Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the sleep-on-it department: A new study challenges previous research about which sleep stages help people achieve breakthrough moments in problem-solving. Researchers found that N2 sleep, a deeper stage of non-REM sleep, significantly increased participants' likelihood of experiencing sudden insights during a perceptual task. The preregistered study involved 90 participants who performed a visual pattern recognition task before and after a 20-minute daytime nap while researchers monitored their brain activity with EEG.

Participants who reached N2 sleep showed an 85.7% rate of achieving insights about a hidden strategy in the task, compared to 63.6% for those who only reached N1 sleep (the first stage of non-rapid eye movement sleep) and 55.5% for participants who remained awake. The findings contradict earlier work by Lacaux and colleagues, which suggested that lighter N1 sleep promoted insight while deeper sleep hindered it.

News coverage: Stuck on a problem? Take a nap!
Posted by Tony_Bacala from The Toyark


Update: Additional details and pics added! Great news for all those looking forward to the M.A.S.K. revival from The Loyal Subjects today.  Big Bad Toy Store will have pre-orders for all of Series 1 and the TLS SDCC 2025 exclusive ...

The post M.A.S.K. Series 1 Drops 7/1 @ BBTS appeared first on The Toyark - News.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the moving-forward department: Eight nations have surpassed 50% IPv6 deployment since June 2024, bringing the total number of countries in the majority IPv6 club to 21, according to the Internet Society. Brazil, Guatemala, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka, and Tuvalu all crossed the threshold over the past year.

Tuvalu's adoption coincided with the arrival of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite broadband service, which operates as IPv6-only. The Internet Society's Pulse platform found no IPv6 deployment in the Pacific nation in June 2024, but Starlink now holds 88% market share there and 59% of Tuvalu's internet connections use IPv6.

France moved from third place to tie with India for the global lead at 73% IPv6 deployment. Japan rebounded from 49% to 55%, returning to the 50% club after dropping below the mark in mid-2024. Puerto Rico climbed from 49% to 53%. Thailand appears positioned to join next at 49% deployment, followed by Estonia at 46% and the United Kingdom at 45%.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the setting-priorities department: 36% of all Chinese undergraduate entrants -- about 1.6 million people -- selected engineering degrees in 2022 (the latest year for which data are available), up from 32% in 2010, according to data from China's Ministry of Education. In Britain and America, which have far fewer students to start with, the proportion hovers around 5%.

The surge comes as China's government directs universities to focus on strategic industries and technological bottlenecks. Over 600 Chinese universities now offer undergraduate programs in artificial intelligence, a field the Communist Party vows to dominate by 2030. In 2023, officials started telling universities to overhaul their degree programs, and the education ministry announced an "emergency mechanism" to create degrees more quickly to meet "national priorities." Over half of China's young people now complete some form of higher education through 3,000-odd institutions. Youth unemployment reached 14.9% in May, driving students toward technical fields they believe offer better job prospects.
Posted by Mechafire from TFW2005


In addition to the rumor this morning about Michael Bay returning to Transformers, Puck is also bringing us a few other big rumors regarding Paramount’s plans for the franchise. Most notably, Transformers One director Josh Cooley has reportedly signed a deal to direct a live action TF film. Additionally, this and the Bay film are said to be two of five Transformers projects that Paramount has in development. What the other three will be, or if they will even see the light of day, remains to be seen. It’s stated that the TF/GI Joe crossover movie may still » Continue Reading.

The post Rumor: Josh Cooley to direct a live action Transformers film + 5 projects in development? appeared first on Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the PSA department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from SecurityWeek: Hundreds of printer models from Brother and other vendors are impacted by potentially serious vulnerabilities discovered by researchers at Rapid7. The cybersecurity firm revealed on Wednesday that its researchers identified eight vulnerabilities affecting multifunction printers made by Brother. The security holes have been found to impact 689 printer, scanner and label maker models from Brother, and some or all of the flaws also affect 46 Fujifilm Business Innovation, five Ricoh, six Konica Minolta, and two Toshiba printers. Overall, millions of enterprise and home printers are believed to be exposed to hacker attacks due to these vulnerabilities.

The most serious of the flaws, tracked as CVE-2024-51978 and with a severity rating of 'critical', can allow a remote and unauthenticated attacker to bypass authentication by obtaining the device's default administrator password. CVE-2024-51978 can be chained with an information disclosure vulnerability tracked as CVE-2024-51977, which can be exploited to obtain a device's serial number. This serial number is needed to generate the default admin password. "This is due to the discovery of the default password generation procedure used by Brother devices," Rapid7 explained. "This procedure transforms a serial number into a default password. Affected devices have their default password set, based on each device's unique serial number, during the manufacturing process."

< This article continues on their website >
Posted by Joe Moore from The Toyark


Mondo has posted the product page for their upcoming Cowboy Bebop – Spike Spiegel Limited Edition Variant 1/8 Scale Figure. The figure stands at 10″ tall, with swap out portraits, multiple interchangeable hands, a variety of weapons, and more. Pre-orders ...

The post Cowboy Bebop – Mondo Spike Spiegel Figure appeared first on The Toyark - News.
Posted by Black Convoy from TFW2005


We start the morning with quite an unexpected rumor. According to Twitter/X user @HollywoodHandle and movie insiders with verified track records of reliability, Michael Bay will return to direct a new ‘TRANSFORMERS’ movie at Paramount. We suggest to take this with a grain of salt at the moment, but it would be an intersting turn of events after the recent news of no sequel planned for Transformers One and still no updates on the previously announced Transformers x G.I. Joe live-action movie. Click on the discussion button below and let us know your impressions on the 2005 Boards!

The post RUMOR: Michael Bay will return to direct a new ‘Transformers’ movie? appeared first on Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM.
Posted by Joe Moore from The Toyark


Tamashii Nations has released a teaser photo for their upcoming S.H. Figuarts Superman. he new figure is based on the soon to be released Superman film. Full details are coming at a later date.

The post S.H. Figuarts Superman 2025 Teaser appeared first on The Toyark - News.
Posted by Joe Moore from The Toyark


The newest assortment of Ben Cooper Costume Kids 8″ Scale Figures from NECA feature new licensed costumes. Series 8 includes kids wearing costumes from Predator, ALF, Pee-Wee-Herman, and Garfield. Each kid stands approximately 5″ tall, with costumes, and a trick ...

The post NECA Ben Cooper Costume Kids Collection Series 8 appeared first on The Toyark - News.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the probability-estimates department: alternative_right shares a report from Phys.Org: A new study from the University of Bath's School of Management has found that individuals with a higher IQ make more realistic predictions, which supports better decision-making and can lead to improved life outcomes. The research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, shows that people with a low IQ (the lowest 2.5% of the population) make forecasting errors that are more than twice as inaccurate as those made by people with a high IQ (the top 2.5% of the population).

The research used data from a nationally representative sample of people over 50 in England (English Longitudinal Study of Aging ELSA), assessing their ability to predict their own life expectancy. Individuals were asked to predict their probability of living to certain ages, and these estimates were compared with the probabilities taken from Office for National Statistics life tables (a demographic tool used to analyze death rates and calculate life expectancies at various ages). The study controlled for differences in lifestyle, health, and genetic longevity.

By analyzing participants' scores on a variety of cognitive tests, as well as genetic markers linked to intelligence and educational success, Chris Dawson, Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science at the University of Bath, showed that smarter individuals tend to have more accurate beliefs about uncertain future events - they are more skilled at assessing probability. Individuals with a higher IQ are significantly better at forecasting, making fewer errors (both positive and negative) and showing more consistent judgment compared to those with a lower IQ.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the no-longer-supported department: The UK government has rejected the 25 billion ($34.39 billion) pound Morocco-UK Power Project, citing a preference for domestic renewable initiatives that offer greater economic and strategic benefits. The project aimed to supply solar and wind energy from the Sahara to power up to seven million UK homes. Reuters reports: "The government has concluded that it is not in the UK national interest at this time to continue further consideration of support for the Morocco-UK Power Project," energy department minister Michael Shanks said in a written statement to parliament. He also said the project did not clearly align strategically with the government's mission to build homegrown power in the UK.

Xlinks' Morocco-UK power project would have tapped Moroccan renewable energy via what would have been the world's longest subsea power cable. The plan involved building 3,800 kilometers (2,361 miles) of high-voltage direct current subsea cables from Morocco to southwest England. The company had been seeking a guaranteed minimum price for the electricity supplied, known as contract for difference, from Britain's government.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the hard-to-quantify department: The six largest UK accounting firms do not formally monitor how automated tools and AI impact the quality of their audits, the regulator has found, even as the technology becomes embedded across the sector. From a report: The Financial Reporting Council on Thursday published its first AI guide alongside a review of the way firms were using automated tools and technology, which found "no formal monitoring performed by the firms to quantify the audit quality impact of using" them.

The watchdog found that audit teams in the Big Four firms -- Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC -- as well as BDO and Forvis Mazars were increasingly using this technology to perform risk assessments and obtain evidence. But it said that the firms primarily monitored the tools to understand how many teams were using them for audits, "typically for licensing purposes," rather than to assess their impact on audit quality.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the just-a-flesh-wound department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Neuroscience News Science Magazine: Surgeons have performed the first fully robotic heart transplant in the U.S., using advanced robotic tools to avoid opening the chest. [...] Using a surgical robot, lead surgeon Dr. Kenneth Liao and his team made small, precise incisions, eliminating the need to open the chest and break the breast bone. Liao removed the diseased heart, and the new heart was implanted through preperitoneal space, avoiding chest incision.

"Opening the chest and spreading the breastbone can affect wound healing and delay rehabilitation and prolong the patient's recovery, especially in heart transplant patients who take immunosuppressants," said Liao, professor and chief of cardiothoracic transplantation and circulatory support at Baylor College of Medicine and chief of cardiothoracic transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center. "With the robotic approach, we preserve the integrity of the chest wall, which reduces the risk of infection and helps with early mobility, respiratory function and overall recovery."

In addition to less surgical trauma, the clinical benefits of robotic heart transplant surgery include avoiding excessive bleeding from cutting the bone and reducing the need for blood transfusions, which minimizes the risk of developing antibodies against the transplanted heart. Before the transplant surgery, the 45-year-old patient had been hospitalized with advanced heart failure since November 2024 and required multiple mechanical devices to support his heart function. He received a heart transplant in early March 2025 and after heart transplant surgery, he spent a month in the hospital before being discharged home, without complications.
Posted by Black Convoy from TFW2005


Coming to us via friend site and sponsor Entertaintment Earth we have new official sotck images of the new Transformers Cyberworld Cyber Changers Chop Shop, Snarl, Elita-1, Wheeljack, Off Road Optimus Prime & Bumblebee toys. These figurea are the smallest toys in the Cyberworld collection, featuring basic articulation at the shoulders, hips, and knees. See all the mirrored sotck images attached to this news post and then sound off on the 2005 Boards!

The post Transformers Cyberworld Cyber Changers Chop Shop, Snarl, Elita-1 Wheeljack, Off Road Optimus Prime & Bumblebee Official Stock Images appeared first on Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM.
Posted by Black Convoy from TFW2005


The official Transformers YouTube account have uploaded the Transformers Cyberworld Snarl Video Profile.  These is a short animation where we can watch Snarl transforming from his dino  mode to robot mode, showing off some poses and then going back into alt mode. We can watch his stats on the background. We had previously reported Optimus Prime and GrimlockBumblebee, and Elita-1 video profiles too. We may see more video profiles as we get closer to Cyberworld cartoon premiere on July 12th. Watch the videos after the break and then sound off on the 2005 Boards!

The post Transformers Cyberworld Snarl Character Video Profile appeared first on Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the cross-platform-support department: Apple's Swift programming language is expanding official support to Android through a new "Android Working Group" which will improve compatibility, integration, and tooling. "As it stands today, Android apps are generally coded in Kotlin, but Apple is looking to provide its Swift coding language as an alternative," notes 9to5Google. "Apple first launched its coding language back in 2014 with its own platforms in mind, but currently also supports Windows and Linux officially." From the report: A few of the key pillars the Working Group will look to accomplish include:

- Improve and maintain Android support for the official Swift distribution, eliminating the need for out-of-tree or downstream patches
- Recommend enhancements to core Swift packages such as Foundation and Dispatch to work better with Android idioms
- Work with the Platform Steering Group to officially define platform support levels generally, and then work towards achieving official support of a particular level for Android
- Determine the range of supported Android API levels and architectures for Swift integration
- Develop continuous integration for the Swift project that includes Android testing in pull request checks.
- Identify and recommend best practices for bridging between Swift and Android's Java SDK and packaging Swift libraries with Android apps
- Develop support for debugging Swift applications on Android
- Advise and assist with adding support for Android to various community Swift packages
Posted by Tony_Bacala from The Toyark


Some catch up on the McFarlane Toys DC front today.  New figures have been teased and will drop next week including Page Punchers Superboy, Wonder Woman #1, and McFarlane Collector Edition 2 pack of The Batman Who Laughs and Merciless.  ...

The post McFarlane Roundup – MCE TBWL & Merciless, PP Superboy & WW + More appeared first on The Toyark - News.
Posted by Tony_Bacala from The Toyark


Great news for all those looking forward to the M.A.S.K. revival from The Loyal Subjects today.  Big Bad Toy Store will have pre-orders for all of Series 1 and the TLS SDCC 2025 exclusive Mobile Defense Unit on July 1st.  ...

The post M.A.S.K. Series 1 Drops 7/1 @ BBTS appeared first on The Toyark - News.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the good-riddance department: Comcast is introducing new simplified, contract-free broadband plans that eliminate its unpopular 1.2TB data cap for residential customers. "The company began enforcing a data cap in 2008, when it set that limit at 250GB," notes PCMag. "Four years later, it raised that to 300GB, then lifted it to 1TB in 2016 and inched it up again to 1.25TB in 2020 after suspending it entirely during the early months of the pandemic." The report notes that existing customers will need to switch to these updated plans to benefit from the cap removal. PCMag reports: Steve Croney, Comcast's COO for connectivity and platforms, describes these new "everyday price plans" as "built on simplicity and transparency -- no hidden fees, no confusion." Comcast began showing the new plans on its sign-up pages Thursday morning. The monthly rates largely match those announced when Comcast advertised a rate-lock offer in April:
- 300Mbps downloads for $40 with a one-year lock or $55 with a five-year lock, then $70 a month
- 500Mbps for $55 with a one-year lock or $70 with a five-year lock, then $85
- 1Gbps for $70 with a one-year lock or $85 a month with a five-year lock, then $100
- 2Gbps for $100 with a one-year lock or $115 with a five-year lock, then $130

Upload speeds on those plans will vary by location but should start at 40Mbps. These plans also include one year of Xfinity Mobile wireless service, which combines Verizon's coverage with Comcast's Wi-Fi network.
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