Royal Baby Watch In Full Swing As Kate Middleton's Due Date Looms

By Belinda Goldsmith

LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) - Photographers are camped outside the hospital, social media are buzzing, and stores are touting baby goods ahead of the expected arrival this week of the future heir to the British throne.

Britain is officially on baby watch with Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton awaiting the imminent arrival of their first child who will be third in line to the throne.

The couple, known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge since their sumptuous royal wedding in April 2011, announced last December that a baby was on its way after Kate was admitted to hospital for four days suffering from severe morning sickness.

With the due date looming, the duchess stopped official duties last month while Prince William, a helicopter search-and-rescue pilot and grandson of Queen Elizabeth, is on standby at an air force base in north Wales to rush back to London.

The couple have remained vague about the exact date the baby is due other than to say mid-July and the arrival will be announced in a combination of the traditional and modern - via Twitter, websites and with a notice outside Buckingham Palace.

The Palace announced on Monday that the Queen's granddaughter Zara Phillips and her husband, rugby player Mike Tindall, were expecting their first baby in the new year.

Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty Magazine, said the duke and duchess were a private couple and, while aware of the massive global interest, were trying to limit public exposure.

"Privacy is key for Prince William as he saw the way his mother, Princess Diana, suffered at the hands of the paparazzi, and he wants to make sure this does not happen to his wife or his own children," Little told Reuters. (Read More)

Is Going Braless a Do or a Don't? Miley Cyrus Left Hers at Home!

Ladies, we know it's summertime out there--and sometimes, especially when it's sweltering hot and humid, putting on a constrictive bra is the last thing we want to do in the morning! And, while going bra-free might be de rigueur on balmy weekends lounging around the house or by the pool, is it ever really OK to go out in public all fancy-free?(Read More...)

Bipartisan group of senators reaches deal on student loan interest rates

A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators has drafted a tentative deal to restore lower interest rates for student borrowers, a Senate aide close to the group tells Fox News.
The deal, which will likely be announced Thursday, is the latest in a string of attempts to undo a rate hike that doubled the interest rates for subsidized Stafford loans on July 1. It was unclear how much the deal would cost or whether the Senate would agree to it, after at least one previous deal was scuttled due to its high cost.
The deal would offer students lower interest rates through the 2015 academic year but then rates were expected to climb above where they were when students left campus this spring.
The interest rates would be linked to the financial markets but Democrats won a protection for students that rates would never climb higher than 8.25 percent for undergraduate students. Graduate students would not pay rates higher than 9.5 percent and parents' rates would top out at 10.5 percent.

 Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/17/bipartisan-group-senators-reach-deal-on-student-loan-interest-rates/#ixzz2ZNaAayZO

Why Is Netflix Secretly Cropping Movies?

Like a lot of film writers, I spent a good deal of my life working in video stores. Some of that occurred in the time frame (2000-2002, roughly) when DVDs began to replace VHS, and as a result, I was on the receiving end of much anger and confusion over widescreen formatting — “letterboxing,” as we called it, which began on LaserDisc, appeared on a few VHS tapes, and became the standard on DVD (luckily, since widescreen televisions were also becoming ubiquitous). “I’m not seein’ the whole picture!” customers would complain. “It’s got these lines on the top and bottom!” And I would patiently explain that getting a widescreen movie frame into a television was a case of putting a rectangular peg into a square hole, and the black bars actually showed you more of the picture, and preserved the original image. And customers would nod and smile and understand completely… just kidding. They stared at me blankly before saying the exact same nonsense about what a rip-off it is to have only part of the TV being used and it was a terrible job, the end. But we won, ultimately! In the pan-and-scan vs. widescreen battle, widescreen came out on top. So why, in 2013, is Netflix cropping their movies? (ReadMore)