The Places That Inspired "The Lord of the Rings"

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is the most popular work of fiction ever created. It is a tale of epic proportions held together by its unforgettable setting, Middle Earth. The great trilogy introduced the world to Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn, but arguably the book's true star does not utter a single word. It is Middle Earth itself -- The Lord of the Rings' unforgettable setting -- that remains Tolkien's greatest achievement. This fascinating documentary takes us in Tolkien's footsteps and investigates the landscapes and buildings, the places and names that helped shape Middle Earth.

Sir Ian Holm (Bilbo Baggins in The Fellowship of the Ring) narrates this fascinating exploration into an imaginary world that seems so real we pore over its maps and contemplate its journeys and its quests. Is this because the foundations of Tolkien's imagined world were inspired by very real places? Was there a real shire in the English countryside that inspired the Shire of Middle Earth? What influences shaped the darker and more troubled lands beyond its borders? How did European languages fuse in Tolkien's creative genius to create a vocabulary that evokes extraordinary places and heroic adventures?

The quest for The Real Middle Earth takes us to England?s west midlands, to Warwick and Oxford, to an ancient Lancashire school, to Saxon burial sites and many other places, including the real Dead Marshes, otherwise known as the Great War battlefields of the Somme.



Source: Jason Media

Mexico's Missing Island

* Play the Audio of the Story of Bermeja Island (from the BBC):

According to BBC, in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico an island has gone missing… and nobody knows where it is.


Bermeja Island was clearly visible on national and international maps until the middle of the 20th century. The place is strategically important as it could give Mexico a claim to millions of dollars worth of oil deposits.


But recent searches for the island have failed to find it, fuelling rumours of conspiracy theories. But what really happened to Bermeja?


David Cuen of BBC Mundo goes in search of this lost island.

Legend Of Che Guevara

When Bolivian soldiers executed Che Guevara 40 years ago, they initially tried to make his execution not look like an execution.


Che Guevara, 20th-century revolutionary icon and favorite subject for posters and T-shirts everywhere, was captured in a ravine by Bolivian special forces near his guerrilla camp. With his leg wounded and his rifle useless after being hit by a bullet and his pistol either mysteriously or incompetently devoid of an ammunition magazine, Guevara promptly surrendered. As the soldiers moved in, Guevara was reported to have said, "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead." Nobody shot him then and there, but it wouldn't be long in coming.

Hearing the news of his capture, the delighted and giddy President René Barrientos of Boliva, whose overthrow, after all, had been the objective of Guevara, wasted no time in ordering his execution. After all, Guevara's compatriot Fidel Castro had once been captured by Batista forces in Cuba, only to later escape and start his revolution. Barrientos was not about to take the same risk with Guevara. Guevara was brought to an old rundown school house and permitted to spend the night there unexecuted. The next day, straws were drawn. One Mario Terán, a sergeant, drew the short one, and it fell on him to carry out the execution. "I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward. You are only going to kill a man," said Guevara as his executioner came for him. In an effort to make his execution not look like an execution, Guevara was shot several times in the legs; his face, however, was left undisturbed so that he could later be more readily identified.



In a final ironic note, the socialist, champion-of-the-down-trodden, anti-capitalist Guevara's image must today be making many businessmen richer every day thanks to the T-shirt industry and the figure of big icon.

Mumia Abu-Jamal's Case

A video that examines the media coverage in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal and specifically dissects the 20/20 special with Sam Donaldson.



Mumia Abu-Jamal (born Wesley Cook on April 24, 1954) is an African-American who was convicted and sentenced to death for the December 9, 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. He has been described as "perhaps the best known Death-Row prisoner in the world", and his sentence is one of the most debated today.


According to Wikipedia, before his arrest he was a member of the black nationalist Black Panther Party, an activist, part-time cab driver, journalist, radio personality, news commentator and broadcaster.


Since his conviction, his case has received international attention and he has become a controversial cultural icon. Supporters and opponents disagree on the appropriateness of the death penalty, whether he is guilty, or whether he received a fair trial. During his imprisonment he has published several books and other commentaries, notably Live from Death Row.


Since 1995, Abu-Jamal has been incarcerated at Pennsylvania's SCI Greene near Waynesburg, where most of the state’s capital case inmates are held. In 2008, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the murder conviction, but ordered a new capital sentencing hearing over concerns that the jury was improperly instructed. In April 2009, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal for a new trial, allowing his July 1982 conviction to stand. A separate appeal by prosecutors to reinstate the death penalty has not yet been heard.

Star Wars In Iraq

Is The U.S. using new experimental "Tactical High Energy Laser" weapons in Iraq?

"Star Wars in Iraq" is a new investigative report by ... all » Maurizio Torrealta and Sigfrido Ranucci for Rai 24 News.


A physical witness, named Al Ghezali, reported that he had seen three passengers in a car all dead with their faces and teeth burnt, the body intact, and no sign of projectiles. There were other inexplicable aspects: the terrain where the battle took place was dug up by the American military and replaced with other fresh earth, the bodies that were not hit by projectiles had shrunk to just slightly more than one meter in height.


As in any war, the war in Iraq left us a dreadful gallery of horror, images of mutilations that not even doctors can explain. The witnesses refer to laser weapons, arms with mysterious effects. We do not know what kind of weapons could produce such terrible effects. We tried to learn more about it by asking for interviews to members of companies manufacturing laser and microwave weapons. Yet, the U.S. Defense Department prevented any information from being released to us, they also did not answer, up to the time to almost edited, the questions we have sent them in order to know whether or not experimental weapons had been tested in Iraq and Afghanistan.


We tracked down the Pentagon press conferences from before the beginning of the second Gulf War to see if they spoke about any new weapons being tested. The words of the Secretary of Defense and General Meyers indicated a willingness to try weapons that had never been used before. And the questions from the press about direct energy and microwave weapons made them visibly uncomfortable.