The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Life, Literature, Music | ≅ 1 Comment
Courtesy of New York Social Diary, here is a lovely series of photographs featuring famous authors and their dogs. If you’ve ever wondered which breeds have served as muse to William Styron, Stephen King, William F. Buckley, Kurt Vonnegut, then this collection is for you. But be warned: We’re still recovering from the sight of that [...]
≡ Category: Media, Technology | ≅ Leave a Comment
Malte Spitz, a member of the Green Party in Germany, sued Deutsche Telekom and forced the company to hand over six months of recorded cell phone data. The results were fairly eye opening. During a five month period, DT tracked Spitz’s location and phone usage 35,000 times. If that sounds like a lot, you’re right. And [...]
≡ Category: Comedy, Literature | ≅ 1 Comment
Over at OhNoTheyDidn’t, you can find some alternative titles for some of the most famous books ever written — or, in ONDT’s own words, titles that are “more accurate and less pretentious” than the originals. Before clicking over to the (slightly NFSW)Â whole collection, test your high/low cultural agility by trying to guess a few originals [...]
≡ Category: Film, History, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Leave a Comment
A few years ago, we posted this 1978 interview with Timothy Leary, in which the charismatic LSD champion, prisoner, and future Ron Paul supporter speaks passionately about the benefits of taking acid. But for a more balanced perspective on the controversial drug, we recommend the 2002 film Hofmann’s Potion (2002), by Canadian filmmaker Connie Littlefeld. Littlefield structures [...]
≡ Category: History | ≅ Leave a Comment
50 years ago today, Adolf Eichmann, a key architect of the Holocaust, went on trial before an Israeli tribunal in Jerusalem. During the war, Eichmann served as the Transportation Administrator of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” meaning he coordinated all the trains that transported Jews to their deaths in East European extermination camps. [...]
≡ Category: Film, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ 2 Comments
The clip above features Peter Finch’s explosive “mad as hell” speech from Sidney Lumet’s Network (1976). It is as relevant today as it was 35 years ago, if not more so — just like its director. In this this recent interview, Mr. Lumet, who also brought us such classics as 12 Angry Men, Serpico, The Verdict, and Dog Day [...]
≡ Category: Film, Music | ≅ Leave a Comment
In 1996, three California 17-year-olds (who should have known better) channeled all of their money and passion into staging a rock opera based on Star Wars IV: A New Hope. They’d only scheduled it for a three night run, but it played to a sold-out crowd and, according to Salon’s Drew Grant, earned the two [...]
≡ Category: Business, Current Affairs, Economics | ≅ 7 Comments
Last month, China hit another major milestone. It passed Japan and became the second largest economy in the world, leaving only the US in its way. Give China a decade, maybe a little more, and it will inevitably surge into the lead. That’s the accepted narrative. But then we come across this: the possibility that a [...]
≡ Category: Art, Literature, Poetry | ≅ Leave a Comment
Who doesn’t love Billy Collins, the former US Poet Laureate? The actor Bill Murray reads his poetry at construction sites. Adorable toddlers recite his poetry from memory. And now artists have created animated videos that bring 11 Collins poems to life. You can find the animated version of “Budapest” above, and the remaining poems at [...]
≡ Category: Astronomy, Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
We turned off the lights and switched to the biggest monitor in the house, to get the full planetarium effect of this wonderful website. It’s called the Solar System Scope, and gives you a chance to observe space from within it, rather than dutifully studying it in a textbook or on a screen. Clicking on the [...]
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