to Greenmann, fruits with dimples and blemishes actually show the "battle scars" of their fought (and won!) battles with pesticides, worms, and surface infections. These unsightly additions to the fruit or vegetable's flesh could actually point to a stronger, healthier specimen. 

DO YOU EVER WONDER ABOUT EXPIRATION DATES

The truth about those expiration dates on your groceries By Janet Rausa Fuller Published April 29, 2016.  

Can you really drink that milk after the expiration date?  Deciding whether or not that untouched yogurt carton or pack of hot dogs in your fridge has gone bad is simply a matter of reading the expiration date on the label, right? Hardly. For starters, is there a date? And if so, which date should you go by? "Expires on"? "Sell by"? "Best before"? Most of the time, dates have nothing to do with whether a food is safe to eat or spoiled. It's confusing. Date labeling of food products isn't required under federal law, so the practice varies widely between states and food companies. And here's the real kicker: Most of the time, the dates have nothing to do with whether a food is safe to eat or spoiled. The problem is that none of these terms connote any sort of universally established meaning, nor do they have any legal definition, says Dana Gunders, senior scientist at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which put the issue in the spotlight in its 2013 report "The Dating Game," published with the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic. Most of the time, the dates have nothing to do with whether a food is safe to eat or spoiled. It all adds up to inconsistent labeling, consumer confusion, and a lot of wasted food-about $165 billion dollars worth a year, or 40 percent of our food supply, by NRDC estimates. But a federal bill expected to be introduced later this month is poised to change that. The proposed legislation outlines a standardized labeling system that would finally make clear two things: a food's quality date and its safety date.  The currently meaningless phrase "Best if used by" would indicate when a product will no longer taste its best. The date past which the product would no longer be safe to eat would be noted as "Expires on. (Legislation proposed just a few weeks ago in California calls for similar standards.) But although mandatory (and universal) date labeling is on the horizon, for the time being we still have to navigate the current confusing language. Commonly used date labels: "Packed on": This is when a product was put in its package. You can ignore this date. "Sell by" : This date is a manufacturer's way of telling a grocery store how long it should keep the product on its shelves. It's a business-to-business communication that has nothing to do with whether a food is safe to eat, Gunders says. In other words, don't worry about it. "Best by," "Use by," "Best if used by," "Best before" : These all generally mean the same thing: the date when a manufacturer says a food is no longer at its peak quality and flavor. The texture or color may change. It might not taste as good. However, it doesn't mean it's not safe to eat after that, Gunder says. So those "expired" yogurts might be perfectly fine. "Freeze by," "Use or freeze by" : This is the manufacturer's suggestion for when you should freeze something-again, with optimal quality in mind-if you're not using it right away. "Expires on" : Theoretically, this date refers to when a food is no longer okay to eat, but there's no guarantee. "In practice, it just varies," Gunders says.