On Friday, we gave you this animated piece that shows the genius of Bach. Now, we give you an animated score of Beethoven’s 5th, and here you can find a chart that explains what the colors in the score mean. Essentially each color represents a particular instrument. Get the chart here, and don’t forget that you can find more free classical music in our Music Podcast Collection. (We’ve added this clip to our YouTube Favorites.)
via The Daily Dish
Speaking Wednesday night at Harvard, James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA, was asked by NPR’s Robert Krulwich: “Can a gentle person do well in science?” His response: “Jesus would not have succeeded.” Sad commentary, and it’s the type of comment that you’d expect from Watson. But it’s also somewhat disproved by the career of E.O. Wilson, who shared the stage with Watson that night. You can get more coverage of this conversation over at the NewScientist.
In the meantime, check out our Science Podcast Collection, which includes Krulwich’s program, Radio Lab. These podcasts are also available on our free iPhone app.
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A quick note: The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, is commemorating the 2009 bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe, American poet, critic and inventor of the detective story, with the exhibition “From Out That Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe.” To mark the occasion, the Center’s web site has launched The Edgar Allan Poe Digital Collection, and it nicely features Poe’s manuscripts, his letters and documents, photographs and even cryptographs that Poe liked to solve. (You can try to solve them too.) Have a look, and then feel free to download readings of Poe’s work in our collection of Free Audio Books.
During the lazy days of summer, we quietly launched a new, free iPhone app. Now summer is fading, people are getting back to work, students back to school, and it’s time to get the word out. This app takes our intelligent media collections and let’s you listen to them on the go. Once you download the app, you can listen to free audio books, university courses, foreign language lessons, science podcasts and other intelligent content on the iPhone.
The app opens all media files in native iPhone software — iTunes, Safari, the YouTube player, etc. You will need WI-FI (Apple says so) to download the content. This app, which was very generously developed by Fred Hsu, is a work in progress. Don’t hesitate to give us feedback. And, if you don’t mind, please leave a nice review/rating in the App Store and spread the word.
Lastly, let me leave you with some praise that we received today. “I love this application. Been using it a lot for the Biology – Human Anatomy Courses available. Thank you so much for developing this app. Absolutely Brilliant!!!” Does this intrigue you enough to check it out?
Want to attend the 2010 TED Conference and hang with some of the world’s greatest minds? Here’s your chance. Apply to the TED Fellows program. Organizers of the TED Conference are looking for 25 promising Fellows from around the world to participate in TED 2010, and they’re accepting applications through September 25, 2009. Fellowships include conference admission, round-trip transportation, housing and all meals. Fellows will also participate in a pre-conference with the opportunity to present a short talk for consideration for TED.com. Applicants should generally between 21–40 years of age, though anyone over 18 and over 40 may apply. They must also be fluent in English. Click here and get started with your application today!
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Anyone looking for controversy in President Obama’s school speech will be disappointed. No “socialist indoctrination” here. Just a good ol’ red, white & blue pep talk to students. The talk gets started at 2:10
In case you’re wondering what ground school talks covered in 1988, here’s a look back.
If you regularly visit Open Culture, then you’re probably familiar with TED Talks — the series of 15 minute “riveting talks by remarkable people” that TED produces and makes free to the world. We’ve included TED in our collection, Intelligent Video: The Top Cultural & Educational Video Sites, and it’s one of the best sources of intelligent video out there. Having said that, I was pleased to find this Google spreadsheet of every TED Talk ever posted online. Although TED hosts many videos on its web site (and on its iTunes and YouTube channels), these platforms don’t give you clean access to the entire TED catalogue. Meanwhile, this simple and sortable spreadsheet does. So enjoy, and use it well.
via BoingBoing
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Speaking of The Beatles, I’m reminded that The Beatles: Rock Band, the new video game honoring The Fab Four, is hitting the streets this week. (See the software on Amazon for the Wii or Xbox.) The clip above shows you the intro to the game, and this Ars Technica piece tells you why The Beatles: Rock Band (which can be pricey if you need to buy instruments) may actually be worth your hard-earned money.
Today is a holiday in the U.S. But I leave you with this bit of Beatles goodness. Back tomorrow.
(If you want to find more clips of 12 year old Sungha Jung playing rock classics, check out this page.)
Brilliant, and we’ve added this one, too, to our YouTube Favorites. Now I’m off for the long weekend. See you Tuesday!
Google Earth has somewhat outgrown its name. These days, Google’s satellite program (download it here) gives you more than a unique view of our planet Earth. It also offers a nice tour of Mars (and the Moon). The Mars tour is guided by a familiar voice — the voice of Ira Flatow, who hosts the well known NPR program, Talk Of The Nation: Science Friday. The video below will show you how to access the tour in a quick two minutes. In the meantime, you should also note that Google Earth hosts other educational content. In the past, we’ve mentioned how the program will let you tour the Prado Art collection in Spain, and also see Ancient Rome in 3D. But that’s not where the educational content ends. For more, please visit this summary page assembled by Google.
Launch the program, and then toggle on the Uranus icon on the top nav bar. Then
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