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Pop Culture

Bizarre optical illusion has people either seeing a car door or the beach

What do you see?

car door; beach
Photos combined from Pixabay.

Car door and the beach.

Ancient sage Obi-Wan Kenobi once remarked, "Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them." Well, he's right. Kinda.

Our eyes bring in information and it's our brain's job to decipher the image and determine what we're seeing. But our brains aren't always correct. In fact, sometimes they can be so wrong we wonder if we are accurately interpreting reality at all.

After all, our brains can only label things if it knows that they are. If you lived on a deserted island your whole life and a cow showed up on the beach, you'd have no idea what to label it.

The latest baffling image that's making people across the Internet doubt their senses is a picture tweeted out by X (formerly Twitter) user nayem. "If you can see a beach, ocean sky, rocks and stars then you are an artist," the comment reads.

But some people who see it also think it looks like a car door. What do you see?

optical illusion

Beach or a rusty door?

via nxyxm / Twitter

If your brain told you the picture is of a lovely evening laying on the beach then you're definitely an optimist. But, according to the person who posted it, the photo is of the bottom of a rusted out car door. Not very romantic, is it?

screenshot of a Tweet

The tweet has since gone viral, earning over 5,000 likes.

via nxym /Twitter

Here's what Twitter users thought about the illusion.

screenshot of twitter comment

Yum.

via X/Twitter.

This guy must be hungry.

screenshot of a Tweet

A clever call back.

via Twitter.

This guy is having flashbacks to 2015.

screenshot of a Tweet

Knowing the difference through skills.

via Twitter.

Your perception determines your reality.

screenshot of a Tweet

Drawing skills.

via Twitter.

This guy explains it perfectly.

screenshot of a Tweet

Boat on the beach.

via Twitter.

This guy has a great imagination.

So, what's going on?

This photo is just another optical illusion, and it can help us learn a lot about our brains. As mentioned, our eyes and other senses gather information and send it to our brains. From there, our brains create our perception of the world, but it doesn't always reflect reality. According to the American Museum of Natural History, this means is that when the brain is presented with incomplete information, it "fills in the gaps" to create an image or understanding where there wasn't one before. Even more interesting, since no two brains are totally alike, people tend to see optical illusions differently. Research suggests that cultural factors, experiences, and how we process visual information all account for why two people may look at the same illusion and have totally different takeaways.

Neat!


This article originally appeared four years ago.

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I convinced my Gen Z kids to watch 'Dead Poets Society' and their angry reactions surprised me

Gen X and Gen Z apparently view "inspiring" very differently.

Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers/YouTube

Robin Williams played inspiring English teacher John Keating in "Dead Poets Society."

As a Gen X parent of Gen Z teens and young adults, I'm used to cringing at things from 80s and 90s movies that haven't aged well. However, a beloved movie from my youth that I didn't expect to be problematic, "Dead Poets Society," sparked some unexpected negative responses in my kids, shining a spotlight on generational differences I didn't even know existed.

I probably watched "Dead Poets Society" a dozen or more times as a teen and young adult, always finding it aesthetically beautiful, tragically sad, and profoundly inspiring. That film was one of the reasons I decided to become an English teacher, inspired as I was by Robin Williams' portrayal of the passionately unconventional English teacher, John Keating.

The way Mr. Keating shared his love of beauty and poetry with a class of high school boys at a stuffy prep school, encouraging them to "seize the day" and "suck all the marrow out of life," hit me right in my idealistic youthful heart. And when those boys stood up on their desks for him at the end of the film, defying the headmaster who held their futures in his hands? What a moving moment of triumph and support.

My Gen Z kids, however, saw the ending differently. They loved the feel of the film, which I expected with its warm, cozy, comforting vibe (at least up until the last 20 minutes or so). They loved Mr. Keating, because how can you not? But when the movie ended, I was taken aback hearing "That was terrible!" and "Why would you traumatize me like that?" before they admitted, "But it was so gooood!"

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The traumatize part I get—that film gets very heavy all of a sudden. But in discussing it further, I uncovered three main generational differences that impacted their "Dead Poets Society" viewing experience and what they took away from it.

1) Gen Z sees inspiring change through a systemic lens, not an individual one

The first thing my 20-year-old said when the credits rolled was, "What? That's terrible! Nothing changed! He got fired and the school is still run by a bunch of stodgy old white men forcing everyone to conform!" My immediate response was, "Yeah, but he changed those boys' individual lives, didn't he? He helped broaden their minds and see the world differently."

I realized that Gen X youth valued individuals going against the old, outdated system and doing their own thing, whereas Gen Z values the dismantling of the system itself. For Gen X, Mr. Keating and the boys taking a stand was inspiring, but the fact that it didn't actually change anything outside of their own individual experiences stuck like a needle in my Gen Z kids' craw.

2) Gen Z isn't accustomed to being blindsided by tragic storylines with no warning

To be fair, I did tell them there was "a sad part" before the movie started. But I'd forgotten how deeply devastating the last part of the movie was, so my daughter's "Why would you do that to me?!" was somewhat warranted. "I thought maybe a dog would die or something!" she said. No one really expected one of the main characters to die by suicide and the beloved teacher protagonist to be blamed for it, but I'd somehow minimized the tragedy of it all in my memory.

But also to be fair, Gen X never got any such warnings—we were just blindsided by tragic plot twists all the time. As kids, we cheered on Atreyu trying to save his horse from the swamp in "The Neverending Story" only to watch him drown. Adults showed us "Watership Down" thinking it would be a cute little animated film about bunnies. We were slapped in the face by the tragic child death in "My Girl," which was marketed as a sweet coming of age movie.

Gen Z was raised in the era of trigger warnings and trauma-informed practices, while Gen X kids watched a teacher die on live TV in our classrooms with zero follow-up on how we were processing it. Those differences became apparent real quick at the end of this movie.

3) Gen Z fixates on boundary-crossing behavior that Gen X overlooked

The other reaction I wasn't expecting was the utter disdain my girls showed for Knox Overstreet, the sweet-but-over-eager character who fell for the football player's cheerleader girlfriend. His boundary-crossing attempts to woo her were always cringe, but for Gen X, cringe behavior in the name of love was generally either overlooked, tolerated, or sometimes even celebrated. (Standing on a girl's lawn in the middle of the night holding a full-volume stereo over your head was peak romance for Gen X, remember.) For Gen Z, the only thing worse than cringe is predatory behavior, which Knox's obsessiveness and pushiness could be seen as. My young Gen X lens saw him and said, "That's a bit much, dude. Take it down a notch or three." My Gen Z daughters' lens said, "That guy's a creepo. She needs to run far the other way."

On one hand, I was proud of them for recognizing red flag behaviors. On the other hand, I saw how little room there is for nuance in their perceptions, which was…interesting.

My Gen Z kids' reactions aren't wrong; they're just different than mine were at their age. We're usually on the same page, so seeing them have a drastically different reaction to something I loved at their age was really something. Now I'm wondering what other favorite movies from my youth I should show them to see if they view those differently as well—hopefully without them feeling traumatized by the experience.

This article originally appeared in January

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Australian plasma donor with rare antibody praised for saving 2.4 million babies' lives

James Harrison took a needle to the arm 1,173 times with no compensation—a real-life superhero.

Photo credit: Canva

Plasma donations save lives.

Some people never donate blood due to medical conditions or a fear of needles. Others consent to be jabbed on occasion in order to replenish the life-saving blood and plasma supply at hospitals. Among people who donate blood in the U.S., the average frequency is about twice a year.

So imagine someone donating blood or plasma twice a month, every month, for 64 years, without fail.

From 1954 to 2018, an Australian man named James Harrison donated his blood every two weeks, never missing an appointment, according to Australian Red Cross Lifeblood. After receiving a blood transfusion himself during a major surgery on his lungs at age 14, Harrison vowed to become a donor. He made good on that promise from age 18 to age 81, having his blood drawn 1,173 times over more than six decades.

All blood donations are valuable, of course, but Harrison's plasma was particularly valuable because it carried the rare anti-D antibody. Discovered in the 1960s, anti-D immunoglobulin is used to treat pregnant mothers with Rh-negative blood, which can cause rhesus disease in a fetus with blood incompatibility. The anti-D antibody prevents rhesus disease—also known as haemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN)—and it literally saves lives, as more than half of babies who develop the disease die from it. It's estimated that Harrison's anti-D-rich plasma saved the lives of 2.4 million babies in Australia during his lifetime.

Harrison held the world record for the most plasma donated by an individual from 2005 to 2022, and he was dubbed "The Man with the Golden Arm" in his home country. Despite earning multiple accolades and awards for his consistent donations over the decades, including In the Medal of the Order of Australia, one of the country's highest civilian honors, Harrison always stayed humble about his contributions.

"Some people say, 'Oh, you're a hero,'" Harrison told NPR in 2015. "But I'm in a safe room, donating blood. They give me a cup of coffee and something to nibble on. And then I just go on my way. … No problem, no hardship."

In the United States, people are usually paid for plasma donations with amounts ranging from $30 to $70 per donation. But Australia doesn't pay blood or plasma donors, so Harrison's donations were pure giving. Harrison's daughter, Tracey Mellowship, said her father was "very proud to have saved so many lives, without any cost or pain," his daughter, Tracey Mellowship, told the BBC. "He always said it does not hurt, and the life you save could be your own."

Harrison had already been a consistent blood donor for about a decade when the anti-D antibody was discovered and he found out he had the rare combination of RhD-negative blood and Rh+ antibodies, which made him an ideal plasma donor. He happily switched over to donating plasma—a similar process to giving blood, but quite a bit more time consuming, as the blood runs through a special machine to remove the plasma before being injected back into the donor. He wanted this blood to do the most good.

Blood Donate GIF by US_HHSGiphy

Lifeblood told NPR that more than 3 million doses of anti-D containing Harrison's blood have been issued to Australian mothers since 1967, including Harrison's own daughter. "As an anti-D recipient myself, he has left behind a family that may not have existed without his precious donations," Mellowship said in a statement. "It made him happy to hear about the many families like ours, who existed because of his kindness."

Harrison only stopped giving plasma at age 81 because he had aged out—Australia doesn't allow blood donations past age 81. he expressed sadness upon giving his final donation in 2018. "I'd keep on going if they let me," he told theSydney Morning Herald.

He lived another seven years, passing away in March of 2025. Lifeblood is working with an Australian research institute to create a way to continue using Harrison's anti-D antibodies long after his passing in a project they call "James in a Jar."

"Using the blood of James and other donors, the team has successfully recreated and grown his antibody in the lab — with the hope it will one day help prevent [HDFN], not just for pregnant women in Australia, but also worldwide," Lifeblood told NPR.

We often think of heroes as people who risk their own lives to save another, but selflessly donating time and blood throughout an entire lifetime to save millions of babies is no less heroic than deeds that make for dramatic headlines. Perhaps we might all consider donating blood or plasma in honor of Harrison's extraordinary commitment. The need is always there, and you never know how many lives you might save.

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Instacart delivery driver trusted her gut instinct and ended up saving a customer's life

"You're supposed to take a picture and leave, and I could not just leave."

@JessicaHiggs3/TikTok

Jessica Higgs had a sense that something wasn't right at a customer's house and her action saved his life.

One the more mysterious aspects of being human is our sense of intuition. This "sixth sense" isn't something we can see or measure, but many people have experienced it in some form or fashion. Maybe it comes as a strong feeling that something isn't right, or that we or someone else should or shouldn't do something. It can be hard to read—not every feeling we get is truly our intuition—but there are plenty of examples of people trusting their instincts and being glad they did.

One such story has gone viral on TikTok. Jessica Higgs, a mom who works as an Instacart grocery delivery person, shared a story in an emotional video that illustrates the importance of listening to that inner voice when it prompts you to make sure someone is OK.

"I just want to start this off by saying if you see something, say something," Higgs said.

Animated GIFGiphy

She explained how she had done an Instacart order the previous day for a daughter who was ordering for her older dad who couldn't shop for himself. She said she was going the extra mile like she always does for her customers, and that the daughter told her to just drop the groceries on the porch and he'd get them. That's what Higgs would usually do.

"I get there and something was telling me no, you gotta help this man out," she said. "He came out, and I was like OK let me help you, and I got the groceries. You're not supposed to go into someone's house, but I used my judgment and I brought the groceries inside and put them down wherever he wanted me to put them down. You're not supposed to, but I did. And you're supposed to just take a picture and leave, and I could not just leave."



@jessicahiggs3

@Instacart #28DaysOfEucerin #fyp



Higgs noticed that the man looked really sick and she was really concerned. A voice in her head said, "You gotta say something. You gotta say something, Jess." Rather than mark the order as complete, she messaged the man's daughter and told her that it was really unprofessional to say something like this, but she felt like her dad wasn't doing well. "There's a propane tank in there," she told the woman. "I was in there maybe five feet and I got dizzy. There's got to be a leak. He might not be doing good because of this leak."

The woman said she would send her son over to check it out and Higgs left. The woman changed her tip from $14 to $100, which Higgs appreciated, but the message she sent her the next morning was a much greater reward for her going the extra mile.

"Thank you so much, once my son went to check on my dad it turned out it was definitely leaking," she wrote. "You definitely saved my dad and my younger son's life!!!"

Through tears, Higgs said, "I'm just an Instacart worker, but if you see something, say something. I did and I'm so happy I did."

Higgs' TikTok has been viewed more than 15 million times and has been shared widely on social media. It has also attracted the attention of big companies.

Royal Caribbean Cruises shared a TikTok video of its own praising Higgs for her heroic act and offering her and her family a seven-day cruise anywhere in the world. "Cause even heroes need a vacation," the company wrote.



@royalcaribbean

Stitch with @jessicahiggs3 - cause even heroes need a vacation. Thanks @captaincruiseguy



Old Navy connected with her and arranged a shopping spree where she got to model several new outfits. People Magazine commented, "You’re literally a HERO! Good job trusting your instincts. 💕" Even TikTok itself wrote, "You are amazing ❤️thank you for sharing this with all of us."

Lots of commenters also pointed out that she's not "just an Instacart worker." Her work is important, she's providing a needed service and any job done in a spirit of helping others should not be minimized. If she hadn't been there doing her job well, that man may not be here. Never underestimate the difference each of us can make by the simple act of looking out for one another, friend and stranger alike.

Higgs' heartfelt story touched millions, and she's being rightly rewarded for listening to her heart and going out of her way to help someone. Gotta love seeing good things come to people doing good. Well done, Jessica Higgs.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Long-distance Aunt watches baby on FaceTime so desperate mom can take a shower

The 'Virtual Village' is still a village

Canva Photos

If there's one thing burnt out parents yearn for as much as sleep, it has to be a good shower. A hot shower is so soothing. They've been proven to reduce stress and tension while promoting relaxation. Not only that, but feeling clean and fresh afterwards is such a boost to your mood, energy, and self-esteem. It's such a simple but powerful act of self care! And yet for parents of young children who need constant hands-on attention, it can be really difficult to find the alone time to enjoy a good shower; especially if and when they're parenting solo.

Sometimes TV or a cartoon on a tablet can help, but if you've ever hopped in the shower thinking your kids were perfectly content watching TV until you got out, you know what always happens: The second the water hits your skin is the second they end up needing you! Sometimes there's just no replacement for a watchful and engaging human eye to keep your kids occupied while you take care of necessities.

One awesome aunt is going viral for stepping up to help her sister, a mom of two, get a few minutes of quiet and calm. All from miles and miles away.


Giphy

Melasadies Worrell from Georgia recently posted a short video on TikTok with the caption: "When your sister is home with the kids by herself and she needs someone to watch them while she takes a shower. So you use your lunch break to help her."

"She just put [her youngest] to sleep and I told her to leave the phone in front of him, connect me to her speaker in the bathroom and I would say something if he started to move or cry," Worrell told Newsweek. There was also an older child playing quietly in the room, so Worrell could talk to him if the baby needed to be repositioned where he was sleeping.

There's always baby monitors, but if you're in the shower you can't see what's going on. You might hear a thud or a cry, but you also might not. Either way, having another human set of eyes watching is comforting.

"She felt a sense of peace knowing that I was there watching them, even if I couldn't physically do anything. But I could scream out and let her know, 'Wait a second, get out of the shower, he's rolling!'"

In the video, you can see Worrell keeping a watchful eye in the corner of the screen while chowing down on her lunch. The baby, meanwhile, sleeps peacefully through the whole thing. But auntie is still there, just in case!



@melasadiesworrell

This is hilarious to me but effective ! Thank God for FaceTime ! @Kiara smith #momsoftiktok #momlife #auntiesbelike #auntiesoftiktok

Over 2 million people watched Worrell's sweet video. So many people chimed in to say that they also used 'virtual babysitting' just like this in a pinch.

For better or worse, kids today have a high level of comfort with phones and tablets. Almost all of them know how to use FaceTime and navigate their way around various screens. Smart parents are using this to their advantage and taking a page out of the 2020 COVID playbook when we could only communicate with family on video calls and used them to keep kids connected to their grandparents and aunts and uncles.

"That’s what I do every day. My mom is in another country but you bet she gonna watch her granddaughter"

"I did this for my cousin and she had me bluetoothed to a speaker that was in the bathroom that way if the baby needed her or was about to do something dangerous she could hear me lol"

"That’s what I do every day. My mom is in another country but you bet she gonna watch her granddaughter"

"Listen sometimes it’s just knowing someone is LOOKING at them that eases the mind I swear"

"This is the definition of it takes a village"

Did you know that you can even hire virtual babysitters if and when family isn't available? It sounds utterly ridiculous, but it's a modern innovation that can really help struggling parents.

People are spending far more time at home than we used to, and many parents work from home full-time, to boot. The need for classic, traditional babysitting has decreased in a lot of households and given rise to a different sort of need. Parents might not need a babysitter to watch the kids so they can go out for the evening nearly as often as they might just need 30 minutes of quiet to take a shower, join a work call, or fit in some exercise.

Putting the kids on FaceTime with an aunt or grandparent is an amazing way to buy yourself a short break and keep your family connections strong. But in a pinch, a good virtual babysitter can be almost as good. The best ones are fantastic at keeping kids entertained and engaged through games, doing online puzzles together, and making interesting conversation.

It all sounds a little weird, but I love this evolution. Parents need to get creative sometimes to make sure their kids are safe and engaged while they take care of their life, their jobs, or themselves. With so many families spending more and more time cooped up together at home, career and self-care are often sacrificed. But now we know that a 30-minute FaceTime could be just the thing busy parents need to regain some crucial time for themselves.

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A dad posted his 5-year-old's paintings online and couldn't believe the huge response

Kudos to this dad for helping to unlock his son's impressive talent.

Unsplash & bruncvik/reddit

Joseph, a dad from Dublin, Ireland says he started drawing and painting in the evenings about a year ago to help him unwind from work. It's a great idea, because adult coloring has been shown to have a ton of positive mental health effects. Plus, it's fun! But one unintended and adorable side effect of Joseph's coloring was that his young son, Philip, decided he wanted to emulate him.

Philip had always loved coloring but, Joseph says, "I had to get him some pastels, and he started trying on the same drawings as I did," Joseph says. "I found it absolutely adorable when he was seriously repeating the same movements as me: cleaning the tips of the pastels, blend the edges of colors, etc."

One thing quickly became apparent: Philip was much, much better than his old man.

"About a month ago, he made a painting that was so good I had to share it on Reddit. Within two days, it generated over 100,000 views and 3000 likes."

The overwhelming response? "Uh, 5-year-olds can't do that."

bruncvik/reddit

The first piece Philip shared is wildly impressive. Some commenters couldn't believe that a 5-year-old could have made it, but I think you can see it pretty clearly. It has just enough childlike crudeness, but the stylistic flair is just off the charts, from the whispy sky to the slightly foreboding trees. Redditors agreed that it was incredible.

"Thats better than I can do now at 25," one Reddit user wrote.

Others questioned whether the boy might be related to Bob Ross.

"I told [Philip] about it, and I guess that was his first big dopamine hit," Joseph says of going viral. "Since then, he is asking to draw more often, and there's often an intrinsic reward for him. One painting got submitted to a charity auction at his school ... I don't pressure him to draw; he's coming to me to ask whether he can use my pastels"

One critical part of the story is that Philip often follows along with YouTube videos that his dad finds for him. Lest you think this should diminish how impressive the painting is, quite the contrary. As someone with an almost-5-year-old of my own, I've seen the kind of stuff kids this age are capable of drawing — and it's not this! No matter how much instruction they have.

The structured YouTube videos were able to unlock Philip's natural talent and guide him in a way that his dad never could.

Here's the finished painting he was following along with. Honestly? I like Philip's better! It has a lot more personality.

She'z ART/YouTube

The response to Philip's first painting was so positive that his dad decided to post another piece.

You gotta give the people what they want!

I love this one, too. The youngster's talent is on display again, with an excellent color palette and aggressive strokes giving it life. Remember — the kid is five years old! Five! Usually they can barely muster a convincing stick figure.

bruncvik/reddit

And again, here's the model painting from YouTube. Joseph said his own versions of these paint-alongs come out looking a lot like the example, but that his son has an incredible way of making them his own.

She'z ART/YouTube

Philip's dad gives a lot of thought to the right way to nurture his son's talent without pushing too hard and snuffing it out.

"He attended an afterschool art club, where they experimented with different media, but he found it too restrictive. He is still bringing home new art at least twice per week, but it's something he does on his own," dad says, not sure if pushing his son into formal art instruction is the right thing to do.

Experts say that pushing too hard when your kid shows a flair for something, especially regarding longterm goals (like going to art school or becoming a professional artist one day), can backfire big time and make them feel overwhelmed and resentful.

Joseph finds other ways to encourage his son's interest.

"One thing I do with him, though, is to talk about painting when we are out and about. Last weekend, we went to watch the sunset, and I asked him what colors he'd use for the clouds. ... Philip is just as obsessed with different shades (his current favorite word is 'vermilion' and his favorite color is 'turquoise'), and how they mix."

Being the parent of a talented or gifted kid is no easy job. There are a lot of pitfalls and plenty of ways to bungle your attempts to nurture that talent. As impressive as Philip's artwork is, especially for his age, the thoughtful parenting on display in this story is just as awesome.

This article originally appeared in January.

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