At the forum, animation supremo and CEO of DreamWorks Jeffery Katzenberg, said 3D filmmaking was the "greatest innovation to occur in the movie business in 70 years."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/12/future.cinema/index.html

GAME DESCRIPTION:
WP is a character-driven social game that uses elements from virtual pets, role-playing games (RPGs), and social networking tools to motivate real-world wellness by helping players to leverage their intimate network as sources of encouragement, community and support. Players are rewarded with new character abilities, attributes and props in the game for choosing and sustaining lifestyle changes and staying active. This prototype version of WP is played on either a cell phone or web browser (same functionality for both). Much of the game is a single-player experience, but the game allows for intra-group communication for purposes of support, checking progress, and completing group quests. The WP character is a fictional creature. A WP character can offer encouragement, reminders, and send messages to other players' characters. The WP character becomes both the face of the game and an alter ego for the player. Players can expand their personal group by recruiting partners or helpers.

Position Responsibilities & Skills:
- Help design the game in coordination with senior personnel
- Conduct playtesting sessions of prototype (over sms and email, phone device will be provided)
- Basic knowledge of MS Excel for data entry required
- Creative writing skills and a compassionate spirit for the purposes of the project (it is a health game after all...) are also required
- MUST BE A USC STUDENT
- MUST have taken a game prototyping class with our division

Available immediately, $12/hour to start, send resume or CV to mgotsis@cinema.usc.edu and one paragraph about why you think you can do this and what your creative interests are.

http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/15326.html

and here:

http://www.rwjf.org/newsroom/newsreleasesdetail.jsp?productid=21898

and here:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16212

Super super extra thanks to Diana Hughes and Tracy Fullerton and some earlier brainstormings with Mike Stein and Jen Stein.

Speakers: Tom DeFanti, Dan Sandin, Greg Dawe, Todd Margolis, (University of California San Diego/CalIT2, University of Illinois at Chicago, Electronic Visualization Laboratory)
Time: Wednesday, April 23, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

"CineGrid: Networked Digital Cinema Challenges"
Tom DeFanti

"VR W/O Attachments"
Dan Sandin

"The Calit2 StarCAVE, a 3rd Generation VR Room"
Greg Dawe

"CRCA: Examples of Collaborative Practice for Large Scale New Media Art Projects"
Todd Margolis

BIOS

Tom DeFanti is an internationally recognized expert in computer graphics since the early 1970s. DeFanti has amassed a number of credits, including: use of EVL hardware and software for the computer animation produced for the 1977 “Star Wars” movie; contributor and co-editor of the 1987 National Science Foundation-sponsored report “Visualization in Scientific Computing;” recipient of the 1988 ACM Outstanding Contribution Award; appointed an ACM Fellow in 1994; and appointed one of several USA technical advisors to the G7 GIBN activity in 1995. He also shares recognition along with EVL director Daniel J. Sandin for conceiving the CAVE™ Virtual Reality Theater in 1991. Currently he is a research scientist at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). At the University of Illinois at Chicago, DeFanti was director of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), a distinguished professor and a distinguished professor emeritus in the department of Computer Science, and the director of the Software Technologies Research Center. Striving for a more than a decade to connect high-resolution visualization and virtual reality devices over long distances, DeFanti has collaborated with Maxine Brown to lead state, national and international teams to build the most advanced production-quality networks available to scientists, with major NSF funding.

Dan Sandin is an internationally recognized pioneer in computer graphics, electronic art and visualization. He is Professor Emeritus of the School of Art & Design, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Director Emeritus of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has worked on a number of inventions such as the Sandin Image Processor (1971-1973), a patch programmable analog computer for real-time manipulation of video inputs through the control of the grey level information. This modular design was based on the Moog synthesizer, the Sayre Glove (1977), the first data glove, as part of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a type of VR photography called PHSColograms (1988), a system whereby a number of still images were situated in an auto-stereoscopic manner and back-projected with light. In 1991, in conjunction with Tom DeFanti and graduate students, he designed the CAVE™ Virtual Reality Theater. More recently, he has been working on The Varrier™ Auto-Stereographic Display.

Greg Dawe's unique background mixes mastery in electronics, optics, video technology, material fabrication, computers, and software, complemented by a Florida building contractor’s license acquired in the early 1990s. Dawe holds a BFA in design from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an MFA in video art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, working under Phil Morton, the legendary video artist. Working with colleagues Tom DeFanti and Dan Sandin at EVL, Dawe is known for his contributions to the CAVE™ Virtual Reality Theater and its derivatives, the ImmersaDesk™, and PARIS™. The CAVE is a multi-screen, projection-based, virtual-reality system, and the ImmersaDesk is a single-screen, drafting table-style device. Both are commercial products sold by Fakespace Systems (formerly Pyramid Systems Inc.). Dawe also did the mechanical design for and assembled the Varrier™ auto-stereographic display, many large tiled displays and recently a six-wall CAVE (StarCAVE) installed on the ground floor of the UCSD Calit2 building.

Todd Margolis is artist, educator and technologist. He received his MFA in Electronic Visualization from the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a founding member of the immersive and interactive art and technology non-profit organization, Applied Interactives, and also a member of the art collaborative Sine::apsis Experiments. Margolis ic currently appointed the Technical Director of the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts(CRCA) at UCSD. Margolis was previously a Visiting Research Programmer at UIC developing a new virtual reality system, The Varrier™ Auto-Stereographic Display with Dan Sandin.

Enhancement of allergic skin wheal responses in patients with atopic eczema/dermatitis syndrome by playing video games or by a frequently ringing mobile phone

* H. Kimata, Ujitakeda Hospital, Kytoto Prefecture, Japan

Department of Allergy, Ujitakeda Hospital, Kytoto Prefecture, Japan (H. Kimata).

Background: Playing video games causes physical and psychological stress, including increased heart rate and blood pressure and aggression-related feelings. Use of mobile phones is very popular in Japan, and frequent ringing is a common and intrusive part of Japanese life. Atopic eczema/dermatitis syndrome is often exacerbated by stress. Stress increases serum IgE levels, skews cytokine pattern towards Th2 type, enhances allergen-induced skin wheal responses, and triggers mast cell degranulation via substance P, vasoactive intestinal peptide and nerve growth factor.

Materials and methods:(1) In the video game study, normal subjects (n = 25), patients with allergic rhinitis (n = 25) or atopic eczema/dermatitis syndrome (n = 25) played a video game (STREET FIGHTER II) for 2 h. Before and after the study, allergen-induced wheal responses, plasma levels of substance P, vasoactive intestinal peptide and nerve growth factor, and in vitro production of total IgE, antihouse dust mite IgE and cytokines were measured. (2) In the mobile phone study, normal subjects (n = 27), patients with allergic rhinitis (n = 27) or atopic eczema/dermatitis syndrome (n = 27) were exposed to 30 incidences of ringing mobile phones during 30 min. Before and after the study, allergen-induced wheal responses, plasma levels of substance P, vasoactive intestinal peptide and nerve growth factor were measured.

Results: Playing video games had no effect on the normal subjects or the patients with allergic rhinitis. In contrast, playing video games significantly enhanced allergen-induced skin wheal responses and increased plasma levels of substance P, vasoactive intestinal peptide and nerve growth factors in the patients with atopic eczema/dermatitis syndrome. Moreover, playing video games enhanced in vitro production of total IgE and anti-house dust mite IgE with concomitant increased production of IL-4, IL-10 and IL-13 and decreased production of IFN-γ and IL-12 in the patients with atopic eczema/dermatitis syndrome. However, exposure to frequently ringing mobile phones significantly enhanced allergen-induced skin wheal responses, plasma levels of substance P, vasoactive intestinal peptide and nerve growth factors in the patients with atopic eczema/dermatitis syndrome, but not in the normal subjects or the patients with allergic rhinitis.

Conclusion: Playing video games enhanced allergic responses with a concomitant increased release of substance P, vasoactive intestinal peptide and nerve growth factor, and skewing of the cytokine pattern toward Th2 type in the patients with atopic eczema/dermatitis syndrome. In addition, exposure to frequently ringing mobile phones also enhanced allergic responses with a concomitant increased release of substance P, vasoactive intestinal peptide and nerve growth factor. Collectively, high technology causes stress, which in turn may aggravate symptoms of atopic eczema/dermatitis syndrome.

full article here: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2362.2003.01177.x

a) let go more often
b) love the people you want to love
c) give 100%, take 100%
d) keep applying for grants no matter how scary, tiring and intimidating
e) don't stop working out
f) save more money

A year older, older in flesh, younger in spirit hopefully.

* Office Assistant/Equipment Checkout Manager ($10/hour, 1-2 slots available, business hours shift, 8-15 hours per week, 2-hour minimum shift per day)
* A/V Tech Geek ($15/hour, 1 position for on-call needs 5-10 hours per week, 1 freelance for deployments and special projects)
* Open Lab Monitors ($10/hour, multiple slots, mornings, afternoons, evenings, weekdays and weekends, 2-hour minimum shifts)
* Project Manager ($15/hour, 10-20 hours per week, times vary per project)
* Tech Assistants ($15/hour, multiple positions, on-call and freelance, multiple skills)

Work study not required, but helpful. Tell your friends if they are smart and useful.

The video game industry's annual showcase is saying goodbye to scantily clad booth babes, extravagant multimillion dollar exhibits, blaring lights and pounding music. Celebrity appearances from the likes of Paris Hilton or Snoop Dogg are a thing of the past, too.

This year's version of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, renamed the E3 Media & Business Summit, will be a toned-down affair as organizers hope to have a far less flashy discussion on new and upcoming video games.

more here

The Los Angeles Greek Film Festival (LAGFF) is set to premiere at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills. The four-day event will seek to promote Greek Cinema, and celebrate Greek filmmakers from Greece, Cyprus and around the world.

Running Thursday, June 14th through Sunday, June 17th, the festival promises to provide an eclectic mix of cinema with planned screenings of more than twenty films by Greek filmmakers. Along with the films offered throughout the festival, additional activities will include an opening night gala, a panel discussion including key industry veterans and a closing awards night gala.

For tickets & information, please visit www.lagreekfilmfestival.org

My maternal grandfather "Potis" (the drinker) was born in Meligalas, Greece in 1910. His father was a kind man who worked as a customs official and his mother was a fierce, yet loving homemaker. They lived a comfortable life in the country. Potis was a blond blue-eyed child with a beautiful smile. He was obsessed with having his picture taken at every opportunity.

The years following World War I and II found Potis mourning for the death of his baby sister Penelope. This mourning lasted his entire life and brought tears to his eyes every time her memory came to mind. Potis grew up to be a large man who spent a lot of his parents' money on luxuries that were unheard of during times of hardship. He also became a lawyer and was fluent in German, French, Latin, Ancient Greek and Esperanto. He drank wine like a fish thus earning his nickname "the drinker". He played competitive chess at popular Athenian hangouts.

When he found himself ready for marriage, he set his eyes on a young girl from the neighboring village of Zevgolatio. Kalliope "Kali" Alexopoulos weighed her options carefully, but could not resist his kindness for too long. She had lost one of her brothers to the execution squad and her hopes of becoming a teacher would never materialize. Potis worshipped the ground that she walked on and turned all of their finances over to her, including the business handlings of his small office. It was quite possibly the smartest thing he ever did.

Kali and Potis had three pregnancies and two daughters: Penelope "Popi" and Konstantia "Dina" Avra. They moved to Athens during post World War II conditions of extreme poverty and hunger. Dina (my mother) contracted typhus and narrowly escaped death. After civil war, life became a little more settled. Potis never made a lot of money as he refused to charge women anything while practicing family law and handed off his money to various charities. He bribed people in the court system with sesame candy that was hidden in most of his pockets. Kali had a tight fist and managed to save a small fortune. They sent both their girls to college. Popi had an arranged marriage in Canada and then moved to the U.S. Dina worked at Olympic Airways and relocated to the U.S. She eloped in 1976 after my grandfather refused to accept my father's marriage offer. My father and grandfather never met each other again.

Prior to yesterday, Potis had never been hospitalized, but once after he broke his leg in the 60's. The doctors told him then that he should lose weight and as soon as he could walk, he took on hiking and never really stopped walking unless he was sleeping. He carried his 'fat' pictures around all the time so he can show people how much weight he had lost. He maintained several trails in the mountains where he would disappear for days at a time. He liked collecting things left behind by people camping in the woods -- things that did not belong anywhere. He hated wild dogs and hunters. Amongst his strangest finds in the woods was a pair of baby magpies that had fallen off their nest. He obliged my grandmother to feed them until they would grow up and then released them back into the wild. He also collected baseball hats, acorns, pine cones and various pieces of wood that turned into a large collection of ornamented walking sticks.

Potis practiced family law until the age of 85. Much to his dismay, both his daughters became divorced and Kali turned to religion in search of truth and salvation. He spent the remaining of his life exploring the woods, until the last 4 years of his life which were mostly spent listening to the radio and pacing on the balcony facing the Parthenon. His legendary temper and stubbornness which tormented his wife and daughters were surpassed by his affection and tenderness towards his grandchildren. He spoiled us rotten at every opportunity, slipped us money when nobody was watching, measured our height every week, wore any clothes we bought him that made him look like a fool, ate any food we prepared for him even if it was rotten, danced and sang for us on demand and defended our misbehavior without exception.

His memory was sharp till the end and he recounted endless stories of his youth to us continually. I tried to record our last encounter, but I don't regret keeping it just in my head. He was upset that my generation was left to deal with global warming. In the last few years that I visited him, he would mostly shake my hand and tell me that I was the pillar of his universe and that he supports me in all my endeavors without judgement. He stood by his phone on holidays waiting for us to call him. He would pick up the phone and scream out "you are the best and finest!" This Christmas, I showed him my treks to various places on my laptop and was impressed by his immediate expectation of zooming in and out features. Years ago he paid to have himself composited wearing my cousin's airforce uniform in front of a hillside, next to a herd of sheep. He had never used any technology other than his analog FM radio and 1950's television set, which he stopped using ten years ago.

Potis died this morning quickly and peacefully after being rushed to the hospital with kidney pain and breathing difficulty. In the last two years he had been anemic and his bone marrow was shutting down. I looked at his blood tests and told him that he had an anemia common to people who have been very athletic in their lives -- mostly young people. He was very happy to hear that he wore himself out finally because all his friends had already died. My grandmother, aunt and mother were 10 feet away from him when he passed. He wore a smile on his face until the very end and didn't protest a single thing for once in his life.

We miss you grandpa.
Kelly, Dimitri, George and Marientina

Many myths about thalassemia prevent awareness, treatment and quality of life. Carriers of the gene such as myself hold the key to prevention of dual carrier births. If you suspect you may have the gene, ask to be screened and find out more about what you can do to help yourself and future generations. If you are a non-carrier and you are healthy, please donate blood this week. California is the capital of Thalassemia in the United States due to the large concentration of Asians and other ethnic populations with gene prevalence.

Spread the word!