On the planet Cybertron, a war was waged between the Autobots and the Decepticons for control of the Allspark, a mystical talisman that would grant unlimited power to whoever possessed it. The Allspark is smuggled off the planet, but Megatron goes in search of it. He tracks it to Earth and his desire for power sends him into the Arctic Ocean. The sheer cold forces him into a paralyzed state. His body is later recovered, and before going into a comatose...

The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the moon and race against the Decepticons to reach it and to learn its secrets.

How did the Renaissance - as it occurred in Italy and in other parts of Europe - pioneer a new way of thinking about history itself? Who, exactly, was the typical "Renaissance Man"? Get answers to these and other questions about the Renaissance's powerful fusion of classical and medieval worldviews.

Learn how Renaissance architects and city planners - including Donato Bramante, Sebastian Serlio, and Andrea Palladio - imbued sculpture and architecture with tremendous ideological and practical power. Then, discover how Renaissance musicians helped move music out of the religious sphere and into the princely courts.

Get a feel for what it was like to be a Protestant or Catholic in Reformation Europe. Your focus here: the culture wars that accompanied this period, including the rise of iconoclasts like Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, the use of vernacular language in religious services, and the dawn of Baroque art.

Discover why the Renaissance first bloomed in, of all places, Italy. First, look at the politics and economics of medieval Italian states. Then, explore how the legacies of antiquity gained traction throughout the peninsula. Finally, consider the influence of trade revivals, a dynamic social order, and the profits from holy wars.

What was domestic life like during the Renaissance? Get a feel for it with this lecture that highlights several topics related to home and hearth. These topics include: food culture (with a focus on baking), the practicalities of dress, the details about childrearing, and the role of servants and retainers.

The Renaissance is vital to understanding how Martin Luther took on the church and not only survived but thrived, initiating a protest movement that put an end to more than 1,000 years of Christian consensus. Start considering Martin Luther as a man of a very particular historical moment.

Why didn't the Catholic Church defeat the Reformation? Why didn't it do more to stop Martin Luther? Cultivate a new way of thinking about the papal response to the theological revolution - epitomized by the Council of Trent, which created a Roman Catholic identity.

In the first of several lectures on the interaction among the states of early modern Europe, learn how diplomacy operated in a Europe increasingly characterized by religious dissention and violence. Central to this subject is the important role of permanent ambassadors and other diplomatic figures.