The continent is lagging in the all-important services sector, though Germany has managed to shake its "Old Europe" tag a bit to become a bigger exporter in the past year.

FORBES: The World's Hottest Job Markets

Edinburgh is home to two Unesco World Heritage Sites separated by the steep-sided greenery of the Princes Street Gardens: the Old Town with its imposing Castle Rock and Royal Mile, and the New Town, just a bit younger than Old Town, with a posh Georgian grid laid out in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries.

BBC: Living in: Edinburgh

Now, with "Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, " Mr. Platt presents the first book-length foray in this direction, providing a compelling alternative account of much-studied events that feels both a bit old-fashioned (in its panoramic view of battles and leaders) yet also very much in step with recent scholarship, placing national stories into global frameworks.

WSJ: Book Review: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom

BioWare has been updating its MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic quite a bit lately.

FORBES: Watch The New 'Star Wars: The Old Republic' CG Trailer

America's new dollar policy may be less absurd than its old one, but it is still a bit of a muddle.

ECONOMIST: Does the new dollar policy make sense?

President Kiir said his nation would rather struggle for a bit than continue to hand over its oil revenues to the old enemies in Khartoum.

BBC: South Sudan in Kenyan oil pipeline deal

And (a bit more old school) Loganair has just passed its 50th birthday.

BBC: Stuck on the runway

Twitter.com itself keeps alternating between its new and old versions, so we suspect there's quite a bit of work going on behind the scenes at present.

ENGADGET: Official Twitter app for Windows Phone 7 goes live (update: hands-on)