July 2009 Archives

This morning on Twitter we asked our followers "What would you like to know about @NatGeoChannel? I'll select some of your questions and have staff answer them!"

We got some great questions - and here are the answers. If you have other questions - post them in the comments or hit us up on Twitter at @natgeochannel!

@chmullig what dept/person actually manages the account? Do you use cotweet or something similar to help? Any metrics for succes?

The @NatGeoChannel account is managed by our digital marketing duo, Clay and Darren, with a ton of help this summer from our intern Rick. We use @HootSuite for some tools. We love hearing from our viewers about what they're watching on the Channel and hope that our Twitter followers learn something new every day by following us.

@Diamond_Back Where do I sign up to be a National Geographic explorer?

You can actually apply to be a National Geographic grantee/explorer from the National Geographic Society. Information about how to apply is available here 

@mitchbrevard is the show repossessed real or staged?

We love Repossessed and it's 100% real! Larry Pittman, who is featured in the show, runs Jam Recovery  based in New Jersey. For those of you unfamiliar with Repossessed, you can see what we're talking about here  - we think you'll love it.

Gareth Harvey
Field Producer
World's Toughest Fixes: Atom Smasher
Premieres Thursday July 30 9P et/pt

I was definitely the envy of my television buddies when I told them I was off to CERN in Geneva, Switzerland to film the final repairs on the world's biggest atom smasher - the Large Hadron Collider. Most of us who work at or for Nat Geo are amateur scientists. 'Big' science in my case. The Big Bang... the origin of existence... alternate dimensions... 'dark matter'... even parallel universes. It all comes together at the Large Hadron Collider - a seventeen-mile subterranean super-magnetic speedway where sub-atomic particles are smashed together at nearly the speed of light. (Now YOU try to get more words starting with 's' into a single sentence!)

Seriously, if you're interested in 'big' science, it doesn't come any bigger than this - I was off on another Nat Geo adventure...

Many have seen edition's of Chapman's Checklist in this space, and while I enjoy giving you all my perspective on programming here, I thought this time around why not make my colleagues give you a taste of what's coming up the pike...

That said as the summer winds down and the fall ramps up, I'm confident to say that the channel will be going to the mattresses and bringing out some great Sunday night programming. In short we have some awesome Sundays.

Here is what people in my corner of the channel are getting excited for through the end of August...


The program delivers unprecedented access to information that Allied Forces kept secret for year. Walk the steps of former Allied Forces prisoners of war as they received classified maps, information and tools of deception from the Red Cross to escape their Nazi captures. Along the way some were lost to enemy forces trying to escape while others were able to find their way to freedom. It's a journey you will never forget.


What's so hidden about Hitler's Holocaust? Records of concentration camps provide perhaps the most undisputable evidence that the systematic killing of Jews and others deemed 'threats' to the Third Reich not only occurred, but occurred en masse. The people in the concentration camps were literally given numbers so they could be tracked in the camps--and at the end of World War II, these tracking numbers then provided the world with the staggering count of over five million killed during the Holocaust. The numbers also gave us a way to remember and honor the lives of those killed. But what about the unnumbered? What about those killed outside of concentration camp walls? Could there have been a 'hidden' Holocaust? Before the birth of concentration camps, an estimated 1.5 million people were killed in the Soviet Union by the German Army's Einsatzgruppen unit. What are these people's stories? Have we missed an entire chapter of Hitler's Holocaust? Find out Sunday at 10p with Nat Geo's eye-opening documentary, Hitler's Hidden Holocaust..


Sometimes I wonder what happens in development meetings here at the National Geographic Channel. I'm picturing a meeting where 5 or 6 people are sitting around a conference room table, drinking enormous amounts of coffee and trying to come up with a new slate of specials for the channel. Someone yells out- what if we sucked all the water off the planet and looked at the ocean floor? Head of programming replies - yes, do that, perfect, next! Months and months later, the result is Drain the Ocean, an awesome 2-hour special that shows what the world looks like underneath all that water. What mountains, canyons, plains and volcanoes exist but no one can see? Pretty stunning stuff.

Some tidbits of knowledge from Repo 101: Working for the Man.

1. When a repossession takes place the collectors are (in essence) giving up on their efforts to make a loan pay off and in their defeat the portfolio takes a loss of several thousands of dollars per vehicle repossessed.

2. Generally lending institutions never want to repossess because the items sold at a wholesale auction and were financed at retail price, hence, a loss is virtually guaranteed. However, the statisticians and accountants have determined that any loan which goes beyond 90 days past due will never again become "current" (up to date on payments) and the collateral to depreciate.

3. It's not cheap to repossess a car: with fees and auction costs added in, banks stand to lose $6,000 to $9,000 a car, according to the Consumer Bankers Association.

Not that there isn't enough interesting things in the actual show itself (running July 28th at 9pm EST) but here's some more interesting tidbits picked up by the Nat Geo research group.

There are 30,000 known antiquity sites in Israel and most of these are unguarded.

95% of all antiquities sold by antiquity dealers in Israel are either stolen or looted.

The most famous forger in history, Moses Shapira, convinced scholars that his objects were genuine by burying them in the ground, and then digging them up with the scholars present. Over a thousand of his forged artefacts were purchased by the British Museum.

Officially any archaeological object found in Israel after 1978 belongs to the State of Israel. Objects found before this can be bought and sold.

The Bible tells us that more than 30,000 people helped build the Temple of Solomon. They worked for one month on and two months off in shifts of 10,000 at a time.

After Jerusalem's destruction in 586 BC by the Babylonians, there has been no record of Ark of the Covenant. This has spawned countless adventure stories like Indiana Jones 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.

The Jehoash Tablet broke in to two pieces while in possession of the police, who had confiscated it from Oded Golan. The Jehoash Tablet was reportedly offered to the Israel Museum for $4 million.

The Western Wall, better known as the Wailing Wall was part of the complex that housed the Second Temple; But the wall - all that remains - was not built until 20 BC by Herod the Great.

First Job? Barnstormer
Young Lindbergh spent a lot of his time around Lambert Field in St. Louis where he picked up skills from the other aviators. In addition to barnstorming with other pilots, Lindbergh was invited to join Vera May Dunlap's Flying Circus in 1925. Barnstorming was a popular form of entertainment in the 1920's in which pilots performed breathtaking stunts with their airplanes. In touring groups they were also called a flying circus.

Nickname for Airmail? Flaming Coffins
Early airmail flight was dangerous and pilots needed to have a considerable amount of daredevil in them to brave the risks. The pilot would sit in the rear cockpit, so that he could keep an eye on the mailbags up front . Airplane crashes at the time were still common. The air mail pilots had the challenging task of flying at night without navigation instruments or modern GPS, solely relying on visual contact with the ground or, at night, the lights of a town. The air mail planes were also called "flaming coffins" because crashes happened frequently.

When I started this project I already knew Charles Lindbergh as 1) an aviation pioneer 2) the victim of a horrific crime; and 3) a Nazi. The man's life was an open book, I thought. What more was there to learn about him? Turns out, there's a lot more to Charles Lindbergh than most of us ever knew. As I soon discovered, Lindbergh was more anti-interventionist than pro-Nazi: he opposed American involvement in any European war. And that was just the first layer of myth that began to fall away the deeper I delved.

I got to play the role of aviator, Charles Lindbergh for National Geographic's documentary. The documentary covers his entire life; I portrayed him from age 25 to approximately 30. This time frame covers the historic flight and the notorious kidnapping of his first born child. In preparing for the role I read that later in life Lindbergh had an affair with two German sisters - playing the younger Lindbergh I sat in an airplane for hours upon hours and had my baby stolen. No love scenes for me. The project did offer some fun experiences:

"IN SEARCH OF D.B. COOPER - New Developments in the Unsolved Case"

Electron microscopes, dollar bills on a fishing pole, and a French Canadian comic book hero are providing tantalizing new insights into one of our greatest unsolved mysteries--the D.B. Cooper case.

We've told the story here before--how in 1971 a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a plane from Portland to Seattle, demanded parachutes and $200,000 in cash, then jumped into the night with the money, never to be seen again.

Did he survive the jump? That is the subject of great debate. But as it turns out, a certain Dan Cooper is very much alive--on the pages of a French comic book series that was popular when the hijacking occurred. In the fictional series, Royal Canadian Air Force test pilot Dan Cooper takes part in adventures in outer space and real events of that era. In one episode, published near the date of the hijacking, the cover illustration shows him parachuting.

Parachutes, comic books, cigarettes, and rivers. The case of D. B. Cooper seems to be ever more expanding rather than coming to a point with each added year of investigation.

I have been working with Edge West Production Company on our latest documentary for National Geographic and I have to say, this seems more like investigative reporting than your classic documentary.

The story goes as I'm sure you well know, a man named Dan Cooper paid $20 for a airplane ticket on November 24th, 1971. He was flying the route from Portland, OR to Seattle, WA- the afternoon flight full of people traveling home for Thanksgiving. After a series of details- which our documentary well covers, Dan Cooper receives his demands for $200,000 and four parachutes, sets the plane in the direction of Reno, NV, filled only with himself, pilot and co-pilot and one stewardess.
The plane lands in Reno, empty. Dan Cooper seems to have disappeared from the plane, and the FBI's grasp, but certainly not the media.

Dan Cooper, later known as D. B. Cooper, is indeed legendary. The man seems to have been transformed from a true criminal who threatened the lives of individuals and forever shifted many aspects of airport regulations, to a uniquely fascinating character full of mystery. A story of great folklore.

The Yukon Territory is a vast swathe of rugged wilderness. Covering 483,450 square kilometres, the Yukon is large enough to hold the states of California, Arizona, Delaware and West Virginia, the geography largely consists of mountain ranges, dense forests, lakes and the 2,200 mile long Yukon river. To learn more go to Alone in the Wild.

In addition to black and grizzly bears, Ed is sharing the Yukon wilderness with over 60 mammals, including moose, caribou, stone sheep, wolves, around 227 birds such as ducks, geese, hawks, bald and golden eagles, 36 species of fish, 92 species of butterfly and over six thousand species of insect - including millions of blood sucking mosquitos. For more fun like this go to Alone in the Wild.

Eskimo potato (Hedysarum alpinum) is favorite food of many bears. Prolific in the Yukon area, the root of the plant can also provide Ed with essential nutrients while he's living in the wilderness. However, the Eskimo potato is almost identical to a plant with toxic roots, so Ed will have to be careful in choosing plants to eat. Confusion over differentiating between the plants is rumoured to have led to the death of Christopher McCandless, documented in the book 'Into The Wild'. See more at Alone in the Wild

Melissa Harward
Intern, Digital Media

As an animal lover, I don't like to think about the millions of animals that are euthanized in shelters each year. If I had the resources, I'd adopt all of them--cats, dogs, iguanas--and I'm sure many people feel the same way. However, seeing as I'm not allowed to have a pet in my dorm, I don't think that will happen any time soon. I am, therefore, always proud of the many save-the-animals organizations out there who try, despite the lack of funding and recognition for their efforts. Organizations like Best Friends Animal Society.

Today, however, these organizations have something else to be proud of.

Best Friends Animal Society was awarded a 2009 Asset Forfeiture National Award today by the U.S. Department of Justice for its work with the dogs from the Michael Vick case. In 2007, Best Friends wrote to the U.S. Attorney's Office offering to take 22 of the worst-case Michael Vick pit bulls, many of who were considered "lost causes."

However, these "Vicktory" dogs, four of which were featured on the National Geographic Channel's show DogTown: Saving the Michael Vick Dogs, have slowly been recovering from their previous lives thanks to the dedication and hard work of those at Best Friends. One has been adopted, and another dog is one step closer in foster care.

John Garcia and Michelle Beshmehn, two co-managers and trainers from DogTown, accepted the award on behalf of the Best Friends Animal Society.

Lisa Modarelli Werner
Associate Producer
World's Toughest Fixes

I used to go out in the field for National Geographic TV, but with World's Toughest Fixes, I decided to take things down a notch and work on the back-end of the Series - I am the Post Production Associate Producer for the team. I am the girl who is usually in the office, holding down the fort, and seeing the shows through to their end... known, lovingly, by the WTF Team as the "Mother Hen". But for the "Columbia River Dam" episode, Rob Kerr, our Series Producer, and I got our "Day Passes" - permission to leave the nest and hit the field for some good ol' nostalgic times - out of the office, in the open air, filming for 16 hours a day, hauling gear all over the place, meeting and greeting, not having time to eat, getting 3-hours of sleep a night, just to get up and do it all again. It went on like that for two weeks straight.

My gosh - I forgot how exhausting it all is! But it is definitely worth it - especially with the team of characters who are almost ALWAYS in the field for this Series: Sean Riley, Eric Cochran, and David Ruddick. These guys go non-stop, gunning and running, moving and shaking. And what's more - they have fun while doing it. Put them together with our irreverent leader, Rob - and filming this episode was pure fun. READ ON >>

Send us a shot of your most amazing catch! Upload your photo here. Don't have evidence of your whopper catch? You can just browse the photos and read about others' "fish tales."

Now, I'm not going to lie, I'm no fisherwoman, but I uploaded a picture of my "most amazing" catch which I couldn't have been more proud of. No, it wasn't a huge fish. It was more about the pride in actually catching a fish. I went fly fishing when I was on a family vacation in Durango, Colorado. It was me, my dad, and my brother that were brave enough to wear waders out in the river. Being the youngest of five kids, I usually lost at any family games, activities, sports, you name it! But alas, I did get my 5 minutes of glory when we walked away from that river with only one fish caught that day. My fish! But don't worry, we got a quick picture then I put him back in the river.