As an agent of decay, fungi performs a function essential to life on earth. Using advanced time lapse photography, The Rotten World About Us explores the entire decay process, from the critical role fungi plays in food webs to some of its more unusual symbiotic relationships. Examines the organisms whose family includes mushrooms, molds, toadstools and rusts. Included: a look at poisonous and edible mushrooms; microscopic photography of developing soil fungus. Conducting a survey of all things rotten and rancid, this production was the dream child of renowned wildlife producer Barry Paine. Waiting over twenty years for the opportunity to complete the microscopic study, Paine enlisted the specialist filming techniques of Oxford Scientific Films, practically wrecking their laboratories by filling the entire premises with fungal spores.

A short introduction to everyday Greek for absolute beginners, covering the most useful travel basics. Set in Athens, the Peloponnese, northern Greece, Santorini and Crete, the series also gives insights into Greek life and culture.

Sparta was a city in the ancient Greek state of Lakedaimon, the only state in Greece to have a full-time army. The institutions of the state and the system of education were organised with a view to creating superbly trained soldiers. Isocrates compared the Lakedaimonian political community to a military camp and Aristotyle criticised the Lakedaimonian constitution because it was organised entirely to promote military virtue. Nick Sekunda examines this ancient military machine, describing the organisational system of the Spartan army, the battles they fought and the society that produced them.

This work is a complete overview of the evolving organization, tactics, doctrine, weapons and equipment of the US Infantry in the Pacific, Mediterranean and European theatres, from 1944 to the war's end. This follow-up to Battle Orders 17: US Army Infantry Divisions 1942-43, covers the critical period 1944-45 when changes instituted by Lieutenant General Leslie J McNair, the head of the Army Ground Forces and an organizational genius, were imposed on an army reluctant to change.