Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

David Attenborough takes part in a stick-dance at a Qashqa wedding in Iran - part of a TV series in which he examined the importance of tribal art and tradition, which began in 1975.

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

This 1961 image shows David and Elsa, the lioness, who became a household name after the release of 'Born Free' by Joy Adamson - a book describing the amazing story of Joy's relationship with this beautiful animal. David set off into the wild bush country of northern Kenya to film the lioness and her cubs for a BBC documentary.

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

The Night of a Thousand Shows in 2000 brought David together with the likes of Greg Dyke and Patrick Moore as Michael Parkinson and a celebrity audience celebrate the 40th anniversary of BBC TV Centre.

I don't know why, but this amuses me...

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

'The Living Planet' series began in 1984. This picture captures a moment during David's visit to NASA for the episode entitled The Sky Above.

David Attenborough Picture of the Day

The Travel and Exploration Unit was created by the BBC to manage the miles of film brought back from expeditions all over the world. This 1962 image shows, from left to right, Harry Hastings, production assistant, David Attenborough, editor of the Unit, and Brian Branston, Producer.

Doesn't he look dapper?

David Attenborough Picture of the Day

I've decided to turn 'David Attenborough Quote of the Day' into a picture instead. There are much more of those and they speak for themselves really...

Living Icons of the UK

At the end of last year, BBC TV's Culture Show asked people living in the UK to vote for the UK's Greatest Living Icon. The rules of the poll? Well, to be eligible, the person nominated had to be alive; they had to have been born in the UK or be currently living in the UK; and they had to have made 'an impact on British cultural life'. We, the voting public, were also asked 'will we still be thinking about them in 10 years time?'

And the winner is... It should come as little surprise, then, that the top place in the poll went to Sir David Attenborough. Now 80 years old, he has a varied and long history in broadcasting. During his time as controller of the BBC in the 1960s, he introduced colour to the UK's television sets. He's long been a campaigner on environmental issues - many years before it was considered trendy to support such causes - and his recent BBC series Planet Earth has been watched by an estimated 500 million people worldwide. In 2008, the David Attenborough Studio will open in his honour at the Natural History Museum, ensuring that there will be a permanent reminder to keep us thinking of him 10 years into the future and beyond.

TOP 10 LIVING ICONS

1. Sir David Attenborough
2. Morrissey
3. Sir Paul McCartney
4. David Bowie
5. Sir Michael Caine
6. Stephen Fry
7. Kate Bush
8. Alan Bennett
9. Kate Moss
10. Dame Vivienne Westwood

I've left out most of this article because it was far too long, but I'd recommend reading it. If only for the bizarre write-ups for each celebrity... Kate Moss? 'A Nation of Animal Lovers'? What about her love for fur then?

Still, Sir David should be up there... they at least got that right.

See the full article here.

The onslaught of post-breakup bitterness and the resulting crushes on the only men that seem nice in the world

But why are they so old?

Sir David Attenborough

Knighted for his outstanding contribution to British television and his efforts in the conservation and documention of the natural world, Sir David Attenborough has long been a hero of mine. He's modest about his knowledge and success and is one of the few remaining 'gentlemen' of our time. He also uses the word 'immense' a highly unprecedented number of times.

I think I might be trapped in the wrong century. I say: bring back men in suits and hats and comb overs. And yes, I'm a feminist, but by all means: hold that door open for me, pull out my chair and lend me your coat.

___________________________________________________

Sir Ian McKellen

Perhaps I find Knighthoods a turn on. Perhaps it's an ill-fated move to have a crush on a gay man who was born in 1939. All I know is that he looks good as a wizard and has an honest, kindly look about him.

It's most unfortunate that X-Men 3 reduced the commanding character 'Magneto' to nothing more than a gang leader with no more presence than 'Shredder' from Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Coincedentally his 'gang' strongly resembled 'Beebop' and 'Rocksteady' - when will Hollywood learn that just because you're 'bad', doesn't mean you have black hair, a piercing and/or a leather coat? I digress... Yes. Sir Ian McKellen is good.

If you wanna be my lover... gotta be born no later than 1940 and have a knighthood.

Sir David Attenborough - this month's SAGA cover star

Thanks Bek!

Sir David Attenborough on social events

"I'm not very good at cocktail parties. At gatherings of 50 people, most of whom you don't know...I mean, anthropologically I know what people are doing. But dinner with friends, really. We went to the theatre with Dick last Saturday, and so on."

David Attenborough launches £25m scheme to protect butterfies in huge dome

It will be a paradise for butterflies and nature lovers alike.

Plans for a vast glass dome housing more than 10,000 butterflies were unveiled yesterday in the biggest conservation project of its kind seen in Britain.

When it opens in three years, the £25million Butterfly World will be the world's biggest "walk-through butterfly experience".

As well as colourful tropical species, equal importance will be placed on their threatened British counterparts at the dome just off the M25 in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

More than 100 yards across and 50ft high, the butterfly dome will be larger than the giant greenhouses which have bewitched visitors at the Eden Project in Cornwall.

The centrepiece of the 26-acre site, the dome will be home to a mini-tropical rain-forest and a series of underground caverns.

Inside, in addition to the butterflies, visitors will see hundreds of humming birds and collections of spiders and scorpions.

Land around the dome will be planted with meadows and gardens to encourage native butterflies and moths.

At the launch of the project, Sir David Attenborough said it would reverse the "silent natural disaster" threatening the creatures around the world.

The initiative follows shocking new figures which show that more than three-quarters of British butterfly species have declined in the last 20 years because of habitat loss and changes in farming.

"That is worrying, not least because these declines indicate an underlying deterioration of the environment as a whole," said Sir David.

"For the sake of future generations we must take action now.

"Butterfly World is doing just that. It is putting the issues on the agenda and is seeking to help reverse this environmental catastrophe."

Work will start within the next few weeks and organisers believe it will attract one million visitors every year.

Butterfly World is being backed by the conservationist David Bellamy, along with other famous names such as actress Emilia Fox, and leading lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy.

Article found here.

Sir David Attenborough Quote of the Day

Has he seen the film Grizzly Man, in which amateur naturalist Timothy Treadwell comes to a sticky end after getting too pally with the grizzly bears he is studying? Attenborough is familiar with the case. He sees Treadwell's soppy reasoning as symptomatic of the spoilt, modern world in which people "aren't used to being uncomfortable; they think the world owes them a living and the idea that they might be cold or hungry is alien ... There are a number of people in that mad, green [circle] who say nature is wonderful, lovely, and mankind has distorted it, and if you go out there with an innocent heart ... well," he huffs. "If you go out there with an innocent heart, you're eaten."

This is not to say that it is "disreputable" to get all maternal about baby mammals. "It's just wrong. You see a little fawn with large eyes, like Bambi ... oh, oh, little darling. But, in fact, half of them get killed in the first month and we all die and are subject to disease. Life is full of tragedy."

Full article here (very old).

Sir David Attenborough Quote of the Day

"It’s all about celebrity, which is a disaster; it’s ghastly. The celebrity cult means you are famous without talent. The BBC is as guilty as the other channels. Popularism has pervaded our society. It is a distorted form of democracy and egalitarianism. Celebrity is a legacy from the time when the BBC was seen to be patrician and condescending, and knowing what was best for the rest."

Read full interview here.

Happy Birthday Sir David

“What do you think this is?” asks Sir David Attenborough, handing me a heavy rock. We are sitting in his Richmond home and I have been drawn into playing a game of ‘guess the fossil’. The specimen turns out to be vertebrae from an ichthyosaur, which Attenborough found in his neighbour’s garden while looking for rocks for his aquarium. “I went over and there was this, just lying about!”

His fossil collection sits behind his sofa, which itself faces a large collection of wildlife paintings, tribal artefacts and one unexpectedly massive state-of-the-art television. From outside, the house is immediately identifiable for it lacks the patios and SUVs of its neighbours and instead has a winding path surrounded by lush greenery.

Attenborough is very much as you would expect from his on-screen appearances—knowledgeable, eloquent, a consummate storyteller and extremely excited about wildlife. He is as happy enthusing about a turtle mating frenzy as he is about the grisly habits of the caecilian, a burrowing worm-like amphibian whose young feed by tearing strips of fatty skin from their mothers. And what about the most interesting thing he’s eaten himself? “Big moth caterpillars in New Guinea. You put them on a fire and they come out like Twiglets.”

Read more here.

Sir David Attenborough Quote of the Day

I know of three people who know that Emmylou Harris is the greatest female singer since Ella Fitzgerald — me, a bloke in Wallington and, to my amazement, David Attenborough. “Yes, yes,” he says, in that breathy, gorilla-charming voice, “absolutely.” He even knows and loves her performance of Love Hurts with Gram Parsons. Attenborough is a national institution, of course, but cool also? Awestruck, I ask him a question I thought I’d never ask: “What’s on your iPod?”

“Every major classical work since Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 — it’s a 45-gig iPod — all Beethoven symphonies, all Mahler and, yes, yes, Emmylou Harris.”

Out in the field, as he so often is, he spends the nights in tents listening to music. Before iPods changed everything, he took CDs, always including some demanding music he had never heard — say, Janacek quartets. In the darkness, he would reach for a CD and put it on, not knowing what it was. If he couldn’t stand what he heard, he would grope for another. But he allowed himself to do this only twice. The rule was that he must listen to the third CD. “I had to sit through it, that had to be it. It was a little game.”

Read the rest of this awesome interview here.

The Independant's 'Green List'

The Independent's recent Green list 2007 promised to reveal who was setting the agenda on environmental issues, writes Rachel Dixon. Unfortunately, it didn't tell us much we didn't already know. Rather predictably, as publication coincided with Live Earth, Al Gore was number one, followed by unlikely environmentalist Arnold Schwarzenegger. More interesting was Wangari Maathai's inclusion in third place - although she was just one of just seven women in a list of 25 people.

On the plus side, the list was a real mixed bag, with campaigners and movers and shakers from the arts ranking alongside scientists, politicians and businessmen. This may be an encouraging sign, suggesting that green issues are starting to be tackled across wider society, rather than remaining the preserve of niche groups.

On the down side, it was geographically limited, with only one representative of Africa, and one each from China and India. The vast majority of those named came from Britain or the United States. As the Independent itself said, climate change is the most important global issue we face, so surely we should acknowledge the role of non-western figures in the fight? One example that springs to mind is Dai Qing, the Chinese anti-dam campaigner, who was included in the Environment Agency's list of the 100 greatest eco-heroes of all time. There must be many more individuals who deserve recognition.

So, who would you add to the list - and who's inclusion do you disagree with? Perhaps you don't think Al Gore deserves the top spot, in light of Live Earth's carbon footprint, not to mention his own massive household energy consumption. Or maybe we're all too obsessed with celebrity, and we shouldn't be focusing on individuals at all. A list of the greenest businesses or governments might shame the rest into action.

The top 10:
1. Al Gore
2. Arnold Schwarzenegger
3. Wangari Maathai
4. Sir Nicholas Stern
5. David Attenborough <-------------------------- !
6. Simran Sethi
7. Mark Lynas
8. Patrick Holden
9. Laurie David
10. Dr Carl Hodges

This is outrageous for obvious reasons. Story from here.