Lectures and Courses

[Eddiesilence]

How about a parallel thread to the documentaries thread, for lectures, courses, educational talks, etc.?

Here's my first suggestion.

Professor Courtenay Raia-Green (and Norton, her bulldog and assistant) delivers the history of Science, Magic, and Religion from antiquity to the present, at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The entire twenty-lecture course is at the first link, followed by the first lecture of the series...

www.youtube.com/course?list=ECFFD1C791A86FB485

Edited January 26, 2013 by Eddiesilence

[Floyd]

Excellent idea Ed

This could possibly be one of the greatest threads ever

eta: to add lecture

Prof. Ramamurti Shankar, J.R. Huffman Professor of Physics & Applied Physics, gives an introduction to Einstein's Theory for a lay audience.

The only preparation needed is an open mind.

Edited January 26, 2013 by Floyd

[Eddiesilence]

Brilliant choice there Floyd, with Einstein for Molasses.

The Frontline Club has regular live YouTube interviews and talks on important and interesting issues of the day, along with authors talking about recent books. For example, here's a fascinating talk with the Independent's Middle-East correspondent, Robert Fisk:

Robert Fisk - Covering Wars, Insurgencies and Massacres.

P.S. I'll just belatedly establish a ground rule: this thread is a Paranoid Conspiracy Theory-free zone! No Illuminati, Rothschilds, lizards, Mayans or aliens please. And especially nobody called 'David Icke'!

Edited January 26, 2013 by Eddiesilence

[Eddiesilence]

Information should be free - and there's lots of lovely free learny stuff from Yale University. I came.

oyc.yale.edu/courses.

COURSES

Each course includes a full set of class lectures produced in high-quality video accompanied by such other course materials as syllabi, suggested readings, exams, and problem sets. The lectures are available as downloadable videos, and an audio-only version is also offered. In addition, searchable transcripts of each lecture are provided.

African American History: From Emancipation to the Present

Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner

Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics

Frontiers of Biomedical Engineering

Freshman Organic Chemistry I

Freshman Organic Chemistry II

Introduction to Ancient Greek History

Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior

Financial Markets (2008)

Game Theory

Financial Theory

Financial Markets

Milton

The American Novel Since 1945

Introduction to Theory of Literature

Modern Poetry

Environmental Studies

Environmental Politics and Law

Geology and Geophysics

The Atmosphere, the Ocean, and Environmental Change

The American Revolution

The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877

European Civilization, 1648-1945

Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600

Early Modern England: Politics, Religion, and Society under the Tudors and Stuarts

France Since 1871

The Early Middle Ages, 284–1000

Roman Architecture

Dante in Translation

Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology

Global Problems of Population Growth

Listening to Music

Death

Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature

Fundamentals of Physics I

Fundamentals of Physics II

Introduction to Political Philosophy

The Moral Foundations of Politics

Capitalism: Success, Crisis, and Reform The Psychology, Biology and Politics of Food

Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible)

Introduction to the New Testament History and Literature

Foundations of Modern Social Theory

Cervantes' Don Quixote

Edited January 26, 2013 by Eddiesilence

[distracted]

http://www.academicearth.org/ this might interest you if you haven't seen it already

[tengreenfingers]

<Insert lame Conspiraloon video only posted for a joke here.>

I have a feeling this thread might swallow rather a large chunk of time. Really just posting this to make sure it pops up when I look at new posts in threads I've posted.

[Eddiesilence]

<Insert lame Conspiraloon video only posted for a joke here.>

<Following talk from David Aaronovitch posted to represent lame conspiraloon-video-antidote joke>:

[Floyd]

The Khan Academy

"It is our mission to provide a world-class education to anyone, anywhere. With this in mind, we want to share our content with whoever may find it useful."

The Khan Academy Youtube channel

The Khan Academy website

[Sidewinder]

Amazing lecture on education by Ken Robinson

[Eddiesilence]

A fascinating chapter from anarcho-capitalist Murray Rothbard's "An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought", about the bizarre history of the Anabaptist Münster Rebellion 1534-35, which Rothbard viewed as a form of totalitarian Communism.

[ramblingmadman]

TED talks .

I have an app, but there's a website too.

loads of videos on loads of subjects by interesting sometimes unusual thinkers.

(originally suggested to me by bazz)

cool thread ed

e2a could you post the link as well as the vid as I can't open difect links on this tablet for some reason)

Edited January 28, 2013 by ramblingmadman

[MED]

I missed this we beaut!

Best thread yet

[BudFan]

Great idea for a thread Eddie, it will no doubt grow to become a useful library.

Here is a short talk by Father Robert Barron, discussing the boundaries/limitations of both science and philosophy (of which theology is a type).

Its 2 years old. He spends a bit of time discussing Stephen Hawkings assertion that the universe created itself, which it apparently can do because of gravity. He points out the obvious flaws in this idea, and discusses how the atheistic idea that the Universe "just happened from nothing" is illogical and actually contradicts long established pillars of human reason* ("ex nihilo nihil fit" - nothing comes from nothing - humanity has known this for 2,500 years, ever since Parmenides).

(*I thought it quite funny when he says "I thought I was supposed to be the advocate of medieval superstition", when discussing the "it just happened" explanation for the universe)

Its a short video (<10 mins) but I think its worth is that he clearly sets out how the approaches of science/philosophy differ and how a lack of appreciation of one can lead one to make silly statements about it, even if expert in the other. (As an aside, Richard Dawkins struggles badly when confronted with those who will argue along philosophic lines, meaning he is confronted with more sophisticated arguments than "theres a man up in the sky and he knows everything and is watching you" ).

For me, Stephen Hawking is a guy I have admired greatly for a long time (since reading "a brief history of time") at high school. (also, he is one of the 3 British members of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Science). I suspect, with his statement about gravity creating the universe, it was more a cry for attention (to sell his book) than it was a genuine contribution from him. Which is fair enough, but perhaps he should be wary about flippant statements, because people have a tendency to unquestioningly swallow anything which scientists like him say.

Edited January 29, 2013 by BudFan

[Cambium]

Edited January 29, 2013 by Cambium

[Eddiesilence]

The brilliant Professor Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness", reminds us who Dr. Martin Luther King really was, on the day of Barack Obama's inauguration for his second term as President.

Michelle Alexander's address begins at 34.23, and at 50 minutes, she makes this devastating observation:

"We have allowed a human rights nightmare to occur on our watch. In the years since Dr. King's death, a vast new system of racial and social control has emerged. From the ashes of slavery and Jim Crow, a system of mass-incarceration that no doubt would have Dr. King turning in his grave today.

The mass-incarceration of poor people of colour in the United States has emerged as a new caste-like system, one that shuttles our youth from decrepit, underfunded schools to brand new, high-tech prisons. It is a system that locks poor people - overwhelmingly poor folks of colour - into a permanent second-class status, nearly as effectively as earlier systems of control once did. It is in my view, the moral equivalent of Jim Crow."

youtube.com/watch?v=T7i0tJSCfoo

Edited January 30, 2013 by Eddiesilence