Google Brings Magazines To The Web

in Google, Media | December 10th, 2008

Just last month, Google announced that it was bringing the massive LIFE Magazine photo archive online. Two million photos are already uploaded, and another 8 million will be coming online soon.

This week, they’ve made a new announcement. The upshot? Google has reached an agreement with magazine publishers to digitize their historical archives. This will bring millions of articles to the web, and you’ll be able to access them through Google Book Search. Old media keeps coming over to new media.

Among the titles, you’ll find New York Magazine, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Mother Jones, Runners World, Ebony, Men’s Health, Vegetarian Times and more.

PS Google has also posted the top search terms of 2008. It’s a window into the Zeitgeist. Have a look.

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A Short Introduction to The Great Depression & The New Deal

in Current Affairs, History | December 9th, 2008

Eric Rauchway, an American historian at UC-Davis (and an old grad school colleague of mine), published a timely book earlier this year, The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction. And it sets him up perfectly to talk about an historical moment that’s now back on our minds.

Rauchway appeared last week on EconTalk (iTunes – Feed – MP3), a podcast that’s getting some play lately, and spent a good hour surveying the economic crisis that all others will be measured against. The conversation starts with the aftermath of World War I, where John Maynard Keynes saw the economic problems beginning. (Read online his 1919 book, The Economic Consequences of the Peace.) Then, it moves through the 1920s, the stock market crash, Hoover’s attempts to restore stability (which weren’t as bungling as his historical reputation now suggests) and finally FDR’s New Deal and the effects of World War II. If you have an hour, you’ll learn a good deal.

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Radio Free World

in Media | December 9th, 2008

RadioBeta is a newish venture that allows you to reach radio stations around the globe, to create your personal playlists, and listen to them for free. Just search by geography or genre, and then start listening in the player on RadioBeta’s website.

Obviously, you will encounter many stations on RadioBeta broadcasting in a foreign language. To learn a new language, please visit our collection How to Learn Languages for Free: Spanish, English, Chinese & 37 Other Languages, and you’ll be on your way.

via Lifehacker

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Download New Book From the Free Culture Movement

in Books, Law | December 9th, 2008

A quick heads up…

James Boyle, a law professor at Duke University, has just put out a new book called The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind, and it basically tells citizens what they need to know about intellectual property law to take meaningful part in our emerging information society. The book clearly complements a lot of the work done by Lawrence Lessig. You can snap up a copy in three different formats (Free PDF copy, Free HTML copy, Buy on Amazon) and also find other free, downloadable books at Creative Commons.

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T.S. Eliot on YouTube

in Literature, Video - Arts & Culture | December 8th, 2008

Michael Gough (I believe) reads the poem that launched T.S. Eliot’s career in 1917, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (get the full text of the poem here)

For more free downloads of classic audio books and poetry, see our complete collection.

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Footage of Nietzsche’s Final Days

in Philosophy | December 7th, 2008

Nietzsche’s final days weren’t ones that you’d wish on anyone. Some biographers speculate that he contracted syphilis, which eventually triggered his decline into madness in 1899. Two strokes followed, then pneumonia and it was all over in August, 1900. The footage below is apparently from 1899, and we’re now adding it to our YouTube Favorites, which currently has 399. Who wants to put it over 400?
 

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10 Best Books of 2008

in Books | December 4th, 2008

Each year, The New York Times names its 100 Notable Books. Then, they shorten the list and name their top ten.

The Times published 100 Notable Books of 2008 last weekend, and now we have The 10 Best Books of 2008. We’ve listed the books below, along with links to the first chapter of most works. For more insight into what the book review team found special about each book, just click here.

Fiction

Non-Fiction

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The Wire: Four Seasons in Four Minutes

in Television | December 3rd, 2008

Some have put it on the level of a Tolstoy novel. Others have made the comparison to Dickens. No matter how you slice it, The Wire is TV at its best. Below, we have posted a fast-moving summary of the first four seasons, which was made in the same format as the viral video The Nine Minute Sopranos. The fifth and final season of The Wire is not included here. But that’s just as well. If you want to watch the series in full, you don’t want to know how it ends. Actually, on second thought, you may not want to watch any of this. Move forward at your own risk.  

 

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Open Culture was founded by Dan Colman.