Anya Wassenberg

Frank Ocean and a new album release date in November? Fans hopes for the release of Boys Don’t Cry, one of the year’s most highly anticipated albums, were raised and then dashed this week and they vented their frustrations on social media with a creative flair. Boys Don’t Cry will be the follow up to […]

No matter what the medal count or who takes the podium at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, many Brazilians feel they’ve already lost as thousands have taken to the streets to protest. Police broke up a demonstration Friday on the eve of the opening ceremonies as Brazil’s activists continue their year-long fight against corruption […]

Netflix’ The Get Down spawned rumors of an overblown budget amid multiple production delays, but early reviews suggest that director Baz Luhrmann extravagant gamble may prove to be the summer’s break out TV hit. Chronicling the birth of hip hop in the South Bronx, the series blends fantasy and reality with a young Black and […]

Hiroshima, the atomic bomb blasts and outgoing American president Obama v. presidential hopeful Donald J. Trump – what direction will the world take when it comes to nuclear peace? As the Japanese city commemorates the 71st anniversary of the atomic bomb blast that changed the world forever, questions are raised about the possible future use […]

David Ayer is in the spotlight after the release of Suicide Squad – a harsher spotlight than he may have expected. The American director has built a career in Hollywood based on gritty, action-driven movies. Here’s a look at where he is now and how he got to helm the DC Comics blockbuster. David Ayer […]

Trump and the media – is the Republican presidential candidate dominating the media as per his avowed strategy? Or has the media been biased against the Trump campaign from the beginning? From claims of media manipulation to Twitter tantrums over negative coverage to threats of changing the First Amendment, it’s been a complicated relationship, to […]

Suicide Squad, DC Comic’s summer blockbuster hopeful, opened to mixed – and some even scathing – reviews, but they don’t seem to be hurting the initial box office figures as it opens overseas. With all the negative buzz however, will the film fulfill DC’s hopes for a big hit? According to Variety, the film, based […]

With the launch of Supernatural Season 12 in a couple of months, the show will become one of the longest-running scripted series on television today. May’s Season 11 finale left fans with a double cliffhanger and a lot of questions about the fate of the demon hunting brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester. However, fans are […]

Today — July 31 — NASA’s Juno Jupiter probe will reach the farther point in its orbit of the giant gas planet. As it swings back towards Jupiter, the spacecraft’s instrumentation will begin to send back historic data that should prove to revolutionize our understanding of the solar system and beyond. According to a media […]

With the Delta Aquarids meteor shower already underway, the 2016 version of the annual Perseid meteor shower is scheduled to peak on the night of August 11 to 12 and promises to be even more impressive than usual. According to astronomers, observers may see double or even triple the number of shooting stars this year. […]

Tesla Motors, with Elon Musk at its helm, clearly has ambitious plans to permeate the market with viable electric cars. But, investors wonder, is the financial basis for Musk’s far-flung plans sound? As reported in The New York Times, when Elon Musk announced Tesla’s future plans last week, he did so in a glass-walled conference […]

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Chair of the Democratic National Committee, faces the WikiLeaks fallout and will not be among the speakers at the upcoming Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. Wasserman Schultz and the Democratic Party are facing a class action lawsuit over allegations of a rigged Democratic primary, but it may only be the tip of the […]

Is the KKK on the rise in America? With David Duke recently announcing his candidacy for the U.S. Senate and Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric, Ku Klux Klan leaders believe that the time has once again come around for their brand of white supremacist politics. But, are their dreams of resurgence fantasy or reality? David Duke And […]

Did Hubble just find Earth 2 and 3? NASA researchers used the Hubble Space Telescope to analyze the atmosphere of exoplanets outside our solar system for the first time with interesting results. Julien de Wit of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, led a team of researchers who used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera […]

Oil and tobacco are often linked by activists as embodying the same obfuscating strategies to market and develop products that are harmful to public health. While the oil industry denies the comparison, a new examination of old documents reveals links that go back decades. As reported in Scientific American, the link between Big Oil and […]

The Pokémon GO accident toll is mounting, and crowds are stopping traffic in New York City to pursue rare Pokémon finds – while the mobile app craze is definitely taking the world by storm, observers wonder, will it last? Nintendo shareholders hope so, as the venerable Japanese company’s stock soars with the success of the […]

The crew of the ISS is preparing for the arrival of a SpaceX rocket next week carrying equipment crucial to future NASA missions. NASA will be televising the July 18 launch live as well as a pre-launch briefing on Saturday, July 16, at 2 p.m. NASA and SpaceX cooperation has been key to the functioning […]

Planet 9, the hypothetical planet that lurks at the outskirts of our solar system, may be coming into focus in the near future, thanks to the efforts of scientists around the world. New theories are emerging about the potential location and even the possibility that there are two or more as yet undiscovered planets orbiting […]

NASA scientists and researchers erupted into applause at the announcement yesterday that the Juno spacecraft had successfully entered into orbit of the dangerous gas giant Jupiter. After what Universe Today called a “do or die mission,” what’s next for NASA and its Planetary Science division? Maneuvering the Juno spacecraft into Jupiter’s orbit required a precise […]

Serena Williams didn’t take very long to defeat Annika Beck in Wimbledon today to clinch her 300th Grand Slam victory, powering past the German 6-3, 6-0 in less than an hour of play. The win takes her to round four of the Wimbledon 2016 tournament and racks up a few more records on her behalf. […]

Fourth of July fireworks are a beloved part of Independence Day celebrations for most Americans, but not their pets, many of whom are terrified by the flashes of light and explosive sounds. An innovation in fireworks technology has produced “silent” fireworks in use in parts of Italy and the U.K. – is it time for […]

Game of Thrones Season 6 just wrapped up, but where does it leave author George R.R. Martin and his A Song of Ice and Fire novels? With the blockbuster season over, fans are now waiting for the new novel, The Winds of Winter, but with no firm release date in sight. With Jon Snow resurrected […]

From a galaxy not so far away, NASA Hubble Space Telescope just released a stunning color image of a star cluster that glows in red, white and blue. Surprisingly, the colors that correspond to the flags of the United States, U.K., Australia, Cuba, France, Haiti, and 30 other nations are pretty close to accurate. As […]

Brexit, or “British exit,” became a reality this morning after the surprising vote by UK citizens to leave the European Union. With the loss of one of its strongest members, what’s next for the European Union and the UK itself? The move by British voters to exit the EU has left many questions unanswered and […]

Rumors that Darth Vader, the original dark Sith Lord himself, would appear in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story are confirmed while other questions are raised after an exclusive appeared in Entertainment Weekly this morning. While Darth Vader will play a role in the prequel to the Star Wars saga, he won’t be the main […]

Assisted dying is now legal in Canada, California and a few other US states, but remains illegal in the UK, despite public opinion polls to the contrary. Physician assisted suicide was rejected by British MPs in a decisive vote last September, but the push to reconsider the euthanasia issue hasn’t gone away. Assisted Dying Law […]

Galaxy SXDF-NB1006-2, a distant 13.1 billion light-years from earth, is home to the oldest known oxygen that scientists have ever been able to detect. Glowing in the radiation of young stars, the discovery points the way to a better understanding of the Big Bang and early stages of our universe. The discovery comes from research […]

Planet Jupiter will come into sharper focus on July 4 as NASA’s Juno spacecraft enters into its orbit at the closest point ever attempted. The space agency is planning a series of 37 flybys of the giant planet to set a new record, but the ambitious mission does not come without risk. On July 4, […]

From this morning’s horrific Orlando nightclub shooting to the legendary Stonewall Riots that sparked a revolution in LGBTQ rights and activism in America nearly a half century ago, there is an unfortunate history of violent attacks against the LGBTQ community in what is typically their safest enclave – the gay nightclub. The fact that these […]

Keiko Fujimori and Peru face the shadows of Alberto Fujimori today in a tight election for the South American nation’s presidency. Keiko Fujimori faces former finance minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski for Peru’s top post, the election coming at the end of a week rocked by demonstrations against the Fujimori legacy. According to reports in Al […]

The Dark Web is the hidden underground of the internet where pedophiles exchange illicit material, guns and drugs are bought and sold, and stolen data finds a marketplace. The infamous case of confessed U.K. child abuser Richard Huckle is shining a rare light on this secretive area of the worldwide web, but in reality, the […]

Manhattanhenge brightens Memorial Day skies this evening for New Yorkers as the sun aligns with the city’s east-west streets. The solar alignment with the city’s street grid occurs twice a year in a phenomenon that has become hugely popular with tourists and veteran New Yorkers alike. According to CNN, tonight at approximately 8:12 p.m. EST […]

Did giant tsunamis rock the ancient oceans of Mars? Scientists say the evidence is there of not one but two massive tsunamis that swept through the oceans of Mars, leaving telltale signs that may hold the clues to life on the Red Planet. The images that the world has seen of Mars as it is […]

Bayer and Monsanto: A corporate marriage made in heaven or a problematic union from the start? German-based Bayer group ended weeks of speculation by confirming its unsolicited bid for Monsanto, the controversial American seed company in a move that stirs up a new round of rumors and potential controversy. The deal was initially released to […]

Barack Obama is hip to the heavy metal scene in Finland and he let an audience of Scandinavian leaders know it during a speech at the White House just last week. Leaders from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden had come together for an official state dinner and summit when the president made the remarks. […]

Cannes 2016 opened with Woody Allen’s Cafe Society, a film that encompasses his usual blend of comedy and drama. Wednesday evening’s gala screening was attended by Blake Lively, Kristen Stewart, and the film’s other stars, but was overshadowed by son Ronan Farrow’s scathing guest column in the Hollywood Reporter. Roman Farrow’s column was published before […]

NASA’s Kepler Mission has just boosted the exoplanet count by a hefty 1,284 in an unprecedented feat. The collection of alien planets verified by NASA’s Kepler team is the largest number discovered so far. Nearly 5,000 possible exoplanets have been found so far, and nearly half of them were discovered by the Kepler Telescope. The […]

Iron Man and Captain America battle head to head in the latest blockbuster film from the Marvel comics stable but it’s really the box office – and parent company Disney – that won this opening weekend. Captain America: Civil War raked in $181.8 million, topping fellow Marvel movie spinoff Iron Man 3, which garnered $174 […]

Elon Musk’s SpaceX just delivered another win with the flawless launch of the JCSAT-14 satellite in the early morning hours of May 6. Thousands watched the live broadcast that followed the thrilling launch of the Falcon 9 rocket from a Florida launch pad. The SpaceX rocket launch was contracted by SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, one […]

Game of Thrones Season 6 began with a bang, but now that Jon Snow is back, what can viewers expect from the hit HBO series? From revelations about Jon Snow’s true parentage to the aftermath of Ramsay Bolton’s ruthless familial massacre, there is plenty of fuel for rumors about Episode 3. With Jon Snow’s resurrection, […]

President Obama will visit Flint, Michigan, this week as the city continues to grapple with the fallout from its ongoing water crisis. The presidential visit comes just after the first public hearing into racism and its role in the Flint water crisis was held this past Thursday. As reported by CNN, it was a letter […]

Study of a protoplanetary disk about 400 light-years from earth yields clues to the development of exoplanets. For the first time, scientists were able to use a technique called “light echo” to analyze the distance between the disk and the young star at its center. A NASA illustration depicts a star that is surrounded by […]

Is the “other Earth” among the thousands of exoplanets that have already been discovered outside our solar system? New technology being developed by NASA aims to find that out. The search for other Earths — planets like our own Earth that would feature atmospheric conditions that could allow for the development of life — has […]

The Hubble Telescope found a cosmic bubble for its birthday by releasing a spectacular image of the Bubble Nebula. The Hubble Telescope team took the anniversary image to commemorate 26 years in orbit. The multinational NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope team captured the vast Bubble Nebula by making a composite of four images, using the Wide […]

Ceres continues to intrigue NASA and the world astrophysics community in brand new images released today. The images were transmitted by the Dawn Mission from its final and closest orbit of Ceres. The NASA images of Ceres focus on a feature called the Haulani Crater, with material that appears to shine brightly from the middle […]

Magic Leap released a rare preview of its cutting edge “mixed reality,” or MR, technology today, heightening curiosity about one of the most highly anticipated innovations in recent years. According to Magic Leap founder Rony Abovitz, MR, which blends virtual reality and the physical, real world that surrounds us, is poised to replace virtually all […]

Dark matter, invisible and enigmatic, may be the solution to a riddle posed by a star that is speeding through our galaxy. The recent discovery of the star system throws existing theories about the center of the galaxy into question – unless dark matter enters the equation. As reported in The Astrophysical Journal, Péter Németh […]

Did someone really stumble on a lost, potentially multi-million dollar Caravaggio painting in a dusty attic? According to some art experts, the answer is yes, although it’s likely the truth about the painting, whose possible value has been estimated at over 100 million euros, may never be fully established. The Caravaggio painting was found two […]

NASA New Horizons images show an “icy spider” formation on the surface of Pluto that has fascinated scientists. The icy spider image is just the latest in a string of revelations about Pluto coming from the highly successful NASA New Horizons mission. Pluto, the icy rock demoted from full planet status to that of a […]

The Jungle Book ate up the box office in India and won rave reviews in Australia and New Zealand this weekend, a full week ahead of the North American general release. The Hollywood remake of the classic Disney film opened April 7 and 8 in select markets, but North American audiences have to make due […]