1. Comment #341122 by theantitheist on February 15, 2009 at 7:42 pm

The seven that were picked the other year for the 'New Seven Wonders' was very political and my plan is to visit all 21 nominies and any others that grab my attention and go visit them on a trip. Course i've got to save up first but once i've seen them all i'll report back which seven I think deserve the title. (Please be patient this may take several years).

The originals were limited by geography so at least we can now take others into consideration.

Since all the above was ..... ever so slightly off topic, i thought i'd bring it back. My favourate of RD's picks was the spider, it's just so mind boggling for me, beats my imagination for wierdness hands down. What was other peoples favourite?

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2. Comment #341129 by Metch on February 15, 2009 at 8:05 pm

Damn Quicktime! I swear if I download one more software program to my PC it'll explode.

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3. Comment #341131 by Layla Nasreddin on February 15, 2009 at 8:15 pm

Wow, just the other day on the Forum I was lamenting the fact that this programme was simply nowhere to be found on the Internet! Thank you very much for posting this!

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4. Comment #341134 by Quine on February 15, 2009 at 8:45 pm

Very nice indeed. I especially liked that at the end Richard said "It's not just entertainment ..." The importance of bringing people this grand view of the world is beyond what we can gauge by looking at the short term.

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5. Comment #341136 by aquilacane on February 15, 2009 at 8:52 pm

I nominate Bush being president for eight years. I think future generations will be wondering about that for centuries.



EDIT: BTW no problems with the video for me

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6. Comment #341141 by j.mills on February 15, 2009 at 9:16 pm

Seven wonderful things:

1. YouTube.
2. Post-It notes.
3. The Lake District.
4. The novels of John Crowley.
5. Sleep.
6. Rollercoasters.
7. Yes. (The band, but also the affirmation, I suppose!)

This list is not legally binding and may be subject to change without notice.

EDIT: Okay, I have now watched the programme and Richard's list is pretty cool too. The last item was an unexpected delight! :)

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7. Comment #341147 by Big City on February 15, 2009 at 9:52 pm

That was great. Each of the examples was fascinating.

I've often been struck by the fact that all the intonation and emotion in a recording can be broken down into information. Particularly the fact that the continuously varying combinations of notes in a symphony can be carved into a groove in vinyl. I think this is a close analog (unintentional pun) to the argument about the mind/soul. The same arguments that say that consciousness cannot be a simple product of the brain also imply that a recording or broadcast could never convey the complex emotion in a voice.

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8. Comment #341157 by robotaholic on February 15, 2009 at 10:36 pm

This was awesome.

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9. Comment #341182 by Valiant on February 16, 2009 at 12:48 am

Quicktime makes me cry

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10. Comment #341213 by mcarp on February 16, 2009 at 2:29 am

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

will make you stop crying :)

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11. Comment #341222 by John Locke on February 16, 2009 at 3:14 am

anyone else find the music in the intro a bit disturbingly ominous?

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12. Comment #341240 by sbooder on February 16, 2009 at 4:27 am

I am so glad he chose David Attenborough as one of his wonders.

My favourite Attenborough moment was on a programme including Mole-rats, they communicate in their burrows by thumping the walls of the burrow and tunnels, which can be heard by other Mole-rats within the network of tunnels.

DA was above ground kneeling over where he knew there was a tunnel beneath.

He then banged on the ground, turned to the camera, and said…

…"I'm talking to a Mole-rat".

I nearly fell of the sofa I laughed so much. You have got to love that man.

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13. Comment #341242 by YouGottaShowMe on February 16, 2009 at 4:39 am

2. Comment #341129 by Metch on February 15, 2009 at 8:05 pm

Damn Quicktime! I swear if I download one more software program to my PC it'll explode.

Just download QuickTime Alternative from here.

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14. Comment #341247 by archfarchnad on February 16, 2009 at 4:52 am

Anyone else have a problem whereby QT videos keep stopping and starting? I have to keep pressing play to start it again which is extremely annoying!

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15. Comment #341252 by Dust to Dust on February 16, 2009 at 5:03 am

Help I've been stuck inside a stereoscope with a lemur and a huge eyeball for like fifteen minutes! Could somebody please list RD's Seven Wonders for me. The curiousity is killing me and the huge eyeball looks angry.

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16. Comment #341255 by optic140 on February 16, 2009 at 5:15 am

What a misnomer! Why anyone other than Steve Jobs would use Quicktime escapes me.

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17. Comment #341270 by thereisnodog on February 16, 2009 at 6:13 am

really wonderful...agree with the last one especially.

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18. Comment #341271 by Peribolos on February 16, 2009 at 6:19 am

Anyone else have a problem whereby QT videos keep stopping and starting? I have to keep pressing play to start it again which is extremely annoying!

It's because the video needs to buffer. With most video players it tells you it's doing this, buffers a bit and then restarts. For some reason QT pauses completely. Just leave it paused, and do something else for a bit, the grey bar indicates how much has buffered.

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19. Comment #341272 by Stringer Bell on February 16, 2009 at 6:33 am

Is there some problem with the site today or is it something on my end? This almost worked once for me, when it started downloading at a painstakingly slow rate and then just ground to a complete halt. Now it just doesn't work at all, as in when I click on the image for the video nothing happens. It's almost certainly something to do with me since my computer is filled with spyware and trojans, but I haven't experienced anything like this with QT videos in the past.

thanks

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20. Comment #341275 by Upgrade01A on February 16, 2009 at 6:48 am

... never mind ... just edited quicktime gripes. i will watch later ...

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21. Comment #341309 by splink on February 16, 2009 at 8:14 am

Yeah, I'm having the same excrutiatingly slow problem with quicktime too. It stopped loading when he started talking about the wonderousness of DNA.

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22. Comment #341324 by Big City on February 16, 2009 at 8:52 am

Foxy, I just saw that on CNN. They made a deal with the Taliban! Craziness. I hate hate hate Eurasia. Or is it Eastasia?

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23. Comment #341329 by Clairebear on February 16, 2009 at 9:02 am

I love it!

Reproduction is an interesting one. I often wonder: Do biologists like Dawkins ever wonder what it's like to be a woman, and to have that experience? I mean, they're so fascinated by life and devlopment and everything...

And I'm so glad he chose David Attenborough (sp?) as a wonder of the world. Unfortunately, MY player stops when he's just starting to talk about him. David A. RULES.

I never knew that about spider webs either, that part was amazing.

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24. Comment #341331 by 82abhilash on February 16, 2009 at 9:06 am

I wonder if Richard Dawkins was being interviewed in his own home.

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25. Comment #341334 by Clairebear on February 16, 2009 at 9:14 am

It's a nice home, if he was. They showed various things in it, and I don't see why they would if it wasn't his home. Still, that was twelve years ago.

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26. Comment #341341 by Shaden on February 16, 2009 at 9:23 am

Can we start using flash videos (or at least .mp4) instead of QuickTime? Flash is much more ubiquitous then QT and less intrusive if it needs to be installed.

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27. Comment #341345 by admin on February 16, 2009 at 9:37 am

The slow speed isn't from quicktime, it is a traffic jam on the media server, where our 'pipe' is 20mbps. We could pay to open it up more, but the thing is we only have trouble for the first few hours of any new video that we post to the media server.

I will look into using Flash video instead of QuickTime.

To help speed things up, I'm going to upload a slightly more compressed, slightly smaller version of the seven wonders video, which should help. When that goes up, stop loading the old file and try downloading the new version.

Thanks,
Josh

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28. Comment #341347 by Richard Dawkins on February 16, 2009 at 9:43 am

Thank you very much for explaining the true reason for the slowness, Josh.

Richard

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29. Comment #341350 by aquilacane on February 16, 2009 at 10:03 am

Comment 21 by Foxy,
That seems more an act of legitimization than pacification.

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30. Comment #341359 by anna09 on February 16, 2009 at 10:24 am

Thanks for posting the video, I loved it!

(Although I did have to turn away a few times during the spider parts. I HATE spiders! lol)

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31. Comment #341360 by SilentMike on February 16, 2009 at 10:26 am

28. Comment #341345 by admin
29. Comment #341347 by Richard Dawkins

The solution would seem quite obvious. Isn't there a way to get "credit" for all the hours of slow trafic and get it during the heavy traffic hours? I mean there's no reason to suppose that all sites will get their heaviest traffic loads at the same time...

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32. Comment #341361 by darwin2 on February 16, 2009 at 10:27 am

Excellent article. Thank you

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33. Comment #341364 by admin on February 16, 2009 at 10:31 am

SilentMike,
That would be ideal. But we are limited to the options offered by dedicated server companies. Since we are using an 'unmetered' setup for our media server (mp3s, videos, images), meaning we don't have to pay if we go over a certain amount of traffic, the cost is determined by how large a pipe you have running in and out of your server. I'll see if I can't work out something better.

Josh

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34. Comment #341371 by theseanze on February 16, 2009 at 10:49 am

I could sit and listen to him explain anything and everything. What a great job. You just pay attention to things people discover, and interpret it clearly for the rest of the world.

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35. Comment #341373 by Clairebear on February 16, 2009 at 10:52 am

Does anyone know where I can read that article that Richard has as his icon? I know it's from about 1996 or something, but I'd love to read it for the laugh.

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36. Comment #341375 by SilentMike on February 16, 2009 at 10:55 am

EDIT: Forget it. Bad idea. It seems to be going well now.

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37. Comment #341385 by Quetzalcoatl on February 16, 2009 at 11:25 am

Why does he have to repeat and repeat and repeat?

Oh, sweet irony.

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38. Comment #341388 by lordpasternack on February 16, 2009 at 11:39 am

Agh - something's going wrong... All I'm getting here is a bizarre bitty green and yellow feedback sort of look for the video, even though I can hear the audio fine. When I clicked the link to watch it in a separate window, I got an interesting green and purple pattern.

Could anyone diagnose this?

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39. Comment #341389 by Clairebear on February 16, 2009 at 11:46 am

Yay, I've watched it all the way through now. I love those white bats in the tent, I want to adopt them. Maybe David Attenborough can adopt me, too, and we can all be one big family, hehe. :P I must watch some more of this bloke, I've only seen Attenborough clips incidentally, without looking for them. I hope some of his documentaries are on the internet, I shall go looking.

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40. Comment #341410 by Eventhorizon on February 16, 2009 at 12:57 pm

Clairebear

Try Youtubing 'David Attenborough lyre bird'

Great clip!

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41. Comment #341411 by lordpasternack on February 16, 2009 at 12:59 pm

I think I'm going to cry. This video just won't work for me. I even went to the lengths of re-downloading Quicktime - and it insisted that I install iTunes. I don't fucking want iTunes. It is a chronic pain in the arse and I certainly don't need it.

Anyway - could you please, please, pretty please upload this to the YouTube channel - please, Josh?

Other Comments by lordpasternack

42. Comment #341412 by decius on February 16, 2009 at 1:00 pm

Comment #341411 by lordpasternack

This will play any video file, no stress involved.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

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43. Comment #341415 by MrPickwick on February 16, 2009 at 1:08 pm

Each time I visit this site I regret the years I wasted studying law...

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44. Comment #341416 by NullInfinity on February 16, 2009 at 1:19 pm

Nice list of "7 wonders." I was particularly pleased to see the parabolic reflector among them. Such a marvelous thing, and yet so simple! Oddly, I had become somewhat obsessed with parabolic reflectors - just before turning this video on!

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45. Comment #341419 by lordpasternack on February 16, 2009 at 1:25 pm

This will play any video file, no stress involved.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

THANK YOU decius! I'm usually a bit cynical about people pimping upstart or underdog software - but it did the trick. Thank you.

I will get down to the watching now. Cheers.

Other Comments by lordpasternack

46. Comment #341421 by Hellene on February 16, 2009 at 1:26 pm

EDIT: Post erased by author due to the pompous air of said post.

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47. Comment #341423 by decius on February 16, 2009 at 1:34 pm

. Comment #341419 by lordpasternack

You are welcome. It's actually a popular piece of software much ostracised by the corporate media industry, for it removes the need for all commercial codecs.

Cheers

Other Comments by decius

48. Comment #341430 by ahmunnaeetchoo on February 16, 2009 at 1:54 pm

Inspiring program.

I wonder if the list would have changed since then?
:)

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49. Comment #341431 by Caudimordax on February 16, 2009 at 1:56 pm

(Comment was swallowed.)
I looked up that clip of the lyre bird. It really was incredible, but by that I do NOT mean that I agree with the YouTube poster who commented, "I believe this is not possible."
What is happening to people's brains? Confronted with the wonders of nature, they refuse to believe the evidence, yet they embrace the supernatural and the paranormal with no more evidence than their own wishful thinking.

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50. Comment #341434 by ods15 on February 16, 2009 at 2:01 pm

Absolutely stunning video! Thank you so much for this!

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