Crowdfunding hope for human-powered helicopter project

Last September, the Gamera II team from the A. James Clark School of Engineering got so close to claiming the Sikorsky Prize of US$250,000 for human-powered helicopter flight that the American Helicopter Society must surely have been preparing to pull the dust covers off the safe and hand over the cash. Gamera II features a huge cross-shaped frame with enormous rotors at each of its four points, which are powered by sustained hand and foot pumping from a pilot at the center. It's a design that's been used by many of those attempting to nab the elusive prize (including AeroVelo's Atlas), but Georgia's Kenneth Huff has a rather more compact vision for success.

The project began in the spring of 2010, when Huff stumbled across some information about the Sikorsky competition while researching the building of an engine-powered single-seat helicopter that he was hoping to build after graduating from Middle Georgia State College.

"I am not sure how most people react to the question of human-powered helicopters, but I thought that it would be easy after reading about the competition," Huff told Gizmag. "I really didn't know what I was in for and after looking at Da Vinci III and Yuri I, I began to understand the nature of challenge."

A year later, he enlisted the help of two friends/fellow classmates (Neal Fischer, William Edwards) and requested a US$5,000 development grant from the College to work on a prototype and test the feasibility of building a human-powered helicopter that was much smaller than either Da Vinci III or Yuri I. At this point, the team had not come across the efforts of the University of Maryland's Gamera team, and AeroVelo hadn't yet embarked on its Atlas project.

Happily, the research proposal was accepted and work began on the first prototype. The aim was to develop a small coaxial human-powered helicopter that had the potential for reliable and practical recreational use, something that certainly can't be claimed for Gamera or Atlas. Banking on improvements in rotor efficiency allowing for a substantial reduction in the size of both frames and blades needed for lift, an additional grant in the spring of 2012 (along with a personal cash injection from Huff himself) allowed important design modifications to be made, along with the construction and testing of a new set of rotors.

The specs for the current prototype (and the next model) include a frame made of 6061 T6 aluminum, a 1:1 gearing ratio, and stacked rotors sporting a carbon fiber spar and S1223 airfoil with a weight of 15 pounds (6.8 kg) and total length of 12 feet (3.6 m). The total empty weight of the craft is 110 pounds (49.8 kg).

"The basic premise behind this design is that when the speed of an airfoil doubles, the lift quadruples," explained Huff. "We knew that we could reduce the area of the rotors by 75 percent when we doubled the speed. Take Yuri I for example, which had eight rotors all rotating at approximately 20 RPMs. If they had been able to double the RPMs to 40, then they could have eliminated six rotors or 75 percent of their rotor area."

"However, any aerodynamicist will inform you that drag also quadruples when the speed of airfoil doubles so there would be much more drag, which is completely true," he continued. "So we knew that our primary focus had to be to reduce the drag of the rotors (other teams are focused on reducing the power required by increasing the span of the rotor, which allows them to reduce the speed of the rotor needed to lift off of the ground). By using smaller rotors rotating at 60+ RPMs we knew that our rotors had to be as efficient as possible. So our efforts over the past two years have been to design the most efficient rotors that we possibly could without relying on previous designs or foregone conclusions about how a rotor should be designed."

Huff and the team now feel that they have developed one of the most efficient rotors ever designed, but have not been able to fully test it due to a lack of funds. They have another grant request in with the College, but impatience has got the better of them and they've headed to Kickstarter to both generate interest in the project and hopefully provide the cash injection needed to get their human-powered helicopter off the ground.

Though rotor testing has produced positive results, the simple aluminum frame topped by a pair of two-bladed rotors has yet to make it into the air. The maximum lift generated so far is 80 pounds (36 kg), while the minimum lift needed to get the craft to fly has been calculated at 240 pounds (109 kg).

"There is much more uncertainty about the feasibility our rotor design because it runs contrary to the design of all other successful human-powered helicopters," said Huff. "This uncertainty is compounded when coupled with the fact that we have been working on it for two years and have yet to have a successful flight. Furthermore, some aerodynamicists and human-powered helicopter enthusiasts may swear to the impossibility of our design but we believe that there is always room for improvement in any design and truly believe that practical human-powered vertical flight is possible and has the potential to one day be a recreational activity similar to hang-gliding, and we hope to prove it."

The developers are convinced that, with funding, the helicopter will be capable of lifting 300 pounds (136 kg) using 300 watts or less of power ? a fraction of that needed by other Sikorsky contenders. Direction of the current model will be controlled by shifting the weight of pilot, but plans are afoot for a cyclic control system that should offer more precision.

Kickstarter backers can pledge support for the project in return for various rewards (including framed posters, a 48-page book or a brass S1223 airfoil cutout), or can take a giant leap of faith and promise $10,000 or more, which will secure a fully functional, full-scale replica of the finished helicopter.

In the event of another team beating Huff and friends to the elusive Sikorsky Prize ? which requires a craft to stay in the air for 60 seconds, stay within a 10 meter (32.8 ft) square and rise to three meters (9.8 ft) at some point during the strictly human-powered flight ? development on the project will continue.

The Kickstarter pitch video is below.

Source: Kickstarter

Source: http://www.gizmag.com/kenneth-huff-human-powered-helicopter/26778/

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Paul Ryan Says Obama 'Charm Offensive' Was 'Helpful,' But It's Still Knives Out For Obamacare

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) appeared on Greta Van Susteren's "On The Record" Thursday night to give his side of the story on the ongoing knock-down drag-out budget debate. Ryan, whose re-polished budget plan passed the House but was predictably halted by the Democratic-controlled Senate, said that President Barack Obama's "charm offensive" was "helpful." Citing the delays in the White House presenting its budget, however, Ryan averred, "The question is, is it real and will it last? If it is real and if it does last, then I think we've got a chance of getting a down payment on the problem fixed."

Meanwhile, it's knives out for Obamacare:

RYAN: You know, the dirty little secret about this, Greta, "Obamacare" changes Medicare as we know it. "Obamacare" is the law that puts a board of 15 bureaucrats in charge of cutting Medicare that leads to denied access to current seniors.

What we say -- get rid of this board, make sure that all the savings from Medicare goes to Medicare solvency, not to pay for another program by raiding it. And oh, by the way, people who are on Medicare, they organize their lives around this program. And before a debt crisis, the moment we're in right now, we can put reforms in that guarantee the program doesn't change for those who are in and near retirement, but we must reform it for our generation and the younger people so that we can keep that promise.

Ryan's long had it out for this board, more properly known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board, and has only a slightly less paranoiac take on it than many of his colleagues, who have referred to it as the "death panel." But Ryan's presentation of what the IPAB does nevertheless stretches the truth.

As the Kaiser Family Foundation noted back in 2010, "The Board is prohibited from submitting proposals that would ration care, increase taxes, change Medicare benefits or eligibility, increase beneficiary premiums and cost-sharing requirements, or reduce low-income subsidies under Part D. Prior to 2019, the Board is also prohibited from recommending changes in payments to providers and suppliers that are scheduled to receive a reduction in their payment updates in excess of a reduction due to productivity adjustments, as specified in the health reform law."

What's more, Ryan proposed similar measures himself in his Patient's Choice Act. (The notion that the GOP-controlled House could simply swap out the IPAB with Ryan's proposal has been floated.)

Ryan is of course still touting his plan to transform Medicare -- at least for everyone currently aged 55 and younger -- into a voucher system, and he's now gone all in on promises to balance the budget. "We owe the country a balanced budget," he said. "It's a reasonable plan. It grows the economy. Balancing the budget is not just a statistical exercise, it's the necessary means to a healthier economy, creates more jobs, helps people keep more of their own hard-earned money. And it's a big contrast to the other budgets that are passing."

Of course, the virtues of a balanced budget are oft-overhyped, but the GOP has nevertheless found a point of contrast with Obama, who has explicitly stated that balancing the budget -- and extracting capital from the economy -- in the short term is not a priority for him during the economic recovery. Ryan and his colleagues, however, point to an internal party poll that indicates this is a winning political message. Per Politico:

The poll showed that 45 percent of Democratic voters think ?balancing ? the federal budget would significantly increase economic growth and create millions of American jobs.? A sky-high 61 percent of independents and 76 percent of Republicans agree.

But the data Republicans culled are much more granular than that.

Sixty-four percent of voters in Democratic-held districts ? dubbed offensive districts by the NRCC ? think balancing the budget creates a massive number of jobs. Swing district voters overwhelmingly agreed ? to the tune of 62 percent. Fifty-seven percent of voters in Democratic districts represented by Republicans agree, as well.

"Now if this were true," notes Dave Weigel, "recent history would have been one of constant recessions."

The wild deficits of the 1980s wouldn't have come during a period of massive economic growth. The job growth and deficits of the middle Bush II years, when unemployment fell to around 5 percent, wouldn't make any sense. And it wouldn't have made any sense, in 2001, when Republican economists argued that the surplus needed to be wiped out to pay for more tax cuts?and unbalancing the budget?in the interest of economic stimulus.

One of the people making that argument for stimulus through massive tax cuts? Paul Ryan. Meanwhile, there is an observable 60-year trend that indicates that low unemployment is a driver of deficit reduction, so the argument that a balanced budget leads to jobs -- which perhaps sounds pleasing to the public -- is nevertheless a strategy that mistakes the horse for the cart.

Toward the end of the interview, Van Susteren asked Ryan whether he was considering mounting a presidential campaign in 2016.

RYAN: I'm going to take a look at this seriously later. But the way I look at this is, I should not be clouding my judgment in doing my job right now. I'm the head of the Budget Committee. I represent Wisconsin's 1st district, and I should not be putting into my mind, you know, some kind of political consideration three- and-a-half years down from now because I think that will cloud my judgment. What I need to do is look at the moment we have right now. We're on the cusp of a debt crisis. We have a fiscal problem. We have an economic problem. I need to focus on that and I need to make sure that I make the right decisions for the right reasons on dealing with this issue. Then when we've dealt with that, then I'm going to give serious consideration to these other things.

Watch the full interview here.

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not?]

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/paul-ryan-obamacare_n_2932406.html

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Eternity worth the wait for filmmaker Alex Galvin | Stuff.co.nz

Kent Blechynden/Fairfax NZ

Wellington filmmaker Alex Galvin in the parliamentary library, one of his favourite locations in his new film, Eternity.

Eternity director Alex Galvin takes a hands-on role during filming.

Eternity features other locations that will be familiar to Wellingtonians, including Wellesley Hotel's spiral staircase...

...Wellington Town Hall...

And the New Zealand Dominion Museum building on Buckle St.

The familiar silhouette of Kapiti Island can be seen as Detective Richard Manning, played by Eliot Travers, consults Helpdesk, played by Shortland St newcomer Amy Usherwood.

0?of?0 ? Previous? PreviousNext ?Next ?

Alex Galvin obviously likes tricky puzzles. Such as how was a businessman strangled in a study with a single entry point in full view of assembled guests? Or how can you make a credible feature film for around $100,000?

The answer to the first conundrum can be found in his new movie, Eternity, a murder-mystery/sci-fi hybrid set in the near future, filmed in Wellington, Hong Kong and Hawke's Bay, where the movie had its New Zealand premiere last November.

Detective Richard Manning (played by Elliot Travers) is transported into a virtual-reality computer game and tasked with solving a seemingly implausible murder. But the game turns out to be a little too real for comfort. Unless he can solve the crime by the day's end he will be stuck in the infected cyberworld for eternity.

The answer to the second question lies in the credits to Eternity - two listed names are actually pseudonyms for Galvin himself. As well as directing and writing the screenplay, the Wellington film-maker also helped edit the footage and scouted all the locations. Oh, and he also has an acting cameo, because he couldn't afford to pay an extra actor in Hong Kong.

Back home, however, he did manage to secure some recognisable actors, including Geraldine Brophy and Shortland Street newcomer Amy Usherwood.

Eternity is Galvin's second feature, following his 2007 debut When Night Falls, which was shot in an extraordinary 10 days, at a cost of around $50,000. You'd think the stress of that would have given him enough grey hairs, but Galvin couldn't help but come back for more.

So for the past five years, the 37-year-old has spent his annual leave, weekends, and evenings writing, shooting and editing Eternity, while holding down a full-time day job as a policy manager for Victoria University.

The idea for Eternity was born out of childhood summers in Christchurch ploughing through his grandmother's Agatha Christie collection, and a fascination with intelligent sci-fi, from 70s classics Soylent Green and Omega Man to more modern interpretations such as The Matrix and Inception.

Galvin wanted to explore perceptions of reality - hence the idea of a distinct world within a computer game. In Eternity, New Zealand provides the empty, green, expansive, clean-aired world that by then no longer exists in reality, while the sensory explosion of the Hong Kong streetscape describes the polluted world of the future.

Why Hong Kong? Galvin made When Night Falls as a calling card: "I thought, I'm going to make this tiny wee film about nurses stuck out in the countryside in the 1930s. Me and three friends will appreciate it and then we'll move on."

It served its purpose. On a trip to a Hong Kong film market Galvin met producer Eric Stark, of Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers Studios, who had seen and liked When Night Falls. And Galvin - who's been known to knock on random people's doors because he's liked the look of their window, or tripped over in the street because he's distracted by potential filming locations - saw the city's energy, the noise, the massive skyscrapers, the pollution and realised he had found his contrasting world, as well as his producer.

Galvin is anxious not to promote Eternity as a low-budget movie because he has spent months trying to prevent it looking like one. And it certainly doesn't look low-fi, with its opulent locations that will instantly trigger recognition for Wellingtonians - the echoingly empty Town Hall, Wellesley Hotel's spiral staircase, Parliament's inner sanctums - interspersed with Hawke's Bay's art deco architectural gems. But it's hard to get past the enormity of the challenge of making a feature-length movie that includes overseas locations for such a tiny sum.

"To make this film normally, with the effects we had and the locations, you'd be looking at several million dollars," Galvin says.

In the absence of any Film Commission funding, actors and crew worked either for free or vastly reduced salaries and cash was scrounged from private investors. Generous organisations opened up locations and closed streets for free.

While Galvin believes Wellington's film industry has a core of talented independent directors, he's frustrated that the city produces either $200 million Middle-earth movies or $1m to $2m movies, with nothing in between.
He admits he doesn't have another squeezed-budget movie in him, but he argues his entire life so far has prepared him for the task.

After graduating from Victoria University with a bachelor of arts in linguistics and music history, Galvin got a job with the Inland Revenue Department, where his mother, Noel, now works, and then at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Part of his job was writing mini-biographies for honours recipients, in seven lines, with its "discipline of cutting away the fat and just making sure you got to the clear, concise elements".

His training as an opera singer has also helped. Galvin's twin passions have always been music and writing. He joined the New Zealand Opera chorus in 1998, and that experience fostered his love of visual artistry and made him, he hopes, a better director. "I've been directed a lot myself. I've seen really good directors and really bad directors. I like to think I'm an actors' director.

"I think maybe you've got to have a screw loose to direct. You've got to be very calm. A lot of people can't cope with it because they get 15 people asking a question inside a minute. I've seen people who've held down really stressful jobs who go on set on a tiny short film and they fall to pieces. You need to be very strong in what you want and also have a very good temperament."

Although he's always loved movies, and had plenty of opinions on them, Galvin was a latecomer to movie-making, quitting his job in 2003 to study at the New Zealand Film School.

In the school's 13-year history, only a handful of graduates have shot feature films. "Because it's not easy. There's no such thing as an overnight success. It's been 10 years of incredibly hard work. Every day on a film set is like planning a full-scale war. Imagine doing that for 25 of them."

The key, he says, is minute-by-minute planning. And reverse budgeting - taking the good old Kiwi can-do approach of "here's how much we've got - what can we do with it?".

But there are rewards. At least you know people have seen the movie, unlike his 2007 novel, One Endless Day, Galvin says, his characteristic Cheshire grin splitting his face.

"If they buy the book, you don't know if they've damn well read it. I think more people went to the premiere of this movie than read my novel. I think it sold about 600 copies. I know a lot of my male friends bought the book and probably never read it. At least if you have a premiere you know they've seen it.''?

And Eternity has already met success overseas, being selected for festivals in Boston and St Tropez, winning the Special Jury Prize at the California Film Awards and being nominated for four awards at the Madrid International Film Festival.

Galvin is also heading to France, where Eternity will screen at Cinema des Antipodes at Cannes in May. ''London, via Beirut,'' he told his stunned travel agent. Galvin's father, Badih, was part Lebanese, and Galvin is taking the opportunity to visit the home country for the first time on the way.

The greatest reward for Galvin, though, is seeing the unexpected results of a collaborative process.?''As a writer or director, I can only take the film so far. What is really great is when you get lots of people with different skills and talents in different areas to create something truly unique and special.?''What I love is when something turns out better than I ever envisaged.''

Eternity opens on Thursday

- Your Weekend

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Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/8449784/Film-worth-the-wait-for-Kiwi-director

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France, Britain fail to win easing of Syria arms ban

By Adrian Croft and Conor Humphries

DUBLIN (Reuters) - France and Britain failed to persuade the European Union to back their call to lift an arms embargo on Syrian rebels on Friday despite warning that President Bashar al-Assad could resort to using chemical weapons.

Paris and London want to exempt Assad's opponents from an EU arms embargo, a step they believe would raise pressure on Assad to negotiate after two years of a civil war that has claimed 70,000 lives.

But they won little support from other EU member states at a foreign ministers' meeting in Dublin, diplomats said, despite raising concerns about chemical weapons to bolster their case.

"I insisted that very close attention must be paid to the possible use by Assad of chemical weapons ... There are indications that he might have used them or that he might use them," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters at the close of Friday's talks.

Assad's supporters and opponents accused each other of using chemical weapons after 26 people were killed in a rocket attack near the northern city of Aleppo this week.

In a letter to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton setting out their case, Fabius and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said they were "increasingly concerned about the regime's willingness to use chemical weapons".

Countries such as Germany and Austria remain opposed to lifting the arms embargo for the rebels. They fear it could lead to weapons falling into the hands of Islamist militants, fuel regional conflict and encourage Assad's backers, Iran and Russia, to step up arms supplies to him.

"We are reluctant about lifting the embargo ... We have to avoid that weapons could come into the wrong hands and that terrorists, jihadists, extremists would misuse these weapons," Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters.

COMPROMISE

The EU has until June 1 to decide whether to renew or amend its sanctions on Syria and discussions on what to do about the arms embargo will continue in EU working groups.

Changing the arms ban needs the backing of all 27 EU states. Without agreement, all EU measures against Syria, including asset freezes and travel bans, would collapse on June 1.

Hague and Fabius signaled their readiness to compromise by saying in their letter that they would accept "some very serious amendment" of the arms embargo, short of its complete lifting.

The embargo was previously amended in February to allow non-lethal assistance for the opposition.

Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said he could not see any reason for a compromise. "We are totally against so I can't see where there could be a compromise," he said.

If the arms embargo were to be lifted, Spindelegger said it would make it very difficult for Austria to leave several hundred troops on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as part of a U.N. peacekeeping force, because the EU would be perceived as taking sides in the Syria conflict.

Some opponents of lifting the arms embargo are ready to look at easing economic sanctions on rebel-held areas of Syria to try to strengthen the opposition.

One option would be to ease a ban on EU oil imports from Syria to permit opposition groups to sell oil to Europe, EU diplomats said.

"We must look at how we can increase assistance to the moderate Syrian opposition, in particular through political and economic support," Ashton said in a statement.

Ministers would look at "all options" to help bring about a political solution in Syria, she said.

(Additional reporting by Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-britain-fail-win-easing-syria-arms-ban-225613863.html

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Exclusive: Looming divorce could threaten oil baron's empire

By Brian Grow and Joshua Schneyer

ATLANTA/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Continental Resources chief executive Harold Hamm, one of America's wealthiest and most influential businessmen, is embroiled in a contentious divorce that could lead to a record financial settlement and threaten his control of America's fastest-growing oil company.

Sue Ann Hamm, Harold Hamm's second wife and a former executive at Continental, filed for divorce on May 19, 2012, Oklahoma court records show.

Documents in the case are sealed. But in a March 7, 2013 filing obtained by Reuters, Sue Ann Hamm alleges that Harold "was having an affair" that she discovered in 2010, prompting her to later file for divorce.

Harold Hamm, 67, is a leading force behind the U.S. oil boom and served as the senior energy adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign. Time magazine named him one of the most influential people in the world, and Forbes listed him last year among the 50 richest Americans. Ranked No. 35, Hamm is worth $11.3 billion, the magazine estimated.

His estranged wife, Sue Ann Hamm, 56, has held key posts at Continental. She has led oil-industry trade groups in Oklahoma, testified to Congress on behalf of Continental and created Continental's oil and gas marketing units. She is no longer with the company, her lawyer said.

The Hamms were married in April 1988 and have two adult children, Jane and Hilary. Harold Hamm has three children from a prior marriage that ended in divorce in 1987.

Whether the Hamms signed a prenuptial agreement is unclear. Legal analysts who reviewed court filings said that without one, the case could lead to a record-breaking financial settlement - one that could exceed the $1.7 billion paid by News Corp. founder and chairman Rupert Murdoch to ex-wife Anna in 1999. One outcome could be a split of "marital property" that may include dividing Harold Hamm's controlling 68 percent stake in Continental, currently worth $11.2 billion.

"I don't know of anything that's ever been this big," said Barbara Atwood, professor emeritus of family law at the University of Arizona. "There's just so much money involved."

Continental was subpoenaed in the case last summer, and it was ordered by the Oklahoma court to hand over documents late last year. Four other companies controlled by Hamm also were subpoenaed.

A review of Continental's Securities and Exchange Commission filings and company statements shows no mention of the divorce proceedings. Although corporate governance scholars said Continental had no legal obligation to disclose the Hamms' divorce proceedings to shareholders, "It's a lawsuit that involves a potential impact on the controlling shareholder," said Charles Elson, director of The Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. "Certainly, it would be relevant to an investor if there is going to be or could be a shift in control."

After receiving inquiries from Reuters, Continental put out a news release acknowledging the divorce case. The fight, the company said, "is not anticipated to have any impact or effect on the company's business or operations."

Hamm couldn't be reached for comment. An attorney for Sue Ann Hamm declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement governing the case.

After the pending divorce was confirmed by Hamm on Thursday, Continental shares fell by 2.9 percent to $86.17 in afternoon trading.

Hamm, the 13th child of Oklahoma sharecroppers, started his career at age 20, scrubbing scum out of oil barrels. A few years later, he drilled a 75-barrel-a-day gusher in his home state, helping pay for university classes in geology. He founded Continental in 1967, two decades before he and the former Sue Ann Arnall were married. She is an economist and a lawyer.

Hamm's biggest breakthrough came in the 1990s, when he helped discover the Bakken field of North Dakota, the largest new U.S. oil prospect since the 1960s. The discovery helped Continental lead a resurgence in U.S. oil production, using the controversial drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The technique pumps water laden with sand and chemicals underground to release previously unreachable oil reserves.

Today, the Bakken yields nearly 700,000 barrels a day, roughly 10 percent of American output. Continental controls more than 1 million acres in the formation, which stretches from North Dakota to Montana. The firm also owns oil and gas rights in several other states, including Oklahoma.

Continental has said the entire Bakken field - being developed by several companies - may contain 24 billion barrels of oil. That would be enough to meet U.S. oil demand for more than three years. Drilling by Continental alone added 649 million barrels to the company's proved oil reserves between 2008 and 2012.

The firm says it controls drilling leases to more oil-rich Bakken acres than any other company, helping to make Hamm the largest oil baron in the United States.

Hamm directly controls 126.3 million shares, or 68 percent, of Oklahoma City-based Continental and more through family trusts. Those shares alone are worth at least $11.2 billion.

But his stake in Continental could change significantly as a result of a divorce settlement. The firm's massive growth occurred during the marriage. Its share price has surged nearly 500 percent in the five years since an initial public offering in 2007.

Under Oklahoma family law, wealth accrued through the efforts of either spouse during a marriage would typically be subject to "equitable distribution" between the parties.

"A court in Oklahoma may look closely at what each party has contributed," said legal specialist Atwood. "But it sounds to me like both spouses here were working hard in the business."

"Where there are concerns about company control in a settlement, a spouse would usually get paid the value of the shares," she said. "This is going to be really interesting."

Court records show that Sue Ann Hamm petitioned for divorce in May 2012. But earlier Oklahoma court records suggest the Hamms' relationship has been rocky.

In 1998, Harold Hamm filed for divorce and demanded that Sue Ann undergo a psychological evaluation. He later withdrew the divorce petition and the case file was ordered destroyed this year, on February 13, according to Oklahoma court records. What prompted the destruction of the file is unclear. In 2005, Sue Ann Hamm subsequently filed for divorce; that case also was dropped.

Her 2005 divorce filing is now a key issue in the Hamms' divorce battle, according to a court document reviewed by Reuters. Indeed, it could play a pivotal role in determining how property - including interest in Continental - will be divided, legal analysts said.

According to Harold Hamm, the couple "actually separated in the fall of 2005 and have lived separate lives ever since," the court document says.

But Sue Ann Hamm's attorneys counter that the Hamms "continued to reside together (although they do own four homes), travel together, attend public functions together, raise their children together, file joint tax returns, and work together."

In May 2012, for instance, Harold and Sue Ann Hamm jointly hosted a fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Romney at their $3 million mansion in Nichols Hills, Oklahoma, according to photos and media reports. The event raised more than $2 million for the Romney campaign.

Last September, Reuters reported that Harold Hamm had made political contributions that exceeded federal legal limits by as much as 41 percent during the 2011-2012 election period. Continental said at the time that the donations were made from an account held jointly by Harold and Sue Ann Hamm and were intended to be split between Hamm and his wife, which would have kept the donations within legal limits.

In 2011, Harold and Sue Ann Hamm also jointly gave $20 million to a diabetes center at the University of Oklahoma named for Harold Hamm, who has Type II diabetes. The same year, the couple signed up for Warren Buffett and Bill Gates' Giving Pledge initiative, indicating their intention to dedicate most of their wealth to philanthropy.

In a court filing two weeks ago, Sue Ann Hamm's attorneys say the Hamms agreed "to engage in marriage counseling sessions in an effort to save their marriage" in November 2010, after Sue Ann Hamm concluded that her husband had been unfaithful.

Whether the Hamms separated in 2005 or more recently is crucial as the court determines how Harold Hamm's assets will be divided, legal analysts said. Under Oklahoma family law, the increase in the value of an asset during marriage is considered part of the total pool of "marital property."

"In general, if you own property prior to the marriage and you bring it to the marriage, it is separate," said Marianne Blair, a professor of family law at the University of Tulsa. "But that separate property can increase in value. To the extent the increase was due to marital efforts or marital funds," it can be divided by the court.

Hamm divorced his first wife, Judith Ann, in 1987, according to Oklahoma court records. A document filed by Sue Ann Hamm's attorneys in the current case shows they received access to marital records in the prior divorce in March.

Attorneys for both Hamms will present evidence about when the couple separated and the resulting "date of valuation of (the) business" on May 20, according to the court docket.

What's decided could help determine whether their divorce settlement rivals the largest reported divorce settlement to date - the $1.7 billion paid by Murdoch to his ex-wife Anna in 1999. That settlement, in California, directly affected shareholders of News Corp. because it awarded Murdoch's three eldest children stakes in the voting shares of the company. Reports of the Murdoch divorce sent News Corp. shares lower.

Daniel Jaffe, a family law attorney in Beverly Hills, California who represented Anna Murdoch, declined to discuss the Murdoch case. But after reviewing the court docket and document obtained by Reuters in the Hamm case, he said Sue Ann Hamm's decades of work for Continental was unique compared with most divorce cases.

"She has a leg up because she worked for the company and she can claim that a portion of her efforts went into making the company what it is today," Jaffe said. "She was married to him when the value of the company went up. She has got to be looking for a couple of billion dollars."

(Reporting by Brian Grow in Atlanta and Joshua Schneyer in New York; additional reporting by Jeanine Prezioso; editing by Blake Morrison and Michael Williams.)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-looming-divorce-could-threaten-u-oil-barons-183418475--sector.html

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10 things you need to know today: March 21, 2013

Obama meets with Palestinians, Congress tries to avert a shutdown, and more in our roundup of the stories that are making news and driving opinion

1. OBAMA PUSHES FOR REVIVING MIDEAST PEACE TALKS
President Obama met with Palestinian Authority leaders in the West Bank on Thursday to underscore the importance of renewing peace negotiations with Israel. Before his arrival, however, a fresh volley of rockets from the Gaza Strip served as a reminder that the Islamist Hamas faction, which controls Gaza, remains committed to Israel's destruction. On Wednesday, Obama began his first trip to Israel as president by reaffirming the "unbreakable bonds" between the U.S. and the host country. Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu projected a unified front on security issues that have caused friction between them in the past, including the need for renewed peace negotiations leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state next to Israel. [Washington Post, New York Times]
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2. BILL TO PREVENT A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN GOES TO HOUSE
The Senate has passed a short-term spending bill to keep the government running through September. The bipartisan 73-26 vote sends the legislation to the House, which is expected to approve it on Thursday. Without a new spending package by March 27, federal programs and agencies would have run out of money and shut down. The measure keeps in place, for now, $85 billion in automatic "sequester" spending cuts. The next deadline in the ongoing battle over taxes and the budget comes up in late July or August, when Congress will have to raise the debt ceiling again. [Reuters]
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3. COLORADO ENACTS STRICT GUN LAWS
Colorado's Democratic governor, John Hickenlooper, signed strict new gun laws on Wednesday, requiring firearms buyers in his state to submit to background checks and banning the sale of magazines with more than 15 rounds. The move angered gun-rights advocates but won praise from groups calling for Congress to pass similar restrictions nationwide. "If legislation like this can pass in Colorado, it can happen anywhere," said Mark Glaze, the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns in Washington, D.C. "It shows that it's entirely possible to respect the Second Amendment, and still do much more to keep guns out of the wrong hands." [Wall Street Journal]
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4. AUSTRALIA'S PRIME MINISTER SURVIVES LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Thursday survived a challenge to her leadership position, assuring that she will lead her ruling Labor Party into Sept. 14 elections. Gillard called the leadership vote after a senior member of her party was doomed to defeat unless it replaced Gillard with her predecessor Kevin Rudd, whom Gillard pushed aside in a 2010 party coup. Gillard won, though, when Rudd conceded that he didn't have enough support and declined to run against her. Gillard's troubles aren't over, though. Her unpopular minority government is expected to lose to the conservative opposition in September. [New York Times]
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5. EUROPE PRESSURES CYPRUS ON BAILOUT
European Central Bank officials on Thursday warned Cyprus they would pull the plug on the country's banks unless it proposes an acceptable bailout plan by Monday. The eastern Mediterranean island's leaders are trying to come up with a Plan B to raise $7.5 billion toward a $13 billion bailout plan the country needs to avert a financial collapse. The Cypriot parliament, in a 0-36 vote with 19 abstentions, this week rejected a proposal to come up with the money by imposing a tax on deposits in the country's banks, with some angry lawmakers calling the idea "bank robbery." [Reuters]
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6. COLORADO POLICE SEEK PRISON OFFICIAL'S KILLER
Colorado authorities searched Wednesday for a possible witness to the Tuesday night murder of the head of the state's prison system, Tom Clements, who was gunned down as he answered the doorbell at his home. A woman was seen speedwalking in the neighborhood around the time of the shooting. Police are also looking for a "boxy" two-door sedan that was seen idling near Clement's home about 15 minutes before someone in his house called 911. Police said Clement might have been targeted due to his high-profile position. The killing came hours before the state's Democratic governor signed controversial new gun-control laws. [ABC News]
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7. SOUTH KOREA TRACES CYBERATTACK TO CHINA
South Korean authorities said Thursday that a cyberattack that disrupted computer networks at banks and broadcasters originated from an IP address in China. The unidentified hackers sent malware to six organizations, causing outages on their networks Wednesday. South Korean officials said they still can't say who was responsible for the attack, only that it was routed through the address in China. An official in South Korea's presidential office, quoted by Yonhap news agency, said Seoul is leaving "all possibilities open, while bearing a strong suspicion that North Korea conducted the attack." [BBC News]
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8. FEDERAL RESERVE STANDS BY STIMULUS
Federal Reserve officials wound up a meeting on Wednesday saying they intended to continue the central bank's policy of pumping money into the economy to boost the recovery. Despite a series of encouraging economic reporters recently, the Fed's policy makers say economic growth won't pick up without some help, so they'll keep buying up bonds and keeping short-term interest rates near zero until the unemployment rate, currently 7.7 percent, falls to 6.5 percent. "We are seeing improvement," Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said. "One thing we would need is to see this is not temporary improvement." [Associated Press]
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9. MICHELLE SHOCKED SAYS SHE'S 'DAMN SORRY' FOR HOMOPHOBIC REMARKS
Folk singer Michelle Shocked has apologized for anti-gay comments that led to the cancellation of 10 of her 11 upcoming concerts across the U.S. Shocked, 51, said she was "damn sorry" for the remarks, made at a San Francisco concert on Sunday, but that they had been misunderstood. Shocked said she was trying to defend some Christians who believe that homosexuality is against God's law when she suggested that allowing gay marriage would lead to the End Times, but that she doesn't share their beliefs. "I judge not," she said. [New York Times]
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10. DEEP THROAT STAR HARRY REEMS DIES
Former porn actor Harry Reems, who starred with Linda Lovelace in the notorious 1972 film Deep Throat, has died of pancreatic cancer at age 65, one of his close friends, Don Schenk, said Wednesday. Reems was arrested in 1974 on obscenity charges, becoming a cause celebre in a case that had broader implications for artistic freedom. Despite the support of Jack Nicholson and other actors, Reems' co-star Lovelace testified against him. Reems was convicted in 1976, but the verdict was overturned the next year. In the late 1980s, he moved to Utah, won a battle with alcoholism, and launched a new career, in real estate. [Hollywood Reporter]

SEE MORE: Today in history: March 21

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