Mindful Ink     Life, Living and Productivity

iPodNN | iTunes U adds new PBS material, more

Certainly worth noting.

Many of you probably have distance learning programs at your universities, but some colleges have pushed that a little further into the media age with broadcasting their entire courses on YouTube and the like.

OpenCulture has a great post today regarding some of the university collections on YouTube (and has previously detailed some of the available options.) So far I’ve not seen any classes I’m interested in, but you should take a look!Some of the previous posts in this vein (worth looking at):

• OpenCulture’s YouTube Playlist
• 10 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube

Happy Monday!

Clips: Keighley Sets Mass Effect Record Straight… Or Tries To

I’ve been watching this stew the past few weeks, it is simply astounding that we’re having this conversation about Mass Effect of all games. If nothing else can show us the sheer stupidity and reactionary nature of our media, this is a great example. I’ve played Mass Effect, I know the guys over at Bioware (who made it) and this is just.. dumbfounding.

The sex scene is…. well, as the man says in the video, 30 seconds long and not as bad as what you’d see on network tv these days. It’s certainly not a big part of the game, and not nearly as graphic as it is being portrayed. But look at this! One moron makes a post on a shoddy blog site and suddenly the anchors at Fox are trying to pretend like they know what they’re talking about at ALL.

The game, by the way, is brilliant. It is, quite simply, one of the most amazing games I’ve ever played. It’s Bioware - they do amazing work, and this is as good or better than anything else they’ve ever done.

I know it’s not our normal flare, but as I said - I know the some of the guys who made this game, have worked with some of them.. I don’t like seeing them knocked about with this BS. Video of the newscast behind the bump….

Penny Arcade really summed up the issue best, as usual.

Read the rest of this entry »

“One of The Supreme Creations of Documentary Filmmaking” Airs Tonight | Open Culture
A.O. Scott (The New York Times) calls it “One of the most remarkable experiments in the history of cinema.” Roger Ebert says it “is on my list of the ten greatest films of all time.” The film is 49 UP, and it airs tonight on PBS.