Persistence. Mona Vale (technique revealed)

Let me start by stating that this is a single shot,

The moon was not added later?!?!?!
However the light trail leading to the moon was added.
Apart from that minor addition the rest of the PP is fairly standard
The idea for this shot was conceived about a month ago, it is by far the most technical /difficult photo I have ever attempted/taken.
Didn’t start all that well, got to the location without a CF card, round trip back home.
1 hour later, take 2
Then when pushing my tripod into the sand I snapped one of the legs off.
Took around 6-7 attempts to get it just right, very happy with the result.
That’s all im going to give away for now, I will fill you in on the technique in the next few days.
Any ideas??????
About time I revealed my technique.
100-400 at a fraction of a sec using the lens cap and a piece of sticky tape (hinge) to drop the cap as I clicked and locked the shutter release.
Throw a dark towel over the camera and lens, under the towel switch the 100-400 for the 17-40 with lens caps on
Remove the towel, check focal length, check focus dial. When all good remove the lens cap for the pre-determined exposure, in this case it was 360sec @ F7.1. © Flickr.com

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Mayhem in Manila: 9 killed on hijacked tourist bus

AP  – Raw Video: Hostages freed
by Philippine police

MANILA, Philippines – It looked like a hostage rescue in slow motion: Police creeping up on the bus with sledgehammers and smashing first one window, then another, then trying and failing to rip open the door.
When they finally got inside, authorities said, they found nine bodies: eight Hong Kong tourists and the ex-policeman who had seized the bus to demand his job back.
The bloody denouement to the 12-hour drama in the heart of the Philippine capital, witnessed live on TV, rattled a country already accustomed to kidnappings and violence blamed on Muslim rebels. It provoked demands from the Hong Kong government for an explanation, and an acknowledgment from Philippine President Benigno Aquino III that his police need more training and equipment.
It was 10:15 a.m. Monday in Manila when Rolando Mendoza 55 and married with three children, hitched a ride with the tourists as they visited historic sites in the city. He wore a camouflage uniform and carried an M16 rifle but didn't seem unusual in the heavily policed capital.
Then he announced that he was taking the travelers hostage to win back his job.
According to newspaper reports, the former senior inspector was among five officers who had been charged with robbery, extortion and grave threats after a Manila hotel chef filed a complaint alleging they falsely accused him of using drugs to extort money. Mendoza was fired last year but claimed he was innocent.
With the bus parked on a Manila park parade ground, Mendoza stuck leaflets on windows, handwritten in English, saying "big mistake to correct a big wrong decision," demanding media attention and threatening "big deal will start after 3 p.m. today."
At first, matters proceeded peacefully. The hijacker freed nine hostages — three women, three children and two men — leaving 15 tourists on board. Police sealed the area and brought food for the hostages, along with fuel to keep the bus' air conditioning running in the 32-degree-Celsius (90 F) heat.
Then negotiations began to go awry. Mendoza demanded a signed promise that his case would be reviewed, but its delivery was delayed for hours, in part by Manila's notorious traffic, and when it finally arrived he rejected it as insufficient.
The hijacker's brother Gregorio, a policeman, was flown in to talk to him through the driver's window but grew so agitated in claiming Mendoza had been unfairly sacked that police hustled him away, fearing he would inflame the situation.
That apparently angered Mendoza into firing a warning shot. Police made an initial attempt to board the bus, and the hijacker shot and wounded a police sharpshooter, said Nelson Yabut, head of the assault team. Single shots, then a burst of automatic fire, echoed through the night.
The Filipino bus driver managed to escape and, according to police officer Roderick Mariano, reported that Mendoza had fired at the tourists.
A freed hostage who gave only her surname, Ng, told Hong Kong reporters that she saw her husband killed by Mendoza after he tried to take him on.
"He was very brave. He rushed forward from the back of the bus. He wanted to prevent the gunman from killing people. He sacrificed himself," she said.
Yabut, the assault commander, said that "when he started shooting the hostages, that's the time I gave the signal to my sniper to shoot when there is a clear view." He said Mendoza died of a single shot to the head.
Shortly before 9 p.m., police lobbed tear gas into the bus and commandos approached the vehicle, crouching beside it and ready to storm it. They smashed windows and the back door with sledgehammers. Once aside, they found only the dead, one of them slumped on the bus steps.
The Hong Kong government did not hide its displeasure at the handling of the incident. It issued a warning against travel to the Philippines, canceled planned tour groups to the islands and asked Hong Kong tourists still in the country to leave.
The bloodbath happened in front of a grandstand where Aquino had been sworn in as president on June 30. After midnight he was back there, staring at the bloodstained, bullet-riddled bus. 

© Associated Press writers Teresa Cerojano, Hrvoje Hranjski and Min Lee in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

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Mouse virus link to chronic fatigue is studied

WASHINGTON – A U.S. government study has uncovered a family of mouse viruses in some people with chronic fatigue syndrome, raising still more questions about whether an infection may play a role in the complicated illness.
Monday's study does not prove that having any of these viruses causes harm, stressed co-author Dr. Harvey Alter of the National Institutes of Health.
But it strengthens suspicions, and the government has additional research under way to determine if the link is real or not.
Meanwhile, a group of French and Canadian scientists said it's time to test whether antiviral medications like those used against HIV might treat at least some people with chronic fatigue.
The virus connection first made headlines last fall when Nevada researchers reported finding a specific type, named XMRV, in the blood of two-thirds of the 101 chronic fatigue patients they tested. But several other studies, including one from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, failed to find XMRV virus in patients, making researchers wonder if this was a false alarm.
Monday's study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, thickens the plot. This time, NIH and Food and Drug Administration scientists examined the blood of 37 chronic fatigue patients and again didn't find XMRV — but instead they found a group of closely related bugs named MLV-related viruses in 86 percent of the cases.
Testing of 44 healthy blood donors, in contrast, found evidence of those viruses in nearly 7 percent.
Various viruses have been linked to chronic fatigue over the years only to fall by the wayside as potential culprits in the mysterious illness thought to afflict about 1 million Americans. It's characterized by at least six months of severe fatigue, impaired memory and other symptoms, but there's no test for it and no specific treatment.
These MLV, or "murine leukemia-related viruses," are known to cause some cancers in mice, and the XMRV relative has been found in some human prostate tumors, too.
But there's no easy way to test for it, meaning studies of a link at this point must be in research labs, not doctors' offices, FDA and NIH researchers said Monday.
No one knows how people become infected, but Alter said a major study is under way to see if there's any evidence of transmission through blood.
In the meantime, federal regulations require that blood donors be in good health, said FDA's Dr. Hira Nakhasi. "yahoo.com"

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Ac Milan Insect

acmilan fans

Red and black insect
Ac milan have new fans 

>> This photos dedicated to milanisti <<

Main Picture : http://www.flickr.com

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Meet The YouTube Stars Making $100,000 Plus Per Year

yahoo.com/youtube

Provided by the Business Insider, August 19, 2010:
There are 10 independent YouTube stars who made over $100,000 in the past year, according to a study done by analytics and advertising company TubeMogul.
From July 2009 to July 2010, TubeMogul used their viewership data to estimate the annual income for independent YouTube partners, which they define as anyone who is not part of a media company or brand.
Here's how they got their estimates:

    * Revenue only comes from banner ads served near content (we ignored pre-roll or overlay since we can't easily isolate by publisher).
    * Since YouTube banner ads have a two-second load delay, we estimate 2.59% of viewers click away before an ad loads based on separate research.
    * Ads were served near all videos that loaded (since there are partners, this is generally true).
    * CPM for the banner ads was $1.50 (Google auctions a lot of this inventory off; we rounded this 2009 estimate down to be conservative).
    * YouTube is splitting ad revenue with partners 50-50.
Basically, take their views from the past year, assume a few don't stick around long enough for an ad to load, divide that number by 1,000, multiply by $1.50 and divide that number in half.
Conservative estimates? Sure. But with that math, you get a pretty decent estimate of how much these YouTube celebrities are making from just the banner ads on their channel. So, without further ado, here are the highest earning YouTube stars!
1. Shane Dawson – $315,000
Shane Dawson is so popular that he is three different YouTube channels. His most popular channel consists of his comedy skits and music video parodies.  Dawson created a second channel as a vlog and for a separate series called "Ask Shane," and his third channel only has videos taken from his iPhone.
July 2009 - 2010 Views: 431,787,450
2. The Annoying Orange – $288,000
The Annoying Orange is a comedy web series that takes place in a kitchen and is about talking fruit. Dane Boedigheimer is the mastermind behind the series and is also the voice of Orange.
July 2009 - 2010 Views: 349,753,047
3. Philip DeFranco – $181,000
Philip DeFranco uploads a new video onto YouTube every Monday to Thursday for his show – The Philip DeFranco Show. His video blogging topics range from politics to pop culture.

July 2009 - 2010 Views: 248,735,032
4. Ryan Higa – $151,000
Ryan Higa makes comedy skits and is a video blogger who turned into a viral star with his "How to be Gangster" and "How to be Ninja" videos.  Even though he doesn't upload as many videos as his fellow YouTube celebrities, Higa is still the top dog at YouTube with over 2.6 million subscribers.
July 2009 - 2010 Views: 206,979,909
5. Fred – $146,000
Lucas Cruikshank plays "a lonely six year old named Fred" who uses his mom's video camera and posts videos on a YouTube channel.  As the second most subscribed to YouTube channel, Lucas Cruikshank's immensely popular Fred character even has a movie coming out backed by Nickelodeon.
July 2009 - 2010 Views: 200,656,150
6. Shay Carl – $140,000
As a radio DJ, Shay Carl started making comedy skits and put them on YouTube for the world to see.  He claims to have held 20 different jobs before settling down with his DJ and YouTube gigs.
July 2009 - 2010 Views: 192,309,247
7. Mediocre Films – $116,000
Greg Benson created Mediocre Films initially for a sketchy comedy TV series called "Skip TV."  The show lasted for one season, and now Benson makes low budget comedy videos for the web.

July 2009 - 2010 Views: 159,030,703
8. Smosh – $113,000
Smosh is the comedy duo of Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, and with over 1.7 million subscribers, they make up the 5th most popular channel on YouTube.  They first shot to viral fame with their "Pokemon Theme Music Video" which became YouTube's most viewed video in Spring 2006. However, due to copyright reasons, the original video was removed from YouTube.

July 2009 - 2010 Views: 154,936,876
9. The Young Turks – $112,000
The Young Turks is a political talk show that also airs on Sirius Satellite Radio. Founded and hosted by Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks talk show and their vast viewership has proven that the Internet can be a viable broadcast platform.
July 2009 - 2010 Views: 153,807,362
10. Natalie Tran– $101,000
Under the user name of communitychannel, Natalie Tran is the most subscribed to YouTube user in Australia. Like most others on this list, she is a video blogger and occasionally uploads comedy skits.

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