Our clothes-care-labeling system is a wonder of efficiency — if you speak the language. But can you honestly say that you know what every single one of those triangles, exes, squares and squiggles on your tags are telling you? If you answered “no,” then you’re in good company. You’re also in luck, because I’ve broken them all down for you in a brief and handy-dandy article called (descriptively enough) …
What’s the deal with those laundry symbols, and how do I tell them apart?
April 2015 saw Tesla Motors’ entry into the home and industrial battery market. Thousands of pre-orders – and more than a little hype – attended the announcement, and it’s easy to see why: The promise of a cost-effective home battery, one that could make self-storage an equal or better option for solar customers than the prevailing sell-and-buyback model, could revolutionize the solar industry.
Yet some experts argue that the battery is not all it’s cracked up to be, while harsher critics accuse Tesla of using the storage cells as big green stalking horses, part of a plan to bilk taxpayers into subsidizing the company’s massive battery factory and R&D facility in Nevada. Read on as I make the connections in …
Food is both mundane and magical, ephemeral and essential – the ultimate cultural touchstone. Our religions proscribe taboo foods, oblige sacred meals and employ food as a conduit for sacred power. Our myths abound with divine edibles that grant gods immortality, while our folktales counsel against feasting in fairyland lest we trap ourselves forever.
But for all the reverence we pay them, many comestibles arose from humble, bizarre or even disgusting sources, while what we choose, or are compelled, to eat is driven by everything from necessity to neurosis. For better or worse, food scientists, molecular gastronomists and, yes, marketing firms channel these impulses in profitable (if not always healthy directions). The results are, shall we say, appetizingly bizarre …
It’s said that we eat first with our eyes. It’s also said that there’s nothing new under the sun. There are a lot of sayings, is my point, but this isn’t an article about that. It’s an article about color-changing food.
“But wait,” I hear some of you saying. “Food already changes color. How do you think we get brown bananas?” To which I reply that nobody likes a smart aleck. Or something about “out of the mouths of babes,” assuming you’re a babe. Because you’re not far off from some of the ways that food scientists are using to take color-changing foods to the next level, particularly in the frozen food aisle.
Trend forecasters project everything from staffing and hiring needs to next year’s “it” color. Through a combination of instinct, experience, statistical modeling and not a little bit of finger-crossing, they tell clients where best to place their billion-dollar bets. Even granting the occasional self-fulfilling prophecy, it’s never been an easy gig, and the consequences of failure can be ruinous.
Today, big data is changing the field, providing unprecedented amounts of information even as it churns out predictive algorithms no one quite understands. In this article, I take a look at the past and future of this prognosticative trade and examine …