Medieval Astronomy

Medieval Astronomy from Melk Abbey

Discovered by accident, this manuscript page provides graphical insight to astronomy in
medieval times, before the Renaissance and the influence of Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho de Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo.
The intriguing page is from lecture notes on astronomy compiled by the monk Magister Wolfgang de Styria before the year 1490 at Melk Abbey in Austria.
The top panels clearly illustrate the necessary geometry for a lunar (left) and solar eclipse in the Earth-centered
Ptolemaic system.
At lower left is a diagram of thePtolemaic view of the solar system and at the lower right is a chart to calculate thedate of Easter Sunday in theJulian calendar.
Text at the upper right explains themovementof the planets according to the Ptolemaic system.
The actual manuscript page is on view at historicMelk Abbey as part of aspecial exhibition during the International Year of Astronomy.

Guns, Germs and Steel - 13.000 years of human history

Based on Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name, Guns, Germs and Steel traces humanity's journey over the last 13,000 years – from the dawn of farming at the end of the last Ice Age to the realities of life in the twenty-first century.




Inspired by a question put to him on the island of Papua New Guinea more than thirty years ago, Diamond embarks on a world-wide quest to understand the roots of global inequality.

Why were Europeans the ones to conquer so much of our planet? Why didn't the Chinese, or the Inca, become masters of the globe instead? Why did cities first evolve in the Middle East? Why did farming never emerge in Australia? And why are the tropics now the capital of global poverty?

As he peeled back the layers of history to uncover fundamental, environmental factors shaping the destiny of humanity, Diamond found both his theories and his own endurance tested.




The three one-hour programs were filmed across four continents on High Definition digital video, and combinied ambitious dramatic reconstruction with moving documentary footage and computer animation. They also include contributions from Diamond himself and a wealth of international historians, archeologists and scientists.




Guns, Germs, and Steel is a thrilling ride through the elemental forces which have shaped our world – and which continue to shape our future.

PART ONE - Out of Eden

PART TWO - Conquest

PART THREE - Tropics

The Journey of Man - A Genetic Odyssey

By analyzing DNA from people in all regions of the world, geneticist Spencer Wells has concluded that all humans alive today are descended from a single man who lived in Africa around 60,000 years ago.

Modern humans, he contends, didn't start their spread across the globe until after that time. Most archaeologists would say the exodus began 100,000 years ago—a 40,000-year discrepancy. Wells's take on the origins of modern humans and how they came to populate the rest of the planet is bound to be controversial.

His work adds to an already crowded field of opposing hypotheses proposed by those who seek answers in "stones and bones"—archaeologists and paleoanthropologists—and those who seek them in our blood—population geneticists and molecular biologists.

Over the last decade, major debate on whether early humans evolved in Africa or elsewhere, when they began outward migration, where they went, and whether they interbred with or replaced archaic species has moved out of scientific journals and into the public consciousness.

In this documentary, Wells addresses these issues. In a straightforward story, he explains how he traced the exodus of modern humans from Africa by analyzing genetic changes in DNA from the y-chromosome.

"As often happens in science," he said, "technology has opened up a field to new ways of answering old questions—often providing startling answers."

Of course, not everyone agrees with him...what do you think?

The Crusades: Crecent & the cross

THE CRUSADES: CRESCENT & THE CROSS presents the epic battle between two Middle Age superpowers: the Christian Crusaders and the Muslims. Fought over two centuries, the conflict decided the fate of the Holy Land of the Middle East. Only a tiny strip of land, just a few hundred miles long, it contained the ultimate prize, the city of Jerusalem. The documentary is driven by the key personalities of the First, Second and Third Crusades, the popes, kings, sultans and knights who, in the name of God, ruthlessly fought for land and power. Experience the murder, treachery, and bloodshed of this legendary chapter of history throuth the eyes of key historical figures such as Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, King Louis VII and Nur al-Din. With breath-taking CGI-enhanced visuals, heart-pounding reenactments, and stunning footage from rarely-seen locations THE CRUSADES: CRESCENT & THE CROSS brings the first three Crusades alive for a new generation in conflict.

GapCasts - Child Mortality, Urbanization, Public Services, carbon Dioxide - Gapminder.org

GapCast #11 Reducing Child Mortality

Nearly 10 million children under five die every year. Almost 90% of all child deaths are attributable to just six conditions: neonatal causes, pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, measles, and HIV/AIDS.
The aim (Millenium Development Goal 4) is to cut child mortality by two thirds by 2015. How can this be achieved? Which countries make sufficient progress?
And by which rate did a country like Norway reduce its child mortality the last 100 years? Watch Gapcast #11 to understand the background and the current status of a Millenium Development Goal.



Gapcast #10 - Carbon Dioxide
Everyone contributes to carbon dioxide emissions, but some more than others. Reducing global CO2 emissions requires that we have a good understanding of the current picture. Serious progress can be made if we develop a renewable source of electricity that is cheaper than coal.




Gapcast #9 - Public Services
Public services (safe water, education, healthcare) meet basic human needs, but are currently unavailable to many people.
Better information about access to these services is needed by service users and providers in order to make and measure progress in this area.



Gapcast #2 - Urbanization
With Hans Rosling. In this GapCast, Hans Rosling focuses on urbanization. In four minutes he give a short overview over the urban challenge, showing the last 40 years of development in urbanization and economic growth.




GapCasts - Gapminder.org

"Origins - Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution." Hosted by author Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Documentary about our creation and the universe.
PBS's NOVA series presents "Origins - Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution." Hosted by author Neil deGrasse Tyson.

"Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed." - Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond is the author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and the current New York Times' best selling "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed." This lecture examines the factors that caused great civilizations of the past to collapse and what we can learn from their fates.



YouTube - Jared Diamond

Doris Kearns Goodwin on learning from past presidents | Video on TED.com

About this talk
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about what we can learn from American presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson. Then she shares a moving memory of her own father, and of their shared love of baseball.

About Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin writes insightful books on the US Presidency (JFK, LBJ, FDR and Lincoln, so far), telling each president's personal story against the backdrop of history.



Doris Kearns Goodwin on learning from past presidents | Video on TED.com

Spencer Wells builds a family tree for humanity | Video on TED.com

About this talk
All humans share some common bits of DNA, passed down to us from our African ancestors. Geneticist Spencer Wells talks about how his Genographic Project will use this shared DNA to figure out how we are -- in all our diversity -- truly connected.

About Spencer Wells
Spencer Wells studies human diversity -- the process by which humanity, which springs from a single common source, has become so astonishingly diverse and widespread.




Spencer Wells builds a family tree for humanity | Video on TED.com

Beyond Big Bang - History Channel

Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World

Book Passage
Corte Madera, CA
Sep 30th, 2007

Charles Fisher talks about Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World.
Charles Fisher offers a view of existential suffering from the viewpoints of Darwin and Buddha, synthesizing their two approaches and offering a new approach. He discusses overcoming the incompatibility of these two very different ways of knowing.







FORA.tv - Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World

Cities and Time

The Long Now Foundation
San Francisco, CA
Apr 8th, 2005

Stewart Brand addresses The Long Now Foundation on Cities and Time.
Cities are humanity's longest-lived organizations (Jericho dates back 10,500 years), but also the most constantly changing. Even in Europe they consume 2-3% of their material fabric a year, which means a wholly new city every 50 years. In the US and the developing world it's much faster.
Every week in the world a million new people move to cities. In 2007 50% of our 6.5 billion population will live in cities. In 1800 it was 3% of the total population then. In 1900 it was 14%. In 2030 it's expected to be 61%. This is a tipping point. We're becoming a city planet.
One of the effects of globalization is to empower cities more and more. Communications and economic activities bypass national boundaries. With many national governments in the developing world discredited, corporations and NGOs go direct to where the markets, the workers, and the needs are, in the cities. Every city is becoming a "world city." Many elites don't live in one city now, they live "in cities" - The Long Now Foundation







FORA.tv - Cities and Time

Sam Harris - The View From The End Of The World

The Long Now Foundation
San Francisco, CA
Dec 9th, 2005

The View From The End Of The World with Sam Harris.
With gentle demeanor and tight argument, Sam Harris carried an overflow audience into the core of one of the crucial issues of our time: What makes some religions lethal? How do they employ aggressive irrationality to justify threatening and controlling non-believers as well as believers? What should be our response? - The Long Now Foundation







FORA.tv - The View From The End Of The World

Glut: Mastering Information Though the Ages

The Long Now Foundation
San Francisco, CA
Aug 17th, 2007

Glut: Mastering Information Though the Ages with Alex Wright speaking at a seminar hosted by The Long Now Foundation.
Alex Wright is a writer and information architect who currently works for the New York Times. His first book, "Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages" is an impressive survey on how societies have dealt with information overload through time. As an information architect, Alex has led projects for The New York Times, IBM, Microsoft, Harvard University, our own Rosetta Project, the Internet Archive, Yahoo!, Macromedia and Sun Microsystems, among others - The Long Now Foundation







FORA.tv - Glut: Mastering Information Though the Ages

Conversations with History: Niall Ferguson

"Host Harry Kreisler welcomes British historian Niall Ferguson for a discussion of the dynamics of money and power in international politics, the British Empire, and the U.S. role in world affairs. Series: 'Conversations with History'"



YouTube - Conversations with History: Niall Ferguson:

Niall Ferguson, The War of the World

Washington, D.C.
World Affairs Council of Washington D.C.
Sep 27th, 2006

The War of the World: Twentieth Century Conflict and the Descent of the West

Historian Niall Ferguson examines the conflicts of the First World War to the Cold War and how they influenced the twentieth century. He argues that globalization, wealth, and technological breakthroughs led to much of the violence, genocide and fanaticism of the twentieth century. The talk was hosted by the World Affairs Council in Washington, D.C. and includes a question and answer session.
Niall Ferguson is the author of several books including Paper and Iron, The Cash Nexus, and The Pity of War. He currently is a history professor at Harvard University, Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, and a contributor to the Financial Times and the New York Times.







FORA.tv - Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson and Peter Schwartz on Human Progress

The Long Now Foundation
San Francisco, CA
Apr 28th, 2008
Niall Ferguson and Peter Schwartz present Historian vs. Futurist on Human Progress as part of The Long Now Foundation's Seminars about Long-term Thinking.

Mike Godwin on Historically Fragmented Opinion FORA.tv -

The Hillside Club CyberSalon
Berkeley, CA
Apr 27th, 2008
By citing examples from the distant past, Wikimedia Foundation General Counsel Mike Godwin denies the assertion that today's fragmented society is due to a plethora of media outlets.







FORA.tv - Mike Godwin on Historically Fragmented Opinion

The Mongol empire - Google Video

The Mongol empire
47 min 12 sec
Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis, founded his dynasty by conquering China. Unlike his infamous ancestor, he was known for his mercy to the conquered.


The Mongol empire - Google Video

1932 Histomap of Evolution

1932 evolution chart. 10 billion years of history