Netflix streaming takes a serious hit, Columbia Pictures not watchable on 360
Conrad Zimmerman on NXE

Netflix streaming takes a serious hit, Columbia Pictures not watchable on 360 screenshot

I fired up my 360 and installed the New Xbox Experience last night.. After making my avatar and fiddling with the menus, I sunk my teeth into the feature I was most looking forward to, Netflix streaming, and watched a couple episodes of a short-lived, Jay Mohr TV show.

This afternoon, I went back to watch some more, only to discover that the show was no longer listed in my Instant Watch Queue on the 360. A quick trip to the Netflix website revealed that, yes, it was still in my queue but, no, it was not available for Xbox.

Apparently, a lot of movies and TV shows have dropped off the face of the service over the last twenty-four hours. Joystiq did a little bit of matlocking and found the thing that they all have in common: Columbia Pictures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. What an amazing coincidence!

There is, at present, no way of knowing if a movie you want to watch is on the 360 blacklist until it's in your queue, where Netflix lists what videos cannot be watched on the console. So, if you were planning on curling up on the couch to watch The Freshman (as I had wanted to do later this evening), you're out of luck.

Chinese carmakers SAIC and Dongfeng have plans to acquire GM and Chrysler, China’s 21st Century Business Herald reports today… The paper cites a senior official of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology– the state regulator of China’s auto industry– who dropped the hint that “the auto manufacturing giants in China, such as Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and Dongfeng Motor Corporation, have the capability and intention to buy some assets of the two crisis-plagued American automakers.”

CCTV cameras which can 'predict' if a crime is about to take place are being introduced on Britain's streets.

The cameras can alert operators to suspicious behaviour, such as loitering and unusually slow walking. Anyone spotted could then have to explain their behaviour to a police officer.

The move has been compared to the Tom Cruise science-fiction film Minority Report, in which people are arrested before they commit planned offences.

Stephen Hockman QC is proposing a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to be the supreme legal authority on issues regarding the environment.

The first role of the new body would be to enforce international agreements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions set to be agreed next year.

But the court would also fine countries or companies that fail to protect endangered species or degrade the natural environment and enforce the "right to a healthy environment".