theweaselking | Jul. 26th, 2005

Jul. 26th, 2005

BBC Backstage provides a way for programmers to integrate BBC content into their web applications - the only caveat being that it must not be used commercially. Information is made available through APIs and include connections to news feeds, television and radio listings, travel information and weather data.

"I like to think of it as a public service for the 21st century," says project leader Ben Metcalfe. "It's an opportunity for people to connect with us and feedback into the creative process."

A handful of projects have so far been developed to demonstrate how Backstage can be used. These include a site that combines BBC traffic updates with an interactive map, to give drivers and rail travellers a visual picture of ongoing disruption. Another site built using Backstage APIs delivers BBC news headlines to mobile phones in the form of text alerts.

Web giants such as Google, Amazon and Yahoo already offer similar tools for programmers. Using the APIs released by these companies, web developers can, for example, integrate Google search results, Amazon book reviews or Yahoo listings into their programs.

"The strategy is a very clever one," says Ben Hammersley, a programmer and writer involved with Open Tech 2005. "On the surface it looks like a purely altruistic thing, but on the other hand, it's a very astute business strategy - every new application reliant on the Google API, or data from the BBC, further ties the company into the fundamental structure of the web."

Japanese + Advertising = RAIN SPAM.

Also,
New York State Attorney General issues C+D to Sony Music, who've been bribing radio stations to play Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Good Charlotte, Avril Lavigne, and other no-talent crap that no radio stations would play for free.

Speaking of untalented mass-produced morons, Ricky Martin has learned the hard way that wearing a kaffiyeh with "Jerusalem is ours" written on it in Arabic is probably not the best move when you're trying to promote peace and unity.

In Montana, model sheep are being vandalised because "sheep are evil and destroying our country." No, really.

Want to hear what Saturn sounds like? It's transmitting radio.

Bubonic plague sent by God to punish residents of New Mexico, for voting for the Antichrist.

"If anyone has doubts about my manliness, let them send me their wives and they will become convinced of my prowess for themselves," the leader of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan party, Ali Kerimli, told journalists.

Police at the Vienna Airport on Tuesday found 24 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated $16 million at a lost-and-found counter.

A dissection of Rick Santorum's (yes, the frothy lube and poop guy) new book.

Username: marketing@philly.com
Password: 1dumbploy

Included are such wonderful notes as that Santorum's elderly parents help him out with expenses because he has trouble making ends meet on *only* $162,000 a year.

More dissection here.

Why you do not use Spell Check on Japanese names, courtesy of SIFY.com.

Second-last paragraph:
"During one of three planned spacewalks, Japanese astronaut Spicy Noggin and his US counterpart Stephen Robinson will test repair techniques adopted in the wake of the Columbia disaster."

Perhaps they mean Soichi Noguchi?

( More )

The Bush administration is lobbying to block legislation supported by Republican senators that would bar the U.S. military from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of detainees, from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross, and from using interrogation methods not authorized by a new Army field manual.

Cheney met Thursday evening with three senior Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to press the administration's case that legislation on these matters would usurp the president's authority and interfere with his ability "to protect Americans effectively from terrorist attack."

The White House, in a further indication of its strong feelings, bluntly warned in a statement sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday that Bush would veto the $442 billion defense bill "if legislation is presented that would restrict the President's authority to protect Americans effectively from terrorist attack and bring terrorists to justice."
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That's right.
American people: We want to stop the torture and murder!
Bush: Screw you, hippies! Torture and murder of foreigners is THE AMERICAN WAY! If you're not a white male Baptist, you have no rights.