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Martha Stewart | Give Halloween that boo-tique look
Recently, the staff of Martha Stewart Living magazine put our heads together and came up with creative ways to infuse a home with some very scary stuff for Halloween. A giant glass cheese dome, something I have had in my kitchen for many years, formed the perfect display case for green-glittered plastic skulls and bones when set atop a very large cake stand. A silver-glittered hand became a bony place-card holder, and its ideal resting spot was on a silver lusterware plate. On a trip to California, I visited an excellent nursery where I found an old lady cactus (Mammillaria hahniana) - an especially long-haired cultivar. Six of them proved to be perfect as a mysterious and smoky filler for a cauldron centerpiece made from clunky bathtub claws and ball feet, the pots shrouded by dried Spanish moss.
Hands-On Review: Pixelmator, a 'Photoshop Lite' for Mac Shutterbugs
It can even browse the albums in your iPhoto library. This tight integration with the Mac operating system results in impressive performance. Huge files (30- or 40-MB TIFFs) open quickly, and the app remains responsive even when you're dragging large selections around on the screen. Pixelmator's Mac-like design sensibilities -- shiny, rounded corners -- make the application feel familiar the first time you load it up and start using it. Another reason Pixelmator feels familiar is because it also looks a lot like Photoshop. From the floating toolbars down to the menu structures, Pixelmator mimics Photoshop's blueprints to a T. This is helpful, especially when you're trying to find a specific function or tool, but it also smacks a bit of imitation. But Photoshop is so much a part of the photo culture, who can blame them? The real differences between Pixelmator and Photoshop show up when you start editing images.
Chess champ's presidential bid is no gambit
Garry Kasparov played some fierce matches in his 20 years atop the world of chess, but none as intense as the one he is playing now against Russian President Vladimir Putin. The former world chess champion entered Russia's presidential race on Sunday, elected overwhelmingly as the candidate for the country's beleaguered opposition coalition, which has united liberals, leftists and nationalists against Putin. HIS CHANCES Even Kasparov's place on the March ballot is not assured. His candidacy still needs to be registered and is likely to be blocked because the coalition, Other Russia, is not a registered political party. If he does get to run, Kasparov would not be expected to pose a major challenge to whichever candidate wins Putin's backing -- speculated to be newly anointed Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, who leapfrogged over two officials long groomed for the presidency: Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev.
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