Culture

Just days away from Halloween, Wikinews interviewed Kristian Hanson, producer-director of independent slasher film Sledge. The film has been a recent source of discussion in horror fan circles, primarily due to its production budget of only US$800. Sledge is Hanson's fourth film to direct, according to Internet Movie Database. Interview How did you come up with the idea for Sledge? Kristian Hanson: Sledge came to me while driving home from my brother's wedding with my wife. She told me that I know slashers better than most and I could come

A research team from the Australian National University have generated complex surface flows driven by three-dimensional waves. Their results show possibility of remote manipulation of floating objects and were published in Nature Physics this Sunday. As Dr Horst Punzmann told ABC, "A tractor beam is a popular term which, I think it captures quite well the basic principle. You put an object there and it propagates, it floats backwards to the source of the wave". Professor Michael Shats clarified that "We found that above a certain height, the

The US comedy actor Robin Williams was found dead yesterday by the Marin County, California Sheriff's Office, apparently by asphyxiation. Williams had been suffering from depression and announced he would re-engage in a twelve-step program. Williams was the star of a whole series of comedy films winning an Oscar for his role in Good Will Hunting and Golden Globes for his acting in Good Morning, Vietnam, Mrs. Doubtfire, and The Fisher King. As well as films and television, Williams did stand-up comedy and appeared on chat shows; he appeared on

Following the ousting of Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from power, those seeking to peacefully protest the imposition of a military junta in the country on May 22 have adopted a gesture found in The Hunger Games book and film series, curling the little finger and thumb into the palm and raising the three middle fingers in the air. Use of the gesture as a form of protest began last weekend in Bangkok, the capital of the country. This form of protest has drawn the attention of Thailand's military junta, the National Council for

Gerry Collins, star of Ireland's QUIT anti-smoking ad campaign, died yesterday morning. He was 57 and had terminal lung cancer. Collins began smoking at seventeen but had stopped by the time he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2008. He described the treatment as "horrendous" and was featured by the QUIT campaign in 2011 after defeating the illness. He was later diagnosed again with cancer, this time of the lung and terminal. "I wish I was an actor," he says in the two TV ads he filmed last year, "because if I was an actor I'd be acting abo

On Wednesday, NASA announced the confirmed discovery of 715 new exoplanets orbiting just over three hundred stars; this confirmed using data from the orbiting Kepler telescope. Scientists made the discoveries by analyzing data from the first two years of the Kepler Telescope's operation, from May 2009 to March 2011. These findings have nearly doubled the total number of known exoplanets. It is also the largest number of exoplanets ever confirmed at once, exceeding any previous discovery by a factor of 20. In addition to vastly increasing the

Last week fifty volunteers, from nine countries covering nineteen languages, spent four days at the European Parliament buildings in Strasbourg photographing and filming members of the parliament (MEPs). This being an effort to significantly increase the audio-visual content available in Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects. Members of the team, who were all granted guest press accreditation, began arriving at the hotel in the small town of Kork, not far from the France–Germany border, on Saturday. The team base, Hotel Ochsen, has

Earlier today, San Fermín de los Navarros church in Madrid, Spain celebrated its patron saint day with a small festival in the street outside of and in the courtyard of the church with over two hundred people in attendance. The patron saint day, San Fermín, marks the start of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. The celebration, called "Chupinazo", started in Madrid with a rocket being launched at noon. Following this, music was played, and sausages from the Navarre region of Spain called Chistorras were given to festival goers. Free bread

This past weekend, a "Cartoons country" festival started in Moscow in cinema. The program included free access to cartoons in governmental cinemas network during the next week. The opening ceremony involved watching cartoons, a fair, and a chocolate fountain. The festival is run by and .

The music video for "Gangnam Style", a song by South Korean artist Psy, has become the first YouTube video to surpass one billion views. The video, which was uploaded to the video sharing website on July 15, became the most viewed of all time last month after overtaking the music video for "Baby", a song by Canadian singer Justin Bieber, which was placed on YouTube two years ago. With more than 6.1 million likes, Guinness World Records has recognised "Gangnam Style" as being the most liked YouTube video ever; it also has over 449,000 dislikes

The Bremer Freimarkt (Free Fair) — historically one of the oldest fairs in Germany — has its greatest event with the Free Fair Procession "Freimarktsumzug"; this year's Freimarktsumzug took place Saturday. The procession started Saturday morning on the opposite side of the river Weser in the "Neustadt" and passed the city hall about one hour later. 146 colorfully decorated groups were taking part, some of them dancing to their own music, and were watched by about 200.000 people in the streets during more than four hours of the whole performanc

Actor and television host Gary Collins died yesterday at age 74. He died at Biloxi Regional Medical Center, in Biloxi, Mississippi, of natural causes according to Harrison County, Mississippi Deputy Coroner Gary Hargrove. He starred on television series The Sixth Sense, Born Free, The Iron Horse, and The Wackiest Ship in the Army. He hosted Hour Magazine from 1980 to 1988. He appeared on television shows such as Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, and The Love Boat. From 1985 to 1989 he hosted the Miss America Pageant. He was also a radio perso