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A Definitive Ranking Of The Main Doctors And Nurses From “E.R.”

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County General had a lot of employees.

John Carter

John Carter

Dr. John Carter was the longest running character in the series — and that was for good reason. Carter went through many ups and downs and never stopped being a compelling individual. He was the show at its core and filled the hole left by Anthony Edwards after his season eight departure.

NBC

Mark Greene

Mark Greene

If Carter was the show, Greene was the heart of the show. The show was an ensemble, but the main focus really centered on Greene’s journey as a doctor, friend, husband, and father. Greene was the kind of guy you’d want to be your doctor and just about everyone could relate to him.

NBC

Luka Kovac

Luka Kovac

Kovac was sent in as the replacement to bad boy Doug Ross, and some ways arguably exceeded that character. Kovac was different from the other characters, with a super interesting background and compelling journey through his seasons on the show.

NBC

Elizabeth Corday

Elizabeth Corday

Aside from the fact that Alex Kingston is absolute gold in human form, Corday was a character worth watching. She was tough, and soft, and held her own as a woman in a highly competitive male field.

NBC


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10 Senior Photos That'll Make You Glad You Graduated

12 Of The Most Powerful Science Photos Of This Week

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A Sumatran orangutan holds her one day old baby at Chester Zoo. Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered – there are thought to be only 6,500 remaining on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, which is the only place this species are found in the wild.

Peter Byrne / PA Wire/PA Images

The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft launches, carrying astronauts Andreas Mogense, Aidyn Aimbetov and commander Sergei Volkov to the International Space Station.

Stephane Corvaja / ESA

Three hurricanes – Kilo, Ignacio, and Jimena – traveling over the Pacific Ocean earlier this week. This was the first month in recorded history that three Category 4 storms were raging over the Pacific at the same time.

NASA / Suomi NPP / earthobservatory.nasa.gov

Scientists working in the andrology lab at the Royan Institute in Tehran, Iran. This week Science magazine ran a special package on science in Iran.

Ebrahim Mirmalek

Lions attack a buffalo in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. Research published this week in the journal Science found that an increase in the number of prey in an area doesn't lead to an increase in predators.

Amaury Laporte / Science

Rivers leading into a sinkhole in Greenland's ice sheet. In July, a group of scientists set up camp here to study how the water is transported from ice sheet to ocean.

Maria-José Viñas / NASA

Wildebeests and zebras prepare to cross a river in Masai Mara as part of a yearly migration that will see thousands make the journey from the Serengeti to the Masai Mara national park.

Carl De Souza / AFP / Getty Images

Astronaut Scott Kelly took this photo from the International Space Station on August 31. On the left hand side, in the darkness, you can just about make out the space station's solar panels.

Scott Kelly / NASA

Waste plastics strewn on the Bao beach near Dakar, Senegal. Around two-thirds of the population of Senegal live in the Dakar coastal area, and 90% of the country's industry is located there. The country is one of the most at-risk nations when it comes to sea level rise from climate change.

Seyllou / AFP / Getty Images

Lake Amadeus, in Australia’s Northern Territory, captured by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2A satellite.

Copernicus Sentinel data (2015)/ESA

A rescued murre sits in a net at the International Bird Rescue in Fairfield, California. The centre is currently hosting 45 murres after a seeing a surge of malnourished birds being found on beaches and brought in. It's been speculated that warmer temperatures in the Pacific Ocean could be driving fish that the birds eat deeper underwater.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

This image was released by the European Southern Observatory in celebration of 15 years of its Very Large Telescope. It shows a group of dust clouds known as the Thackeray globules silhouetted against the glowing gas of stellar nursery IC 2944.

ESO / eso.org


These Horrifyingly Satisfying Photos Of "Baby Foot" Will Haunt You

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Warning: Look away if you can’t handle peeling skin.

To most people, this is a baby foot:

instagram.com

But to anyone who has some callused feet covered in dead skin, this is Baby Foot:

instagram.com

Maybe you're unfamiliar with Baby Foot. That's okay! But if the bottoms of your feet look like this, you'll want to check this out.

instagram.com

Basically, you seal these little baggies onto your feet for an hour and then wash away the gel it leaves behind.

Put your caterpillar feet into their cocoon.

instagram.com


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22 Things You'll Only Understand If You're A Girl Who Likes Girls

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Like LIKE likes.

Spotting a lesbian in the wild can be tricky.

Especially since everyone and their mother seems to be wearing a plaid shirt and a beanie these days.

But there is definitely a secret lesbian uniform that some people choose to wear.

But there is definitely a secret lesbian uniform that some people choose to wear.

Which is great, until two of you turn up in the same colour plaid shirt.

gibbsn3rd.tumblr.com

It can be difficult knowing whether you want to be someone, or have sex with someone.

It can be difficult knowing whether you want to be someone, or have sex with someone.

Let's face it, it's usually the latter.

HBO

Even if you have a girlfriend you still get that useful monthly reminder that you're not pregnant.

Another month passes by where you weren't chosen for immaculate conception.


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This GIF Shows Just How Big The Refugee Crisis Has Grown Since 2011

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In both Europe and the Middle East, some countries are now seeing double the previous year’s number of refugees.

This GIF shows just how much the number of refugees seeking shelter and asylum in Europe and the Middle East has grown since 2011, when the Syrian civil war broke out.

This GIF shows just how much the number of refugees seeking shelter and asylum in Europe and the Middle East has grown since 2011, when the Syrian civil war broke out.

The red dots show the surge of Syrian refugees into neighboring countries since 2011. The blue dots represent the total number of refugees and migrants that have attempted to enter Europe through the Mediterranean or the Balkans during that same time.

BuzzFeed News

It also isn't meant to say that there are no refugees aside from Syrians attempting to enter Europe — many of the refugees coming into Italy are from Eritrea. And it focuses on the what the United Nations refers to as spontaneous movement of refugees rather than planned resettlement like is currently being discussed in the United Kingdom.

But this map — drawn from data from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the European Union's Frontex border patrol, and the International Organization of Migration — does show that each year, the number of people trying to reach Europe has been increasing, causing the total since 2011 to swell before hitting the peak that we're now seeing. In some cases, the number of those attempting to cross the border has doubled from year to year.

On the European side, until recently the focus has been on refugees arriving by boat, after they'd made the sometimes deadly voyage across the Mediterranean from Turkey or Libya.

On the European side, until recently the focus has been on refugees arriving by boat, after they'd made the sometimes deadly voyage across the Mediterranean from Turkey or Libya.

Murad Sezer / Reuters

Now refugees have in larger and larger numbers been making their way into the interior of Europe, setting off a string of confrontations like the one seen in Macedonia last week and Hungary on Thursday.

Now refugees have in larger and larger numbers been making their way into the interior of Europe, setting off a string of confrontations like the one seen in Macedonia last week and Hungary on Thursday.

Laszlo Balogh / Reuters


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70 Classic Black Films Everyone Should See At Least Once

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♬ “Do you know where you’re going to?”♬ Here are 70 of the most iconic black films, through the year 2000.

Carmen Jones (1954)

Carmen Jones (1954)

Written by: Harry Kleiner, based off of the stage play written by Oscar Hammerstein II
Directed by: Otto Preminger
What it’s about: It’s a version of the opera Carmen, set in World War II.
Why you need to see it: It stars Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte (Diahann Carroll is also in this!) and it was a major studio film that featured an all-black cast. Also, it’s one of the most amazing musicals ever. Ever.

20th Century Fox

Imitation of Life (1959)

Imitation of Life (1959)

Written by: Based on the novel by Fannie Hurst, adapted in 1934 and 1959 by Eleanore Griffin and Allan Scott
Directed by: Douglas Sirk
What it’s about: A black domestic’s lighter-skinned daughter rejects her mother and passes for white.
Why you need to see it: It’ll make you cry — hard — and it will be the source of great conversations because everyone else in the world has seen this film many, many times. So should you.

Universal Pictures

A Raisin in the Sun (1961)

A Raisin in the Sun (1961)

Written by: Lorraine Hansberry
Directed by: Daniel Petrie
What it’s about: A struggling black family awaits news on an insurance check that may very well change the course of their lives.
Why you need to see it: It’s written by Hansberry, who was the first black woman to write a play performed on Broadway. And it stars Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee, two of Hollywood’s greatest and most celebrated actors.

Columbia Pictures

Shaft (1971)

Shaft (1971)

Written by: Ernest Tidyman and John D.F. Black
Directed by: Gordon Parks
What it’s about: One of the most well-known films to come out of the blaxploitation era, this tells the story of John Shaft, a black detective who takes on the Italian mob.
Why you need to see it: It’s one of the first black action movies and it made a star of Richard Roundtree. The film also features one of the best film scores ever, by Isaac Hayes.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer


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If Beauty Product Ads Were Actually Honest


Justice Department Lifts Secrecy Veil On Cell Phone Tracking "Stingrays"

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AP

Details of a cell phone spying tool that federal law enforcement have tried to keep secret for years will be made slightly more public after the Department of Justice adopted a new policy Thursday aimed at addressing privacy concerns.

Cell-site simulators, or more commonly known by their industry name of "Stingray," are devices that mimic mobile phone towers and trick phones nearby to connect to the device, effectively delivering the exact location of all cellular phones trapped by it.

But exactly how the devices work, how much information it can extract from cell phones, or how often law enforcement agencies have deployed them has remained a closely guarded secret. Local and federal law enforcement agencies have not only tried to keep details of the device out of public sight, but away from the scrutiny of judges in criminal trials.

On Thursday, the Department of Justice tightened its policy on the use of the cell-site simulators, including requiring a search warrant to be filed, supported by probably cause, in court before the device is used.

The decision comes as the devices, manufactured by Florida-based Harris Corporation, have become more commonly used by state and local law enforcement agencies. The Department of Justice's policy, however, would not apply to local departments.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Andrew Harnik / AP

The decision was applauded, though with caveats, as a step toward transparency by civil rights advocates and legislators that have aired concerns about the technology.

"The Department of Justice's new policies are finally starting to catch up with the rapid advancement of this tracking technology," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) told BuzzFeed News in a statement. "Today's announcement is a welcome step forward, and has the potential to bring transparency and consistency."

But critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, point out there are still loopholes in the new policy, including an undefined "exceptional circumstances" that allows use of the cell-site simulators without a warrant, and the fact that the policy does not apply to local police departments that have been using them more frequently in recent years.

The new policy also tries to address privacy concerns of mass collection of data, since the devices are believed to collect the information of all cell phones that are within range. Investigators are now required to track how frequently the devices are used, and to delete information of all other cell phones within one day after the suspected device is found.

"This new policy ensures our protocols for this technology are consistent, well-managed and respectful of individuals' privacy and civil liberties," Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement.

It also prevents agencies like the FBI and DEA from collecting the contents of any communication, like texts, images, contacts and emails, with the devices.

Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, also applauded the announcement as a move toward "increased transparency," but expressed concerns about exceptions to the policy, and the continued use of geolocation technology.

"Establishing a high uniform standard helps protect personal privacy and discourages abuse and mishandling of these powerful devices," Chaffetz said in a statement. "DOJ should continue to produce information — including the Jones memos — to help Congress and the public understand how the federal government tracks people."

House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

Susan Walsh / AP

The ACLU, which has sued local law enforcement for information about their use of the technology, said in a written statement that although encouraging, the new policy doesn't apply to all federal law enforcement agencies, nor to local departments.

"Disturbingly, the policy does not apply to other federal agencies or the many state and local police departments that have received federal funds to purchase these devices," Nathan Freed Wessler, staff attorney for the ACLU, said in a statement.

Documents obtained by BuzzFeed News show local law enforcement agencies have purchased the devices at a cost of about $400,000 to $500,000 — with some, like the Long Beach Police Department — asking for specific alterations.

Those specifics changes were redacted in documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.

And though departments often cite terrorism prevention and homeland security to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for the devices, and tens of thousands for software upgrades, they are often used for regular investigations.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, for example, used the device five times in 2011. The following year, it was used 44 times.

By 2014, the device was deployed 104 times.

From 2011 to June 18, 2015, the department has used cell-site simulators a total of 323 times.

This undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office shows the StingRay II, manufactured by Harris Corporation.

Uncredited / AP

Sgt. James Corrigan told BuzzFeed News the department does not track what types of crimes the device is used for.

In Baltimore, the public defender's office was set to review nearly 2,000 cases after learning police used the controversial device without notifying defense attorneys.

The review came after the Baltimore Sun reported that police used the device thousands of times since purchasing a cell-site simulator from Harris Corporation.

One Baltimore Police detective was threatened with contempt by a judge when he refused to reveal details of the device during a robbery case, citing the non-disclosure agreement with the FBI.

Local departments are required to sign the non-disclosure agreements before beginning the purchase, and some departments have also decided to drop criminal cases instead of talking about the Stingrays.

That includes not telling anyone about the technology in "press releases, in court documents, during judicial hearings," according to the agreement signed by the Anaheim Police Department and obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The FBI also prohibits local departments from mentioning it in court, even if it is being asked to disclose evidence in a criminal proceeding.

"If the Anaheim Police Department learns that a District Attorney, prosecutor, or a court is considering or intends to use or provide any information concerning the Harris Corporation wireless collection equipment/technology (...) Anaheim Police Department will immediately notify the FBI in order to allow sufficient time for the FBI to intervene."

In Tallahassee, a judge ordered police to reveal information about the Stingray used in a robbery involving a BB gun and $130 of pot. Instead of talking about the technology, authorities offered the defendant a plea deal.

That, Wessler said, is an exception that must be closed.

"The Justice Department must close these loopholes, and Congress should act to pass more comprehensive legislation to ensure that Americans' privacy is protected from these devices and other location tracking technologies."

Photographer Who Found Drowned Syrian Boy On Beach: "I Was Petrified"

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Nilüfer Demir had witnessed many migrant hardships — including death — over the years, but in the early morning hours on Sept. 2, what she saw on the Turkish shoreline stopped her cold.

There before her was the lifeless body of Aylan Kurdi, a 3-year-old Syrian boy who, along with his brother and mother, had drowned while attempting to flee to Greece. Hours earlier, the 15-foot boat they had been on capsized while en route to the Greek island of Kos.

“At that moment, when I saw the 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, I was petrified," Demir said in an interview with Dogan News Agency (aka Dogan Haber Ajansi, or DHA), for which she has documented the refugee crisis.

Mehmet Can Meral / AP

The image of Aylan — his face into the sand at shore's edge — was horrifying, but her instincts as a photojournalist took over and she snapped a series of photos that have prompted outrage and an intense period of international soul-searching.

It's the reaction she wanted.

"The only thing I could do was to make his outcry heard," Demir told DHA. "At that moment, I believed I would be able to achieve this by triggering the shutter of my camera and take his picture."

In the days since, the world has reacted with outcry, offers of support, and demands to confront the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe, where thousands of Syrians are attempting to flee their war-ravaged country — often with fatal consequences.

Along with Aylan Kurdi, his 5-year-old brother, Galip, and their mother, Rehan, were among the 12 killed in the capsizing. (Turkish authorities gave the boy's name as Aylan, however, an aunt in Canada gave his name as Alan.)

Images of a distraught Abdullah Kurdi the next day as the caskets of his wife and two young sons were loaded into a van drilled home the intimate — and often unnoticed — sense of loss.

Reaction to the photos, which include a Turkish official carrying Aylan's lifeless body, has extended beyond Europe, including Canada — where the boy's aunt said she had tried to get the family visas — and quiet Iceland, where hundreds of residents pushed their government to accept more refugees amid the worsening humanitarian crisis.

The media attention, particularly in Western Europe and the U.K., has been intense, with much of the focus on public reaction and pressure on officials to do more to address the unrelenting flow of refugees and migrants.

At a news conference in the U.K., prime minister David Cameron responded to questions where his government was taking the issue to heart.

"We do care because we sent the Royal Navy to the Mediterranean to save lives," he said. "We will do more, we are doing more."

Paramilitary police officers investigate the scene before carrying the lifeless body of Aylan Kurdi, 3.

Associated Press

Officials carry the coffin of Rehan Kurdi, the mother of Syrian boys Aylan, 3, and Galip, 5.

Emrah Gurel / AP

LINK: Here’s What Canada’s Political Leaders Said About The Country’s Link To Alan Kurdi

The U.S. Forest Service Is Going Broke Fighting Wildfires

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The agency spent nearly a quarter billion dollars on fires last week, officials reported. The costs are so high that the agency has already used up this year’s entire firefighting budget.

Firefighters work at the Rocky Fire on Aug. 2 near Clearlake, California.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

According to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, last week's national firefighting costs totaled a record $243 million, the Associated Press reported.

Vilsack also warned that the Forest Service will probably keep spending about $200 million a week fighting fires as the season drags on.

The fire season typically lasts through the summer and into the early fall in many parts of the western U.S.

The Forest Service is funded by Congress, but its budget for firefighting has now been completely exhausted, Vilsack said. As a result, the agency is having to dip into funds that were meant for forest restoration. Ironically, the forest restoration work was designed to cut down on wildfire risks.

Firefighters at the scene of the the Okanogan Complex Fire near Tonasket, Washington, Aug. 22.

Jason Redmond / Reuters

Virtually all of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada are suffering some level of drought. Large sections of Utah and Arizona also are seeing abnormally dry conditions.

That dryness has helped fuel bigger and more powerful wildfires in recent years, chewing through more and more of the Forest Service's budget. Earlier this summer, the agency said it was at a "tipping point," noting that half of its money now goes to fire suppression.


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19 People You Know Are Definitely Dead Now

Google Docs Can Understand What You Say Now

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Voice-to-text hits the cloud. We gave it a spin.

youtube.com

Google announced several new features for Docs today. Forms are prettier and more customizable. It's easier to see recent changes in a document. There's more too. But the really intriguing one? Starting Wednesday voice-to-text has come to Google Docs, which means you can now make Google type whatever you like just by talking to it.

Open a new Google doc, then click Tools > Voice Typing... > the microphone icon that appeared on the left side of the screen. Then start talking. How did it work? Pretty well!

It handled the Gettysburg Address just fine.

It handled the Gettysburg Address just fine.

As well as colloquialisms.

As well as colloquialisms.


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This Anime Girl Is The Cutest Way The Internet Is Fighting ISIS

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ISIS-chan is here to tell you that knives are for cutting melons, not violence.

This is ISIS-chan, a crowd-sourced anime character that has become a popular anti-ISIS meme on social media.

This is ISIS-chan, a crowd-sourced anime character that has become a popular anti-ISIS meme on social media.

MikhailN / Via mikhailn.deviantart.com

ISIS-chan is a teenage girl with green hair.

ISIS-chan is a teenage girl with green hair.

knowyourmeme.com

She's peaceful and anti-extremist.

instagram.com

She seriously loves melons.


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16 Photos That Perfectionists Will Hate, Then Love

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At first you’ll be like, “Aarrrrgh!” But then you’ll be like, “Ahhhhh that’s nice.”

Sometimes you see a photo and you're just like "NOOOOO WHYYYYY."

Sometimes you see a photo and you're just like "NOOOOO WHYYYYY."

Via imgur.com

Thankfully, the brilliant Imgur user trjnz used his Photoshop skills to fix photos such as that one.

Thankfully, the brilliant Imgur user trjnz used his Photoshop skills to fix photos such as that one.

So much better.

Via imgur.com

So when you think, "What kind of monster would do this and take a photo of it?!"

So when you think, "What kind of monster would do this and take a photo of it?!"

Via imgur.com

You can breathe a sigh of relief as Photoshop saves the day.

You can breathe a sigh of relief as Photoshop saves the day.

Via imgur.com


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The Summer The Movies Started Treating Women Like People

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Mad Max: Fury Road.

Jasin Boland / Warner Bros.

As blockbuster season winds its way to its melancholy end, here's a roll call of the summer's most notable ladies. We got Bryce Dallas Howard tottering away from a T. rex in those goddamn heels as Claire Dearing in Jurassic World, and Rebecca Ferguson shucking her own off before taking down a room full of bad guys as Ilsa Faust in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. There's Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) guiding Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) through a rough patch in Inside Out, and Amy (Amy Schumer) trudging her way toward a relationship in the same outfit she had on the night before in Trainwreck.

There was Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) disclosing the terrible thing that was done to her when she was still a Soviet agent in training in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) longing for glamour and intrigue but ending up with a series of cat lady aliases in Spy. There were the loud and proud women in Pitch Perfect 2, and there was the notable absence of any in a significant role in Straight Outta Compton.

We had Ant-Man's Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), whose entire arc felt like a weird apologia about not making superhero movies about female characters, and Fantastic Four's Sue Storm (Kate Mara), who her soon-to-be superpowered team leaves behind without even a mention when they take their impromptu trip to a parallel dimension.

Magic Mike XXL.

Claudette Barius / Warner Bros.

There was Tomorrowland's wide-eyed Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), a part that was, not entirely successfully, conceived of as a male and then swapped without significant alterations, and Magic Mike XXL's sultry Rome (Jada Pinkett Smith), who was gender-flipped to much more provocative effect.

There was Emilia Clarke as a milquetoast re-envisioning of Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys, and there was Furiosa (Charlize Theron) — Furiosa! — glorious in grease war paint in Mad Max: Fury Road, with her haunted eyes and her kamikaze determination to find a place in which the world hadn't yet totally gone to hell.

This wasn't a record-setting summer at the box office, the counter by which this season more than others is measured, but it was close. Summer's traditionally been the home of movies that aim for the biggest possible audience, a fact that, in practice, has perversely meant that they've usually been sculpted to serve the tastes of young men in the past.

But whether because of the increasing importance of movies becoming hits internationally, which no one can predict, or thanks to the unbelievably sluggish realization that audiences of color and women also buy tickets and also like to see stories about themselves onscreen, this summer has felt harder to sum up. Like the motley but memorable group of characters listed above, it's all over the place in all ways except in the preponderance of sequels and remakes.

Disney / Pixar

The fact that there were more noteworthy women onscreen this summer than fit any easy trend is its own sort of win. Box office monster Jurassic World may have been eye-rollingly retrograde in its "she likes itineraries, he likes tequila, let's call the whole thing off — wait, dinosaurs!" dynamics, but then we had Inside Out, which was dedicated unapologetically to a zippy metaphor for the nuanced emotional development of an 11-year-old-girl.

Pitch Perfect 2 wasn't a particularly strong sequel, but the Elizabeth Banks–directed film did become the highest-grossing musical comedy ever, while the success of the superior Spy and Trainwreck underscored the lesson that Bridesmaids already made: that there's an audience clamoring for R-rated comedies for and starring funny women. And as fumbled as Hope van Dyne and Casey Newton seemed, they were at least indicators that even the incomprehensible higher echelons of Hollywood have felt moved to try, to attempt to offer up women who don't exist only for their impact on the stories of male main characters.

It's Mad Max: Fury Road, the apocalypse action extravaganza that felt most revelatory in its depiction of women as fierce, fully developed human beings in an overwhelmingly macho genre, that also inadvertently highlights how low the bar still is as mainstream cinema continues its slow crawl toward some sort of balance. The movie's been championed as feminist, managed to preemptively draw the ire of a few men's rights activists, and has been challenged by pieces questioning its feminist cred. But it's a film — a spectacular, eye-poppingly well-directed film — that manages the relatively small accomplishment of treating its female characters like people, not just things to be looked at, slept with, or rescued.

Pitch Perfect 2.

Universal Pictures

Its characters are in fact in the process of rescuing themselves when we meet them — a good thing, too, given that the male lead of the title, played by Tom Hardy, is initially more interested in his own survival than playing the hero. Max is the throughline in the franchise, but in this installment, he's the one being pulled into Furiosa's ongoing story, the two intersecting at the start of that insane chase — Furiosa is allowed to be his equal in competence and in importance. Mad Max: Fury Road dares to have a female character whose experiences aren't secondary to or dependent on its main male one. It's a choice worth commemorating, but also, man, that's really such a minor ask.

It's the aspect of incremental improvement that gets disheartening — calling out the success of Pitch Perfect 2 comes with the knowledge that it's the only film in this season's top 20 to be directed by a woman, and saluting the lovely Inside Out means not forgetting that it's only the second Pixar movie to have a female protagonist. But this summer, while far from perfect, did feel like one in which there were actual efforts made to cater to a female audience and to put more women onscreen and, every once in a while, to actually give some thought to those characters' internal lives and their unique experiences. It may not be a giant accomplishment, but it's a start.

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My Life As A Constant Immigrant

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Sian Butcher / Paul Curry / BuzzFeed

I have this vivid memory of a woman wearing dark-rimmed glasses and a chubby man with curly black hair. They came from Belgium twice a year to visit my family, bringing parcels of clothes, food, and toys. Inside, there would always be tons of black liquorice, some of which I’m sure still lives in our cupboards, and much-hated hand-me-down Barbie dolls. I still can’t stand the taste of black liquorice.

But far more intriguing than the parcels was the couple. They were so…different. She wore flashy jewellery: huge, gold rings on her fingers, and a big ladybug brooch with a lot of (probably fake) precious, shimmering stones. He always wore a jumper, even on warm days. One featured a couple of embroidered pigs, with soft, 3D tails fixed to their bottoms. I couldn’t look away. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I am still, to this day, very covetous of that sweater.

In the post-Communist, newly democratic Poland of the early ’90s, such gestures of charity were common. Everyone who had the connections was trying to get a glimpse of the life out in the West – a great majority of the people for the first time in their lives. The couple, who worked for the Belgian Red Cross, were friends of my aunt’s. They always stayed for a couple of days; painfully awkward visits with a lot of uncomfortable silences and polite smiles that served as a substitute for words because no one in my family spoke English, Dutch, or French. I was the most stylish kid on the block thanks to them, though. So we said our “thank you”s with simple gestures of affection and lots of homemade food.

Sian Butcher / Paul Curry / BuzzFeed

Those visits were the beginning of a journey that would take me all over the world, the trigger of my transformation into a full-time immigrant years later. That couple’s peculiar looks, behaviour and language made me realise “The Outside” – and it was hypnotising. I needed to know more.

This fascination continued throughout my childhood. The only English-speaking TV I had access to was German MTV and I watched it religiously: US shows played in their original language with German subtitles flashing across the screen. I learned English mostly by watching The Real World, Pimp My Ride, and My Super Sweet Sixteen. My Britney Spears fascination, which had me translating lyrics from English to Polish, was also a significant stage of my linguistic education (as well as an important, early indicator of my sexuality, but that only became clear during my years at university).

Anna in September 1993

Anna Neyman

At 14, I left my parents back in the motherland and moved to the small town of Ironton, Ohio. I still can’t comprehend how my parents let their only child fly cross an ocean to spend more than 18 months with a family of complete strangers. Looking back, I don’t remember being scared. If anything, I was ecstatic to finally be making my dreams come true.

The moment I left the safety of the airport, after hours of going through homeland security (“Do you have any radioactive materials with you, ma’am? Are you planning on using chemical weapons while in America?”), I quickly realised I knew nothing: It dawned on me that I didn’t really speak English, at least not as well as I had been led to believe by my middle school teachers. My understanding of the American lifestyle was based on teenage films and ‘90s MTV culture. The reality was far less exciting. Yet I felt like I was finally living in the country I should have been living all my life.

Sian Butcher / Paul Curry / MTV / Jive Records / BuzzFeed

The first time it hit me that it’s simply impossible to swap one culture for another came at Christmas. It’s a Polish Catholic tradition to break a piece of a wafer between family members at Christmas dinner and wish each other good health and happiness; My parents sent me a piece of wafer in the post so I could do the same, even though I was a continent away. I remember my new, American family sniggering as I semi-forced them to break the wafer with me. Eyes full of tears, feeling deeply misunderstood, I hated everything and everyone. I felt like America – where I felt so at home – was betraying me at this very important moment. But even the culture shock of those initial few months were minor compared to how at home I felt.

Upon my return to Poland I encountered another problem: The motherland I had been hoping to come back to was not the same one I’d left. People didn’t seem to have missed me much, and the places I had longed for while overseas looked different. The new identity I’d taken on and nurtured so carefully in the US was no longer valid. My new personality meant I was perceived as someone who was “too much” to stand, a show-off. A month into being back, the feeling of self-worth built up in Ohio was eroding fast. I became a shapeless persona, neither here nor there.

Anna and a friend at prom, April 2008

Anna Neyman

Reinstating my Polishness and recreating my friend circle was strange. I was trying to catch up with something and I didn’t really know what it was: I was not there to witness the change, so I didn’t know what I was chasing after. Learning how to belong – without losing my new confidence and identity – was hard. Emotional salvation came at my new state-owned school, where Polish teachers taught an English curriculum, centred around English-speaking cultures and ways of thinking.

With 75% of my class planning to study abroad, my wanderlust was reactivated – I decided to apply to universities in the UK. It was a fragile plan: moving across a continent with no definite source of income. If one thing didn’t work out, the whole house of cards would fall down.

Immersing myself in British culture wasn’t easy either. Yet again, I found I didn’t understand the Anglo-Saxon culture to the extent I imagined. Yet again I had to reinvent myself. It took me two years of university to understand how to function in British society: Queue. Always say "sorry". Avoid physical contact and hug others only on special occasions. Never talk about your feelings. Basically, don’t be so American. Simple, silly things my high school English handbook conveniently forgot to mention while covering British culture. Moving to the UK was the first time I had to deal with Polish stereotypes. The whole experience turned out to be very much like an argument one doesn’t necessarily wish to take part in, but has to. “You don’t look Polish.” “You don’t drink like a Pole.” “You actually speak English?” “You didn’t come here to work in a kitchen and/or construction site?”

After four years of living in the UK, I am embarrassed to admit I sort of see where some Brits are coming from. The British press has buzzed with the "influx" of (mostly low-skilled) Poles over the last five or so years. Stories like the one about a gang of Polish immigrants viciously beating and stealing from people pop up regularly online, shaping the image of my fellow nationals in Britons’ eyes. Many of the Poles I personally know refuse to integrate and stay in their little, Polish-speaking enclaves, doing nothing to change the stereotype. But perhaps it is not their job to do so. Over the years I've found myself trying to “prove” to others that I’m a good, hard-working person, not despite but because of where I’m from. I am lucky enough to never have met with open discrimination but I know there are many to whom the hand of friendship and acceptance has not been offered.

It’s almost 20 years since I had the pleasure of witnessing the most striking fashion piece of the century: the pig jumper. Last month, I celebrated my sixth anniversary of living abroad. I have spent a quarter of my life living in foreign countries. Of course, it is important to note my way of life is a choice: I did this because I wanted to. Unlike so many of the world's population living away from where they were born, I decided to move and with relative ease, was able to. The images of refugees (many from Syria, but also from all over the world) trying to get on with life in Europe are all over the news. They will all have to go through cultural assimilation once they settle, simply to survive. For them, new customs, traditions, languages will not be a part of an "interesting" cultural experience. All these little things they will have to change about themselves will serve as yet another reminder they are not here because they want to but because they have to.

More than ever, I wonder: Does being an immigrant mean, in a way, never being comfortable again for the rest of your life? Always feeling like you need to prove yourself, to show that you’re just as good as the citizens in the country of your current residence? Does it mean a constant reinvention of oneself?

Now I know the suspension between cultures once you leave your home country is irreversible. You become a citizen of the world, but also never fully belong anywhere any more. I wouldn’t change any of my decisions. I am who I am because of the choices I’ve made, and the people I’ve met. I’ve seen – and continue to see – the world in a way my parents, for so long trapped behind the Iron Curtain, never dreamed of. My life as a constant immigrant, impermanence included, has left me thankful.

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