The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ 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: Comedy, Politics | ≅ 4 Comments
In Fox’s world, nothing good is terribly safe. Even the lovable Muppets fall under withering attack. Last month, Fox Business spent seven minutes (below) unraveling the left wing conspiracy in the latest Muppet movie. Then the Muppets, not taking things lying down, struck back. Appearing at a press conference in London last week, Kermit the [...]
≡ Category: Comedy, Current Affairs, Politics | ≅ Leave a Comment
When the Supreme Court, in its infinite wisdom, decided that corporations enjoy the free speech rights of individuals, it took a bad campaign finance system and made it worse. Suddenly, free-spending PACs, representing powerful business interests, could flood our campaign finance system with unprecedented amounts of money and distort the way we elect leaders in [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Media, Politics, Technology | ≅ 1 Comment
Some of the big websites are going black today to protest SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, that has been winding its way through Congress. We’re going to handle things in our own way — by illuminating the matter with a little intelligent media. Backed by the Motion Picture Association of America, SOPA is designed [...]
≡ Category: Life, Politics, Religion | ≅ 4 Comments
18 months after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, the polemical writer Christopher Hitchens has died at the age of 62. His fans began to fear the worst last month when Hitchens, suddenly hospitalized with pneumonia, couldn’t attend a widely-publicized debate in London. The promoters of the event, Intelligence², quickly turned the debate into a celebration of Hitchens’ life. [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Economics, Politics | ≅ 2 Comments
Back in 2008, Annie Leonard produced The Story of Stuff (see below), a 20-minute animated film that explores the way our consumerist habits take a toll on the environment and sustainability. The video racked up millions of views on YouTube, and now Leonard returns with the second video in a longer series. It’s called the The Story [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Politics | ≅ 3 Comments
Noam Chomsky joined the faculty of MIT in 1955, and, soon enough established himself as “the father of modern linguistics.” (Watch him debate Michel Foucault in 1971.) During the 60s, he also firmly positioned himself as a leading public intellectual taking aim at American foreign policy and global capitalism, and we regularly saw him engaging with figures [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Music, Politics | ≅ 4 Comments
There’s something happening here What it is ain’t exactly clear… The intellectuals have paid a visit to Occupy Wall Street (Joseph Stiglitz, Lawrence Lessig, Slavoj Zizek, etc.). And so have some iconic cultural figures. This week, Willie Nelson and his wife wrote and read a poem supporting the surging movement. Then last night, Pete Seeger marched [...]
≡ Category: History, Music, Politics, Television | ≅ Leave a Comment
In September 1976, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford squared off in a presidential debate (watch here), and the following day, the legendary communication theorist Marshall McLuhan appeared on the TODAY show, then hosted by Tom Brokaw, to offer some almost real-time analysis of the debate. The first televised presidential debate was famously held in 1960, [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Philosophy, Politics | ≅ 4 Comments
When Slovenia’s hip Marxist/Lacanian critical theorist takes center stage at a Wall Street protest, it’s news for a culture site. No doubt. How can we not observe a rare moment of praxis? But, what it all means for the Occupy Wall Street movement, we’ll let you wrestle with that. Part 2 appears here. H/T Biblioklept. [...]
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