James Burke, Science, History, and the Knowledge Web
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JamesBurkeWeb
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Name:
JamesBurkeWeb
Channel Views:
89,942
Age:
46
Joined:
January 12, 2009
Last Sign In:
1 week ago
Subscribers:
2,045
This site's purpose is to promote and discuss the views and ideas of Mr. James Burke through his famous series "The Day The Universe Changed" and "Connections" 1,2,3.

The BEST way to support these shows is to purchase them. Those that can afford it can do so here:

TDTUC ($150): http://www.documentary-vide...

Connections ($150): http://www.documentary-vide...

[also id=1076 id=1070]

The more sales of these shows resulting from views of this channel the better the chance it will remain online forever.

It's up to us to credit those who have done so much to enrich our lives: Mr. Burke, the BBC and their distributors.

James Burke : Science historian, author, and creator of the Knowledge Web project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

I also urge you to get involved with the Knowledge Web project: http://k-web.org/
About Me:
 
Fun Stuff:
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An Independent Student-based Group called NSIT (Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology) has posted FREE Science Lectures right here: http://lectures.nsitlounge.in/

You can learn about Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Listen to Richard Feynman and a lot more!

Free Books on Advanced Mathematics:
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http://www.e-booksdirectory...

Feature Link:
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Below is a link to a website or article related to the currently featured program.

Today it's a link to an open source project called "Freebase" which is an extremely large relational database, much in the same vein as the K-web project. Freebase code can be incorporated into your website and developers are encouraged to get involved in improving on the existing API.

The link below shows the current state of "Developer Documentation" and how to use freebase in applications, websites, and how to incorporate the current database into typical browsers.

In a way Freebase is something akin to Wikipedia, but it is more than that because it also incorporates a type of programming language allowing for sorting, counting, "namespaces" (ex. Burke's era-spheres) and so on. Check it out and get involved! You could even write code to design a website that looks exactly like "OLD CHANNEL" YouTube without having to host a single video!

http://www.freebase.com/doc...
Hometown:
Phnom Penh
Country:
Canada
Channel Comments (216)
kcjenner1 (1 day ago)
I just went and checked all four sets [TDTUC & Connectons 1,2&3] are still being listed as one third off (~$150-$50=~$100) .
kcjenner1 (1 day ago)
I don't know how many comments that you get are like the one I'm about to make, but I hope you do get a lot of them if you don't already. :D

About 2 weeks my DVD set of TDTUC arrived in the mail from the online purchase I made from the link you provided here. And the good news - at that time - it was only $100 for the set, instead of $150. They were showing it at a discounted price with the original, but no hint as to when it would be over.
JamesBurkeWeb (5 days ago)
@LewMerrickPE:
I don't think you even once referenced the development of the roads and telephone networks which were also fundamental, and government funded necessities for the development of our product. You failed to mention the water and sewer systems, also built by the government, never mind the power networks and computer technologies, and internet all publicly financed. Why do you omit these crucial government interventions as you accuse Mr. Burke of doing? This is a dreadfully boring, and pointless "debate" about politics and I believe it is right and proper to forgo any further discourse on this matter on this page. I'll leave the existing comments and forward anything else to my inbox.
JamesBurkeWeb (5 days ago)
You're very welcome.
WolfhoundK (6 days ago)
You have to be getting sick of hearing this by now but you've done all of us on YT a huge service by making this material available. It's now up to all of us to pay it forward and make sure as many people see these remarkable productions as possible; I'm doing my part!
LewMerrickPE (6 days ago)
Mr. Burke refers to such things as James Watt being employed by a distiller. The fact is that James Watt was a professor of "military artifice" at King's College (though I am not sure when one) when the Royal Navy sent him to improve pumps to maintain tin production. Product scanning technology was developed by the U.S. Army (Natick Army Research Center) more than a decade before it showed up in supermarkets. It was in use in supply centers in 1972. I am not sure which company YOU worked for, but Intermec, one of the earliest manufacturers of barcode scanning systems was a U.S. Army spin-off (which is why it was located at Paine Field in Everett, WA).
JamesBurkeWeb (6 days ago)
I don't recall Mr. Burke stating that "private investment leads to new products", even though it happens to be true. I, for example, was involved in the development of automated checkout machines for supermarkets. The company was 100% privately funded, and the product was *never* "proven" to have a ready market beforehand, or to be successful before development began. It was a gamble, and it paid off. The product is hugely successful and found in thousands of supermarkets. The company was sold to a Japanese company for some billions of dollars and it makes billions annually (by putting cashiers out of work) for both the supplier and the customer. So there's no myth in that statement. It's just not universally true.
LewMerrickPE (1 week ago)
I do want to add (though space here limit me) that I have enjoyed the various series put forth by Mr. Burke. It is only things such as his misidentification of the developer(s) of the modern screwthread that get me onto my soapbox. Poor Ernst Lowenhertz has been written out of the "history" -- even though he was the only 18th century scientist who could give Ben Franklin a run for his money. His contributions have been "reassigned" right, left, and sideways.
LewMerrickPE (1 week ago)
It's less that Mr. Burke promotes specific "technologies" than he supports the seriously disproven economic theories of Milton Friedman and his compatriots. Private investment DOES NOT APPEAR until AFTER a technology, and the products derived from it, have been PROVED SUCCESSFUL. As an example, I made the injection mold dies for the first HP calculator. It was funded by NASA. I was paid for my work by NASA. It was not until all 15,000 of the NASA paid for calculators were sold that HP developed the "pocket" calculator and began selling it. The factory in which said calculators were made had been built and tooled by taxpayer (NASA) funds. This is the norm. The "private investment leads to new products" thesis is one that exists only in MYTH.
JamesBurkeWeb (1 week ago)
Exactly which technologies do you suppose Mr. Burke is "promoting"? True enough, he barely even touches on political influences driving technological development one way or another, but these series are supposed to be about Science (and technology *to some extent*), not politics. In a few places he mentions the profit motive and tacitly places government in a passive role as "protectors of innovation". Or, in his own words: "The rule of law, encouraging the drive to innovate". He might have been being sarcastic when he said that, I don't know.

Also, you might want to reconsider your statement as it would have applied in 1975 say. Was it as true then as it is now? Perhaps government was less involved in technology in those days? I'm disregarding military technology obviously, where government would be intimately and massively involved *by definition*.
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