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Each Public Domain Day seems to bring us a richer crop of copyright-liberated books, plays, films, musical compositions, sound recordings, works of art, and other pieces of intellectual property. This year happens to be an especially notable one for connoisseurs of Belgian culture. Among the characters entering the American public domain, we find a certain […]
4 months ago

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How Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton & Harold Lloyd Pulled Off Their Spectacular Stunts During Silent Film’s Golden Age

It can be tempting to view the box office’s domination by visual-effects-laden Hollywood spectacle as a recent phenomenon. And indeed, there have been periods during which that wasn’t the case: the “New Hollywood” that began in the late nineteen sixties, for instance, when the old studio system handed the reins to inventive young guns like […]

19 hours ago 1 votes
How a Papal Conclave Works, and Who Might Be the Next Pope

On Tuesday, the cardinals locked themselves into the Sistine Chapel, officially beginning the conclave to elect the 267th pope. First formalized by Pope Gregory X in 1274, the conclave (a word derived from the Latin words cum clave, meaning “with a key”) follows a highly scripted process honed over the past 800 years. How the conclave […]

23 hours ago 1 votes
Take a 3D Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel & Explore Michelangelo’s Masterpieces Up Close

Today, 133 cardinals from around the world enter the conclave to determine the next pope, during which they’ll cast their votes in the Sistine Chapel. Despite being one of the most famous tourist attractions in Europe, the Sistine Chapel still serves as a venue for such important official functions, just as it has since its […]

2 days ago 1 votes
George Orwell’s Rules for Making the Perfect Cup of Tea: A Short Animation

Several years back, Colin Marshall highlighted George Orwell’s essay, “A Nice Cup of Tea,” which first ran in the Evening Standard on January 12, 1946. In that article, Orwell weighed in on a subject the English take seriously–how to make the perfect cup of tea. (According to Orwell, “tea is one of the mainstays of civilization.”) And […]

2 days ago 1 votes
A Japanese Zen Monk Explains What Zen Is Really About

Despite developing in Asia, as the Chinese form of a religion originally brought over from India and later refined in Japan, Zen Buddhism has long appealed to Westerners as well. Some of that owes to the spare, elegant aesthetics with which popular culture associates it, and more to the promise it holds out: freedom from […]

3 days ago 1 votes

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20 hours ago 1 votes
International Graffiti Times – 1884-1994

Dedicated to New York City street art, International Graffiti Times – IGTimes (aka: Subway Sun, InterGalactic Times, GetHip International Times, Tight and IGT) announced itself with an image of the city’s Mayor Ed Koch covered in tags. After Koch, the arch enemy of “graffiti”, there were articles on artist Michael Stewart (May 9, 1958 – September … Continue reading "International Graffiti Times – 1884-1994" The post International Graffiti Times – 1884-1994 appeared first on Flashbak.

14 hours ago 1 votes
How a Papal Conclave Works, and Who Might Be the Next Pope

On Tuesday, the cardinals locked themselves into the Sistine Chapel, officially beginning the conclave to elect the 267th pope. First formalized by Pope Gregory X in 1274, the conclave (a word derived from the Latin words cum clave, meaning “with a key”) follows a highly scripted process honed over the past 800 years. How the conclave […]

23 hours ago 1 votes
Details Avoid Bias

Long ago I noted:

14 hours ago 1 votes
How Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton & Harold Lloyd Pulled Off Their Spectacular Stunts During Silent Film’s Golden Age

It can be tempting to view the box office’s domination by visual-effects-laden Hollywood spectacle as a recent phenomenon. And indeed, there have been periods during which that wasn’t the case: the “New Hollywood” that began in the late nineteen sixties, for instance, when the old studio system handed the reins to inventive young guns like […]

19 hours ago 1 votes