Cheryl Cole debuts new blonde hairstyle

Roche tweeted: "People- am I behind the times here or have you all seen Cheryl Cole's new blonde, above shoulder-length hair do???"

On possible pictures of her new hairstyle, Roche wrote: "Tweeps asking about Cheryl's hairdo pix? They're V expensive photos & will only sell once the price drops, I reckon. Will keep y'all posted... Got a spare ten grand?"

The venue for Cole's birthday celebrations has yet to be revealed, but the Daily Mail reports that the star sent out an invite to friends, including her Girls Alouds bandmates and record company executives, which read: "You are invited to celebrate Cheryl's birthday. Friday 1st July. 9pm til late. Venue to be advised."

A source told the newspaper that Cole chopped off her signature long brown locks to make a fresh start in life.

They explained: "Cheryl has had a long year, everything has really taken its toll. She's taking some time to work out what she wants to do now.

9.45pm, BBC Two

This three part series takes us through the creation of a pop song - from that first eureka moment in the bath (or wherever) to that first public performance (not in a bath, hopefully). It's not just a bunch of old singer-songwriters banging on about their first hit - host Guy Chambers (songwriter, producer and musician) actually collaborates with an artist to write a new song. The 'ballad' is dissected tonight and Rufus Wainwright joins Chambers to fashion one. Elsewhere balladeers such as Sting, Boy George and Neil Tennant tell us about their finest hour and critic Will Hodgkinson cherry picks from the vaults.

9.00am, BBC Two

A top rate cast - including David Walliams, Miranda Hart, Catherine Tate and Rik Mayall - lend their voices to this special animation, which was created by children for children, as part of the UK's Cultural Olympiad. Thousands of children across the UK contributed to the drawings, sound effects and story which were then brought together by Tate, Aardman Animations and the BBC. It's all about the adventures of eleven-year-old Beanie as he battles Evil Stella and saves the universe.

9.00pm, UTV

Dermot O'Leary is the marriage ref, the lone figure between one couple and their happy ever after. Or so the reality TV tagline might go for this show. In actual reality it's a bizarre game show in which real-life couples put their case as to why they are in the right in a domestic tiff. A panel of celebrities and comedians then make their determination. Dermot O'Leary gets to look pretty.

balibunterb: Jessica Alba Haircut Bob

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has announced (http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=32094) that several more forms will be transitioning from the Service Centers to the Lockbox Network. USCIS believes that by centralizing form and fee intake to a Lockbox environment, USCIS will improve consistency and integrity in the intake process. Ok, you know I love your pictures, so I played with curves and masking. Since I've been on the coast many times, I know those cliffs have a lot more detail than your photo, so I wanted to bring them out. I went for subtlety and not intensity in the color version. I don't know if it looked like this or not, but this is what I imagine it to be. Layering and adjusting curves can significantly change the "feel" of the picture to more closely emulate what you saw. In general, macro lenses around 100mm are good for most kinds of macro photography. They have too much working distance for use on a copy stand, and not quite enough for skittish and/or dangerous insects or small animals. For general purpose stuff, the angle of view is such that you get enough background isolation to be worthwhile (you can rotate around your subject just a bit to get a highlight out of the background, while a 50mm macro takes in more background and makes this difficult). I got a used Tamron 90mm, and let's just say that the build quality does not inspire confidence - however, the image quality is excellent. From what little I've seen of the Sigma 105mm macro (and from the many images that the members here have posted), it appears to have a bit better build quality and fine image quality as well. The Nikon macro is not going to be much better, if at all, in image quality than these, and you will pay dearly for the brand name. The one macro lens to avoid, however, is a "Phoenix" macro that only goes to 1:2 (that means that you can't get enough magnification for most small insects and flowers to fill the frame) and is most likely more cheaply built than my Tamron. Almost every other macro lens goes to 1:1 these days, and you can get the nicer ones used from KEH for not much more, so there's no reason to buy not-so-ideal lenses that you'll outgrow in no time anyway.

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