● [Tech] Facebook and Google use 'dark patterns' around privacy settings, report says. ︴ ︴

▼ Facebook, Google and Microsoft push users away from privacy-friendly options on their services in an "unethical" way, according to a report by the Norwegian Consumer Council. It studied the privacy settings of the firms and found a series of "dark patterns", including intrusive default settings and misleading wording. The firms gave users "an illusion of control", its report suggested. Both Google and Facebook said user privacy was important to them. The report - Deceived by Design- was based on user tests which took place in April and May, when all three firms were making changes to their privacy policies to be in compliance with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Illusion It found examples of *.privacy-friendly choices being hidden away *.take-it-or-leave it choices *.privacy-intrusive defaults with a longer process for users who want privacy-friendly options *.some privacy settings being obscured *.pop-ups compelling users to make certain choices, while key information is omitted or downplayed *.no option to postpone decisions *.threats of loss of functionality or deletion of the user account if certain settings not chosen For example, Facebook warns anyone who wishes to disable facial recognition that doing so means that the firm "won't be able to use this technology if a stranger uses your photo to impersonate you". The report concluded that users are often given the illusion of control through their privacy settings, when they are not getting it. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [Tech] Pokemon Go: Hiding Pikachu may hold key to AR's future. ︴ ︴

▼ Pokemon Go was the first mainstream success for augmented reality - the overlaying of computer graphics over the real world, viewed, in this case, with a smartphone. Since its launch in July 2016, players of the game have collectively walked 12 billion miles on the hunt for the little monsters. But sophisticated as Pokemon Go was, one critical flaw crushed the illusion of “seeing” a Pikachu in front of you. If something got in the way of your phone’s camera, the Pokemon would be rendered on top. “It really falls apart,” acknowledged John Hanke, chief executive of Niantic, the app's creator. “It breaks the illusion that this thing actually exists in the world, because it’s not behaving right.” To solve the problem, Niantic has acquired Matrix Mill, a four-person company spun out of University College London and based in Covent Garden - where it will remain. The terms of the acquisition have not been made public. But Niantic says the deal has the potential to make AR much more realistic. Near and far The simple way to solve the overlay problem is to have a device that has two cameras. Each lens can take a slightly different image, and by combining the two a calculation can be made as to how far away an object is. Your eyes and brain work in much the same way. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [Tech] Fortnite Playground mode quickly taken offline. ︴ ︴

▼ A new mode that let novices practise playing the hugely popular video game Fortnite has been taken offline for repairs after fewer than two hours. Some newcomers are finding it difficult to compete with more experienced Fortnite players. The firm behind Fortnite, Epic Games, has said Playground mode will be reinstated and that "multiple teams" are working on fixing it. One games journalist said Playground would make the game more accessible. In a post on Reddit, Epic Games said the new mode was "closed for repairs for the night" and that more information would be available some time on Thursday. "We've got multiple teams working to get this mode back into your hands so you can let your imaginations run wild," the update said. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [Science] The Milky Way Is Full of Toxic, Sticky Grease. ︴ ︴

▼ Look closely. The cosmic dust captured in this infrared photo of the Milky Way may be brimming with space grease. Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech Space: It's dark, cold and, in most parts of the galaxy, probably pretty sticky. Swirled amid the dust, soot and electromagnetic radiation that sits among the stars of the Milky Way, there is also a whole mess of toxic grease. This "space grease" — actually an oily form of hydrogen-bound carbon called aliphaticcarbon — is one of several types of carbon leaked into empty space by blazing stars, and may be among the key ingredients in the formation of new stars and planets, astronomers say. Precisely how much grease is out there lubing up the Milky Way? Scientists haven't known for sure, but a new paper published June 13 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societyproposes an answer: enough grease to really mess up the windshield on your spaceship. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [Science] What the fire near Saddleworth Moor means for wildlife. ︴ ︴

▼ The fire near Saddleworth Moor now spans over seven square miles, and local residents have been evacuated from some of the worst affected areas. But what does it mean for the wildlife that rely on the moor? "It couldn't have happened at a worse time," says David Hunt, an Upland Conservation Officer with the RSPB. "This time of year we're in the middle of the bird breeding season. So ground nesting birds will inevitably have been affected. "You could potentially still have birds on eggs. Although it's starting to get quite late; some smaller birds might be on second clutches," he told BBC News. The RSPB's Dove Stone site is home to an internationally important population of wading birds, including curlews, golden plover and lapwings. Other ground-nesting birds like meadow pippets and skylarks are likely to have young chicks. "The time of year, particularly with this weather, there'll be a lot of birds hatching and young birds finding their feet," explained Mr Hunt. The region also has a small introduced population of mountain hares. Conservationists hope that they would have been able to flee the fire, but their ecosystem may not be the same when they return. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [Science] How Theoretical Physicists Can Help Find E.T. ︴ ︴

▼ Extraterrestrial life might not resemble the kind of biological life we see on Earth. Credit: Illustration: Space.com; Shutterstock If and when humans discover extraterrestrial intelligence, should we expect to find it in the form of biological brains or artificially intelligent robots? Could it be something in between biological and technological or something else so out of this world that humans have yet to even fathom it? When searching for E.T., scientists tend to look for signs of life with certain similarities to life on Earth. But abiding by that narrow definition of lifecould be the reason we still haven't found any aliens. Are we truly alone in the universe, or do we simply have no idea what we're looking for? Scientists may have better luck finding aliens if they can come up with a definition of life that isn't so "Earth-centric," some researchers have said. In other words, scientists need to broaden the scope of the search to account for the possibility that extraterrestrial life may have nothing in common with life on Earth. Biologists and chemists may have a hard time wrapping their heads around a more universal definition of life, because everything they know about life is based on observations of Earth. Theoretical physicists, however, may have a better approach. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [International News] Outcry as Indian film body readmits actor accused of kidnap plot Vote to reinstate Mollywood star Dileep prompts women including his accuser to quit. ︴ ︴

▼ The actor Dileep in a publicity image. He denies any involvement in the alleged kidnap plot. Photograph: Facebook A star of Indian cinema accused of involvement in the kidnapping and sexual assault of another actor has been readmitted to an industry association, triggering a wave of resignations from the group, including by his alleged victim. Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan Pillai, better known by his stage name Dileep, is awaiting trial over an incident in February 2017 in which a group of men allegedly forced their way into the woman’s car and sexually assaulted her as they drove around Kochi city, in Kerala state, for several hours. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [International News] Shujhaat Bukhari: Pakistan militants blamed for journalist death. ︴ ︴

▼ Leading Indian newspaper journalist and editor Shujaat Bukhari was killed by a Pakistan-based militant outfit, police have said. Bukhari was shot dead in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, on 14 June while leaving his office. "Orders to kill Shujaat came from Pakistan," a policeman said, adding they had identified four suspects from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group (LeT). The LeT has denied involvement and no other group has claimed the killing. The LeT is one of the most feared groups fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir and is blamed for several deadly attacks on Indian soil. Police said one of the suspects escaped from police custody in January 2018, while two of them are Indian nationals who had joined the Pakistan-based group. A senior official told BBC Urdu's Riyaz Masroor that India and Pakistan would share evidence related to the murder as a part of a legal assistance treaty. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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