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Behold: The Disney Princesses Painted As Renaissance Models

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The Disney princesses get a bad rap, and rightfully so. Between their unattainable waist-to-hip ratios and meager speaking parts, it can be frustrating that these women are considered role models.


But, the Disney franchise has leapt away from their mute and mild-mannered princesses of yore, with the recently bold and powerful stars Merida and Tiana. Diversity -- as well as depictions of women who are more than pleasant, pretty companions -- is on its way.


To convey the idea that women should be prized for their individuality rather than adherence to some objective standard of beauty, illustrator Thunyamon Charoensuttikul began thinking of new ways to depict the Disney princesses. For a class assignment, she decided to re-imagine them as Renaissance-style models. Charoensuttikul told The Huffington Post that the women who sat for paintings in that era were captured for their “uniqueness” rather than a template form of “beauty.”


In her illustrations, Mulan poses with a sword in hand, looking wry and defensive, a rambling wall lines the mountains sprawling out the window beyond her. Cinderella holds her glass slipper to her breast; Snow White clutches an apple, and the look on her face is devious.



Also on HuffPost:


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Why It Stings So Badly When Men Tell Hillary Clinton To Smile

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Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois. Based on the numbers, she will likely be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, which would make her the first female nominee for president representing a major party in our country's history. During her primary night speech, she spoke passionately about paid family leave, health care, social security and equal pay, but a few male pundits could only focus on policing her face and tone.


"Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough wanted Clinton to smile:






And Fox News host Howard Kurtz and POLITICO Chief Political Correspondent Glenn Thrush were distracted by her "shouting":










Demeanor is not something that has ever been off the table for critique and discussion when it comes to politicians. But when powerful men tell a powerful woman to "smile" or "be conversational," there's a reason that it strikes a nerve beyond the political sphere. 


Women experience the policing of their voices, their tones and their facial expressions on a near-daily basis -- inside the office, online, and even walking down the street.


We are forced to navigate a professional atmosphere that demands we be aggressive but personable, tough but soft, and steadfast but nurturing in order to get ahead. We are expected to smile while up against the gender pay gap, a working world that does not guarantee paid maternity leave or family leave or child care, and a society that tells us our greatest value still lies in the way we look and our ability to attract heterosexual male attention. It's enough to make you want to shout -- or cry -- but as a working woman, you know that neither response will get you very far.


When you tell a woman to smile, it sends a very particular message: Her face is for public consumption. Her face should be pleasing to you, for your benefit.


When powerful men tell a woman who might just become the most powerful in the world to smile, it reminds the rest of us that no matter how well we play the game, it is ultimately rigged against us. Because even becoming the Democratic frontrunner for president of the United States doesn't exempt you from the bullshit any woman with a body and a face has to deal with.






Of course, other presidential nominees, both Democrat and Republican, raise their voices when giving rousing political speeches, and fail to smile 100 percent of the time. But they don't seem to receive the same kind of consistent criticism Clinton does for that gruffness, or shouting, or lacking an inviting enough face. 


(See a mashup of the critiques lobbed at Clinton over her voice below.)





Clinton herself is cognizant of the increased scrutiny she faces over her tone as a woman.


"When women talk, some people think we're shouting," she said at the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum in October. The comment, to no one's surprise, drew huge applause -- and some screams. Afterwards, Clinton smiled. 




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Grimes Shocked By Faulty Stage Equipment During Performance In Dublin

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Grimes performed in Dublin on Tuesday night, giving fans a show that was quite literally electric.


As the Canadian singer was performing her set on stage, she reportedly received multiple electric shocks from faulty stage equipment. One fan in the crowd seems to have captured the moment where it all went down. In an Instagram video, you can see Grimes holding her ears as she curls over in shock in the middle of a song.  




But not to worry -- the 27-year-old is totally fine. In a since deleted tweet (captured by Complex), the singer thanked fans and apologized for the technical difficulties.


"Dublin! 1 mil apologies that my pedal failed and I was electrocuted, but there r tears in my eyes that y'all were so so wonderful," she wrote.


The "Kill v. Maim" singer even joked about the incident on Instagram after the show by posting a "Simpsons" screenshot her fans had shared with her. 



appreciating every1 who tweeted this at me today haha. Thank u thank u Dublin for being sweet and kind.

A photo posted by Grimezsz (@actuallygrimes) on




Glad she's OK!

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That Huge 'Game Of Thrones' Secret Might've Been Revealed In Season 5

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Now that Jon Snow is "dead," all men must speculate.


Could Melisandre bring him back? Will he turn into a White Walker? What's his secret for giving his hair so much bounce? The mysteries never end.


... Or do they? 


HBO is helping with our anxious Season 6 anticipation by now giving us the complete Season 5 Blu-ray/DVD. The release culminated in a visual dragon "crash site" and outdoor fan event in New York on Tuesday, which included a screening of "The Dance of Dragons," a 20-minute animated featurette from the Blu-ray, and an appearance by Davos himself, actor Liam Cunningham.


While talking with The Huffington Post, Cunningham revealed something you might've missed about Season 5.


OK, backstory: a few years ago, Cunningham told Sky Atlantic that when he met George R.R. Martin the author said he was still working on the new book and revealed a big secret. 


"I do have an actual secret, and it's pretty cool," Cunningham said.


At the time, Cunningham wouldn't reveal the secret, presumably involving Davos, but Season 5 had some of the biggest moments ever, so we asked if we finally saw the secret last season. (And we're highlighting this quote because it's veeerrry interesting.)



"That's a good question," said Cunningham, laughing. "I'm not gonna tell you what it is, but you have and you haven't," he said. 



Hmmm ... so we probably have seen part of this secret in Season 5. With this info, there are a few possibilities. Davos' storyline is intertwined with a bunch of crazy moments in the season, including Stannis' death and the sacrifice of Shireen. However, one event obviously stands out above all: the death (and possible resurrection) of Jon Snow.



Snow fits perfectly with the secret. We saw part of it last season when the character died. And the rest (his resurrection) would be sometime in the future.


From HBO posters and set leaks, it's basically guaranteed that Snow is coming back in Season 6. Plus, the new trailer may have revealed Snow is alive and gave strong hints that Davos and Melisandre are teaming up to make it happen. Additionally, a scene from the Season 6 premiere aired at SXSW recently and showed Melisandre telling Davos she saw Snow alive in a vision in the flames.


In regard to the secret, Cunningham continued, saying that if it hadn't happened yet, he wasn't going to reveal it.


"The most gorgeous thing about the show are these fantastic surprises. It’s stuff that just comes out and whacks you in the side of the head, and to take the enjoyment away from that by spilling the beans about something would be a terrible thing to do," said Cunningham.


Is the secret about Jon Snow's resurrection? Could it be something else?


The truth is coming ...





"Game of Thrones: The Complete Fifth Season" Blu-ray/DVD is available now.

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You Probably Missed These Epic Hip-Hop Easter Eggs In 'Hamilton'

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Broadway's hit musical "Hamilton" is more than one of the most successful productions ever to hit the stage, it's a testament to Lin-Manuel Miranda's lyrical genius. YES, WE SAID GENIUS.


What Miranda has managed to do is interlace the history of Alexander Hamilton with several decades of hip-hop's finest rhymes and lines. The musical references the work of artists from Notorious B.I.G. and Grandmaster Flash to Jay Z and LL Cool J.


One Tumblr user perfectly breaks down why "Hamilton" is a "rapper's delight," citing some of the most memorable lyrical Easter eggs in the show.


For example, in the beginning of "My Shot," Alexander Hamilton spells out his name, "A-L, E-X, A-N, D / E-R / we are / meant to be" in a rhythm that mimics Notorious B.I.G.'s infamous line in "Going Back To Cali," where he raps, "It's the N-O, T-O, R-I, O / U-S / you just / lay down / slow." Compare the two songs and see for yourself.


40 seconds in you'll hear Hamilton introduce himself:





Then, at the 2:15 mark, you'll hear Notorious B.I.G.'s similar shoutout:





The Tumblr user perfectly sums up the musical's incredibly captivating soundtrack:



Much of the brilliance of "Hamilton" is in how Lin-Manuel Miranda manages to incorporate evert musical style from Sondheim to to pop to R&B to create something totally new and infectious (he raps a reference to Gilbert & Sullivan for God's sake).



There's no denying that Miranda's fusion of different musical genres gives "Hamilton" a fresh, new edge that sets it apart from Broadway's other productions. The Tumblr fan explains that Miranda "elevates American art forms like jazz, musical theater and rap to tell the story of a bunch of old white dudes in the 18th century and makes it downright riveting." We couldn't have said it better ourselves.


Some other noteworthy hip-hop Easter eggs include "The Ten Duel Commandments," which is another nod to Notorious B.I.G. with his song "The Ten Crack Commandments." "Helpless" has a subtle similarity to Beyoncé's "Countdown," with Eliza evoking the pop diva's vocal style and riffs.


Then there's "Meet Me Inside," which has notes of DMX's "Party Up (In Here)." 


Check out the "Hamilton" ensemble chanting "Meet him inside" 25 seconds into the song. Sound familiar?





Listen to DMX rapping "Meet me outside" in a very similar rhythm at 3:20, clearly the inspiration for Miranda's Broadway interpretation.





The entire soundtrack is littered with hip-hop's greatest hits making cameo appearances, but one song in particular stands out. "Cabinet Battle #1," featuring an epic rap battle between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, has some of the best references of all. The rap battle opens with its moderator, George Washington, introducing the event: "Ladies and gentlemen, you could've been anywhere in the world tonight, but you're here with us in New York City!"


Listen to it here, right at the beginning:





Now, listen to Jay Z's introduction in "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" 17 seconds in, where he opens the song with a very similar line. 





There's even a possible Eminem reference later in the song when Jefferson says, "Oh if the shoe fits, wear it / New York's in debt, why should Virginia bear it?" This sounds oddly familiar to Eminem's line "If the shoe fits I'll wear it / But if I don't then y'all swallow the truth, grin and bear it" in his song "Renegade." 


And perhaps the most iconic reference of all is the Grandmaster Flash Easter egg that Jefferson drops when he says "Such a blunder sometimes it makes me wonder why I even bring the thunder," followed by the infamous throat clearing "aha-ha-ha-ha." 


It's no wonder "Hamilton" has drawn such a diverse and dedicated group of fans. If the incredible music is any indication, this show is worth seeing -- that is, if you can get tickets


Check out the full lyrical breakdown below for more hip-hop Easter eggs you might have missed.



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Just Like Trump, 'HAMILTRUMP' The Musical Is Way, Way Off (Broadway)

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The critically acclaimed musical "Hamilton" and likely GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump actually have something in common, and that's their ability to adapt. "Hamilton" is the adaptation of a book, while Donald Trump is the adaptation of a human being.


Combine the two, and it's a pretty entertaining musical experience. Written by Max Godnick, produced by El Triunfo and performed by Rad Motel Sketch Comedy, please enjoy "HAMILTRUMP," the musical.




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An Abandoned Moroccan Church Was Given A Technicolor Makeover

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Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel has a knack for revitalizing abandoned spaces with brilliant explosions of color. In his latest work, titled "11 Mirages to the Freedom," San Miguel covered an abandoned church in Youssoufia, Morocco with colorful murals -- and the result is mesmerizing.




The bright, saturated hues and geometric patterns are signature qualities of San Miguel's work. In 2015 he made waves by applying these themes to a 100-year-old Spanish church, which has since become a kaleidoscopic skate haven


For the church in Morocco, San Miguel drew from a range of inspirations, including "surrealism, multicultural religions, and symbolic iconography about freedom, existentialism, identity, capitalism and nature," the artist told The Huffington Post.


San Miguel began working on the project on Feb. 15 and finished within a week, Zigor Cavero, the artist's press representative, told HuffPost. The work is part of a larger series, called Street Art Caravane, running in different Moroccan cities throughout the year, Cavero said.


Take a look at the dazzling photos of the transformed church below and head over to San Miguel's Instagram for more of his work:


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Stunning Photos Show Santorini Is Beautiful Even When It's Cloudy

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The Greek island of Santorini, a well known tourist destination and popular holiday hangout, has become famous across the world through the countless photos of its volcano and its sunsets.


Michal Huniewicz, a 31-year-old photographer living in London, however, traveled to the island this spring when very few tourists were around.


The ferry that was supposed to take him to the island was canceled, forcing him to hop on a last-minute flight from Athens. “It’s a romantic island with little light pollution and spectacular skies at night,” Huniewicz told HuffPost Greece. But the time of his visit, "it was pretty dark and gloomy at the time, not very Mediterranean.” 



Huniewicz says he lived through a “very Indiana Jones moment” on the island, when he lost his balance and slipped towards the edge of a cliff. “My hands bleeding from the cuts, adrenaline pumping in my veins, centimeters from falling many meters down onto the rocks.”


The clouds didn't ruin Huniewicz's visit. Instead, he returned home with a unique set of images. 


“I am definitely coming back to Greece,” Huniewicz said. “I have always been fascinated by the Greek mythology --  my dad gave me a book about it when I was still a kid. I also like to read about the Byzantine Empire, and isn't Greece the cradle of our civilization, after all?”



Huniewicz is currently working on a project documenting women in the U.S. who help migrants who have risked their lives to try to escape poverty and violence in Central America. “I was humbled and honored to meet those women and listen to their stories, full of tragedy, but also love and compassion,” Huniewicz said.


Check out more of Michal Huniewicz's work on his Facebook page, and take a look at his photos of Santorini below.



 


This story originally appeared on HuffPost Greece and was translated into English. 

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Confronting TV's Diversity Problem 'From The Asian Point Of View'

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Remember that scene in Aziz Ansari's "Master of None," when his character Dev and fellow actor Ravi audition for the role of Unnamed Cab Driver on a crime procedural show? Dev tries a scene in his own voice, and the casting director flatly asks him to do an accent -- an Indian accent, Dev learns. "Ben Kingsley did an accent for 'Gandhi,'" the director muses. Well.


"As an Asian American actor, the number of racist, stereotyped auditions I go on would blow your buns off," actress Soojeong Son reiterates in a new Kickstarter campaign. "AND the number of times my characters are violently raped in these stories, for the sake of being 'provocative,' would blow your eyebrows off!"


Soojeong, better known as SJ, is one half of the comedy duo SJ and Ginny. She and her comedic partner, Ginny Leise, recently launched a crowdsourced campaign in support of their project, "Urban Teach Now," a TV pilot that challenges the lack of Asian American actors and stories on television.


"Urban Teach Now" follows Eunice Son, "an achievement-obsessed recent grad, who joins a non-profit teaching program [similar to Teach for America] after being rejected from her dream job on Wall Street." As the pilot's summary states, Eunice lands at a New Orleans public high school, backed by an illustrious B.A. in business management and her own sense of "unflagging entitlement." She is, to put it lightly, not equipped to deal with her new job, let alone the many challenges associated with relating to students.


But beyond Eunice's personal story, the pilot highlights broader ideas associated with diversity on TV and racism in America. "Urban Teach Now shamelessly talks about race and racism from the Asian point of view," SJ and Ginny add on Kickstarter. "From the racism Eunice encounters and reciprocates with her black students and white co-workers, to her own unconscious racism she perpetuates toward her Asian students."


The mere existence of a strong Asian American character that doesn't succumb to tired stereotypes is radical in and of itself. SJ and Ginny cite dismal statistics from Fusion on their campaign page, which claim only 8 percent of network TV shows number more than one Asian actor in their main casts. In the past, the duo hasn't shied away from confronting feminist issues through the lens of comedy either, and this is no exception.


"Being marginalized can be discouraging," SJ and Ginny concluded. "But being the insanely ambitious, restless creators we are, we decided to change this. We wrote a story about an Asian American woman who has agency, is the driver of the story, not an accessory, and the anti-hero of a hilarious and surprisingly sad story of a struggling teacher."


 






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Trump’s Speeches Are At A Middle-School Reading Level, Study Says

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Donald Trump’s campaign speeches are written at a lower grade level than those of other leading presidential candidates, a new analysis from Carnegie Mellon University suggests.


Using a readability model known as REAP, researchers Elliot Schumacher and Maxine Eskenazi analyzed a selection of speeches from Republican candidates Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio (who has since dropped out of the race) and Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. 


The sample size was small: They analyzed five of Cruz’s speeches, six speeches by Rubio and Sanders, seven by Clinton and eight by Trump.


REAP -- which isn't an acronym, according to the researchers -- measures how often different words and grammatical structures appear within a given text, then compares them with texts that education experts have determined are at a typical reading level for a particular grade.


In terms of their vocabulary, researchers found that the speeches for Trump -- who once bragged he had "the best words" -- were, on average, at about a 7th-grade reading level. Cruz’s and Clinton’s speeches were at about an 8th-grade level, while Rubio’s speeches were just under a 10th-grade level and Sanders’ were just above it.


In terms of grammatical structure, nearly all of the candidates' speeches hovered at around a 7th-grade level, with the exception of Trump, whose speeches are full of short, declarative sentences that placed them just under a 6th-grade level.


Schumacher told The Huffington Post this does not necessarily mean that the candidates sound like middle-schoolers when they speak (though hey, they definitely do sometimes). Instead, the analysis is more about how accessible their speeches are to readers and listeners.


For instance, saying that Sanders’ speeches are at a grade 10th-grade level means he is “speaking in a way that would be reflective of a text that a 10th-grader could read easily,” Schumacher said.


What Schumacher found most fascinating was the variation between the different speeches of a single candidate, which suggests that the candidate may be tailoring his or her speaking style to specific audiences. Trump’s speeches ranged the most in terms of their grammatical complexity, while Clinton’s varied the most in terms of vocabulary.


“It’s interesting to look at how various candidates portray themselves … I think it is interesting to think about how that varies based on the situation,” he said.


An August analysis by The Boston Globe placed Trump’s campaign announcement speech at a fourth-grade level, while speeches for Clinton and Sanders were at 8th and 10th-grade levels, respectively. But the Globe's analysis used a different measure -- the Flesch-Kincaid readability test -- which measures average sentence length and the number of syllables per word.


While both Flesch-Kincaid and REAP were intended to measure written text, not spoken language, the CMU researchers believe that REAP is the more effective way to measure speech.


“When we speak, we usually use less-structured language with shorter sentences,” Schuamcher and Eskenazi wrote in their report. “So while
measures such as Flesch-Kincaid are appropriate for written speech, they are not really reflective of the structure of spoken language."


"REAP has been trained on written texts … But it concentrates on how often words and grammatical constructs are used at each grade level and less on the length of the sentence and of each word,” they added.

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Is This America’s Funniest Gas Station Signboard? Seattle’s ‘Wallingford Sign’ Tickles The Internet

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“Ban pre-shredded cheese,” boasts the roadside sign. “Make American grate again.”


For about a decade, a Chevron gas station in the Seattle neighborhood of Wallingford has been broadcasting such witticisms to patrons and passersby.





“In October of 2005, we converted our auto repair shop into an ExtraMile convenience store and suddenly we had a problem. It had always been easy to think of useful messages to put on the sign for things like service promotions and store specials and the like. But with the ExtraMile, there were no more cars to fix and the place was plastered with store specials. So we decided to do something different,” the gas station explains on its website.


Once a week, the business posts funny slogans and cheeky messages on the sign. It was, as a manager explains in a video profile of the gas station, a way for the “community to connect with us.”











Although the “Wallingford Sign” is something of local landmark, you don’t have to live in Seattle to enjoy its humor. The sign has its very own Facebook and Twitter accounts, and fans have been using social media to share their favorite sign moments. 


Scroll down for a sampling: 





























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Is Humans of New York's Donald Trump Takedown the Most Popular Facebook Post Ever?

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This article originally appeared on artnet News.



In just three days, photographer Brandon Stanton's open letter to Donald Trump has become one of the most-shared Facebook posts in the history of the social network -- by some reports the most-shared single post of all time.


Stanton is the shutterbug behind the wildly popular blog Humans of New York, in which he publishes portraits of Gotham's residents along with brief interviews. In what he calls his first political post ever, he says that speaking out against the Republican presidential candidate—who has advocated for torture, urged violence by his supporters, and branded Mexican immigrants rapists—is a moral duty.


As of Thursday morning, Stanton's "open letter" had been shared upward of one million times, and has topped two million "reactions" from people including Hillary Clinton (or from whoever is in charge of Clinton's Facebook presence).


By comparison, the most shared post of 2015 was a photo of a child who had beaten cancer, according to the analytics site CrowdTangle. That post has racked up 622,000 shares over the last 12 months. Stanton's post has garnered upward of 50 percent more shares—in just three days.



The Donald has inspired an outpouring of anti-Trump creativity among artists. Among those that have made headlines in recent weeks: street artist Hanksyportrayed him as a pile of excrement; "gender fluid Futurist" Illma Gore depicted himwith a tiny sex organ; and Phillip Kremer posts distorted images of him on Instagram.


Here's Stanton's letter to the man who is, let's remember, the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination:


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Is Your Email Sign-Off Annoying? You Might Just Want To Say 'Thanks'

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In the world of social niceties, email sign-offs are the Wild West. Anything goes; there are no established standards. One man’s well-meaning “Thanks!” is another man’s “well, that was passive-aggressive.” And just when you think you know somebody, he could sling a “Cheers” your way, swiftly undoing years worth of kinship.


The problem may be the dearth of options. When closing an email, you could go the old-fashioned letter-writing route, tacking on something like “Sincerely,” “Warmly,” “Regards,” or “Yours.” But in a world where written exchanges are zipped back and forth, does sending “warm regards” on a chain every 25 minutes sound phony? Does “Sincerely” sound insincere?


Another option is to forgo the well-wishes, signing just your name, your initial, or including no signature at all. But does this come across as curt, or glib?




In a world where written exchanges are zipped back and forth, does sending “warm regards” on a chain every twenty-five minutes sound phony? Does “Sincerely” sound insincere?


A quick Google search for email signature etiquette yields unsurprisingly mixed results. A Business Insider piece rips into nearly every option, calling “Thanks” “not really thankful,” and “Looking forward to hearing from you” a “minefield of power dynamics.” Yikes. Even the neutral “Best” was called “vulgar,” “lazy” and a “cop-out” by the Telegraph. Bloomberg agreed, in an article headlined “You’re Ending Your E-mails Wrong: Why ‘best’ is actually the worst." Et tu?


This rampant disagreement likely arises from the ambiguous purpose of email. When is it best to write something out rather than call, or text? In business, it makes sense, but do you email your friends to set up a dinner date, or is that group text terrain? Is it impolite to email your grandmother to wish her happy birthday, when a call would’ve been more personal?


Is email meant for formal exchanges, informal discussions, or both? And if both, should you tweak your sign-off accordingly? Because the experts can’t seem to agree, HuffPost and YouGov polled readers about the formality level of emailing. We asked which sign-offs are commonly used, and which are downright annoying. 


Of 1,000 adults polled, just 17 percent said emails are formal, while 33 percent said they were informal and 49 percent said it depends. Among the most commonly reported sign-offs were “Thanks” (used by 62 percent of respondents, who were allowed to report more than one answer), just a name or initials (46 percent), “Sincerely” (44 percent), “Love” (28 percent), “Regards” (22 percent) and no signature at all (21 percent).


Forty-one percent of respondents didn’t find any email sign-offs annoying, illustrating that it might be best to just not worry so much about your verbiage. Emails are apparently considered informal, after all. However, 24 percent of respondents find “xoxo” annoying, while 21 percent dislike “Peace,” and 15 percent dislike e-mails containing no signature at all. “Cheers,” the sign-off much-aggrieved by etiquette columnists, was considered annoying by 13 percent of respondents, and “Thanks,” the least-annoying sign-off, was grating to only 3 percent.





So, if you’re aiming to please, “Thanks” might be the way to go -- even if you don’t have a particular task to thank your correspondent for. When asked directly whether “Thanks” denoted genuine gratefulness or passive aggressiveness, or whether it depended on the rest of the e-mail, only 2 percent said it was passive aggressive. Sixty-five percent said it depended on the rest of the email and 29 percent said it’s genuinely grateful no matter what. Perplexing findings, to be sure -- saying thanks was once a specific gesture, but it’s morphing into a nebulous nicety.


But, this is email we’re talking about -- the weird world of correspondence that’s sandwiched between thoughtful letter-writing and haphazard Tinder-swiping. It’s used to share links, to organize events, to chat, to delegate tasks. In fact, of all the modes of communication at our disposal, it may be the most action-oriented, which would explain why a simple “Thanks” often does the trick.






The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted March 10-11 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.


The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls.You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be foundhere. More details on the polls' methodology are available here.


Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some, but not all, potential survey errors. YouGov's reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample, rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. Click here for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error.

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These 15 Photos Are Keeping It Green For St. Patrick's Day

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You may think that St. Patrick's Day is your favorite time to party and celebrate some distant Irish heritage, or maybe it's the one day a year you think people ruin perfectly good beer and local waterways by dying them green.


Either way, you can't deny the people and animals in the photos below decked out in coordinating Irish green aren't happy about celebrating this fun holiday.


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Dreamy Photo Series Explores The Fragile Complexity Of Masculinity

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Warning: This article contains nudity and may be unsuitable for work environments.



The tired phrase "Boys will be boys" is often used to excuse the immature, rowdy, troublesome behavior of young men because, apparently, it's in their nature.


Photographer Tyler Udall's series "Boys" portrays a different, more complex, image of boyhood -- one filled not only with blunt strength, power and machismo, but also tenderness, tranquility and sympathy. In the dreamy series, Udall's not-a-boy-not-yet-a-man subjects pose in various states of undress, their bodies somewhere between macho protagonist and feminine muse. Their multidimensional natures are written on their bodies, which appear passive and romanticized while filled with energy and light. 


"Males (especially gay males) are ostracized for demonstrating 'feminine' qualities: creativity, sensitivity and empathy," Udall explained in an interview with i-D. "Being gentle is frowned upon. Why? Not that these qualities are only inherent to females, but for some reason we have predominately associated them with women. The fact of the matter is, men who exhibit these traits are sometimes met with ridicule, shame and are considered weak. This is such a slap in the face to women. Why should these so-called 'feminine' qualities be classified as something bad for men?"



Udall's photos reveal how feminism doesn't just help protect and liberate women, but so-called "femininity" in all its human forms. Just as a woman shouldn't only be praised for her ability to pose prettily in a photograph, so a man shouldn't be glorified for refusing to show emotion, vulnerability and weakness. When genders are stereotyped, generalized and culturally enforced, everyone is forced to forget aspects of themselves. 


The stunning "Boys" of Udall's photographic world are masculine and feminine, strong and susceptible, creative and beautiful, and so much more. The images recall the fragility and radical intricacy inside us all that sometimes a camera can only allude to. 



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These Haunting Photos Reveal The Two Sides Of Italy's Liberation

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Buildings destroyed by bombs, faces filled with despair, stoic soldiers, a worn-out Benito Mussolini, Pope Pius XII wading into a crowd of Allied troops, and a glamorous Marlene Dietrich performing atop a piano in a military hospital: these are only a few of the 140 photos showing the long, difficult process of liberating Italy from fascist rule.


The photos are part of the exhibition "War Is Over!," which runs until April 10 at the Forma Meravigli center in Milan, Italy. Their visual narrative begins in July 1943, with the arrival of Allied troops in Sicily, and ends on April 25, 1945, the official date of the liberation.


By the time the Allies landed, Italy was a country torn apart. Its people were exhausted, gripped by both fear and hope.


"The story of Italy that emerges from this dual viewpoint is both tragic and glorious. It is a story filled with courage and defeat, fear and joy, desperate violence and the overwhelming desire to live. It is the story of a country that is preparing for the best post-war years, marked by the triumph of democracy, the incredible movie industry, reconstruction, and the quest for wealth," write the exhibit's curators Gabriele D'Autilia and Enrico Menduni. 


Through black-and-white images gathered by the Istituto Luce and color images from the U.S. Army Signal Corps, visitors can see both sides of World War II's devastating effects. The exhibit also contains photos and film clips that had previously been censored.


The photos taken by the U.S. Army, which are normally housed at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, portray an Italy beginning to transform, swept by the breath of fresh air that was the "American way of life." A renewed vitality can be seen in the images of soldiers smiling at children, well-dressed women, views of the horizon and faces full of hope.


At the other end of the spectrum are the photos of the Istituto Luce, once the official photographic instrument of the fascist regime and still an important source of historical documentation. In shades of gray, they show fascism's decline and the ruins of war. 


Photo captions have been translated and presented as they appear in the exhibit. 



This post first appeared on HuffPost Italy. It has been translated into English and edited for clarity.

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Watch Lin-Manuel Miranda Freestyle About Feminism With Emma Watson

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Emma Watson and Lin-Manuel Miranda just made our feminist dreams come true.


Watson, a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and the most visible driving force behind the #HeForShe campaign, and Miranda, composer and star of the Broadway hit musical "Hamilton," recently sat down for a chat about gender equality. Well, there was a chat, but there was also some freestyling.


In a video Miranda posted on Facebook on March 17, Watson put her beatboxing skills to the test while Miranda used his (ridiculously awesome) freestyle abilities to share his thoughts on #HeForShe and feminism. Watching, it's easy to see why everyone from Watson to President Barack Obama is a little bit obsessed with Miranda. 


One of the highlights of his gender equality freestyle? "That means all day, every day, equal pay, every way, OK?"


Word. 


To see more of Watson's chat with Miranda, check out part one below. The rest can be viewed on Watson's Facebook page.




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Behold, The Clitoris Music Video You Never Knew You Wanted

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Did you know the clitoris has 8,000 sensitive nerve endings, double the number in the glans of a penis?


Yup, this tiny little organ is responsible for women's deepest form of sexual pleasure. But it wasn't until less than 20 years ago that we discovered the clit's true function. What took so long?


Get acquainted with this essential part of the body, thanks to this epic music video from Refinery29


It'll be a real pleasure. 

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35 Breathtaking Photos Taken By Women Throughout History

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Photography is an integral tool that gives us a glimpse into a world of experiences that can be so different from our own. It allows us to connect with people and places we may never have come across otherwise.


A powerful image demands our full attention, but the perspective of the person who created it can tell an even richer story. 


To celebrate Women's History Month this March, we've collected 35 powerful images taken by photographers who are women. The images include Dorothea Lange's iconic Great Depression photos and the war photography of photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus, who lost her life covering Afghanistan in 2014. These women and their work capture the human condition at its most honest. 


Images can become as much a part of history as the moment they capture. And in that sense, women have been capturing history as long as they have been making it.


While it's impossible to include every photographer we love on this list, take a look at 35 extremely talented women telling history through their lenses. 


Images are listed from most recent to oldest. 


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Stop Saying 'Nice To E-Meet You'

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I hate to criticize, but if you use the phrase "nice to e-meet you" in an email to me, I will trash your message, slip on a five-pound boot and punt my computer out the window and into the busy streets of New York City.


Do not do it.


We live in a glorious age of electronic communications in which people are comfortable distilling their complex emotional messages into dumb icons like this sneering jerk-face: 


And yet, for some, concision is abandoned entirely when emailing someone for the first time. Nice to ... e-meet you, they write. By that they mean, "nice to electronically meet you," i.e., meet you not-in-person.


This is bad for a few reasons.




  • Mark Twain said writers should "eschew surplusage." Communicate whatever is necessary and trim the rest. Adding that "e-" is meaningless. You are saying the same thing as "nice to meet you" but adding an extra syllable for the sake of clarifying that you are meeting "electronically" -- an unwarranted step because the medium itself clarifies that the introduction is happening electronically.




  • Can you imagine meeting face-to-face at a party, turning to a mutual friend and saying, "Oh yeah, we e-met"? That would be absurd.




  • Given how much we talk to one another via smartphones, "nice to e-meet you" probably makes less sense than saying "nice to meet you IRL!" when shaking someone's hand in person.




  • It makes it seem like you're dazzled by email. People have been using email to communicate for decades, and here you are calling attention to the fact that you've been introduced to someone electronically. It's telling that even the classic America Online voice said "you've got mail" when users signed in all those years ago -- "e-" was unnecessary even in the dial-up days. 









  • It's overly formal. You are going out of your way not to presume something about our relationship. It's implied that you're saying something like, "I am meeting you, but I'm not really meeting you, because this is happening via email." I respect the professional distance. But a recent survey by The Huffington Post and YouGov found that most people don't consider email "formal" by default -- it is okay for you to drop the pretense and slide into the shorter, arguably more casual "nice to meet you." 




I know you’re trying to be polite. But this is the crucial moment when people will form their first impression of you. Make sure it's not also their last.




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