Free Design Tutorials: 15 + Graphics Design Tutorials | Best Graphic ...

Graphic design tutorials, which are designed by experts, consist of drawings and pictures that an aspiring designer needs for presenting different works. A tutorial at first ensures to strengthen the base for a designer, and also introduces him to different lines, textures, shapes, color and mass. It makes him familiar with the function of each designing element. Here we collected Free Design Tutorials: 15 + Graphics Design Tutorials.

Create a Planetary Asteroid Impact ? Psd Premium Tutorial

While asteroids don?t slam into the Earth all that often, movie producers sure act like they do. We can all think up a few movies with similar plots. An asteroid is about to hit the planet and a group of heroes comes to save the day. In this Psd Premium tutorial, author Ed Lopez will demonstrate how to create an asteroid impact, just like in the movies. If you would like to take your Photoshop skills to the next level, Log in or Join Now to get started!

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Create Awesome Abstract Illustrations Using Stock Art From Visual Freaks

Some people might not realize how fun and easy it can be to create an awesome illustration with just a few pieces of stock art elements. In today?s tutorial we will demonstrate how to create an abstract illustration using a few pieces of stock art from Visual Freaks? Organic CG Art Pack and just some basic knowledge of Photoshop. Let?s get started!

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Design and Print a Skateboard Deck and T-Shirt ? Psd Premium Tutorial

Today?s Psd Premium tutorial by author Mark Mayers will focus on creating a brand for a fictitious skate company and also applying graphics to a skate deck and T-shirt. We?ll demonstrate how to achieve professional results every time ? both items were actually printed using the tutorial techniques. For screen-print fanatics, there?s an extra bonus; you?ll discover how the Apply Image command enables you to create knockouts and error-free spot colors without the need for expensive RIP software. Special thanks to Steve over at Advertees for printing the shirts and providing invaluable technical advice. This tutorial is available exclusively to Premium Members. If you are looking to take your print and t-shirt design skills to the next level then Log in or Join Now to get started!

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Design? Coffee Shop Menu Layout from Scratch with Photoshop and InDesign ? Part 1

Hi everyone, this time I?ve got for you a practical tutorial about creating a ready to print booklet menu for an imaginary coffee shop named ?Violet Coffee.? In this tutorial you?ll learn to mockup a ready to print background and a couple of additional objects, which will be imported later on in Adobe InDesign to finish the piece. Are you ready?

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Use Photo Manipulation and 3D Layers to Design a Surreal Cover Art Illustration

My clients often ask me to create impossible scenarios, weird landscapes and surreal images for their projects; images that wouldn?t be possible in real life. It?s situations like these where photo manipulation becomes a powerful design tool. In today?s tutorial I will show you how to design a CD cover using several photo manipulation techniques, how to keep critical text layers editable for any future change and how to render a quick mockup using the Vanishing Point filter. Let?s get it started!

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How to Create an Ice-cold Poster with 3D Text

In this tutorial, you?ll learn how to combine stock images and 3D text into a cool poster. We?ll use an icy theme for it and color it the way we want. You?ll see it?s not that hard to create a simple appealing poster with effective use of text and imagery.

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Dynamic Recessed Watercolor Typography in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I?ll show you how to mix vector elements and watercolor effects with text to create a stunning design. It?s a quick process that depends heavily on good choices of images and colors.

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Make a Turn of the Century Vaudeville Poster

In this tutorial, we?ll learn how create a turn-of-the-century Vaudeville poster. This uniquely appealing style of advertisement was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s. You sir! You madam! Step right up and prepare to be amazed as we transport an image of two friends back in time to create a poster advertisement without compare!

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Create a Realistic Blackberry Style Mobile Phone From Scratch

If you ever have to create a slick phone or Blackberry design, and you don?t feel like buying stock images, then this tutorial is for you. I will show you how to use Vector Shapes, Masks, and mostly Layer Effects to create this elegant design.

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Create a Cool Music Logo on a Grunge Background

I really like the artwork that is used in Pitchfork?s Web site, so I decided to recreate something similar in Photoshop and make a tutorial on how I did it. These techniques can be used to make a logo and background for a cool grunge-style Web site.

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Quick Grungy Poster

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a sort of grunge poster. We will learn how to make some elements look a bit dirty, create textures, and add some depths to the elements using shadows and blend modes.

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Create A Cool Vintage Collage Design In Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a retro-style design or vintage collage style. We will use images from old ads, handwritten texts, patterns, and other things to give to our design a vintage look.

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Creating an Old-Collage Effect Poster

One of my favorite ?looks? is the sort of old-collage feel of old photos and old paper. It?s a favorite because it lets you work images and text together really easily. In this tutorial we?ll put together a poster where there is a main photograph and a lot of text using the old-collage feel.

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Creating a Stunning Old-World Look in Photoshop

In this tutorial, we are going to create a sort of old-worldy composition featuring a compass and making use of some awesome vector artwork from Arsenal. As always there is a PSD file at the bottom of the tutorial. In this instance, I would highly recommend downloading it as this is quite a complex composition. Be warned this is a LONG tutorial!

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Elements of Great Web Design: The Polish

When I put together designs, I usually do so in two phases ? Layout and Polish. During the layout phase, I place the main objects on the page usually finishing with something that looks relatively complete. In the second stage ? the Polish ? I go over the design and adjust colors, type treatments, shadows, layers, and generally clean it all up. In this first of a series of tutorials on web design, we?ll be looking at the Polish.

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How to create Neon Illustration Happy New Year 2012 in Photoshop CS5

In this tutorial, we are going to design a simple New Year illustration with neon digits in Photoshop CS5. I hope you enjoy this tutorial and that it inspires you to create your own illustration for New Year! Layered PSD file included. Let?s get started!

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How to stylise model shoot using colourful shapes in Photoshop

Start working by creating a new document (Ctrl+N) in Adobe Photoshop with the size 1280px by 1024px (RGB color mode) at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch. Use the Paint Bucket Tool (G) to fill with black color the new background layer

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How to design an abstract Christmas illustration with colorful shapes and glass baubles in Photoshop CS5

We have another great tutorial available for our readers today. If you want to learn how to design an abstract Christmas illustration with colorful shapes and glass baubles, using simple shapes and gradients in Adobe Photoshop CS5, then this tutorial is for you.

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Mac ? Colorful Design

For the beginning we need to create a new file of 1600?1200 px and 72 dpi. After that create another file of 4?4 px and 72 dpi too. Using the Pencil Tool (B), let?s represent a kind of block, like the next one. The color?s codes for the new elements are shown below.

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Source: http://best-graphicdesign.com/2012/02/free-design-tutorials-15-graphics-design-tutorials/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=free-design-tutorials-15-graphics-design-tutorials

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When continents collide: A new twist to a 50 million-year-old tale

ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2012) ? Fifty million years ago, India slammed into Eurasia, a collision that gave rise to the tallest landforms on the planet, the Himalaya Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau.

India and Eurasia continue to converge today, though at an ever-slowing pace. University of Michigan geomorphologist and geophysicist Marin Clark wanted to know when this motion will end and why. She conducted a study that led to surprising findings that could add a new wrinkle to the well-established theory of plate tectonics -- the dominant, unifying theory of geology.

"The exciting thing here is that it's not easy to make progress in a field (plate tectonics) that's 50 years old and is the major tenet that we operate under," said Clark, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

"The Himalaya and Tibet are the highest mountains today on Earth, and we think they're probably the highest mountains in the last 500 million years," she said. "And my paper is about how this is going to end and what's slowing down the Indian plate."

Clark's paper is scheduled for online publication Feb. 29 in the journal Nature.

In it, she suggests that the strength of the underlying mantle, not the height of the mountains, is the critical factor that will determine when the Himalayan-Tibetan mountain-building episode ends. Earth's mantle is the thick shell of rock that separates the crust above from the core below.

According to the theory of plate tectonics, the outer part of Earth is broken into several large plates, like pieces of cracked shell on a boiled egg. The continents ride on the plates, which move relative to one another and occasionally collide. The tectonic plates move about as fast as your fingernails grow, and intense geological activity -- volcanoes, earthquakes and mountain-building, for example -- occurs at the plate boundaries.

The rate at which the Indian sub-continent creeps toward Eurasia is slowing exponentially, according to Clark, who reviewed published positions of northern India over the last 67 million years to evaluate convergence rates. The convergence will halt -- putting an end to one of the longest periods of mountain-building in recent geological history -- in about 20 million years, she estimates.

And what will cause it to stop?

Until now, conventional wisdom among geologists has been that the slowing of convergence at mountainous plate boundaries was related to changes in the height of the mountains. As the mountains grew taller, they exerted an increasing amount of force on the plate boundary, which slowed the convergence.

But in her Nature paper, Clark posits that a different model, one based on the strength of the uppermost mantle directly beneath the mountains, best explains the observed post-collisional motions of the Indian plate.

By "strength" Clark means the uppermost mantle's ability to withstand deformation, a property called viscous resistance. Clark suggests that the relatively strong mantle directly beneath Tibet and the Himalayas acts as a brake that slows -- and will eventually halt -- the convergence of the two continents.

"My paper is arguing that it's not the height of the mountains, it's the strength of the mantle that's controlling this slowing," Clark said. "This is something that hasn't been considered before and basically grew out of field observations in northern Tibet."

But viscous resistance doesn't tell the whole story. Other factors may also contribute to the slowing of the Indian plate, Clark said.

"For me, critical field observations showed that the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau hasn't moved since the collision 50 million years ago," she said. "Therefore, the Tibetan Plateau is getting smaller in width. It's like squeezing a box and making it narrower while squeezing it up."

The rate at which the box is being squeezed is the average rate of mountain-building, and it provides important clues about the factors controlling plate motion. Clark analyzed how the convergence is slowing as compared to the shrinking of the plateau.

"If the height of the mountains were important in slowing India's convergence, then the rate of mountain-building should also slow down as the Himalaya and Tibet grew to high elevation," Clark said. "But when I analyzed how the mountain-building rate changed over the past 50 million years, I was surprised to find that it didn't change at all.

"From this I conclude that the strength of the uppermost mantle is keeping this mountain- building constant. But as the box is shrinking, the plate motion must slow down to keep the shrinking rate the same," she said.

Support for the research was provided by the National Science Foundation's Continental Dynamics Program.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan, via Newswise. The original article was written by Jim Erickson.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Marin Kristen Clark. Continental collision slowing due to viscous mantle lithosphere rather than topography. Nature, 2012; 483 (7387): 74 DOI: 10.1038/nature10848

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120229140659.htm

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Judge Dismisses Organic Farmers' Case Against Monsanto

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Judge Dismisses Organic Farmers' Case Against Monsanto
The Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association and several other plaintiff growers do not use Monsanto seeds, but had hoped that the federal judge would agree that Monsanto should not be allowed to sue them if pollen from the company's patented crops happened to drift into their fields.

Source: NPR
Posted on: Tuesday, Feb 28, 2012, 7:52am
Views: 6

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117931/Judge_Dismisses_Organic_Farmers__Case_Against_Monsanto

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"Time Crystals" Could Be a Legitimate Form of Perpetual Motion

News | More Science

Physicists explore the concept that cold states of matter can form repeated patterns in time

By Ron Cowen ?| February 27, 2012?|

Image: Flickr/Sam_Wise

The phrases "perpetual-motion machine"?a concept derided by scientists since the mid-19th century?and "physics Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek" wouldn't seem to belong in the same sentence. But if Wilczek's latest ideas on symmetry and the nature of time are correct, they would suggest the existence of a bona fide perpetual-motion machine? albeit one from which energy could never be extracted. He proposes that matter could form a "time crystal," whose structure would repeat periodically, as with an ordinary crystal, but in time rather than in space. Such a crystal would represent a previously unknown state of matter and might have arisen as the very early universe cooled, losing its primordial symmetries.

Wilczek describes his work in this article and in this one coauthored by Alfred Shapere of the University of Kentucky, that he posted on the physics preprint server, arXiv.org, on February 12.

"The papers themselves are perfectly respectable, undoubtedly correct, and interesting," says cosmologist Sean Carroll of the California Institute of Technology.

Known for his pioneering work in developing quantum chromodynamics, the theory that explains how the particles inside atomic nuclei stick together, Wilczek, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says he got his latest idea two years ago while teaching a course on group theory. That branch of mathematics, which uses matrices to describe the symmetries inherent in families of elementary particles, also describes and classifies the structure of crystals. Materials such as a liquid or a gas in equilibrium, made of uniformly distributed particles, exhibit perfect spatial symmetry?they look the same everywhere and in every direction.

But at very low or minimum energies, most materials can't retain that symmetry, and they crystallize. The regular geometric pattern of a crystal lacks complete spatial symmetry; the structure does not look the same everyplace. Because crystals have less symmetry than before, physicists say they exhibit spontaneous symmetry breaking. Equivalent processes occur in many domains of physics. A type of broken symmetry, which would be indicated by the presence of the Higgs boson now being hunted at the Large Hadron Collider, would explain why subatomic particles have mass.

Wilczek says he started wondering whether the concept of an ordinary three-dimensional crystal could be extended to four dimensions, with the extra dimension that of time. A time crystal would spontaneously break what Wilczek calls "the mother of all symmetries"?the symmetry of time translation, which holds physical laws remains the same regardless of what time it is. A time crystal would change with time but keep coming back to the same form it began with, like a clock whose moving hands periodically return to their original positions.

The difference from an ordinary clock or other periodic process is that a time crystal, as with a spatial crystal, would be a state of minimum possible energy. At first glance, that poses a contradiction. A time crystal by definition must change with time in order to break time translation symmetry. But a system with minimum energy ordinarily can't move. If it could, then additional energy could still be extracted, until the system achieved a true minimum energy, a motionless state.

"At first I thought this was easy, then that it was impossible," Wilczek noted in a recent lecture at Arizona State University at Tempe. "Now I think it's neither easy nor impossible."

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=f7d47b6673eaafa407b7713b4121b270

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ViewSonic ViewPhone 4s hands-on (video)

Viewsonic's ViewPhone 4s was on hand at Mobile World Congress and we couldn't help but stop and check out this surprisingly likeable handset. First off, the 326ppi 3.5-inch IPS display is beautiful, very beautiful. Other notables include dual SIM support, a 5-megapixel camera, a front-facing cam and four gigs of storage that can be augmented via an SD card. The housing wasn't complete in the handset being shown, though the design is pretty sharp with the inclusion of a trapdoor on the bottom which folds open to reveal a SIM tray and the slot for expansion memory. The interaction with the Android 4.0 OS was really fast and perfectly smooth with the standout being the ViewScene 3D launcher interface. Have a look at the video for a quick once-over and the gallery for pics from every angle.

Gallery: ViewSonic ViewPhone 4s hands-on

Zach Honig contributed to this report.

Continue reading ViewSonic ViewPhone 4s hands-on (video)

ViewSonic ViewPhone 4s hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/kzYs-KuOPns/

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Make Your Website the Number One Choice with Link Building ...

In the ever-changing arena of internet, every business needs to find out the best opportunities to make its presence noticeable. For this, businesses get a very short time period and sometimes they get only one chance to attract visitors as a visitor will never visit such website which does not contain useful information. Due to tough competition among online businesses and service providers every online business owner need to be more cautious and coherent as missing single chance can cause a big loss. For making a noticeable presence on World Wide Web, online businesses must remember that promotion is the key to popularity and once a site gets desired popularity among internet users nothing can stop that site from making renowned place in online market. Usually, online businesses adapt various techniques to make their site popular; link building is one of those popular techniques that bring more and more traffic to a website. For effective link building, businesses often hire firms that are involved in providing link building services.

Since link building is essential for every website, it should never be overlooked; online businesses that ignore link building do not get desired traffic despite of putting their hardest endeavors in popularizing their website. Link building services providers help a website in improving its position on search engine ranking through a unique process of building that website?s links on various host sites. Advantages of link building services are supreme as your site gets extra users with the help of host site; whenever a visitor visits host site he or she finds you link with reference. Definitely, it is an excellent way to attract more and more visitors as with it your site gets huge popularity and identity.

Link building service providers use every latest technique so that your site may get noticed by all major search engines. Since most of major search engines decide on rank of any website through its link popularity, it is must to make your URL a well known link for getting highest rank on search engines. If you own a website and striving to get good traffic then go for link building service provider to attract more internet users; these service providers not only popularize your link but also work on page ranking, traffic and deep indexing so that your website may get all that stuff which is necessary for effective online presence.

In link building service, a thorough study of your website and selection of perfect host is made; the host that is selected for putting your link will be according to search engine criteria. With a good link building service provider you will never have to worry about host site and strategies as these all things will be discussed and decided by the hired service provider. As success of your online business entirely depends on the proper placement, publicity and link building therefore, do not wait anymore and hire an efficient link building firm to make your website the most preferred choice of every internet user.

Steve Waganer has specialization in Web Marketing. He is expert in Search engine optimization,search engine marketing tips, link building service, Social media optimization. To get the SEO tips from,search engine marketing firm for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

Author: Steve Waganer
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Source: http://e07.net/make-your-website-the-number-one-choice-with-link-building-service/

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BYU basketball: Cougars talk up their NCAA credentials

Provo ? Not long after BYU scratched its way past Portland 76-66 in front of another sellout crowd of 22,700 at the Marriott Center on Senior Night, the questions started coming for the Cougars and their coach.

Does BYU need to win the West Coast Conference tournament next week to make it into the NCAA Tournament as the league?s automatic qualifier, or have the Cougars done enough to ensure themselves an at-large bid?

As usual, coach Dave Rose wasn?t biting.

?We will have to see how the tournament goes,? he said. ?Hopefully we can go down there [to Las Vegas] and play well.?

Earlier, when asked many WCC teams should go to the NCAAs, Rose replied: ?It doesn?t matter what I think. I think it is a great league. I think there are really competitive teams [in it], and I think our team has played really well all year long. Hopefully we can win this [WCC] tournament.?

The Cougars placed third in their inaugural season in the WCC with a 12-4 league record, going 6-2 at home and on the road. They are 24-7 overall, with six wins against teams with top-100 RPIs. Their own RPI is in the 40s.

?I don?t think we necessarily have to win [the conference tournament],? said Noah Hartsock, who did not play Saturday due to soreness in his left knee. ?I think we have had a good, solid year, really strong, and we are playing well right now. ... I think we are going to have a good run in the conference tournament.?

With Hartsock not playing, Charles Abouo was BYU?s only senior on the floor, and he responded with 16 points, eight rebounds and two steals.

?If I was the [NCAA Selection] Committee, I wouldn?t think we actually have to win that [conference tournament] to get us in there,? Abouo said. ?I think we are good enough to get in there, regardless, but I think when you win your conference tournament, you can control your own destiny.?

The Cougars begin the tournament at Orleans Arena in a quarterfinal game Friday night at 9 p.m. MST against the winner of the Pepperdine-San Diego game, which will be played Thursday night.

drew@sltrib.com

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/cougars/53590612-88/think-tournament-byu-conference.html.csp

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A Photography Book?Absorbed in Print and On the iPad

Hugo Ch?vez and his entourage, 2006. Photo by Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos.

During the last decade Venezuela's "Bolivarian Revolution," led by President Hugo Ch?vez, has generated a plethora??of photographic images. It is not possible to think of my country without conjuring up images of mass protests and marches or, conversely, emblematic ones of its strongman, the still uncontested protagonist Ch?vez. Then there is also the violence and chaos inhabiting sections of Caracas, Venezuela's capital.

In "Capitolio," a book and an iPad app, Magnum photographer Christopher Anderson, connects the circumstances of Caracas's common folk with the failure of the country's urban modernization. It is in an almost religious sense that he portrays Caracas as a battlefield between the forces of good and evil. Images he uses to tell these stories exist in the difficult crossroads between photojournalism and art photography, between critique and propaganda: all of this is located somewhere in the middle between a critical vision and mystification.

To open the hardcover book is to confront a wall of images of poor Caracas neighborhoods, the barrios. The convoluted architecture of these disheveled dwellings speaks to the miserable existence of so many people living on the margins. Anderson contrasts such scenes of poverty with the skyscrapers of Caracas's Parque Central, which once were the tallest buildings in Latin America. He also compares them with the congested and badly maintained highways and with the Capitolio, the domed building that houses the national government, a radiant symbol of Venezuela's dysfunctional political system. All are emblematic of the betrayal of the promise of an abundant future fueled by petro-dollars.

Anderson portrays the collapse of modernity by showing the jungle atmosphere and barbarism that has emerged in its place. As a visual metaphor, his photographs depict misery and human depravity now found in the cracks of building facades and beneath the concrete park benches. As if to emphasize his point with irony, Anderson cites a stanza of the Venezuelan national anthem: "If tyranny raises its voice, follow the example of Caracas." Caracas epitomizes to him the place where the manifest destiny of freedom and revolution meet failed modernity and corruption.

The ?Capitolio? iPad app includes an interview with photographer Christopher Anderson as well as photos not included in the book. Photo by Jonathan Seitz.

Details as Context

Caracas is often shrouded in heavy rain clouds. Behind, and sometimes above, the clouds, the city's poor neighborhoods perch on hills. Here, Anderson portrays the residents who live in shadows and struggle with violence. In his panoramas, the light is not transparent; it has a grainy quality?a metaphor for Caracas's reality, since it is not easy to determine the city's exact shape because of the murky light. His black and white images have a porous quality like pages of an old newspaper, and this gives the photographs a certain pulp, and a sensationalist tone.

In Anderson's images, details provide context, as parts explain the whole. At least this happens when viewed by a Venezuelan who is quite familiar with Caracas. To reflect the high level of violence, for example, he displays a wall with dozens of handprints, but does so without explanation. Following that a man with a pistol is seen standing guard on a street corner. Next is a two-page image of a face with eyes shining through a profound darkness, reflecting the light from a television screen. At the same time, these same eyes appear to be watching us from behind the screen.

Three young men, probably delinquents, appear on the next pages. Do the handprints belong to them? Then, we peer into a holding cell in a police station. On the wall hang chains and handcuffs that presumably restrained the youths' hands. Later, we see a stain on the sidewalk, then feet of indifferent onlookers. We suppose the stain is fresh blood.

Urban imprints of violence are everywhere, but the rhythm of these images leaves the viewer with ambiguous impulses. First, one has a sense of being repulsed, then a feeling of being fascinated with the portrayals of danger and brutality. Until almost halfway through the book, all a reader finds is a cinematic succession of such storytelling. To those without personal acquaintance with these places and people, the absence of explicit context could be problematic. It could lead to a false conclusion that all of Venezuela is an enormous violent barrio with chaotic streets and walls defaced by graffiti.

Soon, Anderson's portraits appear and usher in a sense of intimacy. His photograph of a boy standing on a wall symbolically separating the barrio from the city is among the best in "Capitolio." Splendid, too, is one of a couple whose bodies interlock in an intense dance with overtones of street fighting and erotic choreography. Later, we arrive at images of Venezuela's important mining centers. These serve as an allegory for a society accustomed to living off the riches of its underground resources. With a dramatic use of light and contrast, Anderson pays tribute to Sebasti?o Salgado, who is the master epic photographer of migration and laborers.

Anderson challenges us to think about what binds these supersized images to his central message. In this case, they depict a nation with abundant natural resources that has lost its way and identity in the face of modernization as Venezuelans experience revolutionary delirium in a time of consumerism and global capitalism. Anderson weaves this theme through "Capitolio," though he is not entirely successful, in part because of the absence of a sequential narrative needed to guide readers to such a conclusion.

Anderson appears transformed by what he has seen. At first he seems bewildered by the stark contrasts of opulence and poverty. Later, he assumes an ironic distance in the face of the dysfunctional political process he has observed. His final images provide commentary about the morality of the "new man"?the revolutionary. In what seems the oddest section of his book, Anderson quotes Jos? Mart?, the hero-martyr of the Cuban revolution:

Men are like stars Some generate Their own light While others reflect The brilliance They receive.

He then shows Ch?vez in a Caribbean version of German director Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda film "Triumph of the Will," speaking as commander and president from the "people's balcony."

The final photograph in the book shows a grotesque close-up of a face that looks like Ch?vez. This face conveys a sense of satanic majesty with its exaggerated features, and it looks over the world from a close yet paradoxically inaccessible vantage point. But the image is neither a portrait nor is it journalistic. Filled with pathos and black magic, this photograph creates an almost surreal archetype as the embodiment of evil.

Caracas, 2004. Photo by Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos.

Digital Enhancement

Today's digital enhancement of books enables us to discover different dimensions of this project?and find answers to what might have puzzled us in the print edition. Does the face belong to Ch?vez? Because a companion app for "Capitolio" was created for the iPad, we can find out in an interview with Anderson that while the picture is not of Ch?vez, it is, in his words, "someone who could be Ch?vez, or could be many Latin American leaders." The idea he is conveying is that dictators and supreme leaders govern from the "other world." And though he doesn't say so, Anderson seems to suggest that this is the vital essence of their power.

While satisfactory, the iPad experience of "Capitolio" lacked for me the same striking visual impact that the photographs had in the oversized hardcover book. Yet, the digital "reading" experience provided invaluable information about Anderson's vision that I didn't get from the printed book. On the iPad, for example, Anderson displayed his favorite photos in a "Director's Cut," and while this collection is less ambitious, it's also more concentrated and clear.

Then there is the interview with Anderson, done by photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who was killed while working in Libya in April. "I'm not sure I can call this book journalism," Anderson tells him. "I do comment on the nature of journalism. I didn't set out to tell the story of Venezuela or to report something about Venezuela. This book is about an experience of Venezuela, and there are truths in that experience, but they are my truths." This seems strange for Anderson to say since many of the images on the pages of "Capitolio" are part of the body of journalistic work he did between 2004 and 2008 that was published in magazines such as Newsweek. Anderson also explains that he wanted to present a cinematic experience as a continuum of his photographs. He was not looking for an iconic image, he tells us, but one wonders about this when staring at the book's haunting final image.

Exploring his book and its iPad app leads to a fuller and clearer sense of Anderson's intentions with this project. His images embed the message he wanted to deliver about the wasteful direction of Venezuela's political course. He shows us a nation shrouded in the limbo of violence and the backward progress of decay with Ch?vez seen as almost a natural outcome and the people's divine punishment. In leaving the impression of deep polarization and the vision of evil triumphing over good, Anderson does not do justice to a society as complex as Venezuela's.

Boris Mu?oz, a 2010 Nieman Fellow, was editor in chief of Nueva Sociedad, editor of Exceso, and taught literature and culture at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He is a freelance journalist in the United States. June Carolyn Erlick, editor in chief of ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America, translated this article.

Source: http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=102725

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Use Anit-Slip Matting At the Office or At Home | Nansen Dialog ...

Use Anit-Slip Matting At the Office or At Home

Posted by admin on February 25th, 2012 ? Posted in House and Home

? Tags: Anti-slip matting, mat, mats

The use of Anti-slip matting at work or at home can prevent falls and serious injuries. It can be easy to install and is very affordable. Products can be purchased by the section or by the foot on rolls. They are available in home improvement stores and in stores that sell plumbing and bath supplies.

One are of the home that can benefit from a non-slip surface is the bath or shower. Today?s new styles in the bath include walk in showers and larger shower areas with plenty of tile on the floor. Wet tile becomes a hazard for older people and those with limited mobility.

A mat surface will help prevent dangerous falls that can lead to severe injury. At the same time it can allow the water to drain freely so the area has a chance to dry. The products available today come in a polyurethane material which resists mold and mildew. They can help make the shower easy to maintain.

There are plenty of other places around the house to use Anti-skip matting. At the kitchen sink it can help prevent falls from water and can help absorb shock. It is handy to place in areas where an individual may stand for long periods of time to prepare meals.

The non-slip protector helps keep floors from getting scuffed or scratched at entries where people come and go. It makes an excellent surface for mud rooms and helps keep the floors free of mud and debris. When purchased by the roll it can be cut to fit a small room or a particular surface. When purchased in sections it can be used for larger areas. Using sections makes it easy to replace on tile if it should become damaged in any way.

The use of Anti-slip matting in the workplace can make it safer for employees and visitors. It can be used in high traffic areas to catch any water from rain or snow that may be brought in. The product can also be used in areas where workers will be on their feet most of the day, to reduce stress and fatigue.

There are plenty of commercial companies that offer floor surface materials to make the workplace safer. Some are designed to let water fall through in areas that frequently get wet. Others offer a mildew resistant surface that can absorb the shock of standing.

When purchasing Anti-slip matting it is important to consider the area where the product will be used and the size required. For small spaces it may be most cost effective to purchase individual sections. For larger areas buying the material by the roll may be the best idea. It is well worth the low cost to install the product anywhere where there is a potential for falls.

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Source: http://www.nansen-dialog.net/use-anit-slip-matting-at-the-office-or-at-home/

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Attorney Class Accuses LexisNexis and West of Copyright

Attorney Class Accuses LexisNexis and West of Taking the Lawyers' Work to Earn Huge Profits

?????MANHATTAN (CN) - Attorneys claim in a federal class action that West Publishing and LexisNexis engage in "unabashed wholesale copying of thousands of copyright-protected works created by, and owned by, the attorneys and law firms who authored them," and bundle and sell access to the works "for huge profits."
?????Attorneys Edward L. White and Kenneth Elan sued West Publishing Corporation dba "West" and Reed Elsevier dba LexisNexis, in a 13-page complaint with 51 pages of exhibits and attachments.
?????White, an Oklahoma attorney specializing in intellectual property law, and Elan, of New York City, seek to represent all attorneys and law firms that created works that appear in LexisNexis and West's searchable databases.
?????They seek damages on behalf of two classes of attorneys: those who have a registered copyright in the works, and those who do not.
?????White and Elan claim that West and LexisNexis created digital copies of attorneys' copyright-protected works, put those works in their databases, and made them available to subscribers for a fee.
?????"The defendants are the largest electronic legal research providers in the United States," the complaint states. "West and LexisNexis have engaged in wholesale unlawful copying of attorneys' copyrighted work, bundled those works into searchable databases, and sold access to those works in the form of digitized text and images for huge profits. In doing so, West and LexisNexis are infringing the rights of the very clients they purport to serve. West and LexisNexis well know that the copyright laws of the United States require them to obtain authorization from the attorneys who created the works they infringe. Despite this knowledge, West and LexisNexis have for years and continue to systematically sell the attorneys' work."
?????West and LexisNexis offer online access to thousands of legal documents, including briefs, motions and other materials created by law firms.
?????"In order to include the works (as defined above) in their databases, the defendants copy such works and digitize them in order to make them text searchable," the complaint states. "In at least some instances, the defendants also include images of the works available for viewing and/or download." (Parentheses in complaint).
?????West and LexisNexis sell access to the documents "either as part of a package subscription, or at an additional per-document charge," according to the complaint. And, the attorneys say, they do not sell it on the cheap.
?????"The defendants charge substantial fees for access to these databases of content that they created from the wholesale copying of the works," the complaint states. "For example, access to West's 'All State Briefs' database has been priced at $389.00 per month for a solo attorney, as is its 'All Federal Briefs' database. Access to the All State and Federal Briefs product has been priced for solo practitioners at $622.00 per month. Lexis's Briefs, Pleadings, and Motions product costs a single attorney $960.00 for a twelve month subscription.
?????"The defendants have neither sought, nor obtained, ownership of the copyright to the works, or a license to copy, sell, or otherwise profit from the works.
?????"The defendants continue to copy, digitize, and sell the class members' works without their authorization.
?????"The defendants' infringement of the class members' works has caused, and will continue to cause, damages and irreparable injury to plaintiffs and the class.
?????"The defendants, as the publishers and authors of numerous and substantial original works of legal analysis - in which they claim and vigorously defend their own copyright interests - knew or should have known that their actions constitute copyright infringement."
?????White and Elan, who claim to have substantial earnings from their copyright-protected documents, say the publishers intend to continue the infringement.
?????They seek class certification, damages for copyright infringement, disgorgement, and they want the publishers barred from continued infringement of their copyrights.
?????White and Elan are represented by Gregory Blue.
?????West is a wholly owned subsidiary of Thomson Reuters and one of the most prominent publishers of legal materials in the United States.
?????LexisNexis, a subsidiary of Reed Elsevier, serves customers in more than 100 countries and has more than 15,000 employees worldwide.
?????West and LexisNexis own more than 85,000 databases of case law, statutes, public records, law journals, law reviews and briefs.

Source: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/24/44150.htm

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Soap Making is Good, Clean Fun! ? Down-Home South Jersey

When it comes to crafts and hobbies, I am an ?instant-gratification? crafter. ?Scrapbooking is fine; I can complete a page or two in an afternoon, and I have something decent to show for my efforts. ?Cross-stitching, not so much! ?It just takes too long for anything resembling a design to appear (or maybe I?m just slow). ?Digital photography is great; painting is catastrophic.? And I really enjoy cooking as long as the recipe doesn?t take more than a few hours. ?As you can see, my attention span (when it comes to hobbies) is not very long.

The Something Fabulous Soap Making Kit is easy and fun!

But I love shopping for hobbies! ?Paper and glue, sparkles and flowers, inks and ribbons all cause my heart to flutter. Recently,?The Hobby Lobby?opened in my town. ?It is a cross between?Michael?s Crafts and?Wal-Mart?- tons of crafting supplies with really low prices. ?Like any self-respecting crafter, I had to go check it out (plus they sent me a 40% off coupon to sweeten the deal). ?The store is full of home decor, frames, scrapbooking supplies, yarn, fabric, beads, and so much more! ?It is a little overwhelming. ?However, in the back of the store, I found the?Something Fabulous Soap Making Kit. ?I thought, ?Now this is a hobby that speaks my language!? ?Everything I needed to make 4 full-size bars and 6 specialty soaps was?in the box ? and the soap would be ready to use in one hour.

A few drops of dye and fragrance transforms the melted glycerin soap.

Of course I bought it (with my coupon) and rushed home to try my hand at soap making. ?It was easy enough; simply melt the glycerin pieces in the microwave, add dye and fragrance, then pour into the soap molds. ?A quick spray of rubbing alcohol on top of the soap helps prevent bubbles from forming. ?Sure enough, I had fragrant sweet-pea soap bars in no time.

The turtles are adorable, and the bars look like pretty, pastel Easter eggs.

I wrapped them in cellophane bags that I had in my craft stash and tied them with cute ribbons. ?Now I have simple, home-made gifts for my family and friends. ?I can?t wait to try variations like adding tea leaves or coffee grounds for exfoliation or layering different colors to make fruit-shaped soaps. ?If you are looking for an instant-gratification craft or something fun to do with your kids, making soap really is good, clean fun!

Home-made gifts wrapped up and ready to go.

Advertisement

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Source: http://downhomesouthjersey.com/2012/02/24/soap-making-is-good-clean-fun/

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High noon in Oxford: Dawkins vs the archbishop (Reuters)

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Reuters - In the blue corner, the leader of the Church of England. In the red corner, the world's most prominent critic of religion.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120223/lf_nm_life/us_britain_religion

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Chris Weigant: Republicans' Democrat Envy

Watch out!
You might get what you're after.
-- Talking Heads, "Burning Down The House"

You might not know it from the extended bouts of hair-pulling-and-garment-rending anguish emanating from the Republican Party establishment these days (see: any recent GOP commentary by a party elder or deep thinker which uses the phrase "brokered convention"), but the Republican Party is getting exactly what they asked for. Not just asked for, in fact, but specifically planned on.

Ever since the 2008 presidential primary season, the Republican Party as a whole came down with a serious case of Democrat envy. The GOP took a look at their own primary process, and then they took a look at what had gone on between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and they decided they liked the Democratic plan better. Obama hadn't been destroyed by the months-long primary fight (as many at the time predicted), he was in fact toughened up by the experience and a better candidate when the general election started -- as a direct result of the long primary calendar. This is the root cause of the Republicans' envy.

Of course, even individual Republican presidential candidates are also showing their envy of Obama's primary run. Ron Paul, in particular, is working from Obama's playbook in concentrating on caucus states the other candidates have ignored. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich both hold dreams of knocking off their party's frontrunner and achieving what Obama did against Clinton. The only one with no Democrat envy at all is Mitt Romney, because he would have been just fine with the tried-and-true Republican way of doing things -- wrapping things up early, with a "coronation" for the nominee, usually the "next guy in line" from the last time around. Romney's the only one who can truly claim disappointment (and not envy), looking back at 2008.

The Republican Party establishment decided upon radical changes to their primary calendar this time around. The blueprint was to draw the race out, and extend it until roughly mid-April, rather than wrapping things up so early. In 2008, Super Tuesday was held on the fifth of February, when John McCain essentially wrapped up the nomination and Mitt Romney dropped out (Mike Huckabee would keep campaigning, for some unfathomable reason, but no one paid much attention). To put it another way, four years ago, the Republican race was really over at this point in time, and had been for two weeks.

This was not to be in 2012, the Republican Party decreed. Their plan was to extend the early primary season considerably, but then encourage the states to wrap things up by mid-April (nobody was envious of watching the Clinton/Obama contest go all the way to June). They did this with two deadlines. After the initial four states voted (starting in January) no state was supposed to hold their contest before Super Tuesday, the first Tuesday in March. This would allow all of February for real competition, and would allow the candidates to toughen each other up while the public was actually focused on the campaigning. Super Tuesday would likely narrow the race down to two (or, at the most, possibly three) viable candidates.

The second deadline the Republican Party laid down was that all states which voted before April Fool's Day (insert your own joke here) were not allowed to award their delegates in the traditional "winner-takes-all" Republican method, but instead use the Democrats' "proportional" delegate system. This would allow second-place (and even third-place) winners to also build up delegates, and would avoid having the race be called too early -- before the candidates had the chance to season each other up a bit on the campaign trail.

Of course, the Republican Party also has the same "herding cats problem" when it comes to the 50 states following the plan as the Democratic Party always does -- some states want to go earlier than allowed. This is why states like Michigan and Arizona are in the mix before Super Tuesday. Theoretically, any state with an actual binding vote which votes too early is supposed to lose half their delegates to the convention as a penalty. If this race stays even slightly close, look for this to become an absolutely enormous issue within the Republican Party for the next few months. The Republicans' Democrat envy may lead them to the ugliest phase of the 2008 Democratic primary race -- the question of what was to be done about Michigan and Florida. Imagine what the intraparty fight in the Republican Party will be like if awarding the early states their full delegate slate would actually change the outcome of the race. The Democrats had a huge fight over it even though it wound up not being a deciding factor for Obama in the end -- so the fight would be even more intense if it meant the difference of whether Romney held the magic number of delegates for the nomination, or whether it was denied to him (to pick just one scenario).

Convention speculation aside, though, if the Republican Party had followed their initial template perfectly, the race would be pretty close to exactly where it stands today -- a muddied candidate field, in more ways than one. Nobody's wrapped anything up yet, there are still four candidates in the race, and they are all out there swinging at each other just about as hard as they can. All by design. In fact, the plan was for Super Tuesday not even to be the deciding factor. It wouldn't be until April that one candidate could easily amass so many convention delegates as to absolutely put the nomination out of everyone else's reach.

The Republican Party didn't just plan for where we are today, they planned on more than another month of muddying the field.

Watch out. You might get what you're after.

?

Chris Weigant blogs at:

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Become a fan of Chris on The Huffington Post

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/republicans-democrat-envy_b_1294974.html

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How To Quickly And Easily Stop Anxiety Attacks | New Health and ...

New Health And Fitness.Org - Health Information You Can Use

If you are one of the 40 million Americans diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, chances are that you want nothing more than to find out how to stop anxiety attacks and live a normal life. Every person should be able to live a happy life without the haunting fear of being humiliated in public by these terrible attacks. First of all, you should understand that you are not the only one dealing with this awful malady, but there are millions out there who are also experiencing this struggle themselves. Anxiety disorders can affect people of all races, genders and ages, including children. The good news however is that there are treatments available that can help you stop anxiety attacks and get rid of the symptoms associated with them.

It is very difficult for a doctor to diagnose why exactly you are experiencing an anxiety attack. After all, they can come on for no reason at all. An attack can damage you not only physically but also psychologically. The physical damages would be sweating and irritation.

In any case, to stop anxiety attacks, you must focus on what is causing anxiety. This is what you have to do to discontinue the cycle. You must get rid of your fear before another attack comes about. You should also merge your treatments together to fight some of the symptoms associated with the disease. These symptoms must be eliminated because they interfere with your life. With that said, you should take antidepressants or even a beta blocker to help get rid of the disease. Make sure you do this under the guidance of a physician. Depending on how your doctor treats your anxiety, you might be able to take the drugs while doing another regime.

The most important thing that you can do for your anxiety attack is to prevent it from ever happening again. Anyone can take medication to prolong the attack. Ask your doctor if there are breathing exercises that will help you to relax your body when you notice that an attack is coming on. Some people prefer to drink and herbal tea when they know that they are going to be around a stressful situation. Another cure for preventing an anxiety attack is exercising on a regular basis. Exercise is much better than taking an antidepressant. It is going to trick your brain into being happy a good portion of the time.

If you still notice that you are wondering how to stop anxiety attacks, you may be a good candidate to visit with a therapist. There is a chance that something from your childhood may be bothering you. Your therapist may suggest that you undergo hypnosis in order to treat this problem. Remember that the most important thing for you to do is work on getting better. Do not worry about expressing your feelings or problems from your past to your therapist. This is the only way that they are going to be able to help you. Millions of people have suffered from anxiety attacks in the past. Some of these people choose to get them under control while others do not. The choice is yours.

Are you looking to learn how to stop anxiety attacks right now, for immediate relief? Be sure to visit http://www.beatpanicdisorder.com today to discover how.

Source: http://newhealthandfitness.org/2012/02/21/how-to-quickly-and-easily-stop-anxiety-attacks/

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Broccoli and other wonder drugs of antiquity

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Finance Tax Legal professionals: Just how Significant will be They?

Being a finance tax legal professional requires sufficient knowledge about regulations on tax peculiarly that he will not only be confined to the task of representing his users within the court for illegal or perhaps civil lawsuits but his task at the same time extends up to supplying valuable advices to individuals. His tips will be much desired for the issues regarding tax laws and regulations along with with the ways on exactly how tax liabilities could hence be minimized within these kinds of a legal method.

If you happen to be faced with the important issues concerning tax planning, it is critical that you consult with an expert finance tax attorney at law so that you will be capable to reap out the most effective advices which are nonetheless acknowledged by regulations.

With the aid of the finance tax legal professional, you may be produced aware of the steps as to exactly how you may minimize your paid taxes, avail of rebates or perhaps exemptions, as well as the simplest scheme of filing your income tax rebates. Both of the state as well as the federal tax laws and regulations happen to be very much intricate that most of the occasions these laws fluctuate from one state to yet another. Tax exemptions are mostly to be availed by the senior citizens.

So in the event that you will be not aware of the existing terms concerning these types of exemptions, you can as well need to send your issue to a dependable finance tax attorney.

Don?t take these kinds of matters in to your possess hands. Making decisions without prior conference with a finance tax legal professional might be risky on your part. In case you insist on taking matters in to your possess hands, you could deal with legal troubles within no time at pretty much all. You might minimize your taxes but make sure first that the steps that you could take may be in conformity with the legal procedures recognized to everybody in the us government. Take note as normally that the Internal Revenue Service is on the lookout for tax evaders and tax violators. A single false move and you are dead meat!

Finance tax lawyers are the persons who take the full accountability of representing their customers within the court. Their users could be a single individual or perhaps an institution that is held under inquiry for cases of tax fraud or perhaps tax evasion.

The steps taken by the finance tax attorneys consist of putting up a negotiation with the Internal Revenue Service in addition to defending their clients through the lawbreaking case proceedings and whenever found guilty, it is their duty to get work on the potential reduction of their clients? penalties. The majority of of the proficient finance tax attorneys work out for the the majority of possible court arrangement for the tax evader so that the charges to be suffered whenever he or she gets convicted may be lesser.

It is a much better option to consult with a finance tax attorney at law rather than with a tax cpa or perhaps tax advisor mainly because as a legal guidance, he cannot be dragged by the law to spill out any discussions that occurred between him as well as his client. Tax advisors will be likely forced by the law to testify against a person or an organization that is facing charges on tax crimes. It is again another very significant matter to come across the correct finance tax lawyer who isn?t only well-known as well as reputable but also has the mandatory skills that will save you from hot water.

Pay a visit to the compensation consulting firms as well as compensation consultant internet sites for additional facts.

Source: http://freebestarticles.net/finance-tax-legal-professionals-just-how-significant-will-be-they.html

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Nice Business Strategic Planning photos | Inbound Marketing

Massive Sales Results @ 1/2 the investment

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REPORT CARD DAY FOR A SOCIALIST/MARXIST/COMMUNITY ORGANIZER????.A WELL DESERVED ?F?

Image by SS&SS
March 14, 2011
Barack Obama: A Management Appraisal
By Frank Burke
In addition to examining the roots of Barack Obama?s political philosophy, an evaluation of his management style, such as might be undertaken by an independent business consultant, is likewise instructive.

The comparison is apt in that the United States government can be viewed from a business perspective as a service provider. In attempting to analyze problems that exist and evolve the correct remedies, consultants typically begin by observing the way in which management ? especially top management ? leads and interacts with the organization. This would begin with an examination of five key areas.

Management Style

In classic management theory, Barack Obama would have to be described as an abdicative manager.

The abdicative manager evidences a tendency to flee from responsibility and is frequently encountered in situations where he or she never wanted the job in the first place (for instance, a son or daughter who inherits a company or the individual who discovers that they are incapable of adequate performance). Abdication can be exhibited in a variety of ways, ranging from physically removing oneself through travel (the confusion of movement with action), to obsessing about personal interests or a limited range of controllable subjects.

Obama?s frequent vacations and absences, especially in times of crisis, coupled with his unwillingness to personally invest himself in key initiatives, are demonstrative of this style. An excellent example occurred after passage of the healthcare initiative. Having ceded authority in what would later be described as his key achievement to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, he watched as they forced the bill through under a manufactured emergency that precluded lawmakers from having time to read it. He then went on a four-day vacation before signing it.

Team Building and Leadership

If a large organization is to function effectively, it is essential that the management team be composed of individuals who are experienced, capable, and able to function together smoothly in pursuit of stated objectives. To build the team, the top executive names a primary staff or inner circle to select other team members. The confident executive will not hesitate to recruit individuals whose ideas may deviate from his own, as long as they are competent and willing to work with other team members. Having access to multiple, even conflicting, points of view is essential to obtaining a realistic vision of events.

The Obama administration has been singularly ineffective in developing a workable team. The President?s inner circle has, for the most part, consisted of Chicago machine politicians. The appointment of numerous Czars, whose functions are neither well-articulated nor understood, has led to confusion on all levels and among the public. The selection mechanism is badly dysfunctional, as illustrated by the choice of self-proclaimed Communist Van Jones as Green Jobs Czar; under-age sex advocate Kevin Jennings as School Safety Czar; and multiple other controversial appointments. Cabinet appointees include Energy Secretary Steven Chu, (like Obama, an advocate of high gas prices); Attorney General Eric Holder, whose advocacy of racial preferences has resulted in serious dissension within the Justice Department; Janet Napolitano, a career politician with no training or experience in security as Secretary of Homeland Security; and Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Conflicts between Mrs. Clinton?s State Department and the administration, arising over a variety of foreign policy questions, have been painfully obvious.

At a time when the economy is in recession, and unemployment stands at historic highs, it is significant that less than seven percent of Obama?s appointees have any private sector experience. The number of administrative officials in high places who have left after two years or less is further evidence of the leadership vacuum.

Strategic Planning

A critical element of executive responsibility, strategic planning sets the mid- to long-term goals of the organization that form the rationale for shorter term and day-to-day activities. In any large business, strategic planning would involve allocation of existing resources, planning the corporate infrastructure, developing timely products and services to assure customer retention and expansion, targeting new opportunities, and phasing out systems no longer efficient or profitable.

Other than placating the far left ? a small and shrinking segment of his "customer" base ? it is difficult to discover any strategic direction in Obama?s thinking. Even his so-called singular achievement, ObamaCare, was poorly cobbled together without much direction. On questions including foreign policy, to the war in Afghanistan, trials for terrorists, closing the Guantanamo facility, etc., his actions have been tentative and unpredictable. Energy and environmental policies have clearly damaged not only employment opportunities but the nation?s infrastructure in terms of energy independence. Just as he permitted his party to proceed through 2010 without articulating a budget, his continued reluctance to advance any policy with regard to entitlements, leaves the administration ? and the country ? without a strategy and without a plan.

Crisis Management

The "3:00 a.m. Phone Call" TV commercial, produced by the Clinton campaign, was indeed prescient. That phone has rung numerous times, and it has gone unanswered. The failure to provide even moral encouragement to the demonstrators in Iran, coupled with the more recent waffling on the situations in Egypt and Libya, bespeak a president unsure of his policies and unable to react to events in a timely manner. As the drug wars in Mexico have escalated to critical mass, efforts to strengthen the border have languished. Reactions to real and attempted terrorist attacks on America soil have been met with response that is both tepid and uncertain.

Financial Acumen

Most chief executives spend time with stockholders, analysts, credit sources, and others discussing the financial status of the organization. Where there are problems, the CEO is expected to present a rational turnaround plan detailing the steps to be taken to ensure financial survival.

At a time when the national debt threatens to destabilize the entire economy, Obama?s only suggestion has been to engage in further spending. The lack of a cohesive financial policy has resulted in a global loss of faith in the U.S. dollar, possible economic collapse, and a threat of future inflation. In refusing to consider the recommendations of the Budget Task Force he appointed, it is clear that his grasp of finance and economics is less than rudimentary.

Lacking both the relevant education and experience, were he applying for an executive position in any company, he would in all likelihood be quickly rejected. His refusal to divulge school records and grades would also work against him. If the business to which he applied was involved in any form of sensitive or defense work, his past associations with radicals would result in the denial of any security clearance.

From a business standpoint, his lack of performance and organizational skills would demand that any ethical consultant approach the Board of Directors with a very strong recommendation that Mr. Obama be fired. Perhaps in 2012, he will be.

On the positive side, it must be noted that, were Mr. Obama an effective executive, his agenda might well be much further advanced.

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X-rays illuminate the interior of the Moon

Monday, February 20, 2012

Contrary to Earth, our Moon has no active volcanoes, and the traces of its past volcanic activity date from billions of years ago. This is surprising, because recent Moonquake data suggest that there is plenty of liquid magma deep within the Moon because part of the rocks residing there are thought to be molten. Scientists have now identified a likely reason for this peaceful surface life: the hot, molten rock in the Moon's deep interior could be so dense that it is simply too heavy to rise to the surface like a bubble in water. For their experiments, the scientists produced microscopic copies of moon rock collected by the Apollo missions and melted them at the extremely high pressures and temperatures found inside the Moon. They then measured their densities with powerful X-rays. The results are published in the Journal Nature Geosciences on 19 February 2012.

The team was led by Mirjam van Kan Parker and Wim van Westrenen from VU University Amsterdam and comprised scientists from the Universities of Paris 6/CNRS, Lyon 1/CNRS, Edinburgh, and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble.

Five decades after the Apollo missions, the formation and geological history of the Moon still hold many secrets. The astronauts not only returned 380 kg of Moon rocks to Earth but also placed many scientific instruments on the lunar surface. Last year, NASA scientists published a new model for the make-up of the interior of the Moon, using Moonquake data from these Apollo-era seismometers. Renee Weber and her colleagues claim that the deepest parts of the lunar mantle, bordering on the small metallic core, are partially molten, by up to 30 per cent. In the Earth, such bodies of magma tend to move towards the surface leading to volcanic eruptions. If the deep interior of the Moon contains so much magma, why don't we see spectacular volcanic eruptions at its surface?

The driving force for vertical movement of magma is the density difference between the magma and the surrounding solid material, making the liquid magma move slowly upwards like a bubble. The lighter the liquid magma is, the more violent the upward movement will be.

To determine the density of lunar magma, Wim van Westrenen and his colleagues synthesised moon rock in their laboratory in Amsterdam, using the composition derived from Apollo samples as their "recipe". The pressures and temperatures close to the core of the Moon are more than 45,000 bar and about 1500 degrees. It is possible to generate these extreme conditions with small samples, heating them with a high electric current while squashing them in a press. By measuring the attenuation of a powerful synchrotron X-ray beam at the ESRF traversing the sample both solid and molten, the density at high pressure and high temperature could be measured. "We had to use the most brilliant X-ray beam in the world for this experiment because the magma sample is so tiny and confined in a massive, highly absorbing container. Without a bright beam of X-rays, you cannot measure these density variations", says Mohamed Mezouar from the ESRF.

The measurements at the ESRF were combined with computer simulations to calculate the magma density at any location in the Moon.

Nearly all the lunar magmas were found to be less dense than their solid surroundings, similar to the situation on Earth. There is one important exception: small droplets of titanium-rich glass first found in Apollo 14 mission samples produce liquid magma as dense as the rocks found in the deepest parts of the lunar mantle today. This magma would not move towards the surface.

Such titanium-rich magma can only be formed by melting titanium rich solid rocks. Previous experiments have shown that such rocks were formed soon after the formation of the Moon at shallow levels, close to the surface. How did they get deep into the mantle? The scientists conclude that large vertical movements must have occurred early in the history of the Moon, during which titanium-rich rocks descended from near the surface all the way to the core-mantle boundary. "After descending, magma formed from these near-surface rocks, very rich in titanium, and accumulated at the bottom of the mantle ? a bit like an upside-down volcano. Today, the Moon is still cooling down, as are the melts in its interior. In the distant future, the cooler and therefore solidifying melt will change in composition, likely making it less dense than its surroundings. This lighter magma could make its way again up to the surface forming an active volcano on the Moon ? what a sight that would be! ? but for the time being, this is just a hypothesis to stimulate more experiments", concludes Wim van Westrenen.

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European Synchrotron Radiation Facility: http://www.esrf.fr

Thanks to European Synchrotron Radiation Facility for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117732/X_rays_illuminate_the_interior_of_the_Moon

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