Legal Research

The Friday Fillip

By Simon Fodden

Okay, pop quiz:

Name the society that the following people all belonged to –
Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, Alexander Graham Bell, Karl Marx, Peter Ustinov, and Stephen Hawking

Answer: The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, better known simply as the RSA.

Founded some 250 years ago, the RSA now, in its own words:

. . . encourage[s] public discourse and critical debate by providing platforms for leading experts to share new ideas on contemporary issues. Our projects generate new models for tackling the social challenges of today and our work is supported by a 27,000 strong Fellowship – achievers and influencers from every field with a real commitment to progressive social change.

One of the things they do, that I want to draw to your attention today, is animate lectures with the help of a marvellous cartoonist, who seems to sketch as you listen. This is ex post facto PowerPoint, if you like, done in a most engaging way.

The latest animation is a short version of a longer lecture by “radical sociologist David Harvey,” who suggests that we might transcend capitalism.

You can find a list of other animated RSA lectures here.

The RSA site is a rich one, well worth exploring and subscribing to.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on July 23, 2010 (boomark / email).