"Gilmore Girls" was a groundbreaking show. It was celebrated for its portrayal of a nuanced relationship between a single mother and daughter, was written in a trademark style and has experienced a major resurgence in popularity in the past year, since coming to Netflix. 

We always knew the show was special, but we didn't realize how extraordinarily prescient it could be at times. In fact, one of its main characters predicted the future of feel-good news (the kind of thing you'd see on Upworthy today) all the way back in 2005. 

In the show's sixth season, Lorelai Gilmore expresses her frustration with all of the bad news being reported in the newspaper, then says she plans to start her own publication that's only for "good" news. 

Sound familiar? It should. Positive-leaning sites like Upworthy, ViralNova and even The Huffington Post's own Good News page have attracted huge followings in the past few years.

Research shows that exposure to inspirational news can significantly improve your mood -- which might explain why these sites have become so popular.

Lorelai's idea was a good one, and it was years ahead of its time. (Upworthy launched in 2012.) And to think we always considered Rory the smart one! 

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Since 2012, Polish photographer Izabela Urbaniak has been taking pictures of her children and their cousins playing outdoors during their summers in the countryside. 

Living at a lake house in the village of Lugowiska, the family enjoys spending time with each other in nature, without televisions or computers. "Since most of us are dependent on technology, I'm glad when I am for a while to some extent cut off from that, spending time in the countryside," she told The Huffington Post.

"These pictures show that children can play and to be happy without the Internet and computers," she added. From playing in fields and exploring plants and animals to swimming in a lake and inventing new games, there's no shortage of fun activities for the four kids and their two dogs. 

Looking at these gorgeous photos, we can't help but want to go outside.

H/T BoredPanda

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The best destination wedding photographers know how to capture the beauty of a couple in love and their awe-inspiring surroundings in a single image.

On Monday, Junebug Weddings released their carefully curated list of the top 50 destination wedding images of 2015. Photographers from all around the globe submitted more than 4,000 images from more than 40 different countries for consideration.

Check out some of the most breathtaking images below. To see the rest of the top 50, head over to Junebug Weddings.

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The art and artifacts collection of Sam Simon,"The Simpsons" co-creator who died this year, will be auctioned by Sotheby's this fall. As you might expect, it includes some cool vintage Simpsons memorabilia.

Simon helped create "The Simpsons" in 1986. He left the show after its fourth season, but kept the title of executive producer. Before his death from colorectal cancer in March at age 59, he left his $100 million fortune to charity. 

Sotheby's is selling Simon's collection of fine arts and memorabilia to benefit the Sam Simon Charitable Giving Foundation. The collection includes souvenirs from 19th century boxing matches and pin-up art, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

But we know you're here for the Simpsons-themed goods. Simon's custom Simpsons jacket will be on sale, along with a funky pinball machine. The New York Times reports the game says “Hey, man, I’m an underachiever, too,” in Bart Simpson's voice. 

 The collection reportedly includes a Simpson's yarmulke, and an Itchy & Scratchy-themed bag. 

Sotheby's will offer Simon's "Simpsons" memorabilia at a dedicated sale in New York on Oct. 22. Other items in his collection will be auctioned as part of 11 other sales this fall.

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It’s Disneyland, wrapped in a nightmare.

On Thursday, images and video captured inside “Dismaland,” Banksy’s new art exhibition/dystopian amusement park, began making the rounds on social media. They offer a glimpse into a world that’s predictably dark, bizarre and full of satire.

There’s a statue of Little Mermaid, looking oddly distorted, and a sculpture of Cinderella’s carriage overturned in an accident. The Grim Reaper can be spotted riding in a bumper car, and a killer whale is seen jumping out of a toilet bowl, among other installments. 

In an interview with the BBC, Banksy described the so-called “bemusement park” -- which also features work from Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer, Jimmy Cauty and other artists -- as a “family theme park unsuitable for children.”

He added that the show, his biggest to date, will require plenty of “audience participation.”

“A dead princess is only complete when surrounded by gawping crowds with their cameras out, or the opportunity to photograph yourself pulling an amazed expression when a killer whale leaps from a toilet,” the enigmatic artist said.

(Story continues below)

Dismaland will be open to the public from August 22 to September 27 in Weston-super-Mare, a seaside town in Somerset, England.

The show is taking place on the site of a former leisure park called Tropicana. The now-derelict building and grounds on the Tropicana site have been closed for 15 years, reports the BBC. 

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While we eagerly await the return of the NBA season (and Riley Curry appearances), sometimes we have to get creative. Or soak up the creativity that the great and powerful Internet #blesses us with.

Such as this epic emoji collage of Draymond Green blocking LeBron James in overtime of Game 2 in the NBA Finals.

For reference (as if we could ever forget), here is the original play, sans emojis.

The masterpiece comes courtesy of Julie Phayer, the social media coordinator for the Warriors. And if coverage this season is to be told entirely in emoji format, count us in.

⚡️ ⚡️ ⚡️ ⚡️ ⚡️

H/T ProBasketballTalk

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While I’d love to be the kind of eco-conscious wonder-feminist who you’d expect to waltz around in Toms, weaving my own reusable kitchen towels, and menstruating freely into a reusable silicone cup during my period, that’s just not me. I wear cheap Forever 21 kicks. I buy Bounty paper towels by the multi-roll pack. As an earth mother, I’m a failure. 

That menstrual cup though? That’s my jam. 

(Grandma, if you’re reading this, now is a great moment to check out one of my other articles instead of reading this one. Love you!)

I’ve been blissfully bleeding into a Diva Cup, a popular brand, for a couple years now (NB: only when it’s my time of the month -- don’t call 911). At times, my relationship with my cup has been contentious, even chilly, but I’ve come through to the other side, and I’m here to say: My Diva Cup is not a diva, but a queen of lady-blood-holding.

Sadly, you won’t see Diva Cups or its competitors on sale at the local Walgreens. Perhaps you’d stumble onto it at an organic food and wellness store. Or, perhaps, you’d hear about it on the kind of Internet forum where women gossip excitedly about being able to keep track of how much blood they’re producing each day due to the cup’s convenient design or how much they love to have period sex on red satin sheets and rejoice in their womanhood. (As much as I admire these women, I remain personally uninterested in measuring my period blood or spreading it on red satin sheets.) 

Crunchy, alternative, with a soupçon of quackery: this is the menstrual cup’s cultural brand. 

Not being into any of these things, what with my supermarket strawberries and generic Nyquil, I initially struggled with whether to invest in a Diva Cup. I hadn’t even learned how to use tampons until well into high school; intimate, gritty encounters with my bloody vaginal canal had never been on my bucket list.

And yet … I still hated tampons, the way they made me feel bloated and the constant rush to change them in public bathrooms, not to mention the expensive re-upping every month. The promise of a one-time investment followed by freedom from last-minute drugstore runs and, even better, the ability to only change the cup once every 12 hours, proved too strong a temptation.

When I bought my first Diva Cup, I was still in college, money-conscious and a bit idealistic. And I had no idea what was going on with my downstairs mix-up. To be totally clear, I had never had intercourse. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, when I tried to shove a folded wad of silicone into my untested lady bits, they were having none of it. Just adding water, a tactic I saw recommended online, did not help. Once or twice I was able to jam the bell-shaped cup inside, but the pain and protruding knob alerted me that I hadn’t found the knack. Finally, deeply disappointed in myself, the Diva Cup, and the entire feminine hygiene industry, I put the cup away and went back to my slim-fit tampons. 

After several years, a college graduation, a big move to NYC, and some evolutions in my dating life I finally revisited the cup, tucked away in a now-linty purple pouch. When I was 24, I found myself in a steady relationship for the first time in a long time -- this time with a sexual intercourse component. “Maybe,” I thought, “I could fit my Diva Cup up there now, too!”

Who knows whether it was simply a few more years of maturity, the advent of sex, or the opportunity it brought to become more comfortable with my body -- perhaps even all of the above: The point is, the second time around, the cup fit. It still resisted easy insertion at first, or stubbornly refused to open fully once inside; occasionally I’d have leaks due to off-kilter placement. But I was so close to Diva Cup success, I could taste it. Especially after disinfecting the cup by boiling it in the one cooking pot I owned. (I scrubbed it so thoroughly afterward, really.) 

I kept trying. No big deal, but I’m basically a pro at it now. I can even use it in a public or workplace bathroom -- although, and this is the joy of the Diva Cup, I never really have to. I can just replace it after I get home and before I leave for work. It’s the 12-hour wonder. And for those who might ask, what if you leave it in for a couple hours too long and it just starts overflowing? That does not happen. As a normal-level bleeder, I have yet to come close to filling the cup during a 12-hour, er, period.

What else do I love about my Diva Cup? I never, ever worry about it leaking profusely as long as I’ve placed it correctly. I never worry about leaving it in an extra few hours and getting Toxic Shock Syndrome (maybe just a paranoia, but one I still hold). I don’t get that icky period blood odor, which only develops when you have congealed blood exposed to air on your person. I am never out of tampons at a crucial moment. Oh, and I paid $40 for it at some point, but it’s paid for itself many times over. 

What don’t I love about it? When a friend quietly asks me if she can bum a tampon, I usually can’t help her. Sorry, ladies, I really do wish I could help. Plus, I do wear pantiliners on my lowest-flow days or as back-up, so yeah, I’m still buying from Big Lady Pad and throwing the remnants into the trash.

Fortunately, that second problem may soon be a thing of the past. Thinx, a start-up by and for women, now offers cute, unobtrusive panties that actually soak up all of that menstrual blood without leaving you feeling wet or bulky. Reviews have suggested you can even free-flow in them, if you’re feeling risky, but to me it sounds like an ideal replacement for a limp liner loosely adhered to my least favorite pair of undies. (For every pair purchased, they send funding to AFRIpads to supply feminine hygiene products to women in Uganda. Double win.)

If I, a repressed, squeamish, Catholic-schooled woman who sometimes shops for groceries at CVS, can make the Diva Cup work for me, clearly it has mass appeal. Why does it seem to be stuck in a niche, marketed toward women who frequent moon goddess web forums and stores that specialize in organic herb supplements?

The oddball, hippie image of the cup seems to spring, in part, from the idea that no woman would want to deal with the misery of putting her fingers in her vagina unless she were willing to sacrifice all personal comfort to the cause of reducing waste and saving the environment. You’ll see this sentiment in anti-cup rants here and there: “I sheepishly ignore my normally eco-sensitive conscience and heed the wisdom of a friend who said, ‘Your period is not the time to save the Earth’ … Which is why I’m so confused about women who swear by the DivaCup,” wrote one woman. “My backup pads and wet wipes weren't exactly saving the landfills,” sniffed another after she tried.

But the cup is so much more than that! Sometimes I don’t bother sorting my recycling because my apartment is too small to conveniently set up a recycling bin AND a trash can. That’s the level of dedication I offer to the environment. Yet the Diva Cup won me over. Game, set, match. Let’s mainstream this product. When will the drug store shelves be lined with scented cups for those insecure about their odor, and pink floral ones for style-conscious menstruators? 

It turns out, thankfully, we’re already on our way. Earlier this year, Rosemary Counter argued in MacLean’s magazine that the Diva Cup was actually a smart step on the path toward commercializing the reusable cup for a mainstream consumer base -- it’s translucent, unlike the mud-colored earlier offerings such as the Keeper, and comes in the aforementioned bright pouch.

Although you probably won’t stumble onto it at Walgreens, you might spot it at Whole Foods. (You can order it online at Walgreens if you really want to get it there for some reason.) In Canada, most major drug store chains carry the Diva Cup.

Counter also pointed to the Lily Cup Compact, a bright pink cup launched via a highly successful Kickstarter this year. Intimina, the Swedish company behind the product, has a far from crunchy image; they sell sleek, pink products for women ranging from “pelvic floor strengtheners” to “personal massagers.” If you know what they mean. 

Still, we never see TV commercials in which a smiling brunette in khakis brandishes a silicone cup dripping with bright blue fluid at us. Worse, most chain stores in the U.S. don’t stock any brand of reusable menstrual cup. Kaitlin Ball, brand director at Softcup, told Racked, "We want to be an option that’s as easy as buying a tampon or a pad"; the cup isn’t close to there yet. Seeing these products on the shelves at Walmart and Rite Aid could go a long way toward normalizing their brand among American women, but the image of the caftan-clad, herb-munching hippie may also affect stores’ decisions to put menstrual cups on the shelves. “They’ll find it different, uncomfortable,” Sophie Zivku of Diva Cup told Racked. Business people aren’t immune to what she calls “the ick factor.”

So gather round me, women of the United States. If you don’t use Tom’s of Maine toothpaste, or buy only organic granola, or brew homeopathic teas instead of going to the doctor, a menstrual cup could still be right for you. It’s past time to fully mainstream this cost-conscious, eco-friendly, convenient way for women to manage their monthly blood-letting.  

Now, to be clear, the Diva Cup isn’t for everyone. Some people will prefer the MeLuna, or the Lunette. But seriously, some people will always prefer tampons or pads, and I get that. I still use paper towels instead of homespun, reuseable cotton cloths. No individual woman should feel pressured to use a menstrual cup against her will. 

As for me, though, I adore my Diva Cup, even though it gave me hell the first few months I tried to use it. It wasn’t always easy. Sometimes I felt like a crazy person as I hovered over a public toilet with a bloody, slippery cup clutched in my hands and my pants around my ankles. But I don’t regret a single second. Call me a dreamer, but I want more women like me -- basic, un-crunchy, drug-store shoppers -- to have that same beautiful journey.

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Where does that crisp, summery IPA you guzzle on weekends come from? Today, the answer is pretty straightforward. But when, and why, did humans start brewing beer in the first place? A new comic book attempts to explain, with beautifully calligraphic panels, the early days of crafting tasty, drinkable grains.

Beer's origins are tough to pinpoint precisely, but historians and anthropologists think it dates back before humans starting using ceramics as vessels for their beverages. So, even though we can get a good sense of what different, porous ceramic containers contained, beer probably predated all of that.

The authors of The Comic Book Story of Beer write, "the very first beer was probably brewed in an organic container like an animal skin or wooden vessel." (Brooklyn-based micro-brewers, take note: you're doing it wrong.)

But, we have no archaeological record of those decayable vessels, so we have to rely on piecing together the puzzle ourselves. The first batch of beer was probably brewed around 9,000 B.C., when "civilization took a quantum leap forward with the invention of agriculture," according to the comic.

Oddly enough, some scholars even think beer is responsible for our shift away from a nomadic lifestyle. No, that's not because societies stumbled into hangover-induced dormancy once alcohol was divined from the gods. The theory is that humans had access to grains and cereals way before they could grow their own crops. Wheat and barley were used to make gruel, a bready meal that combines the grains with water, thereby resulting in fermentation -- and, voila! -- alcohol.

The speculation continues: the difficulties of early agriculture "may only have been worth all the effort if it paid off in this flavorful, mystical and socially important beverage."

So, if it weren't for beer -- that deterrent to so much modern-day productivity -- civilization as we know it might not exist. 

To read an excerpt from The Comic Book Story of Beer, see below.

Reprinted with permission from The Comic Book Story of Beer, by Jonathan Hennessey and Mike Smith, copyright © 2015. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House LLC.

Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Aaron McConnell

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"Am I conveying just how intensely I love books? More eyeball, maybe? How 'bout now?"

"Quick, everyone, the painter's here. Read feverishly!"

"Judy, you're really killing the painting vibes with your love of literature."

"Guys, what do we do with our hands? Quick, Betty, hand me my book! "

"Regina, sweetie, we're f**king posing for a painting right now."

Marie-Josephine, you forgot the book you're supposed to be pretending to read reading for this painting.

"LOL. Nurse, I can't even brush my own hair, let alone read this book."

 "I'll count my coins and you flip through a book. This portrait is going to be crazy."

"I just found my sister's diary and I'm not about to let this opportunity pass me by, so you're gonna let me finish."

"Oh, you're here to paint me? Well, I just started reading and I can't possibly stop. It's just not possible."

"Will my eye contact throw you off? Or should I also pretend to look at the words?"

"What? I always read in my best dress pinks."

OK, these monks don't even have eyes.

Each week, HuffPost Arts & Culture attempts to bring to light a few forgotten gems with our slightly humorous look back at art history. For past examples see here and here.

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Most of the news coverage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina focused on the damage and flooding in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward. But another area devastated by the 2005 hurricane was the New Orleans suburb of Slidell, Louisiana, located in St. Tammany Parish. Though the town got relatively less media attention, thousands of Slidell residents lost their homes, forced to leave their personal belongings strewn along roadsides and inside ditches. 

After the hurricane, Miami-based photojournalist Charles Ommanney, working as a freelancer for Newsweek at the time, went to Slidell to search for more captivating photos outside the usual disaster zones. He ended up finding something more interesting than subjects for his own photographs: physical photos left behind by families who had fled.

"All around, one was surrounded by what looked like a nuclear aftermath," Ommanney told The Huffington Post. "We started clambering through piles of rubble and there they were. In virtually every garden people's personal photo albums lay strewn among the wreckage of their former lives." 

Ten years later, one particular set of images has stuck with Ommanney. 

"I still find the images of the families vacationing by the water that would eventually consume their lives very chilling," he said.

The condition of those photographs, and their profound nature, inspired Ommanney to create a photo series called "Faces of Katrina."

"The salt in the water had grossly distorted the images," he said, "and in one go told the story of how the great storm had changed everything."

See more photos from "Faces of Katrina" below.

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Nothing gets the ball rolling like imagination unleashed. 

The RedBall Project, a traveling art installation by Kurt Perschke, is visiting Toledo, Ohio, at the moment. It's meant to be a stationary exhibit, but for a brief moment on Wednesday evening that changed.

Strong winds dislodged the 15-foot, 250-pound ball from its place in front of a jewelry store and sent it rolling down the street.

A bystander captured the ball's brief jaunt as it turned the corner from Madison Avenue onto St. Clair Street, grazing a stop sign and rolling over parked cars. Members of an impromptu "recovery team," including museum staff, a waiter, and other passers-by, pursued the ball and quickly got ahold of it, according to The Toledo Blade. 

Toledo Museum of Art spokeswoman Kelly Garrow said the ball was damaged in the incident and had to be patched in several places. 

The ball's unexpected voyage lends new context to Perschke's statement about the project.

"On the surface, the experience seems to be about the ball itself as an object, but the true power of the project is what it can create for those who experience it," Perschke said. "[The] invitation to engage, to collectively imagine, is the true essence of the RedBall Project."

Watch Preschke discuss the RedBall Project in an interview with the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts below.

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Broadway great and multitalented entertainer Diahann Carroll grew up in pre-Civil-Rights America, when segregation gripped much of the country and racism left many African Americans feeling "hopelessly powerless" against an unfair system. As a young girl New York City, Carroll was spared exposure to many injustices of that time, but when she left New York for the first time, she had a painful revelation about what other black individuals faced on a regular basis.

As Carroll tells "Oprah's Master Class" in the above video, the incident occurred when she and her mother boarded a train bound for North Carolina to visit some family. When the train made a stop in the nation's capital, Carroll had an experience she's never forgotten.

"In Washington, D.C., I received one of the most shocking pieces of information," says the now-80-year-old breast cancer survivor. "The conductor came to those of us in this particular car to explain to us that it was time to move. We had to move to another car because this car is no longer an integrated car. All of the negroes -- we were called negroes -- had to move to two cars down."

Carroll was floored by the request, especially considering the literal grounds on which it was happening.

"I remember thinking, 'But this is Washington, D.C. This is the optimum of the United States of America,'" she says. "I thought for a moment that [the conductor] made a mistake."

But Carroll's mother quietly explained that, no, there was no mistake. They had to move.

She was not ashamed of her blackness. She was ashamed of the country, that she should have to subject me to that kind of treatment.

"It didn't faze her," Carroll says of her mother. "I watched her reaction and my reaction, and I wanted to know why she wasn't more upset. Why wasn't she trying to do something about this?"

What Carroll's mother did do, however, was apologize to her daughter. "She was ashamed, really," Carroll says, looking back. "She was not ashamed of her blackness. She was ashamed of the country, that she should have to subject me to that kind of treatment."

Carroll's mother also taught the young girl what she now considered to be an incredibly valuable life lesson.

"She said to me, 'People really do have a problem with you because of the color of your skin. Remember: The problem has nothing to do with you; that is their problem. For some reason, something has bothered them in their lives and they've decided to interpret it in terms of race. So, they need that as an excuse to be... unkind to people or to think less of people. It has really nothing to do with you, Diahann.'

"I was just young enough to believe her," Carroll continues. "And thank God I did."

Related:Carroll explains how she overcame the abandonment she experienced in her childhood.

"Oprah's Master Class" returns for its fifth season on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 8 p.m. ET. Upcoming masters include Ellen DeGeneres, Robert Duvall, Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, Smokey Robinson, Jeff Bridges, James Taylor and Patti LaBelle.

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Last year, cartoonist Sage Stossel used her art to describe all the feelings she experienced as a new mom. Her newest cartoon essay tackles a recent hot-button topic for moms and dads -- parental happiness. 

"I adore my son, but (like parents everywhere) I discovered that the transition from child-free life is a major -- in some ways almost sort of shocking -- adjustment," Stossel told The Huffington Post. "So when I saw reports about this study showing how much new parents struggle, it struck a chord and inspired a few cartoon thoughts."

 The mom says she thinks humor is a good release from the tougher moments of parenting. She said, "My hope is that fellow parents will relate and maybe enjoy a moment of levity in the middle of their crazy, overwhelming, Cheerio-filled days."

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Noah is currently the most popular baby name for boys, and Jacob, Benjamin and Samuel are right up there too. But there’s also a whole brigade of new biblical boys -- all as old as Methuselah -- who are in line to challenge them. Some of them, like Amos and Abel, are usably familiar, while others -- Hezekiah, anyone? -- were considered too clunky in the past. Here are 12 Old Testament boy names that are moving up the popularity ladder.

Abel

The second son of Adam and Eve, Abel is now at the highest point it’s ever been at number 164, up 16 places this year. In addition to its biblical cred, Abel has that other appealing "can-do" meaning. Amy Poehler and Will Arnett have a son named Abel.

Amos

Amos suffered from stereotypitis for decades via the old "Amos ‘n’ Andy" radio-TV show, but now seems to have fully recovered, jumping 81 spots in 2014. Amos was an 8th century prophet with a biblical book named after him. Modern parents like his A-beginning and newly stylish S-ending.

Asher

The contemporary sounding Asher, with its wonderful short form Ash, rose close to a hundred places last year, breaking into the top 100 and making him one of the fastest ascending Old Testament boys. This son of Jacob name was somewhat rejuvenated by his appearance as a character on "Gossip Girl."

Ezekiel

A record 2,300+ little Ezekiels were born in the U.S. in 2014, evidence of its growing widespread popularity. A visionary prophet in the Bible, Ezekiel was the name given to their son by Beau Bridges and Tisha Campbell-Martin and is a character in the Divergent series. Nickname Zeke lightens it up.

Ezra

Another Old Testament name now at its all-time peak, Ezra has risen to number 119 on the list. Why? His heroic biblical legacy gives him gravitas, combined with a buzzy z-sound, which have led celebs like Paul Reiser and Taylor Hanson to choose it for their sons; also Ezra Fitz is a "Pretty Little Liars" character.

Gideon

Classic but cool, Gideon has seen an extraordinary revival. After being off the list from 1910 to 1980, it has rapidly climbed to number 349, by far its highest position ever -- and to 97 on Nameberry. The biblical Gideon was a judge called upon by God to rescue the Hebrews. Neil Patrick Harris and Ziggy Marley have Gideons, and it is a main character in "Criminal Minds."

Jedidiah

Jedidiah is one of several iah-ending names increasingly being used: it climbed 87 places this year (Hezekiah was up 108 spots, while Nehemiah and Zachariah are both in the top 500.) In the Old Testament, it was the name given by the prophet Nathan to King Solomon; in modern real life he’d inevitably be shortened to Jed.

Josiah

Will Josiah be the new Joseph/Joshua? It’s already in the top 100, 39 on Nameberry, and rising every recent year. An upright king of Judah in the Old Testament, Josiah still manages to have a good deal of quaint but modern charm. A name with lots of historic and literary cred, Josiah is headed even higher

Judah

The name of the Old Testament son of Jacob who was the ancestor of one of the tribes of Israel, Judah has gained in tandem with the popular short form Jude. It has gone from number 813 in 2000 to 243 in 2014. A current bearer is actor Judah Friedlander, and Lucy Lawless used it for her boy.

Levi

At number 45, Levi is one of the hottest names on this list, its success spearheaded by its choice by Matthew McConaughey in 2008. In the Old Testament, Levi is a son of Jacob and Leah, while in the New Testament it was Matthew’s given name before he became an apostle, making it the perfect link for McConaughey’s son. It ranks at number 12 on Nameberry. 

Samson

The ultimate symbol of strength in the Bible, Samson is also becoming more powerful in the baby name universe for parents seeking a less common alternative to Samuel. A gain of 40 places has brought it to number 628, its top rank ever, and the Berries have it at 249. On the pop culture scene, it’s a song by Regina Spektor. 

Tobias

Up 70 places this year, Tobias is another biblical boy that has benefited from the s-ending trend and also is liked for its friendly nickname Toby. In the Bible the name is associated with the story of Tobias and the Angel. Actor Tobey Maguire named his son Otis Tobias -- using his own birth name in the middle.

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Centuries before reality television monopolized the cultural conversation regarding fiction and authenticity -- how much is scripted, how much is real? -- photography was the catalyst of such truth-based inquiries. And no, we’re not talking about whether someone’s flawless Instagram page is entirely fabricated.

A current exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art reveals that, just as there was no “The Real World” episode 100 percent rooted in the real, there were no photographs (since the medium’s inception) that didn’t exist somewhere on the spectrum between fiction and truth. The show, titled “Grand Illusions: Staged Photography from the Met Collection,” spans 40 photographs from the first 170 years of photographic history, displaying the many shades of verity accessible through the camera’s lens.

“Photographers, like ventriloquists, can cast ‘voices’ in a seemingly infinite number of genres and period styles,” the Met explained in a statement to the press. “This does not negate the camera’s direct relationship to the world -- tying image to subject as naturally as a footprint -- but instead reveals that photographs are always admixtures of fiction and reality tilted toward one end of the scale or the other.”

While more contemporary artists like Cindy Sherman and Jeff Wall are often the first cited in the dialogue surrounding staged photographs, “Grand Illusions” reveals that the earliest photographers in the game were well aware of the uncanny ability of the camera to frame illusion as truth and vice versa.

The show spans artists from Julia Margaret Cameron, the 19th-century British photographer who staged elaborate pre-Raphaelite romance photos rooted in literature and mythology, to Ralph Eugene Meatyard, the Illinois-born photographer known for photographing his children on family road trips while donning grotesque masks.

"If [a photograph is] unbelievably real it becomes superreal or another kind of super real, better than real," photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard once said. "[It] also can be, I think, so heartfelt that you almost can get a pang of compassion for the thing."

Famed painters like Edgar Degas and Rene Magritte also make an appearance in the Met's show, revealing the slippery way a canvas resembles a stage, and correspondingly, a space can embody the essence of a canvas.

More contemporary figures like Francesca Woodman and Nan Goldin present newer iterations of old provocations, suggesting that questions of representation can never quite be answered, only pushed further. Tropes and symbols reappear over time.

Beginning in the 1930s, American photographer Morton Bartlett began carving and photographing incredibly detailed dolls resembling six-year-old children. When mediated through the camera’s lens, the realistic dolls gain an uncanny life force, implicating the viewer in an almost pedophilic act of seeing. Laurie Simmons, too, works with figures, turning high-end sex dolls into suburban subjects, plopped amidst domestic scenarios, emphasizing the objectification and commodification of the female form.

"Photography, as we all know, is not real at all," photographer Arnold Newman said. "It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world." As any good social media user knows all too well, every photograph is a perfect combination of truth-showing and storytelling.

The next time you roll your eyes at an immaculate #iwokeuplikethis pic or a delicately arranged food porn still-life, just think, these aren’t just posers. They’re partaking in a centuries-old photographic tradition of blending the real and the fabricated, and doing it oh-so beautifully.

"Grand Illusions: Staged Photography from the Met Collection" runs until January 18, 2016 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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AFROPUNK, the revolutionary black counterculture music festival, will celebrate its 10th year in New York City this weekend with -- if last year's numbers are any indication -- a crowd of more than 60,000 at Brooklyn's Commodore Barry Park. It's come a long way from its start in 2005 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, thanks to its co-founder, Matthew Morgan.

Morgan, who considers himself to be the most radical of his four siblings, is the biracial son of a Guyanese father and a Russian-Polish mother. He grew up in England during the 1970s where he witnessed the rise of the rebellious punk rock genre. 

From a young age Morgan was aware of difference and the intertwined relationship of race, music and discrimination. "I saw young people of color come up at time in the UK where they were pushing back against the government," Morgan told The Huffington Post in a phone interview. "They were pushing back against society in general, and punk rock -- from a white Western sense -- came from that angst and that rebellious nature that was from young black people."

Morgan began working with musicians, such as Cree Summer and Santigold. He came to America in 2000 to continue his work with these kinds of musicians: black artists whose style tended to lie outside mainstream ideas of how black music was supposed to sound or look. When he arrived, he expected to find a more accepting atmosphere in New York City. Instead, he says he was greeted with the same attitudes that had made him feel like an outcast in London. 

So Morgan, along with fellow industry colleague James Spooner, began a movement that would revolutionize the way black people understood music and cultural identity.

It started with a 2003 documentary simply titled "AfroPunk". The film, directed by Spooner and produced by Morgan, explores the intersection between race and punk rock, particularly the feeling of exclusion and duality in a predominantly white music genre. Punk is often known for bright mohawks, safety-pin piercings and spiked leather jackets, which, according to some, resembles African tribal piercings and body modifications in a neo-tribal aesthetic.

According to the AFROPUNK website, the first festival was held in 2005 at  The Brooklyn Academy of Music. "We started... with a notion that it’s not that safe for punk rock black kids to go to shows," said Morgan.

Now a decade later, AFROPUNK has an international presence and an inclusive identity that anyone who is "other" can claim. As AFROPUNK matures, some people say that they're selling out... literally, as this year marks the first year that festival isn't free. Festival-goers can either pay or do community service, such as feeding the homeless, for admission. 

"We were going to end up in the poorhouse [for] this thing that we built that people love, so we decided to ask people the ultimate question: are you able to put your hand in your pocket to support this black business that you love that has helped you identify who you are?" Morgan said. 

 While some argue that it isn't punk enough anymore, Morgan disagrees, saying "AFROPUNK is a mindset... it's not a musical genre." 

"We exist to be a part of what is 360 degrees of blackness," he continued. "It’s an alternative view on our culture and music and things that are important to us."

The festival runs from August 22 to 23 and will feature performances by Grace Jones, Lenny Kravitz and Lauryn Hill, among others. 

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In the early morning of Monday, Aug. 21, 1911, the world's most what is now the world's most famous painting, the "Mona Lisa," was stolen from its glass case at the Louvre. 

We know several things about the heist for sure. One, it happened. Two, it happened when no one was around, which wasn't too hard because, at the time, the Louvre had fewer than 150 guards protecting 250,000 valuable objects. If you like useless stats, that works out to roughly 1,667 valuable objects per guard, if they'd all been present. And the museum was closed that day. Three, it was stolen by an Italian and self-declared artist named Vincenzo Peruggia, who had helped install the glass case surrounding the painting and thus knew its weaknesses. After spending the night in a closet at the museum, Peruggia plucked the painting off the wall and walked out with the 20-by-30-inch masterpiece concealed under his clothing.

News that someone had taken the "Mona Lisa" -- pointed out by a guest when the museum reopened on Tuesday -- made headlines around the world. At the time, the painting was unfamiliar to many people, art historian Noah Charney told the BBC, as she'd just begun to gain serious critical praise in the mid-19th century. Media coverage of the heist helped make her a household name. 

In the course of the investigation, French authorities questioned Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Here's why Picasso TOTALLY DID IT could have been a legitimate suspect.

1. He was living in France at the time.

This is common knowledge.

2. He was friends with the writer Guillaume Apollinaire, whom police briefly jailed in association with the Louvre theft.

Classic guilt by association. After the "Mona Lisa" vanished, a man named Honoré Joseph Géry Pieret turned over a statuette he'd stolen from the Louvre to an editor at the Paris Journal, which had offered a reward for information about the "Mona Lisa" heist. The paper published a photograph under the headline "A Thief Brings Us a Work Stolen from the Louvre." After the police showed up, though, Pieret led them straight to his old boss, Apollinaire, implicating him in the whole mess. He knew what Pieret did, but Apollinaire had (probably) nothing to do with the actual theft of those statuettes. Or (probably) the "Mona Lisa."

3. He'd technically purchased stolen artworks before.

Oh, those statuettes? Picasso paid Pieret for a couple of them some time before the Mona Lisa heist, as Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler explain in their book, The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft and Detection. He owned stolen art. He may have even asked for it to be stolen. (!!!) But after the media attention surrounding "Mona Lisa," besties Picasso and Apollinaire had (understandably) wanted to get rid of the contraband. They put the statuettes in a suitcase, brought them to the river ... but couldn't bring themselves to toss 'em in. Picasso had used the little things, two Iberian stone heads, as models for a work titled “Demoiselles d’Avignon" (1907).

4. He pretended he didn't know his very good friend in a courtroom.

Sketchy AF. When the two creatives were summoned in front of a magistrate as suspected thieves, they contradicted each other. Picasso said he'd never even seen Apollinaire before because he was so terrified, allegedly, of being deported back to Spain. Meanwhile, Apollinaire implicated his friend in the actual thieving act.

From the detectives' points of view, if they'd stolen once, they could've done it again -- and at a bigger scale. Yet they were unable to find any connection between Appollinaire, Picasso and the whereabouts of the "Mona Lisa."

5. He loved art, duh. 

For all the painting's obscurity in the public realm, the art world -- including Picasso -- was well aware of its great beauty. Who wouldn't want that in his house? There's the "Mona Lisa," giving side-eye as you eat your morning cereal, watching you pick out all the marshmallows. There she is, giving side-eye as you sit on the sofa and read, knowing you're only really looking at the pictures. There she is again, giving side-eye as you try to sleep, and watching -- always watching.

Anyway, Picasso was never charged with stealing the "Mona Lisa." Peruggia was caught in December 1913 trying to offload the painting to an Italian art collector. As an Italian and art-lover himself, Peruggia claimed he wanted to see the great work returned to its home -- da Vinci had painted it there around 1503. But that doesn't mean Picasso hadn't orchestrated the whole thing (in our imaginations).

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"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have," the incomparable Maya Angelou once said. The iconic American author, poet, dancer, actress -- and artist -- was also an avid art collector. Housing powerful works by figures like Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringgold and Romare Bearden, Angelou surrounded herself with bold artworks that projected the passion, courage, kindness and dignity she radiated herself.

Following Angelou’s death in 2014, Swann Auction Galleries is auctioning off 44 works from her collection. Beginning Sept. 12, Angelou's legendary collection will be open to the public, as will the priceless history embedded within each of the works. In anticipation of the auction, we’ve compiled a preview of our favorite pieces from the collection, along with the rousing words of Ms. Angelou herself. Even if you can’t afford to hang one of Angelou’s pieces in your home, the multimedia works speak volumes even through the computer screen.

Behold, the eternal flame of Maya Angelou, through words and pictures.

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Parents typically want to know how their children's first days of school went, but often receive no more than one-word answers like "fine" and "OK." This video from Parkway School District in St. Louis gives viewers a glimpse into the first day of kindergarten, from the perspective of a real student. 

Six-year-old Adrianna wore a GoPro camera on her first day of kindergarten at Craig Elementary on August 12 and captured highlights like the bus ride, the warm welcome from faculty and administrators and new cubbies.

"From a parent's perspective, we forget how little these kids are, especially kindergarteners," said Adrianna's father Derek Duncan, who works as a digital communications specialist at Parkway School District. "So it was very cool to see what everything looks like to her when us adults are towering over her. Everything is just so big. It takes bravery to do things it would seem."

Duncan said his daughter loved wearing the camera, and her favorite moment from the day was seeing the bubble machine as she walked into school. 

Beyond the fun aspects of the video, the dad hopes people who watch it try to think about what it's like to be a child embarking on a new adventure. "As parents and educators, it's crucial to try to see the world through your kids eyes."

So true. 

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In a recent interview with The Guardian's Alison Flood promoting his hefty new novel, Purity, Jonathan Franzen made a startling admission.

As Flood put it, "He once considered adopting an Iraqi war orphan to help him understand young people better, but was persuaded against it by his editor." Franzen, with the benefit of hindsight, concedes the absurdity of the plan: "Oh, it was insane, the idea." To put it gently, yes.

Tone-deaf, insensitive comments that rub less privileged writers and readers the wrong way have become Franzen's unintentional identifying characteristic within the literary world. He's bashed the platforms available on the Internet, which many see as a democratizing force; he was impolite to Oprah when she selected his book for her influential book club; he once critiqued a male novelist for writing about a woman.

Franzen's Guardian interview really snapped things into focus, however. He isn't just some run-of-the-mill white male novelist with a slightly inflated ego. He's Lucille Bluth. 

I'm not kidding. Trying to adopt a child purely to boost his career -- that's only one parallel. What about the general misanthropy, lack of curiosity and obliviousness to the way we live now? If Franzen were a woman with a closet full of pantsuits instead of a man with a writing career, he would be the imposing matriarch of the sitcom "Arrested Development."

To prove it, I've rounded up the GIFs and quotes to demonstrate, in 11 easy steps, that Lucille Bluth is Jonathan Franzen's spirit animal:

Totally lacking in parental instincts. 

Franzen: "One of the things that had put me in mind of adoption was a sense of alienation from the younger generation. They seemed politically not the way they should be as young people."

Out of touch with the lives of normal people.

Franzen: "My beef was -- and is -- with the techno-utopianists who think connectivity is the same thing as community, and who mistake texting and blogging for literary creativity."

Possesses a very narrow scope of curiosity.

Franzen: [on whether he's read any of Jennifer Weiner'sbooks] "No! I have yet to hear one person say, 'Oh, she’s really good, you should read her.'”

Casually judgmental.

Franzen: "J. D. Salinger might be an example of an American writer whose reputation has similarly benefitted from being read in people’s youth."

Refuses to engage with new things, regardless of evidence. 

Franzen: "Not only am I not a Luddite, I'm not even sure the original Luddites were Luddites. ... But not long ago, when I was intemperate enough to call Twitter 'dumb' in public, the response of Twitter addicts was to call me a Luddite. Nyah, nyah, nyah! It was as if I'd said it was 'dumb' to smoke cigarettes, except that in this case I had no medical evidence to back me up."

Just a little hypocritical.

Franzen: "Twitter is unspeakably irritating ... People I care about are readers … particularly serious readers and writers, these are my people. And we do not like to yak about ourselves."

Troubled by delusions of grandeur, self-centered.

Franzen: “I’d been working nine years on [The Corrections] and FSG had spent a year trying to make a best-seller of it. It was our thing. [Oprah] was an interloper, coming late, and with an expectation of slavish [Ed. note: Come on, dude] gratitude and devotion for the favor she was bestowing.”

Superficial, at least about women.

Franzen: "Lacking good looks and the feminine charms that might have accompanied them, [Edith Wharton] eventually became, in every sense but one, the man of her house."

Views women as sexual temptresses.

Franzen: [Please see any scene related to a woman's sexual choices in Franzen's fiction, for example, this one from Freedom:] "That she could say all this, and not only say it but remember it very clearly afterward, does admittedly cast doubt on the authenticity of her sleep state. But the autobiographer is adamant in her insistence that she was not awake at the moment of betraying Walter and feeling his friend split her open."

Deeply, unconvincingly defensive about own flaws:

Franzen: “I’m not a sexist. I am not somebody who goes around saying men are superior, or that male writers are superior. In fact, I really go out of my way to champion women’s work that I think is not getting enough attention. None of that is ever enough. Because a villain is needed. It’s like there’s no way to make myself not male.”

Fond of birds.

Franzen: "Even the most ominously degraded landscape could make me happy if it had birds in it."

You know what, Mr. Franzen? Don't fight it. Lucille Bluth is a pretty great sitcom doppelgänger to have. Now just do a better job at convincing us you're joking.

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