Twitter is exploring a pay-to-follow model that would allow users to pay to be a ‘super follower’ of someone to get exclusive content.
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Earthly Life Could Survive on Mars, New Studies Suggest
Two new independent studies show that we can’t discount the possibility that Earthly life can survive on the Red Planet
The first work was published in Frontiers in Microbiology. Researchers working on the study found that Earth life forms could temporarily survive on Mars. Fungi and Bacteria were sent to the stratosphere in a balloon, where they were kept in Martian atmosphere conditions and were exposed to UV radiation from the Sun.
The second study, published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment, is equally exciting, as the researchers grew microbes on soils sourced from a Martian meteorite. The team used meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, a piece of Mars about 4.5 billion years old. A few grams of it were crushed and exposed to chemolithotrophs, rock-eating microorganisms. The question they were trying to answer was if such organisms existed on Mars, what traces might they have left behind?
The team found that these chemolithotrophs constructed mineral capsules made of iron, manganese, and aluminum phosphates. These were unique to the old Martian soil, and unlike what is done by these microbes on Earth – or even in lab experiments on non-martian carbon-rich meteorites. It could be possible in the future to look for these mineral structures directly on Mars.
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India tightens rules for social media giants
India has announced new regulations for web services and social networks in the country, particularly ” significant social media” companies with large user bases like Twitter and Facebook.
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) announced the rules on Thursday. They require social media companies to establish a “grievance redressal mechanism” for users, including official “grievance officers” who acknowledge complaints within 24 hours and resolve them within 15 days. Services must also remove nudity and sexually explicit content within 24 hours of a user flagging it.
The framework also indicates that MEITY can regulate digital media services, including video streaming platforms, and require digital news services to follow the official “norms of journalistic conduct” observed by traditional media outlets.
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This Incredible Map Shows 25,000 Supermassive Black Holes
This incredible image does not show a starry sky, but every white dot is a supermassive black hole at the core of a different galaxy.This ensemble was created not by visible light but from radio waves emitted by matter orbiting these huge and distant black holes. This is the most detailed sky map in low radio frequencies yet.
The radio observations were collected by the Low-Frequency ARray (LOFAR), a system of 52 stations spread over nine European countries: Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, France, the UK, Sweden, Ireland, Latvia, and Italy. Together they are the largest combined radio telescope in the world.
The observations were conducted in low radio frequencies. Long radio wavelengths are greatly affected by the ionosphere, the layer of electrically charged particles that surround our planet. The free electrons that make that layer are not good for these radio observations as their motion affects the quality of what astronomers can observe.
“This is the result of many years of work on incredibly difficult data. We had to invent new methods to convert the radio signals into images of the sky,” said lead author Dr Francesco de Gasperin from the University of Hamburg.
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Iceberger Website Shows You How Any Iceberg You Draw Would Float
Icebergs are a hot topic on our ever-warming planet whose climate crisis partially hangs on the survival of the Earth’s coolest climes.
Found at the polar regions of the planet, they can be seen bobbing in the Arctic, North Atlantic, and Southern Oceans. They are immensely heavy (which is why they don’t get on well with cruise ships) but amazingly float in saltwater because they are formed of freshwater
Now, a new app called Iceberger will show you how the iceberg of your wildest imagination would float.
The clever idea is not without limitations, as it can only imagine the two-dimensional configuration of your berg, whereas a three-dimensional distribution of mass might glean a different outcome. However, using approximations, the site can tackle even the wackiest of icebergs with decent accuracy – and above all else, it’s very addictive. The website was inspired by a detailed and brilliant thread from PhD student Megan Thompson-Munsen regarding stable orientations of icebergs.
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Google’s massive undersea cables can detect earthquakes
The web of undersea cables that transmit data all over the world can one day be used to track tsunamis and earthquakes, according to new research.One of Google’s fiber-optic cables was able to successfully pick up on earthquakes nearby through detecting distortions in light pulses along the cable.
“Can we find a less expensive way to cover the ocean with geophysical sensors? There’s already this telecommunication cable infrastructure out there. If you can turn them into sensors, that’s wonderful — and that’s what we’re doing now,” says Zhongwen Zhan,an assistant geophysics professor at the California Institute of Technology.
The new approach capitalises on what the cables are already designed to do. When a transmitter at one end of the cable sends out a light signal transmitting data, light waves are oriented in a particular direction. If an earthquake hits, it might shake, bend, or twist the cable — and that changes the orientation of the light waves. At the other end of the cable, Google notices distortions and corrects them. Now, it wants to share its data, changes to what’s called the “state of polarization” of light, with seismologists like Zhan so they can study the earthquakes that caused the distortions.
“We’re humbled and excited by the possibility of collaborating with the optical, subsea and seismic research communities to use all of our cable infrastructure for greater societal benefits,” Google said in a blog.
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Zoom plans to add automatic closed captioning for all free accounts
Zoom announced that it is planning to roll out support for automatic closed captioning to free accounts this fall.
This is part of the company’s efforts to make the service more accessible.If you are a free account holder who needs the access to the feature before then, Zoom will be allowing users to manually request access to the Live Transcription feature via a Google Form linked in its announcement.
Automatic transcriptions are not a completely new Zoom feature. The service has offered AI-powered live transcription for all its paid accounts before. But now the feature will be available to millions of those that rely on Zoom’s free services.
Automatic closed captions are also available with other conferencing services such like Google Meet. Given how widely used Zoom became since the beginning of the pandemic, it’s great to see it adding more accessibility features.
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Spotify will let you filter your liked songs by genre and mood
Spotify is rolling out a new feature that will let users filter their liked songs by mood and genre. This way, you can enjoy more of what you like without compromising the vibe.
For example, I have songs that would be good in the dance club but also folk songs for relaxation, both are under my liked songs. This new feature would allow me to decide what mood I am in and then listen.
You have to have at least 30 liked songs to access the filters. Then, you can go to your library, tap into like songs, and select a filter listed across the top. You can remove the filter whenever you want and swap for a new one.Spotify says the filters will change as you like new songs. At the moment the feature will only roll out to English-speaking markets such as in the UK, US and Canada.
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Twitter announces paid Super Follows
Twitter announced a big upcoming feature: the ability for users to charge their followers for access to additional content.
The payment feature is called Super Follows and it will allow Twitter users to charge followers and give them access to extra content; that could be access to a community group, bonus tweets, subscription to a newsletter, or even a badge indicating your support.Twitter showed an example in a mockup screenshot where a user charges $4.99 a month to receive a series of perks. Twitter sees this as a way to let publishers and creators get paid directly by their fans.
In recent years, Direct payments tools have become increasingly significant for creators. Patreon has been massively successful and other platforms such as Facebook, Github and Youtube.Twitter will presumably take a cut — the company has been hinting at subscriptions features that would offer it a new source of revenue — though it doesn’t appear to have said yet what that fee will be.
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