The six of us arrived at Washington DC's Reagan National Airport, bleary-eyed, flip-flopped and Panama-hatted, ready to set out on what we had dubbed the "Sun, Sand and Stupidity Tour 2010".

BBC: Lobster diving in the Abacos

MasterCard's been working on new-era payment systems for sometime, but now the credit corporation looks set to move past its PayPass project and roll out a service that's properly ready for the masses.

ENGADGET

So I set out to visit two of the most reputable bike shops in the area, money at the ready, in the dead of Black Friday.

ENGADGET: This is the Modem World: Fear and loathing in the local bike shop

Second, with Russia's forces advancing on Chechnya's capital, Grozny, and ready soon to launch an all-out attack on it, the death toll among the combatants on both sides looks set to swell.

ECONOMIST: Russia’s brutal folly | The