A dating website only for attractive people says it has axed over 5,000 members -- because they put on too much weight over the holidays.

Bosses at BeautifulPeople.com claim they have kicked out many members seeking love, after they'd piled on the pounds during the holidays.

The newly chubby were apparently caught out after posting images of themselves celebrating Christmas and the New Year - revealing they have let themselves go.

Managing director Greg Hodge said as they no longer met the exacting standards of the community on the site, they had to reapply for membership, only a few hundred have so far been voted back in.

Interestingly Hodge didn't specify how exactly how many mince pies he had eaten this Christmas... or send us a photo of himself.

A hypnotist has announced plans for a stunt where he intends to put users of Facebook and Twitter into a trance and stick their hands together.
 
Chris Hughes says his Socialtrance event on the 4th of January will be the world's largest mass online hypnosis session.

Using just the sound of his voice he claims the webcast will leave users of the social networks stuck to their chair and unable to open their eyes.

The 34-year-old says he wants to show people to the power of hypnotism and that all participants need is a computer with speakers and a Twitter or Facebook account.

But who is going to be more susceptible Twitter or Facebook users? Let us know which you think in the comments.

Star Trek has been illegally downloaded around 11 million times this year - that's more than any other movie.

Experts from TorrentFreak say the J.J. Abrams sci-fi flick was the most pirated film of 2009, ahead of things like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Twilight.

Other popular BitTorrent downloads included The Hangover, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Guy Ritchie's crime movie RocknRolla was the third most downloaded film of the year -- you have to admit that watching it seems a suitable punishment for illegal downloading movies.

An electrical retailer has revealed an unintentionally funny slogan on their website  -- suggesting you may want to shop elsewhere.

Dixons have launched the slogan "Dixons: The last place you want to go" which may not convey exactly the meaning they intended.

At first it was thought their website may have been hacked, but bosses confirmed it was planned and was meant to suggest you could find everything you could need, not that Dixons is a last resort.

After a brief moment of mocking online this morning, the high-street turned online store pulled the slogan from the site… but it remains true for many people.

Almost one in four people will look at the internet history of their partner, to see what Christmas present they might have been bought.

A study of 1,000 Brits found 23 percent would sneak-a-peak at their Christmas gifts online, rather than hunting the house and squeezing wrapped presents.

Nowadays they just load up the internet browser and look in the history folder to see what sites and products have been viewed or purchased.

A further 15 percent of people said they'd accidentally stumbled on what they had been bought by visiting a shopping website on a shared computer and seeing a message like "you recently bought…"

We only hope that not too many women out their think they're getting a porn related present after checking up on their boyfriend or husband's browsing history.

77% of Blackberry owners won’t get a proper break from work this Christmas and many will even check their work emails on Christmas day.

A study of over 1,000 smartphone owners found that the vast majority of workers will check their mobile over the festive season, with two thirds doing it on a daily basis.

45 percent said they will keep their work Blackberry on them at all times - in case something important crops up - and 26 percent said checking emails is a habit they are unable to break.

All of this is despite the fact that 49 percent expect their Christmas Blackberry use to prompt a fight with family members... presumably via email or text.

A mischievous best man has played a prank on an unsuspecting bride and groom, using Twitter to broadcast every time the happy couple have sex.

The unnamed man claims he started off by rigged up pressure-sensitive sensors to the newly married couple's bed while they were away on honeymoon.

These detect 'excessive' movements and trigger a computer to send an update to the Twitter account @newlywedsontjob with details of the 'action'.

Each update includes the duration, how frenzied their movement was, along with a 'judges comment'.

It is not known who the couple are but they got back from their honeymoon on Friday… they are already up to four times since then.

A Facebook addict interrupted his own wedding to update his status on the social network from 'in a relationship' to 'married'.

As the minister had pronounced Dana Hanna and bride Tracy Page husband and wife, Danna shocked friends and family by pausing to get out his mobile phone.

The minister - who was in on the joke - then announced that the groom was updating his Facebook status. He was actually also updating his Twitter account.

While the guests laughed he then proceeded to get out a second mobile which he passed to Tracy.

Hopefully he didn't spend the rest of the evening tweeting every single detail of their first married night together.

The town of Darlington has appointed a "tweeter in residence" to tell people what is happening in the area.

Mike McTimoney - a social media fan and IT teacher at the town's Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College - will now get paid - though only £140 per year - for his tweets.

A spokesperson for the Darlington Partnership, which is behind the job, said that while many towns and cities have artists and writers in residence - they were the first to have a Twitterer.

Using the name @TheDarloBard Mike will now tweet about anything and everything going on in the town, sharing local news, insights and observations.

So lots of tweets about how much it is raining in Darlington then.

Twitter has been named as the most popular word of the year - meaning it was discussed more than any other topic in the last 12 months.

The social networking site beat off competition from Obama, H1N1, Vamires and Stimulus, which made up the top 5 words of the year.

Texas-based Global Language Monitor looked at how many times different subjects had been discussed online and in the media with the 140 character site coming top.

Other popular words in 2009 included: 2.0, Deficit, Hadron, Healthcare and Transparency.

To be honest, looking at the top 10 words of the year we can't help but hope that 2010 is a bit more interesting.