Condoms already come in plenty of forms. You’ve got your ribbed, you glow-in-the-dark, your cola-flavored, your French ticklers and your textured and studded ones. But Bill and Melinda Gates would like to see one that hasn’t been invented yet—and they are willing to fork over more than $1 million for it.

That's why the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is offering up the cash to anyone who can design such a thing in the hopes of stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS, CNN reports.

The contraceptive they’d like to see is a "next generation condom that significantly preserves or enhances pleasure" and promotes "regular use" as part of the foundation's commitment to addressing the global HIV and AIDS crisis.

"Male condoms are cheap, easy to manufacture, easy to distribute, and available globally, including in resource-poor settings, through numerous well-developed distribution channels," the Foundation says, according to CNN. So what’s the problem? Well, people complain that condoms get in the way of intimacy and pleasure, which are generally the goal of most people having intercourse.Continue reading...

There's good news and bad news when it comes to AIDS, and ONE wants to make sure the world's population is aware of both this December 1, the 24th annual World AIDS Day.

The ONE Campaign, the global advocacy organization co-founded by U2's Bono, just released a new report on the global fight against HIV/AIDS. The good news: Scientists now have the tools to "turn the tide" on AIDS, and the world should be heartened that the UN set targets for the "beginning of the end of AIDS" to be met in 2015. The bad news: Unless "sufficient funding, coordination and political will" are brought to bear in the fight against AIDS, it will be 2022 before the "beginning of the end of AIDS" can be reached.

With America mired in a heated national debate over how to fix the debt and the looming fiscal cliff, Bono has been personally lobbying U.S. lawmakers to urge them not to cut U.S. foreign assistance and aid funding. ONE is stoking up the urgency through a variety of actions in conjunction with World AIDS Day 2012.Continue reading...

When someone is looking to buy a cell phone, they don’t generally want to hear about how the World Health Organization has classified such devices as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” But the city of San Francisco now requires that such a lovely piece of info be passed along to its more than three million residents upon purchase.

The city's board of supervisors approved a new law on Tuesday, giving their "final approval to a law that would require retailers to disclose information about the radiation emitted by cellphones. No other city in the nation has passed similar legislation," according to The Bay Citizen.

Earlier this month, “the San Francisco Board of Supervisors gave preliminary approval to a revised ordinance that would require cell phone retailers to provide information to customers about radio frequency energy emissions from cell phones,” according to CNN.com. “ This energy can be absorbed by the head and body, and retailers also would have to explain how consumers can limit this exposure.”Continue reading...

In the wake of a tainted infant formula scandal that killed six babies and hospitalized 860 in China in 2008, a New Zealand-based company came up with a way to capitalize on the market's fear.

But when the company chose what it saw as a simple local logo to help the product seem more foreign, little did it know that forces were set in motion that would unravel the whole scam.Continue reading...

Apple looks to secure content deals ahead of iCloud unveiling as company previews announcements and Steve Jobs involvement in rare move.

Big Ten Network rebrands as BTN.

CTIA dismisses World Health Organization finding on cancer/mobile link, as WHO also issues new tobacco warning.

Google estimated to take 54 cents of every web ad dollar spent.

LinkedIn establishes Asian base in Singapore.

Montreal promotes its festivals in NYC's Times Square.

Netflix stock hits all-time high as troubled Nokia's stock hits 13-year low.Continue reading...