đ Articles: Monday 29.Apr.2024
ScienceAlert: An Unexpected Function Discovered Inside The ‘Little Brain’ at The Back of Your Head
With a name that means ‘little brain’ in Latin, the cerebellum comprises just 10 percent of the entire brain’s mass. Don’t let that small size fool you, though; with more than three-quarters of the brain’s neurons packed within that small space, there’s a lot going on inside.
Traditionally it’s thought this part of the nervous system located at the base of the skull is mostly concerned with coordinating motor functions like balance and movement. Now new research backs up a hypothesis that’s gathering momentum: it also plays a key role in learning.
In this new study, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University wanted to build on previous research identifying the cerebellum’s posterior-lateral region as playing a role connecting what we see to the movements we make.
TidBITS: CryptoChameleon Phishing Kit Targets LastPass, Others
âŚwatch out for a phishing call purporting to be from LastPass and claiming that your LastPass account has been accessed from a new device. The automated call instructs you to press 1 to allow access or 2 to block it. If you press 2, youâre told youâll receive another call shortly to âclose the ticket.â When that call comes, from someone identifying themselves as a LastPass employee and speaking with an American accent, the caller will send you an email that pretends to reset access to your account. Of course, itâs actually a phishing message designed to steal your credentials.
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The real concern comes once sophisticated phishing attacks become completely AI-driven. We’re already seeing scammers use AI voices (see “How To Avoid AI Voice Impersonation and Similar Scams,” 25 January 2024), and it’s easy to imagine a highly directed AI chatbot generating the text behind the voice. Our first defense will be Settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers, but at some point, we’ll need an AI receptionist to answer all our calls and decide which ones are legitimate.
Obviously this template can be used for any number of secure services, such as banks.
PBS NewsHour: Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf resigns after amid weakened government
Scotlandâs first minister, Humza Yousaf, resigned on Monday, triggering a leadership contest as the governing Scottish National Party seeks to avoid early elections.
Yousaf, whose party has been weakened by a campaign finance scandal and divisions over transgender rights, was finally brought down by his decision to oust the Green Party from his governing coalition because of differences over climate change goals. He was forced to resign after that left him unable to cobble together a majority in Scotlandâs devolved regional parliament.
With no prospect of victory in two confidence votes later this week, Yousaf quit rather than face defeat.
9to5Mac: Watch the amazingly detailed process of upgrading iPhone 15 Pro storage after purchase
Appleâs modern iPhones (iPads and Macs too) have fixed storage which is soldered to the motherboard. That means customers typically need to buy the storage they want upfront or expand with external options. However, some crafty folks out there have solved how to upgrade iPhone storage after the fact. Check out this peaceful and impressive video for how the process goes.
This process isn’t totally new, we’ve seen it with some previous iPhone models. But YouTube channel and business KingSener recently shared a slick video of the detailed work on the iPhone 15 Pro â taking storage from 128 to 512GB.
The Verge: This EV prototype charges from 10 to 80 percent almost as fast as a gas fill-up.
The prototype Polestar 5 uses an “Extreme Fast Charging” 77kWh EV pack, created in conjunction with company StoreDot, that can add 200 miles of range in 10 minutes. A Tesla would take about 15 minutes at many convenient Supercharger locations.
Polestar noted charging rates rose from 310kW at 10 percent charge to a blistering 370kW at 80 percent, and no special cooling equipment is needed.
Polestar: Polestar and StoreDot successfully charge Polestar 5 prototype from 10-80% in 10 minutes
NYT: A Peek Inside the Brains of âSuper-Agersâ
New research explores why some octogenarians have exceptional memories.
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The scientists found that the super-agers had more volume in areas of the brain important for memory, most notably the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. They also had better preserved connectivity between regions in the front of the brain that are involved in cognition. Both the super-agers and the control group showed minimal signs of Alzheimer’s disease in their brains.
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Experts don’t know how someone becomes a super-ager, though there were a few differences in health and lifestyle behaviors between the two groups in the Spanish study. Most notably, the super-agers had slightly better physical health, both in terms of blood pressure and glucose metabolism, and they performed better on a test of mobility. The super-agers didn’t report doing more exercise at their current age than the typical older adults, but they were more active in middle age. They also reported better mental health.
In California, where there are Teslas as far as the eye can see and rapid charging stations aplenty, new drivers are opting out of the $605 billion Elon Musk-led car universe.
Among the top three passenger cars sold in California in the first quarter this year, Elon Musk’s Tesla Model 3 dropped from first place to third, behind the Toyota Camry and the Honda Civic, according to the California New Car Dealers Association’s first quarter auto outlook on Monday. Toyota was the top brand in California this quarter, notching a 9.3% increase in registrations, followed by Honda, which marked an 18.6% rise so far this year. Tesla registrations have dropped in California year to date, with a 7.8% drop in the first quarter, following a 9.8% drop in the last quarter of 2023.
California makes up 32.5% of registrations of battery electric vehicles in the U.S., and the sluggish popularity of Tesla among new-car registrants comes at a particularly vulnerable time for Tesla as a company and for its CEO. Musk is facing significant pressure from investors who want to see him adopt the norms of a more traditional CEO, step back from his grandiose social media presence, and provide a more concrete timeline for producing an affordably priced Tesla. The company reported last week that revenues dropped 9%, which was its largest drop since 2012, while net income dropped a whopping 55% in the first quarter. Three of its top executives, including well-known insider Drew Baglino, resigned in the space of two weeks, which further rattled investors.
9to5Mac: These are my favorite HomeKit Secure Video cameras in 2024
HomeKit Secure Video is Appleâs platform for recording and managing security camera footage. Everything is handled directly through the Home app, where you can manage settings, view recording history, and view live feeds from your cameras.
There are several benefits to using HomeKit Secure Video. For example, everything is completely end-to-end encryption. Itâs also nice being able to see all of your cameras and recordings in the Home app, alongside controls for other smart home accessories.
Additionally, when you use a camera via HomeKit Secure Video, you donât have to rely on the camera manufacturerâs app or cloud service. This means you donât have to worry about the manufacturer of the cameraâs security practices. Just be sure to disable all recording in that manufacturerâs app.
Last Updated: 29.Apr.2024 23:19 EDT