First came the hottest June in recorded history. Now it’s the hottest-ever July. This year is already highly

Floods in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region could have caused damages to crops for about €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion), according

(Reuters) -Analog Devices projected first-quarter revenue and profit below market estimates on Tuesday as the chipmaker grapples with an ongoing

Some of the UK’s most visited websites face enforcement action from the data protection watchdog if they do not make changes to allow users to consent to advertising cookies. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said some websites do not give users fair choices over whether or not they are tracked for personalised advertising. The ICO has previously issued guidance to help ensure firms make it as easy for users to reject advertising cookies as it is to accept all – often using consent banners which pop up when a user first lands on a website – but the watchdog has said that some of the UK’s top websites are not complying with data protection law on this issue. Many of the biggest websites have got this right. We’re giving companies who haven’t managed that yet a clear choice: make the changes now, or face the consequences Stephen Almond, ICO It said it had written to a number of firms giving them 30 days to comply or face potential enforcement action. Under UK data protection law, companies must give users fair choice to opt out of tracking using cookies, which is often then used to serve people personalised adverts online. Companies are still able to show users adverts when someone has rejected all tracking, but the ads must not be tailored to the person browsing. Stephen Almond, ICO executive director of regulatory risk, said: “We’ve all been surprised to see adverts online that seem designed specifically for us – an ad for a hotel when you’ve just booked a flight abroad, for instance. Our research shows that many people are concerned about companies using their personal information to target them with ads without their consent. “Gambling addicts may be targeted with betting offers based on their browsing record, women may be targeted with distressing baby adverts shortly after miscarriage and someone exploring their sexuality may be presented with ads that disclose their sexual orientation. “Many of the biggest websites have got this right. We’re giving companies who haven’t managed that yet a clear choice: make the changes now, or face the consequences.” The ICO said it would provide a further update on this work in January, including details of any companies that had not addressed the watchdog’s concerns. Read More Employee data leaked during British Library cyber attack Half of adults who chat online with strangers do not check age – poll Businesses embracing generative AI but fear cyberattacks, survey finds

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 22, 2023--

Vodafone said Tuesday it would cut 11,000 jobs over three years, as the telecoms company unveiled a turnaround plan to revive its fortunes.

A lawsuit filed Monday in Oklahoma is seeking to block the state's support for the nation's first publicly funded religious charter school.

The big showcase dedicated to 'Starfield' brought new details about the long-awaited title to light.

Elon Musk said he believes that China is “on Team Humanity” and would be willing to work with

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 20, 2023--

(Corrects year-on-year comparison in penultimate paragraph to a loss of 624 million euros, not a loss of 467.2 million euros)

Researchers funded by the US Air Force are developing a new type of device that can invite comparisons to a weapon used by a Batman villain. Scientists, including Patrick Hopkins from the University of Virginia in the US, are working on a new device to be used for on-demand surface cooling for electronics inside spacecraft and high-altitude jets. The device may seem similar to the freeze gun used by Batman villain Mr Freeze to “ice” his enemies. “A lot of electronics on board heat up, but they have no way to cool down,” said Dr Hopkins, whose lab has been granted $750,000 over three years to develop the technology. On Earth, electronics in military craft can rely on nature to cool themselves, but in space, this may be a challenge, scientists said. Citing an example, researchers said the Navy uses ocean water in its liquid cooling systems while flying jets can rely on air that is dense enough to help keep components chilled. “With the Air Force and Space Force, you’re in space, which is a vacuum, or you’re in the upper atmosphere, where there’s very little air that can cool,” Dr Hopkins said. “So what happens is your electronics keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter. And you can’t bring a payload of coolant onboard because that’s going to increase the weight, and you lose efficiency,” he explained. In such extra-terrestrial environments, a jet of plasma, the fourth and most common state of matter in the universe, can be used in the interior of a craft. “This plasma jet is like a laser beam; it’s like a lightning bolt. It can be extremely localized,” Dr Hopkins explained. One of the strange qualities of plasma is that while it can reach temperatures as hot as the surface of the Sun, it chills before heating when it strikes a surface. In the new research, published recently in the journal ACS Nano, scientists fired a purple jet of plasma generated from helium through a hollow needle encased in ceramic, targeting a gold-plated surface. When researchers turned on the plasma, they could measure temperature immediately at the point where the plasma hit, and could see that the surface cooled first and then heated up. “We were just puzzled at some level about why this was happening, because it kept happening over and over,” Dr Hopkins said. “And there was no information for us to pull from because no prior literature has been able to measure the temperature change with the precision that we have. No one’s been able to do it so quickly,” he said. The strange surface-cooling phenomenon, according to scientists, was the result of blasting an ultra-thin, hard-to-see surface layer, composed of carbon and water molecules. Researchers compare this to a similar process that happens when cool water evaporates off of our skin after a swim. “Evaporation of water molecules on the body requires energy; it takes energy from body, and that’s why you feel cold. In this case, the plasma rips off the absorbed species, energy is released, and that’s what cools,” the researchers explained. Using the method, scientists could reduce the temperature of the setup by several degrees for a few microseconds. While this may not be dramatic, they said it is enough to make a difference in some electronic devices. Now, thanks to the Air Force grant, researchers are looking at how variations on their original design might improve the apparatus. “Since the plasma is composed of a variety of different particles, changing the type of gas used will allow us to see how each one of these particles impact material properties,” researchers said. Read More Scientists discover 3,000-year-old arrowhead made of ‘alien’ iron Carcinogens found at nuclear missile sites as reports of hundreds of cancers surface India’s moon rover confirms sulphur and detects several other elements near the lunar south pole China’s ‘government-approved’ AI chatbot says Taiwan invasion likely Russian cyber-attacks ‘relentless’ as threat of WW3 grows, expert warns How new bike technology could help cyclists tell drivers not to crash into them