The REAL story of Thanksgiving (redux)

In honor of turkey day, I pulled this from the DIY Scholar archives:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Pilgrims, the Indians, the feasting — we learned all that stuff in school. But what’s the real story?
Check out American as Pumpkin Pie: A History of Thanksgiving (website, iTunes), a recent episode of the podcast BackStory – With the [...]

The Russian revolution on Mars

Here’s an offbeat bit of cinema for your weekend viewing pleasure: Aelita: Queen of Mars, a 1924 silent film made in the Soviet Union about space travelers who arrive on Mars and help the downtrodden workers unite and throw off their exploiting overlords. You might want to fast-forward through the early bits to get [...]

Back from the (American) Alps

I’m back from a lovely vacation in Glacier National Park, an area once advertised to potential tourists as “the American Alps.” I’ve never been to the Alps, but my husband assures me that the comparison is apt — snow capped peaks, meadows full of wildflowers and an abundance of waterfalls.

A highlight of our visit [...]

American Football–survival of the fittest?

In honor of Super Bowl Sunday, let’s look at American political theory through the lens of foobtall. Yes, I’m serious.
In the May 15, 2008 lecture of his course United States Political Thinking from 1865 (website), UCLA professor Brian Walker talks about the curious case of the Great Football Rules Controversy. It seems that in [...]

You are invited to the Podcast Parlor

University lecture courses usually come packaged with seminars or discussion sections where students can ask questions and kick around ideas.
Wouldn’t it be nice for us cyber-students if we could have something similar? Well, thanks to the work of blogger Anne at Anne is a Man, we now have the Podcast Parlor. The idea is to [...]

DIY Scholar’s top 25 posts of 2008

Here are the top 25 posts of 2008 on The Do It Yourself Scholar. Thanks for dropping by.

Best free courses & lectures
Two views of ancient Rome
Yet more Harvard for free
Go to Harvard for free
The best psychology lecture on the Internet
How to download streaming audio and video
Psychology courses
More Harvard University for free
About Dara
How to download Brad [...]

DIY Scholar’s top 25 clicks of 2008

Here are the top 25 clicks of 2008 on The Do It Yourself Scholar. Thanks for dropping by.

podcast.ucsd.edu
forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture…
webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php
webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details.p…
mediaplayer.group.cam.ac.uk/main/Lect…
google.com/search?q=podcasting.jhu.ed…
bruincast.ucla.edu
cool.mcgill.ca
open.yale.edu/courses/courses.html
oedb.org/library/beginning-online-lea…
uc.princeton.edu/main
ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/av/ind…
itunes.stanford.edu
wordpress.com/tag/course-podcasts
extension.harvard.edu/2008-09/Distanc…
education.jimmyr.com
delong.typepad.com/pe101
podcast.york.cuny.edu/lectures
freevideolectures4all.blogspot.com
web.mac.com/j.lockett/Indiana_Jen/Pod…
dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/11115
j-bradford-delong.net/2007_audio
podcasting.jhu.edu/makefeeds.php?cour…
minds.wisconsin.edu/items-by-author?a…
delong.typepad.com/aeh

Mix your own podcast at NPR

It’s now a cinch to mix your own podcast at National Public Radio. Just click on the podcast page, choose from pre-selected topics (like books or politics) or enter your own keyword (like “Obama” or “Iraq”). Then click one more button to subscribe to the podcast. Voila!

History of the Middle East in 90 seconds

In 90 seconds you can view the entire history of the middle east.  Pretty cool!

This video is courtesy of Maps of War.  Hat tip to Targuman.

Ancient Rome — now on Google Earth

Here’s a cool new way to learn about ancient Rome: Google has teamed up with the Rome Reborn Project to offer a virtual fly-through of ancient Rome.
The focus is architectural. You’ll see 6,700 3D models of Roman buildings in the time of Emperor Constantine, but they are all eerily empty — no people, no [...]