Awesome BBC documentary about honey pot ants: (in HD!)

[Zeze]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8pLVlEkmJk

I love stuff like this! I really wish there was a sequel to Planet Earth & Life.

 

[Zeze]

Really? No one?

 

[Geosurface]

Looks cool, I'm going to watch it. Thanks

 

[lxskllr]

I might watch it later. It's hard for me to get motivated by TV. What's especially cool about honey pot ants?

 

[Puppies04]

Watched it, really good programme.

 

[Puppies04]

I might watch it later. It's hard for me to get motivated by TV. What's especially cool about honey pot ants?

Nothing amazing apart from the "honey pot" specialization that some of the workers have.

 

[CZroe]

Watched it. Really annoyed by all the fake sound effects (skittering, digging, slo-mo shifting, sand scattering, bodies thudding, wind blowing in empty tunnels, etc). Otherwise it was a pretty interesting view. The sound thing is forgivable because almost every documentary does this stuff... and not just at these scales. The sound of cheetah footsteps, for example, are usually simulated.

 

[Gibsons]

Thanks for the heads up, will watch.

 

[jaqie]

that was friggen scary and upsetting.

Yeah, I'm a sensitive carebear of a person. I know stuff like this happens, just seeing such cutthroat happenings and such a rough grizzly death for so many makes me go queasy.

In other words, very good dramatized (read: not the old ben stein style doc, this one was docutainment format) documentary of the extremely violent and nasty life of the honey ants.

 

[Geosurface]

I'm still watching, what deaths were upsetting you? Deaths of insects?

I can't work up much sympathy until we get to a vertebrate level.

 

[CZroe]

I'm still watching, what deaths were upsetting you? Deaths of insects?

I can't work up much sympathy until we get to a vertebrate level.

Those poor lemmings Disney bought off the kids to "document" a false urban legend (lemming run suicide) and continue such misinformation for decades.

http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp

 

[Ichinisan]

Wasn't "HD" for me (on iPad in Safari).

 

[Linux23]

MFL.

 

[Craig234]

I really wish there was a sequel to Planet Earth & Life.

Like Planet Mars?

 

[Craig234]

I'm still watching, what deaths were upsetting you? Deaths of insects?

I can't work up much sympathy until we get to a vertebrate level.

I think she was pretty clear, and that's your problem, not hers.

 

[Geosurface]

I think she was pretty clear, and that's your problem, not hers.

As I said, I hadn't finished watching it. For all I knew she was referring to lizards or mice or something which get swamped by thousands of the ants and devoured later in the episode (I'm watching it in bits and pieces and still have about 10 minutes to go before the end)

Since asking her, I've seen more of the stuff she was *probably* referring to, and so far it's all been insects.

But I was asking because I legitimately was curious.

I didn't say she shouldn't feel sympathy for insects, just that I have a hard time doing so. Unless it's like a butterfly or a praying mantis, or something larger and more complex than an ant or fly.

But thank you for making sure to find a way to get butthurt even in a thread like this, and douche things up a bit. It's appreciated.

 

[Udgnim]

beetle gives no fucks

 

[lxskllr]

It was interesting. I find the complexity of their civilization amazing. Interesting how that all developed over time.

 

[Chaotic42]

ooh, good link. I like ant documentaries for some reason.

 

[Craig234]

.

That's your problem.

 

[Craig234]

ooh, good link. I like ant documentaries for some reason.

You would love the manual that vame with the boxed SimAnt game.

Hundreds of pages about ants, I consider it one of the great game manuals ever.

 

[jaqie]

I'm still watching, what deaths were upsetting you? Deaths of insects?

Death itself does not and did not upset me.

It was (and is) suffering, violent and what must be painful death and gore; of which there was a whole lot in that documentary, to all kinds of beings.

 

[SithSolo1]

Good stuff.

Found this one too about current gen deep space observation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8wbgh8oYno

 

[T9D]

That was awesome. I think the beetle at the end is the same one that stayed there the whole time eating them and whittling the colony down. Most likely the reason for the downfall not the hot drought. Because at the end they still had very full drones about to burst.

 

[Craig234]

Just a reminder - we could make more great films also if we supported PBS more like the BBC.