Technology

FIFA finally embraced goal-line technology for soccer Thursday, approving two systems for use, beginning in December, at the seven-team Club World Cup in Japan. FIFA also plans to use a system in Brazil at the 2013 Confederations Cup and 2014 World Cup. FIFA president Sepp Blatter said the approved Hawk-Eye and GoalRef systems would provide "99 percent security" that a notorious refereeing error which helped eliminate England at the last World Cup would not be repeated. "There is no 100 percent guarantee in life.

Panning the patent gold rush, King of Prussia wireless-technology developer Interdigital Inc. has sold 1,700 patents and patent applications to microprocessor giant Intel Corp. for $375 million cash. The patents and applications account for about 8 percent of Interdigital's portfolio, and the company expects to replenish the sold patents in about 18 months through new development at engineering labs in King of Prussia, Montreal, San Diego, and Melville, N.Y. The 1,700 patents and patent applications were related to 3G and LTE technology.

Steve Blake of the Los Angeles Lakers missed what would have been the winning shot in a critical game. His wife got death threats.   Singer John Legend's fiancee, Chrissy Teigen, criticized singer Chris Brown's performance on an awards show. She got death threats. Clint Eastwood's daughter Francesca publicly destroyed a $100,000 purse as a piece of performance art. She got death threats. A conservative teenage activist from North Carolina posted a video supporting her state's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

It's been a while since we've had a proxy fight over a Philadelphia company. In fact, it was 2010 and Airgas Inc. was busy repelling an unwanted takeover offer by Air Products & Chemicals Inc. Radnor-based Airgas was successful in remaining independent. (Airgas even has the last laugh: Its stock price is up 30 percent over the last 52 weeks, while Allentown-based Air Products has fallen 12 percent.) In a proxy fight, an investor group buys up shares of a company and then nominates its own slate of board candidates to replace the current corporate board through the election of directors that happens annually.

Students with Burlington County Institute of Technology's culinary arts department have been cooking up delicacies for Friday night's International Food Festival to mark the high school's 50-year anniversary. Many of the school's career majors will be contributing to the event, from banners and tickets produced by the print shop to a student-produced DVD to show the variety of the school's offerings, which have grown from machine shop and office skills to choices like performing arts, entertainment technologies, and public safety and more.

WASHINGTON - Farmers markets are a popular source of reasonably priced fresh produce, but across the country many accept only cash or checks - a big problem for low-income shoppers using food stamps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is trying to change that. Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan this week announced a $4 million grant for states to help implement wireless technology that will allow more farmers markets to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or food stamps.

Contrary to expectations, crowdsourcing, social media, and Twitter blasts didn't help win the MyHeartMap Challenge, the University of Pennsylvania's project to map the locations of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) - portable gizmos that can save cardiac arrest victims. The winners, Frankford High School athletic director Jack Creighton and information technology analyst Jennifer Yuan, relied on old-fashioned shoe leather. Each found more than 400 AEDs, and Penn announced Thursday afternoon that each will receive a grand prize of $9,000.

With hundreds of thousands of mobile apps already on the market and vying for attention, what's an entrepreneur with an ambitious idea to do? One strategy was on display Monday night at the Cira Centre, where five inventors pitched their creations to about 200 of their peers and other technology enthusiasts. One of the new apps, the Communilator , turns your iPhone or another smartphone into a translator. You enter e-mails, texts, or even the contents of a sign or printed page in one of dozens of languages, and the app translates them into another language from the same impressive list.

Hackathons in which participants build online tools based on free-for-the-taking government data, or give birth to a potential new enterprise in an intense, 54-hour "Startup Weekend. " Robotics demonstrations that show how the region's students, engineers and companies are helping to turn sci-fi dreams into reality. Workshops and panels on issues such as the challenges facing women and minorities in technology, the use of digital media to promote social change, and the value of "gamification" — using game play in nontraditional ways.

No one would dispute the importance of basic math, science, and technology literacy in today's world. But is the United States experiencing a dangerous shortage of scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical talent? The answer is complicated. "Despite the clear demand for STEM talent by domestic employers, the U.S. is failing to produce an ample supply of workers to meet the growing needs of both STEM and non-STEM employers," posits a report being released Friday by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee.