Interview with Bree Leman

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Bree Leman, presently based in Florida, is a fashion and glamour illustrator. In this interview she talks about how she started her career as an advertising graphic designer and evolved herself into developing her own illustrative fashion vector style.

Today she is a successful freelance designer working with some top advertising companies around the globe and currently completing projects with seventeen magazine, Avon and Beijo fashion bags. Read on to learn more about this talented artist. She kindly shares with us her experiences, dream projects, and some great tips on design and illustration.

Continue reading “Interview with Bree Leman”

Open Mic: Do iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match Impress You?

Each week we open our mic to readers and lurkers alike to come out of the woodwork and tell us your thoughts and opinion, your experiences and mistakes, what you love and what you hate. We want to hear from you, and here’s your chance.

Yesterday Apple announced their new versions of Mac OS X and iOS, and introduced a new online service called iCloud – check out our coverage on Mac.AppStorm. The significant announcements for music lovers were iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match. Are you impressed? How do Apple’s services compare to the alternatives?


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How to Make Your DIed Bass Guitar Sound Better – Audio Premium

In this week’s Audio Premium content, Björgvin Benediktsson teaches you how to give life to a DIed bass track. While the screenshots for this tutorial are taken in Logic Pro, the content is not Logic-centric and is equally useful and valuable in any software that deals with sequenced music.

To learn more about what you get as part of Audio Premium, read this. To take a peek inside this tutorial, hit the jump!

“Dealing with low end can be tricky sometimes. Especially if you’ve recorded it in a way that might limit your options. Many famous producers opt to only record their bass direct, skipping the whole miking-the-cabinet step altogether. However, sometimes that DI sound isn’t the best you might have hoped for. It might have sounded pretty good during recording but when it comes time to mix it’s kind of lacking compared to the other instruments.

But don’t worry, there are certainly a few ways you can mix your bass in order to salvage a sub-par bass sound. We’ll be looking at ways to fake that amplifier sound using plug-ins, using multi-band compression to target specific bass heavy areas, as well as giving it some subtle space.”

The tutorial will teach you how to take a bass track from this:

Download audio file (examplebefore.mp3)

To this:

Download audio file (exampleafter.mp3)

Table of Contents

  • Making the Most of a Recording
  • Getting Rid of that DI sound
  • Compression for a Steady Sound
  • Making the Bass Bassy but not Boomy
  • Adding Space
  • Conclusion

Existing Premium members can log-in and download. Not a Plus member? Join now.


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Workshop #181: Lefty by The Verge

This track has been submitted for your friendly, constructive criticism. What useful feedback can you give the artist? The floor is yours to talk about the track and how they can fix problems in and improve upon the mix and the song.

Download audio file (lefty.mp3)

Description of the track:

A slight departure from our usual sound, this one has a more drum n bass sound to it and was our first time using Cubase.

Terms of Use: Users can stream the track for the purposes of giving feedback but cannot download or redistribute it.

Have a listen to the track and offer your constructive criticism for this Workshop in the comments section.

Need constructive criticism on your own tracks? Submit them for a workshop using this form.


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A Look Into The Depthcore Collective

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Looking for visual inspiration? Look no further than the Depthcore Collective. With over 40 exhibitions dating back as far as June 2002, this group of accomplished artists of all mediums has been churning out digital art of the highest quality for nearly ten years. In today’s article we will be featuring some of this art here for you all to enjoy.

“We’ve all been together for so long, through so many things together it feels like a family. Progressing through life together, from amateur enthusiasts to students to full time professionals, we’ve all been able to share and grow through the collective.” Justin Maller


Artisitc Chameleon by Shadow Chen


Eve Of Happiness by Theo Aartsma


Homeworld by David Fuhrer


Sis by Raphael Vicenzi


We’ll Be Perfect by Justin Maller


Trees In Heaven by Sheena Aw


Gabriel by David Waters


AFFAIR by Leigh Flurry


Hocus Pocus by Craig Shields


Give Me My Gold Leaves! by Richard Roberts


How Depthcore is set apart from other collectives.

Our collectives’ long history and tight knit member environment combine to give us a sense of enduring purpose; we’ve all been together for so long, through so many things together it feels like a family. Progressing through life together, from amateur enthusiasts to students to full time professionals, we’ve all been able to share and grow through the collective. Whilst our talent and visual production are what we are most renowned for, it is our unity and genuine trust and affection for each other that will see us outlast all others; nine years and still going strong, Depthcore is evolving with it’s members.


Constellation AK47 by Matei Apostolescu


Downhill From Here by Ikaruga


The Blizzard, The Dreamweaver by Ari Wenkle


Rhinestones And Morals by Ari Wenkle


Supernova by Richard Roberts


Decrescis by Jonathan Foerster


Thoughts in Output by Niklas Lundberg


Steampunk Pioneer by Larisa Glushakova


I, the accuser by Matei Apostolescu


The Omega by Heiko Klug


What are the most important goals this collective is trying to achieve?

We always strive to set new benchmarks in quality and originality when we release chapters,
endeavoring to produce new artwork in fresh, modern styles. Our new objective is to stay relevant as a collective with a membership comprised of freelancers and studio professionals; adapting to become an interesting and viable entity in a new environment is a large goal that we are trying to achieve by creating several new facets to our enterprise whilst overhauling and renovating the existing core.


Origins by Nik Ainley


Poseidon’s Grip by Richards Roberts


For all the ravens in our hearts by Raphael Vicenzi


A Final Release by Niklas Lundberg


Somehow Different by Ikaruga


Special Thanks

Id like to give a special thanks once again to Richard Roberts and Justin Maller; for helping me put together this look at Depthcore. Make sure to stay up to date with Depthcore by following them on Twitter for constant site and artist updates.

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China ends wind power subsidies

Wind farms of China Power International New Energy Holding Ltd. Gansu ProvinceChina has pledged to boost wind power and other renewable energy sectors
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China has agreed to halt subsidies to wind-power manufacturers that violate World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, according to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

The move comes after the the United Steelworkers Union filed a complaint to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The Chinese currently subsidise wind-power firms that use domestic parts instead of imports.

Mr Kirk said this gives them an unfair advantage over US wind turbine makers.

“We challenged these subsidies so that American manufacturers can produce wind turbine components here in the United States and sell them in China,” said Mr Kirk.

“That supports well-paying jobs here at home.”

“The US is pleased that China has shut down this subsidy program,” he said.

There was no comment in response to the statement by Mr Kirk from China.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

No bodies at Texas ‘grave’ site

Aerial view of the property believed to be at the centre of the investigation

Eric Latz, a journalist for KSHN Radio in Liberty County said there were conflicting reports coming from the scene

US police are to search a rural house in eastern Texas, where they believe there is a mass grave.

US media say there may be up to 30 dismembered bodies including children buried there.

Liberty County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Rex Evans says the office received an anonymous report on Tuesday that there were bodies in the home.

Police are seeking a search warrant for the property, whose residents are said to be “uncooperative”.

So far, Mr Evans said, no bodies have been found.

Aerial shots on local TV stations showed a dozen police vehicles parked along a road in wooded country.

The FBI confirmed it had been asked to take part in an investigation.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Watchdog attacks business courses

cashSome courses leave pupils with little little knowledge of business and the economy, inspectors say
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Many vocational business qualifications are failing to develop pupils’ understanding and skills in the subject, inspectors have warned.

Ofsted said 30 of 39 English schools whose vocational business courses it inspected had a “serious problem”.

Its report questioned whether business courses examined through internally set and marked assignments should be seen as equivalent to GCSEs.

Ministers said there were concerns about the quality of some courses.

Inspectors found some lessons focused too much on completing “narrow written assignments” that gave students little opportunity to debate issues, extend their thinking and develop a broader understanding and skills in the subject.

“Students often had only vague ideas about the economy, interest rates and their impact”

Ofsted report

Despite students achieving good results, the quality of their work was weak, they said.

The report added: “Evidence from lesson observations, scrutiny of written work and discussion with students brings into question the case for claiming that such courses are equivalent to between two and four single-award, traditionally examined GCSEs at Key Stage 4.”

The report – called Economics, business and enterprise education – looked at enterprise education across the whole school, as well as formal qualifications for 14 to 18-year-olds.

In the secondary schools inspected, Ofsted found enterprise education – which is statutory at Key Stage 4 – to be wanting.

“The provision for, and development of, all students’ economic and business understanding and their financial capability were […] often weak,” the report said.

“As a result, students often had only vague ideas about the economy, interest rates and their impact, recession, inflation, why prices vary and the ownership of companies.”

Chief inspector Christine Gilbert said economics, business and enterprise education was about equipping young people with the skills to leave school well-informed as consumers, employees and potential employers.

“More should be done to directly involve students with the business world and local businesses,” she said.

“The report highlights the need to review the equivalency of vocational business qualifications that are assessed wholly or mainly by internally set and marked assignments with more traditional GCSEs and GCE A-levels.”

The Ofsted report comes just weeks after Education Secretary Michael Gove announced his plans to reform vocational education.

Under the measures 14-year-olds will be given more opportunities to study at college rather than school, and league tables will be overhauled so that only vocational qualifications identified as high quality are likely to be included.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “This report raises serious concerns about the quality of some courses taught in our schools.

“All young people should have access to high-quality qualifications that lead to employment, further or higher education.

“This summer, we will be carrying out a consultation on the characteristics of high-quality vocational qualifications so we can ensure that only those qualifications that meet the criteria are taught in our schools.

“We also plan to do more to encourage industry experts to teach in schools – providing students with a better understanding of how the business world works.”

The report follows the publication in March of a report by Professor Alison Wolf on vocational education.

Professor Wolf said hundreds of thousands of young people in England were doing vocational courses which did not lead to university or a job.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Indonesia cattle abuse row grows

Australian cows are loaded onto a truck after arriving at the Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta. Photo: May 2011Indonesia is Australia’s largest market for live cattle exports
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The Australian government has suspended live cattle exports to Indonesia until safeguards are adopted to end the brutal slaughter of animals.

The move follows an investigation into Indonesian abattoirs by Australia’s ABC broadcaster, which showed graphic footage of animals being mistreated.

It prompted a public outcry and demands for the government to act.

Last week, Canberra suspended exports to abattoirs shown in the programme, but now it has issued a blanket ban.

The ban is the result of public revulsion and outrage at the gruesome footage from Indonesia’s abattoirs that was broadcast last week in an ABC TV documentary.

It showed steers being whipped, beaten and slashed repeatedly, and suffering terrible pain befDid animal cruelty report lead to an over-reaction?ore they are slaughtered.

“No piece of television journalism aired in Australia in the past 12 months has had such an profound impact on the public and, more importantly, government policy”

Nick Bryant BBC News, SydneyDid animal cruelty report lead to an over-reaction?

Australia first announced a ban on live exports to the 12 abattoirs featured in the programme.

But the public demanded more, signing online petitions to halt the trade with Indonesia and pressing lawmakers in Canberra to bring in a complete ban.

Butchers have also reported that beef sales are down by up to 15%.

An early indication that a ban was about to come into effect came on Tuesday, when about 2,000 cattle were not allowed to board a ship in Western Australia that was about to set sail for Indonesia.

Now has come the announcement that exports will be halted until safeguards are put in place in Indonesia to safeguard the animals.

Australia exports more than 700,000 cattle each year, the vast majority of it to Indonesia.

However, Australian farmers have warned that a ban would destroy many rural livelihoods.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Real-life tragedy

BBC Hamlet, 1980Ophelia’s death could have been inspired by Shakespeare’s memory of a local tragedy

An Oxford historian has found evidence of a story that could be the real-life inspiration for Shakespeare’s tragic character, Ophelia.

Dr Steven Gunn has found a coroner’s report into the drowning of a Jane Shaxspere in 1569.

The girl, possibly a young cousin of William Shakespeare, had been picking flowers when she fell into a millpond near Stratford upon Avon.

Dr Gunn says there are “tantalising” links to Ophelia’s drowning in Hamlet.

A four-year research project, carried out by Oxford University academics, has been searching through 16th century coroners’ reports.

These have revealed a treasure trove of information about accidental deaths in Tudor England.

Oxford research into coroners' reportsThe coroners’ reports revealed the story of Jane Shaxspere

But Dr Gunn says they were taken aback to find an account of the death of a girl who might have been a young cousin of her contemporary, William Shakespeare.

“It was quite a surprise to find Jane Shaxspere’s entry in the coroners’ reports – it might just be a coincidence, but the links to Ophelia are certainly tantalising,” he said.

The coroners’ report, originally written in Latin, describes the death of two-and-half-year-old Jane Shaxspere, who drowned picking marigolds in a stream beside a millpond.

The translation of the report records the cause, time and place.

“By reason of collecting and holding out certain flowers called ‘yellow boddles’ growing on the bank of a certain small channel at Upton aforesaid called Upton millpond – the same Jane Shaxspere the said sixteenth day of June about the eighth hour after noon of the same day suddenly and by misfortune fell into the same small channel and was drowned in the aforesaid small channel; and then and there she instantly died.

“And thus the aforesaid flowers were the cause of the death of the aforesaid Jane.”

The biographical gaps in William Shakespeare’s life make it impossible to know if this was the death of a cousin or other relation when the playwright was a boy living in Stratford upon Avon.

But Emma Smith from Oxford’s English faculty says that it’s likely that William Shakespeare would have known of the story – and that it could have been in his thoughts when writing the flower-strewn drowning of Ophelia in Hamlet.

“It’s interesting to think of Ophelia combining classical and renaissance antecedents with the local tragedy of a drowned girl,” said Dr Smith.

There are other theories about the inspiration for Ophelia, including the story of Katharine Hamlet, who drowned in the river Avon, not far from Stratford upon Avon, in 1579 – a decade after Jane Shaxspere.

“And thus the aforesaid flowers were the cause of the death of the aforesaid Jane.”

The coroner’s report into how Jane Shaxpere died collecting flowers

The haunting image of the drowned girl, garlanded by flowers, caught the imagination of painters, such as the pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais.

The research project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, has also uncovered the type of health and safety nightmares that troubled the Tudors.

These are often more Monty Python farce than Shakespearean tragedy, says Dr Gunn.

The detailed accounts of deaths include hazards such as being run over by a cart.

There were also three fatalities involving performing bears.

Archery proved to be a particularly dangerous activity for Tudor villagers.

There are 56 deaths reported from accidents involving bows and arrows. Dr Gunn says this includes spectators paying a heavy price for falling asleep too near to the targets.

The most inept archery death, he says, was a man who managed to shoot himself in the head with an arrow.

The first accidental death from a handgun appears in 1519, when a man shooting at a target hit a woman who walked in front of him.

There were fatal maypole accidents and a particularly pungent end was faced by a man who fell into a cesspit when relieving himself.

Millais, OpheliaThe painter Millais was inspired by the image of the drowned girl with flowers

More ambiguously, a man died following the crushing of his testicles “during a Christmas game”.

And a man from Scotland died while demonstrating how he liked to lie down and be tied up, a recreation which he had claimed to be popular in his homeland.

There were also workplace accidents, such as coal miners suffocating underground and workers drowning when they were washing themselves in rivers.

“Coroners’ reports of fatal accidents are a useful and hitherto under-studied way of exploring everyday life in Tudor England,” says Dr Gunn.

“Some medieval historians have used them, but the Tudor records are much fuller. The enquiries into the deaths were extensive and solemnly undertaken.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Kyrgyzstan ‘risks more violence’

Houses burning in Jalalabad, Kyrgyzstan - 13 June 2010The ethnic fighting in southern Kyrgyzstan forced tens of thousands of people to flee

Failure to deliver justice for the killings of civilians in ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan in 2010 could spark more violence, Amnesty International warns.

In a report released ahead of the first anniversary of the 10-14 June pogroms, Amnesty urges Bishkek to “establish the truth about what happened”.

Some 470 people died in the clashes between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in the south of the country.

Hundreds of people were injured and thousands of houses destroyed.

The violence, which was mainly centred in the cities of Osh and Jalalabad, followed weeks of turmoil after the ousting of then President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in a mass uprising in the Central Asian country in April 2010.

In its “Still Waiting for Justice” report, the London-based human rights group urges the Kyrgyz government to punish the perpetrators of last year’s violence.

“The failure to bring to justice those behind the violence could provide fertile soil for the seeds of future turmoil and future human rights violations,” said Nicola Duckworth, Amnesty’s Europe and Central Asia director.

map

“Ethnic bias and corruption are behind the pervading impunity in Kyrgyzstan.

“The rule of law must be upheld in order to rebuild the trust between the ethnic groups and prevent future bloodshed. All crimes, including crimes against humanity, must be investigated and tried in fair proceedings,” Ms Duckworth said.

The report says that 20 cases of rape and other sexual violence have been documented during the violence, but points that the real number is believed to be much higher.

The document also accuses Kyrgyz security forces of using “excessive force” and torturing detainees in the aftermath of the violence.

Members of both communities suffered losses, but 74% of those killed were ethnic Uzbeks, Amnesty says.

Despite this, the report says that subsequent government investigations targeted mainly ethnic Uzbeks.

It says courts have handed out at least 27 life sentences, “all of them against ethnic Uzbeks”.

Last month, an inquiry by an international panel – the Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission (KIC) – concluded that the co-ordinated and systematic nature of the attacks could amount to crimes against humanity if proved in court.

But Bishkek rejected the report, saying that the investigation was ethnically biased.

Kyrgyz lawmakers have recently voted to ban the head of the inquiry, Finnish politician Kimo Kiljunen, from entering Kyrgyzstan.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Majestic shuttle in station image

Endeavour ISS (Nasa)
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It is a stunning image and one that is bound to be reproduced over and over again whenever they recall the history of the US space shuttle.

The picture was taken by Italian astronaut Paulo Nespoli as he left the International Space Station in May in a Soyuz capsule to return to Earth.

Safety procedures mean the Russian vehicle would never normally be in transit when a shuttle is present.

It makes this the first-ever image of an American orbiter docked to the ISS.

Endeavour sits firmly on the bow of the station, which is moving across the surface of the Earth at a speed of 27,000km/h (17,000mph) and at an altitude of approximately 355km (220 miles).

Nespoli’s camera is looking along the ISS’s truss, or backbone, which carries the four sets of giant solar wings. The stern is occupied by Europe’s robotic freighter – the Johannes Kepler ship.

The pictures were acquired on 23 May but were only released by the US space agency (Nasa) on Tuesday. They had been eagerly awaited by space fans.

Nespoli had spent a lot of time during his 159-day stay at the station taking pictures of Earth and life aboard the international outpost. Many of these images were posted on his mission Flickr account. It was widely expected therefore that the European Space Agency astronaut would get some excellent shots during the unique departure.

The timing and subject is also perfect. Endeavour is seen here making her final sortie into orbit, making the last big US assembly item delivery – a $2bn particle physics experiment known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. The seven-tonne machine now sits on top of the platform.

Endeavour was also the orbiter chosen to take up the first American segment of the platform when the project had just got started in the late 1990s.

The youngest of Nasa’s shuttles returned to Earth on 1 June and will now be prepared for public display at a science museum in California. Sister ship Atlantis stands ready on the launch pad in Florida for a swansong of her own in July. Once her mission is done, no orbiter will ever fly again.

Nespoli’s crewmates in the Soyuz were Russian cosmonaut and Expedition 27 commander Dmitry Kondratyev; and Nasa astronaut Cady Coleman.

Their replacements blasted off from Kazakhstan on Tuesday in another Soyuz vehicle. Nasa astronaut Mike Fossum, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa are scheduled to arrive at the ISS on Thursday, raising its complement once again to six individuals.

The venerable Soyuz will be the only way for astronauts and cosmonauts to reach the platform in the years following the retirement of the shuttle fleet.

Nasa hopes some US commercial carriers will become available in the middle of the decade.

Endeavour ISS (Nasa)

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.