The wonderful world of David Attenborough

BBC Nature Presenter and documentary legend David Attenborough is one of my personal heroes. My nature-loving son's too. So it was sad to hear that the aged voice of nature will probably not make another show.

The BBC paid tribute to one of its legends with this compilation of breathtaking footage from some of his shows to that voice giving us a spoken-word rendition of jazz standard "What a Wonderful World":



Mr. Attenborough just recently wound up his last series, Frozen Planet. You may know it from this amazing video that is making the viral rounds:



What a wonderful world. And it's all the more wonderful when described by someone who loves it so much.

Scientists develop tool to measure Photoshop Disasters

Via Wired

Scientists in the United States have developed tools to quantify the amount that an image has been digitally manipulated — but only of they have access to the original image.

While Wired talks about the breakthrough as a way to regulate image manipulation in advertising, at a time when some jurisdictions are cracking down on altered images, Nature says the system was developed as a way of combatting image fraud in scientific journals.

Nature also quotes developer Hany Farid, a computer scientist who studies digital forensics, wo points out that this system is no magic bullet:

"The requirement for both original and retouched images is an obvious flaw in his system, admits Farid, as researchers can’t always find their originals. But, in his opinion, it is impossible to get an accurate score for the extent of manipulation without the original image. Moreover, for both scientific journals and popular magazines, the very act of requiring original images to be provided could act as a deterrent against manipulation, he says."

In advertising and the fashion industry, therefore, the system will only work if media or regulators institute a scale of manipulation and insist on access to unaltered images. Which won't do much to deter dishonest marketers, who are not bound by the same honour and reputation system as scientists.

So, while this is pretty cool, we'll probably have to keep discovering image fraud the old fashioned way.

For just $2,500 USD, you could name a slug after me

Slimeballicus Tommegginsoni

Or, just name a species after yourself. It's an offer by Discover Life in America, who are short on both funds and names for the hundreds of new species (mostly tiny invertebrates)  discovered in recent years at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee.

USA Today reports that donations to the biodiversity conservation and taxonomy and organization in 2009 — the most recent year for which statistics are available — were $91,868, down from $244,000 the year before.

And, while I'm not big on corporate branding of public institutions like elementary schools, perhaps Pepsi or Coke would like to associate their brand with something small, icky and endangered... okay, scratch that.

This is a great cause, however, and would be a wonderful opportunity for fundraising organizations to adopt a part of the biodiversity on which our planet depends... and maybe have some fun doing it.

F'd Ad Fridays: Unfortunate anus crab lips visual is unfortunate

When they speak, we run in terror.
See the rest of the campaign here.

Fantastic Plastic Mockumentary

Fellow Osocio blogger Armando posted this epic "mockumentary" by DDB LA, about the secret life of discarded plastic bags:



It's long, but worth watching all the way through. That's because it has the three things that make a smart parody great:

1) Love of the subject matter — Just as Spinal Tap reveals the writers' and actors' obsession with rock music, this video betrays the Creatives behind it as nature documentary geeks like me. For every four minutes of hilarity, imagine a lifetime of Wild Kingdom, Lorne Greene's New Wilderness, and especially BBC's David Attenborough.

2) Attention to detail — This follows naturally from #1. To make it work, you're got to remain true to form throughout. The voiceover's British accent and over-dramatic delivery, the lovingly-filmed beauty shots, and especially the night vision are absolutely bang-on.

3) Playing it straight — This seems like the hardest thing for many advertisers and comedians to do. There's always the temptation to either let the audience know you're in on the joke, or to laugh at your own wit. But as soon as you break that fourth wall, all is lost. This video keeps a straight face to the bitter end.

The genius box

In a news release that shocked nobody, The Nielsen Co. reported that young children are watching more TV now than in any year since 1995. This includes DVDs and PVRed shows. Thirty-two hours a week, on average.

Now, I don't pretend to be the world's greatest parent. Like everyone else, I'm making it up as I go along. We have certain things we are careful about: nutrition (mostly homemade food, organic when it counts), physical safety, streetsmarts, exercise, athletic skills, socialization. But on other things, we are more like our parents. And TV is one of them.

At Four years, 11 months, and change, Ladman loves to watch television. I don't think he's up to 32 hours a week, but he does love to tune in when he gets up in the morning, and right after school. I did the same, when I was a kid, so it doesn't seem that harmful to me. Hell, I work in advertising. I'm cynical that way.

What's different with my son is his viewing habits. When I was a kid, I loved nature and science documentaries. So did my wife. And so, naturally, does he. But while we had to wait for our weekly dose of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, he gets his shows on demand, recorded on PVR, or purchased on DVD. Over and over again.

Some favourites have been the whole BBC Walking With Dinosaurs franchise, as well as the many nature shows produced and/or narrated by David Attenborough (Blue Planet, Life in Cold Blood, Planet Earth). Recently, he has started to gravitate towards nature adventurers like the Crocodile Hunter (we don't tell him how that one ended), Snakemaster, Nigel Marven,Jules Sylvester, and Rob Bredl.



One that I'm not entirely sure of is "Bite Me" with Dr. Mike Leahy. This guy's a masochistic virologist who allows himself to get bitten, stung, envenomated and parasitized by some of the world's creepiest crawlies. Considering Ladman managed to get stung by a jellyfish and bitten by a garter snake this summer, I'm not sure this is a great influence.

But what I'm getting at here is that TV is like anything. It's the content that matters. My son exercises, socializes, gets read to, plays imaginative games (with rubber snakes or live bugs, of course!)... but he also enjoys his shows. And, as a result of watching guys with PhDs and nature nuts run around in khakis, he has a picked up a surprisingly rich scientific vocabulary for a kid his age.

The downside is that the TV shows on National Geographic and other channels are full of commercials, so we get constant advice from the boy as to which brand of yogurt or paper towels we should be buying. He's a sucker for ads. Karma's a bitch.

The thing that really amazed me happened just last night. He insisted on taking a small plastic baggie with him into the bath. (He loves playing with water.) He kept filling it up, and squeezing the water out, over and over again, until he turned to me and said "Dad! Look! This is how my heart works!"

You win this one, television.