A geomagnetic storm is expected to bring the northern lights, oraurora borealis, to the northern United States during New Years Eve and Day, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).The auroras could be visible as early as the morning of December 31, 2024, and again after nightfall on January 1, 2025, depending on solar activity. NOAA experts caution that the exact timing and intensity of the light show wont be clear until the solar material responsible for the storm gets within about a million miles of Earth, roughly 30 to 60 minutes before it reaches the planet.Shawn Dahl, a senior space weather forecaster for NOAA, explained that the solar storm could create visible auroras in regions where they are not typically seen, particularly during the peak of the suns 11-year solar cycle. This cycle, known as the solar maximum, causes more frequent and stronger coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the sun, which disturb Earths magnetic field and create the auroras.What causes the northern lights?The northern lights are the result of charged particles from the sun, called coronal mass ejections, colliding with Earths magnetic field. These interactions create colorful light displays, which are most commonly seen in high-latitude regions near the magnetic poles. The aurora is typically visible in regions such as Alaska, Canada, and northern Europe. However, during periods of increased solar activity, these displays can be seen much farther south.Earlier this year, a powerful solar storm in May allowed auroras to be seen as far south as the U.S. Midwest, and another storm in October brought auroras as far south as New York City. While the upcoming storm is expected to be less intense, it still has the potential to offer a striking light show for skywatchers in the northern U.S.Where to see the northern lightsThe northern lights will likely be visible in parts of the northern U.S., including Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Areas in northern Oregon, parts of the Midwest, and central New England could also catch a glimpse.For the best viewing experience, experts recommend traveling to locations with little light pollution, away from city lights. While the aurora may be faint and hard to see with the naked eye, it can often be captured in vivid detail with a smartphone camera. The new moon phase during this time will also provide darker skies, improving visibility.Track the Aurora in real-timeThose interested in tracking the northern lights can visit NOAAs Space Weather Prediction Center website for real-time updates on solar activity and aurora forecasts.The peak of the solar cycle means there may be more chances to see the northern lights in 2025, with even more frequent and widespread displays expected over the coming months.

LVMH-owned Diors production arm in Italy, Manufactures Dior, relied on formal inspections to assess working and safety standards inside its supply chain last year. In some cases, such certifications missed glaring problems, a Reuters review of unpublished court documents has found.AZ Operations, a subcontractor of Manufactures Dior tasked with the production of leather items and based near Italys fashion capital Milan, was accused by Italian prosecutors in June of being a front for an operation that exploited workers.However, AZ Operations passed two environmental and social inspections in 2023, in January and July, according to unpublished audit documents reviewed by Reuters.Widespread Milan investigations have uncovered malpractice inside the Italian luxury goods supply chain of Dior, Giorgio Armani, and Alviero Martini this year, Reuters has previously reported.The audit papers, along with court documents, Reuters interviews with more than two dozen luxury sector workers, auditors, supply chain managers, suppliers, lawyers, industry experts, executives, and trade union representatives reveal the pervasiveness of ineffective checks of social and environmental standards inside Italys sprawling luxury supply chain.In the case of AZ Operations, a three-page assessment on letterhead from compliance management company Fair Factories Clearinghouse (FFC), carried out by monitor Adamo Adriano on Jan. 18, 2023, stated that AZ Operations did not have subcontractors. The audit listed no irregularities.In July 2023, a further audit by Davide Albertario Milano srl, a large direct supplier of Manufactures Dior that worked with AZ Operations, also found no non-conformities and certified the work was carried out to a high standard and in accordance with contractual terms.Despite passing the audits, a police investigation into its 2023 activities found AZ Operations was de facto non-existent, according to Milan court documents. Furthermore, police inspections in April 2024 alleged the company was a front for a separate business, New Leather Italy, that exploited undocumented workers in sweatshop-like conditions, the same documents showed.That discovery was one of the factors that prompted Milans prosecutors to put Manufactures Dior under court administration in June.Dior and LVMH did not respond to multiple requests for comment about Reuters findings, including the audits, and on the process to inspect external manufacturers in Italy.In a July statement following revelations from the Milan prosecutors inquiries, Dior said it firmly condemned illegal practices discovered at two of its contractors, saying such unworthy acts contradicted its values and the code of conduct signed by these suppliers.Aware of the gravity of the violations committed by these suppliers and the improvements to be made to its checks and procedures, the house of Dior is collaborating with the designated Italian administrator and the Italian authorities, the French brand also said at the time.Dior added in the statement that its teams were working intensely to reinforce the existing procedures: Despite regular audits, these two suppliers had evidently succeeded in hiding these practices.FFC and Adamo Adriano did not respond to Reuters attempts to reach them. Davide Albertario did not respond to queries by Reuters on inspections at AZ Operations. New Leather Italy did not reply to a Reuters request for comment.COST-REDUCTIONGlobal luxury groups including LVMH usually outsource most of their production to a myriad of external contractors, industry experts say.Many are based in Italy, famed for its artisanal skills and accounting for between 50% and 55% of the global production of luxury clothing and leather goods, consultancy Bain calculates.No matter how many controls we do, there is always something we miss, Renzo Rosso, founder of Italian fashion group OTB, which makes Diesel clothing, told a business event in September, in reference to the complexity of overseeing Italys supply chain.Despite the risks, insiders and experts told Reuters relying on suppliers is a deliberate strategy to keep costs down and manage demand.The fashion business model is driven by cost-reduction tactics, leading fashion brands to switch suppliers, said Hakan Karaosman, Associate Professor at Cardiff University, whose research focuses on supply chain sustainability.Even though Dior did not directly abuse workers, the mechanism of labour exploitation was culpably fuelled by Manufactures Dior srl which . . . did not carry out effective inspections or audits over the years to ascertain the actual working conditions and environment, Milan prosecutors said in the June court documents.Currently, there is no firm legal requirement in Italy for luxury groups to audit their suppliers. But poor oversight can clash with sustainability claims made to investors and consumers over craftsmanship and corporate and social responsibility standards, leading to reputational risks and in some cases civil liability if workers exploitation is found within the supply chain.LVMH, for example, said in its 2023 Social and Environmental Responsibility Report it endeavors to ensure its suppliers and their service providers uphold human rights and to support them with applying the best possible employment, health and safety conditions.The investigations into Italys luxury supply chain have prompted some LVMH shareholders to ask the $330-billion behemoth, owned by French billionaire Bernard Arnault, to better monitor how its contractors treat workers.LVMH told a group of investors in November it was auditing all of its direct suppliers and immediate contractors. In a subsequent statement to Reuters in November, LVMH said it had conducted more than 2,600 on-site audits globally this year.Italys antitrust authority said in July it was investigating whether Dior and Armani have misled consumers.In July, Armani expressed confidence in a positive result following the (antitrust) investigation, saying in a statement that its companies were fully committed to cooperating with the authorities and that it believed the allegations had no merit.SKIN-DEEP OVERSIGHTBrands dictate the depth of the checks and the auditors scope of action and inspections are often limited to direct suppliers and not to sub-contractors, where the biggest problems usually lie, four auditors and luxury goods supply chain managers Reuters spoke to said.Audits tend to be planned in advance, allowing suppliers to paint a better picture by, for instance, clearing premises of workers without proper contracts, these people said.On May 9, 2023, for example, external auditor Adamo Adriano sent Pelletterie Elisabetta Yang, another supplier of Manufactures Dior based near Milan, a written notice flagging that he would hold an inspection on 26 May, 2023, the audit documents reviewed by Reuters show.In the notice, Adriano asked to analyse employment contracts, organizational charts, pay slips and a dozen more documents.The check-up did take place, but it was more formal than substantial, investigators wrote of the audit. The assessment listed no irregularities.In March 2024, police entered Elisabetta Yangs workshop, which housed also a refectory and several bedrooms. They found 23 workers, five of which were irregular. The workers lived and worked in hygiene and health conditions that are below the minimum required, the court documents read.Adriano did not reply to Reuters requests to comment with regards to the audit of Elisabetta Yang. Reuters was not able to contact Elisabetta Yang at the official email addresses cited by the local chamber of commerce.As private actors, auditors cannot freely access factories or workshops outside agreed hours and may not collect documents that are not spontaneously submitted by suppliers, two Italy-based luxury supply chain auditors told Reuters.The time allocated for on-site inspections is often too short to examine documents and interview employees, these people said.Five Tuscany-based luxury chain workers employed at separate workshops serving major brands confirmed to Reuters workshop owners knew in advance of the audits and would clear their premises and prep staff on what answers to give monitoring teams on the day of an inspection.All declined to be named for fear of losing their job.We used to say we only worked four hours a day, as per our (formal) part-time contract, said Pakistani-born Abbas, who works in the leathermaking hub of Prato.But how could they think we were making 1,300 bags a day with 50 workers employed only four hours a day?, Abbas, who said he worked 14 hours a day, six days a week, added.On the day of the audit, employees with part-time contracts were asked to leave as soon as they finished their formal shift, but had to come back and continue work after the auditors left, he added.Another worker, also from Pakistan and employed at a separate leather workshop in the Florence area, said factory owners warned workers when the inspection would take place and asked them to lie about their working hours.Fabio Roia, President of the Court of Milan, told Reuters that companies dont invest enough in their control systems and dont normally question the extremely cheap prices contractors offer to provide goods or services.Small fashion brand Alviero Martini, famed for leather bags decorated with geographical map patterns, was also targeted by the Italian inquiries for allegedly sub-contracting work to Chinese-owned firms in Italy that mistreated workers.The Alviero Martini group was careful in selecting direct suppliers . . . but the use of sub-suppliers was not actually checked properly, Ilaria Ramoni, who served as court administrator overseeing its operations until October, said in an interview.The group, which is no longer under court administration, did not respond to a request for comment. It stated in September it was unaware of the illegal behaviour occurring within its supply chain.Dior and Armani are still under special judicial oversight as part of the Milans investigation into labour exploitation.By Elisa Anzolin, Emilio Parodi and Silvia OgnibeneReporting by Elisa Anzolin and Emilio Parodi in Milan, Silvia Ognibene in Florence, additional reporting by Mimosa Spencer in Paris and Isabel Demetz in Gdansk; Editing by Lisa Jucca)

San Francisco studio Ryan Leidner Architecture has based the design of a wood-and-stucco desert house and art studio in southern California on mid-century Eichler homes and southwestern art. Located in the High Desert region near Joshua Tree National Park, the house was designed for painter Heather Day and her partner Chase McBride.Ryan Leidner Architecture constructed a wood and stucco house in CaliforniaRyan Leidner Architecture designed the home on an undeveloped desert site."[We sought to] respect the landscape with the design of the house, maintaining a compact footprint while still enjoying the sense of expansiveness one feels in the desert," said studio founder Ryan Leidner."In order to get to the property you drive several miles down an unpaved, sandy road through the desert, seeing the occasional home or trailer along the way."It was created for a painter and creative director"And then you take a final turn, and the house begins to emerge from behind a rock outcropping, and what you see is this white line in the landscape, and it feels just so surprising, and I think beautiful."The studio was informed by the straightforward logic of mid-century Eichler homes after the studio renovated one and decided to start with an exposed post-and-beam structure with regular spacing that informed the layout of the rooms.The design was informed by the straightforward logic of mid-century Eichler homesThe team also looked at case studies from painter Georgia O'Keeffe's and Willem and Elaine de Kooning's studios, as well as Mexican architect Luis Barragan's personal residence when considering the space.The rectangular wood frame, which steps down to accommodate a rocky slope, was coated in a white plaster stucco exterior to withstand the extreme fluctuations of the site's weather.A post and beam structure drove the design of the home"We initially explored using a neutral tone plaster with the thought that it would blend in with the desert landscape," the team said."But as we studied that option further, we realized that it actually took away from the architecture and the landscape and that having more of a contrast in tone helped to highlight the beauty of the surroundings."On one side, a solid white wall runs the length of the house, extending slightly past the transverse end walls to create small sheltered flanges. The wall is split in half by a set of double doors and sidelights that align with the doors on the other side of the house.Read: Ryan Leidner adds bridge to geometric San Francisco houseOn the other side, the nearly symmetrical house features a wide central porch with an elevated deck that is accessed through floor-to-ceiling sliding glass walls.Large windows that bring light into the bedroom and artist studio flank either end of the house and the wooden roof trusses extend a short way past the perimeter of the wall to shade the glazing.On one end, the home drops into a studio spaceThe short ends feature clerestory windows underscored by thin vertical wooden bands.In the central space between the breezeway created by the open doors, the kitchen, dining and living room form the heart of the house with exposed wood ceilings, white walls, and concrete flooring.Large windows let in natural light to the studioA short hallway off the kitchen leads to the bedroom and bathroom, while the other side of the main room drops a couple steps into the large open studio space."Living here has helped both of us slow down and savor each day," resident Heather Day said. "The way the windows frame the rugged landscape that seems to change throughout the day or with each season makes us feel closer to land. It's like an ever-evolving painting outside."Recently, Ryan Leidner Architecture renovated a 1940s home in Bernal Heights, San Francisco with a bridge over the front garden and a 1960s Eichler house in Silicon Valley, from which he drew inspiration for this house.The photography is by Joe Fletcher.The post Ryan Leidner Architecture creates home and studio in High Desert appeared first on Dezeen.

The last-gen iPad Air is a steal at $399.

The first half of 2025 is set to be a busy one for Apple. Here's all of the rumors so far, including the iPhone SE 4, M4 Ultra in a Mac Pro, and more!Apple has a busy 2025 aheadApple started off its Apple Silicon transition in the middle of a global pandemic, so those first couple of years were out of balance. As we enter 2025, a pattern has emerged along with a ton of the usual rumors.It doesn't seem like there will be many surprises in 2025 as Apple bumps chipsets and releases updated versions of old products, but there's at least one device that could surprise us early in the year. Rumor Score: Likely Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Researchers calculated that the human brain processes thought at a speed of ten bits per second. Andriy Onufriyenko via Getty ImagesThe human brain is a biological marvel, stuffed with some 86 billion neurons tangling in ways that even scientists have not yet been able to fully map and understand. Nevertheless, compared with modern technological devices, its fair to say that humans live life in the slow lane, given the relatively sluggish speed at which our brains process information.An average Wi-Fi connection in the United States has a download speed above 260 million bits per second. A phone call takes up approximately 64,000 bits per second. Our brains, on the other hand, think at a mere ten bits per second, according to new calculations published this month in the journal Neuron.Its a bit of a counterweight to the endless hyperbole about how incredibly complex and powerful the human brain is, study co-author Markus Meister, a neuroscientist at the California Institute of Technology, tells Carl Zimmer of the New York Times. If you actually try to put numbers to it, we are incredibly slow.The authors came by their number after examining scientific papers about human feats of speed, then applying methods from the field of information theory to calculate how quickly the brain processes thoughts in these situations. For example, advanced typists hammer away at the keyboard at 120 words per minute, but all that finger dexterity still only translates to ten bits per second of information processing, the researchers conclude. Elite video gamers seem to have lightning-fast reaction times and make split-second decisions, but even their thoughts max out at ten bits every second.The team wondered whether human thinking speed could be hampered by our hardwarein other words, is the body simply too slow to respond to our train of thought? To eliminate this possibility, the researchers looked to a less physically intensive pastime: blind speedcubing, where participants study a Rubiks cube, then put on a blindfold and solve it as quickly as they can. Here, the act of perceptionexamining the cube and mapping out the solutionfeatures heavily, and it requires little movement compared with the cube-solving phase. But even in this motor-light exercise, cognitive traffic comes in at just under 12 bits per second.Our chaotic surroundings, meanwhile, provide far more than just ten bits per second of informationand to be fair, the human senses can match this delivery. In one second, our sensory systems can bring in some ten billion bits of data, with about 1.6 billion bits processed by a single eye alone. But as for conscious thought in the brain, that harried pace of information exchange slows to a relative crawl. Our eyes might capture a wide view of our surroundings, but our brains focus on only a small portion of it at a time.This slow thinking speed means were shedding vast quantities of information input and selecting only a tiny sliver to work with. Ten bits per second is an extremely low number, Meister says in a statement. Its a paradox, he adds, that despite the wealth of data bombarding our senses, we make do with so little of it. What is the brain doing to filter all of this information?One hypothesis is that our bodies were built for a slower era. The ability to operate on ten bits of information per second has been enough for our ancestors to survive. The earliest brains might have evolved for simple navigation, per the statement, and only needed to follow one path of thought at a time. Evolutionarily speaking, that intellectual speed was enough for humans to adapt to the slow-moving natural world. But now, the digital world shifts at a much faster paceoutstripping the thought capacity of our physiological systems.Nature, it seems, has built a speed limit into our conscious thoughts, and no amount of neural engineering may be able to bypass it, Tony Zador, a neuroscientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory who was not involved with the research, says to Scientific Americans Rachel Nuwer. Why? We really dont know, but its likely the result of our evolutionary history.Notably, the new study only looks at conscious tasks, neglecting the whirr of other cognitive processes that occur just beneath our awareness. The brain is still working relentlessly when were standing or walking, for instance, and if that information had been included in the teams speed calculation, they would end up with a vastly higher bit rate, Britton Sauerbrei, a neuroscientist at Case Western Reserve University who was not involved in the new work, tells the New York Times. Nevertheless, he agrees with the study authors that the brain capacity involved in deliberate tasks transmits little data. I think their argument is pretty airtight, he says.Another shortcoming of our brains compared with computers and smart devices: our brains fall short at parallel processing. We work best handling one thought at a time, instead of balancing several in one go. Humans are no good at multitasking, despite our illusion of getting more work done when we jump between activities, according to Jack Knudson of Discover magazine. Thats because we dont juggle two or more tasks at once as much as we toggle between them, usually at the expense of our focus. Overall performance and efficiency tend to suffer as a result, despite our best intentions to wring more productivity from our days.The latest calculations on human brain speed cast doubt on the arguments for neural-computer interfacing devices meant to accelerate our communication speed, per the statement. Now knowing that the human mind is the bottleneck, the new study provides food for thought to technology start-ups chasing this buzzy integration of the computer with the mind.At the end of the day, speed isnt necessarily everything when it comes to thought. Studies have shown that slowing down our information processing can help things stick in the brain. Perhaps the most salient example is writing by hand, which is often more time-intensive than keyboard punching. But theres something about engaging our complex motor skills and the visual senses that might help wield our brains to the fullest: Studies have concluded that taking pen to paper helps young children retain the alphabet, and note-jotting adults better digest new concepts during lectures, compared to typists.As dizzying as the pace of technology-infused life is in the digital age, these findings suggest we still have ample reason to be the tortoise rather than the hare.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Brain, Computer Science, Computers, Internet, Neuroscience, New Research

Whether or not you subscribe to them, New Years resolutions are a capital-T Thing for many people in the US. Thankfully, if your goals for 2025 revolve around health and fitness, the 42mm Apple Watch Series 10 is on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy starting at $329 ($70 off), matching its Black Friday low. You can also pick it up in the 46mm sizing at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy starting at $359 ($70 off), which remains the best price weve seen on the larger model.RelatedWhile there are certainly better fitness trackers for hardcore athletes, none of them offer the kind of robust third-party support youll get with a flagship Apple Watch, nor do they integrate as well with Apples larger device ecosystem. The Series 10 is a pretty minor update over the previous model, but its still a solid bet for casual athletes, with a terrific wide-angle OLED display, sleep apnea detection, a thinner design, and a larger charging coil that lets you juice it from zero to 80 percent in just 30 minutes.The more substantial fitness updates come in the form of watchOS 11, Apples latest software update for the Apple Watch, which brings a selection of new training features to the midrange wearable. These include the new Training Load feature, an app called Vitals that can contextualize a set of recovery metrics, and the long-overdue ability to pause your Activity Rings (praise be). I wouldnt say any of them are revolutionary, but if youre upgrading from an older model or youve never owned an Apple Watch before, theyre certainly welcome. Read our Apple Watch Series 10 review.Apple Watch Series 10 (42mm, GPS)$329$39918% off$329$329$39918% offThe Apple Watch Series 10 has a larger, wide-angle OLED display with up to 30 percent more screen area. Its also thinner and lighter than its predecessors.Apple Watch Series 10 (46mm, GPS)$359$42916% off$359$359$42916% offThe Apple Watch Series 10 has a larger, wide-angle OLED display with up to 30 percent more screen area. Its also thinner and lighter than its predecessors.More deals, discounts, and ways to saveNomad is still running its annual Holiday Hangover Sale, offering you a chance to save 20 percent on select items with coupon code HOLIDAY20. The promo applies to an assortment of Apple Watch bands and mobile accessories, including Nomads Traditional Leather Case for the iPhone 16 Pro (now $48), the keychain-friendly ChargeKey (now $20), and the second-gen Stand One charger (now $88). You can even grab a sleek leather case for the latest AirPods Pro for $32, assuming you want something a bit more rustic.Ankers Soundcore Sport X10 earbuds are available from Amazon and Anker (with promo code WS7DV2YU66HE) for $49.99 ($30 off), matching their all-time low. The relatively cheap pair of earbuds offers quite a bit for the money including powerful bass response, an IPX7 rating for water and sweat resistance, and flexible, wraparound hooks all of which make them a great pick if you want a pair of wireless workout buds for the new year.Looking for an Android-based alternative to the Apple Watch Series 10? The Google Pixel Watch 3 is currently on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and the Google Store starting at $299.99 ($50 off), which remains its second-best price to date. The handsome third-gen smartwatch is one of the best fitness trackers you can buy thanks to a host of excellent Google integrations and a slew of running features, not to mention a new battery-saver mode that activates when your watch falls below 15 percent. Read our review.

Federated learning has emerged as an approach for collaborative training among medical institutions while preserving data privacy. However, the non-IID nature of data, stemming from differences in institutional specializations and regional demographics, creates significant challenges. This heterogeneity leads to client drift and suboptimal global model performance. Existing federated learning methods primarily address this issue through model-centric approaches, such as modifying local training processes or global aggregation strategies. Still, these solutions often offer marginal improvements and require frequent communication, which increases costs and raises privacy concerns. As a result, there is a growing need for robust, communication-efficient methods that can handle severe non-IID scenarios effectively.Recently, data-centric federated learning methods have gained attention for mitigating data-level divergence by synthesizing and sharing virtual data. These methods, including FedGen, FedMix, and FedGAN, attempt to approximate real data, generate virtual representations, or share GAN-trained data. However, they face challenges such as low-quality synthesized data and redundant knowledge. For example, mix-up approaches may distort data, and random selection for data synthesis often leads to repetitive and less meaningful updates to the global model. Additionally, some methods introduce privacy risks and remain inefficient in communication-constrained environments. Addressing these issues requires advanced synthesis techniques that ensure high-quality data, minimize redundancy, and optimize knowledge extraction, enabling better performance under non-IID conditions.Researchers from Peking University propose FedVCK (Federated learning via Valuable Condensed Knowledge), a data-centric federated learning method tailored for collaborative medical image analysis. FedVCK addresses non-IID challenges and minimizes communication costs by condensing each clients data into a small, high-quality dataset using latent distribution constraints. A model-guided approach ensures only essential, non-redundant knowledge is selected. On the server side, relational supervised contrastive learning enhances global model updates by identifying hard negative classes. Experiments demonstrate that FedVCK outperforms state-of-the-art methods in predictive accuracy, communication efficiency, and privacy preservation, even under limited communication budgets and severe non-IID scenarios.FedVCK is a federated learning framework comprising two key components: client-side knowledge condensation and server-side relational supervised learning. On the client side, it uses distribution matching techniques to condense critical knowledge from local data into a small learnable dataset, guided by latent distribution constraints and importance sampling of hard-to-predict samples. This ensures the condensed dataset addresses gaps in the global model. The international model is updated on the server side using cross-entropy loss and prototype-based contrastive learning. It improves class separation by aligning features with their prototypes and pushing them away from hard, negative classes. This iterative process enhances performance.The proposed FedVCK method is a data-centric federated learning approach designed to address the challenges of non-IID data distribution in collaborative medical image analysis. It was evaluated on diverse datasets, including Colon Pathology, Retinal OCT scans, Abdominal CT scans, Chest X-rays, and general datasets like CIFAR10 and ImageNette, encompassing various resolutions and modalities. Experiments demonstrated FedVCKs superior accuracy across datasets compared to nine baseline federated learning methods. Unlike model-centric methods, which showed mediocre performance, or data-centric methods, which struggled with synthesis quality and scalability, FedVCK efficiently condensed high-quality knowledge to improve global model performance while maintaining low communication costs and robustness under severe non-IID scenarios.The method also demonstrated significant privacy preservation, as evidenced by membership inference attack experiments, where it outperformed traditional methods like FedAvg. With fewer communication rounds, FedVCK reduced the risks of temporal attacks, offering improved defense rates. Furthermore, ablation studies confirmed the effectiveness of its key components, such as model-guided selection, which optimized knowledge condensation for heterogeneous datasets. Extending its evaluation to natural datasets further validated its generality and robustness. Future work aims to expand FedVCKs applicability to additional data modalities, including 3D CT scans, and to enhance condensation techniques for better efficiency and effectiveness.Check out the Paper. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our60k+ ML SubReddit. Sana Hassan+ postsSana Hassan, a consulting intern at Marktechpost and dual-degree student at IIT Madras, is passionate about applying technology and AI to address real-world challenges. With a keen interest in solving practical problems, he brings a fresh perspective to the intersection of AI and real-life solutions. [Download] Evaluation of Large Language Model Vulnerabilities Report (Promoted)

Season 3 is set to arrive at some point in 2025 and Hwang promises that The fierce clash between [Gi-hun and Front Mans] two worlds will continue into the series finale with Season 3.When Will Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 Premiere?Reality competition series Squid Game: The Challenge was Netflixs first official stab at a Squid Game spinoff. Released on November 22, 2023, the real life (and thankfully non-lethal) version of the Squid Game was successful enough to receive a second season. There is no word yet on when the next batch of episodes will arrive but season 2s open casting call is now closed, suggesting that Netflix has its 456 players in the fold. Whats Next for Hwang Dong-hyuk?In an interview with The Guardian following the success of Squid Game season 1, Hwang Dong-hyuk expressed a desire to branch out creatively and not be limited to solely Squid Game. His first rumored post-Squid Game project with Netflix may or may not help that goal. Tentatively titled The Best Show on the Planet, the project is a satire about the life of the creator of a Squid Game-esque global hit. Hwang first discussed the series in mid-2022 and no new details have emerged yet. Additionally, Hwang has written a 25-page treatment for a feature film called Killing Old People, based on the works of Italian novelist Umberto Eco. Is David Fincher Still Prepping an English Squid Game Remake?An English-language Squid Game remake makes little sense on paper, given that the show was already a massive hit in the English-speaking world. But Netflix found a way to make a needless project interesting anyway. Deadline reported in late 2024 that acclaimed film director David Fincher was attached to the project. The report even goes so far to claim that the Squid Game remake could be a priority for Fincher and begin production as early as 2025.Fincher is best known as the multi-award-winning director of Seven, Zodiac, Gone Girl, The Social Network, and more. He also previously directed the Netflix true crime series Mindhunter, which Hwang Dong-hyuk says is one of only two TV shows he watched in its entirety (the other being Breaking Bad).

For the vast majority of people, CarPlay is a must-have. Apples in-car experience provides a vastly superior infotainment experience than most options from carmakers. Theres quick access to your favorite apps, integration with Siri, seamless connectivity, and more.Here are some of my favorite tips and tricks for making sure youre getting the most out of your CarPlay experienceCustomize your CarPlay apps and Home Screen A lot of your favorite apps are probably available on CarPlay, but that doesnt mean you want all of them on your CarPlay Home Screen. Thankfully, its easy to adjust those options.Open the Settings app on your iPhoneTap General Tap CarPlay Tap your cars name and choose Customize Here, youll see a full list of all the CarPlay apps on your phone. You can simply tap on the red minus sign to hide apps from appearing on CarPlay. You can also rearrange your CarPlay Home Screen while on this page of the Settings app. Simply drag the apps into your desired order using the three lines on the right side of the app icons. CarPlay wallpapersWhile you cant use any photo as your CarPlay wallpaper, Apple does offer a selection of pre-installed options. Open the Settings app on CarPlay itselfSelect Wallpaper Choose your desired wallpaper and tap Set Apple adds new wallpaper options to CarPlay from time to time, but theres still only a limited number of choices available.Wireless or wired? CarPlay works both wired and wirelessly, depending on your cars make and model. Wired CarPlay generally provides a faster and more reliable experience. While using wireless CarPlay, you might experience some latency when doing things like changing songs and accessing Siri. Heres my strategy:I use wireless CarPlay for quick trips around town when Im getting in and out of the car multiple times of the car as I run errands. I use wired CarPlay for longer road trips where Im in the car for extended periods of time. Again, your mileage may vary depending on your car. There are, however, ways to bring wireless CarPlay to any car. My personal recommendation is the CarlinKit 5.0 adapter, which converts your cars wired CarPlay implementation to a wireless experience for under $60. Dark modeCarPlay is available in light mode and dark mode interfaces. In the Settings app via CarPlay, you can choose between three options: LightDark Automatic I use the automatic setting, which switches between light and dark modes based on time of day and other exterior lighting factors. Driving Focus mode One of the most important benefits of CarPlay is that it enhances in-car safety by discouraging you from picking up your phone. First, theres the Driving Focus mode. This blocks incoming notifications, messages, and calls so your focus remains on the road. You can customize the Driving Focus mode via the Settings app on your iPhone. You can choose to allow notifications from specific contacts and enable an automatic reply feature that tells people who text you that youre driving. You can also choose to enable Driving Focus when connected to CarPlay automatically. Announce MessagesAnnounce Messages is a popular iPhone feature that works with Siri to read your messages aloud. Then, you can choose to reply to that message using your voice. The feature works with Apples Messages app as well as third-party apps like WhatsApp. Go to Settings > Siri & Search > Announce Notifications on your iPhoneTurn on Announce Notifications and select supported appsIn CarPlay, make sure Announce Messages with Siri is enabled in the CarPlay Settings appIf youre like me, you prefer to have control of the music while youre driving. However, if want other people in your car to be able to contribute songs to the queue, CarPlay has you covered. Youll see a SharePlay icon in the upper-right corner on the Apple Music Now Playing screen. By tapping on this icon, youll be prompted to generate a QR code that others can scan. Once they scan this QR code, a pop-up will appear, informing you that someone is interested in joining your SharePlay session.Once that person joins, the other people can contribute songs to the queue, see whats currently playing, and rearrange the queue even if they dont have Apple Music. Wrap up Are you a CarPlay user? If so, what are some of your favorite tips and tricks? Let us know down in the comments. The elephant in the room, of course, is Apples highly-anticipated next-generation CarPlay platform. Unfortunately, there are very few details available on when that will actually materialize. If youre an electric vehicle owner, charge up your car at home with rooftop solar panels. 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