We have here a short, catchy animated documentary that explains how we get from the 1950s to the internet that we know and love today. Along the way, it covers inventions ranging from time-sharing to filesharing, from Arpanet to Internet. Have a look:

Over at his Think Again blog, Stanley Fish, the eminent literary critic, has listed his all-time favorite American films. The list is a good one, so we figured why not add some video clips to the mix, and give you a little taste of each classic. See the full list after the jump. And if you have your own favorites, feel free to list them in the comments. And now with no further delay…

1) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Directed by William Wyler. With Myrna Loy, Fredric March and Dana Andrews.

2) Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Directed by Billy Wilder with William Holden and Gloria Swanson.

3) Double Indemnity (1944)

Directed by Billy Wilder. With Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson.

4) Raging Bull (1980)

Directed by Martin Scorsese, with Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty.

5) Red River (1948)

Directed by Howard Hawks & Arthur Rosson. With John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, and Joanne Dru.

(more…)

A quick fyi: If you made a New Year’s resolution to become a serious writer, then you might be interested in these online writing courses offered by Stanford Continuing Studies (which, caveat emptor, I help oversee) and Stanford’s Creative Writing Program. These online courses give beginning and advanced writers, no matter where they live, the chance to refine their craft with gifted writing instructors. Classes start next week. Unfortunately some are already full … and they are not free. For more information, click here, or separately check out the FAQ. And, if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, feel free to look through the courses taking place on the Stanford campus.

• Magazine Writing
  
• Short Story II: Surprising Characters and Sudden Twists
• Crafting Successful Crime Fiction: How to Write the Action
• Poetry Writing: Transcribing from the Invisible
• Creative Nonfiction: The Art of the Essay
  
• Getting Started in Creative Writing (Closed)
• Continuing Your Novel (Closed)
• Writing Memoir with The New York Times (Closed)

As we’re all wishing one another a “Happy New Year,” it seems like a good time to dwell on the whole concept of happiness. Is happiness hardwired? Does it depend on circumstance? Or on us? Can we will ourselves to happiness? And just what is happiness? Aired right after Christmas, this interview features Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (the famed psychology professor who wrote Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience) and Sonja Lyubomirsky, also a psych professor and author of The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want. We’ve embedded the radio interview immediately below, or you can get it via mp3 or iTunes.

Related Content:

Creativity, Flow and the Source of Happiness

On the lighter side for a sleepy Sunday ….

“The Big Snooze” (1946) was the last cartoon that animation director Bob Clampett ever worked on for Warner Brothers. The title? It’s an obvious play on the Raymond Chandler novel, The Big Sleep, which was also turned into a film (starring Bogart and Bacall) in 1946. And the sleeping pill scene? Well, it was censored on television for some time. The clip can otherwise be bought on The Looney Tunes Golden Collection. For now, here it goes:

via Firedog Lake

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Alex Ross, the New Yorker music critic who recently won a MacArthur Genius grant and published The Rest is Noise, a widely praised work that makes sense of 20th century classical music, lists his favorite classical music recordings of 2008.

In 1979, Andy Warhol spent $40,000 on a broadcast-quality camera and started dabbling in creating television programs that he aired on Manhattan public access cable channels. (Get more on the story here.) One episode featured Warhol, Bianca Jagger and Steven Spielberg simply hanging out on a bed. And here’s how their conversation went down:

via BoingBoing

Here they go, the most popular posts of 2008:

10. Free Stanford Computer Science & Engineering Courses Now Online

9.) The Old Man and the Sea Animated

8.) Teaching on YouTube

7.) Turn Your iPod into a Travel Guide: 20 Travel Podcasts

7.) Listening to Famous Poets Reading Their Own Work

6. This American Life Demystifies the Housing/Credit Crisis

5.) Understanding Modern Physics: Download Leonard Susskind Video Lectures

4.) Yale Open Courses: The New Lineup

3.) George Orwell’s 1984: Download Free Audio Book Version

Also, James Joyce’s Ulysses: A Free Audiobook

2.) Top Five Collections of Free University Courses

1.) Intelligent Life at YouTube: 80 Educational Video Collections

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A good find over at Metafilter. Desjardins asks “Need a little Tolstoy while you’re waiting in line? How about some Mark Twain on the subway? Booksinmyphone puts - surprise! - books in your phone, for free.” For more details on how to download classics to your (java-enabled) mobile phone, check out their FAQ.  

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Thanks to some digital hocus pocus, John Lennon is back and helping promote One Laptop Per Child, a charity working to bring cheap computers and internet access to children in developing countries. Done with the approval of Yoko Ono, the commercial stitches together old recordings of Lennon’s voice and adds at least a couple of new words (did Lennon ever say “laptop”?). In the end, it all comes out fairly seamlessly. If you want to give a laptop (starting at $199) and change the world, go here. Otherwise, here’s John:

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via Goings On via Rolling Stone

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out was produced in 1981 by the BBC and PBS, and it features Richard Feynman, the charismatic, Nobel prize-winning physicist, talking in a very personal way about the joys of scientific discovery, and how he developed his enthusiasm for science. About the program, Harry Kroto (winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry) apparently said:  ”The 1981 Feynman Horizon is the best science program I have ever seen. This is not just my opinion - it is also the opinion of many of the best scientists that I know who have seen the program… It should be mandatory viewing for all students whether they be science or arts students.” 

The program runs about 50 minutes. You can get Part 1 below, and the remaining parts here: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. They’re also all added to our YouTube Favorites.

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Voila, the birth, life and death of a G-type star, like our Sun. 12 billion years boiled down to six simple minutes. We’ve added it to our YouTube Favorites.

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via Digg

Here’s what it looks like if you plant a camera in the same location for one year and snap photos throughout the changing seasons. Video is striking but random. So we’re filing it under “Random.”

This weekend’s New York Times ran a piece detailing how the record industry has dithered and continually failed to release several long-awaited Beatles’ projects. It also mentioned how fans and collectors have forged ahead and put together unauthorized bootleg projects, some of which the Times calls “curatorial masterpieces.” In particular, the article highlights the Purple Chick label, which “has assembled deluxe editions of each commercially released [Beatles] album, offering the original discs in their mono and stereo mixes, along with the singles (also in mono and stereo) released at the time, as well as every known demo, studio outtake and alternative mix.” Some of Purple Chick’s include “Beatles Deluxe” (which covers 10 CDs);  “A/B Road” (which gives you 96 hours of the “Let It Be” sessions); and a series of BBC radio performances. 

So how do you get this stuff? It’s a question that Rolling Stone asked rhetorically when it recently gave another positive review to Purple Chick recordings. And it answered the question with this: “Google is your friend: Try searching ‘purple chick and megaupload’ to get started.”

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When the twin towers were taken down in September 2001, America looked to make sense of what happened. And it wasn’t long before many started turning to The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, a book written by Samuel Huntington, the Harvard poli sci professor who passed on last week.

The book itself was an elaboration upon a controversial article that Huntington published in Foreign Affairs in 1993. In the opening lines, he wrote: “World politics is entering a new phase… It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.” Particularly he suggested, it would be the “West versus the Rest,” and within the latter category, he lumped in Islam.

Below, we have posted Huntington’s 1997 appearance on the Charlie Rose show, where he expanded on his world view. You can also get Edward Said’s general retort, The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations, here and Noam Chomsky’s thoughts on the concept here.

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Eartha Kitt also left us this week. She won fame on Broadway, in movies and cabaret, and through music and films. But my inner four year old will always remember her role as Catwoman on the 1960s TV series “Batman.” (Actually, I’ll really remember her for the leading role she played in my first memorable childhood dream. But that’s probably more interesting to me than it is to you.)

In honor of Eartha, I’m posting an extended clip showing Catwoman in action. Part 1 is below. Part 2 is here. Part 3 here.

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Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning playwright, died in London on Wednesday. As The New York Times obit mentions, when Pinter won the Nobel in 2005, his declining health prevented him from attending the awards ceremony in Stockholm. Instead, he gave his acceptance lecture  – “Art, Truth & Politics” — via a recorded video, which we’re posting below. (You can also watch it on the Nobel web site here or alternatively read the transcript.) The speech runs a good 45 minutes.

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Here’s a logical (but unplanned) follow up to our previous post that looked back at Christmas Eve during World War I.

Here we present a Christmas propaganda film that came out of England during the Second World War. Britain is under German siege. But it’s enduring the Blitz and keeping a stiff upper lip, and Christmas will go on … if only underground. Britain’s children won’t be cheated out of this. This clip, which reminds us that, economic problems aside, we have much to be thankful for, comes from the British Film Institute National Archive on YouTube, which we’re now adding to our collection: Intelligent Life at YouTube: 80 Educational Video Collections.

via Crooked Timber

We take you back to 1977 and what The Washington Post calls “one of the most successful duets in Christmas music history — and surely the weirdest.” The ’40s-era crooner meets the glam rocker, to be precise. Get the backstory here. (And, yup, we’ve added the clip to our YouTube Favorites.)

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via The Daily Dish

Right in time for Christmas Eve…

World War I was a relentlessly grinding and brutal war. Europe had never experienced anything like it. But there was one notable moment of respite, a brief moment when humanity showed back through. Christmas Eve, 1914. The moving story of what happened that night gets recounted in John McCutcheon’s touching song, Christmas in the Trenches. The video below includes the backstory and the song itself. You can also watch a live performance here, and get the lyrics here. Happy holidays to all. And thanks Sheryl for the tip.

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The New York Times thinks that e-books may have finally turned the corner in 2008. The Kindle is sold out until February (which messes up my Christmas plans). Sales of Sony’s e-book reader have tripled over last season. And we’re now seeing e-books hit the bestseller list. The digital age for books may be upon us.

In a quick 59 seconds, David Lynch tells you the films and filmmakers that he likes best (see below). In equally succinct videos, though with a bit more salty language (read: language that’s not ideal for work), Lynch also gives you his thoughts on product placement and the whole concept of watching a movie on an iPhone. 

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Here it goes:

A couple of big blogs recently highlighted a clip of the Muppets doing Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth. It’s cute, and I was hardly surprised that the video logged 3.6 million views on YouTube.

Not far behind, at 3.2 million views, is a long video showing Herbert Von Karajan leading a live performance of Beethoven’s Ninth. The fact that Karajan, one of the world’s best-known conductors, lags behind a bunch of puppets is unfortunate, no doubt. But it’s also heartening in some ways. It tells me that high culture is still competing for an audience. So here it goes. Karajan in action:

(You can get Part 2 here, and we’ve added both clips to our YouTube Favorites. Also you can find more vintage Beethoven/Karajan footage in this guy’s video collection.)

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About the Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a New York Times op-ed had this to say today:

It “is anything but a cheery holiday tale.” It “is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife. It is also a nightmare account of an endless home renovation.”

And, with that, we present the 1947 film directed by Frank Capra and starring James Stewart:

 
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According to Discover Magazine…

Let me indulge in a brief bit of nostalgia for a sec.  Somehow my once wayward friends and I scored tickets to Live Aid back in 1985, which meant that we got to spend a scorching day at Philly’s JFK Stadium, watching live acts that included Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (leaving aside a campy Bowie and Jagger video). But somehow what still stands out for me are two acts piped in from London’s Wembley Stadium –  U2’s 12 minute version of  “Bad” (below), which launched the band into international stardom, and, yes, Queens’ set: Bohemian Rhapsody & Radio Gaga, Hammer To Fall & Crazy Little Thing Called Love (also below), and We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions.

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Aired first in September, this BBC production asks famous scientists to offer important words of advice to the next American president. What does Obama need to know to make smart decisions about key issues ranging from nuclear proliferation to climate change? Here it goes:

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via Kottke

Hat tip to Bob for tipping us off to this collection put together by The Mirror in the UK. They take  Leonard Cohen’s classic “Hallelujah” (listen below) and then bring you the ten best cover versions. On the list, you’ll find versions by Bob Dylan, John Cale (founder of The Velvet Underground), Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Buckley, among others.

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Two of England’s oldest universities, Oxford and Cambridge, have taken the leap into the digital age, recently launching their own podcast channels. Now, no matter where you live, you can experience the intellectual world that has given us William Gladstone, Oscar Wilde, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking (Oxford alums) and also John Milton, Charles Darwin, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Salman Rushdie (Cambridge alums).

When I first started this blog, Oxford offered up only one podcast, which was really a mini-course by Stuart Lee called Old English in Context (iTunes - RSS). Fast forward a couple of years and you find a much more robust general collection (iTunes - RSS - Web Site). Here’s a quick sampling of the audio & video available to you here:

• Joseph Stiglitz explaining the Global Credit Crunch (iTunes - Rss Feed)
• Talks about JRR Tolkein (iTunes - Rss Feed)
• Timothy Garton Ash on Isaiah Berlin (iTunes)
• Readings from John Milton’s Works (iTunes- Rss Feed)
• The World War I Poetry Digital Archive (iTunes - Rss Feed)

Cambridge’s collection (iTunes - RSS - Web Site) perhaps doesn’t have the same breadth. But it has more focus, and more video podcasts. The collection notably features The Naked Scientists (iTunes - RSS- Web Site), a well established podcast by Dr. Chris Smith, which “takes an interactive look at different aspects of science, medicine and technology.”  You’ll also find here another science podcast called “In a Blink of an Eye” (iTunes). Recorded in video, this program takes things that we see in everyday life, and then shows us what’s really happening on the atomic and molecular level. And, for the past several weeks, it has remained one of the most downloaded podcasts on iTunesU. It currently ranks fifth. Other notable podcasts include God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible, The Language of Law: Why Poetry Matters, Cambridge Codebreakers and British Intelligence, and A Future Beyond Oil.

For more free university content, check out our two collections: University Podcast Collections and Free University Courses.

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