≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
Voila, the 1899 precursor to this amazing 2009 bike stunt video originally found on the @courosa Twitter stream. And who can doubt that we’re making progress?
via Andrew Sullivan
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
When you’re reading The New York Times and stumble upon a word you don’t know, you can highlight it and the Times will give you the definition. Naturally, the Times keeps track of the definitions it provides. So what are the most commonly looked up words? You can find the top ten below. (Get a [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
A nice creative use of Legos. For $55, you can build The Guggenheim Museum and Fallingwater, two Frank Lloyd Wright creations, with Legos. That’s right up there with Classic Photographs Remade Lego Style.
via BoingBoing
≡ Category: Media, Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
After 17 years of climbing the ladder, Dan Baum finally landed his dream job at The New Yorker. But things didn’t work out quite as he planned. On Twitter this week, Baum tells the story of his rise and fall. You can read a consolidated Twitter-style transcript here. A pretty intriguing look at what happens [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
At the TED Conference, actress Sarah Jones takes a funny look at “the invention of self,” which is a fancy way of saying she does some good impersonations. Coming up, Jones impersonates an elderly Jewish women, a young fast-talking Dominican college student, people from various nationalities (China, India, France, Germany, Jordan, etc.). And it’s all mixed with [...]
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Just a quick fyi, we created a little Facebook page where you can access our daily content. So head over and become a “Fan.” And tell a friend.
Also, please note, you can find us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed. And remember that we’re now located at www.openculture.com
Have a good weekend.
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 4 Comments
Give this a minute. It gets quite good once it gets going. Thanks Philip for sending this along. (Readers always feel free to send intelligent audio & video our way.)
≡ Category: Most Popular, Random | ≅ 25 Comments
I was asked by a newspaper reporter today how people, like you, are using open university courses (such as those found here). And the truth is, I’m not always sure. So I figured, why not put the question out there and ask you. Here it goes: How are you using these courses? Are you listening [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 1 Comment
Here’s a quick announcement, and please take note. Starting today, you can find Open Culture at www.openculture.com. Our old domain (oculture.com) will still work, as will old links. But they’ll forward (hopefully) seamlessly to the new domain. Why the change? Because it seemed time to have the url actually match the site’s name.
If you encounter [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 1 Comment
If you’re visiting Open Culture thanks to The New York Times article, and if you’re looking for audio downloads for your next road trip, then please explore our Audio & Podcast Collection, which includes (among other things) free audio books, free foreign language lessons, free university courses, and much more. You can download these audio files [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
File this clip (now added to our YouTube Favorites) under Random. See you next week.
via Alfred A. Knopf Twitter Feed (ours here)
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 1 Comment
Here’s what it looks like if you plant a camera in the same location for one year and snap photos throughout the changing seasons. Video is striking but random. So we’re filing it under “Random.”
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 6 Comments
We’ve been having some problems posting videos, and think we now have it figured out. So we’re posting a test.
In case you don’t know the backstory, President Bush made a final surprise trip to Iraq today and held a joint news conference. It ended abruptly when an Iraqi journalist started throwing his shoes at him. [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 1 Comment
What’s Thanksgiving without Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant?”
The video is below. The lyrics to the song, originally released in 1967, are here. An interview with Guthrie is here (use Real Player to listen).
Have a good holiday. We’ll be back on Monday (maybe sooner).
Arlo Guthrie Alice's Restaurant
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
Nope, this is not exactly another piece of vintage YouTube goodness. From what I can piece together, Nokia is marketing a Bruce Lee cell phone in China, and this is the commercial that’s backing their promotion. Needless to say, there are some digital enhancements going on here. But it’s amusing nonetheless.
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≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
No commentary really needed. Just watch. Filed under “Random” and added to our YouTube playlist.
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≡ Category: Random | ≅ 19 Comments
What are some of the most annoying phrases in the English language? In a new forthcoming book, A Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, Oxford researchers list the common phrases that we use incorrectly or just all too excessively. Here’s the list (and if you have your own disliked expressions, list them below in [...]
≡ Category: Music, Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
Classic!
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≡ Category: Random | ≅ 1 Comment
This is half art/half random, or maybe it’s better to say half random/half art. Anyway, it calls to mind one of our popular posts (Elephant Painting) from months to go. So here it is, an animated short by Nicolas Deveaux.
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≡ Category: Law, Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
The name Alex Kozinski probably won’t mean much to many of you. But if you’re a lawyer, or a Supreme Court watcher, you’ll know that he’s the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (a really prestigious position). Rather recently, he’s been associated with a highly visible pornography scandal [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
Presented creatively …
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
The AirTraffic team presents a rather intriguing visualization of what global air traffic looks like over a 24 hour period. File this under Random. Here it goes:
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≡ Category: Random | ≅ 1 Comment
A quick fyi, you can catch live streams of the Olympic Games via the web.
If you live in the US, you can watch at NBCOlympics.com,
If you live in the UK and Europe, you can get the stream at BBC TV Olympics
If you live on China’s Mainland, you can see the games at CCTVOlympics.com
And for Australian [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ 3 Comments
A little summer randomness. It’s actually quite beautiful …
(And, no, I’m not sure if this is technically a tsunami.)
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≡ Category: Random | ≅ 2 Comments
1200 people live in Antarctica during the summer, and about 200 in winter. Assuming that you’re not among them, we’ve posted this time lapse video to show you what you’re missing:
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≡ Category: Random | ≅ 4 Comments
What can you say about this? A quick trip back to the 1950s… File this under Random …
(For foreign readers, all you need to know is that The Flintstones was a classic American cartoon.)
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Related Content:
Rewind the Videotape: Mike Wallace Interviews 1950s Celebrities
≡ Category: Art, Random, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ 2 Comments
When completed in Dubai, this “dynamic building” designed by David Fisher will be in constant motion, always changing its shape, and also generate its own electric energy. You can reserve your apartment today, or wait for similar buildings to get erected in Moscow and New York. The whole concept feels a bit Las Vegas-esque. But [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
Appearing at the TED Conference, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman sums up “what’s wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it’s putting the entire planet at risk.” As you may notice, some of Bittman’s comments echo the [...]
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
Perhaps this is a little off topic, I know. But it’s fairly wild. And it’s the start of summer.
(For more good robot videos click here and here, and for more substantive musical podcasts, click here.)
via Matthew Yglesias
≡ Category: Random | ≅ Leave a Comment
Since we highlighted a free audio book of George Orwell’s 1984 earlier in the week, it seemed worth posting this bit from BoingBoing TV — a nice puppet deconstruction of Orwell’s classic. What a way to start the weekend.
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