Creative Thinking: A Free Online Course from Imperial College London
From Peter Childs (Head of the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London) comes a free course that explores creative thinking techniques, and how...
Category: Culture
How the Survivors of Pompeii Escaped Mount Vesuvius’ Deadly Eruption: A TED-Ed Animation Tells the Story
We tend to imagine Pompeii as a city frozen in time by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, inhabitants and all, but most Pompeiians actually survived the disaster....
Watch 1000 Musicians Play the Foo Fighters’ “Learn to Fly,” Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” and David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel”
In the 1980s, avant-garde composer, guitarist Glenn Branca began writing symphonies for electric guitars — dozens of them, all playing at once, creating unprecedented psychoacoustic effects...
Learn to Play Senet, the 5,000-Year Old Ancient Egyptian Game Beloved by Queens & Pharaohs
Senet gaming board inscribed for Amenhotep III with separate sliding drawer, via Wikimedia Commons Games don’t just pass the time, they enact battles of wits, proxy...
The Incredible Engineering of Antonio Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia, the World’s Oldest Construction Project
When (or if) it is finally finished in 2026, a full 100 years after its architect Antoni Gaudí’s death, the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia will be...
Revisiting Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On,” and the Album That Opened R&B to Resistance: Revisited 50 Years Later
I just want to be heard and that’s all that matters. — Marvin Gaye R&B superstar Marvin Gaye was more than willing to risk his career...
John Steinbeck Wrote a Werewolf Novel, and His Estate Won’t Let the World Read It: The Story of Murder at Full Moon
Photo of Steinbeck by Sonya Noskowiak, via Wikimedia Commons John Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, and East of Eden, but not before he’d put...
Ancient Philosophy: A Free Online Course from the University of Pennsylvania
This two part course from the University of Pennsylvania (Part 1 here – Part 2 here) “traces the origins of philosophy in the Western tradition in...
Watch the Building of the Eiffel Tower in Timelapse Animation
“They didn’t want it but he built it anyway” — The Pixies, “Alec Eiffel” When the Eiffel Tower — gateway to the Paris World’s Fair and...
The Story of Elizebeth Friedman, the Pioneering Cryptologist Who Thwarted the Nazis & Got Burned by J. Edgar Hoover
Elizebeth S. Friedman: Suburban Mom or Ninja Nazi Hunter? Both, though in her lifetime, the press was far more inclined to fixate on her ladylike aspect...
