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Cdiscount continues to reduce prices in the technology sector during the winter sales. One of the most interesting offers for us is the Oppo Find X5 smartphone, which is offered at a sensational price. Discover this offer in detail.

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Introducing the Oppo Find X5 5G smartphone

The Oppo Find X5, released in February 2022, retains all of its qualities and remains the first choice for a high-end smartphone at a price of under 500 euros. Equipped with a 6.55-inch curved AMOLED screen with a diagonal of approximately 16.6 cm, this model offers a Full HD+ resolution of 2,400 x 1,080 pixels. Its peculiarity lies in its refresh rate, which can reach up to 120 Hz, ensuring a fluid and immersive visual experience.

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The introduction of InstantID opens a new horizon in the field of artificial intelligence: this revolutionary technology can identify a person from a single image to create new images. However, this technical breakthrough raises major concerns, particularly due to the increased risk of deepfakes, a major problem on the eve of this year's elections in the United States.

Source: 123rf

At a time when technology is evolving rapidly, we are witnessing an unprecedented proliferation ofImages generated by artificial intelligence. This trend, highlighted by the increase in AI-generated images, presents new challenges in identifying and managing this digital content. At the same time, tech giants like Microsoft are advancing the field by launching tools to create deepfakes. These are videos or images created using AI techniques to replace one person's face with another's to perform manipulations often difficult to recognize.

However, the use of such technologies is not limited to creative or innovative purposes. The potential of these technologies should be exploited malicious is highlighted by incidents where Deepfakes were used for this commit fraud. This is the case of a person who stole 560,000 euros by pretending to be his victim's boyfriend. These examples highlight the potential dangers associated with their misuse and spark discussionInstantID and his relevant skills.

Source: InstantX

InstantID: Your privacy is under unprecedented threat

InstantID is an innovative method of image creation using artificial intelligence that recognizes a person's identity from a single image and then allowed generate derived images. This approach is significantly different from the previous method. LoRAwhich required precise adjustments and several reference images. Reuven Cohen, an AI consultant for Fortune 500 companies, discussed this method on LinkedIn. He highlights his user friendliness and its potential to create convincing deepfakes with few resources.

The introduction of InstantID in artificial intelligence imaging represents an important development makes the production of deepfakes much easier. Cohen draws attention to the ethical questions that this easy approach raises.

In order to counteract possible misuse, several Precautions could be considered:

• the development of software capable of detecting this false content
• establishing strict regulations for the use of these technologies
• Raise public awareness of the risks involved.

These strategies, coupled with increased regulation and vigilance, are essential to ensure the ethical and responsible use of such powerful and responsible technologies potentially destabilizing as InstantID.

Source: Cornell University

• Apple's vehicle project would be postponed again.

With electrification, new players are emerging in the automotive world. Among those talked about in recent years were Sony and Apple. If the electronics giant appears to be taking steps together with its partner Honda, we on Apple's side would rather proceed “on the spot.”

The technology giant first floated the idea of ​​producing a self-driving electric car in 2014. Ten years later we are still waiting for a concept.

According to Bloomberg, which reports this news, the car's debut will be pushed back to 2028. We are told that the pandemic has delayed everything, but that remains an easy excuse, especially in view of this project, which does not seem to be moving forward very quickly. .

A few years ago, the Portal Group mentioned that Apple was targeting 2024 to start production. Then the year 2026 was brought forward a little later, but as we can see, we are still a long way from the cut.

This time, Bloomberg cites anonymous sources familiar with the project. The latter claim, among other things, that the vehicle's autonomous capabilities are significantly more limited than expected. We originally hoped to launch a fully autonomous Level 5 system, but we would have reworked everything to reach Level 4. The latter allows autonomous driving on certain permitted highways, but requires driver intervention in other locations.

The company's original plans called for autonomous taxis without a traditional driver position. This would not be possible with a level 4.

Current rumors suggest that Apple's car would initially be limited to slightly improved Level 2 autonomy. Basically, this is the case with most vehicles that currently have this technology. We would then like to upgrade it to level 4.

Still, according to Bloomberg, Apple wants its car to use the Tesla recipe, with an “elegant design, safety systems and a unique user interface.”

But of course, for all of this to become a reality, the company needs to build a car. There are many wishes in all of this, but nothing concrete.

Some are beginning to doubt the project. And you ?

A mansion listed for sale for more than $6 million has been occupied for months by partygoers, angering residents of California's chic Beverly Hills neighborhood.

The premises' previous owner, Munir Uwaydah, a disgraced doctor, had fled the United States years ago following an investigation into the murder of his ex-girlfriend, a 21-year-old model.

The mansion has become a gathering place for outsiders who discard condoms and drug paraphernalia that litter the surrounding grounds, television station ABC 7 reported.

“There are people who are drunk and drugged, staggering, going in and out and then driving into the canyons. Should we kill someone before the police get involved? Fran Solomon, owner of a neighboring house, shouted at the television station.

The squatters welcome people to party and even bring charges against those who arrive there by blocking the streets of the district, protested a resident of this district, which has lost its former calm.

James Allen, an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, told the Chron that the home's new residents claimed they were friends of the previous owner, who had allowed them to stay.

MDRCA Proerties LLC, listed as the owner of the residence, filed for bankruptcy and the mansion was listed for sale for $4.5 million (equivalent to $6.2 million), according to the New York Post.

According to KTLA, famous people live near the squat, including musician John Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, and Jeff Bezos and Steve Wynn.

The small Japanese spacecraft SLIM, which landed on the moon last Saturday, landed about 55 m from its target. This is a very high level of precision, the Japanese space agency (Jaxa) announced this Thursday. The machine is also called the “Moon Sniper” due to its ability to land precisely.

The goal of landing this machine on the moon within a radius of 100 m from the target point, compared to several kilometers usually for lunar missions, was achieved. Jaxa also published this Thursday the first images of this lunar landing, which represents an unprecedented achievement for Japan.

This monochrome image was captured by one of the devices sent to the moon with the module.

AFP/Jaxa

This other photo shows lunar rocks with the nicknames given to them.

AFP/Jaxa

With this mission, Japan becomes the fifth country in the world to successfully land on Earth's natural satellite, after the United States, the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), China and India.

A reboot of solar panels?

But the Japanese performance comes with a serious downside. SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) had a problem with its solar panels. This forced the Jaxa to turn off its power less than three hours after the moon landing to conserve its batteries for a possible restart at a later date.

Jaxa believes it is possible that SLIM's solar panels will work again if the angle of the sun changes at the lunar landing site. Located in a small crater called Shioli, less than 300 m in diameter, SLIM was able to land normally its two mini-rovers designed to conduct analyzes of rocks from the Moon's internal structure (the lunar mantle). again very little known.

NASA and ESA sporadically release images from the James Webb Space Telescope that are spectacular but also serve science. The latter concerns the study of a massive open star cluster of young stars, as there are several in the star-forming regions of the Large Magellanic Cloud.

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[EN VIDÉO] Understanding the James Webb Space Telescope's Mission in a Minute The James Webb Space Telescope, the new flagship of space observation, will be launched on December 18…

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to delight us and this time with the magnification of one of the regions of feverish formation of young stars found in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC for Large Magellanic Cloud in English), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. This nursery is a nebula that spans about 1,630 light-years in the generally unexplored southwestern region of the LMC and contains a massive collection of young stars whose radiation causes the nebula's hydrogen atoms to ionize, known as N79 . It is therefore an example of a region of ionized interstellar atomic hydrogen called the H II region (neutral atomic hydrogen is referred to as HI by astrophysicists).

N79 is generally considered a younger version of the Tarantula Nebula (also called 30 Doradus or NGC 2070 or Caldwell 103). This is another region of molecular clouds where gravitational collapse forms hotbeds of young stars, open star clusters, which are well known because their apparent magnitude is close to 5 and therefore easily visible to the eye. Naked as a small and bright condensation again at the immediate periphery of the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 160,000 light-years from the Solar System.

This zoom video begins with a wide view of the Milky Way and ends with a close-up of a rich star-forming region in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud in the southern constellation Dorado. The specific region pictured, 30 Doradus, is also known as the Tarantula Nebula. The final view of these clouds was captured by ESO's VLT and Vista and overlaid with new radio data from Alma. The Alma data shows bright yellow-red streaks of cold, dense gas that has the potential to collapse and form new stars. © ESO/Digitalized Sky Survey 2/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)/R. Gendler (http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/), Alma (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Wong et al., ESO/M.-R. Cioni/Vista Magellanic Cloud Survey. Acknowledgments: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit. Music: John Dyson

N79, a laboratory for understanding star formation in the early universe

The image revealed by NASA and ESA is in false color (photons with a wavelength of 7.7 microns are shown in blue, 10 microns in cyan, 15 microns in yellow and 21 microns in red) because it was taken with Webb's mid-infrared instrument (Miri) in the mid-infrared spectral band to which our eyes are not sensitive. It is accompanied by a long commentary, from which we include some excerpts.

He explains that star-forming regions like N79 “are of interest to astronomers because their chemical composition is similar to the gigantic star-forming regions observed when the universe was only a few billion years old and star formation was at its peak.” The star-forming regions of our galaxy, the Milky Way, do not produce stars at the same rate as N79 and have a different chemical composition. Webb now offers astronomers the opportunity to compare and contrast observations of star formation in N79 with the telescope's extensive observations of distant galaxies in the early universe.

These observations of N79 are part of a Webb program that studies the evolution of circumstellar disks and envelopes of emerging stars over a wide mass range and at different stages of evolution. “Webb’s sensitivity will allow scientists to detect planet-forming dust disks around stars with masses similar to our Sun at the distance of the LMC for the first time.”

Concentrations of pharmaceutical products in the St. Lawrence River sometimes exceed thresholds at which toxic effects on fauna and flora are observed, according to a new Montreal study. Rivers that flow into the river have the same problem.

Published at 0:00

“Other studies have shown that there are pharmaceutical products in waterways, including in Quebec, but we have five years of data that show that this is a chronic situation and not a one-off problem,” explains Sébastien Sauvé, Chemist at the University of Montreal, the lead author of the study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

However, the only Canadian standard for a pharmaceutical product is adhered to. This is carbamazepine, an anticonvulsant. “But for many other drugs there are toxicity studies in the scientific literature,” says Mr. Sauvé. We calculated a risk quotient from these studies. » High levels of caffeine have also been detected.

A significant proportion of water samples exceed this risk quotient for ibuprofen (28% of samples) and the anti-inflammatory diclofenac (59% of samples).

PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARC-ANTOINE VAUDREUIL

The vessel used during the sampling campaign

The ozonation plant planned for the Montreal wastewater treatment plant in 2028 is intended to eliminate pharmaceutical molecules. However, according to Sauvé, under certain conditions an ozonation plant can produce byproducts of these pharmaceutical molecules that are even more toxic. “If there is a strong flow, for example during heavy rain, the treatment in the ozonation plant may not last long enough to remove these byproducts. » It would then be necessary to interrupt the ozonation for a certain period of time or to create retention basins in front of the system.

organizations in contact

Sampling was carried out downstream and upstream of the discharges of wastewater from the Montreal wastewater treatment plant. Upstream, drug concentrations are slowly increasing due to wastewater from water treatment plants in suburban cities. Then they have a peak opposite where Montreal's wastewater is released in the east of the island.

“We can see the place where the wastewater from the sewage treatment plant rises to the surface,” explains Marc-Antoine Vaudreuil, doctoral student and co-author of the study. “It is visible and it smells. » The wastewater is visible on the surface for several kilometers and the pharmaceutical products can be measured over 70 km to Lake Saint-Pierre.

In Quebec, a more distant peak is noticeable and concentrations of pharmaceutical molecules are measurable up to the location where the influence of salt water is felt. “With salt, organic material precipitates very quickly,” says Mr. Sauvé.

The next step is to measure the effects of these drugs on river organisms. Due to the high flow speed of the river, there is no large accumulation of these molecules in the sediments. But organisms still come into contact with these pharmaceutical products in the water, argues Mr. Sauvé.

Learn more

• 7200 nanograms per liter Maximum caffeine concentration observed in the St. Lawrence River near Montreal

  SOURCE: WHOLE ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE

South Korea has scrapped a law banning operators from subsidizing smartphones. At a time when prices for premium models have skyrocketed, the country's authorities have decided to once again authorize this business practice.

On the one hand, subsidized smartphones allow a reduction in the purchase price of the device, even if operators recover their investment (and sometimes even more) throughout the life of the subscription to which the subscriber commits. This practice, which is very classic almost everywhere in the world, was banned in South Korea in 2014.

Galaxy S24 128 GB at the best price Base price: €899

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Subsidies return to Korea

At that time, the aim was to create a level playing field between mobile phone providers: by preventing discounts on smartphones to attract customers, all retailers were on equal footing. The largest operators, who have significant financial resources, were therefore not at an advantage. Samsung and LG, the two regional players at the time, also benefited from this, as the end of subsidies also reduced pressure on margins.

But now the world has changed. “As the smartphone industry shifts to high-end models and smartphone prices continue to rise, it is time to reduce the burden of device purchase costs on consumers,” the Korean government said earlier this week in a statement provision abolished. Without subsidies, low-income customers are clearly financially unable to buy the most expensive cell phones.

Is that good or bad? Ultimately, these customers are only better off because they will probably have paid significantly more for their smartphone at the end of the subscription period. In any case, the lifting of this ban should allow greater competition between operators and manufacturers.

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Source: The Register