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Feeld markets itself as the dating app for the curious. For most of its users, that means curiosity about kink and casual sexbut its newest tool asks you to be curious about yourself. As a favorite platform for the kink, fetish, and nonmonogamous communities, Feeld is a place where taboos are the norm. But a new survey from the app suggests that kink is more mainstream than dominant culture would have you believe. And Feelds new tool, Reflections, lets anyoneFeeld users and otherwiseassess their own relationship with nontraditional sex. Feeld surveyed thousands of its own users and external respondents for opinions on the perceived normality of traits like nonmonogamy, queerness, and kinkiness. It published the results in a report titled “State of Reflections, Vol. 1.” The survey found that while Feeld users were unsurprisingly more open-minded on average, the general public wasnt far behind in its attitudes toward non-vanilla sex. Nearly half of non-Feeld users (42%) said they practice kink, compared with 68% of the apps user base. In some areas, everyday folks were even kinkier than Feeld members: Among those who practice kink, 44% of external respondents said they engage in role-play, just above the 41% of Feeld users that said the same. But despite whats actually happening behind closed doors, kink remains largely stigmatized. Only 25% of non-Feeld users said that talking about safe sex is normal, and just 23% said its normal to prioritize conversations about consent. And 28% of those external participants believe alternative relationship structuresdynamics like ethical nonmonogamyare somewhat or extremely abnormal. Reflecting on taboos To help break down those stigmas, Feeld launched Reflections, its new self-assessment tool. Reflections is a collection of surveys that asks respondents to rate their interests and behaviors across three categories: desire, boundaries, and relationships. In the desire section, users reflect on their comfort with a variety of kinksfrom being blindfolded to role-playing a doctor-patient relationship to bringing toys into the bedroom. The boundaries section asks them to consider what qualifies as a red flag in a relationshipgoing through a partners phone without consent might be a bridge too far, for exampleand how much any given partner impacts their own self-expression. Finally, the relationships portion delves into attachment style and interest in nonmonogamy. After each section, Feeld provides an analysis of those answers, providing scores out of 100, under headings including kink affinity, feeling authentic in sex, and voice and consent. (Reflections is available to anyone online, or to users directly in the Feeld app.) In a press release, Feeld CEO Ana Kirova described Reflections as one of the most defining experiences weve brought to Feeld. It embodies what weve always stood forcuriosity, self-discovery, and opennesswhile reflecting our core belief that meaningful connection starts with self-understanding, Kirova said. Reflections creates the space for introspection, so every connection that follows can be more honest, intentional, and true to who you are.
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E-Commerce
Carnival Cruise Line has announced that it is launching a new dining experience on its ships for people who dont like the long, leisurely evening dinners that cruises are known for. Heres why Carnival is introducing the new option, and what it means for you if youre traveling on a Carnival cruise soon. Whats happened? This week, Carnival announced that it is rolling out a new Express Dining option on more than a dozen of its ships. The cruise giant says that the new dining experience is designed to offer a freshly prepared multi-course dinner experience in under an hour for groups of six guests or fewer. The idea behind Express Dining is that if Carnival offers a faster way to enjoy an evening meal, guests who want to explore the ship’s other entertainment options, like shows or bars, will have more time to do so. Our guests continue to tell us they value greater flexibility in how they spend their time on board, and Express Dining was designed with that in mind, Carnival president Christine Duffy said, announcing the new dining option. Are leisurley dinners going away? If youre one of the many people who find the long, leisurely dinners one of the major appeals of cruises, dont worrythose arent going away. Instead, Carnival will offer guests the choice of Express Dining or the lines traditional dining experience. Those who opt for the new Express Dining service should be aware that, due to the faster service, not all food options from the traditional dining service will be available. Carnival says that while the Express Dining service significantly reduces service time and mirrors much of the main dining experiences offerings, the new service does have a slightly abbreviated selection. What ships is Carnivals new Express Dining service available on? Carnival says the new Express Dining option is now available on the following 15 ships: Carnival Jubilee Carnival Celebration Mardi Gras Carnival Venezia Carnival Firenze Carnival Panorama Carnival Horizon Carnival Sunrise Carnival Vista Carnival Breeze Carnival Radiance Carnival Conquest Carnival Dream Carnival Glory Carnival Freedom Carnival says all ships in Carnivals fleet will offer Express Dining by the end of May. Carnivals stock has faced rough waters in 2026 While Carnival is betting that its guests will likely appreciate the option to sit down to a faster meal, the companys announcement, as expected, seems to have been met with indifference from investors. After all, Carnival has bigger problems than serving food quickly right now. The companys stock price (NYSE: CCL) has declined nearly 22% in the past month, particularly after the outbreak of the war in Iran, which is serving to drive up oil pricesa commodity that Carnivals ships rely on. Higher oil prices mean higher costs for Carnival, and thus fewer profits. As of the time of this writing, CCL shares have now fallen over 19% since the year began. However, over the past 12 months, CCL shares have risen a healthy 29%.
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E-Commerce
OpenAIs first artist in residence is launching a new company that aims to turn your thoughts into actual products. Today, entrepreneur and roboticist Alexander Reben announces Phyzify, a lab using AI tools to rapidly prototype physical objects based on your imagination. There’s a huge gap between idea and [bringing that] thing into existence, says Reben, cofounder of Phyzify. And I really think AI and robotics and quantum computing and all the technology that’s about to come is going to accelerate [closing] that gap [and] make walking across that bridge a lot easier. But what Reben has in mind is far greater than just 3D printing. Hes envisions Phyzify as a platform where AI handles the entire execution of an idea, from potential prompts to multitudes of physical outputs. For example, translating music into paintings that an artist could sell as merch. On top of that, he sees Phyzify handling the backend of the more mundane aspects of product development, from securing domain names to filing patents and trademarks. Phyzify closed a pre-seed round led by Logan Kilpatrick, product lead for Google AI Studio, DeepMind. Kilpatrick was drawn to Phyzify as an investor because he sees 2026 as a huge year for physical AI and generative mediaand he believes Phyzify is at the front of the wave. Alex has a unique ability to bring new ideas at the intersection of AI and Art to life, Kilpatrick said in an email. I saw this first hand working with him at OpenAI, and now I couldnt be more excited to back him as he and the team build the tools and platforms to enable people to bring their ideas to life. Phyzify is a natural evolution of Rebens career that sits at the intersection of advanced technology and creative experimentation. In 2010 at MIT Media Lab, Rebens graduate research focused on social robotics. One of his early creations, Boxie, became the inspiration of the character Baymax in Disneys Big Hero 6. In 2014, Reben became the director of technology and research at Stochastic Labs, a residency program in Berkeley convening minds across tech, art, and science. Hes made headlines for his various AI-based artworks. And in 2024, he was announced as OpenAIs first artist-in-residence, where he spent the better part of the year gaining access to the companys technology to explore how AI systems can participate in artistic practices. And now, Reben wants to push the boundaries of AI and creativity even further with Phyzifybut with a clear intent on keeping humans at the center of it all. Phyzify Cofounders Jake Witzenfeld and Alexander Reben [Photos: courtesy Phyzify] Looking to the future of automation and a lot of the research and papers and things people have been thinking about, it’s still pretty clear that asking the questions, being creative, imagining is something that makes sense for humans to keep doing, Reben says. That’s something that’s very, very hard for an AI to do, if not ultimately impossible. The companys lab is headquartered in a North Carolina factory where theyre primarily working with fabric looms to transform AI-based concepts to physical products. In a virtual demo, I controlled various creative expressions of my webcam feed via a MIDI controller. Apparently there were more than 604 sextillion AI-generated options to choose fromI did not get through all of them. Once I locked in my choice, I could see a live feed of my image being woven on a loom in real-time and the tapestry was sent to my office the next day. This idea of bringing stuff [into] the physical realm needs a starting place, Reben says. Fabric is something that’s quite intriguing given it’s turned into so many different objects as well. So even the post-processing steps after creating a unique piece of fabric is fairly unlimited. As it expands across mediums, Phyzify is collaborating with five creative professionals in fashion, music, food, gaming, and more to help stress test and experiment with various interfaces and physical outputs. There’s an element of exploration right now, says Jake Witzenfeld, cofounder of Phyzify. The platform will be the accumulation of the tools that come out of what we’re doing at the lab. [Photo: Fast Company] Phyzify is implementing an array of creative tools from across the advanced technology landscape, but it’s also building its own tools and systems with the goal of launching a consumer facing product in a year. Eventually, the company hopes to create mass market products, limited edition drops, art pieces, and more. But outside of pushing products, Reben wants Phyzify to push against synthetic capitalism, an economy where the products and the means through which theyre produced are handled entirely by AI without any human involvement. To Reben, machines and AI have mastered how to make things. And humans should decide what’s worth being in the world and why. If we retain control of that, Reben says, and we can help move that forward, I think that’s an important mission to have.
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E-Commerce
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