The National Film Preservation Board has made their annual announcement of which films are being added to The National Film Registry.

For those unfamiliar with the project, each year up to 25 films are selected for preservation in the Library of Congress.  Each film must be at least 10-years-old, they do not have to be feature length, and they do not have to have received a theatrical release.

1. This year’s list includes:
2. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
3. The Exiles (1961)
4. Heroes All (1920)
5. Hot Dogs for Gauguin (1972)
6. The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
7. Jezebel (1938)
8. The Jungle (1967)
9. The Lead Shoes (1949)
10. Little Nemo (1911)
11. Mabel’s Blunder (1914)
12. The Mark of Zorro (1940)
13. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
14. The Muppet Movie (1979)
15. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
16. Pillow Talk (1959)
17. Precious Images (1986)
18. Quasi at the Quackadero (1975)
19. The Red Book (1994)
20. The Revenge of Pancho Villa (1930-36)
21. Scratch and Crow (1995)
22. Stark Love (1927)
23. The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
24. A Study in Reds (1932)
25. Thriller (1983)
26. Under Western Stars (1938)

As with each year there are a lot of early movies on here I have never heard of, but the real stand outs this year are The Muppet Movie and Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video.  I actually totally support Thriller as it forever changed the music video medium, but, The Muppet Movie?  Each year there is one film that I can not for the life of me figure out how it fits in with the charter for the National Film Preservation Board which says eligible films have to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films” to be included in the registry.  I love The Muppet Movie, but … really?  It fits this criteria?  Um … okay?

Any movies on the list that confuse you?

You can also check out the additions for 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Welcome to another week of the daily edition of CobWEBs, the flagship podcast of The Cynical Bastards!

For those who don’t remember from the other episodes, this is a new format for the show as we are going to try giving you daily bite sized chunks of our patented brand of cynicism over everything in the tech universe. The show will have a rotating host schedule between Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself. You’ll always get two of us, you just never know which two!

Steven and I take a look at the change over happening in aggregators from using algorithms to more of a curator situation that uses human editors.  It’s a potentially fascinating change, but one that isn’t getting much attention.  (links courtesy of Steven)

My only prediction for 2010 and it ain’t pretty – The Inquisitr
2010Watch – There’s Curation And There’s Prospecting… – Silicon Valley Watcher
Joining in on the beating – John C. Welch

Push the big green button and have a listen in!

So, I killed a deer last night … with my car.

I don’t mean to sound flippant, because I feel absolutely horrible the deer is dead, and this is one of the pitfalls living in a rural community.  Also, I live in Adair County, Missouri, which, at one time, was the white tail deer capital of the country … they are everywhere.

However, my car is not out of commission until next week, and I had plans for this weekend that actually required me to drive to Iowa.  So, now my car needs to be fixed, and that won’t happen until Monday at the earliest.  While it looks cosmetic, it turned out this morning I was leaking transmission fluid.  No one in town has the part, and of course with New Years in the mix, everyone will be closed, so no car for me.

Luckily I am insured, and even better luck it looks like I only have a $50 deductible on this type of damage.  Yay me!  Doesn’t change the fact I’m still annoyed by this whole thing.

Here are more pictures of my day.  Any image in this post can be clicked for a larger view.  (except for the one of the deer fur, no one needs to see that bigger)

Welcome to another week of the daily edition of CobWEBs, the flagship podcast of The Cynical Bastards!

For those who don’t remember from the other episodes, this is a new format for the show as we are going to try giving you daily bite sized chunks of our patented brand of cynicism over everything in the tech universe. The show will have a rotating host schedule between Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself. You’ll always get two of us, you just never know which two!

Steven and I have a go at our theories on the Nexus One (this was recorded before the price leaked) and what we think is going on with the Apple Tablet.  There is a lot of cursing … even by our standards.  (links courtesy of Steven)

An Apple slate isn’t even delivered and yet some already predict a killer from Google – The Inquisitr
Why a Google Slate Could Dominate – GigaOM

Push the big green button and have a listen in!

It appears things are still rough for some of the shows on the Great White Way.

Last Jan. I wrote up how nine Broadway shows were going dark, well come this Jan., at least three more will join them as well as gossip of as many as six more.  The three confirmed shows are:

• Superior Donuts
• Bye Bye Birdie
• Wishful Drinking

The rumored others include:

• Ragtime
• Burn the Floor
• Hair
• Memphis
• God of Carnage
• Fela!

All of this is interesting as other shows are breaking records.  Super popular Wicked set a record for the Rialto Theater last week by grossing $2,092,745, breaking the previous record which was set just this past Thanksgiving by the same show.  The Lion King set a record of $1,714,566 for the Minskoff Theater the same week.

Variety goes on to say:

Big-name tourist-attracting tuners — including old fave “The Phantom of the Opera” ($1,248,943) and up-and-down offering “Shrek the Musical” ($1,055,261) — were generally the productions to post major bumps. The recently opened revival of “A Little Night Music” ($985,662), fueled by the star power of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury, once again logged excellent biz while “In the Heights” ($895,479) saw receipts leap up by a whopping 53%.

Even with the records, year-vs.-year, the tallies were down:  $24.3 million this year as opposed to $27.2 million last year.

As you look over all these numbers and stats, though, a pattern emerges: Known properties and names are drawing the crowds.  As I stated in the post from last year, ticket prices have surged to north of $200 per ticket on some shows, so people are only willing to shell that out on shows they know will be good, or actors and actresses they love.  No one is experimenting with their Broadway viewings because you simply can’t afford to.  Sure Hair is a known show, but not this production of it, and the same could be said about Ragtime.  Just because a revival of a show is supposed to stick close to the original, it doesn’t mean it will be as good.  Wicked has gone through numerous cast changes, but it is still the same production as the first day, it’s a known quantity.

So, how can Broadway reverse this?  Sadly I think we will see more licensed properties coming in.  More Disney movies getting turned in to stage productions make sense because they are family friendly, but with that happening, how will the next great show ever be discovered?

Broadway has to bring those ticket prices down to cement its future, otherwise it will begin to look like one giant rehashing of licensed properties.

UPDATE 12/29: The press firm for God of Carnage has reached out to me and said:

I just saw your piece on shows closing.  It lists God of Carnage among some other shows that you say may close.  This could not be farther from the truth.  I don’t know where you got this information; perhaps you miss-quoted Perez Hilton who mentioned several shows that were doing WELL after a sentence about other shows closing.  Can you please take God of Carnage off this list?   God of Carnage is one of the top-grossing plays on Broadway.

My source for this information was Showbiz 411, which listed this information as gossip, and as I did also.  I would never use Perez Hilton as a primary source on anything.  The list stands as it was originally printed, but I have no problem including their quote on the status of the show.

Welcome to another week of the daily edition of CobWEBs, the flagship podcast of The Cynical Bastards!

For those who don’t remember from the other episodes, this is a new format for the show as we are going to try giving you daily bite sized chunks of our patented brand of cynicism over everything in the tech universe. The show will have a rotating host schedule between Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself. You’ll always get two of us, you just never know which two!

Steven and I are fed up with stupid acronyms making stupid decisions, and we’re looking at you AT&T and TSA …

We also delve into some unexpected territories because … well … that’s how Steven and I roll.  (links courtesy of Steven)

This has to be one of my high points – Shooting at Bubbles
Even More Pointless Flight Security Regulations – Sean P Aune
Post-foiled attack TSA regulations put into place: Go to the bathroom early and often – CrunchGear
AT&T Stops iPhone Sales In New York, Can’t Get Their Story Straight – The Inquisitr

Push the big green button and have a listen in!

Tyra Banks is calling an end to her show after this season … and this worries me.

I have never watched the Tyra Banks Show, it just isn’t my style, but with The Oprah Winfrey Show ending in 2011, I’m actually concerned by what is going to come into replace these shows.  Daytime television is already a wasteland of pop-psychiatry, questionable medical advice, endless courtroom shows and Satan Rachael Ray.  The vacancy created by these two shows opens up the playing field to even more suspect programming.

Rumors have floated around for some time now that Kate Goselin is in talks for her own talk show.  You know, she of the eight children and the husband who seems to be on the cover of every tabloid as of late.  Yes, can you imagine that pain on a daily basis?

Sure, I have my problems with Oprah Winfrey, but I fear the unknown factor even more.  I am sure whatever replaces these two shows will be watched as much as I currently watch daytime television, which is to say not at all (okay, fine, I TiVo The Young and the Restless …), but considering you can’t escape the social impact these shows have, an even worse replacement could be a bad thing.

By the way, Oprah, the Queen of Daytime, is departing, do you really think now is the best time for any of the current players to drop out?  Who knows how much of her audience another show could pick up in that fallout, but, no, it’s better to drop your show just short of finding out.  Yeah, that’s bright.

Is this an Earth shattering matter of importance?  Nope.  Not even close.  However, it is important from a societal impact.  Lets face it, is there any one who doesn’t know who Oprah is?  You’ve heard of Tyra’s show at least in passing, so whomever takes over these prime spots of daytime real estate could quite probably influence millions of people and billions of dollars in marketing power.  Make a bit more sense why you should question what shows will be replacing them?

At what point are they just going to ban people from flights?

The evidence is growing that the government and security are at fault for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab getting the opportunity to set burn himself in his failed terrorist attack on a flight arriving in Detroit, Michigan.  Thankfully the flight crew and passengers reacted quickly to thwart disaster, but it also appears that there were mistakes made well before he tried detonating his device.

According to CNN, Umaru Abdul Mutallab, father of the would be terrorist, contacted. the U.S. Embassy weeks before the attack with concerns that his son was going to attempt something.  A source also told CNN that Umaru had contacted other security agencies possibly up to three months ago about his worries over a text message his son had sent him about going to Yemen.

Umar was placed on a watch list, but not the “no fly” list.  He was allowed to keep his passport and visa which allowed him to board that Northwest flight that he tried to bring down.  Authorities are saying they didn’t have enough evidence to take these actions.

Bull.

If a family is coming to you and saying, “Hey, we think our son has fallen in with a bad crowd, we think he is talking with terrorists and we think he is going to take action,” then you do something about it.  I mean, I certainly don’t have access to how many such reports security agencies get like this, but I would think if a father is telling you they think their son has turned to terrorism, I think I would give it a bit more credence than some random report.

Add to this he was on a watch list, why was he not checked more throughly before his flight?  Was he pulled aside for extra screening?  The government of the Netherlands is saying they did everything properly, but have they released security tapes to show us this?

So now we all get punished with new regulations due to government officials not taking a threat seriously enough.  From Air Canada’s Web site:

New rules imposed by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration also limit on-board activities by customers and crew in U.S. airspace that may adversely impact on-board service. Among other things, during the final hour of flight customers must remain seated, will not be allowed to access carry-on baggage, or have personal belongings or other items on their laps.

This means no going to the bathroom folks.  Ever tried with a small child?  I haven’t, but I have observed enough of it to know this is not going to go over well with parents.  No accessing carry-on baggage?  Hope you don’t need to change a diaper.  Have type-1 diabetes?  Hope you don’t need an insulin shot.

Thus far these has been no word on these rules being put in place for domestic flights inside the United States or on outbound international flights, but I would be surprised to see some of these pop up this week.

I am all for safety, don’t get me wrong on that, but I find it infuriating that everyone is so quick to put new rules in place on the travelers as opposed to looking into what went wrong with the reports that were made about this man before he even boarded a flight.  Are these investigations coming?  Will they be made public?  Who knows, but until then, lets make sure we treat every air passenger as a criminal … and don’t you dare go to the bathroom.

Christmas slowed me down a bit this week … a mere 51 posts.

FunJug.com

• KISS works at Wal-Mart
• Norah Jones and Jimmy Kimmel Sing YouTube’s 12 Days of Christmas
• Christmas Prank On Louie

iPhoneTouch.BLORGE.com

• Top 10 best free iPhone and Touch Christmas apps

Photo.BLORGE.com

• Ricoh releases limited edition GR Digital III x Stussy
• Fujifilm to discontinue Quickload line of film

RememberingChristmas.com

• Use Your Extra Wrapping Paper To Prank A Friend
• Track Santa Online
• Jingle Bells – Indian Style

SeanPAune.com

• Avatar’s Opening Weekend Disappoints By The Numbers
• Bryan Singer Returns To The X-Men Movies
• 38-Year-Old Alabama Teacher Charged With Rape Of Student
• CobWEBs Daily Edition: Abused patents, gratuitous blogging – isn’t technology grand
• Do You Have Your Festivus Pole Out?
• CobWEBs Daily Edition: Watching the pendulum of stupidity swinging to the extreme
• Follow @DrewFromTV On Twitter And Help Fight Cancer
• CobWEBs Daily Edition: Screw fireside chats, we’re doing the rum & eggnog version
• Scattercast Episode 75: Rockin’ The Gadgets
• CobWEBs Daily Edition: Getting jacked by broadband providers
• Westboro Baptist Church Plans To Protest Lady Gaga

SiliconANGLE.com

• Mobile Monday: Mobile App News for Week of December 13th
• App Developer Reports Nearly $1 Million A Month In Sales
• Top 10 Cell Phones Of 2009 Announced

StarterTech.com

• Cleaning Out Your Laptop Fan
• Wi-Fi Coming To Ford Cars; Accidents Not Far Behind
• Missouri Man Sentenced After X-box Live Love Affair With Underage Girl
• Google’s Nexus One Technical Details Finally Surface
• Don’t Be So Quick To Throw Out Your Packaging
• Don’t Forget To Fill Out Your Warranty Card
• Apple Tablet Looks To Be The iSlate

Tech.BLORGE.com

• Rumor: Google to acquire DocVerse
• Ford adding Wi-Fi hotspots to cars
• BBC planning to bring Internet video to TVs in the UK
• Apple’s subscription TV service may have its first partners
• Microsoft loses $290 million dollar appeal over patent infringement
• Microsoft removing XML support in wake of legal decision
• Yahoo shutting down MyBlogLog next month
• Apple Tablet may be announced on Jan. 26th
• San Jose police turn into cyborgs with head-mounted cameras
• iSlate rumored to be the name of the mythical Apple Tablet
• Google Voice returning to the iPhone via the browser
• Vonage offering unlimited international calling on smartphones
• Barnes & Noble Nook failing to download purchases

TechnoBuffalo.com

• 7 last minute gifts for the techy in your life
• Where Are the Xbox 3, Playstation 4 And Wii 2?
• BlackBerry Is Still The King of Smartphones
• Should Tech Stay Out Of Our Cars?
• Digg No Longer Matters
• Your Cell Phone Is About To Be Hacked
• Apple In 2010: Why This Year May Matter The Most
• With Google Docs, Does Microsoft Office Have A Future?

What in the world is wrong with the Westboro Baptist Church?

Last Christmas we had this “church” telling us Santa is Satanic and a pedophile, this year they’re planning to protest a Lady Gaga concert.  You can read the “press release” below.

I mean, sure I’m tired of hearing Lady Gaga everywhere I go, but I don’t feel the urge to protest her. Oh, wait, that isn’t why they’re protesting her? My bad.

Okay, I get it, they’re going after her “fashion sense”!  No?  Close?

So, they say she is teaching “rebellion.”  What, she’s buying her fans X-Wings and they’re going after the Death Star?  Again, no?  Man, I’m horrible at this game!

Okay, okay … they’re desperately seeking even more media attention for their crazy religious antics by going after a currently popular singer?  YAY!  I think I got it this time!

I was looking at the church schedule for protests (I refuse to link to them as it only helps them and their domain name is offensive … find it for yourselves), and the list is just filled with nonsensical rantings.  Not to mention the protest of the Lady Gaga concert is their third protest of the day.  Here is the description of the protest, it varies somewhat from the press release above: (formatting by them, enjoy)

Lady Gaga Concert at Fox Theatre 527 N. Grand Blvd. — Press Release: http://tiny.cc/LGSTL — “Lady” Gaga has no qualms about displaying her filth for all the world to see, using the platform given to her by God to teach rebellion against Him. She loudly and proudly proclaims her fornication and “sexual relations with women,” saying that she wants to “free” and “liberate” her young fans. Gag! She glories in her shame, encourages everyone she can get her hands on to do the same, and pretends that God is just great to go along with her plan. She wasn’t lying, however, when she said, “This is for God and the gays,” during the MTV VMA’s. What she meant by that was: “In your face, God! You can call gays abominable, but here I stand, Best New Artist, and I say gays are great!” There’s nothing new about the antics of this silly girl; she got here late! Like the many whores who came before her, “Lady of the night” Gaga thinks she can change God by teaching you to hate Him and “liberating” you from His standards. And like those whores, she will not escape the destruction that awaits her for her hatred and deceit. “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.” Jer. 8:12. And to all those that would follow the example of this treacherous tart, know that God’s curses abide on the disobedient. That includes this warning from God: “And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.” Lev. 26:27-30. Catch that? Because you won’t obey, God will cause you to eat your children, He’ll cast your dead bodies on those of your idols, and He’ll abhor you. Obeying God is your only recourse at this hour. But because you heed the words of stupid rebels like Lady Gaga INSTEAD of the God who created you, this generation is doomed.

It’s fine that Fred Phelps, the head of the church, is a nut job, but how in the world does he find enough followers to actually listen to him?

The thing is, I don’t even care that much for Lady Gaga’s pop music, but I kinda wanna go to this St. Louis concert now … thanks, Westboro Baptist Church!

Welcome to another week of the daily edition of CobWEBs, the flagship podcast of The Cynical Bastards!

For those who don’t remember from the other episodes, this is a new format for the show as we are going to try giving you daily bite sized chunks of our patented brand of cynicism over everything in the tech universe. The show will have a rotating host schedule between Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself. You’ll always get two of us, you just never know which two!

Steven and I spend Christmas night discussing this post on Gizmodo about how broadband ISPs are ripping off the consumers.  It’s a very … cheery conversation …

We then end the evening complaining about CEOs who get paid way too much money.

Basically, Steven and I give ourselves the Christmas gift of a good Gilmorring.

Push the big green button and have a listen in!

Scattercast is 75 … and celebrating the Christmas holiday … woo!

- I may have fallen in love with the Roku and my new Keurig coffee maker.

- Some more quick comments about Drew Carey

- Last of the Christmas songs for this year.

Short one this week as I figured you want to spend the holiday with your loved ones!

Here’s

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for those who wish to download it, subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.