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"We are proud to present the Lean In Collection, a library of images devoted to the powerful depiction of women, girls and the people who support them. Jointly curated by Getty Images and LeanIn.Org - the women's empowerment nonprofit founded by Sheryl Sandberg - the collection features over 2,500 images of female leadership in contemporary work and life. A portion of proceeds from the Lean In Collection will go toward the creation of Getty Images grants for images showcasing female empowerment and to supporting the mission of LeanIn.Org."

Ads are showing up everywhere. And creeping commercialism is prompting a growing debate about whether "ad pollution" is invading too much of consumers' space.

"IMAGE: AFP/GETTY IMAGES BY KARISSA BELL SEP 24, 2018 For all its behind-the-scenes innovation, Google Search has looked more or less the same for the last 20 years: You type some words in a search box and get back a list of links.  The company's added lots of bells and whistles over the years, but the core concept has remained the same and the experience has pretty much looked the same. But that will soon be changing. SEE ALSO: Google Search gets a slew of new features on its 20th anniversary   At an event marking the 20th anniversary of search, Google revealed a suite of updates that are meant to fundamentally change the way we search, and how search results look and feel. You'll still see lists of links but, increasingly you'll also see features typically thought of as being squarely in the territory of social media companies: news feeds, vertical video, photo-centric content, and, yes, Stories. A quick recap of some of the specific updates: Google's personalized feed feature, now called "Discover," will be rolling out to all mobile users and to its homepage on desktop. The feed surfaces content based on your interests and search history. You can also save stuff from your feed to topic-based "collections." The company is "doubling down," on Stories, which will start to appear more frequently in search results. In addition to the publisher-created AMP Stories (Mashable is a partner on the initiative), Google will now use AI to automatically create tappable Stories about specific topics, like celebrities.  Google Images is getting a total overhaul, including a new ranking algorithm that will emphasize "evergreen content," like recipes and DIY content.  Google Lens will be integrated directly into Google Images so you can search for specific items within photos."

Is this a form of Culture Jamming? "Swastikas appeared last week in Comcast searches on Google. Google fixed the problem on Thursday, but swastikas inserted into Comcast brand images have been a recurring problem for the nation's largest cable-TV company because of a two-year-old anti-Comcast Reddit page that crowdsourced legions of the company's critics to click on an image of the symbol of Nazi Germany with an embedded Comcast logo. Because tens of thousands of people clicked on the image - more than 60,000, according to the Reddit page - the Google algorithm thinks it's popular and returns it in search results."

" EMERGING TECH These haunting anatomical images turn vertebrates inside out Courtesy of the University of Kansas and W. Leo Smith A thin line separates science from art. It's often blurred. When scientists employ an artist's creativity, imaginatively theorize the unimaginable - as Newton, Einstein, and Hawking were able to do - they've been known to make discoveries worth hanging on gallery walls. When artists apply methodological rigor to their work, they have a chance to illuminate the seemingly inaccessible aspects of science. Da Vinci, Dalí, Stelarc - each was an artist with a scientific frame of mind. Two new imaging techniques developed by researchers at the University of Kansas (KU) blend science and art in a hauntingly captivating way. The techniques allow for photos to be taken of 50-plus-year-old vertebrate specimens, depicting the intricacies of their anatomy. Among the specimens imaged were a shrew, python, and viperfish."

"We all have magazines at home and at school. They have a high student engagement factor in the classroom and are proving to be a very effective way to teach visual literacy, media literacy, and a host of Common Core standards. It all started for me when NBA basketball player LeBron James adorned the cover of several magazines, published within weeks or months of each other. Using Google's image search function, it was easy to locate and download cover images for the activity I planned with a large group of teachers. I created a one-page handout, which you can find here. (I have since revised this activity, using cover images of actress Jennifer Lawrence.) It seems every week, some celebrity is featured on more than one magazine. So this activity can easily be updated. Here's the trio I chose:"

"A Chicago Tribune photojournalist says another newspaper's single photograph of a star high school basketball player seeming to "flip off" the opposing team's fans was taken out of context. And Tribune photographer Scott Strazzante released all of his raw images capturing the incident as proof that the player did nothing wrong. Now, the photographer who posted the image that caused an online firestorm, and nearly cost the player a chance to play in a tournament, says he should not have used the image."

"Dove is continuing its decade-long "Real Beauty" campaign with a Photoshop action that seeks to un-airbrush unrealistic images of models. The Photoshop action - a downloadable file that applies an action with a single click - is aimed at art directors who may be creating such ads. The action, which was disseminated on Reddit and other places where Dove thought such art directors might visit, promised to add a skin glow effect, but actually reverted the image to its original state."

"n this new, highly anticipated update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series, the first in more than a decade, Jean Kilbourne takes a fresh look at how advertising traffics in distorted and destructive ideals of femininity. The film marshals a range of new print and television advertisements to lay bare a stunning pattern of damaging gender stereotypes -- images and messages that too often reinforce unrealistic, and unhealthy, perceptions of beauty, perfection, and sexuality. By bringing Kilbourne's groundbreaking analysis up to date, Killing Us Softly 4 stands to challenge a new generation of students to take advertising seriously, and to think critically about popular culture and its relationship to sexism, eating disorders, and gender violence."

If you think this heralds hypocrisy, you aren't the only one shaking your head. Last year, Seventeen magazine launched a campaign on positive body image in conjunction with Dove. They've also included a "Body Peace Expert" who answers teens' body image-related questions. How can Seventeen follow its own body-positive philosophy and campaign goals when the magazine pushes the very thing it denounces?

Male and female images As one dramatic example, the image and representation of women and girls in the media has long been a subject of concern. Research shows that there are many fewer females than males in almost all forms of mainstream media and those who do appear are often portrayed in very stereotypical ways. Constantly polarized gender messages in media have fundamentally anti-social effects. In everything from advertising, television programming, newspaper and magazines, to comic books, popular music, film and video games, women and girls are more likely to be shown: in the home, performing domestic chores such as laundry or cooking; as sex objects who exist primarily to service men; as victims who can't protect themselves and are the natural recipients of beatings, harassment, sexual assault and murder. Men and boys are also stereotyped by the media. From GI Joe to Rambo, masculinity is often associated with machismo, independence, competition, emotional detachment, aggression and violence. Despite the fact that men have considerably more economic and political power in society than women, these trends - although different from those which affect women and girls - are very damaging to boys.

"An educational film, entitled It's a Look, meant to highlight how carefully constructed - and not real - fashion images are. It's a Look comes with an accompanying lesson plan, and it's targeted at high school girls aged 15-16. Says Shulman, "I decided it might be helpful to show what goes into the creation of a Vogue fashion picture, as a way of illustrating the skill and artifice that makes the final product." This endeavor is a result of the magazine's recent Health Initiative, a pact between the 19 international editors of Vogue to encourage a healthier approach to body image."

"Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In organization is taking aim at institutional sexism in an unlikely medium: stock photos. Born out of the memoir of the same name by Facebook's chief operating officer, the non-profit has partnered with Getty Images to create a stock-photo library of 2,500 pictures that portray women in a positive light. Those will be available to Getty customers like corporations seeking an image for their website, creative directors at ad agencies and photo editors at media outlets."

"As a psychologist, I worry that location tracking can confuse the question of who is mainly responsible for the safety of the roaming adolescent - the parent or the teenager? Teenagers are rarely apart from their phones, making it easy for parents to use apps that track their locations. Credit Drew Angerer/Getty Images Image"

"According to a Pew research study, 57% of searches for professionals under-represent women. Learn more about the image problem in search engines. Try searching the word "professor" in Google images, and you'll be hard-pressed to find photos that include non-white and non-male scholars. It's even worse when you search for illustrations of professors. Sexism has found its way into machine learning and search engine algorithms-and unfortunately for us, society's unconscious bias is mirrored in search engine results."

Every bit as unattainable as Barbie-doll proportions and the heroin chic look are the broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted, fat-free, and muscle-sheathed male physiques littering today's media. Researchers are beginning to pay attention to what these stimuli do to the male body image. Guys, it turns out, have body issues too. 

"The commercials are being touted as brilliant marketing. They associate sugary drinks with "happiness, fulfillment, and having fun," says Nancy Huehnergarth at The Huffington Post. But they don't really attempt to address obesity, says Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "The soda industry is under siege, and for good reason," he says, and clearly, Coke is trying to control its image."

"In order to deconstruct the image, let's focus on three key elements (leaving aside the placement of the 'M' in 'Time' that makes it look like Trump has red horns): the color, the pose, and the chair:"

It would seem that for someone like Kim Kardashian West - queen of selfies, breaker of Internets, mother of two - sharing a nearly nude selfie with millions of followers on social media is a pretty ho-hum weekday activity. But her latest racy photo, published last week on Twitter with a mundane caption ("When you're like I have nothing to wear LOL"), quickly drew a mix of young, powerful celebrities into a debate over whether sharing such an image is a symbol of sexual empowerment, or an example of a powerful woman selling herself short."

"Adbusters magazine and its editor Kalle Lasn have been at the forefront of the global resistance to capitalism exemplified by the Occupy movement. Their new book, Meme Wars: the Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economies, uses startling images to back up its hard-hitting points. Here are a selection of some of the best."