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Business Upturn
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Upturn
Techburner Explores CrunchLabs Tech with Mark Rober
When the worlds of innovative education and gadget wizardry collide, magic happens—and that's exactly what unfolded when Indian tech creator Techburner (Shlok Srivastava) stepped into the colorful, curiosity-fueled universe of CrunchLabs, led by none other than American YouTube engineer and ex-NASA scientist Mark Rober. The meeting wasn't just a content crossover; it was a deep dive into what it means to inspire, build, and learn through hands-on exploration. Mark Rober, globally famous for his viral science experiments—glitter bombs for porch pirates, squirrel obstacle courses, and Guinness World Record-worthy inventions—has evolved into a mission-driven educator. His brainchild, CrunchLabs, is more than a creative studio. It's a subscription-based learning ecosystem that delivers buildable STEM projects right to kids' doors—designed to turn curiosity into capability. For the first time, CrunchLabs' playful engineering spirit met the vibrant energy of Indian tech storytelling, as Techburner visited the lab during Rober's India trip for the Waves Summit 2025. But this wasn't just about touring a lab—it was a chance to explore how engineering, creativity, and content can merge across cultures. From the get-go, this was not a passive walkthrough. With his trademark energy, Techburner explored the builds—like the domino launcher, safecracker kit, and inertia cart—but Rober had something more ambitious in mind. He invited Techburner to modify and remix these projects using parts from both CrunchLabs kits and Techburner's own gadget collection. The highlight? A collaborative build of a motion-sensing delivery drone, blending CrunchLabs' hands-on philosophy with Techburner's sleek, tech-forward mindset. It buzzed. It hovered. It dropped snacks. And yes—it crashed into a studio light. But it was thrilling, joyful, and deeply educational. Throughout the process, what resonated was a shared belief: engineering belongs to everyone. It's not confined to labs or classrooms; it thrives in living rooms, on smartphones, and in the minds of curious young creators everywhere. This message couldn't have been more timely, especially as Rober announced a nationwide Jugaad Contest in India—a challenge that calls on everyday inventors, young and old, to bring their wildest ideas to life using household materials. Enter the Jugaad Contest 2025 Mark Rober is inviting India's most creative minds to show off their Jugaad spirit! He's giving away ₹5 lakh each to 10 lucky inventors. Whether you're 8 or 80, this is your moment. How to Enter: Post a video of your best 'Jugaad' invention using everyday items on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or X . . Include #MarkRoberJugaad in the post. in the post. Go to submit your entry with the link to your post . . Entries without a submission link will notbe accepted! Contest runs from April 30 to September 15, 2025 . . Official Rules: CrunchLabs Contest Page 'Tech is the new universal language,' Techburner said as they wrapped. 'And if CrunchLabs is like a playground for inventors, then today, we just played the most fun game ever.' About Mark Rober With over 68 million YouTube subscribers and more than 11 billion views, Mark Rober is one of the most influential science creators of our time. He's known for everything from building the world's largest Nerf gun to launching the #TeamTrees and #TeamSeas movements with MrBeast, which raised tens of millions for global environmental causes. In 2022, he launched CrunchLabs, a Willy Wonka-style engineering playground in the Bay Area. CrunchLabs offers monthly subscriptions for kids and teens, delivering mechanical builds like the 'Build Box' and robotics kits like 'Hack Pack.' The platform now has hundreds of thousands of subscribers, with some lucky fans even winning a chance to visit Rober's secret lab. This collaboration with Techburner marked a step toward globalizing STEM education, with Rober even hinting that CrunchLabs may soon tailor kits for India, potentially with collaborators like Techburner helping bridge cultural and educational nuances. Whether it's through drone crashes, glitter bombs, or late-night builds, one thing is clear: Mark Rober and Techburner are making learning fun again—and proving that when you mix passion with play, education becomes unforgettable. Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with a PR agency. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same.
Daily Mail
04-05-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Top NASA official breaks 30-year silence to reveal sensational UFO footage of giant 'flying saucer' secretly created by US Air Force
As alleged UFO footage and declassified CIA files on alien encounters flood the internet's stratosphere, one ex-NASA top official has revealed exclusively to the Daily Mail that the US Air Force possesses a 20-foot, gravity-defying 'flying saucer' - and claims he more than 30 years ago. Former NASA Chief Flight Surgeon and Air Force Major, Dr. Gregory Rogers, who worked with astronauts on several space shuttle missions, says he was shown security footage by another Air Force major in 1992 depicting the exotic craft levitating in a hangar.
Irish Independent
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
'I've been turned into a human piñata' – Katy Perry breaks silence on space trip backlash
The all-female voyage attracted backlash for its timing and tone, with critics calling the trip 'tone deaf' given the current cost-of-living crisis. Perry, who sang What A Wonderful World during the flight and even teased her new tour setlist while in zero gravity, was singled out; with other notable names, including Emily Ratajkowski sharing their disdain. In light of the furore, some fans showed their support for the singer and crowdfunded for a digital billboard in New York's Times Square for 24 hours declaring their love for the star. A Brazilian fan account on Instagram explained fans had done it to 'remind her that she is never alone; our love for her is boundless, unwavering, and eternal'. 'We're so proud of you and your magical journey and we love you to the moon and back. 'Know that you are safe, seen and celebrated. We'll see you around the world, this is just the beginning.' Two weeks after the 11-minute space flight, which saw Perry join five other women, including Gayle King and Jeff Bezos's partner Lauren Sánchez, the singer addressed the controversy in an emotional comment to fans. 'I love you guys and have grown up together with you and am so excited to see you all over the world this year!' she wrote. Perry acknowledged the impact of the criticism but reassured fans she is staying grounded: 'Please know I am OK, I have done a lot [of] work around knowing who I am, what is real and what is important to me.' She continued: 'I'm not perfect' but rather 'a human journey, playing the game of life with an audience of many and sometimes I fall. 'But I get back up and go on and continue to play the game and somehow through my battered and bruised adventure I keep looking to the light and in that light a new level unlocks.' Adding: 'When the 'online' world tries to make me a human Piñata, I take it with grace and send them love, cause I know so many people are hurting in so many ways and the internet is very much so a dumping ground for unhinged and unhealed.' Perry responded directly, saying she was 'so grateful' and looked forward to seeing fans on her just-launched world tour, which will run through December across North and South America, Europe, and the Middle East. Her comment comes as Lily Allen apologised to Perry after criticising the singer's headline-making trip to space. Allen, 39, was among an initial wave of critics who slammed the mission earlier this month, which saw Perry launch into space alongside King, Sanchez, ex-NASA engineer Aisha Bowe, astronaut and activist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn. 'I would actually like to apologise for being mean about Katy Perry last week,' she said. 'There was actually no need for me to bring her name into it, and it was my own internalised misogyny. 'I've been thinking about it a lot, and it was just completely unnecessary to pile on with her.'
News.com.au
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
How Katy Perry became the least popular woman in pop right now
COMMENT It was one small step for Katy Perry when she exited the Blue Origin space capsule earlier this month, bent down and kissed the Texas terra firma — but it was a giant leap backward for her already sputtering career. Perry, 40, got hit with much of the considerable backlash from the showy and what many called 'cringe-worthy' 11-minute trip into space with fellow 'astronauts' CBS anchor Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez (the fiancee of Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos), civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, ex-NASA engineer Aisha Bowe and film producer Kerianne Flynn, reports Page Six. Much of the blowback came from an astonishing number of fellow celebs, and not just provocateurs like podcaster Joe Rogan — who sarcastically deemed the trip 'very profound' and sniped, 'I don't know if you've seen Katy Perry talk about it, but she's basically a guru now.' Olivia Munn called the flight 'a bit gluttonous.' Olivia Wilde shared a carousel of memes mocking the flight on Instagram and said, 'Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess.' Emily Ratajkowski weighed in with, 'That's end time s**t. Like, this is beyond parody.' On X, Jessica Chastain shared an op-ed from the Guardian headlined, 'The Blue Origin flight showcased the utter defeat of American feminism.' Musician Trace Cyrus, meanwhile, accused Perry of copying his sister Miley's career. 'I first knew Katy Perry and her team were lame as f**k when her career was first dying,' he said in a lengthy rant posted to Instagram after the Blue Origins flight. 'And they were like, 'Hm, what can we do? Well, what worked for Miley? She cut her hair off and it broke the internet and everyone freaked out and she bleached it blond. We should do that with you, Katy,'' he continued. Perry's new status as the most unpopular woman in pop couldn't have come at a worse time — right before her first global tour in eight years, which kicked off in Mexico City on Wednesday. Adding to the sting: Her latest album, 2024's 143, debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, it had disappeared from the chart less than a month later. Perry — who said before the flight that she was going to 'put the ass in astronaut' — was widely mocked for using her three minutes of weightlessness in space to promote the setlist of The Lifetimes Tour. It was all a far cry from Perry's splashy arrival onto the music scene in the early aughts, and her subsequent domination of the charts. Her third studio album, 2010's T eenage Dream, was the first ever to have five number one singles by a female artist — with hits like California Gurls' (feat. Snoop Dogg), Firework, E.T. and Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.). But Perry's bad press has been building since last fall when '143,' her 7th studio album, was released to tepid to nasty reviews. Lead single Woman's World was dismissed by some as white-woman feminism, and it may not have helped that she worked with songwriter/producer Dr. Luke — who settled a defamation lawsuit with Kesha over rape-accusation claims, which he has denied — on the tune. Taking it a step further, some online pundits have even suggested that Perry's downfall is the result of a nun's 'curse.' The singer had been in a real-estate battle over a convent in Los Angeles for years when Sister Catherine Rose Holzman, on her way into court in 2018, told reporters, 'To Katy Perry, please stop. It's not doing anyone any good except hurting a lot of people' — then died on the scene hours later. Adding to her bad PR, earlier this year Perry was slammed as 'unforgivable' by the family of a disabled veteran, who claim the man wasn't cognisant when he sold his Montecito, California, property to Perry and longtime partner Orlando Bloom. (A lengthy court battle was ruled in Perry and Bloom's favour in 2023.) But sources close to Perry say she's shaking it off, in the spirit of her one-time friend Taylor Swift, and throwing herself into her new 81-date tour — the first with Bloom and their 4-year-old daughter, Daisy. She took to the stage on Thursday in Mexico City in a silver bodysuit, flying above the stage and defiantly addressing her haters by asking: 'Has anyone ever called your dreams crazy?' After all, Perry is known for her resilience in the face of tough times. She famously was dumped via text by her ex-husband, Russell Brand, on New Year's Eve 2011 just minutes before she had to take to the stage for a concert. 'What I find interesting now is that she's become that very rare thing: a female artist who can be criticised,' NPR pop music critic Ken Tucker told The Post. 'Her recent album '143' was mediocre, but the reviews were negative, mean, vitriolic. The music wasn't that bad. So, why?' Tucker suggests that some of the venom comes because attention-hungry Perry is working too hard to be edgy and stay relevant. 'But the bad reviews are really notable because, for the past decade, woke culture has decreed that you can't say anything negative about a female artist — just try to find anything critical written about, say, Beyoncé or Joni Mitchell. It is verboten. But Katy Perry is perceived [as being] just old enough, just un-hip enough to make dumping on her OK.' The Lifetimes extravaganza, a year in the making, features Perry in what described to Entertainment Tonight as a rather 'cyborgian' show — with her playing a video game character — that involves some live audience participation. Bloom will reportedly be on hand for many of the dates and little Daisy will be backstage for the whole tour, Perry told the outlet. After high-profile flings with celebs including John Mayer and Josh Groban, for whom she wrote The One Who Got Away, and her unhappy marriage to Brand, Perry seems to have settled into domestic bliss with Bloom. The two met at the Golden Globes in 2016 and broke up briefly the next year, but got back together and Bloom proposed in 2019. Though Perry has always guarded her private life, one source said she's opening up like never before. 'She's not ruling out bringing Daisy or Orlando on stage,' one insider said. 'This tour is about love, and they're a huge part of that story.' Perry has asked fans on social media to recommend good coffee shops and parks for her to take Daisy to while on tour. But while the singer was the world's highest-paid musician as recently as 2015, she could do with an image makeover as she enters her 40s. The two met at the Golden Globes in 2016 and broke up briefly the next year, but got back together and Bloom proposed in 2019. Though Perry has always guarded her private life, one source said she's opening up like never before. 'She's not ruling out bringing Daisy or Orlando on stage,' one insider said. 'This tour is about love, and they're a huge part of that story.' Perry has asked fans on social media to recommend good coffee shops and parks for her to take Daisy to while on tour. But while the singer was the world's highest-paid musician as recently as 2015, she could do with an image makeover as she enters her 40s. 'Fifteen years ago Katy Perry was red-hot,' a veteran music industry insider told The Post. 'Now her name never comes across my desk. It happens to a lot of artists. They have their moment and it goes away. It seems like a very long time ago that she and Taylor were viewed as rivals on a similar playing field.' Perry, he added, 'is at this point a pop confection, more of a cartoon. Artists like Billie Eilish are taken very seriously, but that's not who Katy Perry is.'
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Blue Origin's spaceflight with Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sánchez faces more backlash after launch: 'This is beyond parody'
Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's space tourism company, completed its latest spaceflight on Monday with a six-member all-female crew that included pop singer Katy Perry; CBS Mornings host Gayle King, and Lauren Sánchez, an author, TV host turned philanthropist, and Bezos's fiancée. They were joined by activist Amanda Nguyen, ex-NASA engineer Aisha Bowe and film producer Kerianne Flynn on the suborbital flight, which lasted less than 11 minutes. The company had touted it as the first all-female spaceflight since 1963, when the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel to space on a three-day solo mission. Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket took Perry and co. just past the Kármán line — 62 miles above Earth, which some international aviation and aerospace experts consider the threshold of space — allowing the women to experience a few minutes of weightlessness before touching back down in West Texas, where they were celebrated as newly-anointed 'astronauts.' Several of the passengers, including Perry and King, said the experience of going to the edge of space changed them. 'It's such a reminder about how we need to do better, be better," King said. "Do better, be better human beings.' Critics — including Olivia Wilde, Amy Schumer, Emily Ratajkowski and Olivia Munn — questioned the need for the mission, suggesting that the flight was little more than a vain publicity stunt for wealthy passengers who described in a recent Elle magazine cover story how they'd be getting glammed up for the brief journey. 'Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess,' Wilde wrote on Instagram Monday alongside a photo of Perry returning to Earth and kissing the ground. Comedian Amy Schumer also mocked the mission in a video posted to Instagram. 'Guys, last second, they added me to space, and I'm going to space,' she joked. 'I'm bringing this thing. It has no meaning to me, but it was in my bag, and I was on the subway, and I got the text, and they were like, 'Do you want to go to space?' so I'm going to space.' Ratajkowski said she was 'literally disgusted' by the spectacle. 'This is beyond parody,' Ratajkowski said in a TikTok video. 'Saying that you care about Mother Earth and it's about Mother Earth, and you're going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that's singlehandedly destroying the planet?' 'Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space,' she added. 'For what?' 'What's the point? Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride? I think it's a bit gluttonous,' Munn said while co-hosting NBC's Today With Jenna & Friends earlier this month. 'Space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind. What are they gonna do up there that has made it better for us down here?' During a press conference following the flight, some members of the crew responded to the criticism surrounding the mission. 'Anybody that's criticizing it doesn't really understand what is happening here,' Sánchez said. 'We can all speak to the response we're getting from young women, from young girls, about what this represents.' Sánchez said comments from critics like Munn get her 'really fired up.' 'I would love to have them come to Blue Origin and see the thousands of employees that don't just work here but put their heart and soul into this vehicle,' she said. King bristled at those who called the flight a 'joyride.' 'This is a freaking journey,' King said. 'It was not a joyride.' The CBS Mornings host also addressed the 'haters,' who she said were outnumbered by supporters. 'I've heard you. I'm not going to let you steal our joy,' she said. 'Most people are really excited and cheering us on and realize what this mission means to young women, young girls and boys, too.' 'I wish those who are criticizing the mission could read the messages in my inbox,' Bowe said.
