The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Books | ≅ 1 Comment
We take you back to the mid 1950s, to an interview with Vladimir Nabokov and Lionel Trilling that was conducted soon after the publication of Lolita (1955). Lolita’s basic plot is well known — middle-aged Humbert Humbert develops a passionate obsession for twelve-year old Dolores Haze and takes her on the road. For some critics, [...]
≡ Category: Art | ≅ 4 Comments
The video above is fairly mind-blowing. And here you can watch the elephant from another angle. The elephant apparently resides in a safe haven in Thailand, after having been abused in Burma. For more info, see The Elephant Art & Conservation Project. (Video has been added to our YouTube playlist.)
Subscribe to Our Feed
≡ Category: History | ≅ Leave a Comment
Dith Pran, a photojournalist and political activist who survived The Killing Fields in Cambodia, and whose experience was narrated in the 1984 film by the same name, has died at 65. You can revisit his photographic work here, and watch a talk he gave in 2006. Here, Pran recounts what happened in Cambodia — [...]
≡ Category: Film | ≅ 1 Comment
Released in 1922, the German Expressionist film, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, offers a chilling adaption of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (get free audiobook of Stoker’s work here). The film was made by F. W. Murnau and stars Max Schreck. Watch it below, or find it in our collection of Free Movies Online.
Subscribe to Our [...]
≡ Category: Podcast Articles and Resources | ≅ Leave a Comment
Here’s a quick note for anyone looking for free online courses: The University of California – San Diego now gives you free access to more than 80 courses. (Access the full list here.) The courses, mostly rooted in the sciences, can be accessed via iTunes or rss feed. We’ve integrated some of these courses into [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
To mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, PBS’s Frontline is airing “Bush’s War,” which offers “the definitive documentary analysis of one of the most challenging periods in the nation’s history.” Drawing on an extensive archive, the program lays out the “entire narrative,” showing how “the war began and how it has been fought, [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
During the run up to the Iraq war, the Bush administration estimated that the military mission would run around $50 billion, even though experts doubted those numbers at the time. (In 2002, Yale’s William Nordhaus guessed that the costs could reach $500 billion within five years.) Now, here we are in 2008, and new tallies [...]
≡ Category: Books, Web/Tech | ≅ Leave a Comment
At The Berkman Center for Internet and Society (at Harvard Law School), Clay Shirky gave a talk on his highly touted new book, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. You can catch his talk here: video for computer or portable device – high res video – mp3 audio. And sample some of [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ Leave a Comment
A nice little find for Dead Heads: The Internet Archive hosts a large collection of the Grateful Dead’s live music. Some concerts (usually recorded by members of the audience) can be downloaded. Other audio (usually taken from the soundboard) can be streamed. You can access the overall collection here.
A few items worth sampling include: Live [...]
≡ Category: Film | ≅ Leave a Comment
David Lynch fans, here you go. Below (and added to our YouTube playlist), we have Lynch’s anti-littering public service announcement that has a fairly high creepiness factor. He’s actually not new to the world of commercials. This site collects Lynch’s previous commercial work, starting with his 1988 series of Calvin Klein Obsession ads that played [...]
≡ Category: Books | ≅ Leave a Comment
When Amazon’s Kindle hit the streets last November, the critics gave the newfangled ebook reader mixed reviews. The customers, however, have been saying something a little bit different. Sales have been brisk, a bit too brisk actually. Waiting up to six weeks to get the Kindle, customers have been getting huffy, and last week Amazon’s [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
Are political attack ads such a bad thing? John G. Geer, author of In Defense of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns, doesn’t necessarily think so. He maintains that they often enrich, rather than corrode, the political process. And now his publisher has assembled The Attack Ad Hall of Fame. Included on the list is [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Politics | ≅ 2 Comments
In response to China’s vigorous crackdown on Tibet (see this photojournalism account), a group of experts were convened to discuss Tibet and its future. The panelists included Robert Thurman (famed Buddhism scholar at Columbia University), John Kenneth Knaus (Harvard University), John Tkacik (Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation), and Amit A. Pandya (Henry L. [...]
≡ Category: Media | ≅ Leave a Comment
This week, UC Berkeley professor Paul Duguid squared off in a debate with provocateur Andrew Keen (author of the flimsy bestseller, The Cult of Amateur). At issue here is the question: “Is the Web 2.0 a Threat to Our Culture?” How did the well-attended debate go? Have a listen here and see photos here.
Subscribe [...]
≡ Category: Podcast Articles and Resources | ≅ 1 Comment
Every now and then, we like to make new readers aware of our extensive Podcast Library that includes 100s of cultural and educational podcasts that will make you smarter. We guarantee that. And the best part is that they’re completely free — perfect for a recession. We’ve lost count of how many podcasts we have [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ Leave a Comment
Below we have an outtake from one of the earliest rock mockumentaries, which paved the way for the venerable This is Spinal Tap. Co-produced by Eric Idle (Monty Python) and Lorne Michaels (Saturday Night Live), “All You Need is Cash” traced the career of “The Rutles,” whose resemblance to The Beatles was “purely – and [...]
≡ Category: Sci Fi | ≅ Leave a Comment
Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the futurist and science fiction writer most well known for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, has passed away. (You can read his obit here.) Below, we have posted a video recorded last December for his 90th birthday. Touching in many ways, the video offers a good reminder of how much [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
This bit of audio (MP3 – Feed – Web Site) lucidly explains what happened at Bear Stearns, and why the Fed acted as it did. It’s worth a good listen if you’ve been trying to piece together the logic. The audio comes from the News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
[Update: I'd also recommend this piece from [...]
≡ Category: Google, Science | ≅ 2 Comments
Here’s what you get when Google engineers put their heads together with astronomers from large observatories: With Google Sky, “you can search for planets, listen to Earth & Sky podcasts, watch some beautiful Hubble telescope images, or explore historical maps of the sky from the comfort of your browser.” The product was rolled out just [...]
≡ Category: Comedy, YouTube | ≅ Leave a Comment
A merry, musical St. Pat’s greeting to you from your Irish-American correspondent, presented by his three favorite muppets:
via BoingBoing
©2006-2010 Open Culture. All rights reserved.
