Newsweek International articles from September 2005

Newsweek International archives from September 2005

Mail Call.(Letter to the Editor)
September 5, 2005... Growth in Africa Readers of our July 11 cover story on Africa's nascent recovery lauded our story. "You underscored the strengths of the continent and local leaders' attempts to transform it," one praised us. But another scolded: "You...

The Sunni Question; After the framers of Iraq's new constitution reach an agreement, there's still one group of Iraqis that could nullify it.
September 5, 2005... Byline: Scott Johnson (With Michael Hastings and Joe Cochrane in Baghdad) If Haditha isn't exactly no man's land, it is certainly no voter's land. When Iraqi election officials tried to open voter-registration centers in the predominantly...

Electricity: Turn the Lights On; The insurgents know that depriving Iraq of power is at least as effective as killing soldiers and policemen.
September 5, 2005... Byline: Joe Cochrane (With Scott Johnson in Baghdad) The political deadlock over a new constitution isn't the only reason Iraqis are nearing a breaking point. From rich businessmen to impoverished farmers, citizens from all walks of life...

A Clash of Civilizations; The real crisis isn't about nuclear weapons, but Iran's determination to reshape the Middle East in its own image.(Column)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Amir Taheri (Before the 1979 revolution, Taheri was editor in chief of Kayhan, Iran's most important daily. He is a member of Benador Associates.) Eight years ago a pirated translation of Samuel Huntington's celebrated essay "The...

The Big Backfire; Asia's efforts to control the price of oil threaten to make the unfolding energy shock much worse.
September 5, 2005... Byline: George Wehrfritz (With Melinda Liu in Beijing, Jonathan Ansfield in Shanghai, Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop in Singapore, Kay Itoi in Tokyo, B. J. Lee in Seoul, Marites Vitug in Manila and Sumeet Chatterjee in Mumbai) It's gotten easier...

The Unwanted General; Young revisionists in South Korea are rethinking who the villains and heroes were in the Korean War.
September 5, 2005... Byline: B. J. Lee Fifty-five years ago this month, U.S. Gen. Douglas Mac-Arthur led 70,000 United Nations troops ashore at Inchon on the Korean Peninsula. They attacked North Korean troops, who had penetrated 300 kilometers south, from...

The 'Anglo-Social Model'; The search is on. Europe's faltering economies seek to re-energize themselves. For inspiration, they look not to America but to each other.
September 5, 2005... Byline: Stryker Mcguire (With Tara Pepper in London, Stefan Theil in Berlin and Tracy McNicoll in Paris) You can't call it panic, at least not yet. But among European economists and policymakers, the summer's events have brought a distinct...

The Sheik of Speed; It's rare for new sports to hit the global big time, but this scion of Dubai has an idea that just might fly.(His Highness Sheik Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum, United Arab Emirates)(World Cup of Motorsport)
September 5, 2005... Byline: William Underhill Starting out in business can be tough, even for the children of blue-blooded Arab tycoons. Just ask His Highness Sheik Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum, nephew of the Crown Prince of Dubai and son of the boss of...

Where the Money Is; The $1.6 trillion non-profit sector behaves (or misbehaves) more and more like big business.(Cover Story)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Rana Foroohar If it wasn't for the raffia coasters and folk art in her office, it would be tough to tell Oxfam GB director Barbara Stocking from the CEO of a multinational corporation. She's got the no-nonsense manner, and the...

Opinion: Why Think Small? NGOs need to shed ideology to act like real businesses.(non-governmental organizations)(work of the Shell Foundation)(Cover Story)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Kurt Hoffman (Hoffman is director of the Shell Foundation, an independent U.K. charity set up in 2000 by Royal Dutch Shell.) More and more nonprofits are thinking like businesses, or at least say they are, which is welcome. But NGOs...

Radical Reform: A Modest Proposal; Germans live in a paperwork hell. Will a flat tax help?
September 5, 2005... Byline: Stefan Theil Filing one's taxes is always a pain, nowhere more than in Germany--home to the world's most byzantine tax code. German citizens have to abide by 118 tax laws, consider 96,000 regulations and choose among 185 different...

'The Death of Reform'; In India these days, don't believe everything you read.
September 5, 2005... Byline: Jason Overdorf Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's yearlong reign has been a balancing act, as he endeavors to live up to his reputation as the father of India's economic reforms without alienating the left-wing parties that his...

Mahmoud Zahar; In Praise of 'Hamastan'.(co-founder of Islamist group Hamas)(Interview)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Kevin Peraino As Israel completed its historic withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip last week, the streets of Palestinian Gaza were already filling up with neon green banners from the Islamist group Hamas, declaring:...

France Has to Start Saying Oui.(economic reform)(Column)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Denis Macshane (Macshane, a British Labour M.P., was Britain's Europe minister from 2002 to 2005.) Twenty-five years ago this week, state-run economies were dealt a mortal blow. A Polish electrician named Lech Walesa negotiated an...

Too Much Technology.(OnTech develops self-heating coffee beverages)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Gersh Kuntzman Are you such a multitasker that the single-minded job of driving has gotten boring? Don't worry, now there are DVD movie-players for the front seat of your car! Are you so alienated from nature that you can't...

Grand Theft Identity; Be careful, we've been told, or you may become a fraud victim. But now it seems that corporations are failing to protect our secrets. How bad is the problem, and how can we fix it?(Cover Story)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Steven Levy and Brad Stone (Reported by William Lee Adams, Holly Bailey, Jennifer Barrett, Juliet Chung, Temma Ehrenfeld, Charles Gasparino, Andrew Horesh, Nicole Joseph, Susannah Meadows, Ben Whitford, Kathryn Williams, Jason Overdorf...

Spirits: Just Don't Drive.(absinthe is back in style)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Tracy McNicoll After nearly a century's absence, absinthe is making hearts grow fond again all across Europe. In trendy bars and apartment soirees from Barcelona to Bristol, young professionals are mixing the famously...

Beauty: Golden Glow.(face cleansers, creams)(Brief Article)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Sana Butler Still washing your face with soap and water? You're worth a lot more than that. Sales of ultra-expensive facial skin-care products are outpacing the mass market from China to Italy, with an emphasis on delicate natural...

Spaced Out.(American Museum of Natural History offers civilians the opportunity to train like astronauts)(Brief Article)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Sana Butler The mini space race to send civilians to the moon is light-years away. Why wait? In September, the American Museum of Natural History's Discovery Tours launches a travel program that allows you to do almost everything...

America's Hot Colleges; Yes, Harvard's on the list. But so are lesser-known schools. Here are our picks for the places creating buzz for 2005-06.
September 5, 2005... Byline: Jay Mathews For students looking to attend an American university, a few names have always loomed large: the eight Ivies, a few small institutions like Amherst and some celebrated state schools like the University of California,...

Perspectives.(quotations by individuals involved in current events)(Brief Article)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Quotation sources from top to bottom: New York Times, AFP, New York Times, Jerusalem Post, BBC (2), Associated Press "[It] was written by the powerful people, not by the people." Sunni leader Kamal Hamdoun, on the Iraqi...

Periscope.(China-U.S. relations)(former Yukos executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky)(handling political dissent in Eastern Europe and Middle East)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Melinda Liu, Owen Matthews, Mark Duffy, Joe Cochrane, John Sparks, Elise Soukup, Nick Summers, Nicki Gostin CHINA: Guess Hu's Not Coming To Dinner One might assume that a summit bringing together the world's sole superpower and...

Terror on the Tigris; The Shiites suffer a new tragedy--this time a stampede that kills hundreds. Is the creation of an oil-rich 'Shiastan' now becoming inevitable?
September 12, 2005... Byline: Scott Johnson (With Joe Cochrane and Michael Hastings in Baghdad and Melinda Liu in Basra) As the procession crowded across the bridge toward Baghdad's Kadhimiya shrine, Hussein Abbas heard a murmur rising around him. Within...

Mail Call.
September 12, 2005... Responding to Terror Readers of our July 18 cover story on the London bombings unanimously condemned the terrorists. An Arab Muslim mourned, "Those who do this in the name of Allah are coldblooded murderers." Suggested another, "Modernize...

The Empire Strikes Back; China is using regional alliances to diminish U.S. clout in Asia.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Melinda Liu After George W. Bush greets visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao on the White House South Lawn this week, they'll sit down to discuss many things--trade cooperation and energy needs among them. But one thing they...

A Hard Man to Beat; A marital scandal dogs France's most popular politician. But rivals are too divided to take advantage.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Eric Pape The latest issue of Paris Match delivered a bombshell for French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. He and his wife, Cecilia, had been on the magazine's cover several times in recent years, but always as the telegenic...

Too Much Money; Rising oil prices have filled Russia's coffers with cash. What to do with the windfall? Some want to save it for a rainy day, others to spend it--and still others to steal it.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Kevin O'Flynn (With ANNA NEMTSOVA in Moscow) The cliched view of Russia is of a poverty-stricken giant swaggering around with a gold watch on its wrist. The gold, of course, is black. As the world's second largest oil producer,...

Baltic Grudge Match; More than a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, bad blood still runs deep between Latvia and Russia.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Kevin O'Flynn It was a football match, yet more than a game. When Russia took to the field against Latvia in Riga recently, a shot at football's World Cup wasn't the only thing at stake. For both sides, it was a chance to score a...

Backs to the Wall; The world was slow to recognize the trouble in Japan and Germany. Now, on the eve of momentous elections, it may be missing the signs of a comeback.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Jeffrey E. Garten (Garten is the Juan Trippe Professor at the Yale School of Management.) World economic headlines these days are all about the United States, China and India. But only a decade ago Japan and Germany were still in...

Tough Europe; If continental capitalism is so soft, how to explain 'hard discounters'?
September 12, 2005... Byline: Tracy McNicoll It's a safe bet that the typical American's image of the European shopping experience is of quaint little shoppes, not of "hard discounters" who compete on price even more brutally, and with fewer frills, than...

Coming Fashion; A year after the EU opened up to Eastern Europe, the region's designers are dominating the catwalks from Moscow to New York and reclaiming communist chic.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Ginanne Brownell With her long wavy hair, syrupy dark eyes and near-perfect complexion you'd be excused for thinking that Lara Bohinc herself should be gracing the pages of international glossy magazines. But it's the 33-year-old...

'The Light of Our Eyes'; Has democracy come to Egypt? Not quite, but this week's election is more than an empty spectacle.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Joshua Hammer It was an unscripted moment rare in Egyptian politics. Last week Hosni Mubarak descended on the hardscrabble town of Assiut, 320 kilometers south of Cairo, one of the last stops in his carefully orchestrated...

Drilling to The Core; A Japanese ship seeks to follow Jules Verne's course.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Hideko Takayama In Jules Verne's classic 19th-century novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth," Professor Lidenbrock travels to a mysterious subterranean world. Now a Japanese ship is aiming to replicate his adventure, striking...

Political Theater; Koizumi has stirred excitement by recruiting a dynamic new group of LDP candidates.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Christian Caryl (With Hideko Takayama) So how does it feel to be an assassin? "I totally reject the word," says Kuniko Inoguchi. She's campaigning for office, she says, because she wants to revitalize Japanese democracy, and...

Adnan Shihab-Eldin; 'There Should Not Be Panic'.(Interview)
September 12, 2005... Byline: William Underhill The damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina on America's oil industry sent oil prices skyrocketing to more than $70 per barrel of crude last week, a 30 percent rise above last year's high. And with a question mark...

The Untold Story Of a Gilded Era; Even if it all goes awry now, it's important to recognize that U.S. firms have been extremely efficient in dealing with 'bubble trouble.'.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Ruchir Sharma (Sharma is co-head of global emerging markets and a member of the global asset allocation committee at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.) A little-known fact about a symphony orchestra: the oboe must first sound a...

Red, White, Blue and Cuckoo.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Malcolm Beith After 12 years of therapy, my psychiatrist said something that brought tears to my eyes: 'No hablo ingles'." So goes the old joke by comedian Ronnie Shakes. After five years of living in Manhattan, where everybody...

'This Is Real Life'; For Rushdie, a return to epic moral storytelling.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Nisid Hajari The closest thing to a hero in Salman Rushdie's new novel--Maximilian Ophuls, Resistance figure, postwar wise man, U.S. ambassador to India and delightful rogue--chides his daughter near the end of the book: " 'Be so...

Perspectives.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Quotation sources, top to bottom: The Washington Post, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, BBC (2), Los Angeles Times "We were so grateful. And now we are in hell." Rochelle Montrel, of New Orleans, on conditions inside the Superdome....

Periscope.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Michael Hastings, Owen Matthews, Zahid Hussain, Mark Hosenball, George Wehrfritz, Daniel McGinn, Tara Pepper, Ramin Setoodeh, Alice Fishburn, Malcolm Beith Iraq: Already Too Late Iraqis heading to the polls for the Oct. 15...

Culture of Excess.(Letter to the Editor)
September 19, 2005... Readers took issue with our July 25/Aug. 1 Special Report on the global luxury market, given "the millions of children and adults... living in poverty," as one said. Another called the articles "obscene," and one questioned the meaning of a...

It's Decision Time; Can Germans work a Reagan revolution? Next Sunday's vote marks a watershed--not just for Germany, but for Europe.
September 19, 2005... Byline: Stefan Theil For those old enough to remember, there was a distinct echo in last week's big TV debate. Looking her audience square in the eye, Angela Merkel posed a question made famous by Ronald Reagan way back in 1980. Are we...

Stuck in Low Gear; To get an idea of the kind of changes Germany needs, take a closer look at the woes of its most famous automaker.(Volkswagen AG)
September 19, 2005... Byline: Karen Lowry Miller Volkswagen has always been an icon of German engineering, both mechanical and social. Hitler planted a factory in the German heartland to build a "people's car" in the 1930s. And so it did, producing the Beetle,...

If They Breach the Wall; VW's new boss says he needs to move before it's too late.(Wolfgang Bernhard, Volkswagen AG)(Interview)
September 19, 2005... Byline: Karen Lowry Miller Wolfgang Bernhard, the wunderkind who helped turn around Chrysler, is now head of the ailing Volkswagen brand. He's a trained engineer and true car guy, who can take apart and reassemble an engine, and also,...

Private Lies, Public Figures; Rampant wiretapping exposes some juicy secrets.(Italy)
September 19, 2005... Byline: Barbie Nadeau Antonio Fazio is not the type of man most Italians associate with corruption. Governor of the Bank of Italy, the 69-year-old father of five is the very picture of civic rectitude, with a loving wife and a reputation...

The New Blasphemy; Britain debates the limits of religious free speech.
September 19, 2005... Byline: Tara Pepper Omar Marzouk, a Muslim comedian from Denmark, had but one request at last month's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. "Tell me if you don't find my jokes funny," he told his audience. "I don't want to die--I'm not that kind of...

SBY FEELS THE HEAT; High oil costs have created a 'mini-crisis'--and raised questions in the market about the decisiveness of President Yudhoyono.(Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia)
September 19, 2005... Byline: Eric Unmacht It's been almost one year since Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, or SBY as he is popularly known, swept to victory in Indonesia's first direct presidential election. Yudhoyono's victory was based in part on the perception...

Ahead of the Pack; South Korean firms have invested smartly in India, targeting its middle class and export-platform potential.
September 19, 2005... Byline: Jason Overdorf and George Wehrfritz (With B. J. Lee in Seoul and Sumeet Chatterjee in Mumbai) In one whopping megadeal, South Korea has become the largest foreign investor in Asia's second emerging giant, India. On Aug. 31, Korean...

An Oasis of Capitalism; South Korean companies explore the possibilities of outsourcing to the North, in a new economic zone.
September 19, 2005... Byline: B. J. Lee As soon as the buses crossed the heavily fortified border of the Demilitarized Zone and entered North Korea, a vast open pit appeared before the wide-eyed South Korean tourists. Dozens of bulldozers were busy leveling...

Tom Lantos: A 'Promising Process'.(California congressman comments on diplomatic trip to North Korea)(Interview)
September 19, 2005... Byline: Christian Caryl With the latest round of talks on the North Korean nuclear issue ready to resume on Sept. 13, California Congressman Tom Lantos--the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee--recently made a...

The Wonderful World of Oz.(foreigners see faulty political ideology behind U.S. government's handling of Hurricane Katrina)
September 19, 2005... Byline: Andrew Moravcsik and Michael Meyer (MORAVCSIK is a professor of politics at Princeton. MEYER is NEWSWEEK's Europe editor.) It looks like Rwanda!" the stunned British anchorman couldn't believe he was seeing the United States....

The Beauty Within; Zadie Smith's triumphant new novel updates the exploration of class relations found in 'Howards End.'.("On Beauty" by Zadie Smith)(Book Review)
September 19, 2005... Byline: Tara Pepper The laconic opening of Zadie Smith's new novel may seem familiar to readers of English novelist E. M. Forster. "One may as well begin with Jerome's e-mails to his father" is Smith's postmodern reworking of the famously...

TECHNOLOGY.(the Wakamaru, a home-use robot from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries)(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 19, 2005... Byline: Kay Itoi, George Hackett, Brad Stone, Raina Kelley, Karen Springen LIKE A CHILD WITH SENSE By Kay Itoi Are you lonely? do you have trouble getting up on time? If you live in Japan, help is on the way. Starting this week,...

Perspectives.(quotations drawn from current events)(Brief Article)
September 19, 2005... Byline: Quotation sources from top to bottom, left to right: CNN, Chicago Tribune, AP, Fox News, USA Today, London Times "Washington rolled the dice and Louisiana lost." Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, in a floor speech on the...

Periscope.(U.S. occupation in Iraq)(political leadership of President Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine)(suspected terrorist Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys)(Interview)
September 19, 2005... Byline: Mark Hosenball, Malcolm Beith, Aidan Hartley, John Sparks, Charles Gasparino, Silvia Spring, Elise Soukup, Alice Fishburn Iraq: A Very Touchy Subject Analysts at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency have begun war-gaming...

Mail Call: Alternative Fuels.(Letter to the Editor)
September 26, 2005... Our Aug. 8 cover story on biofuels drew a thoughtful response from readers. Said one, "Biofuel developers deserve the Nobel Peace Prize." Another wrote: "Alternatives to fossil fuel will make the world a better place." Some carped and offered...

On the Beach; Is tourism the answer to Gaza's future--or cruel pipe dream?
September 26, 2005... Byline: Kevin Peraino (With Nuha Musleh in Gaza) Nabil Kafarneh blames "mysterious elements" for the fire that destroyed his nightclub five years ago. Its location on the Gaza Strip's Mediterranean coast made the Appointment a popular spot...

Not Turning the Corner Yet; Koizumi won big on one issue. But if he doesn't move fast on others, all his gains might be for naught.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Christian Caryl (With Hideko Takayama in Tokyo) At first, Koichi Kato was elated. Exit polls on the afternoon of Sept. 11 showed a decisive lead for his Liberal Democratic Party--and vindication for LDP leader Junichiro Koizumi, who...

No Place For Curry; Chef Suvir Saran brings Indian cooking home.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Vibhuti Patel New York's trendiest new Indian restaurant does not serve curry. Indeed, Devi offers no tandoori chicken, no "fusion" food and no sitar music, either. Chef Suvir Saran has deliberately done away with all the...

China Needs New Priorities; If this trend continues, Japan will realize more of what has been a latent military potential--and China's emergence will be delayed.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Robert Madsen (Madsen is a senior fellow at the Center for International Studies at MIT.) Superficially, Beijing would seem to have managed the North Korean crisis adroitly. It has certainly outperformed Washington, where the split...

A Bit Too Much Mickey; Businessmen decry overdevelopment in Hong Kong .
September 26, 2005... Byline: George Wehrfritz Hong Kong Disneyland swung open its doors last week in a gala celebration marred by an ironic distraction: smog. Under the year's dirtiest skies, in air so unhealthy that visitors with respiratory ailments should...

Poor, Poorer, Poorest; Once upon a time, Italy's old Mezzogiorno was Europe's most impoverished region. It still is--only much more so.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Barbie Nadeau The ruins of Matera in Italy's southern region of Basilicata are a grim reminder of how desperate life has been for the region's poor. Generations of families once lived here in squalid, windowless caves cut out of...

Building in Green; Can China move 400 million people to its cities without wreaking environmental havoc? Eco-urban designer William McDonough says yes--and Beijing is listening.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Sarah Schafer And Anne Underwood When American architect and industrial designer William McDonough visited the dusty Chinese village of Huangbaiyu, the villagers greeted him and his entourage of U.S. executives with a marching band,...

Ways of Looking; Two different approaches to grasping modern art.(The Accidental Masterpiece)(surrealism and the Politics of Eros, 1938-1968)(Book Review)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Peter Plagens In our own ways, we can all relate to New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman's idea of art as "points of contact with things greater than myself." Indeed, the mild-mannered Kimmelman is nothing if not humble in...

Flight of the French; A nation that prides itself on egalite has a tax code that is driving its richest citizens to Belgium, in droves.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Tracy McNicoll The Belgians call them "fiscal refugees," but these refugees wear Chanel. They are runaways from high taxes in France. Officially, France has lost, on average, one millionaire or billionaire taxpayer per day for tax...

Pushing for a Flatter World.(Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero on governing)(Interview)
September 26, 2005... One and a half years ago, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero surprised the world with a landslide election victory just days after the Madrid train bombings. And despite fears that the prime minister's Socialist Party would reverse hard-won economic...

Your Own World; The future of entertainment promises bigger shows and infinite choices to you, the master of this digital universe.(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Rana Foroohar The world's largest broadcaster first glimpsed the future of entertainment through the eyes of grade-school kids and grannies. Jana Bennett, director of television for the British Broadcasting Corp., remembers the...

Just The Ticket; Netflix knows that the key to movies is getting them to viewers when and where they want.(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Karen Breslau And Daniel McGinn Given his fondness for movies, it's not surprising that Reed Hastings thinks about the future of home entertainment in terms that sound like they're drawn straight from "Star Wars." The story line,...

Download This; The head OF Sony Pictures Digital foresees legitimate DVD downloads coming soon to a home appliance near you.(Interview)(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Daniel McGinn DVDs have changed the way we watch movies, but they're not perfect. To watch one, you have to plan ahead, drive to a store to pick up a copy or go online (and wait for the mail carrier) to rent it from Netflix. That...

Lush Palaces of Film; Movie houses think big to draw couch potatoes.(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: R. M. Schneiderman Once we can download first-run movies at home and play them on wall-size TV screens, who's going to bother going to the movies? Theater owners are asking the same question, and in response some are already...

Wired at Any Price; A sobering example for a broadband world.(South Korea)(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: B. J. Lee It's no surprise that Korean phone companies are among the first to move into the music and film businesses. The country, as its boosters never tire of mentioning, leads the world in broadband penetration; three in four...

Hip Ma Bells? As content becomes ever more important, even phone companies are starting to distribute music, games and movies.(Company Profile)(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Emily Flynn Vencat and Mark Russell This isn't your mother's Ma Bell. On the ground floor of a buzzing London office building, guys with long hair and nose rings hold informal meetings with young women in vintage blazers doodling...

Inside A Makeover; One company's story illustrates how music-industry giants are retooling in an attempt to survive the digital future.(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Karen Lowry Miller The battle for digital control is still raging in the movie business, but it's virtually over in music. The giants are winning. Court rulings have forced free music upstarts like Grokster and Napster out of...

Jukebox Junkie; The Rhapsody model for online music may hold solid lessons for Hollywood.(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Karen Lowry Miller If you're already streaming music off the Internet, it is thanks in good measure to Rob Glaser. He pretty much invented the technology. The former Microsoft executive launched RealNetworks in 1995, starting with...

A Second Coming Of The Dot-Coms; Big media companies are betting the web will be key to how we entertain ourselves.(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Rana Foroohar The scramble to entertain you has unleashed the second coming of dot-coms. This time the business plans are written on legal paper (not napkins), the prospects are measured in dollars (not hits) and the focus is on...

Very Wide Release; Debuts in the home, as well as theater.(simultaneous release in theaters, on DVD, on cable)(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: John Ness The future promises to bring movies to the masses in myriad new ways, but only one company has set out to control them all. The brainchild of dot-com billionaires Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner, 2929 Entertainment has a new...

A Female Sensibility; Videogame makers have ignored half their potential market. Now they're having a second look, and altering the possibilities of gaming.(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Christopher Dickey and Nick Summers What do women want? Men have been asking themselves that question since time immemorial. But for the huge male-dominated electronic-games industry, fueled as it is by the high-octane testosterone...

I Can Stop Playing Any Time I Want; Videogames have an addictive quality. Does this mean we're hooked?(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Steven Johnson (Steven Johnson is the author of "Everything Bad Is Good For You.") Early this August a 28-year-old South Korean man died of heart failure after playing the computer game Starcraft for 50 straight hours. When the...

ON THE DARKNET; Tools to remain anonymous are fueling the surge in file sharing.(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Daren Briscoe Jan Danielsson, a 28-year-old student at Uppsala University in Sweden, flirted with the dark side for months, and he finally crossed over for the purest of motives. A friend of his had legally purchased a popular...

It Doesn't Just Look Real--It Is Real; The big shift in how we watch will be from flat screen to 3-D.(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: David H. Freedman (Graphic by John Sparks and Graham Roberts) Lou Mazzucchelli grouses about "Star Wars" a lot. No, it's not that he wishes the later movies were as good as the first ones. It's those holograms that the characters...

Making Their Own Breaks; Technology is helping aspiring writers, musicians, artists and filmmakers go from amateur to pro. Who needs an agent when you've got the net?(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Tara Pepper When Singer Gilli Moon moved from Sydney to Los Angeles 10 years ago, she flung herself into meeting record-industry execs, arranging gigs and scraping together a living. "I didn't know anybody, I didn't have any money,...

Tools of the Trade; Software to channel your inner Spielberg.(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Ethan Porter Want to be a professional writer, musician or filmmaker, but aren't sure where to begin? These days, technological advances have rendered old excuses obsolete. You don't need a publisher or studio; all you need is...

Do-It-Yourself News; Viewers pick what to cover on Al Gore's network.(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Jonathan Darman No one expected a television thrill ride when word got out that former U.S. vice president Al Gore planned to launch a cable news network. To some, Gore's professed ambitions as chairman of Current TV--to create a...

Double Vision; Hungry for new ideas, Hollywood will need to look abroad.(remakes of Asian films)(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Mark Russell You say you're looking forward to the latest Martin Scorsese film "The Departed," about Boston cops and gangsters, due for release in 2006? I've already seen it. How about the forthcoming romantic weeper, "Il Mare,"...