Your Paintings a joint initiative between the BBC, the Public Catalogue Foundation and participating collections and museums from across the UK, is a website which aims to show the entire UK national collection of oil paintings, the stories behind the paintings, and where to see them for real. It is made up of paintings from thousands of museums and other public institutions around the country. Currently the archive contains 63,000 of the approximately 200,000 publically-owned artworks that make up the national collection.
[more inside]
posted by dng
on Jul 10, 2011 -
12 comments
A Brief History of Mathematics is a BBC series of ten fifteen-minute podcasts by Professor Marcus du Sautoy about the history of mathematics from Newton and Leibniz to Nicolas Bourbaki, the pseudonym of a group of French 20th Century mathematicians. Among those covered by Professor du Sautoy are Euler, Fourier and Poincaré. The podcasts also include short interviews with people such as Brian Eno and Roger Penrose.
posted by Kattullus
on Dec 1, 2010 -
11 comments
From the BBC blog of documentary filmmaker
Adam Curtis:
Experiments in the Laboratory of Consumerism 1959-67:
"I have quite a lot of film from the archives that was shot in the Madison Avenue agencies in the mid 1960s, and I thought I would put some sections up. It is great because it shows some of the major advertising men and women of the time, many of whom are the real-life models for characters in Mad Men." Includes a 9-minute video interview with the late
Herta Herzog.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Aug 23, 2010 -
17 comments
MAN is one of a number of animals that make things, but man is the only one that depends for its very survival on the things he has made. That
simple observation is the
starting point for an
ambitious history programme that the BBC will
begin broadcasting on January 18th in which it aims to tell a history of the world through 100 objects in the British Museum (BM). A
joint venture four years in the making between the BM and the BBC, the series features 100 15-minute radio broadcasts, a separate 13 episodes in which
children visit the museum at night and try to unlock its mysteries, a BBC World Service package of tailored omnibus editions for broadcasting around the world and an
interactive digital programme involving 350 museums in Britain which will be available free over the internet. The presenter is
Neil MacGregor, the BM’s director, who has moved from the study of art to the contemplation of things. “Objects take you into the thought world of the past,” he says. “When you think about the skills required to make something you begin to think about the brain that made it.”
via The Economist [more inside]
posted by infini
on Dec 30, 2009 -
36 comments
2009 marks not only the 150
th anniversary of the publication of
Charles Darwin's
On The Origin of Species* but the 200
th anniversary of his birth as well. To celebrate,
BBC Radio 4 presents a special series of Melvyn Bragg's
In Our Time exploring Darwin's life and work:
Episode 1 explores Darwin's unhappy childhood, his time at Cambridge University and his failure to become a priest,
episode 2 focuses on Darwin's round the world voyage on the Beagle and the objects and the ideas he bought back,
episode 3 looks at the publication of Darwin's masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, and the controversy it stirred, and
episode 4 is set in Down House where Darwin lived out the final years of his life and which became both family home and experiment lab.
[more inside]
posted by Alvy Ampersand
on Jan 8, 2009 -
14 comments
Clips from the BBC documentary, The African Rock n' Roll Years -
Part 1 l
Part 2 l
Part 3 l
Part 4 l
Part 5 l
Part 6 - a six-part series mixing interviews with key artists, concert footage and news archives, the series examines and explains the "styles that make up the continent's music, and the political and social pressures that led to their development."
BBC documentary details. Found in YouTube member,
Duncanzibar's, good collection of mostly African music videos.
[more inside]
posted by nickyskye
on Dec 30, 2008 -
9 comments
This is the Wartime Broadcasting Service. This country has been attacked with
nuclear weapons. Communications have been severely disrupted, and the number of
casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known. We shall bring you
further information as soon as possible. - The BBC
releases its
script for use in the event of
nuclear war.
posted by Artw
on Oct 2, 2008 -
37 comments
IN MEMORY OF
HANNAH TWYNNOY
Who died October 23rd 1703
Aged 33 Years.
In bloom of Life
She’s snatched from hence,
She had not room
To make defence;
For Tyger fierce
Took Life Away.
And here she lies
In a bed of Clay,
Until the Resurrection Day
In anticipation of Halloween, BBC History magazine announces the
winner (pdf link) of its "Mysterious Memorials" contest. (It's not the one above.) View the complete list of runners-up
here.
posted by saslett
on Oct 29, 2007 -
9 comments
The Future Just Happened A series of four BBC programmes about the internet from five years ago watchable online (via pre-broadband 56k real) that provide a snapshot of a time when AOL was 'at the heart of the new world', Marillion were releasing music through fan subscriptions and Monica Lewinsky was talking about how she didn't trust email anymore. Amazing.
posted by feelinglistless
on Jun 4, 2006 -
9 comments
Why We Fight, the BBC documentary from
Eugene Jarecki about the American military-industrial complex and its origins (
trailer@apple). For some reason its up in full at Google Video, so if you didn't get a chance to see it in the theaters, well, here it is! 1hr,40m - save it for later, perhaps. It's named after a
series of war propaganda newsreels, directed by Frank Capra, demonstrating the need to enter WWII. These too are
available on GV, as well as archive.org - to your surprise and delight. And for your convenience: Reels
One,
Two,
Three,
Four, Five parts
1 and
2,
Six, and
Seven
posted by BlackLeotardFront
on May 6, 2006 -
54 comments
The recent post that revived the rude ‘
Rainbow’ kids show sketch reminded me of the our (that is, British) obsession with comic
double entendre - the ability to accept the filthiest things as long as there is a parallel innocuous interpretation. I think it is something to do our love for wordplay and subtext, our innate hypocrisy and the belief that sex is, in fact, rather naughty. Perhaps the prime example are the
Julian and Sandy sketches that ran on the BBC Radio show
‘Beyond Our Ken’ from 1964-69. Over Sunday lunch, millions (there was ONLY the BBC in those days) listened to two very camp characters saying outrageous things in
Polari (underground gay slang). A much earlier prime example is the
great dirty joke (it’s the one in blue at the bottom of the page) that got comedian Max Miller (died in 1963) banned from the BBC for 5 years. A more recent case of innuendo is, of course,
Mrs. Slocombe’s pussy. Of course the
double entendre can also be
unintentional.
posted by rolo
on Feb 27, 2004 -
8 comments
Quanto putas mihi stare hoc conclave ? That's "How many prostitutes does it take to change a lightbulb?" in Latin. No, actually it's "How much do you think I paid for this apartment?". Here's hoping, in the wake of the BBC's superb
The Roman Way series, written and presented by David Aaranovich, that good old Latin is on its way back, albeit in an Internet, soundbitey way. Those intending to smuggle some into MetaFilter should definitely start
here. The owner, for instance, might find
Ne ponatur in mea vicinitate useful - "Not in my backyard". And
Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione - "I'm not interested in your dopey religious cult" should prove popular in the God threads.
Vale!
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Feb 3, 2003 -
26 comments
History of Applause: What compels us to clap in appreciation?
Theories abound. The earliest clapping is found in percussive instruments of ancient Egypt (
jpg), while the Bible has us clap in
joy, as well as
derision. Emperor Nero so craved it he would pay
freelancers to applaud his atrocious singing. Applause has even influenced classical
compositions.
But, in the age of the pre-planned encore, do we still
mean it?
posted by apostasy
on Feb 2, 2003 -
17 comments
Who is Osama Bin Laden? ...The Afghan jihad was backed with American dollars and had the blessing of the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. He received security training from the CIA itself, according to Middle Eastern analyst Hazhir Teimourian. Is OBL the United State's
Golem?
posted by housepox
on Sep 12, 2001 -
2 comments
