This is a beautiful 4.5-minute film on pollination from a TED talk. Someone appears at the end who may have made the film, but I don’t recognize him. If you do, weigh in. But watch the film and enjoy the bounties of natural selection.
Pollination
December 26, 2011 • 11:27 am
In case this question hasn’t yet been answered; the photographer in question for these time-lapse images is Louie Schwarzberg.
It’s Louie Schwartzchild. Here’s the link at TED talks.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/louie_schwartzberg_the_hidden_beauty_of_pollination.html
Doh! I can’t believe I got his last name wrong. Can’t trust my memory anymore, I guess. It’s Schwartzberg, not Schwartzchild.
And I agree, the video is stunning!
Louie Schwartzberg: The hidden beauty of pollination
ambrosia is right. There’s a longer version including including (it seems) all of Louie’s talk, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A1VGIdsnwY
Scrolling through the comments below the video — and so many attribute the beauty and majestic interconnectedness of Nature (via evolution) to the Creation of God:
“all these are accidental or from a Great Mighty God? atheists, take a deep breath.”
“God be Glorified. This is absolutely marvelous.”
“All praise is due to You, Father.”
“I felt like Eve walking in the Garden of Eden.”
“We need to be grateful to the Creator and the pollinators who make life possible.”
“Proof of God, the master artist.”
“I am on the verge of tears watching this. Absolutely gorgeous the beauty that God has created for us.”
“nature in the process of making more nature. Glory given to us by Who is kind.”
“We lack the vocabulary to accurately describe this, all I can say is beautiful, God.”
“The video only serves to amaze me about the fantastic intelligence of our Creator.”
I wonder what their reaction is when they see footage of hyenas biting off chunks of flesh from a deer that’s still alive… Would they come to the same conclusion after watching a video of the cesspool of bacteria that’s astir inside the mouth of a Comodo dragon?
No, that would be Nature only. Or in some cases, Satan. Only Beauty, Mystery and Good will be attributed to God.
Yep – the lion shall lie down with the flipping ram “And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.” Isiah…
I never could understand why carnivore = evil in humans’ views of animals, yet is fine for humans.
ISAIAH! Sorry… do not wish to let the atheist side down!
There is tremendous beauty in the natural world to appreciate, but there’s also such a staggering amount of needless suffering that we just can’t ignore. The terrible typhoon that hit Philippines a few days ago has by now claimed more than a thousand lives with hundreds of thousands in need of desperate help.
I really wonder how the people who attribute the beauty of nature to supernatural deities react when they hear about these catastrophic natural disasters.
I do not wish to make light of suffering and so on, but I think that way of looking at things is atheism with good and evil still being ‘real’ forces (religion without god if you like) rather than just being ways of describing how we feel about or react to an indifferent universe. Does this make sense? This is something that bothers me. I am not trying to attack your views Ahimsa, it is just that I still, after many moons reading WEIT comments, do not get why we still need those terms. My comprehension is probably faulty – I hear the responses already bubbling up!
How about those foul-smelling flowers that lure blowflies, which even lay their eggs on them? The eggs hatch and the larvae die of starvation. That doesn’t seem compatible with the idea of a benevolent creator.
But I forget: flies don’t have souls. So I suppose it doesn’t matter. Cruelty to animals is not condemned in the Bible, as far as I recall.
Atheists and theists feel the same sense of awe and majesty in the presence of such beauty, but theists have conflated their awe with the biblical patriarch and so express it in those terms, and taint it with supernatural intentions. Thus religion poisons beauty.
Damn the Aether – my last comment was lost – just saying thanks for that – NATURE is so beautiful & NATURAL SELECTION is so – selective! Is it on DVD can anyone tell me?
One of the bats seemed to have a baby or two attached– fascinating!
Yes – they go with mother up to a certain size then stay behind until big enough to fly alone…?
I saw that too! I have never seen a video/picture of that, how cool.
How can anyone not find life grand? Thank you for bringing this gem to our attention.