Going on the Internet without having watched the latest plot twist unfold onscreen is like taking a stroll beneath a tree filled with a thousand pigeons. You might be OK. You might not. On the Internet, the pigeons are fans of your show or film franchise poised to drop knowledge that you’d rather stay far away from.

You might be OK. You might not.

Why haven’t we figured this out? The age of cord-cutting promised us a marathon -- the freedom to watch our shows and movies at exactly our own pace -- but instead, consuming pop culture has become a sprint. Keep up, or else! Someone could ruin it! For you! Forever!

One string of comments on Reddit warned against a long list of Internet activities that might reveal spoilers, including: Googling the name of a show or movie (the site is prone to auto-filling its search bar with spoilers), following pop culture podcasts on Facebook (they might post careless status updates) and tweeting about a show or movie to your own followers (some black-hearted stranger could respond with spoilers). Some Chrome extensions might help you, but the lesson appears to be: Don’t go online.

Yet it’s tempting to imagine a happy middle ground when the Internet is so essential to our daily responsibilities. It’s certainly possible. On Reddit, commenters can use Markdown code to black out parts of sentences containing spoilers; the words reveal themselves only when a reader hovers over them. The community also flags posts with spoiler tags for unassuming visitors to the page -- in many areas of the site, proper use of these tags is strictly enforced.

Someday, Facebook or Twitter might make similar resources available. But tools like that are not likely to subdue every single person in your feed. Individual jerks have always existed. They will always exist. And sometimes people just make mistakes.

Publications, however, are rightfully held to a higher standard. Should our readers really be punished for something so simple and necessary as seeing what’s going on in the world with the crushing knowledge that a favorite character died on "The Walking Dead"? All because they had to work late and their train was delayed and they couldn’t chill out and watch TV with everybody else last night? Should they be punished because they had actual obligations preventing them from binge-watching the new season of "House of Cards" all weekend?

A Universal Spoiler Code of Conduct remains to be written. Vulture published its own guide in 2008 -- a long, long time ago in entertainment -- and is working to update it. Other entertainment news sites ("Game Of Thrones" spoiler in the link) are not so thoughtful. For publications, the questions are sticky: How to draw in readers who have seen the show already while minding those who haven’t? When does the statute of limitations on spoilers run out? How much of the onus is actually on us to shield fans from spoilers? 

Nowhere does this debate come to life so much as in HuffPost Entertainment’s corrections inbox after an episode of “Game of Thrones.” One reader wrote to complain about the basic function of a headline, objecting generally to those that “point in a direction that leads a fan to plot-related assumptions.” A pair of similar complaints arrived after a post referenced a major “Game of Thrones” plot twist -- aired nine months previously -- in its headline. Still another shared an all-caps request that a plot point, which was revealed on the HBO series in 2013, be shielded by a large spoiler warning when it was referenced in an April 2016 story. 

It’s tempting to argue that true fans will either watch on time or catch up quickly, so publications can assume that readers have seen everything or don’t care that much. There are certainly some plot twists that are nearly impossible to keep under wraps -- even non-“Thrones” fans know what happened to Jon Snow. But when can a spoiler appear in a headline? Within an article, at what point can we talk about key plot lines about TV and movies without a large SPOILERS AHEAD? 

Movies are easiest. Because they play out in theaters over a number of weeks -- and they’re damn expensive -- movies deserve the longest grace period before we can start openly discussing their plot lines in headlines or otherwise. How long? How’s two weeks? One month?

TV, however, moves at a much faster pace. Reality shows like "The Bachelor" are still treated like community events, a practice that Twitter has only encouraged, and so -- like sports games -- spoiler warnings are not very practical. It's done; the score is final. Viewers are drawn to these shows for the thrill of watching in real time, and if spoilers are out there (ahem, Reality Steve) it would only be cruel to post them before the final episode.

Scheduled, narrative TV shows like "The Walking Dead" and "Game oOf Thrones" are far more controversial. It seems reasonable to assume that devotees will catch up before the next episode airs. But perhaps it is kinder to keep current-season plot details out of headlines for a couple weeks, and tag spoilers from the show’s current season at the top of articles. Other narrative shows whose new seasons are dumped online all at once seem to deserve a wider spoiler-free berth -- somewhere between scheduled TV and movies -- since few allow themselves to binge a whole season of “Orange Is the New Black” in one sitting. How’s two weeks? One month?

It’s unlikely everyone will ever agree on a universal set of rules for posting spoilers. Even on Reddit -- perhaps the most hyper-organized space for fan- boys and girls -- arguments flare up over information dissemination. Meanwhile, writers are torn between not wanting to ruin a show for anyone (we aren’t monsters) and needing to drive traffic to stories (we still need paychecks). A spoiler-bulletproof headline -- “What Happened Last Night On ‘Game Of Thrones’” -- would not draw many readers.

The Huffington Post has some strategies for shielding unwitting fans from headline spoilers. While the site has no official spoiler policy, editors are able to give each story two headlines: one that appears in the preview when readers share the link on social media, and one that appears on the article page. Social media headlines are typically more vague, to prevent readers innocently scrolling through their Facebook feed from stumbling into a key plot point. Editors also lean away from including photos that reveal plot twists as main images -- that is, the ones shown in social media previews.

Publications walk a fine line between appealing to readers who are up-to-date and those who aren't, striving to make both sides happy. But even firm editorial policies can't extend to rogue commenters, absentminded Facebook friends, and everyone else on message boards and social feeds.

Instead of worrying about spoilers, it may be worth asking how much the prior knowledge of a surprise twist actually ruins the experience of watching. "Star Wars" fans still watch again and again despite the fact that nearly everyone knows who Luke's father is. Audiences will likely turn out in droves to see a live-action "Beauty and the Beast" even when they know how it ends. The things that draw viewers in -- the character dynamics, the look and tone -- aren't less enjoyable by a slightly fuller knowledge of how the story goes.

But this is the Internet, where no one agrees on anything. For fans who absolutely, positively must be left unspoiled, know that the online world is dark and full of spoilers -- you might be OK, or you might not. Enter at your own risk.

You can be highbrow. You can be lowbrow. But can you ever just be brow? Welcome to Middlebrow, a weekly examination of pop culture. Sign up to receive it in your inbox weekly.

Follow Sara Boboltz on Twitter: @sara_bee

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There's something about holding a bouquet that really makes you feel like a bride, but like most other things on the wedding day, it's often tossed at the end of the celebration.

The brides below found a way to hold on to their bridal bouquets forever: tattooing them onto their bodies. Check out their awesome artwork below.

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If you’ve ever tried to photograph a beach sunset, a sprawling desert or a cityscape at night, then you know how hard it is to capture the unique feeling of a “travel moment” on film.

Stunningly, these entries from the 2016 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest have done it with ease. The images come from photographers all around the world who document their trips so vividly, it's like a virtual vacation for us at home. Take a look:

To enter the 2016 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest, submit a photo on the contest website by Friday, May 27. One grand prize winner will score a seven-day Polar Bear Photo Safari for two at Churchill Wild-Seal River Heritage Lodge, a National Geographic Unique Lodge of the World.

Happy travels!

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A Greek archaeologist is "almost certain" that he has found the tomb of Aristotle, some 2,300 years after the philosopher's death in 322 B.C.

Archaeologist Kostas Sismanidis beieves the tomb is inside a horseshoe-shaped, domed building in the ancient Greek seaside city of Stagira, where Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. He made the announcement Thursday at the "Aristotle 2400 Years" World Congress, a conference for international Aristotelian scholars held in the city of Thessaloniki.

While he has no solid proof that the tomb belonged to Aristotle, Sismanidis says the location matches a physical description of Aristotle's tomb from an 11th century A.D., Arabic-language biography of the philosopher, which claims that the people of Stagira placed the philosopher's ashes into an urn and took them back to their home city for safekeeping.

"We think, without having proof but only strong indications, that it all points towards this theory" that this is the philosopher's final resting place, Sismanidis said at the conference. 

Sismanidis' discovery was a result of over 20 years' excavation and research, Greek radio station Sto Kokkino reported.

Sismanidis claimed to have found Aristotle's tomb back in 1996, the outlet noted. He has officially retired since then, but continued to work on the site to confirm his hypothesis.

The philosopher was originally believed to be buried in Chalcis, a town on the Greek island of Euboea, where he died of a stomach disease. Stagira and Chalcis are over 300 miles away from each other.

Danae Leivada contributed to this report.

Read more:

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The Oxford University Press has named the word “refugee” its annual Children’s Word of the Year, after the term appeared in hundreds of short stories written by children in the U.K.

Since 2011, kids ages 13 and under have entered an annual short story competition created by BBC Radio 2 called 500 Words, and for the past three years, a team of academics and technology experts at Oxford University Press have used these entries to analyze linguistic trends.

This year, the team examined 123,436 entries and found that the migrant and refugee crisis — specifically in Syria, which was mentioned 438 times — has resonated with youth and increased in frequency by 368 percent as compared to 2015.

The analysts also found that kids who wrote about refugees did so using sympathetic and emotive descriptions, displaying a sophisticated, sensitive and mature understanding of the issues involved.

For instance, this is a sample of one child's entry, a girl who is 12 years old:

“I’m in France ... place called Calais. It turns out that nobody wants us after all. There was no gold at the end of the rainbow. I have no idea when or how I will get away from this prison.” 

A 13-year-old boy, who also entered the contest, conveys a more hopeful context in his 2016 entry:

“We fled for our lives, took what we could and drove off into the distance. We made our way to the refugee camp.”

Vocabulary used that was associated with the word “refugee” included "arrive," "travel," "border," "flee," "home," "desperate," "boat," "lost," "safe" and "hope."

Other popular words that got kids’ creative juices flowing in 2016 included Shakespeare, Star Wars, Tim Peake (a European Space Agency astronaut of British nationality) and social media — the latter of which makes sense since the Children’s Word Of The Year in 2015 was “hashtag.”

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Writer-performer Justin Sayre is gearing up to release his first comedy album, "The Gay Agenda," and The Huffington Post has an exclusive first listen. (WARNING: contains graphic language) 

The album, which hits iTunes on May 27, is a compilation of Sayre's live performances, recorded at New York nightspots Feinstein's/54 Below and Joe's Pub at the Public Theater. 

One of New York’s sassiest funnymen, Sayre has made a name for himself with his monthly variety show, "The Meeting," in which he and the “International Order of Sodomites" (I.O.S.) pay tribute to gay icons like Cher, Liza Minnelli and Julie Andrews, among others. 

Sayre told The Huffington Post that he was "super proud and excited" to have so many of his hilarious performances preserved on an album for posterity. His show, he said, was "really about celebrating our community."

"We sought to showcase some of the most outrageous comedy – on topics like gay marriages and obsession with straight guys – as well as the pressing issues to the LGBT community," he said. "We started the show to talk about the ideas and politics of gay life in a fun and cross-generational way. And with topics ranging for the divas of the day like Miley [Cyrus] and [Lady] Gaga, to bringing back the 'hanky code,' we’ve been able to do that."

The next installment of "The Meeting" will take place at Oasis in San Francisco on May 28.

Sayre will return to New York for "Night of a Thousand Judys” on June 6 at the Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Center in New York. Now in its sixth year, the show will celebrate the musical legacy of Judy Garland with performances by artists from Broadway, TV, film and downtown cabaret. Annie Golden, Lillias White, Nathan Lee Graham and Gabrielle Stravelli are among the stars currently slated to perform at the event. 

Meanwhile, the latest episode of "Sparkle & Circulate with Justin Sayre," the official I.O.S. podcast, has just been released, featuring an interview with "RuPaul's Drag Race" veteran Alaska 5000. 

You can also view some previous performances from “The Meeting” on Sayre’s official YouTube page. For more Sayre, head to Facebook and Twitter.

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Warning: This article contains nudity and may not be appropriate for work environments. 

For nearly 15 years, photographer Anna Ogier-Bloomer viewed her mother as her muse, and motherhood as her subject of inspiration. So when Ogier-Bloomer became a mother herself, it only made sense to turn the lens on her own experience. In her series simply titled "Motherhood," the artist captures the transformative experience of becoming a mother in raw and gripping detail. 

"Being a mother is the absolute hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I was surprised by what a physical toll it would take on me for the first two years," Ogier-Bloomer wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. "There's not a single part of my life that's the same as before I became a parent. It's all changed, and it's amazing but hard too."

Despite the intense exhaustion Ogier-Bloomer experienced as a working mother, she knew she had to keep shooting. She captured the tender moments -- her daughter breastfeeding in bed -- and the painful moments -- the bruised aftermath of such a feeding. She documented the way her body morphed to adapt to the challenges of motherhood, zooming in on her engorged breasts and painful nipples. All of it, the joy and the pain and the stuff made from both, is presented with the pride and love of a mother. 

"In the first 18 months, when sleep was nonexistent, each image captured felt like, and was, an enormous accomplishment," Ogier-Bloomer said. "What was most significant for me was allowing myself to give real weight and meaning to what I was making. The first two years my husband and I were in survival mode, so when I made a picture that really got at something, it felt like such a victory. And it was."

The photographs shift back and forth between the banal and the sublime, showing how everyday moments, filled with such triumph and tenderness, can change a person entirely -- especially when she's running on little to no sleep. Through her work, Ogier-Bloomer hopes to eliminate the stigma surrounding the less visible aspects of motherhood, from breastfeeding to the inevitable disappointments that arise along the journey. She accomplishes this by inviting viewers into the intimate corners of her home, allowing access to the contradictory and complex experience of becoming a mom. 

"I want those who are going and have gone through this to know I’m an advocate for them, for all mothers," the artist said. "Becoming a parent dramatically changed how I view my own mother. I get it now. I understand the pain she feels when one of her three children, all grown, suffers, experiences heartbreak or disappointment or becomes estranged. I understand the desire she has to make it all go away, to come fix it for us even though she can’t. The deep pain and sadness I feel when my daughter is hurt or sad is something that doesn’t disappear. My child is a part of me. And I hope viewers see their own mother, or all mothers, in a new light."

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Exactly how different would the lives of girls in developing areas look if they were tasked with carting around books instead of water? Netherlands-based cartoonist Jean Gouders has a pretty clear, and powerful, vision.

Across the globe, women and girls in developing countries spend an estimated 200 million hours every single day collecting water in areas where potable H2O isn’t available.

That means they’re more susceptible to developing physical ailments such as spinal and neck issues. They’re also more likely to miss out on work and educational opportunities.

When it comes to schooling, there’s a direct correlation between increased access to clean water and higher enrollment rates.

Girls’ enrollment rates improve by more than 15 percent when they are provided with clean water and a toilet facility, according to UNICEF.

Gouders was prompted to use his skills to shed light on the issue when the Cartoon Movement, a platform that publishes political cartoons, sought out illustrations on the topic of education and water.

Gouders’ cartoon depicts two images of the same girl side by side. In the first panel, the young woman balances a jug on her head as she prepares to trek 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) to fetch water. In the neighboring image, she holds a stack of books on her head and stands next to a sign pointing her in the direction of school.

The image was featured at the Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen this month, which focused on the health, well-being and rights of women and girls.

Gouders told The Huffington Post that he hopes his image conveys that such “simple things” as a water tap, for example, can have a rippling effect when it comes to improving girls’ access to water and education. “It doesn’t always have to be huge projects.”

Learn more about Jean Gouders' work here.

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Get ready to get your Doctor Dolittle on.

Artist Jimmy Craig, 30, draws comics that illustrate what animals would say if they were able to speak, in his series They Can Talk.

The series explores animalistic behaviors that have plagued man for years such as, “Why do cats walk on your face?” and “Why do roosters cock-a-doodle-doo?” He then explains these actions through the critters’ own words.

“Instead of writing about an animal going to work in a suit and carrying a briefcase, I try to base the series loosely in reality,” Craig told The Huffington Post. “I think about actual conversations animals might have.”

His fly-on-the-wall observations are spot-on, and he has an interesting reason to deciding to doodle fauna rather than folks.

“I love comics and I love animals, but I'm not very good at drawing people — specifically hands and feet,” he said. “Nobody really seems to notice if a paw is drawn incorrectly.”

Craig tries to publish a new comic every week but admits that sometimes he often misses his own deadlines – which might explain why when asked what kind of animal he’d like to be, he had a very telling answer.

“Probably a tortoise, because they live so long and they seem really laid-back,” he said. “And yes, I'm assuming they're really laid-back solely on the fact that they move so slow.”

Yet, slow and steady does win the race. Although his comics aren’t always published on time, he is creating quite a following.

His Facebook page has over 20,000 followers, his contributions on Tumblr get thousands of notes and a single panel comic he published on Facebook received well over 100,000 shares.

But having an audience online isn’t Craig’s sole objective.

“I'd love to walk into a bookstore and see my book on the shelf,” he said. “Or see the spot where the book was supposed to be before it sold out. That'd be cool.”

To see more of Craig’s animal-inspired work, check out his video below that explores what cat and dog people actually acted like their preferred pet:

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She's called the "Anatomical Venus" and rests in peace, beneath a Venetian glass and rosewood case, in a medical museum called La Specola, which opened in Florence, Italy, in 1775. 

She is beautiful, endowed with supple flesh, touchable curls that create a pillow around her head, and even a string of pearls around her neck. Her head is tipped back ecstatically, resembling a moment of spiritual rapture from one angle, an intense orgasm from another. She is, in her peaceful repose, as physically enchanting as Sleeping Beauty, save for the fact that her innards and guts are spilling out.

Today we think of science as white coats and pristine labs, objective diagrams and empirical evidence. Human bodies are abstracted into bones and blood, muscles and nerves, symptoms and responses. Medical depictions reflect them as such, sans soft skin and pursed lips and golden headbands. 

Thus the bizarre beauty of the "Anatomical Venus," created by sculptor Clemente Susini between 1780 and 1782, comes off as disgusting in a contemporary context. Exposed in every possible sense of the word, the Venus is female beauty objectified to grotesque extremes. Her eyes gently shut and body spread wide, it's almost as if femininity is considered most beautiful when lifeless, that a woman is most desirable as an aesthetically pleasing spread of inactive parts.

It's this jarring, immediate reaction that shook intellectual historian Joanna Ebenstein to the bone. In an interview with The Huffington Post Arts, she admitted that she initially couldn't imagine how a thing that appears, to a contemporary viewer, so utterly repulsive and strange, was once a sanctioned, accepted educational tool. What did the world look like when this Anatomical Venus was a sensible model of the human body? And what has changed since that renders this old world view so impossible to understand?

Ebenstein became fascinated with the Venus after visiting La Specula as part of a self-described pilgrimage, visiting the most important medical museums in the Western world. For some reason, the Anatomical Venus -- one of several models housed in the museum's rooms, all filled with three-dimensional human diagrams meant to educate not just doctors but men, women and children -- stood out. 

"Part of the reason the Venus is so strange, I think, is because it flickers on all of these edges, and that flickering is very exciting to some people, very disturbing to others," Ebenstein said. "The edges it flickers on are traditional binary divides between things we normally consider completely irreconcilable, things like art and science, beauty and death, spectacle and education, alive yet not alive."

This encounter led Ebenstein on another journey through Europe, to document as many similarly peculiar Venus figures as possible. Her findings are compiled in an enchanting and repulsive book titled The Anatomical Venus: Wax, God, Death & the Ecstatic.

"Although your brain knows they’re not alive, they still feel as if they’re about to move," Ebenstein said of the models. "Wax mimics flesh in this completely persuasive way. Even though you know otherwise, there is another voice inside you ... Your rational mind is telling you one thing and your senses are telling you something else. It’s an intriguing place to be."

Ebenstein is the founder of the Morbid Anatomy blog and the creative director of the Morbid Anatomy Museum, based in Brooklyn, New York. The space, Ebenstein explained, provides a place for objects that otherwise would have been dropped from the historical record, because they just don't fit in with our contemporary understanding of the world, broken up into specific disciplines and fields of knowledge.

Today, science and art are often visualized at opposite ends of the knowledge spectrum, one objective and the other subjective. Similarly, spirituality and sexuality often remain separate, one sacred and one profane. But centuries ago, when the fair-skinned and bloody-bellied Venus came to be, such distinctions hardly held true.

While human dissections are now primarily associated with medical inquiries, Ebenstein clarified that artists were originally the most active dissectors in the game. What's more, the distinction itself between artist and scientist was tenuous, at best. Take Leonardo da Vinci, known for peeking inside bodies to examine their muscular makeup in order to perfect his depictions of the human form.

The fluid relationship between art and science helps illuminate why in the world a medical diagram would be created with such intense adornments. Beyond Leonardo, there was also God, the artist who created all humans in his image, or so the dominant belief went. A rendering of human life, many felt, conveyed the power of God's gift. 

The hugely different spiritual climate in the 18th century helps explain why so many of the waxen women wear expressions contemporary viewers might describe as orgasmic. "It is my belief they were not interpreted sexually at the time," Ebenstein clarified. "When you go into Italy's churches today you see all of these figures, men and women, with their heads thrown back in what looks like sexually ecstasy. But it doesn’t read that way to Catholics."

Ebenstein spoke in particular about Gian Lorenzo Bernini's baroque sculpture "The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa," which features a seemingly erotic expression. She described an excerpt from Teresa's 16th-century autobiography, in which the saint is visited by a divine spirit. It reads: "He appeared to me to be thrusting my heart and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me on all fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great that it made me moan, and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain that I could not wish to be rid of it ... The pain is not bodily but spiritual." 

The passage has some heat to it, to be sure. But it outlines a different kind of passion than the one expressed between carnal lovers. "There is a very complicated relationship between mystical ecstasy and sexual ecstasy," Ebenstein said. At their core, sex, religion and death all symbolize portals of escape and transcendence, means of leaving the body and accessing what's beyond. There's a reason French philosopher Roland Barthes nicknamed the orgasm "the little death."

"All of these other things that produce an ecstatic experience are now condemned by the church, like sex and drugs," Ebenstein continued. "We still seek them out; it’s how secular people get as close to a mystical experience as they can." Back when Venus was born, however, religion was the primary means of losing oneself. "With the purely secular view of the world most of us have now, the only possible interpretation is a profane one."

Through the course of her book, Ebenstein conjures the knowledge systems of 18th-century Europe, helping to illuminate how such a disturbing tradition was once accepted without question. Even more curious than Venus herself, Ebenstein reveals, are the world views that brought her into being. 

This is not to say there is nothing icky about the Anatomical Venus. Especially since there are very few examples of male figures occupying a similarly paradoxical space. Save for one model that Ebenstein saw on her pilgrimage, all of the male medical models were presented without skin -- not quite so idealized and sensual, unless you're into skinless dudes. 

To explain the discord, Ebenstein mentions Ludmilla Jordanova's Sexual Visions, which describes the way men and women's bodies were interpreted, medically, at the time. "She argues that the male body was seen as canonical, and used to demonstrate the workings of things like musculature and the nervous system," Ebenstein explained. "What was interesting about the female body was how she wasn’t canonical. The focus is on what makes her different: her femininity, her ability to give birth, to produce milk."

Overall, The Anatomical Venus succeeds in tracing an ongoing, if not disturbing fascination with pretty, dead girls through various times, spaces and mediums. From Edgar Allen Poe's famous line, "The death then of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world," to the eerie floating form in Sir John Everett Millais' "Ophelia," to Laura Palmer of "Twin Peaks."

So, yes, it appears the world has long possessed an unsettling obsession with objectifying women. Aestheticizing and fetishizing their lifeless forms is perhaps the most gruesome outcome of this fancy. There is certainly far more complexity to Venus' story, which Ebenstein unpacks in lush detail. But, in learning her story, the reader also becomes a complicit voyeur, still magnetized to the strange and horrifying beauty gazing lifelessly back at us from the page. 

The Anatomical Venus by Joanna Ebenstein is published by Thames and Hudson. 

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Visitors to the Louvre in Paris are being greeted with an unfamiliar sight: IM Pei's iconic glass pyramid, a Parisian landmark that has served as the renowned museum's entrance since 1989, is still there, but you'd be forgiven for being confused, thanks to a clever street art piece from JR.

The French street artist has created a striking optical illusion by covering the pyramid with a gigantic paper photograph of the museum. If viewers stand at the right angle, aligning the image with the building behind it, the pyramid appears to disappear, fading into the museum's façade.

A fan of Pei's, JR was inspired to work with his best-known architectural project. "I was impressed by his willingness to make the pyramid discreet: he wanted it to blend into its environment," the artist told artnet News in an email.

"Hundreds of tourists take selfies with the pyramid everyday, so I wanted to make it harder for them by removing the pyramid, so that they actively look for it and move around to find the best spot to take the picture," JR added.

The project, which is the first by JR not to feature faces, is currently being installed and should be complete by Wednesday, May 25. The artist's trompe l'oeil intervention is a response to Pei's once-controversial design.

Today, it's easy to forget that the initial response to Pei's glass and metal pyramid was less-than positive. A 1985 article in The New York Times noted that the project, then under construction, had been called "an architectural joke, an eyesore, an anachronistic intrusion of Egyptian death symbolism in the middle of Paris, and a megalomaniacal folly."

Despite the push-back, Emile Biasini, who directed the renovation project, was confident of its eventual success, telling the Times "in ten years, I assure you that all the arguments will have been forgotten. The pyramid will be there and the French will regard it as another one of their classics." His words have proved prescient.

"At the beginning it was criticized, now it is widely accepted," JR told the Wall Street Journal. "I thought it would be fun to show how the Louvre would look like without it."

See more photos of the installation below.

"JR at the Louvre" is on view at the Louvre, May 25–June 27, 2016. 

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Warning: you will experience feelings of confusion after looking at the lower half of this photo. 

Reddit user Blood_Reaper shared a photo of a hug that'll leave you at your wit's end, trying to figure out what's going on with the pair's legs. 

Is the man being lifted up? Does the pair have really strange hugging form? Are their feet somehow facing in the wrong direction?! Are you completely stumped? 

Well, as a couple sharp observers figured out, the man's shorts are to blame for the deceptive image. The shorts are actually two colors, and they blend in almost seamlessly with the woman's pants. 

So now you can finally relax. You're welcome. 

H/T Mashable

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Deborah Cox says her ultimate goal as an artist is to "challenge stereotypes and labels," and over the past several years, she's been focused on thinking outside the world of pop, R&B and dance music in which she made her name. 

In 2012, the 41-year-old star took to the Broadway stage in the revival of the musical, "Jekyll & Hyde," after a 20-city national tour. Now, she's setting her sights on the Great White Way once again, returning to the stage in "Josephine."

The musical, which plays the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida through May 29, is based on the life of the legendary Josephine Baker, known to the world as the "Creole Goddess" who donned a banana skirt in Paris's Folies Bergère but who had a fascinating -- and occasionally turbulent -- off-stage life as well. 

Directed and choreographed by two-time Tony Award nominee Joey McKneely, "Josephine" is the "perfect musical to showcase the full spectrum of my artistry," Cox told The Huffington Post. If all goes according to plan, New Yorkers will soon get to see Cox's latest work for themselves, with producer Kenneth Waissman reportedly aiming to bring the show to Broadway in the coming season.

Cox, who will also headline Philadelphia's Pride celebration on June 12, took time out from her performance schedule to chat with HuffPost about "Josephine." Here's what she had to say. 

Congrats on "Josephine." What drew you to this particular project? 

I was drawn to this project because of the remarkable and widely unknown story of Josephine Baker. There is so much emphasis put on her banana dance but not as much placed on her humanitarian work, her heroism in the French Resistance during World War II, her civil rights activism, and her deep love for humanity. This musical captures the true Josephine Baker. I feel honored to share her story.

Did you see any parallels between Josephine Baker's life and your own work as a singer-songwriter? 

In some ways, yes. As a black artist, I was often expected to sing just one style of music. But I have always felt that in order to be my complete self, I needed to break barriers and venture outside of the box – do the unexpected. Becoming a Broadway entertainer has always been one of my goals because I’ve always loved musical theater, but I also love being a recording artist. I’ve recorded albums in many genres, R&B, dance, pop, and jazz. And so, like Josephine Baker, I am an artist with a myriad of passions and goals who must also challenge stereotypes and labels.

What will audiences who are fans of your work as a singer-songwriter find most appealing about the show?

I’m so excited for audiences to have the opportunity to see how uninhibited I am in this role. I feel a true kinship with Josephine Baker, and I believe that will translate in my portrayal of her on stage. For the first time, I am also able to use all of my talents in one show – dancing, singing and acting – and that’s really thrilling. There is a tremendous amount of dancing, from tap to African, but there is also a lot of beautiful music – soulful, jazzy ballads, upbeat dance numbers, and heart-wrenching love songs. It is really the perfect musical to showcase the full spectrum of my artistry.

Aside from Baker's own skills as a singer, what is it about her life that lends itself well to a musical adaptation? 

Josephine Baker was fearless as a person and as a performer, but she was also a dreamer. She broke down cultural and societal barriers, and that was groundbreaking for an African-American woman, or any woman at that time in our history. We need to, as an industry, celebrate and spotlight those who were brave enough to pave their own way and a path for us to follow. Josephine started from the bottom with nothing and broke through the glass ceiling. She boldly did the unexpected with everything she attempted to do. That, to me, is very inspiring and the perfect message for a Broadway musical.

What is it about her work that makes her such an enduring icon today?Josephine Baker boldly transcended her race, her sex and her color to become a global icon. She went from a poor little girl living in a boxcar in the slums of St. Louis to the star of the Folies-Bergère and one of the wealthiest and most revered women in Paris. Josephine traveled across the world to follow her dreams and through all of the success and fame remained true to herself and her heart – she is truly timeless.

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U.S. President Barack Obama visited Hiroshima on Friday, becoming the first sitting American president in history to visit ​the southwestern Japanese city.

The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, causing a massive blast wave and a firestorm that destroyed over two-thirds of the city's buildings. Tens of thousands of people were killed instantly, and many more were injured.

A lot has changed in Hiroshima since then. Barren trees have turned into green parks. The city's train station, whose exterior walls and windows were blown out, has now been transformed into a bustling hub.

On Friday, Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe mourned the city's victims together in a show of unity and reconciliation between the two countries.

“We have known the agony of war,” Obama wrote in the guest book at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. “Let us now find the courage, together, to spread peace, and pursue a world without nuclear weapons.”

Take a look at the GIFs below, which show photos of various parts of the city taken in August 1945 and May 2016, to see how much the city has changed in just over 70 years.

Read more:

Haunting Photos Of The Everyday Objects That Survived The Atomic Bomb

Why Most Of Japan Welcomes Obama’s Visit to Hiroshima

Obama Makes The Case For A Nuclear-Free World Ahead Of Historic Hiroshima Visit

‘I Cannot Forgive Myself for What I Did’: One Man’s Recollections of His Work on the Manhattan Project

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The ladies of Twitter never fail to brighten our days with their brilliant -- but succinct -- wisdom. Each week, HuffPost Women rounds up hilarious 140-character musings. For this week's great tweets from women, scroll through the list below. Then visit our Funniest Tweets From Women page for our past collections.     

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The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) has announced the finalists for the 2016 European Prize for Urban Public Space. An international jury of architects, critics, and directors of museums and institutions from across the continent selected 25 projects from 276 entries representing 33 countries.

According to the organization, "[the shortlisted projects recognize] the creation, recovery, and improvement of public spaces, as clear indicators of the democratic health of our cities.”

All finalists will have their work featured in an exhibition that will tour Europe over the next two years, and also will be published in an online archive that features past finalists. The 2016 winner of the award will be announced at the CCCB on July 4. 

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After years of fertility struggles, loss and pain, a Canadian family found renewed hope through surrogacy.

On Jan. 22, Kate Austin-Rivas and Didier Rivas welcomed their daughter Scarlett Ryan via surrogate. Birth photographer Ashley Marston was present to capture this powerful moment of joy -- which came after many years of darkness.

For Kate and Didier, the journey to parenthood has been filled with tragedy. After suffering multiple miscarriages, the couple welcomed their daughter Elle in 2010. Two years later, Kate delivered a stillborn baby girl, whom they named Katelyn. After another miscarriage, the Rivas family welcomed a new daughter, Ireland, but the birth involved complications that left both the mom and baby fighting for their lives.

"It was basically a situation where anything that could go wrong, went wrong,” Kate told Global News. “She was born with severe oxygen deprivation, which resulted in cerebral palsy, the worst they’d ever seen. My uterus ruptured during the delivery." While the mom ultimately survived the complications, Ireland passed away at just four weeks old. 

The aftermath of Ireland's death and Kate's medical trauma was a painful time. Eventually the couple filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Royal Columbian Hospital, Fraser Health, four doctors and a nurse. The case is ongoing.

Throughout everything, the parents have never abandoned their hope to expand their family. "We were lost ... depleted, exhausted, our souls wretched," Kate wrote in her blog post about the journey, adding, "One year later we reached out in the darkness and took a chance, we posted our story on social media."

That's when Christine Hale came along.

Christine read the family's story and reached out to offer her services as a surrogate. "She wanted to help our family. That was it," Kate wrote on her blog. A mom-of-three, Christine was willing to carry the couple's baby, since pregnancy was no longer a medically advisable option for Kate after her severe birth trauma.

"She wanted us to have a positive experience, a positive outcome, and she was confident she could do it," Kate continued. "I believed her. I was open. Something told me, 'You must take this leap of faith.' I jumped."

Against all odds, Christine became pregnant with the couple's baby after one cycle of IVF. Kate and Didier remained cautious throughout the entire pregnancy, hoping but refusing to be too optimistic about the possibility that they would welcome a healthy baby. 

"Christine held my hand and my soul," Kate recalled in her blog. "She guided me. We took care of each other. She took care of my precious little baby. Her body did what mine could not. Together, we formed a bond, a connection."

On Jan. 22, Christine delivered baby Scarlett via emergency C-section four weeks early. The baby and surrogate mom were healthy, and everyone was overjoyed.

That emotion-filled day was powerful to say the least. 

"All birth stories are moving," Ashley, the photographer, told The Huffington Post. "But when you get to be a witness to the happiness, the light that comes out of the darkness, to see dreams that you never thought were possible come true. That is something you will never forget."

Describing the energy that day, she used the words "excitement, anticipation, fear and love -- almost everything all at once."

According to the photographer, the minutes leading up to the decision to go forth with a C-section delivery were "tenuous." Ashley explained, "The last time Kate and Didier were in a hospital delivering a baby, the outcome was so terribly tragic. But the medical staff was very cautious and educated decisions were made swiftly."

While Kate was in the operating room with Christine, Didier and Ashley waited patiently outside in the hallway. Eventually, they heard the sound of a baby crying and minutes later, Kate burst through the doors holding their daughter. 

"That moment was everything," Ashley said. "It was long awaited and was so deserved."

Christine's gift to Kate and Didier was truly selfless. Though surrogacy is legal in Canada, the Assisted Human Reproduction Act prohibits prospective parents from paying a surrogate beyond her out-of-pocket expenses. According to the Vancouver Sun, Christine's arrangement with the Rivas family involved the necessary psychological evaluations and a legal contract specifying she would receive no additional financial compensation.

"Christine is such an amazing person," Ashley told HuffPost. "Her big heart and kindness for this family did not just end the day she gave birth," she added, noting that the surrogate mama continues to pump breast milk for baby Scarlett.

"She has become an extended part of their family," the photographer continued. "They call her 'an Angel'."

The Rivases have been very open about their story to offer hope to families going through similar struggles, share their positive surrogacy story and raise awareness.

To read more about their family, visit Kate's blog, and keep scrolling to see Ashley's powerful photos of Scarlett's birth.

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Internet puzzles tend to drive people to the brink of insanity.

Facebook user Antley Lamont Staten recently posted a photo of a puzzle that was clearly making his head hurt:

“Ok I don't get it?” he wrote as a comment -- and he wasn’t alone. Since Staten posted the confounding conundrum, it has been shared almost 400,000 times with others trying to figure out WTF the answer to this mysterious math problem is.

Some took a stab at it.

“It's 4 and 5. 3+6 = 9. 2+5=7 not 8 and 1+4=5 not 7. That's how I looked at it,” one commenter wrote.

Another commenter who, after assumedly pulling out a handful of hair while trying to figure it out, proclaimed this after solving it:

“Omg. Took me a while because I was concentrating on the #'s lol.”

Thing is, that’s the trick. It’s actually not a math problem at all.

If you look at the sign to the left, it reads “Share when you find the mitsake.”

Mistake is spelled incorrectly. 

Yup. That’s it. Kind of makes you feel like this, right?:

 Especially after you felt like this while trying to figure it out:

Us too. Now excuse we while we go out and buy some Aspirin.

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Daphne Guinness is a lot of things -- a muse, a street-style star, an artist, a couture collector, and the granddaughter of The Honorable Diana Mitford. 

Her penchant for wearing high fashion duds by designers like the late Alexander McQueen, whom she considered a friend, and Gareth Pugh, made the black-and-white-haired Guinness a fixture in the fashion world. In fact, her wardrobe is so admired that it was the subject of an exhibition -- which Guinness helped curate -- at The Museum at FIT in New York City from 2011 to 2012.

It should also be noted that Guinness, who was born in London, has been surrounded by art her whole life. Growing up in both the U.K. and Spain, her mother was a muse for artists such as Salvador Dalí and Man Ray. 

Now, the heir to the Guinness brewery fortune is ready to show the world who she really is. "I've been a musician probably all my life," Guinness told The Huffington Post over the phone earlier this month, adding, "This is the real me."

At 48, the Honorable Ms. Guinness (yes, that really is her formal title) has just released her first album, "Optimist in Black," which was produced by David Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti. It's comprised of 14 original tracks that echo the psychedelic sounds of the 1960s and classic rock of the '70s; Guinness counts everyone from Bach to Bob Dylan to ABBA and Radiohead as influences, among a long list of others. That being said, she proudly confirmed that every song on her album is an original. 

"That's pretty difficult these days," she told HuffPost. "It's because I had real people with me and because I wrote them myself. We haven't sampled anything. These are all original chord progressions and original drum beats." 

For Guinness, the relationship between visual art and music is important, and she credits her time in the visual world with helping her understand the way artists think, "because it's quite different from the way I think," she said. 

"My ultimate goal," she added, "is to get sound and vision undivorced, because I think there are too many people in between sometimes." 

Judging by her videos, she's well on her way to reaching that goal. For instance, there's the mesmerizing Nick Knight-directed "Fatal Flaw," which brings to mind Grace Jones' "Corporate Cannibal." Its striking kaleidoscope imagery makes it almost impossible to look away, while the hypnotic tune keeps the viewer listening. 

Then there's the colorfully opulent "Evening in Space," directed by photographer David LaChapelle (whom she considers her brother -- "I think we were separated at birth.") Music legend David Bowie, who died in January of this year, also added a dash of his Starman magic to the video. 

"I'm so grateful for David for taking [the video] into a different realm," Guinness told HuffPost. "That's how he imagined it. I didn't ask him, he wanted to do it."  

Though she's had the chance to work with talented and iconic artists while pursuing her passion, Guinness admitted that the road to releasing "Optimist in Black" wasn't without its obstacles.  

"I had a big depression when I finished the album, and I couldn't listen to it for quite a long time. I didn't want to release it at all," she said. "I thought, 'Fuck you, fuck the world.' But then I think it's an important process to -- especially when you've got such great artists involved -- to honor the songs." 

For Guinness, the songs are a sort of social commentary, written through a poetic lens. Lyrics like "Many marionettes / Dripping from your fingers / Grinning, mesmerized / The foolish ones, they linger offer (from "Marionettes) and "I spent an evening in space / Man, feel like an alien / Far from ecstasy / In a parallel reality" (from "Evening in Space") offer plenty of subtext about living in a world so obsessed with money and keeping up with appearances. 

A little bit of reading between the lines surfaces themes that everyone can relate to -- interacting with someone who's just on another level, trying to prove a point that no one understands or even just trying to live authentically. 

But the songs aren't personal, Guinness explained. "It's not about me, it's about what I've observed," she said. "I hope I've been able to obscure myself enough out of these songs that they are universal." 

"Optimist in Black" is available now on iTunes, Apple Music and Spotify. 

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