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by Eric RANDOLPH Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – Sneakers made from banana or pineapple leaves, dresses from nettles or fish scales — the search for sustainable materials has taken the fashion industry to some wild places. Experts warn these new textiles are not a quick fix for fashion’s enormous problems with over-consumption and waste, but may be a necessary step in developing cleaner technologies. “You could possibly eat the final product,” said Hannes Schoenegger, […]
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) – Slovakia’s Transport Authority on Tuesday said it had issued a certificate of airworthiness for flying car model AirCar, a first step towards commercial production of the invention. “AirCar certification opens the door for mass production of very efficient flying cars,” said Stefan Klein, founder and chief executive of KleinVision, a company that designed and manufactured the prototype of the dual-mode car-aircraft vehicle. “It is an official and final confirmation of our […]
by Charlotte DURAND Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – On a frosty morning in London’s Hyde Park, onlookers aim their mobile phones at the top of the Serpentine Gallery. The large sculpture of a blue man sitting on the roof is invisible to the naked eye but it is there — in augmented reality. The sculpture is part of an installation by the American artist Kaws at the gallery, reproduced for the hundreds of […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Tel Aviv is the world’s most expensive city to live in as soaring inflation has pushed up living costs globally, according to a survey published on Wednesday. The Israeli city climbed five rungs to score top place for the first time in the authoritative ranking compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The Worldwide Cost of Living Index is compiled by comparing prices in US dollars for goods and services […]
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — Mexico City has set a world record for free Wi-Fi access thanks to thousands of public internet access points across the capital, Guinness World Records announced Wednesday. Official adjudicator Carlos Tapia presented the award for the most hotspots — 21,500 — in a single free urban Wi-Fi network to Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum. The access points are spread across the sprawling city of some nine million people, particularly in […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook late Monday blamed a major outage across its platforms on configuration changes it made to routers that coordinate network traffic between its data centers “This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centers communicate, bringing our services to a halt,” Facebook vice president of infrastructure Santosh Janardhan said in a post. © Agence France-Presse
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — TikTok said Monday it now has more than a billion active users, just four years after the hugely popular video-sharing app was launched by Chinese group ByteDance. Already popular before the coronavirus pandemic — mainly due to its viral choreography set to pop songs — TikTok received a major boost amid lockdowns, school closures and telecommuting. The video platform has gained more than 300 million users since July 2020, […]
by Mussa Hattar MADABA, Jordan (AFP) — Friends and family initially mocked one Jordanian family’s new venture making soap from donkey milk. But now, a year on, the company is cleaning up as customers bray for more. Atan Donkey Milk Soaps produces 100 percent natural soaps from its farm in Madaba, 35 kilometres (21 miles) southwest of Amman, where it keeps 12 donkeys, and a small manufacturing workshop in the Jordanian capital. Although other regions […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Emilio Flores Marquez from Puerto Rico has become the world’s oldest living man at an age of 112 years and 326 days old, Guinness World Records announced on Wednesday. Marquez, who was born in Carolina, east of the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan in 1908, was recognized by Guinness and awarded a certificate at his home just a few miles (kilometers) from his birthplace. Asked about his longevity, Marquez […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Apple on Tuesday unveiled a new lineup of powered-up iPads including some with 5G connectivity, responding to surging interest in tablets and home-based work and play during the pandemic. The California tech giant also introduced a redesigned suite of iMac computers with a sleeker look and more power thanks to its own M1 chips. The M1 chip is also powering the new lineup of iPad Pro tablets unveiled at […]
by Harumi OZAWA TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Nami Hamaura says she feels less lonely working from home thanks to her singing companion Charlie, one of a new generation of cute and clever Japanese robots whose sales are booming in the pandemic. Smart home assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa have found success worldwide, but tech firms in Japan are reporting huge demand for more humanlike alternatives, as people seek solace during coronavirus isolation. “I felt my […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Microsoft on Tuesday said its profit in the recently ended quarter continued to soar as the pandemic boosted a trend toward business being taken care of in the internet cloud. The US technology titan’s profit rose to $13.9 billion, up 30 percent from the same quarter last year, according to earnings figures. Revenue in the quarter climbed 12 percent to $37.2 billion. “Demand for our cloud offerings drove a […]
