Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart (born August 3, 1941) is a television and magazine personality known for her cooking, gardening, etiquette, and arts and crafts projects, and as a general lifestyle guide and homemaker. She is also a successful businesswoman, an American icon, and a convicted felon. Starting in 2002 her career was rocked by a scandal involving her sale of shares in a drug company days before its application for a new drug was denied. She was eventually convicted of lying to investigators and sentenced to prison in 2004. She was released on March 4, 2005. Her current projects include two new television series: Martha and The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.

Life before the scandal

Martha Stewart was born Martha Helen Kostyra on August 3, 1941 in Nutley, New Jersey. She was the first daughter of Eddie and Martha Kostyra. She was born to a large middle class family of Polish-American heritage, with five other brothers and sisters. Instilled with a strong work ethic promoted by her parents, Martha mastered traits that many would consider common household chores. These traits however proved to be the keystone of her success later in life. Martha's mother taught her how to cook and sew. Later, she learned the art of canning and preserving when she visited her grandparents' home in Buffalo, New York. As for Martha's father Eddie, he had a passion for gardening; he passed on all of his knowledge and expertise to Martha. Martha also excelled in school. Her passion for books and reading never hindered her from being active in extracurricular activities, such as the school newspaper and the Art Club. Finishing with straight A’s, she was awarded a partial scholarship to Barnard College in New York City. During her college years, Martha, having good looks adn charisma, decided to go to New York and try to get modeling jobs to help pay for her tuition. She was hired and appeared in several TV commercials and magazines. After a few years, Martha graduated from Barnard majoring in History and Architectural History. It was also at this time that she married Andy Stewart. After graduation, she continued a very successful modeling career, until in 1965, when her daughter, Alexis, was born. At this time, Martha began to hone and develop her business skills. In 1967, she became a stockbroker. She was very successful until she left the profession in 1973, when the recession hit the American economy and Wall Street. After leaving the career as a broker, she and her husband moved to Westport, Connecticut, where they decided to settle down and make a home for their family. They purchased and undertook a massive restoration of the 1805 farmhouse seen in the background of her television shows. In typical fashion, Martha enjoyed the hard work and the challenges this venture presented. During the project, Martha’s passion for restoring and decorating was apparent. Once completed, Martha decided to try her hand at catering, a business that she ran out of her home basement. While growing up, she and her family always enjoyed entertaining large groups of people, so she thought this might be an apporpriate business for her. Starting simple, she placed advertisements in local papers and TV stations. Her first official catering job was a wedding. From there, word spread of her skills and business grew rapidly. After a relatively brief period of time, Martha received a publishing deal to write a book on catering. 'Entertaining', co-written with Elizabeth Hawes, was a massive success. Soon thereafter she produced dozens of books, newspaper columns, and other pieces on homemaking. She eventually became the spokesperson for K-Mart, specifically for the home department, and made a fortune. Unfortunately, her success lead to the deterioration of her marriage. Martha and her husband Andy divorced in 1990. Ironically, the same day Andy filed for divorce, Martha’s successful book on weddings was released. A few years later, Martha débuted her own magazine and talk-show, “Martha Stewart Living,” a television series and a magazine on homemaking. This is her most successful and noteworthy venture to date. In 1997, after unbelievable success, Martha decided that she wanted full control of her various projects, so she created “Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.” Omnimedia did, and does, control everything from her magazines, to her TV shows, to her websites. Unfortunately, though, for Martha, things soon took a serious turn for the worse.

ImClone scandal

Federal indictments and trial

In 2002, Stewart was investigated for alleged insider trading for selling 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems on December 27, 2001 -- an allegation that has never been substantiated nor prosecuted in court. On December 28, the Food and Drug Administration announced it would not review ImClone's application for Erbitux, which the company touted as a promising cancer drug. ImClone's stock plunged over 70 percent in the month after the news came out. Stewart was a friend of ImClone founder Samuel Waksal (who dated Stewart after first dating her daughter Alexis), who has since pleaded guilty to six counts related to insider trading before the announcement. On June 6, 2002, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, which was already investigating dubious ImClone trading, announced that it was probing Stewart's stock sale. On June 25, 2002, she appeared on CBS' The Early Show, and when asked by Jane Clayson about the ImClone scandal during a cooking segment, she replied, "I just want to focus on my salad." On October 3, 2002, Stewart resigned from the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange. Through all the investigation and allegation, Stewart kept her public persona intact, focusing on her homemaking specialties and downplaying or ignoring the increasing clamor for answers about her role in the scandal. On June 4, 2003, a federal grand jury in Manhattan indicted Stewart and her former broker Peter Bacanovic on nine criminal counts from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). By selling when she did, the government alleged Stewart avoided losses of $45,673. The charges included securities fraud, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy. Stewart was not indicted on the original charge of insider trading, but only for the coverup that ensued. Stewart pleaded not guilty, saying she had a standing order with Bacanovic to sell her shares if ImClone stock fell below $60. Stewart resigned as CEO and chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia on the same day she was indicted, but remained on the company's board. The day after her indictment, Stewart took out a full-page advertisement in USA Today and launched a website with an open letter of defense "to my friends and loyal supporters." She said, "I want you to know that I am innocent — and that I will fight to clear my name... The government's attempt to criminalize these actions makes no sense to me... I am confident I will be exonerated of these baseless charges." The SEC later filed a related civil suit against Stewart with charges of insider trading. Stewart's trial was initially set for January 12, 2004, at the request of her lawyers who said they needed plenty of time to analyze the evidence. The trial eventually began on January 20 In New York City presided over by U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cederbaum. During the trial, Stewart maintained her innocence. On February 27, 2004, Judge Cederbaum threw out the charge of securities fraud which could have led to up to 10 years in prison and a million dollar fine. The judge called the charge "unfounded" and said that "no jury could feasibly find it to be accurate." On March 5, 2004, Stewart was found guilty by a jury of eight women and four men on all four remaining counts against her: conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and two counts of making false statements. [http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/05/news/companies/martha_verdict/index.htm] The maximum sentence for these convictions combined is 20 years in prison. The jury deliberated for three days following the five-week trial before reaching its verdict. Sentencing was set for June 17. Following Stewart's conviction, a message was posted on her website, reading, in part, "I am obviously distressed by the jury's verdict but I continue to take comfort in knowing that I have the confidence and enduring support of my family and friends. I will appeal the verdict and continue to fight to clear my name. I believe in the fairness of the judicial system and remain confident that I will ultimately prevail."

Fallout after conviction

On March 8, 2004, Viacom pulled Martha Stewart Living from its CBS and UPN affiliates, after having moved the show during Stewart's trial from prime daytime timeslots into less desirable early-morning slots (e.g., 2:05am in New York). [http://www.detnews.com/2004/entertainment/0403/09/f03-85522.htm] On March 15, Stewart resigned from the board of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. On May 18, MSO announced that the television show that had started the company, Martha Stewart Living, was going into hiatus, with no announced date of return. In an unrelated matter, Stewart faced more legal trouble in February 2004 as her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, was sued by Kmart for allegedly "double-counting" royalty payments and advertising spending. The companies signed a seven-year deal in 2001 to market Martha Stewart Everyday brand home decorating, garden products, and housewares through Kmart stores. Kmart filed for bankruptcy protection seven months later and has since closed 600 of its 2,100 stores. On April 26, 2004, Kmart withdrew its lawsuit, having reached an agreement with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to amend the terms of the June 2001 contract and to extend it through 2009. On May 21, 2004, Larry Stewart (no relation), a United States Secret Service lab director who testified for the government against Martha Stewart, was charged with two counts of perjury. Stock in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia jumped as much as 23 percent on the news. Larry Stewart was an expert witness about the ink on a broker's worksheet, testifying that the note about selling ImClone shares when it dropped below $60 was different from the rest of the ink on the document. The charges arose when Susan Fortunato, a USSS co-worker, complained that she had in fact done the analysis and that it had never been examined by Stewart. Although the jury at the perjury trial felt that Larry Stewart had taken unfair credit for the work done, it did not amount to perjury and he was found not guilty on October 5, 2004. The jury had trouble believing Fortunato, feeling that she had an axe to grind with Stewart.

Sentencing

On July 8, a motion for a new trial was denied and sentencing was set for July 16. Martha Stewart and Peter Bacanovic were each sentenced to five months in prison, five months of home confinement, and two years probation for lying about a stock sale, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. Stewart was ordered to pay a $30,000 fine, while Bacanovic was fined $4,000. The judge stayed the sentence while they prepared their appeals. [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5444565] On September 15, 2004, accompanied by her lawyers and members of the board of directors of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Stewart held a press conference to announce her decision to begin serving her sentence as soon as possible while vowing to continue ahead with her appeal. On September 21, she was ordered by US District Judge Miriam Cedarbaum to surrender by October 8 to begin her sentence. On September 29, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced that Stewart would serve her sentence at the federal prison camp in Alderson, West Virginia, denying her request to serve it at the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. She reported to Alderson Federal Prison Camp early in the morning on October 8. Alderson is a minimum security prison, the lowest level of security in the Bureau of Prisons. There are no fences, and inmates are generally free to walk around the compound unescorted. Stewart, who said her prison nickname was "M. Diddy" [http://www.salon.com/ent/wire/2005/07/05/martha_stewart/index.html], reportedly got along quite well with her fellow inmates and kept herself busy with assigned cleaning tasks. She was released on March 4, 2005 at 12:30 AM.

Release and comeback

After being released from Alderson, Stewart began to serve her home confinement at her estate in Bedford, New York. During the confinement she was permitted to leave her property for up to 48 hours a week to conduct business, but was required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet to monitor her location at all times. On August 3 (her 64th birthday), Stewart's lawyers announced that her home confinement was extended for three weeks, until August 31, reportedly because she violated terms of the confinement. [http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/03/news/newsmakers/scandal_martha_stewart.reut/ [CNN]] In October 2005, Stewart was denied entry to Canada under their "no-convicts rule" due to her status as a convicted felon. She had planned to attend a Thanksgiving festival in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley. Within two days of the story's breaking, Stewart was granted her work visa to enter Canada and attend the festivities. The movie Martha Behind Bars was a movie that was based on her time in prison. Many people predict a comeback for Stewart while others believe she will have difficulty trying to reclaim her former status as a media mogul. Martha Behind Bars Stewart is once again involved in her Martha Stewart Living family of magazines. Offerings of her products at Kmart have been expanded and it is likely that Stewart's merchandise will also be available at Sears stores following that company's merger with Kmart. However, the most heavily promoted aspect of her attempt at a comeback is television. She is again the host of a daytime show simply called Martha and appears in a new version of The Apprentice (called The Apprentice: Martha Stewart). Both shows premiered in September 2005, and both are produced by famed producer Mark Burnett. Her prime time Apprentice spin-off has been sluggish in the ratings, which some attribute to popular dislike for the opportunistic tone of the network's massive promotional campaign and to NBC's slotting the show up against the hit drama Lost. The Apprentice: Martha Stewart was not renewed for a second season. In October 2005, Stewart released a new book called The Martha Rules that tells 10 secrets to start and manage a new business. In addition to television, Stewart has launched a 24-hour satellite radio network with Sirius.

Trivia


- She has two dogs a chow chow named Paw paw and a French bulldog named Francesca. She has two cats, one named Sirius (named after the radio network) and the other is not named. She is allowing people to vote for the other cat's name on her website.

References

Biographies


- [http://lala.essortment.com/biographyonmar_rino.htm Martha Stewart biography] by essortment.com

Interviews


- [http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ste0int-1 Exclusive interview with online video from Achievement.org]

News stories


- [http://www.newsday.com/business/printedition/ny-biz-sec-martha,0,6378126.story?coll=ny-business-print Text of SEC Complaint Against Stewart, Broker]
- [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12725-2003Jun4.html Grand Jury Indicts Martha Stewart] — Washington Post, June 4, 2003
- [http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/8117703.htm Martha Stewart Guilty of All Counts] — Associated Press, March 5, 2004
- BBC News Online - [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3714004.stm Commentary of her jailing]
- BBC News Online - [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4119501.stm Martha Stewart lambastes jail food]
- Sellers, Patricia (Nov. 14, 2005). "Remodeling Martha". Fortune, p. 49–62.

External links


- [http://www.marthastewart.com/ MarthaStewart.com]
- [http://www.twoop.com/people/archives/2005/10/martha_stewart.html Martha Stewart Timeline]
- [http://www.furisdead.com/feat-martha.asp Stewart joins PETA's anti-fur campaign]
- [http://www.newsmeat.com/ceo_political_donations/Martha_Stewart.php Martha Stewart's political donations]
- [http://www.marthascomeback.com/ Martha Stewart Comeback 2005]
- [http://www.savemartha.com/ SaveMartha.com] — Fan site run by supporters of Martha Stewart
- [http://www.LanguageMonitor.com "Camp Cupcake' Makes LanguageMonitor's Top Television Words of the Year List]
- [http://www.theapprenticerules.com/biographies/profile-martha-stewart.html The Apprentice Rules: Martha Stewart] Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, Martha ja:マーサ・スチュワート

August 3

August 3 is the 215th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (216th in leap years), with 150 days remaining.

Events


- 8 - Roman general Tiberius defeats Dalmatians on the river Bathinus.
- 435 - Deposed Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, considered the originator of the Christological "heresy" (at the time) known as Nestorianism, was exiled by Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt.
- 1492 - Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain.
- 1492 - The Jews of Spain are expelled by the Catholic Monarchs.
- 1635 - The third of the Tokugawa shoguns, Iemitsu, establishes the system of alternate attendance by which the feudal daimyō are required to spend one year at Edo Castle in Tokyo and one year back home at their feudal manor, while their families remained in Tokyo as virtual political hostages. (Traditional Japanese Date: June 21, 1635).
- 1645 - The Second Battle of Nördlingen is fought between the forces of France and the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1678 - Robert LaSalle builds the Griffon, the first known ship built in America.
- 1783 - Mount Asama erupts in Japan, killing 35,000 people.
- 1860 - The Second Maori War begins in New Zealand.
- 1900 - Firestone Tire & Rubber Company founded.
- 1914 - First World War: Germany declares war against France.
- 1916 - First World War: The Battle of Romani is fought between forces of the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire.
- 1923 - Calvin Coolidge is inaugurated as the 30th President of the United States.
- 1940 - Second World War: Italy invades British Somaliland.
- 1946 - National Basketball Association is founded in the United States.
- 1948 - Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.
- 1958 - The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus travels beneath the Arctic ice cap.
- 1960 - Niger gains independence from France.
- 1972 - U.S. Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
- 1973 - R&B singer Stevie Wonder releases the classic album Innervisions.
- 1975 - A privately chartered Boeing 707 impacts the mountainside near Agadir, Morocco killing 188.
- 1977 - United States Senate Hearing on MKULTRA.
- 1981 - In the United States, Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization walks off the job. All 13,000 members will eventually be fired by President Ronald Reagan.
  - Senegalese opposition parties, under the leadership of Mamadou Dia, launches the Antiimperialist Action Front-Suxxali Reew Mi.
- 1990 - The highest temperature recorded in the UK until 10 August, 2003 - 37.1°C (98.8°F) at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire
- 1997 - Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre in Algeria; 40-76 villagers killed.
- 2005 - President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya of Mauritania is overthrown in a military coup while attending the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia.

Births


- 1509 - Étienne Dolet, French scholar and printer (d. 1546)
- 1604 - John Eliot, English missionary (d. 1690)
- 1692 - John Henley, English clergyman (d. 1759)
- 1770 - King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia (d. 1840)
- 1801 - Joseph Paxton, English gardener and architect (d. 1865)
- 1808 - Hamilton Fish, American politician (d. 1893)
- 1811 - Elisha Graves Otis, American inventor (d. 1861)
- 1817 - Archduke Albert, Austrian general (d. 1895)
- 1832 - Ivan Zajc, Croatian composer (d. 1914)
- 1856 - Alfred Deakin, second Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1919)
- 1860 - W.K. Dickson, Scottish inventor (d. 1935)
- 1867 - Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1947)
- 1872 - King Haakon VII of Norway (d. 1957)
- 1887 - Rupert Brooke, English poet (d. 1915)
- 1894 - Harry Heilmann, baseball player (d. 1951)
- 1900 - Ernie Pyle, American war correspondent (d. 1945)
- 1900 - John T. Scopes, American defendant (d. 1970)
- 1901 - Stefan Wyszynski, Polish Catholic prelate (d. 1981)
- 1904 - Clifford D. Simak, American author (d. 1988)
- 1905 - Dolores del Rio, Mexican-born actress (d. 1983)
- 1905 - Cardinal Franz König, Austrian Catholic archbishop (d. 2004)
- 1916 - José Manuel Moreno, Argentine footballer (d. 1978)
- 1918 - Sidney Gottlieb, American Central Intelligence Agency official (d. 1999)
- 1920 - P.D. James, English novelist
- 1923 - Shenouda III of Alexandria, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church
- 1924 - Leon Uris, American novelist (d. 2003)
- 1926 - Tony Bennett, American singer
- 1926 - Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (d. 2004)
- 1935 - Georgi Shonin, cosmonaut (d. 1997)
- 1936 - Edward Petherbridge, English actor
- 1937 - Steven Berkoff, British actor
- 1937 - Diane Wakoski, American poet
- 1938 - Terry Wogan, Irish radio and television presenter
- 1940 - Lance Alworth, American football player
- 1940 - Martin Sheen, American actor
- 1941 - Beverly Lee, American singer (Shirelles)
- 1941 - Martha Stewart, American publisher and media personality
- 1946 - Jack Straw, British politician
- 1948 - Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Prime Minister of France
- 1950 - John Landis, American film director
- 1951 - Marcel Dionne, Canadian hockey player
- 1951 - Jay North, American actor
- 1952 - Osvaldo Ardiles, Argentine footballer and coach
- 1959 - Martin Atkins, English drummer
- 1959 - Koichi Tanaka, Japanese scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- 1963 - James Hetfield, American singer and guitarist (Metallica)
- 1977 - Tom Brady, American football player
- 1979 - Evangeline Lilly, Canadian actress and fashion model

Deaths


- 1181 - Pope Alexander III
- 1460 - King James II of Scotland (b. 1430)
- 1546 - Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Italian architect (b. 1484)
- 1546 - Étienne Dolet, French scholar and printer (b. 1509)
- 1604 - Bernardino de Mendoza, Spanish military commander
- 1621 - Guillaume du Vair, French writer (b. 1556)
- 1667 - Francesco Borromini, Swiss sculptor and architect (b. 1599)
- 1712 - Joshua Barnes, English scholar (b. 1654)
- 1720 - Anthonie Heinsius, Dutch statesman (b. 1641)
- 1721 - Grinling Gibbons, Dutch-born woodcarver (b. 1648)
- 1761 - Johann Matthias Gesner, German classical scholar (b. 1691)
- 1773 - Stanisław Konarski, Polish writer (b. 1700)
- 1780 - Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, French philosopher (b. 1715)
- 1792 - Richard Arkwright, English industrialist and inventor (b. 1732)
- 1797 - Jeffrey Amherst, British military commander (b. 1717)
- 1805 - Christopher Anstey, English writer (b. 1724)
- 1857 - Eugène Sue, French novelist (b. 1804)
- 1867 - Philipp August Böckh, German scholar and antiquarian (b. 1785)
- 1877 - William Butler Ogden, first Mayor of Chicago (b.1805)
- 1879 - Joseph Severn, English painter (b. 1793)
- 1916 - Sir Roger Casement, Irish rebel (hanged) (b. 1864)
- 1924 - Joseph Conrad, Polish-born writer (b. 1857)
- 1929 - Emil Berliner, German-born telephone and recording pioneer (b. 1851)
- 1929 - Thorstein Veblen, American economist (b. 1857)
- 1942 - Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1872)
- 1954 - Colette, French writer (b. 1873)
- 1964 - Flannery O'Connor, American writer (b. 1925)
- 1966 - Lenny Bruce, American comedian (b. 1925)
- 1973 - Richard Marshall, U.S. Army general (b. 1895)
- 1977 - Alfred Lunt, American actor (b. 1892)
- 1977 - Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus (b. 1913)
- 1979 - Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
- 1983 - Carolyn Jones, American actress (b. 1929)
- 1995 - Ida Lupino, English actress and director (b. 1914)
- 1995 - Edward Whittemore, American writer (b. 1933)
- 1998 - Alfred Schnittke, Russian composer (b. 1934)
- 2001 - Christopher Hewett, British actor (b. 1922)
- 2002 - Carmen Silvera, British actress (b. 1922)
- 2003 - Roger Voudouris, American singer and songwriter (b. 1954)
- 2004 - Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (b. 1908)
- 2005 - Françoise d'Eaubonne, French feminist (b. 1920)
- 2005 - Steven Vincent, American journalist (b. 1955)

Holidays and observances


- Equatorial Guinea - Armed Forces Day
- Niger - Independence Day

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/3 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050803.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- August 2 - August 4 - July 3 - September 3 -- listing of all days ko:8월 3일 ms:3 Ogos ja:8月3日 simple:August 3 th:3 สิงหาคม

Television

: Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. The term has come to refer to all the aspects of television programming and transmission as well. programming ]]

History

The development of television technology can be partitioned along two lines: those developments that depended upon both mechanical and electronic principles, and those which are purely electronic. From the latter descended all modern televisions, but these would not have been possible without discoveries and insights from the mechanical systems. The word television is a hybrid word, created from both Greek and Latin. Tele- is Greek for "far", while -vision is from the Latin visio, meaning "vision" or "sight". It is often abbreviated as TV or the telly.

Electromechanical television

The German student Paul Gottlieb Nipkow proposed and patented the first electromechanical television system in 1885. Nipkow's spinning disk design is credited with being the first television image rasterizer. However, it wasn't until 1907 that developments in amplification tube technology made the design practical. Meanwhile, Constantin Perskyi had coined the word television in a paper read to the International Electricity Congress at the International World Fair in Paris on August 25, 1900. Perskeyi's paper reviewed the existing electromechanical technologies, mentioning the work of Nipkow and others. 1900 In 1911, Boris Rosing and his student Vladimir Kosma Zworykin achieved a television system that used a mechanical mirror-drum scanner to transmit, in Zworykin's words, "very crude images" over wires to the electronic Braun tube (cathode ray tube) in the receiver. Moving images were not possible because, in the scanner, "the sensitivity was not enough and the selenium cell was very laggy." Zworykin later went to work for RCA to build a purely electronic television, the design of which was eventually found to violate patents by Philo Taylor Farnsworth. On March 25, 1925, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave a demonstration of televised silhouette images at Selfridge's Department Store in London. But if television is defined as the transmission of live, moving, half-tone (grayscale) images, and not silhouette or still images, Baird achieved this privately on October 2, 1925, and gave the world's first public demonstration of a working television system to members of the Royal Institution and a newspaper reporter on January 26, 1926 at his laboratory in London. Unlike later electronic systems with several hundred lines of resolution, Baird's vertically scanned image, using a scanning disc embedded with a double spiral of lenses, had only 30 lines, just enough to reproduce a recognizable human face. In 1928 Baird's company (Baird Television Development Company / Cinema Television) broadcast the first transatlantic television signal, between London and New York, and the first shore to ship transmission. He also demonstrated an electromechanical colour, infrared (dubbed "Noctovision"), and stereoscopic television, using additional lenses, disks and filters. In parallel he developed a video disk recording system dubbed "Phonovision"; a number of the Phonovision[http://www.tvdawn.com/tvimage.htm] recordings, dating back to 1927, still exist. In 1929 he became involved in the first experimental electromechanical television service in Germany. In 1931 he made the first live transmission, of the Epsom Derby. In 1932 he demonstrated ultra-short wave television. Baird's electromechanical system reached a peak of 240 lines of resolution on BBC television broadcasts in 1936, before being discontinued in favor of a 405 line all-electronic system. In the U.S., Charles Francis Jenkins was able to demonstrate on June 13, 1925, the transmission of the silhouette image of a toy windmill in motion from a naval radio station to his laboratory in Washington, using a lensed disc scanner with 48 lines per picture, 16 pictures per second. AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories transmitted half-tone images of transparencies in May 1925. But Bell Labs gave the most dramatic demonstration of television yet on April 7, 1927, when it field tested reflected-light television systems using small-scale (2 by 2.5 inches) and large-scale (24 by 30 inches) viewing screens over a wire link from Washington to New York City, and over-the-air broadcast from Whippany, New Jersey. The subjects, which included Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, were illuminated by a flying spot beam and scanned by a 50-aperture disc at 16 pictures per second.

Electronic television

Herbert Hoover Although the discoveries of Nipkow, Rosing, Baird and others were extraordinary, little of their technology is used in modern television. By 1934, all electromechanical television systems were outmoded, although electromechanical broadcasts continued on some stations until 1939. A.A. Campbell-Swinton wrote a letter to Nature on the 18 June 1908 describing his concept of electronic television using the cathode ray tube, which had been invented in 1897 by the German physicist and Nobel prize winner Karl Ferdinand Braun. He proposed using an electron beam in both the camera and the receiver, which could be steered electronically to produce moving pictures. He lectured on the subject in 1911 and displayed circuit diagrams, but no one, including Swinton, knew how to realize the design. Although his system was never built, the cathode ray tube did come to be used to display images in almost all television sets and computer monitors until the invention of the LCD panel. A fully electronic system was first achieved by Philo Taylor Farnsworth on September 7, 1927, although the low-resolution, light-insensitive camera tube limited the image to a plate of glass painted black, with a straight line etched across it, rotated in front of a bright carbon arc lamp. Seven years later, on August 25, 1934, at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Farnsworth gave the world's first public demonstration of a working, all-electronic television system, with 220 lines per picture, 30 pictures per second. Over a three week period, vaudeville acts, athletic and sports demonstrations, politicians, and hundreds of ordinary citizens were captured on Farnsworth's cameras in the open air and simultaneously shown on his receiving sets. Farnsworth, a Mormon farm boy from Rigby, Idaho, first envisioned his system at age 14. He discussed the idea with his high school chemistry teacher, who could think of no reason why it would not work (Farnsworth would later credit this teacher, Justin Tolman, as providing key insights into his invention). He continued to pursue the idea at Brigham Young Academy (now Brigham Young University). At age 21, he demonstrated a working system at his own laboratory in San Francisco. His breakthrough freed television from reliance on spinning discs and other mechanical parts. All modern picture tube televisions descend directly from his design. Vladimir Kosma Zworykin is also sometimes cited as the father of electronic television because of his invention of the iconoscope in 1923 and his invention of the kinescope in 1929. His design was one of the first to demonstrate a television system with all the features of modern picture tubes. His previous work with Rosing on electromechanical television gave him key insights into how to produce such a system, but his (and RCA's) claim to being its original inventor was largely invalidated by three facts: a) Zworykin's 1923 patent presented an incomplete design, incapable of working in its given form (it was not until 1933 that Zworykin achieved a working implementation), b) the 1923 patent application was not granted until 1938, and not until it had been seriously revised, and c) courts eventually found that RCA was in violation of the television design patented by Philo Taylor Farnsworth, whose lab Zworykin had visited while working on his designs for RCA. The controversy over whether it was first Farnsworth or Zworykin who invented modern television is still hotly debated today. Some of this debate stems from the fact that while Farnsworth appears to have gotten there first as an inventor, RCA brought television sets to market before Farnsworth, and it was RCA employees who first wrote the history of television. Even though Farnsworth eventually won the legal battle over this issue, he was never able to fully capitalize financially on his invention.

Color television

Most television researchers appreciated the value of color image transmission, with an early patent application in Russia in 1889 for a mechanically-scanned color system showing how early the importance of color was realized. John Logie Baird demonstrated the world's first color transmission on July 3, 1928, using scanning discs at the transmitting and receiving ends with three spirals of apertures, each spiral with filters of a different primary color; and three light sources at the receiving end, with a commutator to alternate their illumination. Color television in the United States had a protracted history due to conflicting technical systems vying for approval by the Federal Communications Commission for commercial use. Mechanically scanned color television was demonstrated by Bell Laboratories in June 1929 using three complete systems of photoelectric cells, amplifiers, glow-tubes, and color filters, with a series of mirrors to superimpose the red, green, and blue images into one full color image. In the electronically scanned era, the first color television demonstration was on February 5, 1940, when RCA privately showed to members of the FCC at the RCA plant in Camden, New Jersey, a television receiver producing images in color by a field sequential color system. CBS began non-broadcast color experiments using film as early as August 28, 1940, and live cameras by November 12. The CBS "field sequential" color system was partly mechanical, with a disc made of red, blue, and green filters spinning inside the television camera at 1,200 rpm, and a similar disc spinning in synchronization in front of the cathode ray tube inside the receiver set. RCA's later "dot sequential" color system had no moving parts, using a series of dichroic mirrors to separate and direct red, green, and blue light from the subject through three separate lenses into three scanning tubes, and electronic switching that allowed the tubes to send their signals in rotation, dot by dot. These signals were sorted by a second switching device in the receiver set and sent to red, green, and blue picture tubes, and combined by a second set of dichroic mirrors into a full color image. The first field test (i.e., broadcast) of color television was by NBC (owned by RCA) on February 20, 1941. CBS began daily color field tests on June 1, 1941. These color systems were not compatible with existing black and white television sets, and as no color television sets were available to the public at this time, viewership of the color field tests was limited to RCA and CBS engineers and the invited press. The War Production Board halted the manufacture of television and radio equipment for civilian use from April 1, 1942 to October 1, 1945, limiting any opportunity to introduce color television to the general public. The post-war development of color television was dominated by three systems competing for approval by the FCC as the U.S. color broadcasting standard: CBS's field sequential system, which was incompatible with existing black and white sets without an adaptor; RCA's dot sequential system, which in 1949 became compatible with existing black and white sets; and CTI's system (also incompatible with existing black and white sets), which used three camera lenses, behind which were color filters that produced red, green, and blue images side by side on a single scanning tube, and a receiver set that used lenses in front of the picture tube (which had sectors treated with different phosphorescent compounds to glow in red, green, or blue) to project these three side by side images into one combined picture on the viewing screen. After a series of hearings beginning in September 1949, the FCC found the RCA and CTI systems fraught with technical problems, inaccurate color reproduction, and expensive equipment, and so formally approved the CBS system as the U.S. color broadcasting standard on October 11 1950. An unsuccessful lawsuit by RCA delayed the world's first network color broadcast until June 25 1951, when a musical variety special titled simply Premiere was shown over a network of five east coast CBS affiliates. Viewership was again extremely limited: the program could not be seen on black and white sets, and Variety estimated that only thirty prototype color receivers were available in the New York area. Regular color broadcasts began that same week with the daytime series The World Is Yours and Modern Homemakers. While the CBS color broadcasting schedule gradually expanded to twelve hours per week (but never into prime time), and the color network expanded to eleven affiliates as far west as Chicago, its commercial success was doomed by the lack of color receivers necessary to watch the programs, the refusal of television manufacturers to create adaptor mechanisms for their existing black and white sets, and the unwillingness of advertisers to sponsor broadcasts seen by almost no one. In desperation, CBS bought a television manufacturer, and on September 20, 1951, production began on the first and only CBS color television model. But it was too little, too late. Only 200 sets had been shipped, and only 100 sold, when CBS pulled the plug on its color television system on October 20, 1951, and bought back all the CBS color sets it could to prevent law suits by disappointed customers. Starting before CBS color even got on the air, the U.S. television industry, represented by the National Television System Committee, worked in 1950-1953 to develop a color system that was compatible with existing black and white sets and would pass FCC quality standards, with RCA developing the hardware elements. When CBS testified before Congress in March 1953 that it had no further plans for its own color system, the path was open for the NTSC to submit its petition for FCC approval in July 1953, which was granted in December. The first publicly announced experimental TV broadcast of a program using the NTSC-RCA "compatible color" system was an episode of NBC's Kukla, Fran and Ollie on August 30, 1953. NBC made the first coast-to-coast color broadcast when it covered the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1 1954, with public demonstrations given across the United States on prototype color receivers. A few days later Admiral brought out the first commercially made color television set using the RCA standards, followed in March by RCA's own model. Television's first prime time network color series was The Marriage, a situation comedy broadcast live by NBC in the summer of 1954. NBC's anthology series Ford Theatre became the first color filmed series that October. NBC was naturally at the forefront of color programming because its parent company RCA manufactured the most successful line of color sets in the 1950s. CBS and ABC, which were not affiliated with set manufacturers, and were not eager to promote their competitor's product, dragged their feet into color, with ABC delaying its first color series (The Flintstones and The Jetsons) until 1962. The Du Mont network, although it did have a television-manufacturing parent company, was in financial decline by 1954 and was dissolved two years later. Thus the relatively small amount of network color programming, combined with the high cost of color television sets, meant that as late as 1964 only 3.1 percent of television households in the U.S. had a color set. NBC provided the catalyst for rapid color expansion by announcing that its prime time schedule for fall 1965 would be almost entirely in color (the exception being I Dream of Jeannie). All three broadcast networks were airing full color prime time schedules by the 1966–67 broadcast season. But the number of color television sets sold in the U.S. did not exceed black and white sales until 1972, which was also the first year that more than fifty percent of television households in the U.S. had a color set. In Mexico, Guillermo González Camarena (1917–1965), invented the early color television transmission system. He received patents for color television systems in 1940 (U.S. Patent 1942 (2296019), 1960 and 1962. The 1942 patent was for a mechanically scanned color filter adapter for an existing monochrome electronic transmission system. In August 31, 1946 he sent his first color transmission from his lab in the offices of The Mexican League of Radio Experiments in Lucerna St. #1, in Mexico City. The video signal was transmitted at a frequency of 115 MHz. and the audio in the 40 metre band. European color television was developed somewhat later and was hindered by a continuing division on technical standards. Having decided to adopt a higher-definition 625-line system for monochrome transmissions, with a lower frame rate but with a higher overall bandwidth, Europeans could not directly adopt the U.S. color standard, which was widely perceived as wanting anyway, because of its tint control problems. There was also less urgency, since there were fewer commercial motivations, European television broadcasters being predominantly state-owned at the time. As a consequence, although work on various color encoding systems started already in the 1950s, with the first SECAM patent being registered in 1956, many years had passed till the first broadcasts actually started in 1967. Unsatisfied with the performance of NTSC and of initial SECAM implementations, the Germans unveiled PAL (phase alternating line) in 1963, staying closer to NTSC but borrowing some ideas from SECAM. The French continued with SECAM, notably involving Russians in the development. The first regular colour broadcasts in Europe were by BBC2 beginning on July 1, 1967, using PAL. Germans did their first broadcast in September (PAL), while the French in October (SECAM). PAL was eventually adopted by West Germany, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, much of Africa, Asia and South America, and most Western European countries except France. In addition to France and Luxembourg, SECAM was adopted by Soviet Union, much of Eastern Europe, much of Africa and of the Middle East. Both systems broadcast on UHF frequencies, the VHF being used for legacy black and white, 405 lines in UK or 819 lines in France, till the beginning of the eighties. It should be noted that some British television programmes, particularly those made by or for ITC Entertainment, were made in colour before the introduction of colour television to the UK, for the purpose of sales to US networks. The first British show to be made in colour was the drama series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-57), which was initially made in black and white but later shot in colour for sale to the NBC network in the United States. In Japan, NHK introduced color television in the year 1960.

Broadcast television

NHK The first regularly scheduled television service in the United States began on July 2, 1928. The Federal Radio Commission authorized C.F. Jenkins to broadcast from experimental station W3XK in a suburb of Washington, D.C. But for at least the first eighteen months, only silhouette images from motion picture film were broadcast due to the narrow 10kHz bandwidth allotted by the FRC. General Electric's experimental station in Schenectady, New York, on the air sporadically since January 13, 1928, was able to broadcast reflected-light, 48-line images via shortwave as far as Los Angeles, and by September was making four television broadcasts weekly. CBS's New York City station W2XAB began broadcasting the first regular seven days a week television schedule in the United States on July 21, 1931, with a 60-line electromechanical system. The first broadcast included Mayor Jimmy Walker, the Boswell Sisters, Kate Smith, and George Gershwin. The service ended in February 1933. By 1935, electromechanical television broadcasting had ceased in the United States except for a handful of stations run by public universities that continued to 1939. The Federal Communications Commission saw television in the continual flux of development with no consistent technical standards, hence all such stations in the U.S. were granted only experimental and not commercial licenses, hampering television's economic development. Just as importantly, Philo Farnsworth's 1934 demonstration of an all-electronic system pointed the direction of television's future. On June 15, 1936, Don Lee Broadcasting began a month-long demonstration of all-electronic television in Los Angeles on W6XAO (later KTSL) with a 300-line image from motion picture film. RCA demonstrated in New York City a 343-line electronic television broadcast, with live and film segments, to its licensees on July 7, 1936, and made its first public demonstration to the press on November 6. By April 1939, regularly scheduled 441-line electronic television broadcasts were available in New York City and Los Angeles, and by November on General Electric's station in Schenectady. With the adoption of NTSC television engineering standards in 1941, the FCC saw television ready for commercial licensing, with the first such licenses issued to NBC and CBS owned stations in New York on July 1, 1941, followed by Philco's station in Philadelphia. Electromechanical broadcasts began in Germany in 1929, but were without sound until 1934. Network electronic service started on March 22, 1935, on 180 lines using only telecine transmission of film or an intermediate film system. Live transmissions began on January 15, 1936. The Berlin Summer Olympic Games were televised, using both direct television and intermediate film cameras, to 28 public television rooms in Berlin and Hamburg in August 1936. The Germans had a 441-line system on the air in February 1937, and during World War II brought it to France, where they broadcast off the Eiffel Tower. The first British television broadcast was made by Baird Television's electromechanical system over the BBC radio transmitter in September 1929. Baird provided a limited amount of programming five days a week by 1930. On August 22, 1932, BBC launched its own regular service using Baird's 30-line electromechanical system, continuing until September 11, 1935. On November 2, 1936 the BBC began broadcasting a dual-system service, alternating on a weekly basis between Marconi-EMI's 405-line standard and Baird's improved 240-line standard, from Alexandra Palace in London, making the BBC the world's first regular high-definition television service. The corporation decided that Marconi-EMI's electronic picture gave the superior picture, and the Baird system was dropped in February 1937. The outbreak of the Second World War caused the BBC service to be suspended on September 1, 1939, resuming from Alexandra Palace on June 7, 1946. The Soviet Union began offering 30-line electromechanical test broadcasts in Moscow on October 31, 1931, and a commercially manufactured television set in 1932. The first experimental transmissions of electronic television took place in Moscow on March 9, 1937, using equipment manufactured and installed by RCA. Regular broadcasting began on December 31, 1938. The first regular television transmissions in Canada began in 1952 when the CBC put two stations on the air, one in Montreal, Quebec on September 6, and another in Toronto, Ontario two days later. two days later The first live transcontinental television broadcast took place in San Francisco, California from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference on September 4, 1951. In 1958, the CBC completed the longest television network in the world, from Sydney, Nova Scotia to Victoria, British Columbia. Reportedly, the first continuous live broadcast of a breaking news story in the world was conducted by the CBC during the Springhill Mining Disaster which began on October 23 of that year. Programming is broadcast on television stations (sometimes called channels). At first, terrestrial broadcasting was the only way television could be distributed. Because bandwidth was limited, government regulation was normal. In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission allowed stations to broadcast advertisements, but insisted on public service programming commitments as a requirement for a license. By contrast, the United Kingdom chose a different route, imposing a television licence fee on owners of television reception equipment, to fund the BBC, which had public service as part of its Royal Charter. Development of cable and satellite means of distribution in the 1970s pushed businessmen to target channels towards a certain audience, and enabled the rise of subscription-based television channels, such as HBO and Sky. Practically every country in the world now has developed at least one television channel. Television has grown up all over the world, enabling every country to share aspects of their culture and society with others. By the late 1980s, 98% of all homes in the U.S. had at least one TV set. On average, Americans watch four hours of television per day. An estimated two-thirds of Americans got most of their news about the world from TV, and nearly half got all of their news from TV. These figures are now estimated to be significantly higher.

Technology

Broadcasting

There are many means of distributing television broadcasts, including both analogue and digital versions of:
- Terrestrial television
- Stratovision (From aircraft flying in a loop)
- Satellite television
- Cable television
- MMDS (Wireless cable)

Receiving

Television sets

In television's electromechanical era, commercially made television sets were sold from 1928 to 1934 in the United Kingdom, United States, and Russia. The earliest commercially made sets sold by Baird in the U.K. and the U.S. in 1928 were radios with the addition of a television device consisting of a neon tube behind a mechanically spinning disk (the Nipkow disk) with a spiral of apertures that produced a red postage-stamp size image, enlarged to twice that size by a magnifying glass. The "televisor" was also available without the radio. The Baird televisor sold in 1930-1933 is considered the first mass-produced set, selling about a thousand units. The first commercially made electronic television sets with cathode ray tubes were manufactured by Telefunken in Germany in 1934, followed by other makers in Britain (1936) and America (1938). The cheapest of the pre-War World II factory-made American sets, a 1938 image-only model with a 3-inch (8 cm) screen, cost US$125, the equivalent of US$1,732 in 2005. The cheapest model with a 12-inch (30 cm) screen was $445 ($6,256). An estimated 19,000 electronic television sets were manufactured in Britain, and about 1,600 in Germany, before World War II. About 7,000-8,000 electronic sets were made in the U.S. before the War Production Board halted manufacture in April 1942, which resumed in October 1945. Television usage in the United States skyrocketed after World War II with the lifting of the manufacturing freeze, war-related technological advances, the gradual expansion of the television networks westward, the drop in set prices caused by mass production, increased leisure time, and additional disposable income. While only 0.5% of U.S. households had a television set in 1946, 55.7% had one in 1954, and 90% by 1962. In Britain, there were 15,000 television households in 1947, 1.4 million in 1952, and 15.1 million by 1968. For many years different countries used different technical standards. France initially adopted the German 441-line standard but later upgraded to 819 lines, which gave the highest picture definition of any analogue TV system, approximately four times the resolution of the British 405-line system. Eventually the whole of Europe switched to the 625-line PAL standard, once more following Germany's example. Meanwhile in North America the original NTSC 525-line standard from 1941 was retained. NTSC Television in its original form involves sending images and sound over radio waves in the VHF and UHF bands, which are received by a television set. Over-the-air broadcast television requires an antenna (aerial). This can be an outdoor Yagi antenna. In strong signal areas the antenna can be indoors, attached to or near the receiver, such as an adjustable dipole antenna called "rabbit ears" for the VHF band and a small loop antenna for the UHF band.

Specifications

Modern displays
Starting in the 1990s, modern television sets diverged into three different trends:
- standalone TV sets;
- integrated systems with DVD players and/or VHS VCR capabilities built into the TV set itself (mostly for small size TVs with up to 21" screen, the main idea is to have a complete portable system);
- component systems with separate big-screen video monitor, tuner, audio system which the owner connects the pieces together as a high-end home theater system. This approach appeals to videophiles who prefer components that can be upgraded separately. There are many kinds of video monitors used in modern TV sets. The most common are direct view CRTs for up to 40in (100cm) (in 4:3) and 46in (115cm) (in 16:9) diagonally; most big screen TVs (up to over 100 inch (254 cm)) use projection technology. Three types of projection systems are used in projection TVs: CRT-based, LCD-based, and DLP(reflective micromirror chip)-based. Modern advances have brought flat panels to TV that use active matrix LCD or plasma display technology. Flat panel LCDs and plasma displays are as little as 4in (10cm) thick and can be hung on a wall like a picture or put over a pedestal. They are multifunctional, because they are used like computer monitors too (VGA and DVI or HDMI connections). Some TVs integrate a pair of ports to connect computer cases and peripherals to it or to connect the set to an A/V home network (HAVI) (USB port for cord connection and BlueTooth/WiFi for wireless). Today, some LCD and Plasma sets have SD Card slots, so users can view pictures from a digital camera. On the new Panasonic LCDs and Plasmas (Viera), users have the capability to record onto SD card and then play it back on a hand-held PC or digital camera (anything that allows MPEG4). With SD cards now available with 1G of memory (soon 2GB, and Panasonic is also working on one that contains over 30GB of memory), a user can record over 1,000 minutes at low quality, and around 80 minutes on the highest quality. The playback of the recording is not brilliant, but these are the first generation. They will get better with time.
Signal connections
The number of ways to connect a video device to a television has increased over the years: WiFi
- HDMI - a compact 19 to 29 pin connector that carries digital video and digital audio signals. Essentially an enhanced version of DVI that includes digital audio. This is the most advanced form of connection currently available. DVI
- DVI - a 17 to 29 pin connector that carries digital video signals, designed to carry HDTV but also used in current DVD players and latest digital displays. Copy protection is available using HDCP. HDCP
- Component video - three separate RCA jacks (colored red, green and blue) carry three video signals, one brightness (luminance) and two colors (chromas), and is usually referred to as "Y, B-Y, R-Y", "Y Cr Cb" (interlaced) or "Y Pr Pb" (progressive), or YUV. Audio is not carried on this cable. This connection provides for picture quality superior to S-Video and is typically used in home theater for DVDs, satellite and analogue HDTV; less common in Europe but is starting to become more widely available. Europe
- SCART - a large 21 pin connector that may carry: one video signal composite video; or two video signals S-Video; or for picture quality similar to component video, three signals of separate red, green and blue or RGB; or for best picture quality, four video signals of separate red, green, blue and sync or RGBS; plus right and left line-level audio channels; along with a number of control signals including an aspect-ratio flag (e.g. widescreen). This system has been standard in Europe since mid-1980s for all consumer electronics, which meant that RGBS was available on even the earliest PAL DVD players and satellite receivers. Japan uses a 21 pin RGB connector which is visually similar to SCART but with different pin configurations. Japan
- S-Video - small round connector with two separate video signals, one carrying brightness (luminance), the other carrying color (chroma). Also referred to as Y/C video. Provides most of the benefit of component video, with slightly less color fidelity. Use started in the 1980s for S-VHS, Hi-8, and early NTSC DVD players to relay high quality video before component was available. Audio is not carried on this cable. Hi-8
- Composite video - The most common form of connecting external devices, putting all the video information into one signal. Most televisions provide this option with a yellow RCA jack. Audio is not carried on this cable, though two separate cables with similar red and white RCA jacks for right and left line-level audio are commonly bonded to composite video cables.
- Coaxial RF - All audio channels and picture components are transmitted through one coaxial cable and modulated on a radio frequency. Most TVs manufactured during the past 15–20 years accept coaxial connection, and the video is typically "tuned" on channel 3 or 4. This is the type of cable usually used for cable television. Most modern DVD players and other video devices no longer modulate RF output, so very old TV sets made before composite video jacks became commonplace will need a modulator.
Aspect ratios
Mechanically scanned television as first demonstrated by John Logie Baird in 1926 used a 7:3 vertical aspect ratio, oriented for the head and shoulders of a single person in close-up. Most of the early electronic TV systems from the mid-1930s onward shared the same aspect ratio of 4:3 which was chosen to match the Academy Ratio used in cinema films at the time. This ratio was also square enough to be conveniently viewed on round cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), which were all that could be produced given the manufacturing technology of the time. (Today's CRT technology allows the manufacture of much wider tubes, and the flat screen technologies which are becoming steadily more popular have no aspect ratio limitations at all.) The BBC's television service used a more squarish [http://tcc.members.beeb.net/tchistory.html 5:4] ratio from 1936 to circa 1949, when it too switched to a 4:3 ratio. In the 1950s, movie studios moved towards widescreen aspect ratios such as Cinerama in an effort to distance their product from television. Although this was initially just a gimmick widescreen is still the format of choice today and square aspect ratio movies are rare. Some people argued that widescreen is actually a disadvantage when showing objects that are tall instead of panoramic, others would say that natural vision is more panoramic than tall, and therefore widescreen is easier on the eye. The switch to digital television systems has been used as an opportunity to change the standard television picture format from the old ratio of 4:3 (approximately 1.33:1) to an aspect ratio of 16:9 (approximately 1.78:1). This enables TV to get closer to the aspect ratio of modern widescreen movies, which range from 1.78:1 through 1.85:1 to 2.35:1. There are two methods for transporting widescreen content, the better of which uses what is called anamorphic widescreen format. This format is very similar to the technique used to fit a widescreen movie frame inside a 1.33:1 35mm film frame. The image is squashed horizontally when recorded, then expanded again when played back. The anamorphic widescreen 16:9 format was first introduced via European PAL-Plus television broadcasts and then later on "widescreen" DVDs; the ATSC HDTV system uses straight widescreen format, no image squashing or expanding is used. Recently "widescreen" has spread from television to computing where both desktop and laptop computers are commonly equipped with widescreen displays, and it remains to be seen whether Work or movie enjoyment will take over. There are some complaints about distortions of movie picture ratio due to some DVD playback software not taking account of aspect ratios; but this will subside as the DVD playback software matures. Furthermore, computer and laptop widescreen displays are in the 16:10 aspect ratio both physically in size and in pixel counts, and not in 16:9 of consumer televisions, leading to further complexity. This was a result of widescreen computer display engineers' uninformed assumption that people viewing 16:9 content on their computer would prefer that an area of the screen be reserved for playback controls or subtitles, as opposed to viewing content full-screen.
Aspect ratio incompatibility
The television industry changing aspect ratios is not without teething difficulties, and can present a considerable problem. Displaying a widescreen aspect (rectangular) image on a conventional aspect (square) display can be shown:
- in "letterbox" format, with black horizontal bars at the top and bottom
- with part of the image being cropped, usually the extreme left and right of the image being cut off (or in "pan and scan", parts selected by an operator)
- with the image horizontally compressed A conventional aspect (square) image on a widescreen aspect (rectangular) display can be shown:
- in "pillarbox" format, with black vertical bars to the left and right
- with upper and lower portions of the image cut off
- with the image horizontally distorted A common compromise is to shoot or create material at an aspect ratio of 14:9, and to lose some image at each side for 4:3 presentation, and some image at top and bottom for 16:9 presentation. Horizontal expansion has advantages in situations in which several people are watching the same set, as it compensates for watching at an oblique angle.
Sound
Television add-ons
Today there are many add-ons for the television set. A few add-ons include Video Game Consoles, VCRs, Cable Boxes, Satellite Boxes, DVD players, or Digital Video Recorders, the television add-on market is ever growing.

New developments


- Broadcast flag
- CableCARD™
- Digital Light Processing (DLP)
- Digital Rights Management (DRM)
- Digital television (DTV)
- Digital Video Recorders
- Direct Broadcast Satellite TV (DBS)
- DVD
- Flicker-free (100Hz)
- High Definition TV (HDTV)
- High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)
- IPTV
- Internet television
- LCD and Plasma display Flat Screen TV
- Pay Per View
- Picture-in-picture (PiP)
- Video on-demand (VOD)
- Ultra High Definition Video (UHDV)
- Web TV

Geographical usage

Content

Advertising

Since their inception in the USA in 1941, TV commercials have become one of the most effective, most pervasive, and most popular methods of selling products of many sorts, especially consumer goods. U.S. advertising rates are determined primarily by Nielsen ratings. The exception to this is the publicly-funded British Broadcasting Corporation.

Programming

Getting TV programming shown to the public can happen in many different ways. After production the next step is to market and deliver the product to whatever markets are open to using it. This typically happens on two levels: #Original Run or First Run - a producer creates a program of one or multiple episodes and shows it on a station or network which has either paid for the production itself or to which a license has been granted by the producers to do the same. #Syndication - this is the terminology rather broadly used to describe secondary programming usages (beyond original run). It includes secondary runs in the country of first issue, but also international usage which may or may not be managed by the originating producer. In many cases other companies, TV stations or individuals are engaged to do the syndication work, in other words to sell the product into the markets they are allowed to sell into by contract from the copyright holders, in most cases the producers. In most countries, the first wave occurs primarily on FTA television, while the second wave happens on subscription TV and in other countries. In the U.S. however, the first wave occurs on the FTA networks and subscription services, and the second wave travels via all means of distribution. First run programming is increasing on subscription services outside the U.S., but few domestically produced programs are syndicated on domestic FTA elsewhere. This practice is increasing however, generally on digital only FTA channels, or with subscriber-only first run material appearing on FTA. Unlike the U.S., repeat FTA screenings of a FTA network program almost only occur only on that network. Also, affiliates rarely buy or produce non-network programming that isn't intensely local.

Social aspects

Alleged dangers

Paralleling television's growing primacy in family life and society, an increasingly vocal chorus of legislators, scientists and parents are raising objections to the uncritical acceptance of the medium. For example, the Swedish government imposed a total ban on advertising to children under twelve in 1991 (see advertising). In the U.S., the [http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_tveffect.shtml National Institute on Media and the Family] (not a government agency) points out that U.S. children watch an average of 25 hours of television per week and features studies showing it interferes with the educational and maturational process. A February 23 2002 article in [http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=0005339B-A694-1CC5-B4A8809EC588EEDF Scientific American] suggested that compulsive television watching was no different from any other addiction, a finding backed up by reports of withdrawal symptoms among families forced by

Cooking

Cooking is the act of preparing food for consumption. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour and/or digestibility of food. It generally requires the selection, measurement and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure in an effort to achieve the desired result. Constraints on success include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools and the skill of the person cooking. The diversity of cooking worldwide is a reflection of the myriad nutritional, aesthetic, agricultural, economic, cultural and religious considerations that impact upon it. Cooking frequently, though not always, involves applying heat in order to chemically transform a food, thus changing its flavor, texture, appearance, and nutritional properties. There is archaeological evidence of cooked foodstuffs (both animal and vegetable) in human settlements dating from the earliest known use of fire.

Effects of cooking

If heating is used, this can disinfect (depending on temperature, cooking time, and technique used) and soften the food. 4 to 60°C (41 to 140°F) is the "food danger zone." Between these temperatures bacteria can grow rapidly. Under the correct conditions bacteria can double in quantity every twenty minutes. The food may not appear any different or spoiled but can be harmful to anyone who ingests it. Meat, poultry, dairy products, and other prepared food must be kept outside of the "food danger zone" to remain safe to eat. Refrigeration and freezing do not kill bacteria, but only slow their growth.

Cooking techniques

Some major hot cooking techniques:
- Baking
  - Baking Blind
  - Broiling
  - FlashBake
- Boiling
  - Blanching
  - Braising
  - Coddling
  - Double steaming
  - Infusion
  - Poaching
  - Pressure cooking
  - Simmering
  - Steaming
  - Vacuum flask cooking
  - Steeping
  - Stewing
- Frying
  - Deep frying
  - Hot salt frying
  - Hot sand frying
  - Pan frying
  - Pressure frying
  - Sautéing
  - Stir frying
- Microwaving
- Roasting
  - Barbecuing
  - Grilling
  - Rotisserie
  - Searing
- Smoking

Other (cool) preparation techniques


- Brining
- Drying
- Grinding (e.g. sesame seeds to produce tahini), chopping, slicing finely, grating, etc..
- Marinating
- Mincing
- Pickling
- Salting
- Seasoning
- Sprouting

See also

Specific techniques and ingredients are often regional. See Cuisine for information about the many regional and ethnic food traditions. Please see food writing for some authors of books on cookery, food, and the history of food.
- Cooking weights and measures (includes conversions and equivalencies common in cooking)
- Food and cooking hygiene
- Food preservation
- Food writing
- List of cookbooks
- List of food preparation utensils including saucepans, frying pans, woks and many others.
- Cuisine
- Recipe
- Nutrition For recipes, see the list of recipes and the list of cocktails. Also see staple (cooking).

External links


- [http://www.cookbookwiki.com/Category:Cooking_Techniques Cooking_Techniques on CookBookWiki.com]
- [http://www.studentrecipes.com/ Quick and easy recipes for the lazy student]
- [http://www.healthy-quick-meals.com/ Quick healthy recipes]
- [http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/ Healthy Recipes]
- [http://www.spanishliquidgold.com/search.php?q=cooking+classes Cooking classes]
- [http://www.momslilgreentin.com Family Recipes]
- [http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/food1.html Culinary history timeline]
- [http://www.elook.org/recipes/ Recipes]
- [http://www.foodgeeks.com/recipes/ Foodgeeks.com Recipes]
- [http://www.visualrecipes.com Visual Recipes]
- [http://cooking.investitor.net/index.htm Cooking books]
- [http://www.mediterrasian.com/delicious_recipes.htm Mediterranean and Asian recipes]
- [http://www.pygmies.info/food.html African Pygmies cooking] Food preparation in the rain forest
- [http://www.ratemycookingkungfu.com/ Photos of home cooking]
- [http://www.realcajunrecipes.com/ RealCajunRecipes.com - includes Photo Album of Cajun Cooking]
- [http://www.turkishcookbook.com Binnur's Turkish Cookbook] Delicious, healthy and easy-to-make Turkish recipes.
- [http://www.goosto.com Goosto.com] Recipes Search Engine.
- [http://www.yummycrockpotrecipes.com YummyCrockPotRecipes.com Recipes]
- [http://www.foodtv.com FoodTV.com: Extensive Online Recipe Collection from the Food Network]
- [http://www.mexican-barbecue-recipes.com/wikipedia.html Mexican & Barbecue Recipes] Tex-Mex, grilling, and smoked fish.
- [http://www.findmearecipe.com Find Me a Recipe] Searchable database of over 100,000 recipes.
- [http://gourmetfood.about.com Gourmet Cooking, Recipes, & Techniques]
- [http://www.culinarychef.com CulinaryChef.com] An award-winning culinary source for the family, professional cooks, culinary chefs, and for those who enjoy fine eating since 1999.