James Burke has put all of his TV shows on YouTube for free!] Who’s James Burke you might ask? He’s the guy that did Connections, The Day the Universe Changed, Connections 2, and Connections 3, to name the shows 'Merkins will be most familiar with. The Connections series show how one invention led to another, and then to another, and so on, with many of them being accidental. The Day the Universe Changed shows how various scientific discoveries changed societies. Absolutely fascinating stuff, and well worth rewatching if you haven’t seen it in a while. (I hadn’t seen the original Connections series since it first aired back in the 70s. The last episode pretty well nails the development of the internet and some of the issues around privacy, long before most people ever thought of such things.)
Great series, watched it back in 1979. It is so scientifically historical it will never become obsolete.
Should practically be mandatory in 7th grade, if not sooner.
The last Connections episode is so funny with those “ANCIENT” computers and him talking about “holiday jets.”
Really Cool!
psik
Huh. Looks neat. 
James Burke has put all of his TV shows on YouTube for free!] Who's James Burke you might ask? He's the guy that did Connections, The Day the Universe Changed, Connections 2, and Connections 3, to name the shows 'Merkins will be most familiar with. The Connections series show how one invention led to another, and then to another, and so on, with many of them being accidental. The Day the Universe Changed shows how various scientific discoveries changed societies. Absolutely fascinating stuff, and well worth rewatching if you haven't seen it in a while. (I hadn't seen the original Connections series since it first aired back in the 70s. The last episode pretty well nails the development of the internet and some of the issues around privacy, long before most people ever thought of such things.)Yea man ! I discovered those a couple months back and have been reacquainting myself... since I was familiar with James Burke Connections series back in the day. Fun thought provoking stuff, even if some errors and flaws occur. I keep meaning to revisit his
"After the Warming" James Burke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfE8wBReIxw Using "virtual reality" computer simulations, social journalist James Burke traces the Earth's history of ice ages and warming trends, and presents several possible scenarios caused by the greenhouse effect during the 1990s to 2050. The video release consists of two videos, "The Fatal Flower" and "Secret of the Deep."I remember it making an impression on me then, considering I was already worrying about the society driven global warming thing. I'm weirdly hesitant . . . I'll get to it one of these evenings.
I remember it making an impression on me then, considering I was already worrying about the society driven global warming thing. I'm weirdly hesitant . . . I'll get to it one of these evenings.The really funny thing is how he describes governments doing more and more studies and producing more and more reports but never actually doing anything. He got that right. psik
James Burke has put all of his TV shows on YouTube for free!] Who's James Burke you might ask? He's the guy that did Connections, The Day the Universe Changed, Connections 2, and Connections 3, to name the shows 'Merkins will be most familiar with. The Connections series show how one invention led to another, and then to another, and so on, with many of them being accidental. The Day the Universe Changed shows how various scientific discoveries changed societies. Absolutely fascinating stuff, and well worth rewatching if you haven't seen it in a while. (I hadn't seen the original Connections series since it first aired back in the 70s. The last episode pretty well nails the development of the internet and some of the issues around privacy, long before most people ever thought of such things.)I was absolutely fascinated by Mr. Burke and his "Connections"...if all history teachers in our finest universities had his creativity and verve....history would be the most attended class in .... well ... history!! I'll check out youtube at once!
I’ve been watching these Youtube uploads once in a while since reading this thread. Very good stuff. It’s not just that the show is well-written and well-produced, but sometimes just seeing some of the locations that they bothered to get to is fun. The opening sequence of this one shows the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit, certainly an iconic building for that city. Circa 1978, which as someone who gigs in Detroit often, was interesting to see the view to the south from the towers and what was and was not there.
CT,
Thanks for the link. I had watched some of his episodes, but this is a treasure chest.
TA,
Re you signature. In fact quite a few musicians practice “string theory”.
TA, Re you signature. In fact quite a few musicians practice "string theory".Sometimes. More often, we practice number theory: "Hey, can I have your number?" "no."