It's common for actors to obsess over a role, wearing the persona like a disguise while filming so they really sell the character on the screen.

But actors who really commit to a role are willing to put their physical health on the line to embody a character, gaining or losing an unhealthy amount of weight to help them get into the role.

Christian Bale has both lost and gained to properly fit into his roles-he lost over 50 lbs. for his role in The Machinist and gained 43 lbs to play Irving in American Hustle, a gain that resulted in two herniated discs.

Kevin James is known for being a “big guy”, and he weighed in at 285 lbs. before training for his role in Here Comes The Boom, where he played a high school teacher turned MMA fighter.

After training intensely for the role he'd slimmed down to 218 lbs. and was clearly in peak physical condition in the film.

See 19 Actors Who Went Through Insane Physical Transformations For A Role and 10 More Celes Who Underwent Extreme Physical Transformations For Film Roles

The Soviet era in Russia is known for its lack of civil liberties, business and industry being controlled by the Soviet government and the Communist party ruling with an iron fist.

But for some reason when it came to building bus stops local architects were given carte blanche, which allowed them to explore different artistic styles with the structures they helped bring to life.

Photographer Christopher Herwig spent over a decade documenting these artistic shelters in the Soviet sea of concrete, traveling over 8,000 miles through 14 countries and shooting all the stops along the way.

Christopher's photos of these unique and eye pleasing structures is about to be released by FUEL Publishing in the book Soviet Bus Stops, featuring "the most comprehensive and diverse collection of Soviet bus stop design ever assembled".

You can see more of these artsy and awesome Soviet bus stops here

Bikers seem like the quintessential bad boys, and they sport this persona as proudly as their patches, but some of them actually have a heart and truly care about the living.

Pat Doody is no stranger to the live free biker lifestyle, and while he was heading home to New Jersey from the Born Free Motorcycle Show in California he proved he's also no stranger to loving kittehs when he scooped up a badly burned cat.

Here's how Pat met “Party Cat”:

“I was at this truck stop getting gas, and this little guy just needed help. He was pretty badly burned, so I picked him up and tucked him inside my vest. We’re feeding him regularly now, so he’s doing better, even though he’s sort of living on the road until we get home.”

No word on whether "Party Cat" has managed to grow a beard of his own, but with a clean bill of health and his burns all healed up it looks like "Party Cat" has a long life on the road ahead of him.

-Via Bored Panda

The Wild West Era lasted about 60 years, but it seems like a million stories have been told about the rough riding cowboys, slick shooting gunslingers and tenacious trailblazers who settled the West.

But this grim and gritty era in American history left us with far more questions than answers, and even those who spend their lives studying the era have a hard time agreeing on things like- Did Butch Cassidy ever return to the U.S.? Did Sheriff Pat Garrett actually kill Billy The Kid? and What happened to Pancho Villa's head?

(Image Link)

mental_floss's Craig S. Baker interviewed Old West historian and treasure hunter W.C. Jameson about a year ago to get his take on some of the most enduring unsolved mysteries from the Wild West.

Jameson's theories challenge "traditionalist historian" views by proposing that Billy The Kid survived the Garrett encounter and actually returned to Texas in 1950 confessing his crimes.

(Image Link)

He also says Butch Cassidy wasn't killed by the Bolivian military after all, a fact which is supported by Butch's friends and family members who claim to have been visited by him after he'd supposedly died.

But what about poor Pancho Villa's head? Nobody knows the answer to that one, not even an old cowboy like W.C. Jameson.

Read 9 Unsolved Mysteries Of The Wild West at mental_floss

Watching someone paint or sculpt can be rather tedious or boring in real time, unless it's accompanied by the soothing sound of Bob Ross's voice that is, but watching someone draw can be quite magical.

Masters of illustration make the creation of an amazing drawing look easy, their chosen instrument dancing and skating across the page laying down line and tone until eye pleasing forms appear.

(Vimeo Link)

San Francisco-based illustrator Karla Ortiz is bewitching to watch while she's working, and this time lapse video allows us to take a look over her shoulder as she creates a classically inspired piece for her show "Omens", taking place at Thinkspace Gallery in Culver City, California from September 12th to October 3rd.

-Via Beautiful/Decay

There's no rule saying a film must contain a bunch of shots that look just as beautiful as still images as they do on the big screen, but sending viewers home with a head full of memorable shots ain't such a bad thing either.

These iconic, photographic shots are part of what made Stanley Kubrick one of the greatest directors in motion picture history, and when the shots came alive with dialog and camera motion audiences were entranced by Kubrick's singular vision.

(Vimeo Link)

Filmmaker and fan somersetVII created this homage to the director appropriately entitled "Kubrick" using shots and clips from his many iconic films to demonstrate Kubrick's knack for conveying emotion and mood through imagery and dialog.

-Via The Awesomer

Taking psychedelic drugs may seem like a strictly human thing to do, but the animal kingdom is full of critters who like to blow off a little steam by ingesting mind altering substances.

These animals purposely seek out and ingest plants with psychoactive properties, and prove that tripping on psychedelic subtances is as natural as can be.

(YouTube Link)

The life of an apex predator can be pretty rugged, with lots of stalking, fighting and slaughtering and very little downtime.

So it's not surprising that they would be fans of ingesting ayahuasca, one of the most powerful psychedelic substances on earth, because it gives them a little time to rediscover their inner kitten.

-Via Dangerous Minds

As a kid skating meant grinding curbs, jumping stairs and hanging out in parking lots behind grocery stores looking for that perfect street session.

But way before street skating and technical tricks became all the rage sidewalk surfers rolled around in style on their big wheeled cruisers, and discovered that droughts lead to empty pools, and empty pools are the perfect place for a skate sessions.

Photographer Hugh Holland was on the scene in the late 1970s capturing the meteoric rise of skateboarding, and Hugh's street photography style and knack for catching skaters at just the right moment have influenced skate photography ever since.

His wonderfully nostalgiac photos can be found in the book Locals Only: California Skateboarding 1975-1978, featuring images from Hugh's photographic journey up and down the Golden State that mostly took part in Los Angeles.

See more Skateboarding In 1970s California During The Golden Age Of Skate Culture here

Comics have a consistent release schedule that leaves a lot of room for mistakes, and yet a surprisingly low number of errors make it into print.

It's easy to assume syndicated comics would be full of errors since they're (generally) released daily, but errors that occur are usually the publisher's fault and not the creator's, even though it's the creators who feel the backlash in the end.

Garfield's Jim Davis felt this backlash back in 2010 when a strip he'd drawn nearly a year earlier was released on Veteran's Day and taken out of context as an insult against veterans.

In the world of comic books screw-ups are usually a result of an artist or writer's poor judgment, since errors are generally caught by editors before the issue is printed.

Stan Lee was working as editor when he allowed Marvel's Tales Of Suspense #92 to be printed with a terrible joke told by Captain America, a guy not generally known for his clever quips.

The joke was seen as "one of the funniest lines of dialogue in cartooning history", and later reprints feature a "corrected" version of the joke.

Read 8 Memorable Comics Screw-Ups at mental_floss

Producers have to adhere to a strict budget and milestone timeline to get their film completed per studio standards, and if a film seems like it's going over budget they pull the plug and move on to the next project.

But many crafty filmmakers have figured out ways to work around budget constraints, and their movie making on the cheap became the stuff of Hollywood legend.

Take the Monty Python crew for instance- they wanted to have real life horses in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but they were shooting on a budget and simply could not afford them.

So they resurrected an old time foley trick and turned two coconut halves into the clop of a horse's hooves, and one of the most iconic gags in comedy history was born.

Read 7 Times Being Totally Cheap Resulted In Movie Magic here

Anthony Bourdain has bridged the gap between the culinary and entertainment industries, and his various projects have always been on the cutting edge of cool, so you know his new show will be a cut above the rest.

He teamed up with The Balvenie Distillery for the new web series Raw Craft with Anthony Bourdain, which will showcase some of the world's most gifted craftspeople.

For episode 4 he paid a visit to the studio of Bob Kramer, a master bladesmith who uses the Japanese stacking technique used to create katanas to turn meteorite into a beautiful, and remarkably sharp, knife that left Bourdain in awe.

(YouTube Link)

Read more about Bourdain's trip to Bob Kramer's workshop at Nerdist

Here's a strange CGI simulation video showing China soundly defeating a generic foreign (most likely American) army with the awesome might of their military forces.

(YouTube Link)

It was released during China's commemoration of the 70^th anniversary of World War II, and they claim it's no more than “a flexing of the spirit of peace by the Chinese people."

(Image Link)

Peaceful flexing, eh? I guess that's the kind of flexing you'd expect to find at "The Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggressions and the World Anti-Fascist War." Well, that and lots of peaceful soldiers marching with peace rifles at the ready.

Read more about China's New Video About Kicking America's Ass at Vice News

The Instagram self portrait posting craze is so out of control that even Barbie, the vainest doll of them all, has begun making fun of the self obsessed via social media.

The Instagram account @socalitybarbie shares images of the plastic fashion icon sporting a hipster style and going through the social media selfie motions, including the obligatory bathtub shot

The “I'm just out exploring the world and being totally happy with my life, and this candid photo proves it” shot

And the “here's what I'm having for lunch” shot that never gets old (if only we could outline sarcasm like we do links)

Maybe if the selfie obsessed see a Barbie doll demonstrating how artificial these shots look it will persuade these portrait posters to find a new way to fill that void in their lives. May I suggest starting a Barbie doll collection?

-Via DesignYouTrust

It may seem like a cliche, but when you're driving in a crowded city you need to keep your eyes on the road and be ready for anything, from drunk drivers to unexpected car troubles to flat out operator error.

California is chock full of cars, and with so many drivers on the road you're bound to encounter a few with minds that aren't firing on all cylinders.

(YouTube Link)

The woman in this video was taken to a hospital for a "non injury-related reason" then later charged with driving under the influence of drugs, which she was able to avoid due to "insufficient evidence to support a criminal complaint". Seems like this video should have been evidence enough!

-Via Boing Boing

As soon as you open an email account the scammers seem to come out of the woodwork, and suddenly you start meeting Nigerian princes and winning lotteries you never entered.

We've all seen it, dealt with it and, more often than not, deleted it, but funster James Veitch didn't feel comfortable leaving these people hanging.

He figures if they have the courtesy to reach out to him directly for help then he should be courteous right back by replying to the tales of their plight, so he has been replying to scam emails for over two years.

The results of his research on responding to scam emails can be found in the book “Dot Con: The Art Of Scamming A Scammer", which includes many of these scam-to-scam interactions in easy-to-read email format

If it weren't for the valiant efforts of caring individuals like James Veitch hundreds of scam emails would go unanswered each year, and the opportunity to write books about scam emails would be lost.

Read how This Guy's Email Exchange With A Scammer Turned Into A Hilarious Story here