Why?? Why is it so?
posted by pompomtom at 7:19 PM on December 5, 2007

I loved this guy. I remember being home from school for a snow day or something and watching episodes of this for three hours straight on PBS. I was mesmerized.
posted by demiurge at 7:26 PM on December 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

I've never heard of this guy. I find him and his demonstrations awesome.
posted by mexican at 7:26 PM on December 5, 2007

Watch it! Watch it! Watch it!
posted by puke & cry at 7:37 PM on December 5, 2007

Physics is his business.



Thank you thank you thank you for finding this.
posted by mds35 at 7:39 PM on December 5, 2007

Uh is "my playlist a selff link?
posted by wheelieman at 7:55 PM on December 5, 2007

MeTa re: self-linking.
posted by cgc373 at 8:05 PM on December 5, 2007

Uh is "my playlist a selff link?

sorta maybe kinda. Technically one could call it a self link, but I would suggest the reason for the rule is to prevent members from using the site as method for gaining traffic and click-through ad revenue. His yt list is strictly a tribute.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:07 PM on December 5, 2007

a self link

I wish more YouTube posts were organized into convenient playlists. It cuts down on clicking and fiddling with tabs or browser history.
posted by sdodd at 8:07 PM on December 5, 2007

Uh is "my playlist a selff link?

No. You ought to be kissing his ass for organizing them for you.
posted by puke & cry at 8:14 PM on December 5, 2007 [3 favorites]

Hooray! This guy's show falls squarely into the "Things I eventually just convinced myself I'd imagined" category, along with This Tuesday in Texas and Madballs.
posted by roll truck roll at 8:23 PM on December 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Go back I say, or I will destroy you!!

I need to ask for a copy of Millergrams for Christmas.
posted by solotoro at 8:26 PM on December 5, 2007

This guy is awesome. Thanks for the links.
posted by bumpkin at 8:26 PM on December 5, 2007

You get the sense that the guy is so utterly excited by his subject matter that he has to constantly rein himself in so as not to get perpetually sidetracked as each new element occurs to him.

Excellent and very entertaining. I like this one where he is so keen to get on and show you what he means by the energies he is listing, that he can't be arsed to write the names on the board properly or (when he gets to static) even make it legible before HE'S OFF to the showing bit. Loved it.

He reminded me of my Applied Maths teacher at sixth form. He'd start the problem off slowly, and as the equations would slowly start to resolve and make sense he'd get faster and faster and more animated until he'd finish with

"And therefore we find thAT X IS SEVEN!!!"

with a HUGE swoosh of chalk underlining the full width of the board and spin around on his heel to face the class all triumphantly.

Entertaining post and provoked amusing memories. Thanks.
posted by Brockles at 8:27 PM on December 5, 2007

"that's so terrific I'm going to do it again!" I never heard of JSM before but am totally hooked! Thanks Bartfargo!!
posted by janetplanet at 8:36 PM on December 5, 2007

That old man rocks! To witness him in action is to celebrate the life of a man who could find awe and wonder and mystery in anything. Julius Sumner Miller is a Short Duration Personal Savior and if he hasn't yet been made a SubGenius Saint, he should be. I wonder how I go about doing that?
posted by ZachsMind at 8:45 PM on December 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Chocolate is energy.
posted by Wolof at 8:47 PM on December 5, 2007

Man, I'd much rather people did play lists then put 900 links into their FPPs.
posted by delmoi at 9:00 PM on December 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

I want to do that again. Cause I like it!
posted by Andrew Brinton at 9:01 PM on December 5, 2007

Bleh, the "that's so terrific I'm going to do it again !" video perpetuates the Bernoulli airplane wing urban legend. In fact, the lower pressure on top of the wing is not enough to actually lift the plane into the air (Unless it's going very fast)
posted by delmoi at 9:14 PM on December 5, 2007 [2 favorites]

In one of the Physics lectur theatre foyers where I went to University, there is a wooden profile of Einstein. The workman ship could be best described as average.

The creator? Professor Julius Sumner Miller.

Funny on sooo many levels. Growing up at just the right time to see his oddball Cadbury adverts helped. His quotes were part of the lexicon of Oz children in the 80s.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:18 PM on December 5, 2007 [2 favorites]

"One hundred and twenty geniuses!" How have I never heard of this man before? He's a shoo-in for my personal canon.
posted by phooky at 9:28 PM on December 5, 2007

Hey! Mini AskMe time!

Can someone link a video (with timecode too plz) of him saying "sucCESS!!"?
posted by blenderfish at 9:31 PM on December 5, 2007

This is very cool. I'm bookmarking this so I can show it to my son tomorrow. Thanks, BartFargo.
posted by amyms at 9:42 PM on December 5, 2007

I liked it so much I'm going to watch it again! Maybe 3 or even 4 times!
posted by The Light Fantastic at 10:14 PM on December 5, 2007

This is great, thanks so much.

Links to playlists on youtube are just so much fucking better than long strings of individual youtube links.
posted by Rumple at 10:35 PM on December 5, 2007

I never noticed it at the time but apparently the good professor only owned one shirt.
posted by well_balanced at 11:10 PM on December 5, 2007

Physics is pants!

And so is this guy.
posted by aftermarketradio at 11:18 PM on December 5, 2007

Thanks for this! Prof Miller is an absolute delight!
(Altho' I'm getting disconcerting hits of Garry Marshall and Kate Hepburn off his delivery)
posted by maryh at 11:38 PM on December 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

More food for me and my physics hungry girlfriend (she's a physics teacher) - thanks!
posted by algreer at 4:29 AM on December 6, 2007

Back in the days when TV was an adjunct to real education ("you can read about them in your books") and you didn't need to comb your hair or be conventionally sane to be on TV. Great stuff.
posted by DU at 4:39 AM on December 6, 2007 [3 favorites]

That's terrific! That's fantastic!!

Thanks for this post—and thanks, delmoi, for that very enlightening "urban legend" link, though I don't think it's fair to blame Professor Miller for getting it wrong when so many great scientists did as well. (And people like that 6th grade science teacher should be flogged and not allowed near schools.)
posted by languagehat at 5:32 AM on December 6, 2007

Damnit! Why didn't I see this until this morning! I have to go to work!

I only got a chance to watch a few, and so I couldn't find the one I was looking for:

I vividly remember watching one in High School where he, not understanding the inherent danger (not that anyone did at the time), was just sorta messing around with some mercury. It was quite the cringe-fest to watch at a time when we knew the risks, especially when a classmate of ours lost his mother in a pretty high-profile mercury poisoning case.

Anyway, if anyone finds it (I recognize that it might not be among the vids posted) please let me know!
posted by SpiffyRob at 5:33 AM on December 6, 2007

now that's terrific i tell you! thanks.
posted by tarantula at 6:26 AM on December 6, 2007

I love him. Starting with is Old New England Grandad accent.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:40 AM on December 6, 2007

Thank you! I thought for sure I would go to my grave not knowing this man's name. Watched him every afternoon during summer vacation. My favorite: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DhR6EjBCQJw
posted by jewzilla at 7:28 AM on December 6, 2007

For 35 years, because of this guy, I haven't been able to use the word "suction" without laughing.
posted by No Robots at 7:49 AM on December 6, 2007

thank you thank you thank you.
The image of a liquid nitrogen frozen rose has been stuck in my head since 1972.
posted by space2k at 9:29 AM on December 6, 2007

Metafilter: we say this is fantastic, and if anyone has any other view he is lifeless and dead.
posted by bhance at 10:33 AM on December 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wow, what a great find. It certainly takes me back to another time, and gives me a strange yearning for chocolate (he promoted Cabury's here in Australia)
posted by thefinkler at 11:35 AM on December 6, 2007

"he, not understanding the inherent danger...mercury"

Mercury vapors may be dangerous, but mercury in it's liquid form is harmless.

it is no more "inherently" dangerous than lead or antimony.
posted by Megafly at 11:48 AM on December 6, 2007

Mercury vapors may be dangerous, but mercury in it's [sic] liquid form is harmless.

From the Canadian Centre for Health and Occupational Safety:

"The harmful effects of long-term exposure to elemental mercury are generally thought to be caused by inhalation exposure. However, mercury liquid and vapour are absorbed through the skin in small amounts and this route of exposure can contribute to the overall exposure. Effects following absorption through the skin are expected to be similar to those reported for long-term inhalation exposure."

As bad as huffing? No. Harmless? No.
posted by SpiffyRob at 12:23 PM on December 6, 2007

I'm one of a whole generation of Canadian kids that only know this guy from his regular segment on the endlessly-rerun "Hilarious House of Frightenstein."
posted by evilcolonel at 1:15 PM on December 6, 2007

AWE. SOME.
posted by JHarris at 2:15 PM on December 6, 2007

I find the mode of production interesting. No second takes at all, no letting things steep in the liquid nitrogen before the production, not much in the way of editing. The production must have been really bare-bones.

Great lectures all the same though. The guy had style.
posted by JHarris at 3:16 PM on December 6, 2007

Man, I was just about to make a JSM post, searched and found this one. Love him. Why is it so?

Here are the ads he did for Cadbury in Australia, because the first thing you think of when you think of chocolate is, of course, physics: 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Previously and previously.
posted by goo at 10:50 AM on January 4, 2008