Rare Recording of Walt Whitman Reading From His Poem “America”

in Literature, Poetry | May 17th, 2008

Appar­ent­ly, this is “an authen­tic wax cylin­der record­ing of Whit­man read­ing from his late poem ‘Amer­i­ca’ that appeared in 1888 …”

Wikipedia Goes Commercial

in Media | May 7th, 2008

The Ger­man pub­lish­er Ber­tels­mann announced that it will pub­lish annu­al­ly a 1,000 page edi­tion of Wikipedia start­ing next Sep­tem­ber. To be called “The One-Vol­ume Wikipedia Ency­clo­pe­dia,” it will sell for 19.95 euros (or rough­ly $32 U.S.) and fea­ture some of the most pop­u­lar arti­cles from the Ger­man ver­sion of Wikipedia. One euro per copy will go back to Wiki­me­dia, which runs Wikipedia. But noth­ing, as Read­writeweb notes, will go to the writ­ers who actu­al­ly cre­ate the ency­clo­pe­dia entries.

Because Wikipedia is pub­lished under a free license, its con­tent can be freely used and com­mer­cial­ized. And that’s pre­cise­ly what Ber­tels­mann plans to do. In Wikipedia, Ber­tels­mann has found a moth­er­lode of free con­tent it. It can then mon­e­tize that con­tent, keep most of the prof­its (a pub­lish­er’s dream), and kick 5% back to Wiki­me­dia, most like­ly as a way to under­cut the crit­ics. It’s all per­haps legal. But does it feel a bit unseem­ly? Just a touch. Or maybe you dis­agree?

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (and Other Classic Films Online)

in Film | May 1st, 2008

It’s not exact­ly the same as watch­ing a film on the sil­ver screen. But you get what you pay for. Below, we have Frank Capra’s 1939 clas­sic, Mr. Smith Goes to Wash­ing­ton, star­ring Jim­my Stew­art and Claude Rains. For those who cling to the hope that democ­ra­cies can rid them­selves of cor­rup­tion and spe­cial inter­ests, this film is for you, and it also appears in our col­lec­tion of free online movies.

Get a high­er qual­i­ty copy of Capra’s clas­sic on DVD here.

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

Self-Regenerating Robots

in Science | April 29th, 2008

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia has done it. They’ve cre­at­ed a robot that you can kick apart, and it knows how to reassem­ble itself. Eerie stuff. Give it a few decades, and these guys (the robots and the stu­dents) will be run­ning the show. (Video added to our YouTube playlist)

via Marc Andreessen’s blog

For lots of good sci­ence pod­casts, check out our list here.

The British Slant on the Mac v. PC Ads

in Apple, Television | April 28th, 2008

Across the pond, Apple is run­ning a series of ads fash­ioned after the “Mac v. PC” com­mer­cials that have run so suc­cess­ful­ly in the States. Although the vocab­u­lary and accent are nat­u­ral­ly dif­fer­ent, the gist of the British ads is essen­tial­ly the same. Yes, Apple’s schtick trans­lates well, and I’m declar­ing the third one my favorite. (See the series of com­mer­cials below.)

As our read­ers from Lon­don will know (fact: we have more read­ers from Lon­don than any oth­er one city), the actors in Apple’s ads are hard­ly unfa­mil­iar. The two — David Mitchell (PC) and Robert Webb (Mac) — star in the award-win­ning Eng­lish sit­com, Peep Show, which is just about to begin a new sea­son. (Watch sec­ond clip below. Note that it fea­tures adult lan­guage and themes.)

Body of War: Paralyzed in Iraq and the Long Road Back

in Current Affairs, Film | April 27th, 2008

On the Amer­i­can home front, the Iraq war has entered its apa­thet­ic phase. The war con­tin­ues to grind on, but the mis­sion gets far less news ink than before, and the debate over the war’s mer­its and tac­tics rarely gets hashed back through. That’s per­haps because many have decid­ed to men­tal­ly park the issue until a new admin­is­tra­tion takes over next year. Or because declin­ing home prices and ris­ing food and gas costs have elbowed the Iraq issue aside. Unde­terred, Phil Don­ahue and Ellen Spiro have co-direct­ed a new doc­u­men­tary called Body of War. Being released in US the­aters this month, the doc­u­men­tary (fea­tur­ing music arranged by Eddie Ved­der) tracks the dai­ly life of Tomas Young, a sol­dier shot and par­a­lyzed dur­ing his first week of fight­ing in Iraq, and it gives you a rare glimpse into the dif­fi­cult road that Young and oth­ers have had to trav­el. All of this makes tan­gi­ble some­thing that the cor­po­ra­tized media has­n’t cov­ered much — the real human costs of this war. To date, 4,361 Amer­i­can sol­diers have died in Iraq; over 30,000 have been injured in hos­tile action; and sui­cides of return­ing vets have report­ed­ly risen to alarm­ing rates. Below, we have post­ed the trail­er for the film. In addi­tion, I’d point you to this recent pod­cast by Bill Moy­ers (iTunes — Feed — Web Site), which intro­duces you to Tomas Young, Phil Dono­hue, Ellen Spiro and the film they made.

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

Scott Sigler’s Infected: Free via Podcast, $16.47 on Amazon

in Audio Books | April 24th, 2008

Hor­ror/s­ci-fi fans, here you go… Scott Sigler’s new and very well-reviewed thriller, Infect­ed, can be down­loaded for free via pod­cast (iTunes — Feed — Web site). Or you can get it in hard­back for $16.47, which I’m not dis­cour­ag­ing you from doing.

With the links above, you can down­load more free books from Sigler. But, I warn you that the books con­tain a good dose of graph­ic lan­guage.

Check out our exten­sive col­lec­tion of Free Audio­books here.

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

Water Balloon Exploding at 2,000 Frames per Second

in Science | April 18th, 2008

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

The Perfect Library

in Books | April 12th, 2008

Get the “ulti­mate read­ing list,” accord­ing to the Tele­graph. The book­list (access here) ranges from “clas­sics and sci-fi to poet­ry, biogra­phies and books that changed the world.” And while you’re at it, check out this list of life-chang­ing books cre­at­ed by our very own read­ers.

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

The New York Literary Canon

in Books | April 10th, 2008

As a New York­er liv­ing rather per­ma­nent­ly in sun­ny Cal­i­for­nia, I feel some­what oblig­ed to men­tion this: New York Mag­a­zine has pulled togeth­er a list of “26 works of lap­idary New York­i­tude” — that is, high­ly lit­er­ary books that obsess over the great city. On the list, you’ll find works by Nor­man Mail­er, Bernard Mala­mud, Don Delil­lo, Woody Allen, and beyond. You can snag the full list here.

via Kottke.org

Sub­scribe to Our Feed