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David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

bbc.com

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Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#111

Post by kitd »

deepsun wrote: post #85

Unpopular opinion: I don't understand why people are so fascinated with a man simply because of his voice narrating truly marvelous, artistic documentaries. I have way more respect for operators, who spent months in harsh conditions with a slim chance to film anything interesting.

He basically invented the natural history documentary, maybe even the science documentary. Before him, there was little to no serious natural history programming, or what there was was quite "folksy". And with it, he created, sustained and increased the public interest and concern about the natural world.

I suspect many scientists can trace their early interest in science back to him. And I believe the green movement would have had a lot less impact without him.

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#114

Post by teiferer »

JimDabell wrote: post #91
Tagbert wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW there is a linguistic tradition of “hill hill”. When new immigrants come to an area and ask the locals what that hill is called, the locals say “big hill” in their language. The newcomers call it “bighill” hill in their language. I forget the examples but this has happened enough in England that there are places whose names are five hills deep (Brythonic -> Latin -> Saxon -> Norse -> Norman).

These are known as tautological place names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tautological_place_nam...

Thanks for sharing!

My contribution to this discussion is the place in BTTF which makes fun of this concept, the home of Marty McFly: Hill Valley

Not a tautological name but an oxymoronic one!

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#115

Post by aidenn0 »

wvbdmp wrote: post #77
CSMastermind wrote: post #63

He was just mentioned on today's Lateral podcast with Tom Scott. Apparently, he's the reason tennis balls are yellow. I guess they were traditionally white but when they started broadcasting matches on TV it was too hard to see the ball. David who was at the BBC at the time suggested they use yellow balls instead so they would come through on camera. Ever since then tennis balls have been yellow.

Amazing. It’s relatively easy to find color photos of this, for example one of the very last pics here, from 1970: https://www.esquire.com/sports/g36954688/wimbledon-1970s-pho... But what is the oldest color photo of white ball tennis? Also, do we have a good source for this story, because it’s not mentioned on Wikipedia: ”In 1972, the International Tennis Federation introduced yellow balls, as these were easier to s…

The only color photo of a ball in that link that I saw was #32 which is from 1978, which would support the idea that Wimbledon did not switch in 1972.

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#116

Post by skrebbel »

lanza wrote: post #53
vr46 wrote: post #33

Top man, lives up on Richmond Hill and absolutely loves it - when asked about his travels and adventures and where he would choose to live, he replied, "I already live there" Fairly well-known locally is that my favourite bookshop, The Open Book in Richmond, stocks signed copies of all his books. They used to be signed directly on the page, but since he got to the mid-to-late nineties in age, tons of hardbacks are to…

I always find it really weird when somebody on the anonymous internet talks about local places as if we're all neighbors or something. Googling "Richmond Hill" gave me multiple pages of results that had nothing to do with the one that Attenborough lives at.

Yes, but it’s refreshing that for once it isn’t a San Francisco neighbourhood!

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#118

Post by abhinavk »

deepsun wrote: post #85

Unpopular opinion: I don't understand why people are so fascinated with a man simply because of his voice narrating truly marvelous, artistic documentaries. I have way more respect for operators, who spent months in harsh conditions with a slim chance to film anything interesting.

He wasn't always a narrator.

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#119

Post by 9dev »

ownlife wrote: post #97
dh2022 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every Nature documentary that ends with David Attenborough saying "there is still time to revert this destruction of natural habitat" makes me want to turn of the TV. I understand David's motivation (instill some catalyst for change) but I am with that other David - David Suzuki. As per David Suzuki: it is shit, it will get shittier, responsible people should act accordingly [0]: > [0] https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday…

You want to the documentary to end with David Attenborough saying that it is too late to revert the destruction of natural habitat?

I, too, would appreciate this. "Look at what is getting lost because of YOUR choices and votes." It would be the truth.
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