State of the Art: Sony’s RX1 Camera: Compact, Full-Framed and Expensive, Too

When you’re shopping for a camera, you have a million specs and features to consider. Size, weight, battery life, megapixels, zoom power. ... Can you guess which aspect consumers consider most important? The color of the body. (“Ooh, I like the shiny red one!”) The camera buyer for a national electronics chain told me that. We both slapped our foreheads. Please. If you’re buying...

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India Ink: Image of the Day: Feb. 19

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Pistorius: Thought lover an intruder in shooting

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Oscar Pistorius wept Tuesday as his defense lawyer read the athlete's account of how he shot his girlfriend to death on Valentine's Day, claiming he had mistaken her for an intruder.Prosecutors, however, told a packed courtroom that the double-amputee known as the Blade Runner intentionally and mercilessly shot and killed 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp as she cowered inside...

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Ask Well: Coaxing Parents to Take Better Care of Themselves

Dear Reader,Your dilemma of wanting to get your parents to change their ways to eat better and exercise reminds me of an old joke:How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Only one, but the light bulb has to really want to change.Sounds like your parents may be about as motivated as the light bulb right now. Still, there are things you can do to encourage them to move in...

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Obama to Turn Up Pressure for Deal on Budget Cuts

Doug Mills/The New York TimesPresident Obama spoke at a White House auditorium surrounded by emergency responders. WASHINGTON — President Obama, back from his three-day golf getaway, on Monday made use of his bully pulpit, while Congress remains out all week, to turn up the pressure for a bipartisan agreement to avoid indiscriminate across-the-board budget cuts that will otherwise hit March 1. ...

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India Ink: Image of the Day: Feb. 18

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Jerry Buss, Los Angeles Lakers' owner, dies at 80

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships from the '80s Showtime dynasty to the Kobe Bryant era, died Monday, his assistant said.Buss died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Bob Steiner, his assistant. He was 80.He'd been hospitalized for cancer, but the immediate cause of death was kidney failure, Steiner...

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Well: Twins Don't Need C-Sections

Obstetricians increasingly recommend planned Caesarean sections for women having twins, but a new study has found that a C-section for healthy twins usually provides no advantage over vaginal delivery.Researchers randomly assigned 2,800 mothers carrying healthy twins to either a planned C-section or a planned vaginal delivery. There was no difference in outcome between the two groups. There were serious...

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Letter From Washington: A Sensible Deal Can Avert a 'Sequester' Disaster

WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans in Washington agree: It would be a disaster if the “sequester,” with its more than $1 trillion of cuts to U.S. defense and domestic spending, took effect on March 1, as scheduled. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta says the reductions to the Pentagon budget would undermine national security; the cuts to already pared-down domestic spending will set back...

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Hirscher wins worlds slalom at home in Austria

SCHLADMING, Austria (AP) — Overall World Cup champion Marcel Hirscher won the men's slalom title Sunday on the last day of the skiing world championships for his first individual gold medal at a major event.Cheered loudly by a home crowd of 35,000, the Austrian overcame the pressure of expectation to earn the host nation its second gold of the worlds, after the mixed team event.Hirscher held onto...

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