Rated Top Ten

CNN reports here: New York celebrates the centennial of its most famous New Year’s tradition Monday, as organizers of the Times Square ball drop have given the crystal globe an environmental makeover. This year the 1,415-pound ball has been outfitted with more than 9,500 energy-efficient light-emitting diodes that will illuminate the ball’s more than 600 crystals.

AP reports here at Yahoo News: LOS ANGELES – Fortune-seeker Nicolas Cage, lonely guy Will Smith and a pack of talking chipmunks ended Hollywood’s year on a happy note. Cage’s “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” was the No. 1 movie for a second weekend with $35.6 million, followed by “Alvin and the Chipmunks” with $30 million and Smith’s “I Am Legend” with $27.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

And the top ten North American box office hits this weekend are:
1. “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” $35.6 million.
2. “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” $30 million.
3. “I Am Legend,” $27.5 million.
4. “Charlie Wilson’s War,” $11.8 million.
5. “Juno,” $10.3 million.
6. “Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem,” $10.05 million.
7. “The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep,” $9.2 million.
8. “P.S. I Love You,” $9.1 million.
9. “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” $8 million.
10. “Enchanted,” $6.5 million.

Spiegel Online reports here: The Dutch navigation device company TomTom has devised a new Wikipedia-like navigation service that tracks mobile phones to determine traffic density. Will the service help traffic jams, or will it allow people to steer traffic in the wrong direction?

The Top Ten DVD’s this week from the Bestellers List at Amazon, see more details of all The Top Ten DVD’s here in our store (ranking as of writing of this article, might change over time)

The Top Ten DVD’s This Week are:

• Planet Earth – The Complete BBC Series
• The Bourne Ultimatum (Widescreen Edition)
• The Office – Season Three
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Two-Disc Special Edition)
• Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity
• Heroes – Season One
• Jeff Dunham – Arguing With Myself
• Lost – The Complete Third Season
• The Simpsons Movie (Widescreen Edition)
• Pirates of the Caribbean – At World’s End (Widescreen Edition)

My personal recommendation that also makes a great holiday gift is: Planet Earth – The Complete BBC Series  Description: As of its release in early 2007, Planet Earth is quite simply the greatest nature/wildlife series ever produced. Following the similarly monumental achievement of The Blue Planet: Seas of Life, this astonishing 11-part BBC series is brilliantly narrated by Sir David Attenborough and sensibly organized so that each 50-minute episode covers a specific geographical region and/or wildlife habitat (mountains, caves, deserts, shallow seas, seasonal forests, etc.) until the entire planet has been magnificently represented by the most astonishing sights and sounds you’ll ever experience from the comforts of home. The premiere episode, “From Pole to Pole,” serves as a primer for things to come, placing the entire series in proper context and giving a general overview of what to expect from each individual episode. Without being overtly political, the series maintains a consistent and subtle emphasis on the urgent need for ongoing conservation, best illustrated by the plight of polar bears whose very behavior is changing (to accommodate life-threatening changes in their fast-melting habitat) in the wake of global warming–a phenomenon that this series appropriately presents as scientific fact. With this harsh reality as subtext, the series proceeds to accentuate the positive, delivering a seemingly endless variety of natural wonders, from the spectacular mating displays of New Guinea’s various birds of paradise to a rare encounter with Siberia’s nearly-extinct Amur Leopards, of which only 30 remain in the wild.And that’s just a hint of the marvels on display.

The Top Ten Books in this week’s Bestellers List at Amazon, see The Top Ten Books here for more info including some reader reviews in our online store with those and many more great books that make some nice holiday gifts! (ranking as of writing of this article, might change over time)

And The Top Ten Books This Week are:

• Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
• A Thousand Splendid Suns
• The Complete Far Side 1980-1994 (2 vol set)
• His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)
• The Kite Runner
• The Dangerous Book for Boys
• You: Staying Young: The Owner’s Manual for Extending Your Warranty (You)
• I Am America (And So Can You!)
• Water for Elephants: A Novel
• Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time

BBC News reports here: The browser that helped kick-start the commercial web is to cease development because of lack of users. Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 February 2008, the company has said.

“Sean Paul is among the artists who will now be available in MP3″, BBC News reports here: “Warner Music Group is making its music available for US downloads from Amazon in MP3 format without copy protection.”
Click on the banner below to check out those great offers!

LEDs are already used in dozens of household gadgets, BBC News reports here: A new type of super-efficient household light bulb is being developed which could spell the end of regular bulbs.

Reuters reports here at Yahoo News: HELSINKI – Nokia has again pushed back the launch of its gaming service N-gage due to delays in software testing, a spokesman said on Thursday, in the latest blow to the Internet services ambitions of the world’s top cellphone maker.