Sunday Scoop #20

Stunning photo: Nasir al-Mulk 'Pink Mosque' of Iran (HuffPost)

Hey! Hope your Pi Day was awesome this week (and don't forget - it's still pi month!). It's finals week so I shall be brief.

• As you may have heard, Amazon recently raised its Prime membership fee to $99/year. This may still be a good deal depending on how much you buy from Amazon, or whether you use their other programs such as streaming and free ebook borrowing. TIME has an article about 5 Alternatives to Paying $99 for Amazon Prime. 

• From HuffPost: JK Rowling has published 'A History of the Quidditch World Cup' on Pottermore. I think it's great that she's building on the magical world. This is something that I would have been delighted to read as a teenager, and is something I need to get back into now. It's been a long time since I've visited that world through text...ever since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 

• President Jose Mujica of Uruguay donates 90% of his income and lives on a farm with his wife and dog - and Huffington Post has a list of 10 Things We Can Learn from Uruguay's President. My favorite quote from him is "Power doesn't change people. It just reveals who they really are." This is a refreshing alternative to the common notion that power corrupts people. 

• The Divergent Movies blog has released Stills and BTS Images from Divergent. As a Nikita fan, I look forward to seeing Maggie Q in the movie, which is coming out in US theaters on March 21.

• What It's Like to Live in a Bookstore in Paris gives a photographed history about the beds and nooks that populate the famous bookstore of literary writers: Shakespeare and Company, which is known as a "literary wonderland" (Zoe Burke). Some of the stories are insane! 

• Ever read a celebrity memoir? Celebrity Memoirs Are Awful. Here Are 4 Ways to Fix Them explains why these books tend to have notorious reputations for either being badly written or dumbed down.

• ...and last, for fun: Confused Cutie Doesn't Understand Why We Don't Take Cookies From Strangers. This 58-second long video is SO CUTE.