As I gather material for the blog, I often come across content that’s interesting, but not quite right for the blog. It seemed like Twitter might be a good place to add this bonus material. So from here on out, I’ll casually add some extra content there.

This is just a quick note to let you know that you can now follow Open Culture on Twitter. If you subscribe, you’ll know whenever we post something new on the site.

As you probably know, Open Culture launched a new look last week, and it seemed worth devoting a few words to it. With the new design, I was hoping to give the site a more inviting look and streamline the overall navigation. I was also hoping to make it clear that user contributions are always welcome.

A quick fyi: If you made a New Year’s resolution to become a serious writer, then you might be interested in these online writing courses offered by Stanford Continuing Studies (which, caveat emptor, I help oversee) and Stanford’s Creative Writing Program.

We have reached the final week of the presidential elections course. This week, Martin Lewis slices and dices the electoral results of the ’08 election and highlights the big and potentially far-reaching shifts in US voting patterns. No doubt, this is one of the more detailed analyses that you’ll find on the web.

In case you were wondering what kind of media we would be most hungry for in hard times (big budget action movies? escapist sit-coms), don’t forget that this is recession 3.0. Introducing The puppy cam, with 22,000 viewers and counting. The shibu puppies are adorable, worry-free, and of course, non-union.

It’s rare that we get to cover math here. So here it goes: Adrian Banner, a lecturer at Princeton, has put together a lecture series (in video) that will help students master calculus, a subject that has traditionally frustrated many students.

We have now posted Lecture 2 of our ongoing course, The Geography of US Presidential Elections, presented by Stanford’s Continuing Studies program. You can download it via TunesU here (in high res) or you can watch it embedded below.

A quick heads up: Borders is offering 25% any one item this week (until 10/26).

Here’s the YouTube video of the first lecture from The Geography of US Presidential Elections. The next installment comes next week.