Courtesy of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, we’re zooming into a “majestic disk of stars and dust lanes” and getting a stunning view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2841, which lies 46 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). But wait, it gets even better. This high resolution still photo shows the spiral galaxy in all its beauty and splendor…
Christopher Hitchens Answers Reddit User Questions
A little ways back, Christopher Hitchens fielded questions for 30 minutes from Reddit.com users, answering any and every question they threw his way. What historical figures, events or books have been underemphasized in American public education? Has the Iraq War (something Hitchens supported) had a positive or negative impact on Islamic extremism? What do socialism and libertarianism have in common intellectually, if anything? Other figures interviewed by Reddit users include Richard Dawkins, Noam Chomsky, and Ron Paul.
Evolution Made Us All
File under Everything is a Remix. Ben Hillman offers a creative little riff on “All Things Bright and Beautiful” (listen here), an Anglican hymn inspired by William Paley’s 1802 treatise, Natural Theology, which positions God as the designer of the natural world … in an Enlightenment kind of way. You can catch more Hillman videos on Vimeo here.
A Rare Look Inside Pixar Studios
Since 1995, Pixar has released a steady stream of award-winning animated films. First came Toy Story, then Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles, and most recently Toy Story 3. (You can revisit Pixar’s classics in this wonderful little tribute video.) Getting inside Pixar Studios has never been easy. But last week The New York Times pulled it off, producing a six minute video that takes you through the studios designed by Steve Jobs himself, and inside Pixar’s patented animation process – a process that combines more traditional and cutting-edge elements.
Note: This video tour also appears on Vimeo and YouTube.
H/T @matthiasrascher
The First Talk Radio Show on the Net (1993)
Back in the early 1990s, while most of us were still trying to wrap our heads around this new thing called the internet (don’t miss this amusing bit), NPR’s Science Friday started pushing the envelope and hosting the first internet-based radio talk show. This marked the first time that listeners could “phone into” a program via the web and talk together – in this case about the creative uses of this emerging technology. The broadcast, which singlehandedly brought the internet to a crawl, has now resurfaced online. You can listen below (or here).
via @Alyssa_Milano and ExtremeTech
Norman Mailer & Gore Vidal Feud on The Dick Cavett Show
Another chapter from America’s long history of incivility. Today, we rewind the videotape to December 1971, when Gore Vidal (already known for his televised spat with William F. Buckley) got into a verbal brawl with the always mercurial (and, on this occasion, sauced) novelist Norman Mailer. What the television audience sees is just the tip of the iceberg. Back in the greenroom, Mailer actually headbutted Vidal, taking revenge for a negative review that Vidal published in the New York Review of Books that previous summer. (Slate has more on this.) Cavett navigated the whole scene rather remarkably, as you’ll see. But still, almost 40 years later, he mulls over the difficulty of this one interview (and here again), even though many others (take for example this bit with Sly Stone) were no small challenge…
Related Content:
Norman Mailer & Marshall McLuhan Debate the Electronic Age
Mailer on the Ali-Foreman Classic
Steven Pinker: How Innuendo Makes Things Work
RSA has rolled out its latest animated video, and it’s a good one. This time we have Steven Pinker, the famed Harvard linguist and cognitive scientist, trying to make sense of innuendo. Why do we often say things in veiled terms, especially when everyone knows what’s really being said? Pinker breaks it all down, and explains how language provides the grease that lubricates everyday social relationships.
This clip is an excerpt from a longer lecture presented at the Royal Society of the Arts in London. Watch the full talk here, and scroll through previous RSA Animated videos right here.
NYU Launches Open Courses
Last summer, NYU announced that it will join the open courseware movement by making free courses available online, all in video. Fast forward several months, and you can now see the first fruits of NYU’s labor.
The Open Education pilot features four courses, the first of ten courses that will eventually appear online.
- History of New York City: A Social History – — iTunes Video –YouTube – Web Site – Prof. Daniel Walkowitz
- American Literature I: Beginnings to Civil War – iTunes — YouTube – Prof. Cyrus Patell
- Introduction to Sociology – Web Site – Prof. Harvey Molotch
- Genomes and Diversity – Web Site – Prof. Mark Siegal
You can profit from these courses no matter where you live, and the same applies to NYU students. NYU now operates campuses across the globe, from Argentina to Abu Dhabi, to Singapore and soon Shanghai. And the hope is these students can all participate in a common curriculum. Hence a reason why NYU put these courses online.
You can read more about the NYU pilot here, and find 350 free online courses from stellar universities here. If you have a smartphone, you can always access these courses on the fly…
H/T to Dara at Do It Yourself Scholar
What’s Your English? British v. Canadian Rap Battle
In 2010, the folks who publish the Macmillan Dictionary launched the ‘What’s your English?’ campaign. They then spent a good year traveling across the globe, visiting nations where English is spoken, and asking experts and everyday speakers to talk about their regional dialects. The United States, Australia, Ireland, Scotland and Canada were obvious stops. But the tour also swept through India, Russia, Brazil, China, Mexico and beyond. Now, to cap things off, Macmillan has posted a “rap battle” between British and Canadian English, featuring “Baba Brinkman” and hip hop emcee “Professor Elemental.” Get the lyrics/script here. H/T Metafilter.
Related Content:
How to Learn Languages for Free: Spanish, English, Chinese & 37 Other Languages
First 360 Degree View of the Sun
A new NASA breakthrough lets us see the sun in a 360 degree, panoramic view. The upshot? Better space weather reports coming our way. The video from NASA’s YouTube channel has all the good details …
100 Greatest Posters of Film Noir
During the 1940s and 50s, Hollywood entered a “noir” period, producing riveting films based on hard-boiled fiction. These films were set in dark locations and shot in a black & white aesthetic that fit like a glove. Hardened men wore fedoras and forever smoked cigarettes. Women played the femme fatale role brilliantly. Love was the surest way to death. All of these elements figured into what Roger Ebert calls “the most American film genre” in his short Guide to Film Noir. (Also find 23 noir films right here.)
Accompanying noir films were visually engaging movie posters, and Where Danger Lives (a noir blog) now gives you the “100 Greatest Posters of Film Noir.” They’ve been working through this “best of” list for the past three months, and they conclude this week with the Top 10 … the best of the best.
Related Content:
Support Us
We're hoping to rely on loyal readers, rather than erratic ads. Please click the Donate button and support Open Culture. You can use Paypal, Venmo, Patreon, even Crypto! We thank you!
Receive our Daily Email
About Us
Open Culture scours the web for the best educational media. We find the free courses and audio books you need, the language lessons & educational videos you want, and plenty of enlightenment in between.
Advertise With Us
