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I have struggled with MS for years now and some of my recent downfall was probably that I was having a flair up. What caused the flair up? I think it was doing too much and gave myself Adrenal fatigue which taxed my body overall and the massive stresses triggered the MS. I am not convinced however that this last year has been all due to MS. If I was to put a percentage on it, it would be 75% adrenal fatigue and 25% MS. I treat them both the same as far as supplements, foods, etc.
Running and working out are great and mandatory for a person to be healthy but too much and it takes more than you get from it. More does not always mean better. In a lot of cases of athletes it is damaging even though they look fabulous on the outside.
For me It all started in July of 2010 when I first had anemia during marathon training. Marathon training is no joke and especially for women as they are more prone to anemia. I was working and mothering and working out and not managing my stress well. Stress can make you sick. Mental, emotional and physical stresses are all stress. That is the baseline lesson in all this.
Fast-forward to May of 2011 when I was in NYC for the Vivobarefoot coaching course I felt horrid but I kept quiet about it. I had numerous bouts of dizzyness and terrifying anxiety every day. I was taking anxiety meds just to get through the day. I can't believe I managed not to just bail on the whole trip. I would be in class and get dizzy and worry that I would pass out. But I kept telling myself that in NYC I would just be another tree in the forrest and be ok..... Then right after the week long class I took a train to Rochester and ran a 12 hour timed ultra and pulled off 38 miles. It was fun and the recovery wasn't too bad but what everyone doesn't know is that I was having horrible bathroom accidents while running and was really scared of the dizzyness and anxiety that I just ignored and ignored and ignored even when that little voice inside was telling me to wake the fuck up. I have a tough mind and when I want to do something I can push through on will power. I am tenacious but to a fault at times. I was hurting myself.
During that spring, my sex drive was non existent which put a rift between the super hero and I. I was lethargic and depressed and not a melancholy blue depression but a "leave me alone, lay down and stare at the wall" depression and yet I kept trying to run the bad feelings away.
In hindsight I see the hormonal issues and metabolic damage being done here but at the time I didn't know what the hell was happening to me. My periods were coming closer and closer together and heavier which was causing even more anemia. The iron supplements tear up my stomach so I was just in a nasty vicious cycle. I kept it all to myself and didn't share online.
After that NYC trip, I didn't run as much and eventually quit all together for a while. Today, I'm ok with that but at the time it hurt my heart and ego something fierce. I really had to re-examine what it is that defines me. I saw my friends running and meeting goals and doing bigger and better things. I felt like I was slipping away and I wasn't relevant anymore. Slowly, I was loosing my health and loosing sight of the fact that my health is not my own. It is my families because they need me. NEED ME to be healthy and there for them.
I thought I was having heart issues because my anxiety was causing so many chest sensations and yet all tests came back normal. I was told my heart looked "beautiful" by numerous doctors. I had ongoing bouts of pleurisy which causes inflamation of the lining between the lungs and the rib cages and hurt like hell and then of course make anxiety worse because we are supposed to take chest pain seriously. I had lingering infection and on top of that chronic stomach pain. all. the. time. Which of course, you guessed it, created more stress. ugh.
I would crash every day(crashing to me means an urgency to lay down or a drastic immediate loss of energy) , like clockwork, at 10:00 am and 6:00 pm and then wake in the middle of the night from a whacked out cortisol imbalances. Broken sleep and tired during the day and I was living on coffee, sugar, bread and anything easily digested and fast just to stay afloat.
I was not tested by a doctor (naturopaths are not covered by my insurance) but I am a smart girl and can read and research (Drlam.com )and what I found were clear signs pointing to adrenal fatigue and metabolic damage. The hard part was implementing the change and stopping the coffee, sugar, stress, and exercise as Dr Lam suggests.
I was also having thyroid and girl hormone imbalances as well. The adrenals, thyroid, and ovaries are all connected and mine were whacked out. From running. I did this to myself because I would not listen to my body, exactly what I spout off as a barefoot runner, I completely ignored. I was just doing too much. Pushing too hard and stressing way way way too much. And for what?
So, what did I do? After I was diagnosed with MS officially, with MRI scans and my prior history, I had my vitamin and mineral levels tested. I decided that getting those numbers up was a solid place to start being proactive. MS is just a label. They really don't know what causes it. They know what it is but not how to stop it or what causes it. The medical treatments my neurologist wants me on, in my case, are more debilitating than the disease. I wasn't as sure of the adrenal fatigue as I was of the MS diagnosis so I went with that and moved forward looking to improve my health overall. Easier said than done while depressed but I watched Dr Wahl's TED talk video and implemented her advice.
For a while there I isolated myself. I stopped coaching runners. I stopped running. I just felt like a big pile of poo with no will to do anything. The upside to that is that I was forced to slow down. I didn't have a choice. I had zero energy to do anything but slow down. When I would go to the store and was terrified when a bout of fatigue takes hold and I am scared that my husband might have to carry me out or the embarrassment of having to ride the electric cart at the store. I did however choose to embrace it and I decided that I want to be out in the world with my family even if I have to ride the cart. I even told myself that if I felt especially low I would just wear my streampunk goggles and combat boots while riding the cart. If you want to stare at the young fit looking girl riding the cart then I will give you something to stare at.
The vitamin and mineral imbalances and my depression from my situation were feeding off of each other and of course the heart palpitations from stress did not make things easier. I kept researching. I decided to stop isolating myself. Although the coming out of isolation was after I changed my prioritized and reestablished a deep connection with my family. The upside of depression was the stark reality of how very precious and dear my children and husband are to me.
I am working on a post about what I have done to treat adrenal fatigue as well as MS. Really its not different in how I have chosen to treat both issues. Basically it is rest and sleep as much as you can. Balance out vitamin and mineral levels. Eat whole healthy foods but in balanced levels. When I was really bad off I had to eat bread or simple carbs to keep me from "crashing". Hypoglycemia would set me back for days. Once I got stronger and stopped crashing so much I then, and only then, could go for more sweet potatoes and quinoa instead of the bread. Some exercise is ok but only after a long long rest. I didn't do anything for months. I wanted to get a bit more information and data gathering as to what has happened over the last couple of years before I even considered regular exercise.
So, being depressed forced me to realign my priorities and put my family first. I also slept more which is exactly what I needed. Because I felt like crap, I rested all the time, which is exactly what I needed. I discovered a passion and love of yoga which is just an extension for me of barefoot running. I have learned self control and how to perfect skills and work at being healthy instead of push push push and power through, now I have finesse and a greater appreciation of detail and long term work.
I had to stop. STOP. stop trying to exercise my way out of it. Running more was not helping. It was hard to admit. Cutting calories and trying to be lean was making it even worse. I had to let go of what I thought I knew and try something different. I had to sleep, eat, and slow down.
Look for my upcoming post on what exactly I am doing to treat both adrenal fatigue and my MS. This is a learning experience and an ongoing process of attaining better health so its not an end all list. Please let me know if you have experienced issues with adrenal fatigue or weight gain, crashing hard after working out, loss of sex drive, whacked out menstrual cycles, depression etc. I would love to hear your story. Ask any questions of my that you want!!!
As I sit here and type this I am feeling pretty good. I have some weird pain in my back but I feel pretty good otherwise. Its always something right :) These days I can do some yoga and ride my fitdesk and go for walks but I am very aware that I am not too far from being out of the woods and need to continue to go slow and steady. I can put myself in a creative state and I want to talk and interact with people. I have much more of a reserve to deal with my 4 crazy spawn and my sex drive is slowly coming back which my super hero is pleased about!
It gets better and I believe we have the ability and resources to heal ourselves if we will just choose to do it!
Two quick links to great resources that I love.
Doctor Lam.com was one of the first and has continued to be the best online resource I have found for helping me treat and learn about adrenal fatigue.
Danny J from Sweaty Betties has had similar issues and there are so many other women out there working themselves into a very unhealthy and dangerous place.
Angie Bee


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Grouper - The Man Who Died In His Boat
big grouper fan. you other fans probably know that there's a vinyl/cd reissue of DADDUAH along with a new album of songs recorded at the same time. out 4th feb.
new single: https://soundcloud.com/kranky/grouper-vital
the album is amazing, on par with dead deer and maybe even a bit better.
Didn't know it was recorded at the same time as Dead Deer
(haven't heard it yet either, mind)
excited but
Dragging... is probably my least favourite of her stuff. New single sounds pretty nice though. Been jamming Violet Replacement loads.
This is an excellent record.
Enjoying it more and more with every listen.
Is the new one out yet?
Had heard this track and loved it... Saw her doing some more ethereal tape loop stuff at cafe oto which was great but love her more melodic stuff too.
Based on Vital, really excited for TMWDIHB
Favourite tune is Hold from the Room40 7". Gorgeous stuff.
how does it compare to the 'Water People/Moving Machine' single?
the best thing she's done - at least up to this one.

subset: commoncrawl


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Opinion: Is the Media to Blame for Gun Violence?
Writer and former CNN and NBC News anchor Campbell Brown on why gun violence in movies and videogames should rank higher among White House concerns. Photos: Getty Images
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... there ... is something that makes sense ... so we see an actor ... tougher background checks them or infringe on the rights of was possible bounds but will help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people ... welcome to Opinion Journal I'm Mary Kissel ... that was present Obama Wednesday reiterating his call for stricter gun control legislation ... but writer and broadcaster Campbell Brown says in today's Wall Street Journal ... that's not the real problem the problem ... is the violence in the media and fuel contracts on the up and saying ... thank you dear I read in the big question that pops out in the was ... soprano who really the media where the parents ... Fidelity's little kids watch R rated movies ... okay I wanna take responsibility of parents not some unkind to you by any means aam ... by ... I mean I'm pretty hands on parent I quit my job I'm home with my kids and there is no way in our current environment ... but you can Mana ter ... everything going on in everything your child is absorbing three TV ... through movies through the Internet through video games they be it's impossible ... and ... part of it is just giving parents the information ... changing our eating system to make it Brielle and I able looking at the FCC rules that regulate facts and laneway Inge and ... I immunity on TV why are we include violent and that every other developed country the world focuses on the slippery slope the ECU regulator ... on me give you the power to control ... but what I see it were unable to hear or read what assets ... well we've done it with obscenity ... and we found lines we can draw right I mean it ... it's easy to presented definition and figure out what a definition as but I'm saying it's worthwhile to do a deal if the deal is more on the regulator's new weighed on her snow I think it's a call and and look how I'll give you another example that was that was ... changing the FCC rules Bic really do exist or the other thing so I don't think adding violence ... as a whole new set of regulations to to to that solution ... but explains the why Fi cable or satellite TV ... I have to pay for all the channels I don't want ... to stick in the morning show this morning ... it as well ... he's the market moving towards that solution however I mean I think yes we have to know now on our eye pads are I Phones the kids this choice to ... do we really need to bring the federal government is now working we wait for the market to get this this choice is ... why why why why why why am I forced to pay for those and tell the cable companies do the right ... now I got the right the S word on the one and ... only the politics of this ... year often is really ... as strong call for the president ... to do something ... given his history ... when he's in confidence and he's really willing to put ... the clinical skin in the game on this issue ... I think ... justice to shore political matter he might have had more success when the gun control measures that he was trying to implement if he had asked everyone if it's imminent ... when you make a very narrow and you make ... sure the NRA gun owners that guy in this equation and you ignore the impact of media violence altogether which basically they get by just calling firm for more spending on it ... then when you're basically letting all these people off the clock ... and ... you making and about one group of people and dividing the country so scary read the bad guy again he didn't bring that legislation to the floor with strict ... a Kenya was ... passing contesting feeling in this example let's say I'm I'm from leafy ... which is that a state where guns are very much a part of a culture where if you ask David Vitter Mary Landrieu the center to Louisiana to to ... take a vote on this are putting their political lives at risk essentially what the president had said to them pay ... I'm asking to go back your people and make the case about why we need this and you know what I'm the only people Hollywood mindedness Anderson on to say ... I need you guys to make sacrifices to because we're all in this together when she got more ultimately avoiding work ... I know it's a good question but I await the day the president takes on Hollywood one of his biggest backers


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When the schedule came out yesterday and even the day before when I posted the so-called strength of schedule chart, many of you wondered angrily how it is the NFL can possibly allow the New England Patriots to have the easiest schedule in the NFL.
I posed the question on my radio show -- Armando and Perkins on 640-AM in South Florida and streaming live right here every day 6-10 a.m -- to see if I could get an answer to your question.
Well, it didn't take my co-host Chris Perkins very long to have an answer.
"Look inward," he said.
What he meant is the Patriots get an easier schedule basically because they get to play the Dolphins twice a year. And the Dolphins are not a very good team.
The Dolphins, meanwhile, play a harder schedule despite finishing lower in the standings because they have to play the Patriots twice a year. And the Patriots are a very good team.
Simple as that.
Based on 2011 opponents' records, the Patriots will face teams that compiled a 116-140 record. Based on the same criteria, the Dolphins will face teams that compiled a 127-129 record in 2011.
That's an 11-game difference.
But the truth is in two of those games the Patriots line up against the 6-10 Dolphins. While in two of those games the Dolphins line up against the 13-3 Patriots.
So in those two games alone the Patriots are facing a team that adds 12 wins and 20 losses to their combined strength of schedule figure. The Dolphins in those two games face a team that adds 26 wins and only six losses to their strength of schedule figure.
So the Pats are plus-20 on Miami's strength of schedule. And the Dolphins are a minus-8 to New England's. The difference is HUGE -- a 28-game difference. That more than accounts for the 11-game gap between Miami's total opponents' records of 127-129 and New England's total opponents'' records of 226-140.
Think of it this way: The Patriots have an easier schedule because they play a poor Miami team. And the Dolphins have a harder schedule because they play the AFC Champion. And the teams play twice.


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If you're from Southern California and you've been struggling with your weight for a long time, why don't you try visiting one of the many Lindora weight loss centers in you area?
The weight loss center's secret lies on their "Lindora Lean for Life Clinic Program" which is a 10-week program, with the first 8 weeks dedicated for weight loss and the remaining 2 weeks for metabolic adjustment. The center promises weight loss of up to 10% of your body weight in only 10 weeks.
The Lindora weight loss center team is comprised of medical professional such as licensed doctors and nurses.
the diet solution program free download, weight loss meal plan, easy weight loss,
When you first sign-up for a program, the center's staff would give you a medical evaluation which includes a comprehensive lab screening, cholesterol screening and blood pressure readings. After analyzing the data from your examination, the team will design a weight loss program just for you.
To track your progress and to guide you through the program, the Lindora Weight Loss Center's nursing staff would give you personal counseling 2 to 5 times each week. You may also receive a vitamin injection during your program at no cost.
Lindora Weight Loss Center also features other weight loss programs such as their paid online-based program named the "Lindora Online", which is basically the center's "Lean for Life Clinic Program", the only difference is that it's Internet-based and you can do the program at the privacy of your home.
The center also offers a "Weight Loss Starter Kit" which is essentially guide for people who want to lose weight on their own. The kit includes a CD, tape measure, book, DVD and a bottle of fat burning indicators.
Finally, the center also has a line of low carb but high in protein and nutrients food products.


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Water Purification System
Many modern day water purification plants use strong chemicals to treat water and let the effluent from the water run off into the river system causing pollution. But did you know that there is a much simpler and effective way of purifying water for household use? Whether it is your holiday camp or country house, or a project at home, you can build a simple water purification system using natural materials.
You will need:
- Charcoal- you can collect them from the left over coal from your barbeque, chimney or pieces of burnt wood from your holiday campsite.
- Small pebbles or stone chips - washed.
- Fine grain sand - usually found at the riverbank or your neighbourhood park - washed.
- Shower head.
- Water pump for pumping the water.
- Pipes.
- Alum.
- Prefiltration water collection tank.
- One filtration tank with the top open.
- One collection tank.
If you use stream water you can pump the water directly onto the filtration tank, but if you are using ground water that might contain sediments then collect the water in a pre-filtration tank . Wrap some alum in a fine cotton cloth and keep it immersed in the water for at least 5-6 hours. This helps to precipitate the heavy sediments in the water. You will need about 25-300 gms for every 1000 litres of water.
From the collection tank pump the water to the shower. Let the shower water fall over the open top filtration tank. When the shower water falls it gets aerated and this helps in oxidation, helping to remove iron.
In the filtration tank make the filter bed in the following sequence:
- Top layer- charcoal pieces
- Middle layer- small pebbles/chips
- Lower layer- fine grain sand- this traps impurities not trapped by the top layers
At the bottom of the tank, make an outlet for the filtered water to percolate down to the collection tank. This tank collects the filtered water. From there you can tap it off to use for cooking or drinking purposes.
This system is easy to maintain, as it is renewable every three months. Moreover you can reuse the materials like sand and small pebbles for other work like construction. So nothing gets wasted and you get clean water without polluting your environment.


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Seven children who disappeared from their Fresno, Calif., home Saturday were discovered unharmed with their estranged father in Sacramento.
The children, ages 5 to 12, live with their mother and stepfather full-time, who left them at home to go grocery shopping Saturday night. When the mother and stepfather returned, the children were gone, along with their belongings.
All seven children were found at the home of Xa Yang in Sacramento, about 170 miles north of Fresno.
"The children were unharmed and were all in good spirits," a Fresno Police Department spokesman said Friday.
Police said the children were thought to have been with Yang since Saturday, but police did not know where he lived. Yang has been allowed to keep the children while police conduct an investigation into whether there was a violation of either parent's custodial rights.
"Fresno and Sacramento PD will investigate further to determine if a crime was committed," the FPD spokesman said.


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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - At the official opening of the 2013 season, the MIT men's track and field team competed in the Harvard Challenge, finishing in fifth place with 43 points, narrowly behind Brown with 46 points. The Engineers were ranked 16th in the nation in the most recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) poll that was released on Jan. 9.
Junior Michael DuPlessis (Wantagh, N.Y.) started off the meet well by earning one point for the Engineers in the 60 meter dash, completing the event in 7.15 seconds. Freshman States Lee (Charlotte, N.C.) also earned a point in the 200 meter dash, crossing the line in 22.73. In the event with him was junior Tyler Singer-Clark (Falmouth, Mass.), who finished in ninth place with a time of 22.90.
Senior Kyle Hannon (Park Ridge, Ill.) came in second in the one mile run with a time of 4:13.42, finishing exactly half a second behind Brown's Kevin Cooper. Junior Justin Bullock (Detroit, Mich.) was right behind him in third place with a 4:13.42.
In both the 4x440 yard relay and the Distance Medley, the MIT A relay finished in third place, earning four points in both events. In the former, they finished in 3:20.92, narrowly being out-finished by Northeastern's A relay. In the latter, they crossed the line in 10:26.37.
In the pole vault, seniors Yida Gao (Marietta, Ga.) and Cyrus Vafadari (Columbus, Ga.) competed well, finishing in third and fourth place respectively and earning seven points. Gao vaulted 4.35 meters, while Vafadari was close behind with 4.30 meters.
The Engineers' best showing was in the triple jump, where four different MIT competitors earned ten points between them. Freshman Carrington Motley (Pittsburgh, Pa.) finished in third place with 14.05 meters, classmate Arinze Okeke (Hawthorne, Calif.) was fourth in 13.18 meters, senior Jackson Wirekoh (Woodbridge, Va.) was fifth with 13.15 meters and freshman Angel Echevarria (Sacramento, Calif.) was sixth, also with 13.15 meters.
In the heptathlon, junior Jordan Mizerak (Lexington, Mass.) finished in ninth place with 3971 points. In all of the events, his highest finishes were in the 60 meter hurdles, where he finished in sixth in 9.48 seconds and in the pole vault, where he finished seventh after vaulting 3.20 meters.
MIT will return to the track next weekend when it travels up the road to Boston University for the Terrier Classic that will take place from Friday-Saturday, Jan. 25-26. They will return home on Saturday for the first of two MIT Coed Invites, the second taking place in three weeks' time.


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Results 1-17
8th grade girls basketball
Lady Red Storm 8th opens 2-0
The Lincoln eighth grade girls basketball team began its season with two consecutive the Lady Red Storm defeated Milford 49-15 and on Tuesday they ran their record to 2-0 with a 43-14 win over Wawasee.
Nicole Horvath led the team in combined scoring, averaging 19 points a game, followed by Victoria Styers at 10 points per contest.
Lincoln received strong frontcourt play from Lanae Singleton and Jenna Thomas and great guard play from Anna Bockman, Ashley Harrell and Brittani Splix.
Other early season highlights include an eight-point performance by Destiny Schoff and great outside shooting from Hanna Hopple and Maddy Samuelson.
Women's college basketball
Starr snaps slump in PUC win
Plymouth product Alex Starr snapped out of a recent slump, and the Purdue University Calumet women's basketball team cruised to an 83-43 victory over rival Calumet St. Joseph on Wednesday night at the Fitness and Recreation Center.
Starr scored 20 points and red hot 6-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc to lead the Peregrines, who opened the game on a 17-3 run and never looked back to improve to 13-7 overall and 10-4 in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference.


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Italian freelance journalist Susan Dabbous, 32, remembers her occasional childhood visits to Syria as one of sunny family reunions and archaeological beauty, but her more recent memories of her father's birthplace include bloodshed, immense cruelty and being held captive for a frightening 11 days last year by a group thought to be from the al-Nusra Front, a group affiliated with al-Qaida.
"Syria is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and I am not just saying that because I am Syrian," Dabbous said, sitting in an intimate café in one of the more trendier neighborhoods of Jerusalem where she has been promoting her book, "How Would You Like to Die?" which she wrote following her captivity. Published in Italian in March 2014, an English version is available as an e-book online through iTunes.
Fascinated by the ancient culture and traditions she found in Syria, Dabbous, the daughter of a Catholic Italian mother and a Muslim Syrian father, began traveling to Syria on a more regular basis in 2007, visiting Damascus and Aleppo, where many of her relatives lived.
When the civil war broke out, she started crossing illegally from Turkey into the "freed" areas held by opposition groups several times a year for 2-3 week stretches covering civilians and refugees as a freelance journalist.
Her family managed to flee to Damascus, the only place it is possible to survive in Syria right now, said Dabbous, who is now based in Jerusalem and Rome working for Avvenire, an Italian Catholic Newspaper, and Skynews 24. As a freelancer she has also been based in Beirut.
In December 2013 she was awarded the International Prize for Press Freedom Isf-City of Florence by the Information Safety and Freedom Association.
With her Syrian looks and working as a print journalist, she was able to be relatively unobtrusive while she interviewed people when she first began covering the story in Syria. But that was not the case in April 2013, when she traveled for the first time with a TV camera crew as a producer for Italy's Rai TV to report on the northwest Idlib region, filming destroyed and desecrated churches.
Arriving at the Christian village of Ghassanieh, they discovered that, bombarded by both the rebels and the regime forces, the entire population had fled, leaving behind only the head of the village and his wife, and Father Francois Murad. They refused to be interviewed, saying that they had spoken to the media before and nothing had come of it, but the priest directed the journalists to the village church, where they could see the destruction that had been done by rebel forces.
"It was completely destroyed, desecrated," Dabbous said. "The Statue of the Virgin Mary had been beheaded and the cross was torn down. They had destroyed every single bench and the altar. They had slaughtered a dog, split him open, and he was still alive."
At that moment, when journalist Amedeo Ricucci said they needed to kill the dog to end his suffering, a group of armed jihadists appeared demanding to see their photos and video footage, said Dabbous, and she knew then she and her colleagues — which also included an Italian cameraman and Italian freelance photographer as well as a Syrian driver, a Syrian fixer, two armed Syrian security guards and a Syrian-Italian translator — would be held captive.
"I realized we were being kidnapped and was accepting it very passively," Dabbous said.
The leader of their kidnappers spoke English so Dabbous was able to communicate with him, and she played along with him, she said, when he denied having desecrated the church, insisting that they treated Christians well. Quickly realizing that in their eyes it was a serious infraction for her to be traveling as a lone woman with the group of men, she asked to be separated from her colleagues. The sheik was a strong leader who made it clear to his men they were not to touch her and, in keeping with their religious views that a woman is totally impure, she was kept covered completely with a blanket, she said, which oddly enough, once she realized she would not be raped, helped her remain calm.
"I didn't want to see anything. I was comfortable under the blanket. It is a situation where you just want to disappear," she said.
Most of the men had kept their faces covered, but she saw the faces of young fighters, she said.
There were other prisoners there, and even from under her blanket she could hear some of the Syrian prisoners accused of being traitors being tortured, Dabbous said.
After four days, she told her captors that she wanted to learn Muslim prayers and asked if she could be moved somewhere else. She was brought to a house where the wife of a fighter from Tunisia was, and the title of her book comes from one of the conversations on religion she had with the young woman who innocently asked her how she would like to die.
"It is a culture of martyrdom," Dabbous said. "Death is the best thing that can happen to you while doing something good. I was shocked and surprised by the question and was afraid I would be killed."
She spent four days with the young woman, cooking and talking, and their conversations are recounted in her book. Then she was brought back to where she had been held before and was happy to hear, if not see, her colleagues. After a few more days they were released, thanks to their colleague who negotiated with local sheiks and the Italian government.
"We were very lucky; no one has been released in 11 days," she said.
Though Dabbous does not know the details of their release, she said several European governments such as the Spanish and the French have paid ransoms of some sort for the release of their kidnapped nationals. In their case, she said, it seems the kidnappers wanted equipment and the Italian government, through the Syrian fixer, acquiesced to their demands giving them food and winter clothes for the fighters.
"I don't know if they wanted weapons, but this is war," she said.
Reflecting a year after her capture, she said, she will not go back to Syria.
"This is something bigger than me. I will go back only when the war is over. Other journalists are getting kidnapped. It is too dangerous," she said.
Kidnappings, which began about a year ago, are becoming increasingly frequent not only for political or religious reasons but also out of purely financial concerns.
According to Committee to Protect Journalists, 80 journalists have been abducted since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011. A reported 60 journalists have been killed in the conflict.
More than 150,000 Syrians have reportedly been killed in the three-year-old civil war.
While in Damascus, which is under the strict control of the regime, the situation is bearable, but crowded with refugees, the rest of Syria is devastated, Dabbous said.
"I can't see a future for Syria right now," she added, not giving much weight to the recent re-election of Assad, and predicting only more violence in a protracted civil war similar to that of Lebanon. "I don't know how many Christians will be left. I hope they will still be there. They are part of the country. They are not 'Christians' they are 'Syrian.' I am trying to be positive now that I am far away from Syria, but the closer you are, you can't be positive."
Judith Sudilovsky writes from Jerusalem.
Copyright © 1996-2018 Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.


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Texas A & M International University
Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) a member of The Texas A&M University System prepares students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex culturally diverse state national and global society. TAMIU Provides a learning environment built on a solid academic foundation in the arts and sciences. The University offers a range of baccalaureate and master's programs and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in International Business Administration. In addition the University pursues a progressive agenda for global study and understanding across all disciplines. Through instruction faculty and student research and public service Texas A&M International improves the quality of lives for citizens of the border region the state of Texas and national and international communities.
School Information5201 University Blvd
Laredo, Texas 78041-1900
Locale: Rural: Fringe
Open Admissions: Yes
Sector: Public, 4-year or above
Carnegie Basic: Master's Colleges and Universities (larger programs)
Religious Affiliation: Not applicable
Accrediting Agency: Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges
Students & Faculty
Total Tuition $14,671.00
SAT Scores:
25th-75th percentile
ACT Scores:
25th-75th percentile16-20
Note: 25th-75th percentile ranges show the range of scores achieved by the middle 50% of students who were admitted to the school.
Other Requirements:
Degrees & Programs
|Art/Art Studies, General
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|Business Administration and Management, General
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|Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
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Volume 33 Issue 8: (Aug-Sep 2010)
Character Traits
John Gaudiosi
Issue: Volume 33 Issue 8: (Aug-Sep 2010)
Character Traits
As technology advances, game developers are given more choices when it comes to creating the next generation of protagonists and antagonists that captivate gamers for hours on end. During the past few years, as studios have become more acclimated to current-generation consoles, they have been pushing their processing power further, and as a result, gamers have seen a variety of diverse character types evolve. From photorealistic, motion-captured characters that seem to eerily live and breathe within the game worlds of Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain to the epic, ripped-from-a-painting, blood-soaked beauty of Sony Santa Monica Studios' God of War 3, there's something for every graphic artist to dive into.
During the past several months, titles like Gearbox Studios' Borderlands took the shooter genre in an entirely new direction with a unique cel-shaded, "living comic" look that had never been seen before, especially running on Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. A derivative of that comic-book style can be seen in characters like Ryu in Capcom's new Super Street Fighter IV, and that studio is pushing this vibrant, pop-out-of-the-screen style even further with the 2011 fight title Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. There are also games that are focusing on story and utilizing more robust, more human characters in story-driven titles, such as 2K Games' interactive crime story Mafia II and Visceral Games' survival horror/adventure Dead Space 2. And then there are studios, such as Epic Games (Gears of War 3) and People Can Fly (Bulletstorm), which like to infuse hulking, arcade-style caricatures who carry big guns and let the ammo do the talking.
Here we examine some of the unique characters in these game titles and the CG techniques used to create them.
People Can Fly/Epic Games
The folks at Epic Games liked Polish developer People Can Fly so much after working with the studio on the PC version of Gears of War that Epic bought the studio. Next spring, their first collaboration, Bulletstorm (published by Electronic Arts), will be released on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms. The game introduces a "symphony of blood," allowing players to methodically torture enemies before showing them mercy.
The game's protagonist, Grayson Hunt, is a drunken space pirate who was once an elite mercenary. Cliff Bleszinski, design director at Epic Games, says Hunt was modeled after rogue antiheroes, such as Han Solo; players will journey with Hunt as he seeks revenge and, ultimately, redemption.
"Hunt is a member of Dead Echo, an elite group of mercenaries trying to keep the peace for the confederation of the galaxy," explains Bleszinski. "He discovers that some of his commanding officers have been using him and his team to do their ill will, so he makes a decision to save his crew, and they end up in the dead of space."
The game's action picks up years later with Hunt living a rogue pirate existence. After crashing his small ship into the Ulysses, the prized ship of the confederation, the game takes place on Stygia, a resort planet run amok by mutants and now overrun by confederation enemies, as well.
"Modern consoles, along with high-end game engines like Unreal Engine 3, can manage insanely detailed game characters with ease," says Andrzej Poznanski, lead artist at People Can Fly. "Are there still restrictions and limitations? Sure, they'll always be there, but these days it's not about limitations, it's about not getting overwhelmed and carried away with almost limitless possibilities."
As Poznanski notes, good game characters need a tasteful balance of clean, simple shapes, complemented with meaningful details, which weren't added just because there was empty space on a normal-map texture. He adds that it is important that even when players are squinting their eyes, they still clearly "get" the distinctive features of the model, including the character's silhouette, props, and attitude.
The team at People Can Fly start the character creation process with a mood concept drawing, "because we need to get the vibe and feel of the character before we go further," explains Poznanski. Next, the artists make proper orthogonal drawings of the character in a default pose, and then make necessary adjustments to ensure that the new character will work well with the studio's standard skeletal rig for animation. "It's important and lets us reuse all typical animations for our humanoid characters," he adds.
To create the characters for its noir title Heavy Rain, Quantic Dream enlisted real actors to bring its CG characters to life. The artists spent a great deal of time creating realistic facial animations for the cast.
A 3D modeler then builds a base mesh, which is quickly rigged, and the person applies some temporary textures and exports the character to the Unreal engine so that the team can get an early feel of the character. Once the base mesh is approved, it is used for the creation of a medium-resolution model. People Can Fly employs Pixologic's ZBrush for this stage, and then uses re-topology tools before exporting the character to either Luxology's Modo or Autodesk's Maya or 3ds Max for further modeling. At People Can Fly, the art team usually juggles the software of choice a number of times, depending on the specific task at hand or the artist's personal preference. Once the medium-res model is complete, the group again uses ZBrush to create a high-resolution pass. The art team mixes default brushes with custom alphas, utilizing layers, morph targets, projections, Z spheres, and a 2.5D tool set.
At this stage, the mesh often reaches 30 million to 40 million polygons, which are trimmed to about four million to five million polys using Pixologic's Decimation Master plug-in. An artist turns this medium-sized mesh into a low-res mesh using ZBrush's re-topology tool, with all the details baked into it. Next, a character undergoes the time-consuming UV layout, an important technical step in creating a sharp and detailed protagonist.
To build characters in its title Bulletstorm, the team at People Can Fly use a range of software, including ZBrush, Modo, Maya, and 3ds Max.
"Normal map, base color, and ambient occlusion are derived from the hi-res mesh, and hundreds of additional textures are layered in [Adobe's] Photoshop," says Poznanski. "A large part of the final effect can be attributed to Unreal's powerful shader capabilities. We also can use the Fresnel effect, and breathe life into skin textures by emulating subsurface light scattering, and create more 3D models using bump offset mapping, and even animate geometry using vertex shaders."
At each step of the way, the character is tested in the game environment because it's only after the artists see the character in the level with in-game lighting during actual gameplay that final adjustments and fixes can be tweaked.
"Does the character look distinctive? Does it have screen presence? Does it work well in fast motion? Do detailed features work from a distance, or do they become meaningless noise?" asks Poznanski. "We are often forced to make significant changes at that stage, but when we're done with them, then, and only then, can we finally say, 'We no longer have just a character; we have a game character.' "
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment America
Developer Naughty Dog has pushed the idea of an interactive Hollywood action flick into new territory with the critically acclaimed Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The group's goal, says Hanno Hagedorn, lead artist at Naughty Dog, is to bring cinematic characters to life. The key focus is for these characters to deliver a believable performance in every way possible while meeting the studio's high standards.
"An extremely high level of detail in our characters is crucial," says Hagedorn. "Polygon counts can go up to 45,000, and texture resolutions up to 4000 by 2000, not only in cut-scenes, but within the game itself. Some of our high-resolution meshes went beyond the 100 million mark, which can be a challenge to work with. Despite all those numbers, the quality and believability of the final product purely comes down to what the artist is able to deliver."
Naughty Dog begins with a concept that outlines the major attributes of the character. For the characters' faces, the artists use a mixture of concepts, reference photos, and photos of actors. Giving the game characters a rough resemblance of their actor counterparts helps with delivering a solid performance across the board.
Naughty Dog's game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves brings the cinematic characters to interactive life. To do this successfully, the team made sure the characters delivered a compelling performance.
When it comes to the look and personality of the characters, the artists work closely with creative director and writer Amy Hennig. In the end, it's all about creating a character that fits and works with the story, notes Hagedorn. The Naughty Dog group uses motion capture as the base for the characters' body animations, but all the facial performances are still 100 percent hand animated. "We're actually proud of that fact," he says. "Hand-animating facial movements goes along great with the stylized look of our characters and helps us avoid the biggest issues of the Uncanny Valley."
When it comes to sculpting, the majority of the team use ZBrush, but some of the guys stick with Autodesk's Mudbox. In the end, each artist picks his or her weapon of choice to deliver the best performance. For texturing, the artists at Naughty Dog use a mixture of Mudbox and Photoshop, and a little bit of ZBrush's Polypaint once in a while. The ability of Mudbox to display and paint on normal and specular maps can be a great help, too, Hagedorn adds.
"In general, we put a big emphasis on maintaining an artistic, hand-painted look," says Hagedorn. "Therefore, using photos as textures is not the path that works for us the majority of the time."
However, the artists sometimes use photorealistic textures for minor surfaces, such as fabric patterns. The company's shader system is hooked into Maya, enabling the artists to get a real-time preview of their shaders within Maya itself. The preview doesn't take any postprocessing effects into account, but it is close enough to ensure a sophisticated workflow, Hagedorn maintains. It also allows the group to dynamically select the resolution for each texture separately without having to re-export any assets. "Using this feature is a great help in optimizing our assets," he adds.
To satisfy the technical directors and to get better skinning results, Naughty Dog uses quad-heavy in-game meshes. One side effect is that the more evenly distributed polygons give good auto-LOD results. The other is that this, in combination with the polygon densities, allows the team to effectively use its in-game face meshes as its sculpting bases. As a result, the team can spend more time sculpting, thereby significantly easing various processes, such as the creation of wrinkle maps.
For Naughty Dog's cinematic skin, the crew uses texture-space diffusion. The artists bake the lighting information into a separate map, which is blurred with different widths for the red, green, and blue channels. The blur kernel combines the five blurs into a single 12-tap blur. For hair, the studio uses the Kajiya-Kay hair-shading model, giving the hair its anisotropic look. The group then tweaks the shadow so that the hair does not self-shadow, but instead uses a diffuse falloff that wraps around the hair strands. The direction of the sun used for the specular is always set at a grazing angle.
According to Hagedorn, part of the game's story is told with the look of the characters. Not only do they change outfits on a regular basis, but these characters sometimes become physically affected by what is happening to them as the narrative plays out. For some characters, Naughty Dog has as many as four different beat-up face textures. For each outfit, there is at least one dirty or beat-up variation. In addition, the characters can get dynamically wet or dynamically accumulate snow, also affecting their appearance in the title.
Mafia II
2K Games/2K Czech
Mafia II introduces a new cast of characters and an open world environment for players to explore through a 10-year journey that spans from the 1940s through 1950s in Mafia II. The game introduces a colorful cast of young characters that enter the violent business of organized crime. According to Jack Scalici, director of creative production at 2K Games, who served as lead writer, music supervisor, casting director, and voice director for the title, one of the goals of the team was to bring these
authentic-looking characters to life and build an emotional bond between the main characters and the nonplayer characters that populate the New York-inspired city of Empire Bay.
"We examined each character's reason for existing in the game, their relationships with one another, and we made some adjustments to ensure they all feel real and have a defined purpose," explains Scalici. "From there, I started working with the cast. The best thing you can do for your character is to cast a good actor and let him or her become that character. I ended up using the first draft of the script I was given as more of a blueprint than a script when it came to the characters and dialog. After the dialog was written, we still didn't consider it 100 percent final. The guys at 2K Czech have some incredible tools, and they can respond to changes very fast, so I had the freedom to improvise during recording and to completely change certain scenes if they weren't working out in terms of how they were intended."
The characters and their relationships with one another were vital to the story behind Mafia II. A mix of proprietary tools and middleware were used to create the protagonists and antagonists.
Joe Barbaro, who is protagonist Vito Scaletta's best friend and wingman for most of Mafia II, was brought to life by actor Bobby Costanzo. Scalici describes Barbaro as the life of the party but someone who is going to end up in a fight by the end of the night. Although it might seem like there were Hollywood inspirations for Mafia II, Scalici maintains that he did not watch any movies or TV shows to help craft these virtual characters.
"The development of Joe from what he was at the start of the process to what he has now become is a result of me putting a lot of myself into him, along with little pieces of so many guys I knew growing up in New York," says Scalici."The Godfather is one of my favorite movies, but for this game, we wanted our characters to be real wise guys, not an idealized vision of what you see in that film. Plus, we certainly didn't want them to be the stereotypes you see in so many movies."
The team at 2K Czech used its proprietary Illusion Engine to bring these characters to life, while utilizing third-party middleware, such as Autodesk's Kynapse for AI, PhysX for Physics simulation, and FaceFX for in-game facials. According to Denby Grace, senior producer on the title at 2K Games, this engine allowed the team to fully realize the vision for the game; as a result, the artists were able to provide a hugely detailed and destructible world that will load without the player incurring any wait time after entering the city.
"The main difference between Mafia I and Mafia II in terms of technology has been the dramatic increase of texture resolution and poly count (from hundreds to thousands)," explains Ivan Rylka, lead character artist on Mafia II at 2K Czech. "Civilian characters have 4000 triangles on average, while major characters exceed 6500 triangles; Vito, the protagonist, has nearly 10,000 triangles."
This higher visual credibility was achieved through complicated shaders, as well as using normal maps for wrinkles and expressions, and facial animation through FaceFX technology. Rylka says that physically simulated cloth on a wide range of Vito's outfits was also something the team couldn't have done in Mafia I.
"During the process of character production, we also used ZBrush for high-res models, which gave us incredible detail to bake into the normal maps of our in-game models created in 3ds Max," details Rylka.
Grace believes that this sequel ultimately benefited from a larger development budget, thanks to the success of the original title. That allowed the team to provide more depth for not only how these characters look, but how they behave in the game.
"Everyone who has played the game has said the same thing to me: Our characters feel like real wise guys, and the story has a mob feel and atmosphere that's there in a big way," relays Scalici. "What many of them don't realize is that this is achieved without the characters ever using the words 'respect' and 'honor,' and when you hear the word 'family' in Mafia II, 99 percent of the time it's the main character talking about his mother and sister. Like the first Mafia game in 2002, Mafia II is not a story about the mafia. It's the story of a regular guy who ends up in the mafia, and all the risks, rewards, and consequences that go along with it."
Dead Space 2
Electronic Arts/Visceral Games
Electronic Arts brought gamers face to face with evil when they introduced Dead Space and its "strategic dismemberment" to shooters back in 2008. Following the 2009 Wii prequel with Dead Space: Extinction, the game gets its first sequel this winter with Dead Space 2. It's been three years in game time since engineer Isaac Clarke faced off against the Necromorph monsters aboard the mining ship Ishimura in the original game, and since that time, technological advances and upgrades to the Dead Space Engine have allowed the development team to further explore this protagonist. For one thing, players will actually see Clarke's face and hear his voice for the first time.
"In the first game, Isaac always has his helmet on, so there was no facial work necessarily," says Ian Milham, art director for the Dead Space franchise. "This time, it's a much more complicated rig. All the shaders have been punched up."
According to Milham, Clarke's helmet can fold away, revealing a full head underneath. He's been given full mocap performances for his body, which now has more fluid, lifelike movement, and for his uncovered human face, which has the ability to emote. Milham said the team came up with this whole dynamic system for his helmet to fold away, so you could really play with that emotion on his face. "All the technology had to go up to match," says Milham. "A lot of it wasn't necessarily technological advances as it was re-budgeting for a character that was much more complex and featured more bones, more shading, and more texture to support a fidelity of performance that is greater."
The character also was given upgrades to its space suit for gameplay purposes. Players will now have full control of Clarke in zero-gravity combat, so the suit has flaps, rakes, and jets that respond to player input. The visual upgrades to the suit are immediately recognizable and are the result of the pipeline that the team employed for the sequel. Because the world of Dead Space is rooted in reality, starting with the early-concept artist work, all the engineering has to actually work and have real fundamentals behind it.
"Rather than using CG to fake-transform how Isaac's helmet folds up and away, we created engineering schematics so that the helmet actually works," says Milham. He explains the process: "Those get passed to a modeler who does a high-res base model in Maya. It's not all done in ZBrush because sometimes you're just doing panel lines and that sort of business. That high-res base model in Maya is taken into ZBrush and up-res'd and done up completely. Once that's approved, a low res is done in Maya, and the normal maps off the ZBrush version are brought in. That gets passed off, and then a base set of textures is done for that. Next, a specific shader tech comes in and does the final shader punch-up. Our character's pretty unique in that he has his health bars built in, so there's actual gameplay information playing on the character. He has different helmet glows and things like that, so it goes through a whole technological pass before it is finaled up. Then it goes on to rigging, and everything else."
Since Dead Space is a horror game, the environments the player will explore are dark and foreboding. Milham and his team are dealing with a world that tends to have a huge number of lights that are moving, animating, and flickering, but they have relatively quick fall-offs. As a result, they have tweaked a lot of the shading for the character.
"Because Isaac's suit is now more shiny and metallic, there's much more stuff for those lights to chew on," explains Milham. "That's just as much thinking back to the design as it was in the shading. We concentrated our new shader upgrading primarily on things that would pay off on a world that has a lot of light sources, as opposed to being outside where there is one sun. We're on a spaceship with lots of blinking lights and lots of stuff moving around all the time."
Part of that movement comes from the fact that this world—and those lights—are completely destructible, which meant more work for the team to bring the causing effects to life as the player tears through these environments. This game employs live specularity and real-time reflections. In contrast, the original game used more canned content with prebaked environment maps or cubic enviro-mapping. The end result is a character that fully comes to life with a more realistic look and a new voice, whether he's barking commands at his team or navigating the dark corridors, waiting to unleash his weapons on the aliens.
Heavy Rain
Quantic Dream
Developer Quantic Dream first pushed the envelope of interactive entertainment with its PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 title Indigo Prophecy in 2005. Since that time, the French-based developer focused on its dream project: Heavy Rain. This PlayStation 3 exclusive was created using the innovative new technology that allowed producer/writer David Cage and his team to utilize real actors to bring virtual characters to life.
The game introduces four unique characters that the player interacts with throughout the noir thriller: Ethan Mars, an architect suffering from mental and emotional instability, journalist Madison Paige, FBI agent Norman Jayden, and private investigator Scott Shelby. Every decision that is made in the game directly impacts the outcome of the story, which involves a missing boy and the hunt for the so-called Origami serial killer. As Cage explains, these characters were critical to the gameplay: He wanted players to invest not only time, but also emotion, into them as they played through the game's chapters.
"One of our ambitions was to create highly believable characters that look and move in a realistic fashion and express subtle emotions, captured from real actors' performances," says Thierry Prodhomme, lead character designer at Quantic Dream. "It necessitated rethinking the complete production pipeline and developing specific techniques and tools that we then used."
To ensure a cinematographic vision of this film-noir thriller, the studio built a character team comprising concept artists, fashion designers, and 3D artists. "Fashion designers were in charge of defining the mood and style of each character, concept artists provided turnarounds and proportions, and 3D artists produced the final models," explains Christophe Brusseaux, art director at Quantic Dream.
Isaac's suit in Dead Space 2 features a fold-away helmet to reveal the character's emotion, which is apparent in his face.
Quantic Dream cast real actors to perform live acting, motion-capture shooting, and voice recording, and used 3D scans of actors' faces. A cast of 70 actors worked on the massive game, which required a record amount of work. The 3D scans were mostly used as templates for the artists, who worked in Autodesk's Maya. Accompanying photo sessions provided all the skin details in high resolution.
To model the characters, the group first resurfaced low-resolution models of the faces with edge loops dedicated to facial deformations and animations. Then the artists created the high-
resolution models in Pixologic's ZBrush, unfolded UVs, and built the skin shader using specifically developed proprietary tools.
"Our proprietary Materials Editor is based on a nodal shading network system similar to Maya Hypershade," says Brusseaux. "With this system, we can easily create a lot of complex shaders, in particular, skin shaders, including SSS, translucency, and thickness."
To bring Heavy Rain's characters to life, Quantic Dream built an in-house mocap studio. There, the team filmed multiple actors on stage at the same time using props and basic sets. For the characters' bodies, the crew used motion-captured data as a reference for building volumes and proportions. An initial skeleton was built for producing a body placeholder used by the animation team as a first reference and by the 3D artists for creating the final body model.
When the animators completed the basic skinning, they built an exoskeleton for each model: This additional skeleton was driven by the main skeleton, and contains automatic expressions, enabling special behaviors and increasing the quality of the mesh deformation.
For the faces, the group used only raw mocap data captured in the company's sound studio at the same time of the voice acting. A special marker set was used to capture the face movements, while for the body motion, the crew used 1.5mm markers along with a Vicon setup that includes 14 MX cameras.
"For aesthetical reasons, we didn't use blendshapes, as these often look too robotic," says Prodhomme. "We focused on capturing raw mocap data to avoid heavy post animation work, which also retained the maximum information from the original performance of the actor."
The animators also produced a special rig that handles 76 base bones for the body, 105 for the face, and 60 for the exoskeleton.
To enhance the characters' appearances, the team used Havok Cloth to dynamically simulate certain clothing, such as long trench coats, as well as hair and special props.
On traditional shots, the team used classical light setups for directional, spot, and ambient lighting. However, Brusseaux noticed during the production that specific, highly cinematic, close-up shots required a higher quality of lighting. To solve this issue, Quantic Dream's R&D team developed a specific tool to manage the special lights with high resolution, integrating the technology into the real-time directing bench used by the camera team to set all in-game cameras and to "direct," among other segments, the real-time, in-game cinematic sequences.
"Technology, tools, and pipelines have greatly evolved during the past few years to allow us to create highly believable characters," says Brusseaux. "The time when artists alone were crafting characters and animating them is probably over. By using scanning and motion-capture technologies, as well as through the use of advanced shading, skinning, and lighting tools, we were able to capture the performance of real actors, produce highly realistic characters, and bring them to life in a way that, we think, has further pushed the boundaries of emotion in games."
Given the success of the game and the ability for the team to avoid the Uncanny Valley criticism that has even plagued some Hollywood CG films in recent years, Quantic Dream's pipeline has solved many problems and opened up a new doorway into character creations. By utilizing real actors and adding another layer of emotion to this game, the studio has pushed the boundaries of interactive entertainment.
And Quantic Dream is not resting on its laurels; the studio is already working on its next project, and as the game industry looks ahead to the next generation of hardware, this pipeline will breathe life into even more believable virtual characters in the near future.
Playing With Character
At the end of the day, many of today's videogame characters have become as well rounded as anything seen on the big screen or on television. Technology has given the current generation of artists and character creators the ability to craft unique heroes, heroines, and villains using the methods that they prefer.
Ultimately, whether using motion capture or cel shading, these characters are leaving an indelible mark not only in gaming, but in the broader entertainment landscape. Hollywood has taken notice, developing big-screen versions of games like Gears of War, WarCraft, Uncharted, Dead Space, and EverQuest. Jerry Bruckheimer elected to turn Prince of Persia into a summer movie—and potential franchise—because of the character and story that Jordan Mechner created with Ubisoft.
Moving forward, these more believable game characters will more easily migrate across media. As gamers already know, one of the reasons is because many of these characters stay with players long after the power button has been turned off.
John Gaudiosi has been covering the world of video games and the convergence of Hollywood and computer graphics for the past 16 years for outlets like The Washington Post, Wired Magazine, Reuters, AOL Games, and Gamerlive.tv.
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Julie Zaccone Stiller and her musings, updates and observations on her work in Fiber Art. Quilts, collaged quilts, surface design, dyeing, paper making, paper collage, etc....
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What a great week for shows, including a first look at the 2013 Sasquatch! lineup with a Launch Party & festival announcement on Monday night at Neptune Theatre with Built to Spill, Cody ChesnuTT and a surprise guest! If that wasn't enough excitement, Ben Folds Five and Nataly Dawn are at Showbox at the Market. On TuesdayRead more…
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In line with Suffolk University's Strategic Plan imperatives, the Madrid Campus offers an integrated and student-centered learning experience. This experience blends theory and practice in a variety of ways with the purpose of preparing our students to become innovative thinkers who can succeed in a rapidly evolving employment landscape and in an increasingly global community.
At Suffolk Madrid, this experiential learning approach to higher education permeates both in academic life, as well as non-academic activities.
Internship ProgramOpen to qualified sophomores, juniors and seniors, Suffolk Madrid's internship program gives students the opportunity to intern in a Spanish company. Students will earn college credit, while at the same time gain experience through interacting with professionals in a real-world work environment. Our internship program has a variety of placements and will match students to their desired interest or academic major. Interning in a Spanish company will allow students the chance to start developing an international professional network, as well as vastly improve their Spanish language proficiency. The invaluable skills acquired through an internship opportunity abroad will stay with students throughout their academic career and into their future employment.
Course-related Trips and ActivitiesUtilizing the local resources in Spain to complement and enrich academic content is a goal for many of the courses offered at Suffolk Madrid. Faculty are encouraged to include out-of-the-classroom activities in their syllabus with the purpose of providing students with practical knowledge and experience.
Universidad CEU San PabloSuffolk Madrid students are allowed to take credit-bearing courses in the Spanish education system at our partner university, CEU San Pablo. Conveniently located across the street from Suffolk Madrid, the CEU San Pablo facilities are open to our students, including the library, cafeteria, gym and sports facilities. Our students are also encouraged to take part in the cultural activities and team sports offered at our partner institution. In this way, Suffolk Madrid students can interact with Spanish peers in both academic and social settings.
Volunteer ProgramFor some students, community outreach is a big part of the Suffolk Madrid experience. From volunteering at soup kitchens, to working with refugees, or teaching English to elementary children, our students are very active within the community. Through service learning, Suffolk Madrid students make their time in Spain even more rewarding.


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Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 11th Jan 2013 17:28 UTC
After relying on third parties for several years - Internet Explorer, Netscape - Apple decided that it was time to take matters into its own hands. It was time Apple created its own browser (again). And so, Safari was born, and released unto the world ten years ago. These past few weeks, Don Melton, the project lead for Safari and WebKit, has been sharing a lot of interesting stories about the origins and development of Apple's browser.
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RE[2]: Comment by Sodki
by Sodki on Fri 11th Jan 2013 23:23 UTC in reply to "RE: Comment by Sodki"
RE[3]: Comment by Sodki
by _txf_ on Sat 12th Jan 2013 16:10 in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by Sodki"
"The KHTML devs may hate this, but WebKit _is_ the future of web browser.
I don't think the KHTML devs hate WebKit, on the contrary. And after KDE 4.5 you can also use Konqueror with WebKit instead of KHTML. "
They certainly did for a while. There were a great many calls to replace khtml and kjs with webkit earlier on 4.x but the devs always seemed to use FUDdy reasons for not doing so. They could have just said that they preferred working on khtml, but instead came up with other reasons.
Edited 2013-01-12 16:12 UTC


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The most common way of playing WMMA3 is for the user to take on the guise of an avatar (a character representing them in the game world) and join an MMA company. Although officially the players job title is match maker, in reality it is predominantly based around two major roles; roster management (the hiring and firing of fighters to the company) and match making (pitting fighters against each other on shows that company is running). Although the user also has some say in financial and corporate matters, these are minor roles.
At its heart, WMMA3 is about creating, maintaining and ultimately improving a roster of fighters. The roster is constantly evolving as new stars are created, older stars fade or retire, and other fighters move up or down the rankings, and it is up to the player using a combination of a keen eye for talent, a sense of how valuable a fighter is, and clever match-making to make sure the roster remains in a state that is beneficial to the company. You will also have to deal with the fine balancing act of using everyone on your roster on a regular basis without financially over-burdening yourself or leaving anyone unhappy.


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Stark to Conduct Indianapolis Symphony Orchestraby Steve Charles • December 17, 2008 Share:
Minutes before rehearsal and less than a week from his debut conducting the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir Director Eric Stark '88 hugs one of his singers in the hallway of Butler University's Lilly Hall. He thanks her for driving on this ice-covered December evening that has kept much of the city at home.
He introduces me to Brad and Carol Arthur, who have been singing in this choir for 42 years.
"We started singing together and dating 48 years ago this Christmas," Carole says, recalling her college days. "We were just talking on the way over here through the snow, saying, 'Christmas is the coolest time to start dating." They laugh so easily that they seem younger than the college students around us.
"Their dedication is amazing," Stark says of his ensemble of volunteer singers which he has directed now for seven years in addition to teaching as associate professor of music at Butler. "I'll beat them up every night as we get close to a performance and the closer it gets, the harder they work, and the more excited they get. They're a really fine group of singers."
Imagine yourself in a roomful of more than 120 adults who truly love what they're doing, all singing under the direction of a man who may love that work even more. You can feel your clothes vibrating as these sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses warm up.
In two days they'll rehearse with the symphony, and in four they'll present Handel's "Messiah" alongside the ISO to a full house at Clowes Hall. Stark will conduct both ensembles.
Being chosen to conduct the ISO is an uncommon honor for a choral conductor.
"Sometimes they hire a choral conductor to come in and conduct a piece, but it's kind of rare," Stark says. "In Indianapolis it hasn't happened, to my knowledge, in 25 or 30 years.
He says he's a little nervous, but mostly just grateful for the opportunity.
"There's no guarantee that something like this will ever happen for a conductor," Stark says. "I'm very honored to be doing this and quite aware of the great tradition of this ensemble and the great dedication and musicianship that the players represent. That I get to interact with them as a colleague is really humbling."
Stark, a licensed pilot, says that conducting is a little bit like flying an airplane.
Both require "a degree of multi-tasking that suits my ADD-sort of disposition," he says. "[Former Chicago Symphony Conductor] Sir George Solti once said, 'Beware the conductor who is too much in the music. ' You have to be in the music and out of the music at all times."
Which means paying attention simultaneously to that music and the high caliber musicians playing it.
"You're listening to all these things at once, always ready to bring your ear to grab the thing that's not doing what it should be, then stretching your attention to that. It's a lot of fun."
The same is true for pilots, says Stark, who volunteers for Angel Flight, a non-profit that provides free air transportation for those with medical needs.
"When you're doing instrument flying you're watching six different gauges at once. It's like herding cats— one of them will go south while you're fixated on the other one. My instructor says he has taught a couple other musicians, and he says this need to monitor all these different parameters translates well into the cockpit."
Preparing to reach a new musical plane with his ISO conducting debut, Stark reflects on his Wabash Glee Club days, where all this got started.
"Stan Malinowski was Glee Club director, and he heard me practicing some piano in the Chapel," Stark remembers. "He said, 'Hey, I need an accompanist for this piece; Can you help us out?"
"'I'd never accompanied a choir before, and I'm not a great pianist, at all. But he gave me a small piece and I practiced my brains out on it and accompanied the Glee Club on a few things at the end of my freshman year. It made my mom so nervous that she threatened to come to concerts with a bag over her head. And every Glee Club concert starts with "Old Wabash," the hardest handful of notes you could imagine playing."
"I'd be so nervous I couldn't eat before concerts. But it was fun because it showed me life on the other side of the choir riser. Stan gave me some conducting lessons, and then I spent my whole junior year in Vienna and Madrid. In Vienna my piano teacher Gerald Stofsky told me that I would never be a professional pianist—I had started too late. Still, he said, 'You're very musical. You should consider being a conductor.' He was the first person who gave me permission to have that dream.
"These days, my own students study with him there. He was kind of a terrorist in the classroom, but he was a great musician and he nurtured that in me."
Making one's ISO debut playing one of the best known pieces of music in the world brings it's challenges.
"What do you do with a chestnut? You can go only so far before it's no longer the familiar warm blanket that everyone wants to hear," Stark says. "If I were conducting "Messiah" every year I would make some changes, because "Messiah" exists in many different variations. I think it would be interesting to alternate some of those lesser-known versions. It really flies in the face of the notion that classical music is a static thing that doesn't evolve or change. Handel conducted this piece himself over 20 times, and it's possible that it was never the same way twice."
Stark says his job on Saturday is "to nudge the piece in a particular direction. What I am really interested in is the shaping of the event of the piece from beginning to end. There's an art there. That's one thing I feel pretty comfortable with—to take a piece that's two and a-half hours long and lead it so that there's a flow, a direction, a journey.
"I have conducted a complete "Messiah" before, and what was so gratifying was how captivated the audience said they were with the interpretation. People couldn't believe how moved they were by the music. And that's not me; that's Handel. You set the table, and you hope that the muse will visit you."
In photo: Eric Stark rehearses the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir in Lilly Hall, Butler University.
Photo by Steve Charles


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January 21, 2014
By -, -
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Jalissa Council of Oklahoma Baptist has been named the NAIA National Division I Women's Basketball Player of the Week, the national office announced Tuesday. Council was selected based on her performances from Jan. 13-19 and was chosen out of a pool of conference and independent award winners.
Council, a native of Weleetka, Okla., scored a career-high 31 points on Jan. 16, leading Oklahoma Baptist to a 85-79 win over then-No. 3 Oklahoma City. The win snapped the Stars streak of 35-straight victories in the Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) and was just their 11th loss in conference play over the past seven seasons. Council scored her 31 points, on 13-of-18 shooting, in just 25 minutes of action. She also added five rebounds in the contest. In the Bison's second game of the week, on Jan. 18 against Southwestern Christian (Okla.), Council again grabbed five boards, to go along with her team-high 18 points in 22 minutes on the floor. For the week, Council shot 69 percent (20-29) from the field and averaged 24.5 points and five rebounds per game—all while playing just over 23 minutes per game.
On the season, Council leads the Bison in points per game (16.36) and field goal percentage (.602). Since returning after missing five games in December and early January, Council has averaged 25 points per game. She's also been named the SAC Player of the Week in both weeks since her return (Jan. 6-12, Jan. 13-19).
For a complete list of the national statistical leaders, click here.
The next NAIA National Division I Women's Basketball Player of the Week will be announced on Jan. 28. For the complete Player of the Week calendar, click here.
Nominees: Hayley Newby, Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.); Taylor Belmont, Vanguard (Calif.); Caryan Jones, Philander Smith (Ark.); Darah Huertas-Vining, Great Falls (Mont.); Deonica Mccormick, Mobile (Ala.); Andrea Howard, Georgetown (Ky.); Gabi Morales, Missouri Valley; Ariel Callis, Huston-Tillotson (Texas); Nia Nolan, West Virginia Tech.
2013-14 Division I Women's Basketball Players of the Week
Week 1 (Jan. 7): Lindsey Abramson, Great Falls (Mont.)
Week 2 (Jan. 14): Brianna Thomas, Rio Grande (Ohio)
Week 3 (Jan. 21): Jalissa Council, Oklahoma Baptist


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JSeahawks wrote:Definatly glad its at home.
I say we win.
ImTheScientist wrote:This guy is the closest thing to beast mode we will ever see. You got a glimpse of that yesterday. He was instantly my favorite player when they signed him. Give the dude a chance and don't overreact or overthink preseason. Go Hawks. Lacy will rush for 1,100 and 10TDs. Bend the knee.
Evil_Shenanigans wrote:The Pat's shall fall! That it has been spoken, so let it be written.
Seriously, who does this team have to square off against to get some respect in this league! Pittsburgh... again!
sutz wrote:One of the reasons NE is #1 on Offense is that we did a number on GB for a game.
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Grand Theft Auto IV Walkthrough
|Call and Collect
At some point in the game, you'll receive a mysterious text message from an unknown person telling you to come meet him or her down on the docks at the southernmost tip of Algonquin. Thereafter, this location will appear as a question mark on the map. You can go there at your leisure (strangely, our GPS gave us dead end directions to the locale on multiple occasions, so you may be better off simply getting there on your own, employing the old-fashioned "towards the icon" GTA3/VC/SA method). You'll find the character who seeks out your skills waiting on a restaurant-side pier, admiring the view.
Remember a character named Patrick, from earlier? Well he was a McReary, and so too is this guy you're looking for, a high ranking police officer named Francis. Francis claims to know everything Niko has done, and he isn't lying. When he rattles off a few crimes he knows Niko committed, Niko begins to listen, only realizing that Francis would like to build somewhat of a symbiotic relationship between the two of them. As Francis tells Niko, as long as Niko looks out for Francis, Francis won't look out for Niko. Get it?
And just like that, Call and Collect, your first mission from Francis begins. Francis dispatches you towards an area at the north end of Algonquin, right alongside the East Borough Bridge. More specifically, you're seeking out a pier off of Union Drive East, so get driving! When you arrive nearby, ditch your stolen vehicle and go to the arrow designated by the yellow dot on your HUD. You'll get a great view of the surrounding area and get some further instruction on what to do from here.
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|Continue Walkthrough...
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Brody School of Medicine receives $1 million national award
June 14, 2013
By Crystal Baity
ECU News Services
East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine is one of 11 schools in the nation selected for a $1 million grant from the American Medical Association to change the way it educates students while keeping its focus on rural and underserved populations.
The American Medical Association announced the winners June 14 at its annual meeting in Chicago. ECU will receive funding through the AMA's $11 million Accelerating Change in Medical Education Initiative aimed at transforming the way future physicians are trained.
Dr. Elizabeth Baxley
"This grant provides Brody and the ECU Division of Health Sciences with the opportunity to create and test new models of medical education. All students will benefit from the changes we are planning," said Dr. Elizabeth Baxley, senior associate dean for academic affairs and professor of family medicine in the Brody School of Medicine. Dr. Luan Lawson, assistant dean of academic affairs and professor of emergency medicine, is co-principal investigator for the grant.
The university will implement a new comprehensive core curriculum in patient safety and clinical quality improvement for all medical students. It will feature integration with other health-related disciplines to foster interprofessional skills and prepare students to successfully lead health care teams as part of the transformation, Baxley said.
"Our medical schools today not only have the imperative to teach the art and science of medical care, but to train our graduates how to work in, and improve, complex health systems," Baxley said. "Preparing students to work in teams with other health professionals is a hallmark of the needed changes, as is a better understanding of the 'health' of a community and how we can positively impact that."
Additionally, up to 10 students each year will be selected to become LINC or Leaders in Innovative Care Scholars. These students will complete additional course work and lead projects to improve care. At the end of their training, they will earn a certificate in health care transformation and leadership.
The grant also will provide training for faculty members to teach the new program. Interested faculty will be recruited to a Teachers of Quality Academy, which will provide opportunities to learn more about patient safety, quality improvement and team-based care and explore new ways of teaching that engage students more actively in their own education, Baxley said.
Strategies will include e-learning, simulation, problem-based learning, clinical skills training and targeted clinical experiences. Emphasis on rural and underserved populations remains a fundamental part of Brody's mission.
In addition to ECU, the following schools received funding: Indiana University School of Medicine; Mayo Medical School; NYU School of Medicine; Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine; Penn State College of Medicine; The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; University of California, Davis School of Medicine; University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine; University of Michigan Medical School; and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
"We are thrilled to award funding to 11 medical schools for their bold, transformative proposals designed to close the gaps between how medical students are trained and how health care is delivered," said AMA President Dr. Jeremy A. Lazarus. "This AMA initiative will identify specific changes in medical education that can be applied in medical schools throughout the nation to enable students to thrive in a changing health care environment and improve the health of our nation's patients."
The proposals encompass many educational innovations, including models for competency-based student progression, total student immersion within the health care system from the first day of medical school and the increased use of health information technology and virtual patients.
The AMA will provide $1 million to each school over five years. A critical component of the AMA's initiative will be to establish a learning consortium to disseminate rapidly best practices to other medical and health profession schools.
Of the 141 eligible medical schools, 119 – more than 80 percent – submitted letters of intent outlining their proposals in February. In March, 28 individual schools and three collaborative groups of schools were selected to submit full proposals before a national advisory panel worked with the AMA to select the final 11 schools.
For more information about the initiative, visit
. To read short descriptions of each proposal, visit
Third year Brody School of Medicine student Jason Lomboy performs a medical check for Alicia Smallwood. (Photo by Cliff Hollis)
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CheckRight is a web-based checking account education module designed to teach you how to manage your checking account.
With GreenPath, you have free access to money management and financial education services.
GreenPath University is a free online resource that includes financial education articles, videos, e-courses, games, calculators and more.
Help bring your debt into focus, with this interactive and anonymous online resource.
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