Tag: daring
The Sims 4 Daring Lifestyle Bundle goes free on Epic Games Store next week
The next weekly freebie coming to Epic Games Store is a bundle for The Sims 4.
Called the Daring Lifestyle Bundle, it contains the Jungle Adventure Game Pack, the Luxury Party Stuff Pack, and the Fashion Street Kit.
Jungle Adventure includes a wilderness landscape with a temple, jungle obstacles, cursed relics, and treasures. You will experience the culture and customs of Selvadorada with local eats and even new dance moves.
Private company’s daring moon landing likely just failed
A Japanese company likely crashed a spacecraft into the moon as it attempted a soft landing Tuesday, causing an abrupt end to its five-month journey from launch pad to the lunar surface.
The company, ispace, invited the world to watch alongside its Tokyo-based mission control through a livestream of the event on April 25. The nail-biting landing sequence lasted about an hour as the robotic spacecraft performed a braking engine burn and followed automated commands to adjust the Hakuto-R lander’s orientation and speed to touch down.
As the spacecraft descended, mission control had communication with it. But after the maneuvers were completed, the team lost contact with the lander. With a room full of visibly disappointed engineers, ispace officials said they had to assume the landing was unsuccessful. But they’ll continue to investigate the status of the lander, said Takeshi Hakamada, CEO of ispace.
“At this moment, what I can tell is we are very proud of the fact that we have already achieved many things during this Mission 1,” he said. “We acquired actual flight data during the landing phase. That is a great achievement for the future missions.”
Though 60 years have passed since the first uncrewed moon landings, it remains a daunting task, with less than half of missions succeeding. Unlike on Earth, the moon’s atmosphere is very thin, providing virtually no drag to slow a spacecraft down as it approaches the ground. Moreover, there is no GPS system on the moon to help guide a craft to its landing spot. Engineers have to compensate for these shortcomings from 239,000 miles away.
“We cannot emulate all the environment of the moon on the Earth before the mission,” Hakamada told Mashable in an interview hours after the event, still without an update on the lander’s status. “So we have to rely on all the simulations and then a lot of assumptions.”
Credit: ispace / YouTube screenshot
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This is not the first time the private sector has attempted to get to the moon. For example, in 2019 an Israeli nonprofit and company collaborated on the $100 million Beresheet mission, which crashed on the lunar surface after an orientation component failed. The mishap potentially scattered some intriguing artifacts on the lunar surface in the process.
For one of ispace’s payload customers, a failed landing would mean the indefinite postponement of another dream: the first Arab moon mission. The ispace lander was supposed to deliver the United Arab Emirates’ Rashid rover to the moon, which would explore the Atlas Crater. Along with the Emirati rover, a Japanese space program robot was on board.
Hakuto-R is the first of many other commercial missions that are expected to attempt this feat soon, many of which are an outgrowth of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program. The program was established in 2018 to recruit the private sector to help deliver cargo to the moon. Ispace couldn’t directly participate in the NASA program because it isn’t an American company, but it is collaborating on one of the contracts led by Draper Technologies in Massachusetts, expected to land on the moon in 2025.
These upcoming missions will support the U.S. space agency’s lunar ambitions, shipping supplies and experiments to the surface ahead of astronauts’ arrival in 2025 or later. They’re also expected to kickstart a future cislunar economy, referring to the business potential of ventures on the moon and in the space between Earth and the moon.
Credit: ispace
“The environment has changed since I established this company 13 years ago,” Hakamada said. “This is a great market opportunity for a company like us.”
The executive said he wasn’t deterred by the uncertain outcome of the company’s first attempted landing. The data will help the business prepare for its next two upcoming missions, he said.
And he had no regrets about allowing the general public to watch the attempt in real time.
“We tried to be transparent to the world. That will, we believe, (help us) gain more trust in our business and technology,” Hakamada said. “Many people will be given the impression that this is real, and this will pave the way for the greater development of the cislunar ecosystem.”
Which will be the first to make the journey intact? The commercial race is on, with many more opportunities approaching.
“History can be made only by those who (face) challenges, and challenges will not be possible without taking a risk,” said Yuichi Tsuda, a professor of astronautical science at Tokyo University, during the live broadcast. “The risk can be taken only by those who dream. So ispace teams, you are all excellent dreamers.”
This story has been updated from a previous version to include an interview with ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada.
A daring company is about to try landing on the moon. You can watch it.
Other space ventures and spacefaring nations have tried and failed before.
Undeterred by previous flops, a Japanese company will attempt to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon. If it succeeds, ispace could claim the first commercial lunar landing in history.
The company will broadcast the event live at 11:40 a.m. ET April 25, 2023, giving viewers a peek behind the curtains at mission control in Tokyo as engineers oversee the challenging feat. Lunar landings are rare in and of themselves, let alone opportunities for the public to watch them unfold in real time.
The mission, known as HAKUTO-R, is one of several commercial lunar missions happening soon. Others in the pipeline are an outgrowth of NASA‘s Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program, established in 2018 to recruit the private sector to help deliver cargo to the moon. ispace, a startup specializing in landing vehicles, couldn’t directly participate in the NASA program because it isn’t an American company, but it is collaborating on a contract led by Draper Technologies based in Massachusetts to land on the moon in 2025.
All these upcoming missions are expected to support the U.S. space agency’s lunar ambitions, shipping supplies and experiments to the surface ahead of astronauts’ arrival in 2025 or later, as well as kickstarting a future lunar economy. For this first attempt by ispace, NASA has a contract to buy lunar dust samples collected during the mission. HAKUTO-R is carrying cargo for several other customers as well: It will try to deliver two rovers, one each from the Emirati and Japanese space programs, to the surface.
“I see this as the beginning of a new phase of commercial missions to the (moon) with 3 #CLPS launches expected from (the United States) in 2023,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s former head of science, in a tweet.
“I see this as the beginning of a new phase of commercial missions to the (moon) with 3 #CLPS launches expected from (the United States) in 2023.”
Credit: ispace
Ispace’s attempt to land on the moon will be livestreamed on Youtube. If conditions change, the team has pinpointed three alternative lunar landing sites. Depending on the location, the landing date could change, officials said. Fallbacks are slated for April 26, May 1, and May 3.
During the landing sequence, the spacecraft will perform a braking engine burn to slow down from orbit. With a series of pre-set commands, the lander will adjust its orientation and speed in order to touch down softly on the lunar surface. The process is expected to take about one hour.
People around the world tuning into the livestream will have a view inside the company’s Tokyo mission control center. The broadcast will also include live and pre-recorded interviews. If the landing is successful, ispace will provide visual confirmation of the spacecraft on the moon, company spokesman Andrew Ames told Mashable.
HAKUTO-R originated from the Google Lunar XPrize competition, which offered $20 million to the first private spacecraft developer to land, travel 500 meters, and beam back video from the moon. The deal expired before any of the competitors involved made it.
After launching in December 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the spacecraft has been on a lengthy, five-month journey to the moon to save on fuel costs. It completed a successful orbital injection maneuver, which propelled HAKUTO-R into lunar orbit, on March 21 and its final maneuver prior to landing on April 13.
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This is not the first time the private sector has attempted the feat: In 2019, an Israeli nonprofit and company collaborated on the $100 million Beresheet mission, which sought to land on the moon. As the spacecraft descended, an orientation component failed, causing the main engine to cut out.
Mission controllers attempted to reset the spacecraft, but by the time the engine came back on, it was too late: Engineers had lost communication with the vehicle. It crashed into the moon and may have scattered some intriguing artifacts, such as microscopic tardigrades, aka “water bears,” suspended in epoxy. Nova Spivack, co-founder of the Arch Mission Foundation that made the payload, told a Mashable reporter four years ago he hadn’t informed the Beresheet team he was adding the creatures to their cargo.
Brad Jolliff, director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, believes the next five years will see a flurry of other commercial companies following suit, lugging cargo to the moon, and facilitating science experiments.
“There’s a business case for the moon,” Jolliff told Mashable in a previous interview. This new era of lunar exploration and travel “won’t be done entirely by NASA, it will be done with international partners and with commercial partners.”
Trapeze artist falls 30ft to her death after her husband fails to catch her in daring stunt watched by screaming crowd
A TRAPEZE artist fell 30ft to her death after her husband failed to catch her in a daring stunt watched by a screaming crowd.
Footage shared online shows the moment Sun Moumou, 37, fell to the hard stage during a show in Suzhou city, China, on Saturday.
Her husband failed to catch her with his legs as the couple performed a risky change of position in mid-air.
Sun fell from more than 32ft above the ground, according to local news reports.
She is said to have been taken to hospital but doctors were unable to save her life.
Her husband said: “We were always happy together.
“As I am in the middle of the process of dealing with all of this, I can’t disclose any specific details at this time.”
In the shocking clip, spectators can be heard screaming as Sun loses her grip.
A colleague said she was still breathing “weakly” following the tragic fall.
The performance was cancelled immediately as were planned shows over the weekend.
Anhui Yaxi Performing Art Media has been fined more than £5,600 for “holding commercial performances without approval”, according to The Global Times.
Local officials have expressed their “deep condolences” and sympathy to the victim’s family.
The couple, who were both born in 1986, are said to have had a son and a daughter together.
Social media users have called for stricter regulation in the industry.
Authorities have launched an investigation into how Sun performed without the proper safety precautions.
Reports say the performance took place at a local family farm in Hougao, a village in Suzhou, located in the northern part of Anhui Province.
She had worked with her husband, Zhang Moumou for years, according to reports.
They are said to have often performed without safety belts, according to the news website The Paper.
Zhang told local news that she had not “refused” to wear a safety line, as reported.
In September last year, a trapeze artist fell into the circus ring during a new act in front of hundreds of children and their parents.
Tatyana Zolotukhina, 26, was performing with her husband Sergey Zolotukhin, 34, when she failed to catch his hand and plunged 16ft crashing on the ground during a show in Russia.
In July 2018, the America’s Got Talent judges were left gasping in horror as a trapeze act on the show went horribly wrong.
The panel were stunned when partially-sighted performer Tyce dropped his wife Mary and she plunged to the ground.
Teen hacker arrested in Spain following daring cyberattacks
The Daring Ruse That Exposed China’s Campaign To Steal American Secrets
Federal agents eventually obtained search warrants for two Gmail addresses the official was using, and “In what would prove to be a lucky break, the investigators found that each email address was the Apple ID used for an iPhone, linked to an iCloud account where data from the phones was periodically backed up. The agents were later able to obtain search warrants for the two iCloud accounts [that] opened a treasure trove.”
This included confirmation of what they had suspected all along: that Qu worked for Chinese intelligence. His real name was Xu Yanjun. He had worked at the Ministry of State Security since 2003, earning six promotions to become a deputy division director of the Sixth Bureau in the Jiangsu Province M.S.S. Like so many of us, he had taken pictures of important documents using his iPhone — his national ID card, pay stubs, his health insurance card, an application for vacation — which is how they ended up in his iCloud account. There, investigators also found an audio recording of a 2016 conversation with a professor at N.U.A.A. in which Xu had talked about his job in intelligence and the risks associated with traveling. “The leadership asks you to get the materials of the U.S. F-22 fighter aircraft,” he told the professor. “You can’t get it by sitting at home.” The discovery of evidence of Xu’s identity in an iCloud account makes for a kind of delicious reversal. The ubiquitous use of iPhones around the world — a result of America’s technological prowess — was helping to fight back against a rival nation’s efforts to steal technology.
Qu scheduled a meeting in Brussels with one American target — where he was arrested and extradited to America, becoming the first-ever Chinese intelligence official convicted on U.S. soil on charges of economic espionage.
The prosecution contended that Xu had been systematically going after intellectual property at aerospace companies in the United States and Europe through cyberespionage and the use of human sources. It’s not often that prosecutors find a one-stop shop for much of their evidence, but that’s what Xu’s iCloud account was — a repository of the spy’s personal and professional life. That’s because often Xu used his iPhone calendar as a diary, documenting not just the day’s events but also his thoughts and feelings…. The messages in Xu’s iCloud account enabled investigators to make another damning discovery. Xu had helped coordinate a cyberespionage campaign that targeted several aviation technology companies….
At the end of the trial, Xu was convicted of conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage and theft of trade secrets…. According to Timothy Mangan, who led the prosecution, the evidence laid out during Xu’s trial goes far beyond merely proving his guilt — it uncovers the systematic nature of China’s vast economic espionage. The revelation of Xu’s activities lifts the veil on how pervasive China’s economic espionage is, according to the F.B.I. agent. If just one provincial officer can do what he did, the agent suggests, you can imagine how big the country’s overall operations must be.
The article notes that the Chinese government “also offers financial incentives to help Chinese expats start their own businesses in China using trade secrets stolen from their American employers.” It also cites a 2019 report from a congressional committee’s security review that found “myriad ways in which Chinese companies, often backed by their government, help transfer strategic know-how from the United States to China.”
The maneuvers range from seemingly benign (acquiring American firms with access to key intellectual property) to notoriously coercive (compelling American companies to form joint ventures with Chinese firms and share trade secrets with them in return for access to the Chinese market) to outright theft. Cyberattacks have become an increasingly common tactic because they can’t always be linked directly to the Chinese government. Over the past few years, however, federal agents and cybersecurity experts in the U.S. have identified the digital footprints left along the trails of these attacks — malware and I.P. addresses among them — and traced this evidence back to specific groups of hackers with proven ties to the Chinese government.
One 2020 indictment blamed five “computer hackers” in China for breaching more than 100 organizations.
Thanks to Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the article.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Hack-Poet’s Guild – Daring Highwayman (ft. Lisa Knapp, Marry Waterson and Nathaniel Mann)
Wild NASA Video Details Daring Plan to Snatch Rocks From Mars – CNET
Chloe Ferry wows in daring leather bra as she parties with unrecognisable Corrie star
CHLOE FERRY looked sensational in leather bra and matching trousers as she partied with a Coronation Street star.
The Geordie Shore star wore the plunging bikini style top and skintight trousers to music festival, LooseFest 22.
Chloe Ferry looked amazing in a black bra and leather trousers at a music festival[/caption]
Chloe partied with Corrie darling Kimberly Hart-Simpson who looked unrecognisable with platinum blonde hair.
Kimberly also wore a bikini style top, a grey number which she paired with cargo trousers.
Also partying with the famous lasses was Geordie Shore stars Sophie Kasaei and Tahlia Chung.
Headlining the festival was Sophie’s ex, Joel Corry.
LooseFest is one of the largest music festivals ever to take place in the north and took place in Newcastle’s famous Town Moor.
Kimberly updated fans recently on what’s next for her after starring in Corrie.
Read More Chloe Ferry
The actress – who played Nicky Wheatley on the show – announced she will be joining the cast of Cinderella in panto.
Kimberly, 35, said she was over the moon to be playing the lead role in the upcoming Christmas show.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the cast of Cinderella at St Helens Theatre Royal this Christmas,” she wrote.
“I have such fond and happy memories working in wardrobe behind-the-scenes on costume and set with Regal Entertainments, that it’ll feel like a homecoming. I’m excited to see all those lovely, friendly faces again.”
Most read in TV
She added: “It will feel a bit strange being out front on the stage and seeing the audience instead of looking after all those incredible stunning costumes – but now I’m going to be wearing them, so it’s the best of both worlds. Performing is my passion but I also love fashion.
“I’m a huge advocate of vintage clothing and repurposing garments. Playing Cinderella is going to be quite an experience, and I really cannot wait.”
It comes after her character Nicky Wheatley hasn’t been seen on the show since moving out of Daniel Osbourne’s flat.
Read More on The Sun
She first appeared in Coronation Street between June and September 2020 as escort Nicky Wheatley – a love interest for Daniel Osbourne (played by Rob Mallard).
She then returned to the role in March 2022.
The Geordie star was joined by Corrie actress Kimberly Hart-Simpson (left)[/caption]
Kimberly starred as Nicky Wheatley on the soap[/caption]
Kimberly will next star in the panto, Cinderella[/caption]