Sydneysiders take part in the ‘AIME Strut the Streets’ in an attempt to break the Guiness record for the world’s largest swimwear parade and to raise money charity, a two week old baby hippo in Berlin, a family in Virginia arms its young’ins for the impending “Doomsday,” a Siberian Santa officially ends sailing season and more in today’s daily brief.
If you’re anything like us, focus is a problem, certainly in life and occasionally in photography. Only if you could write a prescription for Adderall for your camera. Or can you?
The Lytro camera is a bit of tech that gives you a helping hand in the photo focus department. While other cameras and software do this by finding the sweet spot of the photo, like faces, Lytro decides to just focus on everything. You get to pick what you want in focus later and you can change your mind — again and again. Lytro really subscribes to the motto shoot first, ask questions later. Read more.
Psy, Flo Rida, Ke$ha and Justin Bieber perform at KIIS FM’s Jingle Ball concert in LA, deadly Typhoon Bopha destroys homes in the Philippines, a Swiss Shepherd dog in a Russian zoo adopts three abandoned tiger cubs and more in today’s daily brief.
Arguably, Santa’s busiest day is December 24, while he packs up his sleigh and flies around distributing toys to the world’s good little girls and boys. As for the other 364 days of the year, you may have been told that Santa is back in his North Pole workshop directing elves on the creation of new gizmos, gadgets and whatchamacallits that will appear on the wish lists of said girls and boys next Christmas. So, it may surprise you to find out that Santa has an interest in a diverse array of activities he tends to throughout the year, and not always under the guise of holiday promotion. And not always as a singular male person.
Bobby Valentine, former Boston Red Sox manager and Brian Cashman, general manager of the New York Yankees rappel 22 stories in Connecticut, Western Europeans embrace the cold weather, Buddhist monks protest recent police violence at a copper mining site in Myanmar and more in today’s daily brief.
Pole dancing has not only gained momentum as a fitness craze at local gyms, but also among some very talented gymnasts and athletes around the world. And to prove that the pole has successfully extended outside of the strip clubs form which it originated, this past weekend, Buenos Aires was inundated with swinging (and properly covered) women, and for the first time, men, competing in the South American Pole Dancing championship.
The competition was fierce between this year’s 76 South American athletes, but one country managed to take hold of the top spots. Rafaela Montanaro from Brazil was crowned as the Miss Pole Dance South America 2012 Champion, while fellow Brazilian Carlos Franca took the prize for the men. Both winners will represent their continent at the Pole Dancing World Championship in Europe next year.
Queen Elizabeth II holds a ceremonial procession for His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait, late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s remains are being tested for potential hard-to-trace radioactive poison administered by Israeli agents, Iraqi federal police demonstrate martial arts during the latest 60-day training course graduation ceremony and more in today’s daily brief.
A fleet of Santas march through Manhattan for America’s 110th Annual Sidewalk Santa Parade, animal rights activist in Vienna simulate medical tests, a naked man brings central London traffic to a standstill by climbing to the top of the statue of Prince George outside the Ministry of Defence and more in today’s daily brief.
Egypt’s road to democracy has hit a new violent stumbling block with recently elected President Mohamed Mursi’s decree putting his word “above legal challenge,” Reuters reports. The images coming out of Egypt from places like Cairo’s Tahrir Square are hauntingly similar to those from last year’s violent overthrowing of the Hosani Mubarak regime.
UPDATE as of 12:42 p.m. EST: A cease-fire between Israel and Hamas has been announced for later this evening, Reuters reports.
The Israel-Hamas conflict entered in its eighth day of fighting after a bomb exploded Wednesday morning on a bus in Tel Aviv, prompting Israel to continue air strikes over Gaza. The hard-sought “calming down” from yesterday never reached an agreement as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seeks a diplomatic solution with leaders on both sides of the conflict.
Here’s the latest look into the Gaza conflict from AFP, Getty and Reuters photographers in the region. | NOTE: Some photos are graphic showing visual coverage of injury or death.
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