A PBS documentary concerning Jared Diamond's theory on why there is such disparity between those who have advanced technology and those who still live primitively. He argues it is due to the acquisition of guns and steel and the changes brought about by germs.
Nearly 1,000 years ago, the Vikings left Scandinavia and settled across Europe - giving their name to Normandy along the way - before their Norman descendants seized the English throne at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. But what do we really know about them? By combining expert analysis with compelling drama, 'The Last Journey of the Vikings' (Swedish title: 'Vikingarnas sista resa') tells a new and often surprising story about this complex people.
The second half of the 16th century, the time of Ivan the Terrible's reign. The story of Yermak Timofeyevich, whose campaign beyond the Urals served to annex the Siberian lands to the Moscow kingdom.
Commanding shoguns and samurai warriors, exotic geisha and exquisite artisans—all were part of the Japanese “renaissance”; a period between the 16th and 19th Centuries when Japan went from chaos and violence to a land of ritual refinement and peace. But stability came at a price: for nearly 250 years, Japan was a land closed to the Western world, ruled by the Shogun under his absolute power and control. Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire brings to life the unknown story of a mysterious empire, its relationship with the West, and the forging of a nation that would emerge as one of the most important countries in the world.
1938, Soviet Russia. There were two of them, both strong and courageous. But one fateful day, Igor Petrov, the commander of a Red Army unit, is compelled to exchange ID papers with a satecracker known as Ash. The incident leads both men to start their lives completely anew. For the following ten years, Petrov and Ash will live their lives in the fear of discovery. They will commit acts of bravery and insidious crimes in the name of the other so that the thiet becomes a hero, while the commander turns into a violent outlaw. The only thing they have in common is a tragic, painful love for the same woman. For ten years they will each encounter death and destruction before fate brings them together once more. There will be two of them again - strong and courageous, ready to fight for their love.. with the knowledge that retribution awaits them.
From the perspective of an explorer, the play tells the heroic story of Liang Chen, the chief of the reconnaissance section of a certain division of the Volunteer Army, who led a reconnaissance company as a vanguard during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and repeatedly relied on superior strategies and tactics to fight the US military.
Wang Yunshan is the leader of the Eighth Route Army Regiment. Although uneducated and hot tempered, he possess an extraordinary military mind. He dared to fight hard and taking an unorthodox strategy, he was able to win against the Japanese army.
In 2099, Earth has shifted off its axis and begins to rotate at an angle of 90% to the 20th-century equator. Three years of natural disasters follows, and when things settle down, Earth's ten billion population has died and only two million moon colonists remain.
Some return to begin the repopulation of the world in seven new cities and the remaining colonists of the moon fear that their former neighbors might pose a threat and construct a ring of defensive satellites to trap them on the newly repopulated homeworld.