So, is the BBC state run or subsidized?
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To me, the BBC seems a complicated set-up, so I'm not sure if the following is satisfactorily addressing your question...but here goes....
Ask the average Briton, and they would probably say it is state run, via the government. That said, it does appear to be run as a public corporation, perhaps technically owned by the taxpayer. There are shareholders. It is held in trust for the public by the BBC Trust, and funded in the main by the income from licence payers [[about 75% of total income?), and also by the commercial arm, [[BBC Worldwide Limited) which sells the BBC programmes overseas.
If you've not already done so, try googling the BBC website. Also BBC Wikipedia, which I've studied. It might not, of course, be totally accurate, but does give many details about the operations of the BBC, and might be of interest, especially the more technical details.
With the exception of the shareholders, it sounds a lot like the United States Postal Service. I'm curious as to how there can be compulsory public contribution for an entity that has shareholders. That sounds like a great racket if you can get in on it.
I guess a Trust always has to have shareholders - ? How much they gain financially from their input [[if there actually is any....) is another story, and you wouldn't be the first to make that comment....:rolleyes:
I expect many/most/all of the shareholders are [[like us) in the 'Getting Old Department', so we're still on point here!
Gee i feel like turning on the tele and watching some good old fashioned black and white westerns.
As opposed to the modern Black vs. White police drama that seems to play on the news every night?
Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Laramie, Bonanza....:)
Most of those old televison programs are available on dvds sold online or stocked by public
libraries. I remember enjoying Gunsmoke and Bonanza growing up too. I'm sure most of us
have memories of things, shows and stuff no longer popular or in many cases, no longer in
existence. I can live with that for the most part; what choice do I have? Someone once said
you should surrender youth gracefully...I've kinda spent much of the last 15 or so years going
kicking and screaming:)...But I'm okay with stuff now. I don't care that the young like my
knuckle headed nephew have never experienced things I've treasured or will never appreciate the music I love. It's not about me or my time anymore. Never really was in the
bigger picture. We're born. We live. We die. I just wanna enjoy whatever I still can while I'm
above ground. I don't feel the need to chase every technological "advancement" either, not
every change is a real improvement. I will say I do love having access to the internet because I love streaming radio stations, reading blogs and being able to find tons of new
as well as old, out of print music. Too, thank goodness for youtube where I can watch
tv shows I used to enjoy if I want or concerts I never did or could attend...
Whilst we pay for a licence for BBC services, we have no advertising and commercial interruptions in our programs, no external pressures by commercial interests and advertisers, and as best as can be managed, editorial freedom and no political pressures. With a charter to broadcast a wide range of "quality content" as opposed to chasing ratings, many but not all of us are happy to pay the licence fee which is perhaps trivial compared to many other expenses in life. The anomaly is that you pay the licence even if you choose to watch only non BBC channels!
...and we are told that vans from the TV Detector Unit are monitoring our viewing habits, and are able to detect if a licence has not been paid for individual residences. These vans are shrouded in mystery. I don't recall ever seeing one. I think it was once reported that no-one has yet been prosecuted for the offence of watching TV without a licence, although I can't confirm that.
I can confirm that my partner and myself had a TV in the workroom of our previous business premises, and would often have the TV on while we were working. In our current premises, we have no workroom, and a TV was felt not to be required. Four years ago we advised TV Licensing of that, with the understanding that we must not watch live TV online.
Only last week did we receive a notification asking us to confirm online that we are still not using a TV...but that we may receive a visit, to check......:rolleyes:
Only the other day, the House of Lords voted to retain the current law where it is a criminal offence to view a television without a valid licence. The current penalty is a court appearance and a fine of up to £1,000, not including legal costs. The exceptions are in Guernsey where the maximum fine is £2,000 and Jersey where it is £500. The licence and fine is ridiculous on so many levels – it raises £4 billion for the BBC, who then proceed to waste most of it [[in my opinion), and your children when they head off to university or college are also required to obtain their own licence!
Wow. Just...wow.
We won't miss the BBC until it's gone.
A little girl came into theoffice one day and saw a typewriter and said, "what's that?"
I still have an analog land telephone line in spite of the phone company trying hard to get me to go cellular or digital. At some point, I'll have to switch because they're about to stop repairing the infrastructure in the US.
I also pay 90% of my retail transactions with cash, which seems to surprise some of the cashiers. And I suspect that I'm in the minority by doing most of my browsing on a PC instead of a laptop, phone or tablet. The good news about all of it is that I can fall off the grid with relative ease if I suddenly need to 'disappear'.
Cash isn't so bad. I'm shocked when old people still write checks!
I do most of my browsing on a PC and laptop. I gave my tablet to my sister. I have a smartphone, but rarely use it for the internet.
I hope you have an old car, because if you have something like Sirius/XM, a navigational system, or OnStar, they can track you, anyway.
They can track me by On Star in my truck, even though I don't subscribe. My other car is a 1991 Honda, though.
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Same for me with analog phone with wire to the wall. I only got my first mobile phone about 1.5 years ago. I have an old-style mobile phone -not a smart phone. I don't play games on it nor use The Internet. I don't have a tablet. I use a huge I-Mac tabletop for my Internet cruising, except when I travel. Then I use a big MacBook with the biggest screen [[I hate small screens). I ALWAYS use cash. I use no heating in my housein The Netherlands -even in mid winter [[just blankets and clothing. Same in my house in USA, and my flat in Munich, Germany, and in the guest house I stay in Denmark. I don't have a car in Europe.I have a car in USA, but drive it less than 3,000 miles per year. When I was a kid, no one had TVs in their house. We didn't have dryers for our old, round washing machines. We hung clothes on the lines out in the back yard, to dry in the wind. We shoveled coal into a furnace in the basement for forced heat, and burned trash in an incinerator. We didn't have garbage disposals. Our house had an ice box [[cabinet with metal "safe door" to store food next to a large ice block that was delivered by the ice man in a horse-pulled wagon. I used a 1938 Olympia typewriter with wafer-top keys. We read comic books. We had a 1939 Canadian Mercury. My parents had a Garrard 78 phonograph. My first of my own was a 1955 Garrard 78/33/45 adaptable turntable.
Robb_k thanks for sharing. I have one house completely off the grid but it is a lot of work to keep warm. Kinda nice tho to check out of mainstream life for a spell. Also don't have to listen or read the headlines abt the Karsashians [[sp).
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The one downside to having no heat is that none of my friends like visiting me in late fall, winter and early spring. So, it's good that I spend December and January at my sister's in Winnipeg [[and yes, they have central heating [[you couldn't survive the winter there without it [[even in these times of Global Warming). And I spend February through April in L.A. [[no heat EVER needed there!). So, I only have friends avoid sleeping and spending evenings at my place in The Netherlands during late October and November. But I share walls on one side with my neighbour. So their heating provides some heat, so it doesn't get below about 40 degrees F [[which is roughly the temperature I like for sleeping)-so no problem. I've always like cold [[good thing when one lives in Manitoba), and thought my metabolism would change when I grow old, and I'd be uncomfortable in it, and like it warmer. But, I'm 68 now, and that never happened.
I wish I could not have a car. But, living part-time in L.A. makes that impossible. I'd have to start 2 days early to get anywhere on a bus. So nice of the oil companies and tire companies to buy the rapid transit system and tear it down. The new light train system is nice, but there are only a few lines, and don't go where I need to go [[although, after 20 years, they are finally constructing a section of a line that is reaching my neighbourhood [[just as I am planning to leave L.A.! Wouldn't you know it?)
I also never used heat when I lived in San Francisco. But heat from the 2 flats around me kept my flat plenty warm enough. I kept my windows open even in the winter. The great thing there is that there are almost no insects, so you don't need window screens. Europe doesn't have them in most places, but you need them there in summer [[except near the ocean).
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I just ride a bicycle, even from city to city [[within 100 miles or so), For longer trips I take a train. I'd love to ride my bicycle in L.A. on the streets. I have one there too. But, I daren't ride there for transportation, as I'd surely be killed. The only place that's safe to ride there is within small, isolated suburban neighbourhoods on small streets, or on the coastal bikeway. But I'd have to drive my bike to it, and then ride for exercise only. I'd like to use it in my daily life doing what I need to do [[as I do in Europe).
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I don't think I'd ride a bike in New York, or Chicago or Detroit, or just about any big city in USA. I did used to ride in the South Suburbs in the Chicago Area as a teenager, and in Winnipeg, as a kid, but that was long ago, when there were less cars, and less crazy drivers, and a lot less lawbreakers and speeders.
Columbus has created bike paths that literally span the city and there are more bike lanes on downtown streets. Some brave souls [[read: idiots) even ride them in the winter. The city has the most interesting split between fit and fat citizens imaginable.
Columbus had a bike???
Well, you all can get old if you want. I'l stay as young as I can.
My pops makes a point to tell me that I don't want to be 79 years old. I make a point to ask him what my options are.
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Riding a bike on ice is a bad idea.
Once upon a time, long ago, [[during The '60s in Den Haag) I rode in a non-perpendicular orientation slanted across a tram track in a sleet storm, just as the temperature dropped a couple degrees below freezing. [[when I was young and very foolish, I thought I was invincible). The front wheel slid sharply along the railing, and sent the bike [[with me on it) sailing high into the air. I landed several metres ahead, bouncing squarely on my knee. I was extremely lucky to just end up with an extremely painful "stinger", as opposed to having shattered my kneecap to bits. Needless to say, I don't ride my brother-in-laws extra bike, when
I visit Winnipeg each winter.
That recount only proves that we were indeed invincible when we were young, robb_k. Sadly, we know that is no longer true.
Hey remember when we would go up as high as we could on the swing and then jump off,try that today and you'll need both knees replaced,hehehehe.
And it is just that, arr&bee, that probably contributed to a hip replacement a few years back.
I remember when shooting a basketball didn't feel like I was hoisting a sack of cement at the rim. I also remember yelling at the old guy to hustle up and get back on defense before the youngsters started saying the same thing to me.
I still play football [[soccer) on a weekly basis, even though I’m now 57. I also still take my turn in goal, usually for longer than I did a few years back, in order to catch my breath! One thing I don’t do as much these days is dive around – I could probably get down to a shot, I’m just not that sure I’d be able to get up again!
There was a recent internet feature which advised sitting cross-legged on the floor and then attempting to raise yourself to a standing position, but without use of your hands.
If able to do that, the results from research indicated that you should have at least another 10 years to live.
I'm not entirely sure if that advice is helpful, or not......:confused:
Check this out everyone:
http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/hage5.html
humor collection about aging, age, getting older
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED
The 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!