Top 5 Moments of the Year

A lot of stuff happened this year, most of it political, all of it historical. To keep it simple, I picked the five moments that make this year amazing (yet tragic).

5) Wall-E / The Dark Knight
Two fantastic movies that didn't require history, making an actor look ugly, or the Holocaust to make the best movies of the year. Hollywood at its finest with more to come from Pixar and hopefully Nolan. Below are the Wall-E trailer and the tragic but fantastic ending to The Dark Knight.


4) Sarah Palin Couric Interview
John McCain's choice of complete unknown Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was seen by many as both odd and impulsive. Her background showed absolutely nothing to indicate she was qualified for the second highest position in the country. She was able to do something that McCain wasn't by getting the full and devoted following of "the base", die hard Republicans and evangelicals that provide money, campaigning and ground game that a GOP Presidential candidate depends on for achieving a victory. The momentum, for the first time, shifted to McCain. Suddenly victory was a real possible...until this infamous interview. An interview so bad that SNL parodied it to perfection a few days later. With this disaster of an interview and several that followed, the fence sitters realized what many of us already figured out, that Sarah Palin was in way over her head. She is truly, beyond all doubt "Bush in drag" and this country has had enough of a stubborn mule with no intelligence, curiosity and mediocre leadership skills. Thanks to this interview, America dodged a bullet.

3) The Last Lecture by Dr. Randy Pausch
Yes this came out last year, but I didn't hear about until this year. A truly remarkable speech from a remarkable teacher. It’s the life lessons of a man who fought and lost the batter to cancer but lived life to the fullest regardless. He did something truly rare; he changed many people with a message and not with violence. Below is the entire 75 minute video, but a 10 minute version can be found here.

2) Beijing Olympics
Athletic perfection is a requirement when victory is often measured in millimeters and milliseconds and this year's Olympics proved that over and over again. Michael Phelps historic and dramatic run for 8, those amazing opening ceremonies of perfect execution from thousands, Dana Torres proving that age isn't the boundary it use to be and many more moments. Below is the NBC credits montage video that does an excellent job of summarizing these Games.

1) Barack Obama Elected President
In something I never thought I would see, a black man is elected President and by a wide margin to boot. For me though, the election is more about the hope that the United States can finally begin the long and difficult battle of getting out of the whole that Republicans have buried us in with their "big business first, no matter what" policies. McCain promised four more years of Bush, Obama promised that the Bush years don't work and something new is needed and the people, for once, listened. Below is a cool moment at Grant Park when an already excited crowd got louder at the moment his victory was announced. Even more amazing is the global celebration (here and here) of his victory, a sign to me that the world is rooting for us and that we still have friends everywhere.

My Top 5 Movies

I watch a ton of movies every year. I am perfectly happy to spend every Saturday of every week watching Hollywood's latest. My only requirement is to not bore me. Beyond that I am pretty wide open...well unless it’s too "girly" like Twilight and a few others. As a result though, all those movies tend to blur together and few really stick out as "omg you MUST see this." As a result, after racking my brain I could only come up with a top five list instead of the traditional 10. While I know The Cast of Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon is on everyone's lists, I haven't seen them yet so unable to add them. Nixon is proving especially hard to find, when is the damn thing going into wide release anyway and why take over a month to do it?

5) The Bank Job
Highly entertaining, well paced, intelligent with excellent acting. Why more people didn't watch this movie I will never understand.

4) Iron Man
Great story, great cast, great action, great special effects. The perfect summer popcorn movie that just takes you away for two hours.

3) Speed Racer
It’s bright, even garish. The acting is way to soap opera like for my tastes. The movie however is visual eye candy, highly kinetic, exciting to watch and when Speed Racer is driving, as entertaining as any movie this year. I think this movie, as more people watch it, rather then paying attention to the horrible advertising campaign and critics, will learn to enjoy this movie too.

2) The Dark Knight
Finally, someone who not only gets Batman, but just as importantly gets his Rogues Gallery. Heath Ledger put in a pitch perfect performance as the Joker, truly understanding that the character is not a sad clown but personification of chaos. Two-Face, previously played as Joker light, is truly a torn person, at odds himself. My only complaint is that character should have been created in this movie and further explored in the third. Everything about this movie was not only a school on how to make a great movie, but how to make a great comic book movie that says "this is why comic books are great."

1) Wall-E
A movie of few words that says many things and says it well. It’s a romance; it’s a comedy, its just damn fine movie making. Being animated is almost secondary to the masterpiece that Pixar produced this year.

Consumerist, Watchmen, Hall of Shame, Movie Effects and G-Force Trailer

Comsumerist Bought - In a match made in heaven, Consumers Union (Consumer Reports) bought Comsumerist.com, an excellent website that posts all thing in people buying of stuff and the stores that sell them. If the site isn't on your daily read list, I recommend adding it as its a great watchdog for all those business' who see their goal more as simply the taking of money rather then providing good reasons for people to happily give up their money.

Watchmen Character Introduction - A four minute video that provides a brief introduction to the story of Watchmen and the characters. The movie comes out in March, but that could change thanks to litigation as Fox tries to have its cake for free after sitting on the movie right for 20 years and doing nothing meaningful with them. Fox is shooting to get everything for free at WB's expense. I think the judge’s decision should be the Solomon approach - divide the rights (and the costs) between both studios.
Watchmen Exclusive


Hall of Shame - A nice summary of the shameful American's of the last year. Probably my only disagreement is Sarah Palin. She deserves to be in the list, but not at number 2. She is clearly Bush in drag and the idea of her leading anything meaningful is frightening but thankfully she hasn't actually done anything yet.

Top 50 Movie Special Effects - A real long list, with too short videos that showcase the special effects in movies over the years. My main complaint is the videos are way to short, not entirely showcasing the effect the article is describing.

G-Force Trailer - Cute trailer for a Disney movie, out July 24th, aimed at grabbing the kids and their family so they don't go watch Transformers 2 coming out two days later. Basically the movie is talking guinea pig spies save the planet from a bad guy.

Blago, Sci-Fi TV, Economy Woes and Columbia

Blagojevich Names Obama's Successor - I can't decide if Blago is delusional or just ballsy. Today he announced his choice of former Illnois Attorney General Roland Burris to Obama's Senate term. Remember that this is the seat that Blago wanted to sell for greater power. I do believe that Blago is one of those types that believe a lie the moment he utters it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a truly rare moment of showing some backbone, sad the Senate would try to block seating Burris but such an idea is iffy on Constitutional grounds. As for Burris, he is noted for giving around $15k to Blago for re-election and apparently his company has enjoyed an increase of state business for it. Suffice it to say he is probably corrupt. He has to be to accept the seat in this climate rather then going for it legitimately.

IO9's Sci-Fi Top 20 TV Moments - Click the link for two part video compiled to show the best sci-fi moments of the years. Most of them are blah but it’s nice to know Sci-Fi has enough "moments" to be worthy of listing. As for the worst list, click here.

Home Prices Drop 18% - The bottom is apparently a bit further away as home prices dropped 18% for October. The main reasons include October was when the credit crunch started due to bank failures, foreclosures rising, and the economy meaning most are unable or unwilling to commit to a 20% down payment when job security is iffy at best. Likely November's number will be uglier. My advice is ride it out, the deals are good if you have the money but other then that, people are still popping out babies, having a home is still considered a good investment and the net result is time will correct the wound. It just will likely take about 5 or so years.

Consumer Confidence at All Time Low - Consumer Confidence Index hit 38 in December thanks to the horrible job and economic outlook. People are in turtle mode as their companies and friends futures seem to dry up. It’s hard to get confidence and spend when everything you see going on is either business failing or bailouts to big business that does nothing to help anyone that doesn't measure their worth in millions.

NASA Releases Columbia Death Report - The agency released a very detailed report of the final moments of the Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew. The overall goal is to find out what went wrong so that the mistakes will not be repeated. Personally, considering the technology and the shear complication of the task, I never understood why people are shocked when space launches go wrong. For some reason a plane crash or failure that kills hundreds is taken in better stride then one that kills 9.

Jib Jab Year in Review, Street Fighter Trailer, Box Office, Vegas Woes and Treehouses

Jib Jab Year in Review - Amusing original music video from the website that covers the mostly political happenings of the last year.


Street Fighter Trailer - The Legend of Chun-Li movie is coming next year and now the first trailer (Japanese anyway) is out. The result is bleh at best. It looks like a typical action/hung-fu flick from the last few years to me where the lead is the hotty from Smallville that can't act (Kristin Kreuk). I think the only thing they took from the video games series was a few names and the title.

Weekend Box Office - Much money was made for the Christmas holiday overall (Thursday to Sunday). Number one went to Benjamin Button ($66.7M) despite its three hour runtime. Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories dropped in at second ($66.5M) despite horrible reviews that children could care less about. Marley and Me took number third ($51.5M), guaranteeing that Jennifer Aniston will continue to get headlines for no particular reason. Valkyrie did pretty good ($51.2M) for a history flick with so-so ratings and Tom Cruise (whose career has passed it seems). New flick The Spirit got its ass kicked ($16.9M) in part to crappy advertising campaign, some of the most horrible reviews for any movie in the last few years and the reality that Frank Miller is now officially a hack.

Las Vegas Recession Woes - It appears even the city of sin can not escape the economic hit cause by Wall Street run amok (thanks again Republicans!). The city faces a $1 billion budget shortfall, a jump from .4% to 8% unemployment rate that is likely to go up, and a slowdown across the board in all areas of revenue that has no end in site. When budgets are pinched vacations, especially gambling ones, are the first to go.

Amazing Treehouses - Click the link for a gallery of some cool looking and elaborate treehouses.

Bailout Problems, Narnia Killed, Holiday Sales, and Notebooks

The Rachel Maddow Bank - On her show yesterday, Rachel Maddow decided she needs to form a bank. She runs through the very simple application that is required for banks to get bailout money from the government that is so easy that a child could fill it out. Don't you wish it was that easy for you to get a loan from a bank? She then points out just how screwed up the whole thing is as banks refuse to say where the money is being spent and what plans they have for whatever money remains. And then there is the Auto industry. They had to go through some massive hoops to get their money, a fraction of what the banks got just by asking. Why the double standard? Why is the standard being forced on the Big Three not being forced on the banks? Shouldn't the banks be required to meet basic criteria, at the very least explain where the billions is going (I bet in friends and families pockets)? Basically, once again the Bush Administration dealt with a crisis in the only way it knows how - incompetently.


Disney Kills Narnia Franchise - Due to the "failure" of Prince Caspian not making as much money as the first movie, Disney has decided to not continue with the franchise. As the writer at the link points out, Disney has itself to blame for the failure of the movie. Instead of highlighting the known cast for the sequel, their campaign focused on a complete unknown holding a sword, not exactly a sign of family fare. Where the movie would have probably dominated the holidays, they decided to go for the greedy glut of summer where a lot of money can be made if a film hits but the heavy competition also means that a perfectly good movie can be lost in the noise and fail (see Star Trek next year for that occurrence to repeat). I also think they got cold feet as they realized trying to adapt all the remaining novels in an interesting way was a rather daunting task. Other then the Last Battle (everyone dies and goes to heaven), the remaining books are thin on action and heavy on exposition. Realistically the goal should have been to do combine many of the books into a prequel that tells the history of Narnia and essentially do a three or four part movie series and nothing more. Instead they thought mimicking Harry Potter's business plan was sufficient and paid the price.

Last Minute Sales Not Enough - Despite a healthy start, the Christmas shopping season took a nosedive that retail will not be able to recover from with the expectation that many companies will remain in the red after the season ends. I imagine that things are about to get much worse as more retail companies throw in the towel while others hold extreme sales in an effort to simply keep their doors open. The mismanagement of the bailout isn't helping but at this point I am wondering if a depression can be avoided as sadly we have the wrong leaders at the wrong time with the wrong people making the wrong decisions on what is needed to save the economy. The voters wanted an idiot in office and this is the price we all are now paying.

Notebooks Surpass Desktops - For the first time ever, notebook sales have surpassed desktop sales. The cause is the surge of interest in netbooks combined with extreme drop in prices for notebooks where the prices between the two is nearly indistinguishable considering the computing power of a notebook is now (essentially for the first time), more then enough to meet the average user's computing needs. Unless you’re a hard core gamer, the average laptop will do you just fine.

Toyota Hit, No Divorce, VHS Era Ends, Perfect Bid and Night Trailer

Toyota First Loss in 50 Years - You know its bad and only going to get worse when Toyota is reporting its loss in 50 plus years. Yep, further proof that the republican belief of big business first works wonderfully.

8 Year Old Denied Divorce - Because she is too young, a Saudi court denied an 8 year old the right to divorce the 58 year old man her father sold her too for 5000 pounds. Look on the bright side, the man "promised" not to have sex with the girl until she turned 18 and we know how much honor Muslim men have, especially when it comes to woman. This alone is a solid example of why "spreading Democracy" will not fundamentally fix the Middle East.

VHS Era Officially Ends - The last distributer of VHS, Distribution Video Audio, has thrown in the towel and will stop selling VHS tapes. Apparently the company has made millions selling the tapes on the cheap after buying up the stock of companies like Best Buy and Wal-Mart when they switched to DVDs. It’s a sad day but it had to come. It’s just going to suck when DVDs become obsolete considering the hundreds I now own.

Price Is Right Perfect Showcase Bid - In a December episode of the Price is Right a man nails the final showcase value exactly right, the first time it has been done in around 35 years. It’s pretty tragic for his opponent whose guess was only off by $494 enough to normally win the final showcase. Carey's low key almost unemotional response to moment makes you miss Bob Barker even more.


Night At The Museum 2 Trailer - Yep they made another one. The first was cute, loved by kids; barely enough for the adults and it appears the sequel will be more of the same. On the eye candy front it has the recently engaged (damn!) Amy Adams as a co-star. May is going to be one crowded month.

Auto Bailout, Exec Wages, SciFi Ratings, Battle Report and Credit Cards

Bush Approves Auto Bailout - After the Republican's killed auto bailout in an attempt to bust the auto unions (needed but now isn't the time), Bush went ahead and authorized the money anyway; essentially using the bill the House had passed. Grand total the companies will get around $17.4 billion and might keep them afloat until April where they will probably ask for more.

Bailout Went to Executives - In a sign of how much golden parachutes and bonuses have infected company upper managements and the poor choices they make (because no consequences), nearly $1.6 BILLION in pay, bonuses, etc. "The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for 53 of the 116 banks" that took bailout money. This is why any company that accepts bailout money should be required to apply equality rules and equations for salaries, raises, bonuses etc to ALL employees. That means if employees get only a 3% raise based on performance then that is all execs get. If bonuses are only 5% of salary guess what, that’s all execs get. If each job has a pay ceiling, then so do executive positions. Basically the rules of pay get applied to all regardless of title. Probably wouldn't hurt to fire a few CEO's and their lieutenants either since right now all those that made the bad decisions have all been rewarded rather then punished.

SciFi Ratings Up - The SciFi Channel has shown "unprecedented growth for 2008" in viewer ship, pretty much the opposite of sibling NBC. Lots of numbers, but pretty much in the demographics that advertisers like, SciFi is performing well. Its top shows average around 1.5 to 2 million, good for the channel. However, being topped rated doesn't mean a show will not get cancelled. Ironically, Stargate: Atlantis is one of its top five shows yet it was cancelled. I think because NBC's shoddy management and viewer ship resulting in cost cutting measures for all NBC Universal networks that canceling Atlantis (just like SG-1) met. If the Jay Leno plan is any indication, NBC's fortunes are going to remain horrible and SciFi will probably have to make more budget cuts next season.

Starcraft Battle Report - A battle report with commentary as two Blizzard employees go at it in an alpha version of Starcraft II and show off some of the new features and classes in the game.

New Credit Card Rules - Way way late in coming and sadly way way late in taking effect (July 2010), at least there are finally some new rules to curtail the ripping off and nickeling and diming that is now the norm for the credit card industry. Click the links for some of the new rules none of which include an interest rate cap since 30% is just in reasonable and should be illegal.

Wolverine Trailer, Spirit Scenes, God of War II, and Telsa Tested

Wolverine Trailer - The movie is coming May of next year and now the trailer in its pretty glory is online. It looks like the movie is definitely taking an "Origin of" approach so in essence it’s almost a prequel to the main X-Men movies.


The Spirit Scenes - Blackfilm.com has six scenes from The Spirit that is opening on Christmas Day. The scenes seemed more intent on showing off the cast, probably because the monochrome look and bland acting isn't going to do it.

VGA 2008 Trailers - Click the link for teaser trailers for upcoming games that was showing at Spike's crappy video game awards program. The only game that interests me is God of War III.


Top Gear Tests the Tesla - BBC's Top Gear, an excellent show about cars, puts the all electric car the Telsa Roadster through its paces. The end result is a fast, pretty car that is entirely too expensive and unreliable. Like most new technology, its the 2.0 version to watch for, assuming the company can survive getting 1.0 out.

Reaganomics, Galactica, Speed Racer Snubbed, CNN Firings, and Scrubs

Consequence of Reaganomics - Thom Hartmann makes a pretty good argument that the current near economic depression is a culmination of Reaganomics. Obviously I agree. The problem with Supply Side Economics is no different then communism for neither theory takes into account self destructive greed. The theories essentially assume people will be "forced" to do the right thing by needs of the market and of course this isn't the case. The result has been the utter stagnation of the last 8 years, which would have been longer if the internet boom had not occurred. The idea is keep corporations happy and everyone will be happy because corporations know what is best for us all. Obviously this is completely wrong and now we are paying for it dearly.


Speed Racer Locked Out of Oscars - Whether you liked the movie or not, you have to agree the movie was visual new, unique and had wonderful special effects. So why is Oscar choosing to ignore the movie for movies that did better at the box office? The short list for Special Effects categories include Australia, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Cloverfield, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Hancock, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, The Incredible Hulk, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Iron Man, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Quantum of Solace and The Spiderwick Chronicles. Notice that many of these movies have sub par or average special effects and few did anything that is new or innovative. However all did better then Speed Racer at the box office.

Bush To Obamas: No Room for You - Traditionally the Blair House becomes the home of the President-Elect until the current President vacates. Bush being Bush though has decided the Obamas cannot use the residence citing that it’s currently being used. By who is unknown but I am betting money is involved.

Battlestar Galactica Webisodes - Now on Sci-Fi are five minutes or so episodes that take place during the final season of Battlestar Galactica and can hint at what is coming in the current season. So far the production value is pretty good and not as cheap as I assumed it would be.

Blood Bath at CNN - Now I don't like Fox News and have little respect for their puppet Greta Van Susteren but when someone is right, someone is right. In this case she tears into CNN management for once again firing people just days before Christmas as a means to hit budget numbers that they failed to meet. As she rightly points out, if money was that tight maybe they could have not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising for their "Heroes" program and kept a few people around for a year. Seems like a smart trade-off to me - the work and effort of people for a full year or a few extra eyeballs for a two hour program. Sadly it’s just another sign of why Fox News beats CNN consistently in the ratings and why it’s tragic that Ted Turner ever sold his company to AOL and their incompetent executives.

Scrubs Montage - Cute montage from the various years of Scrubs that will start its final season on ABC starting in January. One of my favorites shows of all time.

Wiretap Theatre, Bush's Legacy, Golden Globes, KB Boom and Debt

Wiretap Theatre: Blagojevich - Rachel Maddow show had a little fun with the Illinois Senate Sales scandal where the governor tries to pretend what he says and wanted to do wasn't bad or illegal. Once thing is sure though, as the video below shows, it seems the man has no morals.


Bush's Legacy - Currently Bush is on the last leg of his denial tour, the one where he pretends his legacy doesn't mean a thing to him. If that where the case why would talking points needed to be setup in an attempt to sell the complete failure of a President? Click the link for a video of details and a nice summary of Bush's true horrific legacy as the worse President this country has ever had.

Golden Globe Nominations - The awards show released its list of stars the "foreign press" wants to meet. For reasons I don't understand, this show is considered a precursor to the Oscars even thought just a few people make the choice that seems based more on getting star wattage then judgment of talent. Nevermind that the voters for this show press and professional credentials remain questionable at best. Long story short, its a hoax on the movie lovers designed to give people a chance to stare at their favorite stars as they vie to win a meaningless award.

KB Toys Liquidated - Starting more or less immediately, all KB Toy Stores are going out of business. That means if you have KB cards you better use them first thing tomorrow and if have returns do it now because you will not be able to once the liquidation starts. Traditionally the stores always tacked on an extra $2 or so surcharge to their items but prices will probably go further before an X% is knocked off. Long story short, just because it says "out of business" doesn’t assume the deals are good.

Consumer Debt Drops for 1st Time Ever - In a sign that the bottom has yet to be reached, consumers are spending less resulting in less accumulated debt for the first time ever. Less debt is a good thing per person but as a sign of the economy, it’s bad as it shows that people are hunkering down for a long term hit and indicates the economy is unlikely to recover anytime soon. I expect to hear about lots of stores going out of business once the New Year starts.

NBC Changes, J*** in My Pants, Dragonball and Terminator Trailers

NBC Scaling Back Hours - It seems last place NBC has decided to throw in the towel considering the complete failure over the last two years to try and compete with the other networks. Part of that plan is to completely abandon the 10-11pm primetime slot to Jay Leno in an effort to save money. Basically they are going to operate how Fox does it seems only with incompetent leadership. NBC's problem is pretty simple, they keep trying to compete 1 to 1 instead of counter programming. It doesn't help they keep trying to get the key 18-34 demographic instead of just hoping for any demographic. If they did that, instead of trying to "steal" away another networks viewership, the goal would be to get those not normally watching at that time or watching something on cable and let word of mouth do the heavy lifting. Of course it doesn't help they seem to have a lot of good concept shows probably ruined by too many chefs and executives in the kitchen.

Terminator: Salvation Trailer - The trailer is out, robots are seen, humans are fleeing and I can't help be ho-hum. I think it’s because the trailer has a lot of flash but provides no clue on what the story is about. The trailer is below and a shot by shot breakdown that clears up the faster pieces is here.


Dragonball: Evolution Trailer - The first trailer for the live action movie based on the 90s anime series from Japan. The cartoon was an over the top action fest with a very thin storyline and from the trailer seems to indicate that tradition will continue. I get a bad feeling the movie is going to be a huge acting and storytelling disaster with good special effects.


Jizz In My Pants - Amusing video from SNL staring Andy Samberg, Molly Sims and Jamie Lynn Sigler. As the title suggests, the video is not safe for work.

Tribune Bankruptcy, Job Cuts, Fables, Wolverine Trailer and The Dark Knight

Tribune Files for Bankruptcy - As a sign of not only the state of the economy but how newspapers, magazines and "old media" is hurting, Tribune Company has filed for bankruptcy due to $13 billion in debt. It is the second largest newspaper publisher in the nation, owning the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, and others. Sadly its probably a sign that the traditional newspaper is on its way out, something I feel no remorse for as publishers purposely tried to follow the TV news model of regurgitating the sensational rather then trying to remind people that newspapers (use to) provide more in depth reporting then TV or the internet generally provides.

Most Jobs Cut in 34 Years - The signs keep piling up that once was called a "downturn", now "recession" could easily become a "depression" as jobs keep getting cut. November losses reached a 34 year high. Jobs cuts for the year are the highest in 25 years and there is no sign of it slacking as likely more businesses will close in the new years if Christmas sales don't give them the juice they need to survive. Hey but trickle down economics works right.

DC's Fables Coming to TV - ABC has ordered a pilot episode on the comic books series called "Fables". The comic series involves all the fairy tale characters of our childhood and proposed that not only are they real but many live in New York and have for centuries, driven from their homes by an evil empire. The re-imagined fables in new guises and personalities make for excellent comic books series. Not so sure how well that depth will translate to the small screen that prefers a surface skim.

Wolverine Trailer - A trailer for next year's Wolverine has hit the internet. The overall storyline is the origin of Wolverine as it delves into his Weapon X days that was only hinted at in the X-Men movies.


The Dark Knight Re-release - In the quest for bragging rights, The Dark Knight is being re-released to theatres and IMAX starting January 23rd. Ironic too considering the movies will be out on DVD starting tomorrow and the cost of two theatre tickets is greater then the cost of simply buying the movies outright. The goal is simple - earn another $4 million needed to cross the billion dollar global mark. The only reason to consider seeing it again in theatres is for an IMAX screening and even then probably not worth it (again cheaper to buy it on DVD).

Prop 8 Musical, Bailout Costs, Mid-Season and Trailers

Prop 8: The Musical - Hilarious star studded skit that makes fun with the controversy surrounding California's Proposition 8. Worth a viewing if only to start picking out the familiar faces.


Cost of Bailout vs Other Government Costs - As the picture to the right shows, the cost of the current bailout (which may get another trillion infusions from somewhere) is greater then the cost of the Marshall Plan, NASA, New Deal (that republicans hate so much), First Iraq War, and several more combined. And from I can tell the net result has been nada. And yes this does take into account inflation. Companies are still shredding employees daily.

TV Mid-Season Plans - The various networks have all released press reports on what changes and mid-season shows are coming in starting in January. Some shows will take a bow early (ER) to make room for new programming. Be sure to click the link for the whole 411.

Caprica Greenlit - The Sci-Fi channel has decided to go ahead with the prequel to Battlestar Galactica that is set 50 years before its parent series. The family themed series will star Eric Stolz, Esai Morales, and Polly Walker and will focus on Caprica as it deals with emerging AI technology. The show will debut sometime in 2010.

Terminator: Salvation Trailer Sneak - From ET, a very brief glimpse at some of the footage for the trailer that will debut with the Day the Earth Stood Still next week.


Ghostbusters Video Game Trailer - Another trailer for next year's video game. Like most trailers its heavy on the pre-rendered scenes, light on actual game play but the game does look interesting and doesn't hurt that it has most of the cast reprising their roles (at least in voice).

Car Industry Bailout

The car industry is still pushing for its now $34 billion bailout plan, up from $25 billion (which likely will grow over time) and as part of that released some early plans to try and turn their companies around.

The plans include selling their private jets, cutting executive pay to $1 (but no mention of bonuses or other creative payouts), selling off divisions, plant closings and cutting car lines. United Auto Workers has also joined in, making concessions on the billions of dollars the auto industry owes the unions for its "jobs bank" which pays workers 95% of their salaries when not working (about 3500 of them so far), medical and pensions among other things. The overall goal is to save the industry and all the plans seem to fall short.

It’s a start but not enough. The mess is a top down problem. The leadership of the "big 3" and UAW dug this hole. Greed on both sides took things too far. For the CEOs, they chose to go with big vehicles and ignore the change to green. They flat out stopped trying to innovate, leaving that the Japanese automakers. They took an approach at short term gain, gladly sacrificing their decades old reputation of quality in the effort to make sure they get their bonuses with spreadsheets that look nice but did not to help the companies grow and innovate. In all areas, from construction, to quality, to innovation, and employee management, they have allowed other car companies to take the lead and they only follow years after it’s too late.

On the UAW side, they constantly demanded more and more, whether earned or not and now for the car companies the costs have become greater then the reward. The goal stopped being about protecting the workers and more about making the UAW leadership richer and gaining more power to the point now where the UAW gets to sign off on decisions that use to be made by the company. It essence the management of the auto industry has become a collaboration between the big 3 and the UAW resulting in too many chefs in the kitchen and inability to make the decisions that should have been made a long time ago.

So what can the "Big Three" do to save themselves from themselves?

1) Fire the CEOs and their lieutenants.
Part of the problem with all these bailout plans is the lack of punishment. They executives that run the companies made the series of decisions that are nearly destroying them and their reward is good pay, great bonuses and a "crap happens" pat on the back. Employees get fired for small infractions of the rules that don't even cost the company money yet these guys stay on the payroll? They created a mess that someone else needs to clean up. Ban the golden parachutes and treat them like they would any other employee that screws up on a huge scale.

2) Jettison the UAW and their contracts.
The UAW use to have a purpose and an important one but that was decades ago. Now all they are doing is dragging down an important segment of the economy and taking the rest of us with them. People hear "unions" and they confuse their history of good with their present where they mostly bog down companies and prevent growth that is necessary for job security and stability. Honda, Toyota and other car companies have proven that an automobile company can thrive in America, with happy loyal workers without a union managing the relationship. It can and does work across the country for hundreds of millions of workers who do not have unions so this belief that the America auto industry can't function without the UAW is incorrect and unproven. If they do it right and don't let greed interfere (which is the hard part) they companies could save billions and have many happy workers helping them thrive and grow.

3) Make fewer cars.
The car companies simply make to many types of cars. There isn't one type of SUV there are dozens. And within those dozens are even more once you add in the various configurations (V6, sunroof, etc). The lines need to shrink and shrink fast. A car company often isn't just competing with its rivals, its competing with it itself. Does every division they own have to make an SUV, a hybrid, small cars and so forth? Have the divisions specialize. Pontiac for sports, Cadillac for luxury, GMC for trucks, and so on. The companies save money in the long run in design costs, constructions costs, repair costs, and so forth.

4) Provide the customer with less options and choices
Choices on paper sound good. The car companies can charge more (or less), the customer has a say on what their car has or doesn't have and everyone is happy. The problem is in reality you just have a lot of confusion and opportunity for dealers to rip off customers creating an unhappy experience for all. You also have the greater costs that come with many options and configurations. Instead use the Honda model of a limited number of colors with a limited number of configurations (usually 3). Sure they may not have the "perfect" configuration but they usually don't anyway by the time the dealer nickel and dime them to death with all the confusion options that exist now. At least this way the customer knows exactly what they are aiming for and will get ahead of time. And before you say it will not work, again that is exactly how Honda does it and it seems to work more then fine for them.

5) Make it dead simple stupid to buy a car.
Quit the commission games, the add-on, and all the crap that is done to squeeze more money out of the customer. Make the buying experience as simple and stupid as possible where the customer could almost answer 5 questions and be presented with the car they want. The only "haggling" should be the price and interest rate, not all the options, extras, and other crap that currently gets tagged on that usually results in buyers remorse. You want the customer to drive their car, be happy and continue to be happy years after the purchase.

6) Make them better.
The car companies simple failed to be the leaders they use to be. They seemed to be focused on bigger without paying a whole lot of attention to better. Better in quality, better in technology, better gas mileage, better in whatever way you want to measure. The goal should also have been to improve in all areas possible. Instead the goal seemed to be "close enough." Toyota shouldn't be leading in the "green" car market. GM should have been. Hybrid shouldn't be the end game, a gas free car should be. If any new improved technology regarding cars comes out, it should come from an American car company. Quality construction should be paramount. Less repairs the better should be the goal, not more. It should be a good thing when a car lasts 20 years, not mourned for the lost sales. The cars should be moving advertisements on why customers should be driving them if they are not already. Make it so the customers are companies’ biggest fans, not the advertisers.

7) Keep it in America
For the industry to survive, it’s going to have to shrink. It is better to not have enough cars then too many cars. Its better to shrink now and hire them back later then it is to have to get rid of everyone. Sadly a hit is going to have to be made for long term survival but that doesn't mean abandoning America. If the choice is a plant in Detroit or a plant in Mexico, Mexico closes first. Your money, your survival is from American taxpayers and you should pay them back by keeping as many jobs here as possible. Any growth post recovery should stay in America.

Right now, the country pretty much thinks the Big Three should fail. They earned that by piss poor management, piss poor vehicles, failure to adapt and innovate and essentially purposely choosing short term gain at the sacrifice of the long term view. I believe if the car companies do any or all of the above it can go a long way towards restoring their reputations and their stability. The goal is real simple - make quality product. The profits will come from there.

Recession, BF Sales, Apple Jokes, and Star Trek vs Star Wars

Recession Official - While Bush and company have been using terms like "downturn" and the like to pretend the economic situation isn't serious, it seems that the National Bureau of Economic Research isn't so shy. The US has been in a recession since December 2007. So it "only" took a year for the government to acknowledge what the rest of us have known for months. Yay republicans and their trickle down economics and corporations first policies. They work oh so well don't they?

Sales Up, Outlook Isn't - Early reports indicate that sales where up by at least 3% compared to last year but the higher sales doesn't necessarily translate to higher profits since it came at the cost of higher then normal discounts. It also seems that since their is 7 less days to shop then last year and more are reporting they are already finished their Christmas shopping that overall the sales could take a hit before the month is done.

Obama Announces National Security Cabinet - In a mix of friends and foes, Obama has announced more cabinet positions. As rumored for weeks, Hillary Clinton has accepted the Secretary of State position; Robert Gates would remain Defense Secretary, Eric Holder chosen as Attorney General and Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security. Personally I have no idea if these are good choices or not but at least it’s not the yes-men that filled Bush's cabinet.

Simpsons Jokes On Apple - Last night Simpsons had a high old time making fun of all things Apple. Their stores, excessive pricing, Steve Jobs, items and more were the butt of many on the nose jokes that probably have more then a few Apple diehards unhappy.

Star Trek vs. Star Wars: The Final Battle - Fun little mashup of Vader's Star Destroyer vs. Picard's Enterprise. Net result is why the Enterprise's shields and weapons are superior to the Star Destroyer; sadly there is no defense from the dark side of the Force.