text:
Every spring, baseball fans have hopes that is the year their favorite baseball team can win the World Series (OK, maybe New York Mets fans don't have that feeling right now). And with each new season the hype machine lets us know which youngsters are on their way to sure stardom.
Who will be the next Mickey Mantle? Who will fan batters like Sandy Koufax? Over the years, many have been hyped and more than a few have fallen short. But an even more select group includes players who burst on the scene with brilliant play and just as quickly fade to obscurity.
Bo Belinsky might be the poster boy for the group based on his brilliant four starts for the California Angels and his flaming out amid playboy antics chasing famous actresses. Others, like Steve Blass, simply couldn't throw a strike anymore, and one Yankee bombed out but landed at Charles Schwab. At least these seven athletes didn't burn through millions of dollars like those in AdvisorOne's Top 10 Worst Financial Meltdowns by Athletes.
Here then are AdvisorOne's top phenom flops:
1. David Clyde: Too Much Too Soon
(David Clyde pitching in Arlington, Texas, in 1973.)
The Texas Rangers were looking for a way to excite their fans and boost attendance. They had their youth, er, man, in David Clyde, a high school pitcher from Kansas City, Kan. Signing Clyde to a contract that included the biggest bonus to that time ($125,000), the team set off Clyde-mania.
Alas, his on-field performance never matched the hype (the team averaged 27,000 fans per game in his starts vs. 6,000 in other games). His first season, 1974, he finished 3-9 with an ERA of 4.38. The next season he made one start before arm trouble sidelined him. Three seasons in the minors, a stint with the Cleveland Indians followed by a stop back with the Rangers was all that was left of his career. Clyde is retired from the lumber business.
2. Steve Blass: Sudden Wildness Ends Career
(Steve Blass pitching against the Cubs at Wrigley Field in 1971.)
His career was going great with 18 wins in 1968 and two World Series victories in 1971, helping the Pirates beat the Orioles. Then something happened that derailed his career: Blass couldn't find the strike zone. His poor marksmanship got so bad the affliction was named Steve Blass Disease. In 1973, Blass went from being a feared pitcher to a bad joke.
Still as he tried to come back he was paid his major league salary, which was $60,000, according to People magazine. By 1975 he was out of baseball. He did manage a comeback of sorts when he joined the Pirates broadcast team in 1983, a job he still holds.
3. Rick Ankiel: Steve Blass Disease Strikes Again
(Rick Ankiel trying to return to pitching form during practice in 2005.)
Rick Ankiel's career as big league pitcher got off to a great start. In his first full season in 2000, he struck out more than a batter an inning. His Cardinals made the playoffs and because of injuries he was asked to take the mound in Game 1 against the Atlanta Braves. After getting through the first two innings unscathed, the bottom fell out on Ankiel's career on the mound. In the third, he allowed four runs, two hits, four walks and uncorked an astonishing five wild pitches. The Cardinals won anyway and Ankiel took the mound in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets. The craziness continued with Ankiel not making it out of the first inning. He threw 20 pitches, five of which sailed past the catcher. Ankiel never got past his wildness.
The story has an unusually happy ending for a phenom flop: Ankiel converted to the outfield in 2005 and finally returned to the Majors with the Cardinals in 2007, where he proved to be a good fielder and hitter. Financially, Ankiel did OK, starting at $200,000 per year in 1999, then earning $3.25 milliion with the Kansas City Royals in 2010 and raking in $1.5 million last season with the Washington Nationals.
4. Kevin Maas: Bronx Bomber to Bronx Goner
(Kevin Maas greeting Steve Finley at 2009 exhibition game in Cooperstown, N.Y.)
Kevin Maas was living a dream when he was the heir apparent to take over for New Yankees star Don Mattingly at first base in 1990. Getting his chance when Mattingly was injured, Maas started with a bang, setting records for needing the fewest at bats to get to 10 (72 at bats), 13 (110) and 15 (133) home runs. By the end of his rookie season he had 21 homers and finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting. Fans were so thrilled that a group of young women, called the "Maas Tops," would remove their shirts and jump up and down whenever the Hollywood-handsome slugger hit a homer. They were banned from Yankee Stadium and quickly enough the Maas magic was gone, too.
He hit 23 homers in 1991, but struck out at an alarming rate and was no longer a fulltime big leaguer by 1992. After bouncing around baseball in the U.S. and Japan (earning as much as $255,000 in 1993), Maas went to work as a financial consultant for Charles Schwab in California.
5. Bo Belinsky: Playboy Burns Out Quickly
(Bo Belinsky in 1962 before the fall.)
Imagine being a starting a pitcher for an second-year expansion team in the trendy Los Angeles of 1962. Then imagine winning your first three starts and capping the run in the fourth game by hurling a no-hitter to beat the Baltimore Orioles. Those four games were the zenith of the lefty's career. He was written about in gossip columns, which described his playboy antics, including dating actresses like Tina Louise, Ann-Margaret and others. After his nanosecond in the spotlight, Belinsky drank and cavorted his way through the minor leagues. Big league salaries weren't what they are today and Belinsky was paid $15,000 in 1964, the only year for which the financial data is available. Eventually, he became a born-again Christian and worked selling cars. Belinsky died in 2001.
6-7. Generation K: Two-thirds of Mets Trio Strikes Out
(Bill Pulsipher pitching for Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Series in Mexico in 2005.)
The New York Mets thought they had hit the pitching trifecta in the mid-1990s with three pitchers who seemed destined for greatness. Alas, two of them were gigantic busts and the other didn't find his place as a closer until after he left the Mets.
The franchise gained a lot of press when Paul Wilson, Bill Pulsipher and Jason Isringhausen burst on the scene. All were hotshot pitchers and the trio ended up on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Maybe the magazine's rumored jinx was to blame for what happened next.
Pulsipher hit the majors in 1995 and threw more than 200 innings. Then he missed all of the next two seasons with an elbow injury. Despite several comeback attempts, he was never the same again, bouncing around the minors, battling depression and finally retiring after last season. Pulsipher's career earnings were a shade over $600,000. This season, he'll draw a paycheck as the pitching coach for the Winnipeg Goldeyes in the American Association.
Wilson's 1996 debut season was marred by injury and he never pitched for the Mets again. He became a serviceable pitcher for the Rays and Reds. In 2004, he posted his best season with a record of 1-6 in 29 games. Wilson made a decent living for his efforts though, earning a total of more than $13 million.
Isringhausen was the lone member of the trio to a become star, but it took some time. He came up to the big leagues in July 1995. He made a splash at 9-2 with an ERA of 2.82. Then multiple injuries caused him to struggle in 1996 and 1997. He missed all of 1998 after elbow surgery before being traded to Oakland. He quickly found his way to success as a closer, helping the A's and St. Louis Cardinals with stellar seasons. He ended up back where he started, closing games for the Mets.
Top 10 lists from AdvisorOne:
- Top 10 Best & Worst Baseball Contracts
- Top 10 Best & Worst Sports Business Deals
- Top 10 Worst Financial Meltdowns by Athletes
- 10 Best Cities for Jobs in Financial Services
- Top 10 Worst Cities for Educated Job Seekers
- Top 10 Best Cities for Educated Job Seekers
- Top 10 Surprisingly Best Cities for Retirees
- Top 9 Most Disliked U.S. Companies
- Best 5 Investment Picks for 2012


text:
We Try Krispy Kreme's New Cheesecake Doughnuts
Cheesecake + doughnut. A clever moniker hasn't been invented for it yet (I'm looking right at you, Cronut), but the very notion is so mind-blowingly decadent, so over-the-top drool worthy, that it should probably be illegal. Well, Krispy Kreme has said screw that with two new limited-time offerings. Now until January 26, they're hoping you forgo your usual hot glazed habit to try the Caramel Cheesecake Doughnut and the Chocolate Cheesecake Doughnut.
The Caramel Cheesecake starts with Krispy Kreme's basic yeast donut (a fine start, I might add, but I'm a KK guy) and adds a center of creamy cheesecake filling. On top, caramel icing and graham cracker crumbles.
The Chocolate Cheesecake features chocolate cheesecake filling (duh) and is topped with chocolate icing and brownie crumbles. I'm not sure what brownie crumbles have to do with replicating the classic cheesecake experience, but they had a chocolate theme to stick to.
As any member of the select group of people who've seen me without a baggy T-shirt on can tell you, I clearly love doughnuts. But at the same time, I like to think of myself as a fairly simple dude. A purist, if you will, about many of the best things in life. I generally don't need a lot of overcomplicated bells and whistles gussying up my doughnuts, for example. Don't want a bunch of decorations and extra accoutrements piled on top, just making it harder to cram into my piehole. (Or doughnuthole, as it were.)
The way I see it, the more stuff you throw on top of a doughnut, the more pretty shrapnel I'm gonna be vacuuming off the floor later. So the crumbles on these babies are an element I could just as easily do without. The graham seemed like a cheesecake crust, I guess, but the brownie tasted dry and bland, almost like unsweetened chocolate. Blecch.
As for that "cheesecake filling," neither doughnut's interior tasted like cheesecake to me. True, it's not overly sweet, and that is very much cheesecakesque. But texturally, this filling was more like a cross between mousse and frosting. (I totally have dibs on the word moussting, coming soon to a bakery and a dictionary near you.) And if a "cheesecake doughnut" doesn't remind you much of cheescake... what's the point?
Granted, it's still a doughnut. And a Krispy Kreme doughnut at that. They'd have to screw the pooch pretty catastrophically to make it a doughnut I'd turn my nose up at. So throw one into your next dozen for novelty's sake. But order a Caramel Cheesecake Doughnut or a Chocolate Cheesecake Doughnut over a good ol', standard-issue, hot-off-the-conveyor-belt-and glistening-from-the-icing-waterfall glazed Krispy Kreme? Here's a word for you: NO.
About the Author: Todd Brock lives the glamorous life of a stay-at-home freelance writer in the suburbs of Atlanta. Besides being paid to eat cheeseburgers for AHT, pizzas for Slice, and desserts for Sweets, he's written and produced over 1,000 hours of television and penned Building Chicken Coops for Dummies. When he grows up, he wants to be either the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys or the drummer for The Gaslight Anthem. Or both.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Quality IV&V Services for the Transportation Industry
Independent Verification and Validation isn't just about quality assurance; it's about ensuring that your safety-critical software and systems are built and running correctly. We can implement test requirements and provide a reliable method to outsource this task. We develop custom test requirements based on the criticality level of your software application, as well as make test tool and simulator recommendations.
Our Process
Transportation IV&V Standards
Software and Product Development for Transportation Systems
When it comes to custom software, embedded controls, machine interface or automation, our software development experts provide you with exactly the level of support you require by us, in-house or contracted labor at your facility.
We design, program, verify and integrate real-time software for use in all land, sea, air and space transportation applications, automotive production, parts production, vehicle monitoring systems, navigation systems, control systems and numerous other mobile applications.
The breadth of our client base ranges from the world's largest manufacturers of turnkey products and systems to local innovators and developers. Whether it's medical, industrial, avionics or transportation, our dedicated software engineering staff provides the results you need.
By combining our development and verification services, you benefit from a complete lifecycle solution.
Our Rich Heritage
For over 40 years, General Digital has maintained a reputation for meeting our customers' demands with accurate, on time, and cost-efficient software services. Let us show you how we will save you valuable engineering time, increase effiency and provide you with third-party objectivity to improve your bottom line.
Our Experience
Client Sampling
Call 800.952.2535 today or send us an e-mail to learn more.


text:
Inspired by Syfy's Smash Hit Series Warehouse 13, Returning for Second Season Tuesday, July 6, at 9PM (ET/PT)
New York, New York - June 10, 2010 - Alien body parts... powerful religious artifacts... UFO wreckage... what exactly is hidden behind heavily guarded doors? Inspired by Syfy's hit series, Warehouse 13, NBC News award-winning journalist Lester Holt goes on a global expedition to uncover the truth behind the world's top secret, mysterious warehouses where super-classified objects are kept.
In Inside Secret Government Warehouses: Shocking Revelations, premiering on Syfy Sunday, July 11, at 9PM (ET/PT), Holt capitalizes on exclusive access to restricted sites, traveling from Area 51 in Nevada to deep inside the Vatican secret archives -- the centerpiece of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons -- interviewing informants, Washington decision-makers, former top military personnel and leading experts.
Among the explosive findings:
A mandible thought to be not of this world -- potential evidence that alien life was hidden by the United States government at Wright-Patterson Air Force base.
High level informant who describes huge underground tunnels beneath military installations.
Victims (including former U.S. military personnel) of unauthorized government experimentation.
A former US Air Force pilot ordered to shoot down a UFO in England.
Experts interviewed for the show include:
John Podesta, Former Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton and CEO, Center for American Progress
Michio Kaku, world renowned theoretical physicist.
Paul Levinson, author of 15 books and professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University.
Hank Albarelli Jr., author of A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the C.I.A.'s Secret Cold War Experiments.
Katherine Olmsted, Professor of History at UC Davis.
Rep. Michael Turner, Ohio 3rd District (covers Wright-Patterson)
Luca Carboni, General Secretary, Vatican Secret Archives
Shara Bailey, Dental Anthropologist, New York University
Eleanor Herman, Author, Mistress of the Vatican
Robert Collins, Ret. U.S Air Force Captain
Jonathan Turley, Law Professor, George Washington University
Glenn Campbell, Area 51 Expert
Inside Secret Government Warehouses: Shocking Revelations is a co-production of Syfy and Peacock Productions. Executive Producer: Gretchen Eisele. Producer: Kimberly Ferdinando. For Peacock Productions: Executive in Charge of Production: Sharon Scott. Co-Executive Producers: Knute Walker, Benjamin Ringe. For Syfy: Thomas Vitale.
Returning for its second season Tuesday, July 6, at 9PM (ET/PT), Warehouse 13, the most successful series in Syfy's history, follows two Secret Service agents (Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly) who find themselves transferred to a massive, top-secret storage facility in South Dakota which houses every strange artifact, mysterious relic, fantastical object and supernatural souvenir ever collected by the U.S. government. The Warehouse's caretaker Artie (Saul Rubinek) charges the agents with chasing down reports of supernatural and paranormal activity in search of new objects to cache at the Warehouse, as well as helping him to control the Warehouse itself. The series also features Allison Scagliotti as Claudia, Artie's apprentice in the Warehouse.
Syfy is a media destination for imagination-based entertainment. With year round acclaimed original series, events, blockbuster movies, classic science fiction and fantasy programming, a dynamic Web site (www.Syfy.com), and a portfolio of adjacent business (Syfy Ventures), Syfy is a passport to limitless possibilities. Originally launched in 1992 as SCI FI Channel, and currently in more than 96 million homes, Syfy is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies. (Syfy. Imagine greater.)


text:
Kitchen Coupon Deals & Promo Codes
Ordering food in and dining out can get expensive. Making healthy home cooked meals is made easier with cooking equipment and tools; grillers, roasters, steamers and other cookware. Dishes often break or spoons go missing and your dishes need updating. Fabulessly Frugal has collected a variety of high-quality kitchen items that include promos for awesome discounts and savings, to help make your kitchen life easier! Shop below and snatch them up now as these offers are limited.
Past Deals (Now Expired)
Report a Problem
Please select the problem you are facing with this deal:
- Price Increased
- Price Decreased
- No longer available
- Expired
- Link doesn't work
- Suggestion
- Compliment
- Other
Add more details:
Thank you for your feedback. We really appreciate it.
Enter your email address if you would like to receive a follow up.
Please Try Again


text:
mappamusica: discover, listen and enjoy music
Today we are announcing our new site: mappamusica.com.
mappamusica is a mashup to discover and browse for music on a world map. Besides enjoying your new discoveries, you can also search for and listen to your favorite music.
Our motivation was that music discovery on a map can be very convenient – you just click on a country on the map to view statistics for top artists, tracks and local artists.
Location based listening statistics are gathered from social music site last.fm using their web services API. The music videos for artists and tracks are streamed over YouTube. Map service is provided by Google Maps. Reverse geocoding (matching clicks on the map with countries) has been handled on the client side.
Please let us know what you think by leaving a comment.


text:
Free UK Shipping On All Orders | 5 Star Reviews ★★★★★
Your cart is currently empty.
© 2020 QuoteMyWall
Last Wednesday (15/07/2020) Our bag of post at the post office was accidentally taken without being stamped. This was a postal office error which we were notified of the next day (16/07). All these packages/letters will be charged to the customer when it is delivered, meaning the customers whose orders were in this batch, will need to pay. We apologise for this. If this has applied to you. Please contact us and we will reimburse the charge you had to pay. Sorry for the inconvenience caused. - Quote My Wall
You Will Never Regret Being Kind Motivational Wall Sticker Quote
You Will Never Regret Being Kind Motivational Wall Sticker Quote.
Wall sticker available in 2 sizes:
- 38cm x 41cm
- 58cm x 63cm
- Available in 36 beautiful colour options
- Can be removed without leaving residue
- Can be applied to most smooth flat surfaces (mugs, yeti, cups, laptop, phone, tablet, walls, windows, cupboards, and many more!)
- Made from high quality premium waterproof matt vinyl/metallic vinyl
- Cut from pinpoint precision vinyl plotting machine
- Handmade in Great Britain to order
- Interior life guaranteed 5-7 years, exterior 3-5 years
Please note wall art stickers colours may vary slightly depending on your monitor/device.
Image used is for display purposes only.
© 2020 QuoteMyWall


text:
nowonmai wrote:I know, I didn't mean it like that, it's just the way we filter out the details. The world would be unmanageable otherwise. 71 years probably felt like the blink of an eye and all that life that could have been.
No, I know. I agree with you. We do filter out the details. I know I did until you reminded me that we all did.
One of my friends killed himself when he was 14. 34 years ago. You think about what could have been in his life and then you think about how 100 years from now to most people concerned he and I may as well have died at about the same time.
That and other things is why I never trust people who ask us to "look at the big picture" because if they really did and really believed in doing that themselves they would not see much use at all in doing anything. To the person who says "hey everyone, lets look at the small picture here since in the big picture the sun hits the Red giant phase and everything we are and everything we were will be completely annihilated and nothing in the big picture will give two shits even as the oceans boil and the mountains melt....so we really need a better brand of dry erase marker for the whiteboard." I would trust that person.


text:
Fast, easy tutorial from Lenore of Evil Mad Scientist Labs. I wonder whether you might not use polystyrene beads as an aggregate to reduce weight?
Make: Halloween Contest 2009
Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.


text:
In part one, I shared a video of Uta Taeger performing 'Hier, aujourd'hui, demain', the A-side of her 1969 single, on sixties French television. The B-side is the superb 'Baudelaire':
Here, Uta recites the title poet's 'Recueillement' from Les Fleurs du mal over a potent psych rock jam, brimming with fuzzy, heavy guitars, phaser effects and rhythmic electric organ. The song's credits read 'musique de Groscolas', referring to Pierre Groscolas, at the time a songwriter, session musician and backing vocalist, most notably for Eddy Mitchell. Groscolas, who was also a founding member of the sixties band Le Cœur, would go on to find success as a solo singer-songwriter in the early seventies, releasing more standard fare than the striking 'Baudelaire' shows he was capable of conjuring up.
'Baudelaire' is an interesting pairing with the A-side, a cover of The Shangri-Las' haunting 1966 single 'Past, Present and Future'. An unusual girl group release, the original is sombre and stripped back, its arrangement mostly a simple piano accompaniment borrowed from Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Over this, lead vocalist Mary Weiss forlornly speak-sings a soliloquoy that captures the devastation and shock of first heartbreak. Uta's version has a slightly sped up tempo and there's a lighter touch to her vocal delivery, but the cover otherwise sticks close to its source in tone and theme, the lyrics a mostly faithful translation.
Flip the record over and the change in style is stark. It would seem 'Baudelaire' has nothing in common with the A-side, save for the spoken word vocals. Here you have a psyched-up reading of a weighty, once-banned poem backing an angsty teen ballad about failed first romance. 'Baudelaire' is just the sort of wild experiment that sometimes gets smuggled onto a B-side, where an artist can let loose and express something that the main cut, intended for radio play and chart success, doesn't allow. But looking more closely at the two songs, they may be more of a deliberate pairing than it would seem. It turns out there's actually an intriguing thematic continuity between them. And though the A-side is the more radio-friendly, it's a curious choice for a debut single. A teen pop song from three years prior – an eternity in pop years back then – that didn't quite crack the American top fifty, covered by a nearly thirty-year-old actress, wasn't a likely formula for a hit record. These two things taken together make me wonder if this wasn't more of an artistic endeavour than an attempt to launch a new female pop star. Perhaps it was even, in a sense, a concept single.
FollowMailing ListEnter your email to be notified of new posts on Spiked Candy. Email address will never be shared and will only be used to send blog updates.×
France Gall
France Gall
1947 - 2018
Click the image for all posts on France Gall dating back to 2005.
Recent tribute posts can be found here.
Recent Posts
Vintage French Pop
- Blogs
- Blowupdoll
- Hero Culte
- Cha Cha Charming
- The Active Listener
- Ten Records
- Pop Junkie
- Rebeat
- Requiem pour un twister
- DJ Esperanto
- Psychedelic Sounds For The Soul
- Starving Daughter's Vinyl Impressions
- Dusty Shelf
- Found Sound! Found Sound!
- Garage Hangover
- London Lee
- Harmonic Distortion
- Psyquébélique
- Dr Schluss' Garage Of Psychedelic Obscurities
- Urban Bowerbird
- The Culture Fix
- Powerpopulist
- Blogroll...
- Sites & Pages
- Artists & Labels
- Listening
- Music Stores
- Blogs
change theme
Hit the switch to return to the new blog theme.
Design by Spiked Candy | Powered by Serendipity | More credits


text:
"There's a saying that all roads lead to Ankh-Morpork. And it's wrong. All roads lead away from Ankh-Morpork, but sometimes people just walk along the wrong way." That's pretty much all you need to know about the central city of Terry Pratchett's beloved Discworld books, but if you're still ill-advisedly curious, there's now an interactive iPad guide to help you explore without getting your hands too dirty.
Based on (and including the full text of) The Compleat Ahnk-Morpork: City Guide book, Discworld: The Ankh-Morpork Map contains a pair of incredibly detailed maps of the City of a Thousand Surprises (none of them good). On these maps you will see more than 1,500 citizens of the city going about their business, selling sausages on a bun and such. You'll have detailed descriptions of more than 2.000 buildings and landmarks. You can search, explore, read quotes from the novels or take a guided tour with historian Hortensia D'Antiqua, as voiced by Blackadder's Helen Atkinson Wood.
This is all the Discworld your iPad needs (aside from all the books and the TV movies), but it doesn't come cheap. Random House is prepared to hand over the goods for $13.99, and that's cutting their own throats.
Discworld: The Ankh-Morpork Map — $13.99 [iTunes]


text:
IMF Research Bulletin, September 2005 »
Volume/Issue: 6/3
Series: IMF Research Bulletin
Author(s): International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Publisher: INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
Publication Date: 26 September 2005
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5089/9781451929942.026
Keywords: capital flows, international capital, international capital flows, capital mobility, Equality, Institutional Change, Institutions, International Capital Market, Natural Resources. Economic Aspects, Population. Economic Aspects
The IMF Research Bulletin, a quarterly publication, selectively summarizes research and analytical work done by various departments at the IMF, and also provides a listing of research documents and other research-r...


text:
Sibling fights might be bad for kids. What's a parent to do?
Most people with siblings can remember an instance where their arguments escalated to inappropriate levels. I recall slamming my older brother's door so hard when we were teen-agers that I splintered the door frame. Though some sparring is normal, aggression between siblings can have lasting negative effects -- so says a new study in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics. According to The New York Times, one-third of the children in a study of more than 3,000 said they were victimized by a sibling at some point in the past year, and the victimized children reported higher levels of anxiety, depression and anger.
Other studies have shown that sibling conflict occurs every day for 50 percent of young children, and 80 percent of siblings ages 3-17 reported experiencing at least one violent episode with their sister or brother in the year that study evaluated.
So what are parents supposed to do? And how do we know what's detrimental bullying versus just regular sibling bickering? I asked Slate's resident bullying expert Emily Bazelon, the author of "Sticks and Stones," and she said that the way to figure out if fighting between siblings is reaching the level of bullying is to see if there's a pattern.
According to Bazelon, you should ask yourself, "Is one kid (or group of kids) on a campaign to make another kid miserable? Is the aggression chronic, and one-way, as opposed to mutual, where the power shifts back and forth?" If the answer is yes, then it's important to talk as a family about what's going on -- because it's a whole family dynamic. "It's not about just focusing on the bully or the victim," Bazelon says.
While this study should certainly inspire parents to keep an eye on the dynamics at play among their children, Bazelon cautions that most kids recover from sibling aggression. "These studies show that there's a risk of depression and other negative psychological consequences. That means a higher rate, not that everyone experiences it," she says. "Fortunately, most kids do bounce back. But it's important to look out for the kids who have a harder time doing that." So: No need to freak out. Look out for your more psychologically fragile offspring, but don't break up every argument over Legos.


text:
Smarties are possibly the most iconic of the sugar roll candies in history. Adults remember unwrapping the sweet and slightly tangy treats as children. Kids are still enthusiastic about receiving them in Halloween handouts and goodie bags. There are more styles and flavors now than ever, including Smarties Pops! More...
- Jar Remove This Item
- lollipops Remove This Item
- Remove This Item
- assorted Remove This Item
- Gluten-free Remove This Item
- July 4th Remove This Item
Sugar & Roll Candy
While the original Smarties candy rolls are the perfect option when you're looking for a nostalgic pick-me-up, some people prefer new twists on old favorites. Now you can buy Xtreme Sour Smarties candy rolls. They're like the original, but sour! If you prefer your sweet treat on a stick, Smarties Candy Lollipops are the thing for you. They come in the same original Smarties flavors, but in a new shape and size… with a handle! For even bigger fun, opt for the Mega Smarties Lollipops. They're four times larger!
Smarties Candy Money is the way to go for a casino-themed party or a bank's different take on giveaway candy. Like the lollipops, these unique candy rolls also come in the original flavors. They're large coin-shaped wafers with green dollar and cent signs embossed on each piece, creating the chance for imagination to make them more than just good candy.


text:
I live in Chicago, a highly competitive healthcare market with some world-class medical schools (Northwestern, University of Chicago, Loyola, Rush) and a pretty decent record of EMR adoption. At least four major institutions/health systems run similar Epic EMRs: University of Chicago Medical Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Rush University Medical Center and, in the northern suburbs, NorthShore University HealthSystem (formerly Evanston-Northwestern Healthcare).
Three NorthShore hospitals–Evanston Hospital, Glenbrook Hospital and Highland Park Hospital–were among the first in the country to reach Stage 7 on the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model.(NorthShore's Skokie Hospital since has reached Stage 7). Several others, notably Rush, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in northwest suburban Park Ridge, Mercy Hospital & Medical Center and Swedish Covenant Hospital, have gotten to Stage 6.
But there's been very little effort to interconnect these institutions and affiliated physician practices. Even during the RHIO heyday of 2004-07, I don't recall much interoperability talk in the Chicago area. (In fact, one family physician, Dr. Stasia Kahn, in far west suburban St. Charles, got so frustrated that she formed her own group to promote EMR adoption and health information exchange, Northern Illinois Physicians for Connectivity. I had heard talk for a while of some south suburban hospitals joining in an HIE with counterparts across the state line in Northwest Indiana since Illinois was moving too slowly.)
All of that non-action at the state and regional levels happened under the not-so-watchful eye of one Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who apparently was more preoccupied with his own vanity and "giving healthcare to kids" (while also allegedly trying to blackmail the CEO of Children's Memorial Hospital into donating to his campaign fund and also slowing Medicaid payments to pay for his All Kids program) than in, you know, actually improving healthcare for everyone by promoting HIE.
In February 2009, shortly after Blagojevich was removed from office and a couple weeks before the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act became law, new Gov. Pat Quinn signed a law allocating $3 million to the state's Department of Healthcare and Family Services for HIE planning. That laid the groundwork for this week's widely publicized announcement that the not-for-profit Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council had chosen technology from Microsoft, Computer Sciences Corp. and HealthUnity to build what could be the largest big-city HIE in the country, potentially serving 9.4 million people in nine Illinois counties and small parts of Indiana and Wisconsin.
I bring all of this up because I met yesterday with executives from the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, a 76-year-old coalition of healthcare organizations in and around the city. It just so happened that the 2011 Microsoft Connected Health Conference was in town this week, so it was the perfect time and location for Microsoft to drop the news. According to MCHC Vice President Mary Ann Kelly, more than 70 percent of the council's 150-some members have made a commitment to participate, and they seem to have a plan to make the HIE effort sustainable.
The exchange will operate on a subscription model, with the vendors taking on some of the risk, Kelly said. "The subscription fee will be based on the benefit each member derives," Kelly explained.
Initially, the exchange will involve 22 hospitals in nine organizations, said Teresa Jacobsen, the council's HIE director. "We want to get one or two use cases running first," she said. They will start by linking emergency departments to exchange clinical summaries and for syndromic surveillance, according to Jacobsen. Once that's going, the HIE plans on adding medication and allergy lists, diagnostic testing results and Continuity of Care Document reports, as well as additional elements for public health, including immunization records.
It all sounds great, and it's a good idea for them to start slowly, but I wonder when and if smaller physician practices will get involved. My own physician has had an EMR for a while, but not every doctor in the practice uses it. (The four-physician practice recently upgraded to the Meaningful Use Edition of Sage Intergy and has started the 90-day clock for qualifying for Stage 1 Medicare incentives this year, but there's essentially zero interoperability with other healthcare entities, unless you consider faxing records to others straight from a computer interoperability. I sure don't.)
My guess is that scenarios like this are playing out all over the country. I wish them luck, but I'm not counting on nationwide interoperability for many years. For one thing, the federally funded, state-chartered Illinois HIE Authority held its very first organizational meeting Wednesday afternoon. "That's the biggest wild card we don't know," MCHC CFO Dan Yunker said.
It's key to getting payers—particularly Illinois Medicaid—on board with HIE and linking metropolitan exchange networks across the state and beyond. "Our hospitals in Chicago are responsible for the snowbirds who are in Naples (Florida)," Yunker noted. They're also responsible for patients who come from places like Rockford, Springfield, Champaign, Carbondale and the Quad Cities for certain specialized services only available in the big city.
Yeah, this interoperability thing isn't so easy.


text:
Skip to Main Content
Calendar of Events
Our Departments
Prince George's County Operations
Patuxent River Park
Patuxent River Park
A notice to our patrons
The Park offices, Visitors Center, and pavilion are closed to the public. All trails, some public restrooms, boat ramps, and soft launch sites are open. Canoe and kayak rentals are available Saturday and Sunday only with online reservations. Limited primitive tent camping is available Friday-Sunday only with online reservations. Trail work at Jug Bay Natural Area will be taking place over the next few months and may result in some trail closures. Thank you for your patience.
The Patuxent River
The Patuxent River was first recognized by the State of Maryland as a valuable natural resource, worthy of protection, in the Patuxent River Watershed Act of 1961. In 1968, the river was designated one of Maryland's scenic rivers. Today, the Patuxent River remains one of the most beautiful sites in Prince George's County and the State of Maryland. Home to a wide variety of plants and animals, the river also tells great historical stories and sustains livelihoods and hobbies held by enthusiasts of all kinds.
About Patuxent River Park
Established in 1962, Patuxent River Park comprises over 7,800 acres of riverside parkland in Prince George's County that protects the land's natural resources and preserves the scenic character of the park.
The different properties that comprise Patuxent River Park offer a variety of amenities and outdoor activities including a visitors center, boat ramps, canoe & kayak rentals and launches, campsites, pavilion, trails, historic sites, fishing, hunting, birdwatching, observation tower with elevator, and more. Jug Bay Natural Area is the headquarters for Patuxent River Park.
Programming for educators and the general public includes environmental and historical education programs, guided canoe and kayak trips, and pontoon boat tours.
Canoe & Kayak Rentals
Boat Ramps and Canoe/Kayak Launches
Camp Sites & Pavilion Rentals
Classes & Activities
Conservation & Research
Wildlife Cameras
Arrow Left
Arrow Right
Slideshow Left Arrow
Slideshow Right Arrow


text:
Montana FWP Seeks Comment on Wolf Hunting & Trapping Closure Near Gardiner
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks 01.15.13
State wildlife officials are seeking additional comment on a recent court-challenged decision to close the wolf hunting and trapping seasons in two areas north of Yellowstone National Park.
The areas were closed by the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission on Dec. 10, in response to concern about the harvest of wolves with collars that supply scientific information to YNP researchers. A temporary restraining order issued earlier this month by a state district judge, however, reopened the seasons with the court questioning whether FWP offered sufficient public notice about the closure. The areas in question are within Wolf Management Unit 390 near Gardiner.
The FWP Commission will meet via conference call on Jan. 29 to reconsider its closure decision.
Commissioners adopted the 2012-13 wolf hunting and trapping seasons in July, after nearly two months of public comment on proposed wolf seasons and harvest limits. In response to that public comment, commissioners further directed FWP to conduct a review of the overall harvest prior to the Dec. 15 opening of the wolf trapping season to determine if season adjustments would be needed. At the time, FWP noted in press releases and on its website that the FWP Commission could close the wolf season at anytime. Montana's wolf hunting regulations also state that the FWP Commission has the authority to close the wolf season.
The commission conference call is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. on Jan 29. The call will be audio-streamed live on FWP's website and video-streamed live in each FWP regional office, where public comment can be offered. To comment online, visit FWP's website at fwp.mt.gov. Click "Hunting". Comments must be received by 5 p.m., Jan. 25. While online comments are preferred, written comments can be mailed to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Attn: Wolf Comments, P.O. Box 200701, Helena, MT 59620-0701.
A two-hour hearing on the district court lawsuit challenging the FWP Commission's decision to close the areas occurred Monday in Livingston. The suit was filed by several sporting groups and a state representative from Park County. A ruling hasn't yet been issued.
Montana's wolf hunting and trapping seasons are open through Feb. 28. So far, hunters have taken 104 wolves and trappers have reported taking 48 wolves. More than 653 wolves inhabited Montana at the end of 2011.


text:
Contribute to ReadWriteThink / RSS / FAQs / Site Demonstrations / Contact Us / About Us
ReadWriteThink has a variety of resources for out-of-school use. Visit our Parent & Afterschool Resources section to learn more.
Home › Parent & Afterschool Resources › Podcast Episodes
Episode 22 — Swing, Jitterbug, and Sing the Blues
|Podcast Series
|Chatting About Books: Recommendations for Young Readers
See all episodes in this series
iTunes Subscription
|Original Air Date
|Published March 19, 2010
Music in this podcast is provided by Freeplay Music.
Book Chat
Jazzy Miz Mozetta
Author: Brenda C. Roberts
Illustrator: Frank Morrison
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2004
Awards: Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award
Choosing a red dress the color of July firecrackers, a pizazzy hat and her favorite blue shoes, Miz Mozetta heads outside for a stroll. She hears a crazy beat coming from her young neighbors boombox and wants to cut a rug in the street, but her old friends wont join her (too many aches and pains) and the young neighborhood kids dont think she can groove with them (they send her to sit with her old friends). Feeling defeated, Miz Mozetta heads back to her apartment where she dreams of her dancing days at the Blue Pearl Ballroom. Pretty soon Miz Mozetta hears a knock on the door and its her old friends arriving to cheer her up, dressed to the nines, and ready to dance. In a surprising twist, the neighborhood kids hear the music and come up to see whats going on. Maybe Miz Mozetta has a thing or two to show the young ones about dancing. This book will have you itching to dance and rooting for Miz Mozetta!
Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World
Author: Marilyn Nelson
Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney
Publisher: Dial Books, 2009
Author Marilyn Nelson dares to ask, What untold stories do instruments hold? and What if we could be a fly on the wall and hear these stories? Set in a pawn shop in New Orleans the day before Hurricane Katrina hits, the instruments begin to share their triumphs in the hands of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm , an all-female swing band that played in the 1940s. Not only were they all-female, but they also dared to be an interracial group despite Jim Crow laws. Nelson cleverly tells the story of this innovative band through poems told in the voices of the different instruments. The title of each poem is also the name of a famous song during that time. This alone will make you want to download the songs so you can listen as you read. Pinkneys illustrations beautifully and perfectly add more historical context and life to Nelsons collection of poems. Make sure to read the authors and illustrators notes at the back of the book. Both provide more insight into this collaboration.
Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation
Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney
Illustrator: Brian Pinkney
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2008
Many people have heard the story of Rosa Parks bravery, but no one has heard the story told by a guitar-strumming hound dog singing the blues. This book tells Rosas story, about her refusing to give up her seat, about Martin Luther King, Jr. calling for a boycott, about people coming together for the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 to walk, walk, walk instead of ride, ride, riding. And about Jim Crow always peck, peck, pecking. All of it is told in a bluesy cadence sung by the guitar-playing hound dog. The text and illustration work together well, with the looming dark Jim Crow pervading each illustration and then finally dissipating as he begins to lose his hold after the Supreme Court decision is made. Kids will definitely take note of the symbolic presence of this ugly black crow and its disappearance at the end of the book. This book makes an interesting way to tell of this oft-heard historical event.
Cookies & Milk
Emily enjoys cookies and milk with Johnny, Samantha, and their mom Robynn. This family read the book Boycott Blues by Andrea Pinkney and Brian Pinkney. Together they review the book and discuss the kinds of conversations that they had together while reading it. When reading books with kids that have a historical context, it is important to build background knowledge. This can be done through conversation, reading other books on the same topic, going to a museum, or in this case listening to music to set the tone.
Expert Chat
Emily enjoys a conversation with Marilyn Nelson and Jerry Pinkney, the author and illustrator pair of Sweethearts of Rhythm. Listen in to find out why this book inspired both of them to stretch themselves in new ways and which poem and illustration captured their imagination.


text:
Person of Interest Review: The CallSean McKenna at .
"Zero Day" finally arrived and with it an outstanding Person of Interest episode full of suspense, intrigue, action, character drama, familiar faces and an edge of your seat hunt for one of the most important phone calls ever.
Not only was I hooked from start to finish, but the hour brilliantly blended flashbacks with the present dilemma, while revealing a ton of information that connected seemingly singular moments of the past.
There's a reason this is a top-rated show, and the penultimate episode of Person of Interest Season 2 solidified another reason why.
The Machine had been acting rather wonky ever since Reese's former CIA partner Kara Stanton uploaded the virus given to her by the shadowy corporation known as Decima Technologies. Not only was it failing to let social security numbers be revealed in time for rescue, but it was on the countdown to zero and a hard reset.
Except that reset would lead to a telephone call that would give the answerer unfettered access and control of the Machine for 24 hours. Definitely can't have that getting into the wrong hands, right?
Ultimately, the episode was a race of all the characters trying to reach the right phone first. Interestingly, Reese and Finch were split up, but not before teaming with essentially their counterparts.
Reese and Shaw (love her return, she brings a great believable edge to her character) were the guns blazing, ass kicking crew, simply trying to follow Finch in the hopes that not only would they find him, but Root as well. And, after all, who doesn't put trackers on their closest friends? How else can you protect them?
Finch unfortunately was stuck with Root, who had managed to coerce him into working together after threatening to harm his love, Grace. The brains on one team and the brawn on the other.
And yet, through the intense hunt, it was the revelations that made the episode even more interesting than the race against time.
First was the discovery that the Machine was adapting (something we had gathered through it trying to protect Finch during its early stages) and yet this caused the concerned tech to adjust the Machine to simply reset itself and erase its memories and information every night. And in its essentially final hours, it was trying desperately to save and protect itself by printing out all its memories and creating its own number to be saved.
Turning the person of interest into a ghost that was really the machine was a very cool twist. Certainly the show was doing a good job of allowing the piece of super technology to become something more, something perhaps more human? Hopefully, the Machine doesn't go full Terminator with this hard reset.
At the same time, important flashbacks progressed the story along, filling in certain gaps about Finch himself and the machine's early stages at saving people.
It was rather wild to see Finch act so cold with the discovery of Nathan's works of heroism. He didn't care about the "irrelevant" numbers and was simply focused on the greater good. It's such a drastically different sentiment than what he holds now, trying to save everyone he can.
It was even interesting to see Nathan's name pop up right before Finch shut it off in such anger, (he mentioned that it was him alone that created the Machine), and it made me wonder what will change Finch's outlook, as well as what gets Nathan killed.
As much as we saw Finch as a colder character, he was so incredibly warm and loving with his proposal to Grace. This was the woman he loves and it was rather impactful seeing him propose simply through the camera watching them. No words, no closeup shots... and yet I was still able to feel the happiness between them.
I have to admit that I love the use of camera shots throughout the episodes on this show, but it was wild watching those shots tweak out, the intro of the show not work and the flashbacks go glitchy. It really felt like we were seeing everything through the crumbling Machine.
Interestingly enough, when you really think about it, everything centered around Finch. Not only were there hints that Nathan and Finch (who has had plenty of pseudonyms) dabbled in some not so good activity in the past. What's more was that Reese finally learned that Finch was behind the computer that he and Kara had been sent off to get in Ordos in "Matsya Nyaya." And on that computer was the code that started the virus that started the recent countdown for the Machine.
Oh, what a tangled web has been weaved.
Clearly, Finch and Reese are going to have a long talk explaining the claims made by the man working for Decima, but obviously more important things are at hand.
As the fascinating intertwining stories seemed to converge, it was great to see plenty of action as well. The effects for the exploding and flipping car looked pretty good so I can assume that some money was saved for that. Even the gun fight and hand to hand with Reese and the Decima agent were intense.
Carter unfortunately got a little sidelined, but she was dealing with HR and Cal Beecher's murder, something still prevalent but not as interesting as getting to the heart of the story with the machine. Getting set up for murder is not going to help out either.
But it was those final moments and waiting for the traditionally stellar endings of Person of Interest that knocked one last twist out of the park.
Root, who Amy Acker brilliantly makes crazy and smart entertainingly creepy, wants to set the Machine free - and I actually believed she might be the one to get her hands on the call. And she clearly thought she did.
Yet, having Reese, be the lucky guy to pick up the ringing telephone to hear the computerized "Can you hear me?" before cutting to black was the icing on the cake. I'm eagerly ready to watch the finale with that type of closing moment.
This was clearly a top notch episode with so much going on, so many revelations and twists all packed together with that solidly gripping story, characters you love to watch, and a journey worth taking. Now I can't wait to see that final destination and what "God Mode" will do to top it all and propel viewers towards Person Of Interest Season 3.
Sean McKenna was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. He retired in May of 2017. Follow him on Twitter.


text:
Going to fetch my sis from Kajang with my family. Planned to eat dinner after we fetch her but I'm so hungry now! >_<
Anyways I still love this song so very much! "I Just Love You", originally sang by Five For Fighting, covered by Adam. <3
Too bad he didn't sing this at American Idol. Lol.
BTW I suddenly remembered one of my girls wonder what's so good about Adam, and saying he's too tall that you can see a contrast when he stands beside Kris and Ryan. I was like LOL Kris is short! And so is Ryan! Adam's perfect! He's only 183cm. Guys SHOULD BE THAT TALL for girls like me(167cm)!


text:
This option is currently sold out.
The Dylan is about to be your new obsession - a basic high waist panty that is both feminine & functional. Because of its cut, the Dylan helps smooth out your midsection & is therefore an awesome choice for pairing under dresses, high waist jeans & skirts. It also makes for an excellent weekend panty when you just can't be bothered to put your trousers on.
- Soft pink organic cotton (95% certified organic cotton 5% Lycra)
- Organic cotton gusset
- Enclosed elastic hip band
- Great stretch and shape retention
Find out more about the sizing of this panty.
Shipping & Returns


text:
11 March 2013 | News | By BioSpectrum Bureau
SII gets 500,000 SoloFlow needles from Telezon
Singapore: Telezon has dispatched the first of three shiments for the 500,000 SoloFlow commercial order to Serum Institute of India (SII). These needles (along with remaining shipments) will be used in SII's vaccine kits for the world market. The two remaining shipments will be delivered in the next few months, fulfilling SII's first order with Telezon.
Following the involvement with the Victorian Life Sciences Trade Mission in February 2013, Telezon is in discussions with several global organisations about potential supply of our products.
Telezon's SoloFlow needles are being used in SII's vaccination kits for the developing markets. Following a shipment of 28,600 needles, SII approved Telezon/SSB as an official vendor of the SoloFlow needle and ordered a further half a million units for their vaccination kits. This shipment is the first of three which will be delivered over the next few months. The board of Telezon has expressed its pleasure that the company is consistently achieving its commercial outcomes in global markets, and in turn, continuously creating value and awareness for its unique suite of medical device solutions.
The company is currently pursuing capital investment to accelerate commercialization of our other world-patented products and technologies such as the Blunt SoloFlow; DuoDraw; and PolyDermic solutions. The company's solid record of accomplishments and expanding markets demonstrates a rapidly growing demand for our products and further supports this pursuit of investment.


text:
Discover for free which first names would suit you or your baby !
Meaning of name Gilles
Etymology : French form of GILES
Saint :
Origin : French
Rate this first name :
Gender : boy
Country :
Numbers :
Meaning of those numbers?
Share this page :
Who are they?
Such dynamism, such energy, such vivacity, such impulsiveness! Gilles and Finees don´t care much for constraints and hold their freedom very dear. Adaptable, quick as a flash and always in a hurry; they are particularly curious. They move through life with skill and ease; grabbing the opportunities that life offers them with both hands, not always entirely conscience of the potential dangers. While they are inquisitive creatures, they themselves remain secretive and reserved, or even cynical and mocking; preferring to hide their true personality and cultivate an air of mystery, and are indeed quite enigmatic. Energetic and directive, they have a great need for action and motivation. This could be expressed as an extreme mobility, a high level of nervous tension or a love of sport. They intend to win in the game of life and believe, with a certain amount of complaisance, that they are already among the favourites. They are undisciplined and even cheeky in spite of their rather shy nature. Gilles and Finees ´s flaws are the foibles of their strengths: impatience, instability, emotional outbursts, aggression and sometimes a lack of discernment or subtlety. They reject established authority and answer to no law but their own, while their views can be somewhat radical. Their path in life will be sinuous, as they change direction many times. They loathe monotony and the routine, and like to get on with things. Fortunately, luck is on their side and they are more than capable of recognizing an opportunity when they see one. As children, Gilles and Finees are little rascals who can´t sit still for more than thirty seconds (especially if they were born in March or in May, on the 3rd, 5th, 12th, 14th, 21st, 23rd or 30th day of the month or if they have a life Path Number of 3 or 5). They have a considerable need for action, so a program of sporting activities is necessary to allow them to let off some steam - ideally in fresh air. They would rather climb trees than immerse themselves in any kind of intellectual activity. They are extremely touchy and their outbursts of anger can be frequent. Parents, buy a sturdy playpen and very soft toys! Be gentle, but very firm from the first time you make eye contact with your baby boy, otherwise they will quickly get the better of you...
What do they like?
Movement, travel, adventure, conquest and risk are all sources of pleasure to these men who are full of life and up for almost anything. They love change and action, seeking to diversify their interests and vary their experiences; which could imply a certain instability. Their love lives are passionate but can also often be stormy. They can fall head over heels in love in the blink of an eye but are capable of losing interest just as quickly. They are easily bored, so one must be able to surprise them, charm and enchant them. They are capable of great generosity and while it´s true that they can also be egocentric and narcissistic, they are independent beings, first and foremost.
Get your free Personality test card now !!
What do they do?
Gilles and Finees are partial to occupations which allow them to retain their autonomy or do not oblige them to take orders from a hierarchical superior. Furthermore, they seek motion and animation in their working lives. They could therefore find satisfaction in one of the liberal professions (especially if they were born on the 1st, 10th, 19th or 28th day of the month, in January or October, or if they have a life Path Number of 1), anything related to travel, sales, advertising, marketing or commerce (especially if they were born on the 5th, 14th or 23rd day of the month, in May, or if they have a life Path Number of 5), as well as all activities connected with physical activity or sport. If they happen to choose a career as a civil servant, they would wish to change services relatively often or favour the transport and tourist industries.
Discover others boys first names : Giacinto Giacobbe Giacomo
*To note: :
It sometimes happens that two different first names have the same meaning. This has nothing surprising: both first names have the same figures of numerology. It is as in astrology: two persons belonging to the same sign present the same characteristic...
Names compatibility
Test the compatibility of your names to know if your love relation is lucky to succeed. Friendship, love or passion?
Discover fast what waits for you...
Verify now if your names are compatible!
The last comments about "Gilles "
Post your comment
Your Name Horoscope !
Thanks to the numerology, we propose you daily a horoscope personalized for your first name. Love, money , Shape: discover what waits for you for today. In Bonus every day find your daily lucky figure .. Horoscope of the first names
Love :Couples: Harmony will once again reign between the two of you. Singles: Make the most of your own company, you are unlikely to meet "the one" today.
Money :Today is a perfect day to clarify your financial objectives.
Health:You're lacking in calcium and vitamin D Gilles . Get enough sunshine and eat plenty of brocolli to keep your bones healthy!
Your Lucky number : 49


text:
Page 1
|Save page Remove page
|1 of 195
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
Large (1000x1000 max)
Extra Large
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
This page
ESSAYS IN POLITICAL ECONOMICS A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Ful llment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (ECONOMICS) August 2008 Copyright 2008 Francesco Sobbrio
Object Description
|Essays in political economics
|Sobbrio, Francesco
|Author email
|Doctor of Philosophy
|Document type
|Degree program
|College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
|Date defended/completed
|Date submitted
|Restricted until
|Restricted until 14 July 2010.
|Date published
|Advisor (committee chair)
|Carrillo, Juan D.
|Advisor (committee member)
Mattozzi, Andrea
Wilkie, Simon J.
Tan, Guofu
Wilburn, Kenneth
|Three essays compose the dissertation. The first essay entitled "Indirect Lobbying and Media Bias " analyzes amodel where voters have state-contingent preferences over policies and lobbies engage in in fluence activities to affect the information that a media outlet collects on the state of the world. The media outlet acts as a " filter" between lobbies and voters. It has to decide what to communicate to voters given the information it collects and its idiosyncratic bias. We show that, by targeting voters, lobbies are able to indirectly in fluence the political outcome and thus create a distortion in the political process. When the media outlet has a small idiosyncratic bias the (unique) equilibrium is characterized by a large level of lobbies ' in fluence activities and no "news-slanting " by the media outlet. When the media outlet 's idiosyncratic bias is large, the (unique) equilibrium involves a low level of lobbies' in luence activities and a high probability of "news-slanting" by the media outlet. Moreover, we show that a higher idiosyncratic bias of the media outlet may be associated with a lower policy distortion and a higher voters' welfare. On the other hand, public policy measures aimed at increasing the cost of lobbies' influence activities would decrease the distortion in the policy outcome and increase voters welfare. Finally, asymmetries in lobbies' influence activities lead to different probabilities of "news-slanting" by different media outlet 's types.; The second essay entitled " Electoral Participation and Communicative Voting in Europe " (joint with Pietro Navarra) provides an empirical investigation of electoral participation and communicative voting in 14 European countries. We estimate a multi-level voting process where individuals face a participation decision (whether to vote or abstain) and a voting decision (whether to vote strategically for a likely winner party or as communicating for a sure loser party). Our main findings can be summarized as follows. First, uninformed individuals and independent ones are less likely to turnout. However, being independent and uninformed does not have any statistically significant effect on electoral participation. Thus our results do not provide empirical support to the swing voter s curse theory. Second, expressive motivations have a positive and significant effect on electoral participation. Third, the probability of voting as communicating is positively related with the level of education and the degree of dissatisfaction with the political system. Fourth, right wing extremists have a significant lower probability of voting as communicating than moderate or left wing extremists. Finally, institutional features characterizing the functioning of the political system and of the media market have a significant effect both on the participation and on the voting decision.; The third essay entitled "Heterogeneous Preferences and Endogenous Acquisition of Costly information" investigates how individuals acquire costly information. We analyze a model of endogenous acquisition of costly information in a framework where decision makers have to choose between fixed alternatives with state-dependent payoffs. The decision makers' preferences are a combination of a private value component (their idiosyncratic preferences) and a state-dependent public value component (the quality of the selected alternative). More specifically, we focus on the case where decision makers have the same ex-post ranking over alternatives but they instead differ in their ex-ante ranking over such alternatives. We apply this model to a policy environment where voters can acquire costly information on the quality of candidates. We show that the optimal information acquisition strategy of a voter is "slanted " toward her ideologically closer candidate. A small amount of information in favor of the leftist candidate would be sufficient to induce a leftist voter to stop investing in information acquisition and choose that candidate. Instead, a rightist voter would find optimal to keep acquiring information and then choose the leftist candidate only if the evidence in favor of such candidate becomes very large. Hence, the more a voter is ideologically close to a candidate the higher her probability of mistakenly choosing such candidate when he is the low quality one. Moreover, the more voters care about the quality of candidates and the lower is the cost of acquiring information, the larger the amount of information that voters will acquire and the closer the behavior of extremist and moderate voters will be. Finally, every voter expects to gain from acquiring costly information but moderate voters are the ones who expect to gain the most.
|voting; media bias; indirect lobbying; information acquisition
|Part of collection
|University of Southern California dissertations and theses
|Publisher (of the original version)
|University of Southern California
|Place of publication (of the original version)
|Los Angeles, California
|Publisher (of the digital version)
|University of Southern California. Libraries
|Legacy record ID
|Contributing entity
|University of Southern California
|Sobbrio, Francesco
|Repository name
|Libraries, University of Southern California
|Repository address
|Los Angeles, California
|Repository email
|Archival file
|Page 1
|Contributing entity
|University of Southern California
|Repository email
|Full text
|ESSAYS IN POLITICAL ECONOMICS A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Ful llment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (ECONOMICS) August 2008 Copyright 2008 Francesco Sobbrio


text:
Last year when Starz debuted a series based on the 2004 Best Picture motion picture "Crash," critical response was mixed and ratings did not exactly 'crash' through the roof. However, with a second season and more than a little retooling, Starz hopes to change all that. The first order of business was to bring in veteran television producer Ira Steven Behr to take over the show and shape it into a winner. Time will tell whether Behr has succeeded but his passion for the project was evident during an extensive chat with our Jim Halterman. During their one-on-one interview, Behr talked about how he made "Crash" into essentially a new series, how a certain Kennedy helped shape Eric Roberts's character and what he brings to the show after many years in the sci-fi genre.
Jim Halterman: Backing up a bit, tell me how you came on board to be a part of "Crash" for the second season?
Ira Steven Behr: Actually, it was kind of simple. I was sitting at home and got a call from Barbara Wall over at Lionsgate. Lionsgate and I have done a dance for many years going back for a long time and they had shows that they've tried to get me to be involved in and for one thing or another it's never quite happened. This time, she said 'The show is 'Crash.' I don't know if you heard about it... ' which I hadn't. 'I know it has its problems, it wasn't that successful last season but we're open to any changes you would want to make and then basically this is the chance for you to do Dickensian television... ' and, for once, they didn't mean Philip K. Dick, they meant Charles Dickens so what writer is going to say no to that? It was a chance to do an ensemble series, which I like. It just seemed that the bar for the show was set extremely low last season and I tried to figure out what went wrong last year and Glenn Mazzarra from, what everything I can tell, is a talented guy but there are a million stories, a million fingers pointing of what exactly happened. It's the chance of sweeping all that aside and starting new just seemed like something that could be interesting especially about a show that takes place in Los Angeles.
JH: How did you approach diving in and keeping some of the characters and storylines while others didn't come back?
IRB: It wasn't quite carte blanche but there certainly was a feeling that they were open to anything. The first thing I said, then, was that the bottom line from my point of view is that last year this show turned into a cop show and there are so many cop shows and procedurals on TV... here you have a show that really didn't have to have a police, medical or legal franchise, thank God! My first thing was 'Let's tear down the police set because if we tear down the set then it's not going to be a cop show.' They said 'Absolutely!' From there, it was just I have this character and that character and what about this character and I just started pitching ideas and never looked back, even at the characters who came back last season. With the characters we wanted to bring back, the stories are totally different so you don't ever have to have seen a single episode of last season and you're totally up to speed for season two.
JH: The first line in the season premiere is spoken by Ben Cendars (Dennis Hopper) saying "LA never changes" but has Ben really changed since he came out of rehab for substance addiction?
IRB: Well, it was meant to be slightly ironic because obviously we're going to change everything we can about this show and in some ways, things are in constant flux and that's what some of the storylines are about this season and then certainly, like you said, we've changed quite a bit of the story because here's a man (Ben) who lives his life without the veil of handy dandy narcotics to put a glow on everything. There's none of that. When you can't use artificial means to face your day you have to face your day it's a very different thing.
JH: How did you shape the Eric Roberts character? Though he seems to be a successful businessman, he clearly wants more.
IRB: Originally, the take on the character was slightly different. It was like a real straight, down the middle billionaire, whatever that means. I wouldn't go so far to say a stereotypical or clich� billionaire but Seth is the guy who lived for money, the guy with the phone always in his ear and suddenly, when I spoke to the actors, I always talked about Robert Kennedy, who went from being this bulldog assistant to Joe McCarthy and this kind of right-wing hard-ass Kennedy guy, the real son-of-a-bitch of the Kennedy clan goes through this tragedy and literally changed as a public figure to the point where after [Martin Luther] King was killed he would stand on a car without any body guards, just standing with his shirt sleeves rolled up in the middle of the night in a neighborhood that's being torn apart by racial strife and tell people 'I understand the pain you're going through but violence isn't going to help and go home' and they listened to Bobby because they believed him.
What I told Eric was 'Think of him as Bobby Kennedy. You're going through this one triumphant guy in this one kind of world' and, of course, it gets more complicated with Eric because it has to do with God and inner rage and hallucination or some kind of religious experience. That change is at the basis of the character and when Eric showed up and started doing the role, he realized he's not that billionaire to begin with. Yes, he could do it and he looks great but he's not like Donald Trump or Richard Branson anyway. That was interesting.
JH: The one thing that all the characters seem to want is more whether it's more money, more love or more something else. Is that how you see them?
IRB: I think they want transformation and I think it's that LA thing. Last year one of the things that we couldn't figure out looking over the show was how little they did with Los Angeles and, from what I understand - and, again, it's all second and third hand bullshit - it was a conscious decision that once they decided to move to New Mexico they felt like the show had to stand on its own and be an any-city. They weren't interested in doing a LA-identified show and we felt it needed to be that. Who comes to LA? People who either want to redefine themselves, redefine their lives, second chances, going after the golden opportunity of the end of the American dream. It's where the American dream stops, baby, it's as far as you go. As I said, it's paradise but paradise comes at a price and everyone pays.
JH: So can viewers expect to see the characters and stories eventually intersect over the course of the season?
IRB: Absolutely. In all different types and ways but, to be honest, even though we know that's fun we don't want it to be too gimmicky. It's different in a movie. In a movie it's two hours, boom, boom, it's over and the crash is acute. In the TV series, you're in risk of 13 hours seeming just a bit precious so the crashes will come because they're making a point that we feel valid.
JH: You have an extensive background with the "Star Trek" franchise and "The 4400," but are there similarities for you with "Crash?"
IRB: I see similarities in everything I do. Lots of characters, looking at faith - not religion - in modern times and this time we don't have the genre protection. This time we have what is called a mainstream shows so, yeah, I feel like a lot of the topics we're able to look at and it feels to me that nothing has changed. The only thing that's changed is what they call premium cable so there are no commercial interruptions, you don't have to write in acts, you just write the show, you have a couple more minutes [and] you don't have the network cutoff of 42 and a half minutes. And you can say every cuss word imaginable and show naked people doing naked things; a brave new world for me!
JH: After "The 4400" was cancelled, you were very vocal about your disappointment. Has that kept you from not getting so closely attached or is that impossible to do?
IRB: Believe me, when I joined this show everyone was telling me I was out of my mind, as usual. 'Why do you want to do that show? That show has absolutely no heat behind it. Any other network would have cancelled it.' For me, I see the opportunity. That's great because it means they've kind of been bloodied so they're open. They've been beaten senseless so they're willing to listen to new ways of doing things and certainly I took that opportunity with 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' to kind of attempt to do something different because people's attentions were on other parts of the franchise. 'The 4400' had such a kind of rocky beginning in some ways that the success was so surprising to USA network that we just looked at is as an opportunity to run with the ball so I'm using the problems of last year to kind of give us a better opportunity this year... ['Crash'] gets better. Just like 'Deep Space' and just like 'The 4400,' we really hit our stride with episode 5, 6, 7, 8, 9... I have to say I'm pretty happy with those shows.
The season premiere of "Crash" airs tonight at 10:00/9:00c on Starz.


text:
Here is the code in my XML files....
<image img="images/image1.jpg" customtitle="Camomile" />
<image img="images/image2.jpg" customtitle="Bells" />
<image img="images/image3.jpg" customtitle="Market" />
Which is working fine.
I want this images to be dynamic i.e shld be fetched from database. So my ques is How to add php code in XML files or Is there any other way i can do this.Pls Guys Help me OUT.Its Urgent.


text:
Data visualization tools for Linux
A quick look at six open source graphics utilities
A short list of visualization tools
In this article, I provide a survey of a number of popular Linux data visualization tools and include some insight into their other capabilities. For example, does the tool provide a language for numerical computation? Is the tool interactive or does it operate solely in batch mode? Can you use the tool for image or digital signal processing? Does the tool provide language bindings to support integration into user applications (such as Python, Tcl, Java programming languages, and so on)? I also demonstrate the tools' graphical capabilities. Finally, I identify the strengths of each tool to help you decide which is best for your computational task or data visualization.
The open source tools that I explore in this article are (with their associated licenses):
- Gnuplot (Gnuplot Copyright, non GPL)
- GNU Octave (GPL)
- Scilab (Scilab)
- MayaVi (BSD)
- Maxima (GPL)
- OpenDX (IBM Public License)
Gnuplot is a great visualization tool that has been around since 1986. It's hard to read a thesis or dissertation without running into a gnuplot graph. Although gnuplot is command-line driven, it has grown from its humble beginnings to support a number of non-interactive applications, including its use as a plotting engine for GNU Octave.
Gnuplot is portable, operating on UNIX®, Microsoft® Windows®, Mac OS® X and many other platforms. It supports a range of output formats from postscript to the more recent PNG.
Gnuplot can operate in batch mode, providing a script of commands to generate a plot, and also in interactive mode, which allows you to try out its features to see the effect they have on your plot.
A standard math library is also available with gnuplot that corresponds to the UNIX math library. Arguments for functions support integer, real, and complex. You can configure the math library for radians or degrees (the default is radians).
For plotting, gnuplot can generate 2-D plots with the
command and 3-D plots (as 2-D projections) with the
command. With the
plot command, gnuplot can operate in
rectangular or polar coordinates. The
splot command is
Cartesian by default but can also support spherical and cylindrical
coordinates. You can also apply contours to plots (as shown in Figure 1,
below). A new style for plots,
pm3d, supports drawing
palette-mapped 3-D and 4D data as maps and surfaces.
Here's a short gnuplot example that illustrates 3-D function plotting with contours and hidden line removal. Listing 1 shows the gnuplot commands that are used, and Figure 1 shows the graphical result.
Listing 1. Simple gnuplot function plot
set samples 25 set isosamples 26 set title "Test 3D gnuplot" set contour base set hidden3d offset 1 splot [-12:12.01] [-12:12.01] sin(sqrt(x**2+y**2))/sqrt(x**2+y**2)
Listing 1 illustrates the simplicity of gnuplot's command set. The sampling
rate and density of the plot are determined by samples and isosamples, and
a title is provided for the graph with the title parameter. The base
contour is enabled along with hidden line removal, and the sinc plot is
created with the
splot command using the internally available
math library functions. The result is Figure 1.
Figure 1. A simple plot from gnuplot
In addition to creating function plots, gnuplot is also great for plotting data contained in files. Consider the x/y data pairs shown in Listing 2 (an abbreviated version of the file). The data pairs shown in the file represent the x and y coordinates in a two-dimensional space.
Listing 2. Sample data file for gnuplot (data.dat)
56 48 59 29 85 20 93 16 ... 56 48
If you want to plot this data in a two-dimensional space, as well as connect each data point with a line, you can use the gnuplot script shown in Listing 3.
Listing 3. Gnuplot script to plot the data from Listing 2
set title "Sample data plot" plot 'data.dat' using 1:2 t 'data points', \ "data.dat" using 1:2 t "lines" with lines
The result is shown in Figure 2. Note that gnuplot automatically scales the axes, but you're given control over this if you need to position the plot.
Figure 2. A simple plot from gnuplot using a data file
Gnuplot is a great visualization tool that is well known and available as a standard part of many GNU/Linux distributions. However, if you want basic data visualization and numerical computation, then GNU Octave might be what you're looking for.
GNU Octave
GNU Octave is a high-level language, designed primarily for numerical computation, and is a compelling alternative to the commercial Matlab application from The MathWorks. Rather than the simple command set offered by gnuplot, Octave offers a rich language for mathematical programming. You can even write your applications in C or C++ and then interface to Octave.
Octave was originally written around 1992 as companion software for a textbook in chemical reactor design. The authors wanted to help students with reactor design problems, not debugging Fortran programs. The result was a useful language and interactive environment for solving numerical problems.
Octave can operate in a scripted mode, interactively, or through C and C++ language bindings. Octave itself has a rich language that looks similar to C and has a very large math library, including specialized functions for signal and image processing, audio processing, and control theory.
Because Octave uses gnuplot as its backend, anything you can plot with gnuplot you can plot with Octave. Octave does have a richer language for computation, which has its obvious advantages, but you'll still be limited by gnuplot.
In the following example, from the Octave-Forge Web site (SimpleExamples), I plot the Lorentz Strange Attractor. Listing 4 shows the interactive dialog for Octave on the Windows platform with Cygwin. This example demonstrates the use of lsode, an ordinary differential equation solver.
Listing 4. Visualizing the Lorentz Strange Attractor with Octave
GNU Octave, version 2.1.50 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 John W. Eaton. This is free software; see the source code for copying conditions. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; not even for MERCHANTIBILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. For details, type `warranty'. Please contribute if you find this software useful. For more information, visit http://www.octave.org/help-wanted.html Report bugs to <bug-octave&bevo.che.wisc.edu>. >> function y = lorenz( x, t ) y = [10 * (x(2) - x(1)); x(1) * (28 - x(3)); x(1) * x(2) - 8/3 * x(3)]; endfunction >> x = lsode("lorenz", [3;15;1], (0:0.01:25)'); >> gset parametric >> gsplot x >>
The plot shown in Figure 3 is the output from the Octave code shown in Listing 4.
Figure 3. A Lorentz plot with Octave
GNU Octave (in concert with gnuplot) can emit multiple plots on a single
page with the
multiplot feature. Using this feature, you
define how many plots to create and then define the particular plot using
subwindow command. After the subwindow is defined, you
generate your plot normally and then step to the next subwindow (as shown
in Listing 5).
Listing 5. Generating multiplots in Octave
>> multiplot(2,2) >> subwindow(1,1) >> t=0:0.1:6.0 >> plot(t, cos(t)) >> subwindow(1,2) >> plot(t, sin(t)) >> subwindow(2,1) >> plot(t, tan(t)) >> subwindow(2,2) >> plot(t, tanh(t))
The resulting multiplot page is shown in Figure 4. This is a great feature for collecting related plots together to compare or contrast.
Figure 4. A multiplot with GNU Octave
You can think about Octave as a high-level language with gnuplot as the backend for visualization. It provides a rich math library and is a great free replacement for Matlab. It's also extensible, with packages developed by users for speech processing, optimization, symbolic computation, and others. Octave is in some GNU/Linux distributions, such as Debian, and can also be used on Windows with Cygwin and Mac OS X. See the Related topics section for more information on Octave.
Scilab is similar to GNU Octave in that it enables numerical computation and visualization. Scilab is an interpreter and a high-level language for engineering and scientific applications that is in use around the world.
Scilab originated in 1994 and was developed by researchers at Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (INRIA) and École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC) in France. Since 2003, Scilab has been maintained by the Scilab Consortium.
Scilab includes a large library of math functions and is extensible for programs written in high-level languages, such as C and Fortran. It also includes the ability to overload data types and operations. It includes an integrated high-level language, but has some differences from C.
A number of toolboxes are available for Scilab that provide 2-D and 3-D graphics and animation, optimization, statistics, graphs and networks, signal processing, a hybrid dynamic systems modeler and simulator, and many other community contributions.
You can use Scilab on most UNIX systems, as well as the more recent Windows operating systems. Like GNU Octave, Scilab is well documented. Because it is a European project, you can also find documentation and articles in a number of languages other than English.
When Scilab is started, a window displays allowing you to interact with the interpreter (see Figure 5).
Figure 5. Interacting with Scilab
In this example, I create a vector (t) with values ranging from 0 to 2PI (with a step size of 0.2). I then generate a 3-D plot (using z=f(x,y), or the surface at the point xi,yi). Figure 6 shows the resulting plot.
Figure 6. The resulting Scilab plot from the commands in Figure 5
Scilab includes a large number of libraries and functions that can generate plots with a minimum of complexity. Take the example of generating a simple three-dimensional histogram plot:
First, the
rand(5,5) builds a matrix of size 5,5 containing
random values (which I scale to a maximum of 5). This matrix is passed to
the function
hist3d. The result is the histogram plot shown
in Figure 7.
Figure 7. Generating a random three-dimensional histogram plot
Scilab and Octave are similar. Both have a large base of community participation. Scilab is written in Fortran 77, whereas Octave is written in C++. Octave uses gnuplot for its visualization; Scilab provides its own. If you're familiar with Matlab, then Octave is a good choice because it strives for compatibility. Scilab includes many math functions and is very good for signal processing. If you're still not sure which one to use, try them both. They're both great tools, and you may find yourself using each of them for different tasks.
MayaVi, which means magician in Sanskrit, is a data visualization tool that binds Python with the powerful Visualization Toolkit (VTK) for graphical display. MayaVi also provides a graphical user interface (GUI) developed with the Tkinter module. Tkinter is a Tk interface, most commonly coupled with Tcl.
MayaVi was originally developed as a visualization tool for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). After its usefulness in other domains was realized, it was redesigned as a general scientific data visualizer.
The power behind MayaVi is the VTK. The VTK is an open source system for data visualization and image processing that is widely used in the scientific community. VTK packs an amazing set of capabilities with scripting interfaces for Tcl/Tk, Java programming language, and Python in addition to C++ libraries. VTK is portable to a number of operating systems, including UNIX, Windows, and MAC OS X.
The MayaVi shell around VTK can be imported as a Python module from other Python programs and scripted through the Python interpreter. The tkinter GUI provided by MayaVi allows the configuration and application of filters as well as manipulating the lighting effects on the visualization.
Figure 8 is an example visualization using MayaVi on the Windows platform.
Figure 8. 3-D visualization with MayaVi (CT heart scan data)
MayaVi is an interesting example of extending the VTK in the Python scripting language.
Maxima is a full symbolic and numerical computation program in the vein of Octave and Scilab. The initial development of Maxima began in the late 1960s at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and it continues to be maintained today. The original version (a computer algebra system) was called DOE Macsyma and led the way for later development of more commonly known applications such as Mathematica.
Maxima provides a nice set of capabilities that you'd expect (such as
differential and integral calculus, solving linear systems and nonlinear
sets of equations) along with symbolic computing abilities. You can write
programs in Maxima using traditional loops and conditionals. You'll also
find a hint of Lisp in Maxima (from functions such as quoting,
map and
apply). Maxima is written in Lisp, and
you can execute Lisp code within a Maxima session.
Maxima has a nice online help system that is hypertext based. For example,
if you want to know how a particular Maxima function works, you can simply
example( desolve ) and it provides a number of example
Maxima also has some interesting features such as rules and patterns. These rules and patterns are used by the simplifier to simplify expressions. Rules can also be used for commutative and noncommutative algebra.
Maxima is much like Octave and Scilab in that an interpreter is available to interact with the user, and the results are provided directly in the same window or popped up in another. In Figure 9, I request plot of a simple 3-D graph.
Figure 9. Interacting with Maxima
The resulting plot is shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10. The resulting Maxima plot from the commands in Figure 9
Open Data Explorer (OpenDX)
An overview of visualization tools wouldn't be complete without a short introduction to Open Data Explorer (OpenDX). OpenDX is an open source version IBM's powerful visualization data explorer. This tool was first released in 1991 as the Visualization Data Explorer, and is now available as open source for data visualization as well as building flexible applications for data visualization.
OpenDX has a number of unique features, but its architecture is worth mentioning. OpenDX uses a client/server model, where the client and server applications can reside on separate hosts. This allows the server to run on a system designed for high-powered number crunching (such as a shared memory multi-processor) with clients running separately on lesser hosts designed more for graphical rendering. OpenDX even allows a problem to be divided amongst a number of servers to be crunched simultaneously (even heterogeneous servers).
OpenDX supports a visual data-flow programming model that allows the visualization program to be defined graphically (see Figure 11). Each of the tabs define a "page" (similar to a function). The data is processed by the transformations shown, for example, the middle "Collect" module collects input objects into a group, and then passes them on (in this case, to the "image" module which displays the image and the "AutoCamera" module which specifies how to view the image).
Figure 11. Visual Programming with OpenDX
OpenDX even includes a module builder that can help you build custom modules.
Figure 12 shows a sample image that was produced from OpenDX (this taken from the Physical Oceanography tutorial for OpenDX from Dalhousie University). The data represents land topology data and also water depths (bathemetry).
Figure 12. Data Visualization with OpenDX
OpenDX is by far the most flexible and powerful data visualizer that I've explored here, but it's also the most complicated. Luckily, numerous tutorials (and books) have been written to bring you up to speed, and are provided in the Related topics section.
Going further
I've just introduced a few of the open source GNU/Linux visualization tools in this article. Other useful tools include Gri, PGPLOT, SciGraphica, plotutils, NCAR Graphics, and ImLib3D. All are open source, allowing you to see how they work and modify them if you wish. Also, if you're looking for a great graphical simulation environment, check out Open Dynamics Engine (ODE) coupled with OpenGL.
Your needs determine which tool is best for you. If you want a powerful visualization system with a huge variety of visualization algorithms, then MayaVi is the one for you. For numerical computation with visualization, GNU Octave and Scilab fit the bill. If you need symbolic computation capabilities, Maxima is a useful alternative. Last, but not least, if basic plotting is what you need, gnuplot works nicely.
Downloadable resources
Related topics
- Browse a large number of Octave scripts, functions, and extensions at the GNU Octave Repository. You'll also find instruction for adding your own recipes to the octave-forge.
- The gnuplot home page is the place for gnuplot software downloads and documentation. You can also find a demo gallery to help you figure out what's possible with gnuplot and how to tailor these recipes for your application.
- GPlot is a Perl wrapper for Gnuplot. It's written by Terry Gliedt and may help you if you find Gnuplot to be complicated or unfriendly. GPlot loses some of the flexibility of Gnuplot, but extends many of the most common options in a much simpler way.
- GNU Octave is a high-level language for numerical computation that uses gnuplot as its graphical engine. It's a great alternative to the commercial Matlab software. Its Web site contains downloads and access to a wide range of documentation.
- You can download the MayaVi Data Visualizer at SourceForge.net. You can also find documentation here, as well as a list of features that MayaVi provides for VTK.
- Maxima is another alternative to Maple and Mathematica, in addition to the open source alternatives, Octave and Scilab. It has a distinguished lineage and supports not only numerical capabilities, but also symbolic computation with inline Lisp programming.
- The Open Data Explorer is an open source version of IBM's powerful data visualization and application development package that's a must for hardcore scientific visualizations.
- Data Explorer tutorials, maintained by Dalhousie Physical Oceanography, nicely demonstrate the power provided by DX.
- The NCAR Graphics home page provides a stable UNIX package for drawing contours, maps, surfaces, weather maps, x-y plots, and many others.
- Gri is a high-level language for scientific graphics programming. You can use it to construct x-y graphs, contour plots, and image graphs with fine control over graphing attributes.
- SciGraphica is great for data analysis and technical graphics.
- The ImLib3D library is an open source package for 3-D volumetric image processing that strives for simplicity.
- ODE is an open physics engine that's perfect for physical systems modeling. Combine this with Open/GL and you have a perfect environment for graphical simulation.
- The ROOT system is a newer object-oriented data analysis framework. ROOT is a fully featured framework with over 310 classes of architecture and analysis behaviors.
- Start developing with product trials, free downloads, and IBM Bluemix services.


text:
Related Articles
- A paperless world. // Electrical Wholesaling;Feb98, Vol. 79 Issue 2, p38
Focuses on the implementation of a secure, Internet-based service called A-D Net. Allowance of communications between A-D's staff, it's distributor's affiliates, vendors and their reps; Cutting of A-D's monthly mailing costs by half; Additions to the system, including features to aid...
- Fluke floats software. Chapman, Kimberly // Network World;05/08/98, Vol. 8 Issue 9, p19
Focuses on the release of Network Inspector by Fluke Electronics Canada Incorporated into the software market. Indication that Fluke is known primarily for its LANMeter network test hardware; Features of the Network Inspector; Comments from John McConnell, president of McConnell Consulting...
- Open text informs enterprise. Neshevich, Carol // Network World;05/08/98, Vol. 8 Issue 9, p25
Features Livelink Version 8.0 from Open Text Corporation. Examination of Livelink from three workspaces; Indepth look at the aims of Version 8.0; Comments from senior vice president of marketing and cooperative development for the Waterloo, Ontario, Canada based company.
- Cognos ships SAP query tool. Gruske, Carolyn // Network World;05/08/98, Vol. 8 Issue 9, p25
Features the Cognos Accelerator for SAP, a support user tool from Cognos Incorporated. Aims of the system; Comments from Brigette Haynes, director of business development at Cognos.
- Netscape's helpers. Eddy, Andy // Network World;06/22/98, Vol. 15 Issue 25, p1
Presents information on the computer software Communicator Version 5.0, from the Netscape Communications Corporation, which is manufactured under the name of Mozilla. What Mozilla contributors are working on; Response of Netscape to the Internet Explorer browser from the Microsoft Corporation;...
- Bay reveals more Optivity 9.0 details. Duffy, Jim // Network World;06/22/98, Vol. 15 Issue 25, p17
Presents information on the computer software Optivity Version 9.0, by Bay Networks Incorporated. Features of the software; Information on an application included in the software; Benefits of the software to users; Price of the software.
- Novasoft puts JavaBeans to work. // Network World;06/22/98, Vol. 15 Issue 25, p33
Presents information on the computer software Novation, from Novasoft Systems Incorporated. Features of the software; How the software will operate; Prices of the software; Comments from Anne Thomas, an analyst with the Patrica Seybold Group company.
- Compaq boosts Web-based enterprise management app. Hohman, Robin Schreier // Network World;07/06/98, Vol. 15 Issue 27, p8
Reports on the claims of Compaq Computer Corporation, in relation to Insight Manager XE server management software being a Web-based Enterprise Management (WBEM)-compliant product. Background information on WBEM; Components of WBEM; When will Insight Manager XE be available; Contact point for...
- Concord boosts remote mgmt. software. Hohman, Robin Schreier // Network World;07/06/98, Vol. 15 Issue 27, p19
States that the network performance reporting software called Network Health-Remote Access was introduced by Concord Communications Incorporated. Features of the software; Functions of the software; Cost of the software; Contact point for Concord. INSET: Evaluating netork health.
- Can that spam! Currier, Bob // Network World;07/06/98, Vol. 15 Issue 27, p45
Evaluates Berkeley Software Design Incorporated's (BSDI) MailFilter 1.0, an anti-spam computer software. Features and functions of the software; Cost of updating filtering engines; Effectiveness of the software; Details on installation. INSETS: How we did it;Net results;Score card.