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12 Parenting Cartoons That Show Being A New Mom Is An Adjustment

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When Bonnie Kimmerly gave birth to a baby boy in May, she found a new kind of creative inspiration. The new mom draws cartoons about her day-to-day parenting experiences -- from breastfeeding struggles to bath time woes to awkward interactions with strangers in public. 


Kimmerly had always enjoyed drawing as a child but dropped the hobby as school and work took over her life, she told The Huffington Post. When she became a parent and started tracking her son's milestones in his baby book, Kimmerly found herself visualizing the events as cartoons in her head. 


"I had an urge to get my cartoons onto paper," she said, adding that her husband soon brought home a sketchbook, which let her bring her ideas to life. 


"I figured I could bore my friends and family with my daily parenting experiences, or I could share them in cartoon format," she said. "Plus, it's calming and therapeutic to draw and color when the day is over and the baby is sleeping!"


"I hope other parents can relate and find humor in my cartoons," Kimmerly continued. "Being a parent is a lot of work and you’re not alone in your experiences."


Keep scrolling at visit Kimmerly's website for a look at some of her spot-on parenting comics.



H/T BoredPanda


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We Can't Stop Designing Insane 18th-Century Wigs

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The people at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London really want you to procrastinate -- in the name of 18th-century fashion.


Their new design-a-wig game lets you create ridiculous Marie Antoinette-esque sky-high hairstyles, complete with powder, gems and other absurd ornaments that are just begging to make a modern-day comeback.


The game is as easy as it is addicting: first, you create any ridiculous wig style you want by "combing" (scrolling) the hair in any direction. Then, you can throw on whichever decorations your heart desires. 


"In the late 18th century, women's hair styles went crazy! Create and share your own hair-raising design," reads the game's instructions. 


Challenge accepted, Victoria and Albert. Challenge. Accepted.



Apparently, the authentic human or horsehair wigs were built up with padding and pig fat. Sounds appealing, right? 



Modern-day styles pale in comparison to these looks. Katy Perry gets crazy with color, and Lady Gaga achieves some serious volume. But why not experiment with a more historically classic look? May we suggest a ship, some fans, and a noggin full of the queen's jewels?



Here's hoping that this game inspires a new generation of hair styles, and 2016 becomes the year of the 18th century wig. Sayonara, man buns, you've overstayed your welcome anyway. 


H/T Jezebel


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How Emotions Change The Way Musicians' Brains Work

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"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent,” author Victor Hugo once said.


Indeed, at the core of making music is the attempt to express and convey emotions -- and it turns out that when musicians are actively attempting to express their emotions through tunes, their brains work in an oddly different way.


According to a new brain-scanning study that was conducted on jazz pianists and published Monday in the journal Scientific Reports, strong emotions can alter the workings of brain networks associated with creativity. The findings show that the workings of the creative brain are even more complex than we may have realized. 


"It seems that the link between emotion and creativity is truly fundamental, and we suspect, ultimately responsible for the perseverance of creativity throughout human history," Dr. Charles Limb, a University of California, San Francisco, neurologist and one of the study's authors, told The Huffington Post in an email. "Humans seem to need creativity in order to understand and examine the human experience, which is (in our opinion) a deeply emotional one. For these reasons, we wanted to understand how emotion modulates brain networks for creativity, during real time spontaneous creativity in expert musicians."


Creativity draws on a wide range of brain regions, networks and processes, and as the new research suggests, it can't be simply explained in terms of the activation or deactivation of one particular network of brain regions. 



"Humans seem to need creativity in order to understand and examine the human experience."



Instead, the researchers found that when the musicians are attempting to express emotion during their creative process, parts of the brain involved in emotional expression are activated. These brain areas then strongly influence which parts of the brain's wide "creativity network" are turned on, and how.


Limb, who is also a jazz saxophonist, has previously conducted research that found that musical improvisation deactivates a key brain region involved in planning and monitoring behavior -- the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This suggested that the silencing of the DLPFC may be responsible for the artist's ability to enter a "flow state" of deep absorption and free-flowing creativity. 


For the new study, the researchers wanted to investigate how emotions affected the brain's ability to get into a flow state. To do so, they put jazz pianists inside a brain-scanning machine with a small keyboard, and asked them to improvise a melody to express either a positive emotion (based on an image of a woman smiling) or a negative emotion (on an image of the same woman looking sad). As a control, the musicians' brains were also scanned while they were looking at emotional images but not improvising. 


The fMRI scans revealed that DLPFC deactivation was significantly greater when the musicians were trying to convey a positive emotion in their improvisations. When trying to express negative emotions, on the other hand, there was greater activation of the reward systems of the brain. 


The researchers concluded that it may be easier to get into "the zone" when creating happy music. Creating sad music also seems to be pleasurable for musicians, but in a different way. 


"Broadly, our study suggests a very basic role for emotions in how our brains function during creativity," Limb said. "It appears that the nature of an emotion -- whether it is positive or negative --has a significant impact on the mechanisms our brain uses for creative tasks when motivated by these emotions."


While the findings are a step in the right direction, Limb emphasizes that the inner workings of the creative process remain largely a mystery to neuroscientists. In other words, even on a neurological level, creativity is messy.


Read more on the creative brain here:



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8-Bit Versions Of Famous Art And Pop Icons Are All Kinds Of Yes

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What can possibly make you happier than accidentally finding out that if you Google image search “Atari Breakout” that you can actually play the game?


Pixelated recreations of famous works of art and pop-cultural icons that look like they belong in the OG gaming system, that’s what.


Artist Adam Lister makes 8-bit versions of everything from Hokusai’s “The Great Wave” to Darth Vader with watercolors, and the end result looks fluid and beautifully rigid; futuristic and like a nod to the ’80s all at the same time.


“I had been painting non-representational geometric pictures for a long time,” Lister told The Huffington Post. “Then one day, I was in the studio and I needed a change. So I took the same hard-edge painting approach I had been using for abstract work and used it to make an image everyone would recognize.”



Lister, who grew up in the ’80s playing video games, also admits that pixel-based images “were already a huge part of my imagination.”


Because of this, the images he chooses to recreate are ones that he feels closely connected to. “Sometimes they are childhood memories, sometimes they are just subjects that I like,” he said. 



Lister’s watercolors, all start the same way. “I look at the original subject that I'm working with and I begin to break it down in my head,” he said. “I try to give the pure essence of an image. Not every detail, but enough visual information that people can decipher the painting.”



Lister starts with pencil, “blocking in some the bigger compositional elements,” and then allows his imagination to grow from there, finishing each piece with watercolors.


The time it takes to create one of his 8-bit wonders depends on the complexity and size of the painting, which can vary from 8-by-10 canvases to palm-sized miniatures.


“I like to get in the studio and work for 12 hours straight, alternating between painting and drawing,” he said.


It’s time that, bit by bit, totally pays off.



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The Real Fantasy Of 'The Bachelor' Is That Love Can Be Controlled

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On the eve of January 4, a young man will start his fairy tale journey. Armed with roses, suits and the "right reasons," he will find love on national television by the end of March. This is how "The Bachelor" works nearly every season, and one can pretty safely assume that Season 20 will be no different.


Each season, dozens of potentials apply to be on the other end of that fairytale. This time, the Daily Beast's Brandy Zadrozny wonders why. Years ago, the chosen "Bachelor" men were unusually wealthy, Ivy League-educated, or at the very least related to a famous actor.


Not anymore. With regards to Season 20 star, 26-year-old software salesman Ben Higgins, Zadrozny writes: "Why would these women be so fiercely desperate to speed-date on national television in the hopes of marrying the kind of man they’re likely to run into at their local church or neighborhood AppleBee’s?"


She has a point. Higgins and the other Bachelors who have been culled from the previous season's pool of rejected men (the first being Jason Mesnick on Season 13 in 2009), are basically "normal dudes," at least by television standards. 


The question is, do women really go on "The Bachelor" because they want the chance to "meet a man miles out of [their] league"? And do women watch "The Bachelor" to see that particular version of a (pretty messed up) "fairy tale"? I suspect the answer is no, on both counts.


Ratings have actually gone up in recent years, as the franchise has continued to rely on casting men and women who its audience is already invested in. 


There are many reasons people go on reality television that have nothing to do with the deep belief that they will find true love: boredom, a desire to be temporarily famous, to promote your start-up, because your friend drunkenly filled out the application and you can afford to take off work. There seems to be no shortage of 21 to 34-year-old women (and men!) who are willing to leave their lives as dental hygienists/dog lovers/software salespeople/fitness coaches for a chance at three months of travel, five minutes of fame and -- maybe, just maybe! -- a relationship, or at least a few months of something vaguely resembling one.


That glimmer of romantic possibility, which the stars of "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" must have faith in more than any of the contestants, is what draws in even the most jaded of viewers.


It's not the Bachelor himself who's some aspirational fantasy for the women who watch. The true fantasy is in the formula; the idea that with the right pool of people, the right amount of "vulnerability," the right "process," finding love is a bygone conclusion, completely in the control of a person who truly wants it and has been deemed deserving. Anyone who has ever fallen in and out of love knows that that's not how it works, but oh, wouldn't it be sweet if it did?



There is a very particular tension that arises when you consistently watch something that you understand to be disconnected from reality -- and perhaps even find compelling for that reason -- but by virtue of that consistency, you buy into at least a little bit.


Shows like 2015's critical hit "UnREAL" further reinforce what we already suspected: "The Bachelor" is a construction; a series of edited clips strung together by highly-skilled producers who know what they need from their on-camera talent and know how to get it. We know all of this, yet we come back to our TV screens week after week after week. Because figuring out such a formulaic construction of love is satisfying in its simplicity.


In real life, no one will tell you when to stay in with your friends and when to go out on a date. Said dates will likely not take place at 5-star resorts or include death-defying challenges that force you to "face your fears." No one will prompt you to "open up" about your feelings or be physically intimate at a predetermined time in a predetermined location. No one will drive you off in a limo and ask you how you feel to signal a breakup or give you a rose in Thailand, along with a free diamond ring, to signal "forever." 


Love IRL is more the stuff of frustrated therapy sessions and overly-familiar Facebook posts than romantic comedies. Vulnerability takes the form of heartwrenching conversations about your needs which you decide to initiate with a partner because something inside of you knows that you have to. Or re-downloading Tinder and Bumble and OKCupid in the aftermath of a breakup. Or being truly honest about your sexual desires for the first time. Or pushing yourself to go into a setup with a positive outlook even though it might end in disaster. Or accepting that even if you do all of the above, love might remain out of reach. 


We continue to try because the payoff can be enormous. Love and romantic partnership are not everything, not even close. But they feel so goddamn good when they, against all odds, work (even temporarily). So we go back again and again like gluttons for romantic punishment. 


As Roxane Gay wrote for the New York Times in 2014:



We are not as cynical as we pretend to be. We continue to date and fall disastrously in love and marry and divorce and try again despite overwhelming evidence that it is a hell of a thing to stay with one person for the rest of your life. Few among us want to die alone, holding that hollow space inside us. The real shame of "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette," of the absurd theater of romantic comedies, of the sweeping passion of romance novels, is that they know where we are most tender, and they aim right for that place.



The magic of "The Bachelor" is that it indulges our most jaded selves while burrowing underneath our romantic scar tissue. So, who cares whether we're watching 25 people swoon over the heir to a tire fortune or a software salesman while it happens?


For more on "The Bachelor" listen to HuffPost's Here To Make Friends podcast:





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22 Promising Movies To Shield You From The Woes Of Winter

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What fresh heaven is this? Winter, as it turns out, will be quite warm this year, considering how much time you'll be spending inside a toasty movie theater. 


It's no longer inevitable that cinematic rubble is relegated to the first few months of the year, right as the prestige of Oscar season fades and before the gargantuan summer blockbusters monopolize multiplexes. In recent years, more and more event films have opened during winter and early spring, and in 2016, we'll see "Deadpool," "Batman v Superman" and "The Jungle Book" (among others) before the dog days begin. If you'd rather bypass visual effects, the Coen brothers' Hollywood lark "Hail, Caesar!," the incredible horror flick "The Witch," a new Terrence Malick meditation and the jarring dystopia of "The Lobster" will usher in the 2017 Oscar race before this year's winners have time to select a spot for their new trophies.


All of this is to say that 2016 is off to a fine start, movie-wise. So go see some! Here are 22 to choose from, spanning January to April. 



(All release dates are subject to change.)


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The Bottom Line: China Miéville’s 'This Census-Taker'

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China Miéville's slim new novel offers more questions than answers. To read it is like entering a chilly mist that obscures your vision, never clearing. This may be unsettling for the "Inception"-averse -- those who need resolve -- but for the rest of us it's a moody, ethereal read, and a strange joy to get lost in. 


The author of last year's Three Moments of an Explosion has been praised by Ursula K. Le Guin, who said in an interview with The Huffington Post, "China Miéville, my God."


He's also been compared to Karen Russell and George Saunders, and rightfully so. Anyone who gets excited about language quirks and almost-surreal scenes will feel at home on the hilltop where This Census-Taker is set. 


The narrator is a young boy who lives with his mother and father in a rickety house that sounds like something out of a fairy tale -- it’s much taller than it is wide, and each story is increasingly wobbly.


The boy’s mother is hardworking and reserved, rarely revealing details about her and her husband’s former life in another town. She tends a garden and keeps vermin away with scarecrow-like structure made of scrap metal. She does, however, note that the boy’s father comes from a land far away -- possibly banished, possibly refuged. Crafty in his own right, the boy’s father is known in the town below the hilltop as a skilled key-maker, and he’s visited often with breathless, pushy requests.


It’s later revealed that the keys may possess supernatural abilities, but whether these hexes are the result of real magic or simply magical thinking is never made clear. That’s the special power of Miéville’s writing: he dives right into the language and conventions of far-off worlds, rather than overburdening the reader with unnaturally related details. Like Le Guin, he has an anthropological approach to fantasy and science-fiction; unlike many of Le Guin’s books, This Census-Taker isn’t narrated by an outsider, but by an uncritical character in the throes of the action. The boy-narrator doesn’t pause to explain his peculiar word choices, resulting in earthy, playful, sonorous sentences that are a pleasure to explore.


These scenes are punctuated by flash-forwards of the boy as an escapee of his desolate hillside town, but whether his new life as a record-keeper is much better is left murky. 


He recalls his past, which -- other than occasional jaunts in the town where he plays under bridges with a scraggly crew of orphans -- is marked by loneliness and occasional moments of intense fear. Fear of whatever lurks in the darkness outside of his home. Fear, especially, of his father, who he’s watched calmly committing acts of violence against animals.


His fears turn out to be substantiated when he -- shockingly -- witnesses his father murdering his mother. Although he reports the crime to the ramshackle volunteer police squad, he’s sent to return to his father on the basis of shoddy evidence: a note supposedly written by his mother, and an immaculately cleaned crime scene.


The boy’s repeated, thwarted attempts to escape are fable-like in their tragicness, until, in keeping with the genre, a fairy godfather appears. A trim and dapper man offers an escape from his fear-filled life -- an escape to the far-away land his father originally comes from. The man is the titular census-taker, and it’s his job to keep track of the far-flung people from his home, the boy’s father included. He seems calm, and potentially manipulative, raising questions about whether he’s to be trusted, and whether the boy’s father is as wretched as he’s made out to be.


Like the strange, spare fairy tales that served as inspiration for glossier Disney versions, the morality of The Census-Taker is hazy; it’s up to the reader to interpret what’s right.


The bottom line:


If you read to experience a mood or a setting rather than something more concrete, this tuneful tale, full of gorgeous sentences and strange characters, is sure to please.


What other reviewers think:


Kirkus: “A deceptively simple story whose plot could be taken as a symbolic representation of an aspect of humanity as big as an entire society and as small as a single soul.”


Publisher’s Weekly: “Sparse language and a minimalist approach make this intellectual vivisection best suited to readers who are willing to work for meaning.”


Who wrote it:


China Miéville has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award three times, along with the World Fantasy Award and the Hugo Award. He describes his work as “weird fiction,” but has also said in an interview that he’d like to write a book in every genre.


Who will read it:


Those interested in fantasy that’s firmly rooted in reality. Fans of Karen Russell, Ursula K. Le Guin and George Saunders.


Opening lines:


"A boy ran down a hill path screaming. The boy was I."


Notable passage:


"There is a kind of thorned bush that thrives on the hill where I was born. I’ve never seen it anywhere else. It stands about a meter tall, with compact snarled branches that grow in dense near-cylinders so its copses are like low, snagging pillars. Its all-year berries are blue-gray but in the red light of sunset their luster makes them shine like black pupils."


This Census-Taker


By China Miéville


Del Rey, $24.00


Publishes Jan. 12


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These Photos Of Mushrooms Will Make You Feel Like You're Tripping

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Mushroom hunter Filip Eremita has spent his entire life discovering a virtual fantasy world that most of us can only imagine, and he has amazing photos to prove it. 


Eremita, a native of Slovenia, learned to hunt mushrooms from his grandmother, Ana Eremita, at the early age of 4 in the Slovenian countryside. The heavily wooded country was a perfect place for him to learn which fungi species were edible and which to stay away from. Eremita fawned over his grandmother, saying, "My grandmother was my idol."


Now that he's 33, Eremita hunts wild mushrooms because, as he puts it, "many traditional Slovenian dishes consist of mushrooms." When asked if he was worried about poisonous mushrooms, Eremita lamented, "Of course I am, to some point. Caution is always needed. If in any doubt, I always seek help with either literature or a more experienced forager."


"I love mushrooms, whether edibles or poisonous, big or small. Fungi world is my passion." He picked up photography four years ago and took to photographing the various fungi found throughout the forests in and around Lacja Vas, Slovenia. The results are amazing.


Please note that while these fungi are beautiful in their natural environment, extra care must be taken when harvesting wild mushrooms as many are poisonous and/or deadly to humans.



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After 25 Years In Prison, Artist Etches Memories Onto Eggshells

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An ostrich egg is not as delicate as its dear cousin, the chicken egg. In fact, legend has it that if you stand atop one, it will not crack. 


After spending nearly 25 years behind bars, San Francisco-born Gil Batle moved to a small island in the Philippines. He was given an ostrich egg. This little egg would change Batle's life forever. "I like to think that the proverbial lightbulb went off," Frank Maresca, Batle's art dealer, explained to The Huffington Post. "I'm not sure exactly what went through his head but I do know he took that single ostrich egg and -- how it happened, I don’t really know."


Using an eggshell as his base, Batle carved a three-dimensional narrative in painstaking detail, recounting the painful and visceral memories from years behind bars. Onto the smooth exterior of the shell, in marks so small they require a magnifying glass to see properly, Batle rendered visions of gang violence, prison riots, court hearings and horrifying dreams. 


The round relief sculptures, in a style somewhere between Lorenzo Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" or Frank Miller's "Sin City," are equally as precise in their attention to narrative detail as they are to visual detail. One egg recounts jargon that prisoners often turned to in their letters to the outside, referencing contraband or other illegal actions while dodging the watchful eye of the prison guards. Another portrays the entry process of new inmates, or "fresh fish," from their toilet paper rolls to their fearful contorted expressions. 


Most of Batle's epic visions are framed by prison fences, carved into and out of the shells. "How the whole thing is possible, how anyone can carve a lattice of a prison chain link fence -- I honestly don’t know how the hell it happens," Maresca said. "It just seems like a miracle to me. It’s absolutely impossible that it could survive."



Maresca was introduced to Batle's work around a year ago by private dealer Norman Brosterman. When Maresca finally had one of the objects in his grip, he was mesmerized.


"I’m turning the egg, and this narrative of a life I don’t know at all but we’ve all heard about, seen represented on film, written about -- all of the sudden, here it was. This was real. Here I am, holding in my hand a round egg, something that is circular, sort of like film, or a story," he said. "It’s something that someone touched, carved, it’s real. This guy lived all of these scenes."


Batle was locked up in five different California prisons, including San Quentin, Chuckwalla and Jamestown, sentenced for various crimes associated with fraud and forgery. "The story of crime is unfortunately and usually the same," Maresca said. "He was a certain age, ran with a proverbial bad crowd. Drugs became a part of his life. Drugs are an expensive habit. If you’re from the background that’s not the greatest background in the world, you turn to crime."


In one of the texts accompanying his work, Batle succinctly describes the experience. "After losing my job, family and then divorced, I had to 'create' a way of making money (literally). I was making my own traveler's cheques, money orders, fake IDs and even credit cards ... In a twisted way, I saw it as art. I had so many identities that I almost forgot who I was. I was going through a crazy identity crisis." 


During his incarceration, Batle witnessed five stabbings, two riots, multiple rapes, and saw someone being thrown out the window. "I have a few stories that are so complex that it would be impossible to express on an egg," Batle said. "No movie. book, painting or even eggs can express what it was really like in there."



Batle's ability to forge cheques speaks to his technical skill as an artist. At the time, his skills were primarily expressed through illegal activity and the occasional tattoo. These same skills protected Batle while incarcerated. 


He fashioned tattoo materials out of whatever he could scavenge, using motors from CD players, electric toothbrushes for the gun, and ink from melted chess pieces or soot mixed with lotion in a paper bag. His ability to tattoo (and create the occasional illustrated greeting card) helped him avoid the grisly violence that plagued most prisoners' stays. Before serving time, Batle had a gift. In prison, this gift became a sort of lifeblood.


"The prison ‘artist’ was a commodity," Batle explained. "He was like a magician. Even the toughest convicts were in awe at the artists’ skills ... Call it performance art, how I was able to survive behind those walls."


"It’s prison, so in prison, what do you have a lot of? Time," Maresca put it. "What do you do with that time? You can build your body and you can build your mind. Gil wasn’t making eggs in prison. He was preparing his mind, he was preparing stories, he was laying the groundwork. His brain served as the repository. He just stored them up."



Each egg, standing vertically, measures around six inches tall. The etchings, carved using a high-speed dental drill, take approximately a month to create. Batle begins by mapping out a grid of horizontal and vertical lines, ensuring the entire narrative framework will fit. He then delves into the archives of his memory, patching together details to create a vivid, compact vision. 


Chains, knives, wire, bars and birds reappear like elements of a recurring dream, mimicking the endless repetition of daily life experienced in a cell. Certain figures adopt a mythical quality -- memorably vicious prison guards, for example, take on animal forms. When depicting himself, Batle opted for masks and chameleons instead of his true appearance, alluding to his criminal career of shifting identities. 


One egg, titled "Cicada Nymphs," collapses the image of the folkloric insect with that of the inmate, stemming from the idea that cicada nymphs stay burrowed underground for 13 to 17 years before emerging to mate. "It is unknown what takes place underground for all those years," Batle explained in an artist statement. "I relate this idea to how civilians on the outside view inmates serving very long sentences on the inside. Folks on the outside don't know what we do on the inside."


And then there is the import of the egg itself, the all-natural emblem of protection, of life. "What could be more the symbol of life than an egg?" Maresca asked. "What can be more delicate? Maybe that was what was going through his mind. He told his story on that first egg, that egg essentially gave birth to another egg. No one wants to communicate in silence."



Batle's artistic practice is a form of catharsis, a means of communicating memories too dark to say out loud. "I actually have to go back (mentally) to prison to capture that feel of being inside that place," Batle said. "Its a relief of gratitude when I look up from the egg and I'm reminded that I'm not in there anymore."


Batle has never had any formal artistic training. Because of the extensive time he spent in prison, and the altered state of mind that would result from such an experience, many would qualify Batle as an outsider artist. However, Maresca describes Batle as a self-taught artist, one not quite so far outside the mainstream, who can safely function in society without, say, the aid of a caregiver.  


After a certain point, terminology becomes irrelevant, as distinctions between outsider and self-taught artists fade in comparison to the work itself. What's clear is that Batle possesses immense natural talent, incredible patience, and a vast arsenal of stories waiting to be told.


"I said, 'Gil what’s next?'" Maresca said. "'What are you going to do next?' He said, 'I have so many stories to tell.' Twenty-five years in the joint. Every day. Think about what he witnessed."


Now a free man, Batle is able to release his darkest recollections -- slowly, painstakingly, mark by mark. Like eggs, people too are less fragile than they seem. 


Gil Batle's work will be on view at the Ricco Maresca booth at the Outsider Art Fair, from Jan. 21-24, 2016, at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. 






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These Are The Women Of Gustav Klimt And Egon Schiele's Paintings

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The names Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka are familiar enough. Even the casual art fan knows Klimt and "The Kiss," and might even be able to conjure an image of the iconic painter of gold in front of an easel, draped in one of his signature robes. (He often went without undergarments.)


Schiele and Kokoschka are, perhaps, sequentially more obscure. Thumb through a handy encyclopedia, though, and you'll find all three Austrian painters preserved in the ranks of history. 


But have you heard of the name Eugenia (Mäda) Primavesi? How about Gerti and Edith Schiele? Does Martha Hirsch ring a bell? The answer: probably not.



These are the names of the women frozen for eternity in the canvases of the previously mentioned male artists. Wives, daughters, lovers, friends; they appear both elaborately dressed and unmistakably naked in the respective styles of the three men. A marker of the sexually explosive time and place in which they were painted -- Vienna in the early 20th century -- the women can be seen staring assertively at the viewer more often than not, defying the stereotype of the quiet muse.


"Intellectuals in fin-de-siècle [end-of-the-century] Vienna were downright obsessed with female sexuality," New York gallery owner and curator Jane Kalir emphasized in an essay for Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. Artists like Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka were too. They painted their mistresses and models in expressionistic poses, focusing on the faces in ways few had done before them. In a time when women were finally, hesitantly, being seen as sexual beings and independent citizens, these images underscored a period of greater change.



The erotic representations of women in particular, openly depicting sex and masturbation, were offensive to conservatives, mesmerizing to the rest. Today, they are hypnotizing visitors to Austria's Belvedere, which is currently hosting a show titled "The Women of Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka."


Beyond introducing audiences to the color-packed, blush-worthy portraits that once caused a stir, they also shine a spotlight on the named and unnamed women we don't often hear about in art history classes. While Klimt was living with his mother and two sisters, and Schiele was spending time in jail for his "dirty" work, even more unnamed women in Vienna were fighting for gender equality and emancipation from a century of marginalization. 



The Belvedere's exhibition and accompanying book focus primarily on the three painters' preoccupation with the female body and the ways in which they -- men -- changed the image of women in popular media. The paintings on view, however, are still images created by men looking at women looking at men, as Kalir points out.


A few essays by experts like Alfred Weidinger bring our attention back to the efforts of groups like the Allgemeine Österreichische Frauenverein (General Austrian Women's Association) and the Bund Österreichischer Frauenvereine (Federation of Austrian Women's Associations), who fought for social and economic parity. Others give political and cultural context to the artworks on view, outlining the ways in which patriarchal opinions were falling by the wayside.



"More and more middle-class women protested and organized themselves into women's movements, but it was women workers who led the way," Weidinger writes of Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka's time. "They were not only interested in a revision of the male-dominated education system, their purely representative status as wives, and the meaningless conventions, but also explicitly demanded their rights and insisted on a re-evaluation and reinterpretation of gender roles."


While Klimt's gilded women and Schiele's titillating figures are symbols of a burgeoning art world, enraptured by new ideas and radical thoughts, it's the tales of women leaders who should stand out in this period. These often untold histories are just as important.


You can read more about women adovcates like Rosa Mayreder, Marie Lang, Auguste Fickerr and Marianne Hainisch in the book, The Women of Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka. The exhibition of the same name will be on view at the Lower Belvedere in Vienna, Austria, until Feb. 28, 2016.



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What Did Bowie Do At Your Age? This Website Will Tell You

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Ever wonder how your life stacks up to the great David Bowie? 


Let me introduce you to supbowie.com, the website that let's you scroll through the biography of David Robert Jones year by year. Type in your age -- or any random age, really -- and you'll get a snippet of what Ziggy did that year. 


Remember his mime troupe "Turquoise"? Remember when he made a guest appearance on "SpongeBob Square Pants"? Remember JARETH?






Go ahead, spend the day perusing all that is Bowie. Either that, or you're going to be experimenting with 18th-century wigs because the first work week of January is pretty rough.


Moral of the story? Never forget Jareth.





 


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Remarkable Video Series Celebrates Small People Doing Big Things

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There may be eight million stories in the naked city, but cinematographer Brent Foster is focusing on telling the ones about ordinary older people who do extraordinary things. These are the people who aren't rich or famous, but who renew our faith in humanity with their small gestures, he told The Huffington Post.


Foster began his While I'm Here | The Living Legacy Project after a missed opportunity. While growing up, there was an older man in his Canadian neighborhood who used to sharpen everyone's skates in his garage for free. It was the man's way of giving back and creating a community. 


Foster said he always wanted to really hear the "why" behind the skate-sharpener's story but never got around to it. And then the man died. "I want to tell these stories while the people are alive," Foster told HuffPost.


The "While I'm Here" project is self-funded. Foster's goal is to feature six people, and he has made three of the films already. "We've started an Indiegogo to raise enough funds to cover the hard costs," Foster said, "We're donating our time and efforts, but are hoping to raise enough to cover the cost of plane tickets, luggage fees for gear, etc."


 

The stories include a 30-year Navy veteran, Ed Nicholson, who was diagnosed with cancer and treated at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. While there, he met injured vets returning from Iraq -- many with mental and physical issues. Armed with a fly fishing rod, Nicholson began to teach the Iraq War vets how to cast on the front lawn of the hospital -- and Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing was born.



Foster's films also feature Thomas Weller, a.k.a. “The San Diego Highwayman,” who has been rescuing people stranded on the side of the road for 48 years.



When he was 16, Weller drove his car into a ditch and was rescued by a man who asked only that he pay it forward one day.


Since then, Weller has rescued thousands of people who were stranded in one way or another. Weller hands them a card that says “You don’t owe me a thing. I’ve been there too. Someone once helped me out, just the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here’s what you do: Don’t let the chain of love end with you."


Back in August of 2011, Weller’s famous rescue car “Beulah” was totaled during a rescue. The remains of his prized car still sit in his back yard. Weller can’t afford to repair the car but has dreams of getting it back on the road while he’s still able to help others. The legacy project hopes to help him do just that.




 


Foster says that if he had to pick a favorite, it would be 83-year-old Mississippi bluesman Leo "Bud" Welch, who just released his first blues CD. Yes, at 83. "He is living proof that we are never too old to chase our dreams," said Foster.


Welch's story is told below.


 




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These Taboo Words Are Actually Okay To Say

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I have a tendency to pose my opinions as questions: “Was that essay a little underreported?” “What do you think about tacos for dinner?”


I don't do this with issues I've thought through thoroughly or feel passionately about -- social justice and most other political topics, who should win the Academy Award for Best Actress, the many merits of eating gluten -- but with discussions-in-progress, those daily quibbles that require quick decisions rather than the deep contemplation necessary for assuredness, I prefer to be open. It's a way of acknowledging that I don't fully understand the other side of an argument yet. A way of granting my fellow converser some leeway. 


I didn’t realize until recently that this tendency is distinctly feminine, akin to using wishy-washy adverbs like “completely,” or qualifying a request with an undermining “just,” as in, “I just think my viewpoint matters.” Conversationally, women are more prone to whispering than shouting, more likely to tip-toe than stand our ground. Consequently, we’re less likely to have our voices heard; managers are less likely to grant us raises, and even doctors are less likely to treat our medical concerns as genuine.


There’s been a recent call to action, possibly spawned from the important but limited creed of Lean In, for women to speak more assuredly at work by disallowing ourselves the language habits we were socialized to develop. Affixing an unsure “maybe” or “just” to our requests has made for an uneven playing field in the workplace, where bold assertions drive success. How are we supposed to compete with “do this now,” no whimpering “please” included? Our self-doubting language -- our well-meaning exclamation marks and adverbs -- doesn’t stand a chance.


Which is why awesome woman entrepreneur Tami Reiss, CEO of Cyrus Innovation, created a Chrome extension that alerts women of their wishy-washy language usage. It functions a little like spell check -- any utterance of “sorry,” “I think,” “just,” “actually,” and other such doubt-ridden words and phrases are marked with a squiggly read underline, urging the writer to scrub her email exchanges of anything but certitude.


While this is an efficient means of confronting a pervasive problem -- women aren’t treated as equals in the workplace and beyond -- it’s more of a bandaid than a permanent solution.



fixed it

A photo posted by tragic queen (@audreywollen) on




Apologizing about a disagreement serves an important social function, as does professing uncertainty about a problem’s potential solution. These phrases soften the blow of what would otherwise be a stubborn stand-off between assured, disagreeing parties. Creating conversational harmony is a tough job -- one that often results in understating one’s own opinions -- and unfortunately that responsibility has rested on women for too long.


It’s time that men fluff up their comparably combative language a little, so that the balance of making decisions and asking questions can be maintained across both genders.


This means lifting the ban on those quivering, qualifying adverbs, which can actually say quite a bit in their delicate uncertainty. It means praising writing that flinches, as well as the unflinching sort. And, yes, it means saying you’re sorry -- even if you don’t feel entirely responsible for whatever you’re apologizing for.


It’s a spectrum, of course. Apologies need not be doled out for every minor offense. But don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, the answer to conversational equality, lies somewhere in the middle, where feminine and masculine speech patterns converge?


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George R.R. Martin And His Fans Need To Leave Each Other Alone

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George R.R. Martin and his fans might be the closest thing the book world has to a tabloid couple. One day they’re all over each other, the next they're sending veiled barbs through the media about his poor work ethic and their greedy entitlement.


That was all forgotten this week, in the sort of orgy of forgiveness and gratitude that typically follows a near-breakup.


Martin announced, in a long, painful blog post, that he had missed his deadline for completing the upcoming book in A Song of Ice and Fire, the fantasy series on which the HBO show “Game of Thrones” is based, The Winds of Winter, and that he didn’t know when he’d be able to send it to his publisher.


The author, clearly, had braced himself for a wave of fury from his readers, especially given the circumstances: The publication of the book will now be delayed past the premiere of the upcoming season of “Game of Thrones,” and since this season will draw from The Winds of Winter, readers will likely have some plot points in the new book spoiled by the show itself.


Instead, Martin revealed that he received an outpouring of support. Fans commented on his blog, The Guardian reported, telling him to “take as long as you need to, sir” and “get it done when it’s done.”


The kind reaction, Martin said, “has been astonishing” -- an assessment any casual observer of his turbulent relationship with fans would cosign.


For years, readers have chastised Martin for allowing himself to be seen out of the house when he should be working ceaselessly on his next installment of the series. The frenzy surrounding his delayed book deliveries -- readers worry that he’ll die before finishing the series, or that he won’t get the next book out in time because he went to a show premiere -- has become almost a joke at this point.


It’s nice to see the salivating hordes of “Game of Thrones” fans showing their humanity toward the man who’s brought them so much joy; a little New Year’s miracle.


But let’s get real, it’s not just the fans who are guilty of controlling behavior in this equation. While they’ve been stamping their feet and demanding he get back to writing about the Starks and the Lannisters, Martin has been stamping his feet and demanding that fans get back to not writing about them. That is, Martin has taken readers to task for the crime of writing amateur fan fiction -- repeatedly. 


“It's a lazy way to go when you're just taking my characters,” he announced at a panel in Brisbane in 2013. In a LiveJournal post from 2010, he was still firmer: "'My characters are my children,' I have been heard to say. I don't want people making off with them, thank you. Even people who say they love my children…. No one gets to abuse the people of Westeros but me.”





Writers from Lev Grossman to Elizabeth Minkel have discussed and defended the art of fan fiction, even as powerful authors such as Martin attack it. It’s worth noting that while Martin blasts the artistic laziness of the approach, fan fiction is generally either a recreational art for super-fans, or training wheels for budding artists; even if all aspiring authors started making their own characters as he suggests, that leaves the hordes of fans who simply want to imagine their favorite queens and warriors in new stories.


Nor can the risks to authors be so great when authors such as Martin, J.K. Rowling and even Stephenie Meyer are still doing so well for themselves. Meyer may have the most cause for complaint, yet she herself drew heavily from bland literary tropes to create bland characters hardly recognizable in the renamed, un-vampiric Christian and Anastasia of Fifty Shades of Grey, which technically originated as Twilight fan fiction.


It’s also worth noting that, despite Martin’s argument that fan fiction once designated original fics published in zines, and that “the Internet has changed everything,” perhaps the oldest literary tradition is the borrowing and reuse of characters and narratives. To cite one obvious example, nearly every Shakespearean play drew directly from an existing story. The legalistic possessiveness of fictional characters, however -- that is a relatively modern concept. 


The law is on Martin’s side here, especially insofar as profit goes; fan fiction authors can’t write their own versions of The Winds of Winter and publish each for $15.99 a copy. But once he’s published his books, he can’t control what people think about them, and dream about them, and imagine about them. His characters might feel like his children, but by publishing those stories, he’s giving tacit consent to millions of readers to develop close attachments to those characters, as well. Once you let your characters out into the world, they don’t just belong to you anymore.


By the same token, Martin doesn’t belong to his fans. He’s not morally obligated to deliver new books on schedule, and as readers seem to have realized with this latest kerfuffle, this pressure cooker isn’t conducive to turning out a high-quality read, either. He’s a creative, not a manufacturer on a deadline, and his readers may want both speed and quality, but they can’t dictate either.


The Internet may have created one problem for Martin: with so many lines of direct communication to and among his fans, it's harder than ever to simply ignore the fan fiction and art of his work, the critiques of his pace, and the fevered theorizing about the series. 


Martin may not want to hear this, of course, but fan fiction may be his best friend during these prolonged, beleaguered waits. Nothing takes the edge off the wait for a new installment like a good fan-fic binge, or getting caught up in your own fantasy of what might come next for Westeros. It’s no replacement for The Winds of Winter, but it keeps readers thinking and talking about the books while they wait -- and hopefully talking about something other than how livid they are to have seen Martin out at a convention when they want him to be finishing a draft.


Here’s a New Year’s resolution for George R. R. Martin and his fans alike: take a deep, deep breath, and set each other free. I promise, you’ll all be happier in the end.


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12 Vintage Baby Names That Aren't Wildly Popular -- Yet

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Looking for fresh name inspiration for your 2016 baby? Some of the newest names are the oldest -- favorites from a century ago, ready for revival in the coming year. Twenty years ago, Amelia and Oliver were the new old names to watch. Now that they’re near the top of the charts, another set of vintage-sounding names is on the rise. None of these rank in the U.S. top 1000 -- yet -- but they’re all poised to make a comeback in 2016.  


Agnes


Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany named their daughter Agnes Lark in 2011. By 2014, there were 187 girls with the name. Agnes is a gentle, vintage choice, big in the 1890s, while the nickname Aggie fits right in with Abby, Addie, Maddie, and Maggie. The movie "Despicable Me" also featured three adorable sisters with sassy, retro names -- Margo, Edith, and Agnes.


Lottie


Charlotte was on the rise well before William and Kate chose the name for their little princess. Charlie is a modern, vibrant take on Charlotte, while Lottie is elegant. It’s a nostalgic name that should appeal to parents considering stylish nickname-names like Sadie, Hattie, or Millie.


Sybil



Like the increasingly popular Cora, Sybil is a name from a beloved "Downton Abbey" character, a tailored choice with ties to the ancient world and the Harry Potter series. The name peaked in the 1920s in the U.S, which means that it’s just about time for this neglected gem to be rediscovered.


Flora


Nora and Cora are favorites, as are Lily and Rose. Flora combines the best of all four names, but is less common. A 19th-century favorite, Flora feels breezy, botanical, and decidedly of the past. In 2014, 167 girls were named Flora -- the most since the 1960s -- which suggests that this name is already on the rise. 


Winifred


One hundred years ago, Winifred was as popular as Josephine and Ivy are today. The name has been in pseudo hibernation since the 1960s, but the numbers suggest that Winifred is ready for a comeback. Jimmy Fallon named his daughter Winnie in 2013, and the current generation of parents grew up with Winnie from "The Wonder Years" -- though she was born Gwendolyn.


Petra



Parents love vowel-heavy names like Ella and Mia and Aria. But there’s a place for names with a little more crunch. Petra is a feminine form of Peter and also an ancient city in Jordan. Most popular in the 1920s, it seems like a possibility for parents seeking something just a little bit different in 2016.


Leopold


Leo is among the most stylish of vintage boys’ names, a favorite from the 1910s recently returned to the U.S. top 100. Leopold is royal, saintly, and thanks to James Joyce, literary, too. But unlike Leonardo, Leon, Leonel, Leonidas, and Leonard, it’s a Leo-name that still hasn't seen major increases in popularity.


Homer


"The Simpsons" took this ancient Greek poet name and gave it to the donut-loving dad in the long-running animated series. That’s put modern parents off the name, but consider this: series creator Matt Groening has a father and a son named Homer. Richard Gere, Anne Heche, and Bill Murray all chose it for their sons, too, making Homer a quirky-cool possibility.


Ike


Likable Ike is as brief as Jack, as bright as Kai. It’s sometimes short for Top 100 name Isaac, but hasn’t featured in the U.S. rankings since President Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower left the White House in the 1950s. It’s an undiscovered gem just right for parents who want to keep it simple, while finding something less popular than Max.


Linus



A generation knows Linus only as the sweet, blanket-toting boy from Peanuts, but Linus is a name from Greek myth. It was worn by the second pope; a Nobel Prize winner; and characters played by leading men from Humphrey Bogart to Matt Damon. For all of those reasons, Linus is currently on the rise in the U.S., and is poised to enter the Top 1000 for the first time ever.


Murphy


American parents love a good Irish surname name, and Murphy is ready to follow Brady and Riley into the U.S. rankings. A regular in the Top 1000 through the 1950s, Murphy is sometimes heard for girls, too -- credit goes to '90s sitcom "Murphy Brown." But the numbers give Murphy to the boys, and suggest that it’s a name to watch for 2016. 


Roscoe


An English surname with Norse roots, Roscoe was in steady use a century ago. In the 1980s, we knew the name mostly as the bumbling sheriff on TV favorite "The Dukes of Hazzard." Now that Hazzard is fading, Roscoe feels like a clunky-cool choice in the key of Arlo and Otis. A perfectly ahead-of-the-curve pick for the daring namer.




 


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'The Bachelor' Season 20 Premiere Recap: Ben Higgins Still Feels Unlovable

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After a months-long hiatus, "The Bachelor" franchise has returned, this time with all-American family man Ben "Unlovable" Higgins at its center. And on "Here To Make Friends," we're ready to talk about all of it -- for the right reasons.


In this week's "Here To Make Friends" podcast, hosts Claire Fallon and Emma Gray recap the premiere of "The Bachelor," Season 20. We'll discuss Ben's clear distaste for brunettes (and redheads), why "normal" doesn't necessarily help you on "The Bachelor,' the gross sexualization of twins Emily and Haley (they are ACTUALLY two separate humans) and Lace's quick, wine-fueled downward spiral.





We'll also give our top picks for this season's "villain" and who we think stands a chance of getting Ben's final rose.


Plus, we're joined by Sam Usher and Max Godnick of the Bachelor Dudes, for their Male Insights (TM).



 Keep track of who made the cut this week in the handy graphic above, and check out the full premiere podcast below!


 





 


Do people love "The Bachelor," "The Bachelorette" and "Bachelor in Paradise," or do they love to hate these shows? It's unclear. But here at "Here To Make Friends," we both love and love to hate them -- and we love to snarkily dissect each episode in vivid detail. Podcast edited by Nick Offenberg.


This week's best tweets about "The Bachelor" ...


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Vaginal Speaker Lets Unborn Babies Listen To Music In Utero

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Parents-to-be now have a new way of connecting with their unborn babies. Introducing Babypod, a small speaker that pregnant women can insert into their vaginas to play music for their uterine inhabitants. 


Put simply, Babypod is more or less a "musical tampon" that lets fetuses listen to music or other sounds in utero. 



Developed in Spain, Babypod was inspired by research from Institut Marquès, a Barcelona-based medical center focused on gynecology and assisted reproduction. 


Dr. Marisa López-Teijón from Institut Marquès told The Huffington Post that her team studies the influence of music on embryonic and fetal development."We’ve conducted a study showing that musical vibrations increase the chances that the sperm fertilizes the egg, i.e. that music improves IVF," she said. 





Having found better results in in-vitro fertilization through musical vibrations for embryos, the researchers decided to apply their idea to fetuses.


López-Teijón and her team placed speakers on pregnant women's abdomens during ultrasounds but found no fetal reaction. "In fact, gynecologists had never observed in an ultrasound a change on the fetus as a reaction to external noises or the voice of the mother," the doctor explained.


"We decided that we had to bring closer to them the source of sound," she continued. "We had to bring the background music into the uterus. And I had the idea of inserting a speaker in the vagina of pregnant women."




For three months, the team evaluated 106 expectant mothers and their unborn babies' reactions to intravaginal music. "We were pleasantly surprised to see the excitement of parents during ultrasound sessions to see the spectacular images of face, tongue and mouth movements of their babies,"López-Teijón said, adding that most patients wanted to repeat the experience and many more parents-to-be requested to participate. 


López-Teijón added that they observed no adverse effects on the health of the mother or baby.


With Babypod, parents all over the world can try the experience for themselves. 


"Pregnant women are excited to have the chance to communicate to their babies in a safe and effective way," Babypod cofounder Luis Pallarès Aniorte told HuffPost, adding, "They want to provide the best for their children even before birth."



According to Pallarès Aniorte, Babypod can help wake fetuses and induce movement during ultrasounds, which could make these appointments more effective and efficient. The speaker device can also help babies connect with their mothers' voices and develop early language skills. 


"Furthermore, we’re all excited about the potential of Babypod on the screening of fetal deafness, and on early neurological stimulation," he added.  


In December, a group of expectant mothers in Spain attended a special "concert for fetuses" to promote Babypod. Each mother was outfitted with one of the devices and serenaded by singer Soraya Arnela.





Babypod is available online and in stores in select countries. Pallarès Aniorte told HuffPost that the product has been sold to thousands of women in the U.S., Spain, India, Germany, the U.K., Australia, Japan, France, Sweden, Brazil, Peru and more. 


For more information, visit the Babypod website.


H/T Jezebel


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Jennifer Lawrence: Attacks On Planned Parenthood Are Attacks On Women

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Jennifer Lawrence has been speaking her mind more and more lately -- and we absolutely love it. 


In an interview with Glamour's editor-in-chief Cinid Leive for the magazine's February issue, the 25-year-old actress covered topics including the wage gap, the 2014 celebrity nude photo hack and the recent Planned Parenthood attacks. As always, Lawrence's conversation did not disappoint. 


As she discussed a film she's writing with Amy Schumer, Lawrence recalled seeing the comedian after the November attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado. “Amy’s the most empathetic person I’ve ever met in my life," Lawrence told Leive. "When she came over this morning, she was crying. She had just... seen the news about the shooting at Planned Parenthood."


Speaking further on the topic, Lawrence said she was horrified by the recent attacks and shared her own experience with the women's health clinic. 



It’s so awful. It isn’t an attack on abortions; it’s an attack on women. Because Planned Parenthood is so much more [than abortion]. My mom was really religious with me when I was young. She’s not so much anymore. And I wouldn’t have been able to get birth control if it weren’t for [Planned Parenthood]. I wouldn’t have been able to get condoms and birth control and all these things I needed as a normal teenager who was growing up in a Jesus house.



When Leive asked if Lawrence had visited Planned Parenthood to get condoms and birth control as a young woman, the actress replied: "Yes, I did. And now [gestures widely] I am a successful woman who has not had a pregnancy.... [Laughs] But seriously. What harm comes from supplying people with birth control, condoms, Pap smears, and cancer screenings?" Truth.



Later in the interview Leive asked Lawrence what made her decide to take a stand on the issue of wage equality. "I keep going back and forth on being opinionated... My business is based on everybody buying tickets and seeing my movie," Lawrence said. "It’s not smart, business-wise, to be opinionated. But then what’s the point in having a voice at all if I’m not going to use it for what I truly believe in?" 


When Leive brought up the August 2014 nude photo hack, which included stolen nude photos of Lawrence herself, the actress explained why the hack was a sex crime -- and not something she should be blamed or. "Even I've defended myself by saying I was in a relationship with a wonderful man for five years. But even if I wasn't, even if I [just] went on a date with a guy -- it doesn’t matter what the situation is," Lawrence said. "It's your body. And you can do whatever you want."


Head over to Glamour to read the rest of the interview. 


H/T Jezebel


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This Glass Sculpture Offers Reminder About Critical Issue

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As temperatures drop, the risk of homeless people freezing to death dramatically rises, a concern one artist has taken to interpreting as literally as possible to convey the severity of the issue.


U.K.-based artist Luke Jerram constructed a number of ice sculptures that he lay on the ground throughout Bristol. The goal was to show the harsh conditions people on the streets face, yet how often the problem goes unnoticed.



“For every person you see sleeping on the streets, there are many others sleeping in hostels, squats and other forms of unsatisfactory and insecure accommodation,” Jerram said in a statement. “I was interested to see whether the sculpture would be ignored and treated like street furniture as homeless people often are in a city.”


Homelessness is on the rise in Bristol due to a lack of affordable housing, and more than tripled among homeless families alone last year. The Bristol City Council placed 140 families in emergency accommodations, the BBC reported. 


To help put a stop to the problem even before vulnerable people hit the streets, Jerram partnered with 1625 Independent People, an agency that works to prevent homelessness.


By working with landlords and providing services, the organization kept 74 young people from ending up on the streets through its Early Doors program, according to the organization. The group hopes that the sculptures will inspire locals to donate to the program, which rescues vulnerable people and helps save the city funds.



According to the agency, it costs about 15 British pounds ($22) per week to provide prevention services. Providing supportive housing to someone in crisis costs 60 British pounds ($88) per week.


But the issue isn’t just isolated to Bristol.


Last year, 150,000 young people in the U.K. turned to local authorities for help in securing housing. Of those individuals, only 83,000 people accessed services because many weren’t “deemed a priority,” according to 1625 Independent People.


The situation has become such a struggle for the New Horizon Youth Center in London, for example, that the group has resorted to giving out bus tickets to homeless youth. It doesn’t have enough housing resources to house its clients, but wants to find ways to keep young people off of the streets. 


"They are safer riding buses than on the streets," Shelagh O’Connor, director of the New Horizon Youth Center, told the Guardian in September. "It is a dire situation. It has never been as bad as this; I am extremely worried."


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50 Award-Winning Wedding Photos That Will Blow You Away

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Wedding photography is an art form and these photos are proof. 


On Monday, Junebug Weddings released the 50 winners of their annual Best of the Best Wedding Photography Contest. This year, more than 10,000 images were submitted by photographers in 45 countries. 


“From the jaw-dropping, epic photos to the deeply intimate and emotional moments, these 50 images will make you a firm believer in the pure artistry that is wedding photography," editor-in-chief Carrie Crooks said in a press release.


See what images made the cut below: 



To see the rest of the incredible images, check out the slideshow below: 



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