The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Comedy, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ Leave a Comment
You know things are looking bleak when comedy starts making fodder out of depression themes. Here’s a bit that tells you how to go from office worker to homeless drifter in seven easy steps. (Video courtesy of Howcast)
via Valleywag
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≡ Category: Comedy, Literature, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ Leave a Comment
“Comedian, actor and satirist Chris Elliott has made a career of blurring truth and absurdity. Elliott wrote and performed for Late Night With David Letterman, and went on to perform in other television programs, including Saturday Night Live.” Here he is in conversation with writer Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius). The video [...]
≡ Category: Audio Books, Literature, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ Leave a Comment
In a quick three minutes, you can watch the sometimes cocky author of The Corrections read from an essay on bird watching, courtesy of BigThink.com, where you can also find more videos with intellectual heft.
For more thoughtful video, also see our YouTube playlist and the related collection: Intelligent Life at YouTube: 70 Educational Video Collections.
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≡ Category: Current Affairs, Science, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
As US stock declines, China’s stock keeps going up. It’s the story of the decade, really. Here’s footage from China’s first space walk this past week …
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≡ Category: Science, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
From The Daily Dish:
“Clouds move across the sky on Mars. The sun rises. Snow falls – but never touches the ground.”
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≡ Category: Audio Books, Literature | ≅ 4 Comments
I first posted this one during the dead of summer, so it seemed worth revisiting this now that we’re all a bit more focused ….
Over at the Internet Archive, you can find George Orwell’s classic, 1984, available as a free audio book. As you’ll see, the recording is professionally done. You can download the full [...]
≡ Category: Literature | ≅ Leave a Comment
This post is a twofer. First, I get to tell you about FiveChapters.com, a web site that posts new fiction in kind of a novel way. Almost a throwback to the 19th century, FiveChapters publishes short fiction in serial format. Each week, they present a story in five parts, and you can follow along as [...]
≡ Category: Art, Books | ≅ Leave a Comment
Thanks to a heads up from one of our loyal readers (thanks Bob!) you can see a new artistic trend that’s turning books back into trees. Good stuff.
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≡ Category: Film | ≅ 1 Comment
In memory of Paul Newman …
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≡ Category: Comedy, Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
Straight from BoingBoing: The new MAD Magazine artwork below. Glad someone can find a little humor in this…
(PS Also see BoingBoing’s piece on the changing WaMu web site.)
≡ Category: Business, Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
NPR’s Fresh Air has been doing a very good job of demystifying the financial crisis. Here, we have an interview with the Pulitzer Prize-winning financial journalist, Gretchen Morgenson. As you’ll see, the program (iTunes - RSS Feed - Stream Here) does an excellent job of connecting many small dots, explaining precisely how the recklessness of Wall Street threatens to spill [...]
≡ Category: Film, Video - Arts & Culture, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ 2 Comments
Rather slick trailer. (And got to wonder how filming the pretzel scene didn’t hurt.) “W,” Oliver Stone’s new biopic, hits the theaters this fall.
≡ Category: Music | ≅ Leave a Comment
Not to be too pessimistic …
(PS You can find other remixes here and here.)
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≡ Category: Business, Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
In March 2000, Yale economist Robert Shiller published Irrational Exuberance and warned that the long-running parabolic stock market was a bubble. Weeks later, the market cracked and Shiller was the new guru. Fast forward a few years, Shiller released a second edition of the same book, this time arguing that the housing market was the [...]
≡ Category: MIT, Online Courses, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Yale | ≅ 2 Comments
Last week, the launch of Stanford Engineering Everywhere, featuring 10 free computer science and engineering courses, got no shortage of buzz on the net. This led me to think, why not highlight other major collections of free university courses/resources. As you’ll see, each collection offers countless hours of free, high quality content. Download the audio [...]
≡ Category: Music, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ Leave a Comment
The 2008 MacArthurs were just announced. And one goes to Alex Ross, the New Yorker music critic who recently published The Rest is Noise, a widely praised work that makes sense of 20th century classical music. Below we have Ross talking about his musical background, the New York music scene and the general gist of [...]
≡ Category: Film | ≅ 1 Comment
Just a quick reminder. Starting today (September 23), you can download Michael Moore’s new feature film – Slacker Uprising – via the web for free. This is unfortunately only available to US and Canadian residents, and it will remain free for three weeks. You can get more info and download the film here.
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≡ Category: Online Courses | ≅ 2 Comments
In case this got lost over the weekend I am bumping it back up: The New York Times has a piece running this weekend that surveys the landscape of online university lectures. (Get a jumbo list of free courses here.) Along the way, they focus on five lectures that “no one should miss.” They are [...]
≡ Category: Comedy, Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
Because it’s election season and Rock cracks me up …
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≡ Category: Music, Uncategorized | ≅ Leave a Comment
Courtesy of Metafilter:
“AOL Sessions has live videos from more than 150 different artists specially recorded for the series. Here are just a few of the artists on offer: Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Modest Mouse, Tom Petty, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Weezer, Sarah McLachlan, Bonnie Raitt, Iggy Pop, and more. To the left of the videos [...]
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