While the rest of the media salivates over the latest ‘fall from grace’ story, Tiger Woods’ car accident and angry wife, the real stories this week lie in the electric skateboard (another crap-tacular Christmas gift!), tips on running a small label or specialty retailer, Wikileaks latest whistle and the 2009 Victoria’s Secret team demo…

Electric Skateboard – Another wacky toy based on skateboarding. It can achieve 19mph (30kph) in 4 seconds and is controlled via a wireless trigger. It costs $600 and if you’re thinking this is a perfect gift for the kids this Christmas, let me predict the future of it right here; Christmas day it will be ridden for an hour with pleasing results for the gift giver. Boxing day it will get a quick ride before something else takes their attention. In the following weeks it will migrate from the bedroom floor to the wardrobe… Which is where toys go to die. Buy the kids a real board that they will use until it’s nothing more than a matchstick and save yourself $400.00.

Wikileaks Publishes Pager Messages from 9/11 – Whistleblowing website Wikileaks is publishing more than half a million pager messages from September 11th – the first message from 5 hours before the first attack and the last is 24 hours later. It will be an important archive of what happened that day… They’re not saying how they managed to get the messages.

New Labels and Small Brands Checklist – I’ve mentioned Jeff Harbaugh’s work here before… He’s written a column for Transworld Business about how small brands or new labels can differentiate themselves and make great sales with specialty retailers. The column also talks about the importance of small, specialty retailers differentiating themselves. Worth checking out.

And Finally – I couldn’t pass up giving you some photos from the 2009 Victoria’s Secret parade… Ambrosio, Kroes, Miller, Kerr and Ebanks, it’s a killer team. Have a great week!