Cover Wars : Bar Refaeli Gets Inked For Esquire.

Google announces UK's 2009 search trends

Google has announced the biggest trends in UK search for the year, with celebrities, and swine flu joined by Facebook eBay and Spotify in the British search zeitgeist.

Another Google Wave Use: Catching a killer.

..... the Seattle Times is very interested in trying to figure out what to actually use Google Wave for. But while most are trying to use it for either fun, realtime chats, movie reenactments, or inner-business workings, the Seattle Times have tasked Wave with a larger goal: Catching a killer.

Black Friday Gets $595 Million in U.S. Online Holiday Sales

Strong Lead-Up to Black Friday Boosts Holiday Spending Growth to 3 Percent for the First 27 Days of the Season

Superior Super Earths

Super Earths are named for their size, but these planets - which range from about 2 to 10 Earth masses - could be superior to the Earth when it comes to sustaining life.

Revealed: War Fraud Whistleblowers Under Wraps

One of the reasons for the high costs of maintaining each soldier is the lack of oversight of private contractor billings over the course of these two wars. The DOD, and the Army, has fought the auditors and the investigators in the military who have attempted to expose fraud, waste, overbillings and other abuses of costs in contractor contracts.

Oddly Enough!!!

Goncourt winner Littell wins Bad Sex Award (Reuters)

Reuters - Jonathan Littell, who won France's prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2006 for "The Kindly Ones," has picked up another prize for the same work -- the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award.

Rome taxis seek to wipe out tourist scams (Reuters)

Reuters - Rome's largest taxi cooperative is trying to improve the bad name of the city's cabbies, notorious among tourists to one of the world's best loved cities.

Bulgarians name brandy after PM after tax victory (Reuters)

Reuters - Bulgarian villagers have named their home-made rakia brandy "Borisovka," playing on the name of Prime Minister Boiko Borisov to thank him for stopping parliament from raising taxes on alcohol.

Irish use strike day to shop across border (Reuters)

Reuters - Irish workers caused traffic jams on Tuesday as hundreds made use of a one-day public sector strike to do some Christmas shopping in the cheaper stores across the border in Northern Ireland.

"Coffee police" fight fraud on shop shelves (Reuters)

Reuters - Brazil's coffee industry is engaged in a tireless battle against rogue roasters who cut corners and costs by bulking up their products with corn, soy or even wood, the ABIC industry association says.