Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Hey! They're learning for free!

It is rare that living in the modern world makes me feel full of joy, but I picked up my copy of Oxford Today magazine when I was staying with my parents. From my limited perusal, Oxford Today appears to be a magazine for people who have proved they can routinely read ten books a week and are now content with a thrice-yearly magazine. (The adverts which fell out of it were: 15% off Homebase stuff, a discounted subscription to The Economist, a flyer for the Ramblers, another for an investment trust and a plea from Amnesty International to help them stop rape as a weapon of war. Make of that what you will.) Anyway, in amongst all the articles was, ohmigod, a pointer towards this. Podcasts! Clever podcasts! Free clever podcasts! Many, many, many free clever podcasts! I think I am going to have to go on the trans-Siberian express in order to listen to them all.

So much free knowledge. The internet is wonderful.

Incidentally, I have started reading The Group by Mary McCarthy, a sex-and-anxiety-filled novel about eight Vassar graduates in the 1930s - quite apart from the pertinence of reading about lots of intelligent and angsty women, beginning their adult lives in a time of economic recession, I have also learned a LOT about pre-Pill contraception, both technically and sociologically. Fascinating.

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