The Ancient Origins of the Olympic Games (Two Free Lectures)

≡ Category: History |Leave a Comment

In anticipation of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, The Teaching Company has made available two free lectures that survey the ancient Greek origins of the Olympics. Presented by Jeremy McInerney, a professor of Classics at the University of Pennsylvania, these talks, each running about 30 minutes, bring you back to 776 BC, to the [...]

Tsunami Surfing

≡ Category: Random |3 Comments

A little summer randomness. It’s actually quite beautiful … (And, no, I’m not sure if this is technically a tsunami.) Subscribe to Our Feed

George Orwell: Blogger

≡ Category: Literature |Leave a Comment

What makes a diary like a blog? The Orwell Prize is offering up a new answer to that familiar question in August when it fires up the Orwell Diaries, a blog that will post each entry from George Orwell’s private musings exactly 70 years after it was written. I like this idea because it combines [...]

Learning Arabic (and Other Languages) with YouTube

≡ Category: Language Lessons |4 Comments

YouTube’s Trendspotting Tuesday focused this past week on the growing number of videos that can teach you a foreign language (for free, of course). Among the 12 video collections featured here, you’ll find ones that offer lessons in French, Spanish, Modern Greek, Latin, Japanese and Swahili, among others. They also highlight clips that demonstrate how [...]

The Randy Pausch Video You (Probably) Haven’t Seen

≡ Category: Uncategorized |Leave a Comment

By now, most everyone knows that Randy Pausch sadly died of pancreatic cancer last week. And, if you have an internet pulse, you’re already acquainted with his lecture that caught the public imagination last year: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. What you may not have seen is the short, six-minute speech Pausch made at Carnegie [...]

Cuil: The New Search Engine

≡ Category: Google, Web/Tech |4 Comments

Just in case you haven’t seen it yet, some former Google engineers launched a new search engine, Cuil (pronounced “cool”), which claims to be the “world’s biggest search engine,” indexing 120 billion web pages, or roughly about three times what Google supposedly does. (Get more info on the new site’s schtick here.) A quick round [...]

A Year in Antarctica Boiled Down to Six Minutes

≡ Category: Random |2 Comments

1200 people live in Antarctica during the summer, and about 200 in winter. Assuming that you’re not among them, we’ve posted this time lapse video to show you what you’re missing: Subscribe to Our Feed

What Wikipedia Founder, Jimmy Wales, Thinks about Knol, the New Google Competitor

≡ Category: Google, Video - Arts & Culture, Wikipedia |1 Comment

Here is Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia’s founder, being interviewed after Google debuted Knol. Interesting that his first thought is that users should copy Knol content and bring it to Wikipedia … : Subscribe to Our Feed

“Last Lecture” Professor Randy Pausch Dies

≡ Category: Life |2 Comments

Randy Pausch, the computer science professor from Carnegie Mellon University whose “Last Lecture” caught the public imagination, has died of pancreatic cancer. Thanks partly to a Wall Street Journal article written last September, the public discovered the remarkably upbeat and uplifting lecture Pausch gave soon after getting diagnosed. Titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” (see [...]

Google’s Answer to Wikipedia Now Live

≡ Category: Google, Wikipedia |1 Comment

Last December, Google announced that it was testing a new content initiative — dubbed “Knol” — intended to rival Wikipedia. The fruits of their labor are now live (in beta), available for all to see. As we mentioned in our initial piece, Knol caters to the individual author/expert, not to the wisdom of crowds (à [...]

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    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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