The Great Courses (Firm)
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Once you have perfected the components already reviewed - a detective, a criminal, clues, and potentially a sidekick - all that remains is solving the mystery. But as you’ll learn in this lecture, it’s never that simple. Learn what makes for the perfect “big reveal” and why you don’t necessarily need one. See how open-ended mysteries walk the line between frustrating and compelling.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
From mirror neurons to von Economo cells, learn the role that special neurons might play in human social behavior. Recent breakthroughs in neuroscience have expanded our understanding of how we interact with and understand people, but myths about these special neurons abound.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
Contemplate the remarkable history of this hybrid religious structure, a medieval cathedral built entirely within a majestic former mosque. Explore the striking Islamic archways and scalloped dome, leading to the Renaissance/Gothic cathedral with its imposing vaulting, sumptuous decoration, and monumental wood-carved choir - a compelling and unforgettable juxtaposition of cultures.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Put your dots-and-boxes machine to work solving long-division problems, making them easy while shedding light on the rationale behind the confusing long-division algorithm taught in school. Then watch how the machine quickly handles scary-looking division problems in polynomial algebra.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
The Christian conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine was a momentous turning point for the faith. Learn about the relationship of the Roman Empire to early Christianity, and the specific reasons why Christians were persecuted by Rome. Grasp Constantine's motives for converting to Christianity and for becoming directly involved in theological controversies.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
For many people, social situations are stressful. But our social relationships can also promote physical and psychological health. Here, learn what role social media plays in how we view relationships, understand the idea of universal irrationality, and appreciate the healing power of experiencing awe and the importance of physical touch.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
[Exodus 16–40] What happens after an enslaved people are set free? How is freedom lived out? Continue exploring Exodus with chapters 16 40, in which ancient laws and ideas of freedom begin to take root. Along the way, you’ll study different interpretations of "manna"and break down the different groupings of the Ten Commandments.
68) Impossible Sets
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Delve into Bertrand Russell's profoundly simple paradox that undermined Cantor's theory of sets. Then follow the scramble to fix set theory and all of mathematics with a new set of axioms, designed to avoid all paradoxes and keep mathematics consistent - a goal that was partly met by the Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
At its height around 400 AD, Teotihuacan was the most populous city in the western hemisphere. Explore this vibrant metropolis, focusing on its still-extant pyramids of the Sun and Moon and the role they played in the violent ritual life of the Classic Maya period.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
In robotics, the most important problem mobile robots must solve is how to navigate, or move with purpose, in the world. Here, learn how simultaneous localization and mapping (using internal models, beacons, and dead reckoning navigation) is the key to a robot’s autonomy in both structured and exploratory situations..
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
From complicated clients to lusty love interests, from sprightly sidekick to detail-oriented detectives, women have always played a role in mystery and suspense fiction. Professor Schmid introduces you to female detectives in literature through time and examines how even at the earliest stages, the figure of the female detective assumed a wide variety of types to appeal to different audiences.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Secure as a major player on the world stage, the U.S. can now look inward and focus on the intra-national linguistic and cultural diversity that’s been there since English speakers first arrived on the American continent. Discover that regional dialect differentiation is actually increasing, not receding, even in the Internet age, and consider the development of English as it continues to spread across the world.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Drawing on the bizarre conclusions from the previous lecture, reach even more peculiar results by mapping all of the fractions (i.e., rational numbers) onto the number line, discovering that they take up no space at all! And this is just the start of the weirdness.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Consider how the biological effects of listening to music might affect people with a wide range of medical conditions, from those undergoing surgery to premature infants, stroke victims, and Alzheimer’s patients. Search for the biological mechanisms that make music a powerful balm for the mind and body..
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Turn to cases where music cognition breaks down in disorders such as dystimbria and amusia. General Ulysses S. Grant and novelist Vladimir Nabokov appear to have been affected by amusia. Investigate what they and others with similar deficits miss when listening to music, and explore the underlying cause..
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
One of the most famous people in Ireland’s struggle for independence is Daniel O’Connell, a 19th-century politician who led the charge for Catholic emancipation as well as the effort to repeal Britain’s Act of Union. Learn about his activism, and then see how the Great Famine completely devastated the nation.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
In 1950, the New York Times ran an article claiming that science fiction had graduated from pulp fiction to respectable hardcover books. Learn how this remarkable validation was brought to fruition, and see how television and radio helped propel the popularity of science fiction novels. Examine influential authors of novels during this decade, with an in-depth look at Ray Bradbury, Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, and Arthur C. Clarke..
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
Science is now able to measure brain activity related to self-referential thinking--self-focused thought patterns that tend to correlate with distress. Examine findings from recent studies showing that experienced meditators can quickly step out of the self-preoccupied thought stream, with significant benefits for their ability to deal with pain and to cultivate wellness.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
Explore the visual style of programming seen on the web and in the graphical user interface of an operating system. Get started with pyglet, a Python package created to help support development of games and other audio-visual environments. Use pyglet to make a graphical version of the game from Lesson 13.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Learn how to draw a perspectival grid, and look at ways artists use grids to measure the depth of space in a drawing. Then, draw a complete gridded room, beginning with the floor plane. Add gridded walls and a ceiling, controlling proportions in spatial recession. Finally, add interior objects of specific measure in specific locations..