We might live in a world where art is easily viewable (simply google “Van Gogh” and you’ll come across a bajillion iterations of Starry Night on posters, purses, coffee mugs, you name it) but anyone who’s ever actually witnessed an original work of art knows on a gut level that it just hits differently. And now we have some science to prove that it does, in fact, affect us on a neurological level.Researchers collaborated with the Mauritshuis Museum, which just so happens to be the home of Johannes Vermeer’s heavily reproduced Girl with a Pearl Earring, to study what the difference is between looking at a real painting vs. looking at a reproduction.Using eye-tracking technology and MRI scans, the researchers recorded the brain activity of 20 volunteers, aged between 21 and 65, who were tasked with looking at the actual artworks and reproductions via posters in the museum's shop or images flashed onto special goggles.The results were, and the study puts it, “astonishing.”Findings showed that real paintings elicit an emotional response in the brain that is 10 times stronger than that of their reproduction. Which is “an enormous difference,” Martine Gosselink, director of the Mauritshuis, told The Guardian. “You become [mentally] richer when you see things, whether you are conscious of it or not, because you make connections in your brain.”There were a few other fun discoveries specifically centered around the Girl with a Pearl Earring painting, which stood out among the five paintings used. Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer upload.wikimedia.org For one, people looked at this painting for the longest, their attention being held in a “Sustained Attentional Loop”This was partially by Vermeer’s design, as he “cleverly used this mechanism “ with his placement of the pearl earring. “Normally you automatically look at someone's eyes and mouth. They give you the most information about emotions. When you look at the Girl with the Pearl Earring, something extra happens: you first look at her eyes and mouth and then immediately at her pearl. Then you look back at her eyes and mouth, and then immediately look at the pearl again. And you do that not once, not twice, but several times…You can’t take your eyes off her,” the study says. Girl with a Pearl Earring also, apparently, stimulated more brain activity in the precuneus, the area of the brain associated with consciousness, self-reflection and personal life experiences, more than any other painting. Art reproduction is certainly not new, but with the rise of AI art and NTF’s and other trendy tech words, it can be easy to feel like tangible, handcrafted, human made creations will soon be the relic of a bygone era. Which has caused some anguish, to say the least, because again, we all have this hunch that the physical experience of art is what truly impacts us on a cellular level. Thanks to this study, we can really take that hunch seriously. “We all feel the difference – but is it measurable, is it real?” says Gosselink. “Now, today we can really say that it is true.”This is your sign to not just scroll through art on Instagram. Find a museum or exhibit and let yourself be affected your brain will thank you.

There will likely always be some kind of playful generation war going on between older and younger generations. This time it's a millennial throwing what some may deem as truth bombs at Gen Z, seemingly unprompted. (Well, it could be that he's upset that Gen Z is getting all the credit for being tech savvy since the majority of his complaints were technology related.)Dwight Thomas uploaded a video to TikTok listing things that millennials grew up with that the generation below him would be outraged by. As someone who would be considered an elder millennial by some people, I'd have to agree. The man makes some valid points about things we experienced as teenagers that would likely make teens today aggressively send out Change.org petitions."These new-age kids will never understand the struggle. Imagine telling them that their free unlimited minutes only started after 9:00 and on the weekends," Thomas says into the camera.He goes on to talk about trying to have a love life during those times. Since phone access was restricted, you had limited time to woo anyone after school, which meant the alternative was attempting to do it during school hours. But that was also a problem because teachers were kind of tattle-tales back then, according to Thomas."It's not even like you could talk to your friends at school 'cause they would call your house and tell your mama that you didn't care about your education and you wasn't trying to learn," he complained. "Because all you come to school for is to sit around and talk to your friends."Honestly, the video is causing flashbacks, especially when he talks about teachers intercepting love notes and reading them in front of the class. Thomas jokes about how millennials were making history with their self-taught coding skills on MySpace while the younger generation has the help of AI. The entire video is full of head-nodding moments if you grew up a millennial, or like me, a Xennial. Watch it below. @therealdthomasforreal We was out here making history! But go off though.. This article originally appeared on 6.1.23

A TikTok user named Trisha became alarmed after her senior dog, Jackie, seemed particularly captivated by a specific patch on the yard. The spot on the lawn was also of keen interest to the neighbor's dog, who was poking his nose through the fence, trying to get a closer look.When Trisha went out to inspect the mysterious patch of grass, she realized the dogs were watching over a snug little burrow, home to a clutch of adorable baby bunnies.“[My other dog] George didn't care too much about them,” Trisha told The Dodo. “I think he was confused at what they are … Jackie seemed to want to just babysit.” @simtrisha Hope they all let them be. #bunnies #babies #rabbit #babybunny #cute #animaltok #adorable #awe At first, Trisha was worried that the dogs may want to harm the cute little bunnies, but that wasn’t an issue. They almost seemed to be protecting the bunnies. Seeing how our four-legged friends can show such care and concern for even the tiniest neighbors is heartwarming.To ensure the babies are safe, Trisha and her husband set up a security camera to monitor the borrow, and they found a surprise guest coming in at night. It was the bunnies’ mom coming to check on them. Trisha believes that the mother lives beneath her house.Trisha, her husband, and the dogs will only have a few more weeks to watch over the bunnies. Typically, at about 3 weeks, they are ready to leave the burrow and venture out on their own.Good luck, little fellas. We'll be rooting for you.This article originally appeared on 8.11.23

Alex Zane and his 5-year-old daughter Matilda are bringing iconic movie scenes to life in a brand new way. The daddy daughter duo have posted dozens upon dozens of homemade photo re-creations of famous films, with Matilda in the starring role. Sometimes her giant stuffed fox makes a cameo appearance as well. Their Instagram page, Tot for Tot Remakes, has become quite the viral sensation and is getting a lot of love online, thanks in no small part to the incredible attention to detail put into every image. Like many parents, Alex was forced to think of creative ways to provide entertainment for his family during the early days of the pandemic, including an indoor (toy) car wash. When Matilda suddenly jumped on top of the Cozy Coupe, Alex immediately had a vision of Michael J. Fox in "Teen Wolf" and then instructed her on how to perform air guitar before snapping a photo. Alex was “quick to admit” he’s not a professional photographer in his interview with TODAY. But luckily, this lawyer-slash-father-slash-movie-nerd had a friend who was. He sent the snapshot to Andrew Kelly, who sprinkled enough digital wizardry to make this happen: See on Instagram Voila! Toddler Wolf. And thus, Tot for Tot Remakes was born. Trust me, it only gets more intricate from here.In an exclusive interview with Movie Metropolis, Alex broke down what goes into the process. Turns out there’s just as much going on behind the scenes in the re-creation as there was in the original film.First, there’s the movie selection, which a) can be taken in three quick photographs, lest the 5-year-old star loses her focus and need to be “bribed back to set,” and b) needs to be confined to very simple actions like sleeping, being dead, screaming, standing or sitting still. Because, again, 5-year-old.When it comes to budgeting, Alex told TODAY that they spend $5 or less on any props. In this “Wizard of Oz” photo, for instance, the dress is made out of napkins. Talk about resourcefulness. See on Instagram Then, there’s actually taking the photos, which hopefully are “decent and funny enough” to get Kelly’s seal of approval. Kelly will then add backgrounds, effects and all those magical photo editing things, and send them back to Alex to post for all the internet to enjoy.That might sound simple enough, but Alex told People it consists of "probably 350 texts back and forth for each recreation." The things we do for our art!For Alex, this passion project not only became a special bonding opportunity with his daughter, it also helped him remember “how enjoyable life can be when you apply some time and creativity to anything.” He hopes that their posts might offer a "distraction for a few people to help during these difficult times."Alex added that the two favorites so far have been “The Shining” and “Bridesmaids,” the latter especially because Matilda loved the dress and wore it for two days straight. See on Instagram See on Instagram When I say Alex and Matilda have re-created a ton of movies, I am not exaggerating. Listing titles such as “E.T.,” “Love Actually,” “Titanic,” “Star Wars,” “Free Willy,” “Lord of The Rings,” “Mission: Impossible,” “The Great Gatsby” and “The Matrix” (twice!) doesn’t even scratch the surface. See on Instagram See on Instagram See on Instagram I would have been very sad if Matilda hadn’t attempted “Matilda,” but the Zanes did not disappoint. See on Instagram Who knows what kind of movie magic Alex and Matilda will create next. For sure they’ll be having fun while doing it. This article originally appeared on 6.20.22

In the era of the mega-billionaire, much has been made of how such gargantuan wealth is built and what kind of taxes on wealth are fair and unfair. The intricacies of economics can make such questions a bit tricky both practically and ethically, but there's no question that billionaires get enormous tax breaks through loopholes in our tax system and through straight-up tax legislation favoring the wealthy.For the average American who will never see so much as one percent of a billion dollars in our entire lifetime, wrapping our minds around the financial workings of extreme wealth is like trying to learn another language. The whole "here's how much money I earn, here's what I can write off, here's what I pay in taxes" thing is pretty straightforward, but not how the uber-rich life works. Wealth doesn't equal money in uber-rich-land—except when it does.In a Between the Scenes moment from a 2022 episode of "The Daily Show," Trevor Noah highlighted the weird way billionaire wealth sometimes counts as money and sometimes doesn't in a segment on The Daily Show. In his signature funny-but-smart way, Noah broke down the hypocrisy of billionaires being able to treat their stock shares as money when it comes to buying businesses, but not when it comes to paying taxes. "I'm by no means an economist, nor am I an expert on stock markets and all things finance-related, but you have to admit, a lot of what happens on Wall Street seems like a scam," he began. He talked about how the stock market went up one day because of what Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell said about raising interest rates, then plummeted the next day because of people misinterpreting what he said. "First of all, how does that happen?" he asked. "How are markets changing because somebody didn't read something or understand—and all of you at the same time? And secondly, why do markets do that?"He said the nature of stock markets going up and down feels "scammy," and somehow we're supposed to be convinced that the stock market is good for us."I get it for people's retirements, and I get it for 401Ks and I understand those aspects of it," he said. "But I've realized there are so many things that are designed in such a slick, scammy way." He gave Elon Musk's pending purchase of Twitter as an example. "People argue that you cannot tax billionaires on the shares that they hold in a company because it is an 'unrealized gain," he said. Then he explained that he understands that argument because the shares haven't been sold, so there's no actual money in hand. "So you're worth the money, but you don't have the money…and it could also crash, and then you have nothing, so we can't tax you on it.""You can't tax the people on a thing because they don't have it, it's just there," he says. "Okay fine." Then he talked about Elon Musk's offer to buy Twitter, in which Musk put up his shares of Tesla stock as collateral. Noah explained how using his Tesla stock as collateral to get banks and investors to put up the cash for him to borrow to buy Twitter. "So you can buy a thing based on what you have, yes. But when we want to tax you, you can say 'I don't have it,'" said Noah. "It's such a fun game that billionaires get to play because all their money is in that."Noah points out how we can't fudge around with the IRS due to where our money is located. "You can't be like, 'That money's in the bank, I don't have that money. What money? It's in the bank. Only when I take it out, then you can tax me. For now, it's in the bank, IRS." That's not something the IRS would accept. "But if you have billions in shares, you can then use that as money, to then get more money, but not get taxed on any money, because you 'don't have money.'" Noah said he's not suggesting that we tax people on unrealized gains."But I am saying, it seems to me that you then shouldn't be able to use a thing that's unrealized as collateral," he said.That last point is worth restating. Noah isn't saying that billionaire wealth in the form of stock shares should be taxed like liquid money. He's questioning whether people should be able to use their untaxed wealth as collateral to get liquid money loans to avoid having to liquidate their own wealth (which they would then have to pay taxes on). Food for thought. Watch: This from Trevor Noah on taxing billionaires is \u2026 pretty perceptive!pic.twitter.com/8hv4HKZLtQ — Teddy Schleifer (@Teddy Schleifer) 1651943500 This article originally appeared on 5.10.22

A thread on Ask Reddit posed the question: Which fictional character would make a great U.S.A. president? Some answers were simple and lighthearted. Others were drawn out and thoughtful. Some characters are well-known. Others are a bit more obscure. Regardless, it’s a fun read and offers an insightful way to look at what it really means to be a leader.Optimus Prime—TransformersThis comment was so passionate I had to keep the entire thing: “He's the perfect balance of introspection, deliberation, decisive action, compassion, toughness, fighting spirit, humility, and inspires others to greatness not because of his ego, but because he sincerely wants the best for everyone. He's eloquent enough to work with intellectuals, strong enough to keep corruption out, hard working and honest enough to connect with and inspire the working classes, and an absolute paragon of ethics. When it comes down to it, he puts his own ass on the line without hesitation. I'd vote for Optimus Prime. I'd work on his campaign staff. I'd canvas for Optimus. I'd fight his fights. He's the heroic leader we need. I wish he were here.” – CephelopodiaJean-Luc Picard—Star Trek: The Next Generation“Make it so” is an awfully good campaign slogan.“This character has informed so much of what I think of as the political ideal that's it's almost absurd.” – Tactius_AMPAragorn—The Lord of the RingsThe King of Gondor rallied some intense loyalty and humorous political banter. “He would have my allegiance until my sons, sons die.” – Radda210“Well, he’s got eight years.” – AutismFractalCaptain Raymond Holt—Brooklyn 99The stoic, pragmatic and serious-to-the-point-of-absurd police captain would bring a level of sophistication to the role. Plus he stands up for what he thinks is right.The only drawback is we might have the more frivolous holidays cancelled. Like Christmas. President Josiah Bartlet—The West Wing“During 2020 with all the presidential speeches that sounded non presidential, I kept thinking that we needed a couple of Josiah Barlet speeches during that time.” – southdakotagirlUncle Iroh—Avatar: The Last AirbenderFor those not familiar with "Avatar: The Last Airbender," Uncle Iroh was a fan favorite, arguably for being the show’s moral compass and source of wisdom. Which was pretty remarkable, considering he was technically on the “bad side.” “Calm, wise, friendly and best of all he already got all that war crime stuff out of his system years ago. He’d be the best us President in history.” – Lord Noodles“…Iroh is the benevolent father we need, with quiet dignity and terrifying power.” – spaceman_spyffKermit the Frog—The Muppets“The lovers, the dreamers, and me would vote for him” – DrOddcatSteve Rogers—Captain AmericaI mean, he does stand for America’s ideals like no other. He has integrity, courage, honesty and let’s not forget stamina. He can do this all day, after all.Leslie Knope—Parks and Recreation“Leslie wouldn’t get sucked in to corruption. She would negotiate and compromise, as one should, but she wouldn’t “make deals” like most politicians. Above all else, she would always be honest!” – Happy_Camper45“And she has binders of plans for everything” – Big_Economy_1729(Sadly, there were very few female characters I saw on the thread. I’m hoping I just didn’t scroll far down enough.) Last but not least … Captain PlanetMaybe then we’d take climate change seriously. Okay, look, maybe it’s impossible for a real-life person to 100% embody these heroic traits. But that’s the beauty of fiction: It reveals our ultimate potential (for both good and bad). It can’t always take into account all the complexities and inevitable drawbacks of the human condition. It can, however, inspire us to be better.Maybe there is no President Picard or President Rogers out there, but seeing them portrayed in our stories is still important. Observing the virtues they represent (and let’s not forget that they are representations and symbols, rather than multidimensional human beings, after all) might help inspire the next generation of heroes, leaders and politicians. That’s what well-written characters do. In the meantime, I’ll start working on my campaign for "Ted Lasso"’s Keeley Jones for President. This article originally appeared on 12.29.21

A depressing tale. The post Tragic downfall: How Sly Stone went from funk royalty to homelessness first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

From big studio titles like 'The Exorcist' to lower-budgeted flicks like 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' 1970s & '80s horror movies were often promoted via short radio ads that could be quite chilling in their own right.

Frank Capra and Alfred Hitchcock were about as different as two directors can get, but both found in James Stewart an image of America, past and yet to come.