African Hijack (Air Crash Investigation - National Geographic)

(Alternative Title: Ocean Landing)

An Ethiopian Airlines B-767 aircraft en route from Addis Abbaba to Nairobi, Keya, was hijacked. Approximately 20 minutes into the flight, three men forced their way ito the cockpit. Hijackers on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 demand passage to Australia, not believing the pilot when he explains they do not have enough fuel. The pilot tries to trick them by flying down the coast of Africa but the hijackers notice and force the pilot to fly east. The pilot obeys but heads for the Comoros Islands, near where the aircraft runs out of fuel.

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Dubai's Dream Palace (MegaStructures - National Geographic)

With its oil reserves dwindling, Dubai switches its sights to tourism, building the Burj al Arab, a 60-storey hotel in the shape of a sail. Set in the tiny desert kingdom of Dubai, Dubai's Dream Palace allow us to explore the remarkable engineering behind the seven-star Burj Al-Arab Hotel. Five years in the making, this striking building stands like a gigantic white sail off the shore of Dubai. As this programme reveals, a refusal to compromise on the part of the hotel’s young designers ensured that the project pushed the boundaries of design, almost to the impossible. The Burj Al-Arab was the brainchild of Dubai’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The Sheikh dreamt of a luxury hotel that would put Dubai on the world map, and surprised many by choosing a relatively unknown British firm to supply the design.

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Autobahn (MegaStructures - National Geographic)

It was started as a racing track, but due to Hitler’s World War II propaganda efforts, the track grew into a sophisticated high-speed road system, linking to almost all the major cities in Germany. The Autobahn boasts of having super thick road beds, 4% or less grades, wide lanes, and build on layers of technology. It allows vehicles to travel at speeds exceeding 160km/h for roughly two thirds of its roads.

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Future Trains (MegaStructures - National Geographic)

This documentary tells the engineering behind Maglev trains, a system that suspends, guides and propels trains, using magnetic levitation from a very large number of magnets for lift and propulsion. This method has the potential to be faster, quieter and smoother than wheeled mass transit systems. The power needed for levitation is usually not a particularly large percentage of the overall consumption; most of the power used is needed to overcome air drag, as with any other high speed train.

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A History of God (History Channel)

Based on Karen Armstrong's acclaimed book, this feature-length film guides viewers along one of humanity's most elusive quests. For over 4,000 years, adherents of the world's monotheistic faiths have wrestled with the question of God. This extraordinary, feature-length film, based on Karen Armstrong's acclaimed book of the same name, traces that elusive and fascinating quest.

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Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Expelled uncovers that educators and scientists are being ridiculed, denied tenure and even fired in some cases for the fact that they believe there is evidence of “design” in nature, challenging the idea that life is a result of random chance. For example, Stein meets Richard Sternberg, a double PhD biologist who allowed a peer-reviewed research paper describing the evidence for intelligence in the universe to be published in the scientific journal Proceedings. Not long after publication officials from the National Center for Science Education and the Smithsonian Institution where Sternberg was a research fellow began a coordinated smear and intimidation campaign to get the promising young scientist expelled from his position. This attack on scientific freedom was so egregious that it prompted a congressional investigation.

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Comet Air Crash (Seconds from Disaster - National Geographic)

In early 1954, De Havilland is at the forefront of commercial aviation, introducing the first passenger jet airliner to the world. On 10 January, 1954, a flight takes off in Rome at 10:31 AM to finish the last leg of its international journey, carrying children returning home for the school term, and Chester Wilmot, a journalist and military historian working for BBC, as well as others travelling to Britain. Approximately 30 minutes later, the plane disappears from radar at high altitude and crashes into the Mediterranean Sea off Elba. Authorities confirm that all 35 passengers and crew have died, and post-mortem examinations show unusual injuries to many victims.

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The Game of Their Lives - Chollima Chookgudan (BBC)

In 1966 the North Korean football team shocked the world by knocking out Italy at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough. Using archive footage and interviews with the seven surviving players, "The Game of Their Lives: (Chollima Chookgudan - 천리마 축구단), an award-winning documentary tells the remarkable and highly entertaining story of the pint-sized giant killers. Back then, the North Koreans became so popular at Middlesbrough, the manufacturing city in northeastern England that was their World Cup home base, that the local citizenry adopted them as their favorites.

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The Truth According to Wikipedia

Google or Wikipedia? Those of us who search online -- and who doesn't? -- are getting referred more and more to Wikipedia. For the past two years, this free online "encyclopedia of the people" has been topping the lists of the world's most popular websites. But do we really know what we're using? Backlight plunges into the story behind Wikipedia and explores the wonderful world of Web 2.0. Is it a revolution, or pure hype?

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The Road to Guantanamo

Winner of the Silver Bear at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, The Road to Guantanamo is a docudrama directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross. Filming took place in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran, which doubled as Cuba. Mat Whitecross is credited as co-director, and handled most of the interviews with the real-life counterparts to the main characters. The film uses interviews, news footage, and reenactments to tell the story of the Tipton Three, young British men of Pakistani descent who were detained for over two years without charges at Guantanamo Bay by the American military.

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Moon for Sale (Horizon - BBC)

After 40 years, man is preparing to return to the Moon. But this time the astronauts won't just land on the Moon - they plan to stay.
From his office in Nevada, Dennis Hope has spawned a multi-million dollar business selling lunar real estate. But scientists believe the real prize is trapped in the Moon's rocks. It contains large deposits of an extremely rare gas called Helium-3. Could Helium-3 be mined and used as a new source of almost inexhaustible, clean and pollution-free energy on Earth? Whoever succeeds in transporting Helium-3 back to Earth could solve the world's energy crisis.

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Car of the Future (NOVA - PBS)

Tom Magliozzi has a problem. The wacky cohost of NPR's Car Talk needs to replace his beloved 1952 MG roadster. But in today's car market, where should he turn? Is new technology about to transform the way we drive? Tom and his brother Ray hit the road in this program for a lighthearted but shrewd take on America's four-wheeled future. John Lithgow narrates as Tom and Ray mix their trademark slapstick with serious nuts-and-bolts analysis of what it will take to make our autos more energy-efficient. With a quarter of all the oil ever consumed guzzled up in the last decade and oil supplies being drawn down faster every day, the brothers' screwball automotive odyssey doubles as a serious environmental wake-up call.

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The Bermuda Triangle - Beneath the Waves (BBC)

Woven around a compelling expedition narrative, this programme conducts a series of experiments to prove conclusively whether the most credible theories do in fact weigh up. The stories behind some of the most baffling of disappearances are told but it is science, not speculation, that writes the final chapter. Following the story of the search for Navy Flight 19, one of the most famous disappearances, photography both above and beneath the waves is combined with dramatic re-constructions and CGI to create a stunning visual feast. Five experiments tried to explore the most plausible theories.

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Ape Genius (NOVA - PBS)

At a research site in Fongoli, Senegal, a female chimpanzee breaks off a branch, chews the end to make it sharp, and then uses this rudimentary spear to skewer a tasty bush baby hiding inside a hollow tree. It’s an astonishing breakthrough for primate researchers—the first time anyone has documented a chimpanzee wielding a carefully prepared, preplanned weapon. But it's only the latest in a slew of extraordinary new findings about ape behavior.

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Secrets of the Mind (NOVA - PBS)

In "Secrets of the Mind" we gain insights through various tragedies that have affected others, thanks to the logic and insights of Professor Ramachandran regarding what he calls the most complex organized matter in the universe.

The programme begins with "phantom limb syndrome" - pain and sensation in missing body areas. Ramachandran's reasoning, confirmed through a CAT-scan, is that the brain has a map of various body areas, and that eg. the right arm and right face areas of the brain are adjacent. Thus, missing body areas can lead to interference by those associated brain areas trying to cope with stimulus deprivation - eg. "cross-wiring."

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Thunderbolt of the Gods

Converging scientific and historical investigation has led to a new vision of the “Electric Universe” and a radical reconstruction of the past. According to proponents of this viewpoint, popular ideas in our cultures must now give way to a deeper appreciation of electrical phenomena and the vast record left to us by the ancients in their heavens-oriented petroglyphs, myths and symbols.

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