Life

French army groom eagles to down drones

Amid the risk of drones being used to snoop or carry out attacks on French soil, the air force groom eagles to take down the unmanned aircraft mid-flight. In this video, four golden eagles are being trained for the job at Mont-de-Marsan in southwestern France. (AFP VIDEO)

‘Ring of fire’ eclipse treat for southern skygazers

by Mariëtte Le Roux Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — A spectacular “ring of fire” solar eclipse Sunday will regale skygazers in South America and southern Africa, with seafarers in the nearby Atlantic getting a front-row view too, astronomers say. The eclipse — during which the Sun will all but disappear as the Moon crosses its path — will be most visible in a 100-kilometre (62-mile) band cutting through Chile, Argentina, Angola, Zambia and […]

U.S.-born panda Bao Bao arrives at her new home in China

CHENGDU CITY, SICHUAN PROVINCE, China (Reuters) — Female Giant Panda Bao Bao arrived at her new home in southwestern China’s Sichuan province late on Wednesday (February 22), after leaving the National Zoo in Washington D.C., United States. The panda experienced a 16-hour flight in the crate and was then carried into a van directly from Chengdu’s Shuangliu airport to the Dujiangyan Base of China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP), where she […]

Bees can learn to roll a ball for food: study

by Kerry SHERIDAN Agence France Presse MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Entice them with a sweet reward and bumblebees can be trained to roll a ball into a goal, revealing unexpectedly complex learning abilities for an insect, researchers said Thursday. The findings in the US journal Science offer the first evidence that bees can learn a skill that is not directly related to their typical duties of foraging for food. Even more, bumblebees appeared to […]

Food park - the newest food trend

Food park – the newest food trend

QUEZON City, Philippines (February 23) – Aside from taking selfies and posting on social media – Filipinos really, really love food. Admit it, we enjoy eating and in response to our insatiable collective appetite, the food park made its appearance. Come to think of it, the food park is a great concept, a welcome addition to the Filipino foodie culture. After all, we like to try a variety of dishes and food parks allow us […]

Coordinated drones fly in synchronized flocks

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) — Flying a single autonomous drone already has its challenges. Now multiply that by 25. That’s what scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) are doing: creating ‘flocks’ of coordinated drones capable of intricate, synchronized maneuvers. Their aerial performances are the result of complicated coding and algorithms – which ensure that each drone maintains its own path, avoiding the airspace of its neighbors. The drones are monitored by a series […]

Seven Earth-like planets discovered around single star

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Researchers announced Wednesday the stunning discovery of seven Earth-like planets orbiting a small star in our galaxy, opening up the most promising hunting ground so far for life beyond the Solar System. All seven roughly match the size and mass of our own planet and are almost certainly rocky, and three are perfectly perched to harbour life-nurturing oceans of water, they reported in the journal […]

NASA announces discovery of seven earth-like planets

  By Dexter T. Manglicmot Eagle News Correspondent (WASHINGTON D.C., USA) – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that seven earth-like planets were seen orbiting a single star. They described this as a tremendous leap in the study of our universe because this is the first known system with this many planets that have the potential to support life outside our solar system. “Using the Spitzer Space Telescope, we’ve discovered seven earth sized […]

Asian designers go big at Milan Fashion Week

by Ella IDE Agence France-Presse MILAN, Italy (AFP) — Milan Fashion Week kicks off Wednesday with luxury giants from Versace to Prada sharing the stage with hot up-and-comers from Asia. Gucci opens six days of catwalk creativity, following earlier fashion weeks which throbbed with politics — New York runways flush with anti-Donald Trump protests, and Brexit-battered London. The Florence-based company’s head of design, Alessandro Michele, is signing up to the co-ed trend and will show […]

The New York Times Travel Show: Interview with Pauline Frommer

Over 30,000 attendees visited the NY Times Travel Show, the largest consumer travel and trade show in North America. It was held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City from January 26-28, 2017 offering 3 days of seminars, cultural stages, expert talks, family pavilions and tastings.  Attendees visited 500 exhibitor booths representing 170 countries from around the world to get the insider scoop on the best deals and places to visit. We […]

Dutch town installs special pavement lights for smartphone addicts

THE municipality of the Dutch town of Bodegraven installed a special lighting system to counter an increase in traffic accidents involving pedestrians using their smartphones. The lights are directly on the pavement to signal to people looking down on their phones that it is safe to cross. The led-lit pavement stripes, one on each side of a road crossing, are synchronized with the traffic lights. They blink green or red, so a smartphone user can […]

Africa’s newest, rarest crocodile faces battle for survival

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (Reuters) — When conservationists discovered the world’s newest crocodile species after years of sloshing through mangroves and swamps from Senegal to Uganda, the elation was tempered by the knowledge that it was on a path to extinction. Now, in its struggle to survive, the West African Slender-snouted Crocodile’s fate is tied to a zoo in the heart of Ivory Coast’s economic capital Abidjan, that itself faced an uncertain future not long ago. […]