I heard about this offer in a roundabout, Connections-type of way,
seeing it mentioned at a thoughtful site unrelated to James Burke. I
have no affiliation with the seller.

Paul
----

http://www.documentary-video.com/displayitem.cfm?vid=854

Connections 1 (DVD version)
10 VOLUMES ON 5 DVD'S


Product Details:
-English subtitled for the hearing impaired
-10 Volumes on 5 DVDs
-Series Running Time: 8 Hours and 20 minutes
-Available for delivery to US destinations only
-Region 1
-Rating: General audiences
-Color
Producer: BBC and Time Life Release Date: July 2001
Series Price: $395.00 (5 DVDs in series)
Sale Price: $149.99 Purchase this series



"This is another superb example of the genuis of James Burke, whose
Connections Series has rightly garnered all sorts of awards...This
journey will introduce the student to the famous as well as the
obscure. This film is a wonderful intellectual romp," -The American
Film and Video Review

This ten volume series was made in 1978 by turning science into a
detective story, James Burke creates a series that will fascinate
students and adults alike. This interdisciplinary approach has never
before been applied to history or science and it succeeds
tremendously. Winner of the Red Ribbon in the American Film Festival,
the scope of the series covers 19 countries and 150 locations,
requiring over 14 months of filming.

As the Sherlock Holmes of science, Burke tracks through 12,000 years
of history for the clues that lead us to eight great life changing
inventions-the atom bomb, telecommunications, the computer, the
production line, jet aircraft, plastics, rocketry and television.
Burke postulates that such changes occur in response to factors he
calls "triggers," some of them seemingly unrelated. These have their
own triggering effects, causing change in totally unrelated fields as
well. And so the connections begin...



Connections DVD No. 1

Volume 1:The Trigger Effect
Both the beginning and the end of the story are here. The end is our
present dependence on complex technological networks illustrated by
the NYC power blackouts. Life came almost to a standstill: support
systems taken for granted failed. How did we become so helpless?
Technology originated with the plow and agriculture. Each invention
demands its own follow-up: once started, it is hard to stop. This
segment ends in Kuwait, where society has leapt from ancient Egypt to
the technology of today in 30 years.

Volume 2: Death in the Morning
How did a test of gold's purity revolutionize the world 2500 years
ago and lead to the atomic bomb? Standardizing precious metal in
coins stimulated trade from Greece to Persia, causing the
construction of a huge commercial center and library at Alexandria.
This wealth of nautical knowledge aided navigators 14 centuries
later. Mariners discovered that the compass's magnetized needle did
not point directly north. Investigations into the nature of magnetism
led to the discovery of electricity, radar and to the atomic bomb.

Connections DVD No. 2

Volume 3: Distant Voices
Telecommunications exist because the Normans wore stirrups at the
Battle of Hastings- a simple advance that caused a revolution in the
increasingly expensive science of warfare. Europe turned its
attention to making money to wage wars. As mine shafts were dug
deeper, they became flooded, stimulating scientists like Galileo to
investigate vacuums, air pressure and other natural laws to mine
deeper silver. This led to the discovery of electricity and
magnetism's relationship and to the development of radio, and deep
space telecommunications that may enable contact with galactic
civilizations.

Volume 4: Faith in Numbers
Each development in the organization of systems (political, economic,
mechanical, electronic)influences the next, by logic, by genius, by
chance, or by utterly unforeseen events. The transition from the
Middle ages to the Renaissance was influenced by the rise of
commercialism, a sudden change in climate, famine and the Black
Death, which set the stage for the invention of the printing press.

Connections DVD No. 3

Volume 5: The Wheel of Fortune
The power to see into the future with computers originally rested
with priest-astronomers who knew the proper times to plant and
harvest. The constellations influenced life spectacularly,
particularly when the ailing Caliph of Baghad was cured by an
astrologer using Greek lore. His ancient medical secrets were
translated and spread throughout Europe, ushering in an era of
scientific inquiry. The need for more precise measuring devices in
navigation gave rise to the pendulum clock, the telescope, forged
steel and interchangeable machine parts-the basis of modern
industrial system.

Volume 6: Thunder in the Skies
A dramatically colder climate gripped Europe during the 13th century
profoundly affecting the course of history for the next seven
centuries. The changes in energy usage transformed architecture and
forced the creation of new power sources. The coming of the
Industrial Revolution, spurred on by advances in the steam engine,
scarred England indelibly: but a moment in history later, gasoline-
powered engines opened the way to the heavens.

Connections DVD No. 4

Volume 7: The Long Chain
Often, materials discovered by accident alter the course of the
world. In the 1600s Dutch commercial freighters controlled Atlantic
trade routes. Competing British lines induced America to produce
pitch to protect hulls of their royal vessels. This arrangement
lasted until 1776, after which a Scottish inventor tried to produce
pitch from coal tar. By the time he succeeded the navy was using
copper instead. Subsequent experiments with coal tar yielded gaslight
lamps, waterproofed garments, a brilliant mauve dye that established
the German chemical industry and nylon, the first of the miracle
plastics.

Volume 8: Eat, Drink and Be Merry
When Napoleon marched huge forces across Europe, he needed an
efficient way to store provisions. A Frenchman preserved sterilized
food in empty champagne bottles, an idea modified by the British, who
tried tin cans. Still, canned foods sometimes spoiled, which led to
experiments with refrigeration. Later, it was discovered that gases
may be stored at very low temperatures in a thermos flask, a device
handy for picnics, for polar explorers and for, storing large
quantities of liquid oxygen and hydrogen. When lit by a spark these
gases can send rockets into space.

Connections DVD No. 5

Volume 9: Countdown
What happens when you combine a carbon arc light, a billiard ball
coating, a spoked wheel and consecutive images? Motion pictures!
Complex and sometimes incredible events led to Thomas Edison's
remarkable invention; the beginnings of limelight on a Irish
mountain; George Eastman's production of celluloid from the slightly
explosive gun cotton; the "magic lantern" of an Austrian ballistics
teacher. Then Eadweard Muybridge settled a bet in 1872 by
photographs; does a horse raise all four feet when galloping? (Yes.)
Today moving pictures, together with television, are enormously
powerful mass media. Have we become trapped by our own technology?

Volume 10: Yesterday, Tomorrow and You
"Why did we do it this way?" Essential moments from the previous
programs are reviewed to illustrate the common factors that make for
change. Will they go on operating to affect our futures? And if so,
can we recognize them? The second half looks at the extent to which
we have become increasingly incapable of understanding how change
occurs in our complex world and at why we are in such a predicament.
Finally, there is a look ahead to the need for radical change in the
availability and use of information in the future, if we are to
remain in control of our destinies.