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  • he highlights insects at the island of Hawaii? Ending the video with a frightening sound..you want to scare me?

  • @happinesson If you had listened to what he said you might've understood the relevance of those sounds, and what caused them.

  • There is no hot spots, it is crack propagation.

  • nice tunes, fruit flies :lol: XD :haha: great video!!!!!!!

  • Richard Dawkins has gone off the rails:

    search for Richard Dawkins and male privilege on Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog.

    Participating in flaming a woman because she dares to say 'don't objectify me at a conference'? Poorly done, Dawkins.

  • @8yankee Are you kidding? A guy in an elevator asked her whether she would like to HAVE SOME COFFEE. And she made a big deal out of this. If that's objectifying, then pretty much everything is. You are an idiot.

  • I could listen to Professor Dawkins all the live long day, his passion for truth and his love of the natural world is second to none, may people like him never die out.

  • @stephenboing Absolutely! And it wildly infectious. He has helped (among others) to open my eyes to the truth. I never want to close them again!

  • Dr. Dawkins is a very fine speaker. :) Enjoying this :)

  • hehe i just love the comments on dawkin´s videos!!! some people are just funny...

  • This is not proof its just a lack of insight! I could in turn say that my wife didn't choose the fat guy down the street for the same reason.I cant believe this guy is really some kind of atheist pastor,you guys should get a new profit one who understands his own ideas.(lol)Again no one says natural selection doesn't occur its the part where we change into another kind that is not true.(chirality) shows us millions of years would result in humans and all life would be pond scum.foolish evolution

  • The YouTube videos that Atheists don't want you to see- (Making sense of sensory information) (There is no spoon) (Are we just simulations) (What is real) (Seeing is believing how the brain interprets vision) (Q Matrix of illusion why we may be a part of it)

  • I know this is really immature but Drosophila silvestris song sounded like a massive fart.

  • It is high time that Richard Dawkins gets knighted!

  • It is amazing the forms and the dances of males trying to impress a female.

  • 2:35-2:50

    I can't be certain but I believe that fly was trying to explain creationism to me. It sounded strangely similar to Kirk Cameron.

  • Spam.

  • Dawkins neglected to mention the pheromones which one could see in the film Dawkins was watching. The male secretes a drop of the pheromone from the tip of the abdomen, which is curled up over the thorax. Then the male uses his wings to waft the pheromone fragrence over to the female. One wonders whether the display of the picture wings preceded the behaviour of wafting the pheromone or vica versa.

  • I say the Drosophila silvestris has the most interesting song.

  • One of my lecturers genetically engineered drosophila flies to have no eyes at all. Weirdest thing i've ever seen.

  • I don't believe in the hotspot "thermal plume" theory. If it was true, then there are just WAAY too many hotspots, the world would have exploded from phenomanal pressure. I think it's where tectonic movement has stretched the crust, therefore causing weaknesses/ shallowness of the crust and causing heat and magma to come through. This theory is now becoming moe popular.

  • allthough i know the theory you are refering to, and I like it. you have a huge mistake in your thinking.

    hotspots are "holes" that reduce the pressure inside the core. therefore more holes wouldn't increase the pressure, but decrease it, because there are more possible exit-points for it.

  • i can also sing like that, i call it farting

  • you can sense the love Dawkins has for nature by just listening to him. he chooses the most beautiful words to describe it.

  • Agree. He's amazing. According to the fundraiser his foundation is running right now, he's going to be making full-length documentaries in the future.

  • Might it be that he has spent much time choosing words to accomplish the objective.

  • we need more science displays like this one.

  • At the start didn't dawkins suggest the movement of the volcanic island formation went in the wrong way?

  • No, Dawkins was talking about the movement of the tectonic plate over a hotspot, which created the islands. The plate would have drifted over the hotspot corresponding with Niihau (5.5 million years ago) at first, all the way until the formation of Hawaii (0.5 million years ago).

  • Thanks. i get it now. Peace friend,

  • the big purple arrow is the direction of the animals movement not the direction of the tectonic plate

  • if i remember correctly, the tectonic plate movies west, but the volcanic eruptions are stationary, so the arrow may represent the older to younger islands.

  • it does. it even says it on the arrow

  • I lol'd at the bit about John Maynard Smith doing a great imitation of the fruit fly courtship display.

    one can only imagine.

  • Lets hope in the next 500 years we can remove religion from this world.

  • I ROFL at your satirical comment. xD

  • And why so?

  • I detect a troll in my sights!

  • That last fruit fly song sounds like me in the morning. But trust me, its not mating noises.

  • HAHAHAHA lol

  • he is describing the plume theory, which has, at best, not been proved in any way shape or form. the evolutionary argument is interesting though

  • "the evolutionary argument is interesting though"

    You mean it is the only real one being put up, i just do not think "god did it" is even looked upon as a case made anymore.

  • no no - i meant the argument FOR evolution expressed by Dawkins in this video. Not the evolutionary argument itself. As in the extra evidence put forward to support the already strong theory. I'm not a believer in G-d any more than Dawkins himself is.

  • I only mentioned that cause many, many people love, even hunger to misunderstand something to back there false beliefs up.

  • Has god been remarketed by the church? G to tha D, mothafuckers!

  • Indeed. Even the Pope - let me emhasise, the POPE(!) - accepts the FACT of evolution. Ya know, head of the church that took several centuries to pardon Gallileo and recognise the truth of the Copernican model. Yes, even this most traditional of institutions, whose official language is LATIN(!), accepts that evolution is a fact. What kind of fruitcake must he be who still disputes evolution?

  • so they have songs...I guess animals and insects are not different after all...

  • insects are animals

  • I wish when i was in primary school we got taught this instead of the just the Bible..

  • Exactly, I feel the same.

  • ur all morons and im better than brian o driscoll at rugby cause im a beast

  • fascinating video!!

  • A defensive/ Agressive attitude towards the creationists is not gonna convert or even let them doubt their believes guys. Just let them be, it's the best way.

    I also think these particular Dawkins' movies are not about the 'god or evolution' discussion, but just evolution as a fact, its details and its beauty. If you want to discus religion then there are more proper Dawkins movies like Root of all evil? to do that.

    Let's just talk about the info mister Dawkins gives us.

  • agreed those stupid religious bigots

  • "Just let them be, it's the best way."

    Yeah guys..listen to the "radicalist" and just let them be. After all isn't that what Dawkins is a proponent of too? ;D

    I would think that it was clear seeing as this is the official richarddawkinsdotnet Youtube channel, that by no means, is the purpose trying to get some sense into the heads of creationists!

  • You think an agressive attitude with shouting 'Morons!look at the facts!','haha look how wrong you are' is going to change them? Change these stubborn people, who can look at facts then look away and say 'no!'?

    Dawkins takes a more differentiated approach mostly and even that doesn't work. And I am not saying 'let them be' on a overal basis, but just for the particular movies. Because religion is not a discussion in these movies. Its evolution as fact with info for those who are interested

  • No, but I think your comment was silly. It wasn't you were advising folks to the fact that shouting at them doesn't work. It was that you suggested silence is the best response. That seemed to me to be contradictory to the purpose of richarddawkinsdotnet. I believe the very purpose of these vids is clearly to in a way indeed "shout""morons. Look at the facts" And I personally think "letting morons be" has never changed anything in history! Speaking up does!

  • The objective is not to convert them. It is to ridicule them. If they kept their ignorant beliefs to themselves everything would be fine, but they wish to spread their ignorance to the rest of the world. They wish to subvert science to allow pseudoscience and the supernatural in the definition in our children's schools. They want to dumb this country down in the name of God.

    By the way, The Life of Brian (vid you favorited) is a satire of religious ignorance :) love that movie!

  • Don't get me wrong. I have my part in ridiculing religious people. But I think there is a time and place for that. Like I said: To me 'Root of all evil' and other Dawkins movies where he discusses religion and evolution with scientist and the religious are more proper in my opinion.

    I think that here we should not say 'haha look you stupid creationist, evidence!' but 'wow, nice vid! are there more examples on these specific islands? or 'Are there more changes with fruitflies?

  • Don't think I got you wrong. That is exactly what I understood you said. My point was that the purpose of richarddawkinsdotnet's work it seems to me,is not to just say look at the pretty video but to bring about change!

    The main point I tried to make is that who decides what is the right time and place or even worst ( IMO) "proper"? Those are common place expressions popular with those who are afraid to rock the boat. And when you don't rock the boat, nothing ever changes.

  • I do agree there are ways of addressing people that will sooner lead to them listening than shouting moron at them.

  • These are Dawkins'own words on his mission from his foundation site..."I am one of those scientists who feels that it is no longer enough just to get on and do science. We have to devote a significant proportion of our time and resources to defending it from deliberate attack from organized ignorance. We even have to go out on the attack ourselves, for the sake of reason and sanity. But it must be a positive attack, for science and reason have so much to give."

  • 2:43 Now that is what ya call a burrrrrrrrp!

  • man i love you idiotic-ignorant religious kids, calling him psychotic? you believe in a talking man in the sky.....from Ireland aye? well you guys are the greatest example of why NOT to be religious, all you guys have done is cause unnecessary bloodshed over an imaginary guy and had a little hissy fit, threw your toys out of the pram and had your country split, lolzat YOU fools. Richard Dawkins is a genius, love watching all these videos, really fascinating.

  • Haha, you're calling HIM psychotic? You just said you wanted an innocent, highly intelligent man, to die. You hypocrite.

  • amazing quality and contents. thank you very much for the snippet

  • Comment removed

  • one question plz..were u serious or just joking?!

  • he is prick

  • bow chicka wow wow!

  • 2:47

    :O

  • Dr. Dawkins is a wonderful educator, It is nice to see him in his main field of expertise.

  • I believe this is his area of expertise. Nice to see him even more in his element!!!

  • These new videos are great! thanks

  • Ya learn something every day. Thanks Richard!

  • What exactly s guerilla Atheism? I have heard the term before, but I forgot. I'm feeling lazy and i didn't want to look it up so I thought I would ask you.

  • I would define it as waging intellectual war on theism. Nonviolent covert attacks through conversation. I go to church and hold bible studies attempting to evangelize the 'good news' that there is no wrathful psychotic maniac floating up in the sky. It's just us. We have to make a better world for ourselves. No space daddy is taking care of us. We have to take care of ourselves and our planet.

  • Ahh I see. That is usually the way I do it. Use logic to defeat their ideas.

  • This one was particularly interesting. Truely fascinating!

  • Keep them coming Richard!

  • Fruit fly song!? Clearly, this noise is Satan's laughing at Dawkins from behind hell's gates!

  • Fascinating.

  • A creationist response? "They're all still flies, aren't they? And we accept MICRO evolution, so what's new?".

    Please refer to Ray Comfort in the Thunderfoot debate recently posted; "You could tie my in knots on evolution...but I still don't believe it!". It is NOT about EVIDENCE or SCIENCE, this debate with creationists; it is about power, influence abd a different worldview. Arguments centred on evidence are fruitless (sorry1!). "If the bible is in conflict with science, science is WRONG!".

  • u mean to tell me if u proved a creationist wrong beyond a reasonable doubt, they still wouldn't believe you? =O

  • man, i need to go pick up my car from the mechanic in a couple hours...

  • An interesting question popped into my head as I watched this.

    If the oldest Hawaiian Island is 5 1/2 million years old, how did the flys originally appear on the islands?

  • to answer that ud have 2 kno exactly when flies first appeared on the island. my guess is they were carried over by ships, animals, or they couldve flown themselved

  • Most island animals hitch a ride on driftwood, coconuts, what have you.

  • They rode across the entire Pacific? 0_o;

  • Yes. Some fruit is quite bulky leading to a very long decay. Fruit floats, making very nice boats for fly maggots and an all you can eat buffet.

    Tons of plant flotsam falls in the ocean every day. You can find it in the central pacific Thousands of miles from any land.

  • Do they bang the coconuts together, while riding?

    Fruit flies on the search for the Holy Grail... Maybe the fruit flies were carried by a European Swallow.

  • Of course, it'd have to be a European Swallow because African Swallows are non-migratory.

  • I think fruit flies planned an attack on Pearl Harbor.

  • Those bastards! Let's invade Hawaii!

  • Invade Hawaii? You've got a thing for leis, don't you? There can be no other explanation.

    I don't think fruit flies can hand out leis. They're too small. Swallows may be able to, though. Provided they're unladen.

  • wait a minute, suppose it was 2 swallows carrying it together.

  • No, they'd have to have it on a line.

  • hahahahahahaha. thats from monty python. its a joke.

  • I can make that sound with my armpit.

    Good video.

  • Beautiful

  • Wow that's quite amazing. I'm learning so much from Richard Dawkins. I adore his work and his teachings.

  • Another good one

  • Dawkins is such a nerd! Amazing video.

  • Don't you mean "Dawkins is such a geek!"

    But yes, amazing video.

    I'd like to see Creationists and other IDiots trying to comment on these.

  • Amazing video! It's great to see Hawai`i spotlighted in one of your videos. Those are the most beautiful flies i've ever seen.

  • fly porn!

  • 2:30 The song sounds like farting.

    I tried farting to attract a female and she just looked at me in disgust and ran away.

    To be honest though, I don't think following through helped the situation.

  • Perhaps you are trying to attract the wrong species. lol

  • If only your farts could sing and smell of roses....

  • This one was rather informative, and shared observations...

    2:37

    Notice how the patterns of colour of the flies camouflage them in local fauna present within their habitat. How would a fly choose the areas that match their colour scheme, or does the colour scheme select them?

  • The ones that blend in better don't get killed as easily. Then those reproduce and the ones that stand out die off.

  • agreeeeeeeeeeeeed

  • These are very well produced.

  • wow! thats fucking crazy.

  • They have a University in Nebraska now?

  • what weird songs!

  • Richard, Aloha from your fans in Hawaii.

  • That music always reminds me of the Chris Lilley comedy 'We Can Be Heroes' aka 'The Nominees'.

    I keep expecting an Australian women to say, "Over in Dunt, Nathan and Daniel Sims are getting ready for their operation."

  • as much as nature is awsome im still buying bug spray

  • It always amaze me, how Dawkins talks about any creature with such admiration, respect and wonder.

  • my position on flies is unchanged^^

    SWAT THEM!!

  • ^_^

  • these are my favourete videos on YouTube. Keep them coming. brilliant

  • 1thumbup

  • Amazing! I have never conciderd sexual selection like this in insects. I'm loving these shorts. *****

  • no i was surprised at that too, birds and that is one thing but *insects*.....cool.

  • Epic.

  • Evolution by mating is so wicked ... the species always get fucked up in colours and feathers (although interesting to look at)..

    peacocks show how stupid a species can get...

    you see it in humans too... big boobs, looots of makeup, big muscles, big cars etc etc... not really beneficial to the species...

  • Yeah TheDivineCellphone, the process in by which a Peacock, or any other animal for that matter, gets such "over the top" features is largely because of linkage disequilibrium, along with sexual selection and stuff obviously. It looks crazy. And the type of evolution going on here, on these islands, is caled allopatric speciation.

  • sorry I'm not familiar with the terms... im educated in IT, not biology... i find it interesting though :)

    I've seen a couple of examples of allopatric speciation where birds developed VERY strange mating rituals:

    1. the male would clean a part of the jungle and hope to be noticed

    2. the male would dig a hole in the ground and scream loudly (the females never knew how to find them)

    3. elephants on islands would 'grow' smaller

    ... wicked :-)

  • Yes, wicked indeed DevineCellphone =D Nature is awesome.

  • lol i've thaught the same thing for years, just look at a rapper in a video with all his bling n shit.

  • Except the boob thing is usually fake.

    xD

  • I'm really impressed by these sci-bites.

    Keep up the good work, guys.

  • wow. Their drosophila are so different from ours. The ones around my house are just annoying. Theirs are beautiful.

  • Richard you glorious bastard, you're my open window into the world of science and i love you for taking me on a walk through biology as i hunt down and enjoy your books one by one, I'm dragging The Ancestor's Tale with me everywhere I go and I'll soon be out of books till you publish The Greatest Show on Earth. keep em coming!

  • Actually, Niihau was formed later by a separate vent of the eruption that formed Kauai, making Kauai older than Niihau despite being farther east. Still a great video though.

  • Wow, Richard, I've got to hand it to you, this video series is just spectacular.

  • so what you guys are saying is that science can't prove nothing.....right!?! You keep saying....someday, someday science will be able to prove this and that. So you want me to have "faith" that someday science will be able to prove everything!?! What if it can't.....then what?

  • Then we'll all go to hell and you win.

  • The point is that science has ALREADY proved a lot beyond rational doubt - evolution, the atomic nature of matter, or DNA are just some of those. There is no longer "deep mysteries" out there like there were 150 + years ago. Of course, scientific thought, to be able to be called that, has to leave space for possible disproof or bettered theories, or simply more proofs, if that's the case, all of which are at the heart of true science. There's "hope" in science more than "faith".

  • ..."proven", sorry :-). And if science is not able - now or in the future or ever - to proof something, than it means just that. No need for a supernatural being, which is a non sequitur explanation of the worse kind, which requires no intellect or reason, only "faith" in something you can't prove anyway, and that will put your brain to sleep for another 2000 years.

  • Science is based on evidence and theories that can be used in a practical sense because they can be tested and they hold up. The great thing about science is it's not afraid to say "we don't know", because we're trying our best to find out. We don't just say "God did it" because that stops us from investigating. If we'd spent all history saying that we'd still be sitting in caves hitting each other over the head with clubs.

  • Then it never proves everything... So what, I can tell you that you and probably none of your ancestors will be capable of coping with the reality, and knowledge of everything there is to know, thus making that point completely irrelevant to begin with. However, further, just because science can't prove everything, do you truly believe that is an argument in your favor? Religion can't prove anything, it can only suggest, and its a generally inaccurate mistaken suggestion anyways...

  • awesome videos but I cant take much more of that xylophone for serial

  • fuck yeah dawkins MY MAN ! im drunk

  • fuck yeah!! me too

  • Can someone with better knowledge of geology than me answer this - it's curious to me and it just occurred to me. Why isn't Hawaii just one very long skinny island along the path of tectonic movement instead of having so much high and low variation so it makes multiple little islands? Is the hotspot "pulsing" or is the ocean floor easier to punch through in some places than in others? What causes the irregularity of the phenomenon?

  • I think it has to do wth the speed of tectonic movement. At times the tectonic movement was slow enough for the lava rock to build up enough to break the ocean surface.

  • Dawkins I would like to make evolution with you.

  • The first one sounded like it was singing "nananana nananana batman!!!"

  • fruit fly sperm is over an inch long..

  • so how did we get fruit flyes.....? Even if the earth was truly millions and millions years old.....how did fruit or humans came into being? You mean to tell me that we just happened out of nothing. How can nothing create something???? I don't get it people......can somebody please expain this to me.....Thanks!!

  • How can you create something you say? well for the answer to that look up the big bang. I assume you're talking about life. Unfortunatelly it's far to complex to explain in the limited space afforded by youtube. I would suggest you look up Abiogenesis on that subject.

  • Uhh dude.. the earth is at least 4 billion years old. He said 5 million in the case of the Hawaiian islands because theyre impressively young with relation to the rest of the earth.

    Ill answer your question about how did we come about: We dont know, the thing is though, science is constantly seeking to figure it out. Religion's "God made us" only creates an even bigger problem:"who created God?"

    Note: Science is creating stronger and stronger arguments.. and soon ridiculous Gods wont be needed

  • Just look for the answers and you'll find them. The only explanation that offers nothing is the God explanation,.

  • Ask google, then ask it again, then ask it again. Check the sources, then read some more. And maybe you'll get it. But seriously, checking many sources is the best way to learn something.

  • The tectonic plate moving over the vulcano hotspot is very interesting. We have radar satellite images that can look through water and show the sea bead, huge line pattern of this hotspot eating through the tectonic plate. Its thousands of miles long.

    I made a poster for the national science foundation thats shows exactly this.

    do a google image search on: stephan reiniger

    Another fun fact is that measured from sea bed, Hawaiis main island is the tallest mountain on earth, 9700 meters high

  • I'm primarily a physics person and I watch this mostly to bolster my arguments for reason and evidence based belief when confronting creationists, but I'm finding that I am just as fascinated by these videos as creationists SHOULD be (if they'd just open their eyes to the wonders of nature). Thank you RDF for these productions and keep them coming. We can't win them over if we don't try, and your efforts are appreciated!

  • Well said!

  • would the increase in the island size indicate that there is a "slowing" of the tectonic plate? or an increase in the volcanic activity?

  • Erosion. The longer the island has been around the longer the waves have been able to nag at the island making it smaller with time. So in several million years, and a few newer islands later, the one that is the biggest now, will have moved in the direction of the small ones, and itself become smaller.

  • Ninja'd :(