They don’t call it the city of light for nothing.
The Vegetable Orchestra
It’s right up there with the Ukulele Orchestra performing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’ Both are added to our YouTube Playlist, which now has 130 subscribers, which is not bad for a fledgling collection.
James Joyce’s Ulysses: A Free Audiobook
Note: We posted this find back in 2008. But, since then, we’ve found a better audio version of the text. Please find it here.
This is a book that needs no introduction, but we will give it a short one anyway. Published in serial format between 1918 and 1920, James Joyce’s Ulysses was initially reviled by many and banned in the US and UK until the 1930s. Today, it’s widely considered a classic in modernist literature, and The Modern Library went so far as to call it the most important English-language novel published during the 20th century. Although chronicling one ordinary day in the life of Leopold Bloom in 1904 Dublin, Ulysses is no small work. It sprawls over 750 pages, using over 250,000 words, and takes over 32 hours to read aloud. Or, at least that’s how long it took the folks over at Librivox. In the Bloomsday tradition, a cast of readers participated in the project, offering creative readings with “pub-like background noise.” The audio files can be downloaded as many individual mp3 files here, or as one big zip file here. You can also stream an excellent alternative version at Archive.org.
This is not the only Joycean audio that you can download for free. Also at Librivox, you can find several key stories from Dubliners — including, The Sisters (mp3), Araby (mp3), Eveline (mp3), and The Dead (mp3 in zip file).
For more free classics on audio, see our collection of Free Audio Books.
The Secret History of Silicon Valley
What set the stage for Silicon Valley to change the entire landscape of technology? What made companies like Google, Yahoo and Hewlett Packard possible? According to this talk presented at Google by Steve Blank, it all goes back to the aftermath of World War II. It starts when Stanford University and its engineering/electronics department began to focus heavily on military R&D. And it continues during the Korean War, when the University starts developing new technologies that contribute to military intelligence (or what Blank calls “spook work”) and various weapons systems. The next thing you know you’ve got a brain trust in the Bay Area that starts spinning out companies lik Fairchild Semiconductor, the father of all semiconductor companies, and, with that, Silicon Valley becomes Silicon Valley.
Psychedelics Revisited
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
Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out
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.
The Top 25 Educational Podcasts on iTunes
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
Hitchcock 2008
What would it look like if you stuck today’s stars in Hitchcock’s classic films? Vanity Fair tried to figure it out.
The Mystery of Gravity
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.
Related Content:
Freedom for the Thought That We Hate
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.
How to Extend the Life Of Your iPod Battery
For those who use their iPod to take advantage of our copious podcast collections:
via Lifehacker
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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.
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