THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2008
NEWS
3A
ADMINISTRATION
Chancellor leaves mark
Hiring of Lew Perkins one of chancellor's achievements
BY B.J. RAINS rains@kansan.com
An avid sports fan, Chancellor Robert Hewnaway could not help
Hemenway
but add a few of the University's athletic accomplishments to the list of his proudest moments during his 14-year that will
come to an end on June 30.
Hemenway's list of achievements is long but is sure to include the Jayhawks' 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship and the Orange Bowl victory against Virginia Tech.
After all, it's Hemenway who hired the architect of last year's historic season, Athletics Director Lew Perkins.
"Chancellor Hemenway's commitment and vision was a key inspiration in my choice to come to Kansas," Perkins said. "The chancellor has been very supportive of the Kansas athletics program, recognizing the value of intercollegiate athletes to KU, but always in the context of education, integrity and NCAA compliance."
Hemenway will step down, intingly, to write a book on college athletics and American values, but his stamp on the athletics program will be substantial. During his time, he led initiatives that gave more than $100 million for renovations and additions to athletics department facilities.
"I hate to see him go," coach Bill Self said on his weekly radio show. "But I'm happy for him since this is what he wants to do. He's been very supportive to me personally and our entire athletic program since we've been here. When you look at Kansas Athletics, he's played a major role in the improvements made."
Hemenway arrived at Kansas in 1994 from the University of Kentucky but didn't make his mark on Kansas athletics until recently. After staying out of most athletics department decisions, in 2003 he jumped in and fired then-Athletics Director Al Bohl, hiring Perkins in his place.
Chuck Woodling, former sports editor of the Lawrence Journal-World, said the timing of Hemenway's decision to insert himself into athletics department dealings made sense.
"I think being the head of the NCAA Division-I Board of Directors might have been an eye
opener for him." Woodling said "It brought him closer to the athletics scene."
And what Hemenway saw while leading the board from 2002-2005 was that schools needed strong athletics programs to succeed on the academic side as well. He identified Perkins as the right man for the job and pulled him away from Connecticut, turning Kansas into a national powerhouse.
Woodling said the verdict was still out on Hemenway's legacy at Kansas but that "winning the national basketball title and the Orange Bowl sure make everything look good."
In addition to Hemenway's support and dedication of school funds to the athletics department, he has had a personal commitment to the department as well. He attends almost all home football and basketball games and waits in the press conference room with Perkins to greet football coach Mark Mangino after every game.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Chancellor Hemenway," Perkins said. "I feel privileged that I can count him as a friend."
Edited by Scott R. Toland
CRIME
Plan for school shooting stopped by friend of 15-year-old suspect
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA — A 15-year-old boy stole his father's guns to use in a suicidal attack against enemies at his suburban Philadelphia high school but was thwarted when a friend threw the weapons in a river, authorities said.
The alleged plot was uncovered after the father reported the three weapons missing, prompting a police investigation that led to an attempted murder charge filed Tuesday against his son.
Authorities say he took the a revolver, two semiautomatic pistols and ammunition from his father's basement gun locker in
The Pottstown High School freshman was being held in a secure facility, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman told The Associated Press. He does not yet have a lawyer, and no court dates are scheduled, she said.
early November. He gave them to a friend, hoping the friend would take them to school when directed, authorities said.
Instead, the friend told his stepmother about the weapons, and she drove the boy to a river so he could get rid of them, investigators said. Police dive teams recovered the handguns.
Ferman described the suspect as a loner with a history of depression and mental-health problems. While previously a good student, he was repeating his freshman year, she said.
The teen initially planned to carry out the attack this year but delayed it until next year because school officials, aware of the stolen gun report, had stepped up security.
The teen told investigators he was going to shoot people he did not like, then himself, authorities said.
The charge is attempted murder because the teen took "substantial steps" — stealing the guns and giving them to the friend — to carry out the crime, Ferman said.
"He had gotten so far along in that plan that he had the immediate capacity to commit the crime," she said.
The Pottstown School District, about 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia, has about 3,200 students.
The same district attorney's office last year accused a 14-year-old of amassing a cache of weapons and plotting an assault on a high school.
The teen, who had been bullied and pulled out of public school in the seventh grade, admitted to three felonies — criminal solicitation, risking a catastrophe and possession of an instrument of crime — and is now in a juvenile center.
POLITICS The 'Nanny' interested in replacing Hillary Clinton ALBANY, N.Y. — The star of "The Nanny" wants to go from playing nasally New Yawkers to succeeding Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate.
ered the straight line that Fran Drescher is serious about becoming the next junior senator from New York. Brown cited Drescher's experience as an actress, advocate for women's health and public diplomacy envoy for the U.S.State Department. The 51-year-old of Nebraska.
actress joins a field headed by Caroline Kennedy and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. New York Gov. David Paterson will appoint Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's successor if she is confirmed secretary of state in the Obama administration.
Publicist Jordan Brown deliv-
the 51-year-old "Saturday Night Fever" and "This is Spinal Tap"
Associated Press
CONTRIBUTED GRAPHIC
Characterists from the cartoon show "The Adventures of Luke and Joe" are shown during an episode. Freshman Matt Baiter invented the cartoon and it is shown weekly online.
TECHNOLOGY
Freshman's creation airing as Internet cartoon show
BY BRANDY ENTSMINGER
bentsminger@kansan.com
Games like Halo and The Sims litter the dorm rooms and apartments of college students. But for some students, those games aren't just for leisure time.
Matt Baier, Topeka freshman, created "The Adventures of Luke and Joe," a weekly cartoon originally made from a computer game called "The Movies" that features three-dimensional, realistic characters, similar to other popular video games. Danny Willis, a writer from California, co-created the show and works as the head writer.
selves in what Baier called "outrageous situations."
The name for the style of the cartoon, "Machinima," comes from a combination of "machine" and "cinema." Producers of Machinima originally manipulated the characters and scenes from video games to produce the movies and added a voice track to
the action.
Baier said Luke was the instigator of the action, while Joe made things more interesting and encouraged Luke to make questionable decisions.
"Joe is there to appeal to his worser angels," Baier said.
N o w there programs designed specifically for Machinima. Willis saidMachinima was a fiction.
T he show's contributors are scattered around the United States. Willis lives in California and works for the Bay Area News
"The Adventures of Luke and Joe" is a comedy that follows two best friends as they find them
In the episode "Video Game Critic," Luke gets an assignment to review video games and becomes obsessed with them. Willis said the idea for the episode came from his job as a video game critic and from his friends' concerns he would become obsessed, too.
"More and more successful things are happening online, so that's not necessarily a bad place to be," Willis said.
Although Baier started "The Adventures of Luke and Joe" with "The Movies," he transitioned to using a Machinima-specific program called Movie Storm because it gave him more freedom to be creative.
that only "hardcore nerds" knew about a few years ago, but he said it was beginning to be more mainstream. Some Machinima programs can even be purchased on DVD.
The creators of the show recently formed a partnership with RiffTrax, a company that adds voice tracks to movies. Baier and Willis will donate profits from a parody of a sex education video called "As Boys Grow" to Child's Play, a charity that gives video games to sick children.
Baier and Willis started the program last December and have created 29 seven-to-22-minute episodes and five one-to-two-minute shorts.
One episode of the series, "Email from the Future," is based on an e-mail Baier actually received. In the show, Joe tries to keep himself doing what the e-mail tells him to.
Baier said his inspiration came from responding to situations as
Group outside of San Francisco He voices the character of Luke, who also works for a newspaper. He said his inspiration came from everyday conversations and events.
his character, Joe, would and living life as if he were in a sitcom.
"When you do that it tends to start to become one." Baier said.
Although "The Adventures of Luke and Joe" can be seen only online, that should not keep potential fans from seeing it.
Episodes of "The Adventures of Luke and Joe" can be found at www.lukeand Joe.com.
Edited by Scott R. Toland