Understanding the world we actually live in...
..made really extraordinarily accessible.
So, I've been continuing to browse my local library's collection of The Great Courses, which despite their daunting header are at about the level of a freshman intro course crossed with a PBS special. (Except taught by actual professors who speak English as their native language, instead of a grad student TA just off the plane from Farfaraway, like my freshman courses back in the Dark Ages at Big State U.)
I have become a fan of a particularly engaging and effective presenter, Dr. Stephen Ressler, who has done a number of courses for the company, including Understanding the World's Greatest Structures: Science and Innovation from Antiquity to Modernity, Understanding Greek and Roman technology: From Catapult to the Pantheon and this week, Everyday Engineering: Understanding the Marvels of Daily Life.
He's sort of like a Mr. Wizard for grownups. You definitely want to track down the DVDs, because the models and vids he demonstrates are a tremendous boost to comprehension. I'd rec the first two especially for writers trying to understand pre-industrial technologies through history, and the latter to everyone. (Well, I'd rec them all to everyone, because why should writers keep all the fun to themselves?) But the Everyday Engineering one is proving just full of things I wish I'd known earlier. Which, since it's a 2015 production, wouldn't have been possible, but chalk it up among the many rewards of my surviving this long.
Sampling the courses from the library randomly as my interest takes me, I can see the sophistication of the presentations grow from the early ones from the late 90s, which basically stuck a professor behind a podium and let the camera run while s/he geeked out about his or her favorite subject as fast as s/he could, to the most recent efforts, which use far more pictures, vid clips, computer graphics, and so on.
Why doesn't Netflix have these...?
Ta, L.
So, I've been continuing to browse my local library's collection of The Great Courses, which despite their daunting header are at about the level of a freshman intro course crossed with a PBS special. (Except taught by actual professors who speak English as their native language, instead of a grad student TA just off the plane from Farfaraway, like my freshman courses back in the Dark Ages at Big State U.)
I have become a fan of a particularly engaging and effective presenter, Dr. Stephen Ressler, who has done a number of courses for the company, including Understanding the World's Greatest Structures: Science and Innovation from Antiquity to Modernity, Understanding Greek and Roman technology: From Catapult to the Pantheon and this week, Everyday Engineering: Understanding the Marvels of Daily Life.
He's sort of like a Mr. Wizard for grownups. You definitely want to track down the DVDs, because the models and vids he demonstrates are a tremendous boost to comprehension. I'd rec the first two especially for writers trying to understand pre-industrial technologies through history, and the latter to everyone. (Well, I'd rec them all to everyone, because why should writers keep all the fun to themselves?) But the Everyday Engineering one is proving just full of things I wish I'd known earlier. Which, since it's a 2015 production, wouldn't have been possible, but chalk it up among the many rewards of my surviving this long.
Sampling the courses from the library randomly as my interest takes me, I can see the sophistication of the presentations grow from the early ones from the late 90s, which basically stuck a professor behind a podium and let the camera run while s/he geeked out about his or her favorite subject as fast as s/he could, to the most recent efforts, which use far more pictures, vid clips, computer graphics, and so on.
Why doesn't Netflix have these...?
Ta, L.
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Jordan
(new)
Apr 29, 2016 09:10PM
Wow, just checked out the website and it looks amazing! I can't wait to dive into my favorite topics.
reply
|
flag
Jordan wrote: "Wow, just checked out the website and it looks amazing! I can't wait to dive into my favorite topics."Check your public library, too, to see what you can get for free.
Also, the company has periodic sales.
Ta, L. Fan of libraries. My tax dollars at work.
I've got a couple of those courses from audible and listened to the Skeptics Guide to American History - very accessible and interesting!Roku has a set up where you get a month of the video courses for free, then it jumps to $50 a month. But if you have some time spare, that's one way to get a free month.
There are also some sampler courses as podcasts - 30-40 minute lessons.
Audible has a lot of them, and sometimes they come up on sale for $5 - on selected courses.
It's rather unlikely that I can find these in our local library in Central Finland, so I agree - why DOESN'T Netflix (or some other service) have these? I'll see if I can get them from the company website, because these sound fascinating!
Wow, thank you so much for the recommendations! I've been wondering what to watch next with the fam for Movie Night. I reckon that if I have to watch reiterations of Ice Age or Madagascar, it is only fair that the kids watch French great escape movies or something like THIS with me. BTW it appears to be available to buy episode by episode or by season on Amazon video, but like Lois I head first to the local library as I have a similar feeling about my tax dollars (every time I check out an item, I feel I'm getting ahead).
I loved Understanding the World's Greatest Structures: Science and Innovation from Antiquity to Modernity and literally thought about it yesterday when I saw a truss. I am unduly excited to learn the presenter has 2 other series to avidly consume. Not new Vorkosigan book level of excitement (that would require a new season of Rome) but definitely new Honor Harrington book excitement.Lois McMaster Bujold really is an author that goes above and beyond, not only does she write my favourite series (just finished re-reading, surprised to find Shards of Honor was my favourite this time) but she magically informs me of 2 more series by my favourite lecturer.
Veronika wrote: "It's rather unlikely that I can find these in our local library in Central Finland, so I agree - why DOESN'T Netflix (or some other service) have these? I'll see if I can get them from the company ..."Try YouTube. Here is a link you can try: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
Susan, thank you! That's really awesome, will go check them out there! I feel so silly now!
Being a librarian IS a superpower! There was even a fairly cute scifi book about one that I'd read recently - I think it was called "With the Lightnings" or some such!
Lois, I completely agree! That professor is one of the best. Another truly fabulous course is Dr. Bob Brier's series on ancient Egypt. That was the one that got my dad and myself both hooked! Also anything by Dr. Kenneth Harl is worth a listen.
Thanks for the push to check my local libraries. One has only audio versions and the other only DVDs.Also, if you have an Audible.com subscription, they have a lot of the audio versions.
I'm a little surprised and saddened that my otherwise fabulous Los Angeles Public Library doesn't have more of the DVDs. The visuals add so much. Budget limitations, I guess. One it does have, by Robert Sapolsky, Stanford neuroscience prof. was great.
Margaret wrote: "I'm a little surprised and saddened that my otherwise fabulous Los Angeles Public Library doesn't have more of the DVDs. The visuals add so much. Budget limitations, I guess. One it does have, by R..."It sometimes works to request one's library acquire stuff. Librarians lurking could probably advise.
(Now that I am on the course company's e-mailing list, I also find I am bombarded with notices about sales, which I suspect are a continuous rotating thing. One could keep an eye out for the right prices intersecting the right selections.)
Ta, L.
You are entirely correct that the Great Courses sales continuously rotate. Any given course will be available "on sale" - approximately a third of its regular price - at least once each year.
Lois wrote: "Margaret wrote: "I'm a little surprised and saddened that my otherwise fabulous Los Angeles Public Library doesn't have more of the DVDs. The visuals add so much. Budget limitations, I guess. One i..."I work at a public library, and you are right, Lois! Any patron is welcome (at least at my library) to submit a purchase request and/or suggest a title to purchase. There is no guarantee it will be acquired, but it never hurts to ask! You can talk to your librarian or check the library's website. Quite often there will be an online form you can fill out to request an item.
BTW, I only recently discovered your Vorkosigan saga and read through them all within a couple weeks. Absolutely fantastic books!
Thank you for the recommendation, Lois! When I read this post in April I put a couple on hold at our library. Just started their robotics course last night and have several of the ones you mentioned on hold for the future! :D
Lois, thanks so much for your kind words about my courses. Since I retired from full-time teaching at West Point, my great passion has been sharing the joys of engineering and technology with broader audiences. Thanks for helping me spread pursue this goal!
Stephen wrote: "Lois, thanks so much for your kind words about my courses. Since I retired from full-time teaching at West Point, my great passion has been sharing the joys of engineering and technology with broad..."Let me jump on Lois's bandwagon and tell you that I'm a huge fan too. My dad and I eagerly consumed "Understanding the World's Greatest Structures" and have purchased your other courses but not watched them yet. It happens that I am a librarian and one of our long-term patrons is an aspiring architect. A couple years ago when he was still in high school I told him about that course and he really appreciated it.
Thanks for letting me "fangirl" at you a bit!
Stephen wrote: "Lois, thanks so much for your kind words about my courses. Since I retired from full-time teaching at West Point, my great passion has been sharing the joys of engineering and technology with broad..."Goodness, hello there! Goodreads is an amazing forum...
I have more than one engineer in my family, so I've had close observation of the species. Such as my Dad: http://www.dendarii.com/tribute.html
Way too many people seem to me to take the technological culture in which we live embedded for granted, or else assume it is a kind of magic, or too abstruse to understand. I'm very glad to see someone working against those, really, very self-disempowering sorts of thinking. (I also have an assortment of rants on technology as the underestimated main driver of all real social and political change, but that's another post.)
(Well, and also I don't want to write the kind of SF that one biochemist PhD reader described despairingly as "like reading science Mad-Libs".)
I'm about three-fourth through your explanation of the automobile this week -- many, many terms that I had heard all my life mainly as expensive mystical incantations ("U-joint"... "differential"... "camshaft"... "timing chain"... "goat-sacrifice")... have suddenly become approachable. Nice work!
bests, Lois.
Thanks, Lois! I'll look forward to your post on technology as the main driver of social and political change. I have a few colleagues in the History Department who will disagree vociferously, citing problems with "technological determinism" that I can't even pretend to understand.In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the course. And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. sjressler@gmail.com.
Thanks, Diana. Any please tell your aspiring architect friend that it's not too late to become an engineer!
