Smart Links
Below, we’ve listed some links that will hopefully pique your interest. Some were sent in by readers. Many thanks for them (and feel free to send good stuff our way. Contact us here.)
* How Google Earth Unearths Ancient Cities: Yes, Google is revolutionizing even archaeology.
* Norman Mailer Archive Opens: It took the University of Texas two years to organize 1,000 boxes of letters and unpublished manuscripts written by Norman Mailer. And it’s now ready, just a short two months after the author’s death. Among other things, the archive houses correspondence that shows a warmer side of a writer often known for his surliness.
* 2007 Darwin Awards Announced: Here’s a little dark humor. The Darwin Awards, which “commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it,” has released its awards for 2007. You can find some of the “honorable mentions” here.
* Islam, the West and the Bhutto Legacy: Following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, FORA.tv has assembled a video channel “built around three public talks she gave in the year before her recent return to Pakistan. Fifteen programs relating to Pakistan, Islam and approaches to extremism are now there, more will be added.”
* Classic Film Clips: Over on YouTube, one of our readers has assembled a video collection that features segments from many classic films — Dr. Strangelove, Metropolis, etc. It nicely complements our own collection, to which you might want to subscribe.
* Lost Star Wars Intro: Here’s the lost intro that mercifully never made it into the final film.
* Print Public Domain Books on Paper: This intermediary service makes it easy to print paper copies of free public domain books found on the internet. The books are free; the printing is not. But it nets out well overall. Via RedFerret
* Best Online Documentaries: Title is fairly self-explanatory.
* Sir Edmund Hillary: A Life in Pictures — From National Geographic.
Mailer on the Ali-Foreman Classic
I was wondering how I’d eventually work sports into Open Culture, and I’ve finally done it.
Let’s set the scene. It’s 1974. In Zaire. Muhammad Ali takes on George Foreman in the classic “Rumble in the Jungle.” Norman Mailer, the great writer and boxing enthusiast (who recently left us), narrates how the fight went down. This is an outtake from the great documentary When We Were Kings. (We added the video clip to our YouTube Playlist, to which you can subscribe.)
Classics from The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly has been around a long time. Since 1857 to be exact. And, over the many years, it has published works by legendary authors. Quite nicely, The Atlantic web site makes available some of these classic writings for free (although if you’re a subscriber you’ll get access to much more). Here are a few that we uncovered:
- The Aurelian — Vladimir Nabokov (1941)
- A True Story, Repeated Word for Word As I Heard It — Mark Twain (1874)
- The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut — Mark Twain (1876)
- Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion — Mark Twain (1877)
- A Telephonic Conversation — Mark Twain (1880)
- The Disturber of the Traffic — Rudyard Kipling (1891)
How Did Hannibal Cross the Alps?: The #2 Podcast on iTunesU
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, right behind What is Existentialism?.
The Hannibal lecture was presented at Stanford by Patrick Hunt, an archaeologist who recently wrote Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History (see related post) and whose long term project is to figure out how the great military leader crossed the Alps in 218 BCE with his large army, which included dozens of war elephants. I had a chance to catch up with Patrick and ask him why, over 2,000 years later, the adventures of Hannibal still manage to capture our imagination. Here is what he had to say:
“Here are some reasons I think the Hannibal topic is mesmerizing. First, the logistics of moving a large army — at least 25,000 surviving soldiers — over sometimes terrifying mountain barriers is very daunting and immensely challenging. Second, this is exponentially compounded by the fact that even with able scouts the increasingly steep terrain and bad weather en route to the summit were threateningly unfamiliar to the vast majority of Hannibal’s army in this early winter of 218 BCE. Even in summer, the weather can be harsh and wildly unpredictable. In winter, it can be that much worse. Third, there were Celtic tribes to contend with, who would roll boulders down on troops and ambush them from (more…)
Even Ahmadinejad Blogs
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.
The 53 Places to Go in 2008
Courtesy of The New York Times.
Know of any podcasts or videos that we should feature on Open Culture? Email us your tips.
Guest on FORA.tv This Week
Here’s a quick fyi: I’m making a small guest appearance on FORA.tv this week.
In case you’re not familiar with it, FORA.tv hosts a large and constantly growing collection of videos that feature important thinkers grappling with contemporary cultural, social and political questions. Or, put simply, it’s YouTube made intelligent. As you’ll see, their mission is rather similar to our own. So I was pleased when they asked me to be “a guest” for the week and highlight some of my favorite videos from their video trove. Here is what I selected:
- The 20th Century on Trial: Norman Mailer
- Einstein: His Life and Universe
- Francis Fukuyama: The End Of History Revisited
- Jimmy Wales on Wikipedia
Segments of FORA’s talks are also available by audio and video podcast. (Get more info here.) Also, on a related note, Princeton University spearheads a somewhat similar video service, except that it is more specifically dedicated to public affairs. It’s called UChannel. (Have a look here.) Finally, if you like what FORA and UChannel have to offer, you may also want to spend some time with our Ideas & Culture Podcast Collection. Our full podcast library is here.
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