Coming up at the Castlemaine public library this Thursday, Feb 16, the Be Connected: Data breach first aid event is a free session that strongly hints at its own content.

It’s part of the Goldfield Libaries group’s ongoing free event series and takes place at 2pm this Thursday as part of the wider Be Connected national iniative.

Be Connected is an Australian Government initiative committed to increasing the confidence, skills and online safety of older Australians. Be Connected aims to empower everyone to use the internet and everyday technology to thrive in our digital world.

Through the Be Connected online resources, Australians will be able to learn the basics of using digital devices and engaging with the internet, including:

• talking to and seeing family and friends
• keeping up to date with news and what’s happening around the world 
• being safer while online 
• finding new friends who share interests and hobbies
• connecting with old friends
• shopping and selling online, safely and securely

More information can be found via the Goldfields Libraries Group’s website. The session is free but bookings are required.

Birdpop is preparing to bring its eclectic sound to The Palais as part of the Hepburn Spring’s venue’s ongoing Supper Club series.

Those who make the show, Friday March 3, can expect eclectic rocking riffs, surf, postpunk, blues.

Birdpop members say they “wanted to be Fleetwood Mac but ended up sounding like their lovechild with the Clean”.

Birdpop’s debut album “Guess What?!” is almost ready. Featuring former members of Melbourne/Naarm indie rock favourites Mostly Sonny, Mouseatouille, starring, Bee and Eye and Harry Permezel, you can expect the eclectic. Rocking riffs to surf to postpunk to blues.

Police are investigating a fatal collision that happened in Yalca last Tuesday, February 7.

It is understood a truck and car collided on Waaia-Bearii Road and Murray Valley Highway about 7.35am, before the truck veered off the road and crashed into a tree.

The driver of the truck died at the scene.

The male driver of the car was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The female passenger was air-lifted to hospital with serious injuries.

Police are continuing to establish the exact circumstances of the collision and investigations are ongoing.

Anyone who witnessed the collision, has dashcam/CCTV footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report via Crime Stoppers online

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Pakenham police arrested six teenagers last week as they attempted to run from a stolen car in Officer.

The teens were first spotted in Piggott Street after a caller to Triple Zero (000) advised a group of youths appeared to be acting suspiciously in the vicinity of a car about 6.45pm last Mnday evening February 6.

Attending officers checked the registration of the 2017 Nissan X-Trail and confirmed the vehicle was stolen.

As police approached, the teens ran from the scene in varying directions.

Uniformed members were able to catch up with youths and arrested three males and three females nearby.

All six have been processed by police in relation to the theft of the motor vehicle.

A 13-year-old boy from Ararat, who was also wanted in relation to a number of outstanding matters, has been charged with:

• three counts of theft of motor vehicle

• four counts of burglary

• four counts of theft

• handle stolen goods, and

• commit indictable offence whilst on bail.

He has been remanded to appear before a children’s court.

A 15-year-old boy from Dandenong has been charged with theft of motor vehicle and handle stolen goods.

He has also been remanded to appear before a children’s court.

The three females aged 13 and 14, from Brighton East, Highett and Bentleigh East, have been cautioned in relation to theft of motor vehicle.

The third male, a 15-year-old from Springvale South, has been released and is expected to be charged on summons.

Enquiries have revealed the car was stolen during an aggravated burglary in Glen Iris on 30 January.

The investigation remains ongoing.

B Sharp Burlesk is an exciting brand new show with a focus on classic burlesque, traditional bump n grind, showgirl dance, vaudeville and comedic slapstick – and it hits the stage at the Palais later this month.

Aimed at those who love glamour, fancy costumes, feathers and good old fashioned tease. A night of nostalgia but with a modern twist.

Featuring a sensational cast of Melbourne’s creme de la creme of burlesque stars and special guests. We cannot wait to bring you an evening of magical and thrilling performances, captivating shows and a night not to be forgotten.

Produced by classic Tease Queen and Burlesque Icon Dolores Daiquiri, the show happens at the Palais on Saturday, February 25.

Police have released an image of a man after several poker machines were damaged in Bundoora in December.

Officers have been told a man was in the gaming room of a hotel in Plenty Road and was playing the ‘pokies’ when he damaged several machines on 30 December about 8.15pm.

It appears the man stood up, grabbed the chair he was sitting on and swung it towards his gaming machine, which in turn smashed the screen.

He then grabbed two other chairs and in two separate incidents again swung the chairs at two other machines. On one occasion another patron had to quickly get out of the way.

The man was then seen to leave the hotel with a female acquaintance.

It is believed the damage to the machines is valued around $6000.

Greensborough police have released an image of a man (below) they believe will be able to assist with their enquiries.

He is described as aged in his 20s, about 190-195cm tall with a dark complexion. He has black medium length curly hair which is shaved to the left and right of his head. He also has a black moustache and chin beard.

He was wearing a grey t-shirt, chino style pants and white runners.

Anyone who witnessed the incident or with information about the identity of the man is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or log onto Crime Stoppers online.

St Kilda police officers arrested a 32-year-old Essendon man in Elwood after a vehicle intercept in recent days.

During a patrol, officers discovered the man’s car stopped in the middle of the road on Broadway about 3am on February 2.

After approaching the vehicle, officers found a balaclava clad man unresponsive at the wheel with drug paraphernalia in his hand.

After searching the vehicle, officers found an imitation firearm, a tomahawk, stolen goods and up to $2900 in counterfeit $50 notes.

During the search, the man awoke and was subsequently arrested.

He has since been assisting police with their enquires.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report via Crime Stoppers online.

Melton Highway Patrol have been investigating a fatal collision in Keilor East on 2 February.

It is understood that a truck and a motorcycle collided at the intersection of Keilor Park Drive and Western Ring Road about 4.50am.

Sadly, the male rider died at the scene.

The male driver of the truck stopped at the scene and has been assisting police with their enquiries.

Anyone who witnessed the collision, has dashcam/CCTV footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report via Crime Stoppers online.

Ausecuma Beats and ZFEX are poised to bring a heady concoction of West African Beats, Jazz, Soul and Funk to The Palais – Hepburn next Sunday, February 19.

Early in 2020, the music community was forced to close its doors, not only to the outside world, but to each other. Creative partnerships were lost, performances canceled, studio sessions scrapped.

In response to these limitations, as is often the case, innovation and cooperation blossomed. Melbourne’s Music in Exile label, a not-for-profit aimed at profiling musicians from refugee and migrant backgrounds that give the city its world-class reputation in the arts, started the Building Bridges series, a collection of recordings aimed at keeping individuals connected and inspired during lockdown.

One such project was a match made somewhere in musical heaven. The minds behind Ausecuma Beats, a nine-piece, Melbourne-based ensemble comprised of members from Senegal, Mali, Cuba and Guinea, spent weeks recording and sharing material remotely with the Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange, also known as Z*F*E*X.

Themselves a semi-improvised collective or ensemble of sorts, Z*F*E*X comprises drummer Zeke ‘Ziggy’ Zeitgeist, keyboardist and producer Lewis Moody, bassist Matthew Hayes, and a rotating cast of guests, all prolific musicians with weighty credentials across Australia, the United Kingdom, and Europe.

And so from a backyard shed in Dandenong North, Australia, some of West Africa’s finest would record simple percussive tracks, when then surfed the airwaves via studios in Melbourne, Berlin and London, to finally land back on our doorsteps as Deep Heat/Tropical Storm.

Add to this heady brew two guest vocalists who are some of the most invigorating in their respective scenes, Latin America via Berlin star Gotopo, and Melbourne’s own Rara Zulu, and all of sudden what began as an exercise in percussive exploration has transformed into a hands-down banger of a record.

Deep Heat/Tropical Storm will be available as a 12” DJ cut, including instrumentals, from Music in Exile / Above Board (UK/EU) / Polyvinyl (North America) on August 19, 2022.

Music in Exile is a not-for-profit record label supporting artists from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds working in the music industry. Our vision is to build a music scene that is equally accessible to all, and represents the myriad voices and viewpoints found in our community today.

Three teenagers wanted by police after a police car was rammed have been arrested after they crashed an allegedly stolen car in Moorabbin in recent days.

Officers first became aware of the trio following reports several people were acting suspiciously in a Broadway carpark in Bonbeach about 1.30pm, Wednesday February 1.

Attending police approached the allegedly stolen car before the driver rammed the officer’s car in an attempt to get away, causing damage to the police car along with two parked vehicles.

The Air Wing was called in to assist after the trio dumped the Mazda sedan nearby and took off in another allegedly stolen car.

The white Nissan Pulsar was spotted by the Air Wing on Nepean Highway in Carrum travelling south at excessive speeds about 3.50pm.

It was then seen entering the Mornington Peninsula Freeway at Chelsea headed towards the city. It was reportedly travelling approximately 150km/h at times as the driver weaved in and out of traffic.

The car was also seen driving erratically on Warrigal Road before the driver appears to have lost control in Fairchild Street, Heatherton and crashed into a tree. Two males and a female were arrested at the scene.

The 17-year-old driver from Carrum Downs was taken to hospital following the crash where he remains under police guard.

His passengers, a 15-year-old boy from Frankston and an 18-year-old female from Bonbeach, were taken to hospital for treatment and have now been charged.

Moorabbin Crime Investigation Unit detectives are investigating and have charged the Frankston teen with two counts each of theft of motor vehicle and commit indictable offence whilst on bail.

He has been remanded to appear before a children’s court.

The Bonbeach young woman has also been charged with two counts each of theft of motor vehicle and commit indictable offence whilst on bail.

She had been remanded to appear before Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court on February 2.

Detectives believe the cars were stolen from properties in Frankston and Mount Eliza.

Anyone who witnessed the incidents, with dashcam or with information about the manner of driving of the vehicle is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Greater Dandenong Crime Investigation Unit detectives have charged three men as part of an investigation into an armed robbery in Dandenong in late December.

Two of the men, a 66-year-old from Doncaster and a 60-year-old from Pakenham, have each been charged with armed robbery and assault related offences.

The third man, a 38-year-old from Narre Warren, has been charged with trafficking methylamphetamine.

The charges follow the execution of search warrants yesterday as part of the investigation.

During the incident it is alleged two men entered a jewellery store in Dandenong’s CBD, allegedly assaulted and threatened a victim, before jewellery of significant value and cash was stolen on Thursday 29 December about 6pm.

The trio were held over to appear before Dandenong Magistrates’ Court earlier this month.

The Hepburn Shire Council are partnering with Business Victoria to provide the first free small business face-to-face workshops for 2023.

The workshops are being facilitated by Monarch Institute and are being held in Daylesford and Creswick.

The workshops provide an opportunity for business operators to participate in person and network with other small business owners. In addition to in-person workshops, a host of free online webinars for businesses will be provided.  These are being offered across multiple days and times and provide an opportunity to enhance social media skills and strategies.

Mayor, Cr Brian Hood, said it is great to see in-person workshops once again being offered to support business owners and operators across the Shire.

“Whether you are a small business owner, operator, sole trader or looking to start a business, Council is committed to working with you to offer free in-person and online learning opportunities, along with Small Business bus visits,” he said.

 “We encourage small business owners to get on board and explore these unique opportunities to learn and network.”

Face-to-face workshops include:

• 27 February –Social media and content marketing – Daylesford
• 27 March – Advanced strategies to taking yur business online – Creswick

Scientists from CSIRO, and Queensland University of Technology, have used artificial intelligence to develop a world-first benchmark for measuring brain atrophy – or thinning – in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 per cent ofcases. One of the ways of measuring its progress is via MRI images that show cortical thinning. This method is challenging, however, as changes in the thickness of the brain’s cortex are extremely small, often in the sub-millimetre range.

Assessing the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s using brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has traditionally been challenging as changes in the thickness of the brain’s cortex are extremely small, often in the sub-millimetre range.

Advanced machine learning techniques are routinely used in brain research to assess changes in cortical thickness, but until now, a lack of a clinically accurate ‘ground truth’ dataset meant we could not evaluate their sensitivity to the detection of small atrophy levels.

Prior to this breakthrough, the only way to get a ground truth measure of cortical thickness was by studying the brain post-mortem. However, brains begin to shrink immediately after death resulting in inaccurate readings.

Filip Rusak, research scientist from CSIRO’s Australian e-Health Research Centre, said cortical atrophy – thinning of the brain’s cortex – can start up to ten years before clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s appear.

“Extremely accurate methods are needed to observe these signs in brain images when they begin to appear so they can be addressed earlier rather than later,” Dr Rusak said.

“Using the power of machine learning, we were able to produce a set of artificial MRI images of brains with predefined signs of neurodegeneration in the cortex region, the outer layer of the brain most affected by Alzheimer’s.

“Before these findings, there was no way to conclusively determine the sensitivity of the various methods used to measure cortical thickness in Alzheimer’s patients,” he said.

This new technique allows researchers to set the amount and location of brain degeneration they want to compare against so they can get a clear picture of what method of cortical thickness quantification performs the best.

The technique can test the sensitivity of methods to a miniscule level. It can determine whether a method can detect changes in thickness of just 0.01 millimetres.

Findings from the research were published in Medical Image Analysis. The work has already had international impact.

Michael Rebsamen from The University of Bern, Switzerland said they had strong evidence that DL+DiReCT – a deep learning-based method for measuring cortical thickness – is robust and sensitive to subtle changes in atrophy.

“Until now, due to the lack of a reference MRI we could not quantify what level of atrophy can truly be measured,” Dr Rebsamen said.

“The innovative benchmark from CSIRO closes this gap and marks an important milestone for evaluating cortical thickness methods,” he said.

The technique can be applied to research in any brain disease that involves neurodegeneration, representing a significant step forward to better understanding dementia and other debilitating brain diseases. It can also potentially be used to predict the level of cortical degeneration a person can expect over time.

Dr Rusak said all of this technology happened on the back of the commonly used and relatively inexpensive MRI images.

“The findings will help researchers pick the right tools for the job. The right tool increases the chances of accurately assessing disease progression,” Dr Rusak said.

“So, there’s no need for new medical infrastructure,” he said.

The synthetic dataset images have been made publicly available so clinicians and scientists can use the synthetic images to conduct their own assessments of cortical thickness quantification methods.

Detectives from the Criminal Proceeds Squad have charged two people in recent days following an investigation into significant money laundering by an offshore organised crime syndicate.

Two warrants were executed at addresses in Port Melbourne and Melbourne on Tuesday, 24 January, with further searches at residential properties in Melbourne and Box Hill on Wednesday (25 January).

A 39-year-old Port Melbourne man was charged with the Commonwealth offences of directing activities of a criminal organisation, dealing with proceeds of crime ($10,000,000+), dealing with proceeds of crime ($1,000,000+), dealing with property reasonably suspected of being proceeds of crime, offence committed for the benefit of an organisation and offence committed at the direction of an organisation.

A 31-year-old Melbourne woman was charged with the Commonwealth offences of dealing with proceeds of crime ($1,000,000+), dealing with property reasonably suspected of being proceeds of crime, offence committed for the benefit of an organisation and offence committed at the direction of an organisation

The duo was remanded to face Melbourne Magistrate’s Court on 31 May.

Police subsequently seized an Audi Q5 and a number of bank accounts and bank cards in various names.

The investigation commenced in 2021 when detectives from the Major Drug Squad uncovered an alleged Malaysian money laundering syndicate as part of a separate investigation.

Investigators worked with AUSTRAC to identify offenders, trends and methods used by the syndicate.

Police will allege at least $25M over a three-month period was collected, deposited or channelled in cryptocurrency by the syndicate.

The 39-year-old Port Melbourne man is believed to have been acting as a mule for the offshore syndicate, collecting money and depositing it into various bank accounts.

Police have identified over 80 bank accounts belonging to Malaysian nationals which were allegedly bought by the syndicate to use for transferring funds into trading platforms and cryptocurrency.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Anyone with information on organised crime activity is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential crime report via Crime Stoppers online.

Mill Park Serious Crime Taskforce detectives are appealing for witnesses following a firearms incident in Rosanna last year.

It is understood a man attended a property on Interlaken Parade and turned off the power about 9.20pm on 21 December 2022.

A male occupant of the house confronted the man when he went outside to switch the power back on.

Police were told the man fired two shots before fleeing the scene on foot.

The victim’s pregnant wife, young daughter and mother-in-law were inside the property at the time of the incident.

It is believed the same man attended the property the previous day and turned off the power about 9.20pm on 20 December.

Police believe the man is not known to the occupants of the house.

No-one was physically injured during the incidents.

Investigators have released CCTV and images of a man they believed can assist in their investigations.

Anyone who witnessed either incident, has dashcam/CCTV footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report via Crine Stoppers online.