Two-headed turtle hatches at San Antonio zoo

SAN ANTONIO (AP) ? A two-headed turtle has hatched at the San Antonio Zoo and officials have named her Thelma and Louise.

The female Texas cooter arrived June 18 and will go on display Thursday at the zoo's Friedrich Aquarium.

Zoo spokeswoman Debbie Rios-Vanskike (van SKYKE') said Wednesday that the two-headed turtle appears healthy and is able to swim and walk. She says experts at the zoo don't foresee any health issues for Thelma and Louise, named for the female duo in the 1991 Oscar-winning road movie of the same name.

The San Antonio Zoo is no stranger to two-headed reptiles. The facility was home to a two-headed Texas rat snake named Janus from 1978 until the creature's death to 1995.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/two-headed-turtle-hatches-san-antonio-zoo-170418385.html

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A nice rain came through this early morning. No severe weather but reports of 40-45 mph winds and lightning. A large swath of 1? plus rains moved across the metro and counties north:

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The DFW Airport recorded 1.12? of rain, the first 1? plus rain in 25 days. ?Eagle Mountain Lake recorded 2.58? of rain, around 2? of rain fell in Bedford and University Park. Love Field had 1.49? of rain.

The skies cleared out this afternoon; a northwest winds and morning rain/clouds kept the temperatures in the upper 80?s for highs.

That?s about the end of cooler weather for north Texas for a while. We?ve had a nice start to June a third of the way in. For the next twelve days, the run to the Summer Solstice, we are forecasting the average high to be in the upper 90?s:

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Here is a series of forecast maps of the Southern Plains showing the afternoon highs. The hot temperatures that started in the desert southwest will move into the front range and OK/TX panhandles and dig in:

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As it heats up it will dry out across the parched areas of Texas (60% of the state is in severe drought or worse). ?Here is another series of forecast maps showing rain chances for the work week ahead:

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This is the first heat wave of the season. The DFW Airport hasn?t logged a 100? day or over in about 250 days. There is a good chance that streak could end by Thursday. The low levels of the area reservoirs will only get lower in the two weeks ahead. Summer is here: that?s the hot and dry season in Texas.

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Source: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/06/09/296491/

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Korea talks raise hopes; history may scuttle them

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? The two Koreas will hold their highest-level talks in years Wednesday in an effort to restore scrapped joint economic projects and ease animosity marked by recent threats of nuclear war. That in itself is progress, though there are already hints that disputes in their bloody history could thwart efforts to better ties.

Still, just setting up the two-day meeting in Seoul, through a 17-hour negotiating session that ended early Monday, required the kind of diplomatic resolve that has long been absent in inter-Korean relations, and analysts say it could be a tentative new start. It's also a political and diplomatic victory for new South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who expressed her country's interest in talks and rebuilding trust even as she batted back North Korean war rhetoric with vows to hit back strongly if attacked.

"It's very significant that they're sitting down and talking at all ... after all the heated rhetoric this spring," said John Delury, an analyst at Seoul's Yonsei University. "It shows political will. Both sides could have called it off."

The main topics will be stalled rapprochement projects left over from friendlier days, including the resumption of operations at a jointly run factory park just north of the border. It was the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation until Pyongyang pulled out its workers in April during heightened tensions that followed its February nuclear test.

North Korea, however, is also pushing for something Seoul hasn't agreed to: A discussion Wednesday of how to jointly commemorate past inter-Korean statements, including the anniversary Saturday of a statement settled during a landmark 2000 summit between liberal President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the current ruler's late father.

This matters to North Korea because the June 15 statement from the 2000 summit, along with another 2007 leaders' summit, include both important symbolic nods to future reconciliation and also economic cooperation agreements that would benefit the North financially.

Those commitments faded after Park's conservative predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, took office in 2008. His insistence that large-scale government aid be linked to North Korea making progress on past commitments to abandon its nuclear ambitions drew a furious reaction from Pyongyang. Relations deteriorated further in 2010 after a North Korean bombardment of a South Korean island killed four people, and the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan killed 46 sailors.

A Seoul-led international investigation blamed a North Korean torpedo for the Cheonan attack, and South Korea has demanded an apology from the North before it will allow any exchanges. Pyongyang denies any role in the sinking, and the two sides will presumably bring those irreconcilable positions with them Wednesday.

Since her presidential campaign, Park has mixed a tough line with policies of engagement, aid and reconciliation with the North ? a recognition of the frustration many South Koreans felt about Lee's hard-line policies.

Analyst Park Hyeong-jung said North Korea wants the past statements on the agenda to forge a "relationship that is to their advantage. They want to hold the present South Korean administration accountable for the declarations of past administrations."

"This is the first time in a long time both sides are meeting," said Park, a senior research fellow at the government-affiliated Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. "Rather than a breakthrough, this week's talks are only the beginning."

Both Koreas have also agreed to discuss resuming South Korean tours to a North Korean mountain resort and the reunion of separated families, officials said.

There's little chance that the narrowly defined talks will tackle the crucial question of pushing Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear bombs. North Korea has said it will never give them up, though the U.S. and other countries say it must if it is to rebuild its relationship with the rest of the world.

It's still unclear who will represent each side Wednesday. Seoul said it will send a senior-level official responsible for North Korea-related issues while Pyongyang said it would send a senior-level government official, without elaborating. A minister-level summit between the Koreas has not happened since 2007.

Dialogue at any level marks a positive sign in the countries' recent history, which has seen North Korean nuclear tests and long-range rocket launches. The armistice ending the three-year Korean War that was signed 60 years ago next month hasn't been replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula technically at war.

Analysts express wariness about North Korea's intentions, with some seeing the interest in dialogue as part of a pattern where Pyongyang follows aggressive rhetoric and provocations with diplomatic efforts to trade an easing of tension for outside concessions.

After U.N. sanctions were strengthened following North Korea's third nuclear test in February, Pyongyang, which is estimated to have a handful of crude nuclear devices, threatened nuclear war and missile strikes against Seoul and Washington, pulled its workers from the jointly run factory park at the North Korean border town of Kaesong and vowed to ramp up production of nuclear bomb fuel. Seoul withdrew its last personnel from Kaesong in May.

Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at Seoul National University's Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, said he is optimistic that the Koreas can resume work at Kaesong and reunions for separated families. But he said a quick breakthrough is unlikely because North Korea's gesture for closer ties runs counter to South Korea's demand for apologies.

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AP writer Elizabeth Shim contributed to this report from Seoul.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/korea-talks-raise-hopes-history-may-scuttle-them-104151267.html

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Senate Passes Half-Trillion Dollar Farm Bill

WASHINGTON ? The Senate on Monday passed a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill that expands government subsidies for crop insurance, rice and peanuts while making small cuts to food stamps.

The bill passed on a bipartisan 66-27 vote. The legislation, which costs almost $100 billion annually, also would eliminate subsidies that are paid to farmers whether they farm or not. All told, it would save about $2.4 billion a year on the farm and nutrition programs, including across-the-board cuts that took effect earlier this year.

Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said the bill would support 16 million American jobs, save taxpayers billions and put into place "the most significant reforms to agriculture programs in decades." But it would still generously subsidize corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, sugar and other major crops grown by U.S. farmers.

The legislation, similar to a bill the Senate passed last year, would also set policy for programs to protect environmentally sensitive land, international food aid and other projects to help rural communities.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Monday that his chamber will take up its version of the farm bill this month. Debate in the House is expected to be contentious and much more partisan than in the Senate, with disagreements over domestic food aid that makes up almost 80 percent of the bill's cost.

Last year, the House declined to take up the legislation during an election year amid conflict over how much should be cut from the food stamp program, which now serves one in seven Americans and cost almost $80 billion last year. That cost has more than doubled since 2008.

The bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee last month would make much larger cuts to food stamps than the Senate version, in a bid to gain support from those House conservatives who have opposed the measure. The Senate bill would cut the food stamp program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, by about $400 million a year, or half a percent. The House bill would cut the program by $2 billion a year, or a little more than 3 percent, and make it more difficult for some people to qualify.

In his statement Monday, Boehner signaled support for the House bill's level of food stamp cuts, saying they are changes that "both parties know are necessary." Other Republicans are expected to offer amendments to expand the cuts, setting up a potentially even more difficult resolution with the Senate version.

On the Senate floor, senators rejected amendments on food stamp cuts, preserving the $400 million annual decrease. The bill's farm-state supporters also fended off efforts to cut sugar, tobacco and other farm supports.

Senators looking to pare back subsidies did win one victory in the Senate, an amendment to reduce the government's share of crop insurance premiums for farmers with adjusted gross incomes of more than $750,000. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said their amendment would affect about 20,000 farmers.

Stabenow argued the amendment would result in fewer people buying insurance and undercut a separate provision in the bill that would require farmers buying crop insurance to comply with certain environmental standards on their land.

Currently the government pays for an average 62 percent of crop insurance premiums and also subsidizes the companies that sell the insurance. The overall bill expands crop insurance for many crops and also creates a program to compensate farmers for smaller, or "shallow," revenue losses before the paid insurance kicks in.

The crop insurance expansion is likely to benefit Midwestern corn and soybean farmers, who use crop insurance more than other farmers. The bill would also boost subsidies for Southern rice and peanut farmers, lowering the threshold for those farms to receive government help.

The help for rice and peanuts was not in last year's bill but was added this year after the agriculture panel gained a new top Republican, Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran. Critics, including the former top Republican on the committee, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, said the new policy could guarantee that the rice and peanut farmers' profits are average or above average.

"This bill looks in the rearview mirror for outdated policies that cause the farmer to plant for the government and not the market," Roberts said after the Senate vote.

Other critics said the bill would subsidize large corporate farms when farm country is in the middle of an economic boom. Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group that has long criticized farm subsidies, said the legislation would simply redirect subsidies and "needlessly cut nutrition and conservation programs designed to help the hungry and the environment."

Boehner criticized farm subsidies in the House bill, which are similar to those in the Senate bill, saying his "concerns about our country's farm programs are well known." Boehner, a former member of the agriculture panel, has voted against recent farm bills. But he acknowledged that the rest of the chamber might not agree with him.

"If you have ideas on how to make the bill better, bring them forward," Boehner said in a statement directed to his colleagues. "Let's have the debate, and let's vote on them."

The Senate bill also would:

- Overhaul dairy policy by creating a new insurance program for dairy producers, eliminating other dairy subsidies and price supports. The new policy includes a market stabilization program that could dictate production cuts when oversupply drives down prices. The program faced little opposition in the Senate but a similar overhaul in the House bill is expected to face resistance in that chamber, where Boehner last year called the new stabilization program "Soviet-style." He reiterated those concerns in his statement Monday, saying he will support an amendment on the floor to challenge the proposed policy.

- Make modest changes to the way international food aid is delivered, a much scaled-back version of an overhaul proposed by President Barack Obama earlier this year. Senators adopted an amendment that would slightly boost dollars to buy locally-grown food close to needy areas abroad. Currently, most food aid is grown in the United States and shipped to developing countries, an approach the Obama administration says is inefficient but that has support among farm-state members in Congress.

- Consolidate programs to protect environmentally-sensitive land and reduce spending on those programs.

- Expand Agriculture Department efforts to prevent illegal trafficking of food stamp benefits.

___

Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/senate-farm-bill_n_3418598.html

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Insight: Think computers, virtually, for resistance is futile | The Salt ...

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg Technology company executive Josh Linton asserts that cloud computing is built upon virtualization.

Josh Linton, vice president of technology at VLCM, a provider of computer hardware and software to businesses in the Mountain West, says that computer virtualization is important to any organization, no matter its size.

What is computer virtualization?

It creates a virtual machine that performs as if it were an actual computer with its own dedicated operating system. Virtualization allows hardware, software and applications to run multiple workloads simultaneously on a single, physical computer. It enables us to wrap the three into a single file that can be moved from one server or device to another. For example, a computer running on Windows can host a virtual machine that looks like a computer with other apps or another operating system.

Is virtualization something everybody should be doing, or is it just for big businesses?

There is a place for virtualization in every organization. Five or six years ago, I wouldn?t have said this because of cost, but that?s just not the case anymore. Technology is developing so rapidly that the old way of tying an application to hardware is changing. Virtualization allows a business to have enterprise-class infrastructure at a reasonable cost. If people resist the change, they?ll fall further and further behind, and have more difficulties and more expense to catch up in the future.

Are there advantages to going virtual?

Two main ones, consolidation of hardware and increased reliability. In the past, if we had 10 applications, it required us to have 10 physical servers. Through virtualization, we can host those 10 on as little as two servers. In the past, if one of these servers failed, the application was unavailable until the hardware was replaced. With virtualization, if one of the two physical servers fails, the application is automatically restarted on the other physical server. Within minutes of a failure, you?re up and running again without replacing the failed hardware.

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Disadvantages?

With virtualization you?re adding complexity. If you?re a small business that has an employee acting as your IT person on the side, this may be a little too complicated for him or her to handle. It would require the expertise and assistance of a trained IT professional either in the form of a full-time employee or an IT consultant.

Does virtualization look like it will have staying power??

With technology, staying power is different than with other industries because it evolves so quickly and is constantly changing. That said, I don?t see any signs of the move toward virtualization slowing down. You hear a lot about cloud computing and cloud everything, but all of that is built upon virtualization. All technology evolves, but I think future advancements and innovation will revolve around and be built upon virtualization as we know it today.

? Tom Harvey

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/56327601-79/virtualization-computer-hardware-technology.html.csp

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