Sound of mystery attacks in Cuba released. It’s as obnoxious as you’d expect

Enlarge / Personnel gather at the US Embassy in Cuba after the US State Department announced it will cut the embassy’s staff by half in the wake of mysterious health problems. (credit: Getty | Sven Creutzmann/Mambo Photo ) On Thursday, the Associated Press released the first audio recording of the sound that some diplomats say they heard during mystery attacks in Havana, Cuba. Those attacks have so far left 22 Americans with a puzzling range of symptoms, from brain injuries to hearing loss. The sound is high-pitched and grating. You can listen to it here (but beware: it’s unpleasant). The noise is comprised of 20 or more different frequencies, all around about 7,000 kHz and 8,000 kHz. It reportedly came in abrupt pulses of varying lengths. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Continue Reading:
Sound of mystery attacks in Cuba released. It’s as obnoxious as you’d expect

Spotify is in ‘advanced talks’ to buy SoundCloud

Those rumors that SoundCloud is shopping itself around ? They just got more substantial. Financial Times sources understand that Spotify is in “advanced talks” to buy SoundCloud. Details of the terms are still scarce at the moment, but it won’t surprise you to hear that Spotify is declining to comment. We’ve asked SoundCloud for its take as well. A buyout would be expensive for Spotify, which is seeing a surge of paying customers but still isn’t turning a profit . However, it would definitely make a sense from a strategic perspective. Spotify has been expanding to include more than just albums — this would give it a wider catalog of DJ sets, demos and other rough tracks. That, in turn, would give it leverage over Apple Music, Tidal and other services that try to lure you away with artist exclusives . You could listen to an in-development song and check out that artist’s commercially available music immediately afterward. And SoundCloud… well, it may not have much of a choice. Its paid SoundCloud Go service hasn’t exactly taken off, and it can’t really make money from those unofficial mashups and remixes. There’s no saying whether or not SoundCloud as you know it would survive under Spotify, but it would at least have a financial cushion. Source: Financial Times

View article:
Spotify is in ‘advanced talks’ to buy SoundCloud

A Man Going Deaf Can Hear Wi-Fi Signals, and Here’s How They Sound

Losing your hearing can be a frighteningly isolating experience. But instead of trying to replace the audible landscape he began losing at age 20, science writer Frank Swain decided to find a way to listen in on something humans can’t hear: the hum of Wi-Fi all around us. Read more…

Read More:
A Man Going Deaf Can Hear Wi-Fi Signals, and Here’s How They Sound

This is how San Francisco sounded just before getting destroyed in 1906

Hardscrabble Pictures added sound to this old black and white silent film of San Francisco’s Market Street in April 14, 1906, just four days before the big earthquake that destroyed 80 percent of the city. It’s really wonderful—put on your headphones and listen to the calm before the storm. Read more…        

More:
This is how San Francisco sounded just before getting destroyed in 1906