North Korea fires short-range missiles for two days in a row

By Jane Chung

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired a short-range missile from its east coast on Sunday, a day after launching three of these missiles, a South Korean news agency said, ignoring calls for restraint from Western powers.

Launches by the North of short-range missiles are not uncommon but, after recent warnings from the communist state of impending nuclear war, such actions have raised concerns about the region's security.

"North Korea fired a short-range missile as it did yesterday into its east sea in the afternoon, " South Korea's news agency Yonhap reported, citing a military official.

A South Korean defense ministry official confirmed the Yonhap report, but did not provide any details.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was concerned about North Korea's launch of short-range missiles, urging Pyonyang to refrain from further launches and return to stalled nuclear talks with world powers.

Ban, who spoke to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti during a visit to Moscow, called Saturday's launch a "provocative action".

Tension on the Korean peninsula has subsided in the past month, having run high for several weeks after the United Nations Security Council imposed tougher sanctions against Pyongyang following its third nuclear test in February.

The North had for weeks issued nearly daily warnings of impending nuclear war with the South and the United States.

South Korea's Unification Ministry criticized the missile tests as deplorable and urged the North to lower tensions and hold talks over a suspended inter-Korean industrial park in the North's border city of Kaesong.

South Korea pulled out all of its workers from the industrial zone early this month after North Korea withdrew its 53,000 workers as tensions mounted.

(Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel in MOSCOW; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-fires-short-range-missiles-two-days-101918143.html

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NYPD to increase presence after bias killing

NEW YORK (AP) ? A spate of anti-gay attacks in New York City is prompting police to increase their presence in some gay-friendly neighborhoods heading into what's usually a time for celebration.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said Monday that the NYPD has pledged to station command vehicles in Greenwich Village, Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen through the end of June, which is Gay Pride Month.

The decision comes after a man walking with a companion was shot dead Saturday. Police say the gunman made homophobic remarks.

The killing happened in Greenwich Village, where the gay rights movement crystallized in the 1960s.

Several other gay bashings have been reported in Manhattan recently.

Quinn and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott also say public schools will soon have assemblies or other discussions on bullying and hate crimes.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nypd-increase-presence-bias-killing-180717050.html

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Very Fine Art: 6 Stunningly Beautiful Nanoscale Sculptures [Slide Show]

Researchers coax self-assembling materials into flowers, corals and other complex shapes

By Luciana Gravotta

Image: Wim L. Noorduin, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

• 

  Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

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Artists and material scientists alike bend, melt and mold materials into useful and aesthetically pleasing forms. But nothing human hands have made can match the intricacy of convoluted corals or the delicate and unique geometry of a snowflake. In a study published yesterday in Science researchers exploited nature?s sculpting methods to create visually stunning 3-D structures that may change the way nano- and micro-materials are made.

Organisms alter their growth patterns in response to changes in their environments. For example, a seashell may switch from a spotted to a striped pattern if there is a change in the temperature, acidity or carbon dioxide level of the water. Wim L. Noorduin, a materials science engineer at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), used the same concept to coax self-assembling materials to ripple, spiral and bend into structures that resemble leaves, stems, flowers, vases and corals.

The fantastic micro-bouquets showcased in this slide show are not sculpted, but rather grown by design. Noorduin and his colleagues built these crystal structures in a stepwise fashion: first grow the vase, then the stems and finally the petals. The original images are black and white but the researchers false-colored each structure according to the sequence in which it was formed.

? View the Nanosculptured Flora Slide Show

Many nanostructures such as silicon memory cells are etched using lithography, a precise but expensive and labor-intensive technique that can only be used on flat surfaces. ?There is nothing now to create 3-D structures,? says professor of material science at SEAS, Joanna Aizenberg, who is principal investigator of the study and a pioneer in biomimetics (the use of biological systems as templates for creating materials or designing machines). The new technique is the first that can design and build 3-D structures. It is simple, cheap and efficient, as a whole forest of micro-flowers can assemble themselves simultaneously.

Although the structures created in this study are just for show, the technique has potential for future applications. The folds of these 3-D microstructures pack a large amount of surface area into a tiny space?an important consideration for the production of chemicals that depend on catalysts, substances that speed up chemical reactions. The more surface area available, the more catalysts you can add?and the more efficient the reaction.

The process can also be used to make nonsymmetrical (chiral) structures that may be useful for microcircuits, because chirality plays a role in conductivity.

? View the Nanosculptured Flora Slide Show

The technique still needs to be refined before it can be used in these types of applications. The team has developed a mathematical model that maps how the structures evolve, which is important for designing new shapes. Noorduin says they are now working on devices that will allow them to very precisely control the environmental conditions in order to standardize shapes and sizes. They will also need to figure out how to maintain the same level of control for other materials such as carbon, which is used for nanotubes.

Three years after having initiated the project, Noorduin says he still goes back to admire some of his favorite samples. He sits in front of the scanning electron microscope and peers through the lens: ?It feels like diving into a strange coral reef,? Noorduin says. ?You can spend hours looking at them.?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=a901b72df7e56c42c557e243b80ee50e

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Politics, bribery charges swirl around Ugandan oil

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) ? Even before the first drops flow, Uganda's oil sector is beset by bribery allegations against officials, tax-related cases abroad that cost the government millions in legal fees, and the alleged interference of a president whose firm control of the sector worries transparency campaigners.

Uganda, which has confirmed oil deposits of about 3.5 billion barrels, wants to extract at least 1.2 billion barrels over the next three decades. That figure could rise when more oil blocks are put up for exploration later this year, potentially making Uganda one of Africa's top oil producers.

But some experts and analysts worry that the country got off to a false start and remains too politically unstable to avoid some of the mistakes made by other oil-rich but otherwise poor countries.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has reserved for himself the right to have the final say before any deals are signed with oil companies, saying that policy is to ensure the country's interests are always protected. But some critics say the president's close involvement is unhelpful to a country that needs to focus on building credible, transparent institutions to manage its oil wealth whether or not Museveni is around.

In a session of parliament that sparked public uproar, an independent lawmaker fingered three government ministers he believed had been bribed by foreign oil companies seeking contracts with Uganda's government. The charges, denied by the three officials, forced lawmakers across the political spectrum to order an investigation that many here hoped would be swift and decisive.

Almost two years later, that investigation is still ongoing and Gerald Karuhanga, the lawmaker who first alleged bribery, says he no longer looks forward to seeing the investigators' report, if it ever comes out.

"It's taking forever," he said. "It's really unfortunate. I don't think they are serious about what they are doing. We are no longer enthusiastic about its release."

Uganda has not had a single peaceful transfer of power since independence in 1962, and Museveni himself, in charge since 1986, faces growing pressure to retire. The East African country, which announced that it had commercially viable quantities of oil in 2006, hopes to become a producer of crude by 2016. That's about the time Museveni's current term expires, and many believe he will run again.

Museveni's "interference" in oil matters makes Uganda less attractive in the eyes of foreign investors, according to Eurasia Group, a political risk think tank with headquarters in New York.

"Rising internal party discord in the ruling (party) ? younger members are pushing for new leadership ? has triggered increased patronage payments by the president, especially over oil sector development," the group said in a report last month.

A new law gives the energy minister, a presidential appointee, the authority to issue and revoke oil contracts. Some say that, while it may have reduced officials' opportunities for corruption, the president's close involvement undermines the development of institutions such as a planned national oil company.

"The primary risk we have is that the decision-making has been largely controlled by Museveni," said Angelo Izama, a Ugandan analyst who is researching the political economy of Uganda's oil wealth as an Open Society Foundations fellow in New York. "But he won't be around as an effective leader in the next 15 years. The question remains, 'How will this kind of narrow decision-making fare once you have another president?' The risk is that the political transition in Uganda is unpredictable."

The global intelligence think tank Stratfor said in a recent report that "Museveni's system of patronage going forward will have to be based on oil revenue. The increasingly fractious nature of Museveni's support base means patronage will become even more important, making securing oil revenue even more vital."

Museveni has said he wants oil revenue to be spent on developing infrastructure ? especially roads ? across the country, raising expectations here. It may be years before the government earns any royalties from oil, but these days Uganda's parliament frequently receives petitioners presenting alternative ways to spend the cash. Tribes that live near the oil-producing areas want more.

Uganda and three foreign companies reached a deal last month that includes the construction of a pipeline to transport Ugandan crude for export through Kenya. Accordingly, France's Total and the Chinese offshore oil company CNOOC, which last year acquired two thirds of British explorer Tullow Oil's Ugandan assets for $2.9 billion, will build a refinery with the capacity to process 30,000 barrels each day. But a final deal has not been signed, in part because of what the president's office called a disagreement on how to develop the pipeline and refinery.

Uganda is pressing for the "unconditional expansion of the refinery size of 30,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil per day when the demand increases in future," according to the president's office.

Uganda's biggest risk is rushing to sign deals with foreign oil companies that are vastly more experienced, said Fred Muhumuza, an economist with a local think tank called the Economic Policy Research Center. Uganda, which is locked in disputes with oil companies over outstanding taxes, must gain full knowledge of its oil wealth before production starts, he said.

"As a country, Uganda needs to build the capacity to understand what's going on," he said. "Are we going to be able to know how much oil has been exploited and then tax the revenues appropriately?"

Current estimates of Uganda's oil wealth are based on about 40 percent exploration of an ecologically sensitive area around Lake Albert on the border with Congo. In the coming weeks Ugandan authorities are expected to invite oil companies to bid for at least 13 oil blocks in a new round of licensing that campaigners hope will be more transparent than the last time.

"I am hopeful that the government will go for open bidding," said Godber Tumushabe, who heads the Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment, a local governance think tank. "If they go and cherry-pick which company gets which block, then that will be a fundamental mistake in terms of building the systems that will protect the country against the oil curse."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/politics-bribery-charges-swirl-around-ugandan-oil-143136133.html

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All-day kindergarten approved in education bill (Star Tribune)

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Judge delays decision on Holmes insanity plea

Family members and victims are escorted to the courtroom in Centennial, Colo., for a hearing where Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes was allowed to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity on Monday, May 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

Family members and victims are escorted to the courtroom in Centennial, Colo., for a hearing where Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes was allowed to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity on Monday, May 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

Special prosecutor Dan Zook arrives at the courthouse in Centennial, Colo., for a hearing where Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes was allowed to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, on Monday, May 13, 2013. Zook was hired by the district attorney to handle the Holmes prosecution. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

James Holmes mother Arlene Holmes, left, is escorted by a member of the defense team as she arrives for a hearing in Centennial, Colo., where Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes was allowed to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity on Monday, May 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

District Attorney George Brauchler, right, and assistant DA Mark Hurlbert arrive for a hearing in Centennial, Colo., where Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes was allowed to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity on Monday, May 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

Arlene Holmes, right, the mother of James Holmes leaves the courthouse in Centennial, Colo., with a member of his defense team after a hearing where Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes asked to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity on Monday, May 13, 2013.(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) ? Lawyers for the Colorado theater shooting suspect told a judge Monday he wants to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, but the judge won't immediately rule on whether to allow it.

Attorney Daniel King made the request in court, saying the defense now has a diagnosis for James Holmes, though he didn't specify what it was.

Holmes, with bushy hair and beard, didn't speak during the hearing after entering the courtroom with his eyes downcast.

Before deciding whether to accept a new plea, Judge Carlos Samour said, he would consider arguments about constitutional questions the defense has raised about Colorado's insanity and death penalty laws.

He isn't expected to announce his decision until May 31, when another hearing is scheduled.

At the heart of the dispute is a list of cautions Samour has prepared advising Holmes of the ground rules of an insanity defense.

It includes an advisory that Holmes must cooperate with doctors during a mandatory mental health evaluation or he won't be able to present mitigating evidence about his mental state if he is convicted and a jury considers whether he should be executed. Just how much cooperation is required hasn't been tested in court since the laws were changed in the late 1990s.

A not guilty by reason of insanity plea is widely seen as Holmes' best hope ? perhaps his only hope ? of avoiding the death penalty. But his lawyers have held off until now, fearing a wrinkle in the law could cripple their ability to raise his mental health as a mitigating factor during the sentencing phase.

Two judges, including Samour, have previously refused to rule on the constitutionality of the law, saying the attorneys' objections were hypothetical because Holmes had not pleaded insanity. The defense had little choice but to have Holmes enter the plea and then challenge the law.

Holmes' lawyers announced last week that Holmes would ask to change his plea at the hearing.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. They say Holmes, a former neuroscience graduate student, spent months acquiring weapons and ammunition, scouting a theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora and booby-trapping his apartment.

Then on July 20, dressed in a police-style helmet and body armor, he opened fire during a packed midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises," prosecutors say. Twelve people died and 70 were injured.

No motive has emerged in nearly 10 months of hearings, but Holmes' attorneys have repeatedly said their client is mentally ill. He was being treated by a psychiatrist before the attack.

The insanity plea carries risks for both sides. Holmes will have to submit to the mental evaluation by state-employed doctors, and prosecutors could use the findings against him.

"It's literally a life-and-death situation with the government seeking to execute him and the government, the same government, evaluating him with regard to whether he was sane or insane at the time he was in that movie theater," said attorney Dan Recht, a past president of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar.

Among the risks for prosecutors: They must convince jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that Holmes was sane. If they don't, state law requires the jury to find him not guilty by reason of insanity.

"That's a significant burden on the prosecution," Recht said.

If acquitted, Holmes would be committed to the state mental hospital indefinitely.

A judge entered a standard not guilty plea on Holmes' behalf in March, and he needs court permission to change it.

The mental evaluation could take weeks or months. Evaluators would interview Holmes, his friends and family, and if Holmes permits it, they'll also speak with mental health professionals who treated him in the past, said Dr. Howard Zonana, a professor of psychiatry and adjunct professor of law at Yale University.

Evaluators may give Holmes standardized personality tests and compare his results to those of people with documented mental illness. They will also look for any physical brain problems.

Zonana estimates he has conducted around 200 mental evaluations of criminal defendants, including some death penalty cases.

"All cases are tough," he said.

Meticulous planning, as in the scenario prosecutors laid out against Holmes, doesn't necessarily mean a defendant is sane, Zonana said.

___

Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-13-Colorado%20Shooting/id-25dbd9115de14568bf7e77a1bc028c60

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Project aims to track big city carbon footprints

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Every time Los Angeles exhales, odd-looking gadgets anchored in the mountains above the city trace the invisible puffs of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that waft skyward.

Halfway around the globe, similar contraptions atop the Eiffel Tower and elsewhere around Paris keep a pulse on emissions from smokestacks and automobile tailpipes. And there is talk of outfitting Sao Paulo, Brazil, with sensors that sniff the byproducts of burning fossil fuels.

It's part of a budding effort to track the carbon footprints of megacities, urban hubs with over 10 million people that are increasingly responsible for human-caused global warming.

For years, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse pollutants have been closely monitored around the planet by stations on the ground and in space. Last week, worldwide levels of carbon dioxide reached 400 parts per million at a Hawaii station that sets the global benchmark ? a concentration not seen in millions of years.

Now, some scientists are eyeing large cities ? with LA and Paris as guinea pigs ? and aiming to observe emissions in the atmosphere as a first step toward independently verifying whether local ? and often lofty ? climate goals are being met.

For the past year, a high-tech sensor poking out from a converted shipping container has stared at the Los Angeles basin from its mile-high perch on Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains that's home to a famous observatory and communication towers.

Like a satellite gazing down on Earth, it scans more than two dozen points from the inland desert to the coast. Every few minutes, it rumbles to life as it automatically sweeps the horizon, measuring sunlight bouncing off the surface for the unique fingerprint of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

In a storage room next door, commercially available instruments that typically monitor air quality double as climate sniffers. And in nearby Pasadena, a refurbished vintage solar telescope on the roof of a laboratory on the California Institute of Technology campus captures sunlight and sends it down a shaft 60 feet below where a prism-like instrument separates out carbon dioxide molecules.

On a recent April afternoon atop Mount Wilson, a brown haze hung over the city, the accumulation of dust and smoke particles in the atmosphere.

"There are some days where we can see 150 miles way out to the Channel Islands and there are some days where we have trouble even seeing what's down here in the foreground," said Stanley Sander, a senior research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

What Sander and others are after are the mostly invisible greenhouse gases spewing from factories and freeways below.

There are plans to expand the network. This summer, technicians will install commercial gas analyzers at a dozen more rooftops around the greater LA region. Scientists also plan to drive around the city in a Prius outfitted with a portable emission-measuring device and fly a research aircraft to pinpoint methane hotspots from the sky (A well-known natural source is the La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of LA where underground bacteria burp bubbles of methane gas to the surface.)

Six years ago, elected officials vowed to reduce emissions to 35 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 by shifting to renewable energy and weaning the city's dependence on out-of-state coal-fired plants, greening the twin port complex and airports and retrofitting city buildings.

It's impractical to blanket the city with instruments so scientists rely on a handful of sensors and use computer models to work backward to determine the sources of the emissions and whether they're increasing. They won't be able to zero in on an offending street or a landfill, but they hope to be able to tell whether switching buses from diesel to alternative fuel has made a dent.

Project manager Riley Duren of JPL said it'll take several years of monitoring to know whether LA is on track to reach its goal.

Scientists not involved with the project say it makes sense to dissect emissions on a city level to confirm whether certain strategies to curb greenhouse gases are working. But they're divided about the focus.

Allen Robinson, an air quality expert at Carnegie Mellon University, said he prefers more attention paid to measuring a city's methane emissions since scientists know less about them than carbon dioxide release.

Nearly 58 percent of California's carbon dioxide emissions in 2010 came from gasoline-powered vehicles, according to the U.S. Energy Department's latest figures.

In much of the country, coal ?usually as fuel for electric power ? is a major source of carbon dioxide pollution. But in California, it's responsible for a tad more than 1 percent of the state's carbon dioxide emissions. Natural gas, considered a cleaner fuel, spews one third of the state's carbon dioxide.

Overall, California in 2010 released about 408 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air. The state's carbon dioxide pollution is greater than all but 20 countries and is just ahead of Spain's emissions. In 2010, California put nearly 11 tons of carbon dioxide into the air for every person, which is lower than the national average of 20 tons per person.

Gregg Marland, an Appalachian State University professor who has tracked worldwide emissions for the Energy Department, said there's value in learning about a city's emissions and testing techniques.

"I don't think we need to try this in many places, but we have to try some to see what works and what we can do," he said.

Launching the monitoring project came with the usual growing pains. In Paris, a carbon sniffer originally tucked away in the Eiffel Tower's observation deck had to be moved to a higher floor that's off-limits to the public after tourists' exhaling interfered with the data.

So far, $3 million have been spent on the U.S. effort with funding from federal, state and private groups. The French, backed by different sponsors, have spent roughly the same.

Scientists hope to strengthen their ground measurements with upcoming launches of Earth satellites designed to track carbon dioxide from orbit. The field experiment does not yet extend to China, by far the world's biggest carbon dioxide polluter. But it's a start, experts say.

With the focus on megacities, others have worked to decipher the carbon footprint of smaller places like Indianapolis, Boston and Oakland, where University of California, Berkeley researchers have taken a different tack and blanketed school rooftops with relatively inexpensive sensors.

"We are at a very early stage of knowing the best strategy, and need to learn the pros and cons of different approaches," said Inez Fung, a professor of atmospheric science at Berkeley who has no role in the various projects.

___

Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/project-aims-track-big-city-carbon-footprints-135809903.html

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Future heads of family farms dig into financials

In this Wednesday, April 17, 2013 photo, Jake Anderson stands in an equipment shed on his family's farm in Williamsburg, Mo. Anderson didn?t have to delve too deep into the University of Missouri?s agricultural economics program before realizing he was destined to return to the 1,500-acre family farm. After all, that?s been the Anderson family trade since 1891. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

In this Wednesday, April 17, 2013 photo, Jake Anderson stands in an equipment shed on his family's farm in Williamsburg, Mo. Anderson didn?t have to delve too deep into the University of Missouri?s agricultural economics program before realizing he was destined to return to the 1,500-acre family farm. After all, that?s been the Anderson family trade since 1891. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

In this Wednesday, April 17, 2013 photo, Jake Anderson poses for a photo in an equipment shed on his family's farm in Williamsburg, Mo. Anderson didn?t have to delve too deep into the University of Missouri?s agricultural economics program before realizing he was destined to return to the 1,500-acre family farm. After all, that?s been the Anderson family trade since 1891. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) ? Jake Anderson didn't have to delve too deep into the University of Missouri's agricultural economics program before realizing he was destined to return to the 1,500-acre family farm. After all, that's been the Anderson family trade since 1891, when his great-great grandfather came to Callaway County from Sweden.

What the self-described "farm kid" was less certain of was how to manage a volatile business where market price fluctuations are common, the weather is unpredictable and long-term planning ? at least for his parents and their parents ? often meant scratching out financial estimates on a yellow legal pad or the back of an envelope. So, each Wednesday in the just-concluded spring semester, Anderson and a dozen other Missouri students crunched numbers in a campus computer lab, the male students' agrarian roots betrayed only by baseball caps sporting farm equipment logos.

The focus on data is intentional: While other classes teach ag students how to repair combines or learn the proper chemical mixes of common fertilizers, students in agricultural economist Kevin Moore's "Returning to the Farm" class create business plans using financial information from their own family farms. It's an approach more commonly found at the county agricultural extension office or in community college classrooms rather than flagship public research universities.

Moore says the skills are essential for the next generation of farmers for whom technology is second nature, but bringing their elders on board remains a challenge.

"For a lot of the students, the first time they actually get exposed to the real financial numbers on the farm may be through this class," Moore said. "Generally, Mom and Dad try to make everything rosy for the kids. ... For many, it's really their first honest exposure to the complete financial side of things."

The necessity of having those conversations will only increase. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the number of U.S. farmers older than 65 grew by nearly 22 percent between 2002 and 2007. Farmers 75 and older outnumber those under 25 in the country 5-1.

Anderson, a 21-year-old junior, returns to the farm that's 30 miles east of campus on the weekends to help out. When it's time to harvest the rows of soybeans and corn, he makes the same trip three to four times weekly. He also sells corn from his own small patch of land at a roadside stand in front of the family home, a part-time summer job he's done since he was nine that helps pay for college.

After graduation, he hopes to add 50 to 100 head of cattle and grow the family operation by another 500 acres, as well as sell seeds for supplemental income. He said Moore's class has given him the financial tools to support that decision.

"In high school, I didn't expect to get back on the farm. It seemed like times were getting tough," Anderson said. "And at Mizzou, I saw all these other farm kids who couldn't come back. But this is what I've grown up doing, it's what I have a passion for."

Dale Nordquist, associate director of the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota, said Missouri's practical approach to understanding farm finances is relatively uncommon at large, land-grant universities where both students and professors are more likely to concentrate on theoretical approaches as opposed to practical solutions, and the use of personal data can still be seen as an intrusion.

Beyond the nuts and bolts of finances, he said such training can serve an equally valuable purpose: It forces farm families to prepare their sons and daughters to take over the business.

"You certainly hear the stories about the older generation that never really wants to let go of the reins," Nordquist said. "Even though they might be going through the motions of letting go of the kids, they never release (control) of management. So they keep on doing the same thing ... Maybe they don't ever step back."

Garrett Riekhof, a Higginsville farmer and 2003 Missouri graduate who took the class a decade ago, said the course marked the first time he took a hard look at the business side of his family's operation.

"A farm is more than how many dollars of seed you have in the ground each year," he said. "These are business practices that any small business needs to go through to assess their health. I like to run my farm just like any small business would."

For some, the statistical approach could lead to a disheartening conclusion: The family farm may not survive another generation. And other students' parents remain resistant to opening the family's books ? even to their own progeny. In those cases, Moore encourages his students to "use me as a scapegoat."

Anderson's parents, though, were more than happy to hand over the books, and now their son shares his newfound insights into estate planning, asset transfer and other financial management details.

"I'm very proud he wants to come back, but I wanted it to be his decision," said his father, John Anderson, 53, whose three daughters also attended Missouri but pursued other professions.

"Technology is taking over agriculture just like it's taking over the world," John Anderson said. "And he's getting it firsthand."

___

Alan Scher Zagier can be reached at http://twitter.com/azagier .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-11-Food%20and%20Farm-Inherit%20the%20Farm/id-02b73f2004f347258a8925bf1103869d

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The Real Housewives of New York City Settle Contract Dispute

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/the-real-housewives-of-new-york-city-settle-contract-dispute/

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CyanogenMod 10.1 RC2 builds rolling out

Second release candidate appears as CM 10.1.0 approaches

A quick heads-up for anyone running one of the recently-released CyanogenMod 10.1 RC1 builds -- RC2 is now rolling off the servers, and builds are available for a few dozen devices at the time of writing. These include the current crop of Nexuses, U.S. Galaxy S3 models, the original Galaxy S, international LG Optimus G and HTC One X (Tegra 3), first and second-gen Kindle Fire, various Galaxy Tab 2 models, the original RAZR, Droid RAZR and Bionic, and Sony's Xperia Z and Xperia V. As this is a jump from one release candidate to another, we can probably expect fixes for any outstanding issues or bugs. On Wednesday the CM team said it expected RC1 to be one of the last builds before CM 10.1 goes stable with a 10.1.0 release.

To see if RC2 is available for your device, check the official download repository at get.cm, linked below.

Source: CyanogenMod Downloads

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/ubq5-rkypCo/story01.htm

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