As regular Grey Matters readers know, I'm a great supporter of going back to the classics. Therefore, this month's snippets theme is getting back to the classics!

The importance of learning any kind of classical knowledge is summed up by TJIC's law: "A sufficiently large lookup table is worth 10 IQ points."

• I recently ran across a series of books, from the late 19th to early 20th century, on Project Gutenberg which focus on classical knowledge. The series is called Every Child Should Know, and each book focuses on a particular area of knowledge, such as poetry, myths, artwork, and more.

Since this is part of Project Gutenberg, you can access these on iOS devices, Kindle, Nook, and most other ebook readers.

Also available as part of this series are the MP3 version of Poems Every Child Should Know, and an improved PDF version of Pictures Every Child Should Know, which fixes a few errors, including rotated and missing pictures.

• I've set up a few YouTube playlists containing some classical knowledge. 6 of them contain poetry, and the last contains classical music. The YouTube playlists are:
– Classic poems
– Poems from UBS ads
– Poems by Nipsey Russell
– Modern poems
– Poems from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
– Poems from Martin Gardner's Best Remembered Poems
– Classical Music You Didn't Know You Knew

• Assuming you understand a classic idea properly, there's nothing wrong with modernizing it to regain interest in the idea. For example, one classic number mind-reading feat was updated with lottery tickets to create Powerball 60. Another classic approach in mind-reading magic was adapted for use on the iPhone and iPod Touch to create iForce.

Even better, these 2 ideas were combined to create an unusually powerful mind-reading feat. If you like that idea, check out this nice addition that takes it to the next level.

• As noted in the links below, I've talked about fairy tales, but a look through the aforementioned Every Child Should Know series reminded me that tall tales are just as valuable. Great sources for tall tales include:
– John Henry: James Earl Jones reads Ezra Jack Keats' book (audio only), Disney's American Legends (YouTube: Part I, Part II)
– Johnny Appleseed: Disney's American Legends (YouTube: Part I, Part II)
– Paul Bunyan: HTML book version, Paul Bunyan Swings His Axe (Google books), Disney's 1958 Paul Bunyan movie (YouTube: Part I, Part II)
– Pecos Bill: Disney's American Heroes (YouTube: Part I, Part II, Part III)
– Shelley Duvall's Tall Tales & Legends series

• Looking for more in the way of classics? Look no further than here on Grey Matters! Check out the posts on:
– Chemical elements
– Computer principles, without the use of a computer!
– Fairy tales
– History, James Burke style
– Language learning
– Poetry
– Study tips
– US Constitutional amendments (Part I, Part II, Part III)
– US States, including the following year's update
– More fun, free, and nostalgic learning resources.