[apache]

Hawking radiation is a theory, and not a very developed one from what I know. Actually all this stuff is theory, but that is the title of the thread.
Yes, an escape velocity greater than c is one technical description of the area beyond a black hole, but the other part of it is a star that has collapsed to infinite density, creating a singularity, and that generates an infinite gravitational force on the 'surface' of the singularity since it is at a zero distance from the total mass of the star.
And yes, I was referring to the 'vomit comet'. Technically, the space shuttle and other spacecraft also qualify, because they are not in a real zero-g environment, but they are not that close to the ground.
I haven't heard the one about the magnets, but that is interesting.