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Source: http://www.fitsugar.com/Yoga-Poses-Strong-Core-3322057
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Monday, June 17, 2013
Cracks in the Periodic Table (preview)
See Inside The discovery of element 117 filled the last remaining gap in the periodic table as we know it. But even as it is being completed, the table may be losing its power
Image: Holly Lindem
In Brief
- The discovery of element 117 in 2010 completed for the first time the periodic table as we know it?at least until new discoveries will force chemists to extend it by adding a new row.
- Some recent additions, however, may differ in their chemistry from the elements in the same column, breaking the periodic rule that had defined the table for a century and a half.
- The surprising behavior may result from effects described by the special theory of relativity, which make some electron orbits tighter, among other effects.
- Nuclear physicists continue in their quest to synthesize new elements, which will have new types of electron orbitals?and to understand their chemistry from studying a handful of short-lived atoms.
In 2010 researchers in Russia announced they had synthesized the first few nuclei of element 117. This new type of atom does not yet have a name, because the science community traditionally waits for independent confirmation before it christens a new element. But barring any surprises, 117 has now taken its permanent place in the periodic table of elements.
All elements up to 116, plus element 118, had been found previously, and 117 filled the last remaining gap in the bottom row. This achievement marks a unique moment in history. When Dmitri Mendeleev?also Russian?and others created the periodic table in the 1860s, it was the first grand scheme to organize all the elements known to science at the time. Mendeleev left several spaces blank in his table, and he made the bold guess that someday new elements would be discovered that would fill those blanks. Countless revisions of the table followed, but all of them had gaps?until now. With element 117, the periodic table is complete for the first time.
This article was originally published with the title Cracks in the Periodic Table.
Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cracks-in-the-periodic-table
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China Sets New Rules Aimed at Curbing Air Pollution
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The move to improve air quality is a response to the dense smog that has repeatedly enveloped Beijing and other major Chinese cities in recent years.
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'Man Of Steel' And Lois Lane: The Importance Of Superman's Heroic Woman
As Amy Adams brings the First Lady of comic books to life, a panel of experts reveals just why the intrepid reporter is so important.
By Brett White
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709088/man-of-steel-lois-lane.jhtml
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Analysis: Why bankrupt W.R. Grace is thriving
By Ernest Scheyder and Nick Brown
COLUMBIA, Md./NEW YORK (Reuters) - A company stuck in bankruptcy for 12 years may not seem like much of a catch, but investors have fallen in love with U.S. specialty chemical manufacturer W.R. Grace & Co
One of the longest bankruptcies in U.S. history, Grace filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2001 after an asbestos leak at one of its mines led to thousands of lawsuits against the company.
Through bankruptcy, Grace was able to pause debt repayments, survive two recessions and take advantage of a U.S. shale energy revolution that is fueling demand for its fine-powder catalysts, which help refiners process crude oil into gasoline, heating oil and other products.
The company's stock has more than tripled in the past three years and counts 46 hedge funds among investors as of March 31.
"Bankruptcy has been a great place to hide out," said Scott Baena, an attorney who helped negotiate the settlements on behalf of property damage claimants. "It has for all intents and purposes been business as usual."
Grace closed its mine in Libby, Montana, in 1990 after discovering the process it used to extract vermiculite - a mineral used in commercial insulation - caused the release of asbestos. More than 400 residents died from asbestos exposure.
Early in the case, plaintiffs claimed Grace's personal injury liability topped $7 billion, 14 times what the company had estimated, said Peter Lockwood, a lawyer for a committee of Grace's personal injury claimants.
Had the matter gone to trial and the plaintiffs prevailed, it may have crippled Grace.
Instead, Grace settled for about $4 billion and agreed to set up trusts for the victims, and took similar measures with its property damage claimants.
Grace's bankruptcy was akin to hitting "pause" on its liabilities while it figured out the most efficient way to address them. Most companies struggle to make money while in Chapter 11, but Grace continued to thrive. It is erecting a $20 million building on campus for executive offices, funding the project through cash flow.
Creditors of most bankrupt companies would object to such expenses because they could eat into recoveries. Grace's creditors and shareholders have let it slide.
"As long the company is not in danger of being unable to pay the money it's going to owe, creditors take a more relaxed attitude," said Lockwood.
RIDING ENERGY WAVE
Technically, there is no court-set limit on how long a company can remain in bankruptcy. However, the process is designed to help craft a plan to repay creditors, and courts look down on companies that do not make a good-faith effort to restructure. In such cases, courts usually allow creditors to present their own plans for how to restructure the company.
Executives at Grace have said for years that an exit from bankruptcy is just around the corner, only to have dates come and go. Now, with a court hearing on Monday and rulings not expected until the fall, an exit may not come until 2014.
"Obviously, we're all eager to come out of bankruptcy," Chief Financial Officer Hudson La Force said in an interview at Grace's Columbia, Maryland, headquarters. "There are a few steps that need to happen first."
Leaving bankruptcy protection will allow creditors to be paid, asbestos liabilities to be met, and give the company access to debt markets and let it dispense cash to shareholders, Grace said.
Grace tailor-makes catalysts for Tesoro Corp
Sales of the product constitute roughly 32 percent of Grace's 2012 pretax profit, and the company earned $94.1 million last year, up 20 percent from 2001 when it entered bankruptcy.
"Whether we're out of bankruptcy one day or another, the reality is that it's not affecting our earnings. It's not affecting our cash flow," La Force said.
Surging catalyst sales have boosted Grace's stock price to $82.69 as of Friday's close. That is vastly higher than the $1.52 per share when the company filed for bankruptcy on April 2, 2001.
Yet the stock is widely overvalued and should be trading at an intrinsic value of $56.37, based on expected growth rates over the next decade, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.
That "might not be taking into account the full scope of Grace's performance and some of the intangibles around management effectiveness and management credibility," said Mark Sutherland, Grace's director of investor relations.
RESTRUCTURING PLAN
As part of its bankruptcy, Grace filed a restructuring plan that will channel all current and future injury and property damage claims to trusts, pushing the liability off books.
Grace will receive help in funding the trusts from third parties, including Sealed Air Corp
Grace had promised shareholders it would use $1 billion after bankruptcy for either buybacks or a dividend. Yet roughly $490 million will have to be used immediately to redeem stock warrants held by one of the asbestos trusts, limiting payouts to stockholders.
Still, with $453.6 million in annual cash flows and no debt, shareholders stand to reap rewards, said Chris Shaw, an analyst with Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co who tracks Grace.
"That's always been a positive about Grace: they're a strong cash generator," he said. "They want to reward the shareholders who have stuck with them through the whole bankruptcy process."
Grace's bankruptcy could stretch at least into next year as creditor objections to its exit plan wind through the courts.
In oral arguments at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on Monday, a bank lending group led by JPMorgan Chase & Co
If the court rejects the appeals, Grace could take another two to three months to exit bankruptcy, in part because it still needs to secure a bankruptcy exit loan, La Force said.
That does not take into account possible appeals at the U.S. Supreme Court, which could further delay its exit from bankruptcy.
Doug Roll, mayor of Libby, Montana, said his town has been "trying to get beyond" the asbestos-related problems.
"As far as we're concerned, Grace is gone," Roll said. "And good riddance."
(Editing by Tiffany Wu and Matthew Lewis)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-why-bankrupt-w-r-grace-thriving-122316867.html
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Sunday, June 16, 2013
The Marketplace Fairness Act: a headache for small business owners
In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota that a state can?t require an out-of-state business to collect and remit sales taxes to it if doing so is burdensome to the business.
The Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), recently passed by the Senate and under consideration in the House, ignores the need to simplify tax collection obligations and instead ensures that compliance will be burdensome for small businesses. In a recent Daily Caller op-ed, Drex Davis provides a high-level introduction to the burdens imposed on small businesses by the MFA. My personal experience confirms his assertions.
Unfortunately, proponents of the MFA such as Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have claimed that tax collection post-MFA will be ?as simple as looking up the weather on a person?s computer.? This illustrates a deep misunderstanding about the complexity of tax laws, jurisdictions and the software systems that are necessary to tie the mess together.
Each of this country?s 10,000 different taxing jurisdictions has its own laws for applying sales tax to all sorts of goods ? including food, prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs, software, clothes and much more. Plus, within the same zip code, even on the same street, different tax rates can apply. I manually downloaded and printed the sales tax rates by zip code for all of the states. It?s over 38,000 lines long and 811 printed pages.
MFA proponents argue that the ?free software? (paid for by the states) will make this complexity irrelevant. But the software will only provide me with rates, not product categories, and it will do nothing to help lift the time-and-money burden of submitting up to 600 tax returns per year. So much for ?free.? I can use an unsubsidized software program like the one Avalara produces, which simplifies the process to some degree, but if I did that I?d have to pay Avalara a fee on every single sale I make, plus about $29 for every tax return I file. For my business, that would be $16,000 in remittance costs annually, plus thousands of dollars in transaction fees.
The problems and costs don?t end there. I scheduled two meetings with Avalara to walk me through implementation of their software. Like many other small businesses, I use the accounting software Sage 50 (formerly Peachtree). The Sage 50 platform isn?t capable of live, forced compliance, so the Avalara representatives I spoke with told me I?d have to upgrade to the Sage 100 platform in order to automate my sales tax calculations. They also said my shopping cart isn?t compatible with their program and would have to be modified. Moreover, I?d have to change my entire sales software and strategy because no multi-channel cart solutions are currently supported by their software. To integrate Avalara?s software, I?d have to spend at least $40,000 in the first year alone, and then a certain amount each year after that.
I wish I could say that was the end of it, but I can?t. I?d also have to categorize all of my products to be readable by the software. Contrary to statements by pro-MFA politicians, neither the MFA nor the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA) provide rate simplification or designate what is taxable and what isn?t. This means that small business owners will have to become experts on tax law in the 46 sales-tax states so that they can tag their products to be software readable.
This is virtually impossible. For example, in Idaho clothing is exempt from sales taxes but in Minnesota it?s not. In other states, clothing might be exempt, depending on the price. That is ? of course ? unless it?s not. In Massachusetts the categorization requirements are unbelievably convoluted and confusing: sports bras are tax exempt, but sports shorts aren?t. A sewing button is exempt but a scrapbooking button isn?t. That same sewing button isn?t exempt if it?s included in a sewing kit. Yarn is exempt unless it could be used to make a rug. Thread is exempt, unless it?s sold with a needle. These are just a few examples of thousands.
Software isn?t going to make these distinctions or judgment calls. We will be forced to make them, and that will mean huge time investments. But that still won?t protect us. If an out-of-state auditor disagrees with our categorization, we could be held personally liable for uncollected taxes or penalized for over-collecting.
The MFA fails to satisfy the minimum requirements set forth by the Supreme Court because collecting and remitting sales taxes for remote states is extremely burdensome on small businesses like mine. Congress needs to scrap the MFA and go back to the drawing board.
Justin Krauss is the president of Garage Flooring LLC and cofounder of the eMainStreet Alliance.
Source: http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/15/the-marketplace-fairness-act-a-headache-for-small-business-owners/
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