Yahoo! this week released the most popular searches of 2008, shedding some light on the interests of people around the world.

The "2008 Year In Review" top five searches included Britney Spears, WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), Barack Obama, Miley Cyrus and online adventure game RuneScape.

Rounding out the top 10: Jessica Alba, Naruto (a Japanese anime series), Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie and American Idol.

Noticeably absent: Econopocalypse and Rickrolled.

When Robot Programmers Get Bored...
...This is what happens?

via Neat o Rama

"Cash Awards" in Lieu of Bonuses
American International Group Inc., once the world's largest insurer, plans to shed some units to repay a $152 billion rescue package from the U.S. government that saved it from collapse last month under bad mortgage bets.

To get that massive bailout from Congress, AIG — whose bonuses and perks drew fire from lawmakers after the insurer accepted a federal bailout — pledged it would give up executives' annual bonuses.

Though they seem to have found a way to give them, anyhow. They're now "retention" bonuses.

According to Bloomberg News last week, AIG will instead be giving 130 managers "cash awards" to stick around, including $3 million to the retirement services chief.

"The expectation from the public and Congress was that they weren't getting bonuses, not that they'd be pushed off by several months," said David Schmidt, a consultant at executive pay firm James F. Reda & Associates. "That clearly violates the spirit of AIG saying they'll forgo their bonuses."

AIG defended the action, saying it was necessary to encourage "top employees" to remain while buyers are found for the various units, including the U.S. group headed by the retirement services chief, to repay a $60 billion loan included in the expanded government rescue package AIG got last month.

Where "Cash Awards" Are in Short Supply
Meanwhile, the rest of us are being told to treat our bank and/or retirement accounts like the sun during an eclipse: only view indirectly via pinhole.

A) In fact, in the face of today's now-official recession, even Google — whose nurturing, loving, perk-heavy corporate culture has long been the envy of emotionally abused cubicle-dwellers everywhere — has found itself needing to cut back on some of the good things.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

Google has [...] begun chipping away at perks. In recent months, it reduced the hours of its free cafeteria service and suspended the traditional afternoon tea in its New York office.

The horror.

B) Elsewhere, in a San Diego high school, a calculus teacher was recently left to fend for himself after budget cuts. He was provided only $316 to cover the costs of the year's tests, leaving him $184 short. "At 3 cents a page, his tests would cost more than $500 a year," USA Today reports.

The teacher finally resorted to selling ads on quizzes and tests to cover his printing costs: $10 for quizzes, $20 for tests and $30 for a final. After a local newspaper featured his story, the offers rolled in and he sold out his semester. Most of the ads are positive messages bought by parents, while others are from local businesses such as a structural engineering firm.

C) CNN has decided to shutter its space, science and tech unit, according to Reuters and first reported by Mediabistro blog TVNewser.

The move, we can only presume, is meant to free up funds to make room for CNN's "Red Carpet Close-up" team and fake holograms.

After all, who needs good science coverage? It's not like anything important happens in that area — at a time when science, environment and technology are the driving forces of change in the world.

Next Five in Five
Unveiled last week, the third annual "IBM Next Five in Five" is a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years:

• Energy-saving solar technology will be built into asphalt, paint and windows;

• You will have a crystal ball for your health;

• You will talk to the Web, and the Web will talk back;

• You will have your own digital shopping assistants; and

• Forgetting will become a distant memory.

Cheers.