Satellites go way back, and were mostly used for specific
purposes. The new LEO satellite constellations require thousands
of satellites talking to each other and allowing internet
anywhere, even the remotest parts of the planet.
1957—The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1 and kicks off the space
race.
1958—The US launches its first satellite, Explorer 1.
1958—The world’s first satellite designed for
telecommunications, successfully transmits its first message.
1962—The Communications Satellite Act of 1962 gives the FCC
regulatory power over communications satellites.
1962—Bell Labs launches Telstar 1, which successfully executes
the first satellite television transmission.
1967—The Soviet Union creates, Orbita, the first
television-satellite national network.
1972—Canada launches the first North American geostationary
television satellite, Anik 1.
1975—RCA builds Satcom 1 for ABC, NBC, CBS, and later HBO® to
begin broadcasting via satellite.
1976—Radio engineer Taylor Howard builds a homemade satellite
dish and receiver that picks up both North American and Soviet
satellite television signals. It showed in-home satellite
television service could work.
1979—The Satellite Home Viewer Act lets US homeowners operate
their own home satellite system.
1991—A group of cable TV providers, including Time Warner Cable,
Cox, Comcast, and more, create the first direct broadcast
satellite television service in the US, PRIMESTAR.
1993—Hughes Aircraft Co. applies for an FCC license to launch
Spaceway, the first satellite designed to use the Ka-band
frequencies making satellite a reasonable means for transmitting
internet signals.
1996—Hughes Electronics buys PanAmSat, starts Hughes Network
Systems, and begins offering consumer satellite services.
2003—News Corp buys DIRECTV, Hughes Network Systems, and others
to form the DIRECTV Group.
2017—Viasat launches Viasat 2, which delivers the fastest
residential satellite internet in the US to date.
Between 5G communications, ATSC3 over the air TV, and low earth
satellites, pulling multiple millions of miles of physical
cables around the country and the world may become a thing of
the past, but it will not happen this year or next.
Sep 20, 2019
Used Cars vs. New Cars
During 2018, Americans bought 17.3 million new cars
and 40.2 million used ones. Is that recycling?
Interesting Animal Facts
Pandas can sleep anywhere and they usually fall
asleep wherever they happen to be.
Squirrels use their tails as umbrellas and parachutes.
A dog’s nose print is as detailed as a human fingerprint and can be used to identify them.
Giraffes only sleep for around 4 and a half hours a night, on average.
Tigers have striped skin underneath their striped fur.
Baby elephants suck on their own trunks, like pacifiers.
Squirrels use their tails as umbrellas and parachutes.
A dog’s nose print is as detailed as a human fingerprint and can be used to identify them.
Giraffes only sleep for around 4 and a half hours a night, on average.
Tigers have striped skin underneath their striped fur.
Baby elephants suck on their own trunks, like pacifiers.
Cable TV Statistics
The US has 1,775 total television stations and about 5,200
cable systems run by 660 operators, reaching 90% of the entire
population.
During 2017, 61% of young adults in the US mostly used online streaming to watch TV.
During 2018, there were 33 million people in the US who had canceled their pay-TV subscription. 12% of U.S. homes with broadband cut the cord in 2018, showing a 32.8% increase from 2017. In December 2018, 60% of American adults had someone in their household with a current Netflix subscription and Comcast accounted for 23.6% of the pay TV market in the US.
Number of households cutting the cord jumped another 19.2% and reached 40.2 million cord cutters in 2019 per eMarketer. 44% of American households still subscribe to a cable service in 2019.
FOX News was the leading cable network in the US during March 2019, with 1.392 million total day viewers. MSNBC was second, with 1.029 million, and Nickelodeon came third, with 788,000.
Web-based TV continues to grow with 56% of US adults classified as streamers, up from 48% in 2018 and 40% in 2017, according to a new report from Nielsen.
The percentage of households that can stream TV programming has grown to 65% in 2019 from 59% in 2918 and 51% in 2017, Nielsen said in its new Local Watch Report.
Nielsen says that 77% of streamers have access to broadcast stations and cable networks through traditional distributors and virtual MVPDs. Multichannel Video Programming Distributor is a service that provides multiple television channels, like cable or satellite television service. Linear broadcast stations (antenna TV) are watched by 82% of streamers.
During 2017, 61% of young adults in the US mostly used online streaming to watch TV.
During 2018, there were 33 million people in the US who had canceled their pay-TV subscription. 12% of U.S. homes with broadband cut the cord in 2018, showing a 32.8% increase from 2017. In December 2018, 60% of American adults had someone in their household with a current Netflix subscription and Comcast accounted for 23.6% of the pay TV market in the US.
Number of households cutting the cord jumped another 19.2% and reached 40.2 million cord cutters in 2019 per eMarketer. 44% of American households still subscribe to a cable service in 2019.
FOX News was the leading cable network in the US during March 2019, with 1.392 million total day viewers. MSNBC was second, with 1.029 million, and Nickelodeon came third, with 788,000.
Web-based TV continues to grow with 56% of US adults classified as streamers, up from 48% in 2018 and 40% in 2017, according to a new report from Nielsen.
The percentage of households that can stream TV programming has grown to 65% in 2019 from 59% in 2918 and 51% in 2017, Nielsen said in its new Local Watch Report.
Nielsen says that 77% of streamers have access to broadcast stations and cable networks through traditional distributors and virtual MVPDs. Multichannel Video Programming Distributor is a service that provides multiple television channels, like cable or satellite television service. Linear broadcast stations (antenna TV) are watched by 82% of streamers.
Extreme Heat
According to Accuweather.com, 26 of the 50 states set their
all-time high temperature records during the 1930s that still
stand (some have since been tied). An additional 11 state
all-time high temperature records were set before 1930. Only two
states have all-time record high temperatures that were set in
the 21st century (South Dakota and South Carolina).
So 37 of the 50 states have an all-time high temperature record not exceeded for more than 75 years.
So 37 of the 50 states have an all-time high temperature record not exceeded for more than 75 years.
Expensive vs. Cheap Wine
In one study with over 6,000 taste tasters,
comprising about 12% sommeliers and the rest general public,
they tried to determine if people like expensive wines more than
cheap ones.
It found the correlation between price and overall rating is small and negative, suggesting that individuals on average enjoy more expensive wines slightly less. For individuals with wine training however, there are indications of a positive relationship between price and enjoyment.
Results indicate that both the prices of wines and wine recommendations by experts may be poor guides for non-expert wine consumers.
Consider that over 400 compounds which influence the scent alone have been identified in wine. Also, temperature by itself can make a huge difference to taste, because of how this can affect smell and taste. As wine enthusiast David Derbyshire notes, “Serve a New World chardonnay too cold and you’ll only taste the overpowering oak. Serve a red too warm and the heady boozy qualities will be overpowering.”
As for the wine experts, while they may have honed their skills with sometimes thousands of hours of study into all things wine, they still have the same brain as the rest of us. Wine expert and journalist Katie Kelly Bell, was traveling with a fellow group of wine connoisseurs. While at Waters Vineyards in Washington State, the owner poured everyone two glasses of white wine and asked them to identify what types they were.
Bell sums up: "We swirled, we sniffed, and we wrinkled our brows in contemplation, some of us nodding with assurance. I took notes, finding the first white to be more floral and elegant than the second. Drawing on my years and years (there have been too many) of tasting, studying and observation, I swiftly concluded that the first wine was an unoaked Chardonnay and the second was a Sauvignon Blanc, easy peasy. Much to my mortification I was dead wrong, as was everyone else in the room. The proprietor chuckled and informed his room that the wines were actually the same wine; one was just warmer than the other. He wasn’t intentionally shaming us (not one person got it right); he was pointedly demonstrating the power of just one element in the wine tasting experience: temperature."
A test conducted at the suggestion of winery owner Robert Hodgson at the California State Fair wine competition. Panels of 65 to 70 expert judges were given a huge variety of wines to rank as per usual, but what they were not told was that they were actually given each of the wines three times and from the same exact bottle.
After running this same experiment four consecutive years, what Hodgson found was that, to quote the paper published on the experiment, only “about 10 percent of the judges were able to replicate their score within a single medal group.” In fact, he even found about 10% of the judges were so far off that they switched a Bronze rating to a Gold for the exact same wine from the exact same bottle.
In another experiment, Brochet also gave a similar panel a glass of white wine and a glass of red wine and gave them a list of common words used to describe white and red wines and told them to assign them appropriately to the two wines in front of them. It turns out the red wine was actually the same as the white wine except dyed red, and only a small percentage of the testers were able to accurately identify that both wines tasted the same in the descriptive words they chose to identify each wine. Not all of the taste testers got it wrong.
Bottom Line - Wine tasting is subjective and what about a given type appeals to you is all that matters. If knowing you paid $200 for that glass enhances your experience, great. For others buying several bottles of Two-Buck Chuck so they can enjoy many glasses with friends may make that one all the more enjoyable. The only thing that matters with regard to a wine is whether or not you like it.
It found the correlation between price and overall rating is small and negative, suggesting that individuals on average enjoy more expensive wines slightly less. For individuals with wine training however, there are indications of a positive relationship between price and enjoyment.
Results indicate that both the prices of wines and wine recommendations by experts may be poor guides for non-expert wine consumers.
Consider that over 400 compounds which influence the scent alone have been identified in wine. Also, temperature by itself can make a huge difference to taste, because of how this can affect smell and taste. As wine enthusiast David Derbyshire notes, “Serve a New World chardonnay too cold and you’ll only taste the overpowering oak. Serve a red too warm and the heady boozy qualities will be overpowering.”
As for the wine experts, while they may have honed their skills with sometimes thousands of hours of study into all things wine, they still have the same brain as the rest of us. Wine expert and journalist Katie Kelly Bell, was traveling with a fellow group of wine connoisseurs. While at Waters Vineyards in Washington State, the owner poured everyone two glasses of white wine and asked them to identify what types they were.
Bell sums up: "We swirled, we sniffed, and we wrinkled our brows in contemplation, some of us nodding with assurance. I took notes, finding the first white to be more floral and elegant than the second. Drawing on my years and years (there have been too many) of tasting, studying and observation, I swiftly concluded that the first wine was an unoaked Chardonnay and the second was a Sauvignon Blanc, easy peasy. Much to my mortification I was dead wrong, as was everyone else in the room. The proprietor chuckled and informed his room that the wines were actually the same wine; one was just warmer than the other. He wasn’t intentionally shaming us (not one person got it right); he was pointedly demonstrating the power of just one element in the wine tasting experience: temperature."
A test conducted at the suggestion of winery owner Robert Hodgson at the California State Fair wine competition. Panels of 65 to 70 expert judges were given a huge variety of wines to rank as per usual, but what they were not told was that they were actually given each of the wines three times and from the same exact bottle.
After running this same experiment four consecutive years, what Hodgson found was that, to quote the paper published on the experiment, only “about 10 percent of the judges were able to replicate their score within a single medal group.” In fact, he even found about 10% of the judges were so far off that they switched a Bronze rating to a Gold for the exact same wine from the exact same bottle.
In another experiment, Brochet also gave a similar panel a glass of white wine and a glass of red wine and gave them a list of common words used to describe white and red wines and told them to assign them appropriately to the two wines in front of them. It turns out the red wine was actually the same as the white wine except dyed red, and only a small percentage of the testers were able to accurately identify that both wines tasted the same in the descriptive words they chose to identify each wine. Not all of the taste testers got it wrong.
Bottom Line - Wine tasting is subjective and what about a given type appeals to you is all that matters. If knowing you paid $200 for that glass enhances your experience, great. For others buying several bottles of Two-Buck Chuck so they can enjoy many glasses with friends may make that one all the more enjoyable. The only thing that matters with regard to a wine is whether or not you like it.
Library of Congress Photos
It has a website showing free downloadable photos
of 11, 710 roadside buildings and statues around the US, from
classic diners to Paul Bunyan, to hot dogs, and more. They are
true nostalgia. I found a few that I have seen in my travels.
Fun diversion. LINK
Sep 13, 2019
Happy Friday
A smile is the
window to your soul.
I always open the blinds to let the light shine in,
especially on a Happy Friday!
Burger Sandwich
A burger is not
called a sandwich because it is not sandwich. A sandwich is made by putting a
filling between two slices of cut bread. Sandwiches can be hot or cold.
Only bread slices can make a sandwich, anything
placed in a bun, roll, sub, cob, or whatever not a sandwich. A patty melt is a
sandwich that has a burger between two slices of, usually Rye bread.Palindrome Dates
This is the last full
week of palindrome dates in this century. However, there are still plenty of
single palindrome days to celebrate. If you are willing to add a zero to the
beginning of the date, you can look forward to February 11, 2020 (02-11-20) and
February 22, 2020 (02-22-20).
9-13-19 (91319)
9-14-19 (91419)
9-15-19 (91519)
9-16-19 (91619)
9-17-19 (91719)
9-18-19 (91819)
9-19-19 (91919)
A palindrome is a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backward as forward.
9-13-19 (91319)
9-14-19 (91419)
9-15-19 (91519)
9-16-19 (91619)
9-17-19 (91719)
9-18-19 (91819)
9-19-19 (91919)
A palindrome is a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backward as forward.
Steering Controls Trivia
In dual-control
airplanes, the captain always sits on the left side of the plane. In
helicopters, the captain sits on the right side.
Many early American motorized vehicles placed the
steering wheel on the right hand side of the car, even though America used the
keep-right driving rule. This practice was ended largely due to Henry
Ford. He preferred the left side steering wheel. Ford cars adopted the
left hand side steering wheel and, due to their popularity squashed right hand
steering wheel cars in America.Typing Emojis Tip
If you are a Windows
user, there is a quick keyboard shortcut to add emojis to whatever you are
typing. Hold down the Windows-key and tap the period (.) key. A new box
will pop up from which you can select an emoji. Tap on one to add it to your
document, email, etc. You can scroll down for more to use. The bottom row
allows you to change categories, such as objects, people, food, etc.
After you open the emoji box with Windows-key/Period,
you start typing and the box will search for a match.Overpaying for Fast Broadband
Recently, 53 reporters worked with Stanford
and another major University to develop custom software and high
end routers to monitor speed at the router level as opposed to
most speed tests that are done at the device level (such as your
TV or PC).
They found that even trying to stream video to more than 7 devices at the same time, most people were never able to use more than on average 18 Mbps. Startup times for Netflix and other streaming services were within .6 seconds regardless of if you had a 15 mbps connection or a 500mbps connection. Ironically one of the few ways you are able to fill your full bandwidth is running a speed test. The test sends a large file and tests how long it takes to transmit it.
One of the few times having a super fast connection is useful is if you are downloading really big files, like movies. Most often, we just watch movies and do not download them.
For one or two TVs, 25mbps up and down is good, including Netflix, Prime and any other service. For families with many devices, children playing online games and multiple TVs being used at the same time, 50mbps up and down is more than sufficient. For most people, any speeds past these provide no benefit and are a waste of money.
They found that even trying to stream video to more than 7 devices at the same time, most people were never able to use more than on average 18 Mbps. Startup times for Netflix and other streaming services were within .6 seconds regardless of if you had a 15 mbps connection or a 500mbps connection. Ironically one of the few ways you are able to fill your full bandwidth is running a speed test. The test sends a large file and tests how long it takes to transmit it.
One of the few times having a super fast connection is useful is if you are downloading really big files, like movies. Most often, we just watch movies and do not download them.
For one or two TVs, 25mbps up and down is good, including Netflix, Prime and any other service. For families with many devices, children playing online games and multiple TVs being used at the same time, 50mbps up and down is more than sufficient. For most people, any speeds past these provide no benefit and are a waste of money.
I and Me
Here
is a quick test for using I and me. Take the other person out of
the sentence to see if it still makes sense.
"Draw this picture of my husband and me." "Draw this picture of me." Me is correct.
"Hanging out with my girlfriend and I." "Hanging out with I." It does not make sense, so I is incorrect.
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"Draw this picture of my husband and me." "Draw this picture of me." Me is correct.
"Hanging out with my girlfriend and I." "Hanging out with I." It does not make sense, so I is incorrect.
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