My Search For Reality in TV Revealed Satellite TV and Television’s Future, Now.

I never dreamed of TV becoming amazing again - I was the guy with 12 o’clock blinking green on his VCR. Yes, I said VCR. So getting the hang of today’s TV was not a piece of cake.

Recently, during an emergency replace-ectomy of my dying Zenith behemoth, I realized I was in deep trouble. Never mind DVD. Who knew of progressive scan and digital convergence. Aspect ratios and digital comb filters. Anti-glare coatings and so many lines of resolution? I knew of the tv satellite dish, but…

This was a long way from the TV I was nurtured on?

I remember seeing Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show gyrating inside a black & white-glass-globe-picture-tube about as small as the window on a front-load washer.

…Man did the warm glow of that box-at-the-end-of-a-wire get me excited.

Oh, I watched plenty alright! And you know what? I can’t remember ever complaining about getting up from the couch to change the channel… or to adjust the antenna.

Then, Wagon Train on a 19 inch “color set” was about as good as it got.

I lost track of television’s high technology after a while I suppose. I saw TVs getting bigger and I did get hip to cable and the remote control - but distracted by life and a million other things - today’s satellite TV and the whole awesome new experience almost passed me by.

It wasn’t until my first trip to a home-electronics super-store - to replace the dinosaur 25inch Zenith color console, in a polished-wood-cabinet that matched our living-room furniture long ago - that I realized I wasn’t in Kansas anymore… but rather, lost.

Lost in a new-world-unknown.

A world where I discovered satellite tv on flat screens square and wide, Where thin plasmas hung on the wall and flat-panel LCDs framed in silver sat upon slender, tilting pedestals.

I saw TVs that connect to your computer and one, giant-screen, rear-projector that eats digital camera memory sticks to show your photos of grandma on vacation in larger than life and surround sound.

Oh, TVs are still getting bigger, alright. But now they are amazing again and I’m excited. But with that “excitement and amazement”, comes downright confusion. How do they do that? What of “all that” is right for me?

Now, I like the idea of a tv satellite dish on my roof, but it’s a new-tech jungle out there my friend. Prepare if you too are from Kansas.

I’ll help you get a clue about what’s out there before you buy “what could become” the most incredible entertainment experience you and your living room - or Elvis, could ever dream-up. And for a lot less than you think, too.

Keep your eye on the Planet. I’ll fill you in soon about why I can’t leave my home anymore.

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Gift baskets are a great gift for families. You can make your own Holiday Gift Baskets inexpensively and easily using some of the ideas below.

Start with a basket or container. Throughout the year, watch for inexpensive baskets wherever you go. I find great baskets of all shapes and sizes at dollar stores. However, you aren’t limited by baskets. Use anything from a popcorn tin to a beach pail filled with goodies for an inexpensive gift.

There are a zillion themes to choose from and they’re very fun to make. Here are just a few ideas, but the possibilities are endless.

Family Movie Night Basket:

Fill a basket with classic movie theater snacks, like Junior Mints and Raisinettes. Include a few family-friendly DVDs. Don’t forget the microwaveable popcorn.

Sunday Morning Basket:

Fill a basket with gourmet coffee and tea, muffin mix, pancake mix and syrup, jellies and jams and other yummy breakfast treats. Line the basket with the funnies from the newspaper. Include coloring books and crayons to keep the kids busy while Mom and Dad fix breakfast.

Making Memories Gift Basket:

This is a great gift for scrapbookers. Include the basics of what they’ll need to create a family memory book - an album, papers and embellishments, markers, a glue stick. Include a disposable camera for each child in the family in the basket so that their memories in the making can be captured through their eyes. You can even include a few photos of the family that you already have to help them get started.

The holidays do not need to cost a fortune. You can give thoughtful Holiday Gift Baskets to family and friends to show you care.

Nicole Dean is the mostly-sane mom and owner of ShowMomTheMoney.com - a fun and informative site to help moms achieve success working from home. She invites you to learn more money-saving tricks at http://www.showmomthemoney.com/TimeSavers.asp and to take her free tutorial for work at home moms at http://www.showmomthemoney.com/free-tutorial.htm

For many years it was believed the Earth was the center of the Universe. Alas, this was disproved for a number of reasons including the fact the planet was moving quickly through space.

The Ultimate Turbocharged Vehicle

Once our egotistical view of being the center of the universe was disproved, the goal of figuring out how fast we are moving through space came front and center. These days, the rather interesting answer is there are three different speeds. No, the planet doesn’t move at different speeds. It is more a matter of perspective and how we define movement. The issue comes down to whether we measure the orbit as a matter of time or pure acceleration.

The speed of the Earth is defined three ways. The sidereal methodology calculates the orbit speed for one revolution around the sun in relation to the sun and stars and is a measure of time. The tropical year is also a measure of time, but refers to how long it takes one point on the earth to make a revolution around the sun between two equinoxes. Finally, the pace can also be calculated in good old miles per hour.

While we consider a day to be 24 hours, it is actually a bit less because the Earth is moving through space according to the sidereal methodology. In relation to the stars, a concept known as solar time, this means a day is actually 3 minutes and 56 seconds shorter than we think. As a result, the speed of the earth using the sidereal method is roughly 364 days, 2 hours and 1 minute to complete one revolution around the sun.

The tropical year methodology arrives at a different time measurement for the Earth in relation to a revolution around the sun. This is due to the fact that the movement of the Earth through space in relation to celestial bodies other than the Sun is discounted. In tropical year methodology, we circle the sun in 365.24 days.

The final method for calculating the movement of the Earth is pure forward momentum. Man has built some extremely fast machines in his time, but nothing matches the hot rod known as the Earth. The average pace of the Earth as it moves through space is approximately 67,000 miles per hour.

Let’s see Ferrari or Porsche top that!

Richard Monk is with www.factsmonk.com - a site with facts about everything. Visit www.factsmonk.com/planet_earth to read more about planet Earth.

Britain’s enthralling and frequently disgusting past is in all probability largely captured in its historic structures & nowhere is this further obvious than in those buildings housed by the Royal Family & their gatherings. Visit Buckingham Palace today for a great day out with Enjoy England.

For a great period now the English Monarchy has been considered to be imperative to the achievement of the UK. They have amused overseas people for many years and carry on to rouse the love of foreign tourists of all age groups. Buckingham Place has been labelled the London home of the British monarchy ever since Queen Victoria became queen in eighteen thirty-seven. its one of a petite amount of operating royal palaces enduring in the United Kingdom at the moment.

Buckingham Palace is used primarily as an office, but can also be changed into a social activities venue for the fifty thousand invitees asked to the Palace annually. There are more than six-hundred digs, including 19 state digs, fifty-two royal & visitor bedrooms, seventy eight bathrooms, 92 offices, but more extraordinarily an in-house cinema & swimming pool.

All over the spring & summer, overseas travellers can travel around the handsome state bedrooms, which make the heart of the Palace. These marvellous digs are decorated with an assortment of the most finest riches from the Royal collected works, including sculptures by Canova as well as paintings by the many renowned painters like that of Rembrandt, Rubens & Canaletto.