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  • "Scandinavian Airlines 911"

  • Man, that was an excellent show.

  • @JamesBurkeWeb I read the comments all the way back. That in itself was worth the time... Is that Bernie Mac at 8:33. He names them all except the black guy. He shows a strong racist tendency.

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  • Figure he made this 30 years ago. He is speaking like people are still not today. Why would you not assume the second 'speaking'?

  • Probably been said a 100 times... This show should be in syndication every SATURDAY morning.

  • wow, is that the WTC at the start? then flight 911? l hope the NWO nuts dont see this ha

  • Beginning of episode he takes an elevator to the top of the World Trade Center, then later they focus on Scandinavian Airlines flight 911... totally eerie.

  • have you played the game.

  • Love "Connections", but its kind of weird from a 9/11 perspective to watch James Burke ride to the top of the World Trade Center.

  • This is great. I once saw an episode of this years ago, but ended up doing a lot of travelling after and was never able to see another till now..Thanks for posting!!! This rocks!!!

  • Trouble on Scandinavian Flight 9-11(SK911)?

    Clearly, James Burke was trying to tell us something...lol

  • More relevant than ever. absolutely wonderful.

  • Did you know that an Ancient Roman device for cleaning ones toenails gave rise to the modern supercomputer?!?! TRUE!!!

    James Burke is incredible. When I first got into Connections back in the late 1980s I was surprised to read that he apparently had been given little respect in the UK for his work, whilst in the US he was met with rave revues. Of course, the US gave the world "Cosmos" with Carl Sagan, who also took flak for popularizing science.

  • Between Connections, The Day The Universe Changed, The Secret Life of Machines and Cosmos, my life was changed. Thank you WTTW Chicago!

  • what's the difference between the trigger effect and the butterfly effect? Seems like shit just happens

  • wow

    wtc

    kennedy airport.

    flight 911

    freaky!!!

  • @Opedanderson lol i know noticed the same thing

  • he's starts the show on top of the world trade center there's an airplane flight 911

    and the shows titled CONNECTIONS . prophecy or no?

  • @OUTOFGAS88 "connection"

  • @OUTOFGAS88 Prophetic? It gets weirder. If you follow episode 1 to its end (part 5), Burke talks about Kuwait.

    Connections, wow, aptly named. Fast forward a few years. Kuwait has oil and credit that indebted Iraq wants. Iraq invades. US & allies responds with Gulf War 1. Posts troops on Saudi soil. Upsets radical Islamists. Attack on WTC in 1993 and then on 9/11 2001. This whole episode is one right big circle.

    Reality can be indeed stranger than fiction.

  • Weird that he went into the World Trade Center and rode the elevator to the top floor. Then they start talking about an airplane - Scandinavian flight 911.

  • @OldLadyUU Another piece of evidence proving my theory that it WASN'T the al-Qaeda and it WASN'T an inside job, it was the goddam Scandinavians!

  • @URProductions That's complete ludacris. 9/11 was done by Will Ghithner and Joe Blanchard who had connections in Southern Sudan and participated in the undercover C.I.A operation in Germany "Operation: Two house" which involved a coffee that was strategically filled with sour milk, making the person drinking it cringe. THIS IS WHAT THE CIA DOES!! BELIEVE!

  • @URProductions well mybe not scandinavians but definitely europeans

  • Fantastic - that is how you start a TV series.

  • Did you know in the '70s they had the technology to smoke on airplanes??? HOLY SHIT

  • @Youdumbkids yes and second hand smoke was truly not an issue, the air in the plane is hundreds of times over filtered , the smoke disapeared almost immediately.

  • What happened? Don't leave me in suspenders!!

  • Whatever happened to JB? He was all over the TV once.

  • Wjatever happened to JB? He was all over the TV once.

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  • Fuck yeah, James Burke pumps me UPPPPPPPPP!

  • @oregonnich You Hit the Nail on the Head.

  • OK get to the bloody point, what happenned?

  • URGENT. Anyone know of the episode or clip where James Burke is asking some space scientists why they spent so much money on the moon mission when there is people on Earth in poverty. To which the scientists replied they were studying the moon surface and its similarities with the Earth and went on to talk about a finding belt of melted rocks across the moons surface? Anyone who can tell me which specific episode or send me the link to the clip, I promise to reward with 10 pound by paypal

  • "I'll be there" - Tim Heidecker

  • In my opinion, this is one of the absolute best tv series premiere episodes of all time- hands down!

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  • SWEET LADY, I want your boooody

  • I have watched 10 minutes of this and havent learnt anything

  • @Neuromancer1943 Not even patience and not to expect immediate gratification. Nor good sense either.

  • @Neuromancer1943 Hey man,give it a chance. Thats how this show works..its CONNECTIONS..at the end of the show he shows how the end ties in with the beginnings, how everything is connected. Its an acquired taste maybe. But 10 minutes isnt enough//to "get it"

  • This series, Carl Sagan's Cosmos, Thorugh the Wormhole, and Wonders of the Solar System should all be required study material to graduate science class in high school.

  • did anyone notice that the flight in to JFK was flight 911? Odd coincidence.

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  • @DrJuice1 You sure are amazin!

  • What year was this episode from?? Is he walking into the Twin Towers?? Wow LOVE this series!! A total mind f****

  • This is one of the best of all time sciences programs. It ranks up there close to, but not quite, Carl Sagan's Cosmos.

  • This is the second time I'm watching this (on youtube, seen bits and pieces on discovery as sa kid/teen). Really fantastic mind. I have to get his books. Big thanks for the uploads!

  • The single-most influential television series on my life. I've never stopped learning or desiring to learn because of this show.

  • Does anybody know what building he's in when he gets on the elevator??

  • @jjadedforever It is the World Trade Center, can't tell which tower it was but I recognized it as he walked in and certainly as the camera panned from the rooftop.

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  • I almost laughed at the fact that flight 911 in its missed landing approach had five other coincidences 1. 911 flew the exact reverse course over tower 1 with 1000 ft clearance.2.The aircraft was a 737. 3 The passenger load was the same. 4 The computers failed in10.2 seconds of the time in pm not am. 5 The towers sniffer dogs were on lrave for three days as on 911, and buildings 1,3,and 7 blacked out exactly as they collapsed on 911 seven its generator which failed at the pm am time of 911 EEK

  • Flight 911!!!

  • @Jazzmonkey24522 Yep kinda freaky eh!!!!

  • Great job in posting these.

    I never missed an episode of this on PBS, back in the 80s.

  • James Burke's Connections was a landmark science and technology documentary series, and is one of my favorites. 

  • wish i could smoke on the plane like that

  • Finally! I've been missing this show for way too long and couldn't locate the DVD set that once was offered. It doesn't seem that broadcasts nowadays can even come close to the high caliber of this show. Thanks.

  • this was a great series...i havent seen this in over ten years. after all this time, its still a great show,

  • There was another British series called "The Ascent of Man". It was hosted by Jakob Bronowski. It was one of BBC's first programs in colour. The first episode had amazing computer graphics (for 1970). They generated a skull with vector graphics on a CRT.

    Does anybody else remember this series and is it available for sale anywhere?

  • Ok I give up. How do see an entire episode. I happy to pay the this "channels" thing is not helpful.

  • keep me warm baby # lushfmlk.info #

  • make the video easier to find and buy and i will buy it. i have been looking for this forever.

  • I like this video. Thank you for your sharing. Hope to see next your video.

  • Thanks for putting this on. I remember watching this show years ago.

    The video quality and clothes date the production but the ideas and concepts are just as important today as they were years ago.

  • Fascinating show, I love seeing things that draw concepts together. The art of documentaries is in a sad state; American "educational" TV long ago gave up on science and culture altogether and started teaching all about aliens and sasquatches. So, Thanks for posting!

  • Just me or does the video stutter a bit?

  • It's not right to constantly keep repeating "they take it for granted". As if people are ignorant to the cause and effects of the technology around them, and their underlying complexity. The human brain has enough stimulation and processing to do just going about every day life, without thinking deeply in to every single piece of technology.

  • Why is it subtitled - I don't remember subtitles when I saw it the first time back in the 70s.

  • @blueray1969 That would be for the hearing impaired.

  • @operatorx well obviously. but there are so many other clips that don't. what a pity it isn't always done

  • @blueray1969 It's not subtitled; just click the red "CC" button and the captions will disappear.

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  • These shows changed my life. Helped me see the connections between things. People who don't get this are kind of handcapped by seeing only the conditions thatare adjacent to events, Rather than the wider conditions which may be setting local events in motion.

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  • Why did they stop making this series, it was one of the best show's of it's type.

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  • James Burke explains how the arc lamp was developed in Episode 9, part 3 of 5.

  • The gadget at the beginning of this episode is an electric arc lamp dating to the late nineteenth century. Most of its mechanism is intended to maintain a constant gap distance between the electrodes.

  • This series is so fabulous. I was raised on it.

    But what's with the subtitles?

  • @nikmills Not everyone who watches will understand his English accent.

  • I'm so glad these are up. This was one of the most enlightening series I've ever watched. I wanted my son to watch these but couldn't afford to buy the set.

  • why was I expecting 911 to show up in this vid , ya know in the movie The Maxtrix NEO pass port expires in sept 11th 2001 .

  • fuck yer james burke and carl sagan! my heroes!

  • This is for those who want to know what the fuck is up in the 'world'.

  • I love this series a saw Mr Burke´s programs here in Argentina in the 80´s, one scariest things of the first chapter begins in the WTC plaza and explains the tech network complexity that sorrounds modern life with and aerial view from the Towers in a moment of dialog he point to a flight arrival in the Kennedy Airport... the flight is the number 911. Incredible coincidence.

  • The first time I saw these on TV they where re-runs and I was like 12 (it was like 1994 or something). These videos (like Connections) blew my mind - I sure hope kids today can still see these.

    I really wish James Burke would do a new video series today like this or something else, but for now seeing these old ones are great.

    It's great because it works like a time capsule for life for when this was shot and all of the information he is giving us is all still great and has not aged a bit.

  • Remarkable!

  • This is the best series that ever aired on pbs!

    It's awesome!!!

  • I call the current under-25 generation "flatlanders", since they complain so quickly when the stuff on their screens doesn't respond instantaneously. They neither seem to know or care, what what goes on "behind" the screen, or what to do when "things don't work right" (aka Murphy's Law). This is the first time I've seen this episode in thirty years. It is an excellent reminder of the global "connections" that James Burke exposed us to, way back then. We still have lessons to learn.

  • @bobhhoffmann You should keep in mind that you're insulting the thousands of under-25 people who DO seem to know or care what goes on "behind the screen"...

  • The "world trade center" right at the beginning, an "airplane" , "twins" & 911 all mentioned in this video!! Wow, amazing.

  • LOL this show is so ^&% addictive that even though I have the entire boxed set of DVDs in the other room, I sat here and watched parts 1 thru 5 of ep 1 here and now when all i wanted to do was send my brother the link so he could watch this series.

  • Great series!!!

  • I absolutely loved that series. Is it not ironic that he's at the WTC? A hugely complex object brought down by shear terrorism at its worst?

  • Thanks for posting! I'm addicted to this show!

  • Greetings !

    Can you tell me in which episode (video) mr Burke quotes a rather pessymistic english renessance poem about how the world is falling apart ?

  • the secret life of machines is also a very good show

  • the secret life of machines was shown on TLC right before or after this show and it kicked ass too.

  • the secret life of machines was shown on TLC right before or after this show and it kicked ass too.

  • the secret life of machines was shown on TLC right before or after this show and it kicked ass too.

  • this book is great.

  • Is this guy still around? The wikipedia page says he hasn't done anything in quite a while.

  • I know he did an interview on Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History" last year - but I think he's dropped out of the mainstream. I certainly haven't seen him in UK TV in recent memory, i mean for one thing he's probably getting on a bit.

    Shame though, this is absoloutely amazing stuff.

  • I was looking for the gangster by the same name? jimmy the gent burke....

  • Everyone should read 'The Technological Society' by: Jacques Ellul

  • The muslims are about as responsible for 9/11 as the Poles were for WW2

  • @daysofnoah2012 What? Care to explain?

  • i was just making a stupid comment replying to something someone had said further down. its when the nazis staged a false attack against one of their own radio stations, posing as the polish. they then had a justification to start ww2 and blamed it on the poles

  • Bullshit

  • @daysofnoah2012

    Yeah, those gentle, peaceful, tolerant moslems could never do anything so vicious.

    Just like McVeigh never bombed the Murrah building.

  • World Trade Center. Fitting

  • Think of something as simple as pencil and paper. You could write and share every conceivable word, idea, or song, the only limitation is time.

  • I remember two television series that had a formative impact on my life during my high school years. One was Carl Sagan's "Cosmos". The other was this program, James Burke's "Connections". There were other great programs, but these two had the most impact towards pointing me in the direction of rational and creative thought.

  • Totally agree with you on this one.

    Cosmos, however, generally left me depressed.

    This one always left me excited.

  • @Hannsfeld I agree, exactly the same and nothing has done the same since. I've decided to start producing educational television shows since no one else has stepped up to the plate - what will the next generation do when they grow up with "worlds deadliest snakes?"

  • @Hannsfeld Exactly, I recently launched a program inspired by Cosmos and Connections which is on kickstarter right now (search gambling)

  • Basically, the butterfly effect...

  • You are not getting the point and how the h&^*ll would James Burke know about an event that happend several years after he made this docu

  • My husband and I used to watch these shows on PBS many years ago. It is a fantastic show and I learnt many things. Thanks

  • Not at all. Thank Mr. Burke!

  • standing on top of the world trade center building

  • Is he? I kind of doubt that ... but what do I know ;)

    Can you verify that somehow? Also, my recollection is that there were 2 buildings/towers...

  • I am positively sure that he IS standing on the top of ONE of the world trade center towers!!! Of course there were two towers and he could not stand on both of them at the same time. He starts out the series in the darkness at the base where there is that monument with the globe. He takes a few steps away and comes at the front where the architecture is recognizable (mall collection of arches form the wall). Then he enters the elevator and presses the number of the floor he wants

  • But of course surely you jest ;-)

  • Yes, of course.

    Although it would be interesting to be able to prove it somehow... I mean from a non-New Yorker's POV... an image say, from the same spot before & after the atrocity committed there.

    - JBW

  • I'll take you up on that one... Here goes... There is a Movie named Godspell. you can find it on youtube where they film a part of the musical on top of the world trade center. Whats even more interesting is the words that they sing up there. BTW you are replying as JamesBurkeWeb and not JamesBMotion however you admit "Yes, of course". Blew your own cover mate. :->>

  • I know I know... can be confusing sometimes (the sign in thing). OK I will check it out!

    - JBW / M

  • Richard Hammonds version doesn't cut it.

  • Acck, I missed the beginning, gonna watch back all the way through.

    I have to say that these video's may easily be the most interesting thing I've ever seen. I've always had a passion for learning and knowing "new" things and this series has revived that feeling.

    I thank you greatly for posting these and if I recall you know where I can buy these in DVD with things not included here? tell me please.

  • see the main channel page for links to purchase pages.

  • And they are going for $100 instead of $150 per set of DVDs (when I bought one about 4 weeks ago).

  • If I ever teach a Philosophy of History class, this episode (and possibly the book and other JB works) will be required viewing. This series really does match my own view and philosophy of history perfectly.

    At the end of the last episode, JB suggests we need to study history to know where technology is taking us.  I keep brainstorming ideas for an essay on that very question: Where are we going?

    I have put this entire first series on DVD and am taking it to Grad School with me.

  • I suggest TED Talks Series of Videos. They have some of the most promising and optimistic speakers from around the world. All videos are Creative Commons Licensed and are downloadable. Plus register and you can comment. It is like a YouTube but emphasis on the Technical that effects the Global.

  • This is the first time I've viewed this since 9/11, and since I was in the WTC that day, it's weird and uncomfortable.

  • eben weirder i heard hitler was a nazi and nazi backwards is azin..which is alien for 'complete nutter psychopath' odd eh?

  • ok ok. I think we can drop it now ;)

  • James Burke is indeed a class act. I think better than Fry. On par with Attenborough.

  • I 2nd that!

  • James Burke,genius why hasent this guy got an obe!

  • Except for "After The Warming", Burke's work has been excellent. Back in the early 90's, James Burke pretty much filled out most of the daily schedule on the fledgling TLC.

  • He is a refreshing change in a dumbed down world

  • Lol, they were smoking on the plane.

  • It's funny *because* it's funny. Oh oh... cannot compute!!! error error not can computerreereeror

  • scandinavian flight 911 on 9th november ie 9/11 anyone else thnk is is odd..

  • No, why?

  • The programme is about connections. The programme's focus is on a total shutdown of New York City in 1965. 9/11 was a major catastrophic event which not only shut down the city but an entire country. The connections, albeit acausal, are nevertheless, there. Airplane flight named flight Scandanavia 911 occurring on 9th November. The programme then goes on to look at how an entire country can shut down due to a single event. Such events are quite weighty and may tune our minds to such connections

  • First, the flight number isn't a connection, it's a coincidence. Nothing more.

    The catastrophic event that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001 is also not of the same character as the relay causing that cascade of overloaded power lines heading south from Niagara. The Sept 11 event, as tragic and devastating as it was, did not disrupt the technological network that supports life in ONE single metropolis in the entire country (including NYC). All shutdown of transport and/or communication was deliberate.

  • So I see nothing odd in the aircraft's flight number.

    Typically flight numbers are 3 digits in length and you have maybe 100 or so in immediate communication with the control tower, either taking off, waiting to take off, landing or waiting for a go-ahead to land. The probability of finding 911 in such a large set is hardly unreasonable.

    - JBW

  • Thanks. Good points; good explanation and it seems to put the point to rest. Acausal connections, however, are quite fascinating - maybe watching this such a programme on connections gets when to make such connections and associations!

  • Heh, ya a faulty "connection denial" mechanism ;)

  • JBW ok i will spell it out for 911 ie twin towers..terrorist attack on hew york.osama bin laden planes crashing into the twin towers..ring a bell? it was in the papers and on TV all round the world....

  • Yeah, but what if the Muslims WATCHED this video and picked 9-11 as the date because they saw it in this video?

  • @crapo87 What if they did?

    It's the Swede's fault because the flight was 911.

    DUH!

  • The people who did that don't fit into the group known as Muslims, they fit into the group known as psychotic.

  • @nickeax bullshit, islam is not misunderstood it is the problem.

  • Your level of sanity dictates how you interpret what you read. In the 10th to 13th centuries, Islamic states tolerated and protected Jews and Christians.

  • who gives a flying fuck what those towelheads did 1000 yrs ago, thats supposed to give them a pass for being a xenophobic group of religious brainwashed paranoid morons whose whole existence is to preach death to any non believer and especially jews?

  • It doesn't make sense to generalise the behaviour of a group of people, IMHO. I'm sure there are bad people from all nationalities and religions.

  • theres this theory about numbers having significance..a disaster is disaster..however it happens..ppl fear number 13..certain elements can and do repeat..i can testify to this...911 happening on 9/11...then years later tragic event 9/11..even anyone can wonder about such matters

  • Ok, wonder about it then. I'm certainly not stopping you. In fact there are whole libraries of books on this same subject (it's called "Numerology"). You might want to look into this field of study to help further your research.

    - JBW

  • Here is something weird for you conspiracy theorists- on the first anniversary of 9/11, the daily number for the NY Lottery was 9-1-1!!!

  • coincidence backwards is ecnedicnioc a gaelic term for co incidence

  • [google]search?hl=en&q=define%­3Aecnedicnioc&btnG=Search&meta­=&aq=f&oq=

    GET returns:

    No definitions were found for ecnedicnioc.

    Try:

    Search: ecnedicnioc gaelic

    Results 1 - 1 of 1:

    ... yadot ssalc ni meop etercnoc a detneserp I !ecnedicnioc a tahW ..... Gaelic, I'm odd Erin, I'm Eire, esteemed islet. So hostile rifts ebb. ...

    A blog entry including the word Gaelic, written backwards.

    A fair try, but unfortunately this internet thing is just too easy!

    - JBW

  • Of course it *is* kind of coincidental that that person, whomever they are, presented a "concrete poem" in class today.

    Concrete? Poem?

    Buildings are made of concrete! And the 911 incident occurred just as GWB (not JBW) was reading a poem in a classroom!

    HMMM!

    - JBW

  • Yes I do.