‘Giant Tic Tac’ and Other Hypersonic UFOs Spotted by Navy Pilots

https://www.space.com/ufo-sightings-us-pilots.html

Between 2014 and 2015, seasoned pilots in the U.S. Navy experienced a number of harrowing encounters with UFOs during training missions in the U.S. While pilots were mid-flight, their aircraft cameras and radar detected seemingly impossible objects flying at hypersonic speeds at altitudes up to 30,00 feet (9,144 meters); these mysterious UFOs did so with no visible means of propulsion, The New York Times reported on May 26.

However, none of the pilots suggest that these perplexing UFOs represent an extraterrestrial invasion, according to The Times, which previously wrote about Navy pilots encountering UFOs in 2004.

In total, six pilots who were stationed on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt between 2014 and 2015 told The Times about spotting UFOs during flights along the southeastern coast of the U.S., extending from Virginia to Florida. [7 Things Most Often Mistaken for UFOs

Two of the pilots who spoke with The Times about the inexplicable sightings share their stories in the new History Channel documentary series “Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation,” premiering May 31.

Video of two aerial encounters appears in the series, showing clips of UFOs: one tiny white speck and one large, dark blob. These UFOs later came to be known respectively as “Go Fast” and “Gimbal.”

The objects had “no distinct wing, no distinct tail, no distinct exhaust plume,” Lt. Danny Accoin, one of the Navy pilots who reported UFO sightings beginning in 2014, said in the documentary.

“It seemed like they were aware of our presence, because they would actively move around us,” Lt. Accoin said.

According to Lt. Accoin, when a strange reading shows up on radar for the first time, it’s possible to interpret it as a false alarm, “but then when you start to get multiple sensors reading the exact same thing, and then you get to see a display, that solidifies it for me.”.

Accoin told The Times he encountered UFOs twice, during flights that were a few days apart. He also said that though tracking equipment, radar and infrared cameras on his aircraft detected UFOs both times, he was unable to capture them on his helmet camera.

Lt. Ryan Graves, an F-18 pilot, said in the documentary that a squadron of UFOs followed his Navy strike group up and down the eastern coast of the U.S. for months. And in March, 2015, after the Roosevelt was deployed to the Arabian Gulf, Graves said the UFOs reappeared.

“We did have issues with them when we went out to the Middle East,” Lt. Graves said.

Pilots who spotted the UFOs speculated among themselves that the unnerving objects may have belonged to a highly classified drone program using unknown technology, and they did not consider them to be extraterrestrial in origin, The Times reported. T

Lt. Graves and others are speaking out now because what they saw raised concerns for them about their comrades and national security, Christopher Mellon, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, told the History Channel.

In 2015, following this spate of UFO sightings, the U.S. Navy issued official guidelines for personnel to report and investigate aerial objects, according to The Times. Those Navy protocols were updated earlier this year; all data will be classified information and will not be made available to the general public, Live Science previously reported.

“Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation” airs on the History Channel on May 31 at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT.

Originally published on Live Science. 

via Space.com http://bit.ly/2WPkkGi

May 29, 2019 at 12:25PM

42 Million Dating App Records Exposed Online, Leaking User IP Addresses and Location Data

https://gizmodo.com/42-million-dating-app-records-exposed-online-leaking-u-1835106135

A database containing records of tens of millions of users of various dating apps has been found publicly accessible, according to a researcher who says it remains unclear who amassed the data.

In a blog Wednesday, security researcher Jeremiah Fowler said he discovered the database and that it was not protected by so much as a password. The 42.5 million records, which appeared to belong to multiple apps, were stored on a U.S.-based server and largely contained the IP addresses and location data of American users.

The apps to which the data belongs include Cougardating, Christiansfinder, Mingler, Fwbs (friends with benefits), and “TS,” which Fowler speculates is likely short for “transsexual.”

The database also contained Chinese text, he said, leading him to believe its owner is also Chinese.

“What really struck me as odd was that despite all of them using the same database, they claim to be developed by separate companies or individuals that do not seem to match up with each other,” he wrote in a blog post detailing his findings. “The Whois registration for one of the sites uses what appears to be a fake address and phone number.”

Gizmodo attempted reached out to Christiansfinder for comment, but the email address listed on its website bounced back. The other app developers could not be reached.

Fowler told CyberScoop that while he wasn’t implicating the developers behind the apps of doing anything nefarious, the fact that they’d gone to such lengths to conceal their identities was inherently suspicious.

In addition to IP and location data, the database includes users’ account names and ages. However, there was no personally identifiable information, or PII, a term that encompasses information such as real names, physical addresses, and Social Security numbers.

Fowler notes that a lot of people tend to reuse account names and that can be used as a type of fingerprint. “This makes it extremely easy for someone to find and identify you with very little information,” he said. “Nearly each unique username I checked appeared on multiple dating sites, forums, and other public places.”

Researchers generally wait until exposed databases are taken down before going public. But at time of writing, the database remains online, despite Fowler attempts to notify the host. He disclosed his discovery to raise awareness among users of the apps that their private data is leaking online.

via Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com

May 29, 2019 at 07:03PM

BBC Goes to Conduct Its First Broadcast Over 5G, Immediately Hits Data Cap

https://gizmodo.com/bbc-goes-to-conduct-its-first-broadcast-over-5g-immedi-1835119262

There’s a dark secret lurking behind all the promised benefits of the impending 5G networks slowing coming online around the world: All that extra speed and bandwidth is going to make it really hard to stay within your monthly data limits, as the BBC recently discovered with its first live segment streamed over 5G.

Today, EE, one of the UK’s cellular providers, fired up its 5G network in six cities across the country including Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, and Manchester. To help illustrate one of 5G’s biggest advantages over previous wireless networks—its ability to deliver broadband speeds without wires—the BBC had reporter Rory Cellan-Jones do a live report during its BBC Breakfast program that was streamed over EE’s 5G network.

You can watch the segment here, but needless to say, the quality of the image is excellent, with no compression artifacts, hiccups, or random freezes that happen quite often when live broadcasts are streamed over older 4G and 3G networks. But EE’s first 5G networks aren’t perfect. While testing one of the few 5G-capable smartphones currently available, Jones found that the connection speed went up and down depending on where he stood—a problem that should eventually be alleviated once 5G towers are more prevalent and able to provide thorough, reliable coverage.

However, the BBC Breakfast segment was actually delayed by 15 minutes when the cellular equipment (provided by Huawei) they were using to stream the broadcast suddenly stopped working. But it wasn’t a problem with the 5G network; the SIM card used for the live stream had simply reached its data cap, which is a problem that many users will inevitably experience once they start streaming 4K Netflix movies to their phones every morning on their commutes to work.

With carriers already introducing additional charges to allow existing smartphones to just use 5G networks, your cellphone bill is going to inevitably get quite expensive once you realize you need heaps more data every month.

via Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com

May 30, 2019 at 09:21AM

DIY Retro Gaming Handheld Is As Fun To Build As It Is To Play

https://kotaku.com/diy-retro-gaming-handheld-is-as-fun-to-build-as-it-is-t-1835119633

This is the GameShell, a retro gaming handheld that I built from a kit. I clipped and trimmed the plastic pieces, inserted the circuit boards, connected the wires and snapped it all together. It plays old games, emulated titles and homebrew software. It’s pleasing that something I built does those things.

The folks at Clockwork did most of the work, to be fair. They created the ClockworkPi, the small development board that powers the GameShell. It’s a small chip powered by a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU, a Mali GPU and 1GB DDR3 memory. It’s got Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a micro HDMI port to output to a monitor and a slot for a micro SD card for storage. It’s an excellent base for a modestly-powered portable emulator box.

Along with the ClockworkPi, the GameShell also has a 2.7 inch TFT RPG display that runs at 60 frames-per-second. There’s an input board with a directional pad, ABXY buttons and a couple of additional inputs. There’s also a tiny two-channel speaker, a 3.7V 1200 mAh rechargeable battery and an optional row of five additional buttons that can snap onto the back of the GameShell’s case.

I mention these components separately, because that’s how they are assembled. Here’s what comes in the GameShell kit.

It looks like a lot, but it’s really simple. There are four main modules encased in their own plastic housings—the ClockworkPi, controller pad, display and battery. Once assembled, cables connect the ClockworkPi to the three other units. They are stacked within a Game Boy-esque plastic housing, two on two. The speaker bar is plugged into the main bar, and the unit is snapped together.

It’s a simple build that’s hard to screw up. If one were to say, bend the pins connecting the main board to the controller, that might make it harder to get it working. Also, from what I have heard, the screen will not survive being run over by a 470 pound motorized wheelchair. But that’s what replacements were made for, right? Okay, I made a few mistakes, but those were on me, and eventually I wound up with a nice little handheld that I could probably strip down to component parts blindfolded.

Once assembled, the GameShell is a tiny handheld Linux device. The 16GB micro SD card that comes with the kit is preloaded with Clockwork OS, based on Debian 9 ARMhf and Linux mainline Kernel 4.1x. It comes loaded with popular emulator front end RetroArch, and can run up to Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games quite capably. There’s a standalone emulator for the original PlayStation, which can be hit or miss.

It comes loaded with the original Cave Story. There’s a free version of Doom on it, because any gaming system has to run Doom in some form in order to be validated. It even has a built-in music player, which I will never use.

With its Game Boy look and feel and its pleasantly responsive controls, the GameShell is nice to play games on. I feel like game makers and electronics hobbyists will get the most out of the system. It supports Preset C, Python, Lua, JS and LISP programming languages and supports a slew of smaller-scale game engines, including PICO 8 and LOVE2D. It’s open source hardware, so users are free to take it apart, wire it to other devices and fiddle to their hearts’ content. The studded backplate used to connect the optional five-button input bar to the back of the GameShell is even Lego compatible.

There’s a lot to do with Clockwork’s GameShell. I don’t know if I will ever build a game or program the GameShell into a television remote, but I will always be proud of this quirky little piece of hardware I put together.

via Kotaku https://kotaku.com

May 30, 2019 at 09:05AM