Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The Relative Cost Of TV Watching

     

____________________


I learned another new fact today that I never before knew. It seems  that all citizens of England and many other countries must buy a licence to watch public television in their homes.

According to Wikipedia: A television licence (or broadcast receiving licence) is an official record of payment required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts, or the possession of a television set where some broadcasts are funded in full or in part by the licence fee paid. Two-thirds of the countries in Europe and half of the countries in Asia and Africa use television licences to fund public television. TV licensing is rare in the Americas, largely being confined to French overseas departments and British territories.

The annual licence fee in the United Kingdom is £145.50 colour / £49.00 monochrome or €170.28 colour / €57.35 monochrome.

Public television in America (PBS) requires no licence (license) because it is paid for by grants from charitable foundations and voluntary donations from civic-minded private citizens.

I'm still learning something new nearly every day.


Note: Toward the end of this blog entry is an EXTRA, a link to a Sam Harris Youtube video. I hope you will check it out.

_____


Did You Know . . .?

The average human brain contains around 78 percent water and uses between 20 - 25 percent of the oxygen you breathe.

_____


HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 2011, Gabrielle Giffords, a U.S. congresswoman from Arizona, was critically injured when a man went on a shooting spree during a constituents meeting held by the congresswoman outside a Tucson-area supermarket. Six people died in the attack and another 13, including Giffords, were wounded. The gunman, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, was taken into custody at the scene.

Investigators soon discovered evidence at Loughner's home indicating he had targeted the congresswoman in an assassination plot, and that he had a history of posting anti-government rants on the Internet.

On January 25, 2012, Giffords resigned from Congress in order to concentrate on her continuing recovery. In August of that same year, Loughner pleaded guilty to 19 of the crimes he was charged with, including killing six people. As part of the plea agreement, federal prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty against him. On November 8, 2012, Loughner was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

_____


WORD FOR TODAY

sermon
noun
1. A religious discourse delivered as part of a church service.
2. An often lengthy and tedious speech of reproof or exhortation.

A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts. Elements of preaching include exposition, exhortation and practical application. In modern language, the word "sermon" can also be used pejoratively in secular terms to describe a lengthy or tedious speech delivered with great passion, by any person, to an uninterested audience.
--Wikipedia

_____


CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


(January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977)
Elvis Presley was an American singer, musician, and actor. One of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as "the King of Rock and Roll", or simply, "the King".



(born January 8, 1980)
Rachel Nichols is an American actress and model. She had a part in the romantic drama film Autumn in New York (2000) and a one-episode role in the fourth season of the hit show Sex and the City (2002). Her first major role was in the comedy film Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (2003). She had the main role in the crime drama television series The Inside (2005). Nichols gained recognition playing Rachel Gibson in the final season of Alias (2005–2006) and for her role in the horror film The Amityville Horror (2005).

Nichols' first starring film role was in the horror-thriller P2 (2007). She had a supporting role in the coming-of-age film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008) and appeared in Star Trek (2009). She starred in the action film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and the sword and sorcery film Conan the Barbarian (2011). She currently plays the lead role of Kiera Cameron in the science fiction television series Continuum.



(born January 8, 1942)
Stephen Hawking is an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge. Among his significant scientific works have been a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking was the first to set forth a cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He is a vocal supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.



(born January 8, 1942)
Yvette Mimieux is a retired American movie and television actress. among her earliest screen appearances was a role in the teen movie Where the Boys Are (1960) as well as in George Pal's film version of H. G. Wells' 1895 novel The Time Machine (also 1960) co-starring Rod Taylor, in which she played the character Weena. This was followed by The Light in the Piazza (1962) with Olivia de Havilland. In 1963, Mimieux appeared in Diamond Head and Toys in the Attic.

__________

I'm still playing with a full deck; I just shuffle slower now.
--Author Unknown

EXTRA:
Sam Harris presents a short, sensible, believable, modern-day sermon

NASA TV

   

No comments:

Post a Comment