List of All Articles with Tag 'so'

A judge ruled Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other former directors of the social-media company must face claims

Scientists think they have found an explanation for what scientists thought was a “runaway” black hole speeding through the universe. Last month, scientists reported that they had seen what appeared to be an object unlike anything seen before. What originally appeared to be scratches on Hubble images was actually a black hole that had been thrown out from its home galaxy and was now speeding through the cosmos, scientists said. Astronomers had come to that conclusion after spotting a long trail of stars, formed 8 billion years ago. It was a stretched out, narrow shape, roughly the same size as our own Milky Way. Last month’s study suggested that those stars were the wake left behind from that runaway black hole. As the black hole travelled through a gas cloud, it left behind the right conditions to start forming stars, that study suggested. It was shock and a breakthrough for a number of reasons: it was unprecedented, and required a number of different conditions for it to be true. That led astronomers both to celebrate and question the theory, and in the time since other researchers have been working on their own ideas. Now scientists at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) have suggested their own, more ordinary explanation of the unusual, long star structure. They suggest that it is in fact just a flat or thin galaxy – one without a bulge that makes it wider – that is being seen from its side. “The motions, the size, and the quantity of stars fits what has been seen in galaxies within the local universe,” said Jorge Sanchez Almeida, an IAC researcher who is the first author of the article, in a statement. “It’s a relief to have found the solution to this mystery, the new proposed scenario is much simpler. In one sense it is also a pity, because the existence of fleeing black holes is expected, and this could have been the first one to be observed.” The team compared the mystery structure with another, much better known galaxy, named IC5249. That is near to us, has a similar mass of stars, and doesn’t have a galaxy either. They found that it was surprisingly similar. The stars were moving in similar ways to those found in closer, comparative galaxies, researchers said. That led scientists working on the new paper to suggest that it is a relatively normal and expected galaxy, rather than an out-of-control black hole. But they hope that further observations will shed further light on what exactly it is doing – and could still allow the galaxy to prove of interest to astronomers. “We also looked at the relation between the mass of the assumed galaxy and its maximum velocity of rotation, and discovered that indeed it is a galaxy which behaves like a galaxy,” said Ignacio Trujillo, an IAC researcher who worked on the study. “It is an interesting object, because it is quite a large galaxy at a very large distance from Earth, where the majority of the galaxies are smaller.” The proposal is reported in a paper, ‘Supermassive black hole wake or bulgeless edge-on galaxy?’, published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. Read More Aliens may intercept human communication ‘within next 100 years’, study says Powerful auroras likely this week due to rare ‘backward’ sunspot Meteorite crashes through roof of New Jersey home Aliens may intercept human communication ‘within next 100 years’, study says Powerful auroras likely this week due to rare ‘backward’ sunspot Meteorite crashes through roof of New Jersey home

Concerning messages showing on people’s phones have led to fears that they are being listened to. The app appears to be attempting to access the microphone within people’s phones, when users are asleep, according to the privacy menus within Google’s Android operating system. But WhatsApp said that it believes the issue is a bug within Android, and has stated categorically that the app would not access user’s microphones without their permission. The problem was raised by Twitter engineer Foad Dabiri, who shared a tweet which included a screenshot of a page in Android that shows when a given app accesses the microphone. He noted that it showed a range of attempts to do so, even when he had been asleep. The post was further amplified by Mr Dabiri’s boss, Elon Musk, who shared the tweet and claimed that “WhatsApp cannot be trusted”. Mr Musk’s post followed a range of other criticisms of Mark Zuckerberg, largely for political reasons, and Twitter also competes with WhatsApp with its direct messaging platform. In another post, Mr Musk pointed to the fact that WhatsApp is “owned by Meta/Facebook”, and claimed that WhatsApp’s former owners had left the parent company “in disgust”. “What they learned about Facebook and changes to WhatsApp obviously disturbed them greatly,” he claimed. Other users also reported seeing the same problem, on Twitter and Reddit, even before Mr Dabiri brought it to widespread attention. The screen can be seen within Google’s “Privacy Dashboard”, which is found within the Settings app and collects information about how personal data is being used by apps on a phone. Some claimed that page even showed WhatsApp accessing their camera. Others said that the microphone appeared to be getting accessed every few minutes. The same privacy dashboard can be used to turn off the microphone for any apps that users may be concerned about. But that could lead to certain features not working, such as voice notes or calls on WhatsApp. WhatsApp said that it believed the screen was showing the microphone being accessed as a result of a “bug”. It said that it was showing the wrong information in Google’s privacy dashboard screen and that it had been in touch with Google to fix it. “Users have full control over their mic settings,” WhatsApp posted in response to Mr Dabiri’s tweet. “Once granted permission, WhatsApp only accesses the mic when a user is making a call or recording a voice note or video – and even then, these communications are protected by end-to-end encryption so WhatsApp cannot hear them.” Meta-owned apps have long been plagued by fears that they are accessing the microphones of users. For years, users have accused Facebook and Instagram of listening to them to collect data and show them more relevant sponsored ads, which Meta has always firmly denied. Many experts have argued that the sometimes uncannily accurate sponsored posts are simply the result of the app’s advertising tools accurately profiling users, without needing to listen to them. Read More WhatsApp just fixed two of its most glaring quirks Google to unveil major new AI Quantum computer discovers bizarre particle that remembers its past Google to unveil major new AI Quantum computer discovers bizarre particle that remembers its past Why is Elon Musk purging Twitter accounts?

The late, great American writer Henry Charles Bukowski, Jr. was once called the “human embodiment of a raised middle finger”—an analogy that Bukowski would probably have welcomed, or possibly even written about himself. Here's what you should know.

A series of revelations in recent weeks about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepting lavish vacations and private-school

Twitter is adding encrypted messaging to the platform Wednesday, and calls will follow shortly, CEO Elon Musk tweeted late Tuesday.

Jane Street Group and Jump Crypto — two of the world’s top market-making firms — are pulling back

Teachers will have to write monthly checks if they want to stay in their union instead of having dues automatically deducted from their paycheck

Elon Musk is “purging” old accounts on Twitter, he has said, in yet another controversial change to the service. He said that accounts with “no activity at all for several years” would be removed from the platform. He noted that the result is likely to be a decrease in people’s follower account. But the move has already led to widespread criticism from users who say that it could remove important personal and social history from the site, as well as being yet another ill-explained move from Mr Musk. Much remains unclear about the plan. Mr Musk did not clarify what would mark an active account, for instance – whether it would need its owner to sign in, or if they might have to post – and gave no information about the timescale of the “purging”. But here’s everything we do know about what will be happening to those old Twitter accounts. Why would Elon Musk do this? Mr Musk suggested that the focus is on “free[ing] up abandoned handles”. Many Twitter users who joined the site in its early years were able to claim much-desired usernames – such as those with only three characters – and have not used them since. Even before the purge, people have gone to considerable lengths in order to get those accounts. Those holding particularly valuable handles have spoken about being subject both to hacking attacks and considerable monetary offers to get access to them. It also has the benefit of giving an indication that staying as an active member of Twitter is valuable – or, at least, that it might be problematic not to use an account at all. That in turn could mean that more people log in to more Twitter accounts more regularly, which is a key metric at advertising-driven companies such as Twitter. Why is it being criticised? Many users have suggested that getting rid of those old, inactive accounts will mean deleting history. That might mean deleting accounts that were run by dead loved ones, or simply removing posts that have had a substantial impact on the world. In response, Mr Musk has indicated that the accounts will be “archived”, in a tweet replying to one such critic. He did not give any information about what this might mean, but other comments suggested that the posts may stay available on Twitter but not at the old handle. Many also suggested that the plan had not been fully thought through when it was announced, noting that Mr Musk had given no information to those who might have accounts removed, such as those that use them only to follow developments on Twitter and not post their own tweets. Read More Elon Musk threatens to reassign inactive Twitter accounts Elon Musk says Twitter will let media outlets charge users per article view Jack Dorsey says Twitter ‘went south’ after its sale to Elon Musk Bluesky might be the hottest and most controversial app in the world Apple finally launches two professional apps on the iPad AI robots figure out how to play football in shambolic footage

Michael Novogratz, the founder of crypto financial services firm Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., said his company is moving

General Motors has hired a former high-ranking software executive at Apple to run a new software organization at the automaker

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2023--