The Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 provides a case study in Soviet imperialism. The program follows as Alexander Dubcek relaxes control, reduces police power, permits criticism of the government and the organization of alternative political parties; then shows the sudden about-face of the Russians, and the invasion and subjugation of Czechoslovakia, as the Iron Curtain came down with a thud.

Learn how to quickly create a variety of commonly-used architectural materials in Allegorithmic Substance Designer for application in design-visualization projects. Creating procedural materials is an important part of a modern visualization workflow, for both real-time and rendered applications. In this course, learn how to quickly create a variety of architectural materials in Allegorithmic Substance Designer, for application in design-visualization...

Three case studies in Europe, Africa and Latin America show how descriptions help us understand a place. Students see how descriptive information may be based on landforms of a region, such as mountains, deserts or sea coasts. They also see how they can learn about a place by focusing on living patterns of a region - its political and economic systems, languages and religions. Exquisite videography takes viewers to West African rain forests, Alpine...

The Victorian explorer who discovered the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, with its high, sweeping walls and complex passageways, had no idea who could have built it. The vast stone city remained at the center of debate for decades. In this program art historian Gus Casely-Hayford pieces together the story of the African empire and how it was linked to surrounding kingdoms as part of a medieval gold trade flowing from Great Zimbabwe's towers to the Swahili...

How can American employees compete against super-low-wage, no-benefits workers abroad? How can corporations call themselves American while outsourcing large pieces of their business overseas? And how can American companies deal with labor practices in other countries that would be proscribed in the U.S.? In this Fred Friendly Seminar moderated by Harvard Law School's Charles Ogletree, a 14-member panel including corporate executives from around the...

From its pre-Roman origins to its 21st-century status as a truly global city, Barcelona has given birth to an array of beautiful landmarks. This program gives students an information-rich tour of the Catalonian capital. With visually dynamic footage devoted to the buildings of Antoni Gaudi, the program introduces viewers to Casa Mila, Sagrada Familia, Parq Guell, and other works. Explorations of the Eixample grid pattern, the 1929 International Exhibition...

The torturous waist-shaping corset of the Victorian era… The bright green eye shadow of the '70s… Prompted both by fashion trends and by cultural norms, women tend to adopt the prescribed beauty ideals of their times. The 20th century saw milestone achievements in beauty culture - from the first plastic surgeries in the '20s, to the portable metal lipstick container, to the aerobics craze of the '80s. This episode is about changing looks and the...

"Basic Structures provides the student with a clear explanation of the structural concepts behind buildings, using many analogies and examples. In this new edition new chapters on design have been added, which serve as an introduction to the structural design process by describing (with no mathematics) the principles and structural processes on which structural design is based, and showing the range of designs that can be achieved with modern methods....

This program updates the philosophy of branding, a practice that has evolved to define personal identity through a product line, a lifestyle, or simply a concept. Cultural anthropologist Ted Polhemus explains the theory of branding and its evolution in the global marketplace. Nicolas Hayek, CEO of Swatch, uses his company's success story to discuss the emotional nature of buying-and buying into-a brand. The indie skateboard entrepreneurs of Girl &...

Made from waste, packaged in waste: that's the mantra of TerraCycle, an entrepreneurial startup that uses worms to turn premium organic garbage into fertilizer that is then packaged and shipped in repurposed plastic containers and cardboard cartons. This fast-paced program will have viewers sweating right along with TerraCycle's 22-year-old founder Tom Szaky as it tracks his company through three stressful years of unceasing effort that finally leads...