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Private Notes
Biological and chemical weapons such as sarin, anthrax, plague, smallpox, and VX gas can claim more lives over greater distances than a nuclear bomb—and are easier to make and use. This look at historical uses of these types of weapons by both governments and terrorists also examines who might have them and be willing to use them now.
The demise of the Soviet Union put an end to fears of a global nuclear war between the superpowers, but it also means that control of the Soviet stockpile of nuclear weapons and component parts is now scattered among many different governments, creating a security nightmare. With nations such as North Korea pursuing their own nuclear programs, the conflict between nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan heating up, and the possibility of terrorists gaining control of bomb-making materials, the potential for a nuclear conflict on some scale may actually be increasing.
Nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons have added a horrific new dimension to terrorism, enabling a small group of people to inflict enormous damage—especially if they're willing to die in the process. This look at the motivations and conditions behind terrorism includes interviews with a former comrade of Osama bin Laden, a British Islamic couple who condemn the September 11 attacks but still teach the concept of holy war, and a 17-year-old Arab boy hoping for a productive future but also attracted to the idea of a "martyr's" death.
Explores measures that can be taken to reduce the threat of terrorism, from San Francisco's round-the-clock efforts to protect the Golden Gate Bridge to measures that can be taken globally to rescue nations in the midst of crisis. Topics include efforts to rebuild Afghanistan and to combat the ravages of AIDS in Africa.
THE SPARTANS opens at Thermopylae and with the epitaph of the Three Hundred — and very stirring it is to hear this spoken in the original Greek — before introducing some of the topics that will be addressed in the program. (Hmm. The claim that “male homosexuality was compulsory” is extremely dubious; the first boldfaced assertion as fact of a subject hotly debated among ancient and modern experts.) After the introduction, we journey to the Dark Ages of Greece, the end of the Achaean Age and the coming of the Dorian Greeks to the Peloponnesus and Laconia. An effective look at the development of hoplite warfare is presented. Next comes the Messenian conquest, then the establishment of the Spartan constitution. The upbringing of Spartan youths, warts and all, is then addressed at length. A good point is made that the sublimation of the individual as practiced by the Spartans can be very liberating – “the possibility of transcending your limitations as an individual and becoming part of something bigger and better.” Spartan institutions are credited for initiating a system of political rights and responsibilities among its citizens centuries before other Greek states conceived of such things.
This segment begins by exploring at how Sparta and Athens fell out after the Persian Wars, with a look at Athenian politics and society and how these contrasted to Sparta’s. This is a refreshingly non-partisan treatment, not hesitating to be equally critical of Athens. Women’s life in Sparta is given much attention. Sparta comes off as considerably more enlightened, by modern Western standards, than Athens. (Interesting sidebar – in her remarks during a November 24, 2003, online chat with Channel 4 (UK) viewers, narrator Bettany Hughes, when asked where she’d have rather lived, Sparta or Athens, replied “Sparta. No doubt.”) Hughes wryly notes how Spartan women were “objects of fear and fascination” to non-Spartan men. The legacy of these “radical” Spartan customs on later societies is discussed. Amusingly, whether by design or not, Hughes wears a scarlet dress for much of this sequence – fit garb for a Spartanette – and conducts her narration while striding purposefully about the Laconian countryside or riding on horseback in full exhibition of energetic Spartan vitality.
The last section of the film opens at Delphi and takes a look at Greek religion and Spartan attitudes toward the gods and oracles before resuming the history of the Peloponnesian War. Alcibiades, the Syracuse expedition, and Lysander are all examined, taking up half of Part 3. Then the period of the Spartan Hegemony is briefly described, shaped by the “crippled kingship” of Agesilaus and marked by power struggles among Sparta’s ruling factions. Hughes notes the critical decline of Spartan citizen manpower and the rise of Thebes as a rival. She takes us to the battlefield of Leuctra, where Spartan military superiority was broken in 371 BC. The remaining sequences very quickly sketch how classical Sparta became a second-class power and finally a tourist attraction for wealthy Romans. The show concludes with a summation of Sparta’s influence on Western philosophy.
In 1903, Americans considered automobiles practical for short trips only. Horatio Nelson Jackson believed differently. He bet a man fifty dollars that he could drive an automobile across the country. Nelson paid a man to accompany him on a trip that attempted to go from California into Oregon and the Rocky Mountain states, then across the Midwestern U.S.A. and finally to New York City. Jackson's trip made him a media sensation. While Jackson, the other man, and a dog travelled by car, they encountered numerous setbacks involving mechanical difficulties. After the Jackson car started, two other teams of drivers set out from San Francisco, each trying to be the first team to reach New York.
Casts new light on the relationship between Einstein and his first wife, Mileva Maric and their collaboration on the theory of relativity.
Courage, guilt, betrayal and triumph; the story of T.E. Lawrence has it all. How one man inspired an Arab army but could not prevent their betrayal.
Filmed in England and the Middle East, this two-hour epic charts the real-life story of a twentieth century hero.
The transcontinental railroad, begun in 1855 and completed in 1869, transformed the Golden State from sleepy outpost into one of the world's most powerful economies. THE RAILROAD EMPIRE explores this vital moment in California's history and charts its impact on the development of a nation. Archival photography footage depicts the painstaking process of constructing this "ribbon of iron" through the Sierra Mountains. Interviews with historians and railroad experts paint a vivid portrait of how railroads forever altered the social and political landscape of the United States. The program also examines the institutionalized violence and systematic discrimination against Chinese railroad laborers, the development of unions and Congress' role in the Big Four's monopoly of California transportation.
In 1752, an ancient library was discovered at Herculaneum, buried beneath the ashes of Mount Vesuvius. Astonishingly, nearly 2000 carbonized papyrus rolls were preserved, though some were so badly burned they looked like pieces of charcoal. While some texts from the philosophical library have been published, many of the papyri have yet to be unrolled or read.
