Some people complain that there are just too many channels on television, now that services like cable and satellite television are available. I like documentaries and I am a big fan of the History Channel. I have watched programs about fishermen, lumberjacks, dirty jobs, how things are made and why some wars took place, to mention a few of the topics that entertained me. I just can't seem to get enough of documentaries. It makes me wonder how many of you out there, feel the way that I do? I find myself looking at everything, with very few exceptions. I like the Military Channel, even though I am sick of war, I look at it for the gadgets. The Science Channel is very interesting, at least to me and the International History Channel is great. I like some reality shows, but I am very picky about what I watch. I enjoy UFO Hunters and I sometimes look at Ghost Hunters, even though I personally do not believe in the paranormal, but I would not be adverse to someone proving something to me, which has never happened yet and at this point, doesn't seem like much of a possibility. When I was young and we got television, there were only a couple of channels. There was channels 2,4,5,7, 9, 11 and 13. That was it. I remember when my brother-in-law came to visit me from Scotland, he thought that this was great. They only had two channels at the time, the BBC and one commercial channel.

I remember hearing that there would be pay television some day and we all laughed. Everyone that I knew thought that this was absurd and that no one would ever pay for television. I guess we couldn't have been more wrong. I can't help but feel this way about radio now, I guess I haven't learned my lesson yet. Here I am, someone that thought that no one would ever pay for television and I have the best and most expensive television package that my local cable company has. It just goes to show that you can change anyone's mind. One of the great things about television today, is that you can get all sorts of programs that are from all different parts of the world. This brings cultures much closer together. One of the documentaries that I like the best is about what is under the great cities of the world. It doesn't seem to matter how old a city is or isn't, there always seems to be interesting stuff under them. New York City is relatively young when compared to European cities, yet there is even interesting stuff under it, such as old water tunnels and passageways. It is rumored that a steam engine or two are still buried in closed up subway tunnels. I am not one hundred percent sure this is true, but there have been people that have searched for them. Some parts of the city used to be canals and ponds and these have been covered by city streets, but the water is still down there and you can see pilings supporting buildings.

It turns out that there are documentaries that are interesting, that are available on the internet and some of them rival what is seen on television. I thought that I might post a few of them here for your enjoyment. The following documentary is about the Glen Canyon Dam. I found it interesting and hope that you do.

Challenge At Glen Canyon (27 minutes) Mpeg Video 234 Megs
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Did you enjoy this video? I thought it was very interesting. I could have seen it easily being broadcast over the History Channel. In case you are wondering, the video was made in 1996, sponsored by the Bureau of Reclamation and the contributing organization was Carnegie Mellon University, Informedia Project. If you like this video then I have a couple of more for you. The next one is really good. It is entitled, "How Water Won The West". What I like about it, is that it is a beautiful video and very well narrated.

How Water Won The West (about 11 minutes) Mpeg Video 98.4 Megs
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This video is from 1986. It was also made by the Bureau of Reclamation and the contributing organization was Carnegie Mellon University, Informedia Project. It is professionally narrated by Michael Landon. It is more like a work of art than a documentary. If you only look at one of these videos, this is the one to look at.

The Pandora Multimedia System By Olivetti (about 8 minutes) Mpeg Video 78.4 Megs
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Today we take for granted that we should be able to use multimedia on our personal computers. In 1991 that was just beginning and the above video shows what was being done since 1989. At the time this video was made, this stuff was cutting edge. Notice the images seem to be in black and white. As you can see, Olivetti created this system and there was a contributing organization named the Association for Computing Machinery.

 

Edison Movie, The Subway (about 1 minute) Mpeg Video 8 Megs
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Lastly, I would like to end your video viewing experience with a movie from 1905, that was made by Edison. I happen to think that looking at actors from over a hundred years ago is fascinating, hope you agree. The movie was produced by Mutoscope The above film was made, as I said, by Thomas Edison and the contributing organization was the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.

Well I guess this page will keep you busy for about 47 minutes or so, if you decide to view everything. Have a good day all.