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Ted Turner has died

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Re: Ted Turner has died

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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She was early, consistent, vocal, brave, and in the light of history morally right in her opposition to the Vietnam War.

Whoa there. The US being wrong to make war in Vietnam absolutely does not vindicate those who supported the Viet Cong!

Re: Ted Turner has died

#142
Definitely have mixed feelings about whats become of CNN and how the 24 hour news cycle has affected the world, but I'm very grateful that Turner financed the movie Gettysburg [0]. One of my favorite movies, based on one of my favorite books. I've probably seen it at least 50 times.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_(1993_film)

Re: Ted Turner has died

#143
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a bit of a furore when he tried colorizing old B&W movies… imagine if he’d had AI to do colorization, upscaling and sharpening back then! Guess we’ll still have Ted’s Montana Grills for a while…

Rightfully so if you ask me. Out the gate think about the implications of determining, say, skin color. I’m not saying “under no circumstances should it be done” but I also think people don’t appreciate the importance of the decisions made and the politics/implicit biases under the hood. I’m not even getting in to artistic intent and impact on lighting here either. Colorizing b&w images is still debated to this day.

Because of the film technology at the time, a lot of the skin tones on set wouldn't match what you'd expect anyway due to makeup designed for the b&w film. Lots of sickly greens, yellows, and blues in place of red tones for instance.

https://www.bustle.com/articles/30501-i-tried-a-vintage-film...

At that point if you've already decided you want to colorize the film, there's a real question of how do you approach it, because being true to what was on set definitely isn't the right choice. So now you're playing with skin tones regardless.

Re: Ted Turner has died

#144
post #78
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd even argue that we should encourage _more_ of this behavior, if it leads to more charity. The idea that you have to do good deeds without expecting any kind of reward or recognition seems distinctly Christian to me. For Christians, the intent of this requirement is to ensure people remain humble (pride is a sin, of course) but this clearly contradicts the (imo much more relevant) principle of self interest. You c…

Altruism predates humans, but we are the best at it, and this behavior long predates Christianity. That you associate altruism distinctly with Christianity just discloses massive gaps in your experience and/or education.

Not only have you misinterpreted my comment to attack claims I never made, you've also used this misinterpretation as license to insult me. Lovely.

Re: Ted Turner has died

#145
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's hard to argue that decreased genetic diversity will help humans. Maybe we don't need hundreds of thousands of new exotic huge bovines to shit methane into the air all day every day, but it should be seen as fairly vital that we try to keep genetic diversity as high as we can in order to maximize future opportunities that may arise from research and development for the sake of humanity.

> it's hard to argue that decreased genetic diversity will help humans. Nobody was arguing about what is best for humans. If the choice of existence for all pigs (randomly selected as an animal commonly used for food) was to live in factory farming conditions or for pigs to go entirely extinct, I'd rather they go extinct. Not for the benefit of humanity, but because never existing is a better outcome for those would-…

As someone who lives near one of the herds, this isn't a factory farming situation. They live pretty good lives on open space with a bit of population management that ends up with meat and hides that help offset the cost of managing the herd.

Re: Ted Turner has died

#146
I remember when Ted Turner bought a scrappy Atlanta TV station, Channel 17.

The channels refer to specific radio frequency allocations. Anything below Channel 12 is "Very High Frequency", and anything above that is "Ultra High Frequency". The Channel number was basically arbitrary, but went up in frequency in numerical order, so Channel 5 had a higher frequency than Channel 17.

The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength, and in general the smaller the area of coverage. Fewer viewers. The big networks dominated VHF, megawatt transmitters that could reach the entire metro area and beyond. In the Atlanta area, we had all three major networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC on Channels 2, 5, and 11.

UHF was the domain of independent operators, who filled airtime with anything they could get. Mostly old TV shows and movies from syndicate distributors. Channel 17 was mostly old movies, while Channel 36 featured old TV shows. "Superman" and "The Lone Ranger". "Star Trek". Later in the evening, 1950s schlock horror or flying saucer films...

With an uneven format and transmission range that limited viewership and advertising revenue, it could be more challenging for the UHF stations to make ends meet. When Channel 17 ran into financial difficulties, Ted Turner pumped it up. UHF stations typically signed off at night, went off the air, but the Turner Superstation was 24 hours a day.

Apparently, Ted Turner was playing a long game.

(Also apparently, I watched a lot of television as a 1970s latchkey kid.)

Re: Ted Turner has died

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's hard to argue that decreased genetic diversity will help humans. Nobody was arguing about what is best for humans. If the choice of existence for all pigs (randomly selected as an animal commonly used for food) was to live in factory farming conditions or for pigs to go entirely extinct, I'd rather they go extinct. Not for the benefit of humanity, but because never existing is a better outcome for those would-…

As someone who lives near one of the herds, this isn't a factory farming situation. They live pretty good lives on open space with a bit of population management that ends up with meat and hides that help offset the cost of managing the herd.

That's good to know (genuinely).

I wasn't specifically talking about the bison here which is why I randomly selected some other animal to talk about and made the choice more binary than it is in the real world.

I was just making a point that what is best for humans is hardly the only criteria to use to make these sorts of decisions for some people (myself included).

Re: Ted Turner has died

#148

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I'd say it changed it extremely negatively . Before CNN, the news was reported when it happened. AFTER CNN, creating "news" to fill the gaps between news actually worth reporting happened. This was the start of the slippery slope to the news being little more than entertainment.

When CNN was sold to Time Warner, we lost the last voice in cable news from outside of New York.

Re: Ted Turner has died

#149
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>as a supporter of Bison... I'm not sure I've run into a 'supporter' of a particular type of bovine before. Why? Bison are surely pretty comparable on a lbs mass to methane released ratio when fed with the same diets that cattle are.

other bovines didn't get to near-extinction and spring back after years of remediation and lobbying efforts, the American bison did.

[dead]

Re: Ted Turner has died

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. It wasn't until I read your comment that it clicked that the Turner in Turner Classic Movies is Ted Turner.

Also the "T" in TBS, originally WTCG in Atlanta that became "superstation" WTBS (later dropping the leading W). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_TBS_(American_TV_ch...

And WTBS the radio station was also purchased by Ted Turner!

It was originally "Tech Broadcasting Service" and run by an MIT student group.

For the $50k purchase, the newly-named WMBR purchased a new transmitter.

https://wmbr.org/www/history

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