Mikkele.bringard

Feely Cagey is a simple concept—replace the face on every Instagram selfie with an image of Left Behind star Nicolas Cage. The infinite live stream of Cage selfies is nothing less than a hypnotic fever dream of unending terror. You will never see a selfie the same way again. Thank you, strange Internet wizard who created this surreal website. You may have just helped humanity conquer the selfie—with the power of Cage …

Sufjan isn't getting any closer to finishing his 50 States Project (two states in ten years—things are off to a rocky start) but his blogging has been taking off. Of late, he's been dissecting the tunes of teen pop stars. It started with an open letter to Miley, criticizing some of her grammatical choices. But this new post about "PYD," Justin Bieber's single with R. Kelly, is more unabashedly cantankerous. He calls it "nymphomaniac pop" and says he's going to go "read the psalms" and eat "Scotch oatmeal cookies" while he mulls it over. Mr. Stevens, if you're reading this, here's our very humble suggestion ...

As you're putting together your list of everything you're thankful for, do not neglect today's stupefying release of a new poster for Nicolas Cage's Left Behind remake. Activity on the Internet has stalled as everyone looks into their own soul, as surely as Nic Cage is peering into it. Just look at him. What thoughts is Cage mulling over? Or, perhaps, in this picture as in all of Mr. Cage's work, he has disappeared so deeply into his role that there is no Cage anymore. There is only Rayford Steele, intrepid airline pilot and apocalypse navigator, assessing the situation and weighing his next move. Also featuring Chad Michael Murray, Cassi Thomson and Nicky Whelan ...

One restaurant owner believes that mealtime should be free from distractions like texting and compulsively checking a smart phone. Jawdat Ibrahim is so passionate about restoring an atmosphere that fosters genuine conversations that he’s offering customers a 50% discount on their meal if they turn off their phones when they enter his establishment. The owner of the Abu Ghosh eatery in Israel told the AP, “Technology is very good. But just when you eat, just especially when you are with your family and your friends, you can just wait for half an hour and enjoy the food and enjoy the company." The other benefit of offers like Ibrahim’s is that if the anti-smart phone trend spreads to other restaurants, your social media feed will no longer be filled with countless pictures of your friend’s meals that you could care less about seeing …

Larry and Carri Williams from Washington homeschooled their six children and their two adopted children, aged 7 and 11, from Ethiopia. Neighbors told police that the Williams thought of their two adopted children as "rebellious," and were known to praise the teachings of a book called Train Up a Child for curtailing their behavior. Train Up a Child was written by Michael and Debi Pearl, who run a church in Tennessee. The book advocates for corporeal discipline of children, including beating them with rubber tubes, swatting babies as young as six months with "a willowy branch," hosing off kids who have potty training accidents and withholding meals as punishment.

The Williams took the book to heart. Last May, their adopted daughter, Hana was found face down, naked and emaciated in their backyard. Her cause of death was ruled as malnutrition and hypothermia. She had been forced to sleep outside, shower with a hose and had been beaten with the Pearls' recommended hose on the day of her death. Her's is the third death to be linked to' Train Up a Child, but the Pearls themselves are baffled by the link—they say they urge against striking in anger. Likewise, their daughter, Soshanna Easling, defends her parents. “I had a wonderful childhood,” she told The New York Times. “My parents never spoke to me in anger, and I can only remember being spanked a couple of times."

Her mother said she recalls spanking Shoshanna around 50 times ...

If you’re planning on going to a concert on Arcade Fire’s upcoming arena tour, make sure you have your Sunday’s best ready. Fans who have already purchased tickets may have noticed this notification in the fine print: Please Note: NIGHT OF SHOW: Please wear formal attire or costume. The band also recently tweeted before a show in Montreal that the dress rule was mandatory. According to NME, at a Nov. 11 show, in which the audience was notified before attending that if they didn’t have on a costume than they needed to wear “formal wear or fancy dress", frontman Win Butler addressed some of the grumblings fans posted to Twitter prior to the concert: "To anyone who felt uncomfortable dressing up–I'm not sorry” …

Well, here's a fun story. Canada mom Kristen Bartkiw probably thought she was being a pretty good mom by sending her kids off to school with a tasty, healthy, homemade lunch of roast beef, potatoes, carrots, oranges and milk. That's a better meal than you've probably seen in months, but it wasn't enough to pass some stupid rule of the Manitoba Child Care Association, with deemed Kristen's lunch "unbalanced." According to the Association, the lunch was "lacking" in grains and so, this lunch was "supplemented" with a popular "grain" known as Ritz Crackers. Yes, that famed superfood so noted for its "grain-like" qualities was essentially forced into a meal of otherwise homemade food—which we might call, "actual food," for shorthand. And then, for good measure, they fined Kristen $10—just to make sure she never again forces her children to endure eating Ritz again ...

This is Ming, an ocean quahog from near Iceland that researchers until recently believed to be about 402 years old. Evidently, you can tell exactly how old quahogs are by the number of rings on their shells, so researchers decided to confirm their suspicions by prying Ming open and getting an accurate count. They figured out that Ming is actually a jaw-dropped 507 years old, but in the process, they also killed Ming. So, more accurately, this was Ming. She was the world's oldest living thing, until scientists killed her ...

In case you missed the Batkid saga, here’s a brief video recap of how San Francisco became Gotham City to make one young leukemia survivor’s dream of being a superhero come true …

The deadline for National Geographic’s Photo Contest is still a few days away (photographers have until Nov. 30 to submit their entries), but The Atlantic’s In Focus photo blog has posted a few of the early favorites along with captions from the photographers. Needless to say, they are all breathtaking images and contain their own amazing stories. Erin Wallis’ “Hold My Hand” (below) shows a prematurely born 4-day-old baby, whose parents just found out he made need heart surgery before he “shot his hand up straight for them as if to let them know, that everything would in fact, be alright.” Today the baby is a healthy four-month old …

As you may remember, 5-year-old leukemia patient Miles asked Make-a-Wish to give him a day as Batman, and they've responded marvelously. Today, San Francisco is going to be Gotham City, and an estimated 10,000 volunteers are all pitching in to make Miles' dream come true. This morning, a news broadcast alerted Miles to the city's need for a hero, and his family produced a specially-made Bat-costume for him (and a Robin costume for his little brother.) Now, the two are racing around the city—in Lambo's outfitted to look like Batmobiles—rescuing damsels and catching bad guys, and it will all culminate with a meeting with the mayor later today. We'll keep track of Miles' adventures here, but you can follow via the Twitter account of Make-a-Wish executive director, @pilarwish or just hashtag #batkid ...

Update 1: Rest easy, San Francisco. Batkid has sent The Riddler packing.

Update 2: This is very special.

Update 3: Uh-oh. The Penguin has kidnapped Lou Seal, the San Francisco Giants' mascot.

Update 4: Batkid has rescued Lou from Penguin's nefarious clutches. All is well.

Update 5: Wow. Here's the crowd at City Hall, where the mayor will meet Batkid and give him the keys to the city. And he's received a message from President Obama.

Update 6: The best news in this whole thing is getting a little overlooked: Miles' cancer is in remission.

Final Update That'll do it. Miles has the key to the city, and ended his day by declaring to all of San Francisco "I am Batman!" to a crowd that promptly went wild.

Google’s short film “Reunion,” which was first released in India, shows how the company is not only rethinking technology; it’s also trying to reinvent marketing. The short movie tells the fictional story of how a woman in India uses Internet tools to track down a long-lost friend of her grandfather, who now lives in Pakistan. (If the captions don’t show up automatically for you, you can enable them by clicking the “CC” at the bottom right of the player). It’s not the first time Google has used filmmaking to showcase some of the social benefits of their innovation. If you haven’t seen them yet, “Nick’s First Pitch” and “Homeward Bound” are also worth checking out. The spot is so touching, that you almost forget Google is also behind super creepy electronic neck tattoos, capable of connecting you to their computers …

Thrillist has put together a very unscientific-sounding but nevertheless interesting list of the most hipster cities in America. So, theoretically, these are the cities nobody should admit to living in but everyone is at least a little bit enamored by. As you might expect, Seattle takes the top spot, but there are a few surprises. Baltimore, Louisville and Savannah bring up the rear, and Asheville, North Carolina makes the cut. When asked whether or not these cities were actually hipsters, hipsters laughed, twirled their mustaches, informed us that the actual most hipster cities are pretty obscure, we've probably never even heard of them, and then rode off on their fixies ...

As we've noted, whoever's behind the soundtrack for Hunger Games: Catching Fire should get a medal. They've rounded up a who's who of your favorite bands to create original songs, which is really saying something for a teen flick. We've already talked about the Lumineers' cheerful little ditty, and Lorde's scary-good Tears for Fears cover (preview below.) Now you can listen to the whole thing for free—with songs from the Weeknd, the National, Ellie Goulding and Coldplay. It's a great soundtrack to listen to while you put the finishing touches on your Hunger Games costume that you'll wear to the midnight premiere to watch Human Miracle Jennifer Lawrence do her thing ...

After setting the Internet on fire with their weirdly catchy single ‘The Fox’, comedy/music duo Ylvis has found a new, unexpected fan base—little kids. Evidently, writing a song primarily based on fictitious animal sounds is a formula for success among the under-12 crowd. Now the Norwegian brothers have inked a deal with publisher Simon & Schuster to create the children’s picture book What Does the Fox Say?, which will come to stores on Dec. 10. Finally, an educational fox-related resource your kids will actually want to read …

PBS documentarian Ken Burns thinks it’s important that modern Americans learn the Gettysburg Address and remember the significance of Lincoln’s famous call for equality. In honor of the speech’s 150th anniversary, the network has launched LearnTheAddress.org, a site that encourages users to record themselves reciting the speech and uploading the video. So far celebrities and politicians including Stephen Colbert, President Obama, Louis C.K., Bill Gates, Whoopi Goldberg, Conan O’Brien, Uma Thurman, Marco Rubio and others have all submitted videos …

Here's the last paragraph of Randi Zuckerberg's published book. Draw your own conclusions ...

The homeless advocacy organization Degage Ministries has posted this video of a recent makeover they gave to a homeless Army veteran named Jim Wolf. Since the physical transformation, Mr. Wolf has undergone a life transformation as well—he is receiving help for addiction struggles and is scheduled to get his own housing soon. You can go here to learn more about the outreaches of Degage Ministries …

We do a lot of talking about Pope Francis around here, largely because he seems like such a genuine and kind person, one who never seems to run out of ways to demonstrate love to humanity. We have fun with all this, because it is fun to see, but we don't mean to do so in a way that trivializes the many beautiful things the Pope finds it in himself to do. Today, he did something very simple, but it clearly came from a place of great love. After departing St. Peter's Square following his general audience, he saw a severely disfigured man in the crowd. Unbidden, he climbed out of his vehicle, approached the man and, ignoring the innumerable boils covering the man's face and neck, bent down to kiss him on the forehead and pray over him. That was that, and there's not much to say about it, except to let it serve as a reminder to all of us ...