The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Film | ≅ 1 Comment
25 years after the release of Blade Runner, Ridley Scott has assembled a final and definitive director’s cut of the film, giving audiences the chance to see the film as Scott originally intended it.
Before the film’s original release in 1982, preview screenings went horribly, and the money men stepped in and imposed changes on the [...]
≡ Category: Film, Music, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ Leave a Comment
Martin Scorsese is on a rock ‘n roll tear.
In 2006, he released No Direction Home, an acclaimed documentary on Bob Dylan (long after he filmed his first rockumentary, The Last Waltz in 1978). Next April, he’s set to release another documentary on The Rolling Stones, tentatively called Shine a Light. (Watch the already released trailer [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ 3 Comments
Social networking is doing some good. In a matter of days, over 110,000 users have joined the Support the Monks’ Protest in Burma group on Facebook, with the larger goal of mobilizing support for the Buddhist monks who have launched a peaceful, “saffron” protest against the military regime that seized power in 1962 and has [...]
≡ Category: Science, Video - Science | ≅ 1 Comment
PBS’s NOVA recently aired a three-hour mini-series, The Elegant Universe, that introduced TV viewers to string theory – a radical “theory of everything” that unites major laws of physics and offers a unified explanation for everything that happens in the universe. The program was hosted by Brian Green, a string theorist who wrote a runaway [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
The MacArthur Foundation recently announced its latest crop of “genius grant” recipients. Each winner receives $500,000 “with no strings attached” and they can use the money to live, to fund research, or to buy a very modest condo in the Bay Area. As usual, the recipients come from a wide range of fields and [...]
≡ Category: History, Stanford | ≅ Leave a Comment
Let me elaborate on an item that we touched upon very briefly earlier this week. Stanford University has rolled out a new free course on iTunes (listen here) that takes you inside the life and adventures of Hannibal, the great Carthaginian military tactician who maneuvered his way across the Alps and stunned Roman armies in [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
There was a lot of hand-wringing leading up to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s appearance at Columbia University on Monday. But, as it turns out, freedom of speech seemingly worked as it was intended. Ahmadinejad entered the marketplace of ideas and quickly came out the wrong side of the exchange. (You can watch the full video of his [...]
≡ Category: Apple, Web/Tech | ≅ Leave a Comment
The digital music market is big, and so far Apple has owned it. But now Amazon may be quickly emerging as a viable competitor.
Tuesday, Amazon launched Amazon MP3, which gives you access to 2 million songs and more soon to come. Amazon’s product has several nice advantages over iTunes. Let’s list them briefly:
It delivers songs [...]
≡ Category: Books | ≅ Leave a Comment
David Halberstam’s no stranger to writing big books about big wars, and he reportedly thought of his final work, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, as a “bookend” to his classic on Vietnam, The Best and the Brightest. The book comes out this week with a very unusual publicity blitz.
Halberstam died in a [...]
≡ Category: Film, Google, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ Leave a Comment
Here’s a little something for the film buffs out there: TheListUniverse has posted a collection of ten classic films from the 1920s, 30s and 40s that you can watch on Google Video. Just click and watch. On the list, you’ll find Fritz Lang’s M, the 1922 German silent film Nosferatu, The Gold Rush with Charlie [...]
≡ Category: Uncategorized | ≅ Leave a Comment
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≡ Category: Books, History, Most Popular | ≅ 1 Comment
Here are a few facts to know about the adventurous Patrick Hunt. He’s a Stanford archaeologist who has spent more than a decade trying to unravel the mystery of how Hannibal, the great ancient military leader, crossed the Alps in 218 BCE with 25,000 men and 37 elephants. (Listen on iTunes to the course he [...]
≡ Category: History, Television, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ 1 Comment
Mark this on your calendar. Ken Burns, who has produced some of America’s most acclaimed historical documentaries, will air his latest film starting Sunday night on PBS. The War is a seven-part, 15-hour documentary that “tells the story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from [...]
≡ Category: Uncategorized | ≅ Leave a Comment
Here’s a quick snapshot of what we served up this past week (and the one before that). Have a good weekend.
Bob Dylan Video Goodness
Keeping Wikipedia Honest
NBC Leaves the iTunes Fold
Meet Larry David
The World of Words & Carnal Knowledge
Falling Man – A 9/11 Novel
Life-Changing Books Now on Google’s “My Library”
New Additions to the Podcast Family
iPod Classic [...]
≡ Category: Books | ≅ Leave a Comment
Here’s where great writing gets done. The Guardian has posted a nice collection of annotated photos of the working spaces used by famous writers, including Seamus Heaney, AS Byatt, Michael Frayn, and Alain de Botton. (Get the full list here.) My favorite selection is Jonathan Safran Foer’s, the Rose Reading Room of the 42nd Street [...]
≡ Category: Apple, Television | ≅ 2 Comments
Apple took the world of digital entertainment by storm when it started offering new television shows on iTunes in 2005. The big networks signed on (eventually) and it was suddenly possible to catch an episode of The Office or Lost for $1.99 on a video iPod or a PC.
NBC was one of the early adopters, [...]
≡ Category: Music, Uncategorized, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ 1 Comment
Mark October 1 on your calendar. That’s when Bob Dylan will release a new box set of his “greatest songs.” Now, cut over to the website designed to market the album, and you’ll find a couple notable pieces of video. First up, you can watch the video that accompanies Mark Ronson’s remixing of “Most Likely [...]
≡ Category: Apple | ≅ Leave a Comment
Robert X. Cringley’s weekly article/podcast (iTunes – Feed – Web Site) may make you think twice about buying an iPod Classic … at least for now. Despite the name, the guts of the iPod Classic are actually new, and the bugs haven’t been fully worked out. The list of problems experienced by users includes [...]
≡ Category: Books, Podcast Articles and Resources | ≅ Leave a Comment
Grammar is in vogue. The statistics don’t lie. The Grammar Girl (iTunes – Feed – Web Site) remains one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes, and The Grammar Grater (iTunes – Feed – Web Site) is holding its own. From grammar, it’s just a short step to words, to etymology. And, today, we want [...]
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