James Burke : Connections, Episode 3, "Distant Voices", 4 of 5 (CC)

[DForce0]

Did he really stick his hand in a dish of mercury?! Wow! He's going to be mad as a hatter some day.

[ChorltonBrook]

@DForce0 It's bad but not that bad, the salts and vapours of mercury are worse because they're soluble..

[newguy33X]

"There's no such thing as a vacuum" ...thank you so much Catholic church. You've really been a help. Fuck.

[oker59]

@newguy33X

Against Heresies (Book II, Chapter 4), The absurdity of the supposed vacuum and defect of the heretics is demonstrated.

You'll find all kinds of things in this guys books like, Jesus Christ was not followed by twelve aeons corresponding to the twelve constellations and so on . . . in other words, he was!

[KevinByrne2]

8:00 -- The music is "Le boeuf sur le toit" (The ox on the roof) by French composer Darius Milhaud.

[2000deg]

If it were true that the church had forbidden to speak about vacuum than Blaise Pascal, a devout Catholic, wouldnt have spoken about it.

[ryoushii]

@2000deg At the time, the French Catholic Church, was shall we say less than attentive to what the pope had to say.

[jeselmira2]

He should distinguish between a low pressure zone and a vacuum.

[jeselmira2]

They mined in the mountain valleys because of lumber and water power? I thought it was because that was where the silver was found.

[ryoushii]

@jeselmira2 What he's saying is the place you would have most likely looked for minerals would be in places where it's the easiest to get at them.

After all, people didn't start drilling for oil a thousand feet under water, they started where it was easiest to get at it.

[CHANNELOMD]

Did you know James Burke is mentioned in a HumanLeague song?

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Who, or what is a "HumanLeague"? A rock band? Never heard of him / her / it / them.

- JBW

P.S. But I am curious.

[CHANNELOMD]

Ha ha you are showing you age ,is suspect you wont like it

watch?v=KCkpueqltSE

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Well it may not be my age necessarily (43 ish), I may simply be out of touch ;)

Still, I'm not crazy about it, but it's not bad!

- Me

[CHANNELOMD]

True I am 48 and their early stuff is an aquired taste,but I was 17 when it was first out so I have had 30 years to get it and to be fare its not really a toe tapper.I think music religion politics and your wife are all the same you cant really be persuaded to change by anyone else ,you have to come to your own realisation that it may be shite.

[mikeyman211]

With some of those skewed camera angles, he could be driving up Baldwin St, Dunedin.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

lol. I thought those camera angles were hilarious!

[supergeek0177]

i cant believe he actually handled mercury without gloves

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Totally safe. It's the vapors that are the main hazard. Takes a while, but after several years exposure they can cause dementia (as in: mad as a hatter).

You can eat it too without causing too much damage. In fact you eat it daily if you like fish. And eating FAR FAR more than what would be required to land you in a mental institution. Almost nothing absorbs it so it sits there or passes through eventually.

- JBW

[shaktiIIIgta]

he just received maybe his lifetime dose of that substance, no prob with that

[JamesBurkeWeb]

I used to play around with it when I was a kid. A friend had a bottle of some and we used to take it out and see how it behaved... It was quite a lot, maybe a fluid ounce or so.

We used to roll it around on our tongues and see what happened. Or we'd put it together with different fluids and see what happened (nothing of course). Neither of us ever got sick, neither has been diagnosed with any brain illness or cognitive disabilities as we approach our 50s.

- JBW

[CHANNELOMD]

Whats the temperature?

[JamesBurkeWeb]

The temperature of what? The mercury? It was at room temperature ≈ (25 ± 3)º C.

[CHANNELOMD]

No I meant can you tell the temperature now you are a human thermometer,it was a wee joke,very wee

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Doh! I can't believe I didn't get that one...

So maybe it *did* do something to me?!?!? Loss of sense of humour? Oh well, so I'm forever doomed to a life of either not laughing, or perhaps only laughing at inappropriate times / places. Like that time I was involved in a bank robbery. I KNEW it probably wasn't funny, but had to be told, lest my head be blown to some place called "The Smithereens".

Which I think is a national park in Nevada. Better check on that one.

Oh well.

[CHANNELOMD]

No you are fine ,anyone that likes James Burke is 100% good

[darkalligator]

a renault iv :) thanks for the videos, i really thank you.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

You're very welcome. Glad you're enjoying the shows.

[prenduzal]

The most remarkable unremarked aspect of these programs is that James Burke carried the narration completely alone -- there are no interviews with experts or descendants of famous historical figures. He had to talk constantly through each program! He brought it off without ever becoming tedious. Quite an amazing thing really.

[roarkely]

The production outline for this entire series continues to amaze me almost as much as the underlying stories!

[JamesBurkeWeb]

ya... and look what they had? I mean the BBC gave them almost *nothing* to work with, money-wise. Just enough to travel and stay in hotels, and a little spending cash. No high quality production editors or special effects. And yet, it's better than Connections² when they *were* handed all the extras.

Just goes to show: Content outdoes production value any day of the week.

- JBW