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Here's a question: "Did social media kill the bailout bill"? We want you to help us try and answer this on Saturday's broadcast when we'll tell the story of the online anti-bailout movement. Please email us or leave a comment on this post with your ideas. Below are some early thoughts:

Congress "overwhelmed". Look at this screen grab from a popular .

100 people a minute were attempting to contact Congress over the bailout. The House website

Spontaneous or orchestrated?. Whether the calls and emails were mostly a reflection of spontaneous public sentiment or an orchestrated campaign is harder judge. Harder still to calculate the impact of the web. There are dedicated anti-bailout sites like and . This quote from the man behind (via the ) is illuminating

"We're going to phone and fax every member of Congress who voted against this to thank them. ... Everyone who voted to pass this bill, we're going to actively organize to oust them."

Prominent bloggers may have energized anti-bailout sentiment. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin's post, "" was the 9th most linked to blog post on Monday The blog urged people to

and while it shows that an increasing number of other bloggers were urging their readers to, "call-email-write to your representative", the absolute numbers were low.

These are just early thoughts. There are many questions - we're hoping you'll help us find some of the answers.

UPDATE: The bill has passed second go round. Having looked further into this a highly orchestrated campaign seems unlikely though blogs may have encouraged people to contact their congressmen. There's - we'll post more on the blog in the next couple of days.

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Understandably, given , you might be . So here's one suggestion we are following up that might make you feel a little . If you can park the idea that the current turmoil is part of a vast jewish conspiracy ( and I think you can ) then we still left with the fact that what happens matters a great deal to us .

So, assuming you are to vote in but remain keen cast your vote for or and make your voice heard, then you can, , and . Remember it's .

UPDATE: In the player below Daniel Franklin of the and Bragi Thor of Iftheworldcouldvote talk about their projects. The interviews were recorded over a week ago so check the web for the latest figures on the progress of both global votes.

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Yikes it's October already, cue Pat Kilbride singing "This October Song". At the moment the news agenda is a bare ruined choir, so please send in your ideas for what we might feature.

Your suggestions have steered us towards poems and Grüne Punkts, all you have to do is leave a comment, or send an email - we'll even take letters and wax tablets written in cuneiform*

And if you want to know what the picture above is all about you'll have to listen to the podcast.

*only tablets where a translation is provided and postage paid will be accepted.

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A big hearty welcome to Rory Cellan-Jones who, to use the Hollywood term, "helmed" iPM this week. On the prog and on the pod you will hear:

• Lawyers, ministers and data campaigners debate the merits of putting court records online.


• One man, Rory, and his dog, in the company of a famous Cat, explore the worlds of YouTube and music rights.


• Jen wanted to know if you were experiencing a , and I urged you to tell us what you think of vouchers for home internet access


• And should the internet bookmark replace the footnote?

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worries that TV news is becoming a little too like this satire from Mitchell and Webb:

Speaking to the , he warned of the "dangerous" tendency of TV, "to mimic the user-generated, it's-your-view, here's-my-blog feel of much of the internet, particularly in current affairs and news."

But the media aren't the only ones asking, "what do you think?". E-democracy is very and the government is also keen that you should "interact" with them. Here's what Gordon Brown says on the section of the Number 10 website:

The new Number10 TV channel will provide a wealth of video material, photos will be updated quickly to the Number 10 Flickr channel, and we'll also be posting frequent messages through Twitter to keep you in touch with my day to day activities.

Most importantly, I want to hear what you have to say about the issues facing our country today. Our YouTube video channel now has a feature called 'Ask the PM', giving you the chance to post video questions to me on a regular basis.

So the media want your views, the government wants your views, and we have to ask, "What do you reckon?"

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In the week that saw their own digital music service and with - it seems everyone wants a slice of the and pie.

But who owns what and how musicians should get paid for their music played online and digital downloads remains unresolved.

Our presenter this week, Rory Cellan-Jones, had his own run-in with over music copyright which lead to an interview with their owners - Google.

Director of Video Partnership's at Google, Patrick Walker, explains how he tracked Rory down...

We invited author of The Pirate's Dilemma, and Head of Music at Last.FM, , to give their views on the current health of the music industry.

But the discussion doen't end there. We'd like to hear from you if you've been contacted by YouTube/Google, if you work in the industry - as part of a big label or as an independent musician, or have some insight into this.

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It is no exaggeration to say is both and knows how to

He is the recently retired at , London, and is the President of the . As Sue Lawley will tell you, he has a flair for both the and the . He wants his to much more than his text. His latest book is called . Gone are the pages of footnotes, instead a profusion of , as well as a Here's more about the index and the book:

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After Rory's run in with YouTube this week over his home vid - we're dipping our toe into this vast debate.

We're looking at the ideas and business models the UK music industry is coming up with in an attempt to develop legal services that still give music fans what they what.

According to a conducted for British Music Rights, 80% of those asked want a legal peer to peer service.

Let us know if you've some knowledge or experience in this field, have ideas on people we should talk to or your own solution on how the music industry can deal with this.

You may be interested to read about some of the debates they've been having at - an independent body who describes itself as 'a business development network for the UK music industry'.

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A computer with internet access is now as essential as a pen and paper in modern learning.

Education Minister .

As part of the , it's been that children ( in England ) from jobless and low income families will receive a .

The plan won warm applause from the party faithful, the hasn't been so .

UPDATE Ewan McIntosh sends this reaction:

Generally the reaction in education circles is hugely positive, since kids barely get any time on t'interweb in the classroom as it is. This is much-needed, and should be much applauded

Do you agree? Let us know.

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Jack Straw wants to put . He told the Labour Party conference,"I'm going to open up the justice system through the power of the internet, with online court records so anyone can see for themselves what happened when someone appears in the dock."

Perhaps the Justice Secretary was inspired by the . For example, there might be fewer fake £1 coins in circulation if the punishment was,:

Elizabeth Parker for coining, to be drawn upon a hurdle

The Old Bailey Online also reveals that, even in 1717, publishing court procedings could be a contentious activity.

James Read, Nath Mist , and John Applebee , Printers of the Weekly Journals, were summon'd by the Court, and reprimanded for presuming to print Abstracts of the Proceedings of the Court at the Sessions-House in the Old Bayley, and told, that if they did the like for the future, they should for such Contempt of the Court be proceeded against according to Law.

While the printed word has long been a problem for courts, the advent of broadcasting another, the internet poses new challenges. Speaking to Radio 4's Law in Action in February, the former Lord Chancellor, articles relating to high-profile court cases should be removed from online news archives because of the risk of prejudicing trials.

Of course one of the prejudicial things one might read in such online archives would be details of the accused previous convictions. Which brings us back to Jack Straw's proposal to reveal online, "what happened when someone appears in the dock". Would these records similarly present a risk of prejudice? If you have experience of the judicial system or expertise in this area we'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on this subject.

We've been gathering responses from the legal profession. In the player below you can hear Rory talk to Peter Lodder QC Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, and Ian Kelcey Chair of the Law Society Criminal Law Committee. Both are concerned about the risk of prejudice.

In the programme (and podcast) you'll hear what has to say (in essence they'll address these concerns as they proceed with the consultative process), but we thought it would be interesting to take a slightly wider view and look at how society may need to change in response to the wealth of data that like it or not is now available online. of the thinks that lawyers need to "Get with the programme"

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Bad news, I'm afraid. Eddie is away this week - polishing his Montenegran domain, no doubt - and I have been asked to fill his not insubstantial shoes.

Worse, I've been asked to come up with some ideas. So far, the only one to have cleared the editor's extremely elevated hurdle concerns my dog, YouTube, and Cat Stevens. Yes, it's a complex tale, which you can read about on the dot life technology blog. It involves me getting into trouble for using a track by Mr Stevens in a video of my dog, and ending up becoming an advertising billboard.

It has sparked a furious row on the blog about the rights and wrongs of copyright, with one reader chipping in with a tale of getting his knuckles rapped after putting his mobile phone video of a cricket match online.

It all raises so many questions. If I buy an album of 70s classics am I not free to use it as a soundtrack for my shaky home movies? Have the music companies at last found a way of making money from the internet? And why is my dog called Cabbage?

Do let us know if your taste in music has got you into trouble too.

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"Hi,

I was interested in your piece about .me extensions and web addresses using them.
In Iceland the web extender is .is (they spell their name 'Island'), so when I was in Reykjavik I was amused when passing their local sex shop (note the use of the word "passing"!) they had bagged the web address www.pen.is (photo of the shop attached). Someone pointed out to me that if you were to start up a rival sex shop elsewhere in town you could go for www.clitor.is.
Just thought I'd share that with you! :)
Best wishes
Eric Lund
Gillingham, Kent."

There's more of our domain name coverage here.

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Ideas from last week.

If there's something you think iPM should be cover, a discussion you want to hear or an individual you think we should interview - this is the space to share your ideas and knowledge.

The stories that make the iPM programme generally start out here - leave us a comment, or email us. All ideas welcome, even if just a hunch.

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The items covered in this week's iPM:

Creationism
In the week that saw Prof Michael Reiss resign from the Royal Society, we found our own local story on this and challenged ourselves to try and have a sensible discussion around creationism.

Our personal details in the hands of private companies?
The Government has new powers to share private information with a host of private companies. The powers are contained in the Serious Crime Act 2007, but the work that's being done on it is going on behind closed doors - there's no public consultation. Details on the blog.

Me, Me, Me
The nation of Montenegro has caused much excitement as people race to register websites ending in the newly minted .me domain. We spent the entire week distracted by inventing names and seeing which ones were still free, see Chris's post Awebsitebyanyotherna.me

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The media has worked itself into a frenzy over the director of education at the Royal Society in a row over creationism.

On iPM we're interested in that - but we're also interested in a row that has lead to another who worked for 9 months as an attendant at the Abington Park Museum.

At the end of after it emerged that a paragraph in some text accompanying a display about Charles Darwin had been covered over. The allegation from secularist groups was that this had happened . The protests attracted significant attention on line - not just the writer of Watchmen and V for Vendetta. You can hear Alan Moore talk about why he felt it important to participate, and his views on evolution and religion in the player below:

But some felt the story and that this perhaps wasn't the right battle for those opposing creationism to pick. The council maintain that the sign was covered up simply because of factual errors in the text. Here's what they told me.

In 2003, a member of the public complained about [...] the conflation of Genesis and the theory of evolution. The officer responsible agreed that the phrase was inaccurate and confusing but on strictly factual (as opposed to religious) grounds (i.e. Genesis, as presented in the bible, does NOT include a 'view on evolution'.) The complainant's personal beliefs had no bearing on the way the complaint was approached.

Solely on the basis that it was factualy incorrect, we agreed to correct the text.

The panel remained covered over for the next five years in the hope that additional funds would be made available that would enable it to be replaced.

But museum attendant Gary Arthur who first sparked the row wasn't happy with the council's version of events. While he accepts that the sign was inaccurate and he thinks that reflects badly on the museum, he believes the religious beliefs of the complainant were a factor in the decision to cover up the sign.

Well it was Louis Houston, a local resident who made the complaint back in 2003. He feels he's been subjected to criticism, and that his complaint was entirely legitimate. He does hold creationist views, which he is quite open about, you can hear those in the interview below.

The sign is no longer covered up as it has now been amended. You can see the original paragraph and the amended version below the fold. The last word on this case, goes to the leader of the council. Tony Woods: "Evolution is science, creation is faith. It is disappointing that various groups jumped on a minor factual error in a relatively old museum display to promote their own views."

There's no denying that, as in the Reiss resignation, this has been an issue where passions ran high. So we decided to bring together Reverend Professor Alister McGrath, a theologian and scientist at King's College London, and Professor Christopher Higgins, a molecular biologist and geneticist who strongly agrees with the Royal Society decision over Prof Reiss's resignation. Can there be meaningful dialogue between scientists and creationists over the subject of evolution?

Read the rest of this entry

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Barely a without the revelation that someone, somewhere has reams of . It's a subject that causes and political embarrassment. Yet, despite who gets to share what, iPM has been looking at fresh concerns that information about us is being shared, more widely and without proper safeguards.

We are grateful to the from bringing this to our attention. It concerns a provsion within the that allows our personal, financial and medical records with the in effort to fight fraud. For it's a

A Ö÷²¥´óÐã Office spokesperson told iPM:

"Fraud costs the UK at least £13.9bn a year. It is in all our interests to prevent it. We believe that the data sharing provisions under the Serious Crime Act 2007 will help the public sector to ensure that taxpayer's money is not taken out of the system fraudulently without infringing the rights of the individual. All the requirements of the Data Protection Act will continue to apply".

Eddie has been speaking to Ben Summers from the and

is a solicitor advocate based in Leeds and a former legal adviser to .

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Love.me, hate.me, couldntgivetwofigsabout.me? Over the summer the nation of Montenegro caused a flutter of excitement online as people raced to register websites ending in the newly minted .me domain

While initial offerings went to Monetengrans clearly the bulk of the names were going to people in the US looking for a shiny new name for their business, protecting an existing brand or looking to snap up a valuable web address.

Companies will pay millions for the right address. And where there's money inevitably there is litigation. There are protracted legal disputes with and (how many o's in variants of ). And then there are the amusing tussles over a name that might legitimately belong to two different people (Remember )

But the Domain Industry is big business. Take a look at this recent set of numbers from a , and you'll see even something as virtuous as recycle.co.uk can attract a hefty premium.

So what of .me? Well our best efforts at coming up with a clever unregistered domain that would allow us to retire to a private island came to nothing: volu.me (gone), teati.me (gone), chro.me (gone) etc. etc. etc.

On this week's programme we'll have a look at the chequered history of national domain names from the Federated States of Micronesia (think last.fm) to and the slightly rude, in some languages, .nu domain.

And we're in the market for puntastic domain names too. Do you own a web address that you think might be your road to riches? A favourite clever web address or do you have a good .me pun you don't mind sharing with the world? Drop us a note.

UPDATE: We ran your naming suggestions (see comments below) past Nora Nanayakkara, who trades in domain names for Sedo. She's on Saturday's iPM - but this is the full unedited interview. Here are her thoughts on what makes a top-selling website name and how much popular domains go for these days...

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This is how it looks so far at this point in the week in our stylish but not-quite-kitsch Ö÷²¥´óÐã scripting software.

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A photo of a canal and bicycle, the imaginative and pre-watershed friendly way to illustrate a post about Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is the host city for IBC 2008, a conference showcasing broadcast technology, that apparently attracts over 40,000 visitors. On Friday I delivered a short presentation about iPM and the stories our .

After the talk I did take a couple of hours to tour round the conference floor. These things are always compared to football pitches, but I was much smaller the last time I played football, so lets just say it was very big and I was very tired, with a thumping headache by the time I passed the n'th booth with an epilepsy inducing giant promotional plasma screen display.

The exhibition floor was dominated by companies promoting new bits of TV wizardry. We had (see the pimples, on the pimples of your favourite stars), High Frame-rate TV from and for those of you who want to be able to see everyone's bad side. Unfortunately none of these important, but highly visual, breakthroughs translate into radio very well (for those of you listening in black and white etc.) so it was with some pleasure that I stumbled upon a booth promoting a new kind of microphone that may, just may change the way footballers behave. Thanks to a few spare 3.5mm cables and the line-in socket on my portable recorder you can hear the newfangled super-giant-microphone in action below:

As a footnote, the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones was in Amsterdam too finding out what we can learn from Dutch high-speed fibre, you can read about that here. Perhaps the next time we ask you to test your broadband speed the results will be more encouraging

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We've covered the concerns of amateur photographers about what they feel is heavy-handed policing. Professional photographers are also unhappy with their treatment by the police. The on their behalf, and now they've released this video:

More on .

We focused on amateur photographers in our earlier piece, while the NUJ, as befits a union, are concerned with professionals, makes the connection:

If professional photographers, who regularly document political demonstrations and protests feel intimidated, then what about the "chilling effect" on the freedom of members of the public who might try to snap a picture on their mobile phone or digital camera?

Indeed it would be an interesting experiment to see how "" projects like might fare in the UK.

Back in April, iPM heard from the Labour MP Austin Mitchell who had put down which specifically addressed amateur photographers. It urges:

...the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers to agree on a photography code for the information of officers on the ground, setting out the public's right to photograph public places thus allowing photographers to enjoy their hobby without officious interference or unjustified suspicion.

There is already an ACPO code , which clearly sets out the rights of the media, but there's a growing number of photographers who operate somewhere between the hobbyist of Mitchell's EDM and professionals represented by the NUJ. Quite what their status should be is an open question, but an important one.

If you've a thought on this do email - the subject is on our list of ideas under consideration for Saturday's show

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Your ideas from last week.

Pick up on one of those you find interesting, leave us a comment or drop us an email if you there's something you'd like to hear iPM cover. All thoughts and ideas very welcome, even if just a seemingly small, simple idea.

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The items we featured in Saturday's iPM

Tiredness kills
We looked at the dangers of sleep apnoea and driving.

Junior Dr Row
Debate online over medical message-board post

MRSA
We heard from a listener, Colin Smith, who'd trialled an invention aimed at tackling MRSA. And an update on current progress tackling super-bugs from

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iPM has been looking at a story that's causing much concern among doctors. The row involves the suspension of a junior doctor over comments made on , which, it's claimed insulted another doctor. Specifically, . She is Director for Health and Work for , a and figure.

The has the details, and reports that:

The incident has already created a minor celebrity status for the Inverness trainee, who is known only as Dr Scot Junior on web-blogs and other internet forums.

That's certainly the case with a host of medical blogs weighing in on the issue, including , , and the blog
For more on this, Eddie has been speaking to from

UPDATE: In his response Tim urges people to think before posting online. The concern of many bloggers is that the thought passing through the mind of a doctor about to post to a forum may not be, "unprofessional language may get me in trouble" but, "criticising senior figures may get me in trouble". It's why the debate around the issue, while partially about the proportionality of the action taken against the doctor in question, has also been about the ability of doctors to criticise those in charge of their profession. Remedy UK

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At 8.35am on 8 August 2006, 25-year-old Toby Tweddell was waiting in a traffic queue on his way to work in Merseyside. Moments later an articulated lorry collided with a series of vehicles and his car was shunted forward under the flatbed of a Ford Transit pick-up.

So great was the damage to his car, it took an hour for rescue services to release Toby from the car. He died five hours later in the operating theatre.

The lorry driver, 54-year-old Colin Wrighton, had fallen asleep at the wheel. But on 5 August 2008, the coroner returned a verdict of Accidental Death rather than Unlawful Killing. This is because Mr Wrighton suffers from - which was undiagnosed at the time of the accident.

Following the inquest, the coroner took an usual step and issued a to the Lord Chancellor, calling for changes in the way sleep apnoea amongst lorry drivers is dealt with.

Toby's uncle, Seb Schmoller, wrote to iPM inviting us to investigate. You can read the full story and coroner's report on .

Thanks for the emails and ideas you've sent in about sleep apnoea after we mentioned it on the programme. All thoughts are very welcome - leave a comment on the blog, or drop us a line.

On this week's iPM, we'll be talking to Toby's parents and also to the lorry driver, Colin Wrighton, and considering whether changes need to be made.

Our extended inteviews are available here. Click "more" to hear from other contributors.

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Remember we reported back in April concerns over housing benefit changes? reports that:

More than 63,000 private tenants faced benefit cuts after the Rent Service drew up 152 new 'localities' to determine housing benefit rates.

The magazine reports, some councils are struggling to make up the shortfall between housing benefit, funded by the Department For Work and Pensions, and rent

Now legal challenges are being mooted, following a successful court challenge. More on that, again from .

We'd be interested in hearing from you if you've been affected by these changes.

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It's been a while...but quick screengrab of our running order as it stands if you fancy a nosy.

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J K Rowling has won her case against the publishers of a planned book.

A judge says "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling has won her claim that a fan violated her copyright with his plans to publish a Potter encyclopedia.

We reported earlier in the year on Rowling's action against the publishers of the book, based on The Harry Potter Lexicon. I interviewed in April the interview is below.

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Thought not. I made it up. I realise I'm on tricky territory here what with the whole Ö÷²¥´óÐã editorial guidelines thing that goes on around here.

But stay with me because this is about internet rumours. They're flying faster and thicker than ever. Campaigns have always had to deal with smears, but now the buzz around an untrue rumour can quickly build to a level where campaigns are faced with an acute dilemma.

Either they respond and publicise the rumour, or ignore it and let the online gossip mill spin unhindered. Sarah Palin has recently been the focus of several untrue rumours, as has Barak Obama.

We spoke to responsible for Bush-Cheney 2004 internet campaigns and , who ran Howard Dean's online campaign in 2004.

They talk about the new challenges of doing politics and tackling the rumour mill. This is the version that went out on iPM's programme last Saturday.

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A snapshot of your ideas from last week...looking to follow some of these up.

As mentioned on the programme, we're thinking of doing a story on sleep apnoea and the high numbers of accidents believed to be caused by drivers falling asleep at the wheel. Leave us a comment or drop us a line if you have something to add.

All comments, ideas and especially new stories to investigate very welcome.

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The items we covered in this week's iPM:

Examination body axe knife poem
Carol Ann Duffy's poem, Education for Leisure, has been removed from the English GCSE syllabus.

Politics and the blog rumor mill
News and rumour is travelling faster then ever across the net, forcing the main US presidential campaigns to respond to gossip they might previously have ignored. What are the political realities of this new environment?

We heard from responsible for Bush-Cheney 2004 internet campaigns and , who ran Howard Dean's internet campaign in 2004.

The banality of heroism
, the psychologist who made his name in the Stanford Prison Experiment has turned his attention to heroism.

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Are Olympic athletes really heroes? That's how they were described in news reports, but some of you who emailed PM and iPM disagreed.

is of a similar mind. You can hear his views in the player below.

Dr Zimbardo made his name with the , one of a number of psychological studies which have indicated the potential for ordinary people to do bad things. Now Zimbardo's investigating the potential of ordinary people to become heroes. As part of that he's conducting some online research. You can find out

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You've probably read the flurry of press coverage the followed our earlier blog post and the subsequent article in Ö÷²¥´óÐã News Online. To recap, exam board AQA removed a poem, Education for Leisure, from a GCSE anthology because of concerns over knife crime.

The Guardian moves the story on with . A poem writen by Carol Ann Duffy in reply to those who called for Education for Leisure to be removed from the AQA GCSE Anthology. (Invigilator Pat Schofield's complaint triggered the poem's removal), Duffy opens with, "You must prepare your bosom for his knife, said Portia to Antonio in which of Shakespeare's Comedies? ", and continues with a series of questions inviting the reader to remember that there are stabbings and murders aplenty in Shakespeare's work (which remains part of the curriculum).

As a special treat for iPM blog readers, some post-GCSE students from Southwark College kindly agreed to act out scenes from Shakespeare containing elements of what I suppose we can call "knife crime". We recorded these on Thursday, and because of time constraints we weren't able to feature them on the show, but the scenes, first from MacBeth, then Romeo and Juliet, do answer some of the questions posed in Duffy's second poem.

In iPM tonight, for context, you'll hear Education for Leisure, the original poem by Carol Ann Duffy at the centre of the row, beautifully read by iPM'er Ruby Wright. If you miss the broadcast you can read it below:

Education for Leisure

Today I am going to kill something. Anything.
I have had enough of being ignored and today
I am going to play God. It is an ordinary day,
a sort of grey with boredom stirring in the streets
I squash a fly against the window with my thumb.
We did that at school. Shakespeare. It was in
another language and now the fly is in another language.
I breathe out talent on the glass to write my name.
I am a genius. I could be anything at all, with half
the chance. But today I am going to change the world.
Something's world. The cat avoids me. The cat
knows I am a genius, and has hidden itself.
I pour the goldfish down the bog. I pull the chain.
I see that it is good. The budgie is panicking.
Once a fortnight, I walk the two miles into town
For signing on. They don't appreciate my autograph.
There is nothing left to kill. I dial the radio
and tell the man he's talking to a superstar.
He cuts me off. I get our bread-knife and go out.
The pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm.

`Education for Leisure' is taken from `Standing Female Nude' by Carol Ann Duffy published by Anvil Press Poetry in 1985

We covered the story thanks to an email from English teacher Becky Silver. In the player below you can hear her talk about her reaction to the news in the player below.

On the programme tonight you'll hear the views of Andrew Motion the Poet Laureate, Pat Schofield,and reactions from some young people in South London.

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though they've missed out the .

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UPDATE There's a , and . Education editor at News Online, Gary Eason, also points us to an , but one that didn't result in its removal from text books. How times have changed.

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The have removed a poem, Education for Leisure by , from the anthology studied by GCSE pupils. An iPM listener put us on to the story - here's the email:

Are you aware that one of the key poems taught at GCSE to thousands of Year
11 pupils, and included in their Anthology provided by one of the major exam boards, is to be axed because it makes reference to knife crime?

We put that to AQA, here's what they said:

Following concerns raised about this particular poem we have decided to remove it from our anthology from the start of the coming academic year (2008/9). We are writing to centres to inform them of our decision and advise them to destroy their current copies of the anthology: these will be replaced with new anthologies, with the poem removed, for all cohorts beginning their course of study in September 08. Candidates who are half way through their course will be able to continue studying the poem for the 2009 examination.

The decision to withdraw the poem was not taken lightly and only after due consideration of the issues involved. We believe the decision underlines the often difficult balance that exists between encouraging and facilitating young people to think critically about difficult but important topics and the need to do this in a way which is sensitive to social issues and public concern.

Why did the poem raise public concern? Perhaps lines like these:

Today I am going to kill something. Anything.
I have had enough of being ignored and today
I am going to play God...

.... I get our bread-knife and go out.
The pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm.

The poem references King Lear ( "as flies to wanton boys") and there are certainly plenty of sensitive social issues in Shakespeare. MacBeth, to pick the most obvious example from a long list, was a dab hand at knife crime. So can we, should we, expunge allusions to knife crime, even vague allusions as in this poem, from school anthologies?

Well back in 2005 in an unrelated discussion about a controversial poem, another listener wrote to us and said of Education for Leisure:

What sort of "literature" is this for 15 year olds to be asked to "study" for GCSE??

But others take a very different view, as you can read where the decision was widely ridiculed.

Maybe they'll get rid of 'Of Mice & Men' because of gun crime.

What do you think?

UPDATE: There's background to the complaint that triggered the removal of the poem . According to that article it suggests it followed a , Pat Schofield. The Rugby Advertiser reported that the AQA at the time of her initial campaign, in July, said,

"When taught sensitively it enables schools to explore the contemporary social context and the psychological context surrounding the narrator of the poem alongside its literary merits"

UPDATE II Nick Seaton, Chairman of the told us, "I'm not in favour of censorship but I think Education for Leisure is a cruel poem and doesn't deserve to be included in the AQA's anthology. When we've got so much magnificent poetry in the English language it seems wrong that this poem should be included. The poem is about irresponsible power over things and I can well imagine it will appeal to the baser instincts of some people. Education should be about lifting spirits. I don't think this poem has anything to recommend it."

UPDATE III Frankie asks about posting the whole poem online. We'd like to do that but while it can be easily found on the net, there are rights issues associated with posting it entire - we're working on them.

UPDATE IV Peter Strauss (Carol Ann Duffy's Literary Agent) told us: "This poem is pro education and anti violence. It is not glorifying violence in any way. Carol Ann Duffy is a vocational poet for the young. She gets children fired up about language and verse. She talks to more schoolchildren than I've ever met. She's encouraged more people to have a love of words and a love of education than anyone else I know."

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Interesting report into the possible cost of cancelling Fujitsu's 1bn contract to be the local service provider for . More analysis

Remember we wondered what kind of cancellation clauses might need to be written into the big contracts for the National Identity Card Scheme. We're still interested in finding out more about that, if you know something do get in touch.

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The have been very helpful in our investigation into driving and old age. Drivers, older drivers included, are meant to inform the DVLA if they are medically unfit to drive, if they don't do this doctors may go directly to agency.

So how many elderly drivers do tell the DVLA they are unfit to drive? Well today the agency sent me the stats for last year:

Drivers aged 80 and over who have had their entitlement revoked/ refused between July 2007 and July 2008 because of notification from either a GP or Consultant

Female 24
Male 60

Here are the figures for those who informed the DVLA themselves of their inability to drive safely on medical grounds, via "Self Declaration":

Female 422
Male 1447

There are, according to the DVLA, over 700,000 people aged over 80 with an entitlement to drive.

Perhaps the key statistic we learned in the programme, which I hadn't seen cited elsewhere, was provided by former Transport Minister Steven Ladyman MP; he said that if you look at the accidents per 100million miles driven, "people once they reach the age of 75 are as dangerous, on average, as newly qualified 17 year-old drivers" This is arguably a better reflection of the real risks faced by older drivers than other more frequently sited statistics which don't adjust for distance travelled. This would also explain difficulties with

Update: Doing a bit of digging the have been around a while, the Times reported that : "Department of Transport statistics show that drivers over the age of 80 have more accidents per mile than any other age group."

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Remember our coverage of The Green Dot? Now the Telegraph .

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