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David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

bbc.com

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Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#81

Post by probabletrain »

cody_ellingham wrote: post #79
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.

What do you mean tennis balls are yellow? I always thought they were green? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_ball#/media/File:Closeu...

They're officially yellow. Many people (~50% in my experience) perceive this colour as green though.

> Tennis balls are fluorescent yellow in professional competitions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_ball

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#82

Post by ASalazarMX »

serf wrote: post #59
lanza wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

would you rather less anecdotes or more hard coordinates?

I'd bet "Richmond Hill, London" would have been geographically adequate. Don't we criticize USAians for their provincialism?

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#83

Post by Tagbert »

psvv wrote: post #78
Phemist wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or if you've seen Ted Lasso

In hindsight it maybe should have also been obvious from the language alone. "Richmond Hill" feels a bit like saying "Rich Hill Hill" which is basically like saying "Wealthy Desirable Area."

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).

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#84

Post by jjulius »

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.

For me, I know "Richmond" is used numerous places near me locally, so my assumption would've been that "Richmond hill" is too generic a query.

"David Attenborough Richmond hill" would've been the way. I'd hardly fault OP for my own choice in query.

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#85

Post by deepsun »

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.

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#86

Post by crispinb »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #43
_doctor_love wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly I don't think the outlook is very positive on that. I saw an article from McKinsey about the Himalayan country of Bhutan which has famously put restrictions in place to keep the country heavily forested. Good for nature, good for preserving culture, not so great for capitalism. The article I saw basically outlined in more detail what I said above and then followed it with: "....but what if that forest could be…

The Himalayan country of Bhutan has seen 6% of its population emigrate since 2020. People enjoy the preservation of nature, but they also enjoy having more and better stuff, and a healthy society can't just tell people the second impulse is wrong and they need to give it up.

"People" and their "wants" or "enjoyments" are manufactured by culture (which is in turn now dominated by corporate propaganda). They are not fixed by nature. Any examination of the range of 'wants' in human history will inevitably conclude that, beyond a few corporeal basics, they are endlessly plastic. This is hard to see from the centres of Empire (especially highly mediated ones) where local and highly propagandised 'desires' are seen as 'natural'.

Agricultural societies are machines for creating large numbers of humans. In any democracy (or sufficiently responsive government) the kinds of persons that are created is a powerful determinant of what subsequently happens. Corporations choose to make consumer-humans. Many other types have existed, so ipso facto are possible.

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#87

Post by defrost »

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.

Like those folk that spent months off the (then) known maps in unexplored parts of New Guinea in order to film A Blank on the Map in 1971?

Yeah, they put the hours in.

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#88

Post by zabzonk »

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.

> who spent months in harsh conditions

Didn't you see him up to his groin in a giant mound comprised of batshit and cockroaches, and sounding like he was loving every minute of it? Or being cuddled by wild mountain gorillas? Or ...

He definitely goes out there to wild and often dangerous locations, though perhaps not so much at the age of 100.

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#89

Post by DANmode »

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.

and when you googled the book shop name?

Re: David Attenborough's 100th Birthday

#90

Post by DANmode »

probabletrain wrote: post #81
cody_ellingham wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean tennis balls are yellow? I always thought they were green? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_ball#/media/File:Closeu...

They're officially yellow. Many people (~50% in my experience) perceive this colour as green though. > Tennis balls are fluorescent yellow in professional competitions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_ball

Yellow and green are shown in the linked image.
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