Top Gun Academy: The Real Story

Top Gun Academy: The Real Story, produced on DVD-Video by Henninger Media Services of Arlington, Virginia, offers a far more insightful, measured portrayal of the seminal aviation academy that "created a legend in the aviation community," as the narrator says. An engaging combination of substance and spectacle, this new offering from Henninger seeks to establish DVD in a non-fiction documentary niche not much explored or exploited to date. The account is well-paced, and uses several of DVD's signature strengths to balance historical footage with contemporary interviews of naval pilots and officers, to trace the history of air warfare from World War I through the Vietnam War.
The DVD, which runs just under an hour, is divided into seven indexed, largely chronological chapters: The F-4 Phantom; Turn for the Worst; Dawn of the Dogfight; Tet Offensive; New School for Navy Pilots; Top Gun Proves Its Worth; and The Tide Turns Over Vietnam.
The cavernous capacity of DVD extended the reach of the project, allowing them to use extensive amounts of original footage. Warren said the Navy recognized that the documentary was a story that "needed to be told," and allowed them to shoot on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, at the Top Gun School (including its air-to-air range) and at the last Top Gun reunion that was held at Miramar Naval Air Station.

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Blood and Guts - A History of Surgery

The series chronicles the development of trauma, transplant, cosmetic, heart and brain
surgery, tracing the steps from the cutting edge operations of today back to their beginnings.
The series is hosted by Michael Mosley, who also hosted the brilliant Medical Mavericks.

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Young John Paul II - Witness to Evil

Drama-documentary telling the story of five years which transformed the life of Karol Wojtyla and set him on the path to the Vatican.

The man who would become John Paul II was 19 when the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939. He had no intention of joining the church, but the devastating experience of Nazi occupation led him first to join the underground resistance and then to risk his life studying in secret to become a priest.

Interviews with key survivors from the period who knew him well, and the Pope's own writings, are combined in a powerful exploration of the young John Paul II's coming of age, including his brushes with death and the horrors he witnessed that helped to shape his thinking.

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BBC - The World's Toughest Driving Tests

Will Mellor and Kirsten O'Brien travel the globe learning to drive and race the world's biggest, most expensive and hardest-to-master vehicles. Before they try out the Romanian Army's combat tank, the TR-85, they must undergo a week's training in sub-zero conditions, attempting to master the skills needed to race against each other. They endure temperatures of minus 17, handle real firearms and face a combat situation under a barrage of enemy fire whilst grappling with night vision.

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National Geographic: Secrets Of Tang Treasure Ship

Historians have long speculated that thousands of wooden ships plied a Maritime Silk Route from the Middle East to China, braving long distances on white-capped seas, but time and the deep ocean have destroyed any evidence . . . until now. In 1998 German engineer Tilman Walterfang found a shipwreck from the 9th Century blanketed by intact gold, silver and ceramic items. As we uncover clues and reveal the story of the wreck, reenactments transport us back in time to an age of the legendary Sinbad the Sailor, when vicious seas ravaged wooden boats like matchsticks.

Through interviews with maritime archaeologists and ceramic experts we bring these characters to life by examining unique items recovered from the wreck and painting a vivid picture of glorious 9th Century Tang China. We reveal where the treasure now lies, in high security storage in Singapore. We show the incredible 60,000 pieces recovered - amid them are unique gold and silver items never before seen. It is a time capsule from a distant seafaring age that will take generations to fully understand. We piece together the last days of the ship's journey before its untimely end in the treacherous straits of Indonesia and reveal one of the ancient world's greatest trading routes and the brave men who sailed it.

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BBC - The Virtual Revolution, The Great Levelling

Twenty years on from the invention of the World Wide Web, Dr Aleks Krotoski looks at how it is reshaping almost every aspect of our lives. Joined by some of the web's biggest names - including the founders of Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, and the web's inventor - she explores how far the web has lived up to its early promise.
In the first in this four-part series, Aleks charts the extraordinary rise of blogs, Wikipedia and YouTube, and traces an ongoing clash between the freedom the technology offers us, and our innate human desire to control and profit.

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Figure Skating Pairs Short Program : Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

The pair skating competition of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was held at Pacific Coliseum on February 14 (short program). China's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo celebrated St. Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year by posting a new world best in the pairs figure skating short programme at the Vancouver Olympics.

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Black Panther Party of Self-Defense -The People Called Them Heroes. The F.B.I. Called Them Public Enemy No1

Panther is a semi-historic film about the origins of The Black Panther Party of Self-Defense. The movie spans about 3 years (1966-68) of the Black Panther's history in Oakland. Panther also uses historical footage (B/W) to emphasize some points

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The Titanic Mystery - The Ship That Never Sank

Why didn't JP Morgan owner of the Titanic sail on her maiden voyage as he had planned to?

The discovery of the wreck of the Titanic was one of the greatest media events of the late 1980s. Following on from 'The Riddle of the Titanic', the author includes more facts to support the theory of the insurance scam perpetrated by the White Star line, and startling evidence of the collusion of the British Government in a cover-up.

The author draws on several events and coincidences that occurred in the months, days, and hours leading up to the sinking of the Titanic to form his theory. Put simply, his theory is that the ship that hit the iceberg on 14 April 1912 was in fact the Titanic's sister-ship RMS Olympic, disguised as the Titanic. All this was part of an insurance scam of huge proportions by the White Star Line.

On September 20, 1911, the Olympic was involved in a collision with the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke near Southampton. The cruiser smashed its ram into the side of the Olympic, seriously damaging both ships. The inquiry (an internal Royal Navy one) found its ship free of all blame. Therefore no insurance claim could be made and the full cost of the accident rested with the White Star Line. This set the author's theory in motion. The theory claims that the damage to Olympic was much greater than it was thought to be rendering the ship unusable.

Now that we have a motive, can this theory be proven?

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The Search for Heaven

Our lives are filled with joy and sorrow, challenges and change - all linked to growing up and growing old.
Is the inevitable conclusion to life's exciting journey, the termination of the human spirit and a plot in the local cemetery?
Or is there something beyond this life - a spiritual realm of some kind where the soul resides, when we lay this body down? Is there really a place called Heaven? The major religions answer "Yes" and accept this as a matter of faith.
What if there is proof beyond faith that Heaven exists? Do scientific discoveries and cutting edge research actually prove the existence of Heaven? Some believe there is now proof that the place we call "Heaven" actually exists.
We'll examine scientific studies, personal testimonies and experiences of those who say they've had a Near Death Experience in which they've been to Heaven and back.
Join us in a serious look at startling new findings that document a place called Heaven!

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Battlefront - Burma - The Forgotten Front

The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was fought primarily between British Commonwealth, Chinese and United States forces against the forces of the Empire of Japan, Thailand, the Burmese Independence Army and the Indian National Army. British Commonwealth land forces were drawn primarily from the United Kingdom, British India and Africa.

The campaign had a number of notable features. The geographical characteristics of the region meant that factors like weather, disease and terrain had a major effect on operations. The lack of transport infrastructure placed an emphasis on military engineering and air transport to move and supply troops, and evacuate wounded. The campaign was also politically complex, with the British, Americans and Chinese all having different strategic priorities.

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Auschwitz, Original dvd sold in camp

Auschwitz-Birkenau (Konzentrationslager_Auschwitz.ogg Konzentrationslager Auschwitz was the largest of Nazi Germany's concentration camps. Its remains are located in Poland approximately 50 kilometers west of Kraków and 286 kilometers south of Warsaw. The camp took its name from the nearby town . Birkenau, the German translation of Brzezinka, refers to the many birch trees surrounding the complex. Following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, was annexed by Nazi Germany and renamed Auschwitz, the town's German name.

The camp commandant, Rudolf Höß, testified at the Nuremberg Trials that up to 3 million people had died at Auschwitz. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has revised this figure to 1.1 million, about 90 percent of whom were Jews from almost every country in Europe.[3] Most victims were killed in Auschwitz II's gas chambers using Zyklon B; other deaths were caused by systematic starvation, forced labor, lack of disease control, individual executions, and purported "medical experiments".

In 1947, in remembrance of the victims, Poland founded a museum at the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp. By 1994, some 22 million visitors — 700,000 annually—had passed through the iron gate crowned with the motto "Arbeit macht frei".

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The Tuskegee Airmen, They Fought Two Wars

This inspiring World War II story spotlights 450 men who fought on two fronts at once. A group of black American aviators, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, battled the Axis powers in Europe and North Africa and took on racism at home. Trained in the segregated military as an experiment to see if blacks had what it took to fly in combat, these fighter pilots made more than 15,000 sorties and 1,500 missions. Their success led to the integration of the U.S. armed forces.

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National Geographic - Ballad Of The Irish Horse

Over the centuries, horses have captured the hearts and minds of
the Irish people. Nurtured by the mild Irish climate and rich
grasses, the horses of Ireland have always flourished. From
magnificent wild stallions to the sturdy work ponies and the
elegant racing thoroughbreds - Ireland's horses are an enduring
part of the country's history, work, and play. BALLAD OF THE IRISH
HORSE is a romantic portrait of man and animal for viewers to treasure.

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Discovery Channel-Gadgetmania

Shows how infomercials evolved from the huckstering sales pitch of the pre-TV era into a $14 billion-per-year industry and an icon of pop culture. Includes interviews with Ed McMahon, Ron Popeil (Ronco), Philip Kives (K-Tel), Ed Valenti and Barry Becher (Ginsu), and others; clips from classic commercials; detailed information on the structure and mechanics of infomercials; and a behind-the-scenes look at the QVC shopping channel.
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BBC - Extreme Bodybuilding

Louis Theroux joins the subculture of extreme body building in America to discover if he's got what it takes to become a super-fit, ultra-healthy 300lb athlete. Louis meets Guy Grundy (whose thighs are so big they chafe together until they bleed) at a photo shoot for Pump magazine. Australian Guy, the No 2 amateur bodybuilder in the world, came to LA to realise his dream. Standing side-by-side in their underwear, it quickly becomes clear Louis has a lot of work to do to catch up with Guy. Louis is sure he'll never make it as a bodybuilder, but is intrigued by the whole subculture.

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PBS - The American Experience - Oswald's Ghost

Complex and troubling, the documentary Oswald's Ghost examines what happened after the Kennedy assassination--it is less about possible conspiracies than about how the belief in conspiracies has affected our culture and those who pursued them. The abundance of archival footage of Lee Harvey Oswald after his arrest--sometimes in press conferences, sometimes simply being transported in handcuffs by officers--is startling and fascinating. The interviewees include one-time presidential candidate Gary Hart, former news anchor Dan Rather, author Norman Mailer (who, over the course of researching his book Oswald's Tale, changed his mind about whether Oswald acted alone), and the numerous authors of books on the subject. Oswald's Ghost presents arguments from all sides and may upset anyone with a rigid mind about the issue, but its fluid and hypnotic narrative will engage even viewers with only a casual interest in the topic. The extra features, which are just as compelling as the movie itself, include a much more extensive discourse on the Zapruder film and a thoughtful interview with the director, Robert Stone (Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst), who explains how he wanted to make film that would interest people on either side of the conspiracy question. He succeeded.

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The History Channel Inside Islam

It is the second largest of the world`s great religions and the fastest growing. Its name comes from the word for peace yet to many Westerners it is synonymous with terror. INSIDE ISLAM lifts the veil of mystery surrounding a misunderstood faith. Trace its roots back to the Hebrew Bible and discover how the Five Pillars the religion`s central tenets helped spread Islam to the far corners of the world. Find out what the Qur`an says about war violence and suicide and how these words have been co-opted by extremists. And hear from experts like Khaled Abou el Fadl (Speaking in God`s Name) who debate the challenges facing Islam today including a crisis of authority and deep divisions among many sects.

Illuminating, important and objective - INSIDE ISLAM exposes the heart of a faith mired in controversy.

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Why Beauty Matters

Philosopher Roger Scruton presents a provocative essay on the importance of beauty in the arts and in our lives.

In the 20th century, Scruton argues, art, architecture and music turned their backs on beauty, making a cult of ugliness and leading us into a spiritual desert.

Using the thoughts of philosophers from Plato to Kant, and by talking to artists Michael Craig-Martin and Alexander Stoddart, Scruton analyses where art went wrong and presents his own impassioned case for restoring beauty to its traditional position at the centre of our civilisation.

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Hokkaido: Garden of the Gods

A look at the unique wildlife of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, and the island's few remaining members of the ancient Ainu race, who see all animals as sacred.

Swept by winds from the high Arctic, Hokkaido is an island of towering volcanos and fairytale forests, where cranes perform dances in the snow, brown bears plunge for salmon in rivers and eagles plunder the spoils from winter fishing fleets.

The unique wildlife of Hokkaido has long been worshipped by an ancient race of hunter-gatherers, called Ainu, a few of whom still survive among modern Japanese. Even today, they honour the natural world around them through ritualised dance and prayer.

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Discovery Channel - Whistler's Twin Peaks

The Peak to Peak gondola spans Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, and is quite an impressive feat of engineering. It broke 3 world records – 1. Longest unsupported span of 3.024 kilometres, 2. Highest lift of its kind at 436 metres above the valley floor, and 3. Completes the longest continuous lift system on the globe. Discovery Channel spent two years documenting the massive construction project and has created a riveting story that details many of the challenges that are encountered when building this engineering masterpiece at 6,000 feet.

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PBS - NOVA Extreme Cave Diving

Follow Dr. Kenny Broad as he dives into underwater caves that formed during the last ice age when sea level was nearly 400 feet below what it is today. They are Earth's least explored and perhaps most dangerous frontiers. With an interdisciplinary team of climatologists, paleontologists and anthropologists, Broad investigates the history of Earth's climate as revealed in this spectacularly beautiful "alternate universe."

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Vampires - Why They Bite

Vampires are currently topping the bestselling lists and raking in millions at the box office. Historian Lisa Hilton explores our enduring fascination and traces the origins of our favourite bogeyman, charting the transformation of the vampire from monster to heartthrob. With contributions from Charlene Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, and Toby Whithouse, creator of Being Human.


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BBC - Fat Files -3- Living on Air

Last of a trilogy of programmes studying obesity. Examines some ground-breaking research into eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, trying to establish if they are inherited. The discovery of a group of anorexics in a most unlikely place seems to put paid to the theory that the disease is the product of western's society's increased levels of stress.

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PBS Special - The Marines

"THE MARINES examines the unique 'Warrior Culture' of the smallest but fiercest branch of the U.S. armed services. With significant access to Marine Corps training facilities in Parris Island, South Carolina; Quantico, Virginia; and Twentynine Palms, California, THE MARINES reveals what it takes and what it means to be a Marine - from the first moments of a recruit's arrival at boot camp. THE MARINES offers extensive coverage of the often grueling Marine Corps training, including the Martial Arts Program, confidence course and intense rifle range instruction. The program also demonstrates how the Marines evaluate and shape their future leaders with the rigorous Officer Candidate Leadership reaction course and infamous "Quigley" exercise. More than 30 current and former Marines of all ranks, authors and military correspondents were interviewed to tell the story of the rich history, traditions and continuing importance of the Marine Corps and the warrior ethos it instills.

"How the Warrior Culture is engrained and how it sets the Marines apart from other armed services branches are critical aspects of Marine development and understanding," said producer/writer/director John Grant. "This program offers an in-depth and unvarnished look at the rigorous physical and psychological training employed to create this tenaciously loyal, highly skilled breed of combatant ready to defend country and comrade at any cost." Other segments of THE MARINES focus on the Wounded Warrior Barracks in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; the new Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Virginia; and women in the Marines. The program also travels to the country's largest Marine base in California, where Marines are seen training in mock Iraqi villages just weeks before deployment overseas."

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Food Tech - Cheeseburgers & Fries

Bobby Bognar travels America deconstructing our favorite meals, revealing the hidden world behind every bite, uncovering surprising history and seeing first-hand how ingredients from around the globe come together to make the meals we love. Doesn't matter if you like cheeseburgers, burritos or Chinese take-out, Bobby will tell you everything you could ever want to know about your fave foods.
A cheeseburger and a side of fries--last year, Americans ate over 7 billion of them. And there's an amazing story behind every one. Any idea how they get the sesame seeds to stick to the bun? What does it take to stuff 20 tomatoes inside a ketchup bottle? And what's the secret to getting the dill in dill pickle chips? Host Bobby Bognar sets off on a quest to find out, as he travels the country to unearth the hidden mysteries inside our cheeseburger and fries. It's the science behind perfectly melting cheese, the production of jet-black seeds that sprout into Spanish onions, and a French Fry factory where every day mountains of potatoes are sliced and diced in to 36 million French fries.

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Naked science: Solar Force

Could the sun be the key to saving Earth and humanity from the devastation of man-made global warming? Teams of scientists from around the world are uncovering hidden ways the ever-changing sun dictates the climate. A radical experiment shows cosmic rays could be the answer to the mystery of clouds and climate. And a new NASA mission provides 3D images of the solar winds, which could be much more influential than previously realised. As the sunspot cycles move from maximum to minimum, they wait to see which way it will go next - and if it can potentially buy the time needed to save mankind.

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National Geographic - World's Biggest Air Show

At the World's Largest Air Show, anything can happen. More than 10,000 planes and over 500,000 people. Dozens of deadly flying stunts, an unplanned highway landing, and fatal collisions. Join us behind the scenes inside the World's Largest Air Show.

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Crop to Shop - Jimmy's Supermarket Secrets

Jimmy Doherty explores the global logistics that bring fresh food from around the world to a shop near you, and uncovers the the science that keeps food fresh for weeks.

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History Channel: Super City: New York (2008), What if we re-create Manhattan as it was in 1609?

New York City is one of the greatest cities in the world. What if we could strip away the buildings and re-create the Manhattan of 1609? Take a journey back in time and discover the forces that shaped the landscape from a sweltering tropical region to fertile Indian hunting grounds, to today's modern metropolis. Dive beneath New York Harbor, climb to the tops of the highest skyscrapers and delve 600 feet down to the deepest tunnels to see how New York became "New York" and what the future may hold for the city.

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Raid on the Reactor, 1981-operation Opera. Israeli air attack on Iraqi nuclear reactor

America and the coalition forces might have faced a nuclear-armed Iraq during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and again during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, had Israel not destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981.

While the attack, codenamed “Operation Opera,” surprised the Iraqis and the rest of the world, it had long been in planning. It was only after the failure on the diplomatic front, and the consultation of military and intelligence experts with Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s cabinet, that Israel chose to go ahead with the attack on the Iraqi reactor.

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Discovery Channel - Factory City

They live there. They eat there. Their children attend school there. But most of all, they work there. They are the 17,000 employees of EUPA, a "Factory City" in the southeast corner of China. EUPA's massive workforce pumps out 15 million irons per year, millions of sandwich grills, microwaves, coffee makers and blenders. Now they are about to take the manufacturing world by storm with their introduction of solar powered products. From the 2500 microwaves that come off the line each day to the four tons of rice served daily in the five cafeterias, we showcase the process and the personalities that keep this massive machine well-oiled. The show will focus not only on how the goods are made, but how the Factory City operates.It's a novel concept for the rest of the world. But it's become a way of life in China, where a new industrial revolution is unfolding on a scale the world has never seen.

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The Million Pound Bird Book

A profile of the artist and ornithologist John James Audobon, famous for painting and cataloguing the birds of North America.

Born in Haiti in 1785, John James Audobon was raised in France and to avoid the Napoleonic Wars he escaped to The United States in 1803, where he began to study birds.
Unable to find a publisher for his Philadelphia book of Birds, he travelled to England where he found success and went on to publish subsequent books, the seven volumes of Birds of America featuring 435 hand-coloured lithographs of life-sized birds, and five volumes of Ornithological Biographies.
Sold by subscription these books fetched $1,000 each.

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PBS Independent Lens - Asperger Syndrome : Today's Man

"TODAY’S MAN tells the story of Nicky Gottlieb, a former child genius who, at age 21, is diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome.
People with Asperger’s, which is a form of autism, tend to be highly intelligent—often geniuses in certain subjects—but are unable to pick up on social cues.
The subtleties of body language, facial expression, tones or gestures are lost to Nicky, and his own behavior can be considered by others to be bizarre and inappropriate.One in 160 children today are born with some form of autism. Although Asperger Syndrome is considered to be on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum,
it was only recognized in the U.S. in 1994. While there are an increasing number of resources for Asperger’s children, there are surprisingly few organizations and programs for adults with the syndrome, resulting in a “lost generation” of people like Nicky who must find their own ways to navigate life with this perplexing disorder.
TODAY’S MAN follows Nicky as he struggles to leave the safety of his family’s home and the comfort of his favorite TV shows in order to find a job and an apartment.Made by Nicky’s sister Lizzie Gottlieb, the film is a sister’s search to understand her brother’s mysterious inner life and a larger effort to comprehend Asberger Syndrome and the people who struggle with it."

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BBC - Lost Kingdoms of Africa Nubia

The first episode looks at Nubia, in what is now northern Sudan, a kingdom that dominated a vast area of the eastern Sahara for thousands of years. Its people were described as barbarians and mercenaries, and yet Nubia has left us with some of the most spectacular monuments in the world. Casely-Hayford traces the origins of this fascinating kingdom back to 10,000 BC. He explores how it developed and what happened to it and its people, discovering that its kings once ruled Ancient Egypt and that it was defeated not by its rivals but by its environment.

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BBC - The Queen's Cavalry

The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals form The Household Cavalry, Britain`s most senior army regiment and the Queen`s official bodyguard. One week they could be on horseback, escorting the Sovereign down the Mall, the next patrolling downtown Basra in their tanks. This series follows the fortunes of the men of The Household Cavalry and tells their stories of war and ceremony. Offering an unprecedented and unique insight behind-the-scenes, the series details their ceremonial and military duty as well as their 350 year history.
 

The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals form The Household Cavalry, Britain`s most senior army regiment and the Queen`s official bodyguard. One week they could be on horseback, escorting the Sovereign down the Mall, the next patrolling downtown Basra in their tanks. This series follows the fortunes of the men of The Household Cavalry and tells their stories of war and ceremony. Offering an unprecedented and unique insight behind-the-scenes, the series details their ceremonial and military duty as well as their 350 year history.

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PBS - Nature Wild Balkans

The Balkan Peninsula is notorious for being one of the great battlegrounds of history. And yet, it possesses another side unknown to many, where ancient forests and vast wetlands harbor pristine wilderness, and sheer cliff walls and desolate plateaus preserve a seemingly unchanged past. Surveying these striking and stark landscapes, one might think they’ve ventured into the Middle-earth of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

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