Reese's stuffed Oreos | Image and recipe: littlebitfunky.com
We've all been there. You're tired and it's been a long day, but tell that to your brain, which is insistent on something sweet... and not just something run o' the mill. What force will win? The lazy is strong. But so is the sweet craving. Maybe there are some solutions in this list of 18 sweet treats fit for the lazy. Have your cake and stay slackin'. It's the American way.
Teddy Graham s'mores | Image and recipe: pizzazzerie.com
A masked Tom Cruise in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut | Image: Warner Bros.
Fans of legendary film director Stanley Kubrick are likely aware of his extremely exacting process of filmmaking. Famously perfectionistic and demanding of not only himself, but everyone on his sets, it was a challenge for even the most talented and disciplined of professional actors and crew to work with him. Kubrick always did multiple takes of each scene; it wasn't unusual for him to do fifty or more. Actress Vinessa Shaw, who played Domino in Eyes Wide Shut, said in an interview about the shoot,
"At first I thought, is he trying to wear me down as an actor? I thought like all the preconceived notions I have of this character, is he trying to get me to the basest of level with this scene? Because I would pick up a glass and move it and he, 30 or 40 takes later would say,'Did you do that before?' and I’m like, 'I’ve been doing it every single time' and he was like ok keep doing that.” And then I started noticing how he was setting up every other shot and I noticed what he was he would look at; he looked first at the lighting, then the cameras, then the actors and it was multiple takes until it was perfect for each subject he was looking at. And so I was thinking, “Oh my god, he’s not even paying attention to anything I do until the 40th take” because he’s really just trying to get everything surrounding the actual actors and then he goes into that scene so it was- again he was a perfectionist at every bit of the filmmaking process and the actors happened to just be one of the later parts that he was paying attention to."
Shaw's quote lends insight as to Kubrick's obsession with so many takes. It also may explain number nine on Mental Floss' list of facts about Eyes Wide Shut:
9. CRUISE DEVELOPED ULCERS WHILE SHOOTING THE FILM“I didn't want to tell Stanley," Cruise told TIME. “He panicked. I wanted this to work, but you're playing with dynamite when you act. Emotions kick up. You try not to kick things up, but you go through things you can't help.”
Read more interesting facts about Kubrick's final movie Eyes Wide Shut here.
This adorable grizzly cub, while a little unsteady yet in his two-footed gait, seems interested in playfully interacting with the photographer as he passes by. It almost looks as if the cub is motioning for him to come over. Luckily the photographer is well aware that meeting mama grizzly in that situation is hardly advisable. Via Tastefully Offensive
The Thinker | Image: Kaisching
No matter how intelligent one is, we all are susceptible to glitches in our thought process known as cognitive biases. Psychologists define cognitive bias in the following way:
"A cognitive bias is a type of error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them. Cognitive biases are often a result of our attempt to simplify information processing. They are rules of thumb that help us make sense of the world and reach decisions with relative speed. Unfortunately, these biases sometimes trip us up, leading to poor decisions and bad judgments."
One such cognitive bias is something we may experience after splurging on items that we don't necessarily need and/or can't quite afford. You know the thought process that is your mind attempting to justify such a dubious purchase, all the while making major stretches? That is the aptly named cognitive bias known as "post-purchase rationalization." This is a method of making ourselves feel better after poor decisions, particularly as consumers.
Read about the 11 other cognitive biases we fall prey to at i09.
EverBlock bar
EverBlocks, made by a company based in New York City, are oversized, LEGO-inspired bricks that facilitate the building of large-scale projects. Sizes include interlocking 12-inch, 6-inch, and 3-inch blocks and a foot-long finishing cap, all in various colors. The blocks are chemical and weather-resistant. Reinforcement rods and metal base plates are available for larger, more involved structures.
Check out more project designs including other furniture pieces, modular dividing walls, outdoor shelters and more, in this article.
Images: EverBlock
EverBlock coffee table
This supercut of female seduction scenes in film is a virtual enclyclopedia of sexy actresses working their feminine wiles onscreen, to the excitement of their filmic counterparts. Revisit some of the film industry's sexiest scenes, set to the song "Wetter" by the band The Singularity. Via Laughing Squid
Will Smith, 46 is paired with Margot Robbie, 25, in Focus | Image: Warner Bros.
The age gaps of male and female couples in film has been a topic of debate in the last year. Actresses have commented about their frustration over being declared "too old" to play love interests to comparably aged or slightly older male actors. Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal told The Wrap magazine:
“There are things that are really disappointing about being an actress in Hollywood that surprise me all the time. I’m 37 and I was told recently I was too old to play the lover of a man who was 55. It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made me feel angry, and then it made me laugh.”
Actress Emma Thompson told Vulture:
“I remember somebody saying to me that I was too old for Hugh Grant, who’s like a year younger than me, in Sense and Sensibility. I said, ‘Do you want to go take a flying leap?’”
The article linked below is an interesting collection of pictures that turns the tables on gender in Hollywood love interest age gaps. Some of the comparison photos are shown here; see the rest at BuzzFeed.
A gender switch of that age gap would pair Smith with a woman born in 1947, such as Glenn Close
Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock in Hitchcock
Sometimes actors in biopics are increasingly challenged when it comes to believability in their role if they don't at least resemble the real life character they are playing. While some actors of incredible talent — Meryl Streep for example — are generally able to overcome such superficial shortcomings, others, especially those who are miscast or aren't as talented, are not.
A grouping of photos at Vintage Everyday shows examples of actors who are lucky enough to closely mifror the famous people who inspired their roles, particularly after makeup and/or prosthetics are applied. See all forty of these comparison shots here.
Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler in Downfall
This Master of Pugpets captures the rhythm's essence of Metallica's "Enter Sandman." Bow down to the beatmaster and ready the Beggin' Strips. Via Tastefully Offensive
Budapest
We've seen urban decay as captured by Google Street View, but the more uplifting opposite can be documented by Google as well. Pictured here are urban transformations of reinvigorated urban spaces. From dingy driveways to vibrant pedestrian walkways. Unsightly elevated highways creating giant shadows over a neighborhood are cleared out and modernized, leaving sunny environs in their wake.
Quite a satisfying set of before and after shots can be found at Before | After, a collaborative collection of upgraded urban space photographs. This is a worldwide collaboration — currently, there are over 300 submissions from every continent except Antarctica. Check out the entire archive, which is run by São Paulo, Brazil-based urban design studio urb-i, here. Via Gizmodo
"Hey Girl... Let's hold hands in the Haunted Mansion."
Recently, Neatorama featured photos of celebrities looking sad at Disney parks. Yet Disney can also bring about genuine celebrity smiles ripe to be captured, as evidenced by the Disneyland Celebrity Sightings Instagram.
Check out the opposite side of the coin here. Via BuzzFeed
Matt Damon
Ginnifer Goodwin
Neil Patrick Harris
Jess Bauer, the Australian teen behind the popular YouTube account Bauerbirds, created a series called "When Mama Isn't Home," which stars her father and brother making musical mischief in the kitchen. The latest clip in the series is called "When Leia Isn't Home," a peppy little Cantina Band number.
Earlier videos in the series are shown below. I hope mama doesn't come home to a broken oven door, or the series could be headed for an abrupt and bitter end! Via Laughing Squid
Image: Adrian Ilie
They are terrifying scenarios: you're on a first date. You're in a live theater performance. You're at your mother-in-law's for dinner, and she despises any form of modern technology. These situations require you to be mobile phone free. You may have your friend in your pocket or purse, but that's as close as you're going to get to that pretty, colorful glass screen of All Things Interesting. After a while you're getting antsy. You might even break a sweat. Anxiety is building. Over what? Scaachi Koul for The New Yorker knows:
"Things That Will Happen If I Don’t Take My Phone Out Right Now:
5. Someone will send me an e-mail marked “URGENT” and it will, for once, actually be quite urgent (probably about free food), and I won’t see it until it’s too late (all the free food is gone).
10. I will have to spend at least one second of my life not agonizing over how everyone else’s life seems better. (How are youalways at a cottage? Who drove you there? You don’t have a car and I don’t understand.)
15. In-person small talk."
See all nineteen of her identified phone-free tragedies at The New Yorker.
No parent sets out with the goal of lying to their kids. But many would probably agree that a well-placed white lie on occasion helps them to keep their sanity. And sanity is a good thing to hang on to when you're a parent.
When Redditors began sharing the lies that they've told their children on this thread, it quickly filled up with funny. Shown here are a few of the responses; check the link to see them all. Have you told your children any lies similar to these? Or do you remember those told to you by your parents? Share them, if you're so inclined, in the comments. Via 22 Words
Image: Redditor Cheez4444
Dear reader, I know you were sitting around anxiously awaiting information regarding the latest entry on the fast food wars menu. Well, wait no longer. Taco Bell would like to introduce their strong-stomached customers to fried chicken taco shells, which they refer to as Naked Crispy Chicken Tacos.
According to FoodBeast, the only known locations serving this rare, crispy unicorn are Lost Hills and Bakersville, California. I can imagine an entire country of fast foodies on edge as they wait for extensive U.S. distribution. Via Uproxx
Image: Jonny Arguello, Foodbeast
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