Map Your Voice is a neat project that helps you learn any accent by clicking a point on a map and listening to how a person from that area speaks a pre-specified piece of text. Map Your Voice

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Drop two tablets in warm water, then soak a cotton ball in the solution. Apply it to the infected area for 30 minutes for relief from the insect bites. More Unusual Uses For Alka-Seltzer

How much do you really know about viruses, spy-ware, scare-ware, trojans, and worms? Here’s a helpful guide to understanding all the different types of malware. Link

If you loved browsing the archives of National Geographic when they opened up their vaults last November and found yourself wanting to take your own impressive nature shots, you’ll definitely want to check out the BBC Photo Masterclasses.

Published in the pages of the BBC’s Wildlife magazine, the Photo Masterclasses are articles written by Wildlife photographers and specialists in their genre of nature photography. You’ll find articles on macro photography, landscape photography, and photographing different creatures under all sorts of different conditions. If you love learning a new photography trick or two you’ll definitely want to dive into the archives of the BBC.  BBC Wildlife Magazine Photo Masterclasses BBC via Nature Magnified

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Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do.  The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the
arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.  ’Since you are all such good customers, he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.

Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’ They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before.  And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

‘I only got a dollar out of the $20,’declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’
‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’
‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine
sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may
not show up anymore.

In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

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I really enjoyed this tutorial, I hope you will too. Make sure you check out part two. Steve

From DaniDraws.com

“I will be creating a series of posts explaining the making of this illustration in-depth. For part 1, here is how I prepared my line drawing for painting in Photoshop.”

Link Part 1 Part 2

Do you want to avoid buying products made in certain countries?

Can you differentiate which one is made in Taiwan or China?

If the first 3 digits of the barcode are 690, 691 or 692, the product is MADE IN CHINA.

471 is Made in Taiwan.

Nowadays,  Chinese businessmen know that consumers do not prefer products “MADE IN CHINA”, so they don’t show from which country it is made.

However, you may now refer to the barcode.

Remember if the first 3 digits are:

690-692 . then it is MADE IN CHINA .
00 – 09 . USA & CANADA
30 – 37 . FRANCE
40 – 44 . GERMANY
47 … Taiwan
49 . JAPAN
50 . UK

BUY USA by watching for “0″ at the beginning of the number.

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Download a PDF file on  Map Reading & Navigation Here