Open Culture’s YouTube Playlist

≡ Category: Video - Arts & Culture |1 Comment

This seemed like a logical follow up to our recent post “10 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube,” which highlighted some of the enriching video collections on YouTube.
Here’s a playlist that centralizes the YouTube videos that we’ve recently highlighted on our site. Think of it as the Open Culture YouTube Collection, or another way [...]

Weekly Wrap – December 30

≡ Category: Uncategorized |Leave a Comment

Let’s do a quick recap of the final posts of the year, which included some popular ones. Happy new year to all.

10 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube (Smart Video Collections)
10 Ways to Make Your iPod a Better Learning Gadget
Betting Against Google’s Answer to Wikipedia
Yale Launches Open Courses
A Conversation with Benazir Bhutto
Favorite [...]

10 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube (Smart Video Collections)

≡ Category: Google, Video - Arts & Culture |22 Comments

(UPDATED: See 70 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube)
It’s been a constant lament that YouTube offers its users scant little intellectual content. And that content is itself hard to find. Just visit YouTube’s so-called Education Section, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything actually educational. But the good news is that we’re seeing some recent [...]

10 Ways to Make Your iPod a Better Learning Gadget

≡ Category: Most Popular, Web/Tech |25 Comments

The iPod can supercharge your learning. But it’s often a matter of finding the right software and content. Below, we’ve listed several new pieces of software that will let you suck more educational media (DVDs, web videos, audio files, etc.) into your iPod. And we’ve also listed some important pieces of content that will make [...]

A Conversation with Benazir Bhutto

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Politics, Video - Politics/Society |2 Comments

Again, no commentary needed. Informative in many ways, Bhutto’s talk was taped at the Council on Foreign Relations in August. More info here.

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Favorite Books of 2007

≡ Category: Books |1 Comment

Quick fyi: The book critics of The New York Times have selected their favorite books of 2007. These are the books that they mention to friends, or recommend that you take on vacation. You’ll find here 30 good reads in all.
Now how about your favorite book of ‘07? Share them with other Open Culture readers [...]

Landing on the Moon: July 20, 1969

≡ Category: Science, Video - Science |Leave a Comment

Great historical footage. No commentary really needed. (If you want to see the liftoff, look here.)

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Christmas Audio Tales: Orson Welles’ Christmas Carol (and More)

≡ Category: Audio Books |1 Comment

Let me serve up a quick few bits of audio for the holiday.
Let’s start with a free podcast of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Written in 1843, Dicken’s tale remains one of the most popular Christmas stories of all time. It gave us the indelible characters of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the Ghosts of [...]

How Did Hannibal Cross the Alps?: The #2 Podcast on iTunesU

≡ Category: MIT, Uncategorized |Leave a Comment

During a week when university podcasts received widespread attention (thanks to a very popular article in the NY Times), we’ve kept a close eye on the high-ranking podcasts on iTunesU. Quite consistently, one podcast — How Did Hannibal Cross the Alps? — has ranked at the top. It currently sits in the #2 position, [...]

Andy, Are You Goofing on Apple?

≡ Category: Apple, Comedy |Leave a Comment

Fake Steve Jobs, a wildly popular blog written by Daniel Lyons, an editor at Forbes, has been goofing on the real Steve Jobs all year. And now things have taken an odd turn. During the same week that Apple apparently shut down ThinkSecret.com (an Apple rumor site) in exchange for cash, Apple may be applying [...]

Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History

≡ Category: Books |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 [...]

The Final Cut of Blade Runner: Now Out on DVD

≡ Category: Film |Leave a Comment

Back in October, Ridley Scott released a final and definitive director’s cut of Blade Runner, presenting to audiences the film that he would have made if studio execs hadn’t meddled with things. A short two months later, the final cut is now out on DVD. It was released yesterday, barely in time for the holidays. [...]

University Podcasts Turn Professors into Stars

≡ Category: Podcast Articles and Resources |Leave a Comment

The New York Times has a nice piece today on university podcasts and how they’re turning some professors into international stars. The article gives special attention to Walter Lewin, an MIT physics professor, and highlights courses that you’ll find in our listing of free university courses. Just as an aside, the article mentions at least [...]

Weekly Wrap – December 16

≡ Category: Uncategorized |Leave a Comment

Better late than never. A quick review of some of our posts from last week:

15 Most Viewed Posts in 2007
Yale Launches Open Courses
28 Podcasts That Will Teach You French, German, Italian & Spanish
Even Ahmadinejad Blogs
Led Zeppelin Reunion – First Images
Nobel Prize Winners on YouTube
Al Gore’s Nobel Presentation
Raising Sand [...]

15 Most Viewed Posts in 2007

≡ Category: Most Popular |3 Comments

We dug back through the historical data and isolated the 15 most viewed posts of the year. If you’re looking for a trend, one will leap out. People like numbered lists. Hence another one:
1) 10 Unexpected Uses of the iPod
2) 25 UC Berkeley Courses Available via Free Video
3) 45 Free Cutting-Edge Books … Courtesy [...]

Yale Launches Open Courses

≡ Category: Yale |2 Comments

Click here for 250 Free Online Courses From Great Universities
Yesterday, Yale announced that it is providing “free and open access to seven introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University.” I’ve listed the course lineup below, with links to each course. You can access the homepage for the project here.
With this launch, [...]

Betting Against Google’s Answer to Wikipedia

≡ Category: Google |10 Comments

As many now know, Google announced Friday that it’s testing a new content initiative — dubbed “knol” — that it hopes will rival Wikipedia. Realizing that Wikipedia entries rank first on 27% of all Google search result pages, the folks at Googleplex couldn’t resist launching a competitive product. In announcing “knol,” the company highlighted two [...]

Even Ahmadinejad Blogs

≡ Category: Uncategorized |Leave a Comment

Here it is in English. His Christmas wish is charming.
Rumor is that Mahmoud is busy setting up a Facebook page. Stay tuned for it, and be sure to give him a nice little poke.
Full Story here.

Led Zeppelin Reunion – First Images

≡ Category: Music |Leave a Comment

Last night in London, Led Zeppelin played its first full show together since 1980 (though they did play a short set at Live Aid in 1985, which I was fortunate enough to see). Here’s the first video clip to make its way onto YouTube.

Nobel Prize Winners on YouTube

≡ Category: Video - Politics/Society |Leave a Comment

YouTube gets smarter one painfully small step at a time. First courses from Berkeley; next videos of Nobel Prize winners.  More coming?
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  • About Us

    Open Culture editor Dan Colman scours the web for the best educational media. He finds the free courses and audio books you need, the language lessons & movies you want, and plenty of enlightenment in between.

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