Writing itself is 5,000 years old, and for most of that time words were written by hand using a variety of tools. The Romans were able to run an empire thanks to documents written on papyrus. Scroll books could be made quite cheaply and, as a result, ancient Rome had a thriving written culture. With the fall of the Roman Empire, papyrus became more difficult to obtain. Europeans were forced to turn to a much more expensive surface on which to write: Parchment. Medieval handwritten books could cost as much as a house, they also represent a limitation on literacy and scholarship. No such limitations were felt in China, where paper had been invented in the second century. Paper was the foundation of Chinese culture and power, and for centuries how to make it was kept secret. When the secret was out, paper mills soon sprang up across central Asia. The result was an intellectual flourishing known as the Islamic Golden Age. Muslim scholars made discoveries in biology, geology, astronomy and mathematics. By contrast, Europe was an intellectual backwater. That changed with Gutenberg’s development of movable type printing. The letters of the Latin alphabet have very simple block-like shapes, which made it relatively simple to turn them into type pieces. When printers tried to use movable type to print Arabic texts, they found themselves hampered by the cursive nature of Arabic writing. The success of movable type printing in Europe led to a thousand-fold increase in the availability of information, which produced an explosion of ideas that led directly to the European Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution that followed.
Episode 3 continues to show the obstacles faced with charging electric bikes in remote places, but Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman start to learn and evolve their process. The risk of cold temperatures is high but they bravely do it anyway. The duo is having a hard time of it out there but, thankfully, the scenery is absolutely stunning. Heading through Patagonia, Ewan and Charley stay at an eco-lodge in one of the world’s remotest areas with people that live off the grid.
We take it for granted, but every time we pick up a pen or type on the keyboard, we are employing the most powerful technology ever invented: the technology of writing. Explore how the invention of writing gave humanity a history. From hieroglyphs to emojis, the series is an exploration of the way in which the technology of writing has shaped the world we live in. The invention of writing about 5,000 years ago made civilization itself possible, and every innovation of the modern world is based on the foundation of the written word. But how and where did writing begin, and who began it? In From Pictures to Words, the first of three films about the history of writing, we uncover the hidden links between all the diverse writing systems in use today and trace the origin of our own alphabet to a turquoise mine in the Sinai Desert and a man riding a donkey whose name was Khebded.
Ewan, Charley, and the team land in Ushuaia, the southernmost tip of South America, but tensions arise due to snow and mechanical issues. Traveling 13000 miles over 100 days on electric bikes is hard to imagine. Ewan McGregor and Charles Boorman find out how challenging their mission is as they embark on a journey on prototype Harley Davidsons and the Rivian trucks. The first obstacle is electricity. While parts of the city have no problems with charging the bikes and the trucks, the countryside is where the duo face issues.
Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, after more than a decade since their last motorbike adventure around the world, will cover 13,000 miles over 100 days through 13 countries. Starting from the city of Ushuaia at the tip of South America, Ewan and Charley travel through the glorious and underexposed landscapes of South and Central America to Los Angeles in the United States in their most challenging expedition to date. In their journey they will use cutting-edge technology on the backs of their prototype electric Harley-Davidsons in order to contribute to the sustainability of the planet. In the first episode, Ewan McGregor reunites with his best friend Charley Boorman to evaluate what's important in their lives, following a life-threatening accident of Charley.
The second part of this series begins with his return home after his discharge from the army, and how he dealt with a rapidly changing pop scene. The picture is more complicated than even a fairly serious Elvis fan may understand. Priscilla Presley, who made some appearances in the first part, offers much more here, helping us understand how being forced into making a string of lousy movies was one kind of artistic prison, and then being ensconced in casino hotels for his famous Las Vegas residency was another. The man who had so carefully created his original persona was now stuck in the shallow roles others forced him to play.
No such limitations were felt in China, where paper had been invented in the second century. Paper was the foundation of Chinese culture and power, and for centuries how to make it was kept secret. When the secret was out, paper mills soon sprang up across central Asia. The result was an intellectual flourishing known as the Islamic Golden Age. Muslim scholars made discoveries in biology, geology, astronomy and mathematics. By contrast, Europe was an intellectual backwater.
That changed with Gutenberg’s development of movable type printing. The letters of the Latin alphabet have very simple block-like shapes, which made it relatively simple to turn them into type pieces. When printers tried to use movable type to print Arabic texts, they found themselves hampered by the cursive nature of Arabic writing. The success of movable type printing in Europe led to a thousand-fold increase in the availability of information, which produced an explosion of ideas that led directly to the European Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution that followed.