Listen and learn

As you know, I'm very fond of watching documentaries. Anybody with some degree of curiosity about the world would probably want to get a better understanding of this beautiful planet and all its creatures.

Happily, apart from watching great documentaries, you can also listen to them. This is good news for English learners, who will be able to get lots of exposure to a wide variety of topics with its relevant vocabulary.

BBC Radio currently offers 3,453 documentaries you can listen to on their website. That's 3,453! Some of these documentaries can also be downloaded, which makes it possible for you to listen to them when you're not at home in front of the computer.

Go to BBC Radio Documentaries and take your pick. There must be some documentary you like!

Do you like listening to the radio?

Yes
No

Penguins: spy in the huddle

I'm currently watching one of the most beautiful and heartwarming documentaries about penguins I have ever seen. It is a BBC production entitled Penguins: spy in the huddle.

I watched the first part last Monday on BBC 1 HD [How can I receive the British channels in Spain? Click here] and loved it. The team behind this production follows the lives of three species of penguins: Emperor penguin, Rockhopper and Humboldt. Each of these species is found in a different location.

What makes this wildlife series special is the use of 50 "spy-cams" to record every detail in the life of these birds up close. These cameras take the form of rocks, eggs and even penguins. So real do these robotic penguins look that one scene in the documentary shows a penguin trying to mate with one of them. Then, the lady penguin appeared and clearly told the robotic penguin not to mess around with her man!

As you know, I love documentaries so I'm definitely buying this series on Blu-ray as soon as it's released. In the meantime, if you haven't seen the first part, you can catch up on YouTube. Just click on the link below.

Penguins: spy in the huddle (Part I)
Penguins: spy in the huddle (Part II)
Penguins: spy in the huddle (Part III)

Do you like penguins?

Yes
No

No longer the silly box

If you're the kind of person who is always brimming with curiosity and thirsty for knowledge, chances are that you'll love documentaries.

Well, I have good news for you. There are currently three channels on Spanish TV specialised in documentaries: La 2, Xplora and Discovery Max.

La 2 usually offers the best quality documentaries of these channels. You can watch documentaries dealing with a variety of topics: history, modern society, the human body, scientific advances, etc. Not to mention the great wildlife productions.

Both Xplora and Discovery Max have some interesting documentaries too although they seem to rely too much on docu-realities.

I usually watch some wildlife documentary on La 2 after lunch. I have recently seen one about the mountain lion of North America and I loved it! I'm interested in pretty much every documentary they show.

By the way, to all of you Spanish readers, remember that you can watch every documentary in original version just by choosing that option on your remote.

How about you? What kind of documentaries do you like?

Do you watch documentaries?

Yes
No

Supervolcanoes

Last Thursday I watched an interesting documentary about supervolcanoes. This type of volcano doesn't have the typical conical shape; rather, it forms a depression in the ground called "caldera" (a word from Spanish meaning "cauldron" or "boiler"). 

Most of the documentary centred on the active supervolcano situated in Yellowstone National Park, USA. Visitors to the park may not know that its great beauty conceals a ticking time bomb. Were the supervolcano to erupt, the consequences would be catastrophic.

A supervolcano is a lot more powerful than a normal volcano. In fact, experts agree that an eruption would cause a global disaster, followed by massive loss of life. Moreover, the subsequent climate change would affect the world economy and the food supply. Our whole existence would be turned topsy-turvy.

The scary part is that the eruptions of the supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park follow a cycle of approximately 600,000 years, and the next eruption could happen in our lifetime. That, fortunately, seems a remote possibility.

Anyway, be that as it may, I don't see the point in worrying too much. Let's try to enjoy life since we don't really know when it will end. It could be tomorrow or in a thousand years. As the Americans say, that's my two cents.

What would you do in the event of an impending disaster?

Get drunk
Make love all night long
Spend money like there's no tomorrow
Tell my boss to get lost
Search for the nearest bunker
Send an SOS to the aliens
Take it like a man, we all have to die some day
Other

Dazzling documentaries

Just as I collect great movies, I also collect great documentaries. This planet is full of wonderful places with beautiful (and not so beautiful) creatures. Nature documentaries allow you to see all the wonders of the natural world from the comfort of your own home. You don't have to spend a small fortune travelling around the globe or risk life and limb in some of its locations.

That's not to say, of course, that a documentary compares to the great outdoors. Nothing beats the real thing!  But if money is tight, a good documentary on Blu-ray is the next best thing. Fortunately, there are some good deals out there to satisfy nature lovers and keep you in money. I personally own some of the best: Planet Earth, Life, Great Migrations, Yellowstone, etc.

Talking about Blu-ray, this technology has taken documentary-viewing to the next level. Thanks to the higher resolution, you can now watch wildlife in all its glory, almost as if it were in your living room. That's the best way of admiring a lion's whiskers close up without being eaten alive!  

Documentaries, together with movies, are both educational and entertaining. I hope some day I'll be able to visit some of the wonders I have seen so many times in my collection of documentaries. Until then, keep them coming!