On Friday, we mentioned the BBC production called “What on Earth is Wrong with Gravity.” Below is another video by the same producers called “Psychedelic Science,” which surveys the past and present of psychedelic drugs, and the new era of scientists exploring ways to use these drugs again for therapeutic purposes (i.e., the treatment of schizophrenia and addiction).
via Boing Boing
Speaking of psychedelics, we’ve posted a documentary below (yet another BBC production) that takes a not entirely flattering look at the life of Timothy Leary, the Harvard psychology professor who went counterculture in 1960s and advocated the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD. I remember seeing him years later when I was in college. My memory of the man: Spunky and about as nonlinear as you could get.
Every now and then, we like to list the top ranking educational on podcasts on iTunes. No matter how much time goes by, one thing seems to stay the same: people like podcasts that teach foreign languages, particularly Spanish, above all else. Have a look, and if you want to learn more foreign languages, visit our Foreign Language Lesson Podcast Collection. It covers 26 different languages.
#1. Coffee Break Spanish iTunes Feed Web Site
#2. Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing iTunes Feed Web Site
#3. Learn Spanish at SpanishPod101 iTunes Feed Web Site
#4. Learn Spanish Survival Guide iTunes Feed Web Site
#5. Learn to Speak Spanish iTunes Feed Web Site
#6. The French Pod Class iTunes Feed Web Site
#7. Spanish Podcasts for Beginners iTunes Feed Web Site
#8. Learn French with Coffee Break French iTunes Feed Web Site
#9. LearnItalianPod.com iTunes Feed Web Site
#10. JapanesePod101.com iTunes Feed Web Site
What would it look like if you stuck today’s stars in Hitchcock’s classic films? Vanity Fair tried to figure it out.
Courtesy of the BBC, this video features Brian Cox, a particle physicist and ex D:Ream keyboard player, who travels across the US, firing lasers at the moon and going wild in the Arizona desert, all in order to understand the deep secrets of gravity — something that neither Newton nor Einstein fully understood. It’s in gravity, Cox thinks, that we can find the meaning and logic of the Universe.
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We covered the Second Amendment a couple of weeks ago. (Does it confer the right to bear arms?) So why not touch on the First Amendment this week and point you to an engaging interview (MP3 — iTunes — Feed) with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Lewis, who has just released the new book: Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment.
For those who use their iPod to take advantage of our copious podcast collections:
via Lifehacker
If you’re a resident of a Super Tuesday state, we hope you can find some time to pull the lever tomorrow. Also, we hope you’ll forgive (at least) one more political post before Super Tuesday. Whatever your political affiliations, the video below is a compelling example of new media at work. According to the New York Times’ political blog, the lead singer of the Black Eyed Peas rounded up 30 or so celebrities and put together this video set to the soundtrack of Barack Obama’s concession speech in New Hampshire. Because the group worked for free and edited the video on their own, they turned the project around in two days. The effect is powerful (and the video is added to our YouTube Playlist). You can see Obama’s original speech here.
Is this blogworthy? Amusing? You be the judge:
On the eve of Super Tuesday, things are getting ugly. Immanuel Kant has gone negative on Friedrich Nietzsche (see below), and the Nietzsche campaign has wasted no time responding. These enlightened attacks ads have been added to our YouTube Playlist.
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“Across the Universe” was written by John Lennon in 1969. On Monday, NASA will beam “Across the Universe” literally across the universe, straight to Polaris, the North Star. According to Wired Magazine, the song traveling at the speed of light will take 431 years to reach its final destination, which is a mere 2.5 quadrillion miles away. Lennon must be smiling somewhere.
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