The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Comedy | ≅ Leave a Comment
This conversation, both funny and a little informative, is worth your time. This will hopefully whet your appetite, and give you good reason to watch Oliver Sack’s new program on NOVA. It’s called Musical Minds and you can watch it here starting on July 1.
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Central Intelligence: From Ants to the Web
If you have problems [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ Leave a Comment
“In 2009 Ben Folds released a greatest hits record, of sorts, sung entirely in a cappella. The album, Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella! features two tracks performed by Ben himself, but the bulk of the material was performed by various university a cappella groups.” You can catch a documentary version above.
≡ Category: Physics | ≅ Leave a Comment
Leonard Susskind, a Stanford physicist who helped conceptualize string theory and has waged a long-running “Black Hole War” with Stephen Hawking (see his newish book on that subject) offers a course on Cosmology, which studies the origin and development of the universe. It’s actually the fifth course in a larger six-course introduction to Modern Physics [...]
≡ Category: Film | ≅ Leave a Comment
IFC.com (the web site of the Independent Film Channel) has worked up a list of the all-time best movie trailers — or, as they put it, the films that promote the actual films. The list cuts across different eras and features many older classics (Psycho, Citizen Kane, Dr. Strangelove, etc.) as well as more recent films. [...]
≡ Category: Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ 7 Comments
According to Netflix’s CEO, the DVD is done, and the future is all about streaming movies online. (Read the Wall Street Journal piece on that.) This segues nicely to a list that we have compiled that contains 1) over 100 high quality films that you can watch online for free, and 2) 35 web sites [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Music | ≅ 35 Comments
Yes, Jacko had undeniable talent. And, yes, Thriller drove more sales than any other album ever. But, Jacko released Thriller back in 1982 — roughly 27 years ago. And, what has he accomplished since? Creatively very little, and the personal story is very mixed. Despite that, his death is the big news story everywhere, both in [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ 2 Comments
Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of France’s leading intellectuals (you can tell by the way he buttons his shirt) pays dramatic homage to the uprising in Iran. The rhythm of the speech is vaguely MLK’esque. But the content is distinctly French intello. (Somehow Michel Foucault gets worked into an analysis of what’s happening on the streets of [...]
≡ Category: Language Lessons | ≅ Leave a Comment
Looking to learn a new language this summer? Then give this list a good look. The folks at Universitiesandcolleges.org have created “The Master List of Free Language Learning Resources,” which pulls together materials found across a range of different media. Here, you’ll find podcasts, open courses, iphone apps, and more. And the list notably includes our ever-popular [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ 2 Comments
Another helpful primer that does a good job of explaining what’s happening with the Iranian protests, who the cast of characters are, and where things might be headed. Produced by NPR’s Fresh Air, the interview features Karim Sadjadpour, a political analyst from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The conversation gets quite informative, especially during the second [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
Steve Carson, one of the senior members of MIT’s OpenCourseWare team, has put together a handy list of educational materials that contextualizes what’s happening in Iran right now. The materials come from various opencourseware collections (actually the bulk are from MIT’s collection) and they’re organized by the following headings — Iranian History, Democracy & Political [...]
≡ Category: Comedy | ≅ Leave a Comment
All credit to Jason Kottke on this one. Perfect for our readers. From the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner. Give it a little time. Here it goes:
Related Video:
John Hodgman@Google
≡ Category: Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ Leave a Comment
The Open Video Conference, which promotes free expression and innovation in online video (learn more about the mission here), went down on June 19 & 20 in NYC. And, Peter Kaufman reports, 700 people attended and it was all “nuts and wonderful.” You can find video goodness from the conference here.
For those interested in more video [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
Andrew Sullivan continues to provide the most up-to-the-minute coverage of what’s happening inside Iran. Today, this page offers a running account of the Iranian government’s crackdown on the democratic movement . The details — the tactics of the government — are simply sickening. (If you can stomach it, here’s footage of two cold-blooded murders by [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
If you’re looking to get more context for what’s happening right now in Iran, let me direct you to two pieces of media. First, you’ll find above a talk by Abbas Milani, the director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. It was given last August at Google’s HQ in Mountain View, CA, and it [...]
≡ Category: Audio Books, Literature | ≅ 2 Comments
On Bloomsday (June 16), BoingBoing featured a rare audio recording of James Joyce reading from Finnegans Wake (mp3). It’s a bit intriguing to hear his voice and accent. Also, we came across another Joyce recording, where, this time, he’s reading Anna Livia Plurabelle, another section of the same novel. For kicks, you can catch an animated [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
Voila, the 1899 precursor to this amazing 2009 bike stunt video originally found on the @courosa Twitter stream. And who can doubt that we’re making progress?
via Andrew Sullivan
≡ Category: History, Stanford | ≅ Leave a Comment
Throughout this year, my program at Stanford has been celebrating its 20th anniversary, and we’ve put together some special courses for the occasion. This spring, we offered a class featuring some of the finest American historians in the country, and together, they looked back at “The American Founders and Their World.” (Get it free on [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
When you’re reading The New York Times and stumble upon a word you don’t know, you can highlight it and the Times will give you the definition. Naturally, the Times keeps track of the definitions it provides. So what are the most commonly looked up words? You can find the top ten below. (Get a [...]
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