Originally recorded back in 2014, this clip of David Blaine performing a card trick for Harrison Ford went viral this week. (Can we still use this expression in the age of COVID?) Hang with it until the end. It’s worth the 1:50 of your time. Would you like to support the mission of Open Culture? …
Invisible People: Watch Poignant Mini-Documentaries Where Homeless People Tell Their Stories
Over the past year, the story of evictions during COVID has often risen above the muck. It’s made headlines in major newspapers and TIME magazine, and received serious attention from the government, with stop-gap eviction moratoriums put in effect and renewed several times, and likely due to be renewed again. Stopping evictions is not enough. “For many …
Nerves of Steel!: Watch People Climb Tall Buildings During the 1920s.
Thrillseekers! Are you girding your loins to rejoin the amusement park crowds this summer? No worries if you don’t feel quite ready to brave the socially distanced rollercoaster lines. Indulge in some low-risk vertigo, thanks to British Pathé‘s vintage newsreels of steeplejacks, steelworkers, and window cleaners doing their thing. While these tradespeople were called in whenever an …
Thunderous Plunges and Mossy Trickles: A Spring Guide to Waterfalls
Across the United States, a glorious array of waterfalls awaits nature lovers. And what better time to admire them than now, when snowmelt and spring rains add to the drama?
A Short Animation Explores the Nature of Creativity & Invention, with Characters That Look Like Andrei Tarkovsky & Sergei Eisenstein
A gentleman goes to the movies, only to find a marquee full of retreads, reboots, sequels, and prequels. He demands to know why no one makes original films anymore, a reasonable question people often ask. But it seems he has run directly into a graduate student in critical theory behind the glass. The ticket-seller rattles …
As Underclassmen Flood the N.F.L. Draft, Landing Places Dry Up
Since the league began allowing underclassmen to enter the draft in 1990, the number who do so has ballooned more than threefold. There are fewer options for those who go undrafted.
Who Will Win The Kentucky Derby? Expert Picks and Predictions
Joe Drape and Melissa Hoppert weigh in on the contenders for the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby.
A car and a computer help shopper complete wacky parking project
Everyone needs a project. Gareth Wild’s involved parking his car in every space at his local supermarket. And six years after starting, he’s finally finished.
Why so many people in China are becoming mermaids
On a normal day, the Ambassador Lagoon inside China’s Atlantis Sanya resort on the island of Hainan is home to about 86,000 marine creatures from over 280 animal species.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this’: Clarissa Ward on India Covid-19 crisis
In India, sick people are being turned away from hospitals that have run out of beds and oxygen, as the number of new coronavirus cases rise to record levels each day, creating a national crisis.