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President Biden on Tuesday seemed to appropriate a line from the musical “Annie” as he faces bleak prospects for his $3.5 trillion bill to raise taxes and create new social programs. “The sun’s gonna come out tomorrow,” Biden said when asked on the White House lawn — on his way to visit storm-flooded New York City and New Jersey — how he would get fellow Democrats to agree to the bill. The 1977 Broadway hit featured the showstopper “Tomorrow” with the title character, Little Orphan Annie, reflecting optimistically on her life despite Great Depression conditions in New York City. Biden...

"What starting a channel is like, why I started mine and what to do if you have a small blog, channel or podcast."

It seems every year Americans have more TV channel options than the year prior, but one number has remained consistent — 17. That’s the average number of channels viewers actually tune in to. In 2013, the average TV home received 189 channels, up from 129 in 2008, according to a new report from Nielsen. Back in 2008 Americans tuned in to an average of 17.3 channels, as opposed to this year’s 17.5 figure. Maybe that’s all we channel-surfers can handle. “This data is significant in that it substantiates the notion that more content does not necessarily equate to more channel...

With streaming television becoming more and more popular, and providers like Aereo making an end-run around cable and satellite providers, a lot of attention is being paid to the future of bundled cable. In a world of growing choices and a weak, jobless economy, how long can something last that charges customers a ton of money for dozens of channels they never watch? Bundled cable is, in my opinion, one of the greatest hustles ever perpetuated against the American people. The worst part is how it works as a kind of affirmative-action program for left-wing programming that likely wouldn’t survive...

The rise of streaming television is something I've been covering rather obsessively on my Daily Call Sheet for going on a year now. Not because I have any kind of inside information or data, but because if you connect the dots of the hundreds of various news stories that have been written about the phenomenon, you can see that something seismic is happening. Bundled cable is evil, and through this evil we are forced to not only pay for dozens and sometimes hundreds of channels we never watch, but we're also forced to pay for and subsidize channels that offend...

ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2011) — Physicists with the Institute of Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (IUSL) at The City College of New York have presented a new way to map spiraling light that could help harness untapped data channels in optical fibers. Increased bandwidth would ease the burden on fiber-optic telecommunications networks taxed by an ever-growing demand for audio, video and digital media. The new model, developed by graduate student Giovanni Milione, Professor Robert Alfano and colleagues, could even spur enhancements in quantum computing and other applications. "People now can detect (light in) the ground channel, but this gives us a...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's message to the country Wednesday night boiled down to a Reaganesque mantra: Stay the course. Stick with the man they elected 14 months ago to change Washington . Trust that his stimulus plan, now projected to cost $862 billion , is lifting the country out of its worst economic mess in 80 years. Push forward to enact the rest of his blueprint, including at least some overhaul of the country's health care system, to build a strong recovery.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2008 – If one of the Pentagon Channel’s newest programs was a hot Apple iTunes download before, it’ll be on fire in the near future. The company recently named “The Grill Sergeants” one of its top 25 videos of the year. It’s currently ranked as No. 13. “We were pretty excited. Obviously, it’s great to get recognition for your programming,” said Michael Winneker, the Pentagon Channel’s distribution and marketing manager. “We always know around here that it’s good, … but it’s kind of nice to hear from other listeners or viewers that the programming is good...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Republican White House candidate John McCain on Friday likened himself to Britain's wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, in a new web ad laying out a hawkish "no surrender" foreign policy. The advertisement, highlighting what he says is a transcendent struggle against Islamic extremism, uses striking imagery of the Statue of Liberty and the American flag, and McCain's time as a Vietnam war prisoner. It was the latest sign that McCain, an Arizona senator, will try to make November's general election against either Democrat, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, about national security, and who can keep Americans safe....

Channel's key role in pre-history By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News, Gibraltar The remains we find today tell a story of Britain's ancient past A study of prehistoric animals has revealed the crucial role of the English Channel in shaping the course of Britain's natural history. The Channel acted as a filter, letting some animals in from mainland Europe, but not others. Even at times of low sea level, when Britain was not an island, the Channel posed a major barrier to colonisation. This was because a massive river system flowed along its bed, UK researchers told a palaeo-conference...

FORT DETRICK, Md. (Army News Service, Jan. 17, 2006) – The Army recently finished testing “Stay Alert” caffeine gum as a countermeasure for fatigue and the new product is now available through military supply channels. The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, known as WRAIR, tested the new gum in its Silver Spring, Md., facilities. “We wanted to show that the gum is a quick and safe method of maintaining or improving alertness and physical and mental performance, and our tests did that,” said Dr. Gary Kamimori of the Department of Behavioral Biology at WRAIR. Gum 5 times faster than...

04/27/05 -- Zeroing in on the core cellular mechanisms of sleep, researchers at University of Wisconsin Medical School have identified for the first time a single gene mutation that has a powerful effect on the amount of time fruit flies sleep.In its normal state, the Drosophila (fruit fly) gene, called Shaker, produces an ion channel that controls the flow of potassium into cells, a process that critically affects, among other things, electrical activity in neurons. A handful of recent studies suggest that potassium channels are also involved in the generation of sleep in humans. Reported in the April 28 issue...

LOS ANGELES, April 2, 2004—Jody Eldred Productions today announced it has just completed filming and is in the final stages of production on an inspirational documentary called, “Changed Lives: Miracles of The Passion,” which will air nationwide Easter weekend. With rave reviews from Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country,” this one-hour T.V. special was shot in High Definition and documents the true stories of people whose lives have been forever changed by Mel Gibson’s incredible motion picture “The Passion of The Christ.” “I knew instantly that people’s lives were going to be...

The Government will take action to ban Arab satellite television stations from broadcasting anti-Semitic programmes in France, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has announced. Raffarin told France’s Jewish leaders last night he was revolted by some of the anti-Jewish broadcasts he had seen on French television and that parliament would pass legislation to ban such programming from French airwaves. “I say to the Jews of France, do not be afraid, do not be tempted by those who want to separate you from the national community,” Raffarin told a crowd of 800 people attending the annual dinner of CRIF, an umbrella group...

President Putin's Sinister Afghan Anecdote WASHINGTON - A reporter this weekend asked why nothing exciting comes from these boring U.S.-Russian summits. "Where do some questions come from?" objected Vladimir Putin. "People expect from us constantly some kind of revolutions." Instead, Putin said, just be happy Russia and America are friends. Then, in the summit's most revealing and least-noted moment, Putin shared an example of why it's good to be friends:"I have never said this in public [before]," Putin said. "When [the U.S.-led] counterterrorist operation began in Afghanistan, we were approached by people, through several channels, we were approached by people...

An informed Iraqi source disclosed that the interim governing council might start legal proceedings against several Arab satellite channels that broadcast pre-recorded videotaped messages of groups identifying themselves as ‘resistance cells’. A spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress (INC) accused Arab satellite channels that have previously aired videotaped messages of Iraqi groups claiming they represent ‘cells resisting the [US] occupation’ of implementing a “preplanned project”. He also stressed that the newly formed interim governing council is currently mulling legal action against them to limit their activity within Iraq. The congress’ spokesman, Haidar al Moussaui, told Al Bawaba in a telephone...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 February 5 Unusual Gullies and Channels on Mars Credit: Malin Space Science Systems, MGS, JPL, NASA Explanation: What could have formed these unusual channels? Inside Newton Basin on Mars, numerous narrow channels run from the top down to the floor. The above picture covers a region spanning about 1500 meters across. These and other gullies have been found on Mars in recent high-resolution pictures taken by the...