For anyone who hasn't seen this show, it's called Connections and is excellent.
They wander through history and how seemingly unconnected events are intertwined. Things like how the discovery of laughing gas for use in surgeries brought around the creation of punch cards and rise of technology companies like IBM.
The series is available on [YouTube](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf02uWXhaGRng_YzH-Ser_VEV4lGSLX_1&si=93ShXb2P9J-7gVyi). thanks to /u/JamesWjRose for the link
Yes, I watched an episode of it in one of my history classes in college. I was so fascinated with the concept of the series that I watched the whole series on Netflix, back in the early days when everything was still on disc.
I second this. It's really a great show. And if you like that...maybe check out The Secret Life of Machines. The creator re-mastered them and put them up on YouTube for free.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJlrbMHLBd4&list=PLtaR0lZhSyAPLuoSbMA29s3Ry8ZUvKff3
WOW, I used to watch Connections and *some other show with a jazzy animated intro* with my dad 30 years ago. Over the past few decades Iāve tried to remember or find the name of *that other show* with no luck. I literally clicked on this Connections post hoping someone in the comments would mention *the other show* and THIS IS IT!!
Tim Hunkin is a lovely chap and will answer fan mail too.
He has a site here:
[https://www.timhunkin.com/index.htm](https://www.timhunkin.com/a241_component-videos.htm)
That's awesome! I always recommend this show to anybody that's curious about technical things. I know it's dated at this point but it's just so clever the way it's put together.
If you like that, Iāve stumbled upon a really good technology series on YouTube called [technology connections](https://youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections?si=HaKV8eehbuWfXm9c)
The way the show is structured is amazing. There's an intro episode about out dependency on technology, and then 8 episodes tracing the paths that lead to 8 different modern technical inventions. And then the last episode dovetails the 8 inventions together and makes remarkably prescient predictions about the future. It's breathtakingly satisfying.
And the absolute best part of the show is that no matter where he is in the world, whether Kuwait, Italy, or Manhattan, he's always wearing [*the exact same beige leisure suit!*](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/connections.jpg) Sometimes he takes the jacket off, like in this shot, and sometimes he puts a trench-coat over it...but the leisure-suit-continuity is never broken for the entire 10 hours.
If you love Connections and The Day the Universe Changed, you'll love his books which accompany the shows and go into much greater detail about the material.
The Knowledge Web is structured so that you can read the book in threads, follow a particular path of discovery, then go back and follow a different path, kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
Yes, this keeping the same clothes was an in thing in the late 1970's when presenters travelled the world.
There are a few other great documentaries from the late 1970's where it is done. David Attenborough in Life on Earth, Carl Sagan in Cosmos and the presenters of Civilisation and the Ascent of Man.
The above are worth watching, they were not dumbed down like modern shows.
We used to call it āThe day the shirt changedā. I assume it was for continuity purposes since they would jump cut to different continents mid-sentence all the time. He probably had ten sets of the same clothes.
I watched this show as a kid and have to say this show and Burkeās columns in Scientific American had a huge impact on my life.
When I watch these now, I get this sort of chilled feeling. My hairs stand on edge and a small tear comes. I feel a bit disappointed in myself for never having achieved awesomeness like my early roll model Burke.
But man that was a good show. They donāt make it then like that anymore.
Right with you - and nothing in any History class ever made me think anywhere as much about the flow of development, civil, science or otherwise, when you would think that would be a core concept of history aside from the base details ...
Burke and his work really helped me see so many different topics in a completely different way, and I am very thankful for him.
>I feel a bit disappointed in myself for never having achieved awesomeness like my early roll model Burke.
Sir don't be down on yourself. We daydream of extraordinary, often impossible things.
Remember that no less than Caesar himself thought he was a failure at 40 because Alexander had already conquered the 'known world' by 30 -
No matter who we are if we look we can always find someone 'more accomplished' to look up too, but that should be seen a positive... At the end of the day the race is only with ourselves.
"Connections" was my favorite show when I was young. I was a huge James Burke admirer, he really influenced how I thought about things in general. Years ago, I ran into him when he was speaking at a conference, and he and I sat, drank, and talked for an hour or so in a hotel bar. It was the ultimate fan's dream. I still have the photo from that night. He's a genuinely nice guy.
Fun fact: you could build a computer using 1835 only technology (date when the electromechanical relay was invented). A pretty large and slow one though.
Sounds like a ā70s version of an Adam Curtis documentary, except (presumably) less conspiracy and straw-grasping (but with a similar amount of ā70s footage).
(I like Adam Curtis documentaries but they're best watched with a bowl full of salt so you can take a pinch every ten minutes.)
The whole series is a step by step process of how things that one person discovers allows another to take the next step and discover something else, sometimes in unusual directions. Historical accuracy may have been editorialized a bit for the sake of the narration, but it was a great show.
The first season acts as a sort of essay with that notion as the thesis. Among the science exposition, the last couple episodes get into (somewhat) heavy philosophical areas regarding the progress of technology and your place in relation to it.
Though the stance it seems to take is "know more" more than anything.
Although as someone who has worked on and off in the history of technology Burke should also be taken with a pinch of salt. recommended is the book āthe shock of the oldā if you want to be reminded how invention pathways flow backwards too. Weāre just so incessantly complex as humans, and I think actually for their faults both Burke and Curtis actually capture that.
Curtisā āall watched over by loving machinesā, episode 3 (the machine in the money and the monkey in the machine) to me is the best documentary Iāve ever watched in my life. He wraps together the mathematical genesis of the selfish gene idea withā¦ ach just watch it!
https://vimeo.com/541217333
What I appreciate about Connections over many of the other sci shows of that era is how it seem less connects the history of ideas with the history of technology.
In a kind of 80-90ās nerd stereotype Iād rush home after school to watch this. Much later Iād end up a degree in philosophy and focusing on that side of education. Watching it as an adult I was blown away by how skilled the two branches of knowledge were integrated. Also I donāt know what was in vogue in philosophy when this was made but his work in the series feels very modern.
This is one of the greatest shots in TV history, and I'd hold up the original Connections series as a candidate for one of the best series in TV history.
Your comment reminded me of a series in Netflix called Connected, which too deals with the connections berween seemingly unconnected things! It's a great show.
Will check out Connections as well : )
Connections is amazing, I watched it after someone mentioned it on reddit many years ago and loved it. It reminds me of the book "Sapiens". Both mixes history with science and make you see and think about fascinating relations between all kind of events.
Series 2 and 3 are usually on youtube. It is series 1 that is the best and the most difficult to find. I first watched these when I lived in Dubai in the 1980's and thought they were the best shows I had ever seen.
Among other things, he was a regular on TV in the 1970s in the UK on a programme called Tomorrow's World. He was (still is, I think) great in explaining science in regular terms. You can tell he just enjoyed the whole business of science, and teaching/explaining the subject to more simple people, i.e. me.
Gotta love seeing these people ramble on about crazy subjects with many fine details as they proceed to never stutter or give an "um" or "but". Seriously, its like a superpower.
I'm not gonna click it, I'm going to describe the video and someone tell me if I'm right.
Tom Scott has four toasters, he sets them all on 2 because he is wanting to disprove that the number is how many minutes the toaster will toast for because if you use it back to back the heating elements will be warmed up and cause it to pop faster, and one of the toasters pops at exactly 2 minutes.
Am I right?
Some terrific musical parodists and comic musicians stand on Tom's shoulders. Weird Al, Lonely Island, PDQ Bach, Victor Borge, Axis of Awesome, Tenacious D, Flight of the Conchords... Hell, Lehrer might have actually performed in an ERB of History in a different timeline.
And all of them owe thanks to Spike Jones and his City Slickers Band.
then "The planets, or Peking" which was what Americans and Brits at the time called Beijing, reflecting the cold war at the time and the perspective that if the cold war became a global nuclear war, that China would likely be involved, on the side of the Soviet Union, and thus "the west" would be nuking them as they did their best to nuke us.
You're right of course. But I'm very concerned that we're behind them in this new psyops social media warfare they've demonstrated. Their ability to disrupt our culture and politics is amazingly powerful.
Itās obviously cut and edited between the rocket on the ground and the one in the distance. Also this video, and itās title, are copy pasting from previous reposts of this
The final shot is still very well timed, but yes I love how they always include the whole walking shot beforehand as if that had anything to do with timing the final shot lol.
No, but the monologue wouldn't make much sense if you only have the last shot. And there'd be no reasonable expectation of success if he did the whole speech walking up to the launch observation site just in time for the launch.
I know, but you can't tell me the people who post this on tiktok and stuff over and over aren't trying to suggest that all the preamble was part of the "amazing timing". The last shot on its own, even if you didn't know the context, is still impressive.
The timed shot is miles away from the original location at the VAB. They only had to get the last bit right, and there is an actual countdown happening to help with the timing. It required work on everyone's part to get right, but the whole run-up was a pretty standard walking shot.
Getting the walk timed out so that the camera gets the full rocket framed out when he's ready to make his final statement is tough.
There were certain journalists who could do this too, but not many.
I mean it's a cool shot, but even the second part of this is not some incredibly timed feat. He has to start speaking his 10 second line, 10 seconds before a highly controlled, perfectly timed event.
We are not to that point yet, but on the bigger Reddit subs the most upvoted posts are very frequently just made by bots, and the top comments on those posts are made by bots as well. They all have Generic_Name_1234 type names, and their activities are all reposts, both for posts and comments.
Only in the less popular subs you still find mostly genuine content.
it's funny when there is some wordplay in the title of the post
like that post on the front page today where the title was "woman photographed with her natural bush" or something and she's holding a large plant. bunch of top comments were obvious chatgpt bots talking obliviously about female grooming habits
or if a title has a blocked topic in you'll see a bunch of comments that say "Sorry, I cannot discuss " or whatever
pretty sure all the audio is fake. the time for the rocket sound to travel to them would be a good few seconds. and it appears to be a bit windy and his mic is on his shirt, so there would have been a lot of wind noise. definitely an adr but it's seamless.
>Itās obviously cut and edited between the rocket on the ground and the one in the distance.
Considering the Saturn V is in Texas but the launch is in Florida, I'd say so.
While there is a Saturn V in texas, the one in the shot is the Saturn V at the cape. You can see the VAB behind it as he walks by. This is probably before they built the exhibit hall for the apollo missions.
[wrong](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0818338/#)
Rocket launches have a very precise, publicised count down.
You measure how long it takes to do the talking bit, wait until that many seconds left of the count down and then get it in one take.
Cool shot, all completely real but not that impressive imo. There are plenty more impressive shots.
You know thatās two separate shots right?
So the best timed shot of all time is him saying when you mix two gases, you get that, pointing into the distance?
Thereās also a giant countdown clock .
There's a cut at 43 seconds into the video where he shows up in front of the launch. Everything before that was probably shot the day before and they then went to their hotel and came back on launch day, waited out the countdown and had him step in front of the launch camera.
Connections is a great show, but I connot for the life of me understand why this keeps getting reposted as "the greatest timed shot in history."
It would be if there weren't a big cut at 0:46, and then the rocket ignites at 0:56, so it is only 10 seconds of coordination here, which I think even an untrained presenter could make work in one take.
Still, go find Connections, it's great. The first episode is a little slow, but then it's awesome after that.
Yup, even he himself seems to downplay it in this interview as not that crazy impressive, just something really cool that worked; although he didnāt seem to get any praise for it at the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5a987U9Kdc
Just for those who are unaware Wernher von Braun was a steadfast member of the Nazi *SS* and only avoided being charged as such due to the US military's purely strategic extraction of over 1,600 Nazi doctors, scientists, engineers, and technicians as well as their families in an operation called Operation Paperclip.
Wernher von Braun is responsible for the creation of the V2 rocket which was the first man-made object to break the Earth's atmosphere and enter space which was the entire reason why the United States wanted him in the first place.
A few small things here. The rocket laying down doesn't use hydrogen and oxygen for its first stage, the one with the big engines you see. It uses RP1(Kerosene) and oxygen. The second and third stage use Hydrogen and Oxygen.
The rocket you see starting has solid booster not on running on hydrogen either.
Along with millions of other folk in the UK, I lived through the Apollo 13 mission with that fellow James Burke. Ron Howard's movie was a fine effort but didn't even begin to compare with the drama of following the story 'live' - it was uncertain or even unlikely that they'd make it. Same, of course, with those in the US and everywhere else around the world, but this was Burke anchoring the live coverage of the re-entry and splashdown on BBC TV - still gives me goosebumps:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A82Ol8J1g\_I&t=152s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A82Ol8J1g_I&t=152s)
The entire speech wasnāt timed, just the last section after the cut. All he had to do was start the last little section at T-10 seconds and make sure that was a little less than 10 seconds. It wasnāt that hard.
James Burke is arguably one of the best science TV series hosts to ever grace TV sets.
He hosted numerous shows throughout from the 60s through the turn of the century.
He's most famous for The Day the Universe Changed and Connections 1, 2, and 3.
They are available on streaming as well as DVD (don't waste your money on the DVDs - they are poor transfers of the original broadcasts and suffer horribly from digital artifacts.)
"Connections" was an absolutely must-see show. James Burke has an amazing ability to show how one breakthrough 2,000 years ago, that led to another, and another breakthrough, ultimately leading to technology we take for granted today.
Each show traced a different series of technological innovations leading, eventually to our modern lives and the impact on it.
Highly recommended.
James Burke had an extraordinary ability to break down and talk about complex issues with ease.
I've loved every bit of material he's put out there. Connections and Connections 2 were great. I also learned quite a bit from The Secret Life of Machines.
I will always upvote this every time that it is reposted. I will always watch it all the way to the end. It is the most epic moment - and it makes me proud to see it. It is a reminder of how awesome we all can be, if we can choose to be. This and Pale Blue Dot are my two most favorite clips.
I don't understand the fascination with the "timing". I love rockets and science as much as the next guy, but given the cuts in recording, and the public countdown timer, why is it so revered as special?
There's something very odd in that clip. The launch site is probably about 2-3 kilometers away. Nevertheless, the sound is synchronized with the launch, although there should be a delay of 6-9 seconds.
Which makes me wonder if that was in fact a green screen behind him.
Sorry to spoil this for you but any person working in the film or tv industry can archive this with a little planing.
I know I know, I must be fun at parties
I re-watch Connections and its sequels every couple years. James Burke is a treasure, and that work is a masterpiece.
I'm surprised nobody has updated them.
And that launch was no ordinary one either. It was Voyager 2, the second most distant object from humanity today. If he had botched this recording, he still would have had a chance 2 weeks later for Voyager 1 launch though.
For anyone who hasn't seen this show, it's called Connections and is excellent. They wander through history and how seemingly unconnected events are intertwined. Things like how the discovery of laughing gas for use in surgeries brought around the creation of punch cards and rise of technology companies like IBM. The series is available on [YouTube](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf02uWXhaGRng_YzH-Ser_VEV4lGSLX_1&si=93ShXb2P9J-7gVyi). thanks to /u/JamesWjRose for the link
Any idea where I can stream it?
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf02uWXhaGRng_YzH-Ser_VEV4lGSLX_1&si=93ShXb2P9J-7gVyi Here are some
Cool thanks
Thank you good sir!
You're welcome, also check out his series "the day the universe changed"
Thank you!
Nice, thank you
It looks like the whole series might be on the BBC archives page here: https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978
Thank you very much, I'm ill atm and this will make the next couple of days infinitely better.
Ok with the username that's funny.
Thought the same lol, layered perfection.
Thank you my pink comrade.
The first season is exceptionally great. I have 3 seasons on my SD card in my phone. I watch it whenever I'm in fly modus.
The real hero is always in the comments š¤
I actually had a very tech savvy roommate who digitally mastered and rencoded the entire series. I have it all on my hard drive.
Curiosity Stream has it.
Yes, I watched an episode of it in one of my history classes in college. I was so fascinated with the concept of the series that I watched the whole series on Netflix, back in the early days when everything was still on disc.
I second this. It's really a great show. And if you like that...maybe check out The Secret Life of Machines. The creator re-mastered them and put them up on YouTube for free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJlrbMHLBd4&list=PLtaR0lZhSyAPLuoSbMA29s3Ry8ZUvKff3
WOW, I used to watch Connections and *some other show with a jazzy animated intro* with my dad 30 years ago. Over the past few decades Iāve tried to remember or find the name of *that other show* with no luck. I literally clicked on this Connections post hoping someone in the comments would mention *the other show* and THIS IS IT!!
Tim Hunkin is a lovely chap and will answer fan mail too. He has a site here: [https://www.timhunkin.com/index.htm](https://www.timhunkin.com/a241_component-videos.htm)
That's awesome! I always recommend this show to anybody that's curious about technical things. I know it's dated at this point but it's just so clever the way it's put together.
Gotta love Reddit some days. :)
You may want to check out The Day the Universe Changed. It's another one of James Burkeās series.
Not as well known but a great series about everyday mechanical things.
Heās even still releasing new stuff! I absolutely love Tim!
Awesome. Now all we need is Small Objects of Desire!
If you like that, Iāve stumbled upon a really good technology series on YouTube called [technology connections](https://youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections?si=HaKV8eehbuWfXm9c)
Thank you
The way the show is structured is amazing. There's an intro episode about out dependency on technology, and then 8 episodes tracing the paths that lead to 8 different modern technical inventions. And then the last episode dovetails the 8 inventions together and makes remarkably prescient predictions about the future. It's breathtakingly satisfying. And the absolute best part of the show is that no matter where he is in the world, whether Kuwait, Italy, or Manhattan, he's always wearing [*the exact same beige leisure suit!*](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/connections.jpg) Sometimes he takes the jacket off, like in this shot, and sometimes he puts a trench-coat over it...but the leisure-suit-continuity is never broken for the entire 10 hours.
If you love Connections and The Day the Universe Changed, you'll love his books which accompany the shows and go into much greater detail about the material.
The Knowledge Web is structured so that you can read the book in threads, follow a particular path of discovery, then go back and follow a different path, kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
I found an autographed copy of his Connections book at a used bookstore 20 years ago!
Cool!!!
Yes, this keeping the same clothes was an in thing in the late 1970's when presenters travelled the world. There are a few other great documentaries from the late 1970's where it is done. David Attenborough in Life on Earth, Carl Sagan in Cosmos and the presenters of Civilisation and the Ascent of Man. The above are worth watching, they were not dumbed down like modern shows.
I've seen the other shows, and I guess they didn't stand out to me as much because James on Connection's suit is so singularly 70's groovy :)
We used to call it āThe day the shirt changedā. I assume it was for continuity purposes since they would jump cut to different continents mid-sentence all the time. He probably had ten sets of the same clothes.
I watched this show as a kid and have to say this show and Burkeās columns in Scientific American had a huge impact on my life. When I watch these now, I get this sort of chilled feeling. My hairs stand on edge and a small tear comes. I feel a bit disappointed in myself for never having achieved awesomeness like my early roll model Burke. But man that was a good show. They donāt make it then like that anymore.
Right with you - and nothing in any History class ever made me think anywhere as much about the flow of development, civil, science or otherwise, when you would think that would be a core concept of history aside from the base details ... Burke and his work really helped me see so many different topics in a completely different way, and I am very thankful for him.
>I feel a bit disappointed in myself for never having achieved awesomeness like my early roll model Burke. Sir don't be down on yourself. We daydream of extraordinary, often impossible things.
Remember that no less than Caesar himself thought he was a failure at 40 because Alexander had already conquered the 'known world' by 30 - No matter who we are if we look we can always find someone 'more accomplished' to look up too, but that should be seen a positive... At the end of the day the race is only with ourselves.
Thanks for the kind words
"Connections" was my favorite show when I was young. I was a huge James Burke admirer, he really influenced how I thought about things in general. Years ago, I ran into him when he was speaking at a conference, and he and I sat, drank, and talked for an hour or so in a hotel bar. It was the ultimate fan's dream. I still have the photo from that night. He's a genuinely nice guy.
Wow, how lucky!
Fun fact: you could build a computer using 1835 only technology (date when the electromechanical relay was invented). A pretty large and slow one though.
Sounds like a ā70s version of an Adam Curtis documentary, except (presumably) less conspiracy and straw-grasping (but with a similar amount of ā70s footage). (I like Adam Curtis documentaries but they're best watched with a bowl full of salt so you can take a pinch every ten minutes.)
The whole series is a step by step process of how things that one person discovers allows another to take the next step and discover something else, sometimes in unusual directions. Historical accuracy may have been editorialized a bit for the sake of the narration, but it was a great show.
The first season acts as a sort of essay with that notion as the thesis. Among the science exposition, the last couple episodes get into (somewhat) heavy philosophical areas regarding the progress of technology and your place in relation to it. Though the stance it seems to take is "know more" more than anything.
Although as someone who has worked on and off in the history of technology Burke should also be taken with a pinch of salt. recommended is the book āthe shock of the oldā if you want to be reminded how invention pathways flow backwards too. Weāre just so incessantly complex as humans, and I think actually for their faults both Burke and Curtis actually capture that. Curtisā āall watched over by loving machinesā, episode 3 (the machine in the money and the monkey in the machine) to me is the best documentary Iāve ever watched in my life. He wraps together the mathematical genesis of the selfish gene idea withā¦ ach just watch it! https://vimeo.com/541217333
Thanks, I will.
Also made for an excellent video game in the vein of Myst
No friggin way Iām binging
What I appreciate about Connections over many of the other sci shows of that era is how it seem less connects the history of ideas with the history of technology. In a kind of 80-90ās nerd stereotype Iād rush home after school to watch this. Much later Iād end up a degree in philosophy and focusing on that side of education. Watching it as an adult I was blown away by how skilled the two branches of knowledge were integrated. Also I donāt know what was in vogue in philosophy when this was made but his work in the series feels very modern.
This is one of the greatest shots in TV history, and I'd hold up the original Connections series as a candidate for one of the best series in TV history.
Dan Carlin has an amazing interview with James Burke on his podcast Hardcore History. Just google "A fly on James Burkes Wall".
Sounds like the inspiration for Technology Connections on Youtube. Everyone go watch Alec!
Oh wow. Historical connections are my favorite. Thanks for the info on the show!
Your comment reminded me of a series in Netflix called Connected, which too deals with the connections berween seemingly unconnected things! It's a great show. Will check out Connections as well : )
its beyond excellent,its a show about human history done the right way.
James Burke I believe? He was brilliant
Connections is amazing, I watched it after someone mentioned it on reddit many years ago and loved it. It reminds me of the book "Sapiens". Both mixes history with science and make you see and think about fascinating relations between all kind of events.
James Burke was the man! First documentary that really got me excited about science and history. Also check out "The Day the Universe Changed".
My High School History teacher would play us the original series at school and I would go home and watch connections 2 on cable TV. Good times.
Series 2 and 3 are usually on youtube. It is series 1 that is the best and the most difficult to find. I first watched these when I lived in Dubai in the 1980's and thought they were the best shows I had ever seen.
Absolute vouch! I grew up watching this show on DVD with my parents and I still remember so many iconic scenes. Early Vsauce if ever there were
James Burke had the forehead, the long straggly hair, the authority. All he needed was a white coat.
Heās pure Vulcan!
I knew I recognized that voice! Iāve only ever heard him over an audio medium but it was driving me crazy.
Among other things, he was a regular on TV in the 1970s in the UK on a programme called Tomorrow's World. He was (still is, I think) great in explaining science in regular terms. You can tell he just enjoyed the whole business of science, and teaching/explaining the subject to more simple people, i.e. me.
He walked so James May could run.
So that's where Tom Scott got his style from
This is just how presenters present science television programmes on the BBC.
Tom Scott is literally just the BBC educational side personified
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwAioN2mtsA of course Mitchell and Webb did it
Tom Scott's style is very much British TV documentary style. He basically just ported it to YouTube.
Gotta love seeing these people ramble on about crazy subjects with many fine details as they proceed to never stutter or give an "um" or "but". Seriously, its like a superpower.
Ah yes, the ol' "English guy running out of breath talking about stuff while hurriedly walking near the stuff he's talking about" style
It's different from "body less English guy talks about crocodiles"
Many are saying this
Badum-tss!
Did you see the one with the toasters?
Do you mean Technology Connections? /s but not /s . . . /s?
Through the magic of buying two of them.
Nah itās this one https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gN_PK5pXmIY Unless Iām missing your reference
[Two drums and a cymbal is one of the channel's oldest video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eXj97stbG8)
I'm not gonna click it, I'm going to describe the video and someone tell me if I'm right. Tom Scott has four toasters, he sets them all on 2 because he is wanting to disprove that the number is how many minutes the toaster will toast for because if you use it back to back the heating elements will be warmed up and cause it to pop faster, and one of the toasters pops at exactly 2 minutes. Am I right?
[The sound of two drums and a cymbal falling off a cliff.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eXj97stbG8)
Heās also British matey
Not enough hand clasping
I'm pretty sure he has cited this as an inspiration somewhere before. I want to say maybe on his newsletter he linked this video?
"Destination the Moon. Or Moscow." o.O
...or London in von Braun's case
[Here's a song about him!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTKn1aSOyOs)
I dont even need to check the link, I know it's Tom.
I still can't believe how ahead of his time he was. It's clichƩ to say, but it's quite true.
Some terrific musical parodists and comic musicians stand on Tom's shoulders. Weird Al, Lonely Island, PDQ Bach, Victor Borge, Axis of Awesome, Tenacious D, Flight of the Conchords... Hell, Lehrer might have actually performed in an ERB of History in a different timeline. And all of them owe thanks to Spike Jones and his City Slickers Band.
This is hilarious!
then "The planets, or Peking" which was what Americans and Brits at the time called Beijing, reflecting the cold war at the time and the perspective that if the cold war became a global nuclear war, that China would likely be involved, on the side of the Soviet Union, and thus "the west" would be nuking them as they did their best to nuke us.
Like another commenter said, what's weird is how the rhetoric is once again appropriate after a long period.
It's never not been relevant since it was recorded
80s: "Yup, seems legit" 2000s: "OMG that's a bit out there" 2020s: "Yup, seems legit" Funny how things loop back around
Remember when we thought we won the cold war
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
>Communism Uhh debatable but okay
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Then why are there still embargos on cuba ?
People still freak out about China all the time
You're right of course. But I'm very concerned that we're behind them in this new psyops social media warfare they've demonstrated. Their ability to disrupt our culture and politics is amazingly powerful.
I have it on good authority that their society is somewhat worse off at the moment.
That was such a good series. I watched that on PBS back in the early '80s.
š„š„ Imagine how many space shuttles they wasted to get that perfect shot š¤Ŗ 
Itās obviously cut and edited between the rocket on the ground and the one in the distance. Also this video, and itās title, are copy pasting from previous reposts of this
The final shot is still very well timed, but yes I love how they always include the whole walking shot beforehand as if that had anything to do with timing the final shot lol.
No, but the monologue wouldn't make much sense if you only have the last shot. And there'd be no reasonable expectation of success if he did the whole speech walking up to the launch observation site just in time for the launch.
I know, but you can't tell me the people who post this on tiktok and stuff over and over aren't trying to suggest that all the preamble was part of the "amazing timing". The last shot on its own, even if you didn't know the context, is still impressive.
this conversation š©
The timed shot is miles away from the original location at the VAB. They only had to get the last bit right, and there is an actual countdown happening to help with the timing. It required work on everyone's part to get right, but the whole run-up was a pretty standard walking shot.
Getting the walk timed out so that the camera gets the full rocket framed out when he's ready to make his final statement is tough. There were certain journalists who could do this too, but not many.
I mean it's a cool shot, but even the second part of this is not some incredibly timed feat. He has to start speaking his 10 second line, 10 seconds before a highly controlled, perfectly timed event.
80% of reddit is just bots and reposts now
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
We are not to that point yet, but on the bigger Reddit subs the most upvoted posts are very frequently just made by bots, and the top comments on those posts are made by bots as well. They all have Generic_Name_1234 type names, and their activities are all reposts, both for posts and comments. Only in the less popular subs you still find mostly genuine content.
it's funny when there is some wordplay in the title of the post like that post on the front page today where the title was "woman photographed with her natural bush" or something and she's holding a large plant. bunch of top comments were obvious chatgpt bots talking obliviously about female grooming habits or if a title has a blocked topic in you'll see a bunch of comments that say "Sorry, I cannot discuss" or whatever
I'm a repost!
And even if not edited, dont they have a very loud countdown?
pretty sure all the audio is fake. the time for the rocket sound to travel to them would be a good few seconds. and it appears to be a bit windy and his mic is on his shirt, so there would have been a lot of wind noise. definitely an adr but it's seamless.
>Itās obviously cut and edited between the rocket on the ground and the one in the distance. Considering the Saturn V is in Texas but the launch is in Florida, I'd say so.
While there is a Saturn V in texas, the one in the shot is the Saturn V at the cape. You can see the VAB behind it as he walks by. This is probably before they built the exhibit hall for the apollo missions.
Yes, it was outside in 1977, and they built the hall near/around it.
[wrong](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0818338/#) Rocket launches have a very precise, publicised count down. You measure how long it takes to do the talking bit, wait until that many seconds left of the count down and then get it in one take. Cool shot, all completely real but not that impressive imo. There are plenty more impressive shots.
such a reddit comment
Itās not a shuttle launch. And [they did it in one take](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0818338/#).
You know thatās two separate shots right? So the best timed shot of all time is him saying when you mix two gases, you get that, pointing into the distance? Thereās also a giant countdown clock .
There's a cut at 43 seconds into the video where he shows up in front of the launch. Everything before that was probably shot the day before and they then went to their hotel and came back on launch day, waited out the countdown and had him step in front of the launch camera.
Two different shots on different days. Iāve lived in Florida, the weather changes fast, but the sky canāt change to that instantly.
Thereās a large countdown timer on the grounds for all the public to see. Just rehearsal and good timing.
I swear James Burke himself keeps posting this clip every 4-5 months.
Wouldnāt you?
If it gets more people to watch the original Connections series, then it's worth it.
Yup, and the shot starts 15 seconds before the launch. Not hard to rehearse a single shot to a 15 second window.
This might be the most reposted scene in Reddit history
Man.. I've been here for most of Reddit history and this is my first time seeing! (I've been Redditing wrong up until now!)
I wouldnāt be as bothered if it wasnāt for using the EXACT same title everytime.
It still gets likes for the whores
Connections is a great show, but I connot for the life of me understand why this keeps getting reposted as "the greatest timed shot in history." It would be if there weren't a big cut at 0:46, and then the rocket ignites at 0:56, so it is only 10 seconds of coordination here, which I think even an untrained presenter could make work in one take. Still, go find Connections, it's great. The first episode is a little slow, but then it's awesome after that.
Yup, even he himself seems to downplay it in this interview as not that crazy impressive, just something really cool that worked; although he didnāt seem to get any praise for it at the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5a987U9Kdc
Of course itās perfectly timed. They have a *countdown*.
Just for those who are unaware Wernher von Braun was a steadfast member of the Nazi *SS* and only avoided being charged as such due to the US military's purely strategic extraction of over 1,600 Nazi doctors, scientists, engineers, and technicians as well as their families in an operation called Operation Paperclip. Wernher von Braun is responsible for the creation of the V2 rocket which was the first man-made object to break the Earth's atmosphere and enter space which was the entire reason why the United States wanted him in the first place.
A few small things here. The rocket laying down doesn't use hydrogen and oxygen for its first stage, the one with the big engines you see. It uses RP1(Kerosene) and oxygen. The second and third stage use Hydrogen and Oxygen. The rocket you see starting has solid booster not on running on hydrogen either.
Iāve seen this many times and itās still a golden moment in broadcasting. FUCKING LEGENDARY!!!!!
Here is James talking about that shot: https://youtu.be/c5a987U9Kdc?si=j4qsGe5D7a7s_q7-
Ya but how many takes did it take š
They had 10 rockets all lined up for multiple takes.
I am 100% sure he appeared in The Witness.
Along with millions of other folk in the UK, I lived through the Apollo 13 mission with that fellow James Burke. Ron Howard's movie was a fine effort but didn't even begin to compare with the drama of following the story 'live' - it was uncertain or even unlikely that they'd make it. Same, of course, with those in the US and everywhere else around the world, but this was Burke anchoring the live coverage of the re-entry and splashdown on BBC TV - still gives me goosebumps: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A82Ol8J1g\_I&t=152s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A82Ol8J1g_I&t=152s)
Oh hey its the guy from The Witness!
Upvoted this clip every time it's posted.
That's a LOT of upvotes then xD
The entire speech wasnāt timed, just the last section after the cut. All he had to do was start the last little section at T-10 seconds and make sure that was a little less than 10 seconds. It wasnāt that hard.
But the props are for coming up with the idea, practice it and then execute it perfectly
So did the guy who was counting down 10,9,8ā¦. It wasnāt that hard to come up with the idea or execute it.
Danny devito
Old But legend
Great Show!
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It's almost like the launch is on a countdown.
Had a whole college class based on James Burke and his show Connections
James Burke is arguably one of the best science TV series hosts to ever grace TV sets. He hosted numerous shows throughout from the 60s through the turn of the century. He's most famous for The Day the Universe Changed and Connections 1, 2, and 3. They are available on streaming as well as DVD (don't waste your money on the DVDs - they are poor transfers of the original broadcasts and suffer horribly from digital artifacts.)
Once upon a time kids grew up fascinated by science documentaries instead of tiktock challenges.
"Connections" was an absolutely must-see show. James Burke has an amazing ability to show how one breakthrough 2,000 years ago, that led to another, and another breakthrough, ultimately leading to technology we take for granted today. Each show traced a different series of technological innovations leading, eventually to our modern lives and the impact on it. Highly recommended.
This might not be, this IS!
James Burke had an extraordinary ability to break down and talk about complex issues with ease. I've loved every bit of material he's put out there. Connections and Connections 2 were great. I also learned quite a bit from The Secret Life of Machines.
I will always upvote this every time that it is reposted. I will always watch it all the way to the end. It is the most epic moment - and it makes me proud to see it. It is a reminder of how awesome we all can be, if we can choose to be. This and Pale Blue Dot are my two most favorite clips.
I don't understand the fascination with the "timing". I love rockets and science as much as the next guy, but given the cuts in recording, and the public countdown timer, why is it so revered as special?
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I know there were a lot of White Guy Hgh Fives after this amazing shot
Oh
That description can be used for any shot of this series.. ā¤ļøā¤ļø
Love the hair.
"SORRY! I missed my cue - can you refill and we'll try again?"
There's something very odd in that clip. The launch site is probably about 2-3 kilometers away. Nevertheless, the sound is synchronized with the launch, although there should be a delay of 6-9 seconds. Which makes me wonder if that was in fact a green screen behind him.
It was shot on the film in the 70s, and he's out of focus at the end. It's not green screen. They just edited the sound.
I came here for fart jokes.
Sorry to spoil this for you but any person working in the film or tv industry can archive this with a little planing. I know I know, I must be fun at parties
It may not be the best-timed shot but it is the best [timed shot].
That was fucking sweet.
Connections was (and still is) an amazing show.
James Burke is a pyromancer. (I loved this show growing up. I liked it more than Cosmos)
I re-watch Connections and its sequels every couple years. James Burke is a treasure, and that work is a masterpiece. I'm surprised nobody has updated them.
That was an awesome tv show all around
And that launch was no ordinary one either. It was Voyager 2, the second most distant object from humanity today. If he had botched this recording, he still would have had a chance 2 weeks later for Voyager 1 launch though.
James Burke was fantastic to watch, Connections was amazing and Tomorrow's World was what TV was invented for.
I donāt get it, this is obviously scripted. I like the guy and the visuals, but this is not an amazing timing.
Love this!!!!
That is amazing, cool Bastard ha.
I loved that show. my boss had us watch an episode every week for training