Month: June 2023

Picture Perfect: The Most Breathtaking Shots of a SpaceX Rocket’s Launch into the Unknown

SpaceX intends to use the Super Heavy and the Starship to transport crew and cargo to the Moon and even Mars. These photos are perfect to see…

As part of the preparations for the second test flight of its Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft, SpaceX conducted a static launch test of the Starship this week. The spacecraft has undergone over 1,000 changes this year.

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The exercise, which took place at SpaceX’s Starbase facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, involved igniting the six engines of the Starship for several seconds.

Elon Musk’s company released some impressive images of the brief event on Wednesday.

They also shared a video of the dramatic moment when the starship’s engines were ignited.

Here’s how SpaceX explained it in their tweet: “Starship 25 completes a static fire test of six engines at the Texas Starbase.”

The test comes a couple of months after a failed attempt by SpaceX to send the starship on its first orbital flight. About four minutes after a successful launch of the most powerful rocket in history, the vehicle exploded in the air shortly after the Starship failed to separate from the Super Heavy.

SpaceX is now examining the data from the brief flight to make the necessary changes before a second attempt at an orbital flight. Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX, recently stated that engineers have been working on “over a thousand” changes to the vehicle before its next launch.

Preparations also include the construction of a more robust launch platform following the significant damage caused by the impressive power of the Super Heavy during liftoff in April.

Musk said that SpaceX could be ready for launch within six weeks, although they will need permission from the Federal Aviation Administration before initiating the countdown.

SpaceX intends to use the Super Heavy and Starship to transport crew and cargo to the Moon and even Mars. NASA plans to use a modified version of the Starship for the first human lunar landing in five decades, currently scheduled for 2025.

Both parts of the vehicle are designed to be reusable, and once fully developed, they will be capable of autonomous landings similar to the first stage of the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.

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Epic Battles and Super Saiyans: The Latest Dragon Ball Movie Lands on Streaming Services

Discover how you can stream Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, the latest Dragon Ball movie

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is the latest Dragon Ball movie. Following the success of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, they continued the story of the anime with this feature film that was released worldwide in 2022. And while it didn’t achieve the same level of success as its predecessor, it is essential to understand the current state of the story created by Akira Toriyama.

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Finally, we now know the streaming release date. Crunchyroll, the leading anime platform, has confirmed that Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero will premiere on their VOD service on July 12, 2023. It will be available with subtitles and dubbed in multiple languages. And yes, it will have both Spanish and Latin American Spanish dubbing.

The perfect time to get reacquainted with Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero was a huge hit at the time of its release. It premiered in over 100 countries, with dubbed versions available in 13 languages and subtitles in 29 languages. In total, it grossed $96 million globally, making it the fourth highest-grossing anime film outside of Japan.

The story of Super Hero brings back the Red Ribbon Army. After Son Goku destroyed it in the past, certain individuals have decided to continue its legacy by creating the ultimate androids: Gamma 1 and Gamma 2. These two androids proclaim themselves as “superheroes” and set out to attack Piccolo and Gohan. Both must confront them and uncover the true objective of the new Red Ribbon Army… It’s time for the awakening of the superhero!

So, now you know, if you want to reconnect with your childhood and find out what happens to Goku and his friends after the recent events, there’s nothing better than checking out Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero on Crunchyroll.

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TikTok has an Ambitious Plan to Rule the Social Media Landscape

If you thought that TikTok could not offer more things and that it could not be bigger, you were wrong. Attentive to what the company has in its hands.

TikTok is going all in. The company is reportedly planning to launch an online store in the United States in July, as reported by Semafor. Several sources consulted by the media outlet claim that the app would include a new shopping section where TikTok’s own products, manufactured by Chinese brands, would be sold. In this way, TikTok would compete head-to-head with e-commerce giants like Amazon, Shein, and Temu.

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Among the products that would be sold in this new online store are toys and kitchen utensils, created by Chinese manufacturers, and TikTok itself would take care of logistics and customer service. This new store would be different from the current TikTok Shop, which allows brands to sell their own products in exchange for a small commission.

TikTok users will be able to search for products both in the new store and in TikTok Shop, through a new tab dedicated to e-commerce within the app. The company hinted at the existence of this future feature in a job listing in Los Angeles, where they emphasized the importance of customers being able to discover promotions and manage their orders as a “central focus.”

The company is thus changing its e-commerce strategy after learning that Chinese manufacturers were facing many issues in providing proper customer service to Western users on TikTok Shop. This problem, along with the long shipping times from China to the United States and the United Kingdom, would be addressed with this new store.

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But TikTok Shop is not the only feature that the app offered for selling products. TikTok launched a shopping feature in February that allows brands to sell their products directly through their profiles. Additionally, the company is dedicated to creators, offering them new programs and monetization features such as TikTok Series and TikTok Creative Challenge.

Unmasking the Illusion: The Truth Behind That Tweet You Just RT’d and FAV’d

It seems that people are more convinced by tweets written by artificial intelligence linguistic models than by real people.

It seems that people are more convinced by tweets written by language models of artificial intelligence. Or at least, that’s what a new study comparing content created by humans with that created with ChatGPT claims.

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The authors of the new research surveyed people to see if they could discern whether a tweet had been written by another person or by ChatGPT.

The result? People couldn’t do it. The survey also asked them to determine whether the information in each tweet was true or not. This is where things get even more complicated, especially because the content focused on scientific topics such as vaccines and climate change, hot topics on the internet.

Bots are more real than humans… according to humans

Participants in the study had a harder time recognizing misinformation when it was written by the language model compared to when it was written by a person.

In the same vein, they were more successful in correctly identifying accurate information when it was written by GPT-3 rather than by a human.

In other words, study participants placed more trust in GPT-3 than in other humans, regardless of the accuracy of the information generated by the AI. This demonstrates the powerful influence that language models in AI can have in informing or deceiving the public.

The researchers collected Twitter messages on 11 different scientific topics, ranging from vaccines and COVID-19 to climate change and evolution.

They then asked GPT-3 to generate new tweets with either accurate or inaccurate information. The team collected responses from 697 online participants through Facebook ads in 2022. All participants were English speakers and primarily from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the United States, and Ireland. Their findings are published today in the journal Science Advances.

The study concludes that the content written by GPT-3 was “indistinguishable” from organic content. Surveyed individuals simply could not tell the difference.

In fact, the study points out that one of its limitations is that the researchers themselves cannot be completely certain that the tweets they collected from social media were not written with the help of applications like ChatGPT.

Indeed, it is important to consider other limitations of this study, such as participants having to judge the tweets out of context. For example, they couldn’t check the Twitter profile of the person who wrote the content, which could help them determine if it is generated by a bot or not.

Even seeing the previous tweets from an account and its profile picture could aid in identifying whether the content associated with that account might be misleading. And to make matters worse, GPT-4 is already available.

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“Sanfadao” Reddit Moderators Given Deadline to End Protests

Reddit further escalates its (re)pressure on moderators and demands that moderators set reopening dates for closed subreddits.

Like a dictatorial state, Reddit wants to put an end to protests on the platform as soon as possible, turning a deaf ear to the requests of a group of moderators and pressuring subreddits that went “dark” to cease being private and reopen to the public.

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The Verge has obtained several messages from the company in which Reddit sets deadlines for protesting moderators regarding the changes to Reddit’s API policies, and demands their reopening plans, stating that communities cannot remain closed.

In these messages, Reddit states that the deadline would end this Thursday afternoon and hints that this would be the final warning phase before taking action against moderators who keep their subreddits closed, although the company has not specified the exact repercussions.

“This community remaining closed to its (millions of) members cannot continue” beyond the deadline, wrote administrator ModCodeofConduct (a Reddit employee) in a note to one of the largest private communities on Reddit. The administrator escalated the tone even further after a moderator responded, stating that “(millions of) members have lost full access to this community, and that won’t continue.”

“Taking time to consider future moderation plans is fine, but that should be done in at least a ‘restricted’ environment,” the administrator said, further demonstrating Reddit’s lack of interest in the reasons behind the protests and in establishing communication bridges. “This community will not remain private beyond the deadline we have allowed for confirmation of plans here.”

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Following constant pressure from Reddit to end subreddit “blackouts,” some communities have already reopened or restricted their access out of fear that the platform will replace the moderators (whom they refer to as “squatters of subreddits”) with unknown individuals. Restricted communities can still be read, but only certain users are allowed to post.

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End of an era: Henry Cavill’s final moments as Geralt of Rivia captured in The Witcher

Netflix has just released the new season of The Witcher and it is Henry Cavill’s final goodbye to the character of the witch. Goodbye and forever.

Today, Netflix has premiered the third season of The Witcher, and people have started to say goodbye to Geralt of Rivia. Or, at least, to the actor who has been portraying the Witcher for four years.

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The Witcher saga made the leap from books to video games a decade ago, with overwhelming success. Some time later, Netflix decided it was time to create an exclusive series to enrich its catalog with some top-notch fantasy.

For the role of Geralt of Rivia, the show’s creators deemed Henry Cavill, an actor who was highly popular at the time for portraying Superman in DC movies, as the ideal candidate for the job. They couldn’t have been more right.

Farewell to Henry Cavill, the perfect Geralt of Rivia

When it was announced that Henry Cavill would be portraying Geralt of Rivia, the response was unanimous: happiness, applause, and many toasts to the sun. The English actor was the perfect fit for the role, and we all knew it.

Although the character of Geralt of Rivia is older in the books and games than the current age of the English actor, the showrunners didn’t see this as a major issue. After all, the White Wolf has gray hair and a grizzled beard. This added years to the character… but with the body of a thirty-something.

Geralt is an incredibly attractive, rugged, and stoic character, sculpted in steel. Honestly, Henry Cavill seemed tailor-made for the role, which is why his portrayal of the Witcher has always been sublime.

While the series has had many problems, especially with its script (the first season’s narrative style left everyone confused about the plot), everyone agreed that Henry Cavill was the reason the show was working.

A fight with the directors and a goodbye

So what happened? Well, it was a matter of differences in vision. Not seeing the work with the same eyes, not agreeing with the artistic direction, not liking the tone and future storyline of the series…

It seems that Henry, being a big fan of the books and Andrzej Sapkowski’s work, felt that the showrunners were missing the mark with the series and straying too far from the true essence of the Polish writer’s creation.

Because of all this, Henry Cavill announced last summer that his involvement in The Witcher series had come to an end, and that the third season would be his last as Geralt of Rivia. Now Liam Hemsworth will be taking over for the fourth season, and only time will tell if the formula will continue to work.

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Breaking: Madonna in ICU with intubation, fans worry for her well-being

The artist was found unconscious and after that, she has spent several days in the Intensive Care Unit.

Madonna has given us quite a scare. The artist, who was found unconscious at her home, spent a day in the Intensive Care Unit. The reason for her hospitalization has been a significant bacterial infection, as explained by Guy Oseary, her representative.

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From Instagram, Oseary has informed all of Madonna’s followers about the delicate moment she is going through, which has also led to the cancellation of her upcoming world tour and the need to “set new dates.” Despite the seriousness of the situation, Oseary has also sought to calm the waters by stating that Madonna’s health is “improving, although she is still under medical care.”

Page Six has reported that Madonna has already had the ventilator tube removed and is recovering favorably in the hospital. However, her manager has not confirmed whether the singer was intubated at any time.

The Celebration Tour 2023, cancelled until further notice

Madonna was scheduled to kick off her worldwide ‘Celebration Tour’ next month in July. Produced by Live Nation, the tour was set to revisit Madonna’s entire career and her most iconic hits such as “Material Girl,” “Like A Virgin,” “La Isla Bonita,” and many more.

Celebration was planned to be one of the singer’s largest and most ambitious tours. Among the more than 80 concerts she was scheduled to perform around the globe, Barcelona was also on the list for November. There is currently no information available regarding the new dates or whether the entire tour will proceed as planned.

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Revolutionary Apple Tool Decodes Laundry Labels Instantly with a Single Photo

Without a doubt, Apple has taken a step forward in its commitment to make technology more useful in very simple and everyday aspects. Now, clothing labels no longer have to be an enigma for us.

Before putting new clothes in the washing machine, we often find ourselves bombarded with questions when looking at the label. Can it be machine washed? What temperature should we use? Can it be tumble dried? And what does that triangle with a cross mean? Is it the same if it’s only crossed out with one line or two? Fortunately, iOS 17 continues to impress us with its capabilities, as now with a simple photo, we can precisely understand the meaning of each and every one of those symbols.

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Exclusive Leak: New Beats Studio Pro Unveiled – Could It Outperform AirPods Max?

Although the AirPods Max are superior in sound quality by applying the computational audio that makes the HomePod and HomePod mini a benchmark in the market, these new Beats are really interesting.

As we witness the progress and updates in the AirPods lineup, it’s important to remember that Apple has another significant range of headphones. Beats, acquired by the Cupertino company several years ago, continues to thrive by releasing truly intriguing headphones. Today, according to a leak from 9to5Mac, all the details of the upcoming Beats Studio Pro are revealed – the first over-ear headphones from Beats in over five years.

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Nintendo’s Next Console: What Can We Expect from the Successor to the Switch?

The president of the company wants to make a seamless account transition.

That Nintendo Switch is nearing its end is an unquestionable reality. The Nintendo console has been with us for almost six and a half years, a significant amount of time considering that generations typically last around this long. However, we know that there will be a new Nintendo Switch 2, Switch Pro, or whatever it may be called, but when will it be released?

While we still have this question hanging over us, the Nintendo leadership is starting to give hints about their next console. This time, it was Shuntaro Furukawa, President of Nintendo, who provided a very interesting detail, mainly because it makes it clear that they are already thinking – and thinking a lot – about the next generation of consoles.

According to Furukawa, the idea is to maintain all user accounts created on the Nintendo Switch or smartphones. The number amounts to over 290 million accounts worldwide, a massive figure that would ensure each player keeps the same profile in the next generation. In this regard, the Japanese company aims to achieve a seamless transition between the Switch and the future console.

While it may seem trivial, the migration of accounts has always been a headache for many companies. For example, Sony and Microsoft have relatively established account migration systems for the past two decades, but Nintendo has encountered certain problems whenever transitioning between generations. This time, they are determined to avoid the same issues for the sake of the users.

We must not forget that Nintendo continues to enjoy strong sales with the Nintendo Switch. Currently, the handheld console has surpassed 125 million units sold, a figure that places it as the third best-selling console in history. However, the most interesting aspect is that Nintendo forecasts surpassing 140 million Switch units in this fiscal year. It’s a challenging goal, but not impossible.