The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Music, Television | ≅ Leave a Comment
In April of 1964, the British Broadcasting Corporation launched BBC Two as a highbrow alternative to its mainstream TV channel. One of the new channel’s first programs was Jazz 625, which spotlighted many of the greatest Jazz musicians of the day. Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans and others performed on the show, [...]
≡ Category: Music, Television | ≅ 4 Comments
In early 1964, Bob Dylan was at the apex of his journey as a socially conscious folk singer. The fleeting moment is preserved in this rare half-hour TV program, recorded on February 1 of that year. Within a week the Beatles would land in America. In a little over a month, Dylan would rent an [...]
≡ Category: History | ≅ 3 Comments
On this day a half century ago, Mercury Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. On the morning of February 20, 1962, an anxious nation watched as Glenn climbed into his cramped Friendship 7 space capsule and was propelled by an Atlas 6 rocket high above the atmosphere. He circled the Earth [...]
≡ Category: Audio Books, Books, Philosophy, Physics, Science | ≅ 1 Comment
“Everybody knows that Einstein did something astonishing,” writes Bertrand Russell in the opening passage of ABC of Relativity, “but very few people know exactly what it was. It is generally recognized that he revolutionized our conception of the physical world, but the new conceptions are wrapped up in mathematical technicalities. It is true that there are [...]
≡ Category: Film, Television | ≅ 7 Comments
Note: Apparently this video is geo-restricted by YouTube, and we had no way of knowing this before publication. Our apologies. To make it up to you, we have pulled together 21 Hitchcock films that are freely available online. Alfred Hitchcock takes us inside his creative process in this fascinating 1964 program from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. [...]
≡ Category: Film, History | ≅ 3 Comments
British Pathé has released an interesting collection of vintage newsreel clips highlighting early experiments in hybrid sports. Some of the feats are daring, others merely silly. All are fun to watch. Newsreels of this type were an important part of the movie-going experience in the first half of the 20th century, often featuring coverage of [...]
≡ Category: Comedy, Television | ≅ Leave a Comment
They say a man falls in love through his eyes, a woman through her ears. In this scene from Twin Peaks, David Lynch pours on the ear-shattering charm. The scene is from episode 25 of the second and final season (1991). Lynch makes a cameo appearance as Gordon Cole, the hard-of-hearing regional bureau chief of the FBI, [...]
NOTE: If you are having problems viewing the video on our site, you can also watch it here. With Valentine’s Day almost here, we thought it would be an opportune time to bring you the story of Auguste Rodin’s erotically charged masterpiece, The Kiss. In this video from the Tate museums, Jane Burton explains how [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Film, Math, Politics | ≅ 5 Comments
This week the British government once again refused to pardon Alan Turing. One of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, Turing laid the foundations for computer science and played a key role in breaking the Nazi Enigma code during World War II. In 1952 he was convicted of homosexuality. He killed himself two years later, after [...]
≡ Category: Astronomy, Education, Science, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
Here’s something you don’t see every night: the far side of the Moon, photographed by one of NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft. The Moon is “tidally locked” in its orbit around the Earth, meaning its rotational and orbital periods are exactly synchronized. As a result, we always see the same view of [...]
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