Friday, November 13, 2009

Thousands says “NO” color television.

Almost 30,000 people across the UK still tune into their favorite programs on black and white TV sets.
The figures were released by TV Licensing to mark the 40th anniversary of the first color transmissions on BBC1 and ITV.
The 28,000 black and white license holders included 1,950 in Scotland.
The figures showed the black and white sets have not yet been consigned to history despite the rise of flat-screens and the iPlayer.
While the figures show there is still life in the oldest TV equipment, BBC statistics show that emerging technologies are changing the way many of us watch TV.
In September, the BBC iPlayer attracted more than one million unique users a day, who watched a total of 60.8 million TV programs on the internet using computers, smart phones and games consoles, as well as on televisions equipped with the Virgin Media set-top boxes.
“These figures show TV has never been more popular across the spectrum”
Fergus Reid TV Licensing
Yet despite the increasingly divergent ways to watch, leaning back on the sofa in front of your TV set is still the most popular - with sales of flat-screen televisions almost trebling in the past three years.
TV Licensing spokesman Fergus Reid said: "These figures show TV has never been more popular across the spectrum, and with so many ways to watch TV now available, it is important people are aware of their legal responsibilities.
"Whether you watch in black and white on a 40-year-old TV set or in color on a brand new 37in LCD flat screen, you need to be covered by a TV License if watching or recording programs as they are broadcast.
"The same is true if you access programs via the internet as they are being shown on TV - if you're using a laptop, mobile phone, games console or any other device."
The first color TV broadcasts began in 1967 on BBC2 and on 15 November 1969 on BBC1 and ITV. The first color pictures were seen on BBC1 in Scotland in December 1969.
Comedy classic Dad's Army was among the first programs to receive a color makeover.
'Technological breakthrough'
Ian Lavender, who played Private Pike in the series, recalled: "I remember we bought our first color television set to watch the 3rd series of Dad's Army, which had been recorded in color.
"I was also the first actor to be killed by a color TV set on color TV in Z Cars when a robbery went wrong and the TV set was dropped on me from a great height by Nicholas Jones".
Iain Logie Baird, curator of television at the National Media Museum in Bradford and a grandson of John Logie Baird, the inventor of the first television, said he believed the arrival of color TV had an enormous social impact in the UK.
"The arrival of mass color television was a technological breakthrough," he said.
"As more viewers made the switch, it gradually altered the effect of television as a medium, changing both program styles and viewers' perceptions.
"The addition of color enabled viewers to have a greater feeling of actually 'being there' for live events and similarly, an increased sense of involvement in pre-recorded material, which had a major impact on the cultural fabric of the nation."
.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Punishment

.

Everyone Needs A Hug

.

Medals Of Dishonor

FBI: Prodigiously decorated California man never served in military
NOVEMBER 11--Just in time for Veteran's Day, a California bank employee is facing federal charges for allegedly masquerading as a decorated Marine and wearing a host of bogus medals, including the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and Navy Cross. Steven Burton, 39, is scheduled to surrender tomorrow in U.S. District Court in Riverside, California (Burton, who has never served in the armed forces, was named last week in misdemeanor criminal information charging him with the unauthorized wearing of military medals). According to a search warrant affidavit, Burton's charade was discovered after an actual Navy commander, Colleen Salonga, ran into Burton at their high school reunion. Online records indicate that Salonga and Burton graduated in 1988 from Alhambra High School in Martinez, California (and that their class's 20th reunion was last October). Suspicious that Burton was playing dress up, Salonga asked to take a photo with him. That image was later provided to FBI agents. A subsequent investigation turned up another photo of Burton in uniform as well as blog postings in which he recounted his "combat experience" and tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the real world, Burton is employed at Rabobank in Palm Springs, California.
.

Girl Sneezes Approximately 12,000 Times a Day

It’s that time of year when everyone seems to be coughing and sneezing, but for a 12-year-old girl from Virginia, she can’t sit for more than a few seconds without someone saying "bless you."
It’s so bad, on a regular day Lauren Johnson can sneeze more than 12,000 times a day.
"I can't stop sneezing. It goes off about eight to nine times a minute," Lauren said.
The condition, described as "machine gun sneezing," started about two weeks ago when the sixth-grader caught a cold and ever since then she’s been miserable.
"I know this is terrible for her," Lauren’s mom, Lynn Johnson said.
Lauren hasn’t been able to go to school and has visited six different doctors since the non-stop sneezing began. Although there’s no clear diagnosis, one neurologist told the family Lauren’s condition could be "irretraceable psychogenic disorder," which could be triggered by stress, according to the report.
"There's less than 40 cases ever documented ever in the entire world," Johnson said. "Nobody really knows how to treat it, what's going to work, and even in the cases where it might have worked or turned the sneezing off for awhile, a lot of times it comes back again and then you're right back to where you started," she added.
However, there are a few hours when Lauren does not sneeze."It turns off when she sleeps," her mom said. "Only in a deep REM sleep it turns off."
.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Funny Animals

Stunt Hamster Hammy
.
.
Hamster runs Dog Agility Coarse!
The obstacle course consists of 5 hurdles, a see-saw, an up-down weave, a hoop and a collapsed tunnel. Watch as this hamster go through the whole course.
.

34 years ago yesterday...The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Edmund Fitzgerald, a 729 foot ore carrier, which apparently broke apart and sunk last night on Lake Superior. The ship and its 29-man crew vanished in a storm with 80 mile-an-hour winds and wave heights up to 25 feet. All that has been found is an oil slick and some debris.
.
.
Lyrics:

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they called "Gitche Gumee"
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
when the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,
that big ship and true was a bone to be chewed
when the Gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
with a crew and good captain well seasoned,
concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
when they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang,
could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
and a wave broke over the railing
And ev'ry man knew, as the captain did too
'twas the witch of November come stealin'
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
when the Gales of November came slashin'
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
in the face of a hurricane west wind

When suppertime came the old cook came on deck sayin'
"Fellas, it's too rough t'feed ya"
At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in; he said,
"Fellas, it's bin good t'know ya!"
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
and the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when 'is lights went outta sight
came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does any one know where the love of God goes
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
if they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'er
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
they may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
in the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;
the islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
with the Gales of November remembered

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
in the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times
for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they call "Gitche Gumee"
"Superior," they said, "never gives up her dead
when the gales of November come early"
.

Student suspended for shaved head

The mother of a 15-year-old girl suspended from school for shaving her head to raise money for cancer charities says her leukemia-stricken husband is proud of her actions.
Emily Pridham was sent home from Mount Alvernia College yesterday and will not be allowed back until her hair grows back after she shaved it off as part of a cancer research fundraiser on Saturday.
The Catholic girls' school has cited its dress code policy for the temporary ban.
She told ABC radio her daughter had made the decision to part with her locks as a way to cope with her father's battle with leukemia.
"I understand that school rules have to be abided by. However, I've gone through the school rules and the uniform policy and nowhere does it say that a girl cannot shave her head," Ms Pridham said.
"At no stage did [the school] contact me or tell me. At no stage did I think I needed their permission for Emily to do this.
A Facebook group supporting Emily's decision to shave her head has appeared, with members calling the school's decision a 'joke' and an 'absolute disgrace'.
Emily's mother said her daughter had struggled with her father's diagnosis and saw the fundraiser as a way to deal with it.
"Ten months ago he was given six months to live and we had to explain all of this to Emily," she said.
"I didn't want her to do it. She had beautiful, long blonde hair halfway down her back and I told her she might regret it because she can't just stick it back on ... but she's just been so determined to do it."
The school has defended its actions to enforce uniform guidelines and has said other, "ongoing issues" were behind the suspension.
But Ms Pridham said the only trouble her daughter had been involved in included a warning over nail polish after the school formal two weeks ago and her use of a rude word in the presence of a teacher.
She said her husband, who has undergone a bone marrow transplant, was supportive of Emily's decision to go bald.
"He is very proud of her as everybody that knows her is," Ms Pridham said.
"He is very angry and worried about the rest of her academic year."
Ms Pridham said she had been in contact with the school about the suspension order.
.

Boneless Chicken Dinner

.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE

Father Surprises His Daughter
.
Father Surprises His Son
.