XAM: Top Online Reads

Sparkling Holiday Displays Worldwide
Slide show text by Sonja Groset, Bing Travel; photo editing by Connie Ricca.

Spectacular light displays are a hallmark of the holiday season in many locations around the globe. Amusement parks, gardens, piazzas and plazas all glow under the flicker of thousands of lights. For shoppers in the world’s top cities, window displays are another herald of the holidays, as children and adults alike press their noses against the windowpane to view animated figures and wintry scenes. Christmas in the Philippines is symbolized by "parols," or star lanterns. ...

Cozy-crazy couple makes tight all right in the city's tiniest studio
By ANGELA MONTEFINISE, Posted: 4:01 AM, December 6, 2009

If they can make it there, they can make it anywhere. Zaarath and Christopher Prokop -- and their two cats -- live in the smallest apartment in the city, a 175-square-foot "microstudio" in Morningside Heights the couple bought three months ago for $150,000. At 14.9 feet long and 10 feet wide, it's about as narrow as a subway car and as claustrophobic as a jail cell. But to the Prokops, it's a castle. ...

Beyonce Takes a Dive at London Concert
PopEater, Posted Thursday 19 November 02:45 PM By: Megan Rumph

Beyonce made an unexpected leap at a free concert in London Sunday night. During her performance of 'Halo,' she took a daring head-first stage dive into the audience of screaming fans, in nothing but a sequined leotard. Watch the video.... ...

New Minute Maid juice packaging-- can it avoid the Tropicana disaster?
Wallet Pop, Tom Barlow, Nov. 19th, 2009

In the world of advertising, the Tropicana disaster of 2008-09 is already legendary. The orange juice container redesign by controversial brand guru Peter Arnell eliminated the familiar straw-in-an-orange image in favor of a photo of a glass of OJ. This killed the brand recognition developed over many years, resulting in a 20% drop in sales and the loss of millions of dollars within two months. Tropicana beat a hasty retreat to the old design. Now, according to Advertising Age, Coca-Cola is taking a similar risky step, re-branding its Minute Maid line of juices. ...

Green Car of the Year 2010
By Josh Condon of MSN Autos

Walk around the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show for any length of time and you'll start to hear the same buzzwords and phrases over and over again. "Moving forward" is the first one that comes to mind — after all, pretty much every company wants this financially dismal period to end. With at least as much frequency, however, you'll hear a spate of environmentally pointed terms: "eco-friendly," "reduced emissions" and the most heinously overused of eco-conscious idioms, "green." Being green seems to be the way automakers plan to climb in their customers' hearts — and wallets - in the future. Some already have the eco-friendly bona fides and are making a difference, right now, on a road near you. Here are the five finalists for the Green Car of the Year, an award given out by the Green Car Journal. Who won? Read on to see. ...