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The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Life, Literature | ≅ Leave a Comment
A few days ago, we gave you Neil Gaiman’s dark animated Christmas poem. Now, it’s time for his entirely upbeat New Year’s Benediction, which has some perfect words for anyone with a creative urging. This short video was recorded last year at Symphony Hall in Boston. Best wishes to all…
≡ Category: Most Popular, Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
That’s it. We’re putting a wrap on 2010. We’ll hit the ground running again on Monday. But, until then, we leave you with a handy list of our favorite and most popular posts from 2010, all ordered in a rather random way. If you crave a little more Open Culture goodies, you can always browse [...]
≡ Category: Life, Physics | ≅ 2 Comments
As the year winds to a close, Big Think has pulled together a list of their Most Popular Videos of 2010. Perhaps the biggest thinker on the list is Stephen Hawking, the renowned theoretical physicist, who issues a stark warning. “Our only chance of long term survival, is not to remain inward looking on planet [...]
≡ Category: Film | ≅ 2 Comments
Earlier this year, Leandro Copperfield spent days re-watching the films of Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers. Then, using 500+ scenes from 17 movies, he developed a montage tribute called Tarantino vs Coen Brothers, which nicely complements his other short tribute, Kubrick vs Scorsese. Now comes something a little different – a montage celebrating the films [...]
≡ Category: Life, Philosophy, TED Talks | ≅ Leave a Comment
Denis Dutton – the founder of Arts & Letters Daily and philosophy professor at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand – passed away today. He was 66 years old. In 2009, he wrote his most recent book, The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution. Above, we have Dutton speaking at TED, elaborating [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Film, History | ≅ 1 Comment
Almost 40 years (and seven presidential administrations) have passed since Orson Welles narrated Freedom River. And although the animation shows some age, the parable, the commentary on America, still resonates today. Or, at least I suspect many viewers will think so. The backstory behind the film deserves a little mention. According to Joseph Cavella, a [...]
≡ Category: Technology | ≅ Leave a Comment
Where was this when I needed it 30 years ago? Two students at Rowan University, Zachary Grady and Joe Ridgeway, have constructed a robotic arm that can solve the Rubik’s Cube in 15 seconds. As The New Scientist explains, the “system uses a camera to capture how the cube is scrambled and sends the images [...]
≡ Category: Art | ≅ Leave a Comment
No doubt about it, the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 ranks as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries. One slab of stone deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs and demystified the history of Ancient Egypt. Now, we had a window into the real history of Ancient Egypt, not the imagined one. The story behind the Rosetta [...]
≡ Category: Film, Physics, Science, Video - Science | ≅ 7 Comments
A fascinating 20-minute documentary exploring the universe’s immense scale of distance and time.
≡ Category: Film, Literature | ≅ Leave a Comment
Back in 1993, the Beat writer William S. Burroughs wrote and narrated a 21 minute claymation Christmas film. And, as you can well imagine, it’s not your normal happy Christmas flick. Nope, this film – The Junky’s Christmas – is all about Danny the Carwiper, a junkie, who spends Christmas Day trying to score a [...]
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