Thursday, July 3, 2008
You've heard of disposable dishes, cameras and even video cameras. But what about disposable DVDs?
No-return DVD rentals that essentially self-destruct within 48 hours after they are removed from their packaging are now rolling out at airports, travel centers and every Staples store across the country. Each location will offer about 25 new movie releases and, rather than return them, consumers can recycle them for free when they're done watching or just throw them out.
The DVDs, which were created by the Georgia-based company Flexplay Entertainment, look like regular discs, but they are made with a special glue that is sensitive to oxygen. Once the disc is exposed to air, a chemical reaction causes the glue to darken so the laser in the DVD player can no longer read the disc. Sealed discs can last for about one year. "It's like DVD on demand," says Joe Fuller, Flexplay's executive vice president of marketing. "You can get Flexplay at the store today, but your rental period doesn't actually start until you've opened the sealed package."
The company hopes these DVDs will appeal to business travelers who don't usually rent movies because their busy schedules make it hard to find time to return them. In addition to Staples, which has never offered movie rentals before, the discs will be for sale at Flexplay's own Web site, Travel Centers of America, Love's and at about 200 Hudson Group–owned newsstands at airports and travel hubs. "You can pick up a couple of movies and put it in your briefcase," Fuller says. "And the next time you are stuck at an airport, you can pop it in your DVD player or computer and you can enjoy a movie."
This is not Flexplay's first foray into the market. In 2003, Flexplay partnered with Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment and tested out their invention, then dubbed EZ-D, in chains like Papa John's, Walgreens and 7-Eleven. The pilot, however, lasted only a year, and both companies met with resistance from environmental groups that felt the product was wasteful. This time around, Fuller says the company is making it easier to recycle. As before, customers can still go onto Flexplay's Web site and download a free shipping label to mail the disc back. Flexplay is also partnering with GreenDisc, a company that recycles technotrash, to place recycling bins for the DVDs in most of the retail locations. Any materials that are recycled will be used to make DVD display cases at retail shops. Fuller notes the discs will now be offered at a lower cost (roughly $4.99) and the titles will no longer just be limited to movies from one studio. So far, Paramount, Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema and Starz have entered licensing agreements with Flexplay.
But some environmentalists still have their doubts about the viability of a disposable DVD. At a time when the country is focused more than ever on curbing global warming, environmentalists question whether most studios will support Flexplay. "From our perspective, nothing has changed in terms of the wastefulness of this," says Mark Murray, the executive director of Californians Against Waste, whose group opposed the product last time. "It's just the message this is sending — that we should produce hard products, permanent products, products that are not going to break down in the natural environmental whose useful life instead of being measured in years is now literally being measured in hours."
Although Flexplay does not consider Blockbuster or Netflix to be major competitors, there is still the question of whether a disposable disc for $4.99 can compete in the market. Redbox's kiosks, which dispense new-release films at supermarkets around the country for about $1 a day, appear to be growing in popularity. Other potential competitors include Web sites that allow viewers to download movies right onto their computers — a service that may be of interest particularly to travelers.
Steve Swasey, the vice president of corporate communications for Netflix, said he had not heard of Flexplay's latest launch, but he agreed their product does not seem to be a "direct competitor" to his company. "The whole thing with Netflix is convenience, selection and value," Swasey says, noting that Netflix already has a subscription base of customers who enjoy unlimited DVDs and a wide selection. While Flexplay offers only the newest films, Swasey notes that the bulk of Netflix's business entails shipping out older titles. "New releases are less than 30 percent of what we ship every day," he says.
Ross Rubin, the director of industry analysis for The NPD Group, a market research firm, says he sees potential in the Flexplay disc. "DVD rental is a large market," Rubin says. "If the company can overcome some of the educational challenges in helping consumers understand what it is and that it is only valid for one viewing session, and if they can line up more studio support, then there's an opportunity there."
Although his standing among Muslims has fallen, bin Laden still shows up in popular iconography, as in this image on the back of a truck in Indonesia.
Does Osama bin Laden matter anymore? You could be forgiven for thinking he doesn't. In recent months, an impressive cast of terrorism experts and counterterrorism officials around the world has coalesced around the notion that al-Qaeda's leader is no longer an active threat to the West. They point out that he has not been able to strike on U.S. soil since 9/11 or in Europe since the London bombings three summers ago. In Iraq, his most successful franchise operation is on the ropes. Across the Muslim world, opinion polls suggest his popularity has faded, and many of his early supporters—including prominent jihadi ideologues—have denounced him. Even his messages on the Internet scarcely merit headlines in the mainstream media. Did you know he posted two audio messages on the Web in May? I didn't think so.
The jihad, some experts contend, has moved beyond bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Dr. Marc Sageman, a former CIA case officer, lays out the view in his new book, Leaderless Jihad, arguing that "the present threat has evolved from a structured group of al-Qaeda masterminds controlling vast resources and issuing commands to a multitude of informal groups trying to emulate their predecessors by conceiving and executing operations from the bottom up. These 'homegrown' wannabes form a scattered global network, a leaderless jihad." According to this assessment, two decades since its founding in Peshawar, Pakistan, al-Qaeda remains a source of inspiration for certain extremists around the world. But it's far from clear that bin Laden commands them.
This view was shared by several European officials I met at a conference of terrorism experts in Florence in May, a few days after bin Laden's most recent Internet postings. The officials told me they've found no evidence of al-Qaeda operations in their countries. If bin Laden has any role in the jihad, say the Europeans, it is merely as an icon. Alain Grignard, Belgium's top terrorism investigator, says bin Laden is now a "Robin Hood figure; 100 people are inspired by him, but very few respond to do what he wants."
If that's true, why do so many political leaders continue to warn about the threat—or even the likelihood—of another major terrorist attack? Why did the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate say al-Qaeda "has protected or regenerated key elements of homeland attack capability"? Why would the head of Britain's domestic intelligence service, MI5, say there were 2,000 citizens and other U.K. residents who posed a serious threat to security, a number of whom took direction from al-Qaeda? The struggle against al‑Qaeda—and to a lesser extent, the quest to capture bin Laden—has dominated U.S. foreign policy since 9/11. But as the U.S. prepares to elect a new President, should that remain the case?
The answers to these questions don't lend themselves to easy policy prescriptions. But the best available evidence suggests that the threat posed by bin Laden's acolytes hasn't been extinguished—and his own influence over them is greater than many analysts acknowledge. In his old stomping grounds, the jihad is stronger than at any time since he fled from the Tora Bora mountains in the winter of 2001. The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and in Pakistan militant groups have grown so aggressive that in late June they even threatened to take over a major city—Peshawar, once bin Laden's home and the birthplace of al-Qaeda. Farther away, extremists in Europe and North Africa continue to covet bin Laden's blessing and the al-Qaeda brand name.
There's some comfort to be drawn from the fact that bin Laden has not been able to strike on U.S. soil since 9/11. There is scant evidence of al-Qaeda sleeper cells in the U.S. Thanks to more effective intelligence-gathering, immigration control and the heightened vigilance of ordinary Americans, it is very hard for terrorists to slip into the country. It's always possible that homegrown wannabes will mount some sort of attack, but in contrast to the situation in Europe, al-Qaeda's virulent ideology has found few takers in the American Muslim community.
Yet bin Laden remains determined to kill large numbers of Westerners and disrupt the global economy. Since 9/11, al-Qaeda and its affiliates have bombed Western-owned hotels around the Muslim world, attacked a number of Jewish targets and conducted suicide operations against oil facilities in the Middle East; we can expect more of the same in the future. Al-Qaeda has also used new tactics and weapons—like the surface-to-air missile that nearly brought down an Israeli airliner in Kenya in 2002. And it retains a long-standing desire to acquire a radiological bomb. But al-Qaeda's most dangerous weapon has always been unpredictability. That's why it is dangerous to dismiss bin Laden as a spent force. While he remains at large, the jihad will never be leaderless.
Robert Mugabe (left) and Morgan Tsvangirai.
Despite their apparently intractable differences after a bitter and bloody three-month election process whose outcome has not been recognized by most of the world, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and the beleaguered opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) appear to be hinting that some form of power-sharing is inevitable. Mugabe remains defiant in the face of near-universal condemnation of his regime's thuggish election tactics, and this week he stormed angrily out of an African Union summit that urged him to create a government of national unity. Still, Mugabe is expressing a willingness to negotiate and consider a unity government, perhaps mindful of the need to reverse his regime's growing isolation. And although MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai had warned that there would be no negotiations if Mugabe went ahead with the runoff vote staged last weekend, the opposition may be resigned to the reality that neither side in Zimbabwe's power struggle is capable of eliminating the other.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told TIME on Wednesday that although current conditions in Zimbabwe are not conducive to talks, in the interest of restoring peace to allow for fresh elections, his party will consider resuming dialogue with Mugabe's in the coming weeks. "We now need to explore new ways of making sure we achieve free and fair elections," he told TIME. "This is why we have given the thumbs-up to a negotiated settlement." Zimbabwe's information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu also today made similar noises, telling AFP that the "government is ready for dialogue with whoever." Mugabe had said on the eve of the runoff that he would begin talks with opponents "sooner rather than later"
BOGOTA: French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, three Americans and 11 other hostages held for years in jungle captivity were rescued on Wednesday from leftist guerrillas by Colombian troops posing as aid workers.
The rescue was a huge coup for popular President Alvaro Uribe, an anti-guerrilla hard-liner who has used billions of dollars in U.S. aid to push the rebels onto the defensive, cut crime and spur economic growth.
Betancourt, 46, was the highest profile captive held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, Latin America's oldest surviving left-wing insurgency.
A former presidential candidate, her dual French-Colombian nationality had helped bring world attention to the plight of hostages held by the rebels.
"I believe that this is a sign of peace for Colombia, that we can find peace," Betancourt said, thanking the Colombian military for her rescue and weeping as she made her first public comments, carried on Colombian radio station Caracol.
Minutes later a pale but smiling Betancourt landed at Bogota's military air base, walking down the stairs of the plane and hugging her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, on the runway.
WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush said Wednesday that "military options remain on the table" in nuclear disputes with North Korea and Iran but underlined that he preferred a diplomatic resolution.
"I have always said that diplomacy has got to be the first choice of solving any of these problems. But military options remain on the table," Bush said in a roundtable interview with Japanese news outlets.
"Expectations are that he will move forward, action for action," as part of a tit-for-tat diplomatic arrangement promising the secretive Stalinist country rewards for doing so, Bush told the roundtable.
"We expect there to be full declaration of manufactured plutonium. We expect there to be a full disclosure of any enrichment activities and proliferation activities. And we expect the abductee issue to be solved.
"And if they choose not to move forward on an agreed-upon way forward action for action there will be further isolation and further deprivation for the people of North Korea," he said.
But "I would only surmise that perhaps the leader of North Korea is tired of being isolated in the world, and would try to advance his country in a way that makes it easier for the people to have a better life," he said.
WASHINGTON: Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have ordered a federal laboratory to stop using radioactive materials until it can show its procedures are safe after a plutonium spill.
A vial cracked June 9 at the National Institute of Standards and Technology lab. About one-fourth of a gram of powder containing plutonium spilled.
Institute officials have said a few employees had internal plutonium exposure and were being treated.
Radiation was found in two buildings and that internal plutonium exposure can lead to cancer, officials said. No threats to public health or the environment have been identified, commission officials have said.
HEART: Afghan and NATO-led forces killed 25 Taliban militants in a 10-hour gun battle in western Afghanistan, a provincial police chief said on Thursday.
The militants were killed in Muqur district in Badghis province on Wednesday during a joint clean-up operation by NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the Afghan army and police, Mohammad Ayob Niazyar said.
"At least 25 Taliban were killed and many were wounded in several hours of fighting after the Taliban attacked our troops," Niazyar told foreign news agency.
He said the clash started Wednesday afternoon and lasted till midnight. No NATO and Afghan forces were wounded in the fighting.
COLOMBO: A series of battles between government forces and Tamil Tiger fighters along the front lines of their civil war killed 26 rebels, the military said Thursday.
The fighting took place throughout the day Wednesday, killing two rebels in the Vavuniya area, 12 in Mannar and 12 in Welioya, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.
There was no immediate word from the LTTE on the latest violence. The defence ministry's claim takes the number of rebels reported killed by government troops since the beginning of the year to 4,669, against the loss of 422 soldiers.
SINGAPORE: Oil surged past 145 dollars per barrel for the first time Thursday as the weak US dollar and Middle East tension stoked black gold's record-breaking run, analysts said.
Brent North Sea crude for August delivery hit 145.11 dollars in early Asian trade, before easing back to 144.90 dollars. It had settled at a record 144.26 in London on Wednesday after breaking 144 dollars for the first time.
New York's benchmark contract, light sweet crude for August delivery, hit an intra-day record price of 144.44 dollars. By late morning the contract was 70 cents higher at 144.27 against a record close of 143.57 in the US on Wednesday.
MADRID: Iran says it will respond with full force if attacked by US and Israel.
Talking to media in Madrid, Iranian Oil Minister Ghulam Hussain said Iran would respond to its enemy with full aggression and said oil prices would be increased to high level across the world in case of attack.
He further said Iran will not act as silent spectator and would launch a counter attack. He was of the view that recent rise in oil prices was the result of fears of attacks on Iran. Oil prices would increase further if US and Israel launched any attack on Iran.
