Huge fire ripped through Titanic before it struck iceberg, fresh evidence suggests

The sinking of the largest ship ever built, the Titanic, may owe as much to a enormous fire onboard as it did to a gigantic iceberg, it has been claimed. The doomed vessel, which measured more than 880ft long and 100ft tall, went down with the loss of more than 1500 lives on April 15, 1912 during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/31/huge-fire-ripped-titanic-struck-iceberg-fresh-evidence-suggests/?source=Snapzu

Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher to be buried together

Debbie Reynolds' son said Friday his mother and sister, actress Carrie Fisher, will have a joint funeral and will be buried together. Todd Fisher said the actresses will be interred at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills, the final resting place of numerous celebrities, including Lucille Ball, Dick Van Patten, Liberace, Florence Henderson, David Carradine and Bette Davis.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ce020c758af343e3bfc546e56b2d232a/debbie-reynolds-and-carrie-fisher-be-buried-together?source=Snapzu

The most popular books at US public libraries in 2016, mapped by city

Hollywood has been good to Paula Hawkins. Following the release of a movie adapted from her novel, "The Girl on the Train," the book has become one of the most widely read books at US libraries this year. A survey of 14 metropolitan libraries by Quartz shows that "The Girl on the Train" is the most checked-out book at eight of them, and the most checked-out work of fiction at 11.
Read more: http://qz.com/874650/the-most-popular-books-at-u-s-public-libraries-in-2016-mapped-by-city/?source=Snapzu

Bernard Fox, Actor on Classic ’60s Sitcoms, Dies at 89

Mr. Fox, in a sense, survived the Titanic twice, but was best-known for his role on “Bewitched.” By Richard Sandomir. (Dec. 15, 2016)
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/arts/television/bernard-fox-dr-bombay-bewitched-dies-at-89.html?_r=0?source=Snapzu

"The Vegetarian" and the Puzzling Link Between Diet and Mood

“If you’re going to be a vegetarian, you have to be more thoughtful about what you eat.”
Read more: http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/12/the-vegetarian-and-the-puzzling-link-between-diet-and-mood.html?source=Snapzu

Critics Vow Boycott Of Simon & Schuster After Milo Yiannopoulos Book Deal

After Milo Yiannopoulos, former Twitter creep and current editor at the notorious alt-right news platform Breitbart that is favored by white nationalists, announced yesterday he’d signed a $250,000 book deal with Simon & Schuster’s conservative Threshold imprint, the backlash was immediate. “YUCK AND BOO AND GROSS,” responded comedian Sarah Silverman on Twitter. Shannon Coulter, marketing specialist and founder of the Ivanka Trump boycott campaign #GrabYourWallet, tweeted...
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/critics-threaten-boycotts-of-simon-schuster-over-milo-yiannopoulos-book-deal_us_5866748ce4b0de3a08f8031c?source=Snapzu

Beyond Expectations: Rereading Dickens

Page by page, “Great Expectations” is less hearty than David Denby remembered, and much funnier.
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/beyond-expectations-rereading-dickens?intcid=mod-latest?source=Snapzu

Kirkman thinks The Walking Dead will run for at least another 5 seasons

AMC’s zombie hit The Walking Dead is in its seventh season and flirting with 100 episodes. So how much longer can it go? Creator Robert Kirkman, who writes the comic the show is based on and also serves as a producer, went on record saying he believes they’ll still be around five years from now — and possibly a good bit longer. In the latest issue of the comic, Kirkman mused about the longevity of the series. For Kirkman, he sees The Walking Dead going strong well into the early-to-mid 2020s.
Read more: http://www.blastr.com/2016-12-29/kirkman-thinks-walking-dead-will-run-least-another-5-seasons?source=Snapzu

HBO Moves Up Carrie Fisher-Debbie Reynolds Doc Air Date Following Deaths

'Bright Lights,' directed by Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens, had been set to air in March. HBO's Bright Lights documentary is being moved up to a January 7 air date after the passing of its subjects, Hollywood icons Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. The premium cabler had originally planned to air the documentary in March. The project, directed by Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where Fisher promoted the title.
Read more: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/hbo-moves-up-carrie-fisher-debbie-reynolds-doc-air-date-deaths-959953?source=Snapzu

On the trail of the Man in the Iron Mask

Trying to discover the identity of the man in the iron mask. By David Coward.
Read more: http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/unmasked/?source=Snapzu

‘Language at the Speed of Sight’ Fights to Reopen Our Closed Book on Literacy

Mark Seidenberg makes a strong case for how brain science can help in the teaching of reading.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/books/language-at-the-speed-of-sight-mark-seidenberg.html?source=Snapzu

The Creative Architect: Inside Psychology’s Most Ambitious and Influential Study of What Makes a Creative Person

Until the middle of the twentieth century, creativity was considered a nebulous and hokey subject unfit for scientific study. It may be a rather curious system bug of our consciousness that we so easily dismiss the most elemental and highest-order objects of human aspiration as somehow unserious and unworthy of rigorous research. Harvard’s pioneering study of happiness, which began in 1938, had to upend enormous cultural and academic norms, as did the first systematic study of love in 1958. The turning point for creativity came in 1959, thanks to a researcher by the name of Dr. Donald MacKinnon.
Read more: https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/12/29/the-creative-architect/?source=Snapzu

Alzheimer's: Every minute counts.

The PBS documentary film ALZHEIMER'S: EVERY MINUTE COUNTS is an urgent wake-up call about the national public health threat posed by Alzheimer’s disease. Premiering January 25, 2017
Read more: http://alzheimers.lunchbox.pbs.org/tpt/alzheimers-every-minute-counts/home/?source=Snapzu

Thirty things you didn't know about the EU referendum

A review of five of the best EU referendum books offers up some surprising insights into the campaigns and landmark vote. By Andrew Sparrow.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2016/dec/22/thirty-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-eu-referendum?source=Snapzu

‘Fairy Tales for the Disillusioned’: a perfect book, perhaps, for the moment

In this collection, the familiar tales of our youth have a touch more irony. Reviewed by Michael Dirda.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/fairy-tales-for-the-disillusioned-a-perfect-book-perhaps-for-the-moment/2016/12/27/e96b40fc-c614-11e6-85b5-76616a33048d_story.html?utm_term=.9f86bd93?source=Snapzu

The Rooms They Left Behind

After the deaths of these 10 notable people, The New York Times photographed their private spaces — as they left them. Photographs by Mitch Epstein.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/21/magazine/the-lives-they-lived-photo-essay-spaces.html?source=Snapzu

'Where's the beef?' The weirdest stories from 2016’s autobiographies

Why was Michael Gove hiding in toilets, what did Carrie Fisher finally confirm for Star Wars fans, and how did Phil Collins witness a historic act of adultery?
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/27/wheres-the-beef-the-weirdest-stories-from-2016s-autobiographies?source=Snapzu

The Year’s Best Overlooked Books, According to Booksellers

21 titles that deserved more love in 2016.
Read more: http://lithub.com/the-years-best-overlooked-books-according-to-booksellers/?source=Snapzu

In Hong Kong's book industry, 'everybody is scared'

Hong Kong used to be a place of relatively free speech in China, but that was before Xi Jinping’s crackdown. Now everybody from writers to booksellers, publishers and printers fear they will be next to ‘disappear.’
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/28/in-hong-kongs-book-industry-everybody-is-scared?source=Snapzu

A blunt conversation about life online with Bret Easton Ellis

Movies? Finished. Novels? Dead. The web? A black hole of insanity. Welcome to the world of a literary maverick who’s brutally honest about the digital age.
Read more: http://www.huckmagazine.com/art-and-culture/frank-conversation-internet-bret-easton-ellis/?source=Snapzu

I Thought Piracy Was Killing Entertainment? New Record In Scripted Shows In 2016

Remember how piracy was supposed to be killing the entertainment industry and no one would make anything any more? Of course, almost exactly five years ago, we showed this wasn't true at all, and the actual output of creative content was way, way up. Obviously, some of that was "amateur" creations, but it was true of professional creative content as well.
Read more: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161225/22534736346/i-thought-piracy-was-killing-entertainment-new-record-scripted-shows-2016.shtml?source=Snapzu

Russians No Longer Dispute Olympic Doping Operation

Russia is for the first time conceding that its officials carried out one of the biggest conspiracies in sports history: a far-reaching doping operation that implicated scores of Russian athletes, tainting not just the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi but also the entire Olympic movement. Over several days of interviews here with The New York Times, Russian officials said they no longer disputed a damning set of facts that detailed a doping program with few, if any, historical precedents.
Read more: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/sports/olympics/russia-doping.html?source=Snapzu

Debbie Reynolds, aged 84, dies one day after death of daughter Carrie Fisher

Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds has died aged 84, just one day after the death of her daughter, famed actor and author Carrie Fisher. Her death was confirmed by her son, Todd Fisher. Reynolds was taken to Cedars Sinai Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon. She had been in Beverly Hills following the death of Fisher, who reportedly suffered a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles last Friday.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/dec/28/debbie-reynolds-hospital-carrie-fisher-mother?source=Snapzu

Books in 2017: A look ahead

A look at some of the most hotly-anticipated works hitting bookshelves in 2017.
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38265270?source=Snapzu

Is That All There Is?

Peggy Lee
Read more: http://snapzu.com/AdelleChattre/is-that-all-there-is?source=Snapzu

Leningrad Cowboys - You're My Heart You're My Soul

:-)
Read more: http://snapzu.com/Maternitus/leningrad-cowboys-youre-my-heart-youre-my-soul?source=Snapzu

Actor and comedian Ricky Harris dead at 54

Actor and comedian Ricky Harris has died, aged 54. Harris, who had a recurring role as Malvo in Chris Rock's TV series "Everybody Hates Chris," died on Monday of a heart attack, his manager Cindy Ambers has confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
Read more: http://weartv.com/news/entertainment/actor-and-comedian-ricky-harris-dead-at-54?source=Snapzu

Watership Down author Richard Adams dies aged 96

The author of "Watership Down," Richard Adams, has died aged 96, his daughter says. The tale, first told by Adams on a long car journey with his daughters, turned into a best-seller. Adams, a civil servant from Newbury in Berkshire, also wrote "Shardik," "The Plague Dogs" and "The Girl in a Swing." "Watership Down," which he wrote when he was 52, won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in the year of publication. Tens of millions of copies have since been sold around the world.
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38446309?source=Snapzu

Star Wars: The Financial Recession

This is not the outcome you're looking for.
Read more: http://bigthink.com/laurie-vazquez/the-cost-of-blowing-up-the-death-star-the-biggest-recession-in-the-universe?source=Snapzu

Iconic Star Wars Actress Carrie Fisher Dies at 60: ‘She Was Loved by the World and She Will Be Missed Profoundly’

Carrie Fisher, the actress perhaps best known as Princess Leia Organa, has died after suffering a heart attack
Read more: http://people.com/movies/carrie-fisher-dies/?source=Snapzu

Children of Men Might Be the Most Relevant Film of 2016

On Christmas day, 2006, a curious twist on the Nativity debuted in a handful of movie theaters. Directed and co-written by Mexican auteur Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men told the story of (decade-old spoiler alert) a near-future dystopia in which women are inexplicably unable to have babies — a state of affairs upended by the advent of a miraculous pregnancy. The film is set in the deteriorating cities and countryside of southeastern England — vividly rendered with alarming realism and minimal use of sci-fi futurism...
Read more: http://www.vulture.com/2016/12/children-of-men-alfonso-cuaron-c-v-r.html?source=Snapzu

‘We Are All Savages’: Scalping and Survival in The Revenant

When The Revenant was released in 2015, it received widespread praise for its stunning cinematography and its visceral imagining of the American West—and was one of the big winners of the award season, collecting several Oscars including Best Director for Alejandro Iñárritu and Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio. Based on the real-life travails of Hugh Glass, a fur trader who legendarily survived being mauled by a bear and then abandoned by members of his party in 1823, the film invokes Glass as a Western archetype: the frontiersman going to fierce, heroic lengths to survive.
Read more: http://common-place.org/book/we-are-all-savages-scalping-and-survival-in-the-revenant/?source=Snapzu

Scientists say your “mind” isn’t confined to your brain, or even your body

You might wonder, at some point today, what’s going on in another person’s mind. You may compliment someone’s great mind, or say they are out of their mind. You may even try to expand or free your own mind. But what is a mind? Defining the concept is a surprisingly slippery task. The mind is the seat of consciousness, the essence of your being. Without a mind, you cannot be considered meaningfully alive. So what exactly, and where precisely, is it?
Read more: http://qz.com/866352/scientists-say-your-mind-isnt-confined-to-your-brain-or-even-your-body/?source=Snapzu

CBS Christmas Message (1966)

R.O. Blechman
Read more: http://snapzu.com/AdelleChattre/cbs-christmas-message-1966?source=Snapzu

The best books of 2016 list you get when you combine 36 “Best Books of 2016” lists

Slavery. Racism. Urbanism. Disease. While 2016 may not have been a banner year for liberal democracy in the world at large, it should definitely go down as a woke time in book publishing. For dedicated bibliophiles, the low thrum of literary FOMO that bubbles up around May has by mid-December evolved into a full-fledged panic. Every week brings a new “best books of the year” list, each one littered with titles you haven’t even heard of, let alone read.
Read more: http://qz.com/869960/the-best-books-of-2016-list-you-get-when-you-combine-36-best-books-of-2016-lists?source=Snapzu

Bach’s Holy Dread

The composer has long been seen as a symbol of divine order. But his music has an unruly obsession with God.
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/02/bachs-holy-dread?source=Snapzu

George Michael - You have been loved (Live)

She takes the back roadand the lane Past the school that has not changed In all this time She thinks of when the boy was young All the battles she had won Just to give him life That man She loved that man For all his life But now we meet to take him flowers And only god knows why For what's the use in pressing palms When children fade in mother's arms It's a cruel world We've so much to lose And what we have to learn, we rarely choose So if it's god who took her son He cannot be the one living in her mind Take care my love, she said Don't think that god is dead Take care my love, she said You have been loved
Read more: http://snapzu.com/tranxene/george-michael-you-have-been-loved-live?source=Snapzu

The Rise of Science Fiction from Pulp Mags to Cyberpunk

Ann and Jeff VanderMeer break down Sci-Fi’s many eras, icons and offshoots — from Jules Verne to William Gibson and beyond.
Read more: https://electricliterature.com/the-rise-of-science-fiction-from-pulp-mags-to-cyberpunk-e00f6efdcab0#.tsjdujz19?source=Snapzu

How I Came to Understand the CIA

I’ve been researching the CIA for over 30 years and I’ve interviewed over 100 CIA officers. So naturally, people often wonder how I prepare myself. In one of the interviews... By Douglas Valentine.
Read more: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/23/how-i-came-to-understand-the-cia/?source=Snapzu

Don’t fight sober

In October 2013 a Time magazine article entitled ‘Syria’s Breaking Bad’ alerted Western media to the prevalence across the region of a little-known stimulant drug, Captagon. Lebanese police had found five million locally produced tablets, embossed with a roughly stamped yin-yang... By Mike Jay.
Read more: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n01/mike-jay/dont-fight-sober?source=Snapzu

George Michael Dead at 53

Former Wham! singer and massively successful solo vocalist George Michael died
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/george-michael-dead-at-53-w457753?source=Snapzu

Must Everyone Write English?

English is the universal language, but at what cost?
Read more: http://www.claremont.org/crb/article/must-everyone-write-english/?source=Snapzu

Still There’ll Be More

Procol Harum
Read more: http://snapzu.com/AdelleChattre/still-therell-be-more?source=Snapzu

slade - merry christmas everybody

Because I always post it and it is my favorite Christmas song! So there. Nener nener nener.
Read more: http://snapzu.com/CrookedTale/slade-merry-christmas-everybody?source=Snapzu

Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt dies aged 68

Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt has died in hospital in Spain aged 68, his manager has said. He died from a severe infection after going to hospital on Thursday following complications to a shoulder injury. Parfitt's musical partnership with Francis Rossi, which spanned five decades, made Status Quo one of British rock's most enduring acts. He had been due to launch a solo career with an album and autobiography planned for 2017.
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38427459?source=Snapzu

The Last Bookbinder on the Lower East Side

In 1980, according to the census taken that year, there were 1,500 bookbinders in New York. A great number of them plied the trade in downtown Manhattan, on the Lower East Side, among the garment workers, delicatessens and dive bars. Of that proud and once ample contingency—the binders of the Lower East Side—now there is only Henry. Henry is not his given legal name. It’s the name of the street where he works and has worked for most of his adult life. At some point, the shop became known as Henry Bookbinding, and he as Henry.
Read more: http://lithub.com/the-last-bookbinder-on-the-lower-east-side/#?source=Snapzu

Happy Holidays to all ye lubbers!!! Snap 2016

I am already Drinking woot woot and all that! I do not own this music and all rights and stuff go to the owner or whatever. Perry Como - Home For The Holidays
Read more: https://vid.me/DGHS?source=Snapzu

Everything Wrong With Home Alone In 15 Minutes Or Less

After annual frequent requests, we decided to finally sin the original Home Alone. Unsurprisingly, we found plenty wrong.
Read more: http://snapzu.com/socialiguana/everything-wrong-with-home-alone-in-15-minutes-or-less?source=Snapzu

Cake Soap: Skin Bleaching in Jamaica (2016)

Read more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_DBYHdb4jQ?source=Snapzu

'Starship Troopers' Reboot "Would Fit Very Much in a Trump Presidency" Says Paul Verhoeven

'Starship Troopers' director Paul Verhoeven thinks the planned reboot will skew towards the militaristic and fascistic, making it timely for the Trump era.
Read more: http://collider.com/starship-troopers-reboot-paul-verhoeven-trump/?source=Snapzu