Editorial Product Review:Description:As baseball's first Jewish star, Hammerin' Hank Greenberg's career contains all the makings of a true American sucess story. An extraordinary ball player notorious for his hours of daily practice, Greenberg's career was an inspiration to all and captured the headlines and the admiration of sportswriters and fans alike. This is the story of how he became an American hero. :Aviva Kempner's Peabody Award-winning documentary is about baseball like Field of Dreams is about cornfields. Kempner efficiently covers all the bases of Detroit Tigers Hall ...
Editorial Product Review: :Hasidic Jews seem alien, and even hostile, to those outside their culture, which frequently includes other Jews. They dress differently, don't mingle between the sexes, speak Yiddish, and wear side curls, all in an attempt to rigorously follow the commandments of the Torah. They tend to keep to themselves, shunning television and the media so outside influences cannot corrupt their values and views. Yet filmmakers Oren Rudavsky and Menachem Daum were able to enter their world, and the result is the fascinating documentary A Life ...
Editorial Product Review:Description:Here in their own words are the diaries and documents, woven into a chilling narrative, from the longest surviving concentration of Jews trapped in the Holocaust. This unusual film received the European Film Critics' Prize and was a widely acclaimed Holocaust Remembrance Day Special on PBS. Artistically melding the writings from the ghetto with thousands of authentic photographs taken there of Jewish life during the Holocaust, the film offers an unprecedented opportunity to feel the hope, despair, confusion and fear of the Jews who were ...
Editorial Product Review:Description:This is definitive work about the many issues facing the Middle East. It is the visual equivalent of Thomas Friedman's 'From Beirut To Jerusalem'. Rick Ray, avid traveler and adventurer, explores the region without the express permissions of the governments in question to see it 'as it is'. His roving camera and the observations contained within this piece give us an informed and mature glimpse into the region from a perspective which the Western and Arab media sources rarely give us.
Editorial Product Review:Description:Winner of the coveted Peabody Award, Heritage - Civilization and the Jews is the monumental nine-part series spanning five millennia of Jewish history and culture. The series is hosted by former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Abba Eban, who describes it as 'a celebration of our common humanistic and moral heritage, explored through the mysteries of preservation, renewal, and resonance of the Jewish people.' From the stony heights of Sinai to the shores of the Dead Sea, from a Greek amphitheater in Delphi to ...
Editorial Product Review: :The conflict in the Middle East between Israel and its neighbors is given comprehensive treatment in this two-video set produced by PBS. Using archival footage and extensive interviews with participants, the production begins by explaining conditions in Palestine at the end of World War II and the crisis created by the exodus of European Jews who went to the Middle East after the Holocaust. The withdrawal of the British, who had controlled Palestine for decades, is detailed, as is the creation of the state of Israel. ...
Editorial Product Review: essential video:On September 5, 1972, eight Palestinian terrorists killed two Israeli athletes and took nine others hostage at the Munich Olympic Village. The event stopped the games, gripped the world, and perhaps for the first time fully illustrated the volatile state of affairs in the Mideast to the world. Kevin Macdonald's 1999 Academy Award(r)-winning documentary painstakingly reconstructs the events, shedding light on what the world saw on television with the exasperating revelation of behind-the-scenes blunders. This visceral, tense film uses riveting news footage to ...
Editorial Product Review: :The combination of the Holocaust and the subsequent emigration decimated the once-thriving Jewish community in the Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains. One of the few holdouts is Zev Godinger, the colorful subject of writer-director Yale Strom's affectionate 75-minute documentary. The 66-year-old Godinger has appointed himself caretaker of the Jewish faith in his little corner of the world, and the camera follows him as he visits locals, all the while bemoaning the fate of the few Jewish boys left who neither know how to pray nor bear the ...
Editorial Product Review: :The combination of the Holocaust and the subsequent emigration decimated the once-thriving Jewish community in the Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains. One of the few holdouts is Zev Godinger, the colorful subject of writer-director Yale Strom's affectionate 75-minute documentary. The 66-year-old Godinger has appointed himself caretaker of the Jewish faith in his little corner of the world, and the camera follows him as he visits locals, all the while bemoaning the fate of the few Jewish boys left who neither know how to pray nor bear the ...
Editorial Product Review: :The combination of the Holocaust and the subsequent emigration decimated the once-thriving Jewish community in the Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains. One of the few holdouts is Zev Godinger, the colorful subject of writer-director Yale Strom's affectionate 75-minute documentary. The 66-year-old Godinger has appointed himself caretaker of the Jewish faith in his little corner of the world, and the camera follows him as he visits locals, all the while bemoaning the fate of the few Jewish boys left who neither know how to pray nor bear the ...
On paper, the Mio DigiWalker P550 looks to be an attractive gadget for the mobile professional, combining the capabilities of a PDA and GPS into one device. However, its poor battery life and subpar navigation skills tell a different story.
Though it won't appeal to the masses quite yet, the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet is a nice, portable device for on-the-go Web browsing, and it has some worthy upgrades.
Diesel vehicles have nearly a 50-percent market share in Europe, thanks to tax incentives and diesel-friendly legislation across the EU. Diesels are so passé there that you can buy a BMW 730d and no one will think it odd that your luxury car burns oil. Pull up in a diesel 7-Series in America and people would leer at you like you've alighted from an amphibious vehicle reeking of saltwater and dead trout.
But now, thanks to the oft-reported combo of newly-raised CAFE standards, not-so-newly-raised gas prices, and the 50-state diesel engine, GM, Ford, and Chrysler are about to dip more than a hesitant toe into the diesel game. Chrysler offers a diesel in the Grand Cherokee, but soon all three automakers will offer diesels in their best-selling lineups of light trucks -- the Dodge Ram 1500 is expected to offer a 50-state diesel after 2009. Light trucks are being used to lead the charge since those buyers stand to gain the most with the least amount of (perceived) sacrifice.
Diesels currently have 3.2-percent of the American market. Some estimates put them at 15-percent by 2015. That's a huge leap, and diesel still has plenty of hurdles. Diesels will come with a cost premium over gasoline-engined cars. That should be easy enough to conquer -- incentives and some quick cost and longevity calculations should convince people of the benefit. The real hurdle is the nagging issue of perception. The plan will probably be to attack that with a price that makes the proposition unbeatable. Said Chrysler's director of environmental affairs, "If it's priced right, we can sell diesel here. Diesel can give you an immediate poke in fuel economy -- 20 to 40 percent. Not many technologies can deliver that today."
Diesel vehicles have nearly a 50-percent market share in Europe, thanks to tax incentives and diesel-friendly legislation across the EU. Diesels are so passé there that you can buy a BMW 730d and no one will think it odd that your luxury car burns oil. Pull up in a diesel 7-Series in America and people would leer at you like you've alighted from an amphibious vehicle reeking of saltwater and dead trout.