So what’s it like to be one of 200 people in the world to own the $12,950 Leica M7 Hermes? Quite good, as it turns out. Vlad Dusil (that’s his name, so you know where to direct your envy) of Purse Blog is among the chosen few, but he has blessed us with a quick photoshoot and a cursory impressions piece of the hardware itself. He isn’t gonna use it, mind you, as it’s an investment piece — in his words, “This camera will remain in its cozy silk-lined box until I get a worthy cabinet to display it in for a while, then it will go back to rest in its dark box.” Can’t be sure we wouldn’t do the same thing, though, if we had the kind of disposable income that’d afford a $13,000 device.

When will it stop? Our babies will be born in black turtlenecks if they have their way.

And is that a funktified “Another one bites the dust” break?

Sporting events can be some of the most difficult events to photograph, but there are some techniques and tricks to getting it done. Here are six tips to taking better sports pictures.

1. Fast shutter speed: At many sporting events, it is difficult to capture the actions of the players without blurring them. To combat their speed, set your shutter speed as high as possible in relation to the allowable aperture based on the light. Otherwise, your subject will be blurry, you could be susceptible to camera shake, or both.

2. Dealing with shutter lag: If you anticipate photographing a lot of sporting events, invest in a faster camera that has doesn’t have a reputation for shutter lag. If your camera tends to be slow, switch from auto focus to manual focus to speed up the shutter process a bit. Also practice counting how long it takes your shutter to snap a photo under the lighting conditions you’ll be working in.

3. Shoot in JPG: JPG files are smaller than RAW or TIFF, so it will shoot faster and also save you more room on your memory card. Usually, JPG files are just fine for professional use.

4. Capture different moments: It’s not all about the action. While it can be quite the photo to catch a movement of one specific player, also try capturing the interaction of the team to tell a larger story. Also pay attention to what happens off the field. It’s not only the players involved, but the facial expressions and emotions of the coaches as well as the fans can provide provocative photos.

5. Use a long lens: Unless you have a press pass or front row seats, chances are you aren’t very close to the players. If you can manage it (meaning there aren’t rules against it) and afford one, bring a telephoto lens (around 80 mm to 200 mm). They’ll bring you far closer to the field than a stock lens would. But, quite often telephoto lenses can be heavy, and therefore cause camera shake. If you’re going to a darker venue, you’ll probably need some sort of tripod, so research what you’re getting into so you know what equipment to bring.

6. Extra Tips: Check what kind of equipment you can bring into the venue (especially if you don’t have special clearance already). Get to the event early to secure a good spot. Make sure your camera batteries are charged, especially if you anticipate using a lot of flash. Test the settings in relation to the available light at the venue before the event starts.

Do you have any additional tips from experience with sports photography?

LONDON (Reuters) – Internet auction site eBay stopped a 10-year-old girl’s attempt to auction off her “moaning” granny online.
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Zoe Pemberton from southern England put her 61-year-old grandmother up for sale on the auction website with no reserve price, describing her as “rare and annoying and moaning a lot.”

But she also said pensioner Marian Goodall was “very cuddly,” loved word searches and enjoyed drinking tea.

More than 20 bids were received for Goodall, but she has since been withdrawn from the site, eBay said.

“While no doubt Mrs. Goodall would have fetched a princely sum, eBay does not allow the listing of any human being on the site,” an eBay spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

“Mind you, we were impressed to see a total of 27 bids for the lady in question!”

Start your girls off early in their career choices. This doll will teach your little girls to:

# have style
# do interesting things
# music
# flash
# go up and down the poll
# go round and round

Ok ok enough. There is really really something wrong with the world!! How the hell does something like this get approved for manufacture and sale? You might not see this at Toys R Us; but you might at Wallmart?? For those of you who think China is behind the doll; your wrong it’s Japan!

by Robin Wauters
The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced this morning. Under the terms of the agreement and based on last week’s closing price of Disney, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own.

Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the total transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.

Under the deal, which has been approved by the boards of both companies, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its portfolio of over 5,000 Marvel characters. That portfolio includes many familiar names like Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor.

Says Disney CEO Robert A. Iger in a statement: “We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation.”

Ike Perlmutter, Marvel’s CEO, added: “Disney is the perfect home for Marvel’s fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses. This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney’s tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world.”

Mr. Perlmutter will oversee the Marvel properties, and will work directly with Disney’s global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel’s properties.

Marvel stock is surging following the news, up 10+ points at the time of writing (+27%), while Disney’s is down a little (-0,5%).

Xbox 360 gamers know the Red Ring of Death all too well. When one of Microsoft’s gaming consoles experiences a hardware failure, three of the four red lights ringing the Xbox’s power indicator illuminate.

Since the Xbox 360′s launch in late 2005, system failures have gained their fair share of attention. Last year, Microsoft even set aside $1 billion to extend Red Ring of Death warranty coverage to three years.

In fact, a Game Informer survey of 5,000 readers found that the Xbox 360 has an astounding 54.2 percent failure rate. That means 54.2 percent of Xbox 360 consoles fail in one way or another.

That’s well above the reported failure rates of Sony’s PlayStation 3 (10.6 percent) and Nintendo’s Wii (6.8 percent).

However, when the results hit newsstands in the September 2009 issue of Game Informer, gamers were surprised with the results. No, they didn’t think 54.2 percent was a high rate – they thought it was low.

“We’re not sure what future techno-utopia this poll was conducted in,” wrote Griffin McElroy of Joystiq, “but a 54.2 percent Xbox 360 failure rate sounds awfully low. Had the survey’s participants been comprised entirely of Joystiq staffers, it would have been a bone-chilling 100 percent.”

Furthermore, 41.2 percent of Xbox 360 owners suffered a second hardware failure after sending their console back to Microsoft for repair, according to the survey. PS3′s second-failure rate was 14.7 percent, while the Wii’s was 11 percent.

Considering Microsoft has sold more than 30 million Xbox 360s, this all means about 16.3 million consoles failed. And of those 16.3 million Xboxes, 6.7 million failed again.

Microsoft’s Xbox team only gave the following response to the survey, which a Game Informer editor said has “caused quite a stir.”

Microsoft stands behind the Xbox 360 as a superior entertainment console with one of the best warranties in the industry. We are constantly improving the design, manufacture and performance of the console through extensive testing of potential sources of any problems. Xbox 360 is pleased to maintain the title of “most played console” and the vast majority of Xbox 360 customers have enjoyed a terrific gaming and entertainment experience since their first day, and continue to, day in and day out. Any Xbox 360 owners experiencing issues with their console should contact Microsoft for repairs or troubleshooting tips at www.xbox.com/support or 1-800-4-MY-XBOX.
OK, but in the same survey, just 37.7 percent of respondents found Microsoft’s customer service “very helpful.” And though Sony’s and Nintendo’s repairs usually took a week or two, Microsoft’s Xbox repairs generally took closer to a month, Game Informer reports.

Last year, Microsoft also was hit by a lawsuit that alleged the Redmond-based company covered up the Xbox 360′s “excessive failure rate.”

Regardless of everything above, people still love their Xbox 360s. Just 3.8 percent of respondents said they wouldn’t buy another Xbox because of system failures, according to Game Informer. And 36.4 percent of people who had an Xbox 360 fail have purchased more than one Xbox.

NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
CALGARY — From Monday’s Globe and Mail
Last updated on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 02:58AM EDT
In the midst of a recession that has bruised consumers and battered retailers, developers are opening the doors on a massive new project this week in hopes that Albertans’ wallets have not been sewn up by economic worry.

The owners of the $495-million CrossIron Mills shopping centre have, of course, made every effort to mask any hint of financial worry, with a choreographed opening Wednesday that includes appearances by Alberta bright lights such as Kelly Hrudey of Hockey Night in Canada and country music singer Paul Brandt, who will perform a private concert.

But retail specialists across the country are looking to the opening of the cavernous new retail space – a 1.1-million-square-foot behemoth that will expand Calgary’s retail space by 3.5 per cent in one swoop – as a rare chance to see consumer sentiment writ large.

The opening of the mall, Alberta’s first new enclosed shopping space in 20 years, represents the first major roll of the dice by a retail developer in Canada since the financial crisis and recession took root last fall.

How it fares could provide important insights into how Canadian shoppers feel, but also how consumer preference has shifted at a time when conspicuous consumption has become uncool and Gucci offers its buyers branding-free bags to haul home their loot without looking pretentious.

“Are consumers excited enough about a shiny new space?” said David Ian Gray, a retail expert with DIG360 Consulting Ltd. in Vancouver. “It’s going to be exciting to see how many people flow in in the first week. I’ll be watching it pretty closely.”

Some early signs are, however, troubling. Built by Ivanhoe Cambridge, a unit of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, to hold 17 anchor tenants, CrossIron will open with just 13. It was unable to lease two of the spaces, and then watched as, first, Holt Renfrew pulled back on plans to build a 20,000 square foot space, then Chapters/Indigo said its store won’t be ready for some time.

Two other U.S. retailers – American Eagle and Brooks Brothers – have also pulled back, leaving the mall with empty spaces. Both have told Ivanhoe Cambridge, which built and will manage the mall, that they plan to open some time next year.

But other retailers have stood fast, and the mall says about 80 per cent of its space is leased. Its first anchor tenant, Bass Pro Shops, which opened in March, has already beat its sales forecasts. Still, Alberta retail spending is down – the biggest mall in Calgary, Chinook Centre, saw July sales decline 2 per cent.

The CrossIron retailer pullback has been reminiscent of Ivanhoe Cambridge’s experience with the Vaughan Mills mall in suburban Toronto, a similar project that saw several U.S. retailers pull out ahead of its 2004 opening.

Like Vaughan Mills, CrossIron is located outside city limits, 25 kilometres north of downtown Calgary, with about half its retail space devoted to factory outlet shops.

But comparisons with Vaughan Mills suit CrossIron’s developers just fine, since the Toronto location has done an admirable job of keeping the recession at bay. July traffic has grown by 5.1 per cent, while year-to-date sales are up 10.2 per cent.

That’s not to mention the upside of a down economy: CrossIron has had few problems hiring workers. At a recent job fair, employers opening locations at the mall received 5,000 applications for 3,500 jobs, a shift from the days when Alberta’s retail sector found it difficult to find qualified employees.

“It’s an interesting time to open a centre, but frankly we know these centres do really well,” said Ivanhoe Cambridge vice-president of development John Scott, who admitted it is “unfortunate” that Holt Renfrew is not planning to open in the mall.

“Will we be able to resurrect something? We’re certainly hopeful,” he said.

Still, others say the lack of several promised retailers could hurt the mall, whose best chances at success lie in delivering a unique retail experience. A tough first year could be especially painful, given that malls typically count on a profitable honeymoon period with customers still excited about a new product.

And other retailers could be hurt, too. Not only is CrossIron bringing a deluge of new space onto the market, but Chinook, which is already as big as CrossIron, is building a $280-million, 180,000 square-foot addition.

“Someone’s going to get hurt,” said Graeme Spicer, a Toronto-based retail consultant.

“The retail dollars aren’t going to expand in the same kind of way that the square footage just expanded. It’s going to be the B-level malls that are going to suffer. There’s no doubt about it.”

Still, Mr. Spicer said CrossIron will serve as a “bellwether” on the strength of the Alberta consumer, whose spending force remains a point of confidence for those who track it.

“Even with dropping 10 per cent from where we were last year, we still spend per person more dollars than anywhere else in Canada,” said ATB Financial chief economist Todd Hirsch.

“Alberta is still a great consumer market.”

(People.com) — When Kate Gosselin appeared on Monday’s “Today” show, she told host Meredith Vieira that she still loves her soon-to-be ex, “the Jon I knew.” However, the stars of TLC’s “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ seem to have lost that loving feeling.

Kate Gosselin, here smiling at a press event in April, got into a verbal dispute Thursday over the kids’ babysitter.

Around 6 p.m. Thursday, police arrived at the Gosselin family home in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, where the exes were engaged in a verbal argument. A source close to Kate Gosselin confirms she called police.

“[Police] got there and calmed the situation down,” an officer tells PEOPLE. “No one was arrested and no citations were issued.”

Another source says Kate called the house to find out which babysitter was helping with the children. When she didn’t approve of the caretaker, an argument with Jon ensued.

“Due to the custody agreement, Kate couldn’t enter the property,” the source says. “The cops had no choice but to tell Kate she couldn’t go past the gate.”

Distraught and in tears, Kate left and checked in to a nearby hotel.

Tears are something Kate is getting used to: In this week’s PEOPLE the now single mother says, “I cry all the time, in numerous airports, in airplanes.”

She’d rather not have her emotional life be so public, but she says, “It’s not like I can put the tears on hold. So I try to cry very incognito, behind my sunglasses. And after those tears, there’s always the feeling of, ‘how did I get here?’ “

By The Associated Press

NEW DELHI – Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was detained for two hours for questioning at a U.S. airport before being released by immigration authorities, a news agency report said Saturday.

Khan, one of the Indian film industry’s biggest stars, said he was detained because his name came up on a computer alert list at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Press Trust of India news agency said.

“I told them I am a movie star,” Khan was quoted as saying.

The reported detention made top news on TV stations in India.

Khan said he was able to message a lawmaker in India who asked the Indian embassy in Washington to seek his release. Khan was let go after embassy officials intervened, the agency said.

In New Delhi, U.S. Ambassador to India, Timothy J. Roemer, said the U.S. Embassy was trying to “ascertain the facts of the case – to understand what took place.”

“Shah Rukh Khan, the actor and global icon, is a very welcome guest in the United States. Many Americans love his films,” Roemer said Saturday through an embassy spokesman.

Khan, 44, has acted in more than 70 films, and has consistently topped popularity rankings in India for the past several years. He is in the United States to promote his new film, “My Name Is Khan.”