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Dark Science

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:38:57 -0500

In 1910, a scientist called Erik Mjoberg led the first Swedish expedition to Australia. An entomologist by trade, Mjoberg's brief was to document the native wildlife, but his underlying motivation was to explore the idea that Aborigines were the missing link between ape and man. Landing in Derby, Western Australia, he bought supplies, hired a bullock team and set off into the Kimberley with his increasingly fractious team, battling heat and flies until they got their first glimpse of "one of the oldest races in the world - the Australian negroes".

Describing the Aborigines as "ugly", "Neanderthal-like" and possessed of an "animalistic cunning", Mjoberg set about plundering their grave sites and smuggling the remains back home - actions that were to have lasting consequences for all concerned.

With narration by Jack Thompson and haunting original footage, this artfully composed documentary provides a chilling glimpse into the mind of a 20th-century explorer.

Pregnant in america

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:30:18 -0500

A documentary film examining the current state of birth in America, Pregnant in America, will be released some time in 2007.

Pregnant in America examines the betrayal of humanity's greatest gift--birth--by the greed of U.S. corporations. Hospitals, insurance companies, and other members of the healthcare industry have all pushed...

Nostradamus effect: The third antichrist

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:24:52 -0500

Examines the prophecies of Nostradamus that supposedly predict the rise of three evil dictators. Believers suggest that the first was Napoleon and the second Hitler, with the third as yet unknown.

God Vs Satan: The final battle

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:16:44 -0500

This spiritually-themed documentary rests on a central, simple discovery: though the Christian take on the "end of the world" (as described in the Revelation of St. John) has received exhaustive treatment in various films and books, the actual concept of Armageddon - a final battle between God and Satan - is rarely discussed. This program constitutes an unusual exception; it actually dissects clues given in scripture in an attempt to determine truths about what will happen just before the final curtain comes down on the world. It suggests that the said battle will transpire at Meggido, a battlefield that still exists in present-day Israel. The program asks where the stories of Armageddon come from, how they have evolved over the years and how they vary among the three major religions that claim Abraham as a central figure.

Monsterquest: Swamp stalker

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:12:20 -0500

In the marshy swamp land of Texarkana a legendary beast has hunted the residents of a small Arkansas town. Their story was immortalized in a well known movie, The Legend of Boggy Creek. The real events were a series of violent nocturnal attacks that left behind not only fear and panic, but also remarkable tracks. But the evidence is not just confined to history. Scientific clues continue to this day, and point to a malevolent monster that stalks the Deep South, with physical encounters by trained trackers and discoveries of tracks and scat.

Monsterquest: Devils in New Jersey

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:09:47 -0500

For over 250 years a frightening winged beast has been menacing the residents of New Jersey. The Jersey Devil is described as a winged half-bird half-horse, with hoofed feet and reptilian tail and a penetrating scream that echoes through the forests of New Jersey's Pine Barrens.

Monsterquest: Gators in the sewer

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:06:55 -0500

What if one of the most famous and terrifying urban legends was not a legend but a frightening fact? History tells us that Alligators lurking around in the sewers of New York City is based in truth. In the mid 1930s three teenagers pulled an eight-foot alligator from a storm drain. Reports persisted until a skeptical superintendant of sewers, Teddy May, was forced to investigate for himself. What May found shocked even him--swarms of alligators alive beneath the busy main street of America's biggest city. Crews were sent in to kill the deadly reptiles, but the stories of the gators in the sewers lived on.

Monsterquest: Snowbeast slaughter

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:04:39 -0500

High in the rugged wilderness of Colorado's Rocky Mountains a large hairy creature is said to be preying on the elk and frightening residents. The stories date back centuries with the earliest settlers describing terrifying encounters with a large beast whose scream bellows across the hills. Even today ranchers and hikers report a monster they can't explain that may be attacking their horses

Monsterquest: Lake demons

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:02:38 -0500

A fifty-foot monster is said to lurk beneath the cold, isolated waters of North America. The stories from Lake Okanagan date back to the earliest First Nation peoples, who lived in fear of this terrifying creature in the lake that became known as "Ogopogo." According to eyewitness accounts, this ominous creature has a large snake-like body, large eyes and can move at high speeds. Sightings of this lake creature are so common that it has been seen more times than Scotland's Loch Ness Monster, making Ogopogo the world's most documented lake creature.

Cosmic journeys: 13- Venus, Death of a Planet

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:51:29 -0500

From the fires of a sun's birth... twin planets emerged. Venus... and Earth. Two roads diverged in our young solar system. Nature draped one world in the greens and blues of life.While enveloping the other in acid clouds... high heat... and volcanic flows. Why did Venus take such a disastrous turn?For as long as we have gazed upon the stars, they have offered few signs... that somewhere out there... are worlds as rich and diverse as our own.Recently, though, astronomers have found ways to see into the bright lights of nearby stars. They've been discovering planets at a rapid clip... using observatories like NASA's Kepler space telescope... A French observatory known as Corot ... .And an array of ground-based instruments. The count is approaching 500... and rising. These alien worlds run the gamut... from great gas giants many times the size of our Jupiter... to rocky, charred remnants that burned when their parent star exploded. Some have wild elliptical orbits... swinging far out into space... then diving into scorching stellar winds. Still others orbit so close to their parent stars that their surfaces are likely bathed in molten rock.Amid these hostile realms, a few bear tantalizing hints of water or ice... ingredients needed to nurture life as we know it. The race to find other Earths has raised anew the ancient question... whether, out in the folds of our galaxy, planets like our own are abundant... and life commonplace?Or whether Earth is a rare Garden of Eden in a barren universe?With so little direct evidence of these other worlds to go on, we have only the stories of planets within our own solar system to gauge the chances of finding another Earth. Consider, for example, a world that has long had the look and feel of a life-bearing planet.Except for the moon, there's no brighter light in our night skies than the planet Venus... known as both the morning and the evening star.The ancient Romans named it for their goddess of beauty and love. In time, the master painters transformed this classical symbol into an erotic figure. It was a scientist, Galileo Galilei, who demystified planet Venus... charting its phases as it moved around the sun, drawing it into the ranks of the other planets. With a similar size and weight, Venus became known as Earth's sister planet. But how Earth-like is it?The Russian scientist Mikkhail Lomonosov caught a tantalizing hint in 1761. As Venus passed in front of the Sun, he witnessed a hair thin luminescence on its edge. Venus, he found, has an atmosphere. Later observations revealed a thick layer of clouds. Astronomers imagined they were made of water vapor, like those on Earth. Did they obscure stormy, wet conditions below?And did anyone, or anything, live there? The answer came aboard an unlikely messenger.... an asteroid that crashed into Earth. That is... according to the classic sci-fi adventure, The First Spaceship on Venus. A mysterious computer disk is found among the rubble.With anticipation rising on Earth, an international crew sets off to find out who sent it... and why. Approaching Venus, the astronauts translate the contents of the disk. The news is not good. In a desperate attempt to prevent an interplanetary war... and save their home planet... the crew embarks on a dangerous mission.They descend to the planet's dark surface to confront the adversaries.