The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: History | ≅ 1 Comment
In early August 1945, the world officially entered the atomic age when the United States dropped two devastating bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 200,000 people. The destruction is hard to put to words. But when words fail, images begin to fill the void. Last week, 360Cities gave viewers one very stark reminder of what [...]
≡ Category: Comedy, Music | ≅ Leave a Comment
Tom Waits and Cookie Monster. They are one-of-a-kind characters … and yet strangely interchangeable. Above, we have the body of Cookie Monster channeling the voice of Tom Waits, singing “God’s Away On Business.” And if you doubt the similarities, simply give a listen to the all-time favorite C is for Cookie… Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and [...]
≡ Category: Animation, Film | ≅ 1 Comment
David Lynch spent five years working on his surrealist film Eraserhead, and when it finally hit cinemas in 1977, critics panned the film. (Variety called it a “sickening bad-taste exercise.”) Then, adding insult to injury, the film was rejected by the Cannes Film Festival. Time has certainly been kinder to Eraserhead. Over the years, Stanley Kubrick, [...]
≡ Category: Life, Physics, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
The search for extraterrestrial life brings us right back to where we started, planet Earth, at least for a moment. NASA researchers have discovered evidence that some building blocks of DNA, the molecule that holds the genetic instructions for life, were likely created in space and then brought to Earth by meteorites, leaving behind a “kit [...]
≡ Category: Stanford, Technology | ≅ 2 Comments
This fall, professors from Stanford’s prestigious School of Engineering will offer online three of its most popular computer science courses: Machine Learning, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Introduction to Databases. (You can sign up by clicking on these links.) The courses will feature short, interactive video clips that students can watch whenever and wherever they want; short quizzes [...]
≡ Category: Art, Books, Literature | ≅ 1 Comment
In late 1920, the Dadaist writer Tristan Tzara wrote “dada manifesto on feeble love and bitter love,” which included a section called “To Make a Dadaist Poem,” and it gave these instructions: Take a newspaper. Take some scissors. Choose from this paper an article of the length you want to make your poem. Cut out [...]
≡ Category: Books, Literature | ≅ 2 Comments
We take you back to the mid 1950s, to an interview with Vladimir Nabokov and literary critic Lionel Trilling conducted soon after the publication of Lolita (1955). Lolita’s basic plot is well known — middle-aged Humbert Humbert develops a passionate obsession for twelve-year old Dolores Haze and takes her on the road. For some critics, this [...]
≡ Category: Beat & Tweets | ≅ Leave a Comment
What cultural goodies did we tweet (and re-tweet) on our Twitter stream during the past week? Here are the highlights. Follow us on Twitter at @openculture to get the rest, or Like us on Facebook. We’ll keep you plugged into mind-expanding culture every day. Albert Camus Killed by the KGB? For criticizing the Soviet Union? Telegram Sent by [...]
≡ Category: Religion, Science, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
Last month, Jonathan Pararajasingham created a montage of 50 renowned academics, including many Nobel prize winners, talking about their thoughts on the existence of God. And boy did it generate some debate. (Watch the video and read the comments here.) Now comes Part II, which features George Lakoff, Richard Dawkins, Simon Schaffer, Patricia Churchland, and Michio Kaku, among others. The [...]
≡ Category: Life, Physics, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
In 1989, PBS’ NOVA aired The Last Journey of a Genius, a television film that documents the final days of the great physicist Richard Feynman and his obsession with traveling to Tannu Tuva, a state outside of outer Mongolia, which then remained under Soviet control. For the better part of a decade, Feynman and his friend Ralph [...]
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