It took a room full of networked computers called a “render farm” to do in about 14 months what would have taken a single machine 16 years: churn out digital scenes precisely modeled after real life, Mr. Weigert and Mr. Engel said. Artists positioned the sun in the virtual sky, and dictated how every surface—metal, glass, wood or stone—would reflect rays and cast shadows. Teams installed virtual hinges in lampposts and etched thousands of fault lines into skyscrapers and houses so when simulated tremors or winds or waves were applied, a process called “simming,” they’d crumble or buckle in natural-looking ways.

Lobsters like the shelter of rocks and prefer cold water to warm. They move around a lot and find their food by smell—that’s what the antennas are for—and not by sight. But the whole notion of trapping them may be a misconception. There is some evidence to suggest that the traditional lobster pot, with its two “rooms”—the kitchen and the parlor, as they’re known—and funnel-shaped nets, is not as confining as fishermen think, and that the bugs come and go more or less as they please.

Lobsters like the shelter of rocks and prefer cold water to warm. They move around a lot and find their food by smell—that’s what the antennas are for—and not by sight. But the whole notion of trapping them may be a misconception. There is some evidence to suggest that the traditional lobster pot, with its two “rooms”—the kitchen and the parlor, as they’re known—and funnel-shaped nets, is not as confining as fishermen think, and that the bugs come and go more or less as they please.

Usually the truck drivers wait at the opening of the valley for a U.S. Army patrol to pass and then they follow it, a practice soldiers have dubbed “strap hanging.” Lining the sides of the road are the remains of scorched trucks belonging to drivers too impatient to wait for an informal escort.

My exquisite pleasure as a Liberal party man who barely knew a Tory or “Dipper” (as we called NDPers) was to work with people from organized labour, Liberals, Conservatives, ad people and NDPers all in a glorious coalition united in our desire to sweep city hall clean of the remnants of the Mel Lastman regime and restore pride to our city.