Turns out, Neil deGrasse Tyson hates another science-based movie more than “Gravity.” TMZ caught up with the “Cosmos” host and asked him which space movie is the most scientifically inaccurate. After calling the gossip site “the dark energy permeating the vacuum of space wherever you look,” he awarded the title to the original Disney movie “The Black Hole.”
Tyson is known for his obsession with perfection when it comes to space in movies (James Cameron altered the skyscape in “Titanic” at the astrophysicist’s request), and he called the “The Black Hole” “embarrassing” before going on a rant about all the flubs and liberties Disney took in making the 1979 hit.
“They not only got none of the physics right about falling into a black hole, had they gotten it right it would have been a vastly more interesting movie.”
Each spring, people flock to Kawasaki, Japan, to celebrate Kanamara Matsuri, aka the “Festival of the Steel Phallus.”
Held this year on April 6, the festival is a celebration of the penis and fertility. People parade gigantic phallic-shaped mikoshi (portable Shinto shrines) down the streets during the event, as revelers suck on penis lollipops, buy penis-themed memorabilia and pose with sculptures in the shape of — you guessed it — penises.
According to the BBC, the festival is believed to have roots in the 17th century, when prostitutes are said to have prayed for protection from sexually transmitted infections at Kawasaki’s Kanamara shrine.
Maya Angelou, the renowned poet, author and civil rights activist with the unmistakably regal voice, has died. The author of the celebrated autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was 86 years old.
Officials in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where Angelou lived, confirmed her death to NBC News.
Her death comes less than a week after Angelou announced she would not attend the 2014 MLB Beacon Awards Luncheon, where she was to be honored, citing “health reasons.” Last month, she also canceled an event in Fayetteville, Arkansas, because she was recovering from an “unexpected ailment” that left her hospitalized.
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Newly sworn-in U.S. President Bill Clinton reaches out to hug poet Maya Angelou after she delivered her inaugural poem on the west steps of the Capitol during inauguration ceremonies in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 1993.
The Memorial Day weekend saw a community eviscerated by gun violence that left several dead and many more injured.
But it wasn’t UC Santa Barbara that witnessed this particular round of bloodshed. It was New Orleans. By weekend’s end, the city had seen 19 people shot, four fatally. On Friday, a fight broke out at a high school graduation party that resulted in one person being killed and seven wounded. On Sunday, three men were shot with an assault rifle. That night, a murder took place at a Cajun seafood joint. On Monday morning, a triple shooting happened right outside a hospital, where people sitting in a car were hit with bullets in their backs, arms and legs. All survived. That same day, a 17-year-old died after being shot multiple times. Even earlier, a man riding his bike was shot under an overpass. The day ended with a homicide in the Lower Ninth Ward.
In this life-affirming video, Sue Austin goes where few have been… in her wheelchair. Refusing to be defined by pity or limitations, she proves that we can’t let ourselves be defined by how other people see us — and that telling our own story sets us free.
Attention all amateur videographers: For the love of all that is good and holy, please hold your phone horizontally when you’re shooting a video. Take a second and read that sentence again, just to make sure you understand.
We think it’s a simple concept, but people get it wrong again and again. Everything from big screen blockbusters to viral Youtube videos are presented in a format that is wider than it is long. When you hold your phone upright, you cut out of the video everything that happening to left and right of your subject.
The sheriff of a small county in northeast North Carolina says he is “disgusted” by the parents of six men who are accused of sexually abusing their sister for nearly a decade, at a private family compound.
“I blame the parents for this,” Perquimans County Sheriff Eric Tilley told The Huffington Post on Tuesday. “It’s your responsibility as a parent to teach [your children] right and wrong. When you see a child doing something that is totally wrong and you don’t correct them, then the child thinks it’s OK.”
Tilley said his deputies charged the six brothers, ranging in age from 19 to 27, on May 6, with a number of crimes related to the alleged sexual abuse of their 16-year-old sister. The sheriff said the alleged abuse began when the girl was 4 years old and continued until she was almost 15.
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Jackson family mug shots. (Photo: Perquimans County Sheriff’s Office)
For the first time ever, the World Health Organization on Monday declared the spread of polio an international public health emergency that could grow in the next few months and unravel the nearly three-decade effort to eradicate the crippling disease.
The agency described current polio outbreaks across at least 10 countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East as an “extraordinary event” that required a coordinated international response. It identified Pakistan, Syria and Cameroon as having allowed the virus to spread beyond their borders, and recommended that those three governments require citizens to obtain a certificate proving they have been vaccinated for polio before traveling abroad.
“Until it is eradicated, polio will continue to spread internationally, find and paralyze susceptible kids,” Dr. Bruce Aylward, who leads WHO’s polio efforts, said during a press briefing.
A new portable charging system aims to put on-the-go power in your pocket, boasting a set-up that reportedly doesn’t compromise on power or portability. Modulo, developed by Barcelona-based tech company Idapt, is a credit card-sized gadget that claims to power any USB device, wherever you go.
“All our lifestyle now goes to electronics — it’s portable, really portable,” Idapt CEO Jacques Giribet told Mashable. “We have designed a battery that is as small as possible, taking into account that we want it to give you the same power as the original battery.”
Life goes by too fast. Or is it actually too slow? Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg uses time-lapse technology to show us unseen dimensions of life as we know it, from ocean currents to dragonfly wings. You’ll never look at the world the same way again.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
James' World 2 