Saw this over at John Gushue's Dot Dot Dot. The BBC has set up a page called backstage.bbc.co.uk (beta).

An excerpt:

backstage.bbc.co.uk is the BBC's new developer network, providing content feeds for anyone to build with. Alternatively, share your ideas on new ways to use BBC content. This is your BBC. We want to help you play.

As I'm walking up my street, I see a strange sight: A man in his mid to late 50s is waving a large Canadian flag mounted on about a four-metre pole, with a recording of O Canada blasting out of his van parked in the laneway behind him.

His eyes spoke of a certain eccentricity within his soul.

The Salon blurb: Say goodbye to your suburban house, yoke up that horse, and stand by to repel pirates! Author James Howard Kunstler talks about the dire world of his new book, The Long Emergency.

The NYT's Thomas L. Friedman continues to hammer at U.S. complacency about its dwindling intellectual edge.

BTW, the Globe and Mail's Jeffrey Simpson has argued that education should be a higher priority than health.

NYT guest columnist Matt Miller lampoons the Bush administration's war abroad in Iraq and domestically on taxes:

It's a simple formula in some parts of the world: Rally in public, call for justice and better living conditions -- and get shot by government troops.

Thank God that in Uzbekistan, the government is an ally of both the U.S. and Russia in the fight against terrorism.

BBC Online editor Pete Clifton talks about the big stories his service intends to keep an eye on for the remaining months of 2005. He also asks site visitors for input (gasp!).