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Describes dramatic change brought about by the evolution of writing from simple letters to entire alphabetic systems. This program both examines the reasons the alphabets were developed, and traces how the use of alphabets spread around the world, changing the cultures they touched. Letters of a sphinx discovered on the Sinai Peninsula in 1905 reveal how the characters found there were in a very different style from earlier forms of writing and suggest the beginning of an alphabet.
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The late 1950s and 1960s saw the Israeli succeeding in annexing large portions of Biblical Israel, and bringing to justice the Nazi murderer Adolf Eichmann. It was a young and vibrant nation-state, which lived in the constant shadow of war. France fought in Algeria to retain its colony there; a bitter and bloody conflict lasted for more than a decade before de Gaulle withdrew French troops and Algeria gained its independence. Oman struggled for 10 years before driving out the British. Nasser died in 1970 and was succeeded by Sadat.
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Spring, summer, autumn, and winter; the characteristics of each season, and some of the fun things we cn do during each one.
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The robber barons, the muckrakers, Teddy Roosevelt, the Spanish-American War; World War I costs America 100,000 lives; Versailles sets the stage for World War II; Ford and Lindbergh emerge as superheroes, and the Roaring Twenties are marked by Prohibition.
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The nature and politics of water transportation affect a growing number of people and enterprises around the world who depend on the reliable delivery of water. In Africa, the ritual of water transportation is at the very core of life for the pastoral people who roam the Rift Valley - the Massai.
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Biology and medical science meet as scientists determine what happens to a human body as it moves from the gravity of the earth to the microgravity of space, as bones, blood and nervous system react to long term spaceflight.
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How do well-designed carrying bags make bearing burdens easier? This episode features a visit to a plastic bag factory, as well as children designing and making their own bags for specific purposes.
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This episode examines how a secular belief system could have been responsible for unifying and stabilizing a vast and ancient nation.
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During the Middle Ages, Fez, once the crown jewel of Moroccan civilization, was the core of Islamic Culture and education. At the Mosquee Qaraouiyne University some of the great scientists, mathematicians and mullahs studied and subsequently awakened Europe out of the darkness of the middle ages with their discoveries and inventions. Today, Fez is a bustling city with roads so narrow that donkeys are the only method of transportation.
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How do you cater for thousands of people at an outdoor event while maintaining high food quality and safety standards?
A catering company prepares to feed a large crowd attending a major sporting event.
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A blackout in Johan's house starts a search to find a natural source of light that is the brightest, and also completely free.
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We look at the discovery and history of homeopathy. <br><br> In France, homeopathy is part of the undergraduate medical curriculum. In the United Kingdom, homeopathic medicine has been available through the National Health Services since 1948.
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This method of energy production can pose a mortal danger to river fauna. Major reservoir projects can mean the devastation of vast stretches of countryside and forced resettlement. But the hydroelectric power is still often seen as the best solution, especially in the emerging countries of Asia, Africa and South America.
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Organic chemistry goes industrial with William Perkin exploring carbon's tetrahedral bonds and the discovery of chirality. This video looks at the concept of atoms as 3D objects and 3D structural diagrams and models. There is also a brief look at various synthetic organic compounds developed from natural ones, both achievements and difficulties.
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LAND WARRIOR - The soldier of the future. SPACE JUNK - Keeping track of the 84,000 pieces of space junk traveling at speeds of up to 11,000 mph. SOLAR HOUSE - An environmentally friendly house deep in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
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Languedoc in southwestern France is a little known land of spectacularly savage beauty and of jealously guarded traditions and its own language. Mountain streams, forests and glorious fishing villages provide a bountiful and hearty culinary experience.
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Preparing and Testing for Oxygen. Properties of Oxygen, Reacting with Iron. Reacting Carbon with Oxygen. Properties of Hydrogen Peroxide.
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Chinese inventions and discoveries include gunpowder, bombs, shrapnel, underground and sea mines, aerial bombs and muskets (fire lances), rockets, cannon, immunization, paper, printing with movable type, modem books and bookstores, civil service exams and playing cards.
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Volcanoes and earthquakes are only part of a bigger picture. Tectonic forces also push continents around and cause mountains to be uplifted. The crust recycles itself. The lighter rocks of the continents float on the heavier rocks of the mantle.
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The concluding portion presents the Soviet fiasco in Afghanistan, the unprecedented peacetime US armaments build up under Reagan, "Star Wars," the reforms of Gorbachev, the collapse of the Soviet bloc, (and the USSR) and the terrorism which confronts the US today.
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THE FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE - (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 1844-l9O8) was originally a solo violin piece, but has since been transcribed for all kinds of instruments.
ON THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE -(Johann Strauss II 1825-1899) was originally written for chorus and orchestra.
FUR ELISE (Ludwig van Beethoven 1770-1827) is Beethoven's most famous bagatelle; it may have been written for a lady with whom he was in love, but could not marry.
THE CUCKOO - (Claude Daquin 1694-1772) was probably originally a harpsichord piece.
THE SWAN - (Camille Saint Saens 1835-1921) comes from a collection of works for piano and orchestra entitled "Carnival of the Animals"; it was originally a cello solo.
CLAIR DE LUNE - (Claude Debussy 1862-1918) comes from a collection of piano pieces that occupied the composer for 15 years; he used 17th century clavecin music as a model for this and other early works.
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This film concentrates on the arts of architecture and abstract decoration, and shows how, from an Islamic point of view, these are approached and understood. Other sequences show the arts of calligraphy and painting, and the film ends with the art of three great cultures which flourished three centuries ago. Saffavid Iran, Ottoman Turkey, and Mughal India all produced magnificent buildings which in widely differing ways are profoundly Islamic.
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Deals with the legacy of Serbian "ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans, an area where peace seems possible only when imposed by an outside power. There are thousands of scores to settle, atrocities to be avenged, and deep religious divisions between Orthodox, Catholic, and Muslims to overcome. The same savage tribal instinct manifested itself in Rwanda in the 1990s as the Hutu massacred Tutsi and over a million died. Yet amid the ruins of a once hopeful nation tentative steps are being made towards healing and preventing a recurrence of such dark forces.
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The American embargo of supplies led Japan to attack Pearl Harbor. No hesitation marked the decision to utilize the newly-developed atomic bomb on Japan. Experts deemed that it was the quickest way to get the Japanese to surrender. When the war was won in South East Asia and the Pacific, the US was forced to utilize British troops to restore order. They in turn used Japanese forces to quell growing calls for nationalism in the region; this combustible mixture led to the Korean, Vietnam and Cambodian wars.
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Israel gained additional land but multiplied its problems with the addition of a million Palestinian Arabs after the Six Day War of 1967. The Palestinian Liberation Organization under Arafat sought recognition and independence from Israel. Muslim fundamentalists assassinated Egypts Sadat. Iran threw out its hated shah and became an authoritarian fundamentalist Muslim state under the Ayatollah Khomeini. Hussein's Iraq initiated a 10 year war with Iran, and later invaded Kuwait; the Gulf War followed. Hatreds and rivalries continue to darken the Middle East today.
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Professor Iris comes blowing into class to announce the subject of the lesson. We learn that wind can be anything from a breeze to a tornado, and that sometimes it can carry away very important papers!
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In the final segment, the Great Depression marks the 1930s; Pearl Harbor plunges America into the deadliest war in history; the nation's search for stability is threatened by conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle East; the Cold War sees the emergence of McCarthy, Khrushchev, Kennedy, and Neil Armstrong lands on the moon. The program concludes by reminding us that America is the land of h opes and opportunities.
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AIRCRAFT SAFETY - Keeping planes up in the air and safe. WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING - Why the WTC didn't collapse in 1994 when a terrorist bomb ripped through it. CRASH TEST DUMMIES - They stand in for you and me when testing a vehicle's safety.
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Located in the southwest of Spain, Andalucia is a land of stunning beauty and of unparalleled historical interest. Its people are warm and friendly and have witnessed Moorish invaders come and go, leaving behind countless testaments to their artistic and architectural brilliance.
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This segment emphasizes the importance of careful planning in scientific research, whether on earth or above it, as the STS-40 crew records the effects of spaceflight on the body. A practical demonstration of the knowledge gained is shown in the use of a new type of spaceflight trainer to prevent motion sickness in space.
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"Biomass" might be called "solidified solar energy." Tremendous amounts of vegetable material with concentrated reservoirs of energy locked inside are manufactured by that greatest of dynamos, the sun. Energy can be effectively extracted from vegetable materials using a wide variety of methods, all highly efficient and all friendly to the environment. This self-regenerating resource is an ideal example of the harmonization of economy and ecology.
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Carbon Dioxide and Carbonic Acid. Formation of Calcium Carbonate. Carbon dioxide extinguishing a flame.
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Examines a phenomenon that truly characterizes our time. The rapid expansion of the international market place and the power of those who control it is perceived to be the principal reason why the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing, not diminishing. This viewpoint was also expressed by the thousands who demonstrated against the WTO in Seattle and Prague. On the other hand, some view globalization as being the only way for prosperity to spread to developing countries.
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This episode examines how the Chinese found creative and novel solutions to many kinds of practical problems. It also looks at what stifled Chinese genius at precisely the time that the West was beginning to catch up.
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"Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave" is a famous injunction of Mohammed. Islam has always valued the use of reason, and it formed the bridge that links the knowledge of Greece to that of the present day. Many of the ideas and institutions now taken for granted came to Europe from the Islamic world - the large and beautiful colleges which led to probably the oldest universities in the world, like Al Ahzal in Cairo. The observatory and hospital also passed from Islam to Europe. Islam's contribution to medicine was particularly great.
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In 711 A.D. the Moroccan Islamic army crossed the strait of Gibraltar and reached Tarifa, a port at the edge of the European continent, and began a rule of more than 800 years. Those years of Islamic rule left unique traces of its culture in the Andalusia region of Spain. Now, Southern Spain has a complex history having absorbed the influences from not only Islam but from the Romans and Christianity. Cordoba became a symbolic city mixing the various influences and now has a culture unique to Spain. Does that cultural development continue today?
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Magnetic diagnostic equiptment is used in every major hospital around the world, including Magnetic Resonance Imaging and other high-tech, widely accepted practices. Magnetic Therapy is available as a non-invasive, safe treatment for a range of conditions.
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Shows how carbon's structure allows it to be the backbone for macro molecules, and why starch and not cellulose is digestible by humans. Further sections show the extreme non-organic case of diamonds and the discovery of nitrocellulose and its importance; give the definitions of thermoplastics, thermosets, and glass transition temperature; and look at celluloid, bakelite, and nylon.
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America was now the richest nation in the world; Britain was victorious, but bankrupt; the Soviet Union had been devastated but was ideologically strong and committed to the victory of its brand of communism. The cooperation of the war years and the hopes of its continuation faded and Europe faced years of extreme hardship. The forces that were to shape international politics for the next fifty years emerged in 1945.
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Johan learns the different states of water evaporation when it changes to steam; condensation occurs when steam changes to water; and snow becomes the frozen state of water.
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A journey through time to find out when our ancestors developed thumbs.
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What special considerations are entailed in designing toys for a baby, for an impaired child, or for children with special needs? How can computer technology be utilized? Children create their own toys in scenes not unlike the Wacky Races.
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This episode is a close look at why three immense river systems like the Nile in Egypt, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya in Central Asia were dammed. This episode explores the role that water plays in world crises; yesterday, today, and most certainly in the future, when m ore people might be driven to war over water. However, water is also imaginable as a stake for peace negotiations. The negotiations over the water rights are still tense. In the Middle East, disputes over water are as old as the stones of Biblical times.
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