This article originally appeared on artnet News.

Amid the anger-fueled circus that is the current political convention season, few people are willing to make the argument that this country (or the world) is undergoing anything akin to a renaissance—political, artistic, or otherwise.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are so unpopular that the election is being cast as a choice for a least-hated contender for president. That dislike—or outright fury—is catching. Cleveland, the host city for the Republican National Convention, looked less like a shining city on the lake last week than Iraq’s Green Zone. Philadelphia, which this week hosts the Democratic Party convention, looks set to illustrate Hillary Clinton’s pugilistic slogan: “Fighting for Us.”

At times like these, it’s increasingly important to draw historical comparisons—at least for funnin’s sake. Old art can be a perennial fount of new comic observations, so here are a few priceless double takes to get through these increasingly hostile times. Enjoy these 10 images of political figures whose resemblance to famous artworks prove uncanny, creepy, and, hopefully, somewhat stress-reducing.

1. Donald Trump and Francisco de Goya’s Portrait of Manuel Godoy(1801)
An oversized painting done to satisfy one of history’s biggest egos, this portrait of Spanish Prime Minister Manuel Godoy was created to commemorate Spain’s victory in the brief War of the Oranges. The sort of incisive psychological study that sails like a Frisbee over its conceited subject’s head, Godoy’s portrait provides the perfect 19th-century visual shorthand for a 21st-century illness: narcissistic personality disorder. Godoy’s self-belief—which vividly recalls Trump’s own bloated sense of importance—is depicted via the gold brocade of his uniform, his reclining posture, and the phallic baton propped between his legs. Like Trump’s, his hands aren’t very big. In the inimitable words of “Silicon Valley”’s Erlich Bachman, this Hispanic proto-Donald looks ready to ascend the world stage and “ejaculate [his]success all over the faces and hair of [his]fiercest rivals.”

2. Vladimir Putin and Jean Perréal’s Portrait of King Louis XII (around 1500)
Like Putin, Louis XII became king by accident. On April 7th, 1498, his cousin, Charles VIII, stumbled and hit his head on a doorway arch on his way to watch a tennis match. Because Charles had no male heir, the crown passed to his nearest male relative—Louis, Duke of Orleans. Putin, for his part, was made Russian Prime Minister by the dipsomaniac Boris Yeltsin. After Yeltsin retired from politics, Putin became what The Atlantic magazine has called an “accidental autocrat.” Russians have a saying: Tyajela ti shapka manomakha—”The crown of the czar is very heavy.” But no one said anything about  total humorlessness. For Lenin’s sake, lighten up, man.

3. Hillary Clinton and Johannes Vermeer’s Woman With a Pearl Necklace(1662-1665)
A painting of a young woman admiring herself in front of a mirror, Vermeer’s unidentified sitter can be interpreted as the Dutchman’s take on both the brevity of life and the vanity of worldly desires. On the other hand, Vermeer’s schoolmarmish dame studies her own image alone, suggesting self-examination—of the sort of Socrates advised when he rejected the unexamined life as not worth living. Fast-forward 351 years: This could be Hillary counting down the huge political costs of her missing emails.

4. Mark Zuckerberg and Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of Phillip IV (1623)
Not strictly a political figure, Zuckerberg has nonetheless become arguably the most important person in news-gathering, at least since the advent of Facebook’s Newsfeed. According to the digital publishing analytics company Parse.ly, more than 40 percent of referral traffic to news sites comes from Facebook. Unlike previous media giants, Zuckerberg is not only a kingmaker—he is a king. Notice the Habsburg lip.

5. Barack Obama and MAD magazine’s Alfred E. Neumann (1956)
Besides that “What Me Worry?” face, MAD magazine’s mascot and Barack Obama have some surprising things in common. First, they’ve both run for elective office. The freckled Obama lookalike made his debut on MAD’s cover as a write-in candidate for US president in 1956. Also, according to former magazine editor Al Feldstein, the publication’s figurehead was originally supposed to look smart. In an interview with The Paris Review, Feldstein says he asked MAD illustrator Norman Mingo to draw a character that had “intelligence behind his eyes” while maintaining “a sense of humor while the world is collapsing around him.” Sound familiar?

6. Chris Christie and Peter Paul Rubens’s Drunken Bacchus with Faun and Satyr (date unknown)
In this much-copied Rubens painting, an adipose Bacchus crowned with vine leaves is found wandering around in a drunken stupor like a Kappa Tappa Keg pledge by a couple of untrustworthy frat brothers—resembling, among other Republicans, Donald Trump and his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Will they continue to lead him astray or will he sober up and make it back to Jersey to salvage his career as a  local GOP god? Let’s put it this way: Bacchus never faced a 27-percent approval rating (according to a May Monmouth University poll).

7. Boris Johnson and Self-Portrait of Joseph Mallord William Turner(1799)
Painted when Turner was about 24 years old, this self-portrait was intended to mark his election as an associate member of the Royal Academy. Beyond the superficial similarity of their floppy white hair, there isn’t much real resemblance between England’s master painter and the UK’s new Foreign Secretary. Turner made his name early as an accomplished and wholly original painter with the technical abilities of a mature artist. The 52-year-old Johnson is best known today for making exaggerated claims for Brexit and promptly leaving when the bill came due—a classic high-school move.

8. Elizabeth Warren and an unidentified artist’s Portrait of Pocahontas(after 1616)
The daughter of a Native American chief, Pocahontas welcomed English settlers to North America in the early 17th century. This likeness, which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, was painted after a 1616 engraving made when she journeyed to England after converting to Christianity and marrying Englishman John Rolfe. Four centuries later, Senator Elizabeth Warren’s equivocal self-identification as a Native American gave Donald Trump—America’s birther-in-chief—the ammunition to call the Massachusetts Democrat “a total fraud” and, more controversially, “Pocahontas.”

9. Mike Pence and an unknown artist’s Portrait Head of Augustus (25–1 BC)
After gay cartoon icon Race Bannon of Jonny Quest fame—the inspiration for Robert Smigel’s Ambiguously Gay Duo—Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence most resembles this head of Cesar Augustus, belonging to the Getty Museum. It’s doubtful whether the Governor of Indiana, best known for the gay-baiting Religious Freedom Restoration Act, would fully appreciate the comparison. After all, Cesar conducted one of history’s great man-on-man love stories with his second in command and eventual son-in-law, Marcus Agrippa. What’s everybody looking at?

10. Roger Ailes and Balthus’s Portrait of André Derain (1936)
According to the website Every Painter Paints Himself, Balthus’sPortrait of André Derain is a good example of how “the figure of one artist is often based on an earlier one.” In this case, Balthus fused Derain’s face with his that of artistic hero: Nicolas Poussin. Besides a passing likeness to the French master, this portrait is also notable for its icky similarity to recently deposed Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. The once-unassailable Ailes was brought low by a recent sexual harassment suit brought two weeks ago by ex-Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson. Similar accusations were then leveled by sitting anchor Megyn Kelly.

Dude, keep the robe closed.

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This Hasidic indie rock band has lots of lady power.

Perl is a Crown Heights, Brooklyn-based group founded by singer-songwriter Perl Wolfe and featuring cellist Elisheva Maister, and violinist, Dana Pestun. Perl’s music is inspired by the Torah, Jewish teachings and scripture, and Chasidus, the teachings of the Chassidic movement within Judaism. 

In a video about the group featured on the YouTube channel Great Big Story, Wolfe explained how the group’s religious beliefs inspired one particular aspect of the Perl’s live performances ― they only perform in front of woman and woman-identified audiences.  

“I grew up in a Hasidic home so having a separation of the sexes in certain places is pretty common,” Wolfe said in the short doc. “There’s a law in Judaism for men not to listen to the singing voice of a woman who is not an immediate family member.”

The teaching Wolfe is referring to is called kol isha. It arises from the idea that a woman’s singing voice is something that can be sensual and thus, should be reserved for that woman’s family and partner. There are exceptions and leniencies to this general rule, and the different strands of Judaism interpret it in a wide range of ways. 

Instead of viewing this as a restriction, Wolfe believes that her band’s woman-only concerts give ladies a chance to “rock out.”

“I would say one of the biggest misconceptions that people have about the Hasidic community, people think that women are totally oppressed, that women can’t be leaders,” Wolfe said in the video. “I felt very much empowered as a woman spending time with other powerful women and having time to connect and having our own space.”

Watch the Great Big Story video above to hear more about Perl and listen to one of their practice sessions in the video below.

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Ah, teen love. It was so different back in 1951. And yet, not. Youths still stalked one another ― they just did so by peering into windows instead of browsing Facebook photos. Case in point: this scene from the new movie “Indignation,” based on Philip Roth’s 2008 novel. 

In the clip below, exclusive to The Huffington Post and its parent company, AOL, Logan Lerman stars as a neurotic Jewish freshman attempting to woo a classmate (Sarah Gadon) at a Christian college whose morals sometimes conflict with his own as the Korean War rages on. She schools him in the art of suitorship.

“Indignation” is the directorial debut of James Schamus, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter and former Focus Features CEO. The movie opens July 29.

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In 2001, a Stanford art student named Jackie Sumell sent a letter to Herman Wallace, an inmate at Louisiana State Penitentiary, more commonly known as Angola. The letter read: “What kind of house does a man who lives in a 6-foot-by-9-foot cell for 30 years dream of?” The answer would take over 10 years to complete.

Wallace grew up in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1971 he was convicted of armed robbery, a crime to which he admits, and sentenced to 25 years in an 18,000-acre maximum-security prison, once a complex of plantations, known widely as “the bloodiest prison in the South.”

During his sentence, Wallace started the first ever Black Panther party inside of a prison, along with fellow inmates Albert Woodfox and Robert King. The three worked to educate their fellow inmates, improve race relations and mitigate the violence and sexual assault that occurred within prison walls. They organized hunger strikes and protests, protecting the new inmates from the cycle of sexual slavery that was the status quo. 

In 1972, Wallace, Woodfox and King were convicted of stabbing and killing 23-year-old prison guard Brent Miller. No physical evidence tied them to the crime. The testimony against Wallace, Woodfox and King, who came to be known as the Angola 3, was paltry. One of the case’s supposed eyewitnesses was legally blind, another rewarded for his statement. The accusation was largely understood to be a reaction to the activists’ political ties, considered “militant” by the white corrections officers and warden.

The three men were indicted by an all-white, all-male grand jury. After his conviction, Wallace was soon removed from the general prison populous and placed in indefinite solitary confinement. For the next 41 years, he would spend 23 hours a day alone in a 6-foot-by-9-foot cell. 

Sumell first learned of Wallace’s story in 2001. King had been released from prison after 31 years and was telling the horrific story of his wrongful conviction to a group of artists in San Francisco. Sumell, a white, Long Island–born artist, wanted to do something. She wrote Wallace a letter. It would be the first of over 300 they’d exchange over the course of their 12-year friendship. 

In the midst of their written exchange, when the inhumanity of solitary confinement was making a legible mark on Wallace’s personality, Sumell received an assignment from a class at Stanford: Ask a professor to describe his or her most exorbitant dream home, a study on spacial relationships.

“I struggled to balance the futility of my assignment — which reinforced the power dynamics of wealth, race, and privilege — with the stark reality of Herman’s condition,” Sumell wrote in her artist statement. She resolved, instead of asking a professor, to ask Wallace. 

Technically, “The House That Herman Built” does not exist, in that there is no physical structure that combines the many details Herman Wallace built up in his head ― the roses, gloxinia and delphiniums surrounding the premises, the pecan-colored cabinets, the panther peeking up from the bottom of the pool, the constant supply of snacks in the snack closet. 

And yet Wallace’s vision subsists in all its vibrant detail in his imagination, bringing a whole new dimension to the phrase “dream home.” Through envisioning every detail of his 3,500-square-foot suburban home, Wallace escaped the crushing limitations of his everyday existence. Through his collaborative project with Sumell, Wallace lived in two places simultaneously, a dismal, cramped cell and a picturesque home of his own creation. 

Although Wallace and Sumell didn’t build a physical house together, they did create an exhibition, titled “The House That Herman Built/Herman’s House,” compiling the letters and drawings they exchanged over the course of a decade. Sumell also creates a virtual tour through Wallace’s home, which he narrates, guiding visitors through the yellow kitchen to the ‘70s-style, shag-carpeted bedrooms and wraparound porch. “In front of the house I have three squares of gardens,” he says when approaching the door. “I would like for guests to smile and walk through flowers all year long.”

The show also includes a life-sized, skeletal reproduction of Herman’s cell, based on his written descriptions and illustrated depictions. For visitors of the exhibition, the juxtaposition of the dream house’s fantastical presence and the confined cell’s physical reality mimic the dual reality of Wallace’s existence. The project, Sumell explained, has “become an international symbol of hope in the struggle to expose and ultimately end the inhumane practice of solitary confinement in the United States. It illustrates not only what is wrong, but also what is possible.” 

On Oct. 1, 2013, the courts overturned Wallace’s conviction, and after 44 years of imprisonment, 41 in solitary, he was finally a free man. He died three days later of liver cancer, surrounded by friends and family. “Herman’s legacy is not one of suffering and imprisonment,” Sumell continued, “it is one of justice and freedom, of dignity and fairness, of love and unwavering commitment to the people.”

Although Wallace passed away before the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, his spirit is evident in the contemporary fight for racial equality in the criminal justice system and prison industrial complex. His story serves simultaneously as a devastating reminder of just how long the same hateful injustices have plagued our nation’s history and a triumphant tale of the human spirit’s ability to overcome the most nightmarish of circumstances with resilience, creativity and hope for humanity. 

Wallace and Sumell’s art activism project is currently on view at the American Visionary Art Museum in the group exhibition “The Big Hope Show,” comprising artists who used art to transcend unimaginable pain and struggle. The installation contains drawings and letters between the two, who grew to become best friends, including this letter from Wallace to Sumell, written in 2006: “I’m often asked what did I come to prison for; and now that I think about it Jackie, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what I came here for, what matters now is what I leave with. And I can assure you, however I leave, I won’t leave nothing behind.”

“The Big Hope Show” is on view until Sept, 4, 2016, at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. 

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Liv Tyler is feeling the breastfeeding love.

Two weeks after she and her fiancé David Gardner welcomed their daughter Lula Rose, Tyler posted a sweet breastfeeding selfie on Instagram.

“Sunday morning snuggles with my baby girl. So grateful for this precious gift,” she wrote in the caption.

The post received over 100,000 likes, and the comments section is filled with positive messages from fellow breastfeeding mamas.

“Yay, for sweet nursing moments!” wrote one mom. “Thank you for normalizing breastfeeding! You are beautiful inside-out,” added another.

Lula is Tyler’s third child and first daughter. The actress has opened up about breastfeeding before, noting in a 2007 interview with People that she nursed her first son Milo.

Clearly, she’s keeping it up with Lula. 

Check out Tyler’s Instagram for more sweet snaps of her growing family.

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While Shawn Mendes is on tour this summer he plans to implement a little something he learned from Taylor Swift. 

Mendes, 17, opened for the 26-year-old pop star last summer on her “1989” stadium trek, an experience he calls “phenomenal.” And along the way, he became most impressed by Swift’s work ethic.

“The major thing I learned, aside from just the singing and production and the performance, offstage she was just so sweet and works so hard,” Mendes told The Huffington Post. “She was just doing interviews and meet and greets. It seemed like she never stopped ... It was cool to see that somebody at that level of fame and success was still working so hard to be there. It showed me that there’s no amount of success that allows you not to work hard, which is a really cool thing to learn at a young age.”

During his own world tour this year, Mendes not only plans to work hard but he’s also dedicated to helping “spread joy” as part of his partnership with the Paper Mate InkJoy initiative, which encourages fans to share notes with others to help brighten their days.

When asked what brings him the most happiness, Mendes said it comes down to the simple things in life.

“No matter what, I’m trying to have fun and, depending on the mood, fun can be on a roller coaster and playing onstage, or fun can be sitting in a room with three of your best friends talking for two hours,” he said.

Mendes, known for the hit singles “Stitches” and “Life of the Party,” said he feels lucky to be able to use his visibility for something bigger. 

“It’s extremely important just to keep things positive and happy as much as we can ... I think it’s important that singers, actors or whatever use our voice to spread positive messages as much as we possibly can,” he said.

Mendes will preview songs off his sophomore album, “Illuminate,” due out Sept. 23, in concert ahead of the album’s release. Compared to his debut, “Handwritten,” Mendes says this new album will take things up a notch —from the lyrics and vocals to the instrumentation and melodies. 

“It’s so much more done by me. For 90 percent of the songs, I was standing by the producer the entire song … People are going to feel that cohesiveness throughout the album,” he said. The stories are more mature. The concepts are so much more deep.” 

He’s already unveiled the video for “Treat You Better,” a new track that addresses domestic abuse and includes a domestic violence hotline number at the end of the clip. 

“I think it was really important for me to create something that wasn’t too dark for fans but also to get a message across,” he said. “We did a good job of keeping the video on the lighter side but also putting across a serious message ... I think it was super impactful and I hope it helps a lot.”

Armed with new music and some inspiration from Swift, Mendes feels ready for this next phase. 

“I think, for me, it’s been the best point of my career yet. I feel like I’ve had a moment to settle into the type of artist I want to be,” he said. “The album came together beautifully. I think I’ve never been as proud of a piece of art in my life ... I think the fans will walk away feeling really happy about it.”

The Huffington Post receives a percentage from the purchase of tickets bought via a link on this page.

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Let’s begin with some advice: Go see “Little Men” when it opens on Aug. 5. I saw it at Sundance in January, and I promise it is one of the year’s best movies. 

Now, more specifically: The Huffington Post and its parent company, AOL, have a joint exclusive clip from the film. “Little Men” ― the latest from “Love Is Strange” and “Keep the Lights On” director Ira Sachs ― is about the burgeoning friendship of two teenage boys whose parents become embroiled in a Brooklyn rent squabble. Resentful, they decide not to speak to their folks until the conflict is resolved. Cue this scene, in which Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Ehle attempt to get the boys (played by charming newcomers Theo Taplitz and Michael Barbieri) to talk to them while headed to a theater production. It’s a good scene that honestly doesn’t even do the film justice. I can’t say enough positive things about “Little Men,” which HuffPost will cover more extensively next week. Keep this movie on your radar.

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I am not any one of “The Golden Girls.” I am neither Grace nor Frankie. I may have a touch of OITNB’s Red, although I haven’t murdered anyone yet. I am certainly not Harold’s Maude and the only real-life Mrs. Robinson I ever heard about was a midwestern high-school teacher who made the news for sleeping with a student. Yeah, she was a hot mess momma alright.

Truth is, as a real-life 66-year-old woman, I am invisible in the landscape of modern culture. I simply don’t exist for Hollywood, which is ruled by the young and the beautiful and those who still put their baseball caps on backwards. These modern masters of my universe don’t see me and as a result, no one else does either.

I may be your mother, your grandmother, the widow next door who buys your daughter’s Girl Scout cookies. I may also be a working gal who broke the glass ceiling long before you were born. But the point is, you don’t see me.

Yes, I blame Hollywood for distorting the public’s vision so that beauty is the sole purview of youth and hot sex never includes wrinkles. Even the concept of “aging gracefully” has become a toxic brew in the hands of pop culture. We bestow this label on those who don’t “look their age,” not those who look their age and are perfectly comfortable with it.

I am regularly told that I don’t “look” 66, with the expectation that I will receive this as a compliment. But it defies my logic: If I am indeed 66 and this is how I look, then don’t I, in fact, look 66? What’s wrong with this so-called compliment is the implication behind it ― that it’s a good thing to not look my age. And why is that?

To age is to somehow fail at the good life, yet aging is a battle that we all eventually will lose. Why not embrace it, flaunt it, cherish it? Why erase me from your world and not see me unless I am your mother or some “adorable” grandma who amuses you by doing something you privately deem age-inappropriate? Why do you think it’s OK to make jokes at my expense, to say I don’t understand things like the internet, to diss what I bring to the table when I apply for jobs? Yes, I blame Hollywood for your failure to see me, the real me.

You have been conditioned to notice only whether my legs look like Tina Turner’s, whether my stomach is as flat as Jane Fonda’s, and whether I can be as saucy about life as Helen Mirren. And if I can’t, then what? I just stop existing for you.

Yes, I blame Hollywood for casting me as the eccentric old woman who wears flamboyant clothes and says shocking things that make the audience laugh. I am not her ― and I don’t want to be laughed at but rather laughed along with. I blame Hollywood for casting me as the nagging mother-in-law, the pitiful cougar, or the complaining woman in the wheelchair. I blame Hollywood for the misperception that older people don’t have sex and eat dinner every day at 4:30 p.m. to save a few dollars.  

I also think the entertainment industry is short-selling itself in its inability to see older women as we really are. We have money and aren’t afraid to spend it. We go to movies, watch TV and yes, we chill with Netflix in the biblical sense ― we really really do.

And we have been known to steal the show when Hollywood lets us. “When Harry Met Sally” was a happy feel-good watch, but what was the one memorable line in the film that people are still quoting decades later? It was the older woman in the deli who ordered “[I’ll have]what she’s having” after Meg Ryan’s faked orgasm. Yes, older people still have sex. We just don’t feel the same need to go around talking about it, but we certainly have the high STD rates to prove it. Maybe there’s a Netflix series in that?

Or how about scene-stealer Kathy Bates setting the record straight in the iconic parking lot scene in “Fried Green Tomatoes.” She repeatedly rams the red VW that stole her spot and cackles to its two younger occupants, “Well, girls, I’m older and have better insurance.” Yes, I cheer every time I hit the rewind button in my head for that one. Why? Because, heck, it feels good to be visible once in awhile. 

But I’m a realist. It is pretty unlikely that older people having sex will be coming to a screen near you any time soon. Remember comedian Amy Schumer’s sketch in which she bumps into Tina Fey, Patricia Arquette, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus sharing a toast and asks them why they are celebrating.

“We’re celebrating Julia’s last fuckable day,” says Arquette.

Yes, there is a precise moment when the media decides you’re no longer “believably fuckable.” And then came the coup de grace as Julia takes a swig of her wine and gives an example: “You know how Sally Field was Tom Hanks’ love interest in ‘Punchline’ and then, like, 20 minutes later she was his mum in ‘Forrest Gump’?”

Yes, it’s like that. Just like that.

This essay is part of the HuffPost Voices series “When Representation Mattered.” The series highlights stories from people of all racial backgrounds, religions, abilities, ages, sexual and gender identities on what representation means to them. To submit your story (in written or vlog form) for consideration, email representationmatters@huffingtonpost.com. 

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It’s been two decades since the Magnificent Seven made history and won the team gold medal in women’s gymnastics at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Dominique Dawes, Kerri Strug, Amy Chow, Jaycie Phelps and Amanda Borden have all gone on to have careers and lives outside of competitive gymnastics, but for any American girl growing up in the ‘90s, their faces are likely etched into memory.

Here are eight reasons they were ― and still are ― pretty damn awesome:

1. They were the first U.S. women’s gymnastics team to win the gold medal.

The first. Ever. Breaking that Olympic threshold meant nationwide fame: posters, endorsements, talk show appearances and many, many, many photo ops. Only one U.S. women’s gymnastics team has won the team gold since ― the Fierce Five in 2012.  

2. Team USA clinched the gold medal in the most impressive (and nail-biting) way ― Kerri Strug landed a vault on one foot.

Kerri Strug was at the center of perhaps one of the most memorable moments of the ‘96 games. Strug fell during her first vault attempt and injured her left ankle. Despite limping back to the vault runway for her second vault, she executed it near-perfectly, winning the gold. (It was seriously impressive.) Watch Strug reflect on the “gold medal moment” below. 

3. Dominique Dawes became the first African-American woman to win an individual Olympic medal in gymnastics. 

In addition to winning a gold medal with her teammates, Dawes won the bronze medal for her stunning floor routine. Watch her history-making performance below. As the 1996 NBC commentator says, “That was awesome!... She doesn’t just do the skills, she does it with her heart and her soul and it’s beautiful.”

4. Amy Chow became the first Asian-American woman to win an Olympic medal for gymnastics.

She even had not one, but two, moves named after her. 

5. They had their own Wheaties box! 

Just look at those freakin’ champions. 

6. They could do this...

7. And this...

 8. And this.

Seeing young women celebrated for their athletic prowess and accomplishments is always inspiring. Here’s hoping Team USA 2016 does their 1996 counterparts proud. We suspect they will.

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Since 2012, more than 11,300 refugees have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. Among them: Samia Yusuf Omar, a 21-year-old runner from Somalia who undertook the voyage in the hopes of getting closer to her goal of competing in the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Omar’s remarkable story is captured by German artist Reinhard Kleist in a new graphic novel called An Olympic Dream: The story of Samia Yusuf Omar, which was published in the US this April. The book documents Omar’s childhood in war-torn Somalia, her hopes of becoming a professional runner, and her journey from Somalia through Ethiopia, Sudan, and Libya.

Kleist worked on the book for a year and initially serialized it in a daily comic strip. The artist says he was drawn to the emotional impact of Omar’s story, and her efforts to “fulfill her dream of running as a way to get out of her bad situation in her homeland in Somalia.”

Omar burst onto the international scene during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where she competed for Somalia in the 200-meter race. Even though she came in last, the race showcased Omar’s determination, and seeing her thin physique among the toned, muscled bodies of her fellow runners was inspiring for Somalis made hopeless by decades of civil war.

Emboldened by her participation in the Beijing games, Omar hoped to represent Somalia in London in 2012. But back home, a different reality awaited her. The conflict in Somalia was undergoing a new twist, as the nascent transitional government faced off against extremist group Al-Shabaab.

In 2010, a then 19-year-old Omar decided to leave Somalia and train in neighboring Ethiopia. “She talked about sports, she watched sports games on YouTube, she played sports when she had any free time,” says Teresa Krug, a journalist who met Omar in Hargeisa, Somaliland, that year.

After traveling through Ethiopia, Sudan, and Libya, Omar got on a boat in the hopes of reaching Italy, finding a coach, and making it to the Olympics. But the boat carrying her ran out of fuel, according to media reports. She failed to grab a rope tossed by an Italian navy ship rescuing passengers, and drowned.

Kleist’s book is well-timed. The 2016 Olympics in Rio, which kick off in August, will host a team of refugees for the first time in Olympic history. Since Omar’s death, global displacement figures have reached an all-time high—65.3 million people are now displaced by conflict and persecution, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Somalia, Syria, and Afghanistan account for half of the world’s refugees and Kleist interviewed many refugees migrating to Europe in an effort to better understand Omar’s travails.

Somalia today is not the country Omar left in 2010; there are signs of a slow recovery underway. Al-Shabaab no longer has a heavy presence in the country’s capital, Mogadishu, and many of the group’s strongholds have been taken over by the government, supported by African Union peacekeeping forces. In Mogadishu, roads are being paved and businesses are thriving. There are even regional soccer tournaments sprouting up, and the stadium Omar dreamt of training in is scheduled for renovation. The Somali women’s basketball team is also competing globally now; two if its teammates—Mohamed Daud and Maryan Nuh—will represent the country in the 5,000 and 400 meters, respectively (Somali), in Rio.

Still, Omar’s story is a reminder of the hope and heartache experienced by those held back by the country’s decades of unrest. “She was one of the most driven people I have ever had the privilege of meeting,” says Krug. The odds might have been stacked against her, but “she is a person who tried her best.”

This article originally appeared on Quartz Africa. Sign up for the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief — the most important and interesting news from across the continent, in your inbox.

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In June, Led Zeppelin won a copyright lawsuit that claimed the band plagiarized the 1968 song “Taurus” by American rock band Spirit for the intro to “Stairway to Heaven.”

The estate of Randy Wolfe, Spirit guitarist and vocalist, specifically claimed Led Zeppelin used the now deceased guitarist’s work in their 1971 hit.

Since then, Led Zeppelin founding guitarist Jimmy Page has remained silent about the lawsuit, but earlier this week Page finally addressed the controversy with a brief Facebook post.

“Throughout the lengthy journey to that verdict, and even more recently, I have received and been aware of the overwhelming wave of support, encouragement, and congratulations that has been deeply moving,” said Page, who co-wrote “Stairway to Heaven” along with singer Robert Plant.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to personally thank all those who contributed such a positive energy to me,” he concluded.

Here’s the whole statement: 

Page’s words came shortly after the lawyers representing the Wolfe estate applied for an appeal on July 23.

As Rolling Stone reported, attorney for the estate Francis Malofiy told Law360 that he believes Page and Plant “won on a technicality.” Warner/Chappell Music, the publisher behind “Stairway to Heaven,” is currently seeking $613,000 in legal fees from the Wolfe estate.

Hopefully for Led Zeppelin, this process doesn’t continue to be a long and winding road, but a more familiar ascending walkway of right angles that leads to a happy place.

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Are you ready to walk on water? Pier 55, otherwise known as the island park Barry Diller is spearheading, has been officially sanctioned by the courts.

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We’re gonna go ahead and say it: The New York City skyline is the eighth wonder of the world. Call us crazy, but whether you’ve lived in Gotham your whole life or you’re just visiting, there’s nothing quite like the rush of seeing that iconic view—the Empire State Building! The Chrysler!—particularly when you least expect it. But what about the city’s lesser-known gems? The amazing gingerbread house in Bay Ridge, or the Harlem Courthouse? We’ve put together the 30 most beautiful NYC buildings right here, encompassing the city’s architectural peaks.

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Sikhs have been part of the American fabric for over a century, and yet they remain a misunderstood group.

In the years since the attacks on September 11, 2001, Sikh Americans have frequently become victims of racial profiling and subjected to hate crimes due to rising Islamophobia. The majority of Americans, however, ad they know nothing at all about the faith.

An upcoming photography exhibit hopes to change that by spotlighting Sikh American subjects and raising awareness about the faith.

British photography duo Amit and Naroop, who identify as Sikhs and previously shot a series on British Sikh men, are partnering with U.S.-based non-profit The Sikh Coalition for the exhibition, which they’re calling The Sikh Project. The exhibition will run from September 16-25 in New York City, with the aim of highlighting “generations of Sikh American history that embodies perseverance and progress as we commemorate the 15-year anniversary of 9/11,” according to The Sikh Coalition’s website.

Even from Britain, the photographers said, they could feel the reverberations of September 11.

“The attacks affected us emotionally in the same way they did the people of the U.S. It’s was a tragedy. No matter where you lived in the world, you still felt the pain and sorrow for the people affected,” Amit and Naroop said in an email to The Huffington Post.

As British Sikhs, though, they said there are some important ways their experience differs from Sikh Americans.

“The difference in the UK is that the public in general are much more aware as to who Sikhs are,” the photographers said. “They can easily distinguish between the identity of a turban wearing Sikh and a Muslim.”

The photographers said they too have had a taste of the discrimination many Sikh Americans experience ― though they are spared much of it by choosing not to wear turbans or grow long beards. Wearing a turban in the U.S. can be “limiting,” they noted, making it difficult for Sikh Americans to do things like serve in the military or enter police ranks. For many Sikhs, though, the turban, or dastaar, is a sacred item that demonstrates their religious devotion.

“America seems to be behind in its acceptance of the turban as an integral part of a Sikh’s identity,” Amit and Naroop told HuffPost. “It’s not an accessory that can be removed at will.”

The Sikh Coalition is one of several advocacy organizations working to change that culture of discrimination. The organization formed immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks in response to violence toward Sikh Americans in the aftermath of the tragedy. In the 15 years since, the organization has worked to spread awareness about the religion.

“As we commemorate this important milestone for our organization, we felt that the moment was right to examine the beauty of the Sikh faith, the strength of our collective spirit and to do so in a way that further educates Americans,” Sikh Coalition executive director Sapreet Kaur said in a statement.

Amit and Naroop set out to capture the beauty of Sikhism in America, they said, through their choice of subjects, some of whom were hand selected, while others applied through a casting call. They hoped to represent individuals who have “broken down barriers,” like Captain Simratpal Singh from the U.S. Army and Deputy Sheriff Harinder Kaur Khalsa.

“All of them are role models,” Amit and Naroop said. “They show that a turban should never hold you back.”

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No matter how much you squint and stare, spray-painted graffiti is just tough to decipher.

This series, called “Tag Clouds,” takes some of those illegible tags from the streets of France and translates them into clear, readable typeface.

The artist, Mathieu Tremblin, says that the translations are intended to reflect the “clouds of keywords which can be found on the Internet.”

“It shows the analogy between the physical tag and the virtual tag, both in form (tagged wall compositions look the same as tag clouds), and in substance (like keywords which are markers of net surfing, graffiti are markers of urban drifting),” he says.

Take a look at the before-and-after shots below: 

Check out more from Mathieu Tremblin on Facebook. 

All images credit: Mathieu Tremblin

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Whether under or over the water, we’ve observed some pretty epic aquatic hotels in our day. But a hotel that can both fly and float?! It’s a whole new frontier.

Behold Driftscape, a futuristic hotel design in which guests sleep in personal pods that can fly with the help of drone technology. Guests can take their flying pod pretty much anywhere on one of its pre-planned excursion paths, whether to the remote corners of a desert or the verdant rice paddies of Southeast Asia. 

We’re most thrilled about the floating capability, which turns your pod into its own private island:

After floating on their own, the Driftscape pods would be able to return to a larger hub with a lounge, restaurant and courtyard, Dezeen reports.  

The hotel is just a design concept, and there aren’t plans to build it in real life just yet. But things could change soon: The design is a finalist for this year’s Radical Innovation Award, an annual prize that rewards big ideas in the hotel industry.

If selected, the hotel’s designers at HOK architectural firm will receive a cash prize to help make their design a reality. They’ve certainly got our vote!

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After a shocking cliffhanger at last week’s rose ceremony, JoJo Fletcher opened last night’s episode by sending finely chiseled cowboy Luke Pell home ― just a few minutes after he pulled her aside to finally put into plain words that he was in love with her. 

JoJo and her three remaining suitors jetted off to Thailand to get a little more intimate. During her first two fantasy suite dates, with frontrunners Robby Hayes and Jordan Rodgers, she admitted in confessional interviews that she was in love with each of them. But she didn’t exactly seem pleased to hear that they felt the same way for her.

“That’s what Ben said,” she snapped at Jordan after he waxed poetic about loving her for the rest of their lives. 

Ah yes, Ben Higgins, the last Bachelor, said on camera that he loved JoJo ― and then he broke her heart by sending her home on the final night. Now, JoJo is determined to make sure Jordan and Robby won’t do this to her. She demands they convince her as much ― presumably with some proof more persuasive than the sheer fact that, unlike Ben, they don’t have another, equally beautiful and fun woman to possibly propose to in a week.

Hearing “I love you” from Jordan and Robby is, in JoJo’s mind, more or less the first step toward being dumped on national TV. Sounds like a super healthy mindset with which to enter a serious relationship...

Fortunately, the last dude to get a fantasy suite date, Chase McNary, totally relates! As we learned last week on his hometown date, he’s terrified of saying “I love you” because of the rough divorce he watched his parents go through. This week, it’s fantasy suite time, and he’s got to buckle down and make it happen, so he does, right on the suite couch.

JoJo finally hears Chase say “I love you” and decides they need to uncouple immediately ― before the night progresses from the couch to the bedroom ― and sends him home.

He responds to this unfortunate chain of events rather poorly:

We suspect this guy’s not saying “I love you” again any time soon.

Between the terror evinced by JoJo and Chase, and the actual method JoJo uses to cut suitors ― which appears to be waiting until they drop the L-word, then seeing if she hates it ― love seems like a harsh and diabolical mistress this episode. We’re starting to be afraid to even say “I-ay ove-lay ou-yay,” like “Voldemort” or “Beetlejuice.” Why risk the inevitable skewering??

Our thoughts are with you, Chase and Luke. Consider your exits your official “The Bachelor” audition tapes.

Check out the full “The Bachelorette” recap by listening to HuffPost’s “Here To Make Friends” podcast below!  

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

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Wonder if he plans to branch out.

A 57-year-old man in Venice Beach, California, is hoping to “help people see the forest for the trees” by dressing up as a tree himself.

His official name is Lionel Powell, but he is known to his neighbors as “Treeman,” thanks to the elaborate costume he wears on the streets that includes stilts.

There’s a method to his madness.

“What I’m doing here is called a tree awakening,” he told 60 Second Docs, an online film series. “People are so busy they don’t get to stop and smell the roses.”

Powell has worked as a costume character for more than 20, dressing up as characters like Pluto and Eeyore at amusement parks like Walt Disney World and Universal Studios.

Now he has planted roots in Venice Beach, where he performs street theater in costumes of his own design.

Powell is especially fond of standing very still like a real tree before moving and freaking out passers-by.

“I get many different reactions, but 90 percent of people are awed. Doesn’t matter how big they are,” Powell told ArgonautNews.com. “Mostly what I get is after the surprise [of startling someone] is laughter.”

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Andi Dorfman understands the weird sex and gender issues of “The Bachelor” franchise better than most, because she’s lived them.

On Tuesday, the former “Bachelorette” published an impassioned essay in The Hollywood Reporter calling out the gendered slut-shaming Bachelorettes often experience. Each season of “The Bachelor” or “The Bachelorette,” the lead has a chance to offer their final three suitors a “fantasy suite” card, which guarantees off-camera alone time in a lavish hotel room. Unsurprisingly, this alone time often includes physical intimacy between the pairs.

Dorfman detailed the way that she was widely criticized by the public, and even the media, for having sex during the show’s overnight dates ― something the franchise’s male leads rarely if ever receive backlash for:

Almost every Bachelor has sex with everyone he goes into the fantasy suites with. Obviously there are some exceptions, but regardless, you never hear anything of it. And yet we as a society will go so far as to call a woman a slut for having sex with two men that she’s been dating. Two men whose families she’s met, who have professed their love to her and two men she has feelings for. And, somehow, having sex with them becomes grounds to call her a slut.

The following lead of “The Bachelorette,” Kaitlyn Bristowe was similarly slut-shamed for her totally unremarkable sexual escapades. 

Since 2014, Dorfman has broken up with the dude she chose on “The Bachelorette,” moved to New York and written a memoir (It’s Not Okay: Turning Heartbreak into Happily Never After). She’s also become vocal about the ways watching a dating reality TV show ― and being on one ― can offer an instructive guide to understanding sexism.

As she wrote in her Hollywood Reporter essay: “I never thought I would say that the revelation of me having sex in the fantasy suite would turn out to be liberating. But it has, because it’s opened up a dialogue and, in turn, has been a great platform for equality.” 

We’d all be a lot better off if, as Dorfman points out, women having sex ― on reality TV or outside of it ― wasn’t seen as “taboo.” If analyzing “The Bachelorette” can get us closer to that goal, we say bring on the roses. 

To read Dorfman’s full essay, head over to The Hollywood Reporter. For more on “The Bachelorette,” listen to HuffPost’s Here To Make Friends podcast. 

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

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Anyone who has ever witnessed a James Turrell artwork ― no, that Drake video doesn’t count ― has experienced the uncanny way the artist transforms a physical space into something yawning, otherworldly, spiritual.

Using the divine power of light, he converts the real world into an abstract artwork that swallows you whole. The act of looking changes from a passive experience to an active mode of encounter, through which forms mutate and grow before your eyes. 

The latest space to receive the Turrell treatment is the memorial chapel of Berlin’s Dorotheenstadt cemetery. The 20th-century space was remodeled by architect Nedelykov Moreira, endowed with sweeping, crisp lines and smooth, minimalist spaces. Basically, Moreira created the perfect Turrell canvas. 

Like many of Turrell’s artworks, the sky serves as a conductor. When the sun sets, around 9 p.m. during Berlin summers, a light show takes off, complimenting the sunset with a hallucinatory flow of LED lights, hidden in the architecture.

The chapel begins by glowing a brilliant blue, changing color every two minutes for a full hour. During this time, while the sun sinks from the sky, the interior space becomes a seemingly infinite expanse of pure color and light. The experience captures, as Turrell expressed in a 2015 interview with The Spectator, “how we experience light in a dream, very suffused and radiating off people, filling space.”

Whether or not you consider yourself a religious person, this piece will surely make you see the light. 

If you find yourself in Berlin, be sure to check out James Turrell’s installation, on view every Saturday and Monday, beginning 30 minutes before sunset. Buy tickets here.

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