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Planet Earth II
2016 · TV series · documentary · 1 season
David Attenborough presents a documentary series exploring how animals meet the challenges of surviving in the most iconic habitats on earth.
7 positive4 neutralfrom 11 commenters
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11 comments on Hacker News
I have Vinyl records, but my goal is to digitize them. They're my Dads from 1940s, 50s, and many are 78s, so I had so search Kijiji ads to get a player that plays that speed. Dual 1009 was what I settled on.
As for DVDs/Blu Ray, I only buy things like Planet Earth or other docs. Sure enough, just yesterday I tried playing Planet Earth II on UHD 4K Blu Ray on an Xbox Series X, albeit I still have a 1080p TV (bought used) and 1080p Receiver (bought used, Sony STR-DN1000 that I paid $50 for) and it was glitching. sigh Time to hit up Bit Torrent and download a ripped version of the Documentary that I already paid for. Argh.
Both Blu Ray and Vinyl are susceptible to one day not being playable. By ripping them into digital, we can hopefully keep the content playable well into the future.
David Attenborough's documentaries. Each of them are great. A few especially phenomenal ones: 1. Life on Earth (1979) 2. Blue Planet II (2017) 3. Planet Earth II (2016) 4. Our Planet (2019) [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135095/ [2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6769208 [3] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5491994/ [4] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9253866/
"The Social Dilemma", what a great documentary showing how ad business, recommendations, attention grabbing works in social networks and how it impacts society, it basically shows "how sausage is made" and how it impacts the whole world and the risks associated with it https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11464826/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
"Planet Earth II", breathtaking documentary about animal life on earth with extraordinary scenes https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5491994/?ref_=rt_li_tt
"Inside Job", documentary about 2008 crisis, masterpiece, narrated by Matt Damon. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/
"The Last Dance", I'm not a fan of basketball, it's a doc about Michael Jordan, one of the best docs I've seen, sounds boring but you can't wait to watch the next episode, recommended even if you don't watch sports like me, it's about extraordinary person/athlete and what it takes to be GOAT https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8420184/?ref_=rt_li_tt
"Zero Days", great doc about stuxnet exploit https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5446858/?ref_=rt_li_tt
"Human", what it is to be a human from different perspectives https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3327994/?ref_=rt_li_tt
"Over the Limit", documentary about olympic gymnastic and shows the price of winning at any cost. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8184202/?ref_=rt_li_tt
"Life Story", beautiful doc about animals, great scenes https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4150884/?ref_=rt_li_tt
"Planet Earth", extraordinary scenes of animals lives https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795176/?ref_=rt_li_tt
"Blue Planet II", like Planet Earth but in water https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6769208/?ref_=rt_li_tt
"Cosmos", doc about cosmos, nature of the world etc, very good https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395695/?ref_=rt_li_tt
"The Tinder Swindler", "Posing as a wealthy, jet-setting diamond mogul, he wooed women online, then conned them out of millions of dollars." Surprisingly good https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14992922/?ref_=rt_li_tt
"The Farthest", about first human made object leaving our Solar system https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6223974/?ref_=rt_li_tt
"Our Planet", https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9253866/?ref_=rt_li_tt
"Cartel land" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4126304/?ref_=rt_li_tt
I think the main issue is that we have simply outpaced ourselves in that our technological progress far exceeds our emotional progress, which is essentially locked in to our biological makeup. So I think your latter point is on point. I don't know how to solve these issues, and I don't think we can.
Humans were not made for the technology we've gifted ourselves. I am reminded of Christmas Island that is mentioned in Planet Earth II, episode 1. It describes an island with a crab that flourished there for millions of years. Human settlers brought a type of non-native ant to the island, the yellow crazy ant, and it turns out that the ant can easily kill the crabs, which have zero protection against the ants' attack. This shows there are moments in which life presents change in which there is no going back. The crabs are not able to evolve quickly enough against the ants, and the ants must be controlled by humans to even give the crabs a chance.
Why I was reminded of this is because I feel technology is the ant, and us humans are both the crabs and humans who brought the ant. There's a quote by David Attenborough that stuck with me: "the greatest threat they [the crabs] face is change".
I feel we've reached a turning point in which we've changed things forever, and I see no indication that things will get better or that we'll be able to adapt. I feel we are simply biologically limited, both in intelligence and emotional composition, to handle the worlds we continue to create.
And now I am reminded of a speech by El Jefe in The Counselor, written by Cormac McCarthy. It shouldn't be surprising that McCarthy is a resident scholar at The Santa Fe Institute, the only author to have such an appointment to my knowledge.
> Actions create consequences which produce new worlds, and they’re all different. Where the bodies are buried in the desert, that is a certain world. Where the bodies are simply left to be found, that is another. And all these worlds, heretofore unknown to us, they must have always been there, must they not?
> Counselor, at some point, you have to anknowledge the reality of the world you're in. There is not some other world. This is not a hiatus.
> I would urge you to see the truth of the situation you’re in, Counselor. That is my advice. It is not for me to tell you what you should have done or not done. The world in which you seek to undo the mistakes that you made is different from the world where the mistakes were made. You are now at the crossing. And you want to choose, but there is no choosing there. There’s only accepting. The choosing was done a long time ago.
> I don’t mean to offend you, but reflective men often find themselves at a place removed from the realities of life. In any case, we should all prepare a place where we can accommodate all the tragedies that sooner or later will come to our lives. But this is an economy few people care to practice.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_crazy_ant#Impact_on_Christmas_Island
https://youtu.be/X89AXNO6TBw
For me, I've realized that 80% of media is not worth my time. Unless it's something that is 'can't miss' like Martin Scorsese's movie that is debuting on Netflix or Planet Earth II, I can skip it. I use my family's Netflix account, I don't have my own.
I've tried to keep up with the Marvel universe but it's next to impossible at this point. All my favorite shows (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Sopranos, Game of Thrones) are completed now too. I go to the movies once or twice a year now, at most.
Either you have a tiny screen or you should visit an optometrist.
55" 4k TV here and even 1080p is clearly blurry. Watch some movies or documentaries in 4k and it's obvious how much better they look. I recommend Planet Earth II on Bluray.
episode 7, our blue planet, in the planet earth ii series is some of the hardest television i have watched. i actually couldn't finish the episode. maybe this is hyperbole to others that have watched it, but it's unbelievable the effect that humans have had on earth and on our fellow flora and fauna.
Planet Earth II has an episode about this as well. Can’t remember if they mention the darwinsm aspect, but pretty sure I remember the Anthropocene term was introduced.
For those who are interested, the first episode of David Attenborough's Planet Earth II has a segment on pygmy sloth in the beginning.
Planet Earth II did an episode about Cities, I found it fascinating. They definitely talked about the Falcons in NYC. But even more interesting was the fish that eat pigeons.
I wonder how much this has to do with vision correction. VR goggles, like TV screens, flatten everything into a single plane. If your eyes can focus on that plane they see everything. The real world is different. None of us have perfect vision at all distances simultaneously. We have to refocus when switching between near and far. The result is that nothing in the real world is every as 'in focus' as the VR world. So like wearing flippers while swimming, the real world is fuzzy and requires you to work harder than you did while wearing the device.
This is akin to why BBC documentaries always look better than the real thing. (I watched Planet Earth II last night). Those giant lenses in the fancy cameras can keep more objects in focus, allowing us to see both the parrot and the mountain background in ways we couldn't in the real world.