This week's episode of Connections is called Faith In Numbers. In last week's episode, James Burke began with the Battle of Hastings, and followed a path that led to the invention of the telephone, and other telecommunications breakthroughs.
This week's episode starts with the communications network that held things together after the decline of the Roman Empire, and we learn how it led to another invention that affects your life every day, whether you use it or not.
Especially interesting is James Burke's 1978 description of the Roman Empire's fall, which will sound eerily familiar.
Following the video are links to further research on the major topics of this episode, with ones that reveal the ending, as always, purposefully left out.
Links:
Arles, France
Barbegal aqueduct and mill
Decline of the Roman Empire
Medieval technology
Watermill
Cam
Cistercians
Rule of Saint Benedict
foot-treadle floor loom
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning wheel
Bruges, Belgium
Carillon
Champagne fairs
Crusades
Black Death
Rag and bone man
Johannes Gutenberg
Movable type
Printing press
Aldus Manutius
16th Century Venice
Italic type
Hero of Alexandria (books)
Hellbrunn Palace
Basile Bouchon
Jacques de Vaucanson
Jacquard loom
Ellis Island
United States Census
Herman Hollerith
Tabulating machine
1890 United States Census
Schweet! Be back after I watch it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the efforts, Pi Guy!
Hello C2ers. Nobody seems to be around. I will go and look downstairs.
ReplyDeleteHi, folks. I was going to go take a nap but maybe I'll stick around a bit and watch "Connections." What a great show.
ReplyDeleteJames Burke is (was?) a fascinating science/tech guy. His series "The Day the World Changed" was also excellent.
ReplyDeleteCan't watch right now though.
Alegrias, he's still living. He's involved in something called Knowledge Web Project, which sounds pretty cool.
ReplyDeletewatching, watching...
ReplyDeleteHow some people might be completely stupid outside their expert area:
ReplyDeleteIsraeli Nobel Prize winner (Chemistry) says Israel should release all terrorists
She said:
"We need to think about ways to reduce their motivation to kill and be killed," she said of the Palestinian inmates. "We have it in our power to change the current situation, when a man sits in our jails for a number of years, and around him friends and family become angry - that is how we create terrorists."
"Regardless of these inmates, there are enough people who are currently free on the other side who are able to hurt us," Yonath added.
Returning to the issue of Gilad Schalit, the soon-to-be Nobel prize laureate said that releasing all of the prisoners would help avoid future kidnappings.
"If there weren't terrorists sitting in our jails, they wouldn't kidnap Israelis in order to bring about their release," Yonath said. "The moment we hold onto terrorists, this then gives the other side an appetite to launch kidnapping operations. The moment we no longer have terrorists and anybody to release, they won't have any reason to kidnap."
So I guess we should release all the criminals in our prisons, because there are plenty of criminals still on the streets.
Idiot.
Good show.
ReplyDeleteTaxes,taxes, how appropriate for today.
2 dead after hours in Ariz. sweat lodge identified
ReplyDeletePRESCOTT, Ariz. — Two people who died after sitting for hours in an Arizona spiritual resort's sauna-like sweat lodge were identified Saturday as a 40-year-old Wisconsin man and a 38-year-old New York woman.
Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh said Saturday his detectives are focusing on self-help expert and author James Arthur Ray and his staff as they try to determine if criminal negligence played a role in the deaths. Waugh said Ray refused to speak with authorities and has since left the state. No charges have been filed.
sb5k
ReplyDeleteShe can take her Nobel and stick it where the sun don't shine.
I just pray that she is not a mother...reminds me of Olmert's wife and lunatic kids.../he is just a crook.
I don't think it was this quiet the day we opened the Blogspot! Wow. Maybe I'd better turn on the television to see if there's been a mass blackout or something. : )
ReplyDeleteHere is Gilad Shalit.
ReplyDeleteI'll wake this place up...
ReplyDeleteMasturbating trucker charged with reckless driving
A German truck driver who caused an accident on route 40 near Borås in western Sweden in September while high on drugs and playing with himself, has been charged with reckless driving and assault.
As the man was being tested for substance abuse after the accident he proceeded to attack a nurse and continued to pleasure himself while in the midst of a police interrogation.
BTW, I haven't seen Callahan lately...
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It is quiet, isn't it? I watched Connections and then I got involved in chatting and looking up recipes. (We're going with Spanish Meatballs and Rice and Ensalada Russe, which is Spanish potato salad. Yum.)
ReplyDeleteMark Steyn has a wonderful piece up at NRO: Who Really Won?. BTW, am I the only one who thinks Steyn is pretty cute? And he's got that great accent.
Well, I have to go help make that nice Spanish meal, and then we might watch the Georgia Tech/Virginia Tech game. We support GT, but one of our close friends is a VT grad. Could get ugly!
ReplyDelete