What is your Gym, Health, of Fitness Club Worth? How to Value Gym ...

A.???????? Nature of the Business

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Health clubs, fitness/recreation centers, and gyms provide equipment and exercise rooms used for individuals interested in improving their health and athletic ability.?? IBISWorld reported in February of 2013 that there are over 29,501 gyms, health and fitness clubs in the US market with $26 billion in revenue. The industry?s has annual growth at 1.4% from 200-2013 and employs over 573,000 persons. IBISWorld also reported that the demand for gyms and health centers will to continue to rise over the next five years as the public becomes increasingly health-conscious.

Within the industry, there are different types of gyms.? The most common gyms are the franchised gyms .? These generalized gyms can offer a variety of fitness related amenities that include:

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• Fitness machines
• Free-weights
• Cardio machines
• Fitness classes
• Swimming pools
• Racquet ball courts
• Kids club
• Steam and/or sauna rooms
• Locker rooms

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The latest trend in the industry is the establishment of microgyms. Some examples include mixed martial arts and Jiu-Jitsu.? Microgyms are different because they offer a more specialized workout that encompasses one or two types of training. These gyms typically offer programs that are built around weightlifting, intervals, and circuit training.

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The majority of revenue for fitness centers is generated through membership fees.? The fees can be charged on a month-to-month basis, annually, or long-term membership contracts.? Some fitness centers also require a down payment or activation fee to become a member of the club. Fitness centers also generate profits by providing additional amenities, which include personal training sessions, fitness classes, swimming pools, courts, etc.

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B.???????? Industry

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In June of 2011, IBISWorld analyzed 33,385 fitness centers and found the industry costs had percentages equal to a profit of 8.0%, rent of 12.0%, utilities of 3.5%, depreciation of 7.5%, wages of 29.6%, purchases of 20.0%, and ?other? totaling 19.4%.

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C.???????? Facility / Employees

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The facility will depend, to a certain extent, on the type of gym.? A franchised gym may need to construct a new building, using plans provided by the franchise.? Independent or privately owned gyms have the option of leasing or purchasing a building that has enough open floor space for the business.? The amount of space needed can be determined by the niche market and the amount of equipment the business will offer.

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The staff required to operate a fitness center generally involves an array of employees.? Employees may include: reception staff, maintenance and cleaning staff, personal trainers, managers, and/or dieticians.? Depending on the location and sport (e.g.Jiu-Jitsu)of the fitness center, personal trainers and fitness instructors may need to be licensed.? Since this is a service-based industry, staffing experienced and well-trained employees is an important factor to retaining existing customers and securing new customers through referrals.

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D.???????? Equipment

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The equipment will vary from gym to gym.? Gyms that are catering to a wide audience will either lease or purchase the equipment.? Leasing the equipment may help the business stay up-to-date with the ever changing technology in this industry.? Niche gyms should consider equipment for their specific needs.? For example, a boxing gym will need punching bags, boxing gloves, boxing ring(s) and protective equipment.? A gym that offers CrossFit may need different specialized equipment such as an Olympic weight set, kettlebells, climbing ropes, plyo boxes, jump ropes, and/or sets of rings.

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Typically, gyms have a reception area and locker rooms that will need to be furnished.? A clean and sanitized facility is important to the industry. Most fitness centers will need a variety of cleaning supplies which can include towels, sanitizing sprays, paper towels, etc.

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Franchised gyms usually require the owner to have a net worth benchmark in order to get the gym built, equipped, staffed and running through its first year.? Franchised gyms can have pre-planned layouts and pre-selected equipment for a franchised owner, insuring that each gym is held up to the franchises? standards and is consistent with other franchise locations.

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E.???????? Income and Expense Pro Forma ? The following is general information regarding the ?????? profit / loss of the business.

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$2 million to $10 million ? Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers (NAICS #713940)¹

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1. Net Sales????????????????????????? 100%
2. Operating Expenses??????? 89.3%
3. Operating Profit?????????????? 10.7%
4. All Other Expense (net)???? 6.4%
5. Profit Before Taxes??????????? 4.3%

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¹ RMA Annual Statement Studies 2012-2013. (Philadelphia: RMA, 2012), p.1574-1575.

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F.???????? Valuation (Not All Inclusive)

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1. Cost Method:
   1. Generally also known as the Asset-Based Approach, the Cost Approach values a company by determining what proceeds can be derived from selling off assets, less the cost of satisfying liabilities. This approach determines a company?s value by analyzing the market value of a company?s assets.? Many times this serves as a valuation floor since most companies have greater value as a going concern than they would if liquidated.

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1. Income-Capitalization Method:
   1. Discounted Cash Flow Method/Earnings Method/Capitalization Approach:???? The worth of a company is based on the earnings or cash flow that the company can generate in the future for the benefit of its stockholders/owners. These protected earnings are discounted to present value, which includes the terminal value of the business.
   2. Excess Earnings Plus Adjusted Book Value Approach: This method relies on the historical earnings performance of a company.? Generally, excess income is capitalized to determine Goodwill.? The Goodwill in addition to the adjusted book value of the net assets can be used to approximate the worth of a company.
   3. EBITDA Approach / Value Over Costs?: This approach is short for ?Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization?.? This method is used to determine how much money a company is making before taxes, depreciation, and amortization have been deducted.? Then, EBITDA is multiplied by the inverse of the appropriate capitalization rate to determine value of the company.

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1. Market Method:
   1. Guideline Company Approach : Under this approach, the fair market value of the business is determined by comparing the sales data of private companies sold, i.e. have the same standard industry classification code (SIC Code). This approach may be less effective for the valuation of a closely held business if adequate data is not available.

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Rules of Thumb: The rules of thumb for remediation companies vary based on numerous factors.? Please contact Zamucen & Curren at (949) 955-2522 for applicable rules of thumb.

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G.???????? Associations

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International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (iHRSA)

70 Fargo Street

Boston,MA02210

(800) 228-4772

(617) 951-0055

Fax (617) 951-0056

www.ihrsa.org

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IDEA Health & Fitness Association

10455 Pacific Center Court

San Diego,CA92121

(858) 535-8979, ext. 7

Fax (858) 535-8234

www.ideafit.com

Source: http://www.zamucen.com/blog/what-is-your-gym-health-of-fitness-club-worth-how-to-value-gym-health-and-fitness-clubs/

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Special Interests Shadow Immigration Reform

The most important spokesman for the immigration-reform bill in the Senate, Florida Republican Marco Rubio, is promoting a ?myth-busting? website. No, the legislation will not offer immigrants free phones. No, illegal immigrants will not be eligible for welfare benefits.

And there?s this: No, the law does not include pet provisions for the cruise industry in Rubio?s home state. ?FACT: Senator Marco Rubio did not ask for anything in this legislation that would only affect one group of people, industry, or Florida,? the website asserts. ?The benefits of everything he has advocated for in this legislation would extend far beyond Florida to the rest of the nation.?

While the most common criticism of the bill is that allowing illegal immigrants to earn citizenship amounts to amnesty, Rubio?s rebuttal points to another high hurdle: quashing mounting concerns that the bill was written by and for special interests. Reinforcing that perception is the fact that some of the loudest pro-reform voices are members of the political, business, and religious establishment, while opposition is more common among the grassroots.

?Immigration, broadly speaking, pits the elite versus the public as much as the Right against the Left,? said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, who spoke at a hearing on the Senate bill earlier this week. ?It?s the church hierarchies versus the people in the pews, the union organizations as opposed to the union members, big business as opposed to small business. It?s no surprise that the Republicans supporting this thing are the ones with ties to the Chamber of Commerce, not ordinary voters.?

Bridging that gap is pivotal to the legislation?s passage, and Rubio?s appeal to the conservative grassroots makes him a key ambassador. His staff has touted the relative brevity of the law at 844 pages as evidence that it is not crammed with perks for the privileged. In a whirlwind of interviews with conservative talk-show hosts, Rubio has adopted a tone of humility and continually called for an open, transparent process to allay concerns about backroom deals.

?The bill I helped write is a good starting point, but it is not a take-it-or-leave-it proposition,? Rubio wrote in a column for Fox News. ?I am open to any ideas others may have on how to do this, and I?ve been listening to the legitimate concerns people have raised with the expectation that we will be able to improve the bill as this debate continues.?

Rubio?s invitations for input and demands for public hearings, however, contradict reports that suggest politics as usual on Capitol Hill.

Facebook, which launched a pro-immigration-reform political committee, maneuvered provisions into the bill that would make it easier for the company to hire cheaper foreign workers, according to The Washington Post.?The Wall Street Journal reported on clauses in the legislation that would grant more visas to the meat industry in South Carolina, Sen. Lindsey Graham?s home state, and special benefits for Irish workers closely allied with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., another key player in the legislation.

?The only people in the room behind closed doors was congressional staff, big business, big labor, Silicon Valley, and a whole long line of special-interest groups,? said Rosemary Jenks, a spokeswoman for NumbersUSA, which favors more limits on immigration. ?It?s very clear this bill wasn?t written to serve national interests but special interests, including the senators? own special interests, with absolutely zero regard for unemployed American workers and taxpayers.?

It?s true that corporations, unions, and other special interests have strong financial incentives to see the nation?s immigration laws overhauled. Businesses need affordable skilled and unskilled labor. Unions need to protect their current members and recruit new ones. But opponents of immigration reform tend to overlook that the legislation was also shaped by pressure from ground-level immigration activists, including young people brought to this country illegally by their parents. The illegal status of an estimated 11 million people makes them obvious targets for exploitation and abuse.

There?s also evidence that immigration reform would benefit the economy overall, not just corporate interests. A recent study by Douglas?Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and a former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, concluded: ?A benchmark immigration reform would raise the pace of economic growth by nearly a percentage point over the near term, raise GDP per capita by over $1,500, and reduce the cumulative deficit by over $2.5 trillion.?

Some polls show waning resistance from Republican voters. A survey sponsored by pro-reform groups and conducted by The Winston Group, a Republican polling firm, found that 67 percent of Republicans support the provisions in the bill?even after they are advised of a number of criticisms, including that it was written in secret and rushed. A majority of Republicans also said they think the bill will benefit the economy.

?We know the opposition is going to throw the kitchen sink at us, and we wanted to make sure we tested that kitchen sink,? said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, one of the survey?s sponsors. ?Republicans and Democrats on the Hill have a real opening and opportunity to fix our immigration system.?

Noorani and another backer of the poll, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, rejected the criticism that the legislation was written to boost special interests. ?If there are areas where there?s lack of fairness or need to make something general as oppose to specific, that can happen on floor of the Senate,? Norquist said. ?It?s not like we put this together last night and you don?t have time to read it.?

Efforts to sell the legislation to rank-and-file Republicans suffered a minor setback this week when Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who boasts strong ties to the conservative grassroots, cautioned against immigration reform in the wake of the bombings at the Boston Marathon. Paul, who had suggested he was on board with reformers in a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in March, now says that ?comprehensive immigration reform requires a strong national security, and until we can fully understand the systematic failures that enabled?two individuals to immigrate to the United States from an area known for being a hotbed of Islamic extremism, we should not proceed,? according to written statement.

Another tea-party hero, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, was initially involved in immigration talks but walked away from the bipartisan group of eight senators leading the charge in January. That left Rubio, a career politician who has pitched himself as a man of the people, as the bill?s strongest advocate to the grassroots.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/special-interests-shadow-immigration-reform-105256157.html

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Sony unveils 30-and 56-inch professional 4K OLED monitor prototypes

The 56-inch OLED TV Sony trotted out at CES may not be headed to the consumer market, but it is becoming a reality, at least in the professional sector. The company showcased a pair of 4K OLED prototypes at NAB 2013, outing a 4,096 x 2,160 30-inch model as well as a 3,840 x 2160 56-inch display. Both panels boast of wide viewing angles and low color shift, promising accurate signal reproduction for industry professionals working with 4K content. No word yet on pricing, but professionals can look forward to upgrading sometime in next year. Sony also announced a refresh for its existing line of professional OLED displays. The A series will replace seven older skus, again promising better viewing angles and color shift than the previous generation. Hit the break for the official press release, item skus, and a quick break down of what products the A series will be replacing.

Update: The 30-inch 4K OLED prototype is looking at a 2014 release date, while the A series monitors will be available in May.

Filed under: Displays, HD, Sony

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/vivd1Cp-CIk/

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Bad weather hits British wheat crops

6 April 2013 Last updated at 12:17 ET

Britain will become a net importer of wheat for the first time in a decade this year because of bad weather, the National Farmers' Union has said.

NFU president Peter Kendall said more than two million tonnes of wheat had been lost because of last year's poor summer.

The prolonged cold weather would also hit this autumn's harvest, he said.

But he said the shortage was unlikely to affect the price of bread because of the global nature of the market.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Kendall said the average yield fell from 7.8 tonnes a hectare to 6.7 tonnes last summer.

Looking ahead to the 2013 harvest, he said farmers had only managed to get three quarters of the planned wheat planted this year, so the UK was already 25% down on potential production.

"I've been walking crops yesterday on the farm in Bedfordshire and they look pretty thin. We would normally say you should hide a hare in a crop of wheat in March. You'd struggle to cover a mouse in some of mine.

"If we got three quarters of the area planted, and the same yield as last year, we could be looking at a crop of only 11m tonnes of wheat when we actually need 14.5m tonnes of wheat for our own domestic use here in the UK," he said.

'Written off 2013'

Andrew Watts, a wheat farmer and the NFU combinable crops board chairman, said farmers had been hoping for a kind autumn after a poor harvest in 2012, but this had not happened.

"It seems many farmers have written 2013 off and are trying to do what they can with the crops in the ground. Everyone is focussing on 2014 and making sure the land is in a good condition to get good crops then.

"This is what producing food is all about - the weather."

He added: "We have got to put it in context, this is only the first time since the late 1970s that we have been net importers, Over the past five or six years we have been in surplus."

The crop damage is dealing a further blow to Britain's farming industry, which is already reeling from a spate of recent livestock deaths due to the cold weather.

But Mr Kendall said only about 10% of the cost of a loaf of was attributable to wheat. The rest was due to processing, transport, and packaging, he said.

"We could see wheat double and the impact on a loaf of bread would not be enormous.

"But we need to make sure, in the UK, we are producing raw materials for what has been - despite the weather - a fantastically successful sector," he said.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22050874#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Tom Cramer: Childhood Memories: Girls, Girls, Girls!

Looking at the calendar, it's already spring. Yet the calendar is irrelevant here in Chicago, as it offers no help in predicting the arrival of warmer weather. In fact, I acknowledge the arrival of the season the same way every year. Like magic, a day comes when the streets and sidewalks seem to be overflowing with beautiful women wearing shorts, skirts or dresses. When that day arrives, my driving suffers. I would guess I narrowly avoid about seven accidents each year. When I finally get home, I change and go outside (on foot).

Recently it was Easter, and while it wasn't cold, it still wasn't spring, although it hinted at it. Our family met at my niece's house, very close to where I grew up, so I drove past my old grammar school. The anticipation of warmer weather influenced my memory, and I mostly thought about the girls from those years.

My career as a flirt began when I was in kindergarten or first grade. The object of my first affection wasn't a classmate, but the daughter of one of my father's co-workers. Each summer about four families from Dad's work would take a long weekend and stay in a huge old house in Eagle River, Wisconsin. Susie was cute as a button, and I remember being by the boathouse when I first tried to convince her to give me a kiss. She declined, but I was persistent.

One day we were having a house-wide game of hide and seek. Susie and I were the youngest of all the kids, so we were always paired up in any group activity. I convinced her to hide underneath a bunk bed in one of the many rooms, and I went to work. Finally, she gave in and let me kiss her -- and then screamed. Not the reaction I had hoped for, I opened my eyes to see the upside down faces of all the big kids. They had found us, heard our conversation, and then sneaked onto the bed and dangled their heads over the side to watch. It was the first and last kiss I ever got from Susie.

In third grade, I was enamored with two girls at the same time. My teacher noticed this, and switched the seating chart so I sat right in between Vicky and Cheryl. One might think the teacher liked me, but she didn't. She just knew this would give her more opportunities to punish me. One day, she was wearing a brightly colored dress, and drawing on the board right in front of us. I noticed a thread hanging from her dress, with a little "ball" of thread at the end, right near her butt. I caught the attention of the girls and lightly blew on the thread, which had the effect of moving it from one "cheek" to the other. Vicky was a straight A student and well behaved. She tried to ignore the whole thing, and it was Cheryl who picked it up and played the game. It was like we were playing "thread ball tennis", each of us blowing it to the other cheek. I can't believe we didn't get caught.

Cheryl and her best friend, Lynette, were inseparable. You never saw one without the other, and they were the coolest, "foxiest chicks" in fourth grade. My best friend Tony and I spent an inordinate amount of time dreaming about them. Tony was "in love" with Lynette, and I with Cheryl. We used to invent these grand games where we would be heroes and save our girls, so of course they would fall in love with us. In the winter, we would climb over mountains of snow pretending we were soldiers on a rescue mission. Sometimes we were riding our bikes, pretending to be motocross racers or stunt men. It would always end with us "getting our girl".

I arrived at school early one day, and I saw Lynette and Cheryl approaching. I noticed Cheryl was wearing a hat, but more importantly she had cut her long, beautiful hair! She was the first to get a "page boy". I was crushed. Being an idiot, I teased her and she started to cry. Lynette was furious. Do you remember those wooden "clogs"? Well, Lynette was wearing those and started kicking me in the shins. She kicked me hard and with alarming frequency. It hurt like hell, but all I kept thinking was "guys can't hit girls". So, I stood there and took it. Recently I reconnected with Lynette. She remembers me saying "OK, blue eyes, OK" as she kicked me, trying to calm her down.

I remember the pain, the realization that I was wrong and the beauty of her angry blue eyes.

Earlier on Huff/Post50:

• Age People Experience Their First Kiss: 15

• Age People Say You Should Support Yourself Independently From Your Parents: 22

• Age People Say You Should Stop Doubting Yourself: 39

• Age People Say You Should Stop Having Kids: 41

• Age People Say It's Time To Consider Marriage: 25

• Age People Say They First Reminded Themselves Of Their Parents: 32

• Age People Say They First Felt Their Age: 38

• Age People Say They Feel Increasingly Prepared For Aging: 65

• Age People Expect To Reach: 84

• Female Celebrity Who Is Aging Gracefully: Betty White (84%)

• Male Celebrity Who Is Aging Gracefully: George Clooney (79%)

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Follow Tom Cramer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@70sKidCramer

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-cramer/nostalgia-childhood-memories-girls_b_3001423.html

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ORNL microscopy uncovers 'dancing' silicon atoms in graphene

Public release date: 3-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Morgan McCorkle
mccorkleml@ornl.gov
865-574-7308
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Jumping silicon atoms are the stars of an atomic scale ballet featured in a new Nature Communications study from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The ORNL research team documented the atoms' unique behavior by first trapping groups of silicon atoms, known as clusters, in a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon called graphene. The silicon clusters, composed of six atoms, were pinned in place by pores in the graphene sheet, allowing the team to directly image the material with a scanning transmission electron microscope.

The "dancing" movement of the silicon atoms, seen in a video here: http://www.ornl.gov/ornlhome/video/video_files/dancing-silicons-1.mov, was caused by the energy transferred to the material from the electron beam of the team's microscope.

"It's not the first time people have seen clusters of silicon," said coauthor Juan Carlos Idrobo. "The problem is when you put an electron beam on them, you insert energy into the cluster and make the atoms move around. The difference with these results is that the change that we observed was reversible. We were able to see how the silicon cluster changes its structure back and forth by having one of its atoms 'dancing' between two different positions."

Other techniques to study clusters are indirect, says Jaekwang Lee, first author on the ORNL study. "With the conventional instrumentation used to study clusters, it is not yet possible to directly identify the three-dimensional atomic structure of the cluster," Lee said.

The ability to analyze the structure of small clusters is important for scientists because this insight can be used to precisely understand how different atomic configurations control a material's properties. Molecules could then be tailored for specific uses.

"Capturing atomic clusters inside patterned graphene nanopores could potentially lead to practical applications in areas such as electronic and optoelectronic devices, as well as catalysis," Lee said. "It would be a new approach to tuning electronic and optical properties in materials."

The ORNL team confirmed its experimental findings with theoretical calculations, which helped explain how much energy was required for the silicon atom to switch back and forth between different positions.

###

The study, published as "Direct visualization of reversible dynamics in a Si6 cluster embedded in a graphene pore," is available online here: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n4/full/ncomms2671.html. Coauthors are ORNL's Jaekwang Lee, Wu Zhou, Stephen Pennycook, Juan Carlos Idrobo, and Sokrates Pantelides.

This research was supported by National Science Foundation, DOE's Office of Science, the McMinn Endowment at Vanderbilt University, and by DOE's Office of Science User Facilities: ORNL's Shared Research Equipment User Facility Program and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy's Office of Science. DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://science.energy.gov.

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[ | E-mail | Share ]

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

Public release date: 3-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Morgan McCorkle
mccorkleml@ornl.gov
865-574-7308
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Jumping silicon atoms are the stars of an atomic scale ballet featured in a new Nature Communications study from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The ORNL research team documented the atoms' unique behavior by first trapping groups of silicon atoms, known as clusters, in a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon called graphene. The silicon clusters, composed of six atoms, were pinned in place by pores in the graphene sheet, allowing the team to directly image the material with a scanning transmission electron microscope.

The "dancing" movement of the silicon atoms, seen in a video here: http://www.ornl.gov/ornlhome/video/video_files/dancing-silicons-1.mov, was caused by the energy transferred to the material from the electron beam of the team's microscope.

"It's not the first time people have seen clusters of silicon," said coauthor Juan Carlos Idrobo. "The problem is when you put an electron beam on them, you insert energy into the cluster and make the atoms move around. The difference with these results is that the change that we observed was reversible. We were able to see how the silicon cluster changes its structure back and forth by having one of its atoms 'dancing' between two different positions."

Other techniques to study clusters are indirect, says Jaekwang Lee, first author on the ORNL study. "With the conventional instrumentation used to study clusters, it is not yet possible to directly identify the three-dimensional atomic structure of the cluster," Lee said.

The ability to analyze the structure of small clusters is important for scientists because this insight can be used to precisely understand how different atomic configurations control a material's properties. Molecules could then be tailored for specific uses.

"Capturing atomic clusters inside patterned graphene nanopores could potentially lead to practical applications in areas such as electronic and optoelectronic devices, as well as catalysis," Lee said. "It would be a new approach to tuning electronic and optical properties in materials."

The ORNL team confirmed its experimental findings with theoretical calculations, which helped explain how much energy was required for the silicon atom to switch back and forth between different positions.

###

The study, published as "Direct visualization of reversible dynamics in a Si6 cluster embedded in a graphene pore," is available online here: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n4/full/ncomms2671.html. Coauthors are ORNL's Jaekwang Lee, Wu Zhou, Stephen Pennycook, Juan Carlos Idrobo, and Sokrates Pantelides.

This research was supported by National Science Foundation, DOE's Office of Science, the McMinn Endowment at Vanderbilt University, and by DOE's Office of Science User Facilities: ORNL's Shared Research Equipment User Facility Program and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy's Office of Science. DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://science.energy.gov.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/drnl-omu040313.php

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North Korea Twitter Account: Hacked By Anonymous!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/north-korea-twitter-account-hacked-by-anonymous/

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Laws, rumors have ammo flying off store shelves

FILE--In this Feb. 21, 2007 file photo, Bruce Martindale takes aim as he competes in a weekly air gun league in Troy, N.Y. Martindale, who normally uses a .22-caliber, has cut back on practice because ammunition is in short supply. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

FILE--In this Feb. 21, 2007 file photo, Bruce Martindale takes aim as he competes in a weekly air gun league in Troy, N.Y. Martindale, who normally uses a .22-caliber, has cut back on practice because ammunition is in short supply. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? Gun enthusiasts fearful of new weapon controls and alarmed by rumors of government hoarding are buying bullets practically by the bushel, making it hard for stores nationwide to keep shelves stocked and even putting a pinch on some local law enforcement departments.

At a 24-hour Walmart in suburban Albany, the ammunition cabinet was three-fourths empty this week; sales clerks said customers must arrive before 9 the morning after a delivery to get what they want. A few miles away, Dick's Sporting Goods puts up a red rope after ammunition deliveries so buyers can line up early to get a number, averting races up the escalator to the gun counter. Both stores are limiting ammunition purchases to three boxes a day.

In mid-January, two days after New York became the first state to toughen laws post-Newtown, hunter and target shooter Mark Smith spent $250 to stockpile ammunition, including $43 for a brick of 500 .22-caliber bullets, commonly used for target shooting and hunting small game.

"I had a feeling there was going to be a huge ammunition shortage," said Smith, browsing shotgun shells this week at Dick's. "Especially .22s. It's probably the most popular round out there."

Likewise, the .223 ammunition used in popular semi-automatic rifles is hard to find.

At Hunter's Haven, a strip-mall gun shop in the farming community of Rolesville, N.C., north of Raleigh, clerk Dean Turnage said ammunition is going out "as fast as we can get it in," even though new gun controls are not on the state's agenda.

The run started in November with President Barack Obama's re-election, followed by the mass shooting in December of children in Newtown, Conn., which led the president to launch an effort to strengthen federal gun controls and several states to tighten their laws.

Connecticut on Thursday became the latest to crack down as the governor signed a measure ? effective immediately ? that adds more than 100 firearms to the state's assault weapons ban, creates a dangerous weapon offender registry and institutes eligibility rules for ammunition purchases.

Hours before the law took effect, hundreds of customers streamed out of Hoffman's Gun Center in Newington with guns and boxes of ammunition.

"The bad guys are going to get guns," said John Power, 56, of Bristol, arguing the new law would not stop a troubled gunman.

The nation's 100 million firearms owners are driving the market for some 10 billion rounds annually, with demand and gun purchases both increasing the past several months, driven partly by fear that tougher laws will restrict the ability to buy firearms, said Lawrence Keane, whose National Shooting Sports Foundation is based in Newtown.

"There's a concern by firearms owners that this administration will pursue bans on products, bans on ammunition. ... It's not limited geographically to New York or anywhere else. It is nationwide," he said.

Some government critics attributed shortages to federal purchases of bullets, accusing officials of trying to hoard a billion rounds and disarm the populace.

"Department of Homeland Security and the federal government itself is buying up ammunition and components at such a rate, it's causing artificial shortage of supplies for the regular consumer," said Jesse Alday, a state corrections officer who was buying a couple of boxes of primers at Hunter's Haven.

"They're buying it up as fast as they can, for reasons they're not officially willing to admit or go into. ... They're not willing to come up with any answers as to the reasons behind why they have enough ammunition on the U.S., on our own home soil, to wage a 25-year war," he said. "That's kind of strange."

Keane, whose group includes manufacturers, said the reports of massive federal purchases were not true.

The government routinely buys products in bulk to reduce costs, and Homeland Security has said the latest purchases are no different.

Last year, the department put out bids for a total of about 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the next five years. The rounds are to be used for training, routine weapons qualification exercises and normal duty by various department agencies.

On a smaller scale, some local law enforcement agencies are also having problems getting ammo.

Jennifer Donnals, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol, said the agency was still waiting on rifle and shotgun ammunition ordered in November.

In Phoenix, the Police Department has stopped providing officers with 100 rounds of ammunition per month for practice. Sgt. Trent Crump said 10 to 15 percent of the department's 3,000 officers, who are assigned .40-caliber and .45-caliber handguns, had taken advantage of the ammunition for practice shooting.

In January, police chiefs in central Texas said they were having trouble arming their officers because of shortages of assault rifles and ammunition.

The major U.S. manufacturers are running shifts around the clock to try to meet increased demand, Keane said. The foundation projected $1.5 billion from ammunition sales in 2011 and $2.8 billion from gun sales, totals that more than doubled in a decade.

Stockpiling has also been fueled by false online rumors, such as one that purports a coming nickel tax on each bullet, which would triple the cost of a .22-caliber cartridge, said Hans Farnung, president of Beikirch's Ammunition, a retailer and wholesaler in Rochester, N.Y., that sells in seven states.

"I don't want to call them doomsdayers, but people get on these blogs on the Internet and they drive people's fears," he said. "They do not want to wait around and see."

The tax rumor was fueled by proposals in Connecticut, California and Illinois that haven't advanced.

This isn't the first U.S. run on ammunition. Walmart's Kory Lundberg said the retail chain previously rationed in 2009, the year Obama entered the White House. However, sportsmen and tradesmen say the current shortages are nationwide, and the worst they've seen.

New York's law will require ammunition sellers to register and buyers to undergo a background check starting Jan. 15, 2014. Richard Aborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, said the run on guns and ammunition isn't surprising and is fueled by "gross exaggerations," when reasonable discussion is what's needed.

Bruce Martindale, a champion marksman from upstate New York who normally uses .22-caliber rimfire ammunition, said it's now hard for him to get anything, partly because online retailers are reluctant to ship to New York and risk running afoul of its new law.

"I can't buy supplies anywhere," he said. Like many competitors, he has cut back on practice but says he doesn't see a public safety concern.

"This is legitimate gun owners buying," he said. "I don't think criminals are stockpiling."

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Michael Melia in Hartford, Conn., Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tenn., Alicia Caldwell in Washington, D.C., A. Breed in Rolesville, N.C., and Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-04-Ammunition%20Frenzy/id-4b23bc2f03f4443f9b2dd074a1985280

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Pat Robertson says Africans can raise the dead because they didn?t go to Ivy League schools (Americablog)

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Midokura Scores $17.3M Series A To Ramp Up Its Network Virtualization Offering On A Global Scale

Japan's Midokura, a startup with offices in SF, Tokyo, Lausanne and Barcelona, today announced a $17.3 million Series A funding round, led by Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, along with NTT Group's DOCOMO Innovations, Inc., and Innovative Ventures Fund Investment, the investment arm of NEC Group. The funding will be used to hire and grow the team in preparation for future deployment and expansion of Midokura's MidoNet network virtualization services.

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Chimps: Ability to 'think about thinking' not limited to humans

Apr. 3, 2013 ? Humans' closest animal relatives, chimpanzees, have the ability to "think about thinking" -- what is called "metacognition," according to new research by scientists at Georgia State University and the University at Buffalo.

Michael J. Beran and Bonnie M. Perdue of the Georgia State Language Research Center (LRC) and J. David Smith of the University at Buffalo conducted the research, published in the journal Psychological Science of the Association for Psychological Science.

"The demonstration of metacognition in nonhuman primates has important implications regarding the emergence of self-reflective mind during humans' cognitive evolution," the research team noted.

Metacognition is the ability to recognize one's own cognitive states. For example, a game show contestant must make the decision to "phone a friend" or risk it all, dependent on how confident he or she is in knowing the answer.

"There has been an intense debate in the scientific literature in recent years over whether metacognition is unique to humans," Beran said.

Chimpanzees at Georgia State's LRC have been trained to use a language-like system of symbols to name things, giving researchers a unique way to query animals about their states of knowing or not knowing.

In the experiment, researchers tested the chimpanzees on a task that required them to use symbols to name what food was hidden in a location. If a piece of banana was hidden, the chimpanzees would report that fact and gain the food by touching the symbol for banana on their symbol keyboards.

But then, the researchers provided chimpanzees either with complete or incomplete information about the identity of the food rewards.

In some cases, the chimpanzees had already seen what item was available in the hidden location and could immediately name it by touching the correct symbol without going to look at the item in the hidden location to see what it was.

In other cases, the chimpanzees could not know what food item was in the hidden location, because either they had not seen any food yet on that trial, or because even if they had seen a food item, it may not have been the one moved to the hidden location.

In those cases, they should have first gone to look in the hidden location before trying to name any food.

In the end, chimpanzees named items immediately and directly when they knew what was there, but they sought out more information before naming when they did not already know.

The research team said, "This pattern of behavior reflects a controlled information-seeking capacity that serves to support intelligent responding, and it strongly suggests that our closest living relative has metacognitive abilities closely related to those of humans."

The research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Georgia State University.

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Journal Reference:

1. M. J. Beran, J. D. Smith, B. M. Perdue. Language-Trained Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) Name What They Have Seen but Look First at What They Have Not Seen. Psychological Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1177/0956797612458936

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/7SxbKioskGU/130403141442.htm

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