USA SLED HOCKEY

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10 @ 8:00PM

The training is tough as the U.S. sled hockey team prepares for the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, in ICE WARRIORS.

The Stoke-Mandeville Games for the Paralyzed, held on the grounds of a hospital that treated injured war veterans, featured 16 people – 14 men and 2 women – competing in one sport, archery.

The games were the brainchild of Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, head of the Stoke-Mandeville Hospital’s Spinal Injuries Unit.Guttmann had realized that enforced, immobile bed rest, the standard practice in spinal injury cases, was hurting his patients. He experimented with moving the patients, gently turning them over regularly, and was encouraged by the results.  He began programs to strengthen the patients with simple games of ball, then wheelchair polo and basketball, darts, and archery.Patients lived and thrived, and the idea of competitive sports for people with physical disabilities took hold.

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DOWNTON ABBEY SEASON 4

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23 @ 7:00PM & 11:00PM

FINAL EPISODE

Six months after the bazaar, the Crawleys head to London for Rose’s presentation before the king. Mary’s suitors await them, the Levinsons join them, and a potentially explosive scandal threatens to embroil them.

In the much-anticipated finale of Downton Abbey Season 4, guest stars Shirley MacLaine and Paul Giamatti join Dame Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter, Joanne Froggatt, Penelope Wilton, and the rest of the stellar cast. Written and created by Julian Fellowes, Downton Abbey Season 4 marks the return of one of television’s most beloved and anticipated drama series to MASTERPIECE on PBS.  (2 Hours)

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GRAND COULEE DAM

SATURDAY, APRIL 22  @ 8:00PM

It would be the “Biggest Thing on Earth,” the salvation of the common man, a dam and irrigation project that would make the desert bloom, a source of cheap power that would boost an entire region of the country. Of the many public works projects of the New Deal, Grand Coulee Dam loomed largest in America’s imagination during the darkest days of the Depression. It promised to fulfill President Franklin Roosevelt’s vision for a “planned promised land” where hard-working farm families would finally be free from the drought and dislocation caused by the elements.

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WITH GWEN IFILL

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 @ 9:00PM

THIS WEEK: UKRAINE ERUPTS, MINIMUM WAGE, 2014 ELECTION SPENDING & RACES TO WATCH

Violent protests between police in Ukraine and anti-government demonstrators escalated on Thursday after a truce between the president and opposition leaders fell apart.

The debate over raising the minimum wage turned into a political firestorm this week after the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its estimates on the cost of raising the federal minimum from $7.25 an hour to $10.10. According to the CBO, a higher minimum wage would boost the incomes of most low-wage workers but could cost nearly half a million jobs.

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STING: THE LAST SHIP

FRIDAY, AUGUST 8 @ 11:00PM

Sting and his band and Jimmy Nail perform “Shipyard” from his album and upcoming musical, The Last Ship, live at the Public Theater in New York City. The song introduces various characters in the shipbuilding community. In this excerpt from the performances, Sting sings the part of a shop steward.

“Ah, me name is Tommy Thompson, I’m shop steward for the Union,
Me dream is proletarian revolution,
Comrades, brothers, fellow travellers and others,
Class struggle is the means of dialectic evolution.

(90 Minutes)

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MYSTERY OF EASTER ISLAND

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10 @ 10:00PM

A remote, bleak speck of rock in the middle of the Pacific, Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, has mystified the world ever since the first Europeans arrived in 1722. How and why did the ancient islanders build and move nearly 900 giant statues or moai, weighing up to 86 tons? And how did they transform a presumed paradise into a treeless wasteland, bringing ruin upon their island and themselves? NOVA explores controversial recent claims that challenge decades of previous thinking about the islanders, who have been accused of everything from ecocide to cannibalism.

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HONEY BADGERS: MASTERS OF MAYHEM

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16 @ 9:00PM

“Honey badger is bad ass.” Those words and corresponding video became a YouTube sensation with 51 million hits. This relentless little creature is one of the most fearless animals in the world, renowned for its ability to confront grown lions, castrate charging buffalo, and shrug off the toxic defenses of stinging bees, scorpions, and snakes. Little is known about its behavior in the wild or why it is so aggressive. Our film will follow three badger specialists in South Africa who take on these masters of mayhem in ways that must be seen to be believed. (Video streaming restricted to U.S. and Territories.)

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THE RISE AND FALL OF PENN STATION

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18 @ 10:00PM

In 1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad successfully accomplished the enormous engineering feat of building tunnels under New York City’s Hudson and East Rivers, connecting the railroad to New York and New England, knitting together the entire eastern half of the United States. The tunnels terminated in what was one of the greatest architectural achievements of its time, Pennsylvania Station. Penn Station covered nearly eight acres, extended two city blocks, and housed one of the largest public spaces in the world. But just 53 years after the station’s opening, the monumental building that was supposed to last forever, to herald and represent the American Empire, was slated to be destroyed.

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GENERATION LIKE

TUESDAY, AUGUST 5  @ 11:00PM

Thanks to social media, today’s teens are able to directly interact with their culture — artists, celebrities, movies, brands, and even one another — in ways never before possible. But is that real empowerment? Or do marketers still hold the upper hand? In “Generation Like,” author and FRONTLINE correspondent Douglas Rushkoff (“The Merchants of Cool,” “The Persuaders”) explores how the perennial teen quest for identity and connection has migrated to social media — and exposes the game of cat-and-mouse that corporations are playing with these young consumers. Do kids think they’re being used? Do they care? Or does the perceived chance to be the next big star make it all worth it? The film is a powerful examination of the evolving and complicated relationship between teens and the companies that are increasingly working to target them.

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LAS MARTHAS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17 @ 8:00PM

In the lingering aftermath of the U.S.-Mexican War, the border town of Laredo, Texas created an annual debutante ball unlike any other. Las Marthas follows two Mexican American girls carrying this gilded tradition on their shoulders during a time of economic uncertainty and tension over immigration.

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