Feynman for all!

27 June 2009

There are plenty of reasons to dislike Bill Gates, but his philanthropic gestures aren’t generally among them (this is, of course, an obvious exception).

Gates has apparently recently purchased the rights to a collection of lectures by physicist, author, skirt-chaser and bongo player Richard Feynman, and will be making them freely available to the public.

From Symmetry Breaking magazine:

Bill Gates recently bought the rights to a series of lectures by legendary Caltech physicist Richard Feynman. The former Microsoft headâ€™s purchase shows that the cultural and scientific legacy of Feynman remains strong even 21 years after his death.

The lectures, given in 1964 as part of Cornell Universityâ€™s Messenger Lecture Series, were filmed by the BBC, who had retained the rights since. Gates purchased the lectures for an undisclosed amount.

But what would the former Microsoft head want with the copyright to lectures by the revered physicist? In a recent interview with the CERN Bulletin, Gates said that his only plan is to make the footage freely available to the public.

The videos themselves don’t yet appear to be online, but I’m sure that’s one of the places they’ll first appear.

/hattip Atheist Media

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Tags: awesome, physics, Richard Feynman, science, video

Comments

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13687 ResponsesFeynman+for+all%212009-06-27+19%3A23%3A59nullifidian to “Feynman for all!”

Neuroskeptic on June 28th, 2009 10:09 am

Hang on, Gates gave money to the DI? How did I miss that?…oh, it was six years ago, and it wasn't for anything to do with ID, but still. Gah.
nullifidian on June 28th, 2009 1:13 pm

I thought this was common knowledge. Yes, IIRC it was in their capacity as a "think tank" (ahaha!) for contributions to proposals to a transportation strategy.

But, as you say, "gah" indeed.
TW on June 28th, 2009 6:16 pm

Interesting post and I would be wonderful to have the lectures freely available (other than on filesharing sites where they seem to be quite popular…).

Some off topic comments:

1 – what happened to IntenseDebate? It no longer gives me an option to log in and comment and the other comments seem, erm, normal now. I hate computers.

2 – I can almost (almost) understand the donation to the DI. The project goal is a good one, it is just a shame that a hateful organisation now gets funding and the semblance of credibility it brings.
T_W on June 28th, 2009 5:17 pm

Bah. After I posted that whine about IntenseDebate it has started working again. Now everyone will assume i am insane.
nullifidian on June 28th, 2009 5:52 pm

Yup, you're clearly a mentalist! ;-)

Nah, IntenseDebate has been flaky for at least the past few days. Don't blame yourself (unless you're really a catholic and need the guilt).
T_W on June 28th, 2009 6:35 pm

Well, there is a lot to be said for the guilt thing. It means you can do all manner of horrific acts and then ask for forgiveness – which is always granted.

Wonderful get out jail card :-)
T_W on June 28th, 2009 6:35 pm

Well, there is a lot to be said for the guilt thing. It means you can do all manner of horrific acts and then ask for forgiveness – which is always granted.

Wonderful get out jail card :-)