Hey! Do you like books? (Yeah...) Do you like free books? (Yeah!) Do you like giving books to friends and strangers and whomever? (Hell yeah!) Are you American? (I just said "hell yeah" didn't I?) Then
sign up here! (Then what happens?) You can select from one of
thirty books. (And?) They'll send you a box with twenty copies of one book which you can give to friends, strangers or enemies. (What's the catch?) There's no catch, it's
World Book Night.
[British edition previously on MeFi]
posted by Kattullus
on Feb 4, 2012 -
39 comments
The Earthbound Journal is the
Mother of all fan projects; a labour of love that took journalist Armand Kossayan over 150 hours to complete. And it's amazing. Armand describes it as "a retelling of the game’s plot from the point of view of primarily Paula and Jeff, with some smaller parts from Ness and Poo." Did I mention it's free. Go get it!
posted by Effigy2000
on Feb 2, 2012 -
12 comments
Nigel Kneale's adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four was
one of the most controversial television programmes of its time. Broadcast live, it made "
unusually extensive and imaginative use of filmed inserts (14 in total). These sequences bought time for the more elaborate costume changes or scene set-ups, but also served to 'open out' the action." And now you can watch it too! The full version
is currently on Youtube. Short of the John Hurt film released in 1984 being posted online, the 1954 BBC TV adaptation is about as doubleplusgood as it gets for now.
[more inside]
posted by Effigy2000
on Dec 12, 2010 -
12 comments
40 years ago, a small crew of filmmakers set out to document some of the more pressing issues involving wildlife in America. They made eight half-hour films around the country and in doing so made what is believed to be the first environmental TV series in the US. Entitled
Our Vanishing Wilderness,
all eight episodes are now online and free to view here.
posted by Effigy2000
on Mar 18, 2010 -
4 comments
Dust Echoes is a series of twelve beautifully animated Aboriginal Australian dreamtime stories from Central Arnhem Land. The themes of these stories tell tales of love, loyalty, duty to country and aboriginal custom and law. Each story comes with descriptions on its history, what the story means and the text of the original story as told by local story tellers. Be sure to check out the
downloads section for free desktop wallpapers and
MP3 bonus tracks.
posted by Effigy2000
on Nov 26, 2009 -
13 comments
TV and Parables of Our Times: Speaking of Faith ( a weekly radio program about "religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas") looks at how tv deals with issues in contemporary life. A link to the main episode (MP3) is on the page along with various support media.
posted by Brandon Blatcher
on Nov 18, 2009 -
6 comments
First Person Shooters don't always have to cost you money.
Free Doom and
Starsiege: Tribes are two of the most well known free FPS around, but inside this post is a list of 32 more for you to checkout, download legally for free and enjoy.
[more inside]
posted by Effigy2000
on Mar 22, 2009 -
51 comments
Bought a video game second hand and found it doesn’t have a manual? Or have you been thinking about that great manual that came with that copy of
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past you owned years ago and wouldn't mind taking a look through it again? Well, help is at hand!
Vimm offers you heaps of free pdf manuals from retro systems as old as the Atari 2600 and as recent as the N64! Meanwhile
Meekeo does much the same, although it mostly looks after current generation systems (including the PC) only. Finally, if you own a Nintendo Wii, DS, Gamecube or Gameboy Advance, Nintendo is
offering up full colour pdfs of games they publish(ed) for these systems, as well as manuals for some of their older games.
posted by Effigy2000
on Jan 5, 2009 -
15 comments
Have you ever wondered what the national anthem of Bolivia, Nepal or The Republic of Seychelles sounded like? Well wonder no more because
NationalAnthems.info has got you covered! It claims to have the national anthem for every country in the world in MIDI format, along with downloadable lyrics and sheet music so you can sing and play along. But if the MIDI format isn't doing it for you, there's also other sites that you can visit that have downloadable MP3s of pretty much every national anthem this planet and its inhabitants have to offer,
such as this one or
this one, which is notable in that the anthems featured there were performed by the US Navy Band. And finally, for your further reading and listening pleasure,
check out this forum which contains background information on and even more links to downloadable national anthems.
posted by Effigy2000
on Sep 22, 2008 -
14 comments
Like
others before him
Benjamin Rosenbaum is making his debut short story collection,
The Ant King And Other Stories, available from his publishers,
Small Beer, as a
free download. More than this though, he is holding a
competition to find the best derivative work inspired by it. These include "translations, plays, movies, radio plays, audiobooks, flashmob happenings, horticultural installations, visual artworks, slash fanfic epics, robot operas, sequels, webcomics, ASCII art, text adventure games, roleplaying campaigns, knitting projects, handmade shoes, or anything else you feel like."
[more inside]
posted by ninebelow
on Sep 19, 2008 -
19 comments
The first 17 minute 'webisode' of the new science-fiction web-series
Sanctuary, starring
Stargate SG-1's Amanda Tapping (
along with several other Stargate actors) can now be
viewed online, for free, at Youtube. And although you can buy them
here for US $1.99, uploading the video to Youtube or sharing it with your friends is all completely legit, as the producers have taken a very liberal approach to DRM; specifically, there is none. To
quote creator Damian Kindler "
These files are YOURS. You can do with them what you want. Drop them into iTunes. Convert them to DVD formats. Burn, rip, whatever. You bought 'em, you decide how to enjoy 'em." Nice.
posted by Effigy2000
on Jun 2, 2007 -
29 comments
Tom Smith is your average guy who likes comic books, Harlan Ellison short stories and
Julie Newmar in a Catwoman suit (who
dosen't?). Except the thing is, the guy can sing and write music too.
And he releases a free song every week at his iTom page. Like most artists his music can be hit and miss, but there's some great free music to be found there such as
Contessa and the awesome Jim Henson tribute
A Boy and His Frog. Oh, and he also runs the '
Digital Acoustic' livejournal, where he discusses all manner of things such as comics, politics and of course, music. Sure, he's no
cortex, but he's pretty damn good and well worth a listen.
posted by Effigy2000
on Apr 24, 2007 -
6 comments
More and more authors are turning to podcasting to find their audiences after being rejected by traditional book publishers,
it seems. Interested in hearing some of their stories for free (or if you're feeling generous, a suggested donation of $9.99)? Check out
PodioBooks, where there's a tonne of free literature just waiting to be downloaded to your iPod.
posted by Effigy2000
on Mar 8, 2007 -
9 comments
Astronomy 161 - an introduction to Solar System Astronomy. These are a set of lectures in progress now at Ohio State University. All materials are available on line -
audio resources (direct or podcast through iTunes),
movies and
lecture notes. If you are interested in where you live, these beautifully delivered lectures are excellent.
posted by grahamwell
on Nov 25, 2006 -
7 comments
Kant. Modern thought begins with
Kant yet his work is dense and hard to understand. Perhaps
this set of lectures, some 12 hours in total from the
University of Glasgow will help. Titled
'Kant's Epistemology' they cover most of the subject matter of the
Critique of Pure Reason - an extremely ambitious task. They are free and appear to be available only for a limited period. Perhaps worth downloading now - to savour when you have an few idle years.
posted by grahamwell
on Nov 14, 2006 -
91 comments
About ten hours (over the course of two days) and exactly two bloodshot eyes later, it was complete. I had 100 letters to 100 different companies — stuffed, sealed, stamped, and ready to go. I put all 100 letters into the mail on Friday, February 24, 2006 at 9 AM. Now all that was left to do was sit back and wait for a response (or two?)
via
posted by Kwantsar
on Mar 4, 2006 -
62 comments
