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Wednesday, November 15, 2006

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Total Clips: 5

	Date	Outlet
Students organize to inform campus of Auburn smoking ban	11/15/2006	Opelika-Auburn News
Rosie's team is the BEST in robotics: Sacred Heart heads to regional	11/15/2006	Memphis Commercial Appeal
Minor High robotics team tests their metal at event	11/15/2006	Birmingham News
Drought cracks pecan harvest: Growers say crop is short	11/15/2006	Augusta Chronicle
Water Management Plan Tops Agribusiness Council List	11/14/2006	Alfa Farmers


Students organize to inform campus of Auburn smoking ban 11/15/2006 Opelika-Auburn News Amy Weaver		Return to Top
With ashtrays set near the entrances of many buildings on the Auburn University campus, students and faculty are often forced to walk through a cloud of smoke on their way to class. But that all ends today when a citywide smoking ban goes into effect in Auburn, preventing smokers from lighting up within 10 feet of public buildings, including those on campus. Members of Ignite Auburn, a student organization started last spring to prevent youth smoking, were gathered in the concourse in front of the Haley Center Tuesday to provide students with information about the ban as well as the deadly effects of tobacco use. "We want to make sure all students are aware (of the ban) and will follow the rules," said Ignite Auburn founder and president Rachel Evans. The timing of the ban couldn't be any better, Evans noted, as Thursday is when the American Cancer Society sponsors "The Great American Smokeout," a day devoted to encouraging smokers to quit. Between the ban and the Smokeout, she expects AU to experience some change, including moving ashtrays 10 feet from buildings. "It was only a matter of time," she said. An AU senior, Evans said her generation has known about the damaging affects of tobacco, even chewing tobacco, since they were young children, but they are at the age now when they know someone, often a loved one, who has developed health problems from years of smoking. Evans lost her grandmother to smoking and her friend's father recently had triple bypass surgery as a result of a longtime habit. "It's something we are seeing a lot," she said. "I think a lot of students will support the cause." Members of Ignite Auburn will be on the concourse again today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with the same cause in mind - information. Students can donate to the ACS and sign a thank-you card to the Auburn City Council. "We want them to know we are backing their decision to make Auburn a healthier campus and city," she said.
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Rosie's team is the BEST in robotics: Sacred Heart heads to regional 11/15/2006 Memphis Commercial Appeal Jimmie Covington		Return to Top
This story includes the BEST regional competition at AU in Dec. When the announcement came of the top winner in robotics competition over the weekend at Mississippi State University, members of Sacred Heart School's team and their parents almost blew the building's roof off with their yells and cheers. The third- and second-place winners were announced first, and when the Sacred Heart team and its entry, Rosie the Robot Maid, captured neither spot, disappointed students, parents and the faculty sponsor thought they had lost. But then came the announcement of Sacred Heart as the winner of the first-place BEST award in the competition that involved six schools. "We were yelling and screaming all over the place," said Jennifer Hodge, Sacred Heart math teacher and faculty leader of the team. "They (the students) have been on cloud nine since we came back." BEST is an acronym for Boosting Engineering and Science Technology. Rosie was "temperamental" and initially didn't want to be guided out of a box to place wet laundry on a clothes line and take down dry laundry. After an adjustment to her front wheel over the lunch break, Rosie performed much better. But, another team's robot did better and Rose came in second in the actual robot competition. However, the competition involved much more than just the performance of the robot. The Sacred Heart team, which had 16 members making the trip, was tops in competitions involving display, notebook, oral presentation, web page and spirit and sportsmanship. The wins in those events plus the second place in robot performance made Sacred Heart, in Southaven, the first-place winner. Sacred Heart and three other teams from the Mississippi State event will advance to regional competition Dec. 8-9 at Auburn University in Alabama. "I feel pretty lucky about Auburn because when I found out when we are going to Auburn, it (Dec. 9) was my birthday," said team member Miranda Bowling, a fifth-grader who will be 11. Several key members of the Sacred Heart team -- Katlin Fletcher, 11; Carly David, 10; Will Dickson, 10; Tyler Stahel, 11, and Miranda -- explained Tuesday how the competition went at Mississippi State. Tyler was one of Rosie's remote control drivers. Katlin served as a spotter. Tyler said, "When I was driving, at first our robot had some trouble with the front wheel getting out of the door. It always turned and we couldn't do anything. If we touched it, it was a 20-second penalty. I touched it and got a 20-second penalty." Miranda said winning first place was "really cool." Hodge, the teacher, said Rosie will be fine-tuned and tweaked before the competition at Auburn. Parent Ariel David was the project manager in building Rosie. The BEST program is a national program but the competition in each region is the final competition. About 32 teams, some from as far north as Cincinnati and Pennsylvania, are expected to compete at Auburn, Hodge said. Last year, Sacred Heart's team was among 18 teams that advanced to the second round, where it placed 11th. Most of the teams that enter are from high schools.
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Minor High robotics team tests their metal at event 11/15/2006 Birmingham News Carla Jean Whitley, staff writer		Return to Top
This story is about the BEST competition. The regional competition is in Dec. at AU. Amanda Clark wants to be a mechanical engineer. Though the Minor High School student is only a sophomore, she's already taking steps toward that goal. Clark is a second-year member of Minor's award-winning robotics team. Faculty sponsor Brandon Williams hopes the group will prepare Clark and the club's 30 other students for careers in science and engineering. "This is the best opportunity for them to get a chance to do real engineering," said Williams, a chemistry teacher. "They learn about brainstorming, coming up with ideas and fixing things that didn't work. This is engineering at its best." The students gain hands-on experience through the BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) competition. The annual area and regional competitions challenge students to create a robot to perform a specific task. This year's theme is "Laundry Quandary," and requires teams to create robots to hang and remove laundry from a clothesline. The Minor students' robot was named Most Photogenic in the October Tennessee Valley BEST competition, and also placed third in the robotics competition and the BEST competition. Now they're making improvements to their robot in attempt to place even higher in the upcoming South's BEST competition. About 35 teams from at least seven states will attend that competition at Auburn University in December. Minor is the only Birmingham-area team included. "We know our competition will be stiff, so we want everything we know to be up to par," said faculty sponsor and science teacher Kenna Allen. Robotics award: The robotics award is based solely on performance in a three-minute match. Math teacher and faculty sponsor Kenneth Bryant coaches the students on the robot's creation, and will be with the team during the match. The team has constructed a simulated playing field for practice in Williams' classroom. It looks almost like a small-scale jungle gym. But instead of metal, the posts are made of lumber, and the bars are clothesline. The team earns points for each piece of laundry removed from the clothesline, as well as each piece placed on the line. There are four quadrants, and they earn extra points for hanging laundry in each. The BEST award includes the points earned from the robotics competition, but those account for only 5 percent of the 100 point total. The team can earn up to 30 points for their notebook, which is a 50 page technical document that includes AutoCAD drawings of the robot. "It's really like a manual, so that if we gave it to someone else they could build the robot," Williams said. During the competition, students make a 20-minute presentation as if they are a company presenting the robot to a potential client. That's worth another 25 points. They will also have a 10 feet by 10 feet display and will be interviewed by the judges, counting for 25 points. Spirit and sportsmanship displayed during the competition account for the final 15 points. Although they're several weeks from arriving in Auburn, the team's spirit is already evident in their robot's name. TIGER - The Ingenious Garment Extracting Robot - is named for the high school's mascot. The different categories of competition allow students a variety of experience. Students interested in marketing help promote the organization through fliers and other efforts. Those with a gift for public speaking focus on the presentation at the competition. "I always tell the kids when they're interested in BEST, there's something for everyone to do," Williams said. Senior Roland Hampton serves as the group's Web master and historian. He created the team Web site at www.minorrobotics.com. "I saw the process and saw there was more to do and found out I could have a place in it," said Hampton, who hopes to work in Web design one day. "I can hang with my friends, get my work done and have fun at the same time." He spends a lot of time with those friends, as the students stay after school as late as 8 p.m. and have also relinquished weekends and fall break to work on the robot. That was by choice, not by the faculty sponsors' urging. "I get phone calls on Saturday mornings asking `What time are you coming into the school?' They push me to be here," Williams said. "We're very determined," said senior TeQuicia Jones, who plans to study microbiology at the University of Alabama next year. "Most of us are going off to college next year. We're going to need to have practice as far as determination and drive. It's something to throw yourself into.".
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Drought cracks pecan harvest: Growers say crop is short 11/15/2006 Augusta Chronicle Rob Pavey		Return to Top
AU professor and pecan specialist Bill Goff is a source in this story. BLYTHE - R.S. Auldridge summed up his pecan harvest with three words: "It's been better." The 83-year-old grower - and others across the South - are gearing up for what agriculture officials say will be one of the poorest seasons on record for one of the state's most famous crops. Georgia is the nation's leading pecan producer, accounting for 100 million to 110 million pounds in a good year and 70 million to 80 million pounds in the alternating "off years." This year, however, the harvest forecast calls for just 45 million pounds - and possibly much less, said Duke Lane Jr., a Georgia Pecan Growers Association board member from Fort Valley. "The crop is really short this year," he said. "It's one of the shortest, if not the shortest, in a long time." The problems, according to Auburn University professor and pecan specialist Bill Goff, are mostly weather related. "Foremost is the extended drought in late season of last year," Dr. Goff wrote in an October assessment for pecan growers. "The trees had a large crop last season and the rains in early season and through the nut sizing period resulted in large pecans." Those large pecans made water needs exceptionally high during the period when nuts "fill" in late August to October, and that period coincided with a drought in most of the state. Mr. Lane said it is unclear whether pecan prices will spike. It will be difficult, however, for pecan growers to make money this year. Mr. Auldridge, who has 100 acres of orchards, is taking the predictions in stride, preferring to await the results of his harvest. "It's too early to tell what we got because we're just starting," he said. Soon, his packing house will bustle with activity as pecans are cleaned, sorted, sized and boxed in four-foot crates. Then the buyers will come to purchase the fruits of his year-round labor. "They'll pull a sample and give you a price," he said. "It ain't all gravy, I can tell you that."
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Water Management Plan Tops Agribusiness Council List 11/14/2006 Alfa Farmers Darryal Ray		Return to Top
Dr. Jim Hairston, professor of agronomy and soils at AU, is quoted in this story. Keith Gray, director of national affairs for the Alabama Farmers Federation, tells the Alabama Agribusiness Council that there should be no changes in the farm bill until a World Trade Organization agreement is reached. MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A comprehensive water management plan topped a lengthy list of concerns voiced as the Alabama Agribusiness Council held a series of three listening sessions around Alabama last week. The sessions, held Nov. 8 in Cullman, Nov. 9 in Montgomery, and Nov. 10 in Headland, were intended to gather information that would enable the council to develop a plan to address the state’s agricultural needs. The Alabama Agribusiness Council, whose primary purpose is to work with groups and organizations to effectively promote and enhance the business of agriculture and forestry in Alabama, had been charged with developing such a plan at the recommendation of the Governor's Commission on the Future of Family Farming and Alabama Agriculture and Agribusiness. In addition to establishing a comprehensive water management plan, the council was told: — Pro-agricultural policies should be adopted on both state and federal levels — More farmers should become pro-active, serving on city and county water boards — Rural economic development is needed to develop an infrastructure that will keep farming profitable — Agribusiness needs incentives, such as agricultural sales tax exemptions or other tax breaks — The state needs a trained agricultural economic development specialist — The agricultural labor shortage should be addressed — More research dollars are needed — Trade issues in the face of the pending farm bill could make an already unfavorable balance even worse, and greater attention should be paid to the Port of Mobile's role in Alabama agriculture — Rural transportation needs, such as rail, roads and airports, should be bolstered to ensure a strong farming economy — The state should play a greater role in educating the public about agriculture’s role "Developing A Strategic Plan For Agribusiness In Alabama" featured a panel of experts addressing various agricultural concerns. For example, Thomas Dozier III, chairman of the Federal Lank Bank Association of South Alabama, said stagnant commodity prices and escalating input costs have led to farmers having the lowest purchasing power in history as ag credit in the U.S. has reached $235-$250 billion. Another speaker, Keith Gray, director of national affairs for the Alabama Farmers Federation, said it's important that no changes are made in the current farm bill until a World Trade Organization agreement is hammered out. Furthermore, he pointed out that despite the criticism of federal farm policies, funding is less than 1 percent of the federal budget. Regional Extension Agent Mark Hall, noting that the world consumes two barrels of oil for every one barrel discovered, stressed the importance of the U.S. developing alternative, renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. "Anything could happen to Saudi Arabia and we're in a different ballgame," Hall said. "We need your suggestions on what we can do," moderator Tyrone Spearman, editor of the Peanut Farm Market News, said as he began the Montgomery session. "We can work up a plan here in Alabama. You have got some assets that are unbelievable in this state, assets that we are not utilizing." Among those chief assets is water, said Dr. Jim Hairston, professor of agronomy and soils at Auburn University and an Extension water quality scientist. He attributes Alabama's loss of agricultural products over the past 50 years to its failure to irrigate. "Agricultural loss has devastated rural economies across the Southeast, and I think probably more so in Alabama, and that's largely because Alabama has not made use of irrigation to revitalize the rural economy," said Hairston, a member of the Alabama Irrigation Initiative. "Rural towns depending on local farming industry simply died out because if water was not available you could not compete with agriculture in other parts of the country." He noted how neighboring Georgia has increased its irrigation 30 percent over the past 30 years, while Alabama has only increased its irrigated acreage by 2 percent. "But I think the times are changing," he said. "I think there's a great window of opportunity for Alabama and the Southeast — if we can get water to the ends of the field at a cheap rate to bring agriculture back to Alabama." Hairston said studies indicate 1,000 gallons of water are required to produce one gallon of ethanol. "If you're going to offset Arabian oil with ethanol (which would require 60 million acre feet of water per year), the only place you have enough water to do that is the Southeast," said Hairston. "Alabama gets about 148 million acre feet of rainfall per year. We're one of the most water-rich areas of the country. Plus, Alabama gets a huge amount of runoff from other states that's not being used by slope down or storage. There’s no such thing as a water shortage in Alabama — we just need to better manage what we have. "The impact of irrigation in the state of Alabama may not be exact," said Hairston, "but if you do whatever it takes to put 2 million acres in irrigation, you can calculate the amount added to the economy to be between $500 million to $750 million. That's a tremendous boost to the economy."
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