Word: demanding
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...most ingenious and iconic innovations of the 20th century. Almost 60 years after American inventor Edwin H. Land sold the first Model 95 of his new instant-picture camera in Boston in November 1948, the troubled Polaroid Corp. halted its cassette-film production for good. Demand was still relatively high - the plant churned out 30 million cassettes in 2007 and 24 million in the first half of 2008 - but the plant had run out of its allocated amount of the chemical components needed to make its famous instant film, and Polaroid's decision to move to digital meant there...
...Until recently, nests were mainly harvested from caves in the wild, and the trade was dominated by a ruthless and well-connected élite. Now, fueled by insatiable demand from prospering China, a regional boom in farming nests in purpose-built birdhouses - "swiftlet condos," as they're sometimes called - is democratizing the business. "It's recession-proof," enthuses Harry Kok, a retired Malaysian engineer who owns or has shares in five birdhouses and writes a blog on the subject from his Kuala Lumpur home. "The overheads are minimal. You don't have a factory with so many workers. Right...
...raided more than a dozen illegal swiftlet farms across Sarawak, a state where only two of an estimated 1,500 birdhouses have licenses. The rest contravene local wildlife-protection laws that forbid swiftlet farms in urban areas. Sarawak's once profitable industry is grounded for now. But with unflagging demand from China, and increasing numbers of birdhouses popping up in Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines, the regionwide trade in birds' nests is heading in only one direction: upward...
...powerful as it is misunderstood," Free has become a multibillion-dollar business model tailor-made for the Internet economy. As digital-infrastructure costs approach zero, Anderson argues that Free often pays off, whether it involves giving away cell phones to hawk monthly plans or embracing piracy to spark demand for merchandise. He also explains how charging even a penny can scramble consumer psychology and sketches a blueprint for competing with juggernauts, like Google, that have harnessed the force of a unique digit--"the hole where the price should be, the void at the till." The editor in chief of Wired...
...Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flatly rejected the demand for a total settlement freeze, and he won strong domestic political backing for insisting on "natural growth" construction in existing settlements. Mitchell's visit aims to finalize an agreement on this issue that both sides can live with - the Israelis want to complete some 2,500 housing units already under construction and exempt East Jerusalem from the freeze. (Read about Israeli settlers vs. the Palestinians...