~openculture | Bookmarks (167)
-
A Meditative Tour of Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Architectural Masterpiece
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater is a “house museum,” first designed as a residence, and now open...
-
Miles Davis’ Album On the Corner Tried to Woo Young Rock & Funk Fans: First Considered a Disaster, It’s Now Hailed as a Masterpiece
Miles Davis didn’t put out any studio albums from 1973 until the middle of 1981. In...
-
Hōshi: A Short Documentary on the 1300-Year-Old Hotel Run by the Same Japanese Family for 46 Generations
Hōshi, a traditional Japanese inn in Komatsu, Japan, holds the distinction of being the second oldest...
-
The Roman Colosseum Deconstructed: 3D Animation Reveals the Hidden Technology That Powered Rome’s Great Arena
Most tourists in Rome put the Colosseum at the top of their to-see list. (My own...
-
The 1924 Soviet Chess Match Where The Chess Pieces Were Real Soldiers and Horses
Let’s time travel back to Leningrad (aka St. Petersburg) in 1924. That’s when an unconventional chess match...
-
How Zaha Hadid Revolutionized Architecture & Drew Inspiration from Russian Avant-Garde Art
Zaha Hadid died in 2016, at the age of 65. She certainly wasn’t old, by the...
-
Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi–Walt Disney’s 1943 Film Shows How Fascists Are Made
During World War II, Walt Disney entered into a contract with the US government to develop...
-
The Extreme Life and Philosophy of Hunter S. Thompson: Gonzo Journalism and the American Condition
Hunter S. Thompson has been gone for two decades now. When he went out, as the...
-
James Joyce, With His Eyesight Failing, Draws a Sketch of Leopold Bloom (1926)
James Joyce had a terrible time with his eyes. When he was six years old he...
-
Carl Sagan Issues a Chilling Warning About the Decline of Scientific Thinking in America: Watch His Final Interview (1996)
Until the end of his life, Carl Sagan (1934–1996) continued doing what he did all along...
-
The Real Story of Easter: How We Got from the First Easter in the Bible to Bunnies, Eggs & Chocolate
Popular culture has long since claimed Easter as an occasion for trickster rabbits, dyed-egg hunts, and marshmallow...
-
How to Evade Taxes in Ancient Rome: A 1,900-Year-Old Papyrus Reveals an Ancient Tax Evasion Scheme
It was surely not a coincidence that the New York Times published its story on the trial...
-
How to Enter a ‘Flow State’ on Command: Peak Performance Mind Hack Explained in 7 Minutes
You can be forgiven for thinking the concept of “flow” was cooked up and popularized by...
-
Why Most Ancient Civilizations Had No Word for the Color Blue
In an old Zen story, two monks argue over whether a flag is waving or whether...
-
The Ark Before Noah: Discover the Ancient Flood Myths That Came Before the Bible
The Lord said to Noah, there’s going to be a floody, floody; then to get those...
-
William Faulkner’s Review of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
Images via Wikimedia Commons In the mid-20th century, the two big dogs in the American literary...
-
What the World Will Look Like in 250 Million Years: Mapping the Distant Future
Most of us now accept the idea that all of Earth’s continents were once part of...
-
What Was Smoot-Hawley, and Why Are We Doing It Again? Anyone? Anyone?
When most Americans think of the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs, they think of economic disaster. But if you...
-
How Chinese Characters Work: The Evolution of a Three-Millennia-Old Writing System
Contrary to somewhat popular belief, Chinese characters aren’t just little pictures. In fact, most of them...
-
Hear the World’s Oldest Known Song, “Hurrian Hymn No. 6” Written 3,400 Years Ago
Do you like old timey music? Splendid. You can’t get more old timey than Hurrian Hymn...
-
What Is Kafkaesque?: The Philosophy of Franz Kafka
It’s difficult to imagine that there was ever a time without the word “Kafkaesque.” Yet the...
-
Actor John Lithgow Reads 20 Lessons on Tyranny, Penned by Historian Timothy Snyder
In 2017, historian Timothy Snyder wrote the concise book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth...
-
The Medieval Manuscript That Features “Yoda”, Killer Snails, Savage Rabbits & More: Discover The Smithfield Decretals
As much as you may enjoy a night in with a book, you might not look...
-
The Map of Mathematics: Animation Shows How All the Different Fields in Math Fit Together
Back in December, you hopefully thoroughly immersed yourself in The Map of Physics, an animated video–a visual...