|
|
|
|
Riddle me this: what question do most of us get asked many times a day and always say yes in response? The answer would be cookie consent requests – and many irate web users probably say yes with little idea of what cookies even do. They’re not a lot like the sweet treats that live in jars, but if you want an analogy it’s this: web owners get fat from selling the data from your browsing decisions, and you don’t even get crumbs.
Under European privacy laws, users must at least consent to this exploitation, which has forced owners to devise workarounds. One trick is to make it easier for users to say yes than no, but a recent French decision against Google and Facebook declared this illegal. Yet according to tech law specialist Asress Vikay, many big sites are still doing it in the UK and EU – he reflects on what can be done.
It’s more than two years since scientists managed to photograph a black hole for the first time, but now they’ve gone one better: a new team have come up with a way of finding so-called “invisible” black holes. Here’s what that means.
We also look at Vladimir Putin’s summit with Xi Jinping, and find that relations between the two major eastern powers are a little more functional than first meets the eye.
|
|
Steven Vass
Business + Economy Editor
|
|
It takes the biscuit.
stockwerk-fotodesign
Asress Adimi Gikay, Brunel University London
The laws about cookies are fairly clear in EU and UK, but many big companies are breaking them anyway.
|
Concept of a black hole acting as a lens on background light.
Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock
Adam McMaster, The Open University; Andrew Norton, The Open University
Some black holes are isolated in space and therefore near impossible to detect.
|
EPA-EFE/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin/Sputnik POOL
Marcin Kaczmarski, University of Glasgow; Natasha Kuhrt, King's College London
It remains to be seen what the reset of the relations between the two countries will actually mean for the rest of the world.
|
Environment
|
-
Joe Wills, University of Leicester
Andrea Arnold’s new film chronicles the daily strife of Luma – a dairy cow and mother.
-
Luke Kemp, University of Cambridge; Aaron Tang, Australian National University
The risks of using aerosols to reflect sunlight and cool the planet include creating extreme weather and worsening catastrophes.
-
Aileen Baird, University of Birmingham; Francis Pope, University of Birmingham
Plant the right trees in the right places – with the right fungal companions.
|
|
Arts + Culture
|
-
Emma Berry, Queen's University Belfast
We’ve developed two comics – one which we hope will help young people with diabetes, and another which we hope will raise awareness about the issue of plastic waste.
-
Rona Cran, University of Birmingham
Camp defies easy categorisation and has come to mean many things over the span of queer history
|
|
Politics + Society
|
-
Kathryn Farrow, University of Oxford
Reports of misogynistic behaviour by police and within their ranks have roots in workplace culture.
-
Sam Hitchmough, University of Bristol
US sports teams aren’t the only ones who have used Native American imagery and are now changing their branding.
|
|
Health
|
-
Sarah L Caddy, University of Cambridge
Vaccines are less effective at reducing the risk of viral mutation than they used to be – but they still make a difference.
|
|
| |
Featured events
|
|
— Online, University of South Wales, Pontypridd, Rhondda, Cynon, Taff [Rhondda, Cynon,Taf], CF37 1DL, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of South Wales
|
|
— Online, Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Southampton
|
|
— John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, Manchester, Manchester, M3 3EH, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Manchester
|
|
— Brookfield House, 223 London Road, Leicester, LE2 1ZE, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE2 1ZE, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Leicester
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
