Comments on: Watch starfish flee an icy finger of death

By: mental detritus

mental detritus — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 11:03:00 +0000

Are the starfish randomly moving around or are they “fleeing” the brinicle?

There’s a morbidly disturbing beauty in seeing starfish entombed in glassy ice…

By: Ewan Frater

Ewan Frater — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 02:00:00 +0000

i was sat watching this with my dinner on my lap after getting home from work (in a science lab ironically enough). one of the few times that my jaw has just dropped and gone wha wha wha? looking at the tv.

the mind just boggles about everything to do with it.

obviously just the sheer fact that it even happens is mindboggling. literally a column of ice comes down (almost like a bolt of lightning) and kills everything in it’s path.

but then you get to thinking about the fact that it was only within the last century that human beings even managed to get to the south pole let alone make a video of what the hell happens under the sheets of ice.

this entire phenomenon can only have ever been seen or contemplated or in any way conceived of in the very recent past. And yet it has been occurring, unobserved, for thousands and thousands of years.

it’s almost like creatures coming out of the sea and going “what in the shitting fuck, birds fly!”

maybe that’s hyperbolising but what the fuck, i was sat there with my dinner on my lap and my jaw on the fucking floor.

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 05:28:00 +0000

Wow, that’s a seriously cool bit of convection right there.

Awesome stuff.

By: Linley Lee

Linley Lee — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 01:51:00 +0000

I felt so sorry for the poor little starfish.

By: 10xor01

10xor01 — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:49:00 +0000

Now teh starfish can go ice-skating for Xmas!

By: Amphigorey

Amphigorey — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:34:00 +0000

I’ve done a small amount of scuba diving in Monterey (12 dives), and even that little bit of experience makes me appreciate the mad skills that filming this required. This was cold Antarctic water, under an ice sheet, a good distance away from their entry point, and they had heavy equipment to carry. It’s an amazing accomplishment.

By: Ranting Nerd

Ranting Nerd — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:02:00 +0000

That’s scarier than White Walkers. Winter is coming!

By: trondmm

trondmm — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:27:00 +0000

For more surprising use of foley artists, check out this video of sound sweetening in sports (ski jump in this particular video). The talking is in Norwegian, but the swooshes are not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDHS-TklEvM

By: Adam Norman

Adam Norman — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:03:00 +0000

What’s with the sound effects? I’m of the opinion that documentaries should be as close to reality as possible–adding sound effects throws the whole project into doubt. What else did they fake?

By: Humble Badger

Humble Badger — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:43:00 +0000

Fuck science this is ice sorcery against the evil starfish hoards. Really cool!

By: feltmountain

feltmountain — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:26:00 +0000

Fascinating and yet I know this is going to give me nightmares. I did not appreciate seeing starfish move at that speed, I already find underwater creatures freaky enough. I can’t help my fear :(

By: Textuality

Textuality — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:37:00 +0000

Poor little starfish. :(

By: Peter Ellis

Peter Ellis — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:50:00 +0000

Personally I found the following few minutes even more astonishing – cold, deep, high-pressure water being stirred up from the depths and freezing in a layer across the sea bed as the pressure is released, encasing everything there. Then, chunks of this break off and float up to the surface, carrying seabed wildlife up and embedding it in the underside of the surface ice.

By: Shai_Hulud

Shai_Hulud — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:49:00 +0000

wow. It’s like “The Day After Tomorrow” underwater. Run from the super cold water dudes!

By: Ben Ehlers

Ben Ehlers — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:39:00 +0000

Good to hear that the BBC Foley Department is still earning their keep.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:19:00 +0000

They got the description of the video a little wrong. The X-Men were out ice fishing and Bobby Drake just had to take a whiz.

By: retepslluerb

retepslluerb — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:01:00 +0000

Word. Some of them seemed to run into the ice.

By: michael b

michael b — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 06:33:00 +0000

Amazing…and all the more interesting to listen to with the David Attenborough, bringing fond memories of HS science class and trying not to fall asleep.

By: Rider

Rider — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 06:29:00 +0000

Fleeing? They seemed to actually walk into and get frozen.

By: DaveP

DaveP — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 06:16:00 +0000

this is an awesome video. so are the starfish actually dying? it seems like if you can cut off one of their legs and they’ll regenerate it, maybe they can survive a little bit of freezing action.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:58:00 +0000

Sea urchins are adorable when you speed them up.

By: Palomino

Palomino — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:43:00 +0000

Now I don’t feel so guilty about sprinkling salt on slugs.

By: dawdler

dawdler — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:36:00 +0000

That is truly fantastic. Thanks for sharing that. Gotta this to the boy tomorrow morning.

By: tickticktick

tickticktick — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:28:00 +0000

Somebody spilled the Ice-nine.

By: Shibi_SF

Shibi_SF — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:17:00 +0000

Oh wow. This is amazing! Having just spent the afternoon in the warm mellow south Pacific Ocean, the brinacle is shockingly awesome. The BBC has captured frigid beauty.

By: BarBarSeven

BarBarSeven — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 04:33:00 +0000

Yakety Sax Plz. Ok thx! G-bye!