Planet Earth (2006)

(Image from Wikipedia)


Planet Earth (2006)

I'm not going to say much about 'Planet Earth' other than to state the obvious - the BBC produced nature documentary is fantastic. Spanning every conceivable environment on the planet, it serves as an awe inspiring snapshot of the wonders of the natural world. David Attenborough's dulcet tones guide viewers through 11 episodes, each of which covers a different habitat and the diverse life within it, from tropical rainforests to mountains to caves to the creepily alien depths of the ocean. While it only scratches the surface, what it presents is still overwhelming in terms of scope and visual impact. The camerawork on display is simply incredible*, and the mind reels at the visuals the crew managed to capture - thankfully each episode has a short video diary that shows how they went about getting some of these shots, but to be honest I could have done with even more. The series is accompanied by a fitting orchestral score that varies from episode to episode to match the environment on display.

Some of my favourite moments: everything from the deep ocean - seriously, it was like looking upon another, completely alien, world! An elephant being taken down by a pack of ravenous lions. A snow leopard hunting on the rocky slopes of the Afghan Himalayan mountains. Jumpy lizards bouncing around like jack-in-the-boxes while feeding on flies. A plague of locusts. A chimpanzee tribe brutally raiding their neighbours in order to assert their dominance. Dolphins risking becoming beached by 'sliding' along very shallow water to nab out-of-reach fish. A great white shark making a kill in glorious slow motion. A polar bear curling up to die far away from its usual territory after repeatedly failing to earn a kill from a nearby colony of walruses.

And there are many many more incredible moments on display. 'Planet Earth' is 11 hours of absolutely superb documentary filmmaking that captures the sheer diversity present on good old Terra; it's a must watch for everybody.

*One amusing think I noticed while watching this - after years of seeing massive special effects shots in movies, some of the aerial shots looking down on herds of animals looked 'fake'. Perhaps the effects are better than I give them credit for!

Mercury Falling

I have a CFL bulb hanging over the top of my bed. When I lie on my back it sits right in the centre of my field of vision, suspended a few feet up and swayed slightly and ominously by the air currents created by the room's ceiling fan. The bulb is attached to a socket that literally hangs from a wire, as there is no proper fixture in the ceiling. I wonder sometimes whether the damn thing might fall on to my face; a CFL is after all heavier than your typical incandescent, and who knows how strong that socket and wire are?

And when I read articles like this one, I am reminded of the fact that these bulbs present more dangers than the usual glass shards when they break, because they contain tiny amounts of mercury. As the article points out, the EPA has a fairly involved set of instructions on what to do if a CFL breaks. It may be overkill and erring on the side of caution, but the paranoid part of me (i.e. most of me) would still freak out if one of these things broke, particularly if it smashed into my face! AAAAAAAAAGGGHHH, the mercury, it BURNSSSS!

And while the environmental and economic benefits of CFLs are clear, the possibility that we are trading in one problem for potentially another one down the line is worrying, especially if there is no good way to dispose of the darn things for most people. Despite this issue the consensus seems to be that the trade off is still well in favour of CFLs, but it just goes to show that there is no panacea. Unless those LED bulbs start to pan out...

Meanwhile, I'm going to get back to watching that confounded bulb sway to and fro. Only now I'll also wonder about the mercury getting into my bloodstream in addition to the whopping pain of it falling and striking me and the lacerations that the breaking shards of glass will bring with them.

Yet another reason to love Google

The BBC reports that "Search giant Google is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy technologies." You can add that to their exemplary array of online services and applications, their good behaviour (yeah yeah there have been a few supposed blips like the whole China thing), their book digitizing project, their open standards mobile phone platform initiative, their unobtrusive use of ads, their association with other cool projects (like Firefox and OLPC), and their generally fun corporate image.