James Burke's 'Connections'

James Burke has a heck of a resume: BBC reporter, science writer for Scientific American, technology historian, Knowledge Web founder, has hosted numerous documentaries such as The Day the Universe Changed, Connections, Connections 2 & 3 as well as some stuff on global warming and more.

I was going through a chapter in his book Connections, whereas James Burke was playing the part of a historical detective tracing how a contest in France to help Napoleon solve how he could feed his armies on long campaigns led to the invention of canning foods, which subsequently led to the invention of refrigeration, then onto the thermos, and finally a rocket fuel tank which brought three Americans to the moon. All of which traced to a problem that needed immediate attention.

Each link in the aforementioned chain represented many different people in many different nations playing an important role in moving mankind forward. These nations include: France, England, Australia, Germany, and America. (Ironically the best swimming nations on earth), Ultimately, by sharing information with each other, life became better for all of the above and more.

I wish swimming were more like this, I wish Michael Phelps', Janet Evans', Michael Gross, Laure Manaudou's, and Ian Thorpe's workouts were all public domain and shared form one coach to the other. That any athlete could train in any country they wanted without Nationalistic rhetoric denouncing that behavior such as what was witnessed between France and Italy over Laure Manaudou or when an foreign athlete from Turkey or Brazil trains at USC or Auburn.

UPDATE: As of this morning the technical director of French Swimming has decided that French swimmer Laure Manaudou may not take part in a training camp in China with the rest of her teammates which was to take place two weeks before the Paris Open. She will remain training in Italy [Link]