Category: News

When Kevin Love was bought out by the Cavaliers last week, ending an 8.5 year tenure in Cleveland, the expectation was that he was headed south to Miami, and on Sunday, that move was confirmed by Adrian Wojnarowski.

Love had completely fallen out of the rotation in Cleveland, averaging 8.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game on 38.9 percent shooting (35.4 percent from three) in the 41 games prior to being removed from the lineup. The 34-year-old power forward is far from the double-double machine he once was, but he will join a Heat team that desperately needs someone capable of playing some minutes at the four, particularly someone who can space the floor.

While defense is an issue, and one of the chief contributors to him exiting the rotation in Cleveland, Miami has plenty of strong defenders but is lacking in the scoring department. They’ll hope Love can give them a bit more shooting from the perimeter and contribute something in the 20 minutes a night range he was playing in Cleveland earlier in the year. As is always the case with the buyout market, this is not a ground-shaking move but a complementary one that the Heat hope can be a bit of a floor raiser as they enter the stretch run of the season 7th in the East at 32-27, but just a half-game behind the Knicks in sixth.

Right now Aubrey Plaza may be Delaware’s most famous native. She’s not as famous as Joe Biden, but he’s no native: He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania before the family relocated, in his childhood, to the Blue Hen State. Delaware’s not very large, and in a new New Yorker profile (in a bit teased out by Entertainment Weekly), the Parks and Rec and White Lotus alum says their paths have crossed “many times.” The first time, however, didn’t go so well.

Plaza said she first met the future 46th president when she was 16, in high school at what she called the “Joe Biden youth-leadership conference.” Plaza says as a high schooler she was “very Tracy-Flick-in-Election-style aggressive,” and she wound up being the lone student chosen to represent her school at “an entire day’s worth of Joe Biden-themed events.” (Note: This was probably in 2000 or 2001, when Biden was but a senator.)

There, Plaza found herself and other ambitious students “shuttled” from room to room, building up to the big show: an auditorium address from Biden himself. Plaza didn’t seem to enjoy the whole affair:

I was really angry about the conference—and, in fact, I had a stare-down with Joe Biden from the audience, because he asked how it went, and I raised my hand immediately, and I was, like, “It’s bulls*it. This conference sucks. You didn’t let us talk. This was supposed to be about the students.” I was always trying to rabble-rouse at that point. And he did not like it. I remember his face got really red. He used to get really fiery when he would make speeches. It was crazy.

Mind you, Plaza admits in the piece that she has a “terrible memory,” and that this anecdote “could all be a lie, actually,” either in part or whole. Still, it’s not far-fetched to imagine the future April Ludgate enraging one of the nicest people in federal government. As they say, print the legend!

The happy ending to this story is that they two got on better in future meet-ups, including when he appeared on an episode of Parks and Recreation. He even briefly crashed her recent SNL hosting stint, albeit virtually. So all’s good with the most famous Delawarians.

(Via The New Yorker and EW)

There’ve been plenty of big screen Batmans and Spider-Mans (sometimes in the same movie), and it looks like another comic book superhero may be joining their ranks. As per Deadline, Hellboy — the Satanic do-gooder created by Mike Mignola — is getting yet another reboot. But it ain’t just any reboot. It’ll be the first with a script by Mignola himself.

The fourth Hellboy film — which follows two by Guillermo del Toro starring Ron Perlman, from the mid-aughts, and a failed one starring David Harbour, released in 2019 — will be an adaptation of the 2008 comic Hellboy: The Crooked Man. Mignola released that one at the same time as del Toro’s second Hellboy film. The plot, as per Deadline:

The new film will see Hellboy and a rookie BPRD agent stranded in 1950s rural Appalachia. There, they discover a small community haunted by witches, led by a local devil with a troubling connection to Hellboy’s past: the Crooked Man.

In the comic, The Crooked Man was an eighteenth-century miser and war profiteer named Jeremiah Witkins who was hanged for his crimes yet returned from Hell as the region’s resident Devil.

This one will be directed by Brian Taylor, who with Mark Neveldine used to be one half of Neveldine/Taylor, of the Crank films. Mignola had a story credit on the del Toro’s sequel The Golden Army, but this will be the first time that he’s writing a Hellboy script. Maybe that’s what the franchise needs to save it from what happened to the one with the dad from Stranger Things.

(Via Deadline)

Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. Your Place Or Mine (Netflix film)

Sometimes, you wanna watch a stress-free romcom, you know? Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher star in this predictable but still charming little yarn that they sadly promoted by standing awkwardly on the red carpet and declining to touch each other because, as Ashton explained, that was better than the alternative of stoking the inevitable rumor mill. Don’t let that side stuff fool you. This is a pleasant enough way to spend an evening because Reese and Ashton can do these movies in their sleep.

TIE: 10. Plane (Lionsgate movie on Amazon Prime)

Speaking of romcoms, Gerard Butler sure did his fair share of them. He even stripteased in shamrock boxers while doing his Scottish brogue in place of a character’s Irish accent. Now, however, Butler is going what he wants to do. That includes this throwback actioner, which proves that Butler is one of the most consistently employable actors who can maintain this status without signing 7-picture franchise deals. He was doing Big, Beefy Romcom Dude for years, and it’s all paid off in spaces.

9. Planet Sex With Cara Delevingne (Hulu series)

Supermodel Cara Delevingne thought she was an open-minded individual, but even she felt slightly prudish about being told to take care of herself for a full ten minutes as part of this show. From there, expect even more boundary-breaking revelations as Cara dives into sexuality and relationships and everything in between. Dynamics are complicated! Yet Cara can make it all fun and worth a whirl.

8. Poker Face (Peacock series)

Natasha Lyonne remains the choice selection for sardonic, tough-talking characters who refuse to be told to sit down, be nice, and stop causing trouble. This series took a leap right off the side of a skyscraper to begin, and from there, Natasha’s character, Charlie, set off on a cross-country ride where she cannot help but solve homicides. Once again, she’s totally not-Columbo in this show, and she and Knives Out director Rian Johnson are having too much of a ball playing with that concept. Adrian Brody, Benjamin Bratt, Dascha Polanco, Lil Rel Howery, Chloe Sevigny, and more all pop into view, too.

7. The Walking Dead (AMC series on AMC+ and Netflix)

If you somehow have avoided hopping onto this post-apocalyptic juggernaut of a franchise, then you still have time to catch up on eleven seasons of the series proper and seven of Fear The Walking Dead before the eighth and final installment of that spinoff arrives. From there, we’re receiving the return of Rick Grimes in a spinoff that brings Michonne back, too. First, though, Negan and Maggie will take an ill-advised journey into Manhattan, and we’ll finally see Daryl in Paris. I hope that he cameos on Darren Star’s Netflix show starring Lily Collins, too.

6. Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special (HBO Max special)

Some of us are still enjoying Dry January a little too much to even want to mess with anything related to Valentine’s Day, but this free-standing special can be the exception. This show has done well not to rush the relationship of Kaley Cuoco’s Harley and Lake Bell’s Ivy, but they cannot deny the truth of the matter forever. This series also has Bane making violent love to skyscrapers, just so you don’t worry that the show (or Bane) might be going soft. If that doesn’t intrigue you, then I don’t know how to help you.

5. Star Trek: Picard (CBS Studios series streaming on Paramount+)

Sure, the man who portrayed Professor X has plenty of other Hollywood work under his belt, but nothing beats Sir Patrick Stewart on “the final frontier.” This season is a special boon for Star Trek: The Next Generation fans, given that many beloved characters are on this journey, too. Also, that means that Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager somehow materialized, and absolutely no one is complaining about that. Picard must deal with serious stuff, though, including the threat of Captain Vadic, and Stewart has been playing this role for 25+ years as of 2023. That’s nuts.

4. Ant-Man And The Wasp (Marvel studios film streaming on Disney+)

Silly old Ant-Man, the Avenger who mercifully injected the term “America’s Ass” into the MCU, ain’t so silly anymore. Scott Lang has perhaps too much on his plate with all the multiverse shenanigans afoot. As well, Jonathan Majors returns after Loki to play the next big Marvel bad, King the Conquerer. If you are prepping for the multiplex or simply want to relive the first few free-wheeling movies, then they’re there for the taking as part of your Disney+ subscription.

3. You (Netflix series)

Granted, I wasn’t a huge lover of this season, which I believe reinvented itself to its detriment by “turning the tables” in a predictable way. Stalker Joe is now being stalked, and he’s also surrounded by a bunch of wealthy British socialite types, and he’s so frustrated and dull despite kind-of having his dream job of professor. As always, though, Joe is haunted by ghosts of present and past, and as much as he hates to admit it, Love won’t let him go. That’s the case despite Penn Badgley requesting that he doesn’t have any more sexy time onscreen, which is also causing this fire to die.

2. Infinity Pool (Elevation Pictures film streaming on Amazon Prime)

In contrast, Alexander Skarsgard can’t help but make everything sexier, no matter how depraved the story onscreen might be. That includes this excessively hedonistic film where Mia Goth continues to be the current best in the business at embodying the most unhinged characters imaginable. This movie might actually make the otherwise misguided case that leaving an all-inclusive resort’s grounds might be the worst idea in the world. This movie’s central couple should have gone to Aruba instead.

1. The Last Of Us (HBO series streaming on HBO Max)

This show forbids anyone from using the Z-word onset, which is one of the only commonalities that it happens to share with fellow post-apocalyptic nightmare series The Walking Dead. So, Walkers are the Infected here, and one key difference with this HBO show is that making friends is a bad idea if one wants to survive. Man, Negan would never last long on this set, but seriously, Chernobyl chief Craig Mazin knows how to make an epic HBO TV show, and he’s pleasing viewers here with an ultra-rare phenomenon: a video-game adaptation that truly works.

This article originally appeared on 04.04.16

There are a lot of hard things about living with Crohn’s disease. Not being able to talk about it might be the worst one.

Imagine being constantly tired, but in a way that even 15 hours of sleep a day can’t cure. Imagine going to dinner, but every time you eat something as simple as a roll of warm bread, it feels like it might’ve had broken glass inside of it.

Then, it’s time to go to the bathroom. Again. Is that the fifth time this hour or the sixth? You’ve lost track. It’s a running joke now — your friends think it’s funny, but nobody really talks about what happens when you step away. Because, really, you look fine. Just tired.

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Crohn’s, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is “a condition of chronic inflammation potentially involving any location of the gastrointestinal tract.” But as defined by myself, someone with Crohn’s, it’s like having food poisoning all the time. The symptoms and presentation are different for every patient, but one thing is the same for all: It’s an invisible illness, and it sucks.

And let’s face it. Talkin’ about your poop is taboo. Especially if you’re a woman

A little privacy, please?

Well, unless you’re Krystal Miller.

Stumble over to her Facebook page, Bag Lady Mama, and nearly every post has a reference to doing the doo.

Krystal, who lives in Perth, Australia, has Crohn’s. She was first diagnosed at 15 years old, and by 22, most of her intestinal tract had been badly damaged by the disease. At that point, doctors decided to remove large portions of her large and small intestines.

For the last decade, she’s been living with a permanent ileostomy, a surgically made opening in the abdominal wall that connects the lower intestine to an ostomy bag.

Now, at 32, she’s sharing her daily experiences through Facebook.

Her posts show raw insight into her world. They’re unapologetically blunt, they’re full of curse words, and they’re gaining traction — quickly.

In an interview with Upworthy, Krystal said she expected to have a few hundred Likes on her page within a month or two of launching it, mostly from close friends who knew about her life with Crohn’s. But since it launched Jan. 25, it’s reached more than 13,000 Likes.

“I did expect it to reach Europe and America because I have international friends,” she said. “But I never expected for it to be as expansive as it has been. It’s crazy — I actually got recognized at my local shops the other day!”

Her photos show off her day-to-day life with her two children, Lukas, 4, and Arabella, five months, and her husband, Shannon. Each is filled with her unabashed love for her body.

Scars, bag, and the ostomy itself are all on display in the hopes that she can help remove some of the stigma around Crohn’s and what life with the disease is like.

It’s not a comfortable thing to live with physically or socially. It took years before Krystal was willing to open up about it.

“When I was first diagnosed, I was very uncomfortable. I would be in-tears uncomfortable if someone had to go to the toilet after me. … And when you’re young, it’s embarrassing and it’s pretty f*cking horrific. It’s been slow progress , but I just kind of got sick of caring. Like, who gives a f*ck, it is what it is, I can’t do anything about it.“

She would go to extreme lengths to cover up the symptoms of the disease, especially when using public restrooms. But she credits the surgery that removed her rectum with alleviating a lot of that embarrassment as well. Once her permanent ostomy was in place, many of her symptoms were alleviated, and her experiences with “number 2” became more matter-of-fact than anything else.

“It’s been slow progress , but I just kind of got sick of caring. Like, who gives a f*ck, it is what it is, I can’t do anything about it.”

From there, it became about reclaiming her sexiness and self-confidence, which started with revisiting how she looked at herself.

“When we look at other women, we don’t see the same flaws that we see in ourself. And I’ve had to retrain myself to see myself the way others might see me, to not notice the finer intricacies that I see on myself. Other people don’t see the sh*t that we see.”

But she hasn’t stopped there. She also posts fashion tips for other women with Crohn’s and shares advice on how to dress the way you want while still being comfortable with a bag.

Krystal does have one thing she wants to say to other people who have Crohn’s and other IBDs: It’s not always going to be easy, and that’s OK.

“We have earned that right to f*cking hate the world,” she said. “We are entitled to f*cking be angry and to be sad and to have bad days. If you need to feel sorry for yourself, then feel sorry for yourself. But then pick yourself up and keep going.”

Oh, and one more thing — she’s got a hashtag for the world: #bagbitchesrock.

This article originally appeared on 04.08.16.

Society, pay attention. This is important.

My wife, Zoe, is transgender. She came out to us — the kids and me — last summer and then slowly spread her beautiful feminine wings with extended family, friends, and neighbors.

A little coming out here, a little coming out there — you know how it is.

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It’s been a slow, often challenging process of telling people something so personal and scary, but pretty much everyone has been amazing.

However, she dreaded coming out at the office.

She works at a large technology company, managing a team of software developers in a predominantly male office environment. She’s known many of her co-workers and employees for 15 or so years. They have called her “he” and “him” and “Mr.” for a very long time. How would they handle the change?

While we have laws in place in Ontario, Canada, to protect the rights of transgender employees, it does not shield them from awkwardness, quiet judgment, or loss of workplace friendships. Your workplace may not become outright hostile, but it can sometimes become a difficult place to go to every day because people only tolerate you rather than fully accept you.

But this transition needed to happen, and so Zoe carefully crafted a coming out email and sent it to everyone she works with.

The support was immediately apparent; she received about 75 incredibly kind responses from coworkers, both local and international.

She then took one week off, followed by a week where she worked solely from home. It was only last Monday when she finally went back to the office.

First day back at work! I asked if I could take a “first day of school” type picture with her lunchbox. She said no. Spoilsport.

Despite knowing how nice her colleagues are and having read so many positive responses to her email, she was understandably still nervous.

Hell, I was nervous. I made her promise to text me 80 billion times with updates and was more than prepared to go down there with my advocacy pants on if I needed to (I might be a tad overprotective).

And that’s when her office pals decided to show the rest of us how to do it right.

She got in and found that a couple of them had decorated her cubicle to surprise her:

Butterflies! Streamers! Rainbows! OMG!

And made sure her new name was prominently displayed in a few locations:

They got her a beautiful lily with a “Welcome, Zoe!” card:

And this tearjerker quote was waiting for her on her desk:

To top it all off, a 10 a.m. “meeting” she was scheduled to attend was actually a coming out party to welcome her back to work as her true self — complete with coffee and cupcakes and handshakes and hugs.

(I stole one, and it was delicious.)

NO, I’M NOT CRYING. YOU’RE CRYING.

I did go to my wife’s office that day. But instead of having my advocacy pants on, I had my hugging arms ready and some mascara in my purse in case I cried it off while thanking everyone.

I wish we lived in a world where it was no big deal to come out.

Sadly, that is not the case for many LGBTQ people. We live in a world of bathroom bills and “religious freedom” laws that directly target the members of our community. We live in a world where my family gets threats for daring to speak out for trans rights. We live in a world where we can’t travel to certain locations for fear of discrimination — or worse.

So when I see good stuff happening — especially when it takes place right on our doorstep — I’m going to share it far and wide. Let’s normalize this stuff. Let’s make celebrating diversity our everyday thing rather than hating or fearing it.

Chill out, haters. Take a load off with us.

It’s a lot of energy to judge people, you know. It’s way more fun to celebrate and support them for who they are.

Besides, we have cupcakes.

This article originally appeared on 06.09.16

Vice President Joe Biden penned a heartfelt letter to the victim of the Stanford rape case — a story that has left the country stunned, outraged, and heartbroken.

The case’s convicted perpetrator, Brock Turner, was given just six months behind bars, despite sentencing guidelines that could have resulted in him facing up to 14 years.

Why? Jail could have a “severe impact” on the 20-year-old criminal, Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky had determined.

The injustice doesn’t stop there. It appears Turner — a former swimmer at Stanford University, whose athleticism somehow seemed disturbingly pertinent throughout the trial — will likely only spend half that time behind bars for good behavior, The Chicago Tribune reports: just three months.

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Along with the rest of the country, Biden is both outraged over the injustice and saddened for the survivor.

Biden — who led the charge in passing the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 and has since been an outspoken advocate on the issue — wrote an emotionally-charged open letter, published on BuzzFeed, which both praises the 23-year-old survivor for coming forward and slams “a culture that continues to ask the wrong questions” for failing her so badly.

Here is Biden’s “open letter to a courageous young woman” in full (emphasis mine):

I do not know your name — but your words are forever seared on my soul. Words that should be required reading for men and women of all ages.

Words that I wish with all of my heart you never had to write.

I am in awe of your courage for speaking out — for so clearly naming the wrongs that were done to you and so passionately asserting your equal claim to human dignity.

And I am filled with furious anger — both that this happened to you and that our culture is still so broken that you were ever put in the position of defending your own worth.

It must have been wrenching — to relive what he did to you all over again. But you did it anyway, in the hope that your strength might prevent this crime from happening to someone else. Your bravery is breathtaking.

You are a warrior — with a solid steel spine.

I do not know your name — but I know that a lot of people failed you that terrible January night and in the months that followed.

Anyone at that party who saw that you were incapacitated yet looked the other way and did not offer assistance. Anyone who dismissed what happened to you as “just another crazy night.” Anyone who asked “what did you expect would happen when you drank that much?” or thought you must have brought it on yourself.

You were failed by a culture on our college campuses where one in five women is sexually assaulted — year after year after year. A culture that promotes passivity. That encourages young men and women on campuses to simply turn a blind eye.

The statistics on college sexual assault haven’t gone down in the past two decades. It’s obscene, and it’s a failure that lies at all our feet.

And you were failed by anyone who dared to question this one clear and simple truth: Sex without consent is rape. Period. It is a crime.

I do not know your name — but thanks to you, I know that heroes ride bicycles.

Those two men who saw what was happening to you — who took it upon themselves to step in — they did what they instinctually knew to be right.

They did not say, “It’s none of my business.”

They did not worry about the social or safety implications of intervening, or about what their peers might think.

Those two men epitomize what it means to be a responsible bystander.

To do otherwise — to see an assault about to take place and do nothing to intervene — makes you part of the problem.

Like I tell college students all over this country — it’s on us. All of us.

We all have a responsibility to stop the scourge of violence against women once and for all.

I do not know your name — but I see your unconquerable spirit.

I see the limitless potential of an incredibly talented young woman — full of possibility. I see the shoulders on which our dreams for the future rest.

I see you.

You will never be defined by what the defendant’s father callously termed “20 minutes of action.”

His son will be.

I join your global chorus of supporters because we can never say enough to survivors: I believe you. It is not your fault.

What you endured is never, never, never, NEVER a woman’s fault.

And while the justice system has spoken in your particular case, the nation is not satisfied.

And that is why we will continue to speak out.

We will speak to change the culture on our college campuses — a culture that continues to ask the wrong questions: What were you wearing?

Why were you there? What did you say? How much did you drink?

Instead of asking: Why did he think he had license to rape?

We will speak out against those who seek to engage in plausible deniability. Those who know that this is happening, but don’t want to get involved. Who believe that this ugly crime is “complicated.”

We will speak of you — you who remain anonymous not only to protect your identity, but because you so eloquently represent “every woman.”

We will make lighthouses of ourselves, as you did — and shine.

Your story has already changed lives.

You have helped change the culture.

You have shaken untold thousands out of the torpor and indifference toward sexual violence that allows this problem to continue.

Your words will help people you have never met and never will.

You have given them the strength they need to fight.

And so, I believe, you will save lives.

I do not know your name — but I will never forget you.

The millions who have been touched by your story will never forget you.

And if everyone who shared your letter on social media, or who had a private conversation in their own homes with their daughters and sons, draws upon the passion, the outrage, and the commitment they feel right now the next time there is a choice between intervening and walking away — then I believe you will have helped to change the world for the better.

Biden’s words — as well as the survivor’s letter she read aloud to her attacker — are rippling across the internet for one very important reason: Millions of us are disgusted, fed up, and demanding change to a culture that’s allowed this atrocity to happen.

To every warrior with a spine of solid steel: We hear you, we support you, and we stand by your side.

This article originally appeared on 05.31.15

Photographer David Jay specializes in fashion and beauty, stuff that’s “beautiful and sexy — and completely untrue,” as he puts it. But that’s not all he photographs.

Three years ago, Jay began to take pictures of young, severely wounded soldiers returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trigger warning: These portraits don’t shy away from wounded bodies.

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Be prepared. I found them shocking at first. But keep looking. The more I looked, the more beauty and humanity I found reflected here. (The photo captions are from the Jay’s Unknown Soldier Project Facebook page. All images used with permission.)

This is 1st Lt. Nicholas John Vogt, U.S. Army. On Nov. 12, 2011, he was severely injured by an IED while on a foot-patrol in Panjwaii, Afghanistan. We took these pictures this past weekend in the swimming pool at Walter Reed Medical Center. I asked Nicholas for his permission to post these images and this was his response: “The only thing that I want to pass on is this: Losing limbs is like losing a good friend. We wish we could still be with them, but it wasn’t ‘in the cards.’ Then we get up, remember the good times, and thank God for whatever we have left.” Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography. All images used with permission.

In a National Public Radio interview about his project, Jay said, “You can imagine how many times each of these men and women have heard a parent tell their child, ‘Don’t look. Don’t stare at him. That’s rude.'”

“I take these pictures so that we can look; we can see what we’re not supposed to see. And we need to see them because we created them.” — David Jay

Jay wants us to see, to become even a little familiar with the tragic loss of limbs and burned skin of wounded vets — his portraits are 4 feet wide — but he also wants us to see them as people and to think about their experiences and those of people in their lives.

This past week, I went to San Antonio, Texas. There I had the privilege of photographing both Daniel Burgess and Bobby Bernier. They are friends. Daniel stepped on a IED, losing one leg and destroying the other. Bobby was hit by incoming artillery, sustaining burns over 60% of his body. He is pictured here with his daughter Layla.

This is Maj. Matt Smith. This past week, Matt allowed me to photograph him in his room at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Less than three months ago, on June 8, 2013, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Matt was shot along with five others by a member of the Afghan National Army. The bullet severed his femoral artery, resulting in the amputation of his leg. A private and soulful man, it was an honor to photograph him. Thank you, Maj. Smith.

This is Jerral Hancock. He was driving a tank in Iraq. A roadside bomb pierced the armor, breaching the interior. We shot these pics two weeks ago at his home in Lancaster, California, where Jarral lives with his two beautiful children. We ended up hanging out into the night, smokin’ ciggys … so I kept taking pictures.

“To the men and women of The Unknown Soldier, I can’t thank you enough for your courage and sacrifice … both on and off the battlefield. It is an honor to photograph you.” — David Jay

On July 25, 2012, SFC Cedric King, an Airborne Ranger, was severely injured by an IED while serving his country in Afghanistan. Due to the explosion, Cedric sustained a multitude of internal and external injuries, losing both his legs. Cedric was doing his laps while I was photographing 1st Lt. Nicholas Vogt in the pool at Walter Reed Medical Center last week. Cedric kept watching, so I had to ask. Cedric said, “That man (Nicholas) doesn’t know it, but he changed my life. There was a point when I was so down that I thought I couldn’t go on. And then one day I saw him swimming … and I just thought, wow … if he can go on like that, then I can go on too.” Cedric will also change people’s lives. Already has.

This is Michael Fox, a 27-year-old Marine and an amazing man. On Nov. 15, 2011, Michael was on foot-patrol in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. His is the first picture of “The Unknown Soldier.”

This past weekend, I photographed Staff Sgt. Shilo Harris in Houston, Texas. He came up from San Antonio to see one of my other exhibitions, The SCAR Project (www.thescarproject.org). Shilo was severely burned on Feb. 19, 2007, by a roadside bomb estimated at 700 pounds. He lost three men out of a crew of five. Only Shilo and his driver survived the blast. Shilo has a book coming out soon. He is truly an amazing man, and I am honored to call him a friend.

“The Unknown Soldier is about neither war or politics … but rather something infinitely simpler and more powerful.” — David Jay

The Library of Congress has acquired images from Jay’s The Unknown Soldier project as part of its documentation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This speaks to the power of these images in capturing war’s aftermath. But they are so much more than documentation.

Pictures like these help those of us who remain at home to begin to comprehend the true human cost of war.

This article originally appeared on 07.21.15

Temple Grandin spent her early life, as she says, “goofing off” until a science teacher made her brain light up.

She was born with autism during the 1940s, when people didn’t understand it well.

But Grandin has done a lot since those days of goofing off.

She became a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, a best-selling author, a consultant to the livestock industry, and a popular public speaker.

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HBO made an award-winning movie about her life, which millions of people saw. (When she talks about “the movie” in the TED Talk below, that’s what she’s referring to.)

You can watch “Temple Grandin” on HBO or Amazon.

Her main work now is to educate people on how she, like many people with autism and Asperger’s, sees things in pictures.

She even suggests that some people in places like Silicon Valley may be on the autism spectrum or they wouldn’t have been able to do what they’ve done.

Grandin really does think almost completely in images.

As she describes it, when you say “steeple,” her mind goes to the first image she knows is a steeple from her childhood church. Then, to the next one.

Kinda like Google Images does, right?

Autism is still not very well understood, although research — as well as the number of people diagnosed on the autism spectrum — has been increasing.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the prevalence of autism spectrum diagnoses has drastically increased since 1970. And Temple was born 28 years before this graph’s earliest date.

And no, vaccinations do not cause autism. Science has proven otherwise, so please do not take away from this anything that’s purely fiction.

But there are some things we do know.

Some of them are included in Grandin’s TED Talk.

She has some great suggestions for ways to help those on the autism spectrum, too, like these:

• Educators and parents need to find ways to get people on the spectrum to be engaged and thrilled to be using their unique brains the way they need to in order to make a difference in the world.
• Understand their reality. She was a “different” kid and adult. She made it work because she found her place and made other humans understand that she didn’t function the way that they do. What if we approached other humans on a regular basis with this understanding and empathy? What a wonderful world it would be, indeed.
• Get to know a family with kids who are differently abled than the rest of us. See what their world is like, and maybe make them feel loved — or at least understood a little better.
• Spread the word — when you see her movie or TED Talk, pass it around. It’s a great place to start a conversation.

This article originally appeared on 11.20.15

When her mother was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, this medical student knew what she had to do.

She dropped out of school for a year to be with her mom and help her navigate the procedures, helpers, hospice workers, medications, and so many other things that suddenly occupied her mother’s life, 24/7.

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“I decided to take a year off from medical school and spend the time with her, and I just feel like I want to grasp at every moment I can, really. A typical day of caring for my mom usually includes preparing meals, running errands, grocery shopping, and picking up prescriptions. I work a lot behind the scenes organizing the nursing, a nursing assistant to come and help us.” — Hannah Roberts

It’s not something that everybody can do.

It’s grueling, wonderful, painful, life-affirming, terrifying, rewarding, and many more things, all wrapped up into one big ball of … life.

I really hope when my mother reaches the end of her life, I have a chance (and the ability) to be there for her in the same manner.

Watching a relative go through something like this is probably not in anybody’s top 10 list of things they really want to do with their lives, but helping them cope is certainly in the realm of being a loving human being.

Getting them through it with grace and dignity — I cannot think of a greater gift to give.

Some facts, all from National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP:

1. Nearly 1/4 of all of America’s caregivers are Millennials, between the ages of 18—34, and they’re equally likely to be male or female.

2. The value — that is, if it were paid — of caregiving by family members was approximately $470 billion per year in 2013.

3. 40 million family caregivers helped another adult or loved one carry out daily activities
4. More than half (55%) of family caregivers report being overwhelmed by the amount of care their family member needs.

Caregivers are the unsung heroes of modern life, and sometimes we forget that they’re also grieving and suffering as they help their loved ones.

They need our support in any way we can offer it.