All posts tagged: Black

Madonna’s striking transformation throughout the years: From iconic bustier to bold black hair

Madonna’s striking transformation throughout the years: From iconic bustier to bold black hair

Published by Daniella Wilson

As the ultimate Material Girl, Madonna’s status as an undisputed sartorial icon has remained unchallenged for decades. Yet her reign has been marked by constant reinvention – evolving from pop provocateur to the ultimate femme fatale muse for Jean Paul Gaultier. Her influence has shaped both pop culture and the fashion sphere for over 40 years, ever since she burst onto the scene in the early 1980s. From the iconic white lace bridal look in Like a Virgin to the 70s-inspired disco glamour of Confessions on a Dance Floor, her style moments are instantly recognizable. She has also left a lasting imprint on designers like Dolce & Gabbana – just think of her signature crucifixes, layered necklaces, and black lace. And in 2026, the singer proves she’s still maintaining her iconic status. On April 15, Madonna announced that her next album will serve as a sequel to her 2005 record Confessions on a Dance Floor, with a release date set for July 3. © Getty ImagesMadonna wearing outfit designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier She also offered fans …

‘Dancing jets’ from black hole reveal their immense power

‘Dancing jets’ from black hole reveal their immense power

Published by Jenni Sidey

The jets do not move in a straight, obedient line. Around Cygnus X-1, a black hole and a massive supergiant star circle each other every 5.6 days. The black hole’s jets get shoved sideways by the star’s powerful wind. Over time, that pressure makes the outflow twist and bend. This creates what one researcher called “dancing jets.” Now, by tracking those bends in fine detail, astronomers have pulled off something that has long been out of reach. They have made a direct, instantaneous measurement of how much power the jets carry away from a feeding black hole. That matters well beyond one binary system. Black hole jets are thought to help shape galaxies and larger cosmic structures by stirring gas, driving shocks, and dumping energy into their surroundings. Scientists have built that idea into large simulations of the Universe for years. However, confirming the key assumptions by observation has been difficult. Cygnus X-1 offered a rare opening. Artist’s impression of the Cygnus X-1 binary system, showing how the wind of the supergiant star bends the …

Edmonia Lewis Was the Earliest Known Black Artist to Show Emancipation

Edmonia Lewis Was the Earliest Known Black Artist to Show Emancipation

Published by Jenni Sidey

The Edmonia Lewis exhibition “Said in Stone,” currently at the Peabody Essex Museum, marks the first time that the tremendous late 19th-century sculptor has been featured in a comprehensive show of her own. More than a hundred years after unformed marble passed through her hands and into human form, her works are at long last assembled together to speak as a kind of family. As such, the museum serves as a space of historical vindication for an artist who struggled, rock hammer in hand, against mountainous odds. The show brims with stories that once chiseled their way out of one determined Black, Indigenous woman’s heart and hands. Related Articles I’m only a poet who stumbled upon her story a little over a decade ago. I’d read about the artist, also named Wildfire, who reached inside the earth to grapple and grind with her own understanding of history and consequence. The girl who grew up with Ojibwe family weaving, her mother’s traditional patterns traced into her consciousness. The young woman who sojourned to Oberlin College, where …

Pokémon Pitch Black | Release date and what to expect

Pokémon Pitch Black | Release date and what to expect

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Pokémon TCG keeps expanding with new sets, and this summer we’re set to be treated to Mega Evolution – Pitch Black. Revealed by PokéBeach, Pitch Black is set to be the 5th Mega Evolution set for Pokémon TCG, the English-language release of Japan’s incoming Abyss Eye set. There are some exciting new cards to collect in this new set, not least Mega Darkrai ex. The Pokémon Company is yet to confirm the Pitch Black release date or details (as it builds to the release of Chaos Rising) but we already know plenty about the upcoming expansion set. Keep reading to find out everything there is to know about the Pokémon Pitch Black release date, what cards it includes and where to pre-order. When is the Pokémon TCG Pitch Black release date? The Pokémon TCG Pitch Black release date is 17 July 2026, according to PokéBeach. What’s more, PokéBeach is also claiming that pre-release sets of the expansion will be live from 4 July until 12 July 2026. We’ll be sure to update this page …

Black Women Deserve Better Maternal Care, Safety And Support

Black Women Deserve Better Maternal Care, Safety And Support

Published by Sam Flores

“Do you think I should consider freezing my eggs?” I posed this question to my grandmother and aunt recently as the reality set in that I’m about to turn 30. According to medical science, the older I get, the fewer chances I have for pregnancy. But as we approach Black Maternal Health Week, I find myself returning to that question, and my age isn’t the only thing giving me pause. Black women’s bodies have long been at the mercy of harsh surveillance, financial instability and health inequities. Because I have a Ph.D. in maternal and child health, I am well aware that maternal mortality among Black women has been a persistent inequity since the 1930s. In 2023, for example, the maternal mortality rate among Black women was 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births and significantly higher than rates for white, Hispanic and Asian women. And though there was a slight dip in 2024 (44.8 deaths per 100,000 live births), the statistics remain frighteningly high. The higher rates of maternal deaths aren’t attributed to one singular …

Dark Matter May Be Made of Black Holes From Another Universe

Dark Matter May Be Made of Black Holes From Another Universe

Published by skeptic

A recent cosmological model combines two of the most eccentric ideas in contemporary physics to explain the nature of dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up about 85 percent of all matter in the universe. To understand it, it’s necessary to look beyond the Big Bang we all know and consider two concepts that rarely intersect: cyclic universes and primordial black holes. A Different Kind of Multiverse There are different versions of the “multiverse.” The most popular model—that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—proposes that there are as many universes as there are possibilities and that these versions of reality are parallel. Physics proposes something more sober and mathematically consistent: the cosmic bounce. In this model, the universe is not born from a singularity, but expands, contracts, and expands again in an endless cycle. Each “universe” is not parallel, but sequential—that is, one arises from the ashes of the previous one. Is it possible for something to survive the end of its universe and endure into the next? According to a paper published in Physical …

Astronomers discover three distinct groups of merging black holes

Astronomers discover three distinct groups of merging black holes

Published by Jenni Sidey

Black hole collisions do not appear to come from one simple cosmic recipe. After studying more than 150 mergers detected through gravitational waves, astronomers say the growing catalog points instead to three distinct groups of merging black holes. Each group seems to carry its own signature in mass, spin, and how often the mergers happened across cosmic time. Taken together, the pattern suggests that these violent collisions are being built in more than one kind of environment. Their analysis focuses on the fourth gravitational-wave transient catalog from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration, known as GWTC-4. That catalog includes more than 150 detected black hole mergers, enough for researchers to stop treating these events as a single blended population and start asking whether different families are hiding inside the data. Artist’s impression of a pair of black holes merging, involving one with unusual spin. (CREDIT: Carl Knox, OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology) Not one family, but three One clue came from the masses. When the researchers looked across the full sample, they did not see a smooth spread. …

Iphone Ultra Foldable Design: Wider Display to Reduce Black Bars

Iphone Ultra Foldable Design: Wider Display to Reduce Black Bars

Published by skeptic

Apple is reportedly preparing to make a significant impact on the foldable smartphone market with the highly anticipated iPhone Ultra. This device is rumored to introduce a fresh perspective on foldable design, moving away from the tall, narrow configurations that currently dominate the market. Instead, the iPhone Ultra is expected to feature a shorter, wider form factor, a design choice that could redefine usability and functionality in the foldable category. By using its expertise in hardware and software integration, Apple may set a new benchmark for what foldable smartphones can achieve. The video below from Tech Town gives us more details about the new Apple folable. Innovative Design Philosophy The iPhone Ultra is rumored to break away from the conventional foldable design by adopting a wider and more compact layout. This approach directly addresses a common limitation of existing foldables: their narrow, elongated screens, which can feel restrictive in both folded and unfolded modes. A shorter and broader design could significantly enhance usability, making the device more practical for everyday tasks while offering a more …

Telegram Is Still Hosting a Sanctioned Billion Crypto Scammer Black Market

Telegram Is Still Hosting a Sanctioned $21 Billion Crypto Scammer Black Market

Published by skeptic

Xinbi Guarantee has also hosted a wide variety of other black market offerings, including harassment services that threaten or throw feces at a victim for a fee, and even sex workers as young as 14 who are likely trafficking victims. One listing Elliptic shared with WIRED, found just in recent weeks, offered a 16-year-old sex worker, including the girl’s body size measurements and available sex acts. As clearly as all of those examples contradict Telegram’s arguments for hosting Xinbi Guarantee, though, the UK government’s official sanctions against Xinbi are even more clearcut, says Elliptic’s Robinson. “It was already a weak argument, but the sanctioning of Xinbi makes the argument much weaker,” Robinson says. “There is now this official recognition that Xinbi is predominantly an illicit actor.” Telegram’s tolerance for Xinbi Guarantee is all the stranger because it did, in fact, ban the market at one point last year. After WIRED asked Telegram about Elliptic’s findings regarding Xinbi Guarantee and a then-even-larger market known as Huione Guarantee, Telegram summarily purged the accounts of both. Telegram spokesperson …