Upsetting The Apple Cart: The Genius of Steve Jobs

A US President wouldn't normally give a statement on the death of a businessman.

But then Steve Jobs was no ordinary businessman.

He built a company that is now one of the largest in the world, and persuaded people not only to buy his products, but to love them.

What then is Jobs' legacy?

How will he be compared to the great American entrepreneurs of the past, such as Rockefeller, Ford and Carnegie?

Did he invent a new way of running an organisation?

Or was he really just an old-style businessman disguised in a turtle-neck sweater.

Mark Gregory reports.

French Food Fights

France has long been a country with a reputation for some of the best food in the world.

But in recent years, many critics have argued that French cuisine has lost its way.

Now there's a new generation of food-lovers hoping to reclaim France's place at the top table.

But what do the traditionalists make of it all?

Robyn Bresnahan reports for Assignment.

(Image: Vegetables in Marche Maubert, one of France's oldest street markets).

Seti, the past, present and future. 1/2

In the first of two programmes, the BBC's science reporter Jason Palmer, meets the researchers behind Seti, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence and looks at the prospects for success in the face of funding issues and the sheer size of the task.
He talks to Seti's co-founder Frank Drake as well as its current active researchers, including Seth Shostak, Jill Tartar and Doug Vakoch.

The British Establishment: Who For? Episode 2/2

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, in an emergency debate in Parliament following this summer's riots, revived a line from his general election campaign. "Britain is broken", he said.

In this two-part series, the award-winning American broadcaster and author Michael Goldfarb challenges the assertion with a question: Is Britain really broken? If it is, then it is broken at the top.

Building on Sand 2 of 2: United Arab Emirates and Qatar

Source (with normal speed): BBC     

Duration: 31 minutes     

Capacity: 14.1 MB.     

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Exchanges At The Frontier - Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker is one of the world's leading authorities on language and the mind.

He is also Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and the recipient of several major awards for his teaching, books, and scientific research.

Join him in discussion about language acquisition, the nature of the mind and the effect of evolution on the development of human society.

Bubble Trouble? Episode 3

Across the world the cost of basic commodities is soaring. Endless demand from China is blamed for the record price of copper; flood, fire and drought for boosting the cost of food; and political tension in the Middle East for the sharply-rising price of oil. But are such fundamental forces the whole story?
Michael Robinson asks whether investors and speculators are making prices more volatile and examines the role of the giant traders, banks and companies which now increasingly dominate the world's commodity markets.
Episode Three: Michael hears from key politicians, regulators and lobbyists about the drive to legislate against in what some call 'excessive speculation.'

Wikipedia at 10

 It started as a hobby with noble aims and has blossomed into the fifth most popular website in the world - with over three million English articles alone, ten million contributors and 175 languages.

Today, it's hard to imagine life without Wikipedia. When you want to know more about anything, what do you do? You turn your computer on, put your query into a search engine, and in the first few hits there's a Wikipedia page. It's easy to see why the English site alone gets over nine million views per hour.

In this documentary, Science in Action presenter Jon Stewart explores this truly global phenomenon as it continues to grow at an impressive rate, despite surviving on only 50 paid staff and being run as a charity.

Why has it become such an invaluable resource? How has it changed over the decade? And is it a reliable source of info and news or a symptom of the spread of mediocrity and devaluation of research?

As it enters its tenth year, we look at the history and evolution of Wikipedia - which by allowing people from opposite sides of the world to contribute - has grown into one of the most popular websites on the internet.

What does the future hold for the site? Will it simply be replaced by another way of sharing knowledge on a mass level? Or will Wikipedia one day contain the sum of human knowledge? And are there any downsides to this democratisation of information?

The Secret War On Terror: Episode 1

The Secret War on Terror reveals the astonishing inside story of the intelligence war which has been fought against Al Qaeda over the last decade since 9/11.

With unparalleled access to Western intelligence and law enforcement agencies and with a host of exclusive interviews with those who have been at the sharp end of fighting the terrorists - from the CIA and the FBI to MI5 - Peter Taylor asks whether, with the death of Osama Bin Laden, there is any end in sight and whether we are any safer from attack. The series includes the first ever television interview with the former director general of MI5, Baroness Manningham-Buller, and an extensive interview with the recent director of the CIA, General Michael Hayden.

This episode looks at how the West became involved in abductions, secret prisons and even torture and how the intelligence services successfully disrupt major terrorist plots.

Iconic Geometry: The Taj Mahal

Leading structural engineer and designer Cecil Balmond goes beyond the well known histories of three celebrated monuments: Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal and the Great Pyramid, to reveal the hidden geometry at their cores.

At each iconic structure he examines a fundamental form: at Stonehenge - the circle: the Taj Mahal - the square and the Great Pyramid - the triangle.

Through the abstraction of these forms Cecil reveals the secrets that lie within their iconic design and discovers what these basic shapes can tell us about the sacred and religious, the spiritual and transcendent intentions of the buildings' architects.

On a global journey across structure and shape, Cecil also explores how these simple forms influence our lives.

From the earliest of times to our present culture, they have shaped our thinking in science, mathematics and design.

Redefining our view of the familiar circle, square and triangle: this is Iconic Geometry.

Source (with normal speed): BBC      Duration: 31 minutes      Capacity: 14,2 MB.      DOWNLOAD

The British Establishment: Who For? Episode 1

Why does Britain's narrow and elite establishment keep stumbling from crisis to crisis? 

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, in an emergency debate in Parliament following this summer's riots, revived a line from his general election campaign. "Britain is broken", he said.

In this two-part series, the award-winning American broadcaster and author Michael Goldfarb challenges the assertion with a question: Is Britain really broken? If it is, then it is broken at the top.

From the City, to the police, to the press, to Parliament, and in cultural institutions including the nation's universities and even the BBC, a narrow elite, drawn from the least-diverse backgrounds, make the rules, socialise, and define what is and is not permissible among the nation's leaders.

The phone hacking scandal, described as the 'thuggish collusion between the media, the police and politicians', is just the latest example of the British Establishment being caught out.

The credit crunch, the ensuing outrage over executive pay as well as the MPs' expenses scandal, have all shown them to be tone-deaf to popular concerns.

  
Source (with normal speed): BBC        Duration: 31 minutes        Capacity:14,25 MB.    DOWNLOAD

Building on Sand 1 of 2: DUBAI

Jonathan Glancey looks at whether Dubai can retain its position within the turbulent climate of the Middle East, in this new two-part series…

Dubai is often portrayed as an architectural phenomenon – a cityscape defined by buildings reaching for the stars, including the world’s tallest, the Burj Khalifa – a building seen by many as symbolic of the way power, money and influence appears to have moved away from the West to newly confident countries in the East.

This documentary examines the foundations of this architectural boom and bust as Jonathan asks whether Dubai has a sustainable policy towards building in one of the harshest environments on Earth.”

Having seen some of this development first hand, this will be an interesting outsiders’ view of the Emirates.

 
Source (with normal speed): BBC.   Duration: 30 minutes.    Capacity: 13,9 MB.    DOWNLOAD

AUDIOBOOK: Mark Twain - The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

Genre: Humor, fiction.

The town of Hadleyburg had the reputation of being the most honest town in a wide area, indeed an incorruptible community. The elders took this reputation so to heart that they brought up their children shielded from all temptation and trained thoroughly in total honesty. However, a stranger passing through the community was seriously offended by the actions of residents of this Utopia, and he vowed to gain revenge. After several years he came up with the perfect plan to embarrass the town and expose its hypocrisy. (Introduction by Leonard Wilson)

COMPLETE BOOK IN TEXT (PDF FORMAT):   DOWNLOAD TEXT


Part 1: Duration: 42 minutes     Capacity: 19,5 MB.     DOWNLOAD
Part 2: Duration: 36 minutes     Capacity: 16,9 MB.     DOWNLOAD
Part 3: Duration: 68 minutes     Capacity: 31,5 MB.     DOWNLOAD
Part 4: Duration: 25 minutes     Capacity: 11,7 MB.     DOWNLOAD

Space: what happened in 2011 and what can we expect for 2012?

Science in Action

The BBC World Service's weekly look at new developments in science from around the world.

In this episode:

NASA's final shuttle mission; Mars Science Laboratory; SpaceX; and Deep Space System.

Source (with normal speed): BBC
Duration: 24 minutes
Capacity: 11 MB.                           DOWNLOAD

AUDIOBOOK: The Art of War

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise that is attributed to Sun Tzu (also referred to as "Sunzi" and "Sun Wu"), a high ranking military general and strategist during the late Spring and Autumn period (some scholars believe that the Art of War was not completed until the subsequent Warring States period). Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it is said to be the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time, and is still read for its military insights.

The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy in the world. It has been the most famous and influential of China's Seven Military Classics: "for the last two thousand years it remained the most important military treatise in Asia, where even the common people knew it by name." It has had an influence on Eastern military thinking, business tactics, and beyond.

Sun Tzu emphasized the importance of positioning in military strategy, and that the decision to position an army must be based on both objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective beliefs of other, competitive actors in that environment. He thought that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a changing environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations.

The book was first translated into the French language in 1772 by French Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, and into English by British officer Everard Ferguson Calthrop in 1905. Leaders as diverse as Mao Zedong, General Vo Nguyen Giap, Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini, General Douglas MacArthur, Napoleon, and leaders of Imperial Japan have drawn inspiration from the work. The Art of War has also been applied to business and managerial strategies.

COMPLETE BOOK IN TEXT (PDF FORMAT):   DOWNLOAD TEXT

AUDIO BOOK MP3 WITH HUMAN VOICE (total 13 chapters) :

Chapter 1: Laying plans

Chapter 2:Waging War

Chapter 3:Attack by stratagem

Chapter 4: Tactical dispositions

Chapter 5: Energy

Chapter 6: Weak points and strong              DOWNLOAD CHAPTERS 1-6 (59 Minutes)

Chapter 7: Maneuvering

Chapter 8: Variation in tactics

Chapter 9: The Army on the march

Chapter 10: Terrain                                      DOWNLOAD CHAPTERS 7-10 (48 Minutes)

Chapter 11: The nine situations

Chapter 12: The attack by fire

Chapter 13: The use of spies                        DOWNLOAD CHAPTERS 11-13 (43 Minutes)

Bubble Trouble? Episode 2

Across the world the cost of basic commodities is soaring. Endless demand from China is blamed for the record price of copper; flood, fire and drought for boosting the cost of food; and political tension in the Middle East for the sharply-rising price of oil. But are such fundamental forces the whole story?
Michael Robinson asks whether investors and speculators are making prices more volatile and examines the role of the giant traders, banks and companies which now increasingly dominate the world's commodity markets.

Episode Two:Michael goes deep into the argument about supply and demand of a single commodity :copper.

Source (with normal speed): BBC       Duration: 31 minutes         Capacity: 14,2 MB.

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China: Shaking the World. Part 4

Part Four asks whether the political model which has delivered China's fantastic economic growth over the last 30 years is the same model that will deliver growth over the next 30 years.

The series has shown how China is barrelling ahead with new infrastructure and new strategies to import the latest industrial technologies.

China's leaders now want a more fundamental change: They want Chinese ideas and innovation to drive their economy.

This programme follows people at the leading edge of that effort, in the arts and sciences. For some, it's a time of unparalleled freedom.

Just look at some of the wacky buildings popping up in China's big cities. But others find creativity stifled by a traditional, top-down culture. Even at one of China's top universities, Tsinghua, some find it hard to generate original thought.

"This culture inhibits the evolution of new ideas," says Professor Guosong Liu. His colleague says this deferential culture will keep China behind the West in the race to create the next big thing.

 

Source (with normal speed): BBC
Duration: 31 minutes 20 seconds                    Capacity: 14,3 MB.                 DOWNLOAD

Ship of Spies

Tom Mangold joins a spy-themed cruise around the Caribbean.

Outward appearances suggest it's just a regular cruise. But as the MS Eurodam sets sail from Fort Lauderdale in Florida, this vast ship is carrying two men who've been at the very heart of the US intelligence services. Former CIA directors Porter Goss and Michael Hayden are on board for the Spy Cruise, a seven day trip devoted to issues of national security.

Passengers have paid to hear and mingle with these senior ex-spooks, as well as a range of other former intelligence and military officers. Whilst other passengers on the ship gamble in the casino, play pool games and try their hand at line-dancing, the spy cruisers are locked into a lecture theatre worrying about the state of global security.

Tom Mangold discovers that the cruise is part of an attempt to repair the damaged reputation of the CIA after a string of controversies. In wide-ranging and rigorous interviews, he grills the two ex CIA bosses on extraordinary renditions, enhanced interrogations, water-boarding, and targeted assassinations.

Source (with normal speed): BBC
Duration: 30 minutes 46 seconds                      Capacity: 14 MB.                  DOWNLOAD

Iconic Geometry: Stonehenge

Leading structural engineer and designer Cecil Balmond goes beyond the well known histories of three celebrated monuments: Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal and the Great Pyramid, to reveal the hidden geometry at their cores.

At each iconic structure he examines a fundamental form: at Stonehenge - the circle: the Taj Mahal - the square and the Great Pyramid - the triangle.

Through the abstraction of these forms Cecil reveals the secrets that lie within their iconic design and discovers what these basic shapes can tell us about the sacred and religious, the spiritual and transcendent intentions of the buildings' architects.

On a global journey across structure and shape, Cecil also explores how these simple forms influence our lives.

From the earliest of times to our present culture, they have shaped our thinking in science, mathematics and design.

Redefining our view of the familiar circle, square and triangle: this is Iconic Geometry.

Source (with normal speed): BBC
Duration: 30 minutes 58 seconds       Capacity: 14,1 MB                                 DOWNLOAD

China - Shaking The World : Episode 3

Disputes over wages and working conditions in the factories of China's east coast have grabbed most of the headlines in recent years. But there are long-simmering problems as well.

How to crack down on corrupt officials? What to do for farmers unhappy about the compensation they receive - or not - for land taken for development? All of these disputes underline a widening gap between China's rich and poor.

In hhis programme Michael Robinson examines China's leaders attempts to manage these growing conflicts and calls for political change - not for multi-party democracy, as some in the West advocate, but for a shift from a system of absolute Communist Party rule to one where individual rights are protected under law.

Wen Qiang, a former senior justice official in Chongqing, was the highest-ranking official arrested in the city's anti-corruption drive. He was executed in July 2010.

 
Source (with normal speed): BBC
Duration: 30' 53''                                   Capacity: 14.1 MB                           DOWNLOAD

Bubble Trouble? - Part One

Across the world the cost of basic commodities is soaring. Endless demand from China is blamed for the record price of copper; flood, fire and drought for boosting the cost of food; and political tension in the Middle East for the sharply-rising price of oil. But are such fundamental forces the whole story?

Michael Robinson asks whether investors and speculators are making prices more volatile and examines the role of the giant traders, banks and companies which now increasingly dominate the world's commodity markets.

Episode One

Michael explains some of the surprising effects high commodity prices are having on the ground - a surge of copper theft from railways in the UK, a boom in farm prices in America, and confusion in Europe from a major chocolatier about the price of cocoa - all points to the role of new, speculative money disrupting long-established patterns in the market.

Source (with normal speed): BBC
Duration: 31' 02"                           Capacity: 14,02 MB                                                                    DOWNLOAD

After the KGB - Part 2

Martin Sixsmith gets under the skin of the fastest growing and arguably most politically influential secret service in the world the "new KGB".
In Programme Two, we look at the organisation's current position and methodology.
The murder of Alexander Litvinenko was only the latest in what many believe were a succession of recent, FSB-ordered or inspired liquidations of political enemies of the Kremlin.
Anna Politkovskaya, Russia's best-known investigative reporter and Putin critic, had survived poisoning before being shot dead outside her flat. It was Vladimir Putin's birthday.
FSB insiders tell us that even if such killings are not sanctioned from the top, the system of patronage means that the killings may be undertaken "freelance" by junior agents seeking to please those higher up.
Who else might yet become an FSB target? We hear from Boris Berezovsky, the former oligarch and émigré seen by many as the Kremlin's most hated adversary.
To what extent is it government, and to what extent is it the shady links between politics and big business in Russia that are driving the FSB's operations? And just how central is the FSB to Russia's reviving ambition to be regarded as a global superpower?
Beyond the suspicions, we will also ask to what extent the FSB has become the guiding hand behind the new political order in Russia. Is it an engine of the state, or does it operate above and beyond it?
Finally we assess what its resurgence says about Russians' willingness or desire to move on from their Soviet heritage

Source: BBC
Duration: 29' 46"                      Capacity: 13,63 MB                                     DOWNLOAD

China: shaking the world - Part 2

In the second part of this series, the BBC's Michael Robinson looks at the potentially world-shaking clash of cultures between non-democratic, state-planned China and the American-centred world of democracy and free market ideology.

Source: BBC
Duration: 31' 11''
Capacity: 14.2 MB
DOWNLOAD: http://depositfiles.com/files/u2atwvyr2

Elegy for the Tech

At the Blacksburg campus of Virginia Tech, creative writing lecturer Fred D'Aguiar was sitting in his office when disturbed English major Cho Seung-hui killed 32 people and himself in what was America's deadliest shooting.
D'Aguiar, who in the past had taught the shooter, also lost one of his other students and a close colleague.
Following the tragedy, D'Aguiar, an award-winning poet and strong believer in the healing power of artistic expression, wrote a poem 'Elegy', in which he tried to put into words his feelings and experiences of that terrible day.
Since then, as 'The Tech' has returned back to everyday life, he has continued to work closely with his students, encouraging them to write about their experiences and their emotional journey.
In this programme we follow Fred D'Aguiar as he reflects on the emotional journey he and his students have taken over the last 12 months.

Source: BBC
Duration: 29' 54"
Capacity: 13,6 MB
DOWNLOAD:

http://depositfiles.com/files/949f1f56l

After the KGB - Part 1

Martin Sixsmith gets under the skin of the fastest growing and arguably most politically influential secret service in the world.
When the KGB was rebranded and relaunched in the early 90s, it was assumed this now creaking engine of state authority would wilt along with the system it represented.
But with a former KGB director taking over in the Kremlin, some say its successor has become just as potent a force.
President Vladimir Putin has given unprecedented positions of power to former secret service colleagues.
Programme One: investigates the evolution of this secretive organisation following the collapse of the Soviet Union - its allegedly growing links with Russian organised crime, and its transformation under the guiding hand of President Putin.
It also looks at the role of the FSB's "special operations" in Chechnya.

Source: BBC
Duration: 30' 29"
Capacity: 13,9 MB
DOWNLOAD:
http://depositfiles.com/files/y135i1h55

China: shaking the world - Part 1

"China," Napoleon is believed to have once said, "is a sleeping giant. When she awakes, she will shake the world."

China endured decades of occupation, division and international isolation since that 19th century warning. When it finally opened to the rest of the world, foreign money and expertise flooded in.
Now - little more than a generation later - China is poised to overtake Japan to become the world's second largest economy. Its unprecedented growth in exports has left it holding more foreign currency than any other nation - financial power which China is beginning to use to challenge the US dollar's long-standing dominance as the medium of international trade.
This documentary series examines the political, economic and cultural mechanisms of China's growing global influence. Michael Robinson, who documented China's awakening for the BBC almost 20 years ago, returns to assess the prospects and problems of the unrelenting shift of power from West to East.
Part One explores China's massive internal infrastructure transformation.

Source: BBC
Duration: 30' 14''
Capacity: 13.8 MB
DOWNLOAD:

http://depositfiles.com/files/7v5qgf60g

Iconic geometry: The great pyramid of Egypt

Leading structural engineer and designer Cecil Balmond goes beyond the well known histories of three celebrated monuments: Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal and the Great Pyramid, to reveal the hidden geometry at their cores.

At each iconic structure he examines a fundamental form: at Stonehenge - the circle: the Taj Mahal - the square and the Great Pyramid - the triangle.

Through the abstraction of these forms Cecil reveals the secrets that lie within their iconic design and discovers what these basic shapes can tell us about the sacred and religious, the spiritual and transcendent intentions of the buildings' architects.

On a global journey across structure and shape, Cecil also explores how these simple forms influence our lives.

From the earliest of times to our present culture, they have shaped our thinking in science, mathematics and design.

Redefining our view of the familiar circle, square and triangle: this is Iconic Geometry.

Source: BBC (with normal speed)          Duration: 31 minutes 16''        Capacity: 14,3 MB
DOWNLOAD:

http://depositfiles.com/files/fowggjz3r

Discussion on the virtues and flaws of the Democracy

This week's BBC Forum comes from the UK Parliament . Three distinguished guests and an audience probe the virtues and flaws of democracy in the Arab World and in Western parliamentary democracies.

Source: BBC          Duration: 53' 24"         Capacity: 24,4 MB
DOWNLOAD:http://depositfiles.com/files/71aui4zze

International daily news bulletin

Source: Voice of America
Duration: 30 minutes
Capacity: 8,6 MB                                    

Japan: A Friend In Need

Lost your job and need a bogus boss to fool your family that you're still in work? Can't think who to have as your best man at your wedding?

The BBC's Tokyo correspondent Roland Buerk investigates Japan's growing 'rent a friend' service sector. Several agencies now rent out fake spouses, best men, relatives, friends, colleagues, boyfriends and girlfriends to help clients get through social functions such as weddings, parents' evenings - and even funerals.

Source: BBC

Duration: 31' 11''                     Capacity: 14,3 MB
DOWNLOAD: 

http://depositfiles.com/files/uy5vwwadf