Thursday, April 29, 2010

The Quantum Activist


There is a revolution going on in science. A genuine paradigm shift. While mainstream science remains materialist, a substantial number of scientists are supporting and developing a paradigm based on the primacy of consciousness.
Amit Goswami, Ph.D, a pioneer of this revolutionary new perspective within science shares with us his vision of the unlimited potential of consciousness as the ground of all being, and how this revelation can actually help us to live better.
The Quantum Activist tells the story of a man who challenges us to rethink our very notions of existence and reality, with a force and scope not felt since Einstein.
This film bridges the gap between God and Science. The work of Goswami, with stunning precision and without straying from the rigors of quantum mechanics, reveals the overarching unity inherent in the worlds major religions and mystical traditions.
Meet the man behind the message as Dr. Goswami tells how he moved away from the religious teachings of his childhood, to seek his path in nuclear and theoretical quantum physics, and how he has come full circle, through quantum insight, back to the very religious axioms offered as a youth.
With a poignant relevance to the problems of our day this film follows Dr. Goswami as he demonstrates how our mistaken views of reality have led to our current environmental, social, economic and spiritual crisis; as well as the means of correcting these errors. At stake is nothing less than our survival upon the planet. The Quantum Activist is a film for our time. Is it is a film for all time. It is a film whose very subject transcends time.
Witty, profoundly insightful and colored with humor, the Quantum Activist brings you Amit Goswami s vision of the universe. Steeped in the verifiable facts of Quantum Mechanics, Dr. Goswami dares to pose the question, What are you doing to participate in the creation of the reality we all share?
Amit has recently appeared in the blockbuster movie What the Bleep Do We Know? , the award winning The Dalai Lama Renaissance and authored over a dozen books from textbooks on quantum mechanics to consciousness and the New Science.

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National.Geographic- Ancient Megastructures The Colosseum, 720p


The Colosseum visits the iconic structure in the heart of Rome to explain how its
1st Century A.D. architects drained a lake the size of five football fields to construct
a spectacular arena with a 55,000 capacity for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles.

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Restricted Films of WWII, Archive footage


The United States government produced thousands of films during World War II, many of which were considered "classified."
These film reports covered all theaters of operation and ran the gamut, from important news of battles and invasions, to the introductions of new equipment and supply methods.
Originally produced for commanding Generals and their immediate staff, we are able to bring you these inside"secret" stories of World War II through the Freedom of Information Act.

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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Lord Byron - Exile on Fame Street


At the turn of the 19th Century, times were changing. Fashion, society and literature were all evolving. At this time, Jane Austen was pondering over self-penned novels, King George III was madder than ever, and the Prince Regent was the laziest slob in the whole of London.

One person shocked English society by becoming what could only be described as the first 'celebrity' - he was to become notorious not only for his heartfelt poetry, but for the number of women he managed to seduce in his short life. This person was George Gordon, Lord Byron, the 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale.

This episode of Omnibus look at the life of Lord Byron, once described as "the greatest English poet next to Shakespeare".

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SAS: Embassy Siege

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A 2002 BBC documentary on the siege contained the first interviews ever given by soldiers involved in the assault. Some interesting information was brought to light, including that the SAS was allegedly ordered (in not so many words) by Margaret Thatcher herself, to kill all of the terrorists regardless of the threat to the hostages. Robin Horsfall, one of SAS soldiers on the day, stated:
"The message was that we had to resolve the situation and there was to be no chance of failure, and... she did not want an ongoing problem. She didn't want there to be a problem beyond the Embassy...[we were]absolutely clear about it... They didn't want an ongoing problem, which we took to mean that they did not want anybody coming out alive."
This is interesting when one considers the account of Embassy staff member Ahmad Dadgar, who reported that he and other hostages persuaded two of the terrorists to surrender:
"Both were sitting there and put their hands on their own heads," he says. "Then several SAS men came in. And then they took the two terrorists and pushed them on the wall and shot them."
An inquest later found the SAS had used reasonable force, and on 4th February 1981 a Westminster Coroner's court ruled that the deaths of the five Iranian terrorists were justifiable homicides.

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Twist Of Faith


When he was a teenager 20 years ago, Tony Comes says a Catholic priest in his Ohio hometown sexually abused him. Humiliated and ashamed, Tony carried the secret with him into adulthood, even as he married, had two kids and became a firefighter. He shared the truth only with his parents and wife. But when Tony recently learned that the same priest now lived down the street, he decided to take action -- even if it meant going public.

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Monday, April 26, 2010

BBC - Russian Godfathers













This BBC documentary series examines the relationship between Russia's richest men ("the oligarchs") and Putin's administration in the Kremlin...
Cast (first 5): Boris Berezovsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, Roman Abramovich, Yuri Luzhkov

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BBC - Namibia - Genocide and the Second Reich


Described by the BBC as the story of Germany's forgotten genocide. This powerful documentary by David Adetayo Olusoga took a sensitive and uncompromising look at the tragic circumstances leading to the massacre of three quarters of the Namibia population in German concentration camps built in Africa. The programme included graphic reconstructions and did not shirk from showing disturbing scenes which revealed the savagery of european colonial ideology put into practise. The documentary also showed the 2004 footage of Germany's ambassador to Namibia expressing regret for their killing of thousands of Namibia's Hereros during the colonial era. Unsurprisingly, the Germans refused to agree to the justifiable calls for reparations.

The programme also explored the current call for land reforms where most of Namibia's commercial land is still owned by european farmers who make up 6 percent of the country's population of 1.8 million. Throughout it included interviews and powerful testimony from African survivors, descendants and reparation movement representatives thus making this a compelling programme which both educated the audience whilst treating the sensitive subject matter with the respect it deserved.

The term Second Reich (Zweites Reich) is sometimes applied retrospectively to this period. The term was popularised by German nationalist historian Arthur Moeller van den Bruck in the 1920s, and drew an explicit link with the earlier Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (the "First Reich"), as well as underlining his desire for the establishment of a "Third Reich". This term was subsequently adopted during the time of Nazi rule for propaganda purposes - and therefore its use among historians after World War II has generally been discouraged, as many consider it to give legitimacy to Nazi historiography.

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BBC - Napoli City of the Damned


When thinking of devastated cities in the Second World War, Naples is often forgotten, but when it was liberated by the Allies it was on its last legs, with 200,000 homeless and no power, transport, food or running water.

The Allies quickly brought food to the starving population and medicine to the sick, but the introduction of many troops and lots of supplies led to the creation of a huge black market involving almost the entire population. One third of women became prostitutes as Naples became a kind of Sodom and Gomorrah, a city of vice, crime and chaos where everything that could be sold and stolen was sold and stolen.

Perplexingly, the Americans decided to introduce Italo-American criminals into positions of power in southern Italy, such as Vito Genovese, a gangster escaping a murder rap in New York. Genovese began setting up a crime empire in Naples - after Mussolini had effectively suppressed organised crime in Italy, the Allies brought it back.

When World War II ended, alarmed and surprised by Soviet support for the Italian communist parties, the Allies responded with their own propaganda. Combined with the Marshall Plan, this became a massive covert effort by the Americans to swing the elections towards the parties of the right. The Catholic Church helped them, with priests telling congregations that they would go to hell if they didn't vote Christian Democrat.

After great political and ideological struggle in which the Cold War was waged by proxy for the first time, the 1948 elections were won by the Christian Democrats, a result that may not have been truly fair.

The CIA were pleased with the result and partially credited it to their own operations. They recommended that the US should continue with the covert manipulation of political outcomes in fore.

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Discovery Channel HD - Africa's Lions And Wildebeests

 
 
A pair of lions catch a wildebeest off guard. The term "safety in numbers" definitely does not apply here.

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Sunday, April 25, 2010

Olympia (1938)

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One of the films of Leni Riefenstahl's famous.
Most of the special effects used in modern films and especially in the sports reports, have come out of Leni Riefenstahl and thanks to the film "Olympia". The underwater camera, camera crane rail, live camera, slow motion, panoramic photography in the documentary film, etc. - all of its merit.
If you do not know how to separate art from politics, it did not even try to watch this film - do not see its beauty.

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Friday, April 23, 2010

History Channel - The Map Makers


A map is more than a geographical representation of a land. It is an image which mirrors a society's political, religious and cultural vision of itself. The Map Makers tells the story of maps through history and explores major developments in map making.

Episode One: The Waldseemüller Map 1507


The first episode in the series of The Map Makers is a story of a map which changed the way man viewed the World. It is the tale of a ten million dollar map which has become known as the 'birth certificate of America.' Within the lines marked on its surface can be traced the first discoveries of the 'new world', by sixteenth century explorers such as Columbus, and Amerigo Vespucci. But why were the new lands called America, and who were the men who first named the new continent on the famous Waldseemüller map? The intriguing history behind the map is revealed.

This map was the first to include not just a representation of the New World as a continent, but also named it as America. The programme looks at the nature of map- making of the early 16th century and the use of maps for navigation. It is suggested that Amerigo Vespucci, for whom the new continent was made, may have commissioned the map. This episode also details the eighty-year effort by the US to buy the map from the German aristocratic family that owned it.

Episode Two: The Mercator Atlas


The second episode uncovers the shadowy world of espionage in 16th Century Europe, a time when map making and spying went hand in hand. It features Gerard Mercator, the most famous map maker to have lived, who became caught up in a dangerous plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I using an invasion map ordered by England's enemies, the French. It is a story of intrigue, treason and religious turmoil, with map makers at the heart of the struggle for power in Europe. Information was power in European royal courts, and fragile maps were the key.

This episode looks at the map of England created by the famous Flemish cartographer Gerard Mercator in the 16th century. This map was only rediscovered in a shop in Holland in 1967, and modern map historians consider that the map was made in preparation for an invasion of England by France which never came. The programme looks at the map-making of Henry VIII and the intrigues involving spies, including the Scotsman John Elder, on whose information the Mercator map seems to have been based. This episode seems to me to be the most stretched and padded out of the series, with some material included that is only peripheral (such as the tale of the American map thief), and could easily have been confined to a half-hour running time.

Episode Three: The D-Day Invasion Maps


In order to invade France, the Allies needed detailed maps of the coastline. Such maps did not exist, so they had to be created. This involved not only aerial reconnaissance but also dangerous work on the ground by Resistance workers. The level of detail required was extraordinary, so the preparation of these maps was one of the great intelligence feats of modern times.

The last episode in The Map Makers focuses on a time in history when thousands of men and women risked their lives to create a set of top secret invasion maps during World War II. Allied service men and woman worked alongside French Resistance members in covert operations to create a 'living map' of the Normandy coast. The resulting invasion maps were the most extensive ever to have been created, combining aerial photography and intelligence information. The invasion maps were critical to the success of the D-Day landings, and ultimately the defeat of Hitler's regime.

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History Channel - Gothic Cathedrals


An inside look into the history and craftsmanship of cathedrals around the world. From medieval France to present-day America, learn about the work and design that goes into these massive, Gothic structures, from the enormous buttresses to the towering gargoyles to the delicate stained glass windows. Explore the construction and engineering behind these religious monuments and see how little has changed over the past thousand years. Follow the progress of Washington's National Cathedral, the early planning stages as well as the final construction of the cathedral that is larger than Notre Dame and Chartres.

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Naked Science: Vesuvius Countdown, Vesuvius Time bomb

















Vesuvius is considered by many to be the world's most dangerous volcano. Just six miles from the bustling city of Naples, this restless giant could kill millions in a fraction of a second. The question is... when? Next toVesuvius lie the ruinous cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. They are haunting reminders of the volcano's past and potential wrath. Now, scientists are furiously trying to predict what it will do next... before it's too late. Using ancient artefacts and startling new scientific evidence, they are unravelling the secrets of Vesuvius.

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BBC - History of Now: The Story of the Noughties


Three films exploring what it was like to live through the last decade, and the surprising, often hidden connections which are shaping the 21st century.

Growing Young


During the Noughties, an ageing Britain became obsessed with recapturing its youth. The result: trends and fads such as kidults, micro scooters and 'middle youth'. But at the same time, the generation gap emerged as the most significant split in society. While older people pursued a more youthful image, real young people were demonised as 'hoodies'.

Reflecting on the decade we spent 'growing young' are a host of leading commentators and experts including Andrew Marr, Tanya Byron and Will Self. Along the way we discover how rave culture led to binge-drinking, learn about Britain's 'baby gap', and find out why downloads saved the Millennium Dome.

All Together Now?


As Britain entered the new century, society seemed to be shaken up. Fame and glamour appeared to be within reach of us all. Reality TV made it possible for ordinary people to become celebrities. Easy credit fuelled a shopping binge where everyone felt entitled to top fashions and luxury goods. Politicians felt obliged to speak the language of popular culture. Had we really created a more equal Britain?

We also learn how chavs and WAGs changed the way we look, why 'bagonomics' made handbags fashion essentials, what your postcode reveals about you and how Jade Goody paved the way for David Cameron.

ello World


In the 2000s, few developed nations embraced globalisation as enthusiastically as multi-cultural, multi-ethnic Britain. But the consequences weren't always what we expected. We saw the stars of African football burst into the Premiership and Icelanders take over the high street, while we rode the Dubai property boom; two million Poles arrived in the UK but more than five million of us ended up living overseas. We fought new kinds of war abroad and faced international terrorism at home.

The film also reveals how the rise of China put burglars out of business, why the old Cold War made the cheap city break possible, and how British TV conquered the planet.

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

BBC - Timewatch: Killer Cloud

In 1783, thousands in Britain died as a result of an environmental disaster, choking on poisonous gases from a huge volcanic eruption in Iceland. The ensuing winter was one of the harshest ever recorded and claimed even more lives. This forgotten disaster has remained a mystery for the past 200 years. 'Timewatch' reveals the evidence and reviews the likelihood of a repetition.

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PBS - Frontline: The Card Game

As credit card companies face rising public anger, new regulation from Washington and staggering new rates of default and bankruptcy, FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman investigates the future of the massive consumer loan industry and its impact on a fragile national economy. In The Card Game, a follow-up to the Secret History of the Credit Card and a joint project with The New York Times, Bergman and the Times talk to industry insiders, lobbyists, politicians and consumer advocates as they square off over attempts to reform the way the industry has done business for decades.

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National Geographic - Science Of Surveillance

Explorer takes viewers into the disturbing world of surveillance technology and scans the latest and future technologies used to even spy on the private lives of citizens. From London's CCTVs to infra-technology equipped helicopters that search the streets of New York City, the documentary shows the inner workings of these surveillance systems.

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Discovery Channel - The Land of Rain

The beautiful, mysterious world of rain is visualized using the latest filming technology. Ultra-high speed cameras capture breathtaking images in Odaigahara, the rainiest area in Japan that receives an annual rainfall of 5,000 millimeters. On the ground form lakes that only appear after summer heavy rains, allowing rare frogs to thrive. In winter, a unique natural phenomenon called Glazed Frost takes place if rain falls unfrozen and the air temperature is below zero. Through poetic cinematography, we discover just how rain enriches the natural beauty in Japan, a country unusually blessed with rain.

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National Geographic - Hooked: Great White Sturgeon


In this episode, we follow Zeb as he goes in search of the biggest and oldest of North America’s river monsters: the white sturgeon. These giants are living to a ripe old age – many of the fish Zeb will encounter on his trip are not only bigger than he is, but have lived the better part of a century. To find them, he’ll team up with scientists, divers, fisherman and an Indian tribe who are all trying and figure out how to save the white sturgeon before it’s too late.

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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

PBS Frontline - The Medicated Child


One million kids have been diagnosed with bipolar in the United States. For our film, we wanted to find three who would represent them - as well as the millions of other children who also are on psychiatric medications for different mood/behavior disorders.

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Louis Theroux Americas Medicated Kids


Faced with the challenging behaviour of their kids, more and more parents in America are turning to psychoactive medication to help them cope, even though the drugs, and sometimes the diagnoses, remain controversial. Louis travels to one of America's leading children's psychiatric treatment centres, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to get to know the diagnosed children and hoping to understand what drives parents to put their kids on drugs.

Louis meets Hugh, a 10-year-old who has been diagnosed with ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, Asperger's syndrome and bipolar disorder. Moving in with Hugh and his family, Louis learns more about his controversial diagnosis and gets to know a family where even the dog is on meds.

He also meets Jack, aged six, a child who has been excluded from school for his explosive behaviour and who now takes antidepressant medication for his anxiety. And when 15-year-old Kaylee (diagnosed with ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder) takes a day off her medication, Louis gets a glimpse of what life is like without the drugs.

From 'med checks' to 'personal pharmacies', Louis explores the world of psychiatric medication for kids, attempting to find the line between ordinary bad behaviour and pathology, and answer the question of whether the latest pharmaceuticals are taking the place of old-fashioned parenting.

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The Andrews Sisters - Queens of the Music Machines


Profile of American close harmony singing trio the Andrews Sisters, one of best-selling female vocal groups in the history of popular music.

Collaborating with some of the great names of the swing era such as Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, they also enjoyed a long and successful recording partnership with Bing Crosby.

The film traces Patty, Maxene and LaVerne's journey from a poor Minneapolis background to international fame and includes archive footage of hits including Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. Mary Wilson of the Supremes and British burlesque group the Puppini Sisters are also featured.

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Sunday, April 18, 2010

PBS - Among The Righteous: Lost Stories From The Holocaust In Arab Lands

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Did any Arabs save Jews during the Holocaust? That's the question author Robert Satloff had in mind when he set out to discover the lost, true stories of survival, courage and betrayal in Arab lands during World War II. The history of the Holocaust in Europe is well-documented, but the history of what happened to the Jewish people of North Africa has been mostly forgotten, even in the very towns and cities where it occurred. The truth is remarkable: not only did Jews in Arab lands suffer many of same elements of persecution as Jews in Europe -- arrests, deportations, confiscations and forced labor -- but there were also hopeful stories of "righteous" Arabs reaching out to protect them.

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BBC - Racism : A History


New series exploring the impact of racism on a global scale, as part of the season of programmes marking the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. Beginning by assessing the implications of the relationship between Europe, Africa and the Americas in the 15th century, it considers how racist ideas and practices developed in key religious and secular institutions, and how they showed up in writings by European philosophers Aristotle and Immanuel Kant.

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Friday, April 16, 2010

How the Earth Was Made - Iceland


It is the largest and most fearsome volcanic island on the planet. We'll scour the island for clues, to address the mystery of what powerful forces are ripping Iceland apart and lighting its fiery volcanoes. Here, lava rips huge tears in the ground and new islands are born from the waves. Yet despite the active volcanoes, Iceland historically has been covered in and carved by ice. Fire and ice collide, locked in a titanic battle, as glaciers explode and cataclysmic floods decimate the landscape. But Iceland's volcanoes have had ramifications far beyond the shores of Iceland, causing climatic chaos and devastation across the planet; a fate which may one day happen again.

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PBS - Frontline: Obama's Deal

A sobering look at the push to reform health care, revealing the realities of American politics, the power of special interest groups and the role of money in policy making.

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Discovery Channel - Between Earth and Sky : The Last Of The Bedouins

In the most secret corners of the planet a few rare nomadic or sedentary people still live in perfect harmony with the nature that surrounds them. These are the last survivors of the great civilizations of the desert, savannah, bush, deepest forests or mountain tops. With their ancestral knowledge and secular traditions, some have succeeded in perpetuating through to our times, a unique way of life, in complete equilibrium with their environment. On board a hot air balloon, Sebastian Lafont, a young balloonist explorer, takes us to remote destinations that are still preserved from the modern world. Between earth and sky, he leads us to forgotten kingdoms, to meet the world's last tribes. More than just a visit to these people, this adventure is intent on meetings and exchanges. They welcome Sebastian and show him their secrets, whilst he shares his basket with them, to show them their world from the sky. In Jordan, Sebastien Lafont meets the last Bedouins of Petra.


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Thursday, April 15, 2010

BBC - Olympic Dreams

With just two years to go before the Olympic Games hit London, this series follows some of Britain's brightest hopes as they sacrifice everything in the hope of getting a place on the Olympic podium in front of a home crowd. Can boy diver Tom Daley and World Champion heptathlete Jess Ennis hold their nerve and live up to the nation's expectations?

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National Geographic - Explorer: Tunnel to a Lost World

Discover the amazing archaeological find of an ancient port in Constantinople made by the engineers behind the world's deepest submarine tunnel.

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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

PBS - 400 Years of the Telescope

A documentary following the history of the telescope from the days of Copernicus to recent findings from the Hubble Telescope; 400 Years of the Telescope opens in 17th century Florence, Italy, with Galileo training his spyglass on the heavens and discovering that Jupiter has four moons; Venus has phases like the Moon; and most shocking of all: the Earth is not the center of the universe.

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National Geographic - Big Bigger Biggest: Space Station

How did bridges evolve in size from tiny bamboo walkways spanning streams to long suspension bridges connecting distant islands? How did buildings surge in stature from ground-hugging houses to cloud-busting skyscrapers? We reveal evolutionary engineering leaps that enabled different types of structures to explode from big to bigger to biggest.

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BBC – The First Lady: Nancy Astor

The first woman to take her seat in Parliament was no suffragette - but the American-born wife of a Conservative peer. Ninety years after Nancy Astor's historic by-election victory, Rosalyn Ball considers her career.

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Channel 4 – An Embarrassing Bodies Special: Charlotte's Story

The story of Charlotte Wilson, a girl who visited the Embarrassing Bodies clinic with an apparent viral infection, but was later discovered to suffer from a deficiency in her immune system that required an urgent bone marrow transplant.
The programme follows her and her family as she is put in the hands of doctors Adrian Thrasher and Paul Veys at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, and they begin an arduous search to find a donor for Charlotte. Christian Jessen narrates.

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Monday, April 12, 2010

BBC - Are Christians Being Persecuted


For years now, some town halls have been renaming their Christmas Lights as Winter Lights festivals. More and more Christians are ending up in court, defending themselves against what they see as victimization for not being allowed to wear a cross to work or to pray for a patient. Many Christians feel that Christianity - once the heart of British society - is being pushed to the margins.
Nicky Campbell investigates whether Christians are being discriminated against. He explores the effects of multiculturalism and asks Muslims whether they are offended by Christmas Lights celebrations. Campbell also analyses the impact of recent human rights legislation and the Equality Bill: do they promote a more or less tolerant society? A poll specially commissioned for the BBC reveals what the public think.
If the Christian faith is being sidelined from the public space, is that a good or a bad thing? Campbell interviews Christians who claim they have been discriminated against, as well as leading religious and secular voices, including Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols; Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks; Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir Ali; Shami Chakrabati, Director of the civil rights organization Liberty; and Polly Toynbee, President of the National Secular Society.

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BBC - Our World: On/Off


Featuring news on issues around the world.
A village in Nigeria is linked up to the internet for the first time, while two families in the most wired nation on earth, South Korea, have their internet connection switched off for a week. How will both communities react to their changed circumstances?

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Saturday, April 10, 2010

BBC – The Genius Of Photography

The Genius Of Photography is the BBC’s most comprehensive look at one of the world’s most influential art forms – exploring every aspect of photography from daguerreotype to digital.
Featuring many of the greatest photographs ever taken – and the photographers who took them – this new, six-part series looks at the history of photography, from Man Ray and Walker Evans to more contemporary geniuses such as Richard Avedon, Sally Mann and Martin Parr.

Ep 1 – Fixing the Shadows
Fixing the Shadows tells the story of the birth of photography itself and the profound question that it raised, and which has never been satisfactorily answered: what is photography for? Detailing the rival methods of the pioneers Henry Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre for ‘fixing the shadows’, the programme examines how photography took its place alongside other new technologies like the railway and telegraph to transform our understanding of the modern world. It describes how pioneer photographers like the portraitist Nadar asserted the status of photography as an art only for this status to be transformed by the Kodak revolution, which put the camera into the hands of the masses who unlocked its potential for surreality, randomness and surprise. Finally it examines
the case of Jacques-Henri Lartigue, the schoolboy photographer who demonstrated the true genius of photography in the hands of the amateur. Includes interviews with Chuck Close and David Byrne

Ep 2 – Documents for Artists
In the decades following the First World War, photography was the central medium of the age. “Anyone who fails to understand photography”, said the Hungarian artist and photographer Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, “will be one of the illiterates of the future”. Precise, objective, rational and apparently machine-like, it was used to promote the radical utopia of the Soviet Union and to bring order and clarity to the chaos of Weimar Germany. But while some prized photography for its ability to objective documents others were using it to explore the irrational, the subjective and the surreal, photography’s natural language. The Genius of Photography – Documents for Artists examines in detail the work of some of the greatest and most influential modern photographers: Alexander Rodchenko, August Sander, Man Ray, Eugene Atget, Walker Evans and Bill Brandt. With contributions from Martin Parr, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joel Meyerowitz and Mark Haworth-Booth.

Ep 3 – Right Time, Right Place
Being in the right place at the right time, the decisive moment, getting in close — in the popular imagination this is photography at its best, a medium that makes us eyewitnesses to the moments when history is made. But just how good is photography at making sense of what it records? Is getting in close always better than standing back, and just how decisive are the moments that photographers risk their necks to capture? Set against the backdrop of the Second World War and its aftermath, The Genius of Photography – Right Place, Right Time examines how photographers dealt with dramatic and tragic events like D-Day, the Holocaust and Hiroshima, and the questions their often extraordinary pictures raise about history as seen through the viewfinder. With contributions from Magnum legends Philip Jones Griffiths and Susan Meiselas, soldier-lensman Tony Vaccaro and broadcaster Jon Snow.

Ep 4 – Paper Movies
The American photographer Garry Winogrand said that he took photographs to “see what the world looked like photographed”. Photographers have always had this as their mission statement, but the three decades from the late 1950’s onwards was the real golden age of the photographic journey. The Genius of Photography – Paper Movies relives the journeys that produced some of the most acclaimed paper movies. The programme takes a fascinating look at Robert Frank’s odyssey through 50s America, William Klein’s one-man assault on the sidewalks of New York, Garry Winogrand’s charting of the human comedy in Central Park Zoo, Tony Ray Jones’s dissection eccentricity at the English seaside, and finally, William Eggleston’s guide to Memphis and the American South. Episode four of the series also examines the arrival of colour as a credible medium for serious photographers, as controversial at the time as Dylan going electric.
Contributors include legendary photographers like William Klein, William Eggleston, Robert Adams, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, Joel Meyerowitz, Martin Parr and artist Ed Ruscha.

Ep 5 – We are Family
Having conquered the street and the road, photographers approached the final frontier: the family and the self. The Genius of Photography – We are Family is about what happens when photography translates personal relationships into photographic ones, when strangers, celebrities, lovers and children get fed to the camera. It’s also about what happens when photographers turn their cameras on themselves—what they choose to reveal, and just what they try to conceal.
The chronological heartland of the programme is the me decades of the 1970’s and the 1980’s. From Diane Arbus’s freaks (we meet Colin Wood, the manic boy clutching the hand grenade in Central Park) to Richard Avedon’s confrontations with celebrities like Marylin Monroe, from the confessional diaries of Larry Clark and Araki, to the uncomfortably intimate family portraits of Sally Mann and Richard Billingham, the series takes a photographic journey into some of the most intriguing ideas of the photographic self, including an unforgettable encounter as Nan Goldin photographs Joey the transsexual.

Ep 6 – Snap Judgements
The final programme, The Genius of Photography – Snap Judgements, asks what a photograph is worth these days. One answer is $2.9m, the record-breaking price achieved by an Edward Steichen print auctioned at Sotheby’s in February 2006. The other answer is around 1/29th billionth of that figure based on the calculation that some 29 billion photographs will be taken in 2006 by phone cameras alone. Photography has never been so valuable and so ubiquitous. From America to China and on to Africa, the programme examines how the business of being a photographer has been changed by the market’s sudden interest in what was once the poor relation of the art world.
The series culminates in an examination of the impact of the digital post-production techniques that make anything possible, and looks at the rediscovery of techniques which are taking photography back to the 19th century.
With contributions from Jeff Wall, Andreas Gursky, Gregory Crewdson and one of China’s leading photographer Wang Qingsong.

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Discovery HD - Killer Rain

Over the past few years, Europe and North America have witnessed scenes of flooding reminiscent of third world countries. Global climate changes are making flash floods more frequent and more extreme.

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Discovery Channel - Prehistoric : New York


It's the ultimate city, packed with 8 million people and overgrown with skyscrapers. But before this land of glass steel and concrete sprouted, New York City was home to alien worlds and strange creatures stretching back over many millennia. Eight-ton elephant-like mastodons walked down what is today 5th Avenue, and a sea turtle bigger than a compact car swam directly over Midtown Manhattan. The Big Apple still bears the scars of a time when it was obliterated by a titanic glacier, and it sits on the site of a 200-million year old volcanic catastrophe. This is also where some of the world's first dinosaurs walked. And although it enjoys views of the Atlantic Ocean today, New York City was once in the middle of a vast desert continent. No matter the era, it's been the center of the action throughout the history of our planet.

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BBC - The Sky At Night: The Sun In Splendour

We can never see our nearest star at night, only by day. Looking at it directly will blind us - because our nearest star is the Sun. Sir Patrick Moore is joined by the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Professor John Brown and by Dr Chris Davis. They take us on a tour of the Sun, Earth's primary source of energy and without which life would not exist. Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel demonstrate safe ways to look at the Sun from Sir Patrick's observatory in Sussex.

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PBS Frontline - The Hand of God

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In recent decades, more than 10,000 children reportedly were sexually abused by Catholic priests in the United States. From behind the headlines, filmmaker Joe Cultrera tells the very personal story of how the crisis affected his own family in Salem, Mass. It is the intimate story of how his brother, Paul, was molested in the 1960s by Father Joseph Birmingham, who also reportedly abused nearly 100 other children. Paul Cultrera would keep his secret for 30 years until he decided to finally confront the church and launched his own investigation into how the Archdiocese of Boston had covered up allegations against Father Birmingham and moved the priest from parish to parish, placing more and more children in danger. In a sometimes raw and emotional film, the Cultrera family tells their story of faith betrayed by the scandal that has engulfed the Catholic Church.

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Discovery Channel - Egypt's Top Ten Mysteries


Let us take you back in time nearly five thousand years to unlock the mysteries of the civilisation that built the greatest monuments the world has ever seen.

This one-off special takes viewers beyond scientific analysis and modern archaeology to unlock some of Egypt's hidden secrets.

Joined by a team of leading scientists, world-renowned archaeologist Zahi Hawass travels from one end of the country to the other, guiding viewers through ten of history's most important discoveries; from Khufu’s boat to the unfinished obelisk.

These mega-constructions, major battles, religion and magic uncover the exotic and complex stories of the lives of kings, queens and thousands of ordinary people, decoding their extraordinary achievements.

Through this analysis, our experts reveal the people who developed many of the architectures, beliefs and disciplines that rule our modern world today.

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Monday, April 5, 2010

Undiscovered Walt Disney World


This Travel Channel special looks at some of the lesser-known things you can do at the Walt Disney World Resort. This special is particularly fun for me, as I worked there over two years ago. My favorite part of the special was the segment on "Divequest," a program at Epcot's "The Living Seas," in which guests can swim in this giant aquarium with all the wonderful fish and interact with guests on the other side of the tank. It was actually kind of heartwarming when they showed a father scuba diving and going up to his little daughter on the other side. It was very sweet and magical, just what Walt Disney World strives for!

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The World’s Most Dangerous Place for Women

Twenty-three-year-old Judith Wanga grew up in London but was born thousands of miles away in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sent away by her parents to live in Britain as a small child, she’s now returning to Congo – two decades later – to meet them for the first time. She wants to understand the childhood she missed and the country she was forced to leave. After reuniting with her parents in the capital, Kinshasa, Jude heads east to an area of the country that’s been devastated by war. It is the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman, where rape has become a weapon of war. Jude meets survivors – women and children – as well as perpetrators, and finds out what’s driving this brutality – the precious minerals that make our mobile phones and laptops work.


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Sunday, April 4, 2010

History Channel - Mega Disasters: Glacier Meltdown

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As temperatures rise, a global meltdown has begun. From the Andes to the Himalayas to the Alps, glaciers are vanishing. In Antarctica and Greenland, vast ice sheets are turning into liquid. The melting ice, running off land, is raising sea levels. As sea levels rise, oceans throughout the world are also becoming hotter. Warmer seas fuel more intense hurricanes. Already, major catastrophes brought on by the process of melting ice, rising seas and intensifying storms have occurred in coastal communities around the world: the South Pacific, Bangladesh and--closer to home--New Orleans. Scientists predict that the worst is yet to come. The rising oceans may swallow some lands forever. By the turn of the century, the map of the world may need to be redrawn and a Category 4 hurricane could drown much of Washington, DC in 15 feet of water.

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National Geographic - 2012: The Final Prophecy


What if the Maya were right about the end of humanity as we know it? Would fire pour from the sky, buildings shatter, floods destroy Washington DC and Los Angeles slide into the Pacific? That’s how Hollywood is interpreting the end of the Maya great calendar cycle on December 21, 2012, in the new movie “2012” with John Cusack.

Now an unexpected discovery points to a catastrophic Earth event, perhaps suggesting we are doomed to repeat it … could this be a scientific basis for the date ancient Maya astronomers anticipated thousands of years ago?

The Maya believed that everything including creation and destruction occurred in cycles. Their calendar spanned five cycles, each lasting approximately 5,200 years. At the end of each cycle before this one, the Maya believed the current, flawed creation had to be destroyed for the world to be born again. Some believe the end of the current cycle on December 21, 2012, is an apocalyptic sign. And those who see a connection between the complex and incredibly accurate Maya calendar and a prophecy that the world will end in 2012 point to an unexpected discovery made in 2003. This captivating documentary looks for the truth behind the compelling myth – is there evidence of global upheaval on a massive scale? We follow scientist Adam Maloof to three continents on a detective story that spans eons, with clues embedded in the oldest rocks on the planet.

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Saturday, April 3, 2010

PBS - Frontline: The Quake

A powerful report on Haiti’s tragedy, with never-before-seen footage of the moments after the quake. What can be done now -- and who will do it?

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National Geographic - Ultimate Factories: WinneBago

For over 50 years, Winnebago Industries has been giving people reasons to travel farther, stay longer and enjoy their vacations like never before. We’re proud to be the most celebrated name in motor homes and continue to move the industry forward with innovative products, quality construction and a passion for customer service.


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Discovery Channel - Mighty Ships: MV Fairplayer

It's the maiden voyage of MV Fairplayer, the newest, strongest heavy-lift ship in the world. Watch how she performs on her first job!

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Thursday, April 1, 2010

BBC - How Earth Made Us Human Planet

Our planet has amazing power, and yet that's rarely mentioned in our history books. This series tells the story of how the Earth has influenced human history, from the dawn of civilisation to the modern industrial age. It reveals for the first time on television how geology, geography and climate have been a far more powerful influence on the human story than has previously been acknowledged. A combination of epic story telling, visually stunning camerawork, extraordinary locations and passionate presenting combine to form a highly original version of human history. Discover why societies have succeeded or failed, and how the environment has influenced every aspect of our history from art to industry, religion to war, world domination or collapse. Visiting some of the most iconic places on Earth, How Earth Made Us overturns preconceptions about our civilisations and our cultures to offer a new perspective on who we are today.
He explores the most recently established force, humans. It's easy to think of the human impact on the planet as a negative one, but as Iain discovers, this isn't always the case. It is clear that humans have unprecedented control over many of the planet's geological cycles; the question is, how will the human race use this power?

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