writing-design examples

Kenneth C. Carter1128 Oak Creek Trail

Birmingham, Ala. 35215205-410-0099

[email protected]

Design/WritingExamples

Relevant parts highlighted in yellow

Concept Writing Design

[ SECTION C ]Monday, April 25, 2011

COMICS 2C TELEVISION 4C MOVIES 4C

WEB SURFINGInternet sites to help out,educate or have fun with.Direct links to these sitesare available at al.com,the online home of TheBirminghamNews. Go to:

blog.al.com/techcetera

ON COMPUTING with Bob Schwabach

Share yourPowerPointon the Web

We’ve been subjected tob o r i n g P o w e r P o i n tslideshows for years, andthey still won’t go away. Sorather than fight the situa-tion, we have surrendered.Here’s how to share yourPowerPoint presentationon the Web, for free.

Go to authorstream.comand upload the presenta-tion, up to a gigabyte insize. (That’s huge, by theway. If you have more tosay than that you probablyshould be executed for be-ing excessively boring.)

AuthorStream turns thepresentations into videosthat can be placed on You-Tube, or shared as a link.You can also post them toFacebook or Twitter, ordownload a free utility thatlets you put YouTube vi-deos into your slideshows.If you wish, they can bepassword protected. If youwant a regular channel onYouTube that lets otherssubscribe to your pres-entations as a series, go toA u t h o r s t r e a m . c o m /channels.

Bob Schwabach and hiswife, Joy, are syndicatedcolumnists. Readers cansearch several years’ worthof their On Computers col-umns at oncomp.com. Boband Joy can be contactedby email at [email protected] and [email protected].

TOP MOVIE QUOTESywww.lifescript.com

Odds are you have heard allof thesemovie quotes be-fore. But movie quotes arefamous for a reason—ev-eryone knows them. Headto this site to see a list ofthe topmovie quotes ever.Or not. Because, frankly mydear I don’t give a click.

MONEY LESSONSy financiallyfit.yahoo.com

Next time you open up thatcredit card bill and see howmuchmore interest youowe on top of that balance,remember what it says atthis site. It all starts with“knowwhat you can afford.”Yeah, maybe, but if I save upto buy that sweet ride withreal money, I’ll be too old toremember where I parked it.

FAMILY FILMS?ywww.twop.com

There’s a lot of newmovieson the horizon for yoursummer viewing pleasure.And a lot of them are beingadvertised as fun for thewhole family. And if part ofyour family fun is seeinghowmany times your momcan cringe when the “F”bomb is dropped, then en-joy. But, if not, then checkout this site to see just howfamily friendly those newmovies really are. Youmightwant to bookmark this one.Your momwill thank youfor it. It is a little tongue-in-cheek, but it still makessome interesting observ-ations.

BUNNIES AND EASTERywww.history.com

I know it’s technically theday after Easter, but I’m suremany of you have kids whohave yet to come down offtheir basket-induced sugarhigh, so this may still be rele-vant. We all know the origi-nal Easter story, but howandwhen did bunnies, bas-kets, eggs and candy comeinto play? I’m fairly certainthat Cadbury Cream Eggswere not a part of the Eu-charist, so what gives? Thissite tries to explain why andhow andwhen the secularpart of Easter raised itstwitching nose.

Written and compiledby Technology EditorKenneth Carter. Havea favorite website?Send the address [email protected].

SPECIAL

Robert Blankenheim said that once he had the plot, then scenes kept popping up in his head. “With E.T. allthese ideas came. Like, the initial ideas were: You gotta have amotorcycle shot over themoon. You gottahave, ooh, the Speak N Spell shot comes back to life. You have flames coming out of his finger.”

‘E.T.’ PHONY HOMAGE:TRAILER ANONLINE HITMock sequel trailer splicesfilm scenes, looks convincingBy KENNETH CARTERNews staff writer

If you happen to come across an Internet trailer for asequel to “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” don’t believewhat you see. It’s about as real as E.T. himself.

The mock trailer that runs a little more than sixminutes is actually the brainchild and 21⁄2-year labor

of love of Robert Blankenheim.Full time, Blankenheim has a job with a post house in

Los Angeles working on titles and graphics, but in hisspare time, he scoured hundreds of movie clips to createa video that is so convincing, you’d swear that he waspals with some of the actors.

But, just like the trailer, that’s not true either.“I could really only work on it on the weekends and

sometimes at night. It’s hard because you come up witha story, but then you have to do all this research. I rentedlike every movie that the actors made in like the last fiveyears,” Blankenheim said.

The 30-year-old videophile said he put the trailer onthe Web on Feb. 23, and in 10 days, he had more than amillion hits. He said he averages about 3,000 a day now.

In his mock trailer, called “ET: X — Extinction,” E.T.’speople have returned, but this time they’ve come backto take over. The E.T. from the 1982 blockbuster tracksdown an adult Elliott, and they team up to save theworld from the invading horde of potato-headed aliens.

“Videos like these I do just as a hobby,” Blankenheimsaid. “It’d be great if I could figure out a way to do themfull time. I’m hoping this will help in showing off my tal-ents with editing and just how creative I can be.”

Using programs such as Final Cut, Photo Shop, Light-Wave and After Effects, Blankenheim was able to morph,animate and manipulate an incredibly convincing video,but in reality, only a handful of the shots in it was origi-nal material that he created.

Turning clips into original stuff“Most of it’s clips; I did have to shoot 11 shots my-

self,” he said. “Like the general when he says, ‘Yourbrother, Michael, has been abducted.’ That’s actually afriend of mine who’s saying that line. I got a general’soutfit for my friend, and we shot him in front of a bluescreen and had him say that line, and then I put him inthe scene with Elliott. It sells it more. If he’s in the shotwith the original actor, then hopefully you won’t noticethat I had to shoot it.”

Again, when you watch, don’t be fooled into thinkingthat Blankenheim is buddies with actor Henry Thomas,who played Elliott. Even though you might come awayswearing that the now-adult actor is at the top of Blan-kenheim’s cellphone contacts.

“A lot of people say that, and I did luck out,” he said.“I think it’s mainly because of what he says. It’s the twolines that he says, one saying, ‘Guys, no, don’t shoot.He’s good. Can’t you understand that?’ That scene isfrom a movie called ‘Suicide Kings.’ The one line that heactually says from that movie is “Can’t you understandthat? He didn’t do anything.” And he’s pointing down,which is perfect because E.T. is down there.”

And with a little help from some friends, Blankenheimwas able to literally put words in the actor’s mouth tomake his creation even more convincing.

“As far as the other lines before he says that? He’s notreally saying, ‘Guys, no. Just understand,’ ” he said.“He’s saying like, ‘T.K., don’t. It’s just what Charlie said.’But I watched that footage with the volume down, and Ikind of wrote lines that I needed that would match hismouth moving, and then had a friend dub over hisvoice, so that’s really Henry Thomas, but it’s not hisvoice.”

And sometimes, Blankenheim just got incrediblylucky.

“One thing I did luck out on is when (Thomas) says,‘You have to learn how to capture them.’ He’s really say-ing that line: ‘It takes more than an understanding of thebasic anatomy. You have to learn how to capture them.’He says that line, verbatim,” he said, laughing. “Thatwas from a movie called ‘Fever,’ but here’s the kicker:He says that line, but he’s teaching an art class on howto capture the human form. So I just removed the artclass behind him, changed it to a graphic with E.T. and,boom, it just changes the context completely. It justpulls it right out.”

So, since it took Blankenheim more than two years toput his trailer together, you’d assume that he was a big“E.T.” fan, right? Well, not so much.

“I didn’t even see it in the theater; I was maybe 1 or 2,”he said. “I was never a huge ‘E.T.’ fan. I just thought ofdoing one like I did ‘Titanic’ about four years ago, and Isaid let me see if I can do another one. Usually for thesethings to work it needs to be a famous movie to some-thing that everyone knows, and it has to be to somethingthat would never — or should never — be made. And so(‘E.T.’) was just a good contender.”

Spielberg’s revenge?Even though his Web creation is an obvious compli-

ment to director Steven Spielberg’s flick, Blankenheimsaid he was a little worried about legal repercussions.

“I’m always paranoid. That’s why I didn’t put the‘Universal Pictures Presents’ (on it),” he said. “I didn’tuse any formal names. I didn’t use any of that. I’m notmaking a dime off of this intentionally. I would never dothat. In fact, it’s available to download for free on mywebsite. I hope Spielberg sees it and knows that hismovie will live on longer than my trailer ever will. Hope-fully he’ll appreciate the time involved, how creative itis, and technically, how hard it was. And it was, to date,the hardest thing I had ever done.”

The most ironic thing that seems to be going aroundis that many people who have watched are a little disap-pointed that it’s not authentic, even when they knowfrom the start that it isn’t.

“I don’t know if I wish it was real,” Blankenheim said.“Because, after all, it’s a joke. But I guess I’m flattered. Iguess it was done to the point where people do want tosee it. I think I milked it for what it was worth.”

To see Blankenheim’s “E.T.” sequel trailer, go towww.et2trailer.com. You can also check out how he putsome of it together by going to www.youtube.com/user/blankenheimrobert

EMAIL: [email protected]

GAMEBITSAlabama playeron game cover

Crimson Tide runningback Mark Ingram is thecover star of NCAA Foot-ball 12, the yearly collegefootball simulation game.It comes out in July. He isnot the first player fromAlabama to make thecover; that was Shaun Al-exander back in 2001. In-gram, however, is the firstplayer chosen by fanvotes, over Auburn de-fensive lineman Nick Fair-ley and guys from Okla-homa and Washington.Finally, a vote in Alabamathat leads to somethinggood!

‘Wipeout’ to getvideo game

If you do not enjoy theTV show “Wipeout,” youshould see a doctor, be-cause there may be some-thing wrong with you. It’sa game show on ABC.Contestants must jump,swing and climb throughobstacle courses while try-ing not to get splatted likethey’re in a “Road Runner”cartoon. Watch clips of theshow on the Web for 30seconds, and I guaranteeyou will be hooked. It’sfunny to watch someoneget bashed by a giant box-ing glove, because it’s nothappening to you. The vi-deo game will be for Xboxand Kinect; it’s an actiongame where you try tosave your on-screen guyfrom embarrassment. Itcannot be as fun as play-ing “Wipeout” in real life.But think of the fun yourfamily will have watchingyou flop backwards into amudhole.

Superheroes invideo games

About a zillion superhe-roes are getting videogames in the next fewmonths. Spider-Man willbe in Edge of Time. Thor,Green Lantern and Cap-tain America are all gettinggames because of their up-coming movies. I thinkthis answers the questionthat society poses: Are vi-deo games important?Duh. They let us play su-perheroes.

Joe Crowe

This screen grab from one of Robert Blankenheim’s“making of” videos shows him creating one of thefew original shots for his trailer.

WEIRDWARE

Virtual flowers —how, um, sweetMother’s Day is coming upsoon and you probably haveno gift yet. And, no, e-cardssent to her unchecked Yahooaccount don’t count. If youdon’t knowwhat to get, flow-ers are always good, and youcan order right from yoursmartphone. Or, better yet, ifyour mom is as geeky as you,get her this 8-bit bouquetfrom ThinkGeek. And if youreally love her, helpMom setup a shiny newGmail account.She’ll thank you. Probably withan e-card.

yWhat: 8-bit FlowerBouquetyMSRP: $15yWhere: tinyurl.com/weirdware-8bit

An adult Elliott and E.T. travel toWashington while E.T.’s people attack. “It wasn’t hard to come upwiththe story, because it’s just the basic alien invasion theme. The story’s been done amillion times; I just putE.T. in its place,” Blankenheim said.


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WEB SURFINGInternet sites to help out,educate or have funwith.Direct links to these sitesare available at al.com, theonline home of TheBirminghamNews. Go to:


SCHMIDT’SWORKOUTVIDEOywww.vulture.com

Sometimes some of theselinks are just forme and afew select geekswho sharemyweird sense of humor.(You knowwho you are.) I’ma huge fan of Fox’s “NewGirl” and the awesomenessthat is the character ofSchmidt. If you aspire to belike Schmidt, then checkout this video of actorMaxGreenfield in character ashe teaches a spin classwhile giving out inspira-tional Schmidt-isms. It’snot aword, but it should be.So grab a jar and enjoy. Andif youwatch “NewGirl,”then you knowwhat kind ofjar I mean.

WORSTMOVIE FOODSy eatthis.womenshealthmag.com

It’s coming up on summermovie season again, andwith blockbusters hittingthe big screen almost everyweekend until August, youmay find yourself in a bigdark room quite often dur-ing the vacationmonthsahead. And if you like tomunchwhile watching, thencheck out this site for theworst foods you can eatwhile at themovies. Youthinkmovie popcorn ishealthy? Guess again.Check this site out beforeyou have to lift up that arm-rest in order to take up twotheater seats.

LOSINGADREAMJOBymashable.com

If you’re in the process ofinterviewing for a job, thenmake sure you check outthis site on five ways toblow a dream job during theinterview process. Some ofthemmay sound like com-mon sense, but when youread some of the real-lifeexamples of behavior thatdidn’t get people jobs, youmay at least file them awayin the ol’ gray-matter boxfor future reference.


Illustration/Kenneth Carter

By Kenneth [email protected]

From forecasting to storm spotting to sur-veying the aftermath, technology haschanged the way everyone deals with theinevitable reality of a tornado.

And the odd thing is that technologyhas so permeated our everyday lives, that muchof the way the public gets severe weather infor-mation is taken for granted.

For example, Doppler radar is a householdphrase now, but it hasn’t always been the case.

Jim Stefkovich, who is the meteorologist incharge for the National Weather Service in Bir-mingham, said when he first started his career30 years ago, the radar used to track storms wasbased on 1957 technology, and a lot of time waswasted just issuing a severe weather warning.

“When we decided to put out a warning, youhad to manually type it on another computer,print that out, and then hand it to somebodywho actually recorded it on the old eight-trackdecks, and that process could take several min-utes from the time you decide to put out awarning to issue one,” he said.

But as computer models have grown more ac-curate, and with the advent of Doppler radar inthe 1990s, getting a warning out to the publichas become much quicker, Stefkovich said.

“Now, growing as scientists, we understandstorms a lot better — what makes severeweather, and what conditions lead to severeweather — to the point where on one computerwe look at the radar data; we issue a highly de-tailed warning without needing to type in any-thing if we choose not to, which gets dissemi-nated automatically to the media and NOAAweather radio in literally 1 to 2 seconds,” hesaid. “From the time I decide to put out a warn-ing to the time it reaches the general public can,at times, be less than a minute.”

ComputermodelsComputer models, which are mathematical

formulas that try to predict weather conditions,have advanced so much that they can actuallysimulate storm conditions in specific countiesand even predict how severe they will be, Stef-kovich said.

Increasing the forecasting accuracy evenmore is the recent addition of Dual-Pol radar tometeorologists’ weather predicting arsenal.

“Here in February, in Birmingham, we in-stalled what we call the Dual-Pol radar whichnow sends out signals to interrogate storms notonly in a horizontal but also in the vertical, andnow we’re seeing a much clearer definition ofthe entire storm structure,” he said. “It’s beinginstalled all over the country. It started last year,and it will continue across the United Statesinto next year, but it is already installed here inBirmingham and Huntsville and there are otherlocations that will be installed later this year.”

No radar can show an actual tornado on theground, but with the data it gathers, meteorolo-gists can predict where a tornado might be, andwith Dual-Pol, the data is even denser.

“Radar does not detect actual tornadoes. Be-cause the beam goes out straight, but theEarth’s surface curves away from it rather

quickly once the beam goes out. So even withina few miles you’re not seeing what’s going onright at the ground. And that’s why we’vetrained storm spotters,” Stefkovich said. “But,because of the Dual-Pol, some of the things,that if you have a circulation that’s strongenough, if it’s picking up debris, we’ve hadsome examples of it being straw and leaves andother things. If it’s being picked up by a circula-tion and there is a tornado in it and it’s liftingthat debris high enough that it reaches the radarbeam, we see that information within the hookor near the hook and that gives us much moreof a confirmation that something in fact is goingon on the ground. Because not every hook echois going to produce a tornado.”

The Dual-Pol will also be a big help withweather prediction throughout the year, hesaid.

“It’s going to help with improved forecastingfor rainfall amounts, it helps us better under-stand when we’re looking within a stormwhether it is hail, rain, hail that’s coated withrain around it, snow,” Stefkovich said. “It’sgoing to give us a much better estimate of wherethe freezing level is. And so it’s going to be use-ful during winter events all over the country.”

Storm spottersSince meteorologists can’t depend solely on

radar data, that’s where storm spotters come in.Storm spotters are trained to help identify andreport tornadoes during severe weather. Butnow, thanks to everyday technology, stormspotters can actually be trained online withoutever setting foot in a classroom.

“Storm spotters are very important. They cangive us that detail that we’re unsure of. The factof the matter is that we’re more interested ingetting people’s reports. We want storm spot-ters, and we continue to train, we train a lot offolks online, which is another technological ad-vancement. You don’t even have to leave yourhouse to be trained as a storm spotter,” he said.“Because of the technology of cellphones andsocial media — Twitter, Facebook — we’re get-ting pictures sent in real time and that’s phe-nomenal. So you’re getting real time verificationor pictures of something that you never had be-fore.”

Storm surveyBut even if no one actually verifies a tornado

visually, when meteorologists survey the dam-age once the storm has passed, technologycomes into play to record a tornado’s impactthat wasn’t witnessed.

“If we don’t get any reports, and we believethere was a tornado, we load what are called themesocyclones or the radar imagery within lap-tops. We then have the ability to hook up GPS,and we can freeze a frame or run a loop, and wecan drive to the exact area of where the radar

imagery went through, and we have found anumber of tornadoes doing it that way,” Stefko-vich said. “And then from there we just basicallytype in all the information and can send it elec-tronically to our office and then we get it pub-lished out as quickly as possible. That’s a hugeadvance.”

Without the Internet and electronics, he saidit would take days or weeks to get tornadoimage information out. But now, that informa-tion can be reported in minutes, sometimesfrom the very location where the survey wasdone.

Multiple confirmationsStefkovich said he is a fan of smartphone

weather warning apps, although he said the Na-tional Weather Service neither creates nor en-dorses any particular one. He said that socialscientists have discovered that the public wantsmultiple ways to confirm severe weather beforethey act. And apps are just one more convenienttool to help with that.

“I think it’s really important that people havemore than one way to receive severe weatherwarnings and, like you’ve probably heard, . . . isthat you cannot just depend on outdoor warn-ing sirens,” he said. “That is literally Cold-War-era technology.”

What people need to understand is that notevery warning will contain an actual tornado,Stefkovich said. Scientists still don’t understandwhy one supercell storm will produce torna-does, while another identical supercell stormwon’t.

“When we issue a warning, it means that wehave very high confidence that it could producea tornado and at times it’s almost like a forecastwhere we’re expecting this to occur,” he said.“And we’re not always correct in that area be-cause again, scientific wise, we’re still trying tounderstand that.”

Livingwith itTornado season is just something everyone

has to live with in the Southeast and the Mid-west. And although April 27, 2011, and manyother severe weather events that have occurredsince then have seemed extreme, Stefkovichsaid that meteorologists simply refer to it asspring.

“This is the season, and what we had happenlast April was hopefully a once-in-a-lifetimeevent,” he said. “But there will be more tornadodays, and the thing about it is we can’t compareevery season to what occurred on April 27. Butone small tornado that hits one family, to thatfamily that is their April 27.”

Technology has helped advance the accuracyof warnings as well as keep the public informedduring and after severe weather, but it is only atool. And it’s useless if people don’t take advan-tage of it, Stefkovich said.

“We take our jobs very seriously. Our familieslive here, too,” he said. “But the bottom line isall of our work is for nothing if people don’t takethe proper actions. You have a personal respon-sibility to take action when the warnings are is-sued.”

MOREONLINEy For links onmore information about

Dual-Pol radar and how to be astorm spotter, check out this articleonline at: blog.al.com/techcetera

WEIRDWARE

Old schoolGooglemapsThe image above is not anelaboratemazemeant todrive you insane.Well, OK,actually it kinda is. That, ren-dered in exotic wood veneers,is a Googlemap of the inter-section of Interstates 59 and65 in downtown Birmingham.Isn’t it amazing how laser-cut wood can turn such anasty, confounding, danger-ousmeeting of roads intoart? Check outWoodcutMaps’ website to transformyour Googlemap of choice.

yWhat:WoodcutMapsyMSRP: $400 (for 16”x20”map shown)yWhere:www.woodcut-maps.com

GAMEBITSNew thisweek:Prototype 2

The sequel to Prototypeis out this week. You play anew guy, but he got powersfrom the hero of the firstPrototype. And in this one,the first Prototype is youropponent. This time yourmain mutation is tendrilsthat sprout from your armand smash stuff. Whenyou’re a mutated killer try-ing to stop a transformingvirus, it’s good to have grossthings that pop out of you.

Coming soon:More zombies

Zombies are fun to kill ingames. They give us somuch enjoyment. It’s abouttime we paid them back.The new game Plight of theZombie supports the causeof ending zombie hunger. Itcomes out later this year,and it’s from the zombies’point of view. The game in-cludes more than 30 puzzlesand “tasteful accessories.”I’m not sure the word “tas-teful” has ever been applied

to zombies before.

Download this:SpellTower

With the name Spell-Tower, you may expect wiz-ards and magic missiles. In-stead you get spellingwords. You create words onthe game board by drawinglines across the letters withyour finger. Everyone will beplaying it soon, even ifthey’re just taking a breakfrom Draw Something.

Joe CroweSparkPlug Games

Plight of the Zombie gets personal with thewalkingdead.

LIVE FOR DIXIE


Sept. 15, 1963.Remember where you were

that Sunday morning? (Were you even born?)

The last thing four little girls in Birmingham may have remem-bered was the sound of each other’s voices — talking, laughing, whis-pering or sighing — in the inter-

lude between Sunday school and church.

Mercifully, they never

knew what hit them — never knew the bomb packed by the Ku Klux Klan with more hate and less tol-erance than any community could stand — until it took away their future. Four individual futures, each filled with so much promise.

In that tragic moment Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Car-ole Robertson and Cynthia Morris Wesley became instant martyrs in the cause of civil rights as they took their last breath on earth and their first in heaven.

And the world took note, because it simply had to.

Even the segregated world in which the girls had — almost — grown up.

The deaths of these four precious girls struck like lightning to the heart — even the hearts of some white supremacists — that the time had come to end “segregation for-ever” and the dastardly denial of basic human rights.

“Father, forgive them,” the Rev. John Cross prayed as he ran out of the just-bombed Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and into the street.

“Forgive them,” the pastor implored his shattered congrega-tion.

“Forgive them, for they don’t

know what they’ve done,” he prayed for the criminals whose cowardly bomb had extinguished four young lives and blown away the face of Christ in the church’s east window.

A fitting memorialFifty-one years later, forgiveness

and reconciliation is still a work in progress in our community. We can close our eyes and remember the hate, or we can open our hearts and forge a new future, together.

For the past 31 years, the 4 Little Girls Memorial Fund has looked to the future — awarding scholarships each year to deserving students, to help fulfill their dreams of getting a college education — an oppor-tunity tragically swept away from Addie Mae, Denise, Carole and Cynthia in 1963.

We will never know what these four little girls might have become. But we know their legacy is alive because we see it being lived out, year by year, in the lives of our scholarship recipients.

Since 1983, the Memorial Fund has awarded $269,000 in scholar-ships to 71 students, sowing seeds of hope and reaping great results. Some have become teachers or professors, some doctors or law-yers, others business executives or entrepreneurs.

Last year, on the eve of Sept. 15, a number of our scholarship recip-ients joined the Memorial Fund trustees at the Birmingham Civil

Rights Institute to remember four little girls they never knew. In a fit-ting and moving celebration, with the help of the girls’ surviving fam-ily members and a host of caring citizens, we lit four memorial can-dles.

“By their light, we now can see,” we proclaimed, as we honored their names. And we presented our scholarship winners as tangible evidence that the light of these four lives still shines here.

The 4 Little Girls Memorial Fund is one of the most positive results of a terrible tragedy, and a most fitting memorial. Not made of stone or bronze or even stained glass, this is a living legacy — being carried for-ward in the lives and hearts of our scholars.

In them we can see a better path to the future — a path of hope, opportunity and dignity for all God’s children. Thanks to our many supporters, others now can see that path, too.

And follow that light.As we honor the memory of

Addie Mae, Denise, Carole and Cynthia on Sept. 15, please remem-ber the 4 Little Girls Memorial Fund, and help us lift their light even higher.

Gregory R. Hodges is president of Hodges & Associates in Birming-ham and a member of the board of the 4 Little Girls Memorial Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (www.4littlegirlsfund.org).

When a celebrity commits suicide, it makes headlines across the globe. People tweet about it. People make

inappropriate jokes about it. What we tend to forget is that celebrity had family and friends who loved him.

A close friend of mine took his life last week. I found out about it, of all places, on Facebook. When I first read the words, my

immediate reaction was that it was a sick joke. I read it over and over until I finally did a Google search to see if

there was an obituary. There was.My heart raced. My vision blurred. I

clasped my hands to my face in abject dis-belief. My friend of more than 25 years was one of the funniest guys I have ever known. We have spent many hours try-ing to see who could out-joke the other.

We met at the college newspaper and clicked on an almost psychic level. We com-pleted each other’s sentences. We would constantly say things at the same time. I often called him my twin brother separated by two years.

For this reason, I feel like I should have seen this coming. That I should have sensed something that no one else could have. Inside, he was obviously hurting beyond what anyone could fathom — including me.

My friend killed himself at the beginning of September, Suicide Awareness Month. Almost 400,000 people attempt suicide every year. More than 30,000 succeed. And now my friend, with all his nuances and suc-cesses and failings, will be another statistic, but he will never be just that to the ones he left behind — a wife, a mother, a brother, a sister and many caring friends.

At some point in everyone’s life, darkness can seem overwhelming. A lot of us mask that dark with humor. I am often guilty of this myself. But I know that there are loved ones I can turn to for comfort and advice when I truly need it. What is it in the mind of the severely depressed that turns off the beacon of hope that can light up that con-suming darkness?

If you’re depressed, there is hope. There is help. I used to think hotlines were cliché, but my friend’s death has forced me to re-evaluate a lot of my cynical notions. Suicide hotlines can be a real deterrent. And here’s something I didn’t know about the hotline: You can call even if you’re not the one who needs the immediate help. You can call for advice if you’re worried about someone else.

There can be warning signs for suicide. Educate yourself. It could mean the differ-ence between life and death for someone you think you know very well.

Were there any signs for my friend? Maybe, maybe not. One of his Facebook posts shortly after Robin Williams commit-ted suicide read:

“Robin Williams’ last words: Errrrrhhh!“Before anyone gets bent out of shape …

that was a Robin Williams’ joke. You won’t find more of a fan than me. So, it’s a tribute. It was from his stand-up routine in the ’80s.

“Should you ever find yourself alive after my death and this Internet thing still exists, please begin joking immediately. The more offensive you can be, the more you will dem-onstrate you were a real friend.”

I was a real friend, but I cannot joke about what you have done. You were an amaz-ing person, and you have left a void in the lives of many who must venture forward in a world without you in it. And that, my sad friend, is the worst joke of all.

If you need help or advice, call the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. To get the facts on suicide, go to www.suicidepreven-tionlifeline.org. Kenneth Carter is a curator for AL.com. Contact him at [email protected].

SUICIDE AWARENESS

Darkness of depression can often be hidden

KENNETH CARTER

GREGORY R. HODGES

EDI TOR I A L BOA R DAnthony CookCommunity News Director | [email protected]

Matt SharpAlabama Media Group President | [email protected]

Michelle HolmesVice President of Content | [email protected]

K.A. TurnerDirector of Commentary and Opinion | [email protected]

Letters should be about 200 words and must include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number, which will not be published. Letters may be edited for grammar, spelling and brevity.

Email: [email protected].

Mail: Reader Letters, The Birmingham News, P.O. Box 2553, Birmingham, AL 35202

HOW TO CONTACT US

‘BY THEIR LIGHT … ’

4 LITTLE GIRLS: MEMORIAL FUND IS A LIVING, POSITIVE RESULT OF A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY.

OPINIONNATION & WORLD 26

s

25

(John Archibald/[email protected])

Nothing says “Welcome to Birmingham!” like 100 broken windows and 50 shades of squalor.

This is the first view of the city that Amtrak passengers get as they arrive in Birmingham and walk out the station door. Not so much a welcome as a warning. “Stay on the train! Stay on the train!”

The station itself is being revamped as part of the new $30 million, three-block intermodal station. Unfortunately, the view remains.

Seen something that makes you shake your head, or makes you mad? Or something that makes you wonder who’s responsible? Or something that just needs to be fixed? Snap a picture or shoot a short video and send it our way. Use #wrongAL on Twitter, Instagram or Vine, or email [email protected].

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

A plaque at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church honors, from left, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins and Carol Robertson. (File)

AL.COM z THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS z FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 Writing

Writing

SET PHASERS TO PUNTELEVISION

DETAILSyWhat: NTSF:

SD:SUV::

yWhere:AdultSwim onCartoonNetwork

yWhen:Thursdays;11:15 p.m.

Kate Mulgrew having a ball in Adult Swim spoofBy KENNETH CARTER

Having broken through the sci-fi glass ceiling byportraying the first woman captain in a “StarTrek” series, Kate Mulgrew is crashing through

another one as a female dramatic performer whowears a straight face for laughs in Adult Swim’s“NTSF:SD:SUV::”

With a name that looks like someone knockedover a bowl of Alpha-Bits cereal, Adult Swim’s new-est absurd series is a spoof of crime proceduralssuch as “CSI.” In it, Mulgrew plays Kove, the head of— get ready for this — the National Terrorism StrikeForce: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle.

Kove is the type of comedic role that was once re-served for male actors such as Peter Graves, RobertStack and, of course, Leslie Nielsen.

“Absolutely! I’m going to think of myself now asLeslie Nielsen — the female Leslie Nielsen,” Mul-grew said. “That’s her exactly.”

And although there’s not much comedy on Mul-grew’s resume, she said she has loved every minuteplaying this eye-patch wearing character who pro-tects San Diego from terrorist attacks.

“(Creator and executive producer) Paul Scheer, issuch a genius. And the character of Kove is such adeparture from what I’ve been playing for 37 years,”she said. “I mean, I think I’m regarded as a dramaticactress. And he had the prescience, the foresight —and this is why comedians of his type are so fab-ulous — he had the foresight to understand that —to bring that kind of dry austerity to this crazy char-acter wearing an eye patch.”

Mulgrew said she shot 12 15-minute episodes inwhat she jokingly said was a long shooting schedule.

“We had a very grueling season. It took about fiveand a half weeks,” she said. “All I can say is that Ilaughed for six weeks. And this is a big stretch forme. Because I’m nearly weeping at the end of myday on a sound stage.“

Even though she’s finished with “NTSF” for now,Mulgrew has been traveling and will soon be seen inSyfy’s “Warehouse 13” in a four-episode arc that be-gins Aug. 29.

“I had a remarkably great time up there (in Van-couver). I go into these things never knowing what

to expect really because of my own experience withepisodic television,” Mulgrew said. “And JackKenny, who is the show runner on ‘Warehouse 13,’is probably one of the best, if not the best show run-ners I’ve worked with. He runs a tight ship and is fullof grace and humor. Everybody’s relaxed. And it’svery much a feeling of family. Very much a feeling oftogetherness. Very much a feeling of creative collab-oration. So that in the middle of a scene I felt abso-lutely free to fill in my own nuances.”

Being able to add her opinions to her roles issomething Mulgrew seems passionate about, and ittrickled down into what she calls an important mo-ment in her life: portraying Katherine Hepburn inthe stage production of “Tea at Five” in 2003.

“It was written for me. Which is always a wonder-ful thing,” she said. “It’s not only collaborative, youhave a great deal of power and influence, and it’swhat every actor yearns for.”

Of course, perhaps Mulgrew’s most famous role isthe one that changed the landscape of the Star Trekuniverse: playing Capt. Kathryn Janeway, the first fe-male starship captain in “Star Trek: Voyager” from1995 to 2001.

“Well, she certainly changed (the landscape) forwomen, not to put too fine a point on it becausethat’s obviously apparent,” she said. “I think I el-evated science fiction for women and also intro-duced to the viewing public the idea — the broaderidea, the more advanced idea — of a woman in com-mand . . . And I say this often and I’ll say it till I die: Iwas very privileged to play Capt. Janeway, and I lovethat chapter of my life.”

But now, Mulgrew is ready to put all seriousnessaside as she protects San Diego from moronic ter-rorists. And is she concerned that “NTSF:SD:SUV::”will be too much of a mouthful for television viewersto remember?

“No. I think it will become like a Rubik’s Cube,”Mulgrew said “It will become like a little puzzle. Andeveryone will want to master it.“

j

Kenneth Carter is page one editor and technology editor for TheNews.Write to him at [email protected]

Of hercharacter,Kove, KateMulgrew says:“We don’tknowwhy shelost the eye.But I think itwas probablysexual innature.”

ADULT SWIM

MORE ONLINEyWantmore KateMulgrew?

Read the entire transcript ofthe interview on al.com, theonline home of TheBirminghamNews: al.com/tv

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SPOILERETIQUETTEywww.collegehumor.com

In this age of DVRs, Internetwatching and On Demand,it’s never been easier tocatch up on your favoriteshows. It’s also never beeneasier to get caught near aconversation at work thatruins a TV show that youhave yet to see. This sitelets you in on some spoileretiquette given to you bythe stars of spoiler-heavyshows such as “True Blood,”“Dexter” and “TheWalkingDead.” If you’re asking your-self what the heck a spoileris, then youwon’tmindmetelling you that everyone on“Walking Dead” are zombieswaiting to happen. (Ihaven’t seen the finale yet,so if that’s true, I’m sorry.)

PENNYPHYSICSywww.scientificamerican.com

So, I’m sure you’ve heardthe story that a pennydropped off the EmpireState Buildingwould kill apersonwalking by on thestreet below. Sounds scary,but is it true? Turns outthat, no, it couldn’t kill any-one. Although itmight hurta little. This site explainswhy a penny isn’t the pro-jectile weapon peoplemightthink it is. A ball-point penon the other hand . . .

SCREENSAVERSOFYOREywww.mentalfloss.com

Remember whenwe had tohave screensavers on ourcomputers so that desktopwouldn’t be burned into thescreen forever? Yep, thosewere the days.We still likescreensavers, but we nolonger need them. This sitelooks at some of the funscreensavers that used topop up every 10minutes,andwe didn’t evenmind it. Istill love the flying toasters.


WARNINGSDuring awarning, MyWARNwill showyour location (the blue dot) inrelation to the polygon area issuedby the NationalWeather Service.

iONTHESTORM

SAFETY INFORMATIONDuring warnings, MyWARN can offertips on how to keep safe during aweather emergency.

By Kenneth [email protected]

Tornadoes are a sobering fact of life whenliving in the Southeast. Recent tragedieson April 27, 2011, and Jan. 23 have onlyserved to emphasize that point.

And although the National WeatherService works diligently in discovering andtracking the threat of deadly storms, getting thatinformation into the hands of a sleeping familyin the path of those storms hasn’t been easy.

Enter MyWARN, a new iPhone app developedby Bill Murray and Jeff Cross of Weather Apps, alocal company in Birmingham.

The goal of MyWARN is to get more accurateand precise weather information to the publicas quickly and easily as possible.

“The way the weather service issued warningsall my life was by counties,” Murray said. Theproblem with that is that a storm supercell mayonly threaten a small portion of that area, eventhough the warning released is for the entirecounty.

Enter the polygon“So in October 2007, (the Weather Service)

went to something called storm-based warn-ings,” he said. “On their computers, they draw alittle polygon in the area that they think is goingto be affected by the severe weather. Well, thatarea is 20 percent of what they used to warn.”

But the task of alerting people in harm’s waycontinued to be a problem. “Weather radio? Stillcounty based. Outdoor sirens? Still countybased,” Murray said.

“The stuff that comes out is actually very pre-cise.” Cross said. “I was blown away, not know-ing anything about the weather, at how goodthey are with the predictions. Now where thingsfail is with the dissemination of that informa-tion.”

But Murray said a light bulb went off when hesaw the potential of location-based services insmartphones.

“I said this is just a prime opportunity to takeit straight from the National Weather Service’skeyboard and put it in the end user’s hand,” hesaid.

SAF-T-Net, a recent free weather warning appfrom Huntsville-based Baron Services, is re-

stricted in that it only alerts of severe weather inpreset locations. MyWARN takes advantage of asmartphone’s GPS to alert of bad weather nomatter where someone is.

Keeping it simpleMurray has an infectious enthusiasm about

all things weather. He also has a company calledThe Weather Company, which has ABC 33/40meteorologist James Spann as a partner. And heis a weekend forecaster for Alabamawx.com.

He contacted programmer Cross about twoyears ago and pitched him his app idea.

“I’ve learned a lot about weather since,” Crosssaid.

“He’s very fastidious about the programming,and I was very fastidious about what I wanted itto do,” Murray said. “Because, we’re not makingit for weather nerds. We’re making it for the av-erage person. The idea is for it to be super sim-ple, not a bunch of settings. It just needs towork — sit in the background and just go offwhen there’s a warning. Or go off when youdrive into a warning, which is even more impor-tant to me.”

Since MyWARN is designed to constantly runin the background, it’s always searching forweather advisories. When severe weather isforecast, the app will send out a head’s up hoursahead of time. If an alert puts you inside a poly-gon, the notification will show your location in-side the warning area. It will also show whereyou are inside a watch as well.

“It shows your location always. If you want toread the details from the weather service, thetext of the actual advisory is right there, too,”Murray said. “But we didn’t want it to get morecomplicated than this. That’s pretty much thefunctionality of it.”

Part of that simplicity is keeping the weatherwarnings to a minimum. MyWARN only issuesadvisories for floods, thunderstorms and torna-does.

When an alert goes off, the high-pitched sus-tained tone gradually gets louder for five sec-onds. The alert goes on for 10 seconds in theevent of a tornado warning. “They’re the king-pins,” Murray said.

The app will keep notifying you about thewarning until the danger has passed. It will evengo so far as to send a message letting you know

that the warning is over. Or if you are driving, itwill let you know that you have left an area un-der alert.

But simple to operate doesn’t mean there’snot much there after it warns you of danger. Theapp can give you severe weather tips and,thanks to media partnering, it will let you watchlive streaming of a television weather report,which is a bonus if your safe place doesn’t haveaccess to a TV or if the power is out.

Battery lifeA major issue both Murray and Cross said

they had to address was battery life since theapp is designed to be running constantly.

“When the weather is good, the thing is de-signed to not use very much battery,” Murraysaid. “It steps up the precision and the accuracy(during potential threats). But we had to ad-dress that. Because we’re using battery aboutthe rate of 12 percent per hour when there werealerts.”

But Cross said that an upgrade has alreadybeen issued.

“We just put in an upgrade just to addressbattery life. And so now we’ve given the user theoption to turn on precision or not,” he said.“Turning it off doesn’t mean that it’s not stillfairly precise. It’s just not tracking as hard as itcould and where you are in relation to thestorm.”

Cross said that MyWARN is accurate to within10 meters in its most precise setting.

“If the polygon is across the room, and youwalk over to that, you’re going to get alerted,” hesaid.

MyWARN, which went live March 2, is onlyavailable for iPhone right now, but Murray andCross said an Android version is in the works.The iPhone version is available for downloadnow on iTunes for $9.99 through June 1. Thenthe plan is to take it to a subscription-basedservice in order to make it more maintainable,Murray said. Right now, he is considering a $12annual fee.

“You don’t want a free app that’s going to de-liver your tornado warnings to you,” Murraysaid. “You want one that’s going to be backedup. We’re scared to death to offer an app thatmight not go off when there’s bad weather. Andso we want to make sure that it’s sustainable.”

MONDAY,MARCH 19, 2012 j SECTIONC

WEB SURFINGInternet sites to help out,educate or have funwith.Direct links to these sitesare available at al.com, theonline home of TheBirminghamNews. Go to:


WATCHESDuring awatch, MyWARNwill showyour location (the blue dot) insidethewatch area.

THEDASHBOARDMyWARN has an easy interface that shows you threatlevels for floods, thunderstorms and tornadoes. It’s setto receive all seven kinds of advisories: the threewarnings, the three watches and the risks.

ALERTSNot only will MyWARN alert you if astorm is approaching you in yourhome, but if you happen to drive intoawarning area as well.

Appwarns of severeweatherwherever you are

WEIRDWARE

Drunk andorderlyThe biggest problemwe

know ofwith iPhones is thatwe’re always using ours totext friends, post on Face-book, tweet and check in toFoursquare.Which leavesonly one hand free to pop thetop on our favorite bever-ages. Difficult is oneway todescribe opening beer bottlesone handed.Messy is an-other.The Intoxicasewith its

built-in bottle opener is theiPhone case you’ve beendreaming of. Not only will itlet you open your beer withboth hands, it comeswith anapp that will post the open-ing of the bottle on Facebook,tweet it, check you in toFoursquare and keep a run-ning tab of your boozing. It’llalso help you stumble back toyour car and call a cab to getyour drunk self home. It’s in-toxilicious!

yWhat: Intoxicase PlusyMSRP: $45yWhere: intoxicase.com

GAMEBITSBash is oneof the newAngry Birdsin space. NewAngry Birds

thisweekThe new Angry Birds

game is available Thursday.It’s Angry Birds in Space.More details about it are in afun video at http://space.angrybirds.com/announcement/.

The video features DonPettit, a real NASA astro-naut, who spent six monthson the International Space

Station. It is a tremendoushonor that people in thespace industry work towardtheir entire careers. Not ev-eryone can host an AngryBirds video.

Syfymonsterson Facebook

Syfy Monster Island is aFacebook game where youfight monsters from the Syfychannel’s cheesy Saturday

monster movies. I use theword cheesy with respect,because making good mov-ies on purpose is hard. Mak-ing bad movies on purposeis awesome.

Your guy gets rewardsthrough the game for killingmonsters such as giant ga-tors. I assume Sharktopus isin there somewhere. Other-wise, why bother even goingon Facebook?

Joe Crowe

Rovio

LIVE FOR DIXIE


Links to Web articles

http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/06/man_of_steels_sucker_punch_how.html

http://blog.al.com/techcetera/2012/05/birmingham_aids_outreach_launc.html

http://blog.al.com/techcetera/2012/03/gadget_review_third_generation.html

http://blog.al.com/techcetera/2012/02/facebook_timeline_is_coming_bu.html

http://blog.al.com/techcetera/2012/01/youtubes_trends_dashboard_coun.html

http://blog.al.com/techcetera/2011/10/your_man_reminder_app_gives_wo.html

http://blog.al.com/techcetera/2011/09/web_surfing_all_good_things.html

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