Media Menu for May 16, 2012

Here are home viewing suggestions for the week, selected from online advanced TV program listings and aligned with the state and national K-12 academic standards available online. Please consult local listings also, since actual broadcast times may vary.   The Websites cited in the “Log on“  box  below the TV listing provide further details about the show’s  topic and may contain links to video clips from the show or a complete streaming video version of the show.

Wednesday, May 16,  2012,
5-6  p.m. E/P
History Channel
Science and Technology
Middle and High School

Modern Marvels: Inside Your Walls

As shown in this documentary,  there's a lot more to your walls than you'd ever imagine. The program takes a penetrating look inside something we consider utterly mundane, and uncover a surprising and sometimes shocking world. A computer-managed home in Colorado showcases the high tech gadgetry destined to inhabit every wall in the future. At the headquarters of Orkin in Atlanta, a network of walls with cutouts and Plexiglas windows reveal how pests and creepy crawlies of all kinds can congregate in huge numbers inside our homes. In Washington, scientists at Underwriters Labs play with fire in the name of research, investigating how our walls can keep us safe--or expose us to a fiery death. And in Los Angeles, a security company demonstrates innovative new technology that can "see" through walls--detecting motion, heat, breathing, even heartbeats.  TV-PG
Log on http://www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/offerings/perspectives/consumer/homesafety/

Thursday, May 17,  2012,
9-10 p.m. E/P
KLCS (PBS)
World History
Middle and High School

The Great Inca Rebellion

Human remains found at an ancient cemetery near Lima, Peru, coupled with forensic science and historical documents, may upend the accepted story that a small band of Spanish conquistadors brought down the Inca Empire.  Through a mix of crime-lab science, archeology, and history, this documentary presents new evidence about the final days of the once-mighty Inca Empire. This story begins in a cemetery crammed with skeletons that offer  clues about a 16th-century battle between warriors of the collapsing Inca Empire and Spanish invaders. Now, the long-accepted account of a swift Spanish conquest of the Inca—achieved with guns, steel, and horses—is being replaced by a more complete story based on surprising new evidence, including what may be the first gunshot wound in the Americas.
Log on http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/great-inca-rebellion.html

Friday, May 18,  2012,
9-10 p.m. E/P
NBC
U.S. History
Middle and High School

Who Do You Think You Are? : Paula Deen

In this genealogical documentary, popular  tv chef Paula Deen investigates her family history and learns about an event that affected her ancestors during the Civil War.TV-PG
Log on http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/photos/all-about-paula-deen/10889#item=243440

Saturday, May 19,  2012,
6-8  p.m. E/P
KLCS (PBS)
U.S. History
Middle and High School

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: CLINTON

This is the concluding part of a two episode documentary which  follows former President Clinton across his two terms as he confronted some of the key forces that would shape the future, including partisan political warfare and domestic and international terrorism, and as he struggled with uneven success to define the role of American power in a post-Cold War world. Most memorably, it explores how Clinton’s conflicted character made history, even as it enraged his enemies and confounded his friends. This is a biography of a president who rose from a broken childhood in Arkansas to become one of the most successful politicians in modern American history, and one of the most complex and conflicted characters to ever stride across the public stage. From draft dodging to the Dayton Accords, from Monica Lewinsky to a balanced budget, the presidency of William Jefferson Clinton veered between sordid scandal and grand achievement. Clinton had a career full of accomplishment and rife with scandal, a marriage that would make history and create controversy, and a presidency that would define the crucial and transformative period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9-11.
Log on http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/clinton/

Sunday, May 20,  2012,
8-9 p.m. E/P
CNN
U.S History and Economics
Middle and High School

Voters In America: Vets Wanted?

As reported in this documentary, vets fight for freedom, then they fight for jobs. This election year, CNN takes viewers on a journey with citizen soldiers as they struggle to serve country and family.
Log on http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/13/life-after-war-a-list-of-recourses-to-help-veterans-get-back-on-their-feet/

Monday, May 21,  2012,
7-8 p.m. E/P
KLCS (PBS)
Science
Middle and High School

Born Wild: The First Day of Life

This documentary looks at baby animals in their first days, including chimpanzees, gorillas, marmosets and moose. The offsprings' relationships with their mothers are also explored. Across the animal kingdom, some of the most essential lessons — and the most extreme challenges — occur in the first moments of life. From ostrich to orangutan, egg sac to live birth, infanticide to matricide, the diversity of behaviors between parent and progeny is as great as the diversity of life on our planet. As animal parents struggle to help their young survive their first days in the wild, they face seemingly insurmountable odds. Penguins travel literally the ends of the Earth to protect their infants, facing Antarctic blizzards while they incubate their eggs. Amaurobius spider mothers offer their own bodies for their newborns to feast on. Orangutan mothers face up to eight years of single parenthood raising their infants.
Log on http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/born-wild-the-first-days-of-life/introduction/5258/

Tuesday, May 22,  2012,
8-9:30 p.m. E/P
KLCS (PBS)
U.S. History
Middle and High School

California State of Mind: The Legacy of Pat Brown

In the turbulent 1960s, an ordinary man rose to face extraordinary challenges and powerfully shaped the future of modern California. Told from his granddaughter's perspective, a dynamic American dream story unfolds in this documentary portrait of Governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown — "the Godfather of Modern California." Award winning filmmaker Sascha Rice creates an intimate, inside look at a California icon, the father of Governor Jerry Brown — and the making of a political dynasty. She examines the 1959-67 tenure and legacy of her grandfather,  whose achievements included the creation of the California Aqueduct and the expansion of higher education. The profile includes remarks from son Jerry and daughter Kathleen; former governors Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pete Wilson; Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal.); and Tom Brokaw.
Log on http://patbrowndocumentary.com/home/index.html

Wednesday, May 23,  2012,
9-10 p.m. E/P
Science Channel
Science  Channel
Middle and High School

Brave New World: Technology

Technology is changing the way we live and our perception of the Universe. In this documentary Stephen Hawking charts the rise of an internet entrepreneur who is transforming space exploration.   Physicist Kathy Sykes explores how our mobile phones can give experts access to our every habit and action: a brave new world in which it's hard to keep a secret but where urban planners can build cities around our needs. Designer Max Lamb witnesses the dawn of a new era in manufacturing where lasers are printing objects in 3D. Environmental scientist Tara Shine visits an experimental new city in the desert where the citizens get about by unmanned pod car, and Kathy Sykes descends two kilometres underground to explore how scientists are using technology to study the most mysterious particles in the universe.  TV-PG
Log on http://science.discovery.com/videos/brave-new-world-brave-new-world-preview.html

Book TV Schedule

Saturday, May 19th

8am (ET)
Approx. 1 hr. 4 min.
"King's Counsel: A Memoir of War, Espionage, and Diplomacy in the Middle East"
Vernon Loeb

9:15am (ET)
Approx. 53 min.
"Bay and Her Boys: Unexpected Lessons I Learned as a (Single) Mom"
Bay Buchanan

LIVE 10:15am (ET)
Approx. 7 hr.
2012 Gaithersburg Book Festival LIVE
various authors

5:15pm (ET)
Approx. 44 min.
"Yours in Truth: A Personal Portrait of Ben Bradlee"
Jeff Himmelman

6pm (ET)
Approx. 59 min.
Encore Booknotes: Deborah Shapley, "Promise and Power: The Life and Times of Robert McNamara"
Deborah Shapley

7pm (ET)
Approx. 1 hr. 33 min.
"Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyages: The Titanic's First Class Passengers and Their World"
Hugh Brewster

8:45pm (ET)
Approx. 1 hr. 5 min.
"Grace and Grit: My Fight For Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond"
Lilly Ledbetter

10pm (ET)
Approx. 59 min.
After Words: Jay Nordlinger, "Peace, They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize, The Most Famous and Controversial Prize in the World," hosted by Matt Murphy, Wall Street Journal International Editor

11pm (ET)
Approx. 1 hr. 1 min.
"The Race for What's Left: The Global Scramble for the World's Last Resources"
Michael Klare

Sunday, May 20th

12am (ET)
Approx. 7 hr.
2012 Gaithersburg Book Festival LIVE
various authors

7am (ET)
Approx. 52 min.
"The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines"
Michael Mann

8am (ET)
Approx. 53 min.
"Almost President: The Men Who Lost the Race but Changed the Nation"
Scott Farris

9am (ET)
Approx. 1 hr. 17 min.
"Latin Lessons: How South America Stopped Listening to the United States and Started Prospering"
Hal Weitzman

10:15am (ET)
Approx. 33 min.
"Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us"
Maggie Koerth-Baker

11am (ET)
Approx. 59 min.
"The End of Money: Counterfeiters, Preachers, Techies, Dreamers - and the Coming Cashless Society"
David Wolman

12pm (ET)
Approx. 56 min.
After Words: Van Jones, "Rebuild the Dream," hosted by Jackie Kucinich, USA Today

1pm (ET)
Approx. 22 min.
Book TV at University of Virginia: J.C.A. Stagg, "The War of 1812: Conflict for a Continent"
J.C.A. Stagg

1:25pm (ET)
Approx. 23 min.
Book TV at University of Virginia: Farzaneh Milani, "Words, Not Swords: Iranian Women Writers and the Freedom of Movement"
Farzaneh Milani

1:50pm (ET)
Approx. 10 min.
Book TV at University of Virginia: Allen Lynch, "Vladimir Putin and Russian Statecraft"
Allen Lynch

2pm (ET)
Approx. 1 hr. 5 min.
"Grace and Grit: My Fight For Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond"
Lilly Ledbetter

3:15pm (ET)
Approx. 57 min.
"Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency after 9/11"
Jack Goldsmith

4:15pm (ET)
Approx. 1 hr.
"The Emergency State: America's Pursuit of Absolute Security at All Costs"
David Unger

5:15pm (ET)
Approx. 33 min.
"Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us"
Maggie Koerth-Baker

6pm (ET)
Approx. 58 min.
"Charles Lindbergh and The Spirit of St. Louis"
Dominick Pisano; Robert van der Linden

7pm (ET)
Approx. 53 min.
"Bay and Her Boys: Unexpected Lessons I Learned as a (Single) Mom"
Bay Buchanan

8pm (ET)
Approx. 51 min.
"Multiplication is for White People: Raising Expectations For Other People's Children"
Lisa Delpit

9pm (ET)
Approx. 59 min.
After Words: Jay Nordlinger, "Peace, They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize, The Most Famous and Controversial Prize in the World," hosted by Matt Murphy, Wall Street Journal International Editor

10pm (ET)
Approx. 52 min.
"The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines"
Michael Mann

11pm (ET)
Approx. 1 hr. 4 min.
"The Spirit of Compromise: Why Governing Demands It and Campaigning Undermines It"
Amy Gutmann; Dennis Thompson

Monday, May 21st

12am (ET)
Approx. 59 min.
After Words: Jay Nordlinger, "Peace, They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize, The Most Famous and Controversial Prize in the World," hosted by Matt Murphy, Wall Street Journal International Editor

1am (ET)
Approx. 22 min.
Book TV at University of Virginia: J.C.A. Stagg, "The War of 1812: Conflict for a Continent"
J.C.A. Stagg

1:25am (ET)
Approx. 23 min.
Book TV at University of Virginia: Farzaneh Milani, "Words, Not Swords: Iranian Women Writers and the Freedom of Movement"
Farzaneh Milani

1:50am (ET)
Approx. 10 min.
Book TV at University of Virginia: Allen Lynch, "Vladimir Putin and Russian Statecraft"
Allen Lynch

2am (ET)
Approx. 1 hr. 1 min.
A Discussion on U.S. Foreign Policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan with Ahmed Rashid and Steve Coll
Steve Coll; Ahmed Rashid

3am (ET)
Approx. 59 min.
After Words: Jay Nordlinger, "Peace, They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize, The Most Famous and Controversial Prize in the World," hosted by Matt Murphy, Wall Street Journal International Editor

4am (ET)
Approx. 1 hr. 33 min.
"Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyages: The Titanic's First Class Passengers and Their World"
Hugh Brewster

5:45am (ET)
Approx. 47 min.
"Dangerous Ambition, Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson: New Women in Search of Love and Power"
Susan Hertog

6:45am (ET)
Approx. 1 hr. 10 min.
"The Escape Artists: How Obama's Team Fumbled the Recovery"
Noam Scheiber