I've been getting Twitter messages all day about my impromptu appearance during CNN's coverage of Obama's acceptance speech. One for the grandchildren, perhaps, to show how technology really does make the world a smaller place...
(I should point out that this is not me, but my doppelganger. And it is not a photoshopped pic. My wife is completely freaked out, as am I. I now want to meet this guy and see if he's like me, too. Anyone know who this Democrat is?)
The story of Frankenstein has haunted us for almost 200 years: A monster brought to life by a mad scientist in his secret laboratory. But is Mary Shelley's book pure fiction after all?
At the end of the 19th century, the city of Galveston, Texas was a booming town with a population of 42,000 residents. Its position on the natural harbor of Galveston Bay along the Gulf of Mexico made it the center of trade and the biggest city in the state of Texas. With this prosperity came a sense of complacency.
More than one billion people use London underground annually, yet few of them know just how haunted the tube really is. We investigate the supernatural secrets of the oldest underground network in the world.
In the past few years, a hurricane has engulfed the debate about global warming. This scientific issue has become a rhetorical firestorm with science pitted against spin and inflammatory words on both sides.
Big Sugar explores the dark history and modern power of the world's reigning sugar cartels. Using dramatic reenactments, it reveals how sugar was at the heart of slavery in the West Indies in the 18th century, while showing how present-day consumers are slaves to a sugar-based diet.
Big Sugar explores the dark history and modern power of the world's reigning sugar cartels. Using dramatic reenactments, it reveals how sugar was at the heart of slavery in the West Indies in the 18th century, while showing how present-day consumers are slaves to a sugar-based diet.
This is an incredible series of documentary about life during the age of the dinosaurs. But you must watch
This is an incredible series of documentary about life during the age of the dinosaurs. But you must watch
This is an incredible series of documentary about life during the age of the dinosaurs. But you must watch
This is an incredible series of documentary about life during the age of the dinosaurs. But you must watch
Arguably one of the most important documentary series ever made, The Nazis: A Warning from History sets out to show that, far from being a uniquely German aberration, Nazism fed upon and was fostered by the prejudices and lemming-like inclinations of ordinary people. Although culminating with the atrocities of the Holocaust, these programmes are equally good on the motives of otherwise perfectly normal people, who needed only the tacit encouragement of the regime to perpetrate horrors against their enemies, their neighbours, or their own family. When confronted with evidence of their Nazi past, elderly former party members are often unable to find any other justification for their actions than simply that they could get away with it. Far from being a monolithic dictatorship which compelled the citizenry to act in rigidly prescribed ways, the Nazi state just allowed people to give their worst inclinations free reign. Hitler, it turns out, was a profoundly lazy man who rarely got out of bed before midday, and preferred to leave affairs of state to sort themselves out. He subscribed fervently to the doctrine of survival of the fittest as applied to all social and political matters, and actively encouraged in-fighting among his subordinates. The result was an organisational vacuum at the centre of state, which super-ambitious acolytes were only too eager to fill, often acting on nothing more than the Fuhrer's off-the-cuff remarks. One small example is revealing: after reading a letter from the father of a disabled child, Hitler agreed that it would be best for the boy to die. From this single statement arose a nationwide policy of euthanasia for all disabled children, carried out willingly and without compulsion by the doctors and "carers" themselves. It needed nothing more than the Fuhrer's nod. The message is clear and shocking: it happened in Germany, it could happen anywhere.
Arguably one of the most important documentary series ever made, The Nazis: A Warning from History sets out to show that, far from being a uniquely German aberration, Nazism fed upon and was fostered by the prejudices and lemming-like inclinations of ordinary people. Although culminating with the atrocities of the Holocaust, these programmes are equally good on the motives of otherwise perfectly normal people, who needed only the tacit encouragement of the regime to perpetrate horrors against their enemies, their neighbours, or their own family. When confronted with evidence of their Nazi past, elderly former party members are often unable to find any other justification for their actions than simply that they could get away with it. Far from being a monolithic dictatorship which compelled the citizenry to act in rigidly prescribed ways, the Nazi state just allowed people to give their worst inclinations free reign.
In this episode, in an effort to understand the likelihood of the development of life on other planets, Sagan explores the process responsible for life on earth: evolution through natural selection. He starts with a delightful story about the Heike crab and Japanese samurai warriors, drawing the crucial distinction between artificial and natural selection, and further explains how the process of evolution, when you observe it carefully, is more elegant and coherent than the inference of an intelligent designer.
Documentary series presented by Dan Cruickshank revealing the most beautiful and precious things in the world. In Japan, he shows us a Samurai sword and a temple with a meditation garden. Moving on to China, Dan marvels at the Great Wall and contemplates the massed ranks of the Terracotta army, before battling bureaucracy in an attempt to see the ancient porcelain in the Forbidden City.
New remastered version of Wake Up Call Some of the topics covered in the film: The New World Order, Federal Reserve, Bilderberg Group, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, North American Union, the Rockefeller/Rothschild families, Freemasonry, Bohemian Grove, the Illuminati, Illuminati symbolism, Problem-Reaction-Solution, 9-11, war profiteering, the phoney 'War on Terrorism', the impending 'Big Brother Surveillance Society', the war on civil liberties, microchipping, mind control, media control and 'education system' indoctrination... Featuring: Alex Jones, David Icke, Aaron Russo, Jordan Maxwell, G. Edward Griffin, Jim Marrs, Bill Hicks, Daniel Estulin, Jim Tucker, Ted Gunderson, Anthony Hilder, Professor Steven Jones, Webster Tarpley, George Carlin, John Taylor Gatto, Charlotte Iserbyt, Dave vonKleist, Stan Monteith and others...
It was tonight as our dear Spanish entrant to The X Factor gave her thanks to "the British pubic" that was reminded of a) the importance of getting your phonemes right (how I tried to get that point across while teaching it in France) and c) my second favourite Taylor Mali poem, after this one. Enjoy.
For those who weren't sure of what it was I'd be looking for in 4iP's future commissions, voilà.
This is a beautiful story of serendipity and the good will most people have towards one another, going out of their way to make a small but hugely arresting action. I'm glad to say that, in my experience, the social web has meant experiences like Mitchell's have happened to me more and more as the scope of the social web expands. Six degrees apart seems far now. It's more like two or three.
The only thing that stops us seeing it is that the mainstream channels of communication used by the majority of us rarely have an opportunity to capture this in what's left of that evening's broadcast on trivia, disaster and evil.
This is the extraordinary story of a beautiful mathematical formula that changed the world, the financial markets, and indeed capitalism itself. It could do the unthinkable - it took the risk out of playing the money-markets. To its inventors it brought the Nobel Prize for economics. To those who used it, it brought great wealth. But this glittering tale would end in tragedy.
The story of how artistic and conceptual expression permeated rock. From the pop-art multi-media experiments of Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground to the sinister gentility of Peter Gabriel's Genesis, White Light, White Heat Place traces how rock became a vehicle for artistic ideas and theatrical performance. We follow Pink Floyd from the fated art school genius of Syd Barrett through the global success of Dark Side of the Moon to the ultimate rock theatre show, The Wall. Along the way, the film explores the retro-futurism of Roxy Music and the protean world of David Bowie
Explore the crooked, 800-year history of this legendary tower as you follow scientists racing to keep it from finally crashing to the ground. Archival images, historical accounts, computer animations, and exclusive inside and outside footage reveal the fascinating secrets behind this landmark, and illuminate the controversies swirling around competing rescue proposals.
Perhaps the most visionary and controversial Book of it's time. Galileo asserted that the Earth was not the center of the universe. This is the story of a egotistical visionary versus a bullheaded Pope
