Voice of Babe and Rugrats dies at 51

oice actress Christine Cavanaugh, who brought to life characters including Babe and Chuckie on Nickelodeon cartoon Rugrats, has died aged 51. Her sister, Deionn Masock, confirmed the actress had died on 22 December at her home in Utah. Ms Masock said the cause of death was not known.

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Is Social Media Ruining Comedy?

Controversy has always been the lifeblood of comedy. The best comedy has to be offensive, or at least offensive to someone, to prove that it is good.

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No Margin for Error

This 1957 film on the Pikes Peak Hill Climb entitled "No Margin for Error" features Jerry Unser of the famous Unser family as one of the winners.

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LG shows off a gaming monitor with ultra-wide screen ~ Variety Report

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Yung Lean - Blinded

New Yung Lean music video.

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Only the 24th ever televised perfect game bowled

PBA bowler Ronnie Russell throws a 300 in the semi-final of the PBA Chameleon Championship.

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'The Convert's Song' By Sebastian Rotella

Sebastian Rotella's thrillers can seem very realistic. Maybe that has something to do with his day job. He's a reporter with ProPublica, and he's covered international security for years.

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In 'Huckleberry Finn,' A History In Echoes

Andrew Levy's searching book adds to, and comments on, the considerable scholarship surrounding an widely read and widely challenged American classic.

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Kim Jong-un Goes Bananas over “The Interview,” Bans All US Movies at the Border

“The Interview” saga is far from over and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un knows this very well. After trying to block the movie from even making its official premiere in the United States, the supreme leader of North Korea is trying to deal with a more local problem, again caused by the very same movie.

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Thirties murder mystery novel is surprise runaway Christmas hit

A Christmas detective tale not seen in shops for more than 70 years has become a festive sleeper hit and resurrected interest in a long-forgotten crime writer. Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story by J. Jefferson Farjeon is selling in "astonishing numbers", according to the Waterstones book chain.

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Netflix Cracks Down On DNS-Based VPNs In Its Android App

As much as many would love to subscribe to services like Netflix or Hulu so that they can watch their shows online legally, the sad fact of the...

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Don't Bench That Dentist: A Guide To Ugandan English

You want to bench a pretty woman and launch your manifesto. Only you get bounced from her muzigo because she's pursuing a pensioner. In the end, you were lucky. She's just a detoother who's after a rich guy. Welcome to Uglish (pronounced "YOU-glish"), the Ugandan variant of English. Bernard Sabiti has written the first Uglish dictionary (not yet available outside of Uganda, but he's working on an e-book version for January).

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Talk, Sing, Read, Write, Play: How Libraries Reach Kids Before They Can Read

This isn't your typical story time; public libraries are designing new programs to help parents and caregivers interact with toddlers in ways that will encourage future reading.

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The Early History of Football’s Forward Pass

The forward pass was ridiculed by college football’s powerhouse teams only to be proved wrong by Pop Warner and his Indians

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Bob Iger, CEO of Disney stands besides the new Millennium Falcon

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Honest Trailers - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Turtle power! Relive 2014's hit reboot of TMNT, a film that wasn't directed by Michael Bay - but feels like it was anyway.

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Gone Girl VFX Before and After Breakdown

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House of Books

Photographer Franck Bohbot says, "This is an ongoing project. The series started in Paris then Roma. I plan to photograph Libraries in Europe, South America, Asia and North America. This is about the places that we have learned and were the books stay for decade. Paying tribute to the Architects. the light, the composition and the colors have to be coherent in all the series."

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Chris Rock Files For Divorce

Chris Rock's marriage is kaput -- he's filed to divorce his wife of nearly 20 years. Malaak Compton-Rock released a statement Sunday to People saying, "After much contemplation and 19 years of marriage, Chris and I have decided to go our separate ways." She adds, "While recognizing that this is a significant change, my children remain at the center of my life and their well-being is my top priority."

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Forgotten fairytales slay the Cinderella stereotype

A stash of stories compiled by the 19th-century folklorist Franz Xaver von Schönwerth – recently rediscovered and now to be published in English for the first time – challenges preconceptions about many of the most commonly known fairytales: Hansel and Gretel get married after an erotic encounter with a dwarf, an enchanted frog is kissed not by a damsel in distress but by a young man, and Cinderella uses her golden slippers to recover her lover from beyond the moon.

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Do We Run More On Christmas? And what about New Year's?

We know more runners run on Thanksgiving than on any other holiday. The threat of abundance in the form of a good meal is enough to send thousands of us out for a pre-emptive 5-K (or 10-K or whatever). So where does Christmas stack up in the must-run-on-this-holiday hierarchy? And do runners in the U.S. behave the same on that day as runners in say, France or Mexico? What about New Year's Day–do runners the world over start the year off with a bang, or a rest day?

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Fernando Torres returns to Atlético Madrid

Fernando Torres returns to Atlético de Madrid after an agreement was reached with Milan as the international striker will play on loan for the remainder of this season and all of next season. In 2001, at the age of 17, he debuted with Atlético’s shirt, playing a total of 244 games in which he scored 91 goals.

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Should Video Games Get Olympic Representation?

Video Games! You've heard of them. But what you might not be so aware of is 'eSports' - the growing genre of highly competitive multiplayer gaming. But are eSports really on a level where we should be seeing digital athletes at the Olympics? Rob Pardo, formerly of Blizzard, thinks so.

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'Fourth of July Creek' is a Gritty, Disturbing, Evocative, and Extraordinary Debut Novel

Henderson Smith’s tale of suffering and the hope of rescue in the northern West is on this critic’s short list of the year’s best fiction.

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How to Be a Victorian

Social historian Ruth Goodman sees for herself the intricacies of life in Victorian England.

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Cracking the Sitcom Code

As happens to so many of us, I was asked to write a sitcom for Croatian television. I’m an American ex-pat living in Slovenia, and I know next to nothing about Croatia, besides the fact that it’s Slovenia’s southern neighbor, a fellow ex-Yugoslav republic, and that the language resembles Slovene except with a lot more “js” in it. I am a writer of books and articles, and I used to write a lot of plays, but I’ve never written for television. So I immediately said...

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Jazz star Buddy DeFranco dies at 91

Renowned jazz clarinettist Buddy DeFranco, known for working with Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday and other well-known musicians, has died aged 91. DeFranco's family said the musician died on Wednesday evening at a Florida hospital. His wife, Joyce, said his health had been poor in recent years. DeFranco, a member of the American Jazz Hall of Fame, performed at venues around the world for 75 years and also recorded many albums.

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'I Can't Breathe' T-shirts see high-school basketball team disinvited from event

A high school basketball tournament on the Northern California coast has become the latest flashpoint in nationwide protests over police killings of unarmed black men. The boys and girls varsity basketball teams from Mendocino High School were disinvited from a tournament that starts on Monday at nearby Fort Bragg High, because of concerns players would wear T-shirts with the words “I Can’t Breathe” printed on them while warming up.

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"The Interview" Could Make Online Premieres Popular In Hollywood

The Interview's lasting impact won't be because it's a mediocre film turned into an accidental symbol of freedom, or because it marked James Franco’s slide into the bowels of bad acting (though both are true). More likely, it will be remembered as the flick that transformed the way Hollywood distributes films. Sony, after suffering cyberterrorist attacks until it nixed the movie, bowed to public opinion (as well as that of the POTUS) by releasing the film after all. On Christmas Eve...

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Jamie Oliver, Up To His Elbows In Mashed Potatoes With 'Comfort Food'

For his new cookbook, chef Jamie Oliver compiled soul-soothing, stomach-satisfying recipes from around the world. And this time, he tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer, he worried less about calorie counts.

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'The Interview' pulls in $1 million at theaters, but on-demand generated earnings is the big mystery

A million dollars in Christmas Day ticket sales isn't exactly Sony acing The Interview. But the experience of the world's first premium video-on-demand release is a nice thing to have on the résumé. Playing at only 330 hastily arranged independent U.S. theaters after the studio meltdown heard 'round the world, The Interview averaged about $3,000 per venue on Thursday, which would be considered solid...

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Dustin Diamond, or better known as Screech from 'Saved by the Bell,' charged in bar stabbing

Dustin Diamond, who played Screech on the 1990s TV show "Saved by the Bell," has been charged with stabbing a man at a Wisconsin bar. Diamond was charged Friday with felony second-degree recklessly endangering safety, disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon. He appeared Friday afternoon in Ozaukee County court, where bail was set at $10,000.

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North Korea suffers another Internet outage, hurls racial slur at Pres. Obama

Latest drama follows The Interview's Christmas opening—which earned $1 million.

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The Giants of Rock are Leaving the Stage: Their Music Never Will

John Harris: The Joe Cocker generation’s unsurpassable sounds and amazingly romantic life stories make it truly legendary

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Leonard Nimoy's Mameloshn: A Yiddish Story

Yes, Leonard Nimoy speaks Yiddish. Learn more about Leonard (Leyb) Nimoy from his Jewish roots in Boston's heymish West End neighborhood to his brief stint working with famous Yiddish theatre maven Maurice Schwartz in these video highlights from the Wexler Oral History Project's interview with the man made famous by his role as Spock on Star Trek.

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MTV has done more for the US teen birthrate than decades of policy

Now we know, reality TV can have a profound effect.

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In America: Travels with Steinbeck by Geert Mak review – witty, personable, and knowing

A Dutch journalist, with strong opinions about the US, recreates Steinbeck’s famous 1960 roadtrip, with results both painful and amusing. By J Robert Lennon

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Family guy Home alone

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Anthony’s Doerr’s ‘All the Light We Cannot See’ Hits It Big

Anthony Doerr’s “All the Light We Cannot See,” a literary novel overlaid with electronics and a sympathetic Nazi, has brought its author unexpected success.

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Hilary Mantel on C. S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed

How does grief work? Your former life still seems to exist, but you can’t get back to it. You feel panic, guilt, bewilderment. Hilary Mantel reflects on a universal process, examined in many books, among them a classic by CS Lewis.

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Shaq Crashes into a Christmas Tree

The NBA on TNT crew is known for having fun while in the studio, but this might be its best shenanigan of the year. Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny "The Jet" Smith began racing for the Christmas tree on the set when Kenny gave Shaq a little shove. O'Neal ended up crashing into the tree, and with The Big Aristotle checking in at 7'1'', 300-plus pounds, it caused quite a mess.

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Demand For ‘The Interview’ Is Shooting Up In North Korea And Its Government Is Freaking Out

More and more North Koreans are becoming aware of the North Korea-mocking movie “The Interview,” and the government is doing everything to block it from getting smuggled in to the country. According to Free North Korea Radio, an online radio network made by North Korean defectors, demand for “The Interview” has been shooting up among North Koreans. It says people are willing to pay almost $50 a copy of the movie, which is 10X higher than what a regular South Korean TV show’s DVD would cost...

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Egypt bans 'inaccurate' Exodus film

Egypt has banned a Hollywood film based on the Biblical book of Exodus because of what censors described as "historical inaccuracies". The head of the censorship board said these included the film's depiction of Jews as having built the Pyramids, and that an earthquake, not a miracle by Moses, caused the Red Sea to part. Exodus: Gods and Kings stars Christian Bale as Moses.

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Charles Dickens's Great-Great-Grandson: Author Was 'World's First Superstar'

The "Christmas Carol" author was a champion of the poor. "He'd been there," says Mark Charles Dickens.

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This Is The Story Of A Happy Reader

As of today, Ann Patchett is 51 years old and has published six novels and three books of nonfiction. In 2011, she opened a bookstore with her partner Karen Hayes, and has since become a spokesperson for bookstores. And she doesn't use the Internet.

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People are pirating 'The Interview' like crazy

Sony may have granted a “Christmas miracle” by making The Interview available to Americans who would pay to stream it, but that hasn’t stopped pirates from sharing it for free at a jaw-dropping rate. It’s been a tumultuous ride for the poorly reviewed comedy about killing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. It may or may have not been the impetus for hackers, who may or may not have been North Korean, to attack Sony Entertainment.

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When Caltech pranked the Rose Bowl (and the University of Washington)

For decades, every time a visitor heads downstairs into the Caltech Athenaeum Rathskellar for a burger and a brew, he has been confronted with a poster-size, blown-up, grainy but still magnificent black-and-white photograph of one of the greatest of the Caltech pranks.

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The Oculus Rift Game That's So Real It Nearly Destroyed Me

I can hear the alien breathing. I’ve played lots of videogames, lots of run-and-gun shooters in which I happily charge down a corridor into certain death. Not this time. I’ve got my back pressed against the wall of an abandoned spaceship, and I’m inching down a hallway, my head darting left and right, looking for danger everywhere. And I wonder, is this the one? Is this the Oculus Rift demo where I rip the headset off my face and bolt, terrified, out of the room?

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Sean Hannity has ALL-CAPS Twitter meltdown after being named ‘worst’ Fox News host

Fox News host Sean Hannity did not react well to a media poll naming him the “Worst Host” on Fox News, unleashing a series of tweets on Twitter attacking the website that conducted the poll, while draping his fury in purported concern for the two police officers killed in Brooklyn on Saturday.

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Why do we listen to our favourite music over and over again? Because repeated sounds work magic in our brains

What is music? There’s no end to the parade of philosophers who have wondered about this, but most of us feel confident saying: ‘I know it when I hear it.’ Still, judgments of musicality are notoriously malleable. That new club tune, obnoxious at first, might become toe-tappingly likeable after a few hearings.

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