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The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Books | ≅ Leave a Comment
Today marks the 75th anniversary of Penguin Books. And to celebrate this milestone, they’re driving a Mini Cooper adorned with the Penguin logo across the US this summer, donating books to local libraries and literacy groups. Then, in September, the festivities will culminate with a fundraising party at the New York Public Library. The folks at [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ 4 Comments
Last month, President Obama awarded Paul McCartney the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. And then the concert (aired last night on PBS) began. Among the highlights was Elvis Costello singing “Penny Lane” with a member of the President’s United States Marine band playing the piccolo trumpet. It’s a downright wonderful version. You [...]
≡ Category: Life | ≅ 3 Comments
Venice, the “Queen of the Adriatic,” in HD and saturated color. A little thing of beauty. You can watch a bigger version of “Around Venezia,” filmed by “Icam,” on Vimeo here. It’s well worth it.
≡ Category: Psychology, Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
Earlier this year, Sam Harris argued at TED that we’re on the verge of a scientific revolution. We’ll see the day when science (particularly neuroscience) can rigorously address moral questions, providing definitive/universal answers to questions of right and wrong. The pursuit of a “moral science” is nothing new. Enlightenment thinkers began this project long ago. [...]
≡ Category: Math | ≅ Leave a Comment
Heights, I hate them. But Skip Garibaldi, a professor of mathematics at Emory University, doesn’t mind them much, and here he describes how math figures into his passion for rock climbing – how it makes the difference between a safe climb and a potentially dangerous one. Includes a quick trip to El Capitan, a 3000 [...]
≡ Category: Literature, Media | ≅ 1 Comment
“The Best Magazine Articles Ever” – Sure the list is subjective. It’s all in English, and heavily slanted toward male writers. But you can’t quibble with this. This curated collection features pieces by some of the finest American writers of the past generation. We’ve highlighted 10 notables ones from a much longer list available here. 1 [...]
≡ Category: History, Politics, Television, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Leave a Comment
In May of 1961, a 42-year-old Mandela gave his first-ever interview to ITN reporter Brian Widlake, who meets Mandela in his secret hideout.
≡ Category: Math, Science | ≅ 4 Comments
In 1968, Ray and Charles Eames produced the short film Powers of Ten. The movie starts with a fixed point in Chicago, then zooms out into the universe by factors of ten. And, before too long, you find yourself 100 million light years away. Based on Kees Boeke’s 1957 book, Cosmic View, the 10-minute film offers [...]
≡ Category: Books, Television | ≅ Leave a Comment
Long before 60 Minutes, Mike Wallace hosted his own talk show, The Mike Wallace Interview (1957 – 1960), where he asked probing questions to celebrities of the day. The complete archive – now available via the University of Texas (access it here) – features interviews with Frank Lloyd Wright, Eleanor Roosevelt, Salvador Dali, Reinhold Niebuhr, Aldous Huxley, and Henry Kissinger, to name [...]
≡ Category: iPhone, Media, Technology | ≅ 4 Comments
Today’s ruling is bound to get a lot of buzz, but probably for the wrong reasons. According to new rules set forth by The Library of Congress (which oversees the Copyright Office), iPhone owners can now legally “jailbreak” their device and download software that Apple/AT&T disapproves of. That will get the headlines. But we shouldn’t lose sight [...]
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