Quotes on Phil Ramone from luminaries

NEW YORK (AP) ? Reactions to Phil Ramone's death:

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"A friend, a musical genius and the most lovable person. It was a thrill for me to have worked with Phil, and I have so many wonderful memories." ? Elton John

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"I'm so saddened to learn of Phil's passing. We first worked together in 1967 when I did a free concert in Central Park. His brilliance at capturing sound was immediately evident. Later we worked together on the film 'A Star Is Born' where Phil was able to record me singing live, including 'Evergreen.' In the next decade we worked on the soundtrack to 'Yentl' and many other recordings. Phil had impeccable musical taste, great ears and the most gentle way of bringing out the best in all the artists he worked with. The monumental recordings he produced will endure for all time." ? Barbra Streisand

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"There aren't enough words to express how heavy my heart is with the news of the passing of my dear friend and brother Phil Ramone. From Andy Williams and Lesley Gore, to Billy Eckstine, Paul Simon and all of my albums including 'Soul Bossa Nova' and 'Q's Jook Joint,' Phil was a collaborator in the studio and a friend in life for more than 50 years. Whenever I was in the studio recording, if Phil wasn't there by my side it would seem like one ingredient was missing. Today we lost one of the true musicians, innovators and geniuses of the record industry. His immense talents were only surpassed by the gigantic size of his heart, and I will miss him terribly." ? Quincy Jones

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"I always thought of Phil Ramone as the most talented guy in my band. He was the guy that no one ever ever saw onstage. He was with me as long as any of the musicians I ever played with ? longer than most. So much of my music was shaped by him and brought to fruition by him. I have lost a dear friend ? and my greatest mentor. The music world lost a giant today." ? Billy Joel

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What a heartbreak to all of us who knew him and loved him. What a great man, what a kind spirit, such an incredible producer. The star of stars behind the stars. Phil will be missed always. Truly a tragic loss for us on earth but what a wonderful blessing for heaven. As I've always said, 'Love you Phil, God Bless.'" ? Stevie Wonder

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"Phil Ramone was a lovely person and a very gifted musician and producer. It was a joy to have him work with me in the recording studio on so many projects as he had a wonderful sense of humor and a deep love of music. Phil had the admiration and respect from everyone in the entertainment industry and his passing is a great loss." ? Tony Bennett

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"Phil was a true gentleman in every sense of the word. It was an honor to know him. He was an angel and I loved him dearly. This is a profound loss for the music world, for all the lives he touched and of course for his family ... Rest in Peace, Phil ... You will be deeply missed and never forgotten." ? Michael Buble

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As co-founder of A&R Recordings, he was a pioneer of audio technological developments ? creating new innovations for the compact disc and surround sound technologies. His impressive career spanned all genres in which he collaborated with a diverse group of artists including Tony Bennett, Etta James, Paul McCartney, Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen and numerous others ... Our industry has lost an immense talent and a true visionary and genius, and The Academy has lost a very dear and close friend." ? Neil Portnow, President/CEO, The Recording Academy

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/quotes-phil-ramone-luminaries-000307518.html

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Miscellaneous Mentionables : Mom Knows It All. ? PR Friendly New ...

You are here: Home ? Announcements ? Miscellaneous Mentionables

I frequently receive email from companies asking me to share news or discounts with my readers. Each week I?ll gather the best requests and share them with you here.

Voots ?Get Kids Growing? Garden Grants

Voots? Veggie Fruit-Tarts along with Kidsgardening.org, a resource of the National Gardening Association, recently hosted the Voots ?Get Kids Growing,? interactive gardening workshop at The Americana at Brand in Glendale, Calif. with celebrity mom Christina Milian to help empower children and their families to lead healthier lives and build stronger communities through gardening!

While kids and their families had fun learning about gardening and healthy eating at the event, the main announcement was the unveiling of the Voots ?Get Kids Growing? Garden Grants, a partnership program that will award 20 grant recipients with $700* in gardening supplies including a raised bed, tools, and a curriculum guide from the Gardening with Kids Shop, and a check for $50 to be used to purchase soil amendments and fruit and vegetable plantings. The total award package is valued at over $750. Additionally, one recipient will be awarded a grand prize based on their submission, receiving an additional $1,250 in gardening supplies.

There?s still have time to participate in the grant program for a chance to win ? the deadline is April 1, 2013! More information can be found here: http://grants.kidsgardening.org/voots%C2%AE-get-kids-growing-garden-grants.

Tags: Voots

Category: Announcements

Source: http://www.valmg.com/index.php/2013/miscellaneous-mentionables-158/

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Risk and reward at the dawn of civilian drone age

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The dawn of the age of aerial civilian drones is rich with possibilities for people far from the war zones where they made their devastating mark as a weapon of choice against terrorists.

The unmanned, generally small aircraft can steer water and pesticides to crops with precision, saving farmers money while reducing environmental risk. They can inspect distant bridges, pipelines and power lines and find hurricane victims stranded on rooftops.

Drones ? some as tiny as a hummingbird ? promise everyday benefits as broad as the sky is wide. But the drone industry and those eager to tap its potential are running headlong into fears the peeping-eye, go-anywhere technology will be misused.

Since January, drone-related legislation has been introduced in more than 30 states, largely in response to privacy concerns. Many of the bills would prevent police from using drones for broad public surveillance or to watch individuals without sufficient grounds to believe they were involved in crimes.

Stephen Ingley, executive director of the Airborne Law Enforcement Association, says resistance to the technology is frustrating. Drones "clearly have so much potential for saving lives, and it's a darn shame we're having to go through this right now," he said.

But privacy advocates say now is the time to debate the proper use of civilian drones and set rules, before they become ubiquitous. Sentiment for curbing domestic drone use has brought the left and right together perhaps more than any other recent issue.

"The thought of government drones buzzing overhead and constantly monitoring the activities of law-abiding citizens runs contrary to the notion of what it means to live in a free society," Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said at a recent hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

With military budgets shrinking, drone makers have been counting on the civilian market to spur the industry's growth. Some companies that make drones or supply support equipment and services say the uncertainty has caused them to put U.S. expansion plans on hold, and they are looking overseas for new markets.

"Our lack of success in educating the public about unmanned aircraft is coming back to bite us," said Robert Fitzgerald, CEO of the BOSH Group of Newport News, Va., which provides support services to drone users.

"The U.S. has been at the lead of this technology a long time," he said. "If our government holds back this technology, there's the freedom to move elsewhere ... and all of a sudden these things will be flying everywhere else and competing with us."

Law enforcement is expected to be one of the bigger initial markets for civilian drones. Last month, the FBI used drones to maintain continuous surveillance of a bunker in Alabama where a 5-year-old boy was being held hostage.

In Virginia, the state General Assembly passed a bill that would place a two-year moratorium on the use of drones by state and local law enforcement. The measure is supported by groups as varied as the American Civil Liberties Union on the left and the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation on the right.

Gov. Bob McDonnell is proposing amendments that would retain the broad ban on spy drones but allow specific exemptions when lives are in danger, such as for search-and rescue operations. The legislature reconvenes on April 3 to consider the matter.

Seattle abandoned its drone program after community protests in February. The city's police department had purchased two drones through a federal grant without consulting the city council.

In Congress, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., co-chairman of the House's privacy caucus, has introduced a bill that prohibits the Federal Aviation Administration from issuing drone licenses unless the applicant provides a statement explaining who will operate the drone, where it will be flown, what kind of data will be collected, how the data will be used, whether the information will be sold to third parties and the period for which the information will be retained.

Privacy advocates acknowledge the many benign uses of drones. In Mesa County, Colo., for example, an annual landfill survey using manned aircraft cost about $10,000. The county recently performed the same survey using a drone for about $200.

Drones can help police departments find missing people, reconstruct traffic accidents and act as lookouts for SWAT teams. Real estate agents can have them film videos of properties and surrounding neighborhoods, offering clients a better-than-bird's-eye view though one that neighbors may not wish to have shared.

"Any legislation that restricts the use of this kind of capability to serve the public is putting the public at risk," said Steve Gitlin, vice president of AeroVironment, a leading maker of smaller drones.

Yet the virtues of drones can also make them dangerous, privacy advocates say. The low cost and ease of use may encourage police and others to conduct the kind of continuous or intrusive surveillance that might otherwise be impractical.

Drones can be equipped with high-powered cameras and listening devices, and infrared cameras that can see people in the dark.

"High-rise buildings, security fences or even the walls of a building are not barriers to increasingly common drone technology," Amie Stepanovich, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Council's surveillance project, told the Senate panel.

Civilian drone use is limited to government agencies and public universities that have received a few hundred permits from the FAA. A law passed by Congress last year requires the FAA to open U.S. skies to widespread drone flights by 2015, but the agency is behind schedule and it's doubtful it will meet that deadline. Lawmakers and industry officials have complained for years about the FAA's slow progress.

The FAA estimates that within five years of gaining broader access about 7,500 civilian drones will be in use.

Although the Supreme Court has not dealt directly with drones, it has OK'd aerial surveillance without warrants in drug cases in which officers in a plane or helicopter spotted marijuana plants growing on a suspect's property.

But in a case involving the use of ground-based equipment, the court said police generally need a warrant before using a thermal imaging device to detect hot spots in a home that might indicate that marijuana plants are being grown there.

In some states economic concerns have trumped public unease. In Oklahoma, an anti-drone bill was shelved at the request of Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, who was concerned it might hinder growth of the state's drone industry. The North Dakota state Senate killed a drone bill in part because it might impede the state's chances of being selected by the Federal Aviation Administration as one of six national drone test sites, which could generate local jobs.

A bill that would have limited the ability of state and local governments to use drones died in the Washington legislature. The measure was opposed by the Boeing Co., which employs more than 80,000 workers in the state and which has a subsidiary, Insitu, that's a leading military drone manufacturer.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., recently drew attention to the domestic use of drones when he staged a Senate filibuster, demanding to know whether the president has authority to use weaponized drones to kill Americans on American soil. The White House said no, if the person isn't engaged in combat. Industry officials worry that the episode could temporarily set back civilian drone use.

"The opposition has become very loud," said Gitlin of AeroVironment, "but we are confident that over time the benefits of these solutions are going to far outweigh the concerns, and they'll become part of normal life in the future."

___

Associated Press writer Michael Felberbaum in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-30-Everyday%20Drones/id-4f2addef8bcd42028a034dd3c0784cb1

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7 Parenting Tips for Working from Home with Young Children Little ...

[By L.R.Knost, author of ?Two Thousand Kisses a Day: Gentle Parenting Through the Ages and Stages now available on Amazon]

With economies struggling all over the world, more and more moms are trying to juggle work and children. Working from home is one way to earn a living or supplement your household income while still parenting full-time, but it comes with its own unique set of challenges. Here are seven tips to help you parent your little ones gently while operating a home business:

1. Think ?routine? instead of ?schedule.? Gentle parenting is very much about being in-sync with your child?s needs. Being tied to an inflexible schedule will only cause stress and conflict as your child?s needs evolve from day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year. Children do, however, enjoy the comfort and familiarity of a regular routine, and knowing what to expect helps them to make transitions throughout the day. So, instead of making a minute to minute schedule, try working with your child to establish a routine that?s flexible enough to adjust to meet their fluctuating needs, but builds into your day the time you need to devote to your work. For example, a routine could look something like this:

• Morning cuddles, breakfast, playtime with mommy
• Playtime while mommy works
• Snack and storytime with mommy
• Play while mommy works
• Lunch and outside playtime with mommy
• Naptime while mommy works
• Playtime with mommy
• Playtime while mommy works
• Help mommy with dinner
• Dinnertime
• Help mommy clean up after dinner
• Playtime while mommy works
• Evening snack
• Bathtime, bedtime story, cuddles, night-night time

Notice that there are no time limits, only a loose plan for the day that you can adjust if your little one is sick or teething or just needs some extra mommy time during the day. A younger baby will need more naps during the day and can be worn in a baby carrier for naps and/or in place of playtime, and some toddlers and preschoolers will outgrow their need for naps earlier than others, and some will need more outside time, etc. so you?ll want to come up with a routine that accommodates your child?s age, sleep needs, and temperament. Also, of course, if your spouse or a trusted family member or friend is available to help, be sure to include them in your routine.

2. Children love the novelty value of new toys, so get a box for each of your working days of the week. Label each box with one day of the week and place a set of toys in them that you only bring out on that day. Remember to think outside the box (lol) and don?t only choose store-bought toys. One box could be full of paper towel and toilet paper tubes and various sizes of bouncy balls and hot wheels, etc. so your little one can make tunnels and chutes and all sorts of inventions. Another box could have kitchen utensils and bowls and pots and pans. Don?t be afraid of a little mess, either! Children are washable, and messy play can keep them happily engaged for long stretches of time, so in one box you could have a plastic tablecloth from the dollar store or even a little blow-up wading pool, some paintbrushes, and shaving cream. Just put down the tablecloth or blow up the pool and add a touch of different colors of food coloring to a few small bowls of shaving cream let your little Picasso go to town! The trick is to be creative and choose things that are out of the ordinary that will engage your child?s imagination, not just keep them busy.

3. For older preschoolers or early elementary ages, an independent project is an excellent idea to help them stay happily engaged while you?re working. During your work periods, provide your child with an ongoing project that they?re interested in and can work on independently. It can be a paint-by-number project, a jigsaw puzzle, a simple model car, a jewelry making set, or any number of other things. Since time is a hard concept for young children, setting a timer for your work periods and having a little sticker chart on the fridge for you and your child to ?clock in? and ?clock out? of work might be a fun, helpful part of your routine, as well.

4. Meal planning is a huge, huge help in freeing up time and mental energy. Take the time to write out a list of every meal you know how to make that your family likes, then break each of those meals down into their ingredients. Save the list on your laptop, and then twice a month simply cut and paste two weeks of meals into a Word doc. Then print it out, cross off any ingredients you already have on hand, and ?voila? you have a shopping list and menu for two weeks done in one shot!

5. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Be realistic about your commitments and expectations for yourself. Have fruit and cheese for breakfast most mornings instead of eggs and pancakes and sausage. It?s healthier, faster, and there?s less to cleanup! Resign from any pre-working-at-home commitments you can such as directing your church?s Vacation Bible School or doing the book work for your local food pantry. No one expects you to be able to do everything, and someone else can take on those tasks while you?re doing double duty as a work-and-stay-at-home-mom. And, once you?ve cleared up your commitments, avoid the temptation to fill up your time with playgroups and playdates and mommy-and-me classes. Your little ones need you, not activities.

6. Don?t be afraid to go mobile. Find a local park that is suitable for your child?s age and temperament (i.e. Don?t go to a park with a lake if your little one is a runner, and don?t choose a playground with only big kid slides and jungle gyms if you?ve got a toddler.). Once you?ve found a park that?s a good fit, take your laptop or iPhone and answer emails or return phone calls or do other simple tasks that you can manage while swinging your little one in a baby swing or watching your toddler dig in the sand. Make sure you take the time to play with them while you?re there, too, and don?t worry if you get a few judgmental looks from other parents. They don?t know your life, but you know you?re doing the best you can to meet your child?s needs while doing what you need to do for work, so take comfort in that knowledge.

7. Don?t forget to take care of yourself! We can get so caught up in meeting our family?s needs at times that we forget to take care of our own needs. Make sure you include a bit of downtime in your routine each day to simply be still and have a cup of coffee or read the newspaper or simply stare out the window and daydream for a few minutes. Take the time on a regular basis to do your nails, go have your hair done, and make a lunch date with a friend. Even if you bring your little one with you, you?ll still be out and about in a non-working environment for a bit and actually get to feel like an adult. If you?ve got a teething baby or a sick child and aren?t getting much sleep at night, take a nap during the day when your little one?s asleep instead of working during their nap. You may get a bit less work done, but you?ll enjoy your life and your family more, and isn?t that really the point of it all anyway?

*reprinted with permission from The Natural Parent Magazine

Related posts:

12 Steps to Gentle Parenting

Practical, Gentle, Effective Discipline

200 Ways to Bless Your Children with a Happy Childhood

10 Ways to Play with your Children when Play is the Last Thing on your Mind

29 Messages in a Bottle

12 Tips for Gently Parenting Your Adult Children (Hint: It starts when they?re newborns!)

Tots to Teens~Communication Through the Ages and Stages

Source: http://www.littleheartsbooks.com/2013/03/29/7-parenting-tips-working-from-home-with-young-children/

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Palestinian journalist gets jail term for Abbas insult

By Noah Browning

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian court sentenced a local journalist to a year in jail on Thursday over a picture posted on Facebook that was deemed insulting to President Mahmoud Abbas.

The ruling against Mamdouh Hamamreh, who works for the al-Quds TV channel in Bethlehem, is the second this year in which Palestinians have been given jail terms over caricatures of the president.

Journalists and media watchdogs, saying Hamamreh was only "tagged" in the photo and did not create it, criticized the ruling and curbs on media freedom by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

The offending image juxtaposed Abbas beside a similar-looking man who plays the part of a collaborator with French colonial forces in an old Syrian television drama.

"They resemble each other in everything," a caption read.

Many Palestinians perceive Abbas as too conciliatory to Israel and resent coordination between Israeli and Palestinian security forces overseen by Abbas.

Palestinian rights groups were critical of the ruling.

"(Hamamreh) didn't even publish the picture. When images online are criminalised, it's a very serious violation of basic rights of expression," criminalizedaid Riham Abu Aita of the Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms.

"We don't have a king, we have a president," she said.

"This issue is between the prosecutor and the court, and the president has nothing to do with its proceedings," Hassan al-Ouri, legal adviser to Abbas, told Reuters of the Hamamreh case.

A court in the northern West Bank city of Nablus in February sentenced a local man to a year in prison for creating a picture of Abbas to make him look like a football player, and entitled it "the new striker for Real Madrid".

Anas Awad, 26, denied he had intended any offence and the president promptly pardoned him.

(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-journalist-gets-jail-term-abbas-insult-192131038.html

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Arsenal's Diaby out for 9 months with knee injury

Associated Press Sports

updated 3:58 p.m. ET March 28, 2013

LONDON (AP) -Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby is facing up to nine months on the sidelines to recover from a knee complaint, the latest in a long line of injuries to have plagued the France international.

Diaby tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee at a training session on Wednesday.

"Following consultations with specialists, Abou will undergo surgery to repair the injury in the near future," Arsenal said Thursday. "Abou is expected to be out for around eight to nine months."

Diaby has been blighted by injuries since joining from Auxerre in 2006, fracturing and dislocating an ankle after four months at the Premier League club. The commanding midfielder made only 27 Premier League appearances during the next two seasons.

He eventually established himself as a regular in Arsenal's midfield, scoring seven times in 40 matches in all competitions in 2010-11.

But he was restricted to only five appearances last season due to a string of injuries, including ankle and calf problems, and has played only 16 games in the current campaign.

The latest problem adds to manager Arsene Wenger's mounting injury problems.

Jack Wilshere is recovering from an ankle problem which has ruled him out since the loss at Tottenham on March 3.

Wenger must also do without forward Theo Walcott against Reading this weekend after he returned home early from England duty with a pelvic injury, while defender Kieran Gibbs is doubtful because of a virus.

Arsenal is fifth in the league, four points behind Tottenham in the fourth Champions League place.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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If World Cup draw was today ...

PST: We took the current standings from qualifying tournaments around the world, assumed the teams? points-per-game rates played out, and then ?qualified? the appropriate teams for Brazil.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/51362232/ns/sports-soccer/

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Army vet accused of fighting alongside al-Qaida

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) ? A U.S. Army veteran, who boasted on Facebook of his military adventures with Syrian rebels, was charged Thursday with firing rocket propelled grenades as part of an attack led by an al-Qaida group against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Eric Harroun, 30, of Phoenix, was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction ? specifically, a rocket propelled grenade launcher ? outside the U.S.

According to an FBI affidavit, Harroun, who served three years in the Army before being medically discharged, was engaged in military action in Syria, siding with rebel forces against the Syrian government, from January to March of this year.

Harroun told FBI investigators that he traveled to Turkey in November hoping to join the Free Syrian Army, a rebel group. In January, he crossed the border and made contact with the Free Syrian Army, which outfitted him two Russian rifles, according to the affidavit.

Within days, Harroun participated in an attack on a Syrian army encampment that was carried out jointly by the Free Syrian Army and the al-Nusrah Front, commonly known as "al-Qaida in Iraq" and designated a terrorist group by the U.S., according to the affidavit.

After that battle, Harroun retreated in the back of an al-Nusrah truck. Harroun told the FBI that at the al-Nusrah camp, he was initially treated like a prisoner but was later accepted by the other members and participated in several attacks with them, according to the affidavit.

Harroun said al-Nusrah fighters would ask him why the U.S. had designated them as terrorists, according to the affidavit.

Harroun used RPG launchers in the attacks and once, on his Facebook page, claimed credit for downing a Syrian helicopter. According to the affidavit, Harroun told the FBI that he shot an estimated 10 people in his various battles, though he was unsure if he had ever killed anyone.

On the Facebook page, Harroun also stated that "the only good Zionist is a dead Zionist" and that he intended to travel to the Palestinian territory because of Israeli atrocities there, according to the affidavit. The affidavit states that Harroun served in the Army from 2000 to 2003, when he received a medical discharge after he was injured in a car accident.

An Army spokesman said Harroun served at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and Fort Riley in Kansas, and that his record listed no overseas deployments.

The federal public defender was appointed to represent Harroun at an initial public appearance Thursday, and a detention hearing was scheduled for Tuesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Peterson said Harroun faces up to life in prison.

Harroun flew back to the U.S. Wednesday through Dulles International Airport. He was arrested after being questioned by FBI agents there.

The public defender for the Eastern District of Virginia, Michael Nachmanoff, declined comment Thursday, saying he had not yet had time to review the case in any depth.

Last year, Nachmanoff's office represented a northern Virginia man, Mohamad Soueid, who pleaded guilty to spying on U.S.-based Syrian dissidents on behalf of the Assad regime. Soueid said he was motivated to help the Syrian government because of his fear that Islamic extremists would take hold in Syria if Assad's secular regime were overthrown.

Harroun is not charged with providing material support to a terrorist group, but instead conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the U.S., a law that applies to U.S. nationals operating anywhere in the world. The statute makes no distinction or exception for an individual who may be fighting a hostile regime.

Harroun appeared to make no effort to hide his activities in Syria. His Facebook page includes multiple photos of him wielding military rifles and a photo of Assad, with the caption "Wanted Dead or NOT alive!!!!"

Harroun gave several interviews through Skype to journalists Greg Tepper and Ilan Ben Zion, who wrote articles for Foreign Policy magazine and Fox News.

In one interview, Harroun described himself as a "freedom fighter" and said joining up with al-Nusrah is "not rocket science." At other times, though, he disputed a connection with the group.

His father, Darryl Harroun, told FoxNews.com the car accident that led to his son's military discharge left him with a steel plate in his head, and exacerbated depression from which his son already suffered.

Darryl Harroun said that family and friends call his son "Arizona Jones."

Efforts by AP to reach Darryl Harroun Thursday were not immediately successful.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-army-vet-charged-fighting-al-qaida-184044925.html

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Ex-Pa. state trooper kills wife, self in market

A former state trooper killed his estranged wife with a shotgun inside a central Pennsylvania supermarket Thursday and then killed himself, days after she filed for divorce and two months after he was accused of beating her, police said.

Mark R. Miscavish, who retired from the state police in 2011 after 15 years, killed Traci A. Miscavish at the County Market in Philipsburg, authorities said.

State police investigators said that he began searching the store for her after arriving there around 10 a.m. He found her in an upstairs office and soon shot her and killed himself, authorities said.

Investigators recovered the weapon but declined to say how many times it was fired.

He had been arrested Jan. 23 after Traci Miscavish, who had recently left him, returned to the home to retrieve some belongings, Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said.

Traci Miscavish believed her husband had been abusing prescription drugs and when she went to take them away, he wrestled her to the ground, pinned her arms behind her and attempted to bind her with duct tape, said Parks Miller, whose office was prosecuting him.

He pulled out a gun ? a police affidavit said he did not point it at her ? and threatened to kill her, but a passer-by saw him trying to drag her back into the home and stopped to help, Parks Miller said. He was charged with simple assault, terroristic threats and harassment and spent a week in jail before being bailed out.

Parks Miller said Traci Miscavish lived in fear of her 51-year-old estranged husband and told prosecutors she believed he would harm her further.

"She said, 'The next time I see him is going to be at the end of a gun,'" Parks Miller told The Associated Press. "We were very concerned when he got out and we're just devastated now."

Mark Miscavish's attorney, David Charles Mason, was not available for comment, his office said.

Traci Miscavish, 49, filed for divorce within the past week.

Her sister Gina March, speaking to reporters outside the supermarket after the shooting, said the system had failed both her sister and her brother-in-law.

"He wasn't in his right mind," March said. "I don't believe he's at fault, I believe he needed help. ... And nobody was there to help him, not the judge, not the cops, not our system."

Christina Price, who said she works at a liquor store in the same strip mall as the supermarket, told the Centre Daily Times that Traci Miscavish was a cheerful woman and so friendly and happy that "you couldn't imagine there was stuff going on at home."

Price told the newspaper she had no idea the woman had a protection order against her husband.

"Would it have stopped this?" she asked. "It's like, how do you get out alive? When you've got kids and grandkids and friends and family, how do you split it and get away?"

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-pa-state-trooper-kills-wife-self-market-005012856.html

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What attracts people to violent movies?

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Why are audiences attracted to bloodshed, gore and violence? A recent study from researchers at the University of Augsburg, Germany and the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that people are more likely to watch movies with gory scenes of violence if they felt there was meaning in confronting violent aspects of real life.

Anne Bartsch, University of Augsburg, Germany and Louise Mares, University of Wisconsin-Madison, will present their findings at the 63rd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association. Their study examined whether these serious, contemplative, and truth-seeking motivations for exposure to violent portrayals are more than just an intellectual pleasure. They invited a large binational sample from Germany and the US (total of 482 participants), ranging in age from 18-82, and with varying levels of education. Participants viewed film trailers featuring different levels of gore and meaningfulness, and rated their likelihood of watching the full movie. They also indicated their perceptions of the film (how gory, meaningful, thought-provoking, suspenseful, etc.).

Earlier studies have suggested that audiences are not necessarily attracted to violence per se, but seem to be drawn to violent content because they anticipate other benefits, such as thrill and suspense.

These findings suggest that such hedonistic pleasures are only part of the story about why we willingly expose ourselves to scenes of bloodshed and aggression. Some types of violent portrayals seem to attract audiences because they promise to satisfy truth-seeking motivations by offering meaningful insights into some aspect of the human condition.

"Perhaps depictions of violence that are perceived as meaningful, moving and thought-provoking can foster empathy with victims, admiration for acts of courage and moral beauty in the face of violence, or self-reflection with regard to violent impulses," said Bartsch. "Examining the prevalence of such prosocial responses and the conditions under which they occur offers a theoretically intriguing and socially valuable direction for further work."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by International Communication Association, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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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/most_popular/~3/P0FeaSwr-TA/130328091750.htm

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Record-breaking cyberattack hits anti-spam group

LONDON (AP) ? A record-breaking cyberattack targeting an anti-spam watchdog group has sent ripples of disruption coursing across the Web, experts said Wednesday.

Spamhaus, a site responsible for keeping ads for counterfeit Viagra and bogus weight-loss pills out of the world's inboxes, said it had been buffeted by the monster denial-of-service attack since mid-March, apparently from groups angry at being blacklisted by the Swiss-British group.

"It is a small miracle that we're still online," Spamhaus researcher Vincent Hanna said.

Denial-of-service attacks overwhelm a server with traffic ? like hundreds of letters being jammed through a mail slot at the same time. Security experts measure those attacks in bits of data per second. Recent cyberattacks ? like the ones that caused persistent outages at U.S. banking sites late last year ? have tended to peak at 100 billion bits per second.

But the furious assault on Spamhaus has shattered the charts, clocking in at 300 billion bits per second, according to San Francisco-based CloudFlare Inc., which Spamhaus has enlisted to help it weather the attack.

"It was likely quite a bit more, but at some point measurement systems can't keep up," CloudFlare chief executive Matthew Prince wrote in an email.

Patrick Gilmore of Akamai Technologies said that was no understatement.

"This attack is the largest that has been publicly disclosed ? ever ? in the history of the Internet," he said.

It's unclear who exactly was behind the attack, although a man who identified himself as Sven Olaf Kamphuis said he was in touch with the attackers and described them as mainly consisting of disgruntled Russian Internet service providers who had found themselves on Spamhaus' blacklists. There was no immediate way to verify his claim.

He accused the watchdog of arbitrarily blocking content that it did not like. Spamhaus has widely used and constantly updated blacklists of sites that send spam.

"They abuse their position not to stop spam but to exercise censorship without a court order," Kamphuis said.

Gilmore and Prince said the attack's perpetrators had taken advantage of weaknesses in the Internet's infrastructure to trick thousands of servers into routing a torrent of junk traffic to Spamhaus every second.

The trick, called "DNS reflection," works a little bit like mailing requests for information to thousands of different organizations with a target's return address written across the back of the envelopes. When all the organizations reply at once, they send a landslide of useless data to the unwitting addressee.

Both experts said the attack's sheer size has sent ripples of disruptions across the Internet as servers moved mountains of junk traffic back and forth across the Web.

"At a minimum there would have been slowness," Prince said, adding in a blog post that "if the Internet felt a bit more sluggish for you over the last few days in Europe, this may be part of the reason why."

At the London Internet Exchange, where service providers exchange traffic across the globe, spokesman Malcolm Hutty said his organization had seen "a minor degree of congestion in a small portion of the network."

But he said it was unlikely that any ordinary users had been affected by the attack.

Hanna said his site had so far managed to stay online, but warned that being knocked off the Internet could give spammers an opening to step up their mailings ? which may mean more fake lottery announcements and pitches for penny stocks heading to people's inboxes.

Hanna denied claims that his organization had behaved arbitrarily, noting that his group would lose its credibility if it started flagging benign content as spam.

"We have 1.7 billion people who watch over our shoulder," he said. "If we start blocking emails that they want, they will obviously stop using us."

Gilmore of Akamai was also dismissive of the claim that Spamhaus was biased.

"Spamhaus' reputation is sterling," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-27-Spamhaus-Cyberattack/id-36c4ff450d524fe7a2eba0a009311298

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Insect pests more plentiful in hotter parts of city than in cooler areas

Mar. 27, 2013 ? Higher temperatures in cities can be a key driver of insect pest outbreaks on trees in urban areas, according to research published March 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Emily Meineke from North Carolina State University and colleagues from other institutions.

The researchers found that a scale insect that exclusively feeds on oak trees was 13 times more abundant on willow oaks in the hottest parts of the city of Raleigh, North Carolina than in cooler areas of the same city, even when other factors, like natural enemies that would kill the insects, were similar in both areas. In a second experiment, they found scale insects collected from trees in hot areas had higher survival rates in hot greenhouses than in cool ones. However, insects originally from cooler urban areas remained low in number in both hot and cool greenhouses. The researchers found no differences in the rates of reproduction of insects in any of these groups. Thus, they suggest that the differences in abundance may be a result of differences in survival rather than a higher reproductive capacity.

Urbanization of an area changes the species that dwell in it. Previous studies have analyzed these effects in terms of loss of resources or changes to habitat, but this is the first research to focus on the effects of "heat islands" created in cities. Meineke explains that, "Urban warming can lead to higher insect pest abundance, a result of pest acclimation or adaptation to higher temperatures."

The study concludes that since current urban warming is similar in magnitude to the higher temperatures predicted by global warming in the next fifty years, their results may indicate potential changes in pest abundance as natural forests also grow warmer.

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Journal Reference:

1. Emily K. Meineke, Robert R. Dunn, Joseph O. Sexton, Steven D. Frank. Urban Warming Drives Insect Pest Abundance on Street Trees. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (3): e59687 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059687

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/-xa0IYLVu9Y/130327190544.htm

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Petraeus: Scandal 'was my own doing' (CNN)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/294984085?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Father Cleaning Gun Accidentally Shoots, Kills 10-Year Old Son

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/father-cleaning-gun-accidentally-shoots-kills-10-year-old-son/

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Better than X-rays: A more powerful terahertz imaging system

Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Nicole Casal Moore
ncmoore@umich.edu
734-647-7087
University of Michigan

ANN ARBORLow-energy terahertz radiation could potentially enable doctors to see deep into tissues without the damaging effects of X-rays, or allow security guards to identify chemicals in a package without opening it. But it's been difficult for engineers to make powerful enough systems to accomplish these promising applications.

Now an electrical engineering research team at the University of Michigan has developed a laser-powered terahertz source and detector system that transmits with 50 times more power and receives with 30 times more sensitivity than existing technologies. This offers 1,500 times more powerful systems for imaging and sensing applications.

"With our higher-sensitivity terahertz system, you could see deeper into tissues or sense small quantities of illegal drugs and explosives from a farther distance. That's why it's important," said Mona Jarrahi, U-M assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science and leader of the project.

Jarrahi's research team accomplished this by funneling the laser light to specifically selected locations near the device's electrode that feeds the antenna that transmits and receives the terahertz signal.

Their approach enables light to hitch a ride with free electrons on the surface of the metallic electrodes to form a class of surface waves called surface plasmon waves. By coupling the beam of light with surface plasmon waves, the researchers created a funnel to carry light into nanoscale regions near device electrodes.

The excited surface plasmon waves carry optical photons where they need to be much faster and much more efficiently, Jarrahi said.

"When you want to generate or detect terahertz radiation, you have to convert photons to electron hole pairs and then quickly drift them to the contact electrodes of the device. Any delay in this process will reduce the device efficiency," Jarrahi said. "We designed a structure so that when photons land, most of them appear to be right next to the contact electrodes."

According to Jarrahi, the output power of the terahertz sources and the sensitivity of the terahertz detectors can be increased even further by designing optical funnels with tighter focusing capabilities.

"This is a fantastic piece of engineering," said Ted Norris, U-M professor of electrical engineering and computer science. "It gets right to the central issue in photoconductive terahertz devices, which is collecting all the charge. Since every application benefits from increased sensitivity, for example, reduced data acquisition time or increased standoff distance, I expect this approach to be implemented widely."

###

Norris, an expert on terahertz technology, is director of the U-M Center for Photonic and Multiscale Nanomaterials.

Terahertz systems that are powered by lasers have been the most successful in the marketplace so far, thanks to the cost-effective, compact and high-power lasers available today. Other researchers are using different approaches to powering terahertz systems, though.

The study, "Significant performance enhancement in photoconductive terahertz optoelectronics by incorporating plasmonic contact electrodes," is published in the current edition of Nature Communications.

In addition to Jarrahi, authors include: Christopher Berry and Ning Wang, U-M doctoral students in electrical engineering and computer science; and Mohammad Reza Hashemi and Mehmet Unlu, U-M postdoctoral researchers in electrical engineering and computer science.

The research was funded by the Michigan Space Grant Consortium, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research and Army Research Office.

Mona Jarrahi: http://web.eecs.umich.edu/~mjarrahi

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Nicole Casal Moore
ncmoore@umich.edu
734-647-7087
University of Michigan

ANN ARBORLow-energy terahertz radiation could potentially enable doctors to see deep into tissues without the damaging effects of X-rays, or allow security guards to identify chemicals in a package without opening it. But it's been difficult for engineers to make powerful enough systems to accomplish these promising applications.

Now an electrical engineering research team at the University of Michigan has developed a laser-powered terahertz source and detector system that transmits with 50 times more power and receives with 30 times more sensitivity than existing technologies. This offers 1,500 times more powerful systems for imaging and sensing applications.

"With our higher-sensitivity terahertz system, you could see deeper into tissues or sense small quantities of illegal drugs and explosives from a farther distance. That's why it's important," said Mona Jarrahi, U-M assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science and leader of the project.

Jarrahi's research team accomplished this by funneling the laser light to specifically selected locations near the device's electrode that feeds the antenna that transmits and receives the terahertz signal.

Their approach enables light to hitch a ride with free electrons on the surface of the metallic electrodes to form a class of surface waves called surface plasmon waves. By coupling the beam of light with surface plasmon waves, the researchers created a funnel to carry light into nanoscale regions near device electrodes.

The excited surface plasmon waves carry optical photons where they need to be much faster and much more efficiently, Jarrahi said.

"When you want to generate or detect terahertz radiation, you have to convert photons to electron hole pairs and then quickly drift them to the contact electrodes of the device. Any delay in this process will reduce the device efficiency," Jarrahi said. "We designed a structure so that when photons land, most of them appear to be right next to the contact electrodes."

According to Jarrahi, the output power of the terahertz sources and the sensitivity of the terahertz detectors can be increased even further by designing optical funnels with tighter focusing capabilities.

"This is a fantastic piece of engineering," said Ted Norris, U-M professor of electrical engineering and computer science. "It gets right to the central issue in photoconductive terahertz devices, which is collecting all the charge. Since every application benefits from increased sensitivity, for example, reduced data acquisition time or increased standoff distance, I expect this approach to be implemented widely."

###

Norris, an expert on terahertz technology, is director of the U-M Center for Photonic and Multiscale Nanomaterials.

Terahertz systems that are powered by lasers have been the most successful in the marketplace so far, thanks to the cost-effective, compact and high-power lasers available today. Other researchers are using different approaches to powering terahertz systems, though.

The study, "Significant performance enhancement in photoconductive terahertz optoelectronics by incorporating plasmonic contact electrodes," is published in the current edition of Nature Communications.

In addition to Jarrahi, authors include: Christopher Berry and Ning Wang, U-M doctoral students in electrical engineering and computer science; and Mohammad Reza Hashemi and Mehmet Unlu, U-M postdoctoral researchers in electrical engineering and computer science.

The research was funded by the Michigan Space Grant Consortium, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research and Army Research Office.

Mona Jarrahi: http://web.eecs.umich.edu/~mjarrahi

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uom-btx032513.php

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GOP Senators Threaten Filibuster on Guns

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-senators-threaten-filibuster-guns-143613715--abc-news-politics.html

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Concert review: Heart at the Bell Centre

MONTREAL - What do the numbers say?

They say Ann and Nancy Wilson, 40 years into the ongoing saga of Heart, are not drawing pop-diva sized crowds. For the last Canadian date of their current tour at the Bell Centre Monday night, the sisters attracted about a third of the audience Rihanna and P!nk recently brought into the venue. Lady Gaga's attendance figure was up there, too.

It makes you hold your head in your hands and sigh. These grandstanding, factory-produced singers, about half the age of Heart's frontwomen, or less, might have found their lives quite different if Heart hadn't smashed the glass ceiling that kept women out of rock - until the Wilson girls decided they'd prefer to be Led Zeppelin than Joan Baez. None of these unworthy descendants are fit to hold Ann Wilson's microphone.

But frankly, who is? And how many guitarists out there are cranking it up and swaggering on the stage with the kind of abandon we saw from Nancy Wilson Monday night?

If there was a sequence during the show that illustrated how effortlessly they can bury their contemporaries in a live setting - without any dancers, fireworks or special effects - it came during the two-song encore, when Ann daringly tackled two of the most demanding performances by two of rock's most iconic lead singers.

Black Dog sounded like Robert Plant in his prime and Love Reign O'er Me (with support act Simon Townshend, Pete's brother, on guitar) was as muscular as when Roger Daltrey sang it in 1973. Both British rock legends have reprised their respective songs in recent memory and worked much harder to arrive at the spot Wilson seemed to reach with such ease.

It was a fever-inducing climax to a show that had started quietly, with Townshend in that horrifically thankless role of opening the night with an acoustic guitar while people settled in. Although he channelled his famous brother's percussive guitar style and his voice (he has, in fact, recently toured with both Daltrey and the Who), the group sitting in back of me was typical in that they made a lot more noise than he did and didn't stop running their mouths once to listen. (Talking through concerts, sadly, has reached epidemic proportions.)

Fortunately, Heart brought the volume and shut everyone up with colossal chords and powerful pipes during a 90-minute, hits-centric set that was similar to the one they delivered last time they were here, at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts in 2011.

This being the Bell Centre, the band - the Wilson sisters with guitarist Craig Bartock, keyboard player Debbie Shair, bassist Dan Rothchild and drummer Ben Smith - faced an uphill battle against the arena's sad acoustics. But opener Barracuda, by sheer dirty force, made the sound quality a bit irrelevant.

If some songs - namely, the 1980s hits like What About Love, These Dreams and Alone - are somewhat of their time, they delighted the fans who came of age with them. The power ballad Alone, in particular, was a tour de force for Ann.

But it was the early rockers - Magic Man, Crazy on You and Heartless - and softer hits like Dreamboat Annie and Dog and Butterfly that turned 6,000 people into time-travelling CHOM listeners from the 1970s and threatened to give classic rock a good name. Perhaps even more impressive was the revelation that Dear Old America and 59 Crunch, from last year's Fanatic, were at least as potent as the career-making radio staples.

And best of all? Ann and Nancy Wilson are still doing it their way.

Set list:

1. Barracuda

2. Fanatic

3. Heartless

4. What About Love

5. 59 Crunch

6. Magic Man

7. Kick It Out

8. Even It Up

9. Dreamboat Annie

10. Dog and Butterfly

11. These Dreams

12. Alone

13. Dear Old America

14. Crazy on You

Encores:

15. Black Dog

16. Love Reign O'er Me

Twitter: @bernieperusse

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/music/Concert+review+Heart+Bell+Centre/8152401/story.html

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UFC lightweight champ Benson Henderson goes 2-1 at jiu-jitsu tournament

UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson will fight Gilbert Melendez on April 20, but he took on other competitors over the weekend. Henderson competed in the 2013 Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championships. He won his first two matches, but lost 8-0 to Jaime Soares Canuto.

Henderson, a brown belt in jiu-jitsu, decided to do the tournament for fun. It wasn't a break from training for the bout with Melendez. Henderson's coach said he did six rounds of MMA sparring on Saturday before competing on Sunday. Instead, it was just a little bit of competition.

He tweeted about the tournament:

Guess who still got #OnePercentBetter today??? That's right, this guy did...congrats to all the #PanAms2013 winners twitpic.com/ce5c8n

? Benson Henderson (@BensonHenderson) March 25, 2013

Just got done w/#2013PanAm 's, didn't go the way I wanted, 2-1, on the day, lost 8-0...had a blast, MUCH LOVE to the #BJJ community...

? Benson Henderson (@BensonHenderson) March 25, 2013

What are your thoughts on Henderson competing just weeks before his fight? Speak up in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-lightweight-champ-benson-henderson-goes-2-1-200528627--mma.html

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Earthquake shakes Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Earthquakes shook a broad swath of southern Mexico on Tuesday, causing buildings to sway in the capital and sending thousands fleeing into the streets as quake alarms sounded. But there were no immediate reports of damages or injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey said a magnitude-5.5 quake hit at 7:04 a.m. (9:04 a.m. EDT; 1304 GMT), centered about 10 miles (17 kilometers) west-southwest of Pinotepa Nacional on the Pacific Coast and 227 miles (365 kilometers) south-southeast of Mexico City.

Mexico Seismology Service initially calculated the quake's magnitude at 5.9.

A second quake struck near the same spot eight minutes later, also setting off alarms in the capital and causing people to evacuate tall buildings in the capital. The USGS calculated the magnitude of that quake at 5.1.

Mexico City's soft soil and geology make it especially sensitive to distant earthquakes. But Mayor Manuel Mancera said in a Twitter post that no damage was reported. Local news media also said there were no reports of damage close to Pinotepa Nacional.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-26-Mexico-Earthquake/id-91d3c810798c4058a68179ece9bcc737

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RolePlayGateway?

Im looking to start a Medieval/Fantasy role-play that will follow the exploits of a small group of around 5-8 people. They will be brought together for various personal agendas but share a overall goal. This wont be a dungeon crawl or free form rp, but more of an interactive narrative with the role-players writing the story. I know plenty of people do this, so I know that plenty of you can easily pull off this type of rp with little effort.

---

Things I Want To See
1. Since our cast will more than likely be small i want to see very well fleshed out characters. Think of habits and mannerisms, anything that will make your character truly one of a kind. The main problem that i have seen about characters is the lack of flaws. People tend to make their characters powerful and accomplished to begin with. While its fine to do this it doesn't leave any room for character growth, and no one wants to see a character that stays the same through the whole story. The key way to avoid this is not making young inexperienced characters, but to give your character flaws. Maybe they have insomnia and cant sleep because their dreams are plagued by sights from their past, or maybe they are a mage that is slowly losing their power. Its your choice, just dont make hugo-naught characters.

2. I want to see some powerful emotion within the group, and not the normal "Im a Knight and your a Rouge I hate you." sort of emotion, but true blue feelings. I wanna see conflicting interests and jealously, the group being divided at times and unsure of how to progress. Start a love triangle that pitts two people against each other and forces the one being fought over to choose one or neither. Maybe your character has a hidden agenda at the beginning but slowly begins to care for his companions. Dont treat this like a game but as if it were real, in reality how would you act or feel if it happened to you.

3. I would like to see some good character development as well. People change, and so should our characters. They make and loss friends, fall in and out of love, or change who they are altogether. Your character should at his/her core be mortal and as a mortal they will never be perfect. When your character is tested they dont always have to persevere, maybe they break under the pressure and they doubt who they are. Force them to re-evaluate who they are, giving them a mental dilemma that can make them stronger or change them. You should never be the same at the end as you were in the beginning.

---

Setting
It took me a while to decide on the setting but i finally managed to come up with one that offered a good starting foundation but also flexibility for the role-play.

The rp will take place in the Kingdom of Renaria which was once great and prosperous, but is now on a political and economical decline. To maintain its alliances and keep itself from a depression Renaria has sold its border territories and has offered fiefs to foreign dignitaries. Due to this many of its own noble houses have succumbed to poverty and hold a grudge towards the royalty. Also due to the lack of gold in the coffers Renaria has disbanded its standing military and reduced the number of guards in its cities. Because of the lack of protection and military presence most towns and wealthy citizens have turned to hiring private security forces and mercenaries.

Renaria was also a prime advocate of peaceful relations between Human, Elf, and Dwarf society. Because of this many cities grew a large population of Non-Human citizens, as well as pure Elf or Dwarf settlements. However without the presence of the military to deter those that would do them harm, many that detest the Non-Human have spoken out against them, sometimes leading to violent riots.

---

If anyone is interested, or if you have suggestions, please let me know.

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

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Secretary of State Kerry makes unannounced visit to Afghanistan (reuters)

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