Bourjois Double-Tip Applicator Review - Indian Makeup blog ...

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Bourjois Double-Tip Applicator?

Bourjois is one of my favorite makeup brands and when I realized they made brushes too, I couldn?t wait to lay my hands on one. This dual-tip applicator seemed unique?not to mention almost extinct. This brush was originally designed to be used with Bourjois baked eyeshadows that can be used both wet and dry. Ah! I should have considered ?Makeup Historian? as a career option. Now, doesn?t that sound cool?!! Hmm?.I wonder what it would be like to learn about the origin of ?. Oops! Sorry?where were we?? Ah yes! So you see, my primary intention while buying this was to get a good companion to go with Coloressence Cake Eyeliner (reviewed here) and this seemed perfect! Or WAS it?? The suspense begins here and you?ll soon find out? (*dramatic music playing in the background*)

About Bourjois Double Tip Applicator :-

Bourjois Applicator Double Tip is a Double-Ended Applicator specially designed for Makeup Professionals. On one side, the foam tip helps to emphasize the lash or apply the paint on the entire eyelid. Moisten the applicator for a liner route. The other, the brush tip, provides a perfect shadow fading. Can also be used to fade the color of lipstick.

• Packaging: The applicator comes in a plastic pouch backed with product details and instructions. It is a disposable pouch but can be reused to a certain extent since it has a flap with a sticky end that can be reclosed.
• Description: -The applicator is shiny black in color and appears to be made of wood that is heavily coated. There is a foam tip at one end and a brush with presumably natural-hair bristles at the others. Both ends come with stiff, plastic bristle-guards that protect the two applicators and this makes it convenient for travel.

The uses of each applicator are printed onto the brush. For instance, the foam-tip side reads: ?Outline?, whereas the brush-tip end reads: ?Smudge?. This confused me initially since I?ve always known foam tips to be smudgers and the brush tip has a tapered, precise end that would prove to be great for outlining. I was sure Bourjois has messed up the names and I was left wondering if it was just this particular piece. A few minutes of research online revealed that this was the way the applicator is meant to be after all. Talking about research online, this particular product from Bourjois is practically unheard of! Apart from the online shopping website slassy.com, I have not come across this brush anywhere else.

Performance:

Like I mentioned earlier, I was pretty skeptical about the specified uses of the brushes. I applied kohl as usual and proceeded to smudge it with the brush-tip. The brush is of medium density, flexible, and it tapers towards the end. Although the bristles ?look? rough and scratchy, they are surprisingly soft and gentle on the eyes. Thanks to my oily lids, I sometimes feel the brush does more erasing than smudging. Nevertheless, when used with a light hand and on non-grease-ball-like-skin it serves its purpose well. This can be used to define the crease or for precise application of shadow. It says you can also use this on the lips but I have not tried it. If you read the next section on ?maintenance: you?ll know why.

The smudge-tip?oops, I meant the foam-tip (see, I?m still confused ) is tough, resilient and spongy. I wet the tip slightly, ran it over Coloressence cake eyeliner and tried lining my eyes. I was almost shocked to see how beautifully it worked. It picks up a good amount of product and helps to draw smooth, even lines. But the main issue is that you cannot draw thin, precise lines with this one. I wish it had been more tapered and thin to aid precision lining.

Maintenance:

I?ve washed this brush only once and I simply dread doing it again! The foam tip feels quite rubbery and easy to wash and maintain. The brush, on the other hand, is a different ball game. As I twirled the bristles in mild baby soap, it started shedding like crazy. I had to hastily finish washing for fear that it was going to go bald if I proceeded to shampoo it any further. Even now, you can see from the pictures, that there are bristles sticking out at odd places. Since I cannot wash this as often as I would like, I reserve this only for smudging my daily Kohl and do not use this for eye shadows or lip products. Such a shame, since this seemed like a lovely multi-purpose brush otherwise

Also, the bristle guards (which appear very sturdy initially) start cracking after a point of time. This made me understand why brands like Sigma and Coastal Scents supply bristle guards made of flexible plastic. And wait?I haven?t finished here yet. Another pet peeve I have is that the print of the brushes gets rubbed off. This may not be an issue for many but I like my stuff looking fresh and well-maintained, however long I?ve had it. C?mon?even my Vega brushes have the print on the handles still intact and I?ve had them for more than a decade!!

What I like about Bourjois Double-Tip Applicator:-

?

• Dual-tip applicator that serves multiple uses
• Bristles are soft, non-scratchy and smudges kohl and shadows with ease
• Sponge-tip is durable and helps to draw thick, even lines while being soft on the eyes
• Both ends come with bristle guards making this applicator very travel-friendly
• The entire applicator is of medium length, being neither too stubby nor too long and is comfortable to hold and use
• Inexpensive

?

What I don?t like about Bourjois Double-Tip Applicator:-

?

• Bristles shed badly while washing
• Foam-tip could have been more tapered to enable precision lining
• Cannot be used with lipsticks as claimed, simply because it cannot be washed often
• Bristle-guards start cracking after a period of time
• Print on the handles gets rubbed off easily even when maintained well
• Availability

Rating: 3.5/5

Final Thoughts:

This applicator is a good bargain since you get two for the price of one and it is still inexpensive even if it were to be a mono applicator. It performs fairly well since both applicators are soft and they smudge and outline eyes with ease. The most disappointing factor is that the bristles on the smudge-brush shed badly while washing. What is the point of a good brush if you cannot wash and maintain it?? Although it does seem good for the price, I?d say instead of wasting your money on something that will not see you through the years, you?d be better off? investing a bit more on a good branded brush that will not only serve your purpose, but will also be easy to maintain. Because, after all, unlike other makeup products that will expire and need to be tossed out, good quality brushes are a one-time investment that will hopefully last you a lifetime. (*More dramatic music, wild applause and insane cheering*) See?this is what taking such a long break from writing reviews does to me

Have you tried Bourjois Double-Tip Applicator?

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Source: http://www.wiseshe.com/2013/06/bourjois-double-tip-applicator-review.html

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George Lucas throws star-studded wedding reception

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The movie mogul married Hobson at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California, on 22 June (13) and they followed up their nuptials a week later with a star-studded soiree in the bride's hometown of Chicago.

Music superstar Prince provided the entertainment during the bash at the city's lakeside Promontory Point, performing under a giant tent with a 22-piece band, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Guests went home with goodie bags stuffed with Skywalker Ranch hats and T-shirts as well as the couple's favourite snack foods, including chocolate cookies and popcorn made by local Chicago companies.

Source: http://star-magazine.co.uk//breakingnews/view/50402/George-Lucas-throws-star-studded-wedding-reception/

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Scientists turn muscular dystrophy defect on and off in cells

June 28, 2013 ? For the first time, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified small molecules that allow for complete control over a genetic defect responsible for the most common adult onset form of muscular dystrophy. These small molecules will enable scientists to investigate potential new therapies and to study the long-term impact of the disease.

"This is the first example I know of at all where someone can literally turn on and off a disease," said TSRI Associate Professor Matthew Disney, whose new research was published June 28, 2013, by the journal Nature Communications. "This easy approach is an entirely new way to turn a genetic defect off or on."

Myotonic dystrophy is an inherited disorder, the most common form of a group of conditions called muscular dystrophies that involve progressive muscle wasting and weakness. Myotonic dystrophy type 1 is caused a type of RNA defect known as a "triplet repeat," a series of three nucleotides repeated more times than normal in an individual's genetic code. In this case, a cytosine-uracil-guanine (CUG) triplet repeat binds to the protein MBNL1, rendering it inactive and resulting in RNA splicing abnormalities.

To find drug candidates that act against the defect, Disney and his colleagues analyzed the results of a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored screen of more than 300,000 small molecules that inhibit a critical RNA-protein complex in the disease.

The team divided the NIH hits into three "buckets" -- the first group bound RNA, the second bound protein, and a third whose mechanism was unclear. The researchers then studied the compounds by looking at their effect on human muscle tissue both with and without the defect.

Startlingly, diseased muscle tissue treated with RNA-binding compounds caused signs of the disease to go away. In contrast, both healthy and diseased tissue treated with the protein-binding compounds showed the opposite effect -- signs of the disease either appeared (in healthy tissue) or became worse.

The new compounds will serve as useful tools to study the disease on a molecular level. "In complex diseases, there are always unanticipated mechanisms," Disney noted. "Now that we can reverse the disease at will, we can study those aspects of it."

In addition, Disney said, with the new discovery, scientists will be able to develop a greater understanding of how to control RNA splicing with small molecules. RNA splicing can cause a host of diseases that range from sickle-cell disease to cancer, yet prior to this study, no tools were available to control specific RNA splicing.

The first authors of the study, "Induction and Reversal of Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 Pre-mRNA Splicing Defects by Small Molecules," are Jessica L. Childs-Disney of TSRI, Ewa Stepniak-Konieczna of Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland) and Tuan Tran of TSRI. Other authors include Ilyas Yildirim and George C. Schatz of Northwestern University; HaJeung Park of TSRI; Catherine Z. Chen, Noel Southall, Juan J. Marugan, Samarjit Patnaik, Wei Zheng and Chris P. Austin of the NIH; Krzysztof Sobczak of Adam Mickiewicz University; and Charles A. Thornton and Jason Hoskins of the University of Rochester.

The study was funded by TSRI; the Muscular Dystrophy Association (158552); the National Institutes of Health (3R01GM079235 and 1R01GM079235; AR049077 and U54NS48843); the National Cancer Institute (1U54CA143869); the Molecular Libraries Initiative of the National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research; the Marigold Foundation and the Foundation for Polish Science-TEAM program co-financed by the European Union within the European Regional Development Fund.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/fRF25Qg-Ku0/130628091710.htm

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Njideka Akunyili and Her Elegant Scrapbook ? mnartists.blog ...

Njideka Akunyili?s five mixed media works in I Still Face You at Franklin Art Works are elusive and elegant; the sort of work that asks time and attention from the viewer. By filling up her spaces with xerox transfers and painted portraits of herself, her family, and friends, Akunyili has created an intimate and artful [...]

Njideka Akunyili?s five mixed media works in I Still Face You at Franklin Art Works are elusive and elegant; the sort of work that asks time and attention from the viewer. By filling up her spaces with xerox transfers and painted portraits of herself, her family, and friends, Akunyili has created an intimate and artful scrapbook. Many of the large works are casually presented to the viewer fixed with binder clips. Each image is layered with media: collaged photographs from her personal collection, images from magazines, transparent or thick paint, repetitive patterns of clothing and architecture, and charcoal.

Njideka Akunyili, I Refuse to be Invisible. 2010. Ink, charcoal, acrylic and xerox transfers on paper. Courtesy of the ?artist?s website.

I Refuse to be Invisible (2010) contains a xeroxed source photograph of the same painting, a little piece of the puzzle.? The larger picture, seen from a few paces back, depicts a couple dancing in a crowd. The woman?s skin is naturalistically rendered in oil paint, but her dancing partner?s is made of collaged images ? the effect is ghostly. Small, xeroxed images fill the space of his person with hints of color and pattern, only to deny the viewer any details of his features and expression. The show may be called I Still Face You, but her figures are in fact subtly rendered or even facing away. We catch fragments of their lives, many fragments, but analyzed close-up, the images are overwhelming in number and increasingly abstract. Akunyili?s work reads like a palimpsest ? a layering of various texts and signifiers of race, anatomy, and love? of her life with two colorful cultures.

Njideka Akunyili, detail of I Refuse to be Invisible. 2010. Ink, charcoal, acrylic and xerox transfers on paper. Courtesy of the artist?s website.

Originally from Nigeria and now based in the United States, Akunyili reflects her bi-national identity and interest in heritage, memory, as well as the differences in ritual and culture between them, through these images-out-of-images. The work is dense and delicate. An?online archive of her works does not do justice to the nuance evident seeing them in person. Like painterly strokes, her mixed media layerings are hard to decipher from a short distance. The viewer must take several steps away from the texture and generous swaths of paint in order to distinguish the figures engaging in intimate moments. The resulting images appear patterned with dots, plaid, squares, and circles.

Njideka Akunyili. Her Widening Gyre, 2011. Charcoal, acrylic, collage and xerox transfers on paper. Courtesy of the artist?s website.

Describing the African-American collagist,?Romare Bearden?s work, Akunyili offers, ?they verge on visual cacophony but ultimately come together in harmony.??Akunyili?s work could be described in the same way; it takes time for the eye to decipher all of the elements, signifiers, and patterns of each work. Perhaps it is not completely necessary to do so, but the effort is rewarded with richness, and an incredibly personal tale of immigration, love, and everyday interaction.

Njideka Akunyili: I Still Face You is on view at Franklin Art Works in Minneapolis from May 11 through July 27. For gallery hours and details about the show:?http://www.franklinartworks.org/

___________________________

Chloe Nelson is the program assistant for mnartists.org.

Viewfinder?posts are your opportunity to ?show & tell? about the everyday arts happenings, interesting sights and sounds made or as seen by Minnesota artists, because art is where you find it. Submit your own informal, first-person responses to the art around you to editor(at)mnartists.org, and we may well publish your piece here on the blog. (Guidelines: 300 words or less, not about your own event/work, and please include an image, media, video, or audio file, and one sentence about yourself.)

Source: http://blogs.walkerart.org/mnartists/2013/06/28/njideka-akunyili-and-her-elegant-scrapbook/

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RIM posts larger-than-expected loss, shares plunge

FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013,file photo, Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, introduces the BlackBerry Z10, in New York. Research in Motion Ltd. reports quarterly financial results before the market opens on Friday, June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013,file photo, Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, introduces the BlackBerry Z10, in New York. Research in Motion Ltd. reports quarterly financial results before the market opens on Friday, June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

TORONTO (AP) ? Shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion plunged nearly 30 percent Friday after the company posted a loss and warned of future losses despite releasing its make-or-break new smartphones this year.

RIM also announced that it will stop developing new versions of its slow-selling tablet computer called the Playbook.

Analysts were looking for insight into how phones running RIM's new Blackberry 10 operating system are selling. It wasn't good.

RIM said it sold 6.8 million phones overall versus 7.8 million last year. That includes older models. In wasn't until well into a conference call with analysts that RIM announced that 2.7 million of the devices sold in the quarter were Blackberry 10 models.

RIM's new Blackberry 10 operating system is widely seen as critical to the company's comeback. But the company said it anticipates it will generate an operating loss in the second quarter too.

Mike Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, said it's clear the new operating system has not turned the company around.

"With Z10, Q10, and Q5 all shipping in the August quarter and BlackBerry still guiding to a loss we believe that is strong evidence BB10 has not turned around BlackBerry in an extremely competitive smartphone market," Walkley said.

Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said on a conference call with analysts that the "transition takes time" and noted things are better compared to last year when "we were told the company was finished."

Shares of Research in Motion Ltd. dropped $3.93, or 27 percent, to $10.30 in morning trading Friday.

The BlackBerry, introduced in 1999, was once the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people. But it lost its cachet not long after Apple released the first iPhone in 2007. Apple's device reset expectations for what a smartphone can do. RIM promised to catch up while developing new a software system called BlackBerry 10, which uses technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. But the company took more than two years to unveil new phones that were redesigned for the multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers now demand. During that time, RIM cut more than 5,000 jobs and saw shareholder wealth of more than $70 billion vanish.

New phones running the BlackBerry 10 software began selling around the world this year and have received positive review. Sales results and RIM's projections, however, show they are not selling well.

The Canadian company said it lost $84 million, or 16 cents a share, in the three months ended June 1 on revenue of $3.1 billion. It lost $518 million, or 99 cents per share, on revenue of $2.8 billion a year ago.

Analysts expected RIM to earn 5 cents a share on revenue of $3.37 billion.

RIM also said it anticipates it will generate an operating loss in the second quarter. Heins noted the highly competitive smartphone market makes it difficult to estimate revenue and levels of profitability.

Heins also announced on the call that he has halted further development of RIM's failed tablet offering, the Playbook. The Playbook has not sold well.

"Our teams have spent a great deal of time and energy looking at solutions that could move the BlackBerry 10 experience to Playbook, but unfortunately I am not satisfied with the level of performance and user experience and I made the difficult decision to stop these efforts and focus on our core hardware portfolio," Heins said.

Heins said they'll continue to support the PlayBook on the existing software platforms and configurations. Asked if RIM will continue to make the Playbook, a RIM spokeswoman said the company is evaluating its hardware strategy.

BlackBerry subscribers also fell by four million to 72 million in the quarter.

Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners, said it's tough for RIM because it's hard to make money on handsets now.

"There are a lot of people that haven't been able to make it happen. For all the talk about Apple and Samsung, there are companies like Nokia and HTC," Gillis said.

Gillis said things look bleaker for the company and it's going to continue to be a struggle.

Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek said the high end global smartphone market is saturated and brutally competitive.

"Everybody is coming to this reality. You talk to HTC, Samsung and even Apple, the high end is saturated. That's a fact," Misek said. "Anybody in the high end who wants a smartphone in the world has one, so you have to knock somebody away from another platform. That is a brutal, brutal market."

RIM has unveiled a lower-cost BlackBerry aimed at consumers in emerging markets, but hasn't said if the device will be available in North America.

Misek was expecting the company to sell 4 million BlackBerry 10 phones. He said the sale of 2.7 million new BlackBerry 10 phones was the most disappointing news Friday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-28-TEC--Earns%20Research%20In%20Motion/id-9314ff48e7034e11b07d56fe91312c50

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Highlights of Obama's climate plan

President Barack Obama unveiled a sweeping plan Tuesday to combat climate change and prepare the U.S. and other nations for its effects. Some highlights of the president's plan:

REDUCE POLLUTION

? Issue a presidential memorandum to launch the first-ever federal regulations on carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.

? Finalize proposed limits on carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants without further delay.

? Provide up to $8 billion in federal loan guarantees to spur investment in efficiency projects and advanced fossil energy, including technology to limit carbon emissions.

? Expand permitting for renewable energy projects like wind and solar on public lands, with a goal of powering more than 6 million homes by 2020.

? Set a goal of installing 100 megawatts of renewable energy projects on federally assisted housing projects by 2020.

? Take more aggressive steps to increase efficiency for appliances and federal buildings, with a goal of reducing carbon dioxide pollution by 3 billion metric tons overall by 2030.

? Develop fuel-economy standards for heavy-duty vehicles.

PREPARE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

? Create a National Drought Resilience Partnership to help communities, farmers and landowners prepare for droughts and wildfires.

? Promote climate change preparedness by creating a toolkit for local governments and businesses, and by partnering with hospitals.

? Update flood risk reduction standards that all federally funded projects must meet.

GLOBAL EFFORTS

? Work with China, India and other major polluting countries to reduce emissions.

? End U.S. public financing for new coal-fired power plants in other countries. Plants in the poorest countries using the most efficient technology available would be exempt.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/highlights-obamas-climate-plan-190959869.html

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Loyola nuclear medicine technologist named National Technologist of the Year

Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
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Contact: Jim Ritter
jritter@lumc.edu
708-216-2445
Loyola University Health System

MAYWOOD, Il. Nuclear medicine technologist Rebecca Sajdak of Loyola University Medical Center has been named National Technologist of the Year by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

Sajdak has served on numerous nuclear medicine society committees, task forces and governance groups, and has given educational talks around the country.

"Such an award does not come easily, and it reflects the many years of effort that she has put in at local, state and national levels serving in a variety of leadership positions," said Robert Wagner, MD, Loyola's medical director of Nuclear Medicine.

Nuclear medicine technologists take images of patients such as bone scans, PET scans and cardiac stress scans. Sajdak has extensive experience in all nuclear imaging techniques, computer processing skills, researching new products, programming macros and training new employees on procedures and techniques.

She has published articles in peer-reviewed medical journals and is an expert on standard operating procedures in clinical trials.

Sajdak is certified by the Nuclear Medicine Technology Certification Board, American Registry of Radiologic Technologists Nuclear Medicine and American Registry of Radiologic Technologists.

She has a BA degree from Loyola University Chicago and an AS degree in Nuclear Medicine from Triton College.

She lives in Plainfield, Il.

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

Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Ritter
jritter@lumc.edu
708-216-2445
Loyola University Health System

MAYWOOD, Il. Nuclear medicine technologist Rebecca Sajdak of Loyola University Medical Center has been named National Technologist of the Year by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

Sajdak has served on numerous nuclear medicine society committees, task forces and governance groups, and has given educational talks around the country.

"Such an award does not come easily, and it reflects the many years of effort that she has put in at local, state and national levels serving in a variety of leadership positions," said Robert Wagner, MD, Loyola's medical director of Nuclear Medicine.

Nuclear medicine technologists take images of patients such as bone scans, PET scans and cardiac stress scans. Sajdak has extensive experience in all nuclear imaging techniques, computer processing skills, researching new products, programming macros and training new employees on procedures and techniques.

She has published articles in peer-reviewed medical journals and is an expert on standard operating procedures in clinical trials.

Sajdak is certified by the Nuclear Medicine Technology Certification Board, American Registry of Radiologic Technologists Nuclear Medicine and American Registry of Radiologic Technologists.

She has a BA degree from Loyola University Chicago and an AS degree in Nuclear Medicine from Triton College.

She lives in Plainfield, Il.

###

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[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/luhs-lnm062613.php

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Rise of craft beer highlights needs in accounting and tax planning ...

NORTH BAY ? After a number of accounting and advising firms have found a focus in serving the specific needs of the North Bay wine industry, demand from a different beverage category ? craft beer ? is highlighting another niche for tax and bookkeeping.

Many North Bay accounting firms with clients in both industries drew parallels between brewing and winemaking, including the heightened financial reporting requirements required as alcohol producers.

Yet as craft beer explodes in popularity in the North Bay and beyond, the accounting and tax nuances facing an ever-growing roster of craft brewers are becoming a topic of increased interest for the region?s large and small brewers alike.

Tom McCormick

?For many years, a lot of us were driving in the dark, trying to help each other. It was easier to get someone to help you with equipment and sourcing ingredients than finances,? said Tom McCormick, executive director of the industry trade group, the California Craft Brewers Association. ?It?s just now beginning to develop where we?re seeing some people who are popping up to serve our industry.?

Sonoma County craft breweries, along with distillers and cider makers, were responsible for nearly $450,000 in outside accounting,? tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services in 2012, according to the first-ever Sonoma County Craft Beverage report released last week by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.

Those breweries ? currently 18 in Sonoma County alone ? range widely in size. The largest in the region, Petaluma?s Lagunitas Brewing Company, produced more than 250,000 barrels of beer last year and plans to produce over 2 million after expansion both locally and within a new Chicago facility, according to the EDB. Other larger-scale producers include Cloverdale?s Bear Republic Brewing Company and Boonville?s Anderson Valley Brewing Company.

Yet production volume drops significantly from there, with even venerable brewers like Santa Rosa?s Russian River Brewing Co. producing 12,480 barrels in 2011 ? the only other North Bay craft brewery producing more than 5,000 barrels that year. And even Chico?s Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, which produces nearly 1 million barrels a year as the largest craft brewer in California, still represents only 1 percent of the production of Anheuser-Busch Inbev, Mr. McCormick said.

Ken Dansie

The majority of breweries ?are essentially small businesses,? said Ken Dansie, partner in the Private Company Services Group of BPM, accountants and consultants in the North Bay. Limited resources make planning for a capital-intensive expansion more difficult, even when a large demand exists.

?When you have a small craft brewery starting to produce, the underlying capital costs just to get started are significant,? he said, noting the cost of production brewing equipment. ?Going from doing your first brew underneath your stairs to selling 1,000 barrels a year are very different things.?

The depth of planning required for an expansion puts a premium on professionals catering specifically to the craft brewing industry, though Mr. Dansie noted that the number of specialists are still relatively few in number.? And even amid surging demand, a small brewery may find those advisers out of financial reach.

As one aspect of financial planning, the tax code has continued to evolve in respect to craft brewers in recent years. While aging beer in wooden barrels once used for wine or spirits has become a widely adopted brewing technique, those beers were until recently subject to the higher excise tax reserved for liquor in California. That changed last year, when North Coast Assemblyman Wes Chesbro?s proposal to reclassify those beverages as beer was signed into law. ?

Tami Norgrove

Yet those tax issues don?t stop at California, creating another layer of complication for craft breweries distributing outside of the state and the U.S., said Tami Norgrove, chief financial officer at Bear Republic. The brewery has developed an in-house system to track those differences and other data.

?It can be challenging,? she said, with differences that include aspects such as alcohol content and volume measurements. The brewery distributes its beer in 35 states and seven countries, and ?each state has different requirements and different rules.?

Meanwhile, other tax questions still loom at the federal level, including the question of what the federal tax code considers a ?craft brewery? itself. The proposed Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act ? more commonly known as the BEER Act ? is one proposal backed by large-scale producers that would drop the tax on mass-production brewers from $18 a barrel to $9, essentially raising the small brewer tax by $2. A competing Small BREW Act, short for the Small Brewer Reinvestment and Expanding Workforce Act ? would lower a current federal tax of $7 per barrel for those producing less than 60,000 barrels to $3.50.

Jim Craven

Yet regardless of the specific tax or industry definition for craft breweries, consumers appear to be embracing them with significant brand loyalty that in many cases starts with a direct-to-consumer experience at a brewpub-type setting, said Jim Caven, a director with Pisenti & Brinker LLP. For those breweries, combining the financial reports for a restaurant and what is essentially a manufacturing operation can add another challenge.

?Too often, we are separating our accounting info into silos,? he said. ?It?s up to the accountant to empty those silos and put them together,? he said.

One of the firm?s clients, Davis-based Sudwerk Brewing, is seeking to address those complexities by implementing a brewery-specific accounting system known as OrchestratedBEER, he said. Like similar systems developed for the wine industry and otherwise, the program allows services such as the tracking of company revenues and costs down to the ingredient level for various brews.

The system is meant to be flexible enough for breweries of different scales and approaches.

?We?re fortunate that there are a lot of very good breweries up here in Northern California. We can talk to each other, and learn from each other. Everyone is finding a different way to grow,? Ms. Norgrove said.

Source: http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/75272/rise-of-craft-beer-highlights-needs-in-accounting-and-tax-planning/

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Family Handyman Subscription just $5.99 - King-Size Savings

by Cristi on June 24, 2013. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Afghanistan seeks explanation for Taliban office

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Afghanistan's government says it is still waiting for a full explanation of how the Taliban were allowed to open an office in Qatar that was akin to an embassy, flying the militant group's flag and using its formal name from the years it ruled the country.

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told reporters Sunday the Afghan government remains willing to send a peace delegation to Doha to negotiate with the Taliban once it has its explanation, as well as assurances that the office will be nothing more than a place for talks.

The Taliban removed the offending "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" sign and lowered its flag after the Tuesday opening of the office.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/afghanistan-seeks-explanation-taliban-office-084409596.html

Sunil Tripathi

Snowden arrives in Moscow

By James Pomfret and Lidia Kelly

HONG KONG/MOSCOW (Reuters) - An aircraft believed to be carrying Edward Snowden landed in Moscow on Sunday after Hong Kong let the former U.S. security contractor leave the territory, despite Washington's efforts to extradite him to face espionage charges.

The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said Snowden was heading for a "democratic nation" which it did not name, although a source at the Russian airline Aeroflot said he would fly on within 24 hours to Cuba and then planned to go to Venezuela.

Moscow airport officials said the flight from Hong Kong had landed but could not immediately confirm Snowden was on board. However, a source at Aeroflot said he had booked a seat on the service.

Snowden, who worked for the National Security Agency, had been hiding in Hong Kong since leaking details about U.S. surveillance activities to news media.

A spokesman for the government of Hong Kong, a former British colony which returned to China in 1997, said it had let Snowden depart because a U.S. request to have him arrested did not comply with the law.

The United States wanted him to be extradited to face trial and is likely to be furious about his departure. In Washington, a Justice Department official said it would seek cooperation with countries Snowden may try to go to.

"It's a shocker," said Simon Young, a law professor with Hong Kong University. "I thought he was going to stay and fight it out. The U.S. government will be irate."

A source at Aeroflot said Snowden would fly from Moscow to Cuba on Monday and then planned to go on to Venezuela. The South China Morning Post earlier said his final destination might be Ecuador or Iceland.

The WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website said it helped Snowden find "political asylum in a democratic country".

It added in an update on Twitter that he was accompanied by diplomats and legal advisers and was travelling via a safe route for the purposes of seeking asylum.

"The WikiLeaks legal team and I are interested in preserving Mr Snowden's rights and protecting him as a person," former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, legal director of WikiLeaks and lawyer for the group's founder Julian Assange, said in a statement.

"What is being done to Mr Snowden and to Mr Julian Assange - for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest - is an assault against the people."

Assange has taken sanctuary in the Ecuadorean embassy in London and said last week he would not leave even if Sweden stopped pursuing sexual assault claims against him because he feared arrest on the orders of the United States.

U.S. authorities have charged Snowden with theft of U.S. government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person, with the latter two charges falling under the U.S. Espionage Act.

The United States had asked Hong Kong, a special administrative region (SAR) of China, to send Snowden home.

"The U.S. government earlier on made a request to the HKSAR government for the issue of a provisional warrant of arrest against Mr Snowden," the Hong Kong government said in a statement.

"Since the documents provided by the U.S. government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law, the HKSAR government has requested the U.S. government to provide additional information ... As the HKSAR government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."

It did not say what further information it needed.

The White House had no comment.

CHINA SAYS U.S. "BIGGEST VILLAIN"

Although Hong Kong retains an independent legal system, and its own extradition laws, Beijing has control over its foreign affairs. Some observers see Beijing's hand in Snowden's sudden departure.

Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden, a former employee of contractor Booz Allen Hamilton who worked at an NSA facility in Hawaii.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said earlier this month that Russia would consider granting Snowden asylum if he were to ask for it and pro-Kremlin lawmakers supported the idea, but there has been no indication he has done so.

The South China Morning Post earlier quoted Snowden offering new details about the United States' spy activities, including accusations of U.S. hacking of Chinese mobile telephone companies and targeting China's Tsinghua University.

Documents previously leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of internet data such as emails, chat rooms and video from large companies, including Facebook and Google, under a government program known as Prism.

China's Xinhua news agency, referring to Snowden's accusations about the hacking of Chinese targets, said they were "clearly troubling signs".

It added: "They demonstrate that the United States, which has long been trying to play innocent as a victim of cyber attacks, has turned out to be the biggest villain in our age."

Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador are all members of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America who pride themselves on their "anti-imperialist" credentials.

(Additional reporting by Fayen Wong in Shanghai, Nishant Kumar in Hong Kong and Andrew Cawthorne in Caracas; Alexei Anishchuk and Steve Gutterman in Moscow, and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Anna Willard and David Stamp)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-nsa-contractor-snowden-leaves-hong-kong-moscow-080843121.html

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'Supermoon' to light up night sky

22 June 2013 Last updated at 09:41 ET

The night sky is set to be illuminated later by what will appear to be a much bigger and brighter Moon.

The so-called "supermoon" occurs when the Moon reaches its closest point to earth, known as a perigee full moon.

The effect is to make the Moon seem 30% bigger and 14% brighter than when it is furthest from the planet.

Skywatchers who miss the phenomenon this weekend because of cloudy skies will have to wait until August 2014 for the next one.

Space expert Heather Couper said "supermoons" were the result of coincidence.

"The Moon goes round in an oval orbit so it can come very close to us, and if that coincides with a full moon, then it can look absolutely enormous," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

She explained that when the Moon was high in the sky, it looked normal.

But as it got closer to the horizon, a "kind of optical illusion" occurred where it looked bigger when compared with trees or houses, she said.

She suggested it might be possible to dispel the illusion by turning away from the Moon, bending over and looking at the sky from between your legs.

Writing in Sky and Telescope about the "myth of the supermoon", Shari Balouchi said much of what we called the supermoon was just our eyes playing tricks on us.

"The supermoon might look bigger than normal if you see it in the evening when the Moon's just rising, but the real size difference isn't big enough to notice."

BBC Weather's Darren Bett said he was confident most people in the UK would be able to see the Moon at some point on Saturday night, but warned it might be fleeting.

Bands of showers are forecast over the UK, with some gaps in the clouds.

Sunday night should be better, he added, with people in south-west England and south Wales likely to have the clearest views of the Moon.

However Marek Kukula, public astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said people should not expect the supermoon to look that much bigger than normal.

"It won't fill the sky," he said.

"It's at its most impressive when the Moon is close to the horizon ie when it's rising or setting - people will need to check online for rising and setting times for their locality."

Dr Kukula said the US Naval Observatory and HM Nautical Almanac Office had online tools for checking the moon's rising and setting times.

Scientists have dismissed the idea that the perigee can cause strange behaviour, like lycanthropy or natural disasters.

Dr Couper said the tides this weekend would be unaffected.

We'd like to see your pictures of the supermoon.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here. Read the terms and conditions.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23013393#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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US fighter jets in Jordan to provide training

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. administration officials say about a dozen U.S. fighter jets will be flying and conducting training operations in Jordan. They'll be poised to respond if needed to protect allies if the war in neighboring Syria spills over the border.

Officials say the increased show of U.S. military might should be seen as a signal to Syria that its 2-year-old civil war must remain contained within its borders and that the U.S. is committed to its defense relationship with Jordan.

The total number of U.S. forces in Jordan will be as many as 1,000.

The officials say this is not a first step toward establishing a no-fly zone around Syria. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the mission publicly.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-21-US-Syria-Training/id-75236c9884f2451e9c0d903b5d16b3a3

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Try These Cooking Tips For Some Great Meals! | Cooking Tips and ...

Although lots of people dream of becoming great chefs, all the hard training that is required can be extremely overwhelming. Cooking is so accessible because you can go at your own pace, and if you try applying these tips, you can be a master chef faster than the blink of an eye.

Keep a few pointers in mind if you plan to attempt cooking with skewers. If you are using metal skewers, the square or twisted kind are much better than round ones for holding food in place.

TIP! Keep a few pointers in mind if you plan to attempt cooking with skewers. Not all metal skewers are created equal; traditional round metal skewers are not the best option to keep food in place when grilling.

If you are preparing a meal for a boss or new date, cook something that you are familiar with. You should not try to cook something new when you are cooking for someone whom you want to impress. This can keep your stress levels in check while you cook.

Fresh Ingredients

Regardless of what you cook, it is always better to use fresh ingredients as opposed to those that are dried or frozen. Use fresh ingredients, as they bring out the flavor in a dish, and they are also less expensive.

Much like a sponge, the mushrooms will absorb the water. A better option is to use a clean, damp cloth to hand-wipe each mushroom.

Try to add some broths or other ingredients to recipes that call for liquid in place of what it asks for. Juices, beef broth, or vegetable broth can all be used as a substitute for water. As an alternative to milk, try using thinned sour cream, yogurt, soy milk or buttermilk. Try making your recipes stand out and more nutritious by interchanging your liquids.

Leave the bone in a roast when you are cooking and pressed for time. Your meat will cook faster this way because the bone helps to carry the heat straight to the inside of your roaster. When the cooking is complete, just serve by cutting around the bone.

TIP! When seasoning meats, try a little piece before cooking the entire thing. Dishes like meatballs, meatloaf and hamburgers need to be seasoned carefully.

Avoid cooking with a wine that you ordinarily would not find palatable to drink. Using a type of wine you find unpalatable will negatively impact the flavor of your food. There are wines available that are used just for cooking purposes.

When you have a big meal to prepare, get a head start by doing the prep work the night before. Before retiring to bed, you can do things like preparing a sauce, chopping up vegetables and onions, or marinating meat. This way, your stress levels the next day will be a lot less, and cooking a lot more fun.

Cutting Board

Some ingredients can leave a rather strong odor on your cutting board. Mark one end, or side, of each cutting board so that you know which is which.

You may have heard master chefs on TV say, ?Let the meat rest before serving it.? It is a little known fact that foods should rest for a short period after the cooking process. This is especially true of meats. It may be tempting to get the food to the table as quickly as possible. But if you do, you miss out on the full flavors of the dish. It?s also important that the food simply cools down and rests for awhile for flavor?s sake. Give it a few minutes, and it should be ready to go.

Stay creative and have fun when cooking. Cooking is about coming up with different ways of using a recipe not just following it. Experimenting fearlessly with cooking, adding a new ingredient, cutting one out, and changing amounts is how great new recipes are born. Turning a simple recipe into something that is uniquely your own is the sign of a true cook.

TIP! People want to use apples very often in fall and winter, but unless they are stored properly, they will spoil rapidly. Warm, dry air can cause apples to rot, so keep your excess stock for cooking and eating in plastic bags, and place them where they will stay cool and moist, such as the basement or refrigerator.

To make your pasta sauce a little better, use some of the water that you cooked your noodles in. Save about one quarter cup of this water. When you are getting ready to mix the pasta and sauce together, pour in some of the water. The addition of the starchy water will bulk up your sauce and make it creamier.

Whether your desire to cook a meal for your family or impress a date, the ability to create great meals will always be an asset. Sharing meals with friends and family is a worldwide practice. You can become a great cook by just following the advice from this article.

Source: http://cooking-tips-and-tricks.bwsgroup2.com/cooking-for-beginners/try-these-cooking-tips-for-some-great-meals/

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U.S. to Propose New Phase In Nuclear-Arms Cuts (WSJ)

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