Season Finale is an inside chronicle of the entertainment industry following the unexpected rise and fall of the WB and UPN networks. In the mid-1990s, Hollywood studios Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures each launched their own broadcast television network, hoping to become the fifth player in an industry dominated by ABC, CBS, NBC, and, more recently, Fox. Against all odds, the WB and UPN altered primetime television’s landscape, only to merge as the CW in 2006—casualties of conflicting personalities, relentless competition, and a failure to anticipate the business’s future. Following the money, egos, and risks of network television, former WB executive Susanne Daniels and Variety television reporter Cynthia Littleton expose the difficulties of trying to launch two traditional broadcast networks just as cable and the Internet were ending their dominance. Through in-depth reportage and firsthand accounts, Daniels and Littleton re-create the creative and business climate that birthed the WB and UPN, illustrating how the race to find programming spawned their heated rivalry and created shows that became icons of youth culture. Offering insider stories about shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson’s Creek, 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, Smallville, Felicity, Girlfriends, Everybody Hates Chris, and America’s Next Top Model, the authors present the creative environment that ushered these groundbreaking programs into living rooms across America. Despite success, the WB and UPN unraveled due to corporate miscalculations, management missteps, and industry upheaval that led to their decline—and rebirth as the CW. This is a cautionary and compelling entertainment saga about a precarious moment in television history, when the transformation of the broadcast networks signaled an inevitable shift for all pop culture.

An encyclopedia designed especially to meet the needs of elementary, junior high, and senior high school students.

Who has the most nuclear assets in the Middle East? Whose power is waning, whose increasing? Updated with data from 2013, the latest available, these tables of economic, demographic and military indicators establish the pecking order for 236 countries, with estimates of all nuclear arsenals including rarely published data on non-signatory nations. The author also sums up what statistics in the developed world show in relation to the efficiency of private health insurance versus a 'public option' and whether it is true that 'taxation stifles the economy.' This statistical annual presents fundamental data comparing measures of (1) Quality of Life, (2) Balance of Power, and (3) Developed Market Economies since 1960. It is far more complete other statistical publications. Section 2 includes data about nuclear delivery systems and the number of nuclear warheads of all nuclear powers, including estimates of the Israeli nuclear arsenal which usually do not appear in the press. Official estimates of Russian military expenditures distributed by U.S. and British intelligence communities are methodologically flawed, claiming to show military expenditures of other countries at market exchange rates while they apparently cite Russian military expense figures at purchasing power parities, thus distorting the comparison. Such deceptive practices of the Anglo-American intelligence services are counter-balanced by presenting two different tables, showing military expenditures estimates both at market exchange rates and by purchasing power parities. Members of the U.S. Congress and others who care about the foundations of power politics in the nuclear age will find facts that speak for themselves in this novel yearbook.

"A review of astronomy" (varies).