Austrian Army Master Sergant Siegfried Schaerzler has icycles in his beard as he takes part in the international mountain infantrymen contest ‘Edelweiss Raid 2013’ at the military training ground Lizum/Walchen on March 14, 2013 in Wattens some 400 kilometers west of Vienna. By Dieter Nagl/AFP/Getty Images)
People stand in St. Peter’s Square as they listen to newly elected Pope Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, who will take the name Pope Francis on March 13, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as the 266th Pontiff and will lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. By Spencer Platt/Getty Images.
A compelling collection of adult film actresses with and without their makeup. Ryan Broderick’s take:
These incredible transformations prove that just about anybody can “look like a porn star.” Here are the revealing images of the actresses with their stage name, the number of films they’ve appeared in, and their age. These photos are originally from xmelissamakeupx’s Instagram account, which were then uploaded to Imgur and shared on Reddit.
Update from a reader:
I’m a straight guy, and I was looking at today’s “Faces of the Day” and you know what? I didn’t see “anybody can look like a porn star.”
I saw a group of attractive women make a transformation that is pretty familiar to women and to those of us who date them. Almost across the board these were women you’d be flattered to talk to in a bar. I saw a group of women who were working *hard* – this isn’t powdering your nose, this is an elaborate process.
I saw a group of women demonstrating a skill that Broderick didn’t even seem to see: the ability to sell yourself as a fantasy. Not just their bodies, or their costumes and makeup, but a posture and an attitude that is completely calculated. I perform for a living – that requires deep knowledge of your audience and of yourself.
I’m not saying that pornography is massively skilled labor, but it’s clearly freakin’ hard work. If anyone can look like a porn star, then anyone can look like an Abercrombie model. Step one – three hours a day in the gym …
Indonesia’s minority Hindu devotees parade their ‘Ogoh Ogoh’ effigies during a ceremony at Jakarta’s central National Monument on March 11, 2013 on the eve of Nyepi or Day of Silence. The effigies symbolizes evil, and after the procession are torched in a symbolic act of destroying all the negative and demonic elements in the universe and will usher in Hindu’s total Day of Silence on March 12. By Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images.
Claire O’Neill admires the work of British photographer Bill Brandt, who captured “World War II-era social documentary, street scenes in England, where he lived, editorial portraits, [and] abstract female nudes”:
The Museum of Modern Art has taken on the task of distilling Brandt’s lifetime oeuvre into a comprehensive retrospective, which opened Wednesday. The exhibition’s catalog describes him as “the artist who defined the potential of photographic modernism in England for much of the twentieth century.” In that catalog, in the chapter about portraiture, Brandt himself is quoted as having said: “The photographer has to wait until something between dreaming and action occurs in the expression of the face.”
(Northumbrian Miner at His Evening Meal, 1937 by Bill Brandt. Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, John Parkinson III Fund. © 2012 Bill Brandt Archive Ltd.)
Air Interdiction Agent Jack Thurston from U.S. Office of Air and Marine (OAM) pilots an unmanned Predator aircraft from a flight operations center near the Mexican border at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, Arizona on March 7, 2013. By John Moore/Getty Images.
A female Bornean orangutan named Mari is seen with her still-to-be-named son at the Singapore Zoo on March 6, 2013. The baby orangutan was born on January 21 at the zoo – the 40th orangutan birth to date – which has the largest social colony of endangerd Sumatran and Bornean sub-species orangutans. By Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images.
Harbrinder Kaur (C), 22 and her father Kashmir Singh (L), who were allegedly beaten by police, arrive with brother Gurjinder Singh (R) to speak to the media at Usman village near Tarn Taran district about 25 kms (15 miles) from Amritsar, India on March 6, 2013. Taking a serious view of the alleged beating, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today ordered a magisterial probe into the incident. The young woman and her father were allegedly beaten by policemen in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district when they sought to lodge a complaint against some persons who teased her and passed vulgar comments in public. By Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images.
Misao Okawa, who is recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest woman, receives a birthday cake during her 115th birthday celebration at Kurenai Nursing Home on March 5, 2013 in Osaka, Japan. Okawa was born in Tenma, Osaka on March 5, 1898. A descendent of Kimono merchants, she married in 1919 and had three children, of which a daughter and a son are still alive, and four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. By Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images.
The Dish 