China’s Man-Made Forest In The Desert
In 1986, the city of Aksu in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region began an ambitious tree-planting project that looked to turn swaths of desert into forest. The result was over 13 million acres of green that became the Kekeya greening project.
The Canadian Genius Who Created Modern AI
For nearly 40 years, Geoff Hinton has been trying to get computers to learn like people do, a quest almost everyone thought was crazy or at least hopeless – right up until the moment it revolutionized the field. In this video, Bloomberg Businessweek’s Ashlee Vance meets the Godfather of AI.
America’s Cocaine Habit Fueled Its Migrant Crisis
During the 90s, traffickers started shipping their drugs through Central America and over land to Mexico. That created a violent and competitive turf war between gangs and organizations in Guatemala and Honduras, and after the governments cracked down, violence only increased, forcing people to flee, often to the US.
Gun Shop, America’s Love Affair With Guns
This film shows 2,328 firearms, out of the 393 million currently in the US. Arranged in a dizzying 24 frames per second progression, from handguns to semi-automatic rifles, “Gun Shop” encourages viewers to critically examine America’s love affair with guns.
Human Population Through Time
It took 200,000 years for our human population to reach 1 billion—and only 200 years to reach 7 billion. But growth has begun slowing, as women have fewer babies on average. When will our global population peak? And how can we minimize our impact on Earth’s resources, even as we approach 11 billion?
Medieval Spanish Ghost Town Becomes Self-Sufficient Ecovillage
It’s a utopian fantasy, discover a ghost town and rebuild it in line with your ideals, but in Spain where there are nearly 3000 abandoned villages, some big dreamers have spent the past 3 decades doing just that. One of the first towns to be rediscovered was a tiny hamlet in the mountains of northern Navarra.
The Rise Of Shopify, $68 Billion In Size. How Did It Get So Big?
Shopify is the leading E-commerce platform in the United States with 23% market share and has become the second-largest platform in terms of total merchandise volume, surpassing eBay in September 2019 and just behind Amazon. The company’s stock is up more than 20 times its IPO price.
Beautiful, Dangerous, Damaged: Photographers’ Top Ocean Shots
Octopus-hunting freedivers, mounds of shark fins, and a close encounter with a leopard seal are among the judges’ selections for Oceanographic Magazine’s ocean photography awards.
Striking Street Photography In Japan By James Takumi Shyegun
Stunning street scenes by James Takumi Shyegun, a talented photographer, videographer, and model from Tokyo, Japan. Takumi focuses mainly on urban, architecture, and street photography.
New Technology In China Turns Desert Into Land Rich With Crops
China was praised for a law it passed in 2002 — the world’s first integrated law dedicated to combating desert expansion. With this goal in mind, China has carried out several projects that have been successful, including at one desert in northern China.
The Most Extreme Railway In The World
At 430 miles long, the formidable Mauritania Railway, nicknamed the “backbone of the Sahara,” boasts some of the longest and heaviest trains in the world. Its journey begins in Zouerat, Mauritania, and runs across the searing desert to the port city of Nouadhibou, on Africa’s Atlantic coast.
War Propaganda: How To Get A Country To Go To War
The war propaganda function in the United States is finely tuned. It’s sophisticated and most of all it blends into the media terrain. While the names of the countries changed, and of course each circumstance was different, there were some parallels that cried out for examination.
German Circus Uses Holograms Instead Of Live Animals For A Cruelty-Free Magical Experience
For a very long time, people couldn’t have imagined a circus show without horses, elephants, monkeys, and lions. But recently, Circus Roncalli has shunned tradition, swapping flesh and blood for hologram projections. The shows, however, remain just as spectacular.
Indian Relay: North America’s Original Extreme Sport
Cody BigTobacco is a new jockey in North America’s original extreme sport: Indian Relay — where jockeys ride horses bareback and jump from one horse to another in the middle of the race. Fast Horse puts the audience on the back of a galloping horse, an exhilarating POV experience.
The Rise Of Nintendo
Nintendo hasn’t always made video games. It was founded over a century ago and at one point sold ramen noodles and operated a taxi service. Today, Nintendo is part of a crowded video game market, up against companies like Sony, Microsoft, Apple and Google. When Nintendo first got into the home console business in the 80s, it dominated.
“Coyote”, Award-Winning Animation Short Film
A coyote loses his wife and children from an attack of wolfs. Anguished from human emotions he‘s trying to process the experience. Besides grief and delusion, evil takes up more and more space. Directed by Lorenz Wunderle.
The Celebrity Airport Lost In Time
In the early years of aviation, the Gander Airport in Newfoundland, Canada served as an obligatory stop for refueling between Europe and America. This made the small town of Gander into an unlikely international hub, hosting celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and the Queen of England.
Polygamist Mafia: Escaping The Kingston Clan
Although the mainstream Mormon church abandoned polygamy over 100 years ago, many splinter groups across Utah still practice plural marriage. One such group is the Kingston Clan, known to members as The Order. The Kingstons live in Salt Lake City and run their religion like a secretive business empire.
A Hero In The Sky (And On The Ground)
Ann Sim lives a double life. A member of Singapore Airlines cabin crew, she is also a volunteer medic with the Singapore Civil Defence Force, which responds to all kinds of emergency situations. While her job offers her the opportunity to see the world, Sim’s volunteer work enables her to give back to her community.
Arctic: New Frontier
Yuri Kozyrev and Kadir van Lohuizen travelled through 15,000km of the Arctic Circle, investigating the startling effects of climate change on the land and its indigenous communities. If temperatures continue to rise, scientists expect that the North Pole will be ice-free in summer by 2040.
Portrait Of A Place: Steel Town
Capable of producing nearly five million tonnes of steel each year, the steelworks in Port Talbot, South Wales is the UK’s largest—and it’s currently losing £1 million each day. Here, London-based director Robin Mason talks about his portrait of the town at a vital moment in its history.