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If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast, by far the easiest way to get it, click here: This week we featured:

• whose blog post Web 2.0 is Rubbish sparked a


• Film Director Kevin Smith spoke about


• spoke to us about the social aspect of gaming


• No Britblog Roundup this week but you can read the full thing here


• A series of interviews from the Virtual Worlds Forum. You can hear more here

You can suscribe to the podcast via iTunes: MyYahoo: Googlereader It's always available in itunes first thing in Tuesday morning. Ideal for the Web2.0 commuter.

Californian grandmother, Jane Stillwater continues to . Every so often one of her updates arrives in my email inbox. Her latest is a profile of some of the people she encountered out on patrol in Iraq, local people, victims of violence, and some of the marines she's embedded with (and who have clearly impressed her). Something about this post tells me I'm getting a real slice of life. Here's Jane at the home of an Iraqi policeman, killed by a suicide bomber:

An older woman dressed in black came out into the yard and cried, mourning in the traditional Iraqi way. Lt. Waheed had been a good man."Please come into my house," beckoned a woman next door. The Marine with the M-16 next to me shook his head no. But the woman shook her head yes. I compromised. I stood in the doorway and hugged women, girls and babies. They'd never seen an American woman before and certainly not one as old as dirt, hanging out with Marines.

And further on into the post she meets a young man injured by an improvised explosive device:

Qusi Shaba'an also broke my heart. He looked like a teenager, one you might see getting ready to graduate from high school or go off to the University of California -- intelligent, good-looking, hopeful and young. Except that he had no legs. "It was an IED," whispered someone next to me. "We are trying to get him artificial legs but it's a slow process. The Marines are doing everything they can to get him medical help." But still and all. This young man should be out dancing and running track.

I can't pretend that Jane is a neutral observer: George Bush and Dick Cheney won't be on her Christmas list anytime soon, but she's a very different sort of writer from the embattled journalists who are typically embedded with troops. Reading her writing is like getting a call from an aunt who took a wrong turn on the way to the bridge club and ended up in the middle of a war zone. Jane's blog is not neutral, it's very personal, and somehow for all of that it seems more valuable than any number of press reports. Eccentric, opinionated, moving, and in places very funny, , you won't regret it.

Just a heads-up about a couple of things coming up on Tuesday's Pods and Blogs: (Clerks, Dogma, Clerks II) spoke to us about his new book (see pic) based . It's a brave man who says what he thinks in Hollywood, and Kevin says more than most.

I've also been down to the Virtual Worlds Forum this week. We'll play some of the audio on Monday's show - and there's more available over at the iPM blog. We'll also hear from Sims creator and , who was attending the and . We spoke at length about the social dimension of gaming - we may not play all of it on air, but I'll make sure the full thing is available online.

(Also just to note that the full audio of the interviews I recorded at VWF with Lord Triesman and Cory Doctorow about the government's plans to are also available to listen to online)

So that's the preview - as you can see it's already a pretty full roster. Not sure what we'll lead the programme with though. If you've a story you think we should take a look at please do drop me a note.

Possibly the best Web2.0 corporate video of all time. Wonderful humour from

"Now with the blogs you can share your thoughts with up to 10 people with the online blogopolis..."

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast, by far the easiest way to get it, click here: This week we featured:

• The tensions between Turks and Kurds with and


• Fires in California with and


• An interview with the founder of about online activism


• Our very own anchorwoman Jamillah Knowles reports on why the internet loves cats: featuring , , , and of course -


• The Britblog Roundup hosted over at . Nominate British blog posts for next week's round-up via Britblog [at] gmail [dot] com


• , with a report on the political situation in Pakistan.


• spoke to us from Anbar in Iraq, where she was embedded with US marines.


• spoke to us about the evolution of one of the web's most popular blogs

UPDATE: Just a note that the Matt W and I were talking about (link goes to Ben Goldacre's blog). The Society's response, which we didn't have at the.

Thanks to of the for the intro. If you fancy having a go at recording an intro do please and email the result or point us to a link where we can download it.

You can suscribe to the podcast via iTunes: MyYahoo: Googlereader It's always available in itunes first thing in Tuesday morning. Ideal for the Web2.0 commuter.

Oh the irony, the irony. The most emailed story on ´óÏó´«Ã½ News Online is

Just wanted to drop a note about a new blog/radio programme I'm working on. iPM (which I've mentioned before) on Radio 4: there's a description of the programme here. It will be a bit like Pods and Blogs in that we'll try hard to reflect some of the radio friendly conversations taking place on the blogosphere, but there's also a very big audience interaction element - which because of the late hour we're on is sometimes hard to do on Pods and Blogs.

We're still very much in beta, so lots of aspects of the iPM blog are still up for grabs. If you'd like to help shape the way we work, take a look and drop me an email (ipm - at - bbc.co.uk) or leave a note in the comments on that blog.

Of course you may think all this "i" stuff is wearing a bit thin - in which (the article isn't entirely serious btw!) As for the little image - mrs V has been deploying her considerable artistic skills again - more of them here.

Another win from the Blogger Teams' : . Indeed there is precious little more annoying, particularly in news copy. What does it mean to say someone is a "terrorist" for example? I suppose it's a rather limp way of disowning a claim made by others but which you aren't quite sure you should be repeating, which seems to me a bit like selling a drink as "chocolate" flavoured when all it contains are brown coloured E-numbers.

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast, by far the easiest way to get it, click here: This week we featured:

• spoke about the resignation of Menzies Campbell


• and CEO of the , Dr Derek Watson spoke about the crisis in NHS dental care. are well worth listening to if you have an interest in the field. A good resource for students too, I'd have thought.


• It was . We spoke to one of the organisers.


• Picking up Blog Action Day's environmental theme we spoke to a very widely blogged invention: a new kind of wind-power microgeneration that has great promise for developing countries:


• The Britblog Roundup hosted over at . Nominate posts for next week round-up via Britblog [at] gmail [dot] com As we mentioned they try and publish as many contributions as possible so do get in touch


• Can the Intellectual Property Rights protect magician's tricks? We spoke to Christine Corcos of the Law and Magic Blog


• De Monfort University hosted a Machinima Festival. We spoke with Professor Andrew Hugill about this unique event


• Lastly the politics of Games. Sim City and BP sign a deal to include ecological and energy issues in the game. The editor of the

You may have noticed we're starting to recycle our podcast intros. If you fancy having a go at recording an intro do please and email the result or point us to a link where we can download it.

You can suscribe to the podcast via iTunes: MyYahoo: Googlereader It's always available in itunes first thing in Tuesday morning. Ideal for the Web2.0 commuter.

I have a face made for radio I think (and BTW that's not me in the picture..I'm the guy with the not-quite-working beard in the video). Anyway should you wish to watch my ugly mug as I pontificate, here I am talking about how podcasting has influenced my approach to broadcasting (sure there's enough me! me! me! in there? Ed. Recorded at PodcampUK)

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I'm enjoying on the . His message: small is beautiful and if you use a popular feed service expect the service to be intermittent:

Imagethief learned long ago that there is particular risk in blogging or syndicating through large services as they are all prone to what appear to be completely arbitrary blockings and unblockings. I swear it's like they have a large "wheel of fortune" on the wall at the ministry, and every two or three months they give it a spin.

Ziiiinnnng! Step right up and place your bets. Who's plug gets pulled this autumn? Livejournal? No one will notice. Bonus repeat spin! Ziiiinnngggggggg....

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast, by far the easiest way to get it, click here: This week we featured:

• currently based in Khartoum told us what was happening in Darfur


• spoke to us about their blogging the continent's home-brewed technological innovation


• to the Prime Minister's announcement about Iraqi Employees


• talking about the more recent additions to his blog of WWI letters from his grandfather (thanks to R4 for the audio)


• The Britblog Roundup hosted over at . Natalie from Philobiblon did the interview. Nominate posts for next week round-up via Britblog [at] gmail [dot] com


• Gizmodo loved the launch of this rocket powered X-wing and so did we. ()


• may be the most bloggy school in the UK. We ran a terrific podcast by one of their young pupils. Rhod and I are already preparing to make way for the new generation. Good work Ashley & Mr Dale!


• Lastly we spoke to who, for some reason we struggle to fathom, listened to Abba's Dancing Queen non-stop on a 4 hour drive and made a film of the experience (). He survived but doctors disagree over the prognosis

Thanks to The Gaffer of the for the intro. Do keep sending them in. Particularly keen to get one or two from beyond the UK/US.

Please do subscribe to the podcast, many of your are listening, but mostly via the blog - having it appear on your mp3 player in time for the morning commute is surely the better option.
Suscribe via iTunes: MyYahoo: Googlereader

Nearly half a million views for this calls tech support for a little help with a new-fangled invention: a book. (from the )

And before you laugh at the idea of having someone explain how to open a book - I actually found the informative page below in an aged tome I picked up at a second-hand bookstore. Never break the spine of a book again.

We've mentioned a couple of times on Pods and Blogs for Iraqi employees of British Forces in Iraq. In our conversations with Dan Hardie, one of the founders of the blog campaign, it's clear that his concern is for more than just those who worked as translators, but for all employees too.

So if the news in the and a deal has been struck it will be a partial victory for those campaigning for changes to the asylum rules, but a notable one. (Though The Times, which ran it's own campaign, makes little reference to the efforts of Dan and blog campaigners I do know that they have been in touch behind the scenes)

There have also been political moves in the US too, (Neurotic Iraqi Wife informed us of a relaxation of the rules two weeks ago): proclaims the New Yorker's Interesting Times blog, however, over at the Huffington Post

site is a sometime read for me: it's a good way to unearth new blogs This week my eye was caught by the .

It is a showcase of some first-rate graphic art, and it certainly of historical interest. But in posting this link I should make it clear I'm not in any way endorsing the regime that produced the images. I remember once a Polish friend complaining about trendy t-shirts with CCCP (USSR) printed on them. He'd lived under the soviets and didn't think the experience of cold-war era repression an appropriate subject for a fashion statement.

Away from such weighty matters I'd like to point out another blog by the same author: . Blog readers of a certain age will remember the one below:

Terra Nova updates us on a
ended a year of development yesterday, closing with a stress test. (Many thanks to our alpha testers!) Unfortunately, that might be the last bit of news from Arden for a long time. We have come to the end of our funding, and while we are still working, I'm not sure when we will have anything worth reporting.
To read some background on the project look at this .

I hope they do get additional funding, it's fascinating stuff...

After 2 years digging, armed only with a teaspoon and a strategically placed vaulting box, I've managed to tunnel through the floor separating 5 Live from Radio 4 and for the next few months I'm going to be helping launch iPM - the PM programme's new blog-powered Saturday show. It's an exciting project, one I hope you'll lend an ear to when it starts in November.

They've very kindly given me the name of Mr Blog (I believe at Radio 4 everyone is required to have some kind of made-up middle name like "chalky" or "ginger" - I suppose I'll get used to it). More details on the PM blog in the coming weeks.

But this move does mean there'll be some changes to Pods and Blogs: While I'll still be involved, and of course Rhod will remain at the helm, there'll be less of me and we'll be bringing in some new(ish) voices. While some of my colleagues will be "stepping up to the wicket" I'm also keen that we use the opportunity to hear more from you. So please do get in touch with your ideas for stories, features etc. My loss should be your gain!

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast, by far the easiest way to get it, click here: This week we featured:

• Two views of how Citizen Journalists were telling the story of events in Burma and


• The US State Department is sponsoring a scheme to engage with . We spoke to the Director of the Digital Outreach team Brent Blaschke. Here's an


• We spoke to Parvez Sharma, director of the film , about his recent posts on the issue of


• The . If you want to suggest a British blog post for inclusion next week you can email Britblog -at- gmail -dot- com


• Rhod's report from Chicago and the


• of talks about Radiohead's decision to sell downloads of their

Please do subscribe to the podcast, many of your are listening, but mostly via the blog - having it appear on your mp3 player in time for the morning commute is surely the better option.
Suscribe via iTunes: MyYahoo: Googlereader