Italy’s Air Force has paid for seats and brief experiments on Virgin Galactic’s first commercial flight. The flight did not reach the limit of space, but passengers experienced weightlessness. Virgin Galactic has been planning commercial flights since 2007 and recently carried its first commercial passengers, including two officers from the Italian Air Force and a researcher from the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Research.
OneWeb’s satellite internet service is now available in countries such as Austria, Italy, France, and Portugal as the provider expands its coverage south. The goal is to have worldwide coverage by the end of 2023. This expansion allows for internet access in a total of 37 European countries.
Researchers have successfully created a map of neutrinos from the Milky Way for the first time. This achievement was made possible through the IceCube experiment in Antarctica and machine learning methods developed at TU Dortmund. The map shows that the center of the Milky Way would appear bright if neutrinos were visible, and it also reveals other spots emitting neutrinos. Surprisingly, areas farther from our solar system shine brighter than those closer to us.
Google will no longer display links to Canadian news within Canada due to the country’s new Online News Act. The act imposes significant payment obligations on Meta and Google for promoting news or providing access to news. Meta has already announced that it will block news articles on Instagram and Facebook in Canada, and now Google is confirming its withdrawal to avoid the associated costs.
Researchers and developers have introduced an AI-supported image processing method called DragGAN, which allows for flexible control over facial expressions, poses, perspectives, and other properties in photos. Users can easily edit photos by marking start and end points, making it simpler than traditional image editing programs.
In 2020, Heise-Verlag, a German publishing company, faced criticism from data protection authorities for the way it obtained consent for setting cookies on its website. The publisher made changes to its consent framework and offered alternative options for tracking-free browsing. In May 2023, the solution was deemed legally compliant.
These stories, along with the potential implications of a recent photography-related fine, are discussed in the c’t data protection podcast.
