Afghans worry about international aid vacuum

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Afghan street children are packed into classrooms, raising their hands to answer math questions and bending their heads over art projects as part of a program funded by the European Union.

But the money is about to disappear after a four-year grant expires next month, and the Afghan government isn't ready to fill the gap. That leaves thousands of poor children who spend most of their days hawking goods on the street poised to lose their only access to an education.

The impending withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign combat forces means more than a loss of firepower. International aid is also on the decline because of donor fatigue and fears of deteriorating security after nearly 12 years of war.

The pullout of most international troops by the end of 2014 will leave many areas without the protection required for foreign aid workers. Even those workers who have more freedom of movement are concerned violence will increase as Afghan troops take over and the Taliban push to regain control.

Worried about losing hard-won gains, many Afghan and international aid organizations are racing to finish projects or find new sources of funding to provide basic services such as health care, education and electricity that the weak central government has been unable to deliver.

"The situation in Afghanistan is day by day becoming critical, but the international community is less interested," said Mohammad Yousef, founder of the children's program Aschiana.

Afghanistan has received $60 billion in international civilian assistance since 2002. In a bid to defuse concerns about a mass exodus, international donors last year pledged $16 billion in development aid for Afghanistan through 2015, but they also promised to channel half of that through the Afghan government despite concerns about corruption and mismanagement.

The money that has flowed into Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S. invasion that ousted the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies has led to drastic improvements, with nearly 8 million children, some 40 percent of them girls, enrolled in school ? up from just over 1 million when girls were banned from school under the Taliban.

The U.S. Agency for International Development in Afghanistan also has built or refurbished more than 680 schools, and child mortality has been halved with improved health facilities and other services.

But Afghan and international activists are worried projects could be abandoned and progress reversed.

"There is the prospect of a lot of white elephants being left behind. That's a really sad prospect," said Louise Hancock, head of policy and advocacy for Oxfam in Afghanistan.

"People are fed up with Afghanistan," she said. "A lot of people are worried they haven't got value for what's been put in."

With its own development budget for Afghanistan slashed nearly in half, the U.S. has shifted its priorities from quick-fix projects showing immediate results such as building schools, clinics and other infrastructure to trying to help the Afghan government operate and maintain the facilities and develop programs.

The European Union is maintaining its development aid levels at about 250 million euros ($330 million) a year, but it too is increasingly channeling that money through the Afghan government.

Afghan officials insist the shift may mean more money but that it will be used more efficiently after years of uncoordinated spending.

"The government of Afghanistan has been working hard to face the challenge," Economics Minister Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal said. "Sooner or later the government has to be able to provide these services."

Jonathan Crickx, the EU's media adviser in Afghanistan, said the Aschiana grant had been scheduled to end in 2012 but already was extended once.

"The reason why this project is not going to be renewed is that the Afghan government asked the European Union to concentrate its funding on specific sectors, increase alignment with national priorities and deliver more aid on budget, through relevant Afghan ministries," Crickx said.

In line with that request, the 27-nation EU is "phasing out its social protection projects and strengthening its action in the health sector," he added.

The Aschiana program, founded in 1995 by Yousef, an Afghan engineer who was touched by the story of a boy shining his shoes, provides educational and vocational programs as well as an emergency shelter and assistance for displaced children. Those activities, along with programs in the cities of Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif, will stop on March 31, when the EU funding comes to an end, the organization said.

"Kids don't get enough focus even though they ... face danger of falling prey to drug dealers, prostitution and international trafficking," Yousef said during an interview in his second-floor office, heated with a wood stove in a Dickensian complex on the edge of Kabul.

Abdul Qadir, a 14-year-old who makes about 150 Afghanis (about $3) per day selling plastic bags to drivers and people buying fruit and vegetables at outdoor markets in the afternoons, spends his mornings practicing carpentry at Aschiana.

He said he dropped out of school to help earn money for his family.

"When I'm working on the street, I don't feel comfortable because of the dust and pollution," he said. "I'm doing this now because my father needs my help. In the future, I want to be a good carpenter."

While the bulk of international financial assistance goes to military costs, more than $6 billion a year, or nearly 40 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product, has been spent on civilian aid, the World Bank said in a report last May.

"Such aid dependency is almost unique," the World Bank said, adding that only a few smaller entities such as Liberia and the Palestinian territories have on occasion received more aid per capita.

The World Bank and activists have urged international donors to pull back gradually.

"The economic system we have created is not a real economy. It's a fake economy," said Mohammad Zafar Salehi of the Afghan women's rights group Young Women for Change. "If the international community withdraws too suddenly, all this hard work that they did over the last 10 years will vanish."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/afghans-worry-international-aid-vacuum-181720603.html

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In probing mysteries of glass, researchers find a key to toughness

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

In a paper published online Feb. 26 in the journal Nature Communications, a Yale University team and collaborators propose a way of predicting whether a given glass will be brittle or ductile ? a desirable property typically associated with metals like steel or aluminum ? and assert that any glass could have either quality.

Ductility refers to a material's plasticity, or its ability to change shape without breaking.

"Most of us think of glasses as brittle, but our finding shows that any glass can be made ductile or brittle," said Jan Schroers, a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Yale, who led the research with Golden Kumar, a professor at Texas Tech University. "We identified a special temperature that tells you whether you form a ductile or brittle glass."

The key to forming a ductile glass, they said, is cooling it fast. Exactly how fast depends on the nature of the specific glass.

Focusing on a new group of glasses known as bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) ? metal alloys, or blends, that can be extremely pliable yet also as strong as steel ? researchers studied the effect of a so-called critical fictive temperature (CFT) on the glasses' mechanical properties at room temperature.

When forming from liquid, there is a temperature at which glass becomes too viscous for reconfiguration and freezes. This temperature is called the glass transition temperature. Based on experiments with three representative bulk metallic glasses, the researchers said there is also, for each distinct alloy, a critical temperature that determines the brittleness or plasticity of the glass. This is the CFT.

Researchers said it's possible to categorize glasses in two groups ? those that will be brittle because in liquid form their CFT is above the glass transition temperature, and those that will be ductile, because in liquid form their CFT is below the glass transition temperature.

They previously thought a liquid's chemical composition alone would determine whether a glass would be brittle or ductile.

"That's not the case," Schroers said. "We can make any glass theoretically ductile or brittle. And it is the critical fictive temperature which determines how experimentally difficult it is to make a ductile glass. That is the major contribution of this work."

The finding applies theoretically to all glasses, not metallic glasses only, he said.

"A glass can have completely different properties depending on the rate at which you cool it," Schroers said. "If you cool it fast, it is very ductile, and if you cool it slow it?s very brittle. We anticipate that our finding will contribute to the design of ductile glasses, and in general contribute to a deeper understanding of glass formation."

###

Yale University: http://www.yale.edu

Thanks to Yale University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127036/In_probing_mysteries_of_glass__researchers_find_a_key_to_toughness

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In Syria, US mission creep with moral creep

President Obama is leaning toward providing nonlethal military equipment to certain rebels in Syria. Doing so runs moral risks. But doing nothing to stop the violence is also a moral risk. Can the US walk this fine line?

By the Monitor's Editorial Board / February 27, 2013

Syrian refugee girls attend class at the Bab Al-Salam refugee camp in Azaz, near the Syrian-Turkish border Feb. 27. REUTERS/

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Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the United States would not leave the Syrian opposition ?dangling in the wind? about American support for its democratic cause.

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?We are determined to change the calculation on the ground for President [Bashar] al-Assad,? Mr. Kerry said.

Note the words ?on the ground.? His comment hints at a major shift in President Obama?s strategy toward Syria. On Thursday in Rome, some 100 nations that back regime change in Damascus will meet to decide how to increase their influence in the nearly two-year-long conflict in which neither side is winning.

Because of lack of direct intervention, the US and other countries are losing leverage with the opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Coalition. And radical Islamic groups are gaining support. Pressure is mounting on the US to provide at least defensive military equipment, such as body armor, night vision goggles, and military vehicles.

If Mr. Obama moves toward providing such aid directly to rebels, he would enter a rabbit hole of moral choices. What if certain rebels have slaughtered pro-Assad civilians? What if they use such equipment for that purpose again? What if they pass US equipment to terrorist groups??

Such issues mean that Obama must make it clear to the American people that the US is engaging with possibly unsavory people merely as a way to guide events toward a positive outcome. His tactics may be morally uncertain but his goal must not be.

To be sure, not doing more to oust Mr. Assad has its own moral dilemma. More than 70,000 people have been killed since the uprising began. Assad has had ample opportunity to step down. The US and other nations have backed numerous diplomatic initiatives. Now Obama seems ready to try ?hold your nose? diplomacy by backing carefully selected rebels.

The US is hardly new to such morally ambiguous tactics. In 2005, the US worked with Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq to end their support of Al Qaeda. Washington also engaged political leaders of the Irish Republican Army to bring peace to Northern Ireland. In 1980, the US voted to seat the Khmer Rouge at the United Nations. It held talks in 1995 with Serbia?s Slobodan Milosevic ? in Ohio. Franklin Roosevelt had to deal with Joseph Stalin, and Richard Nixon with Mao Zedong.

In such cases, the intent is to end violence, not broaden it, and to extend freedom, not restrict it. The main strength of the US in the world has been its moral standing. To enter into a temporary alliance with questionable groups must be done carefully.

As Portia says in Shakespeare?s ?The Merchant of Venice,? ?How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.?

Doing nothing in Syria to directly end the fighting has become an immoral choice. Assad is even raining down Scud missiles on civilians in the city of Aleppo. Now, if the US provides military equipment to rebels who are the ?good guys,? it is doing something. In this case, it is the higher moral right.

This may be ?realism? in foreign policy but it must be done to uplift the moral behavior of rebels clearly in favor of democracy.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/18nIsy_Eil0/In-Syria-US-mission-creep-with-moral-creep

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Viruses can have immune systems: A pirate phage commandeers the immune system of bacteria

Feb. 27, 2013 ? A study published today in the journal Nature reports that a viral predator of the cholera bacteria has stolen the functional immune system of bacteria and is using it against its bacterial host. The study provides the first evidence that this type of virus, the bacteriophage ("phage" for short), can acquire a wholly functional and adaptive immune system.

The phage used the stolen immune system to disable -- and thus overcome -- the cholera bacteria's defense system against phages. Therefore, the phage can kill the cholera bacteria and multiply to produce more phage offspring, which can then kill more cholera bacteria. The study has dramatic implications for phage therapy, which is the use of phages to treat bacterial diseases. Developing phage therapy is particularly important because some bacteria, called superbugs, are resistant to most or all current antibiotics.

Until now, scientists thought phages existed only as primitive particles of DNA or RNA and therefore lacked the sophistication of an adaptive immune system, which is a system that can respond rapidly to a nearly infinite variety of new challenges. Phages are viruses that prey exclusively on bacteria and each phage is parasitically mated to a specific type of bacteria. This study focused on a phage that attacks Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium responsible for cholera epidemics in humans.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Andrew Camilli, Ph.D., of Tufts University School of Medicine led the research team responsible for the surprising discovery.

First author Kimberley D. Seed, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Camilli's lab, was analyzing DNA sequences of phages taken from stool samples from patients with cholera in Bangladesh when she identified genes for a functional immune system previously found only in some bacteria (and most Archaea, a separate domain of single-celled microorganisms).

To verify the findings, the researchers used phage lacking the adaptive immune system to infect a new strain of cholera bacteria that is naturally resistant to the phage. The phage were unable to adapt to and kill the cholera strain. They next infected the same strain of cholera bacteria with phage harboring the immune system, and observed that the phage rapidly adapted and thus gained the ability to kill the cholera bacteria. This work demonstrates that the immune system harbored by the phage is fully functional and adaptive.

"Virtually all bacteria can be infected by phages. About half of the world's known bacteria have this adaptive immune system, called CRISPR/Cas, which is used primarily to provide immunity against phages. Although this immune system was commandeered by the phage, its origin remains unknown because the cholera bacterium itself currently lacks this system. What is really remarkable is that the immune system is being used by the phage to adapt to and overcome the defense systems of the cholera bacteria. Finding a CRISPR/Cas system in a phage shows that there is gene flow between the phage and bacteria even for something as large and complex as the genes for an adaptive immune system," said Seed.

"The study lends credence to the controversial idea that viruses are living creatures, and bolsters the possibility of using phage therapy to treat bacterial infections, especially those that are resistant to antibiotic treatment," said Camilli, professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine and member of the Molecular Microbiology program faculty at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University.

Camilli's previous research established that phages are highly prevalent in stool samples from patients with cholera, implying that phage therapy is happening naturally and could be made more effective. In addition, a study published by Camilli in 2008 determined that phage therapy works in a mouse model of cholera intestinal infection.

The team is currently working on a study to understand precisely how the phage immune system disables the defense systems of the cholera bacteria. This new knowledge will be important for understanding whether the phage's immune system could overcome newly acquired or evolved phage defense systems of the cholera bacteria, and thus has implications for designing an effective and stable phage therapy to combat cholera.

Additional authors are David W. Lazinski, Ph.D., senior research associate in the Camilli lab at Tufts University School of Medicine, and Stephen B. Calderwood, M.D., Morton N. Swartz, M.D. academy professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and chief, division of infectious disease and vice-chair, department of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R01AI55058, R01AI045746, and R01AI058935.

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Journal Reference:

1. Kimberley D. Seed, David W. Lazinski, Stephen B. Calderwood, Andrew Camilli. A bacteriophage encodes its own CRISPR/Cas adaptive response to evade host innate immunity. Nature, 2013; 494 (7438): 489 DOI: 10.1038/nature11927

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/Wyf-HIQF99Q/130227134334.htm

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In the beginning there was a large, empty universe. It held nothing but the Lords. The Lords had no names and they were lonely. One of them said to the others, ?Let us create something to fill the emptiness.? The others agreed. The first one made great balls of burning mass and named them stars. The second created the gases that fueled the stars. The third made large hunks of stone to keep the stars company so they wouldn?t be alone. The fourth made water to cover the rocks and calm their hot, newly formed surfaces. The Lords named themselves Fire, Air, Earth, and Water, respectively.

Soon enough the newly named Lords grew tired of their lifeless worlds. There was nothing to recognize the work they did, no one to appreciate their great feats. They made animals, but they were stupid beasts who couldn?t even speak. Each decided to create life in his own image on a specially developed planet.

Fire created the Sprites. Air created the Klika. Earth created the Werlan. Water created the Dragons.

Satisfied with their creations, the Lords rested and watched their children grow. All was well in the new world. Sooner than later the Lords grew prone to jealousy, however. Fire claimed that because he created first, both with life and matter, he was the greatest Lord. Air quickly retorted that no mortal creature could live without the harsh sun shielding gasses he provided. Earth rumbled angrily that he had made a home for all of their creations, making him deserve the most respect. Water, not to be outdone, argued that he should be revered by the creations because no creature could live without water.

The Lords couldn?t come to an agreement of who was the greatest among them. Then Water said, ?Why shouldn?t we each ask our people who they think is the greatest? That way we can settle this.? The other three agreed this was a good idea.

Each of the Lords went to their respective people and asked who they thought was the greatest. The creatures each thought that their own creator was the best of the Lords. This didn?t help at all. They argued more until Earth came up with an idea. ?We should combine our efforts to make a race of people. Then this race won?t be biased to any one of us.?

This was hailed as a better idea, so the Lords set out to work. Earth gave the new creature a body of clay. Air gave it a breath of life. Fire gave it a spark of ambition. Water gave it a spring of intelligence. They named this new race the Humans and set it off into the world.

The five races grew and expanded, fighting here and allying there. The Lords were content to watch for a while, for the Humans had to get accustomed to the world in order to decide which of the Lords? gifts they valued the most. Each Lord was confident that he would be called the best.

The humans, however, realized that the Lords wanted something out of them. They said to each other, ?Each Lord wants us to name him the best. Why not ask for something from each to help us decide?? This was regarded as a good plan.

When the Lords came down to the humans they asked to know which of them the humans thought was the greatest.

One Human, a man named Nar, said, ?I cannot know who the best is. What have the Lords done for me??

Fire, eager to be named the greatest of the Lords, gave Nar a hollow log filled with fire. Nar, satisfied with the gift, said, ?I say that Fire is the greatest Lord, but I can only speak for myself.?

?I am not decided who the greatest Lord is. They have never shown me any kindness,? a woman named Kipe said.

Wanting to show his brother that he wasn?t the only one who could be called the greatest, Air gave Kipe a sling and taught her how to use it. Thanking Air gracefully, Kipe said, ?I say that Air is the greatest of the Lords, but I too can only speak for myself.?

Angry at being out done, Earth showed another man how to fashion tools from stone.

Water, desperate to be called the greatest, showed a woman how to make a water holder so the humans could carry water from place to place.

At the end this the Humans left, satisfied with the success of their plan. The Lords, however, felt cheated. All of them were called the best, which made the title lose its specialness. They couldn?t help but feel flattered that the Humans recognized their power, but their problem wasn?t solved. Each Lord lay down to rest and regain strength. When they had recovered from the exertion of creating a world and its peoples they would resume their fight and determine which of them would be the Lord of the Lords.

This story is past now. It is widely regarded as a myth among all the races. Since that time ages have passed. Few believe that the Lords exist. The world has been named Nirkem. Many parts of it are populated by the five sentient races, many are not.

The humans, although they are the youngest race, are one of the most numerous. There are two main human kingdoms, Deonel and Kipen. A war is going on between them and they are about to unwittingly trigger something far, far larger than a fight between men.

They rediscovered magic. Magic was lost to the five races since the retreat of the Lords. There was very little record of it, but there were enough hints scattered across legends and bedtime stories for the humans to piece together the old power. Four parts of magic were discovered: Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. A gifted human could choose to study one branch, learning to manipulate the element.

The secret of magic leaked to the other races and each race discovered that they could learn to control the element of the Lord they were created by. As with humans, not every member of the other races could learn magic.

As the use of magic became more popular its human users noticed a change. The more a human used magic the easier it would be to use it and the easier it would be to get lost in it. A human who used too much magic would feel a beckoning call that would grow stronger with the amount of magic they used. This is the call of the Lord of the element of magic they use.

The rediscovery of magic has reawakened the Lords. When a human uses magic they let the will of the Lord bind with theirs until they become a creature of the Lord, called a nadasami. A nadasami looks no different than a regular human, other than that their eyes change color from what they used to be. A fire nadasami?s eyes will be red, an earth nadasmi?s eyes will be brown, an air nadasami?s eyes will be green, and a water nadasami?s eyes will be blue. They have more magical power than a human, but they have lost something greater: free will. While they still can think for themselves and make decisions, they are extremely loyal to their Lord. They do not truly lose free will, but they will put their Lord?s interest before their own, for they are creatures of the Lords. Should a nadasami desert his or her Lord the Lord will hunt them down.

How quickly a human magic user becomes a nadasami depends on how much they use magic. If a human magic user goes a day without using magic then the hold a Lord has on them will decline. The less hold a Lord has on a human the faster it will disappear. Once a human becomes a nadasami, however, there is no going back.

The existence of nadasamis is not well known, for magic was only recently discovered. Mages are used in the human war and they become nadasmis without anyone knowing, although some confess of strange sensations before they become nadasamis. The growing number of nadasamis has come to the alert of the mage leaders, though, so word is slowly spreading to stop humans from using too much magic.

The other races are immune to becoming nadasamis. Magic wise the strongest mages are the sprites, who can go beyond the power of a nadasami. The nadasamis are the second strongest, the werlan are the third strongest, normal humans the fourth strongest, the dragons the fifth strongest, and the klika the weakest as far as magical terms go.

But the human leaders of the war do not care about the diminishing humanity of their troops. They care about winning at whatever the cost. But what happens when the cost is far greater than they imagined?

The Lords still fight each other for dominance, becoming even more contrary than they were before. They will not stop voluntarily until one has beaten the rest. Their battles cause earthquakes and dangerous weather patterns, threatening the life of the world they created. Will they be able to make peace?

Nirkem:
There is a main continent on the planet Nirkem where this will be taken place, called Alteri. In the north of Alteri are the Durkada Mountains. A branch of them trails down into the northern human kingdom, Kipen. Kipen is the smaller of the two human kingdoms and it has less arable land, but its people are adept woodsmen and it has more access to raw materials given its heavily wooded state and mines. There is a big lake in Kipen known as Kipe?s Crater among the humans, due to its depth and the peculiar fact it is nearly a perfect circle.

Bordering Kipen on the south is the other human kingdom, Deonel. Deonel is more agriculturally based than Kipen, as well as having more cities and being more scholarly than its counterpart. It also borders the ocean to the east, so fishing is another large industry for Deonel. Deonel is mostly farmland.

Alteri is not covered by human owned territory. The other races have their own claimed territory, too. North of Kipen, in the Durkada Mountains, live the klika. The klika also have settlements in forests across Alteri, although their main population is in the mountains.

Sprites do not have a territory of their own, but share with other races, usually humans.

The werlan are nomads, living in tribes who travel the continent.

The dragons live in the various rivers and lakes of Alteri as well as the ocean. On the west side of Alteri is more ocean. The shore on this side is not much of a shore at all; high rocky cliffs line border the ocean on the west side. The only way to get a boat in and out on the west side is the Kerrar River, which is populated by dragons as well.

There are plenty of lands not claimed by the sentient races yet, and little is known about what populates those areas. One of the most infamous of places are the Gut Caves, located deep underground, perhaps spanning the whole of Alteri. They are known as the Gut Caves because they twist and turn much like intestines.

Another place is Embri Mountain, located to the southwest. This enormous mountain is an active volcano, occasionally blowing off smoke.

There is also the Zefen Tree deep, deep into the Durkada Mountains, farther north than anyone would think a tree could survive, let alone flourish. Yet flourish it does. This tree is immensely tall and thick, indicating ancient age.

To the north of Deonel and the east of Kipen there is a large, spring fed lake full of clear, icy cold water called Clarity Spring. In the middle of the lake is an island that is large enough that trees and some animals live on it.

Each of these four places has a shrine in/on it somewhere. In the deepest part of the Gut Caves is a shrine made of green-streaked-with-cream-color stone surrounded by large multi colored crystals. At the base of Embri Mountain is a shrine made of glossy black rock with a fire continuously burning on top of it. Somewhere in the upper branches of the Zefen Tree is a shrine made of a clear, glassy material that sings when the wind passes through it. In the center of the island in Clarity Spring is a shrine made of ocean blue stone halfway submersed in clear water.

These are the shrines of the Lords. This is where they are the closest to the mortal world and can communicate with mortals far more easily in their respective areas. It is not uncommon for a nadasami to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of their Lord.

Races

Humans: Typical traditional human. Need I elaborate?

Sprites: Sprites are humanlike in shape, but there are obvious differences between the two races. Sprites, for one, are shorter than humans, averaging at five feet in height. Their hair can be a wide range of colors, from orange to red to shocking white and rich yellow. A sprite?s skin is always very pale no matter how much they are exposed to the sun. Sprites have delicate, long fingered hands that are very dexterous and nimble, making them excellent at craftsmanship that requires precision and finesse. At the tips of their fingers are not fingernails but rather soot black talons that turn ember orange when their heart rate goes up. Sprites are more resistant to heat than humans and it takes more to burn them, although they are not immune to being burnt.

Sprites are creatures of quick wit and hot tempers. They can swing between emotions quite unexpectedly, making them unpredictable. They are vain creatures and love to be petted and praised. They are clever with their deft fingers and excel at making fine objects. Fire is their friend and they are fascinated with it. A popular competition among sprites is to see who can stand in a roaring fire the longest. Sprites love beautiful things and receiving gifts. If a sprite gives you something you better reciprocate the favor for they will get angry if you don?t. A sprite?s grudge can last a long time and they will wait for the best moment to get back at the offender. Sprites are clever and like to get their point across. However, if they think there is a better idea than theirs, they will go with the other idea instead and feel no self-chastisement for thinking a ?wrong? way before.

Werlan: As do the sprites, werlan share some characteristics with humans. Normally they take the shape of tall, bulky humanoids. They are a plain looking people characterized by dark hair and pointed ears. A werlan?s eyes are not set to any one color; their eye color varies with their emotions. No two werlans have the same set of colors for their eyes. Werelan are strong people, both in body and spirit. They have a nomadic society in which they travel the continent of Alteri, their territory changing with the season. There are seven different tribes of the werlan: the Snake, the Wolf, the Squirrel, the Horse, the Deer, the Bear, and the Badger. The werlan have the ability to change into the animal of their respective tribe.

If any one thing can be said about the werlan it is that they are patient. Like the earth itself they can weather many situations and still come out strong. This patience, along with their strong willed determination, is one of the most notorious qualities about them. Werlans are social creatures and enjoy being with other werlans, although they are wary of other races. They have excellent memories and will forgive but never forget. Werlans are loyal to those they align themselves with and they would never betray another werlan. With other races they are not quite as loyal, but still follow their word. Werlans have a great sense of direction and it is hard for them to get lost.

Dragons: The dragons of Nirkem are slender, wingless creatures built for aquatic life. They average at about seven feet tall. Dragons do not have scales but instead have smooth, supple skin to reduce the drag under water. This skin can range to green to blue to purple to black in color, as well as having patterns of florescent yellow. This yellow quite literally glows in the dark. Dragons? eyes have slit pupils and can be a wide variety of colors. Dragons have wide webbed feet and finned tails, great for swimming, although they have no opposable thumbs. They have gills on the sides of their necks so they can breathe underwater and they have lungs too. Housed in the mouth of a dragon are two rows of pointed teeth sharp enough to bite through steel if enough pressure was applied. Instead of horns dragons have flexible tentacle like things sprouting from the backs of their heads that are used to grip and touch objects. These tentacles, called grippers amongst the dragons, are not particularly strong but are very precise and sensitive. Dragons actually have taste buds on the tips of their grippers. Dragons can survive just as well on land as they can in water, for their slim frames lend themselves well to speed. Dragons do need more water than other races do, however, so thus rarely live far away from a reliable water source. Dragons also have very strong bones that are extremely hard to break.

Since dragons live underwater most of the time one might expect them to be ignorant of many of the happenings on land. This is not so for dragons are curious creatures and like to stick their noses in things even if there is a possibility those things might bite back. News spreads quickly amongst the dragons because many of the waterways that are connected and they have set up a postage system, which delivers messages for other races, too. When confronted with a fight a dragon is more likely to run than do any fighting unless it takes place in the water. Dragons often feel far more comfortable in the water than on land, although they can get used to living on the ?topside? as they call it. Dragons are generally social creatures that live in pods when amongst themselves. When with other races they will often gather a group of people together that they feel protective of. While they lack the appropriate physiology to make even simple things dragons are quite creative and quick thinkers as well as fast learners.

Klika: In shape the klika are perhaps most easily likened to large cats. An emphasis on large, because klika are on average nine feet long from the tips of their noses to the tips of their tails. They have opposable thumbs and surprisingly finger like digits on all four of their paws, although they are not as well developed as a human?s. Klika have thick fur with two layers, built for trapping warmth. The fur of the klika is usually dark in color, black being the most common by far. It is uncommon for a klika to have a pattern of any sort in their fur, but sometimes designs are in individual?s fur. These designs are usually in shades of white or light grey, although rarely blues and oranges are seen. Klika have compact, muscular bodies with most of their strength in their legs, specifically their hind ones. Klika can easily jump ten feet, whether horizontally or vertically. A klika?s eyes are probably one of the strangest out there as their eyes are a solid color without pupil. This color can be any hue and can often be the distinguishing feature of a klika to other races. Klika have excellent eyesight and hearing. As well as being able to run swiftly on four legs klika can also walk on their hind legs. When they do this they tower over other races, even the dragons.

Klika are generally aloof in manner and do not display emotion readily. This isn?t to say they don?t feel emotion; it?s just that in the klika society an adult is expected to be reserved and polite. Among them only cubs and immature people are supposed to display emotion. As is such, when exposed to other races they usually find others as childish before they get to know them. Klika have a hierarchical society based around the strength of an individual. A klika will often not obey someone they think is weaker than them. Klika constantly asses the strength of the others around them and are not afraid to challenge others for favorable positions in a group. Klika, unlike some other races, have a rough form of government throughout their race. They have a leader called the Relka situated in their main city, Flisk, in the Durkada mountains. The Relka?s job is to help settle disputes amongst the klika, deal with other races, and help decide the actions of the klika. Klika are blunt creatures who do not like to backstab or deceive. If a klika has a problem with you you will know it. If a klika is tired of taking orders from someone in command it is common for them to challenge them to a duel for leadership. Klika are just creatures and do not like to see innocent harmed, especially if those innocent are children. In informal situations klika loosen up some and are friendlier, although the habit of hiding emotion doesn?t disappear completely. Because of their society klika are great at putting on masks of emotion that hide their true feelings.

-----

Hello all. Thanks for spending the time to check this out. This is an idea I've had for a while, so I wanted to see how much interest I could get in it first before I created it.

Right now the plot is a little loose. I had an idea that there could be a group composed of a rougue nadasami or two and some representatives from each of the races to go to the shrines and collect some of the Lords' essences and use them to influence the Lords themselves. They would try to make the Lords not fight with each other any more. They could try to change the Lords to make them more human like. What do I mean by this? Well, the Lords are obviously inhuman (even more so than the non human races of Nirkem) and have different thought processes than the mortal races. They are little more than the elements they they are named after. This group's goal could be to force them to evolve in a sense to a higher state of conciousness that can reason and set aside differences. There could also be some people from the Lords who are trying to stop this group.

I am open to suggestions for ideas and feel free to ask questions if you have any. Feedback in general is welcome. Also, if you are interested, please express it!

I'm planning for this to be somewhat literate of a role play, meaning that I expect people to be able to write at least two paragraphs with good grammar. I understand if you are not impeccable with grammar. I know I'm not. But an effort is appreciated.

I hope to hear from you guys. Thanks again for checking this out!

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RolePlayGateway

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'Carrie' Gets Dressed Up In New, Bloody Image

With all of this talk about the Oscars still going around, sometimes a girl wants to share in the glam of Hollywood's biggest night, even if she's a telekinetically powered, vengeful teenage girl. Empire recently published a new image (via The Playlist) of Chloe Moretz dressed to the 6s (as in 666) in Kimberly Peirce's [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/02/25/carrie-bloody-dress-image/

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TomTom to supply maps to Intel's Telmap, creates a total navigation app package

Intel scored access to code for location-based services when it acquired Telmap, but it didn't get the all-important location data needed to make the code sing. Rather than leave developers to find the content themselves, Telmap has struck a deal to get mapping information from TomTom. Navigation apps built around Telmap's work will soon have access both to TomTom's base maps as well as 3D maps, junctions, points of interest and voice mapping. While there's no mention of exactly when TomTom data will show up, the union is characterized as a "long-term partnership" -- we'd expect TomTom routing to quickly become a mainstay of Telmap's platforms (and potentially Intel's) in the near future.

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Software, Intel

Comments

Source: Telmap

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/26/tomtom-to-supply-map-data-to-intels-telmap/

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Lego Gorilla Mecha Is Yet Another Awesome Reason For an Official Lego Mecha Line

Zane Houston-author of the greatest Lego mecha I've ever seen-has a new cool mecha out: a gorilla. Piloted by a chimp. Anything with apes automatically has my vote, but this is brilliant on its own right, with a solid construction and perfect styling. [Leg Godt] More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/H3oQ45V6HSk/lego-gorilla-mecha-is-yet-another-awesome-reason-for-an-official-lego-mecha-line

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In historic UFC bout, Rousey and Carmouche score one for female athletes everywhere

ANAHEIM, Calif. ? Nothing was more predictable, nor nearly as significant, as Ronda Rousey's arm bar victory over Liz Carmouche in the first round of their bantamweight title fight on Saturday.

The fight marked a monumental moment in sports history, a time when the women stood above the men in every way. Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche jostle for position Saturday. (USA Today Sports)

For one, Rousey and Carmouche saved UFC 157 after a stinker of a co-main event between Lyoto Machida and Dan Henderson. When the Rousey-Carmouche fight was announced as the main event in December, a small but very vocal portion of the UFC fan base howled in protest.

Of course, they simply showed themselves as clueless bigots because there was no doubt who everybody had come to see Saturday.

All 15,525 fans who jammed the Honda Center and paid a $1.4 million gate were there to see if Rousey could stretch her incredible run of first-round arm bars to 10 in 10 amateur and professional fights.

When Machida won a sleep-inducing split decision in the co-main event, Rousey and Carmouche went out and put on a dynamic show that brought down the house. Rousey got a hero's welcome from the crowd from the moment she entered the arena. It hit a crescendo as she stepped into the cage, men and women, boys and girls, standing and screaming for her in a full-throated roar.

The reception made those who had angrily said they wouldn't buy a ticket or watch the show because the UFC was somehow disrespecting Machida and Henderson look awfully small.

"Imagine how this place would have been had [Machida-Henderson] been the main event," UFC president Dana White said. "Everyone would have left here [angry] and it would have ruined the show."

[Also: Ronda Rousey survives UFC debut, wins via first-round arm bar]

Rousey and Carmouche also carried the show on the promotional end. White said early estimates are that the results will be far higher than anticipated, squelching concerns in some corners that it might flop.

They were witty, colorful and passionate in telling their stories and the public bought in.

This was a moment comparable to the 1973 Battle of the Sexes tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. That match squashed the outdated notion that women were somehow a weaker sex and couldn't compete with men.?

King-Riggs was an exhibition though; Rousey-Carmouche was very much the real deal.

They proved that women could compete on a show featuring men and still be the star attractions. Too often, women's sports are given secondary roles.

The majority of television, print and online coverage of sports is about men. This might be the night that nudges the pendulum closer to the center.

Rousey and Carmouche competed on a card filled with men and looked perfectly at home in the main event.

[Also: Lyoto Machida ekes out split decision win over frustrated Dan Henderson]

The pressure on Rousey was enormous. She carried an unprecedented promotional load, for months filling every waking moment that she wasn't training with interviews.

Not only was there intense pressure on her to win, but it was specifically to win by first-round arm bar. Anything less would have been perceived as a disappointment.

She's ready to hide now after running on fumes for weeks.?Ronda Rousey celebrates after defeating Liz Carmouche. (USA Today Sports)

"For the next week, I'm probably going to fall totally off the grid as much as I can," she said, grinning. "If I see anyone, I'm not going to talk about me at all. No more talking about me for a whole week."

Others, though, will be talking about her for a long time after Saturday's win. She survived a near-submission when Carmouche hopped onto her back early and first caught her in a rear naked choke and then a neck crank.

It looked for a time that Rousey's unbeaten streak would end and that the former Marine, the first openly gay fighter in the UFC, would wrest the title from her.

Carmouche knew that Rousey wouldn't go quietly, and she didn't.

"Neck cranks are hard to pull off and if the person has a lot of heart, she can fight through it, which she did," Carmouche said of Rousey.

Carmouche had Rousey's teeth marks on her arm after, the result of knocking Rousey's mouthpiece out and Rousey's upper teeth coming down on her forearm.

When the news conference ended, Rousey walked over to Carmouche and said, "Sorry, dude. Definitely not intentional," and the two combatants embraced. Both were beaming, and though Carmouche had come up a loser in her biggest fight, it seemed appropriate.

They'd accomplished something together that was far bigger than themselves, and Rousey clearly pulled alongside fighters such as Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva as one of the UFC's biggest draws.

"Ronda is a big star, man, and people want to see her," White said afterward.

[Also: Josh Koscheck suffers upset loss to resurgent Robbie Lawler]

The duo did much more, though, for women who have been denied opportunity or not given equal access solely because of their gender. They stood up to the scrutiny and the grind and the pressure and delivered a scintillating performance. Ronda Rousey goes for an arm bar against Liz Carmouche. (Getty)

"I thought it was a great fight and I thought it lived up to all of the hype around it, the fact the place was going nuts," Rousey said. "I'm glad it was a full house. I'm honored to be part of it. It might take a while to sink in."

The ramifications of Saturday's show are potentially significant, not only for MMA but women's sports. A day after Rousey and Carmouche put on a show, Danica Patrick will start on the pole in the Daytona 500.

It's a new world and Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche played a significant role in shaping it.

Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
? Jimmie Johnson's daughter has a favorite driver -- and it's not JJ
? Johnny Football = $420 million stadium renovation
? Tigers ace Justin Verlander willing to test free-agent waters for $200M deal
? Manti Te'o coached, but poised in combine press conference

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/sports/rss/mma/SIG=136qnmebl/*http%3A//sports.yahoo.com/news/mma--ronda-rousey-liz-carmouche-ufc-157-saved-by-women-084642836.html

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Sunday collection: sacred dying | Pilgrim's Moon

I woke up this morning thinking about death. As you do.

And then the first thing I saw on Facebook was this update from a friend about our age:

Two contemporaries facing the end of their lives. Much need for helpful reflection about how we prepare others and ourselves for this critical stage of our journey.

I hope you don?t mind my second Sunday Collection being on the topic of death and dying. It?s not a comfortable subject for everyone, but, as whoever it was said, death is the only thing certain about life, along with taxes.

Too soon?

The reason I woke up thinking about death was because of the shocking news that came my way on Friday of a former colleague?s death from cancer at the age of 27.

This was unusually young, but one of the normal markers of our lives as we grow older is that we begin to lose our friends, life partners and contemporary family. Sometimes it?s much too soon, sometimes death comes at the right time, even when it?s still difficult for those of us left behind.

And perhaps some of you reading this are yourselves in the process of loosening your hold on life.

And yet we still don?t seem to have enough by way of mechanisms to cope. Our society still prefers to have death take place neatly around the corner out of sight.

Practical preparations

There are some practicalities which makes it easier for loved ones to cope with our deaths, like making a Will and letting people know what funeral arrangements to make. These things are important and we know we should do them. (I haven?t, yet.)

For those in the UK, Amnesty is holding Make a Will Fortnight, which means you can make a Will free of charge or for a donation to Amnesty. So no more excuses.

Digital death

An added complication today for those of us who have rather large online footprints is what happens to all those blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts, emails etc. Does your social media life live on after you do? Will Facebook friends be wishing you a happy birthday years after you?ve kicked the bucket? (Not such a bad thing, I guess.)

There?s a good article about this in New Scientist, and there are also services such as Legacy Locker which can help. For a fee. Or you could simply leave a document with usernames and passwords for all your online services. Keep it up to date though, and keep it safe.

But the practical considerations are not the main things I want to talk about today.

Sacred preparation

Medical care for the dying has come a long way in the last couple of decades, although there are still terrible experiences and people dying alone on trolleys in hospital corridors or collapsing in the street.

The Hospice movement has transformed the experience of those nearing the end of life for countless thousands of people, with excellent palliative care and, just as important, the acknowledgement that death is coming, no pretences.

Hospice and hospital chaplains of all faiths work with those nearing death.

Meanwhile new ways of accompanying the dying are appearing.

Music

One of the most beautiful, I think, is music.

A few years ago, as I sat by the bed of my 84 year old aunt on the last night of her life, I was moved suddenly to begin singing to her. She had been unresponsive and apparently unaware of my presence, but as I began to sing the Salve Regina (she was a lifelong Catholic, and lover of music of all kinds), she turned her bony face slowly in my direction, an expression crossing her face of a sort of peaceful yearning. I knew then that she was ready.

There are many a capella groups now who sing in hospices as part of a ministry to the dying. The Threshold Singers are based in Boston, the Harbour Singers in Maine, and the Hallowell Singers in Vermont/New Hampshire. (I doubt this is a phenomenon only of the Eastern Seaboard, but these are the groups I know of.)

Hallowell have this to say of the beginning of their ministry:

In March 2003, during the final week of Dinah Breunig?s life, a group of friends from church and community surrounded her bed to sing for and with her while she lay dying. ?On two different evenings, over 30 people came to help Dinah pass over on the wings of the songs she so loved in her life. ?It was during those evenings, our voices joined in harmony, our hearts ?open with grief and love, that Hallowell was born. We have been singing this way ever since, in groups anywhere from 4 to 35, quiet reverent songs over a person in their last hours, or songs of joy and spirit for someone in hospice care but still fully alive in their dying weeks.

Soul midwives

And Soul Midwives are non-medical people who accompany and support the dying. What do they do?

They keep a loving vigil.
They create and hold a sacred and healing space for the dying person
They recognise and support the individual needs of the departing soul to enable a tranquil death.
They use sound, touch, colour and smell and other gentle techniques to help alleviate pain and anxiety.
They support families and loved ones.

And there?s also the organisation from whose name I took the title of this post: the Sacred Dying Foundation. Here?s what they say about their ministry:

The Sacred Dying Philosophy is concerned with bringing spirituality, through presence and ritual, into the physical act of dying. Sacred Dying facilitates the creation of a setting where death is experienced with honor, respect, and sacredness. This can be as simple as being present with a loved member of your family and as complicated as transforming the vision of our entire society.

Afterlife or not?

Perhaps here would be an appropriate place to tackle the question of whether this life is all there is.

Does it matter? Well on some levels, profoundly, but on others perhaps not so much.

Do people who believe that death is the end approach it with more fear than those whose religious belief makes them feel sinful? Or more resignation. I?m not sure. (I?d love to hear what you think about this.)

But surely ritual and sacramental approaches to dying are the practices to which we should aspire, whatever our beliefs.

Personally, I don?t believe this life is the end, although I have no idea what might come next. Here?s what Gandalf told Pippin:

Being ready

Born like a dream
In this dream of a world
How easy in mind I am
I who will fade away
like the morning dew

Ikkyu Sojun

We?re all amateurs at dying. And we may not have the luxury of preparation. Some of us may prefer the idea of a quick and sudden end. Personally, I would prefer not to ?take a header? into death without some warning, but the choice is not mine.

We lie down at night, all of us, even the most healthy, not quite knowing if we will get up tomorrow. There?s a surrender in Sojun?s words above which would be wonderful to live by.

My final recommendation is a book called The Grace in Dying, by Kathleen Dowling Singh. Offering insights from spirituality, transpersonal psychology and her experience over many years accompanying the dying, this book is full of treasures.

So I leave you ? and I hope that in spite of all this talk of death and dying you have a wonderful week ? with the words of C.S. Lewis and The Last Battle:

It is as hard to explain how this sunlit land was different from the old Narnia as it would be to tell you how the fruits of that country taste. Perhaps you might get some idea of it if you think like this. You may have been in a room in which there was a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away among mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the window there may have been a looking-glass. And as you turned away from the window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or that valley, all over again, in the looking-glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time they were somehow different ? deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story ? in a story you have never heard but very much want to know.

Farther up, and farther in?

Image credits?Alice Popkorn

Source: http://www.pilgrimsmoon.com/2013/02/24/sunday-collection-sacred-dying/

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Instagram?s Kevin Systrom To Join Us For Disrupt NY 2013

In case you’re not vigorously refreshing our?Disrupt NY?events page like we are, TechCrunch Disrupt?is coming up. We’re receiving a record number of Startup Battlefield applications?and watching the last batch pour in before the deadline on Monday. We’ve also?started to announce some amazing special guests and speakers. Tickets for this year’s show can be found here. From pivot to iconic acquisition, there is perhaps no recent Valley success story more symbolic than that of Instagram and its cofounder Kevin Systrom. His saga, and the fact that he’s a sharp cookie, are why we’re delighted to have this Crunchies 2013 Founder Of The Year join us on the Disrupt NY stage. Systrom will be headlining along with?previously announced speakers Fred Wilson, Ken Lerer, Ben Lerer, Roelof Botha, Ron Conway, David Lee, and Kevin Ryan. Stay tuned for more updates, and remember, if you want to apply for Startup Battlefield, do so before Monday, February 25th. More info on applying can be found here. Our sponsors help make Disrupt happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our amazing sponsorship team here?sponsors@techcrunch.com. Kevin Systrom Co-founder, Instagram Kevin Systrom is a co-founder of Instagram, a photo sharing application for the iPhone. He also founded Burbn, an HTML5-based location sharing service. Kevin graduated from Stanford University in 2006 with a BS in Management Science & Engineering?he got his first taste of the startup world when he was an intern at Odeo that later became Twitter. He spent two years at Google?the first of which was working on Gmail, Google Reader, and other products and the latter where he worked on the Corporate Development team. Kevin has always had a passion for social products that enable people to communicate more easily, and combined with his passion for photography, Instagram is a natural fit.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/zKi7Yebk5Dk/

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Shri Anand Sharma, Union Minister for Commerce, Industry & Textiles, will present AEPC?s Export Awards, today as per the following details

Director (M&C)??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Press Information Bureau

(Commerce,

Industry & Textiles)?????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????Shastri Bhawan

Tel.: 011-23063622/

23383597?????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????New Delhi

E-mail: press.commerce@gmail.com

?

?

?????? ?

?February 22, 2013

INVITATION

Re: AEPC Export Award Function

?

Dear Sir/Madam,

Shri Anand Sharma, Union Minister for Commerce, Industry & Textiles, will present AEPC?s Export Awards, today as per the following details:

Venue:?????? The Grand Ballroom, Hotel Leela, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi

Date: ???????? Friday, February 22, 2013

Time: ??????? 1900 hrs

????????? You are invited to cover the event.

????????? Yours sincerely

?

(Dhiraj Singh)

To

All accredited Correspondents/camerapersons

All accredited TV Organizations

ADG (News), Doordarshan

DG (News), AIR

Director, Photo Division

DD (Photo)

?

(Release ID :92375)

Source: http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=92375

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