Martha Mendoza

BANGKOK — Fishing boats used high-tech systems to find vast schools of fish for decades, depleting stocks of some species and leading to the complete collapse of others. Now more than a dozen apps, devices and monitoring systems aimed at tracking unscrupulous vessels and the seafood they catch are being rolled out — high-tech solutions some say could also help prevent labor abuse at sea. Illegal fishing, which includes catching undersized fish, exceeding quotas and casting nets in protected areas, leads to an estimated $23 billion in annual losses, according to the United Nations. Meanwhile, overfishing close to shore has pushed boats farther out,...

Facebook and LinkedIn want to boost dwindling numbers ofwomen studying engineering and computer science with a collaborative initiative announced Friday that they hope will eventually fill thousands of lucrative Silicon Valley jobs long dominated by men. In an exclusive joint interview with The Associated Press, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and LinkedIn CEO Jeffrey Weiner said they’re launching mentoring and support programs at colleges to get more women involved in studying technology in general, but also as future employees for their companies. Fifteen percent of Facebook Inc.’s employees working in tech jobs and 31 percent of all employees are women, according to diversity figures the company released last year. At LinkedIn Corp., women comprise 17 percent of its tech employees and...

A study released Tuesday shows Silicon Valley’s tech economy is continuing to boom, with 58,000 new jobs and 42,000 new residents last year and all indications the record growth will continue. The annual released by Joint Venture Silicon Valley, representing businesses, government and the broader community, also shows record venture capital investment in technology. “The world’s hottest regional economy keeps getting hotter,” said Joint Venture President Russell Hancock, pointing to the highest growth rate since 2000. And unlike 15 years ago when the tech sector spiked and then crashed, this time economists say there’s a solid economic base. “It’s not bubblicious. We have grown into this and we’ve done this incrementally,”...

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is throwing its money, brain power and technology at the humble spoon. But these spoons (don’t call them spoogles) are a bit more than your basic utensil: Using hundreds of algorithms, they allow people with essential tremors and Parkinson’s disease to eat without spilling. The technology senses how a hand is shaking and makes instant adjustments to stay balanced. In clinical trials, the Liftware spoons reduced shaking of the spoon bowl by an average of 76 percent. “We want to help people in their daily lives today and hopefully increase understanding of disease in the long...

Diana Navarro loves to code, and she’s not afraid to admit it. But the 18-year-old Rutgers University computer science major knows she’s an anomaly: Writing software to run computer programs in 2014 is — more than ever — a man’s world. “We live in a culture where we’re dissuaded to do things that are technical,” Navarro said. “Younger girls see men, not women, doing all the techie stuff, programming and computer science.” Less than one percent of high school girls think of computer science as part of their future, even though it’s one of the fastest-growing fields in the...

The fiercest rivalry in the world of smartphones is heading back to court this week in the heart of the Silicon Valley, with Apple and Samsung accusing each other, once again, of ripping off designs and features. The trial will mark the latest round in a long-running series of lawsuits between the two tech giants that underscore a much larger concern about what is allowed to be patented. “There’s a widespread suspicion that lots of the kinds of software patents at issue are written in ways that cover more ground than what Apple or any other tech firm actually...