[HN Gopher] Polar bears move into abandoned Arctic weather station
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Polar bears move into abandoned Arctic weather station
Author : sofixa
Score : 191 points
Date : 2022-01-31 13:43 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| irthomasthomas wrote:
| >But life is eternal. These bears will continue to hunt, swim
| among ice floes and explore islands even when civilization ceases
| to exist. But life will remain eternal only if we humans finally
| begin to take care of the planet and the living creatures that
| need our protection
|
| Awesome photos, but the writing...
| bpodgursky wrote:
| Yeah, this sentence is both verbal and logical soup.
| dpratt wrote:
| This is some pretty bad word gore. I find it a common
| misconception, though - _life_ will be perfectly fine, barring
| our Sun going supernova. It's just a matter of what form it
| will take after the nuclear holocaust/machine plague/etc. What
| this author and most other people are actually saying is that
| _human life_ will only remain eternal if we take care of our
| ecosystem.
| Sebb767 wrote:
| > _life_ will be perfectly fine, barring our Sun going
| supernova.
|
| I'm pretty sure a completely f-ed up climate or a full-on
| nuclear war will be quite a problem for live. The _planet_
| will be fine and some liveform will probably remain, but it
| will still put quite a damper on live overall.
| dpratt wrote:
| Again, that was my point. Life will be fine. The point is
| that we should be responsible stewards and caretakers of
| our ecosystem, because the moral consequences of wanton
| destruction of something so precious and beautiful would be
| beyond comprehension.
|
| With that said, no mater what we do, short of causing our
| sun to go supernova or collapse into a massive black hole,
| life in some form on Earth will be fine. Perhaps it would
| even recover after a few billion years and produce another
| intelligent species that wouldn't end up wrecking the
| place.
| brimble wrote:
| > Perhaps it would even recover after a few billion years
| and produce another intelligent species that wouldn't end
| up wrecking the place.
|
| I have some bad news for you about the carbonate-silicate
| cycle.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future
| Sebb767 wrote:
| > Again, that was my point. Life will be fine.
|
| Well, some humans sit in bunkers built to withstand
| direct hits with a nuke and others built self-sustaining
| ecosystems. A massive catastrophe might wipe out 99+%
| percent of humans, but a small few will most likely
| survive in basically all cases. That makes humans far
| from fine. In a similar vein, I disagree that wiping of
| most of life from earth can be summarized as life being
| perfectly fine.
|
| But it's really just a minor technicality, I agree with
| your overall point that we should be more specific about
| ruining the planet _for us_.
| mambru wrote:
| Original site from the photographer, includes video:
| https://www.dmitrykokh.com/places#/chukotka/
| bmitc wrote:
| I'm generally not a fan of photography, but damn, those are
| some really good photos.
| kreeben wrote:
| Genuinely curious about this since this is probably the first
| time I hear about someone who dislikes photos. Since moving
| pictures also seems out of the question, are you mainly into
| text?
| bmitc wrote:
| > are you mainly into text
|
| Not at all. :) Well, I'm interested in text, just not
| _just_ text, but consider myself a visual person.
|
| I should have elaborated, but I am in general just not a
| fan of photos capturing moments. Whether staged or not, I
| feel photos are generally just not interesting and don't
| capture what's "real", so to speak. They capture this one
| frame of time that really isn't experienced by us in the
| way it's presented, and so I personally have a hard time
| finding it interesting or relatable. I highly prefer motion
| pictures (videos, films, etc.). A particular example that
| comes to mind is the tank man in the famous Tiananmen
| Square photo. The video is so much more powerful and
| meaningful to me. (However in this case, maybe my point is
| diluted because that photo is indeed a rather powerful
| one.)
|
| There's a Portlandia skit that also captures a part of what
| I mean, where Fred and a girlfriend go on this European
| vacation that was miserable, nothing happened, and they
| ended up breaking up, but their pictures on Instagram (or
| something) looked amazing and seemed to capture the time of
| their life.
|
| Another example are photographs of James Turrell's work.
| While photographs are indeed interesting, they simply do
| not capture what it's like to experience his works in
| person. I do like manipulated photographs though, such as
| the "drone painting" by Reuben Wu
| (https://www.instagram.com/itsreuben/).
|
| I think photography kind of stands in this uninteresting
| arena (for me!) between other static art (e.g., paintings,
| computer-generated art, etc.) and motion art. Also, it
| seems everyone and their dog is a photographer now, so that
| can be a bit of a turn off as well, for better or worse on
| my part.
|
| Then again, I probably contradict myself on this stance
| from time to time.
| [deleted]
| mehphp wrote:
| If I had to guess, it sounds like they just aren't "into"
| photography; not that they actively dislike it.
| beebeepka wrote:
| The person said they don't like photography, not photos. My
| presumption is they don't like the overly "art" aspect of
| it.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| >> I hear about someone who dislikes photos.
|
| Photos and photography are two different things. I
| personally have no problem with photos. I do have a problem
| with some types of photography.
| im_down_w_otp wrote:
| >And secondly, unfortunately, these animals were traditionally
| hunted, and so they use these houses as a form of protection from
| humans.
|
| Based on these incredible photos, I imagine the polar bear
| meeting went something like, "Look folks, these humans have been
| hunting us for years. Nothing we've done to try to run away or
| fight back has worked. I've got an idea that's maybe just crazy
| enough to work. What if... now hear me out... what if we just try
| to blend in? I know, I know. It sounds crazy, we're polar bear
| how are we supposed to blend in with these humans? Well... what
| if we just nonchalantly move into some of their buildings and
| hangout all human-like? 'When in Rome' and all that. What have we
| got to lose? So, what do you say? Can I get a show of paws?"
| core-utility wrote:
| The site won't let me scroll, I'm guessing because either uBlock
| or Privacy Badger blocked a script. Oh well, I'll just look at
| the cover photo.
| teh_klev wrote:
| I run both and it worked for me (Chrome 97 on Windows).
| savant_penguin wrote:
| Can't get much cuter than that
|
| https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ec06f22938d8b9946977dc3ee7580...
| tpoacher wrote:
| tempted to make this my new desktop background :)
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| Calls to mind:
|
| "He had the quality of being simultaneously frightening and
| cuddly, which is rare and rather wonderful."
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jan/21/meat-loaf-bat-...
| notjustanymike wrote:
| I looked at the photos first, in awe of the photographer's
| bravery. Then I read the article and it made more sense;
| technology is neat!
| openknot wrote:
| The excerpt for how the photographer captured the photos: "It
| was too dangerous to land on the island that day, so I took
| pictures from a drone equipped with special low-noise
| propellers. I also used certain tricks of the trade that
| allowed me to shoot the animals without disturbing them. After
| a while, the bears practically ignored the unusual buzzing."
| ape4 wrote:
| From my extensive knows of the subject - based entirely only
| watching nature shows on TV - photographers in such situations
| have an experienced hunter with a rife beside them.
| bilbo0s wrote:
| Drones are a bit more effective nowadays. Far less cost and
| danger associated with the entire operation. It's usually
| about outcomes not adventure.
| xeromal wrote:
| I'm not sure if you've ever been around a drone but the
| sound they make is god aweful and impossible to avoid with
| the amount of RPMs they have to make.
|
| For skittish animals, drones are still a no-go
| mig39 wrote:
| As stated in the article, he used low-noise propellers,
| and eventually the bears just ignored him. If he's using
| a modern drone, it probably has a zoom lens on it.
|
| I've filmed a black bear and her cub with my DJI Mavic 2
| Zoom, and never really came closer than 60 metres or so
| away from them. They didn't even notice the drone. I used
| low-noise props that change the pitch of the sound as
| well. Here's my video (I'm an amateur!) from a few years
| ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyEPvcLOTUk
|
| However, if you check out
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JHyUieKqoU you'll see
| some video from the author/photographer of these Polar
| bears. And at one point the bear is heading directly for
| the drone. I'm sure his curiosity would result in a
| swatting of the drone if the pilot didn't move back as he
| approached. I think he's closer than I would dare, but I
| don't know what equipment he's using.
| plasticchris wrote:
| There was a bit in the making of the bbc show planet earth
| where the photographers were confronted by a ?**? at their
| front door which is a very good example of a measured
| response.
| bsima wrote:
| found it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mODlsphGbLw
| fortran77 wrote:
| Those houses must smell awful by now! I doubt the bears are
| litter box trained.
| ludamad wrote:
| I imagine once they start a "bathroom" room it would go
| downhill, but I don't know polar bear relief psychology
| zepto wrote:
| It's common knowledge that they go in the woods.
| lapetitejort wrote:
| That must be why polar bears are so grumpy. Not a lot of
| woods in the arctic circle!
| 627467 wrote:
| Don't know what to cite, but I'm pretty sure it is a basic
| instinct to animals that settle in a regular shelter NOT to
| shit where they live (at least regularly)
| neverminder wrote:
| Telescopic lens could have achieved even a better result, if
| there is direct line of sight.
| gridder wrote:
| Not from a boat
| tokai wrote:
| Not if he wanted to preserve the wide-angle perspective,
| which imo is extremely important for this subject matter.
| peter303 wrote:
| PBS has a couple of series on wildlife photography technology
| (on Wed evenings before NOVA).
|
| One series uses attachable cameras optimized for land-sea-air
| creatures.
|
| Another series puts cameras inside of robo-creatures of the
| target species.
|
| Biologists learn lots of new things.
| the-dude wrote:
| The first photo looks fake to me. Does anybody know why? Looks
| like a painting.
| [deleted]
| avrionov wrote:
| Very foggy day, HDR, extracted frames from video.
| leviathant wrote:
| With the fog, there's less light hitting the sensor, so the
| camera's going to capture noisier images. Most cameras will
| automatically apply noise reduction algorithms, and additional
| noise reduction can be done in Lightroom/Photoshop - when
| applied liberally, this can result in an appearance that almost
| looks like an oil painting, as clusters of similarly colored
| areas are smeared together.
| plasticchris wrote:
| HDR effects?
| guerrilla wrote:
| The article explains they were taken from a drone, the video
| [1] shows that it was a very foggy day.
|
| 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JHyUieKqoU
| snickmy wrote:
| So what are those 'trick of the trade' and what makes a drone
| propeller quieter?
| mig39 wrote:
| Probably some of the commercial low-noise props. Different
| shape, that tend to lower the both the pitch and volume of the
| drone noise.
|
| I use these: https://www.masterairscrew.com/products/dji-
| mavic-2-stealth-...
|
| But there are others.
|
| The tradeoff is they don't handle wind very well. If you look
| at the author's video here:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JHyUieKqoU you can see they're
| not really super stable. I assume there was a cross-wind.
|
| The other trick of the trade is just to use a drone with a zoom
| lens, and stay far away from the bears.
|
| I'm an amateur, but this is as close as I would dare get to a
| bear and her cub a couple of years ago. I was about 60 metres
| away: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyEPvcLOTUk
| thisisnotatest1 wrote:
| Gotta order from Deliveroo and watch some Netflix.
| kakkun wrote:
| And here's a video from the island, from the same photographer.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JHyUieKqoU
| [deleted]
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