James Burke, science historian, has generously donated his 10 part documentary “Connections” to the web. I’ve seen the series twice, at least. It fascinated me. He also wrote an excellent column with similar historical connections for The American Scientist, as well as similar documentaries for TLC in the 90s.
Connections explores an "Alternative View of Change" (the subtitle of the series) that rejects the conventional linear and teleological view of historical progress. Burke contends that one cannot consider the development of any particular piece of the modern world in isolation. Rather, the entire gestalt of the modern world is the result of a web of interconnected events, each one consisting of a person or group acting for reasons of their own (e.g. profit, curiosity, religious) motivations with no concept of the final, modern result of what either their or their contemporaries’ actions finally led to. The interplay of the results of these isolated events is what drives history and innovation, and is also the main focus of the series and its sequels.
To demonstrate this view, Burke begins each episode with a particular event or innovation in the past (usually Ancient or Medieval times) and traces the path from that event through a series of seemingly unrelated connections to a fundamental and essential aspect of the modern world. For example, the episode "The Long Chain" traces the invention of plastics from the development of the fluyt, a type of Dutch cargo ship.
It was just the beginning. Over the rest of the day, Watson went on a tear, winning four of six games. It displayed remarkable facility with cultural trivia (“This action flick starring Roy Scheider in a high-tech police helicopter was also briefly a TV series” — “What is ‘Blue Thunder’?”), science (“The greyhound originated more than 5,000 years ago in this African country, where it was used to hunt gazelles” — “What is Egypt?”) and sophisticated wordplay (“Classic candy bar that’s a female Supreme Court justice” — “What is Baby Ruth Ginsburg?”).
As a computer scientist, this would be interesting work.
@Drdiagnostic: How was the quality as compared 2 the traditional camera used in shooting?
GY: i loved it and feel it’s the future. cameras that can give you these looks
House is a major show, – it is the biggest TV show in the world right now. I quite like it, although with the DVR I rarely watch it as it happens. I may check this one out on the 17th live though.
Note that it isn’t just a 5D on a tripod… you have a lot of other things hooked in:
And it’s coming at a time when the 3amET show is seeing big ratings in the A25-54 demographic – even topping CNN prime time last week
We don’t stay up and watch it, but it is on our DVR. I like the parts, called “Robots”, where they have political characters of the day in a sauna with computer generated voices. My wife thinks their every Friday guest, Mike Baker, is dreamy. I now know she married me only because I once had a job offer from a lettered intelligence agency. (-:
Caution: The show is PG-13+, including the video at the link.
In case you didn’t know, “24” started up again. I’ve suffered through two two-hour kickoff episodes and one regular hour episode.
Yawn. Jack still wants perimeters. CTU still can’t make a good one. Chloe still hacks computers but gets caught at it. The President still is almost as moronic as our actual President. And the CTU director hunches over all the time – get some posture dude! And why doesn’t CTU block cell phone calls at work? Nothing good comes from them! Finally, the continue their knack for putting characters in harms way that I hope get harmed.
I’ll DVR it and save it for a rainy day when I’ve got no ambition to do anything better with my limited time on earth.
Why the title? Well, they’ve managed to take 24 hours and make it seem like 27.
What if a TV show took on the issues of the day with an audience full of those who oppose the host’s and guest’s views, but with no yelling, no talking over each other, and where the folks in opposition are happy and clapping hard at the end?
No “what if” anymore… just watch Stossel on the Fox Business Channel on Thursday evenings.
Last night’s show focused on how Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, while prescient in its time (50 years ago), didn’t envision how much farther government intervention in our lives would actually be these days.
Stossel has a unique style. He talks less. He asks probing questions and lets his guests answer. He explicitly seeks out hostile audience members and then takes a polite, deft, stiletto to their views. They squirm but know he treats them fair.
Stossel educates with wit, intellect and facts.
Watch it!
And if you don’t get Fox Business… ask your cable / satellite provider for it. And if they won’t, switch. And if you don’t switch… well, I guess you can read his columns.
My wife watches the show, but I can’t stand it. Some of the ladies are pretty but they offset it by acting very petty and stupid frequently. At least that is what I know from walking by when its on. Perhaps my samples don’t show a true picture – like climate data.
Fox News Business hired away John Stossel from ABC News recently. His new show, Stossel, began airing this week.
I’ve watched two episodes and recommend it highly. His show entertains, informs and does not descend into guest over-talking shout fests. He also takes time to cover an issue in detail.
For tonight’s show on climate change he had two guests and packed the audience with climate change faithful. Polite, informative, discussion followed. The climate faithful, including a number of climate science students, gave it their best shot but he and his guests countered effectively in ways that clearly made them uncomfortable about the views they held. And everybody was happy at the end. And I didn’t feel like throwing a remote control into the TV.
One of my favorite new shows, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” has been canceled by Fox.
It’s their network, but I wouldn’t have canceled it. Perhaps the SciFi or another cable channel will pick it up. Fingers crossed.
On a good note, “Chuck” has been renewed, but for a limited run and with some of its actors and writers cut.
Also, Bones, which I do enjoy, was renewed for two seasons.
Two years ago I couldn’t have told you what was on television. Then I had an accident and was laid up for a long time and I found out that when combined with a DVR and a nap, it isn’t so bad.
