>> musically, it's a very simple song, but it's so much more than a song, it's a prayer. it's a thank you. it's a farewell. there's nothing fun about playing "taps" at a funeral but there's a pride in knowing you have done something that's helped bring closure to a family and help honor the veterans. even i get emotional when i think about it. [ playing "taps" ] president obama ties al qaeda to the attack on flight

253 and the issues this morning, you, too, will be held to account. and 2009 was a pretty terrible year to try to sell your home. the question we're asking, will 2010 be any better? and look and leap. look at this breathtaking, heart-pounding jump off a cliff. pretty picture from my vantage point. this is just one of the week's best viral videos. today is saturday, january 2nd, 2010. you are in the cnn newsroom. hi, everyone, i'm brooke baldwin, sitting in for fredricka whitfield. sources say the head of u.s. central command, general david petraeus met with the president of yemen today. this report coming just hours after president obama publicly linked an al qaeda affiliate based in yemen to last week's attack on flight 253. in his weekly media address today, the president promised retaliation. >> this is not the first time this group has targeted us. in recent years they bombed yemeni government facilities and

western hotels, restaurants and embassies, including our embassy in 2008, killing one american. so as president, i've made it a priority to strengthen our partnership with the yemeni government, training and equipping their security forces, sharing intelligence and working with them to strike al qaeda terrorists. and even before christmas day, we had seen the results. training camps had been struck. leaders eliminated, pots disrupted. and all of those involved in the attempted act of terrorism on christmas must know that you, too, will be held to account. >> the president's remarks coming in the wake of yet another terror attack. this one in northwest pakistan. a car bomb went off at a volleyball game, leveling nearby homes and the death toll we're hearing past the 90-mark and it could get higher. so president obama said america will do whatever it takes to defeat the terrorists. cnn senior white house correspondent ed henry is with the president in hawaii. ed, pretty tough words for mr.

obama yesterday. >> that's right, brooke. he has been referring to the fact it has been wildly reported that before christmas there had been some air strikes against al qaeda targets in yemen. the u.s. has not claimed responsibility for the air strikes themselves but as the president made clear there and other officials have said, they're very supportive of what the yemeni government is doing their on the ground. in terms of retaliation and potential retaliation for the attempted terror attack on christmas day, the white house does not use the word retaliation. we talked to top aides, and they insist the president is not interested in quote/unquote retaliation for the attack. instead this is just sort of the ongoing effort to fight terrorists there in yemen and i think the fact that general david petraeus, the head of central command, is in yemen today as the president is making these remarks, it's the surest signal yet that the u.s. continues to weigh its options for potential air strikes down the road. of course, they're not going to give us any information about that. they're not going to tip their hand but the fact that general petraeus is there on the ground is a pretty sure signal that the

u.s. is at least weighing all of its options right now, brooke. >> weighing all of the options. we know that -- not just tough words here for terrorists, but pretty tough words for u.s. intelligence as well. >> oh, yes. u.s. officials certainly we're targeted here a bit by the president. in his remarks when he said he's going to hold anyone who made mistake here's accountable, what he's referring to is there have been wide reports already, as you know, from our jeanne meserve and others that basically the cia may have had some information before this attempted terror attack, suggesting the future suspect had ties to extremists and it wasn't necessarily shared across the board. sort of what happened before 9/11. all of that was supposed to be fixed, a post- 9/11, and so what i think we should be looking ahead to is on tuesday, his first full day at the white house, the president's calling in the head of the cia, leon panetta, other intelligence chiefs, the attorney general and others, to basically, you know,

call them on the carpet, what went wrong and more important pointing at things so they can fix it and prevent future attacks. that's the point of all of this, brooke. >> do me favor, stand by. i want to bring in another voice in the conversation here. the director of the south asia center of the atlantic council of the united states. he also penned a book titled "crossswords, pakistan, its army and the war within." mr. navez, thank you for joining me from washington. my question to you, i want to hit this point home, the fact this suicide attack happened in a bustling area during this volleyball match. this has to hit pakistans differently, perhaps closer to home. we're talking about presumably una unarmed, ordinary pakistani civilians. my question is might this attack bring about a more concerted effort to root out possibly the taliban and al qaeda in pakistan? >> absolutely. i think one has to understand when the pakistan army moved

into south waziristan, they basically dislocated the tariqia in afghanistan. they were not able to decapitate its leadership. so a lot of the militants were able to escape and many escaped into the lakki mar waxt t area. and clearly the front force and civilian forces were unable to seal that area. so clearly the big challenge now for pakistan is not only to muster the support of the tribes that are in this area that are hostile to these mill tents that have come in, but also to make sure that there is much better civilian coordination with the military, particularly on counterterrorism. >> mr. navez, i want to take this outside of pakistan. obviously, the u.s. has been funding police in pakistan.

but do we need to change our strategy at all either in pakistan or pakistan or nearby afghanistan to help? >> and an awful lot still needs to be done. i think there's been a lot of talk, not much action within pakistan and between the u.s. and pakistan, particularly in strengthening the police. there is in the current aid package specific money that is designated for counterterrorism, capacity building, for training the police. i think it's very critical that, that get into action quickly. there is already a counterterrorism group in the ministry of interior in pakistan. but it is not really got into action and i think the government will need to move very quickly on that. >> and mr. navez, i just want to make this one point that i read in your preichbt vinterview, yo no, the intended target was not people playing volleyball. it was an entirely different group? >> yes, the intended target were the marwat tribal leaders.

you have to understand there are tribal boundaries at work over here and the massoud particularly who formed the heart of the weaker taliban movement in south waziristan are not welcome by the marwat so the leadership was getting together to form a militia to eject them. they were the main target wh. when the bomber couldn't reach them, went for the softer target. this will be the case, i think, and we should expect more of these attacks. >> more of these attacks. close to 20 attacks just in the last three months alone. i want to bring ed back in, ed henry for us, traveling with the president. ed, we were talking about funding and how the u.s. has supported police, though mr. navez said that effort needs to be stepped up. from what perhaps in conversations you might have had with the spokes people, with the administration, any indication that funding to pakistan from the u.s. will continue? >> oh, absolutely. in fact the president just very

recently is in the process of approving several billion dollars more to pakistan in aid and that's largely an outgrowth of the debate the president had within the administration about whether to sd more troops to afghanistan. we're told by senior officials in those deliberations haven't joe biden in particular argued when you look at it on a piece of paper, the billions and billions that the u.s. has been giving in aid to help afghanistan in recent years around the war but also rebuilding efforts, that is far, far more than what we have given pakistan. it's just a fraction of what's gone to pakistan. part of this effort is not just send more troops to afghanistan but to send more aid to pakistan, where we believe a lot of these al qaeda leaders, like osama bin laden, may actually be hiding out. so what you're seeing from this administration is a bit of a shift to make sure that pakistan is part of the focus as well, brooke. >> mr. navez, just want to get you to react on that real quickly here. do you think additional aid, additional troops, additional funding is it, is a solution

here? >> i think additional aid most definitely but not just the united states but training from nato and other allies is very critical. what's very important is to strengthen the civilian component in this because it's not solely the military's job to fight terror, particularly in the hinterline. that is where israeli has an advantage over pakistan where it has a well-established system. institutions need to be strengthened, better training, better equipment. >> the author of "cross swords, pakistan and its army within." and ed henry for us in hawaii. gentlemen, we thank you both. british prime minister gordon brown wants to stem the seemingly growing tide of terror being exported out of yemen. brown is calling an international meeting later this month to coincide with a similar security conference regarding afghanistan. both meetings are now set for the 28th of january. so ohio do you spot a terrorist? a piece of machinery may

actually be the wave of the future. and the news equivalent of a twinkie? viral videos you just got to see them. s amazing. let me take this. wait, there's no such thing as a projector phone. no, it's the lg phone and projector. there's no such thing as an lg phone and projector. ta-da. what ? the man said "ta-da" ! introducing the lg expo smartphone and lg projector. only at at&t. doesn't mean they're protected. oh, ladies. let's say you have osteoporosis. i do. you could be losing bone strength. can i get it back? (announcer) ask your doctor how to help treat osteoporosis with once-a-month actonel. actonel is clinically proven to help reverse bone loss and can help@i increase bone strength to help prevent fractures. so you can get back some of what you lost.

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when it comes to keeping dangerous chemicals off airplanes, one high-tech machine might offer some answers for us but it's highly controversial. why? well t. c well, it can kind of see through your clothing. our brian todd actually gave it a test run. >> reporter: at phoenix's sky

harbor airport, the newest weapon in the war on terror that can see through clothes carrying explosives. already used on millions of passengers, these special x-rays can catch all kinds of contraband. >> regular weapons, guns, knives, box cutters and the like but also unusual types of weapons, explosives, liquid explosives, gels. >> reporter: officials at rapiscan, the manufacturer, say the scenes can also detect pentaerythritol tetranitrate, an explosive known as petn, which the suspect in the christmas day incident was apparently carrying. the machine's imageless look like this, an outline of the body, not in detail but weapons and other items do show up. this technology has been controversial because previously it was much more invasive. i went through a so-called back-scanner machine. i was advised that if i didn't want my private areas shown, i should put a metal plate in my pants. i stepped just in front of the machine, turn around n just a few seconds, the monitor explains my humble contours. now in this text, i am playing

the role of a would-be terrorists. i tried to hide a plastic lipstick container in my vest pocket -- busted. i sneak a sports drink bottle, busted again. how about wires in a secret sandwich bag hidden in my socks. in the monitor, they show up on my ankle but the machines have limitations. when i pour water into a sealed sandwich bag, place it inside my beltline and in a sock, you can barely see it. but one company behind this technology says trained screeners would detect it and the transportation security add vague says they have other methods to detect liquids. when this came out, privacy advocates called it a virtual strip search, and they're not much more satisfied with the newer technology. >> essentially they're putti digital fig leaf on the image. this protects the image from what the operator will see but the machine itself can still record all of the detail and store that information for use at a later point. >> reporter: a tsa official tells cnn there won't be any hard drives to store the images

and says no one will have access to pictures without the so-called fig leaf on them. from one passenger tested on the older machines -- >> i have been through it over in europe. and i didn't mind. >> reporter: officials with rapiscan and the transportation security administration tell us the machines are only used if more than a metal detector is required and passengers then get a choice between the machines and pat-downs. brian todd, cnn, washington. the new year begins with deadly storms in brazil, torrential rainfall triggering massive mudslides. emergency crews searching now for survivors. and if you're in the market to buy or sell, you want to listen. the question is, will the housing market turn around at all this year and how? we will talk to a housing expert. if you want to see the weather ahead, push here. if you want to access 10 gigs of music you just downloaded to your hard drive, push here. and if you want to pull away from it all, you can push here. the all-new-40-gig hard drive nav and entertainment system

on the 2010 lacrosse. from buick. it's the new class of world class.

a new year's eve tragedy just outside of atlanta. police say a 4-year-old was hit by a bullet from celebratory gunfire has died. the boy was attending a midnight church service when the bullet came through the church roof and hit him through the head. authorities do not know who fired the gun. >> i want to say to the people who did this to my son, please come forward and say something. we need justice. >> police say they are actively working leads in that case. want to go down to brazil? take a look at this aftermath. crews now just searching for survivors in all of this rubble,

this muddy mess. two separate mudslides around rio de janeiro, awful. at least 51 people have been killed. mudslides were triggered by ten inches of rain that fell on the area since wednesday. look at the homes leveled. unbelievable to think of that. here closer to home, we're dealing with snow, yes. new england snowstorm threatening to keep folks indoors all weekend long. jacqui jeras, i mean it's kind of fun at first the snow coming down but then when you're stuck inside -- >> sure. >> you know about that, ms. minnesota. >> yeah. not so fun for some, but, you know, it may be some travelers are hoping to get a little snow perhaps to kind of boost their weekend. have a little fun in it perhaps. >> sure. >> the bitter cold is really gripping about the eastern half of the country. and most of the people dealing with the worst of the cold aren't in that snow. but some people, brooke, by the way, love it. love the cold. they actually go out in their bathing suits this time of the year and get in the water.

yeah, who thought that was a good idea? this video from newport, rhode island. a polar bear plunge, where temperatures were in the upper 20s there yesterday and they were doing the same thing in jacksonville, florida. doing a polar bear plunge. hmm, jacksonville versus rhode island. you tell me which is the true polar bear plunge. it was in the mid-50s yesterday in jacksonville. come on, it wasn't that bad. but, hey, note, temperatures crazy cold in florida. by tomorrow morning, this will be a real plunge. in fact, we've got a hard freeze warning in effect for jacksonville. temperatures down in the upper 20s. in fact, there's that big look at what the temperatures are going to be like compared to average tomorrow morning. and notice we're going to be seeing temperatures 20 degrees below normal across the upper midwest. our average rather and the same story across central parts of florida. one of those concerns is, of course, the citrus crops. that's something we will be watching overnight for tonight and into tomorrow.

number of record lows in the midwest this morning. you woke up to 35 below in grand forks, north dakota. and you had 22 degrees below zero in sioux city, iowa. this cold air will continue to grip the country for the next couple of days. in fact, you know, you will be lucky to get into the teens in minneapolis by the middle of the week, and there you can see that cold air sinking southward and will continue to do so throughout the night tonight. our other big weather story is the storm, the nor'easter and its way off the coast over here towards the canadian maritimes bringing in the cold air and windy conditions. so if you live in places like washington, d.c., new york city, you might get some flurries and that's about it. but will you get some real strong winds moving in by tonight. a lot of airport delays, still a lot of those holiday travelers out there and winds overnight tonight, brooke, believe it or not could be gusting between 45 to 50 miles per hour. normally you will see the strong winds during the day, so this could be catching people off guard tonight and we could have some spotty power outages as a result of that as well. of course, that cold air moves

in behind it. cross your fingers that the power stays on tonight. >> like you said, snow can be fun but when you're sitting in the airport, not so much. not so much. jacqui jeras, thank you. here's something you can do if you're hanging out and it's cold outside, you can rent a movie. we're counting down the best move aries ies of 2009. you will want to grab a pen, trust me. grab a pen and paper. ben mankiewicz is here in atlanta to talk about that. and the reason behind the new york jets' decision to shut off the taps for tomorrow's game. ?a

our top stories now.

president obama is promising to strengthen a partnership in his effort to hunt down terrorists. he links the botched airplane attack on christmas day to al qaeda. he said 26-year-old umar farouk abdulmutallab did in fact have ties with the terrorist network in yemen. this is the first full day in office for the first african-american mayor elected in massachusetts by popular vote. seti warren is the new mayor of boston suburb of newton. he took the oath of office friday. massachusetts has had other black mayors but they were chosen by city council. slight difference there. and the taps, they will be dry and the bar will be closed for tomorrow night's new york jets' game there at the meadowlands. the jets organization is banning alcohol sales because of the potential for rowdiness, they say. so the question is, why this game over any other? apparently, this is the final home game for the jets at the meadowlands in the stadium that's set to be demolished at

the end of this football season. they are the videos people cannot stop clicking on online. john levs has this week's viral videos. ected. oh, ladies. let's say you have osteoporosis. i do. you could be losing bone strength. can i get it back? (announcer) ask your doctor how to help treat osteoporosis with once-a-month actonel. actonel is clinically proven to help reverse bone loss and can help@i increase bone strength to help prevent fractures. so you can get back some of what you lost. do not take actonel if you have low blood calcium, severe kidney disease, or cannot sit or stand for 30 minutes. follow all dosing instructions. stop taking actonel and tell your doctor if you experience difficult or painful swallowing, chest pain or severe or continuing heartburn. these may be signs of serious upper digestive problems. promptly tell your doctor if you develop severe bone, joint or muscle pain, or if you develop dental problems, as serious jawbone problems have been reported rarely. to get a free trial offer of once-a-month actonel visit actonel.com. and ask your doctor how once-a-month-actonel

can help you reverse bone loss. much more news still ahead. right now i want to give you a little bit of a break and bring you a few minutes of pure viral video blitz. josh levs has just baked another fresh batch of the internet's greatest hits, the viral video rewind. >> i like that. that's probably as close as i have come to actually baking in 2010. >> me, too. >> oh, my goodness. >> go ahead. >> here's the thing, and it is true, i look forward to this all week. we have so much news we have been covering but we hear from you with so many great videos and we follow the most popular ones. we will follow with something short and pretty amazing. you have seen paintings of marilyn monroe before but you've never seen anything like this. watch it. coach your eye on the white screen there and watch what's about to happen.

this is about to be a paintball image of marilyn monroe. it's organized by colombian artist von urich. he got this team of paintballists to do this portrait of marilyn monroe in a matter of seconds. clearly, not the same as the original warhol but pretty impressive. up next, we're going for the holidays, a special mention for you in rewind. just listen. ♪ he has the whole song going. it's by a guy named jared lyon from rochester institute of technology. not far from my hometown in new york. he created this for the holidays. went absolutely viral. millions viewed online. the couple i have showed so you far, totally real. but we all know sometimes videos can pull tricks on us but few people realize how often tv

dramas are using some very clever tricks. there's a new video all about that, that's getting millions of views online. take a look here.♪ this is from stargate studios. they're calling this virtual backlot. what you will see throughout here are some scenes of very popular tv shows that look legit. and it turns out they used screens to get these done. some of the images are pretty amazing. sometimes you really think -- i thought when i saw it that they were actually there. why are they putting this out there? this is all about technology, stargate, that helps filmmakers tv production simulate being at all sorts of locations. they took these clips -- look at that one, "ugly betty," and they set this to the song nara. it really looks like she's there. >> we really do have a newsroom behind us, ps. >> i never thought about that. >> this is real. >> we don't have this kind of

thing at our disposal. >> pretty cool. >> it is awesome. now to video you might think is fake but it's stunning. brooke, maybe you'll be interested in this. it's called laid-back jumping. let's watch. what do you think, brooke, would you do it? >> no. but i did cover base jumping in west virginia off a bridge when i worked in west virginia. it was amazing. they would have like diving boards for these guys to jump off of. >> isn't it amazing? >> they're completely calm as they are doing this. base jumping, incredibly high cliffs and they're like whatever, everything's cool. the jumper's name is c.j. and this video points to his website, basedreams.com. the video calls itself, listen to this, a window into the world where human beings can fly. and the song there is called "new slang." you know that. >> love the shins. >> really, it's like flying. >> yeah, sort of. got to have that parachute. but they don't have a backup.

that's the thing with basejumping. >> i know. >> just work. >> you don't have that tandem opportunity. would i jump out of a plane in tandem but i wouldn't do this. those are some of the hottest videos from 2009. here at cnn.com, we're actually linking you to the story. it's on our main page now. it says where the top videos are of 2009. if you click on it, you will see right here, susan boyle, no shock, number one most popular video of 2009. one of them, we can end on this in the top ten, one of the most popular viral videos of the year right here. let's look. ♪ >> that was so awesome when that came out. >> that baby getting down to beyonce. corey elliot from new zealand. his dad created a website singlebabies.com with this and other videos. you can let us know about your favorite viral videos any time.

cnn.com/josh. facebook and twitter, joshlevscnn. it's anti-climatic after you see that video. but click on it and you can see everything. >> it's so cute. josh levs, thank you. hilarious. hougz market in the new year, up, down, stagnant? we'll get some real answers from an analyst from moodieseconomy.com.

if you're wanting to buy, if you're wanting to sell, the question you want to have answered is when will the housing market fully recover? it was certainly a hot question in 2009, you know, way back last year. we will probably hear a lot more about it this year but the answer, there's not really a simple one. joining me now, gus bochet with moodyseconomy.com. moody's, by the way, tracked the economy's rise and fall with signs of the rebound using five different indicators. gus, i know it's good news/bad news scenario. let's just get the bad news over with. i have a feeling these foreclosures, they're not going anywhere. >> that's correct. and in fact we'll probably see more foreclosures in 2010 than we saw in late 2009. there are a lot of people who had temporary mortgage modifications with their lenders

but a lot of those folks aren't going to see them made permanent either because perhaps they've lost their job or they're not going to qualify, and then even some folks who did have permanent mortgage modifications, they'll still end up in foreclosure just because they can't afford the payments. we will see more foreclosures in early 2010, and that's going to put further downward pressure on prices. even though we've seen prices stabilize a bit, i think we're going to see further price declines in the first half of this year. so far they've fallen about 30% from their peak. i think they're going to fall another 7% or more or so. so we will see a pretty steep decline in prices, although the worst is over. finally, you know, i think that sales will be slow to pick up. i think there are many people out there who would like to buy but they'll have difficulty getting a mortgage because banks are still very tight with their lending and don't think we are going to see any significant loosening in lending standards until probably the second half of this year. >> gus, if we're seeing this price decline, bad new as side, let's talk good news, this must

mean affordability goes up? >> that's correct. affordability is very high now. both because prices have fallen but also because mortgage rates are very low. so if you can get a mortgage, this is certainly a very opportune time to buy between the combination of low mortgage rates and low prices. for those people who can get a mortgage, it's a good deal. also, there's that tax credit out there. so that's available through the end of april, and that's another plus that we'll encourage sales. secondly, there's also signs that home construction is picking back up. so we saw very steep contraction in home building but those have improved a bit. housing starts since the middle of the year and i think that will continue. and that's because we're clearing a lot of that excess supply out there. there was a lot of overbuilding in some areas. >> right. >> but the low prices, the higher sales, that's starting to clear the market. so we are see aing a lot of tha excess supply disappear so that will lead to a stabilization in

the housing market probably towards the end of this year. >> so the stabilization at the end of this year but with all of the other bullet points that you had, how long, how quickly can we see those changes happen? >> well, i mean, it's a slow process. it's taking place right now. i think it's probably going to be another year and a half or so before we see the excess supply of housing clear the market. so i think in terms of we'll see prices stabilize in the second half of 2010, but we won't see significant price gains probably until some time late in 2011. so it's a very slow process. obviously, we had a lot of excesses in the housing market. those have contributed mightily to the recession. we are slowly clearing those but it's taking some time and it's going to be a very long process. >> oh, boy, oh, boy, gus fauchet from moodies.com, thank you for looking into your housing crystal ball for us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. we all know the damage hurricane katrina did to new orleans, you know, getting small businesses up and running again

has to be really vital to that area's recovery. so in this week's "turnaround," sean callebs tells a story of a new orleans institution that was totally bowled over by the storm but is now coming back strong. ♪ >> reporter: it's a bowling alley, restaurant, and a place known for its live music. ♪ it's also a beacon of light in new orleans and proof that businesses can return and rekindle. >> my name is john blancher, and this is my turnaround story. >> reporter: when hurricane katrina destroyed his business, blancher did what he does best -- he went back to work. >> what really helped me turn the thing around, it was a combination of both of my faith, my family, friends and goodwill from a lot of people who wanted to help me and wanted rock & bowl to not die. >> reporter: blancher's family pitched in and so did the idea

village, a nonprofit that supports local entrepreneur sblz right after katrina we were tasked with going through the community in the streets, through every single neighborhood to find the true changemakers, those entrepreneurs that if we can get their business upnot only to cr and revenue, but the social impact of what that could mean to our community. >> reporter: blancher and rock & bowl fit the bill. >> i got a $2500 grant to help me buy a refrigerator and every little bit help. >> reporter: the rest came from insurance. $50,000 later and only six weeks after katrina, rock & bowl was back in business. six weeks after the storm. >> that first night, 700 people showed up. ♪ >> reporter: that first night john knew his business would make a turnaround. since reopening rock n bowl, business is up 70% according to blancher, enough to move to this new, more modern location. and while blancher's business has turned around, his hard work

has taken a toll. let me see how you fare here. >> as i said, this is only the second ball i have thrown here in six months, but we'll see -- we'll see how i go. if i can even stay on my feet. you see -- >> reporter: well, you got barack obama tied. sean callebs, cnn, new orleans. (sneezing): ah-choo! hope i don't miss work this christmas. yeah, how will you pay for things like food...electricity? dental bills... gazooks. you need a back-up plan ho, ho, ho. that's why we have aflac! so i'll have cash to help pay bills! great...but what if you're still not better by christmas? hmm... afllaaccccccccc!!!!!!! (santa): aflac. we've got you under our wing. rudolph's better...

but now blitzen's sick! announcer: there's an easier way. create your own business site with intuit websites. just choose a style, then customize, publish and get found. sweet. get a 30-day free trial at intuit.com.

movies in 2009 certainly ran the gamut. joining us now with his top 11 picks of the year, film critic and host of turner classic movies ben mankiewicz. so we went through, let me recap our fun we had earlier, 11 through 7. want to run through them quickly. take a look. this is number 11 -- "i love you man," ten, "in the loop." nine is "district 9." number eight, "an education." number seven, pixar's "up." i wish we had a drum roll. number six, mr. mankiewicz, we have as a movie i just saw last weekend. >> oh, you did. >> we talked about your man crush a few weeks ago. >> there's another one here. >> talking about george clooney, ladies and gentlemen. "up in the air." we have a quick clip from the movie and then we'll talk about it. >> what kind of relationship do

you have? >> you know, casual. >> sounds pretty special. >> it works for us. >> don't you think there's a future there? >> never really thought about it. what's going on here? >> really never thought about it? >> no. >> how can you not think about that? how does it not even cross your mind that you might want a future with someone? >> it's simple. you know that moment when you look into somebody's eyes and you can feel them staring into your soul and the whole world goes quiet just for a second? >> yes. >> right. well, i don't. >> so, you know, it seems kind of funny but it's been -- it's a pretty heavy movie. >> it's a pretty heavy movie. it's got some lights moments in it. that was a scene with movie and anna "twilight" movies, who i think is the real talent. and i also have a man crush for george clooky and paul rudd and

for george clooney's love interest in this. he goes around firing people from his jobs but he connects with her. she's another traveler. >> she was excellent. >> she's a terrific, terrific actress. i thought it was a real solid movie. a couple of false moments at the end but by and large, i thought really, really strong. >> number five, "sugar." miguel is recruited to play in the u.s. minor leagues and then what? >> it's about whether -- there's so many ball players from the dominican, from all over latin america but specifically the dominican republic. this will make you rethink the whole sort of latin-america baseball experience. very critical of baseball movies because they always look like my mother -- they throw like my mother. there's not -- and she's not -- she's in her 80s. >> hey, mrs. mankiewicz could be watching! >> gee, i hope she is. she will say i talk too fast. there's not a false baseball moment in this movie. >> okay. >> it's really solid start to finish. and it's from the writer/director ryan fleck who gave us "a half nelson" with

ryan gosling. >> and number four "every little step." >> best documentary of the year. >> really? >> last year oscar-winning documentary was "man on wire." i think this is every bit as good. it's about the revival of the broadway musical "a chorus line." and the production and casting and then the auditioning for that. you will sort of bleed with these kids who try to get these roles. and it is heartwarming, it's moving, it is tragic in its own way. it's a great, great, great documentary. in a year of good documentaries, "food, inc.." but this was the best. >> so hang out. that was six, five and four. >> we have three more. >> we haven't talked about your favorite movie of 2009 yet. maybe it's one of best's top three movies. vevevevevevevevevee

we're looking at film critic ben mankiewicz's top films of 2009. we're down to the last three. number three, sir, what do we have? >> number three the best iraq war movie of the year certainly. my only fear from the awards point of view is that it came out so early in the year that maybe some people would overlook it at oscar time. >> "the hurt locker." let's take a listen. >> put your gun down! >> advance, advance. keep your hands up! >> okay. >> easy, easy. >> got it!

>> can i touch my head now? >> slowly. we're on the same side, you guys. >> that was very real. >> very authentic. that was ralph finnes you saw in that scene, along with anthony macchi. there's some cameos from david morris from ralph finnes to guy pierce. but the performance of anthony macchi, jeremy ren ard are so good. it's about an explosive ordnance unit, bomb squad in iraq. really tense scenes but it's a real personal -- it's sort of a real personal movie as well. great year for female directors. katherine bryn bigelow did a gr. >> number two, quentin tarantino's inglorious basterds. we have a clip here. >> my name is aldo rein and i'm putting together a group of

eight soldiers, american-jewish soldiers. you might have been hearing dates but we will be leaving earlier. we will be dropped into france dressed as six civilians and once we're in enemy territory, as a bushwhacking military army we're going to be doing one thing and one thing only -- killing nazis. >> so number two for good reason. >> i really liked it. i thought it was a real challenging movie. first of all, it was my favorite tarantino movie since "jackie brown." i love saying that because i think "jackie brown" is underrated. the pulp violence you expect from tarantino, i didn't think it was gratuitous. but in this movie, these jewish soldier capture nazis, they torture them and they scalp them. they leave one alive to report back on what they've seen. and then later a couple members of the basterds, they strap explosives to their legs and they go into a theater with members of the nazi high command and some civilians. i mean, that kind of behavior,

that makes them arguably terrorists. but you're rooting for them. so it really sort of i think makes you rethink the terms that we use. >> absolutely. >> it's a real thoughtful movie. >> that's when you know it's a good movie. >> well written. brad pitt did a nice job. >> number one, spanish language film. >> don't be scared off by that. >> english subtitles. this is called "without a name." here's a bit of the trailer. >> she was taking a chance to find a better life. he was caught up in a world of brutality. and when he tried to leave his violent past behind, his own gang put a price on his head. and he met the one person who would change his life forever.

>> just the visuals alone, the grittiness, the way it's shot, edited. >> it's the story of a teenage girl and then a young, mexican gang member trying to get out of the gangs and they take a train from southern mexico through the entire country to the u.s. border. and this train has got to be the most dangerous form of transportation. it's like amateur drag racing. i mean every moment on this train is filled with peril. the movie is uplifting, it's terrifying, it's great. don't be afraid of it just because it's in spanish with english subtitles. >> okay, "sin nombre," it's on my list. >> if you don't want to wait for the oscars, january 15th on vh1 is the first award show, golden globes and then oscars. >> real quickly, i have the last six -- "six, "up in the air,"

five was "sugar," four, "every little step," and "the hurt locker," "inglorious basterds" and sin nombre." thank you. >> thank you, it was fun. a decade of change we saw in the past ten years but many none quite as big as technology. admit it. what would you do without facebook or google?

a decade of innovation. we wanted to just take a moment today to look back at the last ten years zwroujust to see some the technology that really changed the way we do things we do every day. our own fredricka whitfield has more. >> reporter: has it really been a full decade since we were counting down the minutes to the new millennium and hoping the lights would stay on when the clock struck midnight? we were afraid the y2k bug was going to shut down our computers. remember? not only did our computers stay on, year by year during the first decade of the 21st

century, they gradually changed our everyday lives. no more waiting for the paperboy. we went online to get more and more of our news and information. >> my children do not read the newspaper. my children get all of their news online. >> i don't even subscribe anymore. >> reporter: we used computers to buy things and not just on craigslist, the term cyber monday was coined in 2005, referring to online shopping the monday after thanksgiving. we also used computers to connect and reconnect with friends. myspace was founded in 2003. facebook started in 2004, and twitter began tweeting in 2006. even our telephones began to look and act like computers. they weren't just for making calls anymore. >> it's really become a window for us into the world. anything that's not directly in front of you, there's a good chance you can get at it through a smart phone. >> reporter: not only were our new phones versatile, we could take them anywhere. only 28% of all americans had cell phones in 2000.

by 2009, that percentage had climbed to 85%. and public phones disappearing. >> ever use it? >> no, i don't. >> why not? >> i have a cell phone. >> reporter: cell phones became so popular, some of us even gave up our landlines. >> one-third of americans now, according to a most recent survey, either have only cell phone or have a home phone they scratch their heads about, why am i still using it? >> reporter: even in homes that still had landlines, the phone books that used to sit next to them were getting hard to find. after all, when we needed a phone number, many of us were much more likely to google it on the internet. and since when did the name google become a verdict, you ask? since it went into the miriam webster diction in 2006. how do we know that? we googled it. fredricka whitfield, cnn, atlanta. >> no need to google this. the fact is antarctic blast is crippling much of the country

right now. florida facing potentially devastating cold to orange crops. our don lemon will have much more on that as "cnn newsroom" continues in new york. for now, i'm brooke baldwin in for fredricka whitfield. thank you. i chose the boys & girls clubs. it's an investment for the future. i chose the national wildlife federation. our pets are our kids. we chose the aspca. we're sharing the love again this year. because giving back feels good. on the subaru outback, motor trend's 2010 and two hundred fifty dollars gets donated to your choice of five charities. hey, ask our doctor about garlique, okay?

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