[SA Chris]

I was wondering when I watched that how many poor frogs they had to launch to get that footage.

[Johnny Brown]

The footage was amazing, shame there wasn't much depth to it. I'm not a massive fan of the current direction towards 'Wow, look at this. Now this, wow!' nature shows. I preferred the nineties style year-in-the-life-of. Slower burn, but much more staisfying.

[slackline]

I can see where you're coming from there JB.

The thing with the current Life series though is that its focusing on the challenges of "Life" (primarily the struggle to get food, find a mate, reproduce and avoid being eaten) and its covering these aspect across lots of different species and how the myriad of different organisms achieve this.  So its to compare and contrast and not necessarily trying to wow the audience with stunning sequences in their own right.

This is in contrast to say Life on Earth which goes through the evolution of life on earth or The Life of Mammals which looked at mammals as a group and how they had evolved into the diverse group they are, comparative physiology and so forth.

That said the Big Cat diaries are excellent, really show the work involved, but their aiming to show that.

[Zods Beard]

Watched this last night, well worth checking out if your a fan of kraut rock. Includes a excellent story about David Niven attending a Can gig.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00nf10k/Krautrock_The_Rebirth_of_Germany/

[Sloper]

Since I don't have a TV I only watch on the web and I'd recomment in the thick of it.

Top quality comedy and some class swearing to boot.

[Johnny Brown]

Morrissey on Desert Island Discs.

[underground]

The footage was amazing, shame there wasn't much depth to it. I'm not a massive fan of the current direction towards 'Wow, look at this. Now this, wow!' nature shows. I preferred the nineties style year-in-the-life-of. Slower burn, but much more staisfying.

Totally agree, seem to be making a habit of totally agreeing with you JB  There's been a rash of impressive footage / little actual detail on 'big' telly nature programmes. Fortunately it's been ages since I've seen any of those heavily CGI based programmes about 'nature's baddest killers' or some such shit (on the BBC at any rate).

One of the best programmes I ever saw was about a day in life of a farm - it must have been Natural World, the central 'character' inwhich was a robin whose nest was in the breast pocket of an old tweed jacket hanging in a barn.

Second best is a far more recent Natural World, about a year in the Wye valley. Stunning.

Oh, and the one about Plitwice national park in Croatia. Unbelievable....
Very slow burning, immensely satifying.

[underground]

Morrissey on Desert Island Discs.

You can stop it now....

enjoying this right now. Thanks for reminding me what the non-work thing I'd written in big letters in my notebook was about 

[tommytwotone]

I've been catching up with The Thick Of It on iplayer.

If only I could use some of Malcolm Tucker's best at work....

[Dolly]

Morrissey on Desert Island Discs.

I listened to some of this on the way to work this morning and found it a bit embarrassing really
Why is it that he often comes across as deliberately or wilfully obscure and difficult ?

[Johnny Brown]

'Cos he's got a totally different worldview to most of us, whilst being very intelligent. I thought it was great. I wouldn't want to be stuck on a desert island with his record collection though.

One of the best programmes I ever saw was about a day in life of a farm - it must have been Natural World,

Exactly what I'm on about. Give me depth over breadth every time. There was a one on last night about Loch Maree in Torridon - worth watching if you missed it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p9210/Natural_World_20092010_Highland_Haven/

[Dolly]

'Cos he's got a totally different worldview to most of us, whilst being very intelligent

Yeah I think you're probably right there

[Paul B]

I downloaded Iplayer Desktop for the first time last night and downloaded a program from BBC2 but was a bit disappointed with the quality. I know its a little off topic but could someone enlighten me as to:

Do you have to watch the programs within 7 days or is there some way of saving the downloaded file?
Do you HAVE to watch the downloaded programmes with Iplayer desktop or can you use KMplayer/VLC etc?

[underground]

I downloaded Iplayer Desktop for the first time last night and downloaded a program from BBC2 but was a bit disappointed with the quality. I know its a little off topic but could someone enlighten me as to:

Do you have to watch the programs within 7 days or is there some way of saving the downloaded file?
Do you HAVE to watch the downloaded programmes with Iplayer desktop or can you use KMplayer/VLC etc?

Yes you can download them, but i think you're limited to formats such a windows media player and ipod. The files are DRM protected so you have to watch them on the same computer, not sure if they expire after a certain date. I do know that if you try to copy the file and watch elsewhere, the sound and image are garbled...

[JonI]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p5wl1/Storyville_20092010_Simon_Manns_African_Coup_Black_Beach/

Just watched this documentary about the 2004 coup in equatorial guinea which illuminates some dark corners of global oil politics... very interesting and quite chilling at the same time.

[Jaspersharpe]

Been fascinated by this story and that's basically answered all the questions I had about it. Nice one.

[slackline]

Last nights Horizon was quite interesting

How many people can live on planet Earth?

[tlr]

Very interesting ideed. And rather scary. Sounds like we basically need a 'one in, one out' policy.

I volunteer to do my bit and not have kids.

[slackline]

Very interesting ideed. And rather scary. Sounds like we basically need a 'one in, one out' policy.

I volunteer to do my bit and not have kids.

That would curb growth, but the world is already over populated, so you need a two out, one in policy to reduce the population, as they did in China.

But hey, try telling these things to the unedcuated dole scroungers who see an additional child as extra money to spend on a new 47" TV 

[tlr]

That would curb growth, but the world is already over populated, so you need a two out, one in policy to reduce the population, as they did in China.

Even better idea.

Or I might move to Japan, where the population is in decline.

I wasn't too convinced by Attenborough's attempt at optimism right at the end either.

[slackline]

I wasn't too convinced by Attenborough's attempt at optimism right at the end either.

No its a pretty bleak outlook really, especially when you consider he was appealing to human rationality which for a huge proportion of the population just doesn't exist.  So many people only think about themselves and their immediate family and the next 40-60 years, they just don't comprehend geological timescales.

[SA Chris]

they just don't comprehend geological timescales.

Does anyone? And is there any point? Do you really make decisions in your life based on what effect it will have a few million years down the line? On geological timescales all human endeavour is insignificant.

[Johnny Brown]

True, humans and global warming certainly aren't worth worrying about on a geological timescale.

I guess we're talking about 100-10,000 years really, what scale is that? Arboreal? I think we're being fucked by a baby-boomer generation who grew up believing everything was there for the taking. As they become less relevant I think the next generation will do better. How to keep the youths' idealism alive though?

[slackline]

they just don't comprehend geological timescales.

Does anyone? And is there any point? Do you really make decisions in your life based on what effect it will have a few million years down the line? On geological timescales all human endeavour is insignificant.

Well I usually bear in mind the scaling of the earths existence into a year to give it some perspective, and when you do this humans appear in the last few seconds of the last minute, and with this in mind I think that humans are pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things.  We're not the "end point of evolution" as evolution by natural selection has no goal, we're just a product of the process and whilst, as a species, we are unique and distinct from any other life form (a rough and ready definition of what a species is, but even that is a contentious issue!), we're no more important than any other species.  Unfortunately many humans think that we, as a species, are special and "above" all other species, but we're not really at all.  You can see all sorts of "animal" behaviour in humans, albeit with a greater degree of sophistication for killing each other.

With this in mind I try and be respectful towards the earth as a whole, and minimise my impact because its not mine, or the human species, but something that is as far as we know is unique in the universe.  I don't think about what effect I'm going to have in a few hundred million years, but I do wonder what the ecosystem of the earth (or Gaia as Lovelock coined it) will be like in the future, and personally I don't think humans will feature in it, most likely as a consequence of their own actions.

[SA Chris]

I think JB's Arboreal is more appropriate to use in the context than geological. Otherwise I agree with what you say.