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David Attenborough's 100th Birthday
- yreg 6mo agoI'm surprised none of these threads made it to the front page.
- thamer 6mo agoSearching for David Attenborough on Google also shows a tribute, with drawings of animals and a "Thank You Sir David". https://www.google.com/search?q=david+attenborough https://www.google.com/search?q=david+attenborough
- Cider9986 6mo agoI like that Google does easter eggs like this. Of course, they'll still put tracking links in the share button. Got to get that sweet data of who shared David Attenborough's birthday.
- nephihaha 6mo agoHe outlasted his brother by quite a while. Managed to travel more miles than nearly anyone else apart from popes and political leaders.
- gizajob 6mo agoDesperate not to let anyone else have a go at his job.
- nephihaha 6mo agoMaybe they won't: AI versions of his voice pop up everywhere now (especially older Attenborough) including on YouTube videos about Irish Republicanism of all things.
- IncreasePosts 6mo agoRemember when planet earth first came out? And they had sigourney weaver dub it for the American version? It was basically unwatchable.
- IncreasePosts 6mo agoWell, one brother lived til 90, which is still above average, and iirc he only died because of complications of a fall and would have lived longer without that bad luck. And one other brother who lived to 84 and was taken out by a rare neurological disease. So it's probably just that he has genetics for longevity in his family. And they were all wealthy which helps
- dingaling 6mo agoAnd apart from his film crews who actually shot the footage...
- abhinavk 6mo agoCrew ain't a single entity.
- nephihaha 6mo agoHe travelled with them on numerous occasions. In some of his earlier programmes, you can see him on location in the most farflung corners of the world. I am sure he has been to the Galápagos and Antarctica, on multiple occasions. In more recent times, Attenborough has just tended to do the voiceovers.
- snorremd 6mo agoThe sad thing is Attenborough has lived to see the destruction of nature he loved so much. His constant warnings have gone mostly unheard. In some ways I think excellent nature programming like his own Nature is doing a disservice by making it seem like there's lots of wild nature left. I wish humans would come together to re-wild more of the earth. Restoring wild nature and cutting emissions is the only way to really restore natural ecosystems. We're nowhere close to doing that.
- chaostheory 6mo ago> I wish humans would come together to re-wild more of the earth. Restoring wild nature and cutting emissions is the only way to really restore natural ecosystems. We're nowhere close to doing that. A big issue is cost and economic opportunity. For example, a lot of land in the SF Bay Area cannot be developed. This is great for the environment, but not so great for housing costs. Long term, it’s likely worth it to save the environment, but let’s not ignore its immediate cost to everyone besides the upper class.
- ericd 6mo agoThey’re not necessarily at odds. Manhattan has something like 75x the population density per mile. You could rewild 4/5 of the the SF Bay Area while also building 10x the housing stock under that development pattern. Single family homes are just an extremely expensive and ecologically destructive way to live. They require a ton of infrastructure per person. Unfortunately, I think that housing unaffordability is just a desired feature - people who live there don’t want to live near people who couldn’t afford to live there. It’s much more segregated than many other parts of the country I’ve lived in.
- chaostheory 6mo agoUnlike the East Coast, we have earthquakes and more NIMBYs
- ericd 6mo ago
- jmkni 6mo agoWhat's the opposite of the black bar? Should HN have a green bar for things like this?
- dude250711 6mo agoA lifestyle impossible for any foreseeable generation.
- SVI 6mo agoHe is a legend and has educated more people in natural history than anyone else ever...
- imagetic 6mo agoLegend
- usermac 6mo agoGlad to hear. I thought all those videos recently of him were AI.
- vr46 6mo agoTop 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 too much, so Helena wanders up there to get a load of bookplates signed these days. Apart from that, I order all my books from them when I'm in London and a subsequent chat with Madeleine usually lasts ten times as long as the book shopping. Anyway, I digress, yes, Sir David, amazing body of works and the books are wonderful.
- lanza 6mo agoI 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.
- msikora 6mo agoRichmond Hill, London
- saalweachter 6mo agoNow I just hear the Cinema Sins "ding!".
- sho_hn 6mo agoNot to sound hipster about it, but if it's done in this way I find it charming. I also had to piece it together, which took me on a little virtual travel tour, and had me wonder about what Richmond Hill means to the locals. Rather fitting in context, too. The "everyone on the internet is American" stuff in e.g. politics or job market convos is a lot more grating.
- barrkel 6mo agoIf you're familiar with London, you know where Richmond is and that it's a wealthy area. A search confirms there's a Richmond Hill in Richmond.
- forinti 6mo agoI just love those documentaries where he starts off in Europe following some bird and ends up on a rock in the middle of the ocean. And he's been at it since when the world was much bigger. What a life!
- tinfoilhatter 6mo ago[flagged]
- deferredgrant 6mo ago[flagged]
- whyenot 6mo agoA lot, especially in organismal biology / field biology. We even name things after him, like carnivorous plants (Nepenthes attenboroughii), the whole genus Sirdavida, a hawkweed (Hieracium attenboroughianum), ... more than 50 taxa in all. The unfortunate thing is that the area of biology he has drawn people to is difficult to make a living in. Jobs are few, there is intense compettion for them, they don't pay well, and there is often little job security. In some ways it is the Art History of a STEM discipline.
- sen 6mo ago> We even name things after him, like carnivorous plants (Nepenthes attenboroughii), the whole genus Sirdavida, a hawkweed (Hieracium attenboroughianum), ... more than 50 taxa in all. I assumed there’d be 1 or 2 would be, but 50+ is wild. I just went down the rabbit hole of “things named after Sir David Attenborough” and it’s a lot!
- block_dagger 6mo agoI wasn’t pulled toward the field of study, but came away with a great appreciation and wonder for nature. My parents recorded many of his documentaries on Betamax tapes in the 1980s and my brother and I watched all of them many times in our formative years. Happy birthday to a truly great human.
- owenpalmer 6mo agoOne of the most iconic voices. https://youtu.be/P3ump1Buszo?si=0DoXiDTqZOyTBUst https://youtu.be/P3ump1Buszo?si=0DoXiDTqZOyTBUst
- ge96 6mo agoI remember watching blue planet seas of life in middle school in the early 2000s crazy.
- hilbert42 6mo agoA truly great communicator, we need more like him.
- CSMastermind 6mo agoHe 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.
- burlesona 6mo agoMind blown. Thanks for sharing!
- wvbdmp 6mo agoAmazing. 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-photos/ 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 see on television. Wimbledon continued using white balls until 1986.”
- cody_ellingham 6mo agoWhat do you mean tennis balls are yellow? I always thought they were green? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_ball#/media/File:Closeup_of_a_tennis_ball_(2).jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_ball#/media/File:Closeu...
- Eridanus2 6mo agohttps://share.google/Bmx5QA0ZZQU36NqXK https://share.google/Bmx5QA0ZZQU36NqXK
- deepsun 6mo agoUnpopular 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.
- defrost 6mo agoLike 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.
- zabzonk 6mo ago> 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.
- nazgul17 6mo agoAhem did you know David wasn't always 100 years old, and that in the past he worked on the field?
- drunkan 6mo agoYou clearly no nothing about him which is ok - if you read the adventures he put himself through when he was younger and older you would understand he was not just a narrator but someone who lived the field. If you are interested read one of the books on his life.
- dr_girlfriend 6mo agohe is far more than just a narrator, often appearing in the documentaries he narrates. he has helped thousands of people to gain a greater appreciation of nature. his documentaries on insects are particular favorites of mine, such as Micro Monsters and Dragons & Damsels. no matter what kind of animal you're interested in, he has probably done a series or TV special on the subject.
- codelong888 6mo ago[flagged]
- aanet 6mo agoTIL he's the brother of director Sir Richard Attenborough.
- iainmerrick 6mo agoThere's a rumour, probably apocryphal, that Richard Attenborough only got his knighthood because of David. Somebody at the palace or the civil service was reviewing the nominations, saw "David Attenborough" and thought "that's a typo, they must have meant Dickie Attenborough".
- shevy-java 6mo agoProtect David at all costs. It's also fascinating to see he is still active with regards to BBC documentations. I watched some newer BBC documentaries with other people voicing it, and while they are not terribly, all (!) of those newer guys are significantly more boring than even an old David. David understands things better than the newer guys do.
- unfunco 6mo agoI'll never forget the disgust amongst me and my friends when we found out that American television had replaced Attenborough's documentary voice with Oprah fucking Winfrey. Cultural vandalism.
- _jx 6mo agoHe definitely influenced my life and choices; some of the strongest memories of my youth in the '80s are tied to his documentaries Life on Earth and The Living Planet. I was lucky to live in the countryside and near a beautiful lake but his documentaries expanded my horizons so much more. I didn't love watching TV but that content was a magic window. They were dubbed by the magnificent voice of Claudio Capone and skillfully commented by Piero Angela, who died recently at 93. Piero was the most prominent Italian science journalist and his own career shaped TV and spanned 70 years. Their work made me and my family definitely more environmentally conscious. I don't doubt this content will have a lasting impact on humanity even if we can't clearly discern its effects right now. Happy Birthday David! I'm so happy you are still alive and well.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- jeffrallen 6mo ago[flagged]
- Hasbaranews 6mo agoAlways found his voice genuinely soothing and a nice reprieve from all the other pressing issues
- omnee 6mo agoAn outstanding voice for nature for all these years, and how kind nature has been to him in return. Long Live Sir David!
- Aboutplants 6mo agoA true hero in my life. I had VHS copies of Trials Of Life that I wore out through watching over and over as a child. It opened my eyes to the world and wonder of nature. In college I started hunting down every single appearance he had listed in any filmography I could find and have a hard drive in my attic with all but a couple of his earliest Black and White appearances from the earliest part of his career. I haven’t kept up with it with the newest stuff in the past 15 or so years but I definitely need to pull that out and see if I can finalize his catalog.
- mcfly_c-137 6mo ago> A true hero in my life. Same here. I‘d recommend the 2020 documentary „David Attenborough: A life on our planet“ - if you haven‘t already seen it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough%3A_A_Life_on_Our_Planet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough%3A_A_Life_o...
- Aboutplants 6mo agolol, I’ve seen everything and scramble to VPN or download anything released as soon as it comes out (it’s usually BBC and not available in my region). It brings that childhood nostalgia right back! Luckily my wife thinks it’s cute
- bluebarbet 6mo ago>I definitely need to pull that out and see if I can finalize his catalog This is what I've been doing over the last few months. Quite a lot is available for free on the Internet Archive, if you look. I just finished the 5-part "Life in the Undergrowth" (2005), about insects and other small critters. Wonderful.
- heresie-dabord 6mo agoFrom the article: > Actor Sir Ian McKellen added that Sir David "sums up what was best about the BBC" with "serious programmes made for a popular audience". A life of serious, informative, gently enlightening work. In itself, an endangered species.
- LightBug1 6mo agoThe best of us.
- aaronrobinson 6mo agoAttenborough is everything the US doesn’t have.
- jmull 6mo agoI'd think Americans widely enjoy his work too.
- jedberg 6mo agoThe BBCs style guide amuses me. The princes must be referred to by their titles, as well as Sir David and anyone else with a knighthood. I understand it's pretty common in the UK, but as an American it's funny to see.
- Underphil 6mo agoConversely, I wince everytime I'm called 'sir' in an American restaurant or shop.
- jedberg 6mo agoOh, I never thought about that. In the UK, is it improper to call someone Sir who isn't a Knight?
- neilwilson 6mo agoPretty much. Used outside that frame it’s an insult as in: You, sir, are a cad and a bounder.
- Chris2048 6mo agoUh, no it isn't.
- clappski 6mo agoNot at all, for example at secondary/high school you would address male teachers interchangeable as ‘sir’ and ‘mr. Last name’.
- car 6mo agoOne of the gems that a publicly funded broadcasting system gave us.
- rossant 6mo agoLooking at him I can't believe he's 100. I haven't seen that many centenaries that look that fit.