Latest Nature Talk Posts at VideoSift.com

Animal anarchy: When Animals Attack - Video Top 10

ant (http://nature.videosift.com/member/ant) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:24:38 -0700

(1 comment - 199 views)
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/10/02/animal-anarchy-when-animals-attack-video-top-10-115875-21715481/ from http://digg.com/pets_animals/Animal_anarchy_When_animals_attack_Video_top_10 ...

- ant

Arvana gets his crown; wants peace, love, and understanding

kronosposeidon (http://nature.videosift.com/member/kronosposeidon) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:45:10 -0700

(49 comments - 565 views)

We have another crown in our midst, siftizens, and it's none other than Monsieur Arvana. By now everyone who's been here for more than a few months knows his name. He's the dude who routinely brings us some of the most interesting and most entertaining videos the net has to offer. That arvana. (You know, the one who reminds you of Jeff Bridges. Or maybe it's just me. Hey, I still remember his long-haired look, and even then he reminded me of Lebowski. Sort of. Or Patrick Swayze. Just ask rottenseed. Except he's alive. Arvana, that is.)

Okay, so where was I? Oh yeah, arvana just got a thousand stars, so I whipped up this half-assed shopped photo of him. Blame it on Monsieur John Daniels for its amateurish....ness. And my lack of shopping skills. But give it up for arvana while you're at it. He deserves it.

And here's my recent favorite arvana video, so vote it up if you haven't done so already. It's been such a long time, baby.

- kronosposeidon

Post your favorite Popular Sciene and Non-fiction books

cybrbeast (http://nature.videosift.com/member/cybrbeast) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:39:16 -0700

(13 comments - 452 views)
I really enjoy reading popular science and other non-fiction books and would love to get some suggestions from other sifters. Please add amazon invocations and a bit on why you like a particular book.

- cybrbeast

Museum of Animal Perspectives's Photostream/Video Clips

ant (http://nature.videosift.com/member/ant) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:43:11 -0700

(0 comments - 543 views)
Boing Boing shares Museum of Animal Perspectives (MAP)'s photostream showing four Web pages of short video clips from animals' perspectives (cameras mounted on them).

- ant

Relax

kronosposeidon (http://nature.videosift.com/member/kronosposeidon) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:31:52 -0700

(4 comments - 547 views)

Click the HQ button and select HD if your processor and internet connection won't bog down. Then go full screen.

- kronosposeidon

Cats 'exploit' humans by purring

Tymbrwulf (http://nature.videosift.com/member/Tymbrwulf) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:10:50 -0700

(3 comments - 491 views)
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46053000/jpg/_46053673_cat_bbc_226.jpg

From BBC News:

Cat owners may have suspected as much, but it seems our feline friends have found a way to manipulate us humans.

Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a "soliciting purr" to overpower their owners and garner attention and food.

Unlike regular purring, this sound incorporates a "cry", with a similar frequency to a human baby's.

The team said cats have "tapped into" a human bias - producing a sound that humans find very difficult to ignore.

Dr Karen McComb, the lead author of the study that was published in the journal Current Biology, said the research was inspired by her own cat, Pepo.

"He would wake me up in the morning with this insistent purr that was really rather annoying," Dr McComb told BBC News.

"After a little bit of investigation, I discovered that there are other cat owners who are similarly bombarded early in the morning."

While meowing might get a cat expelled from the bedroom, Dr McComb said that this pestering purr often convinced beleaguered pet lovers to get up and fill their cat's bowl.

To find out why, her team had to train cat owners to make recordings of their own cats' vocal tactics - recording both their "soliciting purrs" and regular, "non-soliciting" purrs.

"When we played the recordings to human volunteers, even those people with no experience of cats found the soliciting purrs more urgent and less pleasant," said Dr McComb.

How annoying?

She and her team also asked the volunteers to rate the different purrs - giving them a score based on how urgent and pleasant they perceived them to be.

"We could then relate the scores back to the specific purrs," explained Dr McComb. "The key thing (that made the purrs more unpleasant and difficult to ignore) was the relative level of this embedded high-frequency sound."

"When an animal vocalises, the vocal folds (or cords) held across the stream of air snap shut at a particular frequency," explained Dr McComb. The perceived pitch of that sound depends on the size, length and tension of the vocal folds.

"But cats are able to produce a low frequency purr by activating the muscles of their vocal folds - stimulating them to vibrate," explained Dr McComb.

Since each of these sounds is produced by a different mechanism, cats are able to embed a high-pitched cry in an otherwise relaxing purr.

"How urgent and unpleasant the purr is seems to depend on how much energy the cat puts into producing that cry," said Dr McComb.

Previous studies have found similarities between a domestic cat's cry and the cry of a human baby - a sound that humans are highly sensitive to.

Dr McComb said that the cry occurs at a low level in cats' normal purring. "But we think that (they) learn to dramatically exaggerate it when it proves effective in generating a response from humans."

She added that the trait seemed to most often develop in cats that have a one-on-one relationship with their owners.

"Obviously we don't know what's going on inside their minds," said Dr McComb. "But they learn how to do this, and then they do it quite deliberately."

So how does Dr McComb feel about Pepo now she knows he has been manipulating her all these years?

"He's been the inspiration for this whole study, so I'll forgive him - credit where credit's due."

- Tymbrwulf

Astronauts witness eruption from International Space Station

Duckman33 (http://duckman33.videosift.com) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:09:22 -0700

(7 comments - 458 views)
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1195215/Stunning-pictures-hole-clouds-astronauts-witness-volcano-eruption-International-Space-Station.html

Framed by a circle of clouds, this is a stunning illustration of Nature's powerful force. A plume of smoke, ash and steam soars five miles into the sky from an erupting volcano. The extraordinary image was captured by the crew of the International Space Station 220 miles above a remote Russian island in the North Pacific.

The round hole in the clouds is thought to have been caused by the shockwave of the initial explosion. At the centre lies the billowing mushroom tower of grey and brown ash.
For volcano experts, the most exciting part of the image is the layer of smooth white cloud that caps the plume - a little like a layer of snow on a mushroom. This cap of condensed air is created from the rapid rising and then cooling of the air directly above the ash column. When moist, warm air rises quickly it creates a cloud.

This cap, which meteorologists call a pileus cloud, is already beginning to break up in these images - and would have vanished soon afterwards. Far below, a thunderous line of light grey cloud can be seen falling down the sloping sides of the volcano.

This is a deadly pyroclastic flow - a mixture of hot gas and ash that destroys everything in its path. Reaching temperatures of 600C (1,112F) and moving at 130mph, a pyroclastic flow is the most dangerous part of a volcanic eruption. Thankfully, Matua Island is uninhabited. The eruption of Sarychev Peak began a week ago and is still under way. The International Space Station has continued to track the ash cloud over the last few days.

The plume is a few hundred miles from one of the world's busiest air corridors. Hundreds of flights across the Pacific have been diverted to avoid any chance of it knocking out plane engines. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in Russia's Kuril archipelago. Eruptions have been recorded as far back as the 1700s, with the last known one in 1989.

- Duckman33

HOME

demon_ix (http://nature.videosift.com/member/demon_ix) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:02:48 -0700

(1 comment - 885 views)
Embedding is disabled, so I can't sift it, but I felt a powerful urge to share this anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/homeproject

The film is available on Youtube until June 14th, and is 1:33 hours long. I hope you enjoy and share as well.

Edit - It occurred to me that even though I submitted this to Eco talk, this post isn't quite descriptive enough for the other channels.

Home is a film which attempts to sum up the impact Humans have on our home planet and the possible future it would lead to. This film follows human societies around the globe and makes it's points through intelligent narration and spectacular nature images.

- demon_ix

NicoleBee gets her Gold 100, buzzes with excitement

rasch187 (http://rasch187.videosift.com) — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:55:33 -0700

(43 comments - 653 views)

A long time in the making, but at last NicoleBee got her Gold 100. Finally she'll be able to include pictures in sifttalk posts. I'm sure I'm not the only one who hopes for more of her beautiful artwork in the future.

Besides being a talented artist, Nicole is the (un)official geek chick on VS. I feel pretty confident saying she has her veritable pick of the litter among the many male geeks of the sift.

Major congrats, Nicole, you're a funny and interesting girl and anyone who doesn't visit your pqueue will deserve getting stung. How does a bee survive in the arctic wasteland that is Canada anyway? Never mind that! CONGRATS!!!

gwiz made this (I think it's supposed to be a bee):

- rasch187

This is my best sift ever

lavoll (http://nature.videosift.com/member/lavoll) — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:48:45 -0700

(2 comments - 262 views)
Not sure if we are allowed to promote our sifts here in the talk, but this is beyond awesome:

http://www.videosift.com/video/Live-Eurasian-Oystercatcher-hatching-cam

- lavoll