“According to comScore, overall online spending in the United States surpassed $1 billion on Cyber Monday in 2010, up 16 percent versus [a] year ago. Clearly, Amazon took a huge piece of that particular pie,” writes TechCrunch Amazon also revealed that the third-generation Kindle e-reader was the most popular holiday item, based on the number of units ordered.

Thanks to the Kindle 3′s strong sales this year, Amazon dubbed the device its worldwide bestselling product of all time. Previously, Amazon’s bestselling item had been “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

“Kindle’s $139 price point is a key factor — it’s low enough that people don’t have to choose,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO in a press release.

Though Amazon did not outline the Kindle’s exact sales figures, Business Insider states that Amazon is probably “on pace to sell 8 million Kindles this year.”

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So not only is Wintour as famous as some of her famous friends, but she is also pretty intimidating to other famous people, Currid-Halkett said. It helps that the editor made her home in New York City, the professor added, because appearances in the Big Apple are associated with enhanced prestige and star power.

In the world of celebrity, Anna Wintour is literally in vogue.

The report card examines how vulnerable services such as eBay, Flickr, Amazon, and Facebook, are to a security breaches and provides each a grade. The ranking is particularly timely in light of concerns around Firesheep, a Firefox plugin that enables users to obtain the login information of others who may be browsing non-secure websites on unencrypted WiFi networks.

Facebook received an ‘F,’ as did Twitter and WordPress (no SSL). Hotmail and Flickr fared only slightly better, earning a ‘D-’ each. Digital Society’s George Ou writes, “Permanent fixes from the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft are long overdue.”

See the report card below.

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Along with the voices of Brad Pitt, Tina Fey and Jonah Hill, the DreamWorks Animation release has Ferrell’s title character hatching a scheme to fill the void in his life after he finally defeats his superhero nemesis.

Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis’ road-trip comedy, “Due Date,” opened at a strong No. 2 with $33.5 million. The Warner Bros. romp features the two stars as mismatched traveling companions who hit the highway from Atlanta to Los Angeles.

Tyler Perry’s drama “For Colored Girls,” whose ensemble cast features Janet Jackson and Whoopi Goldberg, premiered solidly in third-place with $20.1 million. The Lionsgate release is based on Ntozake Shange’s play “for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf.”

The previous weekend’s No. 1 movie, Lionsgate’s horror tale “Saw 3D,” fell to No. 5 with $8.2 million, down a steep 66 percent from
opening-weekend revenues.

While “Megamind” drew big family crowds on Saturday and Sunday, it also was the top draw on Friday, bringing in large numbers of adults without children, said Anne Globe, head of marketing for DreamWorks Animation.

“For us to be No. 1 on Friday, it showed we did have a lot of appeal to teens, tweens and the date crowd,” Globe said.

The three newcomers combined for a $100 million haul, providing a big weekend for Hollywood, whose revenues have been lagging for most of the fall season.

Overall revenues came in at $155 million, up 29.5 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when “A Christmas Carol” led with $30.1 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

The weekend also provided an early jump on the holidays, when big releases include the latest in the “Harry Potter,” “Meet the Parents” and “Chronicles of Narnia” franchises.

“Just like the first weekend in May has become the kickoff to the summer season, the first weekend in November has become the start of the holiday movie season,” said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “Pound for pound, the coming weeks are just as important as the summer movie season.”

Hollywood also had good results from some films opening in limited release. Fox Searchlight’s survival story, “127 Hours,” took in $265,925 at four theaters, averaging a whopping $66,481 a cinema. That compared to $12,082 in 3,944 theaters for “Megamind.”

Directed by Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”), “127 Hours” stars James Franco in the real-life story of a mountain climber trapped for more than five days in a narrow canyon after a falling boulder pins his arm.

Another real-life drama, Summit Entertainment’s political saga “Fair Game,” took in $700,000 in 46 theaters for a $15,217 average. “Fair Game” features Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in the story of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative whose cover was blown by a Bush administration leak.

“Fair Game” and “127 Hours” gradually expand to more theaters in the coming weeks.

Directed by Todd Phillips, “Due Date” came in well below his previous movie, last year’s blockbuster “The Hangover,” which opened with $45 million and went on to top the domestic box-office charts for R-rated comedies with $277 million.

But “The Hangover” played to a younger audience during the busier summer season.

“That was June, this is November. There are so many reasons that don’t make it apples to apples,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. general sales manager.

Lionsgate hopes “For Colored Girls” will have staying power at the box office and broaden its audience, which was mostly older black women, with 87 percent of the crowd over 25.

“You always want the biggest opening you can get, but the reality is, older-skewing films don’t open as big, simply because older audiences don’t flock to cinemas over opening weekend,” said David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “Megamind,” $47.7 million.

2. “Due Date,” $33.5 million.

3. “For Colored Girls,” $20.1 million.

4. “Red,” $8.9 million.

5. “Saw 3D,” $8.2 million.

6. “Paranormal Activity 2,” $7.3 million.

7. “Jackass 3D,” $5.1 million.

8. “Hereafter,” $4.02 million.

9. “Secretariat,” $4 million.

10. “The Social Network,” $3.6 million.

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Online:

http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

Shortly after 8 p.m., Ms. Love burst into the room with the Marchesa dress slung on one arm and the noted German Neo-Expressionist artist Anselm Kiefer on the other. She was entirely naked and leaning on Mr. Kiefer for support. She made one lap around the room, walking in front of a photographer, an assistant, a hairstylist and me. She pulled over her head a transparent lace dress that covered up nothing, and demanded my assistance — “Not you,” she said to Mr. Kiefer, who was bent over trying to help her — to stuff her feet into a pair of black Givenchy heels that were zipped up the back and tied with delicate laces in the front. Then she applied a slash of red lipstick in the vicinity of her mouth.

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Immaculate Baking Company Supremes Chocolate Chunk
After biting into one of these chunky cookies, a tester raved, “No skimping on chocolate here!” She wasn’t lying: Semisweet and milk chocolate morsels make up a whopping 25 percent of these bad boys. The remainder is rich, buttery, vanilla-scented dough. “”This is what all other chocolate chip cookies aspire to be,” one admirer swooned. ($3.99 for 14 ounces, at grocery stores)

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These smooth, golden-brown treats won over our crowd with their “moist, doughy interior and lightly crisp exterior,” as one panelist put it. The peanut butter flavor is strong, but not overpowering: “I can also taste the brown sugar and vanilla,” one taster noted. ($3.49 for 14 ounces, at grocery stores)

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What’s better than a chocolate chip cookie? A chocolate chip cookie with a gooey caramel filling! Bite into these “thick and tender” rounds when they’re fresh out of the oven, and— surprise!—they’ll ooze creamy caramel. “These cookies are well worth the mess!” one panelist raved. ($3.49 for 16 ounces, at grocery stores)

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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is facing fire from Republicans in his home state for making critical comments about the Tea Party movement. If you think that’s big..check this out.

At 52, the life-long bachelor has been fodder for such rumors for years, but with the resignation of Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho — the anti-gay politician who pled guilty to disorderly conduct after allegedly soliciting sex in an airport men’s room — the internet is abuzz over who’s next, and they’re dying to know what’s going on in Graham’s bedroom. Is it the latest grasp for the light switch in South Carolina’s powerful political closet? Or the inevitable labeling of “closet-clinging self-hater” that befalls any content bachelor?

Mainstream media often avoids asking older, single politicians what they do in their free time. While there were rumors dating back 25 years, it wasn’t until blog reports about Craig trolling cruisy D.C. restrooms that The Idaho Statesmen put a reporter on the story. And even though they held the story until after Craig’s arrest was made public, some still accused the paper of orchestrating a witch hunt.

When GQ asked last year, Graham wasn’t mean, just dismissive. He said he’s not gay, just a loner. But that denial isn’t stalling renewed interest in the question. In a post on who’s next out of the closet following Craig’s arrest, blogger Michael Signorile (www.signorile.com) first points a questioning finger at Graham.

“Let’s have a real investigation of the rumors about South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who … has been rumored to be gay for years,” Signorile says. “Like Larry Craig, Graham has voted antigay — including for the federal marriage amendment — while people in South Carolina and Washington have discussed what some say is an open secret for a long, long time.”

Graham isn’t the first South Carolina politician to face such questions. While other names are omitted from this story because they aren’t at the center of national speculation (thank your lucky chinos, boys) they’ve reached some of the most influential seats in state politics.

Charlie Smith, a West Ashley realtor who ran for the Statehouse twice as an openly gay man, says that he finds it laughable when activists suggest that gay South Carolinians should show political leaders that they’re no different from straight people. “They know exactly what it means to be gay,” he says. “They just don’t have integrity.”

Fortunately for them, what they do have is a gay community content with leaving the rumors for cocktail hour chatter and not front page scandal. “I’m not a believer in outing,” Smith says. “People have a right to deal with this in their own time.”

He has also let opportunities go by when he could have challenged these officials about their sexuality. “It can be very detrimental in politics to back people into a corner,” Smith says. “Even when they’re acting against their own self interests and mine.”

That said, he warns that the tightrope these closeted politicians are walking is thin and that positions harmful to the gay community could prompt activists to address the hypocrisy, much like they have in the Craig case. “They know we’ll fight back,” Smith says.

The comments about Graham are not new, but they haven’t seen this kind of prominence since Graham’s 2002 election to the U.S. Senate. Early in the campaign, state Democratic Party Chair Dick Harpootlian said Graham was “a little too light in the loafers to fill Strom Thurmond’s shoes.” He later said he didn’t know what “too light in the loafers” meant. Apparently he didn’t know what too thick in the head meant either.

During a debate, Democratic candidate Alex Sanders also seemed to frame a question about Rudy Giuliani’s endorsement as an indictment on Graham’s personal life. “(Giuliani’s) wife kicked him out, and he moved in with two gay men and a Shih Tzu. Is that South Carolina values? I don’t think so.”

The renewed movement to question Graham’s sexuality won’t chink his armor in front of South Carolina voters, says Jack Bass, a political science professor at the College of Charleston and co-author of Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond.

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While in Vancouver, Colbert will be recording tons of material for when “The Colbert Report” returns to the air later this month. He’ll also be joining Bob Costas to do commentary at the Games. According to Colbert, his mission for his trip to Vancouver is to find out “What is Canada? Or more importantly, why is Canada?” Good questions.

After a major speedskating sponsor went bankrupt, Colbert and his legion of fans stepped in to save the team. That paved the way for Colbert’s association with Team USA, but it hasn’t all been jokes and bobsleds. In December, speedskater Shani Davis seemed to take offense at Colbert’s ribbing of Canadians, even calling Colbert “a jerk.” Canadians have been upset by being repeatedly referred to as “syrup-suckers” and “Saskatche-whiners.” Ironically, that’s exactly the kind of thing Colbert is talking about.

However, Colbert says he’s not there to cause any problems. According to the comedian, “I’m there to celebrate Canada at this point.” Whatever the reasons, we’re just glad he’ll be there.

“It is six minutes to midnight,” the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS), which created the Doomsday clock in 1947 as a barometer of how close the world is to an apocalyptic end, said in a statement read out as the clock’s countdown to midnight was turned back by one minute.

“For the first time since atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to vastly reduce their arsenals and secure all nuclear bomb-making material,” the statement by the panel of international scientists, including 19 Nobel laureates, said.

“For the first time ever, industrialized and developing countries alike are pledging to limit climate-changing gas emissions that could render our planet nearly uninhabitable.”

A key player in the new, global era of cooperation was Obama, whose election in 2008 ushered in “a change in the US government’s orientation toward international affairs,” said Lawrence Krauss, co-chair of BAS’s board of sponsors, speaking at the ceremony to turn back the hands of the symbolic clock.

Obama brought with him to the White House “a more pragmatic, problem-solving approach” than his predecessor, George W. Bush, the scientists said.

“Not only has Obama initiated new arms reduction talks with Russia, he has started negotiations with Iran to close its nuclear enrichment program, and directed the US government to lead a global effort to secure loose fissile material in four years,” Krauss said, reading from the BAS statement.

Since it was created by scientists who helped to develop the world’s first atomic weapons, the Doomsday clock has come to be seen as a measure of what progress, if any, the world has made in moving away from the risk of nuclear, climate-caused or bio-warfare catastrophe.

Midnight on the clock signifies the apocalypse, and the minute hand symbolizes the countdown to disaster.

The last time the minute hand was moved was in 2007, when Bush was president. Then, the clock was bumped two minutes closer to midnight.

In resetting the clock this year, the scientists said they were encouraged by recent developments, but had chosen to put back the clock by only one minute to show they were “mindful that the clock is ticking,” said Krauss.

“By shifting the hand back from midnight by only one additional minute, we emphasize how much needs to be accomplished” while at the same time recognizing that global cooperation has moved forward, he said.

Putting back the clock by only one minute also meant that “there’s great potential for it to move again, in either direction,” said Krauss.

Which way the hands of the clock are moved next time was up to scientists, world leaders and ordinary people, said Krauss, urging them all to seize the “unique opportunity we have right now to begin to free ourselves from the terror of nuclear weapons and slow drastic changes to our shared global environment.”

“We are now poised at a unique time, with hope and opportunity. Let’s not blow it,” he said.

They are state champion bowlers, too.

The Grand Rapids pair recently won the Division 2 doubles title at the United States Bowling Congress’ Women’s Bowling Association state tournament near Bay City.

 
“It was such an accomplishment for someone with my average. All I could say was ‘Wow,’” said Dausman, 86, who has been bowling for 44 years but was in just her 10th state tournament. “It’s still the same 12-pound ball I’ve been using for 44 years. I started with it, and it fits my hand. It does have a few more scratches now, but I am throwing it straighter.”

Added Conner, 69, who has been bowling for 34 years and competed in 33 state tournaments: “We proved that you are not too old to bowl in this tournament and shine.” In a tournament open to any USBC-sanctioned state bowler, the pair won with a total score of 1,607 — 32 pins better than the second-place team. Dausman had games of 192, 189 and 173 for a personal-best 554 series.

And, since she carries a 125 average, Dausman had a 297 handicap. Conner had games of a 178, 203 and 176 for a 557 series. She carries a 161 average and had a 199 handicap.They had their outstanding series on the final day of the tournament last month.

A total of 4,436 doubles team competed in this year’s tournament, which for the first time was broken up into three divisions based on averages.

Michigan USBC Women’s Bowling Association Vice President Sharon Schildroth said the duo’s feat is a rare one.

“Most good scores and winners are by young people,” Schildroth said. “Over the years, women these ages just don’t win it but, in this case, it was just outstanding.”

Conner was ecstatic when she finally learned a week after they bowled that she and Dausman won their first state championships.Dausman gives credit to Conner for helping her.

“That was my best series ever, and I did it because of Judy,” Dausman said. “She is such a good bowler, and she really encouraged me the whole day. If it wasn’t for Judy relaxing me, I don’t think that I would have done so well.”

As for defending their title next year, that will have to wait.

Dausman and Conner are on a team of six who bowl at The Clique, and each year they rotate doubles partners in the state tournament.

The next time the two will bowl together will be in five years, when Dausman is 91, and Conner 74.

“I think when other bowlers reach their 80s, they may say to themselves that ‘If she can do it, I can do it,’” Dausman said.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are. If you enjoy it and relax, you never know how high you can score. And if you can win.”

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