In Praise of Television?

I recently lived for 18 months without a TV and didn't think that I missed it very much. I watched DVDs on the computer, read a lot of books, and got a lot of exercise; all good things. When I moved into my current apartment, I treated myself to a nice 37" inch flat panel HDTV. I still don't watch too much TV but there are a couple of things that are great in HD: sports and nature shows. The only show I'm really hooked on is Sunrise Earth on the Discovery Channel's HD channel. Its simply sunrises in beautiful settings without narration just ambient noise. The image above (Yellowstone) is from the show. Every morning between 7-8 I eat my breakfast and watch most of the show. My neighborhood is a long way from Yellowstone or the Everglades and watching something on TV is no substitute for seeing and exploring on your own but these images certainly help me get in a better frame of mind before leaving for work.