text:
Heinrich Boll
Interviewed by A. Leslie Willson
The Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 74
After riding a streetcar through the green fields and meadows south of Cologne, the interviewer got out at the small station at Merten and gave a taxi driver an address: "Oh, you're going to see Böll," was the immediate comment. The address was a three-storied, nondescript and unadorned brick building. After standing at a wooden gate with no apparent latch, the interviewer was hailed from a porch above by a balding, somewhat florid-faced man who called out: "Simply push the top board to the right."
Once inside, Heinrich Böll welcomed the interviewer with a hearty handshake; he introduced Annemarie Böll—his helpmate and wife of almost forty years—and led the way into a dark living room filled with overstuffed chairs and couches. Böll recently sold his residence of many years in Cologne to move near the Lamuv Verlag, an enterprise of one of his sons, where Böll himself lends a hand as an editor and advisor to the fledgling publisher.
The writer, wearing a rumpled suit with no tie, moved slowly and spoke softly. When he and the interviewer had settled themselves, Böll leaned forward and said, "Let's simply talk with one another." His remark set the tone for the relaxed conversation that followed.
I think of surprises in your works which startle the reader, as in Adam, Where Art Thou? where the protagonist is killed on the last page. Or in Group Portrait with Lady, where the reader waits in suspense for the meeting of the narrator with Leni Pfeiffer, and when it does happen, there are only a few words about it. What kind of function do such surprises play? Did you contrive such surprises on purpose?
No, I don't think so. In Group Portrait with Lady the reason is possibly—I emphasize the possibly—that the narrator has been very aloof during the whole book. He has become a researcher, collecting impressions, facts, moods, and also events, and therefore he probably shrinks from the encounter. In Adam, Where Art Thou? there is very possibly an experiential component. I spent the last months of the war here in the western part of Germany before I became a prisoner of the Americans, and I observed that houses where a white flag had been put out were often shot at by the Germans. With the advance of the American army, villages and small towns between the fronts waited for the American army, and raised the white flag; that was prohibited, prohibited on penalty of death. Naturally, with the shifting of the fronts, the occupation of some villages changed; those houses with white flags hanging out were fired on by the German army or at least by certain units. Therefore, the white flag had a personal significance for me; possibly—I no longer know exactly what I had in mind at the time—it was the thought of being killed at the last moment that brought me to end the story that way. It happened to a lot of people. Here in the Rhineland there was a whole wave of executions of deserters, about which very little is known even yet. They were hanged from trees; they were shot to death on the spot. There was a kind of arbitrary jurisdiction. I believe there was a mandate by Hitler that anyone could shoot anyone else whom he considered a deserter from the colors. And I was myself, with my brother, a deserter in the last months of the war and lived in the constant fear: "Will we get away with it? Will we get out of this alive, survive it?" Then, in order to escape this peril—it seemed to me the safest way—I went back to the army. During that fortnight or so in the armed forces before I came into American captivity, I often observed what happened to the white flags. And certainly for me—a deserter from the colors who was frightened for his life—that was significant to me. It wasn't just a capricious ending.
I was with that soldier in front of his door, where a white flag was flying, and when I turned the page there was the sudden, surprising moment. I almost collapsed myself.
I remember one young man, a noncommissioned officer, who left the front to go drink coffee with his mother. She lived only four kilometers or so away. He was shot as a deserter.
But he wasn't one?
That was not clear. He wasn't militaristic or an enthusiastic soldier, but he had gone away only four or five kilometers to visit his mother, and they shot him. Such things happened. On a visit to Cologne in March 1945, after a heavy bombing I met hundreds and hundreds of deserters who were squatting in the rubble, many in the deep cellars left from Roman times. They had been hiding there after the retreat from France. They lived by selling cigarettes on the black market, by bartering, and so on. People like these, who fled the war and were nevertheless killed at the last moment, are indeed significant. The white flag is a very important motif. I still remember keeping my father from putting out the white flag too early. He always had his handkerchief and a broomstick ready and, long before the Americans came, he wanted to put them out; and we said: "Now watch it, that could turn out bad, don't do that too soon." So you can see what the white flag means to me.
For a long time I've noticed that throughout your works there is a considerable emphasis on arrivals and departures . . .the train station a focal point.
Oh, yes. I suppose that's also related to the war, to hundreds of departures and farewells which could always be final. Nobody knew: "Will we see one another again?" I experience this metaphysics of farewell even to this day when I leave someplace, when I change localities, which I unfortunately do very often. The farewell is always conceivably a final one. Even when I travel from the house we have in the country to this house, where we live officially, so to speak, I have to pack; I have to climb into a car or a taxi. It's always difficult to depart; the realistic aspect does not exclude the metaphorical one—the interpretation that here on earth we find ourselves in a waiting room.
You could say: Meeting Place Earth, couldn't you?
Yes, you could say that. But I long for the time of no more departures. It has something to do with age probably.
I think of Hans Schnier in The Clown—how he sits there on the steps.
Within the absurd events of war there is always a constant back-and-forth, a constant change from here to there. You get put into another train and shipped off; you arrive somewhere, stay only a couple of days, and then you are again shipped off—this absurd line of movement brought about by war. If you translate that into all the people, whether civilian or soldier, there's something like fugitive flight involved.
Only in wartime?
It was there before. The threat posed by those in power, the Nazis, was always that of having to leave. You could be arrested, you could be taken away. Also the economics of the time meant that we moved around a lot. The fear of not being able to pay the rent was deeply lodged, very deeply. Just imagine a boy of ten or twelve who has no clear concept of economic matters but knows only: "Oh, God, I hope we can pay the rent or we'll be thrown out." All of that is related. My father owned several houses—we had one that he had to sell because of the Depression. The deluge came a year later when a bank failed. We had to get out of our house. It was auctioned off. And with that the fear began: "Do you have a place to live? Do you have a bed?" Later, with my own sons, it has always been my main concern to have a home for them, and a bed, and a blanket. It's all connected with that. A train station is not a home, you know. Nor is a waiting room, and least of all the army barracks.
You have sometimes been compared with Hemingway. Do you think that is justified?
Not entirely. I was influenced in regard to form, that's very obvious. His style was for us an enormous surprise, and we were fascinated because apparently—I emphasizeapparently—he was so superficial . . . such a contrast to our famous German profundity. But behind this apparent, let's say almost journalistic, superficiality one can perceive a depth. Where I differ completely from him is in his trauma of masculinity—it probably wasa trauma in his case—or this hero worship, virility worship! I never liked that. It had no appeal for me; it was distasteful to me. Nonetheless, his means of expression were so important.
You and your wife had something to do with the success in Germany of J.D. Salinger'sThe Catcher in the Rye.
Well, it had been translated, and indeed very well, but it wasn't a success. It hadn't even been noticed. It had been done by a Swiss publisher. We compared the translation with the English original, and discovered that, for reasons of censorship of one kind or another, some parts had been left out. The Swiss do a lot of censoring—especially references to sex and anti-militaristic things. So we looked for a new publisher, actually our own, and after convincing him—which was very difficult, he didn't want to do it at all—we redid The Catcher in the Rye, checking through it, correcting a bit, and adding what had been left out. And we did translate other works by Salinger, Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters.
Have you met Salinger personally?
No. It must be difficult.
Could you have hidden yourself from society behind a wall, as he has done?
No. But I think that has to do with German history. I could imagine, if the Nazis, the war, and postwar political developments had not happened that I might have led a very secretive life. But as a citizen of the Federal Republic and as a German I could not manage that. Sometimes I try to do it, to become a kind of mixture of Irishman and Oblomov— an Irish Oblomov—but I can't do it. Of course, I can understand Salinger's reclusiveness very well. I also respect it completely.
You once had very large printings of your works in Russia, even larger than in the United States. Do you know anything about the Russian translations?
There's a book about that by an American Slavic scholar, Henry Glade, who has written at length about the reception of my work in the Soviet Union. He checked the translations in part with a Russian-German scholar, a translator, and the results were awful. I become very anxious when I think about the way I was introduced there, and that now it's all been coarsened. So that the Russian readers must be to some extent bewildered, they can't understand: "My God, what's gotten into him?" It's a very sad story.
Are you read in Russia as much today as you were?
Well, my books have not been published since 1972,** the main reason being the occupation of Czechoslovakia when I expressed my views very energetically.
You weren't in Prague at the time?
I was there on the day the invasion took place, yes. I experienced it with Czech friends, and my viewpoint, in interviews and what I wrote myself, was so unequivocal that I was the "bad boy" for a long time. In 1972 a small volume of stories appeared in Russia, but nothing since then. My books are no longer for sale either, except on the black market in Moscow.
And the fact that you welcomed Solzhenitsyn when he came out certainly didn't help.
Probably not. And others have come since then. But even after Solzhenitsyn was with us, I have been in the Soviet Union. I travel there occasionally still.
I suppose you have money in the Soviet Union.
No, no, that's not a factor. And there isn't much, very little.
You have been translated quite a lot. What is important to an author about his translator? Do you hear critical echoes?
The only ones I can judge are the English translations. And even in that case not accurately. My most interesting correspondence is with my translators. I marvel at their sensitivity over certain passages that just anyone, even if he knows German well, would not appreciate. Of course, the Russian translators never queried me about anything; but the French, the Italians, and the English correspond with me at times so that I can clarify certain expressions for them, certain situations; that gives me a lot of pleasure. I like that a lot.
I suppose you learn something from that yourself.
Yes, of course. You have to explain historical things, especially small details, minute things. It was so complicated during the Nazi era. No, no, that's a lot of fun for me.
What do you think is humorous in your works?
What do I think? What do you think?
I find humor even in your serious situations and circumstances. For instance, do you smell things over the telephone the way the clown does in The Clown?
No, unfortunately not.
Then how did Hans Schnier get the idea that he could smell over the telephone?
I don't know.
You don't know.
No, really, I don't. Humor is really one of the hardest things to define, very hard. And it's very ambiguous. You have it or you don't. You can't attain it. There are terrible forms of professional humor, the humorists' humor. That can be awful. It depresses me because it is artificial. You can't always be humorous, but a professional humorist must. That is a sad phenomenon.
That's not the same thing as being a clown.
Oh no, not at all.
Humor for him is something superficial.
Yes, but that's an illusion. Basically it is the expression of deep melancholy. Many clowns end up in deep melancholia, too. I don't know what you're getting at—that you discover humor in my work?
I have in mind Dr. Murke's silence from Murke's Collected Silences. It wasn't silence at all.
Yes, that may be.
And the story, "The Throw-away Man."
Yes, that's wicked.
It may be wicked, but you aimed well. Certainly we live in a society where a lot is thrown away.
Paper mainly. I don't know whether "The Throw-away Man" is humor, I don't know. I had a lot of trouble making that story work.
How does a work start? What is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it an image—or a character, or a social situation?
It begins with one person (at the most two) in a specific situation that produces conflict and tension. How much "breathing space" or length is determined by the number of persons who necessarily become involved.
Does a work change from your original concept of it as you go along?
In my case, the work changes constantly, since I seldom have a firm plot or any idea at all about the ending. But there is a clear, almost mathematically conceptual idea that determines length—the length or brevity of a literary work being comparable to the size of the frame needed by a picture.
For whom do you write? Do you have an imaginary reader?
My "imaginary reader" can be "uneducated," but with a vacillating optimism that sometimes approaches pessimism. I still consider language to be a means of communication with this reader. Even complicated events—which form topics in essays or reviews—are communicable to the "uneducated" reader.
What is the most difficult aspect of writing for you?
Well, considering my "imaginary reader," it's being able to be understood without having to compromise by making something easy that isn't easy, or by making something unnecessarily difficult when it is easy in the first place.
Did receiving the Nobel Prize change your life?
When I got the Nobel Prize I said to myself that it had made me neither smarter nor more stupid. I said, too, that we Germans have never been an unimaginative people, and so I was pleased about receiving the Prize. The Nobel Prize has not changed my personal life. Since it is generously endowed, it was very welcome financially. I bought a large prewar apartment in Cologne, where I no longer reside, however.
Are there any rituals that get you going on a literary project?
When I am involved in an extensive project there is no ritual—I go to work and write until weariness forces me to stop. With shorter projects I shirk: I straighten up my desk and then straighten it up again, read the newspaper, take a walk, tidy up my bookshelves, drink coffee or tea with the lady I'm married to, smoke a lot, let myself be diverted with visitors, telephone calls, even the radio—and then at the last moment I am literally forced to begin, jumping on a train, if you will, that's already pulling out of the station.
In your remarks at the acceptance of the Nobel Prize in Stockholm you described your table. Do you have the table in this house?
No, I have it in the study in my other house.
Can you work without that table?
Yes. But not well. I work best at that table.
Is it a large table?
No, it's very small. So big.
And the typewriter you mentioned?
I still have it. "Travelwriter Deluxe," manufactured in 1957. But it rattles a lot now, and I sometimes think it's not going to last much longer.
Will you get an electric one?
I can't work with a motor around. The typewriter is for me really an instrument.
Something like a pencil?
Well, I'd like to say, as terrible as it sounds, something like a musical instrument. I forget that I'm sitting at a machine.
Do you type with all your fingers?
No, no, with six, seven. I never learned how, and I always make a lot of mistakes. They are corrected then by the lady to whom I'm married, or I do it myself. I have to have my hand on the actual writing till the end. I can't dictate. The process of writing on the typewriter is a productive process for me. I'm so used to this machine; it has a certain rhythm; I'll have a hard time bidding it farewell. But an electric one is unthinkable. I can't have a motor on my writing table, you know—it would buzz a little, no?
Also in your remarks in Stockholm you said that language and the power of imagination were the same thing. What did you mean by that?
That behind every word a whole world is hidden that must be imagined. Actually, every word has a great burden of memories, not only just of one person but of all mankind. Take a word such as bread, or war; take a word such as chair, or bed or Heaven. Behind every word is a whole world. I'm afraid that most people use words as something to throw away without sensing the burden that lies in a word. Of course, that is what is significant about poetry, or the lyric, in which this can be brought about more intensively than in prose, although prose has the same function.
With your political and socio-critical stances—I am thinking of such militant radicals as Ulrike Meinhof* and the criticism you have expressed about the press—you have sometimes made yourself unpopular among your colleagues and . . .
. . .everywhere.
. . .everywhere. Why have you done that?
I didn't do it to be unpopular, but rather because—it comes back to what we were just talking about—the unimaginative use of words upsets me. Put very simply: in the case of Ulrike Meinhof and her comrades, they were called murderers before murder was proven against them. I consider that to be outrageous. I remind myself that this kind of slander, practiced here recklessly, not only by some of the most prominent publishers, but by others as well, makes me think of the press campaign of the Nazis against Jews, Communists, and then, later, against church circles. Actually, my excitement or really my anger, was just my way of saying: "Hold on here!" All of this is linked with my attitude toward the word, toward words. It was always a matter of words. I picked out a word and showed what lay behind it and what can be caused by its misuse. Many of my colleagues did not understand; they thought: "My God, he's supporting the terrorists," which was not the case at all; but they concocted it out of everything I wrote. Then some of my words were quoted falsely, which put me and my family into a very difficult situation. Always, it was a matter of words. I consider that to be the task of being preoccupied with language. Particularly in our own history. As a young man I read the Stürmer and that damned Nazi press here, which made not only the Jews the subject of their evil propaganda, but other groups in society as well—homosexuals, Catholic priests, and, it goes without saying, Communists. So I'm just as sensitive when a group of people is defamed today by being called names, especially in the light of our own political history; don't forget that many of the defamers were overzealous, quickly-converted democrats who—let's say—in March 1945 were Nazis and in October 1945 were already flaming democrats. I mistrust them. I believe that democracy is based on lengthy processes. You can't become a democrat quite so quickly. All of that is related. I don't regret it, don't regret it: well, some things I said, in my rage, and also because I felt alone, were stupid things, too, fine, but the process was necessary.
Have you expressed an opinion about what has been happening in Poland?
I assume that has bothered you.
Yes, it not only has bothered me, it has upset me terribly, and it still does. I don't think it's all over yet. Oh, that will be bitter. I hope there's not a civil war, but I can't believe that such a development, such a movement, which proceeds not only from the Communist intellectuals but also from the workers, will be so easily suppressed. I have expressed my opinion about it, very energetically, and I was praised by people whom I find sinister, who give me the creeps. Such hypocrisy. Take that word solidarity: it has three dimensions, first a word, then a concept, and finally the name of a movement—all pointing to the fact that solidarity is not divisible. Yet I can't have solidarity with Poland, nor with the creeps, nor with Haiti, if you see what I mean. That's where the hypocrisy begins, right here. How many people here are suddenly for free trade unions who have always fought against free trade unions? Oh, well, all right. Then too, I naturally had trouble with certain leftist circles here. But the clarification was necessary.
Do you think of history as lies?
Always newly refined. Well, you must distinguish between history and the writing of history. History has a more or less verifiable course, which can almost never be reconstructed, never precisely, and that results in what can be called a lie, or better, an untruth, or an inaccuracy. Most historians rely too much on accessible sources. Of course, that's legitimate. What else is a historian to do? He goes to the sources, he looks into the files of the Reichskanzlei or the British Foreign Office, he inspects the correspondence of someone with someone else, compares this with what happened next, but at every point there is the possibility of making a mistake. After all, there are falsified facts. What cannotbe ferreted out is what might be false or deceptive in an official document that Churchill writes to Stalin or Hitler to Mussolini or whatever, and that is already not true. I suspect that the writing of history is simply burdened with many mistakes of this sort, loaded, as it were.
Do you mean that truth itself is hard to find, even when it exists? Well, then how does one find truth? Are there truths in a novel, for example?
Yes, there can be, human truths. Many novels convey more insight than scholarly works. Let me give an example: in South America, from Sábato in Argentina to Asturias in Guatemala, straight across the board, there are so many authors, Vargas Llosa, García Márquez and so on, hundreds of them—and it is through them that a mediated impression of this subcontinent comes very close to truth. Of course, I can't restrict myself to one author. Truth must be assembled. In Germany after the war, 1945 to 1960 or 1970, naturally, there's not just one novel that can give that to you, but twenty—Patterns of Childhood by Christa Wolf, The Tin Drum by Günter Grass, Uwe Johnson's novels, Koeppen. We can't enumerate them, but perhaps all together they write the truth about that epoch. History and fiction must complement one another. And added to that is painting, music, especially architecture . . .indeed everything that the period produced is a part of it. Truth certainly exists, but it is very hard to put together, it's always an assembled truth; historical writing is a part of it, too, but I don't believe it can deliver the whole truth. I found one example very striking. Rolf Hochhuth wrote about the young Swiss, named Bavaud, I think, who wanted to assassinate Hitler. The people whom Hochhuth wanted to refute came forward with official documents of the Secret Police, which sounded very sober and clear, and said: "Look, So-and-so said this, he did this and that—it's all in the documents." But how do we know that the documents weren't falsified? After all, in any court proceeding you find the judge saying: "That goes into the record but that doesn't." Or is it different in America?
Oh no.
If you can't even discern the truth in a petty theft or a divorce case, you're going to have the same problem with the sources when you sit down to write history.
You have to be careful with sources.
Take an interrogation, a questioning. What does the official write down, how does he formulate it—the linguistic expression is very decisive—what does he leave out? Not much is left.
Well, does truth exist?
Yes, there is, finally, a truth about this theft, or about that marriage that has gone to ruin. But it's not necessarily found in the documents. Maybe in a novel.
You speak of the importance of a word's meaning and truth. Aren't words inexact at best?
Language is more solid than music and painting. Yet it is "inexact." But the fact that a word has a multiplicity of meaning, not only within a language but also outside of it, makes it important to try to get to the root of words and language. That is the constant striving of literature. The absolute meaning exists somewhere; we just haven't found it yet.
What induces you to set to work?
Well, first of all the desire to express something special in language. But there are various inducements, aren't there? There's the purely linguistic beginning. A sentence occurs to me, or a situation.
Would you start with a title?
No. The title comes afterwards, usually with considerable difficulty. I remember thatThe Train Was on Time had a totally different working title; it was called Between Lemberg and Czernowitz. The publisher said, "My God, two place names." I was persuaded to change it, but not against my will; I agreed to it then. A working title often changes.
Can you describe your usual workday?
Mine? That's been difficult in the last few years because I was ill for a long time and actually still am. Normally I work mornings, from after breakfast until about half-past twelve, and then again in the afternoon, and in the evening as well, if I really get going. There are, unfortunately, quite a few interruptions—not unimportant ones, correspondence and the like—that make steady work difficult.
Do you write without much revision?
Oh, no, I revise everything, very often. Even when I am writing a short article of let's say, two typewritten pages, it will have four or five versions.
Do you write to the end and then read it through again?
Yes; then I make corrections or notes with a pencil or a ballpoint and work through it again, improve it, add to it. No, it happens very seldom, unfortunately, that I just dash something off. Of course, often the really decisive thought doesn't come until later. Sometimes, I start writing and suddenly the thought arrives, maybe on the third page, and then I throw away the rest and start with that. It's a good thing to keep on writing. A lot that happens at the back has to be moved to the front.
Are the names of your characters important to you?
Yes, very. Very definitely. I can't begin, if I don't know the name. That's my problem at the moment. I have a plan in mind, something, a novel. I should have five or six names already, that I don't have yet. Certainly I can help myself out—and that's not bad either—just by calling them all Schmitz, just to get going. But I can't think about names too much.
There are no names with meaning in your work? Where the name . . .
. . .refers to the occupation? No, I don't like that. I find that awkward, because you ought not mark a person's name up against him. It's an awkward mistake to try to make a name significant or characteristic of the person in question. The name of a person is really sacrosanct to me. A lot of things are ruined because I can't find a name. Sometimes I improvise on the typewriter, just as one improvises on the piano. I think, well, it starts with a D, then I put down an E, and then an N and so forth. So then he's named Denger or some such name.
Have you ever been blocked, unable to write, and if so, how did you get going again?
Inhibitions or blocks have recently become second nature with me. It has to do with the situation on earth. I live in a country which has the greatest concentration of atomic weapons on earth—and now more masses of new atomic weapons are to be added. That can take away your breath, and your enjoyment of life, and give you pause about whether writing makes any sense. For a time music, classical music, helped me to overcome a block—Beethoven's breath, for example, in which I sense something very West European and Rhine-like. The persistent problem with my writing is that I never know how something is going to come out; even when I write a short review, I always have to start all over. I have no mastery.
But is that not a fatal realization to a writer?
It's actually beneficial—it prevents things from becoming routine.
What would you like to see changed in the world?
In the world?
One question that has concerned me very much is: To whom does the earth belong?
Would you call yourself an optimist?
I'm both.
Pessimist and optimist at the same time?
Mine is the optimism of the survivor; the feeling of having survived is very often horrible when you realize how many didn't. I'm still whole, still here—that is one of my driving forces, the feeling of having survived. One of the difficulties for today's young people is that they don't have this feeling. But those who survived World War II, Auschwitz, and political murder have a certain optimism combined with a bad conscience as well . . .because surviving such things is not only luck and grace—it is even perhaps evidence of a brutal vitality. I don't know, I've just become very skeptical.
* Ulrike Meinhof led a terrorist group in the 70s which tried to effect social change through bank robbery and political assassination. She and several of her co-conspirators died in prison under mysterious circumstances.
** 1974
The Paris Review No. 87, Spring 1983


text: Maybe my personal fantasy doesn't even qualify as a kink or a fetish but here it is anyways. I always want to see two guys getting it on who are as opposite from each other as possible. If the one guy is sort of a girly boy, cute, petite, slender, not much body hair, the other guy is 6 ft 3, 230 pounds, a linebacker, has a monster dick and wants to do some serious plowing in the petite boy's bottom land. Are there web sites that specialize in this sort of thing?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The African Virtual University (AVU) on Thursday held a private sector organizations breakfast meeting to discuss the AVU curriculum for the Bachelor of Applied Computer Science program.
The meeting was held on Thursday 26th September 2013 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi.
Dr. Bakary Diallo, Rector African Virtual University, said, "We have designed an online Applied Computer Science Program to address the continental need for high-skilled computer scientists. The number of computer scientist graduating out of the on -campus programs is not enough to meet the current growth of the ICT sector."
He also added that they wanted to involve the private sector to ensure the curriculum responds to the needs of Africa's growing ICT sector.
The curriculum for the Bachelor of Applied Computer Science program was developed collaboratively by leading academics from 18 African Universities during a five day workshop Computer Science and Teacher Education Curriculum Design Workshop held between 20th and 25th May, 2013 in Nairobi Kenya.
The workshop was convened as a result of the policy Harmonization and Curriculum Conceptualization workshop which was held earlier in July 2012, where vice chancellors from 26 African Universities advised AVU to create the programme for open distance and e-learning as part of its Phase II Multinational Project.
The Applied Computing Science Program is designed to provide access to Africans who can not be accommodated in on-campus programs or full-time studies. The focus on Applied Computer Science means learners will gain employable skills and knowledge that will aid them in supporting the development and growth of ICTs across Africa.
After two years equivalent studies a diploma can be issued and an additional 2 years will lead to a Bachelor's degree.
A key advantage of having the program deployed across several universities will be student mobility as those migrating to regional job markets will have a credential that can be recognized else where and should various institutions start offering specializations at degree level, then distance learners will have an opportunity to select from broader range of courses or take a specialized degree that is not offered in their country.
AVU being a Pan African Intergovernmental Organization whose aim is to significantly increase access to quality higher education and training through the innovative use of Information and Communication Technologies has trained over 43, 000 students across Africa and established the largest network of Open Distance and E-learning institutions in over 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.


text:
1. Were you surprised by how spiritual Carlisle is?
Not really.. with how long he's been alive and had time to ponder everything.. Plus, out of all of them, he was the one who grew up the most in religion (not that that has anything to do with it.. but im sure it helped influence it more). I see Carlisle as a very wise person.
2. What did you think about the information revealed about Edward's mother?
I'm glad Carlisle shared it with Bella. She sounded like a very wonderful mother.. caring for her son even though she was dying herself.. and green eyes.. *swoon*
3. When the kiss happened, did you have any ideas about what was to come?
I felt a little foreshadowing.. but I never thought he would actually LEAVE her... ahhhh... I mean he always hinted he would stay unless it was unsafe,.. but the incident that happened didn't seem like THAT big of a deal.. ecspecially after what happened with James!


text:
Google Glasses to be Integrated with Bonephone Technology?
Google Glasses to be Integrated with Bonephone Technology?
The papers for Google Glass have been filed with the FCC, which gives us hope that the HUD will perhaps meet the timeline set by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and be available to developers early this year. The filing also allows us to have a closer look at the innards of the device.
Most likely the Explorer edition of the Google Glass will come with 802.11 b/g 2.4 GHz WLAN and low-energy Bluetooth 4.0 radio. But the most interesting aspect is the single mention of a "vibrating" element for transmitting sound to the user via bone conduction.
At CES 2013 we saw Panasonic unveiling a pair of headphones which seek to bring the exact same bone conduction technology to the masses. If Google's choice of direction is also taken into account, it looks like "bonephones" might finally be arriving on to the playing field sometime in the course of this year.
Source: FCC via Arstechnica


text:
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text:
Ryder (mission)/Script
The following are dialog and mission scripts as seen during "Ryder" in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Lance "Ryder" Wilson: Hey, man, what you want?
Carl Johnson: Seeing my homie. What's up with you?
Ryder: Yeah, homie, yeah yeah. It's good to see you back.
Carl: No homie love? No hug?
Ryder: Oh, for sure, for sure my nigga, my bad. What's crackin' with you?
Carl: Hey, man, what you strapped for?
Ryder: Man, some pizza place keeps painting over our hit up, man! That shit is beautiful. Teach the owner a lesson. He's fucking with Grove Street. You down?
Carl: I'm always down.
Ryder: Ahhh, yeah... Let's go, bitch.
(Carl and Ryder begin to drive to The Well Stacked Pizza Co. store in Idlewood)
Carl: Hey, Old Reece still run the barber shop?
Ryder: Like a raggedy-assed motherfucker! He popped his membrane years ago! No WAY I'd let that old fool near MY head!
Carl: Yeah, I think I'll get cut up.
Ryder: Whatever. You got five minutes. I'll be cutting you like a DJ. So when you running off again?
Carl: I'm not, I'm thinkin' of staying.
Ryder: Why?
Carl: My family, the homies is here.
Ryder: We were always here, fool!
Carl: Yeah, but, now I'm back and I know what I've been missing.
Ryder: Don't expect me to kiss your ass or nothing. You're still a busta to me.
Carl: Yeah, OK, Thanks homie.
Ryder: Don't mention it.
(Carl and Ryder arrive at Reece's Hair & Facial Studio, with Carl entering the building and getting a haircut. If Ryder dislikes Carl's haircut)
Ryder: Shit! I told you he was crazy! Man, you jacked up!
(If Ryder likes Carl's haircut)
Ryder: You know something? I take it back. Old Reece still got it cracking.
(Dialogue remains the same from this point)
Ryder: Man, what's this? Shit looks ridiculous. No respect for the 'hood, all clean and shit. You're looking too skinny, CJ. Go and get us something to eat. I'm gonna finish this. Then I'm going to take care of business.
(Carl enters The Well Stacked Pizza Co. store and orders some food, whilst Ryder enters with a mask on attempting to hold up the store)
Ryder: Give up the money! This a raid!
Store Manager: Ryder! Not this again!
Ryder: It ain't me, fool.
Store Manager: No one else is that small! I feel sorry for your dad!
Carl: Shit, you crazy! Let's get up outta here!
Ryder: Same old CJ! Busta! Straight busta!
(The Well Stacked Pizza Co. store manager fires a shotgun towards Carl)
Ryder: Oh, shit! RUN!
(Carl and Ryder run out of the store and back to Ryder's car)
Store Manager: This pizza parlor is no push-over!
(Carl and Ryder enter Ryder's car)
Ryder: What you waiting for, fool? Take us back to the Grove, motherfucker!
(Carl drives Ryder back to his home in Grove Street)
Ryder: Better drop by and see Sweet. He's been yapping on about that graffiti, too. Later, homie.


text:
Emanuel: 'There's Not Hard Feelings' Over Gregg Withdrawal
By Michael D. Shear and Alec MacGillis
Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told reporters this afternoon that the president is disappointed by Judd Gregg's decision to withdraw but that there are no hard feelings toward the New Hampshire Republican.
"It's better we find out now than later," Emanuel told a small group of reporters who were originally scheduled to talk with him about the stimulus package.
"From our side it's unfortunate, but there's not hard feelings. It's better that it happens now than when you had someone in the Cabinet," he said.
Emanuel refused to speculate on Gregg's reasoning in taking the Commerce job a week ago and then withdrawing today.
"I don't want to play psychologist and get in his head," Emanuel said. "If I said I wasn't disappointed, I would lack credibility."
Asked whether the incident reflects an "amateur hour" in the White House, Rahm pushed back, describing a litany of accomplishments the president has made in his three-week tenure, including passage of the stimulus plan and the second half of the funding for the bank bailout.
As the president says, Emanuel told reporters, "There are days with setbacks."
He also said the president plans to continue reaching out to Republicans despite the GOP's almost unified opposition to his stimulus plan.
"The president is always going to reach out to people of both parties. That's what he's always wanted. He wants a lot of ideas," Emanuel said.
Emanuel said that Gregg initially contacted him on Monday to say that he was getting cold feet about taking the job. That was less than a week after his selection was announced by Obama in the White House Grand Foyer.
"He must have been noodling this over the weekend," Emanuel said of Gregg.
The Monday conversation was followed up by a White House meeting with the president on Wednesday, and then Gregg's public announcement today.
Posted at 7:20 PM ET on Feb 12, 2009
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Please email us to report offensive comments.
I apologize for calling you an idiot. Whatever our differences may be, showing disrespect to interlocutors is not an acceptable solution.
Posted by: rooster54 | February 14, 2009 10:09 AM
Jtennessen, are you serious? Cede the floor. Sir, you are wildly dramatizing this entire thread.
However, the people that "paved the way" for the Gestapo were not knee-jerks or immature thinkers. Some had brilliant minds, but the road they chose was a road of submission to anyone who defied them. The "free speech" in our country should never be squelched by anyone, including an opposing party or a gung-ho citizen of that party, no matter how you feel about Obama... what were the words you used? "whom I have a great deal of respect and admiration". That's lovely.
We don't all share your emotions, however.
That almost audible sigh at the beginning of your post is very typical of the liberal in you. You have tried so hard to allow me a small glimpse into your very intellectual thinking, but you have sadly failed and now you are "ceding" the floor.
Regardless, you appear to have left your common sense in the mud room. This pig is going to wallow in the mud room. I sing beautifully, by the way, and without any prompting by a single liberal.
Posted by: Daylo1 | February 13, 2009 7:33 PM
(sigh) Well, I tried. I tried to have a rational discussion with you. I guess there are some people who just won't use their faculties of reason, regardless of how fervently one hopes for it. Sir, you know neither me, nor my "kind." I am not a "liberal," despite whatever you want to tell yourself to justify your sense of persecution. You mention the Gestapo -- it was people with the same sort of unthinking, knee-jerk refusal to engage in mature dialog with people who have opposing viewpoints that paved the way for the Gestapo and the myriad similar organizations that litter the pages of human history.
BTW, in regard to Bush and the weather, you are mischaracterizing the intent of those billboards. They were warning that the policies of the Bush administration (not Bush himself) failed to deal adequately with the crisis of climate change, and that one of the consequences of climate change is increasingly violent storms. Though I support the sensationalist manner in which they attempted to drive home their point no more than I do your distortions, portraying that as "blaming Bush for the weather" is either disingenuous or obtuse or both.
Well, in the end, I am reminded of an old saying: "There is no point in trying to teach a pig to sing -- it wastes your time and annoys the pig." Therefore, I cede the floor to you sir. You may have the last word.
Posted by: JTennessen | February 13, 2009 7:17 PM
It's pretty sad, Roos that you and old JTennessen can't detect tongue in cheek comments and stoop to calling concerned citizens "idiots". It really isn't much fun, if you don't "get it".
Posted by: Daylo1 | February 13, 2009 7:14 PM
Move On is actually right about that.
Posted by: rooster54 | February 13, 2009 7:07 PM
heeheeehawwww. That's dang hilarious there Roos. I thought I was the only idiot on this board, but dang it you proved me wrong.
Posted by: Daylo1 | February 13, 2009 7:12 PM
Remember those unborn fetuses you profess to love, turn into people (whom you would probably hate), and if you do anything for people, you might turn into a socialist.
Incidentally, I've spent some time in other countries, and you're an idiot.
Posted by: rooster54 | February 13, 2009 6:48 PM
Now you are getting a little too chummy there, rooster. Thinking you know me.
We can all help people without becoming socialists and yes, I was aware that fetuses, if allowed to live will grow into full-blown adults, but thanks for reminding me.
Met a lot of idiots, on your excursions, have you?
Well, you know Roos, you don't mind if I call you Roos, do you? Hope you get to spend much more time in other countries in the future, but you may not want to tell them you came from the U.S. Right now, they HATE us because of the old stimulus bill, especially China. They hate us so much, they said it twice. Stay out of China, Roos, and maybe Taiwan, Korea...they don't like us, Any of those Russian, Asian or European countries..wow looks like you are running out of options.
Posted by: Daylo1 | February 13, 2009 7:10 PM
Move On is actually right about that.
Posted by: rooster54 | February 13, 2009 7:07 PM
The "Pledge of Allegiance" was written by a Christian Socialist named Bellamy. Look it up.
Most of us figured out Joseph McCarthy was a paranoid nut, and that his "enemies" were decent conscientious people who didn't deserve what mass hysteria did to them.
Nobody's coming to "pry your cold dead hands" off of your precious guns, but your postings suggest you might be a dangerous lunatic who could use some help.
Posted by: rooster54 | February 13, 2009 7:05 PM
"liberal political action group MoveOn.org is saying that President George W. Bush is to blame for "making extreme weather stronger."
Posted by: Daylo1 | February 13, 2009 7:00 PM
Remember those unborn fetuses you profess to love, turn into people (whom you would probably hate), and if you do anything for people, you might turn into a socialist.
Incidentally, I've spent some time in other countries, and you're an idiot.
Posted by: rooster54 | February 13, 2009 6:48 PM
Rooster54, yes. I am barricaded and having all my food delivered and my calls screened. I am not wearing a tin foil hat, however, as that would not easily be biodegradable.
I only have a few firearms, but they are locked and loaded.
Which part of this socialist presidency don't you understand, rooster? I'll try to explain. I am a patient person.
Posted by: Daylo1 | February 13, 2009 6:31 PM
BLAME BUSH FOR THE WEATHER: This is only one small excerpt. They are all over the internet and I heard this accusation about 1.5 years ago on the news. Sad, sad, sad, JTennessen, get your head out of your intellectual sandhill.
Posted by: Daylo1 | February 13, 2009 6:26 PM
Are you barricaded somewhere with a foil hat and a bunch of firearms? What a bunch of hallucinatory paranoid nonsense!
Posted by: rooster54 | February 13, 2009 6:25 PM
JTennessen: I may not know YOU, but I do know your KIND. You are all about liberalism and what that stands for, including socialism and communism.
I will continue to make the remarks that I choose to make concerning your beloved Obama with the same dignity that was shown to President Bush, that is until the Gestapo comes a knockin'.
If I choose to be humorous with my posts, not histrionic by the way, then you will have to either develop a sense of humor or turn the other cheek, which by the way is not a strong point for a liberal
It would seem from your post that you are enamored with the one. Better wear your seat belt becuase the ride is about to get really bumpy.
Posted by: Daylo1 | February 13, 2009 6:12 PM
>Please ask yourself one thing. Why is that you have not called to task these other posters, who "ahem" are on your side. These posters are over the edge and using hyperbole, but you don't call them out by name. WHY IS THAT?
>Will you answer that question? Of course not.
Here's another small piece of advice: don't assume you know another person based on 150 words they posted to an online forum. I assert that you know, for all intents and purposes, nothing about me, my political views, nor what "side" I am on. I have never employed the kind of verbal histrionics in which you indulge with regard to any public figure, and that includes the previous administration.
I singled you out for push-back because your vituperation was aimed at a man for whom I have a great deal of respect and admiration. You had the same option to rationally admonish those whose rhetorical flourishes were aimed at others, but you chose a different path.
Yes, I support President Obama. Does that fact alone place me in a certain portion of the political spectrum? As I mentioned, he has been lambasted over these past weeks by many on both extremes, while a sizable majority of us in the middle think he is doing a great job. On the other hand, most Americans feel that President Bush deserves condemnation for widespread incompetence and mishandling of our nation's business (though I certainly never heard anyone blame him for bad weather). If we extrapolate those facts, we would be forced to conclude that our country has suddenly become overwhelmingly "liberal" -- an odd and precipitous shift for a nation that only a few short months ago was widely viewed as being "center right."
Don't you see how meaningless these labels are? There's no question that it's convenient to be able to put someone who disagrees with you into an ideological box because that makes it easier to marginalize them and shut them out of political discourse. But these classifications are, at best, simple-minded and, at worst, mendacious. If we are ever going to solve the many problems that beset us at this moment in history, we simply must find a way to rise above this. Let's be better than those who employ such tactics; let's refuse to engage in the same self-destructive behavior that has brought us to this impasse; let's agree to disagree civilly and with at least some modicum of dignity.
Posted by: JTennessen | February 13, 2009 3:58 PM
" "You're doing a heck of a job, Rahmie!"
Posted by: HepKatt "
How dare you compare a national disaster in which many people died and thousands made homeless to something as insignificant as a cabinet withdrawal.
Posted by: JRM2 | February 13, 2009 11:51 AM
Quit pussytfootin' around with these money-hugging republicans.
Jim Hightower for Secretary of Commerce.
Posted by: rooster54 | February 13, 2009 11:03 AM
w04equals666 - good one. minor rewrite: President Obama, "You're doing a heck of a job, Rahmie!"
Posted by: HepKatt | February 13, 2009 10:36 AM
Rush, Republicans and rightwing business leaders do seem to have formed an insurgency to defeat the Obama presidency. Maybe Hillary should be added to that group as well?
Posted by: HepKatt | February 13, 2009 10:34 AM
Partisanship in the defense of principled change -- not rhetoric, but real, take='em-on change -- is no vice.
ATTENTION: CHIEF OF STAFF R. EMANUEL / STAFF (please forward)
... coordinated multi-agency action "programs of personal destruction" manned by security/intel/revenue agents, local police nationwide, citizen vigilantes fronted by government-funded community policing and anti-terrorism programs.
Posted by: scrivener50 | February 13, 2009 10:28 AM
Shouldn't the "hard feelings" be President Obama's over Rahm Emmanuel's pitiful performance in his first month on the job? Emmanuel should be taking the hits instead of the president.
Posted by: HepKatt | February 13, 2009 10:16 AM
J Tennessen: Yes, it did sound rather hyperbolic and though I was trying to be humorous, it was rather all over the place, but, in the clear light of day and after re-reading some of the posts once again; if you will read down a bit you will notice that Republicans have been called "The Taliban Insurgents" on this same thread and there was talk of Rush Limbaugh holding Gregg's balls, just to mention a couple.
Please ask yourself one thing. Why is that you have not called to task these other posters, who "ahem" are on your side. These posters are over the edge and using hyperbole, but you don't call them out by name. WHY IS THAT?
Will you answer that question? Of course not. There has alwasy been two standards in the eyes of liberals. One for them and one for everyone else. Isn't that hypocritical? Just a wee bit?
And I say to you, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
How the liberals have berated President Bush for eight years. Don't you think that turnabout it fair play? He has been accused of even a whiff of any problem that might occur. He was even blamed for bad weather. How hyperbolic do you think that was? I would venture to guess, probably not at all.
I have none, nada, zilch respect for the liberals in this country. They are so over-the-top self righteous when it comes to calling someone out on the exact same thing that they have practiced for eight long years.
I might be taken seriously if I didn't use hyperbole, etc? Don't make me laugh even more. What utter hypocrisy!
Posted by: Daylo1 | February 13, 2009 10:00 AM
the president should stop trying to be friendly with these idiots, i didn't think it through??? when is the last time he had a thought on his own?(herd mentality). limgbaudh?? fat, can't hear drug addict. if no one noticed, if you want a radio show, be a republican, convicted felon, drug addict and you're in i.e. limbaugh, north, liddy, and i do listen to limbaugh because i need to know who his advertisers are so as not to buy there products and save money-keep it going rush.
Posted by: lookitkup | February 13, 2009 9:40 AM
Gregg said he hadn't really thought it through before accepting. This kinda expresses the typical foresight of all Republicans!
Posted by: DGSPAMMAIL | February 13, 2009 8:36 AM
OldManTalking wrote:
Will some one please tell the GOP that bipartisanship doesn't mean half of the power. If it did, why would we need elections? Everything would get done 50:50, or to put it more succinctly depending on which party was wrong... half ass-ed,
Posted by: OldManTalking | February 13, 2009 1:53 AM
Cross out the word, "wouldn't" in my first sentence. Sorry.
Posted by: lynettema | February 13, 2009 1:28 AM
When Gregg wouldn't withheld his vote from the stimulus, it was a big, red flag. Some are saying that when Gregg learned that Emanuel was going to be looking over his shoulder when Gregg did the census, that was when he decided to leave. Apparently, the GOPers wanted Gregg in that position to control the census.
Peter Fenn, Democratic media consultant:
Just how do you spell "Bizarre?" Let me get this straight. Senator Gregg is an intelligent, fairly conservative Republican who has been around this town for a long time. He didn't just fall off the turnip truck. He knew President Obama's agenda, he knew the stimulus plans contents, he knew the direction that he wanted to take the country, he knew the specifics of his economic plan, including tax and spending issues. In short, there is no "eureka" moment where suddenly there is a new revelation that comes to light. So, then, why did he pull out at considerable embarrassment to himself and the President? One very clear answer: the partisan, ideological, straight-jacketed Republicans got to him. The Republicans, save a few, have shown themselves capable of throwing pragmatism and effective government to the winds these last few weeks. Sad commentary. Their new name: Grandstanding OLD Party.
Posted by: lynettema | February 13, 2009 1:27 AM
Talk about overreacting. All the President said, very calmly I might add, is that Republicans ought to stop listening to Limbaugh if they are serious about helping to solve the problems our nation faces. The man did, after all, state publicly that he hopes the President's efforts fail, which by extension means that he hopes our troubles get worse. A "petulant child?" On what planet do petulant children act as calmly, rationally, and with as much dignity as President Obama has displayed at all times, despite the brickbats being tossed his way from both sides of the political spectrum? How did we get from a simple, offhand remark to public hangings? You need to curb your instinct for hyperbole because it undermines whatever credibility your arguments might otherwise have. As it stands, your histrionics make it difficult for any thinking person to take you seriously.
Posted by: JTennessen | February 13, 2009 1:10 AM
Vultures. Cocking their ugly naked heads and opening their mouths in greedy anticipation. Getting as close as they dare. Deformed, cowardly scavengers. They're always there. Ever hopeful.
Posted by: nodebris | February 13, 2009 12:02 AM
Rush Limbaugh? What has he got to do with the price of tea in China? The man is a radio talk show host for crying out loud, but I must admit I find it very amusing that he nettles the liberals as much as he does. Why, even the President of the United States, the president for all people (supposedly) has singled out a citizen of this country, Rush as a problem. Doesn't Mr. Obama have more to worry about than a little ole radio talk show host? It is a sad day indeed with the POTUS singles out a citizen of our country and names him by name as a person that the Republicans do not need to listen to...where has our freedom of speech gone? Who thinks this is just plain petty? Petty and childlike. His demeanor is not presidential material, but that of a petulant child who intends to bully his way into power. First with scare tactics and bullying. What next? Public hangings?
I have seen more Democratic mantra repeated on this website that really is hilarious. Having just a little bit of trouble thinking for yourselves, are we?
On another funny note, it would seem that the liberals are salivating to blame Gregg for this whole affair. How dare he have any principles!!! The census taken away from the commerce department for political purposes and he should just shut up? The Obama administration will use the data to manipulate more Democrats into office with redistricting, but that is okay with all the liberals. What's the big deal, right? BUT, if that were Bush doing the same thing, well he would be demonized straight into hell if it were within your power. Some things you let slide and some things you don't. Your conscience has been seared. You don't know what's right and what's wrong anymore. You are upside down and inside out.
An example of upside down and inside out would be that you are willing to say killing unborn children is okay, (cause you "forgot" to take your birth control pill) but there are major investigations over the killing of wolves and bears in Alaska that are over-running the state and annhilating the caribou babies. Don't you see how utterly ridiculous you look? You have devalued human life.
It appears that you are all just highly perturbed because Obama got caught with his hand in the cookie jar already, not even one month out from the inauguration. Sheeesh, this is the same old song and dance. Some sheeple will never learn.
Posted by: Daylo1 | February 12, 2009 11:51 PM
We are witnessing the sign of the Taliban Insurgents (REPUBLICANS) declaring all out war against President Obama. Spread the word. President Obama the Republicans will hate you because you'll smarter, more popular and better than they are.(You didn't need to lie to get elected). Most important,they hate you because you have defeated them in every way that matters. You should not put all of your projected good intentions upon your GOP Opponents.
Posted by: ohhduh04 | February 12, 2009 11:45 PM
Dear Mr Gregg:
Sorry about your balls.
Maybe if you ask nicely, Rush Limbaugh will let you have them back on weekends.
Posted by: JohnQuimby | February 12, 2009 11:26 PM
Good day! Check out *** SUGARBABYDATE. C OM *** plz. There are Over millions of profiles from all over the world! No matter where you are or what you are, you can find someone just around your neighborhood. You can get their pictures, phone numbers, locations, and almost any information.Everything is FREE! 34
Posted by: kylewu86 | February 12, 2009 10:15 PM
барак обама - Да мы можем!
Spending your way out of a bankrupt/spending problem. real smart. real smart. Do people realize that the US government is spending money that unborn people will have to slave to pay off? NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION! Remember that? How are the people who cant even vote yet being represented when the legislature and government is putting them DEEP into debt? Answer that, pseudo-boffins!
This is the most disgusting start of a "populist" I have ever seen.
Posted by: mickrussom | February 12, 2009 9:31 PM
Shut up Rahm, you AIPAC lackey, gun grabbing crooked nut with a father in a terrorist group named Irgun. Shut UP, Rahm.
What a stinking dissapointment Rahm Scummanual turned out to be.
Again, Shut up Rahm.
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste"...
"What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before"...
Yes, he can do things that the electorate would never vote for popularly.
Posted by: mickrussom | February 12, 2009 9:26 PM
Obama gets credit for trying and showing how hard it is to reach across the aisle. He's earned the scars of bipartisan outreach many times in the 23 days he's been President.
Gregg gets credit for being true to himself but he earns a demerit for embarrassing himself and the President by accepting the job offer in the first place; didn't he know about the Stimulus last week? Didn't he know Obama was a Democrat?
Posted by: asja | February 12, 2009 9:17 PM
When is Obama going to learn to STOP reaching out to Republicans. All they do is stab him in the back.
Posted by: maritza1 | February 12, 2009 9:03 PM
yeah, no hard feelings, right. well done, Rahm. three strikes and you are out--as a vetter? please learn to shoot straight.
Posted by: axolotl | February 12, 2009 8:56 PM
I say pick Joe Nye from Harvard
Posted by: dudh | February 12, 2009 8:53 PM
.that some people have not become little Julio Oseguedas fawning..slobbering over this person..!!!
Posted by: awithoff | February 12, 2009 8:49 PM
Give our President credit for trying to hire the best and brightest. Give Gregg credit for not saving his ideology for when he is important in his job.
You'd rather have some sleazebags like Joe Wilson or Scott McLellan who pretended to be in the Administration, then struck when the time was right?
The rule in an Administration is that the guy who got elected gets to set the direction. Both Obama and Gregg deserve kudos for honestly recognizing that.
Posted by: tommariner | February 12, 2009 8:47 PM
Arlen Specter for Commerce Secretary!
Posted by: MarisaSF | February 12, 2009 8:45 PM
Apparently Gregg once voted to do away with the Commerce Dept. Could this be an attempt to kill it by other means?
Posted by: FadingFast | February 12, 2009 8:43 PM
said obama, "great job rahmie!"..
Posted by: w04equals666 | February 12, 2009 8:32 PM
Serves Obama right for thinking that it is possible to work with conservative Republicans. They are a bunch of vicious bullies who eagerly seek out confrontation at every opportunity. So oblige them, Mr. President. The American people chose YOU.
Posted by: lydgate | February 12, 2009 8:26 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.


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We awoke not only to a knock on the door, but also to loud blaring music. The first-year graduate students at the university were having a party up on the roof. I really don't think anyone sleeps at this college!
After leaving for the airport at 4:30 am on Monday and jumping on an hour-and-a-half flight to Mumbai, we spent two hours in the van to drive to the hotel.
When we landed at the airport, my breath was taken away as I saw the rows and rows of slum villages that lined the outskirts of the airport.
The city is so busy – though I've never been to New York, I imagine this to be something like it. We started our time in Mumbai with a bus tour of the city. Everything is just go, go, go here in Mumbai. Again the traffic is super busy – it took us two hours to get from place to place.
We visited the hanging garden, which was originally a lake, but at one point in time vultures would drop bones in the lake and the water became disease-ridden. Because of the immense amount of disease in the water they decided to float land over the water, and now the lake after years is used as a reservoir by people living near by.
I'm just in complete shock at how different India is from the USA. Everything is just completely different. The way the shops line the street is just so foreign to me, but there is structure in the chaos.
Mumbai, when it was first a city, was called Mumbai, but then the name was changed to Bombay when the British colonized. Sometime after gaining their independence from Britain, the Indian government decided to change the city's name back to Mumbai.
The bay surrounding the city is beautiful. I'm really going to enjoy this city, and I cannot wait to share my adventures with you!
A graduate student at SMU's Temerlin Advertising Institute, Kat is participating in SMU-in-India during summer 2010. She and other SMU students are spending three weeks doing in-class coursework in Ahmedabad, as well as two weeks taking field trips. Read Kat's blog.


text:
Burlington Central has been one of the area's best programs in recent years, winning 20 or more games each of the past four seasons.
The Rockets haven't had as smooth of a ride this spring. Entering Monday's game against Richmond-Burton, Central was 7-8 overall with a 6-2 mark in Big Northern Conference East action.
"We don't have those same kind of established hitters we've had over the past couple years but we still have enough talent to compete," Central coach Kyle Nelson said. "We've been pretty competitive in all of our games. We just seem to have one or two big innings we can't get out of, and that's been the difference in four or five games here."
Nelson said ragged defense has been the most pervasive door-opener when it comes to those melt-down innings. He's been happy with his pitching rotation, which includes No. 1 Danny Gerke in addition to fellow right-handers Alex Bell, Jake Schutta and Ryan Schuring.
Nelson said this year's team doesn't have as advanced of a baseball IQ as some of his recent powerhouses.
"It's been a lot of tactical stuff as well, and some of that goes with just not having played much baseball this year," Nelson said. "Even our seniors are relatively young as far as playing because our roster has been so top-heavy the last few years."
Nelson, though, is optimistic the Rockets can close the season in strong fashion as the Class 3A postseason approaches later this month.
"I think we do have enough talent to compete with just about anyone in our regional, sectional," Nelson said. "It's just a matter of whether we can make routine plays."
Geneva call-up off to strong start
Geneva has played its best baseball in recent weeks, and the arrival of a sophomore call-up is seemingly playing a part in the team's uptick.
Catcher Nate Montgomery, who was on the sophomore team for the first half of the season, was recently promoted to varsity, and already has made six starts behind the plate for the Vikings.
Montgomery is showing a capable bat, including a 3 for 3 day with a double in Thursday's 3-0 win against Larkin. He added two hits and an RBI on Saturday in a 6-3, Game 2 win against Batavia.
Seeds sewn
Postseason seeds for classes 3A and 4A are scheduled to be released by the IHSA today, with the pairings to follow on Wednesday.
The pairings for classes 1A and 2A were unveiled last week.
Intra-city rivals Aurora Central Catholic and Aurora Christian are both part of the five-team IHSA Class 2A Westminster Christian Regional. The Chargers are the regional's top seed, while the Eagles are seeded third.
– Jay Schwab, email@example.com
Nick Huskisson
St. Charles East, Sr., P
What he did: Huskisson earned a pair of pitching wins last week, defeating St. Charles North on April 29 at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark and Streamwood as part of a doubleheader on Saturday. Both wins were shutouts for the Saints.
Anthony Bragg
Geneva, Sr., IF
What he did: Bragg continued his hot, late-season slugging, homering on consecutive days Tuesday and Wednesday against Larkin, and adding three hits in a Geneva win Saturday against Batavia in a doubleheader split.
Solid pitching is propelling Kaneland toward the .500 mark.
The Knights, who struggled to start the season, improved to 10-11 on the strength of their latest, quality pitching performance Saturday as Blake Sowell pitched six innings of two-run ball in a 4-2 Kaneland win against Rochelle.
Whether Batavia or Geneva is going to win the rubber game of their series.
The rivals are due to meet this afternoon in Geneva after splitting the first two games of the series in a Saturday doubleheader. The Bulldogs badly need to win to keep the pressure on fellow Upstate Eight Conference River contender St. Charles East, which enterered the week leading Batavia by a game in the River standings.
Much like in football, it's been nice to see Aurora Central Catholic bust out and have a huge season. Fresh blood atop the standings is always cool to see.
ACC baseball hasn't been heard from much in recent years, so to see the Chargers piling up the wins this spring is quite the sight.
Give it up to new coach Sean Bieterman and the Chargers. In some ways, the baseball turnaround is even more remarkable than the football team breaking the playoff drought. The Chargers' football team's improvement was step-by-step these past few years, whereas baseball has seen a dramatic, one-year turnaround.


text: Little is known about the Flemish comic artist who worked under the pen name Pack. It seems that he was only active in the 1930s and 1940s. His name first came up in 1935, when he started making illustrations and the gag strip 'Lotgevallen van Mijnheer Peirtsegaele en zijn vriend Goetgebuer' for newspaper De Dag. In 1942-43 he was present in the Ivanov publication Ons Rakkersblad with 'Kokedie het rare mijnheertje', 'De geschiedenis van Hok en Dok' and 'De vroolijke lotgevallen van vader en zoon Paps'.


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True, starting with an EJ platform has many benefits. However, there are two reasons I prefer the EA: the narrow width of the wheel track, and the extremely tight turning radius. I wonder if one could make an EJ with the turning radius of the EA. Is it all in the steering rack?
the body on the gen1 EJ is only about 1" wider then the EA82


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After the coffee. Before knocking this cold out.
The Skinny: I thought the San Antonio Spurs knew how to close. Not sure I see them winning a Game 7 on the road. Wednesday's headlines include a recap of Federal Communications Commission nominee Tom Wheeler's confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee and Charlie Sheen makes clear he won't take any lip from his costars.
Daily Dose: Tribune Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times, has hired Revlon executive Steve Berns as its new chief financial officer. Chandler Bigelow, who had been CFO since 2008, has been named executive vice president and chief business strategies and operations officer. More on the appointments from the Los Angeles Times.
Big decision. Thomas Tull, head of Legendary Entertainment, said the production company ("Dark Knight," "The Hangover") will decide in the next 60 days where it will make its home. Currently based at Warner Bros., there has been rampant speculation that Legendary will exit the studio. On Tuesday, Tull said Legendary is talking to everybody and didn't rule out staying at Warner Bros. More on Legendary from the Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter.
PHOTOS: Celebrities by The Times
In the spotlight. Tom Wheeler, nominated last month to be the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, got through a Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing with nary a scratch. Wheeler stressed competition over regulation and, like most nominees, avoided getting into any details that would shed light on his thinking. He even said to one senator asking about media consolidation, "I am specifically trying not to be specific." Bet that line doesn't work at home. Details on Wheeler's hearing from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Broadcasting & Cable.
What if the Lakers were winning? A group of cable subscribers have filed a class action lawsuit against Time Warner Cable for how it is selling its Lakers sports channel and will likely sell a Dodgers network. Both channels are carried by Time Warner Cable as part of its basic service and sold to other distributors the same way. In other words, there is no way not to buy the channels. Of course, this is how much of the pay-TV industry operates and the courts have in the past been reluctant to challenge how channels are packaged. In other words, don't hold your breath. Coverage of the suit from Deadline Hollywood.
Can't say I'm surprised. When Charlie Sheen was at odds with the producers of "Two and a Half Men," one of the common complaints was that he came to work late and often unprepared. He was then booted from the show. Selma Blair, costar of Sheen's new comedy "Anger Management" on FX, made similar observations recently. So, did the producers tell Sheen to get it together or quietly try to make peace between the duo? Nope. Instead Blair is now off the show. Sheen has a stake in the show so it's hardly a surprise that he calls the shots. Probably a blessing for her. More on the drama from TMZ.
PHOTOS: Hollywood backlot moments
Amateur hour. For the first time in five years, Chevy will have a commercial in next year's Oscars. But there is a twist. According to Advertising Age, rather than make its own ad, Chevy will ask aspiring filmmakers to submit entries in a contest and the winner will get to make the spot for the show.
Inside the Los Angeles Times: A casting call turned out to be a prank and some of the victims are not happy. ABC Family's new drama "The Fosters" might be too modern of a family for some viewers.
Follow me on Twitter. I appeal to the younger demographic. @JBFlint.
ON LOCATION: People and places behind what's onscreen PHOTOS: Biggest box office flops of 2013 PHOTOS: Celebrity production companies
ON LOCATION: People and places behind what's onscreen
PHOTOS: Biggest box office flops of 2013
PHOTOS: Celebrity production companies


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when i compile, there is no error. however when i run it, it shows this message
"Exception in thred "main" java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: main
Press any key to continue..." any idea?
my program is related to polymorphism via inheritance.
which separate into 2 files, StaffMember.java & human.java
the Volunteer progrom allows user to enter their details and it will link and display according to the program in StaffMember class.
below are my code:
Code java:
//StaffMember.java import java.util.*; import java.text.*; public class StaffMember { protected String name; protected String address; protected String phone; public Staffmember(String eName,String eAddress,String ePhone) {name=eName; address=eAddress; phone=ePhone;} public String toString() { String result="Name :" +name+"\n"; result+="Address:"+address+"\n"; result+="Phone:"+phone; return result; } //human.java import java.util.*; import java.text.*; public class human extends Staffmember { public human(String eName,String eAddress, String ePhone) { super(eName,eAddress,ePhone); } }
the software im using is jcreator, however i not manage to display nor enter details, its only show "Exception in thred "main" java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: main
Press any key to continue..."


text:
I'm trying to fit a hose barb to an autometer mechanical vacuum gauge (I want to use silicone vacuum hose vice that crappy hard nylon hose w/ compression nut). As far as I can tell, the autometer sensor is 3/8" MPT, with 28 (possibly 27) threads per inch, and I need a 1/8" ID hose barb. Searching on line for brass fittings, it seems impossible to find a 1/8" id hose to 3/8" FPT connector. just about any 1/8" ID hose barb connector I find only goes to a 1/8" FPT. Does anyone have super secret information on a brass fitting site that has what I'm looking for?
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Guest Message by DevFuse
Looking for a brass hose fitting...
Started by Lachlan , Jul 08 2011 08:45 PM
5 replies to this topic
Posted 08 July 2011 - 08:45 PM
Posted 09 July 2011 - 12:35 PM
You need a 1/8" x 3/8" NPT bushing.
Posted 09 July 2011 - 12:48 PM
You need a 1/8" x 3/8" NPT bushing.
The problem with that is that it greatly increases the length of the hardware out the back. I'd rather have all-in-one.
Posted 09 July 2011 - 12:53 PM
If you get the right bushing it should only increase it by 1/8" or so - and you can file down the hex end of the bushing to shorten it.... then you can cut off a bit of the end of the hose barb.... you can make it work. I doubt you will find a 3/8" barb fitting. They usually skip that size. Why doesn't autometer include one or have one you can buy that's plastic or something?
Another idea - you could make a flush-mount bushing with a bit of brass stock, some drilling, tapping, and threading..... wouldn't be too hard. Just do the ID first - thread the brass 1/8" barb fitting into it, then cut the OD threads with a die.
Another idea - you could make a flush-mount bushing with a bit of brass stock, some drilling, tapping, and threading..... wouldn't be too hard. Just do the ID first - thread the brass 1/8" barb fitting into it, then cut the OD threads with a die.
Edited by GeneralDisorder, 09 July 2011 - 12:55 PM.
Posted 23 July 2011 - 10:24 AM
Thanks. Yeah, I could fit something together. I was just hoping someone might have seen the miracle piece already assembled.
Posted 23 July 2011 - 06:46 PM
Call Fittings Inc. out of seattle. They dont up charge either. I'm amazed at their selection.
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The Minnesota Vikings (4-10-1) play host to the Detroit Lions (7-8) on Sunday, December 29 in the final game played at Mall of America Field. The game is scheduled for a noon kickoff. The Vikings have beaten the Lions more than any other opponent in Mall of America Field history holding a 23-7 record against Detroit since the building opened in 1982.
The Vikings have a winning mark against each of their division opponents at Mall of America Field, with a record of 20-11 against the Bears and a 16-15 mark against the Packers. The game against Detroit will mark the 250th regular season game in the stadium and the 260th including playoffs. The Vikings hold a 167-92 record in regular season and playoff action.
Play-by-Play: Gus Johnson Analyst: Charles Davis Sideline Reporter: Charissa Thompson
Play-by-Play: Paul Allen Analyst: Pete Bercich Sideline Reporter: Greg Coleman
Pre-game Show: Mike Mussman – 10 a.m. CT
KFAN and KTCN serve as the flagship stations for the 72-station, 5-state Vikings Radio Network.
Vikings WR/KR
• WR/KR Cordarrelle Patterson's 1,342 kickoff return yards are the most in the NFL in 2013 and ranks 2nd all-time among Vikings. His 109-yard kickoff return TD against Green Bay on 10/27/13 is the longest kickoff return in NFL history. He needs 4 kickoff return yards to break the Vikings single-season record (Buster Rhymes, 1,345 in 1985).
• DT Kevin Williams will be playing in his 83rd game at Mall of America Field, the 7th most all-time and most among current players.
• Patterson has scored a TD in 4 consecutive games, becoming the 1st Vikings rookie to do so since WR Randy Moss scored in 7 straight games in 1998. Patterson also recorded a team season-high 141 receiving yards against Baltimore in Week 14, including a team season- long 79-yard TD. The 141 receiving yards are the most by a Vikings rookie since Moss. (163, at Dallas, 11/26/1998).
• Since 2011, special teams coordinator Mike Priefer's first year in Minnesota, the Vikings are tied with the Ravens, Broncos and Titans for the most combined kick return TDs with 6 (4 kickoff returns, 2 punt returns). The 4 kickoff return TDs lead the NFL.
• Peterson rushed for 211 yards on a career-high and team record 35 carries vs. Chicago, marking his 5th career game with 200 rushing yards. Peterson's 5 games of 200 rushing yards are tied for 2nd all-time with Tiki Barber, trailing only trailing O.J. Simpson (6).
• The Vikings scored a season-high 48 points against the Eagles. It was the 1st time the Vikings topped 40 points since beating the New York Giants, 44-7, on 1/3/10.
• Patterson, who led the team with 54 rushing yards, became the 1st Vikings WR to lead the team in rushing since Percy Harvin on 12/6/09 vs. Arizona.
• Lions WR nate Burleson played for the Vikings from 2003-05, recording career highs in both yards (1,006) and TDs (9) in 2004. Burleson was a 3rd round pick (71st overall) of the Vikings in 2003.
• Lions QB Shaun Hill played from 2002-06 with the Vikings. Hill signed with the Vikings as an undrafted rookie free agent.
• Detroit's Offensive Coordinator Scott Linehan spent 2002-04 with the Vikings as the Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach.
• Lions QB Coach Todd Downing, an Eden Prairie, Minn. native, got his start with the Vikings as a football systems analyst from 2003-04 and the Offensive Quality Control Coach in 2005.
• Silas McKinnie, a regional scout for the Lions, spent 5 seasons (1997-2002) at the same position with the Vikings.
• Rick Spielman, the Vikings GM, received his 1st NFL personnel experience with the Lions serving as a college scout from 1990-94 before adding pro scouting duties in his final 2 seasons (95-96) with the Lions.
• Vikings TE Coach Jimmie Johnson played TE for the Lions from 1992-93.
• Vikings Personnel Consultant Jerry Reichow was a 4th-round pick in 1956 by Detroit and helped the Lions to their last NFL title in 1957.
• Kevin Warren, the Vikings VP of Legal Affairs and Chief Administrative Of- ficer, spent 2001-03 with the Detroit Lions as Senior VP of Business Operations and General Counsel.
• Vikings WR
• Lions Head Coach Jim Schwartz served as a graduate assistant coach for the University of Minnesota football team in 1990.
• Lions Assistant Director of Pro Personnel Charlie Sanders played for the University of Minnesota and was drafted in the 3rd-round of the 1968 NFL Draft by the Lions.
• Vikings DB Coach Joe Woods coached at a trio of Michigan schools before landing in the NFL. Woods coached at Eastern Michigan (1993), Grand Valley State (1994-96) and Western Michigan (2001-03).
• Vikings C
• Vikings Defensive Assistant Coach Jeff Imamura coached at Saginaw Valley State.
• Lions C Dylan Gandy and T Corey Hilliard both played under Vikings Defensive Coordinator Alan Williams for the Indianapolis Colts. Gandy and Hilliard were also in Indianapolis while Vikings Head Coach Leslie Frazier, and Vikings G
• Vikings QB
• Lions C Corey Hilliard (2003-06), TE Brandon Pettigrew (2003-06) and Vikings G Charlie Johnson (2002-05) all spent time together at Oklahoma State.
• Lions LB Ashlee Palmer and Vikings S
• Vikings K
• Lions TE Joseph Fauria and Vikings G
• DE Jared Allen recorded a total of 6.0 sacks in 2 games against the Lions in 2011. Allen finished the season with 22.0 sacks, setting a new Vikings single-season record for sacks and finishing just 1.0 sack short of breaking the NFL's single-season sack record.
• LB Chad Greenway set a career-high with 2 INT against the Lions on 9/20/09. Greenway added 3 tackles in a Vikings 27-13 win.
• In the last meeting between the Vikings and Lions on 9/8/13, RB
• CB Marcus Sherels returned a punt 77 yards for a touchdown in the Vikings 20-13 win over the Lions on 9/30/12. The Vikings also scored a kickoff return TD in the game, marking the 3rd time in team history scoring on a PR and KR in the same game.
• The Vikings have defeated the Lions in 14 out of the last 15 meetings at Mall of America Field. The Vikings only loss in that span came in overtime in 2011 when the Lions won 26-23.
• The Vikings and Lions have played 104 times overall with Minnesota holding a 68-34-2 series record.
• The Vikings and Lions have played two overtime games in series history. In 2007, the Lions won 20-17 at Ford Field. In Week 3 of the 2011 season, the Lions again won on a field goal, 26-23.
• The Vikings are currently 23-7 when playing the Lions at Mall of America Field.
• The Vikings and Lions have never met in the playoffs.
• The Vikings and Lions have closed the regular season against each other five times. The Vikings hold a 3-2 advantage in those games.
• Give the Vikings their 7th win in the month of December dating back to 2012. The Vikings currently are tied for 9th in the NFL with a 6-3 record in December in that span.
• Increase the Vikings winning percentage at Mall of America Field to .648.
• Give the Vikings their 22nd winning season at Mall of America Field since it opened in 1982.


text:
Delgo is a story about love and betrayal in a magical world that is torn apart by the mutual prejudices of two races who inhabit it: the winged Nohrin, masters of the skies, and the terrestrial Lockni, who harness the mystical powers of the land. Here, a young boy finds forbidden love with someone outside his own kind, and together they expose evildoers and unite a kingdom.
The concept for Delgo, from germination to realization, unfolded over a 12-year period. "When I joined Fathom in 1997, Marc had already been talking about doing a movie," says Warren Grubb, animation director/VFX supervisor, about the ambitious desire of Marc Adler, Fathom president/executive producer. "Together, we toyed with the idea for a few years, drawing pictures and thinking of story concepts. Then, in 2000, we made the decision to do it." By 2003, a star-studded cast had been selected, and production soon followed.
"We were flying by the seat of our pants. We had never done anything like this before, and we had to deal with limitations in terms of bandwidth and available technology because we're an independent facility," says Adler (see "Independent Minded," pg. 4). "However, as we later discovered, 'independent' does not mean 'inexpensive.'" Nevertheless, Fathom was embarking on this journey with far less money in its pockets than the typical Hollywood studio.
Ready, Set, DelgoWith a small budget for a project of this size, Fathom had to be fiscally conservative and resourceful in terms of the software and hardware chosen for the film's production. In the end, the studio expanded its existing Autodesk Maya pipeline, which had been used for short-form television projects (such as station tags) and interactive Web content. "Warren and some of the team devised a number of technologies and methods that allowed us to be very efficient," says Adler. "That is one of the main reasons we were able to do a movie of this quality and scope in the time that we did and with the resources we had."
In fact, Maya was the main tool for just about every aspect of the content creation, and the team took advantage of MEL to write hundreds of custom scripts for tasks ranging from the simplistic to the complex.
Artists modeled and animated two separate races of Delgo's humanlike characters in Autodesk's Maya, giving each a distinctive look.
Nevertheless, the group's early attempts at modeling the film's characters entirely on the computer (from illustrations) failed to produce a cohesive look in a timely manner. Alternatively, an artist sculpted the main character models in clay. Then, using a Cyberware scanner, the crew digitized the maquettes and turned the point data into usable meshes. "There is software for extrapolating NURBS, but it is expensive. So we just wrote scripts in Maya to help with the process," says Grubb. In the end, though, the group used polygons rather than NURBS to facilitate rendering and deformation.
A morphing system, created in-house, enabled the team to generate crowds, while MEL scripts provided the necessary AI to direct them.
The film's characters—which are human-like—were animated by hand. "We knew we had to keep the characters as flexible as possible so they could be rigged quickly and changed easily," explains Grubb. "We chose smooth-skinning almost exclusively, avoiding other deformers, such as blendshapes, clusters, and wire deformers, so we could use scripts to easily copy binding information." Alternatively, the artists used influence objects and extra joints to achieve the necessary deformation.
"We were able to drive joints, influence curves, and influence meshes with set-driven keys and expressions to get everything from muscle bulging to subtle facial wrinkling," adds Grubb. "Keeping all the meshes within smooth-skin clusters made it easy to, for instance, change surface topology extensively on a character and transfer all the binding information with a button click." By using the master rig and adjusting the base bones to a particular character, the animators could rig a character in a single day versus weeks.
Many of the characters can fly, so the wings and motion blur were big considerations in the production. The wings had to be large enough to look like they would be able to lift the character, but they had to appear light enough to keep the character from looking weighed down by the massive appendages. To avoid that issue, the artists added veins with large, translucent cells. "We experimented with a lot of settings to get the best blur, and ended up rendering on ones or twos, depending on the scene, to get a good insect-like speed of flapping," explains Grubb.
One model that especially challenged the group was not a character, but a palace throne room, which had to be destroyed in a final sequence. "It's one thing to model a structure for animation, but when it came time to break parts of it off, we realized there were a lot of subtle things that had to go into making it believable," Grubb says.
First, the team cut out pieces of geometry to make the "parts" seem as if they were broken out, but this produced a "cheap, toy appearance," Grubb recalls. The artists then created subsequent versions by adding more substructure—such as different types of stone and mortar, reinforcement bars, bricks, and even bits of broken and cracked plaster and stone around the edges.
As for texturing, the artists began the process by creating a library of images that formed the basis for the color palettes and textures that would be representative of the two major character races. For characters, they wrote MEL scripts to help with the UV layout process, and used Adobe's Photoshop to paint the surfaces, adding effects and filters to give them natural variety and a painterly hue and tone.
Environmental Impact
The epic-size environments and sweeping vistas are lush, beautiful, and colorful, with a soft fantasy-like appearance. Although they may look like matte paintings, most of the backgrounds began as 3D models and were later intensified with painted detail. "The way we lit the backgrounds made them look more painterly. We took things like a sky and clouds on mattes, and placed them onto a dome inside Maya, then color-corrected the layer. This gave us one massive painting that we tweaked for various scenes," says Adler. "Again, we used what we had and modified it as much as possible to take things as far as we could."
The environments often are teeming with foliage, grasses, and moss, all grown with Joe Alter's Shave and a Haircut. Procedural textures were used exclusively for these elements, making them more resolution independent for both close and long shots.
The group also used a variety of procedural techniques, particularly in one scene that proved to be deceptively difficult. "We started out just modeling tubes of caverns, but they looked too simple and bland; to make them more believable, we added lots of rock and cracks, but the sets were getting incredibly dense," says Grubb. "So we ended up using a procedural particle replacement to add a variety of stones to the walls of the caverns at render time, so the models were light for animation and base lighting, and would render quickly with the instances added in the final frames."
Taking Control
Due to financial considerations, the group used the renderer inside Maya. "It's free," notes Adler. "But we did have to be more creative in getting the overall look we wanted out of that renderer." So they leaned heavily on the lighting team to come up with the desired look for the movie.
Because the tool did not offer a lot of flexibility out of the box, the group rendered in layers, using a good deal of RGB and normal maps to control the images in comp. "This gave us a lot of control over the color and effects, and it let us achieve a uniform, painterly look via Shake macros, which let us dictate the light bleeding, blooming, and other effects," adds Adler.
DrQueue open-source software automated and managed the rendering process. This was done on a Linux-based renderfarm of 1000 CPUs, some donated by AMD.
Perhaps the biggest technical investment the group made was in the creation of a proprietary Web-based asset management and collaboration tool, dubbed Storyline, that tracked the film's 1500 shots from layout, through animation and comp'ing, to final output. The visual system enabled any artist, regardless of location, to browse a series of thumbnail images and access the desired sequence. By clicking on a shot in that sequence, the person is presented the shot along with a range of information about it.
Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of Computer Graphics World.