On July 19, 2007, Britney Spears shocked the OK! Magazine staff and the world with what can only be characterized as a complete and utter meltdown. What was meant to a beautiful shoot of the star turned into a frustrating day for all. In the aftermath, our staff discovered over $21,000 in missing and damaged clothing and accessories, including this gorgeous Versace gown from the Spring 2007 Collection.

After reimbursing retailers for the damaged goods, we'd love to turn this once-negative into a positive by donating the proceeds of this auction to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.). We reacted to Britney's heartbreaking cry for help by chronicling the day in print for her and the world to see it was time for change. And now, we're asking that you bid heavily towards M.A.D.D. -- an organization who's call for change is something that we all admire.

This promotion will not apply to the following types of listings: All eBay Motors listings (including Parts & Accessories, Passenger Vehicles, Motorcycles, Power Sports, Other Vehicles), Live Auction, Professional Services, Real Estate, Ad Format and Store Inventory listings. The following business and industrial categories are excluded from the Insertion Fee Sale: tractors & farm machinery (91952), heavy equipment (25249), concession trailers, carts (67145), imaging and aesthetics equipment (92035), forklifts and other lifts (97185), manufacturing equipment (92080), metalworking equipment (92082) and commercial printing presses (26247)

It was almost a brilliant idea. Trendy handbag designer Hogan just launched a groovy range named after rock chicks. They called a pony-skin version the Chrissie, after Chrissie Hynde - who is a prominent anti-leather campaigner. Oops.

"I never thought I'd be moved to consider filing a lawsuit, but as soon as I heard my name was being used to promote bags made of dead-animal skin, I started exploring my legal options with my friends at PETA," Hynde told Gatecrasher. "At first, I thought this must be a joke, it's so outrageous and thoughtless." In the past, Hynde's passionate aversion to leather has put her on the other side of the law.

In 2000, the Pretenders front woman was arrested after trashing the window display in the Gap's flagship Times Square store. She and fellow PETA protesters destroyed leather pants and jackets that featured in Gap's heavily publicized "Everybody in Leather" campaign. A spokeswoman for Hogan did not return calls yesterday.

As with WowWee's Robosapien, the infrared sensors play a crucial role: they help the robot avoid obstacles and detect motion, so the robot jumps back if you wave your hand in front of its face.

You can use the remote control (which takes three of the seven batteries) to change the Roboquad's walking direction or choose combinations of 72 possible motions. Or you can simply set the robot's mood and let it react to events in the room.

As with other robotic toys, the Roboquad's novelty factor is high, but there is the risk that a child's interest will drain about as fast as the batteries. Of course, you never know when you might need to tease your dog.

Right now, most commercial sunscreens only screen out ultraviolet B (UVB), not UVA, which is associated with longer and more serious damage deep within the skin. Labels would have up to four stars indicating their effectiveness against UVA rays, the FDA said. Both UVA and UVB increase skin cancer risks and skin aging.

The new changes are undergoing a 90-day period of public comment before being published in a final draft form. According to the agency, those rules would only go into effect 18 months later, pushing the appearance of any new labeling to 2009 at the earliest. The agency has long been looking into making recommendations on UVA protection, Dr. Douglas C. Throckmorton, the deputy director of FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said during a mid-afternoon teleconference. Only now has the agency settled on which tests it will accept for rating UVA protection, he said.

"We believe this proposed regulation does, in fact, provide sunscreen labeling that clearly communicates information related to UV protection," Matthew R. Holman, from the FDA's Office of Nonprescription Products, said during the teleconference. Called "extra UVA protection," the new rating would be in addition to the SPF, or sun protection factor, already on sunscreens. SPF measures the effectiveness of the product in preventing sunburn from UVB rays.

UVB radiation causes sunburn, but UVA can damage skin tissue below the surface. "Both UVA and UVB cause skin cancer and aging such as wrinkles and sunspots," Holman said. "FDA considers both UVB and UVA radiation protection equally important at this time, because scientific data demonstrates that both have harmful effects on the skin," the agency said.

"It's the next step after patio heaters," said Jerry Rike, owner of Rapid Cool Misting Systems, based in the Los Angeles area. His company has installed misters at the Bellagio, Mirage and Venetian casinos in Las Vegas. "People want to extend the season when they can enjoy the outdoors in comfort. It's like having an air conditioner outdoors."

On a dry day, misting systems can reduce the ambient temperatures by 28 degrees, Rike said. The thin spray "flash evaporates" and doesn't leave droplets on the skin. But hot, dry weather is the norm in the desert climes of Vegas. Are cooling misters effective in places like the muggy Midwest? Yes, but there are a few caveats. Scott Wedman of Weatherby Lake, Mo., installed a two-nozzle system above his patio years ago. The mist feels refreshing on days when there is less humidity.

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Newer misters have high-pressure pumps and nozzles with microscopic spray holes, and they do a better job of dispensing moisture. Rapid Cool sells stainless-steel pipe systems that can be concealed in soffits or behind fascia boards of covered patios and overhangs. Homeowners can install the systems, which start at about $1,500, Rike said. The pump makes about as much noise as a room air-conditioning unit, so it should be placed away from the patio area.

Rapid Cool also sells poles resembling shepherd's hooks that can be installed along the railings of decks. Rapid Cool and other companies, including catalog retailer Frontgate, also sell misting fans, good for poolside patios. "On very humid days, high-pressure systems make the air 15 or 16 degrees cooler," Rike said. "You can wear your glasses and not get speckles of water on the lenses."

"Two weeks ago today history was made," Murphy said at a press conference this afternoon in San Francisco. "I was privileged enough to be in house. I was lucky enough to be that guy who caught the ball. Today I am excited to announce that myself along with SCP Auctions will be putting the ball up for sale."

SCP, a partner with the premiere auction house Sotheby's, specializes in high-end sports items and will run an online auction for the ball from Aug. 28 to Sept. 15. Auction officials say the ball is probably worth at least a half million dollars.

Murphy, who bought tickets for the Padres-Giants game along with a Yankees fan friend in advance of passing through San Francisco en route to an Australian vacation, eventually decided to sell the ball when it became clear that the cost of keeping it would be too much to bear. Advisers informed him he would be taxed on the ball just for holding on to it.

• Welcomed more than a half a billion visitors
• Provided more than 115 million rides in the amusement park
• Helped non-profit organizations raise over $100 million
• Prepared more than 26 million pounds of french fries
• Served more than 18 million funnel cakes
• Recycled over 62,000 tons of trash
• Hosted 5,000 weddings
• And ... removed 91,380 wads of gum

The Vermont ice cream maker Ben and Jerry's got plenty of attention last September when it became the first major food manufacturer to announce it would use only cage-free eggs that have been certified humane by an inspecting organization. But the company says it will need four years to complete the switch. "It's not easy to find all the eggs you're looking for," said Rob Michalak, a spokesman for Ben and Jerry's. "The marketplace is one where the supply needs to increase with the demand."

The eggs can cost an extra 60 cents a dozen on the wholesale market. But most chicken farmers are not ripping out cages and retrofitting their barns. They question whether the birds are really better off, saying that keeping thousands of hens in tight quarters on the floor of a building can lead to hunger, disease and cannibalism. They also say that converting requires time, money and faith that the spike in demand is not just a fad.

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Growing consumer concern with farm animal welfare and interest in local and sustainable agriculture have driven some of the popularity, but campaigns by animal rights activists have had a lot to do with it. The Humane Society of the United States began a campaign against battery cages in 2005, pressuring egg producers to improve conditions and companies to change their policies. Last week, the group took on Wendy's with a series of print and radio advertisements urging the company to follow Burger King's lead on eggs. In a battery cage, the area allotted to each chicken is about the size of a laptop computer. Opponents say that in such small spaces, chickens cannot stretch their wings, roost or engage in other natural behaviors. This year, the Humane Society convinced the chef Wolfgang Puck that cage-free chickens make better-tasting eggs. Although the look and taste of an egg are most affected by its age and the chicken's diet, many chefs believe that cage-free eggs are of higher quality. But not all cage-free eggs are equal.

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"While cage-free certainly does not mean cruelty-free, it's a significant step in the right direction," said Paul Shapiro of the Humane Society.

But playing the role of a hard-partying, post-rehab hottie doesn't stop with attending weekly meetings or accessorizing with ankle monitors. These women have cultivated an unkempt uniform, and they are wearing it long after "treatment" is completed. And now that the look has been glamorized, it's been imitated by style girls who haven't crossed the clinic door -- along with Olsen, Mischa Barton and Kirsten Dunst come to mind.

One has to wonder about this deliberate sloppiness. Richie and Lohan may have completed stays in the clinic, but they don't look like they are making sober style choices. Maybe it's an anti-fashion statement, a kind of neo-punk, neo-hippie expression in this slick, paparazzi-fueled, celebrity-hyped era. For these famous mannequins, it's become too easy to hire a stylist and dress from a rack of free designer clothes. Maybe they're tired of being Hollywood's teenage box-office bait and the fashion industry's well-manicured shills. Surely, it gets old being stalked and photographed 24/7. So looking bad and behaving badly has become the ultimate form of rebellion.

Breaking down the post-rehab look, sunglasses are, of course, oversized to disguise bloodshot eyes. Other essentials include a flirty off-the-shoulder blouse (no bra), a suede vest and lace-up Minnetonka boots. An all-access pass to a muddy music festival is optional.

But the head scarf is not. It is the trend-setting halo that symbolizes newfound light and purity, the 21st century sobriety chip. It's a status symbol, a badge of honor that's especially effective when worn around yet-to-be-reformed peers. The scarf (by Alexander McQueen or, in more recent days, Thomas Wylde), preferably with a skull print, must be tied haphazardly around a mess of bed-head hair, the crown teased into a pouf that looks as if you've just taken a romp in a tour bus bunk. Then there's the spacey gaze, the thing that forecasts that all-important "I don't have my act together and could jeopardize a production schedule at any moment" attitude.

Kimberly Stewart has adopted the post-rehab look as her signature. (After all, she is rock royalty.) She could win a sleepy-eyed, '70s chick costume contest at any given moment of the day. In recent weeks, she has introduced a few updates, including Swiss Miss braids, non-frayed denim hot shorts and a sequin vest instead of worn-in suede. No, Stewart has not been to rehab. But whether a girl has been is beside the point -- as long as she is committed to wearing the gear that keeps people focused on her next move, challenging onlookers to wonder if she will stay awake, take a face-dive into a banquette at Hyde or keep the pressure at bay and gross millions on opening weekend.

The family has now hired a contractor to remove the section of concrete.

The slab will then be delivered to the winner of the online auction, who is identified only as "islandoffthecoast."

An active Lutheran, Ms Serio considers the smudge a slightly odd occurrence, rather than a divine sign or miracle.

"There are some people who need this kind of thing to sort of start them on their faith journey. I don't," she said.

"That's why I don't mind parting with it."

During that time guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and use Velcro suits to crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman. Company director Xavier Claramunt says the three-bedroom boutique hotel's joined up pod structure, which makes it look like a model of molecules, was dictated by the fact that each pod room had to fit inside a rocket to be taken into space.

"It's the bathrooms in zero gravity that are the biggest challenge," says Claramunt. "How to accommodate the more intimate activities of the guests is not easy." But they may have solved the issue of how to take a shower in weightlessness -- the guests will enter a spa room in which bubbles of water will float around. When guests are not admiring the view from their portholes they will take part in scientific experiments on space travel.

On display at the Siggraph show, the Fuwapica furniture uses sensors embedded in the table-top to work out the colour of items placed upon it. The colours of the stools then change to match the colour of whatever has been placed on the sensitive table-top. The stools' sensors work out the weight of anyone sitting on them - heavier people are treated to darker shades.

The circular table acts as the central control point for the four stools. Sensors sit beneath a glass plate on the top of the table and scan any object placed on it. The sensors bounce red, green and blue light off the objects and record which hues are reflected. An Apple Mac buried in the table then sends wireless messages to the four stools, which project light through their translucent shells to match, as closely as possible, the colour of the object on the table top.

The colours are also made to pulse lighter and darker at about the same tempo of human breathing in a bid to make the stools seem more life-like. Placing many objects on the table-top makes the system mix and merge colours to match the shades seen in the collection of artefacts. The designers suggest that people can change the colour of the chairs to match their mood. Dreamed up by Shinya Matsuyama and colleagues from the Studio Mongoose design company in Japan, the Fuwapica furniture draws on the country's ancient notions that gods inhabit all manmade objects, be they chopsticks, dishes or tables.

A-LISTERS are renowned for their bizarre eating fads but a new diet book to hit celebsville claims to cut out the "crap" and tell it how it is. Sales of Skinny Bitch soared by 674 per cent on Amazon after Victoria Beckham was spotted with a copy in Los Angeles at the weekend. While it sounds like a guide on how to become a size zero lollipop with the bitching skills of Cheryl Cole, it's actually a vegan diet with a bit of attitude thrown in. Written by ex-model agent Rory Freedman and former model Kim Barnouin - both self-confessed skinny bitches - it is billed as a guide for "girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous."

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But first, TV nutritionist and Sun diet expert Amanda Ursell gives her views. The Skinny Bitch eating plan is basically a vegan diet, according to Amanda. She says: "The authors want us to give up milk and dairy foods like cheese and yogurts as well as eggs, meat and fish. In a nutshell, it is a vegan diet. As with any diet, if you follow it to the letter then you will lose weight but for your average woman it's not particularly easy to follow and you would have to be incredibly dedicated. While much of the no-nonsense advice is good, the diet is quite extreme."

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So what can you actually eat?

Unrefined carbohydrates: This means wholegrain foods like oats, brown rice, brown pasta, brown pita bread, couscous, barley, granary and wholemeal bread because they are great for slow-release energy, vitamins, minerals and fibre.

Fruits: Unlike the Atkins diet, the Skinny Bitch diet encourages us to eat fruit because it is so rich in vitamins, minerals and supernutrients. Preferably organic to avoid pesticides.

Vegetables: Again, preferably organic, to give us vitamins, minerals and fibre.

Pulses: Filling pulse vegetables like soya beans, red kidney, butter and cannelloni beans. Great for vegetable protein and fibre.

Soya: Around two servings a day of soya food, including soya milk, for protein.

• Autographed copy of The Silver Moon Elm by MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi (Berkley Jam), the exciting new adventure in the New York Times bestselling Jennifer Scales urban fantasy adventure series. Jennifer is a normal teen with abnormal problems: she's half-weredragon, half-beaststalker.
  
  
• Inspired Creative Writing: Pokes and Prods for Scribblers of All Stripes by Alexander Gordon Smith (Perigee), the offbeat and accessible guide to help aspiring authors get their imaginations flowing.
  
  
• Unaccompanied Women: Late-Life Adventures in Love, Sex and Real Estate by Jane Juska (Villard), the funny, sexy and frank story of a woman who refuses to give up dating, fun and adventures just because she's passed the big 60.
  
  
• Dead Ex by Harley Jane Kozak (Doubleday), the fabulously fun mystery set in the fascinating world of soap operas.
  
  

If you use the word "bling" these days, you're unhip and totally out of style, according to Kanye West. The hip-hop star tells Complex magazine: "Only white people and older black people say 'bling' now. If a white person uses slang too early, then that makes them look like a wigger. But if black people use slang too late, then it makes them look like a wigger."

Wigger (alternatively spelled wigga, whigger or whigga) is a slang term for a white person who emulates mannerisms, slangs and fashions stereotypically associated with urban African Americans; especially in relation to hip hop culture.

The term is a portmanteau combining the words white and n****r, and it has been used in a derogatory manner. The term wigger is generally used to describe a young, middle or upper-class mimicker of certain affectations of hip hop culture. The word is considered offensive by some because of its similarity to n****r in addition to reflecting stereotypical notions about urban blacks.