Open Culture

An Animated History of Cats: How Over 10,000 Years the Cat Went from Wild Predator to Sofa Sidekick Dogs sees us as their masters while cats sees us as their slaves. - Anonymous The next time your friend’s pet cat sinks its fangs into your wrist, bear in mind that the beast is probably still laborin...

An Animated History of Cats: How Over 10,000 Years the Cat Went from Wild Predator to Sofa Sidekick

When Salvador Dali Met Sigmund Freud, and Changed Freud’s Mind About Surrealism (1938) The close associations between Surrealism and Freudian psychoanalysis were liberally encouraged by the most famous proponent of the movement, Salvador Dalí, who considered himself a devoted follower o...

When Salvador Dali Met Sigmund Freud, and Changed Freud’s Mind About Surrealism (1938)

The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the Oldest Surviving Animated Feature Film, Is Now in the Public Domain (1926) Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed, or The Adventures of Prince Achmed, lays fair claim to being the earliest animated feature film in existence. If we do grant it that title, it beats the next contende...

The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the Oldest Surviving Animated Feature Film, Is Now in the Public Domain (1926)

Rome in 1890 Captured in Color Photographs: The Colosseum, Forum, Trevi Fountain & More For almost two hundred years, English gentlemen could not consider their education complete until they had taken the “Grand Tour” of Europe, usually culminating in Naples, “ragamuffin capital of the I...

Rome in 1890 Captured in Color Photographs: The Colosseum, Forum, Trevi Fountain & More

The Greatest Double Agent Ever: How a Spanish Chicken Farmer Became the Most Important Double Agent in WWII Juan Pujol García was one of the rare individuals whose participation in World War II made him a Member of the Order of the British Empire and earned him the Iron Cross. He gained that unlikely distin...

The Greatest Double Agent Ever: How a Spanish Chicken Farmer Became the Most Important Double Agent in WWII

Behold the First Realistic Depiction of the Human Face (Circa 25,000 BCE) In 1894, archaeologist Édouard Piette discovered the 'Venus of Brassempouy,' otherwise known as the “Lady with the Hood.” Unearthed in southwestern France and dating to around 25,000 BCE, this carving...

Behold the First Realistic Depiction of the Human Face (Circa 25,000 BCE)

Can Modern-Day Italians Understand Latin? A YouTuber Puts It to the Test on the Streets of Rome Of all the Romance languages, none is more Romantic than Italian, at least in the sense that it has changed the least in its long descent from Latin to its current form.

Can Modern-Day Italians Understand Latin? A YouTuber Puts It to the Test on the Streets of Rome

The Photo That Triggered China’s Disastrous Cultural Revolution (1966) In 1958, Mao Zedong launched the Great Leap Forward. Eight years later, he announced the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Between those two events, of course, came the Great Chi...

The Photo That Triggered China’s Disastrous Cultural Revolution (1966)

Mythology Expert Reviews Depictions of Greek & Roman Myths in Popular Movies and TV Shows It's safe to say that we no longer believe in the gods of the ancient world — or rather, that most of us no longer believe in their literal existence, but some of us have faith in their box-office pot...

Mythology Expert Reviews Depictions of Greek & Roman Myths in Popular Movies and TV Shows

How Japanese Masters Turn Sand Into Swords: The Art of Traditional Sword Making from Start to Finish We made sand think: this phrase is used from time to time to evoke the particular technological wonders of our age, especially since artificial intelligence seems to be back on the slate of possibilit...

How Japanese Masters Turn Sand Into Swords: The Art of Traditional Sword Making from Start to Finish

Cab Calloway’s “Hepster Dictionary,” a 1939 Glossary of the Lingo (the “Jive”) of the Harlem Renaissance The lists are in. By overwhelming consensus, the buzzword of 2014 was “vape.” Apparently, that’s the verb that enables you to smoke an e-cig. Left to its own devices, my computer will still autocorrec...

Cab Calloway’s “Hepster Dictionary,” a 1939 Glossary of the Lingo (the “Jive”) of the Harlem Renaissance

The Greatest Double Agent Ever: How a Spanish Chicken Farmer Became the Most Important Double Agent in WWII Juan Pujol García was one of the rare individuals whose participation in World War II made him a Member of the Order of the British Empire and earned him the Iron Cross. He gained that unlikely distin...

The Greatest Double Agent Ever: How a Spanish Chicken Farmer Became the Most Important Double Agent in WWII

Behold the First Realistic Depiction of the Human Face (Circa 25,000 BCE) In 1894, archaeologist Édouard Piette discovered the 'Venus of Brassempouy,' otherwise known as the “Lady with the Hood.” Unearthed in southwestern France and dating to around 25,000 BCE, this carving...

Behold the First Realistic Depiction of the Human Face (Circa 25,000 BCE)

How Medieval Islamic Engineering Brought Water to the Alhambra Between 711 and 1492, much of the Iberian Peninsula, including modern-day Spain, was under Muslim rule.

How Medieval Islamic Engineering Brought Water to the Alhambra

A 13th-Century Cookbook Featuring 475 Recipes from Moorish Spain Gets Published in a New Translated Edition Some of the distinctiveness of Spain as we know it today comes as a legacy of the period from 700 to 1200, when most of it was under Muslim rule. The culture of Al-Andalus, as the Islamic states of mo...

A 13th-Century Cookbook Featuring 475 Recipes from Moorish Spain Gets Published in a New Translated Edition

Algerian Cave Paintings Suggest Humans Did Magic Mushrooms 9,000 Years Ago We moderns might wonder what ancient peoples did when not hunting, gathering, and reproducing. The answer is that they did mushrooms, at least according to one interpretation of cave paintings at Tass...

Algerian Cave Paintings Suggest Humans Did Magic Mushrooms 9,000 Years Ago

An Oscar-Winning Animation of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” Painted on 29,000 Frames of Glass Ernest Hemingway’s romantic adventure of man and marlin, The Old Man and the Sea, has perhaps spent more time on high school freshman English reading lists than any other work of fiction, which might ...

An Oscar-Winning Animation of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” Painted on 29,000 Frames of Glass

What the Earth Would Look Like If We Drained the Water from the Oceans Formerly a NASA Fellow at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Dr James O'Donoghue now works as a planetary scientist at the Japanese space agency JAXA. He also hosts a video channel on YouTube. Above, yo...

What the Earth Would Look Like If We Drained the Water from the Oceans

How John Singer Sargent Became the Greatest Portraitist Who Ever Lived — by Painting “Outside the Lines” Evan Puschak, better known as Youtube's Nerdwriter, has created video essays on a host of visual artists from Goya to Picasso, de Chirico to Hopper, Leonardo to Van Gogh.

How John Singer Sargent Became the Greatest Portraitist Who Ever Lived — by Painting “Outside the Lines”

How Medieval Islamic Engineering Brought Water to the Alhambra Between 711 and 1492, much of the Iberian Peninsula, including modern-day Spain, was under Muslim rule.

How Medieval Islamic Engineering Brought Water to the Alhambra

A 13th-Century Cookbook Featuring 475 Recipes from Moorish Spain Gets Published in a New Translated Edition Some of the distinctiveness of Spain as we know it today comes as a legacy of the period from 700 to 1200, when most of it was under Muslim rule. The culture of Al-Andalus, as the Islamic states of mo...

A 13th-Century Cookbook Featuring 475 Recipes from Moorish Spain Gets Published in a New Translated Edition

Free: 356 Issues of Galaxy, the Groundbreaking 1950s Science Fiction Magazine Along with Astounding Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Galaxy Magazine was one of the most important science fiction digests in 1950s America. Ray Bradbury wrote for it...

Free: 356 Issues of Galaxy, the Groundbreaking 1950s Science Fiction Magazine

Rapping, Deconstructed: How Some of the Greatest Rappers Make Their Rhymes If high school English teachers can challenge skeptical students to cultivate an appreciation for Shakespeare and poetry with rap-based assignments, might the reverse also hold true?

Rapping, Deconstructed: How Some of the Greatest Rappers Make Their Rhymes

10 Writing Tips from Legendary Writing Teacher William Zinsser William Zinsser stressed simplicity and efficiency, but also style and enthusiasm. Here are 10 of his many tips for improving your writing.

10 Writing Tips from Legendary Writing Teacher William Zinsser

How the Golden Gate Bridge Was Built: A 3D Animated Introduction Built during the depths of the Great Depression (from 1933 to 1937), the Golden Gate Bridge became the longest and tallest suspension bridge in the world.

How the Golden Gate Bridge Was Built: A 3D Animated Introduction

100 Years of Rock in Less Than a Minute: From Gospel to Grunge Click the image above and you'll enter an interactive/moving graphic that gives you a fairly nice genealogy of rock n roll and the many forms of music it later spawned. The graphic starts you with the...

100 Years of Rock in Less Than a Minute: From Gospel to Grunge

Free: 356 Issues of Galaxy, the Groundbreaking 1950s Science Fiction Magazine Along with Astounding Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Galaxy Magazine was one of the most important science fiction digests in 1950s America. Ray Bradbury wrote for it...

Free: 356 Issues of Galaxy, the Groundbreaking 1950s Science Fiction Magazine

A Rabbit Rides a Chariot Pulled by Geese in an Ancient Roman Mosaic (2nd century AD) If you head to the Louvre, make sure you visit the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Liberty Leading the People. But then swing by the Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities. There you might...

A Rabbit Rides a Chariot Pulled by Geese in an Ancient Roman Mosaic (2nd century AD)

How Fritz Lang’s Metropolis Created the Blueprint for Modern Science Fiction (1927) A vast, miserable proletariat squanders its days in meaningless toil. Society is under the control of ultra-wealthy business magnates. In order to pacify the underclass, the ruling class pins its hope...

How Fritz Lang’s Metropolis Created the Blueprint for Modern Science Fiction (1927)

Norman Rockwell’s Typewritten Recipe for His Favorite Oatmeal Cookies Norman Rockwell, prolific painter and illustrator of 20th century Americana, often worked so single-mindedly that he missed his meals.

Norman Rockwell’s Typewritten Recipe for His Favorite Oatmeal Cookies