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The Rise and Fall of the Great Library of Alexandria: An Animated Introduction

The Rise and Fall of the Great Library of Alexandria: An Animated Introduction
Library of Alexandria, northern Egypt, is popularly believed to have been destroyed in a huge fire around 2000 years ago and its voluminous works lost.” Ancient accounts, including those of Julius Caesar himself, that detail the multiple burnings of Alexandria seem to support this story.
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David Bowie’s “Heroes” Delightfully Performed by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Enjoy...

David Bowie’s “Heroes” Delightfully Performed by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
Cover tunes are not tribute bands. The best covers don't aim to be carbon copies. They expand our concept of the original with an unexpected element or fresh lens.
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In 1704, Isaac Newton Predicts the World Will End in 2060

In 1704, Isaac Newton Predicts the World Will End in 2060
We have become quite used to pronouncements of doom, from scientists predicting the sixth mass extinction due to the measurable effects of climate change, and from religionists declaring the apocalypse due to a surfeit of sin.
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Aretha Franklin’s Pitch-Perfect Performance in The Blues Brothers, the Film That Reinvigorated Her Career (1980)

Aretha Franklin’s Pitch-Perfect Performance in The Blues Brothers, the Film That Reinvigorated Her Career (1980)
There are many films of the 70s and 80s that could never get made today. This is not your grumpy uncle’s rant about political correctness gone wild. In many cases, it’s very much for the best.
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Leo Tolstoy Creates a List of the 50+ Books That Influenced Him Most (1891)

Leo Tolstoy Creates a List of the 50+ Books That Influenced Him Most (1891)
War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Death of Ivan Ilyich — many of us have felt the influence, to the good or the ill of our own reading and writing, of Leo Tolstoy. But whose influence did Leo Tolstoy feel the most?
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Carl Sagan Explains How the Ancient Greeks, Using Reason and Math, Figured Out the Earth Isn’t Flat, Over 2,000 Years Ago

Carl Sagan Explains How the Ancient Greeks, Using Reason and Math, Figured Out the Earth Isn’t Flat, Over 2,000 Years Ago
The denial of science has entered the highest levels of government, and no matter what the data says, the U.S. promises to cease all efforts to curtail, or even study, climate change.
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What English Would Sound Like If It Was Pronounced Phonetically.

It's one complicated language, to be sure.

What English Would Sound Like If It Was Pronounced Phonetically
The English language presents itself to students and non-native speakers as an almost cruelly capricious entity, its irregularities of spelling and conjugation almost impossible to explain without an advanced degree.
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Did Lennon or McCartney Write the Beatles 1965 Song “In My Life”? A Math Professor, Using Statistics, Solves the Decades-Old Mystery

Did Lennon or McCartney Write the Beatles 1965 Song “In My Life”? A Math Professor, Using Statistics, Solves the Decades-Old Mystery
In 2009, guitarist Randy Bachman of the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive had the rare opportunity to hear the individual tracks that make up that mythic opening chord in the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night,” an enigma that has baffled musicians for decades.
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Aretha Franklin’s Most Powerful Early Performances: “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “Say a Little Prayer” & More.

Our way of paying some respect...

Aretha Franklin’s Most Powerful Early Performances: “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “Say a Little Prayer” & More
Surely you’ve heard, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, is gravely ill with terminal cancer and has been moved to hospice care. The news has brought tearful tributes from celebrities and fans; lengthy retrospectives of her almost sixty-year career will follow.
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Aldous Huxley, Dying of Cancer, Left This World Tripping on LSD (1963)

Aldous Huxley, Dying of Cancer, Left This World Tripping on LSD (1963)
Aldous Huxley put himself forever on the intellectual map when he wrote the dystopian sci-fi novel Brave New World in 1931. (Listen to Huxley narrating a dramatized version here.) The British-born writer was living in Italy at the time, a continental intellectual par excellence.
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The Surreal Paintings of the Occult Magician, Writer & Mountaineer, Aleister Crowley

The Surreal Paintings of the Occult Magician, Writer & Mountaineer, Aleister Crowley
I am not equipped to judge whether the notorious Aleister Crowley—whom the British press once called “the wickedest man in the world”—was an overrated magician (or “Magick-ian”).
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29 Lists of Recommended Books Created by Well-Known Authors, Artists & Thinkers: Jorge Luis Borges, Patti Smith, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, David Bowie & More

Watch a Modern Drummer Play a Rock Gong, a Percussion Instrument from Prehistoric Times

A Modern Drummer Plays a Rock Gong, a Percussion Instrument from Prehistoric Times
Rock Gong. It sounds like a B-52s song. But a rock gong is not a New Wave surf-rock party groove. It’s not a neo-synthpop act, hip hop group, or indie band (not yet). It’s a prehistoric instrument—as far away in time as one can get from synthesizers and electric guitars.
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Kurt Vonnegut Ponders Why “Poor Americans Are Taught to Hate Themselves” in a Timely Passage from Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut Ponders Why “Poor Americans Are Taught to Hate Themselves” in a Timely Passage from Slaughterhouse-Five
Image by Daniele Prati, via Flickr Commons Amidst what is now an ordinary day’s chaos and turmoil in the news, you may have noticed some outrage circulating over comments made by erstwhile brain surgeon, former presidential candidate, and current Secretary of HUD Ben Carson.
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Native Lands: An Interactive Map Reveals the Indigenous Lands on Which Modern Nations Were Built

Native Lands: An Interactive Map Reveals the Indigenous Lands on Which Modern Nations Were Built
“Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in the all the glories of exploration.
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What Made Robin Williams. a Uniquely Expressive Actor: A Video Essay Explores a Subtle Dimension of His Comic Genius

He died on this day in 2014.

Virginia Woolf Writes About James Joyce's Ulysses, “Never Did Any Book So Bore Me.” She Then Quit at Page 200

Virginia Woolf Writes About Joyce’s Ulysses, “Never Did Any Book So Bore Me,” and Quits at Page 200
Image via Wikimedia Commons Goodreads, that social network for the bookish, recently posted on its blog the results of a survey taken among its 20 million members with the melancholy title “The Psychology of Abandonment.” Complete with infographic, the survey gives us, among other things, a list...
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