A snapshot of your ideas from last week - several of which we're looking at following up.
This comment on infant immunisation in particular. Leave us a note or email us if you've experienced something similar or know someone we should talk to.
All comments, musings and especially new story ideas to investigate very welcome.
I had an interesting email exchange with a police blogger, part of which I feel deserves further investigation. He's happy for me to reproduce the relevant part of the email:
"In the past couple of weeks I've had Sergeants and Inspectors telling us not to arrest, but this is because we are so short, Without going into too much details, I've been at places with drunken, aggressive and hugely abusive people and done nothing other than push them away - because I've known that I'm one of only two PCs available, and if I'm gone then 50% of the policing availability for policing a large scale area/event/incident has now gone. This isn't drunken shenanigans I'm talking about, this is large scale disorder or even at the extreme, racial abuse directed towards me and colleagues."
Does this account of the pressures on police ring true for you? If you've some insight into this do get in touch, in confidence, of course. We'll be looking at this issue on a future iPM, but we need your help.
This week, PM's investigative sister looked at:
When's the time to hang up your car keys?
We asked if older drivers should be required to sit regular medical and driving tests after reaching 70. Hear the full report on the blog and how we came to look at this story.
Our internet searching habits
Chris Vallance reported on the growing industry devoted to analysing our collective web habits, and took a look at Britain from the WebDetails on the blog.
Earlier this week, we began looking at whether older drivers should be required to take regular, independent medical tests after the age of 70. Full details on the blog.
Thanks to everyone who commented and emailed us their interesting and, often moving stories. This is the full report broadcast on the programme.
We spoke to
* Dr Melanie Simms who sparked off the story with her email
* Elizabeth Dainton who shared research she's done for the RAC foundation
* Walter Levy, the 83-year-old cabbie who takes Eddie for a spin
* Dr David Carvel, a GP in the Scottish town of Biggar, South Lanarkshire
* Stephen Ladyman, who was a Minister in the Department of Transport until June 2007
How many people in the UK don't have easy access to public transport (i.e. live more than two miles from a bus, train, underground or tram stop)? I tried to find out yesterday evening, it seemed relevant to our piece on older-drivers, but unfortunately the cones seem to have been out on the information super-highway and the Department for Transports website was inaccessible
Blogger Dizzy Thinks has a rather more technical description of what (I should add it's back up now)
As for the figure I'm trying find out, still no joy. But a helpful chap at the DfT has directed me to their National Travel Survey - new one out tomorrow. The last survey covering 2006 found that, "Licence holding among all those aged 70 and over rose from 38 to 50 per cent."
And you can see why that should be, "In 2006, 45 per cent of individuals aged 70 or over have problems walking or using a bus, compared with five per cent of those aged 16 to 49."
And if you are in that 45% and you live in the country, the car may well be the only option, "rural areas that were within 13 minutes walk of an hourly or better bus service ... increased from 45 to 54 per cent."
The latest survey is due out tomorrow. You if the website stays up, and we'd appreciate your help pouring through the facts and figures for stats relevant to the elderly driving feature.
..what would you do?
When is it time to hang up the car keys?
Last winter, an 86-year-old man, driving in the early evening darkness, crashed into the car behind Dr Melanie Simms. No one was seriously hurt, but her car was written off and visits to the osteopath followed.
Fault was established and compensation paid, but it left her concerned about the growing number of older drivers on the roads. She wrote to iPM,
The system for reporting concern in the UK is very weak...Contrary to popular belief, there is no requirement for older drivers to resit a test of any kind...In practice, then, it depends on family being able to persuade the person to stop. In many cases, that will happen. In many cases, it will not.
Melanie also feels this is a political issue, 'older people are hugely more likely vote than their younger counterparts. So politicians don't want to deal with it'.
And she thinks it's a problem for GPs and other professionals, who need support in making difficult decisions that will probably have a negative impact on people's lives.
This week, iPM is looking into the issue, getting the latest figures and asking -
Should older drivers be made to resit regular tests after a certain age?
How do GPs report an elderly person they're concerned about? Should they be able to?
How do you approach the subject with an elderly relative you're worried about?
What alternatives are there for older people who are no longer able to drive?
All thoughts and comments welcome. You can also email us.
Find yourself shouting at the radio? Got an idea for something we should cover? This is the place.
Low-paid homeworking, concerns with bluetooth and Team-GB debate all started out here.
Leave a comment below - even if just the beginning of an idea - or email us. In fact, the shorter the better. It makes it easy for people visiting the blog to read and respond and we can always drop you a line so you can tell us more about it.
Have you been watching Britain From Above? On iPM we're going to have a go at finding out about Britain From the Web. While aerial photography reveals our back-gardens, swimming pools and giant matchstick models of the Mary Rose, it doesn't reveal what goes on behind the net curtains of the average British home. The internet is piped into our homes past closed doors, and what we search for online, reveals things about ourselves we'd blush to tell the man from the census, or a market researcher with a clip-board.
And it's not just the web which reveals information about ourselves. Even without dropping memory sticks, or losing laptops we leave behind ever growing trails of valuable data, that government and industry have a great interest in mining.
On iPM we'll be taking a look at "" and we'd like you to join in. Part of our interest in this stems from the launch of a new tool , that lets you look at trends in what people are searching for. You can even look at what people are searching for in different parts of the UK (hence the blog post title - I leave you to guess the UK town that since 2004 had the highest percentage of searches featuring a certain *cough* term)
Political types may be interested to know that a higher proportion of internet users search Google for "Gordon Brown" in Gateshead than anywhere else.
Unfortunately for the Prime Minister, it's a firm of - and yes the Google data suggests fewer people are looking for estate agents, but then your house-price may well have told you that already.
Looking beyond the confines of the UK the service reveals that nobody likes . The UK's favourite Peruvian, told us they liked marmalade, but that honour goes to
As we live more of our lives online, so more and more information about us can be gleened from the web. One
Google Has Enough Insight to Read My Mind
And increasingly the data is available for all of us to see and explore. Here, for example, is a guide to getting data (and discovering the 180 people interested in sex, drugs and cocoa puffs) And here, some evidence as to the commuting
As our data trails lengthen and the value of e-commerce rises, the commercial value of mining data grows. Compared to the commercial systems available , the data exposed by Googe Insight is very limited.
Not that collecting data on our web-habits is uncontroversial. and programme, have all attracted criticism. And the information unearthed by data mining techniques .
I've been looking at what our online behaviour says about us. I've been warned that in the future data mining applications, could replace the CV when employers sift potential candidates. And I've found out that the internet tells us a lot about the future of the economy, and the "bedroom" anxieties of the average UK web user.
We'd like you to join in the programme. Have a play with Insight (or the other tools online) and tell us what facts about the UK (or the area where you live) you've discovered. Have a go...we may mention the results on the programme.
You've probably seen the Green Dot on packaging, though you may not immediately recognise it as the "green" dot, it's usually black and white on labels. You can see what it looks like on packaging here.
In this picture from . It appears on hundreds of thousands of different products across Europe and has been running for a number of years.
But an iPM listener Mike Jackson wrote to us, concerned that the symbol might confuse shoppers, increasingly worried about the environmental credentials of their purchases. This is how he began the email:
Dear Eddie and Co.,
You're a busy shopper with a sense of environmental responsibility.
You cast your eye quickly over the literature on the sides of packaging when considering a purchase. You are drawn to clear symbols - what a useful shortcut for effective and appropriate action.
And what symbol do you frequently see somewhere on soap and detergent dispensers, toothpaste tubes, bread spread cartons and crisp packets? Why a pair of intertwining arrows, one black, one white. That's got to be good, hasn't it? This is patently a green product with a capacity for recycling.
Wrong.
In fact the Green Dot symbol is a trademark which simply means the company producing the product has made a contribution to the costs of a packaging reclamation and recycling scheme which runs in some European countries.
That scheme doesn't operate in the UK, and Mike worried that shoppers would think that the product was made from recycled material or was capable of being recycled - neither of which the Green Dot guarantees. In fact as Valpak, the company who regulate the use of the trademark in the UK, clearly , "The UK Green Dot® is not a recycling symbol"
So why does the Dot appear on UK packaging, when Valpak's website says it ""? Well if a product is exported to a European country operating the Green Dot scheme the symbol may need to be on packaging, so having the symbol on the packs in the UK saves having to produce different packs for Europe.
But that leaves the possibility that consumers will be confused, and think that products are recyclable when they aren't or are made from recycled materials. In fact in a document sent to Andrew George MP () by Valpak Chief Executive, Steve Gough, the company says, "The Green Dot does not identify packages for recycling - this is a widely held misconception"
Lucy Yates,Senior Policy Advocate at , an organisation concerned about the clarity of eco-marks in general, told us they want symbol not to be removed from packaging on goods for sale in the UK
Mike was rather less demanding: he wants Valpak and package producers to better publicise the true meaning of the Green Dot.
That's a suggestion Valpak's Duncan Simpson said they would look at, Mike's concerns are certainly being taken seriously.
Time is always short on a 24 minute programme, so you can hear more of what Duncan had to say in the interview below.
Items we featured in the programme:
The Team GB debate
We asked why the team of athletes in Beijing representing the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is called Team GB.
Is the internet changing the way we think? A response
Last week Baroness Susan Greenfield asked if the internet is bombarding people with information, in the mistaken belief that it's knowledge. Philosopher Julian Baggini and 21-year-old Ben Vickers respond.
We've followed up the interview we ran last week with the neuroscientist . She raised a number of concerns about the potential impact of computers on the development of children's brains and the capacity for concentrated reading and thinking.
You can listen to an unedited version her interview on the blog.
Thanks for your comments responding to her - our colleagues at also had a huge response for they ran on the subject.
This week on iPM, we have two responses to Professor Greenfield.
Firstly, the philosopher
We also spoke Ben Vickers, a 21-year-old who's recently finished his arts degree and began using computers at a young age. He contacted iPM after hearing Professor Greenfield. This is the unedited version of his interview with Eddie Mair, an cut of it will feature on Saturday's programme.
Thanks for posting a diary entry for Saturday 9 August to mark the publication of as a daily blog.
We read several on air and Dorothy Sheridan of the had a read and compared your entries with those she receives at the Archive. Have a listen -
And sorry if you had trouble posting an entry and got one of our peculiar error messages - we're trying to fix, I know it's frustrating. Share your pain with us here.
We're looking into why the team of athletes in Beijing representing the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is called Team GB
Castizo left a comment on the blog, while David Woodgates emailed: "Just who exactly coined the phrase 'Team GB', which you continue to employ incorrectly in your broadcasting? Was it our revered government, or was it the tabloid media who thought it up and printed the T-shirts before you could put them right? Our Olympic squad includes atheletes from Northern Ireland, which is a member of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but not of Great Britain. I hope they can get things right by 2012"
A number of blogs have picked this issue up.
says that Team GB is an "affront to the loyal British people of Northern Ireland, of which there are very many indeed". You can read the blog entry in full .
One of the highest profile blogs on matters relating to Northern Ireland, also weighs in with an entry entitled "".
And you can read a thoughtful post about national identity, touching on the Team GB v Team UK debate, on .
Have you spent three hours writing out your vital and timely sque scoop for iPM to investigate, only to try posting it and been greeted with 'html invalid' or 'it has failed our profanity filter'?
(Just a thought - you might want to email us if it's, like, one of those old, bring-down-president/prime minister scandal type tales...)
Well, huge apologies and thanks to those who've emailed in and commented on the blog. Ö÷²¥´óÐã tech bloggites are working to fix the problem. In the meantime they say avoid ampersands. In fact, not only &, but also /, and even " " and ! - this should help fend off the 'html invalid' response at least.
The profanity filter is a bit more of a mystery. Email us if you just can't get through. OR - share what you know of blog software, and suggest a fix! Only joking...or am I...
And here's hoping this posts okay, now that I've used everything I've told you not to.
Got some ? worth discussing? Or have a concern that needs investigating? This is the place.
Comment or email us.
You can also pick up on some of the ideas posted from earlier weeks.
Are serious thinking and the internet incompatible?
Neuroscientist features on iPM this week, raising concerns about the impact of screen-based technologies on our ability for deep, concentrated thinking.
This is the full interview - an edited version will broadcast on Saturday's programme.
We'd like to pursue Baroness Greenfield's questions which you may or may not agree with, and in next week's programme we'll hear an alternative viewpoint.
Are we bombarding people with information in the mistaken belief that it's knowledge?
Do we want a world with people just living in the moment - having meaningless thrills with no narrative?
What kind of people do we want our children to be? What kind of people are best going to be citizens in the 21st century and what kinds of skills will they require?
Baroness Greenfield has recently published a book looking at these questions, ID: The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century.
It's a view also laid out in the essay that's provoked much debate - by .
Items featured in this week's programme:
UK homeworkers below the minimum wage
Reporter Chris Vallance investigates low-paid homeworkers in the UK.
Is the internet changing the way we think?
Baroness Susan Greenfield asks if the internet is bombarding people with information, in the mistaken belief that it's knowledge. Debate continues on the blog.
The dark side of bluetooth
Why it's worth being savvy about the bluetooth device on your phone.
Your diary entries
We invited Dorothy Sheridan of the Mass Observation Archive to read your diary entries from last Saturday, pick out some of her favourites and make connections with the submissions she receives at the Archive.
It sounds ideal, no need for childcare, no commute, and the option of taking a break when you feel like it. Ö÷²¥´óÐãworking is an attractive work choice for many, but for some it's also a very low paid career.
The Department for Business estimates 70,000 homeworkers receive below the minimum wage. Piece workers, paid by the number of items they produce, are particularly poorly paid. A study of a 42 homeworkers by the National Group on Ö÷²¥´óÐãworking calculated the compared to the . In fact, the law says piece workers should receive 120% of the minimum wage.
We started looking at homeworking because of an email from a listener who works in the textile industry:
Today I went to visit a group of homeworkers in a Northern English town, who are at the very bottom of the textile working pile.
I found a group of women, many of whom could read or speak little English in a very bad situation. They told me that they frequently have no work for weeks on end, are pushed to do extra unpaid work by unscrupulous factory owners and - get this
- *aspire* to having work which pays at the national minimum wage. That's right, they say that they frequently have piecerate work which pays at the equivalent of £3 per hour.
iPM followed it up by speaking to The National Group on Ö÷²¥´óÐãworking (NGH) where we discovered that the problem extends beyond the textile industry. It also became clear that these goods weren't being sold on dodgy market stalls, or from the back of cars. Some well-known high street shops are selling goods produced by suppliers employing homeworkers earning less than the minimum wage.
It's an issue that's been , but a Leeds shopping trip in the company of staff from the NGH revealed the scale of the problem.
You can hear an extended version of the trip in the player below.
The difficult question is what should be done. , who we heard on the programme, wants to enhance the legal protection of homeworkers who often work in a no-mans-land between employee and self-employed status. He supported an Early Day Motion calling on the
But perhaps the harder problem is getting homeworkers to come forward and complain about their wages. The NGH didn't want to 'name and shame' products and suppliers, nor did our original emailer. They were concerned that pay complaints would lead to homeworkers losing their jobs.
The NGH want high street retailers to develop closer ties with their suppliers, and value those that pay their workers well. Both the NGH and John Battle MP want high street stores to set an example in encouraging good employment practices on the part of their suppliers.
We asked the Department for Business for an interview but no minister was available. They did however, give us this lengthy statement (continues over the fold).
"Since 1997, the Government has acted to improve the position of homeworkers. We agree that homeworkers are a valuable part of the UK's flexible workforce and are keen to ensure they are provided with appropriate rights and protections, including the National Minimum Wage.
"In 2005 the Government introduced Fair Piece Rates legislation to ensure that homeworkers who do piecework receive at least the same as the minimum wage when paid per item produced or task performed. Failure to pay the minimum wage or a 'fair piece rate' can ultimately result in prosecution.
Many thanks to those of you who sent in your diary entry for August 9th. You can read people's submissions here
On Saturday's iPM, we hope to be speaking to someone who knows all about diaries kept by members of the public - who is Director of the which records "everyday life in Britain".
Mass Observation began in the 1930s, continued into the 1950s and was revived in 1981. It asks hundreds of volunteers every few months to send in their views or experiences on a range of issues, with their responses chronicled by the MOA.
If you enjoyed sharing your diary entry with the iPM community, and you want to do something similar in the future, then we hope to have news of how you can do that very soon. .
UPDATE: Are you male and aged 16-44? ...
You're in a public place. You get a text message on your mobile. It says 'smile'. You don't know who it's from. You get another - 'you look pretty'.
Would you reply? Would you feel flattered? Or anxious?
I wrote last week about a woman's experience of receiving a rude message on a London train. And iPM received a flurry of responses saying (sending unsolicited messages via bluetooth) was "just a bit of fun."
I spoke to one of the people who posted on the blog:
Do you agree?
For this week's programme we're looking at how bluetooth technology is evolving. We'll talk about some of the unusual ways it's being used - that may or may not surprise you - and why is worth being savvy about bluetooth.
UPDATE: item as we featured it on the programme:
We had a couple of emails expressing doubts about the story of 93 year-old author Lorna Page a few days ago.
Indeed Lorna herself appeared on PM:
Some of you thought elements of the story didn't stand-up:
wrote to us saying, "I do wonder still at the accuracy of the story regarding the "considerable advance" for the novel which, according to several reports, paid for the house in which she plans to live with her friends. Author House [her publishers] do not pay advances, that is clearly stated on their website."
Bloggers were equally suspicious of the "big advance" part of the story. And Lorna Page has gone .
Hi everyone. Glad to know some people understand what reporters can do to a perfectly average story about a grandmother who writes novels. Here are the facts; I wrote A Dangerous Weakness on the backs of envelopes and scraps of paper, and put them away in a suitcase which my daughter-in-law found about 8 months ago, and encouraged me to publish a book. It would all still be on scraps of paper if she hadn't found it. That's it. But, through it all, I think it is a good book. In fact, now I'm working on my second. The really wonderful part of my story is my son who left his home in America to come back to England to take care of me when I needed a little help. Lorna Page
Earlier, I emailed Lorna's publicist and daughter-in-law, Cate Allen, pointing her to the blog posts questioning the "big advance". I asked Cate to clarify some of the facts. In particular bloggers had expressed surprise that a self-publishing company had paid a significant advance, enough to help buy a house. Here's what Cate,, told me:
Yes, we too, would like to clear up some of the questions. Following is my original press release, which the media turned into the articles you've been reading. Seems to me they ought to stick to the facts, but then I'm not a reporter. There was no advance, don't know who cooked that up
If you look at the original press releases ( and ) put out by Cate there was no mention of an advance. But by the time Lorna appeared on PM the "big advance" had become an established part of the tale, and everyone, including us, believed the purchase of a new house had come out of the proceeds from the book.
Cate tells me that instead of receiving an advance, they paid a small sum to have the novel published, as is usually the case with self-publishing. They chose AuthorHouse because . They are hopeful that the book will make money, and that this will enable Lorna to help her elderly friends, but it is early days.
Cate also told me that some media reports "just made up facts".
As for what she has been doing to correct errors in coverage, Cate says she now makes it clear to journalists how the story has been misreported, and she's encouraged Lorna to go online herself to set the record straight.
UPDATE: Just noticed this, there's a correction on , which wryly concludes:
Aspiring writers (and housebuyers) should note that her publisher, AuthorHouse, is a self-publishing company whose website states: "For a modest financial investment you can choose what you want for your book."
So this is how we're looking as of Tuesday afternoon:
It's shaping up to be a great programme, but would you like to help make it even better?
NMW is a story Chris has been looking into, relating to the National Minimum Wage. Only some people aren't even getting that. If this resonates with you, then add a comment below.
GREENFIELD isn't anything to do with undeveloped land, but is instead .
Mr BLOG is...Chris Vallance. As he is most weeks, to be honest.
We're not quite sure what ITEM is just yet. It could be a two minute hole in the programme, it could be some listener-led suggestion.
My colleague Jennifer has been working away on the BLUEJACK story she posted about a few days ago. She's got a number of strong stories so far, but she's in the market for more.
And if you've been listening to iPM or PM over the last few days, you'll have a pretty good idea what DIARY is. The question we're currently trying to resolve is how it will sound on air...
Are YOU going to send us your diary entry for today Saturday 9th August, 2008?
George Orwell's - which he began to keep exactly 70 years ago - is published today as a daily blog. iPM is using it as an excuse to nose into your Saturday.
You should give us your diary entry for today by clicking on Comments at the bottom of this post...or post on your own blog (or YouTube, Twitter, etc) and add the link. Tagging it 'ipmdiary' is a good idea.
We've had an actor in to voice some of Orwell's words.
And if you need more inspiration, Allan Massie wrote about Orwell in yesterday's Daily Telegraph - he says .
MONDAY 1100 UPDATE:
By the way we are aware that some listeners have spent a LONG time trying to post diary entries, and getting error messages that don't seem valid. This is a problem we've moaned about for some time...simple things like "&" can render a whole script invalid. We are moaning again. In the meantime please accept iPM's apologies for the faff. We are sorry and will try to improve things soon.
Drop us a line if you've ideas on what we should cover or pick up on stories people are talking about on the blog.
Following on from last week we're looking at the dark side of bluetooth - bluejacking familiar to you?
And do you earn below the minimum wage? We'd be interested in hearing your experiences. Comment or email us.
It took a studio in Television Centre, a studio in Westminster and a radio car in Peckham, to set up a conversation between Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman MP (at the time in-charge of the country while Gordon was on holiday), Met Superintendent Victor Olisa, Ahmet Kashli a former prisoner and young South London men caught up in some of the violence in the area.
It was part of a radio experiment set up by South City Radio, a local community station in Peckham, London which tries to steer young people in away from crime by giving them an opportunity to make radio.
The conversation, hosted by South City's Michael Strikland, that resulted from all these tangled cables was thought provoking and moving. We heard a lot of bravado, a lot of disdain for working hard and getting a (low-paid) job and we heard things that were both unsettling and moving. Most of these young men, barely more than teenagers themselves, had children whose prospects must be even more uncertain than those of their parents.
The excerpt of the discussion we played is below, you can :
South City Radio have more of the discussion, and further analysis . Well worth a visit.
This week's 12A rated, baby-friendly edition of iPM included
Problem herbicide
A discussion of the controversy surrounding aminopyralid that has allotment owners worried (more ).
Parent and baby cinema
Are or a bit of much needed fun for stressed parents? We hear from psychologist and parents attending a screening of The Dark Knight.
Favourite websites
We go favourites-spotting with
South City Radio
And we drop in on the studios of London community station, South City Radio, to hear a discussion between Harriet Harman MP and young men caught up in the violence in South London. to the full South City show and an extended discussion.
Stories we're looking at next week
Is there a dark side to bluetooth? And we're looking into a story that concerns homeworkers and the minimum wage.
If you've got a story we should be covering drop us a line.
At least I think he's talking about . Have a listen and if you're any the wiser - share what you.
Every week we ask an interesting person to tell us their favourite websites. talks about a some of the sites he's bookmarked - .
Irvine Welsh picks:
Are YOU going to send us your diary entry for Saturday 9th August, 2008?
Tomorrow George Orwell's - which he began to keep exactly 70 years ago - will be published as a daily blog. iPM is using it as an excuse to nose into your Saturday.
We'll post tomorrow and you can either add your entry in the comments section, or post on your own blog (or YouTube, Twitter, etc) and add the link. Tagging it 'ipmdiary' is a good idea.
I've had an actor in to voice some of Orwell's words. For inspirational purposes only, I thought I'd give you a sneak preview...
ALSO, hands up, I messed up on the flags on food packets story.
As Sid has pointed out, Saltire is the flag connected to Scotland, is a village in Yorkshire. It sits on the River Aire and is named after Sir Titus Salt. There are worse name combinations, I suppose. Some that might hold the risk of even worse spelling mistakes.
Sainsbury's has responded to the flagged food enquiries. Tom_Harrop asked iPM why the supermarket puts the Saltaire on Scottish food, while a Union Flag features on the packaging of produce from say, Herefordshire.
Sainsbury's says:
Thank you for bringing Mr Harrop's concerns on labelling to our attention. As it happens it couldn't be more timely: where food comes from is higher on the customer agenda than ever before, and at Sainsbury's we go to great lengths to find suppliers all over the UK to satisfy customer demand for regionally produced food. We asked our customers their views on how we could clearly tell them where our food comes from - in Scotland they said that the Saltaire on packs would represent Scottish food, whilst in England they said that the Union Jack should represent products that come from England. We do listen to what customers tell us and we take note of Mr Harrop's comments.Also, iPM IS WATCHING YOU! Almost.
From Saturday George Orwell's will be published as a daily blog, each entry being released 70 years to the day since it was written. iPM has been given the first entry, which you can hear on the show - read out by a proper, paid actor. I can't give too much away, but George grabs something 2' 6'' long.
Your Saturday might not be nearly so eventful, but even so, iPM would like to read your diary entry for August 9th, 2008. Post them on the blog or entrust them to email.
If you're thinking of taking your baby to see The Dark Knight this weekend, it's probably best to ask any women in neighbouring seats: "Excuse me, are YOU Maura Crawley?"
I've recorded an interview with Maura and she is incensed that people should expose babies to movies. She admitted that she's on the verge of confronting parents and demanding that they explain themselves. POW! You've been warned.
Our doctor - while sympathising with parents - has backed up Maura. You're not being "negligent or cruel", he says, but get a baby-sitter. He predicts that in years to come 'parent and baby screenings' may be consigned to the same category as smoking over your child's cot. He does say some interesting things about sex scenes, though.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Gotham City, Chris is at a baby-friendly screening of The Dark Knight. He doesn't even want to see the film, and has slipped out to chase up another iPM story about muck.
Lots of stories suggested by you under production on iPM this week so many that we're wondering if we're going to have to put the programme on the Atkins diet. Here are a couple of the things we've been pondering:
The folks at got in touch with us about a show they were planning that would be a conversation between Harriet Harman MP, the police, a former offender and young men caught up in the violence that has troubled South London. We'll we helped them with some of the logistics, and on Saturday's programme we'll play a couple of excerpts from their show (They'll have the full broadcast and a panel discussion afterwards on Saturday which you can
Supermarket Sweep part II. A listener wanted to know about why the featured on supermarket food from Scotland but the Union Jack was used to represent food from England, and not St George's Cross. We should have an answer waiting for us in the tinned-goods aisle of the blog soon.
And remember our plea for information on ID card contracts and what might be the costs of cancelling the scheme in the event of a change in government? Well as stories often do, we're shifting the focus a bit following some information from anti-card campaigners If you have more to add on this get in touch.
Finally, following an email, we're doing a bit of journalistic muckraking...
Anything to add? Email or drop a note in comments
While Jen has been chasing down oddballs who bluetooth obscene messages to strangers, I've made some progress on the story about parents who take their babies to see blockbuster films.
Maura Crawley emailed to suggest that film-going parents are guilty of a form of "child abuse", putting their babies' hearing and emotional well-being at risk. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine has told iPM that there may be some grounds for concern and very young infants might be affected by films in ways that adults are yet to understand. Troubling?
A cinema chain has defended its screenings - explaining that volume and content are carefully monitored by cinema managers, in co-operation with parents. Repeat business suggests that parents are pleased with the service.
Also, our website favourites slot this week will showcase the net habits of a household name who admits that when reading about wilderness mauling incidents, he feels sympathy for the bear rather than the victim.
In April, Bena Roberts was on the Stansted Express at 6am heading into central London for a work event. She was rushing and heard the insistent bleeping on her phone.
She finally picked it up. Noticed it was a message, but thought nothing of it. Her bluetooth is always on - she works in the mobile phone industry and is used to being sent random stuff.
She accepted the message. It opened instantly - to an obscene text. She looked around the carriage filled with men and felt deeply uncomfortable. on her blog.
We're taking a look at , as it's known, and it's partner activity - . Drop us a line if this has happened to you or someone you know.
After a disastrous lasting innings, Marc Settle has tearfully relinquished the captaincy of iPM. I've been rushed in as caretaker. I'm thrilled and excited.
I'm struggling with the batting order for the next test. (Is that enough of the cricket analogy? Yes.)
You'll hear Harriet Harman, a policeman and . You can't stop that. As for the rest of the show, you can still nudge it in the right direction. We've started work on a few ideas. Can I run them by you?
BLUE JACK
Are people really being harassed by strangers on trains, who anonymously send obscene images and messages via bluetooth? We're in contact with a victim.
TWO LANE CRACKED TOP
A listener has emailed claiming to have driven along one of the world's most potholed public roads. It's in Surrey. Exaggeration, or a bone-shaking reality?
WHAT'S THE BEEF
Scots have been warned they may not be able to wave the Saltaire at the . On our blog Tom_Harrop complains that supermarkets slap the banner on Scottish produce, but use the Union flag on food from England. Odd? Interesting?
SCREAM TOO
The 12a classification of The Dark Knight has been called into question, but very young infants may see it anyway. An emailer has asked iPM to think about parent and baby screenings. Maura Crawley worries that the noise of blockbusters will harm young ears, and that the content might store up emotional problems for the future. I saw Deliverance, alone, when I was about seven and haven't been able to canoe the Cahulawassee River or pick up a banjo since.
So how did we do? Like the stories we covered? Wondered what we could possibly be thinking?
Drop us a line if there's something you think we should cover or interesting links, websites and tales you've come across online that, frankly, everyone ought to know about.
Comment on the blog, email us, .
Need some inspiration? Have a listen to last week's show.
Those of you who gathered around the gently glowing valves of the wireless this Saturday, or indeed those of you currently enjoying the show online while dropping sandwich crumbs over your desk will have encountered the following items on this weeks multi-platform audio experience:
As ever iPM thrives on your ideas, which are (nearly) always better than ours. We meet every Tuesday to discuss your stories. We read every email and blog comment, even if we can't use all of them.
What's wrong with you? We're paid to enjoy it. If you enjoyed it half as much as us then maybe you should be working with us.
More importantly...have you got something we should know about ID cards, John Cleese's dinner parties or where we can buy cheap food?
Suggest a story is on your right.
DID YOU MISS THE SHOW or is there something you want to hear again? Click here.
Each week on iPM we peer metaphorically over the shoulder of someone famous, to find out which websites and blogs they really can't live without.
We've had such luminaries as the illusionist Derren Brown, the hollywood actress Mia Farrow and the writer and comedian Armando Ianucci.
This week, it's comedy legend John Cleese:
His favourites were:
And our thanks to podcaster for helping get John Cleese "into the can".
Now you know here at iPM we love maps. Crime maps, credit crunch maps, street view maps - but it's hard to think of a more useful purpose for an online map - than helping to prevent people dying from malaria.
Step forward the .
It's a global map of the disease which shows where infection rates are increasing and what are the best methods of reducing infection in different areas.
Scientists at Oxford University and the Malaria Public Health and Epidemiology Group in Kenya have gathered data from field scientists across the world, and members of the public can now access it.
The Malaria Atlas Project is led by Professor Bob Snow. He spoke to iPM about why the map's important and how it will be used:
But the story doesn't end there. We found out about the map because of a workshop at the in London.
ran a session looking for technical input. He wants to use social networking tools to develop an online community of the scientists.
Sean's a close family friend of Prof Snow, and, working in the communications industry - he's wondering if the Atlas Project could work even better, if the scientists were able to upload their own data and have it published in real time.
You can contact Sean via the if you want to know more.
UPDATE: Have been sent a link to - a fascinating map which aggregates data from different sources to offer a current view on the global state of infectious diseases. Thanks Kyren.
Slugs, stag-beetles and sloe-gin recipes. Not the first things that spring to mind when thinking of masterful political writer George Orwell.
It was announced this week that are going to be blogged daily, 70 years after they were first written. More on the which gives the impression we may see a different side to him.
Orwell's diary starts on Saturday 9 August and to mark the moment we'd like to invite you to write or blog a diary entry for Saturday the 9th.
We'll post on the 9th and you can either add your entry in the comments section, or post on your own blog (or YouTube, Twitter, etc) and add the link. You can also tag it 'ipmdiary' if you like. We'll post the details again next week, but thought we'd plant the idea...
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