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Mysterious sounds in the stratosphere cannot be traced back to any known source

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Strange sounds are heard high in the stratosphere

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Solar-powered balloons floating in the stratosphere have recorded low-frequency sounds of mysterious origin.

“When we started flying in hot air balloons many years ago, we didn’t know what we were going to hear,” says Daniel Bowman at the Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico. “We have learned to recognize the sounds of explosions, meteorite impacts, airplanes, thunderstorms and cities. But practically every time we launch balloons, we hear sounds that we can’t identify.”

Bowman and his colleagues measured infrasonic signals—sounds so low in frequency that they are inaudible to the human ear—using solar-powered balloons hovering at an altitude of 20 kilometers.

The researchers built balloons about 7 meters wide out of thin plastic. They filled the balloons with charcoal powder, which heats up in the bright sun and causes the balloon to float. Unlike weather balloons, which rise until they burst, these homemade solar-powered balloons flew for hours in the stratosphere, carrying infrasound sensors for hundreds of kilometers. The researchers deployed more than 50 balloons over the course of seven years, starting in 2016.

The data they collected showed that the stratosphere sounds very different from the surface of the Earth. On the ground, infrasonic sensors pick up signals that were deflected by the wind on their way down, but the balloons hovered above those winds, picking up signs of turbulence elsewhere in the atmosphere and the infrasonic sounds of sea storms. However, Bowman says that many infrasonic signals from the stratosphere have no obvious origin. He presented the work at a meeting of the Acoustic Society of America in Chicago, Illinois on May 11.

These mysterious signals may be related to types of atmospheric turbulence that have never been recorded before, but infrasounds in the stratosphere have rarely been studied before, so it’s hard to make educated guesses, says Bowman.

The research team inflates a solar balloon with infrasonic sensors attached to it.

Dariel Dexheimer/Sandia National Laboratories

He says one of the first balloon studies of this kind was a US Air Force experiment codenamed Project Mogul, which aimed to detect infrasonic signals from nuclear weapons tests in the Soviet Union in the 1940s. One of Project Mogul’s balloons crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, exposing a top secret program to the public. According to Bowman, the cover-up of the balloon’s purpose sparked UFO conspiracies, and much of the data on subsequent balloon flights ending in the 1960s remained classified.

Roger Waxler from the University of Mississippi says he is not surprised by the mysterious infrasound signals appearing in stratosphere records. “On the ground, you can place sensors in arrays and know exactly where they are in relation to each other, which helps to figure out where the infrasound came from. With balloons, they just go where they go,” he says.

Bowman is partnering with NASA to develop similar balloon technology for an even less explored location: the clouds of Venus. He and his colleagues want to adapt their solar-powered balloons to record infrasound over the surface of Venus, which could help chronicle the planet’s seismic activity.

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Google Drive gets much-needed ‘spam’ folder for shared files

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Increase / Look at it! Spam folder on Google Drive!

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Fifteen years after the launch of Google Docs and Sheets with file sharing, Google is adding what sounds like adequate security controls to this feature. Google Drive (a file storage interface containing document, spreadsheet and slide files) finally get spam folder and algorithmic spam filters like in Gmail. It looks like the update will provide a way to restrict incredibly safe Behavior that allows random people to add files to your Drive account without your consent or control.

Since Google has essentially turned Drive file sharing into email, Google Drive needs all the anti-spam protection that Gmail has. Anyone with your email address can “share” a file with you, and a bunch of spammers already have your email address. In the past, Drive assumed that all shared files were legitimate and wanted, with the only “control” being “security through obscurity” and the hope that no one else knew your email address.

Drive shows all shared files in the shared documents folder, notifies you about sharing on your phone, highlights “new recent file” at the top of the Drive interface, lists the file in the search results, and sends you an email about it, all without any indications that you are familiar with file hosting at all. For years, some people in my life have been inundated with shared Google Drive files containing porn, ads, dating scams, and malware. For a long time, there was nothing you could do to support affected users other than turn off Drive notifications, ask them to ignore the highlighted porn ads at the top of their Drive account, and warn them never to click on the Shared Files folder. . (sorry mom)

Increase / Disk spam message.

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Google acknowledged the problem in 2019 after Like a geek The report follows a woman who was unable to stop her abusive ex-husband from sharing files with her via Drive. In 2021, Google added the first file sharing control to Drive, which made it possible to block individual users. That’s fine for the abusive people you know in real life, but it’s nothing in the face of anonymous spammers who can spin up thousands of accounts in a second. At least Google was doing something after ignoring the issue for years.

As for the spam folder, it looks like Google is finally implementing the Gmail-style spam controls needed on day one. A Google blog post states: “Similar to how the spam folder works in Gmail, automatic qualifiers will redirect files that Drive considers junk to the spam folder. You can also manually move Disk, Documents, Spreadsheets, Slides, Sites. , and generates files in and out of the spam folder. If a file is in the spam folder for more than 30 days, it will be permanently deleted from Drive.”

Now there are only two obvious missing features: the ability to restrict sharing to your Gmail contacts (shouldn’t that be the default?) and the ability to disable sharing entirely. Google says the controls will start rolling out this month.

List image Google Drive

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Linda Iaccarino on Twitter launch talks – report

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HBCUniversal CEO Linda Iaccarino is in talks to become CEO of Twitter, according to the Wall Street Journal. informedafter owner Elon Musk announced that he had found a new leader of the social network and would move into the role of chief technologist.

In a tweet Thursday, Musk said the company’s new CEO would take over in about six weeks, without naming the person. Iaccarino, chair of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal Media, did not respond to an email asking for comment, and a spokesperson for NBCUniversal said she was rehearsing for the company’s preview presentation to advertisers next week.

Iaccarino joined NBCUniversal in 2011 after nearly two decades with Turner Broadcasting. At NBCUniversal, she helped launch advertising streaming service Peacock and curated live events such as the Super Bowl and the Olympics. Iaccarino has also partnered with various tech companies including Snapchat, YouTube and, of course, Twitter.

If Musk chose Iaccarino, then his tweet was published at an inconvenient time for the leader. NBCUniversal plans to host its annual advertiser showcase at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Monday. The pre-events, which span the week, are when major media companies start selling ads for the fall TV season.

This year’s presentations have already been overshadowed by a writers’ strike that could have caused serious delays in TV production and schedules. The NBCUniversal event is expected to focus heavily on online advertising as the company promotes its line of movies and TV shows on Peacock. NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast Corp., was shocked just last month by the firing of its chief executive, Jeff Schell, following a sexual harassment complaint filed by an employee.

Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October and has indicated that he will only be in charge for a limited time to complete the organizational overhaul he believes the company needs to thrive. Musk complained that he had “too much work” and that he was sleeping at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco while he implemented sweeping changes.

In December, Musk asked his Twitter followers if he should step down as CEO, and 57.5% said yes. The billionaire will remain executive chairman after the transition.

Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has been criticized for abrupt policy changes on Twitter and neglect of other business. He also changed the corporate name of Twitter’s parent company to X Holdings, an entity that could eventually become the parent company for all of his businesses, an idea he’s publicly speculated about. Musk also said he wants to make Twitter not only a social network, but an app for everything, including financial services.

The next CEO will have to deal with the consequences of his ownership, including the exit of advertisers. Musk said in March that despite a modest increase in daily users since early 2022, Twitter’s revenue has fallen 50% since October as a result of a “dramatic reduction” in ads.

The company’s Twitter Blue subscription plan is also down, attracting less than 1% of the user base. Musk has cut thousands of jobs, curtailed the company’s content moderation, and allowed back accounts previously banned for violating the rules.

Read more: A brief history of how Elon Musk said one thing and did another on Twitter

Musk already has a friendly relationship with Iaccarino, who interview last month at a major promotional conference in Miami and called him a “friend” and “buddy” on stage. Twitter and NBCU recently expanded their partnership at the Olympics.

“I can say that she will be my first choice and my only choice to save the platform from the hands of its owner,” said Lou Pascalis, who advises marketers as director of strategy at Ad Fontes Media, on Twitter. “However, I still can’t figure out why she submitted to @elonmusk!”

Dylan Byers of Puck News also revealed via tweet that Musk planned to appoint Iaccarino as CEO of Twitter, citing two people familiar with the matter.

— Assisted by Brandon Sapienza.

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Musk steps back and announces new Twitter CEO

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In his recent tweet, Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced that he has chosen a new CEO for the company. However, Musk did not specify the name of the person assigned to this role.

Rumors and discussions assume it will Linda Iaccarino, head of publicity for NBC Universal. Musk also said that he will work at Twitter in the future as executive chairman and chief technology officer.

My role will shift to executive chairman and CTO overseeing product, software and sysops.Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter.

The new CEO is likely to take over the position in the next six weeks, Musk said. Previously, Musk suggested that by the end of 2023, he should leave the chair of the CEO and entrust this role to someone else.

However, he wanted to get his opinion back with the results of a poll asking if Elon should continue as CEO of the organization. At the time, Musk also did not name potential candidates.

A step towards appeasing Tesla investors

It is said that Musk’s call to appoint a new Twitter CEO could reassure Tesla investors. They have repeatedly expressed concern over the fact that Musk’s involvement in Twitter operations is somehow pushing him to ignore his role as Tesla’s CEO.

After Elon Musk announced that he would replace him with someone who would take charge of Twitter, Tesla shares skyrocketed.

When Musk was heading Twitter, he controversially tweaked and changed the platform’s features, policies, and terms.

These changes have generated countless concerns and controversy.

Consequently, many giant advertisers stopped spending on the network, resulting in a significant drop in revenue.

To bridge this gap, Musk launched a redesigned and more expensive subscription, Twitter Blue.

Said subscription purports to allow users to purchase verification packages while putting the old legacy platform verified checkboxes into the background. In the Musk era, Twitter canceled the rollout of its trust and safety board.

Moreover, the platform has brought back previously blocked users such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green and former President Donald Trump. The move also caused a stir among critics, who began to claim that Elon was deliberately harming Twitter’s sustainable and free environment.

Takeovers and layoffs

Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 in a $44 billion deal. The initial offer to buy the platform came in April last year. After acquiring Twitter, Musk was quick to fire former CEO Parag Agarwal.

In November, Musk fired other senior executives and nearly 50% of Twitter’s employees. 2022.

These significant layoffs have been heavily criticized, with Musk’s ability to maintain the popularity and effectiveness of the platform repeatedly questioned.

However, Musk seems to be resistant to controversy and criticism – he continues to evade raised concerns with his usual humorous and sarcastic responses.

From his new announcement, it’s clear that Musk will no longer be the CEO of Twitter, but he will still own the organization.

Musk recently changed the name of Twitter to X, and he’s thrilled to realize his ambition to turn the platform into an “app for everything.”

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