Things I am interested in…

Beef – it’s what’s for dinner!

Today I found the website of the US Cattlemen’s Beef Board and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. How did I achieve this remarkable feat?!

The story began when I was listening to a podcast from the BBC – Digital Planet – while riding the inter hospital shuttle bus. One of the stories was about a classical music website, where one can listen to various types of classical music and decide what one likes. Once I arrived back at work I checked this website out, and eventually came across Aaron Copland. I have been interested in his work for years, but only recognise the most famous – Fanfare for the Common Man. Desirous of learning more, I did what I usually do in circumstances where I’m looking for more information about something quickly, and happen to be sitting in front of a computer – I went to Wikipedia…

General enquiry about Copland, led to specific investigation of one of his ballets (Rodeo, 1942). The most famous piece of music from Rodeo is the “Hoe-Down”. I wondered if I had ever heard this piece before (actually, I though I must have, but just didn’t know it was called Hoe-Down), so I scanned down the Wikipedia entry about this, and there it was!

“Hoe-Down”, the ballet’s final section, was prominently used by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association for television commercials in the US.

Instant connection…

There are a million strange and serendipitous web-surfing stories in the naked city… this has been one of them!

Further to the last post on free-to-air satellite digital television in NZ – I have just found a link that shows all the channels available so far:

freeviewshop.co.nz/channels

It looks like it is updated regularly.

In NZ the government has decided that our television transmission standard has to be changed from analogue to digital over the next few years.  This process has already started, and from the middle of last year a geostationary satellite (currently the Optus 4) has been beaming TVNZ signals down to earth, and all who can receive it.  This is called FreeView.

 The advantages of FreeView over other satellite broadcast systems (like Sky) are:

1. It’s FREE!  Once you have purchased and installed the satellite dish and the decoder there are no more bills… ever.
2. It’s government sponsored, so it is very unlikely to go out of business.
3. The number of channels is being expanded all the time – at the moment there are seven (TVNZ One, 2, The Maori Channel, Bloomberg, Deutsche World TV, CCTV-9 (Chinese), and TVNZ widescreen).  Next month TV3 and Prime are coming online, and by the end of the year there are expected to be about 18 channels available.
4. Did I mention – it’s FREE!

The previous owners of our house had Sky, so a satellite receiver dish and cabling were already in place.  Our friendly neighbourhood aerial guy installed a set-top box, and instantly we had the best reception I’ve experienced in years.  Our previous flat was in the reception shadow of a local mountain, and had shoddy television and cellphone reception.

 I must admit, I’m sold on digital satellite television, and even Jen, who is a bit of a sceptic about these sorts of things thinks that the ability to watch Antiques Roadshow in perfect reception is great.

And best of all… it’s FREE!

A Topfield PVR