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The idea of discovering a lost ancient city underground has long captured the human imagination. But why are the abandoned built environments of those fantasies always buried? The answer, in large part, is that such places do indeed exist under our feet, at least in certain parts of the world. When archaeologists started digging under […]
yesterday

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The PhD Theses of Richard Feynman, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein & Others, Explained with Illustrations

Raise your children with a love of science, and there’s a decent chance they’ll grow up wanting to be like Richard Feynman, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, or any number of other famous scientists from history. Luckily for them, they won’t yet have learned that the pursuit of such a career will almost certainly entail grinding […]

an hour ago 1 votes
The Secret Link Between Jazz and Physics: How Einstein & Coltrane Shared Improvisation and Intuition in Common

Scientists need hobbies. The grueling work of navigating complex theory and the politics of academia can get to a person, even one as laid back as Brown University professor and astrophysicist Stephon Alexander. So Alexander plays the saxophone, though at this point it may not be accurate to call his avocation a spare time pursuit, […]

2 hours ago 1 votes
The Cleanest Recordings of 1920s Louis Armstrong Songs You Will Ever Hear

On Youtube, jazz enthusiast Jonathan Holmes declares: “I can guarantee this is the cleanest sounding Louis Armstrong record you’ll ever hear! With the original transfer supplied by Nick Dellow, here is the mother record which was shipped by Okeh to Germany for their Odeon pressings. The sound is wonderfully immediate, and crystal clear.” No crackle […]

yesterday 2 votes
How Frank Lloyd Wright’s Architecture Evolved Over 70 Years and Changed America

In the new Architectural Digest video above, Michael Wyetzner talks about a fair few buildings we’ve featured over the years here on Open Culture: the Imperial Hotel, the Ennis House, Taliesin, Fallingwater. These are all, of course, the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, who still stands as the embodiment of American architecture more than 65 […]

2 days ago 3 votes

More in creative

Embracing the Rotten Tomato gap

The site gives movies two scores on a scale from 1 to 100: One is from critics, and the other is from typical viewers who are taking the time to chime in. Many movies have virtually the same score in each category. But some films have a 40 or 50 point gap. How could the […]

an hour ago 1 votes
The PhD Theses of Richard Feynman, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein & Others, Explained with Illustrations

Raise your children with a love of science, and there’s a decent chance they’ll grow up wanting to be like Richard Feynman, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, or any number of other famous scientists from history. Luckily for them, they won’t yet have learned that the pursuit of such a career will almost certainly entail grinding […]

an hour ago 1 votes
Effort and value

We expend effort. We create value. It’s easy to get confused about which one we’re going to ultimately be compensated for.

yesterday 2 votes
Energy and systems complexity

Wild animals forage. They spend calories and take risks to acquire food. If the required work and risk expended are more than the food they acquire, they go extinct. The goal is to get as many calories as possible for as little effort as possible. If there’s a surplus, their instinct is to have kids […]

2 days ago 3 votes