Scenic Routes Around the World: The Danube

The Danube: From its origins in the Black Forest, to its passage through Vienna, to its delta Black Sea, the Danube River flows for over 1,000 miles and crosses through six countries, each bearing witness to 25 centuries of European history, culture and civilization. From Habsburg Austria to Budapest, the Danube makes a perfect traveling companion.

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The Danube: Europe's Amazon

Aftermath of a Crisis

Shortly after the beginning of the financial crisis of 2008, sociologist Manuel Castells gathered a small group of international intellectuals to think about the nature, causes, and implications of the crisis. While the crisis expanded, Castells named his group 'The Aftermath Network', a reference to the new world which according to him will emerge from the ashes of the crisis.

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Meltdown: The Secret History of the Global Financial Collapse
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George Orwell: A Life in Pictures

George Orwell: A Life in Pictures is a 2003 BBC Television docudrama telling the life story of the British author George Orwell. Directed by Chris Durlacher and narrated by Barbara Flynn, the film stars Chris Langham, Michael Fenton Stevens, and Tom Goodman-Hill.

George Orwell: A Life in Pictures uses a bold and original approach to put him on the screen. Chris Langham plays the writer and every word he speaks is as written by Orwell himself. But the pictures are all 'invented' - a specially created 'archive' because there's not a single frame of archive footage of Orwell in existence. Not even one word or one of his trademark hacking coughs on recorded audio. All that is left is one oil painting and a couple of hundred photographs. By bringing to life his extraordinary treasure trove of writing - nine books and some eight thousand pages of journalism, essays, diaries and letters - the film creates a unique dramatised biography of Orwell. Written essays become authored documentary films shot in the style of the day; events described in diaries are 'captured' on home movies; and Movietone footage is manipulated to reveal Orwell in the trenches of the Spanish Civil War. From Eton and Burma to London and Paris, Orwell's writing - poignant and polemical, scathing and sometimes just funny - is at last caught on film.
(from walltowall.co.uk)

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George Orwell on BBC Arena

What Plants Talk About (PBS Nature)

When we think about plants, we don't often associate a term like "behavior" with them, but experimental plant ecologist JC Cahill wants to change that. The University of Alberta professor maintains that plants do behave and lead anything but solitary and sedentary lives. What Plants Talk About teaches us all that plants are smarter and much more interactive than we thought!

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Into Deepest Space: The Birth of the ALMA Observatory

Into Deepest Space reveals the motivations, struggles and ultimate triumphs of the people designing and building the most elaborate ground-based astronomical observatory ever, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The program documents some of the first observations made by the telescope, foreshadowing the scientific rewards that will be its heritage. Filmed on three continents - and at altitudes ranging from sea level to 16,500 feet - the film features breathtaking views of Chile's remote Atacama Desert, and demonstrates the lengths to which humans will go to understand the universe they call home.

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The Cosmos: A Beginner's Guide
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