A new university is opening its doors this April, and guess what? It’s going to be 100% tuition-free!

University of the People, the brainchild of an Israeli entrepreneur named Shai Reshef, will be a virtual school, the world’s first tuition-free, Internet-based academic institution. The idea is pretty remarkable in its simplicity: provide universal access to college—even in the poorest parts of the world.

“Education, just like democracy, should be a right, not a privilege,” says Reshef.

UoP will be open to any student with access to a computer and an Internet connection. And with the 500 rupee laptops now hitting India (that’s about $10, believe it or not), seems college is about to get much, much more affordable. Check out the whole interview with Reshef below and find out how you can help out by volunteering.

DI: University of the People – sounds like Lincoln meets Stalin. Kidding. It’s an amazing concept, and one that really fits the present zeitgeist. How’d you dream it up?

SR: I have always thought there is one issue that unites people around the globe – a need for improved education. As the founder of KIT, the eLearning partner of the University of Liverpool, in the Netherlands, I realized that the tools for providing accessible higher education were out there, but the price was too high. Then I began working at Cramster.com and discovered the strength of online study communities. I realized by coupling open-source technology and open courseware with online academic networks, we could create a global chalkboard and provide affordable collegiate level education to people worldwide. (more…)

Creatively Speaking continues today with author and journalist Hallie Ephron. You’ve probably heard of her sister, Nora, and we’ve written here on this blog before about another Ephron sister, Amy, but would you believe all four Ephron girls are accomplished writers? And if that wasn’t enough, how about this: Mom and Dad Ephron were also successful writers! (playwrights and screenwriters) Hallie has a new novel out called Never Tell a Lie, a wonderful mystery set in and around New England. In the below interview, she talks candidly about growing up in a household of writers, her work as a book reviewer, the process of writing a mystery, as well as her experience penning her own books, including her latest.

Tune back in tomorrow for a chance to win one of TWO copies of Never Tell a Lie. As always, you’ll need to answer some questions that tie back into today’s interview. So if you want to better your chances, be sure to click through and read the whole interview.

DI: Let’s start with some family history. Both your parents were
accomplished writers; likewise all three of your sisters are. What on
earth was in the water in your neck of the woods?

HE: I don’t know about the water, but the house had wall-to-wall books.
I grew up being read to, reading, reciting poetry, and generally
cherishing the written word. Knowing that I come from that amazing gene
pool gave me the courage to write.

DI: You’ve published other books before, but never fiction. Was there
some hesitation due to the success of your sisters in that genre? Or
were you just saving it all up for this debut?

HE: This is my first solo novel – I published five mysteries with a
co-author writing under the pseudonym G. H. Ephron – but even those I
didn’t start writing until I was forty. Of course there was hesitation,
worry that I’d be compared (unfavorably) to them. Finally I decided that
it was okay to try and fail, not okay to fail to try. So I jumped in. (more…)

Will Eisner, the creator of The Spirit comic series, is in the house today. Well, not exactly. As you might know, Will died some years ago. But we were fortunate enough to get an interview with the man who runs Will Eisner Studios, the curator of his estate, Will’s nephew Carl Gropper. Frank Miller (Sin City, 300) has a new film out based on the Eisner character, so we thought it would be a good time to learn a little more about the man some credit with creating the first graphic novel, the man who the comic industry awards are named after (The Eisner). Check out the interview with Gropper below, and be sure to tune back in tomorrow for a chance to win some Eisner books!

Also, if you want to see Frank Miller talking about The Spirit, hit the YouTube clip at the end of the interview on the next page. To learn more about Will Eisner visit www.willeisner.com.

DI: A lot of Depression-era comics creators, like Jerome Siegel and Joseph
Shuster, who created Superman, made little money in those days. But not
Eisner. Creating characters like Doll Man and Wonder Man, he and his partner
Jerry Iger did quite well, financially. What was their secret?

CG: Will Eisner was a combination of artist, storyteller, and entrepreneur. He
felt that he should own the work that he created. That might not be novel
today, but it was unique at the time. Will Eisner had no secret – along
with his partner, Jerry Iger, he used both his artistic and business talents
to build a viable business during the Golden Age of the Comics. A number of
times in his life he struck out in a brand new direction as when he created
The Spirit Section for the Sunday Newspapers in 1940. By 1952 he was on to
using Sequential Art for training and education and in 1978 he created the
first modern Graphic Novel with his groundbreaking “A Contract with God.”
He actually coined the term, Sequential Art, to describe what comics were,
and then used the term in 1985 in his first textbook, Comics and Sequential
Art. His third Sequential Art textbook, Expressive Anatomy, was actually
completed posthumously by artist Pete Poplaski and published by W.W. Norton
this year.

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You may know Jackie Hoffman from her roles in the Broadway musicals Xanadu and Hairspray, for which she won the 2003 Theatre World Award, or her TV appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm or Conan O’Brien, or perhaps her film roles in Kissing Jessica Stein or Garden State. She was also the voice of Dilmom on Dilbert. But if you missed her in all of the above, you can get to know her now in the next of our ongoing interview series, Creatively Speaking.

And be sure to tune back in tomorrow for a chance to win an advance copy of Jackie’s new comedy CD: Live at Joe’s Pub. The album contains her best original savage songs and stand-up. The New York Times calls her “Endearingly bitter, explosively funny… Hoffman is fearless when it comes to her material.” Time Out New York simply calls her “the funniest woman in America!”

DI: You got your start with Chicago’s legendary Second City improv troupe. Who were some of your mentors there?

JH: You probably want me to mention famous people, but really, my teachers, Martin Demott, Mick Napier, I loved watching Dan Castalenetta, Joe Liss, Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello.

DI: Was comedy something you always knew you wanted to do from a young age? In other words: What did you want to be when you grew up?

JH: Exactly who I am now.

DI: What’s the biggest difference between a Second City education, and, say, an Upright Citizen’s Brigade background?

JH: Good Question. I think that UCB is a very successful offshoot of Second City. Second City is steeped in tradition that goes back to 1959. When you perform at Second City, you perform for every type of person there is, for a more general audience. UCB tends to get one age group in there. But the teachers are amazing improvisers. They do great stuff in that place.

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Our Creatively Speaking interview series continues today with acclaimed film writer/director/actor, Henry Jaglom. His most famous films are probably Eating and Déjà Vu, but Jaglom has an impressive body of work (some 20 films, many of which are now available over at the iTunes store) and has worked with legends like Dennis Hopper and Orson Welles. Be sure to tune back in tomorrow for your chance to win one of THREE FREE Jaglom downloads we’ll be giving away from iTunes. Meantime, enjoy the interview.

DI: Early in your career, you served as Dennis Hopper’s editorial consultant on Easy Rider, a nice break for you. What did you learn on the film?

HJ: On Easy Rider I learned how to edit. Coming to it from having
made nothing more than a 5-hour long 8mm documentary shot in Israel
and the Occupied Territories in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, I was
given the exceptional opportunity by Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson of
working alongside Jack Nicholson – in adjoining editing rooms, each with
an editor of our own – and discovering how to help give shape to Dennis
Hopper’s brilliant and timely film. Under the ultimate supervision of
Schneider – Rafelson, Hopper, Nicholson and I crafted the final movie.
Its success gave me the opportunity to make my own film, A Safe Place,
for the same company and, despite being widely attacked for it at the time,
launched my directing career. I can’t even imagine what my life might
have been like without this having happened.
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Today we have a real treat: Scientific American writer/author George Musser joins us for a chat about his new book: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to String Theory. As always, we’ll be giving away a copy of the book in a special contest tomorrow. But, as always, you’ve got to read the interview if you want to be able to compete (knowing a lot about string theory might help, too).

DI: Okay, so let’s start with a real basic question: What the pluck is string theory?

GM: It’s one of the ways that physicists have proposed to unite physics. Although nature has a unity to it, the laws we use to explain nature don’t. Phenomena such as electricity, magnetism, and nuclear reactions are explained using one theory (quantum theory) and phenomena such as gravity and orbits are explained using another (Einstein’s general theory of relativity). We get away with that because those phenomena cleanly separate, but they don’t always. Black holes and the big bang require the use of both theories at once, and then you run into trouble, because the theories are incompatible. String theory aspires to reconcile them, to be a single theory that handles everything. I’d be tempted to call it the “uniter not a divider” if someone else hadn’t already taken that phrase.

String theory may be the deepest level of physical reality — the wellspring from which all else flows. It takes all the zillions of different types of matter and forces and suggests that they are aspects of *one* type of thing, a string, like a tiny guitar string or tiny rubber band. By vibrating in different ways, such a string can play the role of an electron or a quark or a photon or whatever other type of particle you like. You don’t even need to pluck the string. Because of quantum effects, it plucks itself. Whether that is a mental image appropriate for a family-oriented website, I leave up to you.

[Read on for George’s thoughts on string theory and time travel, the 10th dimension, D-branes, and a whole lot more.]

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Our Creatively Speaking series of interviews continues this week with the brilliant photographer Kevin Scanlon. If you read The New York Times, Forbes, Time Magazine, or LA Weekly, you probably already know Kevin’s work. But today you’re going to have a chance to get to know the man behind the amazing photographs. And tomorrow, we’ll be giving away an original Scanlon print to one lucky/smart reader, but you have to read today’s interview if you expect to get in on that action.

In addition to well-known artists and actors like Steve Carell, Robert Redford, Tilda Swinton, Daniel Day Lewis, and Jodie Foster (just to name a fraction), Kevin has shot athletes like Larry Bowa, rockers, like Neil Young, and many advertising campaigns you’d recognize.

Check out his Web site for a sampling, or see some of the additional images we’ve included with the interview below. And don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for your chance to win an autographed Scanlon original.

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Our Creatively Speaking series of interviews continues this week with Marc Tyler Nobleman, author of the recently published Boys of Steel – The Creators of Superman. I got to know Marc first through his wonderful cartoons, one of which you’ll see tomorrow in our latest caption contest as we prepare to give away THREE copies of Boys of Steel. Part YA picture book, part biography, Marc’s new book follows the creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, as they struggle through their teenage years in Depression-era Cleveland. Marc says he grew up thinking he’d, too, become a superhero because his last name already sounded like one. In researching Boys of Steel, he dug up details that haven’t been published before. He was the first to find photos of the building in which Joe Shuster lived and where he and Jerry Siegel forged the Man of Steel; it was demolished in 1975 before the city of Cleveland knew its significance. You can check out those photos and more are over at NobleMania.com or check out Marc’s blog here.
Check out my full interview with Marc below and be sure to tune in tomorrow for your chance to win one of three copies we’ll be giving away!

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Our Creatively Speaking series of interviews continues this week with J. Michael Matkin, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Gnostic Gospels, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Early Christianity, just published last month. I found it very well written and full of information I never knew before.Tomorrow, we’ll be giving away a free copy of J. Michael’s latest book, so be sure to tune in for the giveaway contest. Meanwhile, below, check out the interview about the book, as well as J. Michael’s advice for pitching your own Idiot’s Guide book. (Come on, admit it: you know you’ve got an idea for one, too!)

DI: In your book you state: “Christianity has been growing by leaps and bounds in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. By 2050, if present trends continue, only one out of five Christians will be wealthy, white suburbanites. .. The last time Christianity looked like this was during those formative three centuries we will examine together in this book…” To what do you attribute these new believers, these new followers of Christianity?

JMM: A friend of mine once commented to me that Christians had made a pretty shrewd marketing move by making a crucified man their symbol. That was his tongue-in-cheek way of pointing out that Christianity has a special attraction to those who are suffering, to the marginalized, to the oppressed. On the off chance that someone hadn’t noticed, that tends to be a rather large chunk of the world’s population these days. The Jesus story resonates with many in postcolonial Asia, Africa and Latin America in ways that it has ceased to for the majority of Europe and Canada, and increasingly so for the United States.

Lamin Sanneh, a scholar at Yale, has pointed out that one genius of Christianity is that it translates into different cultures well. We’ve seen a lot of that happening as Christianity has been spreading so rapidly.

Around the world, Christians are creating indigenous (as in, local) theologies. They’re telling the Jesus story in new ways, in ways that speak to their own circumstances, rather than just accepting Western forms of worship and theology. It’s this ability to leapfrog from one cultural setting to another that makes Christianity such a nimble faith.

DI: In researching the book, were there one or two facts you stumbled upon that were particularly interesting or surprising, even to you?

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You might recall my post on June Casagrande’s first book, Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies. Well, she’s back with a new book, Mortal Syntax 101 (Language Choices that Will Get You Clobbered by the Grammar Snobs Even if You’re Right) and on Friday we’ll be giving away 3 copies of it! But first, check out my interview with June below and discover the one grammar rule she’s itching to change, and a whole lot more.

DI: We know whose side of the language snob war you’re on, but still, there must be a couple offenses that really get your grammar goat. Lay ‘em on us.

JC: I hate confessing this stuff. But you got me: I cringe when I hear “between you and I,” mostly because people instinctively know better but are overcompensating for their grammar insecurities. We all know to say “between us” instead of “between we,” but with these “and I” constructions, suddenly we start hearing a mom voice in our heads and we panic. Then, despite our instinctive understanding that an object form like “me” is called for after a preposition, we goof up and say “between you and I.”

I also get a taste of bile from “there’s” used before a plural. Technically, you can get away with this. The “Oxford English Grammar,” for example, sanctions it. But I was taught to use “there are” before a plural, so it’s hard to stomach “There’s some people I want you to meet.”

DI: How much has the success of Lynne Truss’ Eats, Shoots & Leaves changed the language landscape? Or has it always been cool to kibitz about grammar?

JC: Lynne Truss did a good thing: She gave voice to all the people who were frustrated with a world full of misplaced apostrophes. It’s a valid frustration. The problem is that, given the slightest bit of encouragement, these types can go too far. Way too far. So criticizing something like “carrot’s” on a sign becomes a slippery slope into a valley of bullying and misinformation: a place where people run around making others feel dumb for ending sentences with prepositions, for using the word “nauseous” to mean “queasy” and for starting sentences with the word “hopefully” — all of which are completely grammatical and acceptable. A pathetic brand of power-drunkenness if ever there was one.

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