Culture and Society

Eternal life may be changing from a death-defying fantasy to something more mundane, as this new book reveals...

The National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), over a period of approximately 20 years, will create a national, digital resource of historically significant newspapers from all the states and U.S. territories published between 1836 and 1922. This searchable database will be permanently maintained at the Library of Congress and be freely …

Oliver Stone’s epic Alexander finally opens next week. We just did a big hoohaw preview a few days ago, focusing on Pete Green’s survey of recent Alexandrian literature, and in particular Alexander’s evolving image. Archaeology magazine has just put up an Alexander resource on the web. Included in the section …

The time of Alexander draws nigh (November 24 to be precise), Oliver Stone’s epic historical biopic of one of the greatest and most enigmatic figures in history. Click on the above banner for every manner of interactive doo-dad and gizmo relating to the film, starring a blonde Colin Farrell as …

These guys were ahead of their time, as proprietor Jonny says, “It is strange to see the number of Playlist-type brands appearing across the world right now, so I guess we are onto something.” This is essentially live iPod-casting. We mentioned the very cool “Playlist” iPod club slam in London …

We mentioned at the end of October the fascinating discovery of a new species of little humans on the Indonesian island of Flores. Now, inevitably, controversy has erupted over whether Homo floresiensis is descended from an archaic human species, Homo erectus, or from modern humans, Homo sapien. The knives are …

As I stated here in September when the FCC unanimously imposed a fine against CBS for Janet Jackson’s Nipplegate, it was time to close the book and move on. CBS disagrees and has appealed the $550K fine (the maximum $27,500 for each of the twenty Viacom-owned CBS affiliates), the largest …

The arrival of Disney’s National Treasure is now just a couple of weeks away (November 19). Disney is going all out with the interactive goodies on film website: search for clues, find treasure, research the historical facts and assumptions behind the film. Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage stars as Benjamin …

Blogumentary debuts tonight at the City Pages Documentary Film Festival in Minneapolis: Chuck Olsen [no relation], director. 70 minutes. A message from the blogosphere: “Hi there. My name is Chuck Olsen, and I’m producing an independent documentary about blogs. Blogs empower us to tell our story, to spout and debate …