Edison Motion Pictures

The federal government isn't always the model of efficiency, but it takes the internet seriously. After all, they invented it (see). It may have started with a military bent, but the interests of academia quickly overtook it. And now our own Library of Congress is an aggressive leader in online archiving. Okay, "big deal," you might say. But you probably don't know about all the videos.

It's a little difficult to browse and I'm not going to highlight the whole thing tonight, but the Edison Collection alone is a treasure trove of goofy introductions, historical novelties and observation exercises. The whole thing is silent and every last one is downloadable in multiple formats--safe to play on your laptop or iPod far from a wireless connection.

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