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Across the United States today, television stations will power down the analog signals that have sent TV shows into homes for six decades.
Friday represents the deadline for the country’s transition to fully digital television broadcasting. Throughout the day, TV stations are switching off analog and in many cases moving to new positions on the channel dial. Read more…
The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place between 12 and 16 May 2009 at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, Russia.
The contest was won by Norway’s Alexander Rybak and his song “Fairytale” which received a record breaking 387 points, the highest total score in Eurovision history. Second place went to Iceland and third to Azerbaijan with Turkey and the United Kingdom finishing fourth and fifth respectively.
Red Nose Day is the main way in which Comic Relief raises money. It is held in the spring every other year, and is often treated as a semi-holiday, with, for example, schools having non-uniform days. The day culminates in a live telethon event on BBC One starting in the evening and going through into the early hours of the morning, but other money-raising events take place. As the name suggests, the day involves the wearing of plastic/foam red noses which are available, in exchange for a donation, from Sainsbury’s and Oxfam shops.
The most prominent symbol of Comic Relief is a rubber/foam red nose which is given in various supermarkets in exchange for a donation to the charity. People are encouraged to wear the noses on Red Nose Day to help raise awareness of the charity. The design of the nose has been changed each year, beginning with a fairly plain one, which later grew arms, turned into a tomato and even changed colour. In 2007, the red nose was made of foam; this was to facilitate the “growing” of the nose (by rolling it in the user’s hands) to keep in line with that year’s tagline, The Big One. See the table below. Larger noses are also available and are designed to be attached to the fronts of cars, buildings and in 2009 a 6 metre diameter inflatable nose was attached to the DFDS Seaways m.s King of Scandinavia Cruise Ferry. However, the nose’s material used for buildings was classed as a fire hazard and was banned from the Comic Relief Does Fame Academy shows.