NOTE: We are listing both EST/Pacific Time and individual television ratings. All rated [G] or [PG] unless noted. [NR] = Not Rated, news-related program.Tuesday, February 15, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Modern Marvels - Firefighting!: Extreme Conditions. Any fire raging out of control is a hazard, but when compounded with obstacles of extreme conditions, such as an oil-well blowout or acres of forest ablaze, firefighters face new elements of danger. Meet a WWII London firefighter, "Hell Fighters" who squelch oil-well infernos, and smokejumpers who parachute into forest fires. 8-9pm -- Wild West Tech - Law & Order Tech. There was nothing harder than being a good guy in the Wild West. When you pinned on a badge, you might as well have worn a bull's-eye on your back. And if you wanted to live to tell your tale, it was wise to keep up with the latest technology. Ride along with U.S. Marshals as they fight a pitched battle against a holed-up fugitive using guns, dynamite, and even a cannon. See how an improvised explosive device helped bring an end to the Texas Fence-Cutter Wars. Find out why famed lawman Wyatt Earp was suspected of being bulletproof. The chase is on in this action-packed hour when host David Carradine gallops through the history of law enforcement technology in the Old West. 9-10pm -- Modern Marvels - More Engineering Disasters. Throughout history the same builders and engineers that paved man's path out of the caves and into the modern world also caused some of mankind's worst disasters. Often a huge calamity is traced back to a tiny cause, insignificant in itself, but triggering a domino effect. We'll revisit notable disasters and search for probable causes. 10-11pm -- Modern Marvels - George Washington Carver Tech. One of the 20th century's greatest scientists, George Washington Carver's influence is still felt. Rising from slavery to become one of the world's most respected and honored men, he devoted his life to understanding nature and the many uses for the simplest of plant life. His scientific research in the late 1800s produced agricultural innovations like crop rotation and composting. Part of the "chemurgist" movement that changed the rural economy, he found ingenious applications for the peanut, soybean, and sweet potato. At Tuskegee Institute, Dr. Carver invented more than 300 uses for the peanut, while convincing poor farmers to rotate cotton crops with things that would add nutrients to the soil. A visionary, Carver shared his knowledge free of charge, happy in his Tuskegee laboratory where he could use his gifts to help others. ____________________________________________________ Wednesday, February 16, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Modern Marvels - American Steel: Built to Last. For over a century, the U.S. steel industry was a powerful symbol of the nation's industrial might. Steel helped explode the stock market into an overnight powerhouse, and transformed a country of farmers and merchants into a nation of visionary builders. But America's domination of the market would meet new challenges in the 1970s. 8-9pm -- Modern Marvels - Engines. Story of the development of engines and motors, with particular emphasis on the ones that have profoundly changed society. Beginning with the steam engine, we see how it was created, how it works, and how it led to the Industrial Revolution. We review the electric motor, internal combustion engine, jet engine, and rocket engine, and conclude with a look at futuristic engine technologies, including hydrogen-powered cars and microtechnology engines so small that they fit on the tip of a finger. 9-10pm -- Modern Marvels - More of the World's Biggest Machines. On land, in the air, or on the sea--we examine some of the biggest machines ever built, including: the Antonov AN-225, the world's biggest aircraft; the GE 90-115B jet engine; the Sikorsky CH-53E helicopter; the Union Pacific's biggest steam locomotive, the "Big Boy" 4000 and GE's AC 6000; the Discoverer Enterprise, the world's largest oil-drilling ship; the RB 293 bucket-wheel mine excavator; and the LED Viva Vision, the world's largest printing screen, which stretches 4-blocks long in Las Vegas. 10-11pm -- Full Throttle - 1985 Buick Grand National. The 1985 Grand National represented Buick's return to its "muscle car" roots. In this episode, America's first successful factory turbo car gets a makeover from the inside out. This 1980s "King of the Streets" is reborn--with new headers, turbos, intercoolers, fuel injectors, ECU chips, racing transmissions, and high-stall torque converters. We provide two teams with garages, tools, and parts, and just two days of repair time. As the teams race to whip up their cars for a knock-down drag race, we interject history at each step through factory footage and interviews with the legends who designed and manufactured the vehicles. ____________________________________________________ Thursday, February 17, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Modern Marvels - Medical Imaging: The Voyage Inward. The story of medical imaging, the technology that allows us to see inside the human body, is full of amazing stories. Learn how X-rays were discovered in 1895, completely by accident; how ultrasound was developed to locate enemy submarines; and how the CAT Scan might never have been built if it weren't for The Beatles! 8-11pm -- The End of World War II - Hitler boasts that his glorious Third Reich will last more than 1,000 years. However, in the fall of 1944, his soldiers are retreating on two fronts. In this 3-hour special, we chronicle the beginning of the end for the Nazi war machine after the Allies storm the European continent and survive the Battle of the Bulge. Nazi plunder, last-chance secret weapons, the race for the A-bomb, and Hitler's mysterious death are all part of the frenetic activity leading up to V-E Day. ____________________________________________________ Friday, February 18, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Modern Marvels - Security Systems. Since civilization's earliest days, man has sought protection from those who would rob him of riches, knowledge, and even life. This is the story of the evolving systems designed to safeguard our most precious possessions, and of the enduring psychological war between protectors and thieves, each intent on outfoxing the other. 8-9pm -- The Last Days of WWII - February 18-24. The battle for Iwo Jima begins--one of the bloodiest of World War II. During Operation Detachment, fighting becomes a brutal frontal attack of hand-to-hand combat. Both the portable and mechanized flamethrowers as well as LVTs (Landing Vehicle, Tracked) were vital during the intense battles on the volcanic island. Meanwhile in the Philippines, U.S. forces completely surround the center of Manila, as the tempo of the Japanese atrocities increases. Before long, General MacArthur will make an emotional return to Corregidor Island. Follow the action in this series that details, week by week, the last six months of World War II and explores the high and low points of the march to war's end. 9-10pm -- American Warrior: Billy Fiske - The remarkable story of William Mead Lindsley (Billy) Fiske III, the first American pilot killed in action during aerial combat in WWII while flying a Hurricane for the 601 Squadron RAF Volunteer Reserve during the Battle of Britain. Born into a wealthy Chicago family of British descent, he risked prosecution in violation of U.S. neutrality laws in 1940, eventually becoming Acting Pilot Officer Fiske of the prestigious Millionaires' Squadron. His short life was extraordinary--at age 16, he was the youngest American male to win gold (until 1992) as the driver of the first U.S. team to win a Gold Medal in Bobsledding in the 1928 Olympic Games. In 1932, Billy once again won a Gold Medal, but refused to compete in 1936 when the games were held in Germany. We'll take a look at the accomplishments of this "untried American adventurer" and learn why he has a headstone marked to his memory in Sussex, England. 10-11pm -- Modern Marvels - The F-14. October 7, 2001: Missiles from lethal U.S. jets rain down onto Afghanistan. One powerful and deadly plane led the majority of the assaults--the F-14 Tomcat, the world's most complete military fighter. No other fighter jet carries the F-14's unique combination of weapons. Its state-of-the-art system can spot an oncoming enemy plane at almost 200 miles. Its radar can detect targets as low as 50 feet and as high as 80,000 feet and does so three times faster than the radar of any other fighter jet. ____________________________________________________ Saturday, February 19, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Battlefield Detectives - The Civil War: Gettysburg. July 1-3, 1863: Over three hot days, Union and Confederate forces clashed in and around a small Pennsylvania town. When the Battle of Gettysburg ended, the two exhausted sides had inflicted more than 50,000 casualties upon one another--the largest battle ever fought on American soil. The third day is considered the Confederacy's "high-water mark"--when General Robert E. Lee lost the decisive battle of the Civil War. But scientific battlefield evidence now suggests that by the time the artillery began firing that day, the Confederate fight was already doomed. And when Pickett's Charge--the famous full frontal attack against Union lines--got underway, the battle effectively was over. Experts in physics, geology, crowd control, and cartography join forces with military historians to better understand this epic battle. 8-9pm -- Days That Shook the World - Terrorism: Abraham Lincoln Assassination and the Oklahoma City Bombing. Both actions of political extremists, 130 years separate the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the slaughter of 168 innocents in the Oklahoma City Bombing. On April 14, 1865, the actor John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln in Washington's Ford's Theatre. Booth hoped to rescue the South and become a hero, but achieved neither--within a month the South had surrendered and Booth was killed while resisting arrest. On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, a Gulf War veteran, blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. McVeigh, who believed he was striking a blow against a federal government at war with its people, was executed in June 2001. Told through the eyes of key witnesses to these tragic events, we draw on court transcripts, letters, and other historical documents to vividly bring to life the unfolding hour-by-hour story of these shattering acts of violence. 9-11pm -- The World Trade Center - On September 11, 2001, terrorists did the unthinkable when they flew two fuel-loaded jetliners into the World Trade Center. The Twin Towers' physical height and symbolic stature made them the perfect target. They were remarkable achievements in architecture, construction, and technology. In this 2-hour profile, we look at how the WTC was constructed and talk to representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers, New York's Office of Emergency Management, FEMA, and DNA experts about the aftermath. ____________________________________________________ Sunday, February 20, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Tunnels of Vietnam - Here is the heroic story of an intrepid band of infantry soldiers, the "Tunnel Rats", charged with a daring mission--to search for, find, and destroy a secret subterranean network of enemy tunnels in Vietnam. Armed with only a flashlight, valor, and a .45, they faced a determined foe and overcame lethal odds, uncovering secret enemy arms and intelligence caches. Tragically, many of these volunteers died and others were seriously wounded on this terrifying suicide mission. 8-10pm -- Tora, Tora, Tora: The Real Story of Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941, was an historical turning point--the world was forever changed after the fateful Japanese attack against the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It resulted from a combination of interrelated and complicated factors--and at any point, the dangerous operation could have been called off before its commander radioed back the code words "Tora, Tora, Tora" (Tiger, Tiger, Tiger), which meant complete surprise had been achieved. Here is the real story of the "Day of Infamy". 10-11pm -- Conspiracy? - FDR and Pearl Harbor. The attack on Pearl Harbor shocked the nation. To many, the official explanations of misguided assumptions and missed clues did not account for the enormity of the catastrophe. We examine "alternative" theories that arose soon after the attack. Was a plot hatched in Washington to solve FDR's "problem"--convincing a reluctant country to fight the Nazis? Did FDR send a secret cable just days before the attack ordering Pearl Harbor chiefs to stand down? Did U.S. intelligence intercept a message from Tokyo asking its spies in Hawaii to map the harbor for an imminent air attack? More than six decades later, the controversy boils under the surface of recent U.S. history, igniting heated debates over collusion, intrigue, and thousands of American dead. ____________________________________________________ Monday, February 21, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Modern Marvels - Quarries. Dynamite explodes hills to bits, drills divide sheer stone walls, 400,000-pound blocks are pulled from pits by giant cranes, and men work around the clock to wrest rock out of the earth. Not diamonds or gold...rock, the raw material of civilization! Without rock, modern society wouldn't exist. Roads, sewers, dams, bridges, buildings, paint, glue, make-up, antacids, and even chewing gum need crushed stone. From ancient days to the present, we explore the evolution of quarrying techniques. 8-9pm -- UFO Files - UFOs: Then and Now? Nightmare. Examines the most debatable aspect of alien contact--human abduction! From the first recorded case, the 1961 kidnapping of Betty and Barney Hill, to the 1976 Allagash Incident, when four friends were whisked away while on a camping trip, we hear firsthand from participants and a neuroscientist, who offers more earthbound solutions. 9-10pm -- Digging for the Truth - The Iceman Cometh. In 1991, a pair of vacationing German hikers stumbled onto one of the most remarkable finds in the history of archaeology: the perfectly preserved body of a 5,000-year old man. What made the discovery so important was more than just his state of physical preservation, but also the period of time from which he came--the very cusp of the age between stone and steel. Host and adventurer Josh Bernstein heads for the high Alps on the Austrian-Italian border to discover the latest secrets revealed by the clothes, weaponry, and body of Ötzi the Iceman. Josh faces down a deadly blizzard, helicopters out of near disaster, and comes face-to-face with a stone-cold, stone-age killer. Along the way, he discovers that the Iceman is rewriting our ideas about the life of our ancestors at the dawn of civilization--and he learns much about the character of Ötzi! 10-12am -- Kennedys: The Curse of Power - Traces the Kennedy clan's calamities that occurred on the rise to power--from immigration from Ireland up to John Kennedy Jr.'s tragic death in 1999. The first hour sees the loss of Joe Jr. in WWII and the assassinations of JFK and RFK. Hour two witnesses Ted's downfall and role as surrogate father to a fatherless generation. ____________________________________________________ Tuesday, February 22, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Modern Marvels - Guns of the Civil War. It was a war in which brother fought brother and battlefields became slaughterhouses. During the Civil War, the country was in the midst of an industrial revolution and developed the most destructive killing machines the world had ever seen. Join us for a test fire of Civil War guns--the first truly modern weapons. 8-9pm -- Wild West Tech - Gang Tech. In the Wild West, no single lawman could possibly stop a gang of desperate outlaws. Host David Carradine recreates stories of the bravest and most brutal hoodlums that ever roamed the rowdy and reckless western wilderness. From the stagecoach bandits of gold-rush California to the bloody scalp-hunters of the Southwestern border, we explore the various personalities, motives, and crimes of each gang. And we examine the sophisticated arsenal that these desperadoes employed to pull off their criminal capers, including the 1841 Mississippi Rifle, the Remington Model 8 Semiautomatic, bulletproof vests, and the deadly Arkansas Toothpick--a long, heavy, balanced dagger synonymous with the American frontier. 9-10pm -- Modern Marvels - Engineering Disasters 3. When design flaws fell projects, the cost is often exacted in lives as we see in this look at engineering disasters. Why did the Tower of Pisa begin to lean by as much as 17 feet; what caused the first nuclear accident in 1961 in Idaho; what killed three Soyuz 11 cosmonauts aboard the world's first orbiting space station; how did a winter storm destroy the Air Force's Texas Tower Radar Station, killing 28; and what errors led to NASA's loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander? 10-11pm -- Modern Marvels - Torture Devices. For more than 3,000 years, emperors and generals, dictators and police, criminals, clerics, and even medical doctors have created and used a vast array of torture devices--everything from the ancient Greeks' Brazen Bull, which slowly barbecued the victim, to the elaborate mechanical apparatuses of the Spanish Inquisition. A medical doctor who specializes in victims of torture reveals how the human body responds to their use--from the earliest excruciating contrivances to the more modern. ____________________________________________________ Wednesday, February 23, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Modern Marvels - Death Devices. The hangman, guillotine, gas chamber, firing squad, and electric chair are just a few of the ways in which societies have rid themselves of those who committed capital crimes. And throughout history, a select few have developed the devices that have carried out the mandate of the people. This is the dark story of those inventors and the macabre history of execution mechanics--from the first "stone" of antiquity, the dungeons of the Inquisition, and Nazi death camps to today's sterile injection chambers--with a peek at the future of death technology. 8-9pm -- Modern Marvels - Icebreakers. They are the toughest ships in the water, plowing headlong into one of nature's hardest obstacles. Modern icebreakers can smash through 10-foot thick ice sheets without stopping, allowing scientists and commercial shipping access to some of Earth's most inhospitable spots. Join our blustery journey as we patrol the Great Lakes on the USCG Cutter Mackinaw and traverse the infamous Northwest Passage on the maiden voyage of the USCG Healy, the newest Polar Class Icebreaker in the U.S. Fleet. 9-10pm -- Modern Marvels - Sub Zero. Come in from the cold while we explore some of Earth's most frigid places and examine how man copes with sub-zero climates. With the advance of technology, our boundaries have expanded--from the North and South Poles, to the depths beneath the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, to the Moon, Mars, and outward to Saturn. Enter these forbidding territories, guided by a special breed of experts as we inspect the new U.S. South Pole Station, try on the latest Polartec fashions with anti-microbial fibers, ride on the newest snowmobiles and Sno-Cats, sail through glacial waters on ice-breaking ships, and fly on an LC-130 transport plane. And we'll see what NASA has on the planning board for deep-space exploration, including a beach-ball robot explorer, and learn from scientists studying fish in the waters off Antarctica to understand glycoproteins, which may keep frozen tissue healthy longer for transplantation. 10-11pm -- Modern Marvels - Desert Tech. It's hot, dry, deadly, and hard to ignore with close to 40% of Earth classified as desert. But in this scorching hour, the desert turns from barren wasteland into an environment rich with hope. In the Middle East, desalination of seawater now fills water needs. Americans have created booming desert communities like Las Vegas, where the Hoover Dam produces hydroelectric power and manmade Lake Mead supplies water. Native Americans farmed the desert on a small scale, but 20th-century technology begot greater opportunity. Once desolate areas of California and Mexico now grow agriculture due to irrigation, and the desert's abundant sunshine allows solar-energy and wind-power production. And in the future, desert technology may enable colonization of planets like Mars. We also take a look at how refrigeration and air conditioning have made life in desert communities tolerable, and examine the latest in survival gear and equipment. ____________________________________________________ Thursday, February 24, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Modern Marvels - The Alcan Highway. Today, vacationers travel from British Columbia north through the Yukon Pass on their way to Fairbanks, Alaska, thanks to one 2-lane roadway, the 1,522-mile long Alaska Highway. A bit treacherous in spots and best driven in the few summer months the region provides, it's an unrivaled engineering feat that took 11,000 soldiers, nearly 4,000 of them black, only eight months to build! Travel back to 1942 as they bulldoze their way into history while connecting the Lower 48 to the Alaskan Territory. 8-10pm -- Shot from the Sky - On June 14, 1944, pilot Roy Allen and the 10-man crew of his B-17 embarked on a mission over Nazi-occupied France that was supposed to be a milk run. Instead, it proved more dangerous than anything they ever imagined. Blasted by flak, Roy was forced to parachute into France. Trapped behind enemy lines, a 21-year-old schoolteacher-- French Resistance patriot Colette Florin--saved his life. On his way back to England, a traitor within the Resistance betrayed Roy. Captured by the Gestapo, tortured, imprisoned, and labeled a terrorist by the Nazis, he became one of 168 Allied airmen transported across Europe on a nightmare rail journey to Buchenwald Concentration Camp. In the heart of the Nazi empire, the only thing that kept them alive was each other. It's a human story of courage and loss, determination and sacrifice by ordinary people whose lives were profoundly altered by war. 10-11pm -- Modern Marvels - The World's Longest Bridge. Bridges are the lifeline of Japan. Since the 1930s, the island nation has dreamt of linking its many parts as a whole. But WWII diverted the incredible resources needed to accomplish this, and only since 1960 has the dream moved again, slowly, toward reality. The final step in this massive undertaking was the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, currently the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world. This marvel of architectonics stands as a testament to the genius of Asian engineering and, judged in a context that perhaps the Japanese understand best, as the most beautiful bridge in the world. We'll watch it rise, from sketch to completion, and see how it fared during the massive Kobe earthquake. ____________________________________________________ Friday, February 25, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Modern Marvels - Sears Tower. Some 23,000 people walk through the Sears Tower's domed entrances daily. 104 elevators (some double-decker), moving at speeds up to 1,600 feet per minute, transport workers and visitors to the 110 floors of North America's tallest building. Sears, Roebuck and Company began as a small mail-order business in Chicago, and by 1960, had grown into the biggest global retailer. Sears Chairman Gordon Metcalf proposed bringing the company under one roof to create the world's largest headquarters. Join us for a look at this pioneering building that remains a symbol of the future and a tribute to the company that dreamt big enough to build it! 8-9pm -- The Last Days of WWII - February 25-March 3. In this episode of our series that details, week by week, the last six months of WWII, American daytime bombing and British night raids have devastated Berlin. In the Battle for the Rhineland, an estimated 8.5 million people are on the move in Germany. The backbone of the Luftwaffe, Germany's once mighty Air Force, has been broken. Hitler is now visibly shaken. On the Eastern Front, Allied leaders--British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin meet at Yalta, in the Russian Crimea. They agree that Germany will be conquered by summer, and begin to divide up post-war Europe. 9-10pm -- Mail Call - D-Day Special. In commemoration of the anniversary of the Allied landing on D-Day, host R. Lee Ermey takes an in-depth look at the technology used throughout the "longest day"--and travels to Dover, England and Normandy, France for a view from both sides of the operation in a special hour-long program. 10-11pm -- Modern Marvels - D-Day Tech. By the spring of 1942, Hitler had made a fortress of Europe, and the Allies began to plan the biggest invasion in military history. The history-altering success of the D-Day Invasion depended on innovative engineering and technological advances. This is the story of those scientific and mechanical breakthroughs--the overwhelming array of landing craft, specialized weapons, and ingenious electronics--used to breach Fortress Europe on June 6, 1944. ____________________________________________________ Saturday, February 26, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Conspiracy? - RFK Assassination. On June 5, 1968, just after midnight, Robert F. Kennedy was fatally wounded in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles following his win in that night's California presidential primary. The armed assailant was taken into custody that night and later identified as a 25-year-old Palestinian immigrant, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. He remains in prison to this day for the assassination of Senator Kennedy. More than 35 years later, questions in the Robert Kennedy murder remain: Was there a second gunman in the pantry? Is there evidence of a police cover-up? What was Sirhan Sirhan's mental state that night and what drove him to assassinate RFK? 8-9pm -- Days That Shook the World - Assassination Attempts: Day of the Jackal and the Wolf's Lair. The bomb and the bullet have been used by assassins to slay some of the world's most prominent leaders. We examine two events that stand out in the history of the 20th century--the plot to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944 and the ambush of President Charles de Gaulle in 1962-- where the assassins, dissident elements of their own armies, were driven not just by personal hatred, but also by a desire to redirect their nation's destiny. And in both attempts, the victims survived as we see in this reconstruction of these two events as they happened, on two days that shook the world. 9-11pm -- Last Secrets of the Axis - In this 2-hour special, which investigates the remarkable historical confluence that led to the rise of German-Japanese cooperation during WWII, we reveal the story of Karl Haushofer, the keeper of many Axis secrets. A distinguished German geography professor, he coined the term "geopolitics" and laid an intellectual rationale for a German-Japanese alliance and a link between the Aryan myths and samurai traditions. We'll also examine Axis activity in the Middle East. ____________________________________________________ Sunday, February 27, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Gangster Guns - During the 1920s and '30s in big cities and small towns alike, they earned a fierce reputation in a blaze of bullets. We'll take a look at these "best friends" of criminals such as John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Al Capone, and Bonnie and Clyde. Handle their Colt 45s and 38s, Tommy guns, Whippets, and Browning automatic rifles as we uncover the stories of gangster guns. 8-9pm -- Hitler's Lost Plan - In 1958, in a sweltering, converted torpedo factory in Alexandria, Virginia, historian Gerhard L. Weinberg was combing through massive stacks of documents that the U.S. had captured from Nazi Germany. In a faded green box, Weinberg came across an unknown prize--a secret book dictated by Adolf Hitler in 1928, the unpublished sequel to Mein Kampf. Mixed in with Hitler's racial hatred, the book contained shocking revelations of his master plan for continuous war. We follow the clues to its discovery and show the rigorous steps taken to authenticate the document--the book is considered legitimate. And we reveal the contents of the book, including Hitler's plan for global domination culminating in an invasion of America! 9-10pm -- High Hitler - Adolf Hitler dreamt of creating a master race, but achieved a Holocaust--the murder of millions of Jews and those deemed physical or mental defects. But the Führer, an appalling hypochondriac, abused laxatives and suffered from stomach cramps and embarrassing flatulence. And that was just the start! When he committed suicide in 1945, the great dictator was frail with tremors and a shuffling walk--a feeble condition concealed from the world. We explore the relationship between Hitler and his personal physician, Dr. Theodore Morell. How did amphetamine abuse, Parkinson's Disease, and tertiary syphilis impact on his state of mind? 10-11pm -- Conspiracy? - Area 51. Each day, they board unmarked 747s at a private section of Las Vegas's McCarren Airport for unscheduled flights to a base that doesn't officially exist to work on projects so hush-hush they can't even discuss them with their families. Welcome to Area 51! Born in the Cold War along with flying saucers and bomb shelters, Area 51 (aka Groom Lake or Dreamland) became the Air Force's strategic test site for top-secret planes and the mysterious Aurora Project--and a symbol of the nefarious military-industrial-intelligence complex. We interview Phil Patton, author of Dreamland: Travels inside the Secret World of Area 51 for an account of the "black projects", and visit the tiny town of Rachel, which borders the top-secret base, for a look into mysterious deaths of base workers. ____________________________________________________ Monday, February 28, 2005 ____________________________________________________ 7-8pm -- Modern Marvels - Prisons. "All hope abandon, ye who enter here!" This sentiment has permeated the masonry and clanging bars of prisons built throughout the ages. We'll see how the philosophy and architecture of today's American prisons emerged from the sewer cells and castles and dungeons of ancient Rome, medieval Europe, and 18th-century England. 8-9pm -- Time Machine - Pt. 1. The life story of Nostradamus unfolds in medieval Europe at the time of the Great Plague and The Inquisition. He lived in an age of superstition and magic and believed that he could foretell the future. For this he was labeled both a prophet and a heretic, and his cryptic journals continue to inspire controversy just as they did in the 16th century. In this 2-part examination of his life, we visit his birthplace in France and trace his career as doctor, astrologer, father, and seer. 9-10pm -- Digging for the Truth - Quest for King Solomon's Gold. Of all the rulers mentioned in the Bible, King Solomon was purportedly the wisest...and the richest! The reason? His access to vast quantities of gold. According to the Bible, the source of his legendary wealth was the goldmines located in the mysterious land of Ophir. Yet, what the Scriptures can't tell us is where Ophir might be found today. Host Josh Bernstein leads us on an epic 4,000-mile journey in search of the lost gold of King Solomon--sailing across the Red Sea, plunging down a Zimbabwean gold mine, and traveling deep into the Ethiopian Bush. 10-11pm -- Time Machine - Pt. 2. Dramatic reenactments take us into the secret study of Nostradamus, where he wrote his famous prophecies. Many believe that it was here where he had visions of Adolf Hitler, Napoleon Bonaparte, and even Louis Pasteur, hundreds of years before they lived. We'll dig into his most famous predictions and unravel his cryptic codes. Did he really predict the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Great Fire of London, the space shuttle disasters, the Gulf War, and 9/11? We'll let you decide.
For info on UFOs, check out the interview on MonsterVision's Mars Attacks page
Watch Mail Call every week if you know what's good for you, scumbag,
hosted by R. Lee Ermey of Full Metal Jacket
(movie available on video and DVD)
Wild West Tech hosted by David Carradine, some episodes narrated by Keith Carradine
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