Free Documentaries
December 13, 2008
I love documentaries. I rent them from Netflix. My wife is less thrilled than I am.
Recently, I used Google to search for one word: documentaries. The first hit was a site devoted exclusively to free documentaries. You watch them on your computer. It's here:
The site claims over 600 videos.
It has only one major defect: it is getting so popular that it has used up its bandwidth. I don't know how long this will last.
It is simple to navigate: the front page. It has some excellent offerings. "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is a fascinating history of economic growth in the West, but not the Southern Hemisphere. The author, a geographer and ornithologist, offers technological and geographical ideas.
He ignores religion, law, and philosophy. His thesis is therefore misleading and incomplete. But the story of the uneven distribution of work animals is fascinating. How many species has man domesticated? The answer may amaze you.
Steel does not explain how Pizarro, with fewer than 300 men, conquered the Inca army of 80,000. Religion and social control offer better explanations.
Check out the site. You can learn a lot of new facts, fast, and in a pleasant way.
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