Home/Articles in: Videos & Documentaries
Articles in: Videos & Documentaries
Videos & Documentaries, Weird Stuff, Jun 17th, 2013,
A couple of years ago the UN advised us to eat less meat and dairy in order to cut greenhouse gasses and reduce the risks of catastrophic climate change. Vegans and vegetarians high-fived the world over. Now a UN report says we should broaden our diets to include insects for the double benefit of boosting global nutrition while reducing pollution. They do realize that complacent and affluent Westerners who can’t even be bothered to buy a reusable shopping bag probably won’t salivate at the thought of a grasshopper burrito, however. Strangely enough, I am, though it’s probably at the burrito…
Tags: eating insects, global hunger
Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, May 30th, 2013,
Those among you who have gambled know the euphoric high that winning provides. You’ve beat the system and used your skill (or luck) to essentially get something for nothing. Losing money in a bet or game, on the other hand, brings on a cold sweat and a sinking feeling in your gut that can only be remedied by one thing – winning. This is why people lose big: not because they think it’s wise to keep betting in a losing game, but rather to get rid of that horrible feeling in the pit of the stomach. Research from Yale and…
Tags: animal experiments, bonobos, chimps
Green living, Videos & Documentaries, May 20th, 2013,
Your environmentally conscious dream house awaits. No, it’s not an Al Gore style mansion fitted with solar panels and other energy-efficient innovations. No one but the super-rich can afford such green luxury. I’m talking about minimal space minimal resource use. Introducing a personal fetish of mine: tiny houses. Ever since first seeing articles on the Micro Compact House I always liked it’s futuristic appeal, but their life cycle doesn’t appear to be very long. This reclaimed boat inspired apartment in Barcelona looks great, but it’s not all that small and looks way outside my budget anyway. Next! Tiny houses: These…
Tags: loftcube, micro compact home, small house movement, tiny houses
Animals, Videos & Documentaries, Weird Stuff, May 17th, 2013,
Since I discovered that YouTube has gone HD, I’ve been devouring animal documentaries. The BBC’s Natural World is my favorite. Unusual and uplifting stories about gorillas, koalas, jaguars and other intelligent or beautiful animals are generally what I’m looking for, but I try to keep an open mind. What are especially appealing are stories about unlikely friendships or adoptions between not only humans and animals, but also between different species of wild animals. “Kangaroo Dundee”, about a guy who lives in the Australian outback and acts as a surrogate mother to orphaned kangaroos, ticks all the boxes. Another episode was…
Tags: interspecies adoption, unlikely animal friendships
Animals, Videos & Documentaries, Apr 29th, 2013,
People love cats. Much more so than dogs, they’re an intriguing mix of a wild animal and a house pet. A dog adopts its human family as its pack, or looked at another way, dogs remain as “children” for the duration of their lives. Cats can act like kids too. Like dogs, they know where they’re next meal is coming from. Yet in terms of hunting small game, keeping hidden and multiplying, cats win. They’re just more adaptable and better overall at surviving. In Alan Weisman’s fascinating book “The World Without Us”, scientists propose that if humanity were simply to…
Tags: african wild cat, domestic cats, feral cats
Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Weird Stuff, Apr 19th, 2013,
The Animal Planet series Finding Bigfoot has rekindled an interest in Sasquatch, also known as the Yeti and a host of other names. In the English-speaking world we generally prefer Bigfoot. It has a certain snap. A recent poll on “conspiracy theories” shows that 14% of Americans believe that Bigfoot is a real thing. That might sound crazy to some, but it should be noted that renowned British primatologist Jane Goodall has made statements to the effect that she is a “Bigfoot believer”. Some think that Bigfoot could be a remnant population of Gigantopithecus, a giant prehistoric ape that stood…
Tags: Bigfoot, Gigantopithecus, Homo floresiensis, indonesian hobbit, Jane Goodall
Animal Rights, Animals, Videos & Documentaries, Apr 8th, 2013,
Sex, food, recreational drugs and videos of cats. What do these four vices have in common? They are all connected to the release of the dopamine, a neurotransmitter and hormone associated with “reward-driven learning”. Recent research shows that looking at live webcam feeds of cute animals affects the brain’s pleasure centers by releasing dopamine. So that’s why people (me included) can spend inordinate amounts of time looking at videos of cats, puppies, gibbons, etc., on Youtube. It’s like a drug. So is cuteoverload.com the new crystal meth or crack? Not really. Maybe the new nicotine is a more appropriate comparison….
Tags: asmr, cat videos, cuteoverload, dopamine, justin bieber
Nature, Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, Mar 28th, 2013,
A provider of sanctuary to WikiLeaks founder and champion of transparency Julian Assange and staunch ally of the recently bereaved Venezuela, Ecuador has been punching above its weight of late. In terms of international relations, that is. Ecologically speaking, Ecuador is a bonafide heavyweight. According to Conservation International, it is one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries, with the highest density of biodiversity per km on Earth. The Galápagos Islands alone should cement the nation’s global environmental value, but even without them Ecuador’s natural wealth is invaluable. Half the area of the country is covered by the Amazon rainforest and…
Tags: Ecuador Amazon, oil in Ecuador
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Feb 25th, 2013,
Back in September 2009 I posted about some of the fascinating and disgusting things to be found in New York Harbor. It was basically a brief commentary on a feature in New York Magazine, a sort of “did you know?” piece cataloguing some interesting trivia about strange creatures, ship and train wrecks, cars, corpses, coal tar and loads of fish and mollusks that are too contaminated by PCPs (toxic pesticides and disinfectants) to be fit for human consumption. Not much of a fishing industry in NYC. Oh, and because of the city’s antiquated sewage treatment system, New York’s waterways are…
Tags: hudson river pollution, indian point nuclear power plant, new york city pollution, new york harbor contamination
Climate Change, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 29th, 2012,
Remember climate change? Yeah, it didn’t go away. In fact it’s worse than ever. However, the media (and therefore the public) have largely lost interest. No more Amazon? More extreme floods and droughts? Bo-ring! The Right in the US and Europe have succeeded in sewing enough doubt as to the reality of climate change that many people are just “confused” or “skeptical” so no large countries are really doing anything significant. The more sane elements in the governments of these nations still try to make money out of any “solution” to climate change. The free market will solve everything, apparently….
Tags: amazon, arctic, Climate change, global warming
Animals, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 17th, 2012,
Two gorilla brothers were successfully reunited at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire, UK. Alf and big brother silverback Kesho – now 200lbs (90kg) heavier – met after being separated for two years. Their cheerful reunion was captured on video and in a series of photos, which can be viewed on the BBC News website. Mark Tye, head gorilla keeper at Longleat Safari Park, Wiltshire, is quoted in Metro: They were touching each other through the cage that temporarily separated them and there were no acts of aggression. We put them together 24 hours later and it was like they had…
Tags: alf, gorilla, kesho, Longleat Safari Park, reunion, video
Animals, Conservation, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 15th, 2012,
Seems some elephants are getting a bit of European style social welfare lately. Captive ones, that is. Oh, and only some captive elephants. Those in British circuses, many zoos and touristy theme parks in Thailand for instance, have it pretty rough indeed. Like I said, an elephant’s life can be pretty shit these days. Nonetheless, one African elephant at an Austrian zoo has received an artificial insemination treatment and is now 9 months into her 22 month pregnancy. 22 months – must be why Christian symbolism uses the elephant to represent patience. Though artificially inseminating elephants is nothing new, using…
Tags: artificial insemination, Austria, Burma, electro-ejaculator, elephants, zoo
Animals, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 14th, 2012,
After posting about sharks yesterday I stumbled upon a remarkable and tragic story containing humans and sharks, which occurred just last week. Three men left on a ill-fated fishing trip on the night of August 9th off the coast of Western Australia. Then tragedy struck. Two of the men were pulled from shark infested waters, one found naked after treading water for 20 hours. The other man was later pronounced dead. The third, the nephew of the (so far) lone survivor, is still missing. Read more about the situation in WA Today and watch the following video of the rescue.
Tags: australia, fishermen, sharks, video
Natural disasters, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 8th, 2012,
The worst flooding to hit the Philippines in 3 years has left much of the capital city Manila underwater. At least 19 people have died (9 family members in a single landslide in Quezon City) and a total of 1.2 residents of metro Manila were affected by the monsoon rains. After 12 days of rain, sun was forecast for Thursday with cleanup and rescue efforts underway as of Wednesday. From the Associated Press: Manila was drenched with more than half of a month’s worth of rain in just 24 hours. A storm off eastern China that intensified the southwest monsoon…
Tags: flooding, manila
Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 7th, 2012,
On Monday Mount Tongariro on New Zealand’s North Island erupted for the first time in over 100 years, causing evacuations on Tuesday morning and disrupting flights. The small scale eruption covered parts of central North Island in ash and shot rocks 1km from the site of the blast. Scientists believe the eruption only lasted a few minutes and was driven by steam within the volcano. It was followed by small earthquakes. GNS Science volcanologist Michael Rosenberg is quote by AAP: There’ll be a few more minor quakes but for the moment it’s pretty quiet. At the moment there is…
Tags: eruption, Tongariro, volcano
Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 30th, 2012,
In response to public safety concerns and a general anti-nuclear sentiment in the wake of last year’s Fukushima power plant disaster, Japan was nuke-free for a couple of months. That ended earlier this month with the controversial restart of two nuclear power plants. On Sunday anti-nuke demonstrators were out in full force, forming a human chain around the parliament complex in Tokyo. Some witnesses expressed that they haven’t seen protests on this scale in Japan since the 1960s. From the Associated Press: Similar demonstrations have been held outside the prime minister’s residence every Friday evening. The crowds have not dwindled,…
Tags: anti-nuclear, protest, rally, Tokyo
Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 22nd, 2012,
Members of Colombia’s Nasa tribe are demanding that both government troops and leftist rebels leave their lands. Nasa territory has been the battle ground for a bloody offensive by the Colombian military against FARC rebels, claiming mainly civilian lives. Tribal protesters wielding wooden clubs and spears forced members of the military from their lands (the Nasa shun the use of firearms). They have also conducted trials against FARC rebels who could face banishment, flogging or being kept in stocks as punishment. From the Associated Press: The conflict claims hundreds if not thousands of lives a year, mostly civilians killed in…
Tags: Colombia, FARC, indigenous, Military, NASA
Animals, Natural disasters, Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 10th, 2012,
A couple of weeks ago severe storms ravaged parts of the United States. The UK experienced the wettest June on record and July has been just as wet. Flash floods and freak weather have plagued the nation and more flooding is on the way. Over in Russia recent flooding in the south of the country has produced very grim results: at least 171 people have died and thousands left homeless due to flash floods. It’s not just humans that are suffering the effects of extreme weather and flooding. In northeast India severe flooding has killed around 600 animals in the…
Tags: flood, flooding, Kaziranga, rhinos
Natural disasters, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 9th, 2012,
The latest death toll of the floods that have ravaged Russia’s southern Krasnodar region is at least 171, with over 25,000 having lost some or all of their possessions. Flash floods caused a 5 meter (16ft) wave to sweep through the town of Krymsk late Friday night leaving a path of muddy wreckage in its wake. Residents of the Krasnodar region say they were given no warning of the coming floods. Though both local and national governments claim they had no knowledge of any imminent danger, public and media opinion (both for and against the Putin regime) has been…
Tags: death, floods, Krasnodar, Krymsk, Putin
Animals, Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, Jul 5th, 2012,
The biggest captive crocodile in the world’s status was recently confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records. Lolong, a massive salt water crocodile, was captured in September in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur province in the Philippines. The croc measures 6.17 meters (20.24 feet) in length and weighs 1,075 kilos (2,370 pounds). Currently residing at a new ecotourism park near Bunawan, Lolong has already brought the town revenues to the tune of $72,000. From the Associated Press: Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje welcomed the Guinness announcement and the growing attention being given to the crocodile, saying it…
Tags: Bunawan, crocodile, Guinness, Lolong
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