Don't turn robots into weapons!

Boston Dynamics has issued an open letter promising not to weaponize its robots. One of the most advanced corporations in the letter gives the example of drones and promises that it will do everything to ensure that the commercial robot industry does not merge with the military one. Also, Boston Dynamics is asking other manufacturers to join the movement.

In India, a factory for processing cigarette butts into soft toys has opened.

Cigarette filters are used to make stuffing for products. Every year, employees process millions of cigarette butts into tons of fiber. First, workers separate the filter from the shell and tobacco residues - they are used to make recycled paper and compost powder. The filter is then separated into fibers. They are bleached and cleaned in a cotton gin. Women stuff toys and pillows with the resulting material. According to the World Health Organization, almost 30% of Indian adults smoke - that's 267 million people. On the city streets, they leave tons of cigarette butts behind. Naman Gupta's factory helps keep the capital clean.

MacDonald's has started accepting payments in cryptocurrencies.

The representative of MacDonald's in Switzerland, Beatrice Montserrat, announced the start of accepting cryptocurrency as a means of payment in restaurants. The project has so far been launched in pilot mode and within the framework of one institution in the city of Lugano. The company's specialists want to check how convenient and popular the new payment method will be. Earlier, the authorities of this city announced their intention to make Bitcoin, Tether and LVGA cryptocurrencies legal tender.

The moon could have formed in just a few hours.

Scientists simulated the appearance of the moon as a result of the collision of the Earth with a large celestial body. It turned out that the natural satellite of our planet could be formed in just a few hours. The new model showed that after the impact, two clumps of ejected matter appeared in near-Earth orbit - from both planets. Thanks to gravity, the larger one quickly pushed the smaller one into a more distant and stable orbit. At the same time, he himself remained below the Roche limit and collapsed.

Chilean chicken brand Super Pollo launched amogus nuggets into the stratosphere.

In collaboration with Among Us, the Chileans launched a breaded piece of chicken, it rose to a height of 32 kilometers and stayed there for more than 40 minutes.

"Ordinary" Chinese vase.

An "ordinary" Chinese vase went under the hammer for almost €8 million. At an auction in France, a Tianqiuping-style porcelain vase sold for almost 4,000 times its estimated value after buyers were convinced it was a rare 18th-century artifact. Initially, the price of the exhibit was €2,000. 30 potential buyers competed for the lot. As a result, the vase was sold for almost €7.7 million, taking into account the seller's fees, the final purchase price was €9.12 million. It is specified that the buyer was a Chinese man who plans to exhibit the vase in the museum.

Bunkers for billionaires.

The Swiss firm showed bunkers for billionaires, as in films about the end of the world. Designed to fit under mansions, the 1,000-square-meter structures appear to be optimized for everyday luxury living and ready for any ground-based threats. The high-tech bunkers descend 15 meters underground and have a gateway fully equipped as a decontamination chamber, an indoor garden, a fitness room, comfortable living and sleeping quarters, and even a private art gallery.

Construction robot Hadrian X.

Robot builder Hadrian X can work 20 times faster than a human. Fastbrick Robotics has created a Hadrian X robot capable of building a brick house in just 2 days. The robot is equipped with a manipulator that lays bricks on a special adhesive mortar at an incredible speed of 1000 pieces per hour. The use of a robot will not only increase the speed of construction of buildings, but also help reduce labor costs. With the help of the robot, I plan to build over 10 million objects.

Universe in Minecraft.

The blogger tried to recreate the entire Universe in Minecraft - with many galaxies, planets and a black hole. ChrisDaCow originally wanted to recreate only a few planets in the constructor, but later decided to build the entire solar system, as well as many galaxies and a black hole. According to him, the work on the video took two months.

"Ultra-white" paint.

Researchers at Purdue University last year developed an "ultra-white" paint that reflects 98.1% of sunlight and infrared radiation, allowing buildings to stay cool. Now, the same team has managed to reduce the thickness of the paint layer to 0.15mm. This will allow you to use it in painting cars and other household chores.

Online planetarium Stellarium.

After 20 years of development, an updated version of the Stellarium online planetarium has been released. The service contains a database of more than 600 thousand stars, 80 space objects, known constellations and nebulae. Now all of them can be seen up close in higher quality and resolution.

MIT came up with a camera that works without a battery.

The device is designed to study the oceans and is powered by sound. Converting underwater vibrations into electricity.

USB-C standardization.

In the European Union, they almost unanimously voted for the standardization of USB-C in smartphones - Apple should abandon Lightning. According to Bloomberg, the EU supported the idea of ​​standardizing the USB-C connector in smartphones and other digital devices like tablets. The law was supported by 602 members of parliament, while only 13 people opposed it.

Elon Musk said that the Tesla Cybertruck will be able to float on water.

The Cybertruck electric pickup truck will be "sufficiently" waterproof to be able to cross small bodies of water, a Tesla executive said. And thanks to the traction of the wheels, he will be able to stay on the surface of the water. The launch of the Cybertruck electric pickup has been delayed several times since its announcement in 2019. Initially, the car was planned to be released at the end of 2021. But in August 2021, Tesla confirmed that it would not be able to do so. This past July, Musk said that production of the Cybertruck would begin by mid-2023.

In Spain, the lagoon was recognized as a person in order to save it from pollution.

The Spanish authorities have endowed the Mar Menor - Europe's largest salt water lagoon - with human rights. Now she has a guardian and a legitimate right to exist, protect the health of her ecosystems, develop and restore. So they hope to save the reservoir from pollution.

Google engineers have developed a single-row keyboard.

Engineers from the Japanese division of Google have developed a keyboard in which all the keys are arranged in one row. Since this is a joke project, the company will not release a serial version of the gadget, but the developers have published instructions, drawings and other data on GitHub that allow anyone to create such a keyboard.

Parking robots in China⁠⁠.

The device can carry up to two and a half tons, which significantly exceeds the weight of a simple passenger car. The platform moves at a speed of 1.5 meters per second. The parking platform navigates the terrain using a laser navigation system and can park a car in a free parking space in just a couple of minutes. They are clearing the space so that you can leave.

Exosapien Technologies has created an exoskeleton in the form of a giant mechanical crab.

The exoskeleton can accommodate one pilot and increases his strength by 50 times. The crab weighs 4 tons, and its power is 200 horsepower. The development is not for sale, but you can buy a training session - from $5,000 or take it for a day for $10,000.

It is quite possible that for the first time in history we could see how life is created.

Scientists from the American Purdue University have revealed the mechanism of spontaneous formation of peptides - the molecules necessary to create life. For more than ten years, the team has observed the processes that occur in an ordinary drop of water when it encounters the atmosphere. And according to scientists, they saw how peptides, the building blocks of proteins and all life, appear quite spontaneously in the water. Perhaps this was the beginning of life on Earth. And in that case, there should be a lot of it in the universe.

Rare earth metals helped make fireworks two-tone.

Chemists from Germany have found that alloys of rare earth metals can be used to create fireworks and sparklers with colorful sparks. Scientists analyzed the colors of flashes, the number and length of sparks during the combustion of various alloys of rare earth metals and found several combinations that give the most impressive results.