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If you haven't watched this entire series you absolutely have to. It totally changed the way I think about things and I can't think of a single person I've reco

If you haven't watched this entire series you absolutely have to. It totally changed the way I think about things and I can't think of a single person I've recommended it to that wasn't totally blown away by it. Even now it's super interesting and entertaining, even at around 40 years old.

ulf-77723 3y ago
Where is it available?
- aastronaut 3y ago
  https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978 https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978
- ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
  Not on BBC's iPlayer, despite it being a BBC production. There's so much good old stuff that the BBC can't be bothered to put up on iPlayer - they'd rather fawn over royalty or pretend to be impartial by giving equal time to experts and the sanity-challenged.
  - OJFord 3y ago
    More stupid is that it may or may not be on their (joint with ITV) paid 'BritBox' service. I'd probably have signed up in an instant (despite the stupid name) if it had the whole archive. (But it doesn't, so (a) it's possible it doesn't have Connections; (b) I haven't signed up and don't know if it does or not.)
    - ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
      https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke Also available on YouTube and torrents.
      - OJFord 3y ago
        I mean the whole BBC (nevermind ITV) archive, not Connections specifically which I've never heard of before now. If they just put up everything they already made they could charge more than Netflix IMO. Instead, god knows why, it's a limited selection that too from which some missing episodes due to the usual 'woke' rewriting of history & present (racist or whatever-ist people exist right, so what's the problem with a show having such a character? Doesn't mean it's right, nor that the show itself is that-ist).
        ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
        > not Connections specifically which I've never heard of before now You're in for a treat, especially if you can enjoy the 70s stylings of James Burke. I particularly enjoy his dry wit which would probably be toned down quite a bit for modern serious productions. > the usual 'woke' rewriting of history & present It's not so much rewriting (unless you're a publisher looking for free publicity), but attempting to not broadcast very offensive material that was considered normal back in the day (much as slavery used to be considered normal). Personally, I was quite a fan of "Till Death Us Do Part" featuring Alf Garnett as a racist bigot, but then I can appreciate irony and that the programmes were making the point that he was a character to be lampooned and pitied. However, there's too many people that would accept it at face value and use it to justify their vile racism, so I can understand that it's not suitable for modern consumption.
    - geoelectric 3y ago
      It's not on the Prime Video Britbox channel, which I do have. Only the new one shows on Prime at all, via the Curiosity Stream channel. Britbox doesn't publish their standalone app library but googling the two names together doesn't suggest they have it either.
  - ska 3y ago
    BBC iPlayer access is different in UK than elsewhere, right? I suspect for much of the older stuff it's licensing issues making it not worth the time to verify, in their view. Just because it's BBC production doesn't mean there isn't 3rd party stuff that has to be checked. That and content, they probably don't want to air everything they did in the 60s/70s for example, for fear of being buried in complaints...
    - TylerE 3y ago
      I think a lot of times they licensed the soundtrack for the initial broadcast(s) only. Home media wasn't a thing in the 60s for video.
      - ska 3y ago
        Good point. Very unlikely it was licensed outside the UK even after home video started.
        ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
        I think they showed it on PBS
        ska 3y ago
        As I understand it though, the typical way this would happen is through a new and/or separate licensing agreement (in this case for PBS, and for a different region, etc.)
    - ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
      The older programmes were typically exclusively BBC produced content - I can't think of any part of Connections that would be problematic for them. Surely with a new series of Connections having been made, they should have a look at making it available. It was a similar thing with their Oppenheimer series - fully available on YouTube and not on iPlayer.
- esafak 3y ago
  https://www.kanopy.com/en/video/1217815 https://www.kanopy.com/en/video/1217815
audunw 3y ago
I'm dreaming that someone will remake Connections some day. The quality of the recordings are quite bad, and while I think retelling the stories with a new production would be great in itself, I'm sure there's many new stories that could be told with additional research. I think Robert Murray-Smith would be a great host. He has some of the same energy as Burke and he has some history-related videos on YouTube that has some of the same style of storytelling. Kathy Joseph would be great for the research side. Her book "The Lightning Tamers" is pretty good at describing some of these weird connections and interesting stories throughout the history of electricity.
- fho 3y ago
  > Robert Murray-Smith After watching his videos every day for months now I am still not sure where on the "technical genius" to "free energy advocate" spectrum I should place him. I mean most of his builds are technically correct (e.g. most of his generators produce a voltage), but he often glosses over details that in practice make the idea unfeasible (e.g. a voltage does not help you if the generator can not provide enough current). Other times he is just wrong ... just because whales and "tree-spinning-things" have similar "wings" does not mean that you can blow up the same shape to a wind turbine size. (The reason behind that is that the smaller you get the more viscous air becomes (relatively) ... flies and other small insects literally swim through the air because of that. Imo that could be an explanation why the tree-spinny-things have a similar shape, they are just small enough that they "swim", too.)
  - Infernal 3y ago
    Can you help me understand why air is (relatively) more viscous the smaller you are? Does it have something to do with the volume (mass) of an object growing faster than the surface area available to support it in the air? Or is it something else?
    - FiatLuxDave 3y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number Read down until 'similarity of flows'
fho 3y ago
I recently looked at an old technical encyclopedia at my grand mother's place. I paged through that 30 years ago when I was a little kid ... and was a bit surprised to see that a lot of it is still relevant today.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

ulf-77723 3y ago

Where is it available?

aastronaut 3y ago
https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978 https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978
ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
Not on BBC's iPlayer, despite it being a BBC production. There's so much good old stuff that the BBC can't be bothered to put up on iPlayer - they'd rather fawn over royalty or pretend to be impartial by giving equal time to experts and the sanity-challenged.
- OJFord 3y ago
  More stupid is that it may or may not be on their (joint with ITV) paid 'BritBox' service. I'd probably have signed up in an instant (despite the stupid name) if it had the whole archive. (But it doesn't, so (a) it's possible it doesn't have Connections; (b) I haven't signed up and don't know if it does or not.)
  - ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
    https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke Also available on YouTube and torrents.
    - OJFord 3y ago
      I mean the whole BBC (nevermind ITV) archive, not Connections specifically which I've never heard of before now. If they just put up everything they already made they could charge more than Netflix IMO. Instead, god knows why, it's a limited selection that too from which some missing episodes due to the usual 'woke' rewriting of history & present (racist or whatever-ist people exist right, so what's the problem with a show having such a character? Doesn't mean it's right, nor that the show itself is that-ist).
      - ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
        > not Connections specifically which I've never heard of before now You're in for a treat, especially if you can enjoy the 70s stylings of James Burke. I particularly enjoy his dry wit which would probably be toned down quite a bit for modern serious productions. > the usual 'woke' rewriting of history & present It's not so much rewriting (unless you're a publisher looking for free publicity), but attempting to not broadcast very offensive material that was considered normal back in the day (much as slavery used to be considered normal). Personally, I was quite a fan of "Till Death Us Do Part" featuring Alf Garnett as a racist bigot, but then I can appreciate irony and that the programmes were making the point that he was a character to be lampooned and pitied. However, there's too many people that would accept it at face value and use it to justify their vile racism, so I can understand that it's not suitable for modern consumption.
  - geoelectric 3y ago
    It's not on the Prime Video Britbox channel, which I do have. Only the new one shows on Prime at all, via the Curiosity Stream channel. Britbox doesn't publish their standalone app library but googling the two names together doesn't suggest they have it either.
- ska 3y ago
  BBC iPlayer access is different in UK than elsewhere, right? I suspect for much of the older stuff it's licensing issues making it not worth the time to verify, in their view. Just because it's BBC production doesn't mean there isn't 3rd party stuff that has to be checked. That and content, they probably don't want to air everything they did in the 60s/70s for example, for fear of being buried in complaints...
  - TylerE 3y ago
    I think a lot of times they licensed the soundtrack for the initial broadcast(s) only. Home media wasn't a thing in the 60s for video.
    - ska 3y ago
      Good point. Very unlikely it was licensed outside the UK even after home video started.
      - ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
        I think they showed it on PBS
        ska 3y ago
        As I understand it though, the typical way this would happen is through a new and/or separate licensing agreement (in this case for PBS, and for a different region, etc.)
  - ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
    The older programmes were typically exclusively BBC produced content - I can't think of any part of Connections that would be problematic for them. Surely with a new series of Connections having been made, they should have a look at making it available. It was a similar thing with their Oppenheimer series - fully available on YouTube and not on iPlayer.
esafak 3y ago
https://www.kanopy.com/en/video/1217815 https://www.kanopy.com/en/video/1217815

audunw 3y ago

I'm dreaming that someone will remake Connections some day. The quality of the recordings are quite bad, and while I think retelling the stories with a new production would be great in itself, I'm sure there's many new stories that could be told with additional research. I think Robert Murray-Smith would be a great host. He has some of the same energy as Burke and he has some history-related videos on YouTube that has some of the same style of storytelling. Kathy Joseph would be great for the research side. Her book "The Lightning Tamers" is pretty good at describing some of these weird connections and interesting stories throughout the history of electricity.

fho 3y ago
> Robert Murray-Smith After watching his videos every day for months now I am still not sure where on the "technical genius" to "free energy advocate" spectrum I should place him. I mean most of his builds are technically correct (e.g. most of his generators produce a voltage), but he often glosses over details that in practice make the idea unfeasible (e.g. a voltage does not help you if the generator can not provide enough current). Other times he is just wrong ... just because whales and "tree-spinning-things" have similar "wings" does not mean that you can blow up the same shape to a wind turbine size. (The reason behind that is that the smaller you get the more viscous air becomes (relatively) ... flies and other small insects literally swim through the air because of that. Imo that could be an explanation why the tree-spinny-things have a similar shape, they are just small enough that they "swim", too.)
- Infernal 3y ago
  Can you help me understand why air is (relatively) more viscous the smaller you are? Does it have something to do with the volume (mass) of an object growing faster than the surface area available to support it in the air? Or is it something else?
  - FiatLuxDave 3y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number Read down until 'similarity of flows'

fho 3y ago

I recently looked at an old technical encyclopedia at my grand mother's place. I paged through that 30 years ago when I was a little kid ... and was a bit surprised to see that a lot of it is still relevant today.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]