This is a GREAT new BBC service that allows you to take the best of the week's BBC Newsnight video reports with you on your iPod or laptop computer!
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From the BBC's program description:
• Mark Urban's report on Thursday's police announcement that a major terrorist plot to blow up transatlantic flights has been thwarted.
• Tim Whewell's analysis of the storm over doctored Middle East pictures, including an interview with the photographer at the centre of the row.
• We also have a picture of happier times in the region, with extraordinary archive footage of Lebanon and Israel in the 1960s by the British film-maker Harold Baim.
• Finally, our Ethical Man went camping... at an ethical festival... with naked people... But rest assured, Justin Rowlatt kept his suit on.
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The "Happier Times in Beruit" segment is a real jaw-dropper; it's incredible to see how cosmopolitan and beautiful Lebanon was in the early 60's, long before all the trouble started. The environmental/solar/alternative power festival is kind of like Woodstock, all operated on wind and solar power. (I didn't know it was possible to run a clothes washer by pedaling a cycle. Did you?)
PARENT ALERT: Watch out for graphic content in the Middle East pictures report, and nudity in the report on the environmental/solar/alternative power festival.
DOWNLOADING INSTRUCTIONS
I played the program in full screen mode in Quicktime Player, but many other video players support MP4 files like this one. Quality is the equivalent of about 400K/sec broadband.
The file is about a 70 MB MP4 prior download to your computer. Download links are below; if you download from BBC's web page, remember to RIGHT-CLICK and select "Download Linked File" from your popup menu, otherwise you'll get a screen full of garbage text in your browser window.
Web page:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/5204778.stmDirect download link:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/bbc2/newsnightvideopodcast/newsnightvideopodcast_20060811-1600_40_st.mp4PS: If you like this show, pass it around. BBC News seems to be aware that many of us are fed up with U.S. TV news censorship and are now watching their broadcasts online instead. They opened their Friday regular episode of Newsnight by saying "Good evening and welcome to our viewers in Britain and also to viewers joining us live from the other side of the Atlantic."