The Internet is polarized, friends. No, it has nothing to do with ISIS. It has nothing to do with Harper or Obama. It's all about a dress. It wasn't the one worn by Monica Lewinsky. It isn't even a designer dress at that.
The “Lace Detail Bodycon Dress” had lips wagging, and even saw the likes of Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian debating its colour on social media. While some saw it as white and gold, others swore it was black and blue:
“I don’t understand this odd dress debate and I feel like it’s a trick somehow,” tweeted Taylor Swift. “I’m confused and scared. PS it’s OBVIOUSLY BLUE AND BLACK.”
All the while, British retailer Roman Originals Ltd. lapped up the mass media and stayed mum on the subject as the hits mounted up. At one point, #TheDress nabbed the No. 1 trending spot on Twitter. All this over a $96 dress.
Indeed, Taylor was right: all this attention over a high street dress IS scary.
So how is it possible that you see one colour and I see another? Are our eyes deceiving us? The short answer is yes. It has to do with the way we see and process light, and this dress apparently crosses some weird chromatic boundary.
"Without you having to worry about it, your brain figures out what color light is bouncing off the thing your eyes are looking at, and essentially subtracts that color from the 'real' color of the object," says Jay Neitz, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington.
“Our visual system is supposed to throw away information about the illuminant and extract information about the actual reflectance. But I’ve studied individual differences in color vision for 30 years, and this is one of the biggest individual differences I’ve ever seen.”
(For the record, like me, Neitz saw white and gold when he looked at the dress, so I feel somewhat vindicated.)
Finally, Roman confirmed that the dress is indeed blue and black and "we should know!” Good luck keeping up with sales now...
There, now that the mighty dress enigma has been solved, feel free to get on with the rest of your day. You're welcome.
Image Source: Tumblr
How do you celebrate the women who give life? If you're one of three guys in their mid-forties, you put yourself in her shoes (or in her pants, as it were) by donning a fake belly to simulate what it's like to be nine months pregnant. Cue Three Pregnant Dads.
The idea was conceived while the British coworkers were working on personalized books for their company, The Book of Everyone, which operates out of Barcelona.
"What if we became pregnant? Or as near as possible," asks their blog, Three Pregnant Dads. "A thought became an idea which turned into a dare, and now there’s no going back."
Indeed. Jonny Biggins, together with work buds Steven Hanson and Jason Bramley, have undertaken to wear the 33-pound belly for an entire month leading up to Mother's Day (celebrated in the UK on 15 March). The team has vowed to document the experience via their Three Pregnant Dads blog.
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The lads must wear the faux belly (complete with faux boobs) when they travel to work, when they're out in public, and even when they're asleep. Bathing is the only time the belly may be removed. Sounds like the perfect recipe for reality TV.
I must give the guys their due. Though there is possibly only one man out there who genuinely knows what it's like to be pregnant, these men are at least putting themselves (and their backs) out to honour all moms "in a way that will be tough, and meaningful."
Expect a splash of humour and a large dollop of moaning and groaning, huffing and puffing. With any luck, a little empathy will go a long way.
Three Pregnant Dads could very well make other men think twice about what their partners and their own mothers went through, as they navigate a "lite" approximation of what it is to be pregnant.
The guys should count their lucky stars they don't have to follow through with the actual labour. The rest of us never had the good fortune of taking the suit off...
Check out one of Steve's videos below.
So many of us insist on putting together perfectly coordinated outfits for our minis so they don't leave the house looking ridiculous. A British dad, Simon Ragoonanan, gave his three-year-old daughter carte blanche to choose her own clothing. And the results couldn't have been more awesome.
In the stay-at-home dad's blog, Man vs. Pink, the outfits are documented. In a world of "full of gender-biased marketing" the little girl's choices are the perfect mashup of superhero motif and girly frill.
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“We know she needs to be her own person, so it’s really up to her what she wears and what she’s into from now on,” said Ragoonanan.
And what a relief to see that she didn't naturally gravitate to all things pink and glittery, but left to her own devices, chose a lot of items that would typically be considered "boy" apparel.
Apparently the outfits aren't randomly selected. Ragoonanan's daughter puts quite a lot of thought and deliberation into what she will wear on a given day, although "sometimes she gets distracted by toys."
As for Ragoonanan, his daughter is clearly a trailblazer, receiving compliments everywhere she goes for her distinct style sense that comes from exposure to a range of clothing and interests.
Baby in Mom's Purse Sparks Social Media Furor
Personally, having a little guy who's expressed exactly zero interest in the duds that cover his back, I find this idea interesting. Just goes to show the degree that parents—and other adults who buy the clothing—impose their own narrow ideas of what comprises girl clothes and boy clothes.
Tangerine Tango 
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