LinkedIn Rolls Out Pages for Universities

in Business | August 20th, 2013

As part of a larg­er effort to attract a younger demo­graph­ic, LinkedIn announced this week the launch of Uni­ver­si­ty Pages. Over 200 schools have built their pages so far — schools like New York Uni­ver­si­ty, Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia San Diego, Fun­dação Getúlio Var­gas, Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan, Vil­lano­va, Rochester Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy, Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois, and INSEAD. And, over the next few weeks, thou­sands more schools will get their chance to build pages that high­light what their insti­tu­tions have to offer. Down the line, LinkedIn sees these pages becom­ing cen­tral to the recruit­ment process — to match­ing stu­dents to the right uni­ver­si­ties, and then lat­er to the right jobs. You can learn more about Linked­In’s edu­ca­tion­al offer­ing here and here.

One day we’ll maybe have a LinkedIn page. For now, you can fol­low us on Face­book, Twit­ter and Google Plus and share intel­li­gent media with your friends! They’ll thank you for it.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

750 Free Online Cours­es from Top Uni­ver­si­ties

550 Free MOOCs from Great Uni­ver­si­ties (Many Offer­ing Cer­tifi­cates)

 

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Watch John Cleese as Sherlock Holmes in The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It

in Comedy | August 20th, 2013

Here’s some­thing to light­en your day a lit­tle: Mon­ty Python’s John Cleese as Sher­lock Holmes in the 1977 British tele­vi­sion film The Strange Case of the End of Civ­i­liza­tion as We Know It.

As the title sug­gests, it’s a very sil­ly film. Cleese plays Arthur Sher­lock Holmes, grand­son of the famous detec­tive. His side­kick, Dr. Wat­son, is sim­i­lar­ly descend­ed from a famil­iar char­ac­ter in the Arthur Conan Doyle sto­ries. Togeth­er they set out to foil a dia­bol­i­cal plot by their neme­sis, a descen­dent of Pro­fes­sor Mori­ar­ty. The mod­ern-day Holmes has some of the same man­ner­isms as his famous grand­fa­ther, but is decid­ed­ly less clever and likes to keep his cal­abash pipe filled with exot­ic vari­eties of cannabis.

Cleese co-wrote the script with Jack Hobbs and the film’s direc­tor, Joseph McGrath, who is best known for direct­ing the Peter Sell­ers movies Casi­no Royale and The Mag­ic Chris­t­ian. It was pro­duced for Lon­don Week­end Tele­vi­sion by Humphrey Bar­clay, who is gen­er­al­ly cred­it­ed with bring­ing togeth­er much of what even­tu­al­ly became the Mon­ty Python cast, includ­ing Amer­i­can ani­ma­tor Ter­ry Gilliam, in the sub­ver­sive late-1960s chil­dren’s show Do Not Adjust Your Set. Cleese’s wife at the time, Con­nie Booth, who was also col­lab­o­rat­ing with him on the TV series Fawl­ty Tow­ers, plays the detec­tive’s land­la­dy Mrs. Hud­son. And Arthur Lowe is very fun­ny as the dim-wit­ted Dr. Wat­son.

The Strange Case of the End of Civ­i­liza­tion as We Know It is a low-bud­get affair — extreme­ly goofy — and not for every­one. But if you’re a fan of clas­sic British TV com­e­dy and you love out­landish gags, you should get a kick out of it. The fun­ni­est parts begin after the 13-minute mark, when Cleese arrives onscreen.

You can find The Strange Case of the End of Civ­i­liza­tion as We Know It in our col­lec­tion, 4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Clas­sics, Indies, Noir, West­erns, Doc­u­men­taries & More.

Relat­ed con­tent:

Mon­ty Python’s Best Phi­los­o­phy Sketch­es

Arthur Conan Doyle Dis­cuss­es Sher­lock Holmes and Psy­chics in a Rare Filmed Inter­view (1927)

John Cleese Plays the Dev­il, Makes a Spe­cial Appeal for Hell, 1966

John Cleese’s Eulo­gy for Gra­ham Chap­man: ‘Good Rid­dance, the Free-Load­ing Bas­tard, I Hope He Fries’

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Crime Writer Elmore Leonard Provides 13 Writing Tips for Aspiring Writers

in Books, Literature, Writing | August 20th, 2013

Note: Elmore Leonard, the crime writer who gave us Get Shorty, Freaky Deaky, and Glitz, died at his home in Bloom­field Vil­lage, Michi­gan. He was 87. If you nev­er had a chance to read Leonard, you can start with “Ice Man,” a 2012 sto­ry that appeared in The Atlantic. It’s free online. You can also get a feel for his writ­ing by revis­it­ing a post writ­ten here by Mike Springer last year. It gives an overview of Leonard’s tips for aspir­ing writ­ers. And, in so doing, it pro­vides valu­able insight into how Leonard approached his craft. Elmore Leonard’s Ulti­mate Guide for Would-Be Writ­ers is reprint­ed in full below.

“If it sounds like writ­ing,” says Elmore Leonard, “I rewrite it.”

Leonard’s writ­ing sounds the way peo­ple talk. It rings true. In nov­els like Get Shorty, Rum Punch and Out of Sight, Leonard has estab­lished him­self as a mas­ter styl­ist, and while his char­ac­ters may be lowlifes, his books are received and admired in the high­est cir­cles. In 1998 Mar­tin Amis recalled vis­it­ing Saul Bel­low and see­ing Leonard’s books on the old man’s shelves. “Bel­low and I agreed,” said Amis, “that for an absolute­ly reli­able and unstint­ing infu­sion of nar­ra­tive plea­sure in a prose mirac­u­lous­ly purged of all false qual­i­ties, there was no one quite like Elmore Leonard.”

In 2006 Leonard appeared on BBC Two’s The Cul­ture Show to talk about the craft of writ­ing and give some advice to aspir­ing authors. In the pro­gram, shown above, Leonard talks about his deep appre­ci­a­tion of Ernest Hem­ing­way’s work in gen­er­al, and about his par­tic­u­lar debt to the 1970 crime nov­el The Friends of Eddie Coyle, by George V. Hig­gins. While explain­ing his approach, Leonard jots down three tips:

  • “You have to lis­ten to your char­ac­ters.”
  • “Don’t wor­ry about what your moth­er thinks of your lan­guage.”
  • “Try to get a rhythm.”

“I always refer to style as sound,” says Leonard. “The sound of the writ­ing.” Some of Leonard’s sug­ges­tions appeared in a 2001 New York Times arti­cle that became the basis of his 2007 book, Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writ­ing. Here are those rules in out­line form:

elmore-leonard-writing-advice

You can read more from Leonard on his rules in the 2001 Times arti­cle. And you can read his new short sto­ry, “Ice Man,” in The Atlantic.

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Hear Vladimir Nabokov Read From the Penultimate Chapter of Lolita

in Audio Books, Literature | August 20th, 2013

nabokov quiz

Image by Giuseppe Pino, via Wiki­me­dia Com­mons

There may be no more a despi­ca­ble yet ridicu­lous nar­ra­tor in twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry fic­tion than the sleazy, con­de­scend­ing Hum­bert Hum­bert. And there may be no bet­ter name in twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry fic­tion than Dolores Haze, Humbert’s 12-year-old step­daugh­ter and love inter­est, whom he calls, among oth­er things, his “nymphette,” Loli­ta.

Vladimir Nabokov’s tragi­com­ic 1955 nov­el Loli­ta still has the pow­er to shock, dis­gust, and elic­it wry laugh­ter from read­ers, with its satir­i­cal take on deca­dent old Europe and wise­crack­ing young Amer­i­ca. True to its mid-cen­tu­ry U.S. set­ting and sen­sa­tion­al­is­tic sub­ject mat­ter, the nov­el is packed not only with Humbert’s obses­sive­ly creepy descrip­tion and lay­ers of lit­er­ary allu­sion, but also with plen­ty of pulpy action, if we are to believe in the events Hum­bert nar­rates.

In the novel’s penul­ti­mate chap­ter, Hum­bert tracks down Clare Quilty, anoth­er preda­to­ry old­er man who takes advan­tage of Loli­ta. Hum­bert con­fronts, then kills Quilty (or so it seems). In the final chap­ter, Hum­bert  also dies, and we learn that the nov­el is in fact his mem­oir, willed only to be pub­lished after he and Loli­ta have died. In the audio clip at the top, hear Vladimir Nabokov him­self read from the cli­mac­tic chap­ter in which Hum­bert faces Quilty down, and direct­ly above, see the author read those first unfor­get­table lines: “Loli­ta, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta.”

Find more record­ings of Nabokov read­ing his work here.

Note: You can down­load essen­tial works by Vladimir Nabokov as free audio­books (includ­ing Jere­my Irons read­ing Loli­ta) if you sign up for a free 30 Tri­al with Audi­ble. Find more infor­ma­tion on that pro­gram here.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Vladimir Nabokov on Loli­ta: Just Anoth­er Great Love Sto­ry?

Vladimir Nabokov Talks About Life, Lit­er­a­ture & Love in a Metic­u­lous­ly Pre­pared Inter­view, 1969

Vladimir Nabokov Mar­vels Over Dif­fer­ent “Loli­ta” Book Cov­ers

Josh Jones is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC. Fol­low him at @jdmagness

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Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ Re-Created by Astronomer with 100 Hubble Space Telescope Images

in Art, Harvard, Science, Technology | August 20th, 2013

rsz_starrynight_hst001

Last week, I trav­eled to New York City to gaze into The Star­ry Night. Obvi­ous­ly I’m not talk­ing about the skies above Man­hat­tan, not when my hotel was based in Times Square. No, I’m talk­ing about Vin­cent van Gogh’s post-impres­sion­ist mas­ter­piece that hangs in the MoMA on 53rd Street. Although van Gogh seem­ing­ly felt ambiva­lent about his 1889 paint­ing, many now con­sid­er it one of the most impor­tant works of art pro­duced in the 19th cen­tu­ry. And like any oth­er great paint­ing, it has become a fetishized object, some­times in ways that we can find endear­ing. Take this lit­tle project for exam­ple. Last year, Alex Park­er, a post-doc­tor­al fel­low at the Har­vard-Smith­son­ian Cen­ter for Astro­physics, cre­at­ed a mosa­ic of Star­ry Night using 100 Hub­ble pho­tos. He down­loaded the pho­tos from the Euro­pean Space Agency’s web­site, popped them into a free dig­i­tal art soft­ware pack­age called AndreaMo­sa­ic and, voila, pro­duced the image above. You can — and should — view it in a larg­er, high-res for­mat here.

H/T Robin and Wired

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Simon Schama Presents Van Gogh and the Begin­ning of Mod­ern Art

Per­pet­u­al Ocean: A Van Gogh-Like Visu­al­iza­tion of our Ocean Cur­rents

Van Gogh to Rothko in 30 Sec­onds

 

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The Very Concise Suicide Note by Kodak Founder George Eastman: “My Work is Done. Why Wait?” (1932)

in History, Technology | August 19th, 2013

eastman suicide

In 1932 George East­man, the 77 year old entre­pre­neur who estab­lished the East­man Kodak Com­pa­ny, pop­u­lar­ized the use of roll film, and brought pho­tog­ra­phy to the main­stream, found him­self in declin­ing health. Suf­fer­ing from lum­bar spinal steno­sis, a nar­row­ing of the spinal canal that can lead to con­sid­er­able back pain and dif­fi­cul­ty walk­ing, East­man was depressed and increas­ing­ly dis­abled. On March 14th, he com­mit­ted sui­cide by fir­ing a sin­gle gun­shot through his heart. An act as brief, and to the point, as the note he left behind. It read:

To my friends

My work is done

Why wait?

GE

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

How Film Was Made: A Kodak Nos­tal­gia Moment

Ear­ly Exper­i­ments in Col­or Film (1895–1935)

Anne Sex­ton, Con­fes­sion­al Poet, Reads “Want­i­ng to Die” in Omi­nous 1966 Video

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Inside the Rhapsody: A Short Documentary on the Making of Queen’s Classic Song, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (2002)

in Music | August 19th, 2013

“Bohemi­an Rhap­sody” by Queen is one of the most auda­cious pop songs ever made. Part bal­lad, part opera, part heavy met­al orgasm, the song has six dis­tinct sec­tions and took over a month to record.  At just under six min­utes, “Bohemi­an Rhap­sody” was con­sid­ered too long for pop radio. “The record com­pa­ny, in their infi­nite igno­rance, of course imme­di­ate­ly sug­gest­ed that we cut it down,” said Queen drum­mer Roger Tay­lor, who stood by his band­mates and refused to let the song be cut. “It real­ly was hit or miss. It was either going to be mas­sive or it was going to be noth­ing.”

“Bohemi­an Rhap­sody,” of course, went on to become one of the most pop­u­lar songs in music his­to­ry. It spent nine weeks at num­ber one in the UK fol­low­ing its release in the fall of 1975, and went back to num­ber one after the death of singer Fred­die Mer­cury in 1991. In Amer­i­ca the song peaked at num­ber nine in 1976 and re-entered the charts at num­ber two in 1992, when it was fea­tured in the movie Wayne’s World. Last year, an ITV poll in Great Britain list­ed “Bohemi­an Rhap­sody” as “The Nation’s Favorite Num­ber One” song in 60 years of music.

Above, in the 3‑part mini doc­u­men­tary Inside the Rhap­sody, Queen takes you inside the mak­ing of the song. And, along the way, gui­tarist Bri­an May goes back to the mix­ing board to explain the com­plex­i­ty of lay­ers that went into real­iz­ing Mer­cury’s vision for the song. The orig­i­nal 24-track ana­logue record­ing sys­tem was far too lim­it­ed, so the band used the ping-pong tech­nique to “bounce” lit­er­al­ly hun­dreds of over­dubs into the mix. May explains how the oper­at­ic vocal lay­ers were inspired by the “cas­cad­ing strings” effect made famous by Annun­zio Pao­lo Man­to­vani, a tech­nique May first tried out in 1974 with the gui­tar solo on “Killer Queen.”

For more on the mak­ing of “Bohemi­an Rhap­sody,” please see our post, “Lis­ten to Fred­die Mer­cury’s Won­drous Piano and Vocal Tracks for ‘Bohemi­an Rhap­sody’ (1975).” And for a reminder of how it all came togeth­er, here’s the offi­cial video:

Inside the Rhap­sody has been added to our col­lec­tion, 285 Free Doc­u­men­taries Online.

Relat­ed con­tent:

Fred­die Mer­cury at Live Aid

Queen Doc­u­men­tary Pays Trib­ute to the Rock Band That Con­quered the World

Lis­ten to Fred­die Mer­cury and David Bowie on the Iso­lat­ed Vocal Track for the Queen Hit ‘Under Pres­sure,’ 1981

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Revisit Futuria Fantasia: The Science Fiction Fanzine That Ray Bradbury Published as a Teenager

in Sci Fi | August 19th, 2013

futuriafantasia

Bud­ding sci­ence-fic­tion authors today know that, to get their start, they should prob­a­bly go online and pub­lish them­selves. But even before the advent of the mod­ern inter­net, many writ­ers eager to tell spec­u­la­tive tales of human­i­ty’s future strug­gle with tech­nol­o­gy, knowl­edge, and its own nature showed a sim­i­lar self-start­ing bent. They made espe­cial­ly advan­ta­geous use of pho­to­copiers and sta­plers in the sev­en­ties and eight­ies, the decades com­mon­ly con­sid­ered the hey­day of those low-cir­cu­la­tion pub­li­ca­tions known as zines. But long before before that, the for­mat already incu­bat­ed seri­ous sci­ence-fic­tion tal­ent. Take Futuria Fan­ta­sia, which pub­lished four issues between 1939 and 1940. Its edi­tor? A cer­tain Ray Brad­bury, before Fahren­heit 451, before The Mar­t­ian Chron­i­cles — before every­thing.

“Released in 1939 short­ly after Brad­bury grad­u­at­ed from high school,” says Zinewik­i’s entry on the mag­a­zine, “Futuria Fan­ta­sia was pub­lished with the help of [sci-fi pro­mot­er] For­rest J. Ack­er­man, who lent Brad­bury $90.00 for the fanzine.” The first issue, avail­able free from Project Guten­berg, includes Brad­bury’s sto­ry “Let’s Get Tech­na­tal” (writ­ten under the pseu­do­nym “Ron Reynolds”) and poem “Thought and Space.”

The sec­ond issue includes an arti­cle he wrote under “Guy Amory” and his sto­ry “The Pen­du­lum.” The third includes a Brad­bury edi­to­r­i­al, the fourth anoth­er edi­to­r­i­al and the pseu­do­ny­mous sto­ries “The Piper” and “The Flight of the Good Ship Claris­sa.” “I hope you like this brain-child, spawned from the womb of a year long inan­i­ma­tion,” the ambi­tious young Brad­bury writes in his intro­duc­tion to the sum­mer 1939 issue. “This is only the first issue of FuFa … if it suc­ceeds there will be more, bet­ter issues com­ing up.” Three more would, indeed, emerge, but sure­ly even such a pre­dic­tive mind as Brad­bury’s could­n’t imag­ine what his career real­ly held in store.

You can hear all ten sto­ries from the Spring 1940 edi­tion of Futuria Fan­ta­sia in the playlist below. It includes “Gor­gono and Slith” by Ray Brad­bury:

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Ray Brad­bury Reads Mov­ing Poem on the Eve of NASA’s 1971 Mars Mis­sion

Ray Brad­bury: Sto­ry of a Writer 1963 Film Cap­tures the Para­dox­i­cal Late Sci-Fi Author

Ray Brad­bury Gives 12 Pieces of Writ­ing Advice to Young Authors (2001)

Ray Brad­bury Offers 12 Essen­tial Writ­ing Tips and Explains Why Lit­er­a­ture Saves Civ­i­liza­tion

Col­in Mar­shall hosts and pro­duces Note­book on Cities and Cul­ture and writes essays on lit­er­a­ture, film, cities, Asia, and aes­thet­ics. He’s at work on a book about Los Ange­les, A Los Ange­les Primer. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall.

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