So the BBC goes to great trouble (and I assume expense) to redesign the home page so that people outside the UK can’t see the UK home page. IMHO, this gets rid of the main reason for looking at the BBC site; namely to understand what is being reported in the UK for when I talk to family and friends.

They explain that this is needed for “technical reasons”; I assume that they’re trying to hid the copyright mess that they’ve cornered themselves into, however…

An ex-employee then simply shows a link to the missing page! Technical reasons indeed…

The great news is that due to the way the BBC News Website is built, you can still access the “UK Front Page” via a special hacked-up URL, which I have bundled into a convenient bit.ly url:
http://bit.ly/ukbbcnews

Changes to BBC News Website reduces choice for users outside UK | :Ben Metcalfe Blog

Luxembourg’s Capital?

“1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October”

European Union Countries – Google Squared

This actually is harsh. What they’re actually trying to do here is almost impossibly difficult. I’m amazed how good the results are.

I wonder to what extent that this project is a response to this…

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

As child I was glad that I didn’t have to do this. Now I’m just as upset that I wasn’t forced to…
“You can’t just wing it with a ramble around the subject. Like most French disciplines, structure and method are vital. The reasoning has to follow rules and you must cite the appropriate great thinkers as you set out your argument.

The baccalauréat has demanding equivalents in other countries. But the continuing rigour of the system helps explain why the average French person is more articulate, more able to express him or herself on abstract subjects, than, say, average Britons or Americans.”

Charles Bremner – Times Online – WBLG: Stress test for France’s young philosophers