James Burke : Connections, Episode 9, "Countdown", 5 of 5 (CC)

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Episode 9 of James Burke's most well-known series "Connections" which explores the surprising and unexpected ways that our modern technological world came into existence. Each episode investigates the background of usually one particular modern invention and how it came into being. These explorations are an attempt to locate the "connections" between various historical figures who seemingly had nothing to do with each other in their own times, however once connected, these same figures combined to produce some of the most profound impacts on our modern day world; in a "1+1=3" type of way.

It is this type of investigation that is the core idea behind the Knowledge Web project, whereby sophisticated software is being developed to attempt to discover these subtle interconnections automatically. See http://k-web.org.

See channel page for purchase options.

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[soulrebel888]

amazing the stuff he gets to play with.

Has he written any books?

watched this alot on TLC when i was a kid, looking back i really am impressed on his skill of teaching. When i was ten i found this interesting now almost 30 i find it so well produced and writen, really one of the few jewels of television.

thanks JKW

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Yes! He has written books. And I strongly urge you to buy them (check amazon)?. They go into much more depth, or so I'm told, on the issues in these series. I *think* there are books for all 3 series of Connections. I'm not sure about TDTUC.

These really are some of the "jewels of television" and not likely to come along again. But I have a friend (mossa13) who has the had companion books for years. She never regretted buying them and I'm always referring to her for spellings and such ;)

- JBW

[BugsWisely]

We are born with nothing. So to survive; someone must give us something when we are born or we do not survive. To continue surviving someone must continue giving us what we need regardless what we do that leads us to believe we earned what we are given.

[TheDaveKovacs]

I believe that the end of this must have been filmed in Ohio, at the Edison House, a place I know well.

[xSilverPhinxx]

2:11 If this were more up to date he could've mentioned the CD and DVD that would come from this as well...

Cool programe, btw. I've enjoyed every episode so far.

[Inediblehulk]

I had always wondered what "limelight" was, but never quite enough to look it up or ask someone. Strange world this planet was just a few generations ago, and remarkably stranger still! If only those inventors of yore could see the market today moving for moving pictures on miniature telegrammaphones, I'd bet they couldn't figure out how it all works.

[Epitzsche]

Felt cool watching this episode on a computer.

[perfectmelon]

@p717

At the end of the documentary the writing says: MCMLXXVIII, that means 1978 (with Roman numbers). That was more than 30 years ago!!!

This program was made years before the Internet. Yes you are right, sometimes it's not fully up to date.

However LCD screens nowadays still consist of dots...

Here is a link to read about it if you interested:

madehow.com/Volume-1/Liquid-Cr­ystal-Display-LCD.html

[wado1942]

@p717

Look closer, the dots are just smaller now.

[keyinregulus3]

I wonder what this guy is doing nowadays...

[p717]

no more lines of impression on an LCD monitor. Now we need to update the description to accommodate the current technology.

[tcsam9202]

There is a book for TDTUC. I saw it at the local used book store. I would have bought it if I had the money......