
DOCUMENTARIES-I-LIKE
Tonight: Frozen Planet: Edge of the Earth
Tonight (Saturday, December 22) at 9:00pm ET/PT on Discovery, take a look back at the Frozen Planet documentary, coproduced with the BBC. If you missed it the first time, tonight is a sort of "greatest hits" hour, with some of the best sequences from the
Paul Erd?s, the Amphetamine-Popping Genius
Paul Erd?s was a mathematician. In addition to authoring significant papers himself, he created a series of Erd?s problems in which he offered (often small) cash prizes for solutions to difficult and/or significant mathematical challenges. He also had a
"Death and the Civil War" - Tonight on PBS
Tonight on the PBS series American Experience, Ric Burns brings us Death and the Civil War, a bleak and wrenching documentary about the 750,000 people who died in the American Civil War. "Never before and never since have so many Americans died in any wa
Survivorman Returns
Image courtesy of Discovery Channel. I'm a big fan of Les Stroud, better known as Survivorman. When his survival show first appeared on Discovery seven years ago, it was a breath of fresh air -- by shooting everything himself (he lugs all the gear with
Who's the Best Tetris Player in the World?
In the new documentary Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters, we get to see the top Tetris players in the world duke it out, to discover who is truly the master of the game. It's a fun, engaging, and moderately geeky documentary -- my favorite kind. Full
The Autofrisk: All the Groping Action, Just 40 Pence
Cheeky engineer Tim Hunkin (of Secret Life of Machines fame) invented the Autofrisk, a device that gently gropes the user in exchange for a few coins. (In the U.K. apparently one cannot get this experience for free at local airports.) The Autofrisk is o
How the Chrysler Building Got So Tall at the Last Minute
When the Chrysler Building was completed in 1930, it was the tallest building in the world -- for 11 months. (The Chrysler Building did retain the slightly dubious distinction of being the tallest brick building in the world, although the brick is not st
Glenn Gould Playing the Goldberg Variations (Video)
I've grown up hearing Glenn Gould's two performances of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Gould's first landmark performance was released in 1955, and it was passionate, fast, and popular -- with a runtime of just over 38 minutes, Gould's first performance lef
Inside the Eames House
Designers Charles and Ray Eames built a beautiful house in Los Angeles. They moved in on Christmas Eve 1949, and lived there for the rest of their lives. They called it Case Study House No. 8 (it was one of many "Case Study" houses designed by prominent
Werner Herzog's "On Death Row" Premieres Tonight
Werner Herzog premieres a four-part miniseries tonight (Friday, March 9) on Investigation Discovery at 10pm ET/PT. It's dark, and smart, and well worth your time -- as long as there are no kids in the room. A Question of Retribution On Death Row is
"Simpsons" Creator Matt Groening's Dad Was Named Homer, and He Made Movies
Matt Groening created "The Simpsons," and as we all know, Homer Simpson is the patriarch of the family. Well, Homer was the name of Matt's dad too...but he wasn't a doofus. The late Homer Groening was a documentary filmmaker, a WWII pilot, and a writer,
"Cosmos" as Choose-Your-Own-Adventure
Accountant and Cosmos aficionado Callum Sutherland has remixed the landmark Carl Sagan documentary Cosmos into a "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" style video series called Imagination. You have to have Flash installed, and YouTube Annotations enabled for it t
11 Free Documentaries Available on YouTube
YouTube isn't just for copyright infringement -- here are 11 documentary films legally available on YouTube in their entirety. They're funded with ads, and are shown in roughly DVD (480p) quality. Be aware that some films move in and out of the free cat
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II, The Metal Years
Today on Network Awesome (warning: video auto-plays!), Heavy Metal Week continues with the classic documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II, The Metal Years. Directed by Penelope Spheeris (who later directed Wayne's World), the film has b
A Mathemusician Explains How Sound Works
Self-proclaimed "recreational mathemusician" Vi Hart has posted an excellent short film explaining the science and mathematics of sound, frequency, and pitch. Basically Hart shows us how the chromatic scale was originally measured, how musical instrument
Making "The Shining"
Now here's something special: a 35-minute documentary by Vivian Kubrick (who was then 17 years old) about the making of The Shining. Vivian was Stanley's daughter, and this documentary shows tons of behind-the-scenes material, as she follows actors thro
This Tetris Documentary Will Rock You
So I'll go ahead and assume you're aware of King of Kong, the videogame documentary that chronicles an epic struggle to dominate the game of Donkey Kong. Kong was a surprising movie mainly because it was supremely interesting to non-nerds, even though it
Exclusive: Mike Rowe Talks "Human Planet"
NOTE: My interview with Mike Rowe appears below a bunch of discussion of the documentary Human Planet. Jump to the "Interview" heading if that's what you're here for. Human Planet premieres Sunday, April 10 in the US on Discovery. Two episodes air e
Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams"
Werner Herzog's latest documentary is about the Chauvet Cave, which is remarkable primarily for its cave paintings -- dating from the ice age, the paintings are surprisingly detailed, and some show a sort of "painterly" quality. In some cases, this effec
Airing Tonight: "The Colony" on Discovery
Set your DVRs: tonight (July 27) on the Discovery Channel, The Colony airs at 10pm. Read on for a first look! What separates good reality TV from bad reality TV? For me, good reality TV raises questions -- most importantly, what would you do if you we
NOVA's Mind Over Money - TONIGHT at 8pm
Airing TONIGHT on NOVA at 8pm in most markets: Mind Over Money, a program about economics, the brain, and how emotions affect decision-making. And it's NOT BORING -- this is the fascinating, bizarre side of economics. Behavioral Economics is a relative