≡ Category: Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ 1 Comment
This seemed like a logical follow up to our recent post “10 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube,” which highlighted some of the enriching video collections on YouTube.
Here’s a playlist that centralizes the YouTube videos that we’ve recently highlighted on our site. Think of it as the Open Culture YouTube Collection, or another way [...]
≡ Category: Uncategorized | ≅ Leave a Comment
Let’s do a quick recap of the final posts of the year, which included some popular ones. Happy new year to all.
10 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube (Smart Video Collections)
10 Ways to Make Your iPod a Better Learning Gadget
Betting Against Google’s Answer to Wikipedia
Yale Launches Open Courses
A Conversation with Benazir Bhutto
Favorite [...]
≡ Category: Google, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ 17 Comments
(UPDATED: See 70 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube)
It’s been a constant lament that YouTube offers its users scant little intellectual content. And that content is itself hard to find. Just visit YouTube’s so-called Education Section, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything actually educational. But the good news is that we’re seeing some recent [...]
≡ Category: Most Popular, Web/Tech | ≅ 18 Comments
The iPod can supercharge your learning. But it’s often a matter of finding the right software and content. Below, we’ve listed several new pieces of software that will let you suck more educational media (DVDs, web videos, audio files, etc.) into your iPod. And we’ve also listed some important pieces of content that will make [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Politics, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ 2 Comments
Again, no commentary needed. Informative in many ways, Bhutto’s talk was taped at the Council on Foreign Relations in August. More info here.
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≡ Category: Books | ≅ 1 Comment
Quick fyi: The book critics of The New York Times have selected their favorite books of 2007. These are the books that they mention to friends, or recommend that you take on vacation. You’ll find here 30 good reads in all.
Now how about your favorite book of ‘07? Share them with other Open Culture readers [...]
≡ Category: Science, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
Great historical footage. No commentary really needed. (If you want to see the liftoff, look here.)
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SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Landing on the Moon: July 20, 1969″, url: “http://www.oculture.com/2007/12/landing_on_the_moon_july_20_1969.html” });
≡ Category: Audio Books | ≅ 1 Comment
Let me serve up a quick few bits of audio for the holiday.
Let’s start with a free podcast of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Written in 1843, Dicken’s tale remains one of the most popular Christmas stories of all time. It gave us the indelible characters of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the Ghosts of [...]
≡ Category: MIT, Uncategorized | ≅ Leave a Comment
During a week when university podcasts received widespread attention (thanks to a very popular article in the NY Times), we’ve kept a close eye on the high-ranking podcasts on iTunesU. Quite consistently, one podcast — How Did Hannibal Cross the Alps? — has ranked at the top. It currently sits in the #2 position, [...]
≡ Category: Apple, Comedy | ≅ Leave a Comment
Fake Steve Jobs, a wildly popular blog written by Daniel Lyons, an editor at Forbes, has been goofing on the real Steve Jobs all year. And now things have taken an odd turn. During the same week that Apple apparently shut down ThinkSecret.com (an Apple rumor site) in exchange for cash, Apple may be applying [...]
≡ Category: Books | ≅ 1 Comment
Here are a few facts to know about the adventurous Patrick Hunt. He’s a Stanford archaeologist who has spent more than a decade trying to unravel the mystery of how Hannibal, the great ancient military leader, crossed the Alps in 218 BCE with 25,000 men and 37 elephants. (Listen on iTunes to the course he [...]
≡ Category: Film | ≅ Leave a Comment
Back in October, Ridley Scott released a final and definitive director’s cut of Blade Runner, presenting to audiences the film that he would have made if studio execs hadn’t meddled with things. A short two months later, the final cut is now out on DVD. It was released yesterday, barely in time for the holidays. [...]
≡ Category: Podcast Articles and Resources | ≅ Leave a Comment
The New York Times has a nice piece today on university podcasts and how they’re turning some professors into international stars. The article gives special attention to Walter Lewin, an MIT physics professor, and highlights courses that you’ll find in our listing of free university courses. Just as an aside, the article mentions at least [...]
≡ Category: Uncategorized | ≅ Leave a Comment
Better late than never. A quick review of some of our posts from last week:
15 Most Viewed Posts in 2007
Yale Launches Open Courses
28 Podcasts That Will Teach You French, German, Italian & Spanish
Even Ahmadinejad Blogs
Led Zeppelin Reunion - First Images
Nobel Prize Winners on YouTube
Al Gore’s Nobel Presentation
Raising Sand [...]
≡ Category: Most Popular | ≅ 3 Comments
We dug back through the historical data and isolated the 15 most viewed posts of the year. If you’re looking for a trend, one will leap out. People like numbered lists. Hence another one:
1) 10 Unexpected Uses of the iPod
2) 25 UC Berkeley Courses Available via Free Video
3) 45 Free Cutting-Edge Books … Courtesy [...]
≡ Category: Yale | ≅ 1 Comment
Click here for 250 Free Online Courses From Great Universities
Yesterday, Yale announced that it is providing “free and open access to seven introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University.” I’ve listed the course lineup below, with links to each course. You can access the homepage for the project here.
With this launch, [...]
≡ Category: Google | ≅ 9 Comments
As many now know, Google announced Friday that it’s testing a new content initiative — dubbed “knol” — that it hopes will rival Wikipedia. Realizing that Wikipedia entries rank first on 27% of all Google search result pages, the folks at Googleplex couldn’t resist launching a competitive product. In announcing “knol,” the company highlighted two [...]
≡ Category: Uncategorized | ≅ Leave a Comment
Let me apologize in advance for reposting this funny bit from the golden days of Saturday Night Live. I usually try to post something new every day, but today my blogging time was usurped. Thanks to a big spike in traffic this week, we overtaxed the servers and were taken offline for a while today. [...]
≡ Category: Blogs | ≅ Leave a Comment
Here it is in English. His Christmas wish is charming.
Rumor is that Mahmoud is busy setting up a Facebook page. Stay tuned for it, and be sure to give him a nice little poke.
Full Story here.
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≡ Category: Music | ≅ Leave a Comment
Last night in London, Led Zeppelin played its first full show together since 1980 (though they did play a short set at Live Aid in 1985, which I was fortunate enough to see). Here’s the first video clip to make its way onto YouTube.
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≡ Category: Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Leave a Comment
YouTube gets smarter one painfully small step at a time. First courses from Berkeley; next videos of Nobel Prize winners. More coming?
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SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Nobel Prize Winners on YouTube”, url: “http://www.oculture.com/2007/12/nobel_prize_winners_on_youtube.html” });
≡ Category: Current Affairs | ≅ Leave a Comment
Al Gore accepted his Nobel Prize earlier today in Oslo and delivered an accompanying speech that issued a stark warning (read text here, watch video here):
[W]ithout realizing it, we have begun to wage war on the earth itself. Now, we and the earth’s climate are locked in a relationship familiar to war planners: “Mutually assured [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ Leave a Comment
I just picked up a copy of the new Robert Plant & Alison Krauss album (CD - MP3), and I’m frankly hooked. As Amazon put it, only “King Kong and Bambi could be a more bizarre pairing,” but the results are brilliant. More on the new collaboration below.
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Raising Sand”, url: “http://www.oculture.com/2007/12/raising_sand.html” });
≡ Category: Film | ≅ Leave a Comment
Francis Ford Coppola, the director who brought us The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, has released his first film in a decade. Based on a novella by Mircea Eliade, a Romanian thinker principally known for his work on the history of religion, “Youth Without Youth” features Tim Roth playing the role of Dominic Matei, an [...]
≡ Category: Audio Books | ≅ Leave a Comment
Joseph Conrad would be turning 150 years old, and to mark the occasion, The Guardian has taken a good look back at the Polish-born writer who wrote some of England’s finest novels, even though English was his third language. (Polish and French were his first two.) Conrad’s masterpiece, of course, is The Heart of Darkness [...]
≡ Category: Uncategorized | ≅ Leave a Comment
Courtesy of The New York Times.
Know of any podcasts or videos that we should feature on Open Culture? Email us your tips.
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SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “The 53 Places to Go in 2008″, url: “http://www.oculture.com/2007/12/the_53_places_to_go_in_2008.html” });
≡ Category: Uncategorized | ≅ Leave a Comment
In case you missed them, here’s a quick recap of our posts from the past week:
Knowledge in 60 Seconds
JFK in 1960, Romney in 2007 - Religion in America
Agatha Christie Radio Mysteries
Favorite Books of the Year
Learning Foreign Languages the Mango Way
On Hanukkah
The 20 Best iPod Utilities
The Western Tradition (on [...]
≡ Category: Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ Leave a Comment
This morning Boing Boing highlighted a video that figures into a larger video collection that deserves some attention. The 60 Second Lecture Series is hosted by the University of Pennsylvania (a/k/a Penn) and features prominent faculty members giving snappy, one minute lectures on topics of their own choice. The full collection can be found here, [...]
≡ Category: Religion, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ 1 Comment
Mitt Romney, a Mormon, looked yesterday to set aside lingering concerns about his religion in a highly publicized speech. Immediately, the speech revived memories of John F. Kennedy’s attempt, during the 1960 campaign, to ease concerns about his Catholicism. We’ve posted both speeches below. The similarities are there. But the differences are more profound. I’ll [...]
≡ Category: Audio Books, Media | ≅ Leave a Comment
Podcasting is a new form of media distribution that’s done a good job of reviving old forms of media, particularly old radio shows. In the past, we’ve pointed you to several old radio broadcasts, including Orson Welles’ famous 1938 radio drama that led many Americans to hunker down in basements, desperately hoping to avoid an [...]
