© Getty Images
Fabrice Lerouge
Fabrice Lerouge
"Sex should be fun and safe, but nowadays a lot of things can go wrong," the company says on its website.
Science & Technology
"Sex should be fun and safe, but nowadays a lot of things can go wrong," the company says on its website.
© Reuters
The e-Palette fully self-driving electric concept vehicle at CES, Las Vegas
The e-Palette fully self-driving electric concept vehicle at CES, Las Vegas
Toyota unveiled the new concept, named e-Palette, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday. The vehicle will act as a mobile store, a ride-sharing car or a delivery service. Pizza Hut, Uber and Amazon are among the companies to team up with automaker.
Fortunately, no one appears to be hurt
Following a launch on Friday local time, a Chinese rocket booster fell near a small town in southwest China, where it exploded and caught fire, GBTimes reports. It was one of four strap-on boosters used on China's Long March 3B rocket, which had lofted two satellites into orbit before the crash. People living in the town Xiangdu, located in China's Guangxi region, caught video of the booster as it fell perilously close to buildings and then erupted in flames.
The Long March 3B takes off from China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center, located in the country's Sichuan province. Unlike most major launchpads in the US, the center is located many hundreds of miles from China's coastline, so rockets launched from the site have to fly over land to get to orbit. That means when the rocket sheds parts during a flight, such as the strap-on boosters that give the vehicle extra thrust, these parts will fall in a designated drop zone over land. And many towns might be located in that zone.
© Unknown
The Long March 3B
The Long March 3B
The Long March 3B takes off from China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center, located in the country's Sichuan province. Unlike most major launchpads in the US, the center is located many hundreds of miles from China's coastline, so rockets launched from the site have to fly over land to get to orbit. That means when the rocket sheds parts during a flight, such as the strap-on boosters that give the vehicle extra thrust, these parts will fall in a designated drop zone over land. And many towns might be located in that zone.
© Chris Schur/Schurs Astrophotography
Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák glides beneath the galaxy NGC 3198 on March 14, 2017, two weeks before the object's closest approach to Earth.
Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák glides beneath the galaxy NGC 3198 on March 14, 2017, two weeks before the object's closest approach to Earth.
This comet, whose full name is 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák, experienced "the largest but also the fastest change that has ever been seen in a comet rotation," said Dennis Bodewits, an associate research scientist at the University of Maryland (UMD) in College Park.
Bodewits presented his team's findings Wednesday (Jan. 10) during a press conference held here at the 231st meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
Comment: What could have acted on it? It need not have been something it came close to. And they used to say space was 'stable'...
© Borneo Nature Foundation
Orangutans were filmed creating their own ointment from leaves to treat aching limbs.
Orangutans were filmed creating their own ointment from leaves to treat aching limbs.
A study found the animals chewing plants into lather then using this paste on their limbs.
The plants are also used by the orangutan's indigenous human neighbours in the forest.
The bizarre discovery, spotted during more than 20,000 hours of filming by the Borneo Nature Foundation, has researchers wondering if apes may know of medicinal plants that could be used by humans.
In the clips, apes were spotted using their own herbal medicines in the Sabangau Forest in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.
Comment:
© Purdue University
Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana created the miniature robot to study how much dirt, pollen, bacteria, and other "bio junk" is collected by crawling infants.
© David Baileys / Getty Images/iStockphoto
AI technology could improve animals' wellbeing and even save their lives.
AI technology could improve animals' wellbeing and even save their lives.
We all know that's not about to happen. But recent advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning suggest the longstanding dream of being able to converse with animals - in a limited fashion - could become a reality.
With the help of AI, scientists are learning how to translate animals' vocalizations and facial expressions into something we can understand. Recent advances include an AI system that listens in on marmoset monkeys to parse the dozen calls they use to communicate with each other and one that reads sheep's faces to determine whether an animal is in pain.
Taking note of the research, an Amazon-sponsored report on future trends released last summer predicted that in 10 years, we'll have a translator for pets.
Comment: Some low-tech interpretations of dog behavior:
- 7 tell-tale emotional signs that dog owners often miss: Submissive behavior
- Scientists explain why your dog kicks when you scratch his belly
- Canine telepathy? Study explores how dogs think and learn about human behavior
- What really prompts the dog's "guilty look"
© NaturalCycles / YouTube
The Södersjukhuset hospital in Stockholm lodged a complaint with the Swedish Medical Products Agency, or Läkedelsverket, after staff performed abortions on 37 users of the NaturalCycles app over a four-month period last year.
The company claims the app, which tracks changes in body temperature over the course of a woman's menstrual cycle to predict 'safe' days for unprotected sex, is 93 percent effective under typical use - a higher level of effectiveness than some more traditional contraceptives, according to the the company's website. Speaking to tech news website Di Digital Thursday, co-founder Elina Berglund described the technology as "about as safe as the pill."
In a statement to RT.com, NaturalCycles spokesman Harry Cymbler said unwanted pregnancy is an "unfortunate risk" with any contraception and he is confident the regulator will clear the company of any blame. "If you have a popular form of contraception such as Natural Cycles, then you also have to expect a certain amount of unwanted pregnancies from users using this method," Cymbler said.
© NASA
The image exposes the strong mix of stars of different ages within the heart of the Milky Way, giving it a sequined, colorful look reminiscent modern and impressionist artwork.
© Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP
On Sunday, SpaceX launched a secret satellite codenamed Zuma on its first flight of the new year. Since then, no one knows what has happened to it.
On Sunday, SpaceX launched a secret satellite codenamed Zuma on its first flight of the new year. Since then, no one knows what has happened to it.
The Pentagon is not saying anything about the fate of the military payload, code-named "Zuma," that was launched this week and may have crashed soon after, and neither is anyone else.
"I would have to refer you to SpaceX, who conducted the launch," said Dana White, chief Pentagon spokesperson when questioned about the unexplained mystery Thursday, four days after the satellite did or did not go into orbit, or more likely ended up falling back to Earth and plunging into the ocean.
A reporter for Bloomberg, who was among the first to report that something had gone awry with Sunday's launch, was aghast that Pentagon briefers were refusing to give even the barest details about the highly-classified mission.
"I'm sorry. This is a billion-dollar satellite. It's been four days. Was it a success or a failure?" pressed Bloomberg's Tony Capaccio. "And what's the fate of the satellite?"
Comment: Bloomberg reports SpaceX is denying responsibility for the failure of the satellite, claiming that "Falcon 9 performed as expected". If confirmed by investigators, it leaves open possibilities such as a failure in the coupling that was supposed to release the satellite from the rocket. A spokesman for Northrop Grumman, the satellite manufacturer, declined to comment on the coupling due to the classified nature of the mission.
The launch failure could revive debates about SpaceX's rivalry for military contracts with United Launch Alliance which was the sole provider for the Pentagon until Elon Musk challenged what he called an unfair monopoly.
See also: Highly classified US spy satellite launched by SpaceX expected to be 'total loss' after failure to launch into orbit
Comment: Completely insane.
In itself, it makes perfect sense: every time the ideologues create new 'crimes', new 'solutions' fix the problem (which they created)... until those solutions give rise to new problems which need further solutions. And on and on it goes in our descent into hell.