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BBNVol. 26 No. 51BrevardDecember 22, 2008BusinessNewsA Weekly Space Coast Business MagazineBerman Hopkins seescommunity service askey part of its missionBy Ken DatzmanVIERA — This year has been one ofthe most challenging times in decades fornonprofit organizations because of theroiling economy, job cuts at businesses,and a wobbly stock market.Charitable giving is impacted byeconomic slowdowns, as one mightexpect. The result is dwindling volunteerresources for many nonprofit entities.This means a call to action for businesses.“A lot of nonprofit organizations in theregion are struggling and really needfinancial contributions and volunteers,”said John Hopkins, a founder andpartner with Berman Hopkins Wright &LaHam, CPAs and Associates. “This is agreat time of the year, the holidayseason, to reach out to them. The needfor volunteers is heightened by theeconomic downturn.”Berman Hopkins has a long traditionof community service. The firm’s partners and associates are hands–on in thecommunity providing their support atmany events and volunteering throughout the county at dozens of charitableorganizations. The company also donatesthousands of dollars to local charities onan annual basis, as part of its internalcore value of caring.Berman Hopkins implemented acommunity–service volunteer programyears ago and has seen it grow into a bigsuccess. The company encourages andsupports associates who contribute theirtime and energy to charities and nonprofit community–service organizations.The firm is a “committed corporatecitizen,” striving to strengthen andimprove local communities by supportingmany educational, environmental, andhumanitarian groups throughout thecounty, said Berman Hopkins partnerRoss Whitley.To Berman Hopkins, “public accounting” takes on a dual meaning. Thecommunity–at–large, the public, hasbeen a centerpiece of the firm’s successand its ability to grow from a fewaccountants to a team of more than 80Please see Berman Hopkins, page 19BBN photo — Adrienne B. RothMelbourne–based Berman Hopkins Wright & LaHam, a 50–year–old CPA firm, takes pride in itsextensive community–service involvement through financial donations and its force of volunteers.From left, team members are: Steven Bierbrunner, John Hopkins, Alacia Wilson and Ross Whitley.They are at their corporate office on Spyglass Hill Road.The best video games for a tight ChristmasBy Joshua GillinScripps Howard Serviceis a parkour–inspired free–running FPSthat offers an innovative new way toplay. EA’s “Dead Space” is everythinggreat about the “Resident Evil” series,but set on a decaying spacecraft.l WiiThere’s precious little new for the Wiithis season, but “Wii Fit” is a winner.Using a pressure–sensitive board toemulate soccer headers, Hula Hoops andyoga mats is something everyone canfind time to enjoy. Minigame collection“Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party” willkeep the kids busy, too. Otherwise, pickup something with “Mario” in the title, ifyou don’t already have it, or give “WiiPoints” for downloads, because pickingsare slim.Please see Video Games, page 16PRESORTED STANDARDUS POSTAGEPAIDBREVARD BUSINESS NEWS, INC.This is possibly one of the greatestseasons ever for gamers, with tons ofgreat new stuff crowding the shelves, butwallets and purses are light on cash thisyear. So what are the absolute must–haves?Try these standouts:l XBox 360The name of the game is cooperationin “Left 4 Dead,” Valve’s four–playerzombie apocalypse nightmare. Gatheringthree buddies to try to escape the flesh–eating hordes is frantic, confusing andexhilarating, just like a fake doomsdayscenario should be. Also an Xboxexclusive is “Gears of War 2,” the sequelto Epic’s legendary run and gun. Itsover–the–top action is matched only byits addictiveness (and is way better thanthe PS3 wannabe “Resistance 2”).l PlayStation 3If you’re looking for exclusive co–opplay, Sony scored a bull’s–eye with “LittleBig Planet.” Long touted as the next bigIP, the level–creating new kid on theblock is fun enough that everyone willwant to play. Plus, those little Sackboysare adorable. And don’t forget “MetalGear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots,” thebiggest and best installment in the sagaof Solid Snake. Its release way back inJune kept the PS3’s nose above thewaterline all year.l Both platformsAlso, both platforms support two ofmy favorites of ‘08: EA’s “Mirror’s Edge”
BBNDIGESTMTN Advertising expands itsoperations in Satellite BeachBB&TServices.BB&T MerchantBBN Everything.What’s in it pickforupyou?11-10-08page 9SERVICESBB&T MERCHANTNext-day funding of Visa andMasterCard transactionsAcceptance of debit and credit cards,including Visa, MasterCard,American Express and Discover 100 off new terminal–or reprograman existing terminal free 25 free to you for activating amerchant services account*Right now, when you open any new BB&TMerchant Services account, we’ll match or beatyour current merchant processing discount rate**.Our suite of services can help increase sales,increase customer transactions, increase theaverage ticket amount, and streamline processes.Don’t settle for less. Get everything with BB&T.To learn more, visit your local BB&T Financial Center, call 1-866-238-2420or visit BBT.com/merchantoffer today.B A N K I N GI N S U R A N C EI N V E S T M E N T S* Must activate within 60 days of account opening. ** Subject to credit approval. Offer valid for clients with Visa/MasterCard/aggregate annual sales of lessthan 2.5 million. Two months of current provider statements required. BB&T Merchant Services is a division of BB&T Financial, FSB, a subsidiary of BB&TCorporation. Member FDIC. All rights reserved. 2008 BB&T.“MORTGAGE MONEY”Left Hand Productionsnew ad emailedBREVARD BUSINESS NEWS / 2Crissypick up BBN777-323212-15-08“Brevard’s most referred lender since 1981”page 9PUT YOURSELF IN OUR PLACE& RETAIL SPACEWoodlakeOFFICEVillageLOCATED IN PALM BAYMELBOURNEpick upANDBBN725-124012-15-08For more informationpage 2A very Merry Christmas to You!SATELLITE BEACH — MTN Advertising has beenreceiving an obvious increase in attention. Ironically,the talk is contributed to architecture rather thanadvertising.Nearly double its former size, the company hasexpanded Satellite Beach’s first building to feature astudio–style second story, complete with a balcony, halfbath and a sound system. The entire creative department “happily made the move up,” said Walter Wood,president of MTN.Contracted, designed and built by Certified BuildingCorp. of Melbourne Beach, construction began in mid–September and was completed in early November,exceeding time projections, Wood said.The agency completed its new look with a metal roof,paint job, landscaping and patio hammock. Wood sayshe is “thrilled to expand his nearly 22–year–old business while promoting new growth and adding significant value” to the surrounding South Patrick Driveneighborhoods.“We are extremely happy,” he said. “The buildingwent up fast, turned out remarkable and embodies theatmosphere of a modern advertising agency. You canundoubtedly sense a different creative energy, and allbut feel ideas happening. It’s really good for the company and good for the community.”The MTN staff of six people, which maintained“business as usual during the construction phase, nowenjoys vaulted ceilings, beachside breezes, a river viewand congratulatory honks from passing traffic.”MTN Advertising provides marketing services tolarge and small businesses, nationally and locally. Theagency offers services in marketing communications,Web–site development, broadcast production,copywriting, and strategic–media placement.For more information about the firm’s services,contact Jenna Bernardo at 779–1010 or send an e–mailmessage to jenna@mtninc.com.Downtown Produce ‘Wine–Tasting’ setDowntown Produce Market & More in Melbournewill host a “Holiday Wine–Tasting Showcase” from11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 19, and Saturday,Dec. 20. The store is at 7856 Ellis Road. The event, opento the public, will feature wines from around the world.Five–dollars at the door buys you a wine glass fortasting. Wine representatives from many differentcompanies will showcase their brands to the public.“This is a great way to get customer feedback on newwines we plan to carry as well as comments on ourcurrent selection,” said Jill Aker, owner of DowntownProduce Market & More. The 8,000–square–foot retailstore has one of the largest selections of wine in theregion, with many bottles priced under 15. At theevent, a number of door prizes will be given away. Agrand prize is valued at 500. Downtown ProduceMarket & More’s telephone number is 308–0275.B&N to host reading club Jan. 10Barnes & Noble in West Melbourne will host“American Girls,” a popular reading and craft club, at10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 10. The store is at 1955 W.New Haven Ave. The reservation deadline is Jan. 7 andthe number to call is 726–8871.DECEMBER 22, 2008
CHRRIISSTTMMAASSMMEERRRRYYDECEMBER 22, 2008A very Merry Christmas to You!BREVARD BUSINESS NEWS / 3
BBNEDITORIALEvolution causes bad–tasting butterflies to share their habitatBy Tom NordlieCompetition for resources can cause animal speciesin an ecological community to evolve away from eachother, becoming less similar — but University of Floridaresearch shows that sometimes mutual benefit causesjust the opposite.Case in point: South American butterflies thatdiscourage predators by advertising the message “we alltaste bad” via similar, conspicuous color patterns.A study published in the journal “PLoS Biology”shows that groups of butterfly species in the subfamilyIthomiinae evolved to share not only color patterns, butalso preferences for habitat, including the places theyfly, court and rest.Both factors probably reduce the risk of being eaten,said Keith Willmott, one of the paper’s authors and anaffiliate assistant professor with UF’s entomology andnematology department, part of the Institute of Foodand Agricultural Sciences.For example, Willmott says, if four bad–tastingbutterfly species live in one area but they all lookdifferent, then theoretically every local insect–eatingbird will have to kill an individual from each speciesbefore realizing that all four taste bad.“Each time, the bird decides ‘I won’t do that again’BBNBrevardBusinessNews4300 Fortune Place, Suite DWest Melbourne, FL 32904(321) 951-7777fax (321) 951-4444(email) brevardbusinessnews@earthlink.netPUBLISHERAdrienne B. RothEDITORKen DatzmanOFFICE MANAGERFrank SchiffmannBrevard Business News is published every Monday byBrevard Business News Inc. Bulk Rate postage is paid atMelbourne, FL and Cocoa, FL. This publication servesbusiness executives in Brevard County. It reports onnews, trends and ideas of interest to industry, trade,agribusiness, finance, health care, high technology andcommerce.Letters to the Editor must include the writer’s signatureand printed or typed name, full address and telephonenumber. Brevard Business News reserves the right to editall letters. Send your letters to: Editor, Brevard BusinessNews, 4300 Fortune Place, Suite D, West Melbourne, FL,32904.Subscription Rates for home or office mail delivery are 26.00 for one year (52 issues). Send all addresschanges to: Circulation Department, Brevard BusinessNews, 4300 Fortune Place, Suite D, West Melbourne, FL,32904.BREVARD BUSINESS NEWS / 4but it kills four butterflies as it learns,” said Willmott,also the assistant curator of Lepidoptera with theFlorida Museum of Natural History.If, instead, the butterflies have evolved to share acommon wing pattern, each bird may only need to eat asingle individual before learning to avoid all fourspecies, thus reducing the likelihood of attack for allindividuals.By sharing the same habitat, the butterflies improvetheir chances of educating predators quickly, becausepredators tend to forage in specific habitats.The notion that mutual benefit can be a powerfulevolutionary force isn’t new, but scientists are nowreassessing just how prevalent it may be, said MarianneElias, the paper’s first author and a postdoctoralassociate with the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.“Positive interactions actually happen quite a lot invarious organisms,” Elias said.For example, mammals or birds sometimes formmixed–species groups for better protection frompredators and increased foraging efficiency, she said.Some flowering plants have evolved to look similar andbloom simultaneously, to maximize the chances ofattracting animals that will pollinate them.The researchers studied a diverse community ofithomiine butterflies in lowland Ecuadorian rainforest,recording the insects’ habitat use and behavior.The study broke new ground by using geneticanalysis to show that the similarities in appearance andbehavior were not just due to common ancestry.Instead, natural selection has driven unrelated speciesto converge in both their wing patterns and the placesthat they favor — shady areas or sunny, valleys orridges, treetops or the forest floor.Upcoming research will investigate populations on alarger geographic scale, to see if look–alike speciesgenerally occur together across regions. If so, it wouldstrengthen the notion that mutual benefit has been animportant force in the evolution of these species.Another project will be aimed at clarifying the roleplayed by competition among members of the subfamilyIthomiinae, which includes about 370 species with acollective range reaching from the southwestern UnitedStates to Argentina.The UF research is impressive because it helpsillustrate the role that mutual benefit plays in structuring an ecological community, said James Mallet, aprofessor of biological diversity with University CollegeLondon and a leading expert on ithomiine butterflies.Scientists debate whether ecological communities aremade up of random groups of species, or if communitiesare structured by interactions between species, such aspredation, competition and mutual benefit. The UFpaper shows that positive interactions among speciescan indeed have a significant effect in structuringcommunities, Mallet said.Other authors of the paper include ZachariahGompert of the University of Wyoming’s botanydepartment and Chris Jiggins of the University ofCambridge’s zoology department.Rockledge High School graduate named NASA student ambassadorEdward Schwieterman, a junior majoring in astronomy and astrophysics at Florida Institute ofTechnology, has been selected as a student ambassadorfor the NASA International Year of Astronomy (NASAIYA) program. With the award Schwieterman willreceive up to 2,500.He earned the award through his academic credentials and for an essay he wrote about how he might“spread the excitement of NASA’s astronomical discoveries within his local community and beyond.” A majorresponsibility of the selected ambassadors is to encourage undergraduate and graduate students to participatein NASA IYA activities and to help generate enthusiasm for NASA’s scientific discoveries in astronomy.Schwieterman distinguished himself this fall byearning a Universities Space Research AssociationEducation Scholarship. Additionally, at the university’sHonors Convocation in spring 2008, he was named theuniversity’s overall Outstanding Junior.He has conducted undergraduate research underFlorida Tech Assistant Professor Niescja Turner,studying geomagnetic storms and magnetosphericphysics. He also has been a volunteer coach for theBrevard County Collaborative High School ScienceBowl team the past two years.A 2006 graduate of Rockledge High School,Schwieterman resides in Viera. He is one of 52 studentsselected to become NASA IYA Ambassadors this year.Annie Liebovitz exhibit set for Brevard Art MuseumRecognizable cultural icons and ordinary women will transfix audiences when the exhibition “Annie Leibovitz:Women” graces the galleries of the Brevard Art Museum from Jan. 10 through March 8. She is a world–famousphotographer. Fifty–four large format photographs “will stimulate the viewer’s definitions of beauty and gender.”This traveling exhibition was made possible by The Women’s Museum: An Institute for the Future, in Dallas,Texas. Portraits in the exhibition include: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Serena and Venus Williams, Betty Ford,Martina Navratilova, Courtney Love, Sigourney Weaver, Jerry Hall and Gabriel Jagger, Martha Stewart, OprahWinfrey, Haydee and Sahara Scull, Gloria Steinem, Toni Morrison, Melissa Etheridge, Elizabeth Taylor andKatharine Graham. The museum is at 1463 Highland Ave., in the Eau Gallie section of Melbourne. Call 242–0737to learn more details about the exhibit.League of Women Voters luncheon Jan. 30The League of Women Voters of the Space Coast will present “Politicos on Parade 2009,” a luncheon and fashionshow, at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 30, at the Eau Gallie Yacht Club in Indian Harbour Beach. The program willfeature newly elected Brevard County officials, including Melbourne City Council member Molly Tasker, District 1County Commissioner Robin Fisher and Supervisor of Elections Lori Scott. Rockledge Councilman Dick Blake willemcee the event. The fee to attend the luncheon is 35. To make a reservation, call Doreen Archer at 622–4071 orJean Tweed at 783–4477. The reservation deadline is Jan. 25.A very Merry Christmas to You!DECEMBER 22, 2008
BBNDIGESTThree GMV products earn entryinto Space Foundation programCOLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Space Foundation recently welcomed insightArthroVR, Moviloc, andSAGRAN, three of GMV’s family of space–basedproducts, as “Certified Space Technologies.”The certification program was created by the SpaceFoundation, in cooperation with NASA, to raiseawareness and understanding about the significant andpractical benefits of technologies originally developed forthe space program which have been adapted intoproducts and services that improve life on Earth.l InsightArthroVR is an arthroscopy surgerysimulator that combines space–image enhancementsoftware, virtual reality, and computer–aided trainingtechniques to provide surgeons with highly realistictraining. Currently designed for shoulder and kneearthroscopy, it represents an “invaluable complement totraditional training techniques to acquire and improvethe skills needed for minimally invasive surgery.”l Using satellite–based global–positioning systemdata, Moviloc is a complete fleet–tracking and management service, providing route reports and services toimprove day–to–day running and fleet–investmentdecision–making, all on the basis of secure Internetaccess. Moviloc–Bus meets the need for a “simple, Web–based fleet–management system and has been fitted tomore than 450 buses.”l SAGRAN is a sophisticated GPS–based NavalLanding Approach System, which provides crucialapproach and landing–phase navigation information toaircraft landing on mobile platforms, such as aircraftcarriers. The airborne and ship–borne equipment allowSAGRAN to provide air–navigation information for upto 15 aircraft operating in the vicinity of the vessel.“I am pleased to welcome these products as our latestCertified Space Technologies,” said Kevin Cook, directorof space–awareness programs for the Space Foundation.“GMV has done an extraordinary job of developingproducts from space–based technologies to improve lifehere on Earth.”For more information about insightArthroVR,Moviloc, SAGRAN, visit www.SpaceConnection.org.GMV is a privately owned technology–businessgroup with a presence around the world. Founded in1984, GMV offers its solutions, services and products invery diverse sectors: aeronautics, banking and finance,space, defense, health, security, transportation, telecommunications, and information technology.GMV’s U.S. headquarters are in Rockville, Md.Separately, the 25th National Space Symposium, thepremier annual gathering of the global–space community, will take place March 30 to April 2 at TheBroadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.Cocoa Village Playousenew ad emailedFULL COLORRolling Readers volunteer training setRolling Readers of the Space Coast will be providinginformatio
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