I came across this website entirely by accident and wonder how I didn’t know of it earlier: Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate. It’s a manually compiled and updated catalogue of “the most intelligent, provocative, and illuminating news stories, critical reviews, political essays, and commentaries published online” and is a service of the The Chronicle of Higher Education (US).
The site is updated six times a week and to someone who loves eclectic information, it’s a mine of still unexplored links, unread articles, new ideas, book reviews, loud opinions, and interesting insights. The sidebar of links to online mags and newspapers is very useful, though I wouldn’t recommend visiting this site if you do not have time to wastespend gambolling through the WWW.
Another addictive site, recommended by a friend a couple of days after I heard of it on the radio, is Ted.com, a collection of free lectures you can download and view at your leisure. Some lectures are 4 minutes while others are 30 minutes long, and the topics run from “life lessons” to physics to astronomy to the environment to music and design. I guarantee you’d find something interesting to watch on this site. If you have iTunes, the iTunes University has a ready link to Ted lectures, as well as a buffett spread of video and audio teachings direct from universities such as LSE, Yale, MIT. It’s a great site for part-time scholars and information-hoarders. Makes a great research tool if you manage to find the correct topics.
Filed under: Collectibles, Playing Favourites, Tech , arts and letters, ted.com, websites
