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10 Unconventional Winter Holiday Movies - Everybody knows the classic winter holiday movies, from older ones like It's a Wonderful Life to newer ones like A Christmas Story. Admit: it does get repetitive watching the same stories over and over again. Here, then, are ten holiday movies (in no particular order) that aren't on most people's list to watch with the family (some of them for very good reasons).
NASA's Robot Smarts Give 'Wall-E' a Ration of Realism - Pixar moviemakers turn to the space agency's experts for pointers on how to make animated characters more "lifelike."
Guns N' Roses' 'Chinese Democracy' Launches on MySpace - At long last, you can hear what looked like the ultimate rock 'n' roll vaporware. For free.
John McCain to Jackson Browne: You're Welcome - John McCain has two words for Jackson Browne: You're welcome. That's the gist of a response to Browne's lawsuit that the McCain campaign's sampling of his classic (or, as they put it, "long-ago published") "Running on Empty" implied that the famously lefty singer-songwriter was endorsing the maverick but nevertheless Republican presidential candidate.
Microsoft Lets Zune Subscribers Keep Tunes - Microsoft is giving an early holiday gift to people who pay for all-you-can-listen access to the Zune digital music store: 10 songs to keep each month, included in the $14.99 monthly subscription fee. The decision may appeal to people who have been reluctant to test out the subscription model, preferring to own their music instead of rent it.
The Creatures That Ate Hollywood - :
When a giant sperm whale rammed a whaling vessel in 1820, the deadly encounter inspired Herman Melville's classic novel, Moby Dick.

Melville's story, inspired by real-life man-versus-beast mayhem from the 1800s, made it to movie screens in the 1950s. Director John Huston's Moby Dick was evidence of Hollywood's growing fascination with giant, thrashing creatures.

Here are some of the best beasties ever captured on celluloid.

Left:

Captain Ahab (played by Gregory Peck) battles the great white whale in Moby Dick.
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A giant squid battles Captain Nemo (played by James Mason) in Walt Disney's 1954 production, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
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Another great white terror of the deep surfaced in 1975's Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg. The blockbuster scared beachgoers and spawned three sequels.
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Not nearly as big as a whale, a giant squid or a great white shark, the Gill Man nevertheless emerged from murky waters to menace humans in 1954's Creature From the Black Lagoon, by director Jack Arnold.
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In a battle of the box office titans, Godzilla battles King Kong in the 1962 Japanese film, Kingu Kongu tai Gojira. Only unlucky structures get between the behemoths in director Ishirô Honda's movie.
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Bigger isn't always better. Suspense master Alfred Hitchcock turned seemingly innocuous seagulls into a giant, crowdsourced flying nightmare in 1963's The Birds.
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A dinosaur foolishly liberated from the Forbidden Valley goes on a rampage in The Valley of Gwangi. Stop-motion animation great Ray Harryhausen created the creature for director Jim O'Connolly's 1969 flick.
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Fussy intergalactic fat-ass Jabba the Hutt smokes out, Star Wars-style, in Return of the Jedi. The beast is known for his bad temper — and for keeping Princess Leia, dressed in her sexy slave girl outfit, on a chain.
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Cuddly creatures turn into nightmarish beasts in 1984's Gremlins and again in 1990's sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
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Creature-feature fans saw two classic extraterrestrials face off in 2004's AVP: Alien vs. Predator, by director Paul W.S. Anderson, and in Colin Strause's 2007 follow-up, AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.
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A hideous beast from god knows where thrashes Manhattan in 2008's Cloverfield. Director Matt Reeves did a masterful job of unveiling the monster, one blurry bit at a time.
Video: 'Bike Hero' Grinds Out a 'Guitar Hero' Tune With His Handlebars - A supposedly fan-made YouTube clip shows a two-wheeled tribute to the rockin' videogame, set to the tune of a 1999 punk song.
Twitterpillar Emerges as Fail Whale Becomes 'Endangered' - When a colorful caterpillar and his wisecracking ice cream cone sidekick show up to inform Twitter users of a service disruption, a contest to name the new characters is born.
'Twilight' Taps Teen Vampire Tales for Silver Screen - The rabid fan base fed by Stephenie Meyer's novels for young adults could translate into Harry Potter-style box office magic.
Harvard Law Prof Takes on RIAA in Music Copyright Fight - Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson has launched a constitutional assault against a federal copyright law at the heart of the industry's aggressive strategy, which has wrung payments from thousands of song-swappers since 2003. Neeson has come to the defense of a Boston University graduate student targeted in one of the music industry's lawsuits. By taking on the case, Nesson hopes to challenge the basis for the suit, and all others like it.