One night this past February, over drinks and moody bar lighting, Eric Green and his friends were swapping stories of their recent hookups when one mentioned they'd used the app Sniffies to have public sex. A 30-year-old tattoo artist who works in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Green identifies as a bottom, is a frequent user of dating apps, and has an active sex life'only, he'd never heard of Sniffies. It wasn't long after that night out, Green was overtaken by 'complete and total horniness' while at home, and decided to sign up himself. When he opened the app he was reminded of Google Maps, only instead of restaurants and shopping recommendations, he was inundated with nudes and suggestions for the nearest pump-and-dump. 'I expected it to be like Grindr and Jack'd, but after I checked it out I realized it was super accessible,' Green says, referencing two other popular queer hookup platforms. 'More accessible than any other app.' Access is Sniffies' main selling point. A map-based cruising platform for men of all sexual identifications (gay, bi, DL, and straight-curious'yes, you read that right), Sniffies has become something like an adults-only Disneyland for queer men interested in sex-positive, no-strings-attached casual encounters. 'We really focus on in-the-moment connections,' says Eli Martin, the company's chief marketing officer and creative director. 'On other apps, it's not always clear what people's intentions are'some people want to find a boyfriend, others just want to look around'but on Sniffies, we try to make it clear that people are fulfilling their sexual desires and fetishes.'...

This week: 'slow steaming' may be coming to an end as cargo ships take longer routes to avoid conflicts; cites employ innovative strategies to curb air pollution; organizations boost efforts to bring financial services to rural areas; and UNHCR warns that the global population of refugees could double in the next decade. The end of 'slow-steaming'' ' Emissions from container ships transporting goods from Asia to Europe could increase substantially in light of the Red Sea conflict. This is because shipping lines are rerouting their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope instead of using the Suez Canal. To make up for the extra distance, ships are increasing their cruising speed, putting an end to nearly a decade of 'slow steaming' ' a strategy employed to save on both fuel costs and lower CO2 emissions. As as result, shipping analysts Sea-Intelligence predicts an increase in CO2 emissions of between 31% and 66% for journeys from Asia to northern Europe or the Mediterranean. Cities worldwide, however, are increasingly taking action to counter air pollution. Dozens of cities in the C40 Network have committed to launching innovative strategies to clean their air and protect the wellbeing of residents....

Hello, ghouls and goblins, and welcome to this Halloween Weekend edition of Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch's weekly tech recap in newsletter form. For our U.S.-based readers (and this reporter), 'tis the time for mid-autumn merrymaking ' time-tested traditions like jack-o'-lantern carving, costuming and apple picking. May we all make the most of it. In this issue of WiR, we cover the California DMV suspending Cruise's robotaxi permit, doing expenses in VR, the Apple Watch's best new feature going live and an e-commerce startup founded by an ex-PayPal exec that aims to give customers more control over their shopping data. Elsewhere, we spotlight the victims of Okta's latest hack, Carta's CEO trying to head off bad press, the latest from the FTX trial and Rivian winning the longest off-road competition in the U.S. Cruising no more: The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday suspended Cruise's deployment and driverless testing permits, ending the GM self-driving car subsidiary's robotaxi operations in San Francisco. Subsequently, Cruise announced that it would pause all of its robotaxi operations, including in Austin, Houston, Phoenix and Miami, to 'rebuild public trust.'...

A passenger jet flies at about 575 mph once it's at cruising altitude. That's nearly nine times faster than a car might typically be cruising on the highway. So why does a plane in flight look like it's just inching across the sky' I am an aerospace educator who relies on the laws of physics when teaching about aircraft. These same principles of physics help explain why looks can be deceiving when it comes to how fast an object is moving. If you watch a plane accelerating toward takeoff, it appears to be moving very quickly. It's not until the plane is in the air and has reached cruising altitude that it appears to be moving very slowly. That's because there is often no independent reference point when the plane is in the sky. A reference point is a way to measure the speed of the airplane. If there are no contrails or clouds surrounding it, the plane is moving against a completely uniform blue sky. This can make it very hard to perceive just how fast a plane is moving. And because the plane is far away, it takes longer for it to move across your field of vision compared to an object that is close to you. This further creates the illusion that it is moving more slowly than it actually is....