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Are you ? Did you avidly watch , and and are wondering who sparks children's curiousity in science today?

An international study known as doesn't look hopeful for the UK's young scientists. It ranks the quality of science teaching in British schools in 14th place, 10 places lower that the last time a similar survey took place in 2000.

We're hoping to talk to Director of Education at the Royal Society and Professor of Science Education about the study.

But perhaps the internet offers a solution to children's declining interest in science. iPM listener and science communicator, Sharon Colpman, recommended we look at - a website that makes creative films of science demonstrations.

On Saturday's programme, we'll be speaking to the website's founder Jonathan Sanderson and asking him how the web can help shape the scientists of the future.

Jonathan also suggested his top science links:
is great. American, costs money, but crammed with good stuff.

is one of the best online resources. It's actually a mailing list which is sort of self-help (therapy?) for people doing informal science education in science centres and beyond.

, and (especially the ) are all fantastic.

I'm also a big fan of

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Chris Vallance is Mr Blog on iPM, bringing the programme his round-up of the best of the internet.

Whether it's a blog based in Britain or a website from Washington, he has his finger on the keyboard.

How do you think he knows so much about what's out there in cyberspace?

We suspect that his desk might give a clue...

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Before the case of , there'd have been little reason for even us techno-geeks at iPM to be aware of many blogs out of Sudan or blogs written by Sudanese ex-pats.

But in the last 48 hours or so, I've been reading a range of blogs - the majority of which have been very critical of the decision to jail the teacher from Liverpool for 15 days after she named a teddy bear Muhammed.

Here's a selection of links to Sudanese blogs - if you've come across any others, tell iPM about them in the comments section.

and for a little light relief...

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trained as a mechanical engineer and grew up with churchgoing Lutheran parents in northern Indiana. He started the world's first online dating site, WebPersonals, in the 1990's - sold it for a mint and currently owns (probably not suitably for work). It's now one of the most popular websites in the world. According to , its global popularity ranking is 69 (you couldn't make it up).

Conru's business is, we hear, the subject of a . Proof, if proof were needed, that sex and the internet are inextricably linked.

Now, conventional wisdom has it that porn is the great innovator - but there's evidence to suggest for those in the business of selling sex online. So, where next?

Your thoughts welcome. From California we'll be speaking to blogger and author of , . And to Jerry Barnett - MD of and part of the UK's .

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Observant readers of last weeks running order will have noted several items that didn't make it to air, squeezed out by our late-developing NHS story.

Here's one of them, as scripted by Eddie:

...

The rough notes section on the blog is our ideas area. It's your area too and it was this post from Dan Bennett that led us down our next path. Dan asked:

Any chance of getting an interview with Ahmadinejad about writing and reading his ?!

It just so happens that for the first time in the best part of a year, the Iranian leader chose this week to bring us an update. He's says he has been overwhelmed by the response spending more time on it than he should and is grateful to those who have contributed. At one point he says "I even read the messages that start with the sentence " I know that the president is not going to read this but..."

And what about those comments? Here's a selection of what the President has been reading.

Sadly, the President of Iran is unable to join us - but assuming you're not the country's leader - what is it like to blog in a country like Iran? iPM has been speaking to Parastoo Dokouhaki (Pron: pa-ra-STOO Dor-koo-HAK-ee), who writes the blog .

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Greetings newsmakers. This is where the programme starts. All suggestions for this week's programme are very welcome. We will update this in the next 24 hours, posting up our ideas and those we have already had pushed our way.

Please treat this as your own space. It helps shapes what we do on the programme this Saturday. Who knows, this week we might have better luck trying to get the President of Iran on to talk about his blog. Comments can be posted below - or ping us an email ipm [at] bbc.co.uk. Thank you

In the mix so far:

Rupert: Is porn still driving technology on the web? Honest answer, I don't know. But let's not ignore the elephant in the room. At the moment I'm looking and ( both are safe folks ). And I'm still interested in finding an answer to What's the population of the UK? There's an update and a new interview on the blog.

Marc: A number of things have caught my eye, and your thoughts and comments are welcome. When iPM goes out on Saturday, it'll be . I'm thinking about how HIV and AIDS are explored online. Recent statistics show in the number of gay and bisexual men as well as heterosexuals in the UK being diagnosed with HIV.

It'll soon be time to wish a 'Happy 10th birthday' to www.bbc.co.uk - it began on 15 December 1997 . We plan to mark the occasion. We're nostalgically looking at . According to Wikipedia, the word weblog was on 17 December 1997 - so we might mark two 10th birthdays for the price of one.

And from Oakland, California - a city with one of the highest murder rates in the US this: It shows us the lives of those who've died, and allows friends and relatives of victims to honour them and share their experiences.

Chris: I like this. As part of the quest to find , many are . Can the new media revive a dead language?

George: Russian hackers – alleged to have ties to the Kremlin – have been accused of waging cyber-warfare on targets as varied as the , the and the . In recent months the websites of Russian opposition groups and media outlets critical of Putin have been attacked. On the eve of elections to the State Duma - we take a look at Russia's .

And the striking American writers have resumed negotiations with TV and movie producers. We hope to speak to renowned writer :

Jenny: How do you encourage young people's curiousity in science? I'm looking at , a website that makes creative films of science demonstrations. Thanks to iPM listener Sharon Colpman for the recommendation.

I'm also listening to , set up by an American college to 'rediscover the voices of real people' that they feel is missing from the media's coverage of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And have you heard of ? It's an American news gathering experiment where reporters use internet tools - like social networking websites - to help them cover stories. Is this something we could do in the UK?

If you've thoughts about these or other stories you'd like us to cover, leave a comment or email iPM.

View our list of del.icio.us links to see other websites catching our attention:

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Let me return to the theme of an earlier post. From the Office for National Statistics we are being told the . The has estimated what the population would be if there were high fertility rates, high life expectancy and high migration. The total population of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland under those circumstances would be just under 110 million in the year 2081. These figures are based on the understanding that the current UK population is 60 million.

We've heard earler that some think the 60 million figure is out and by a considerable marginal. And it was thanks to one comment from John that led us to our next guest. John thinks the only way to be cerrtain about how many people live in the UK is to move away from a census system and establish a . They have one in Finland. Eddie has been speaking to the man in charge of the country's population register - Hannu Luntiala:

Could it work here? I suspect not everyone would be happy being given a number at birth but, as with most things Finnish, their system is worth a closer look.

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, a project backed by the Angolan government, hopes to raise awareness of the continuing suffering caused by landmines in the country. The culmination of the project will be a beauty pageant starring women injured by landmines. While a number of it's also been controversial with some feeling that the event is

We heard a little from the creator of the Miss Landmine project Morten Traavick on the programme, but due to time constraints it was a very short edit of the interview that focused on the controversy. Here. with only a few small changes, is the full interview which goes into more detail about the lives of the participants and the aims and background to the project:

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The stories and interviewees in today's programme.

The security of NHS data
This week we made investigations into the security of our medical records on the NHS database and interviewed a security consultant who'd looked at the NHS system in detail.

As a result we spoke to Helen Wilkinson from concerning recent changes on how personal data is transferred around the UK.

The Iraq Awakenings group
The Last of Iraqi's blog post on the Awakenings group who've reclaimed their suburb in Baghdad, formerly under the control of Al Quaeda. Another Iraqi blogger, Salam Adil, has to the Awakenings movement.

We also spoke to the Baghdad-based reporter Amit Paley from The Washington Post who's written that .

The US Military's Chief spokesperson responded.

My Favourites
Award-winning British actor Jonathan Pryce told us his favourite websites.

Blogging politicians
The problem with politicians on the internet. Marc blogged on this topic earlier in the week and we recorded a discussion between blogging Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone and Phil Hendren, who blogs as Dizzy Thinks.

Landmine beauties
The controversial beauty pageant.

Crowdsourcing the new England manager
This idea came from . More about .

The stories that didn't make it this week
Half a Shandy - comments from who reported that it may be against the law to get drunk in Birmingham pubs this Christmas - a story we may pick up again nearer the festive period.

Blogging from Iran - try as we might, we didn't get Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, next time...

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Every week on iPM we ask someone to guide us through their internet favourites. They're the handful of websites or blogs they'd read every day, even if they were stranded on a desert island with nothing but a solar-powered laptop.

The actor has appeared in since his breakthrough role in Terry Gilliam's Brazil in 1985. He's also a regular in the West End and on Broadway. He spoke to iPM about his favourites:

His choices are:

91Èȱ¬

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Latest version of our running order for Saturday's programme - it's changed quite a bit this week.

Here's how it looked earlier in the week

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One of the stories we said we'd be looking at this week was the issue of politicians and the internet.

We've just recorded a discussion between Lynne Featherstone, the blogging Liberal Democrat MP, and Phil Hendren, who blogs as "Dizzy Thinks".

You can hear the full version of their conversation with Eddie Mair here:

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Most bloggers try to post a new entry as often as they can - daily if possible - so the first entry in more than six months needs to be something special or from someone special to catch the eye of iPM.

We were alerted by Dan Bennett, in the comments section to this week's Rough Notes, that Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had posted this week for the first time in getting on for a year.

If you click on the image above, you can read what he's saying in his most recent post.

Dan's suggestion that we ought to get our own interview with President Ahmadinejad didn't get very far. Nor did our efforts to speak to other members of the .

So we turned our minds to the wider subject of blogging in Iran. How much freedom do bloggers there have? Are there restrictions on what can and can't be said?

We're going to speak to Parastoo Dokoohaki - she's been blogging both in English and Farsi for several years now. You can read her English language blog and hear her speaking to Eddie Mair on iPM at 5.30pm on Saturday.

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Earlier in the week we discussed fears that the Spine - the national electronic database planned for the NHS - could be insecure. Two thirds of family doctors have said they'll boycott it - and this before the saga of the missing CDs.

Dr David Everett is a security consultant at Micro Expert, who was commissioned by BT earlier this year to examine the security of the Spine. We asked him first for his thoughts on the Child Benefit data breach:

We'll be doing more on this for Saturday's programme, perhaps speaking to some doctors to find out their concerns over the new systems.

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One of Britain's most popular political bloggers is . He calls himself "a Conservative political anorak and an internet geek".

He blogged this week about the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, appearing on Diplomacy Island in - one of the internet's biggest "virtual worlds". Dizzy Think's entry though about David Miliband's efforts to engage with a wider audience.

The Liberal Democrat MP has also been musing this week about - and that got us thinking here at iPM about the progress made by politicians in using websites and blogs to further their cause and get their message across.

The prospect of directly engaging with the electorate, without going through the prism of the media, does seem to appeal across the political spectrum - but does it only work if it's done well?

The Conservatives have , Labour have on YouTube, while the Liberal Democrats have used to ask people to send in questions for the challengers for the party leadership.

Here's their Chief Executive Chris Rennard:

The way the Internet is used in the United States looks much more developed than here - take, as an example, this broadcast from the Republican Presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee.

How well do you think politicians in the UK have learned to use the Internet? Have they "got it"? Where is there interesting content on the web? Let us know in the comments section or send an email to ipm {at} bbc.co.uk

Update on Thursday at 5.30pm:

The editor of the Spectator magazine, Matthew D'Ancona, is appearing on the on Sunday at 1045pm, looking at the connection between the internet and politics. It's called "Power and the Web" - you can read more about it

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Chrissie Brady wrote on the blog recently:

Since Governments are so concerned about the environment, I am left wondering why motor sports have not been banned. I wonder what the carbon print of F1, Speedway, Indie Racing, TT racing etc is? Surely it is common sense to stop them, or are other governments also in the pay of F1?

Putting aside the sentiment of her last sentence, we thought it made a good subject for iPM to investigate.

It transpires that only a few weeks ago, the FIA - the governing body for motor sports - issued a , which will be discussed at this week's in Dresden.

has blogged about the while Wired noted earlier this month that the FIA agreed a . F1Fanatic thinks this is the .

The noted environmentalist has that sports like motor racing are incompatible with efforts to cut carbon emissions - a claim flatly denied by .

I'm still working to come up with some sort of figure for the actual carbon footprint of Motor Sports. Any thoughts and pointers are welcome in the comments section below.

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It's now the nineteenth day of the called by the the . The writers have 'downed pencils', refusing to write a word until they are paid more for internet re-use of their material. This is how the writers of the Daily Show 'reported' the strike from the picket line:

The is the body that negotiates on behalf of producers in the movie and television industry. Their president Nick Counter accused the WGA of using McCarthyite tactics after members were urged to report strike-breaking writers:

The WGA is using fear and intimidation to control its membership. Asking members to inform on each other and creating a blacklist of those who question the tactics of the WGA leadership is as unacceptable today as it was when the WGA opposed these tactics in the 1950s.

The Colbert Report's head writer mocks the AMPTP's position: "There's nowhere to put money in a computer!"

For iPM we tracked down Tim Carvell, a writer on The Daily Show who has been picketing in New York. Eddie Mair spoke to him on Friday:

The on Saturday that talks would resume between the AMPTP and the WGA meant that this didn't make it to the show that day. (We also had a lot of material for a 24 minute programme). That said, we might take another look at the strike this Saturday given that talks are due to resume the following day. Any suggestions for interesting guests welcome. The Letterman writers could be fun -- they've been from the picket line since the strike started.

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What next after the ? Well, how about ? The man in charge of setting up the NHS medical records database has said it -

could be targetted

and that when it comes to personal information -

you cannot stop the wicked doing wicked things

A shows that nearly two-thirds of family doctors plan to boycott the government's scheme to put NHS patient medical records on a national electronic database (called the NHS Spine).

has picked up on this, as has .

The eHealth Insider reports that the .

You can read more about the . And the government organisation who are behind it.

And I imagine the has been getting more traffic.

Also details security issues in the UK and covers what rights we have as patients.

Is a boycott a bad idea or simply the safe option? We'll bring you a voice from the inside soon. In the meantime, if there somone in particular you'd like to hear from on this debate, please let us know.

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Here's the first draft, we'll provide updates later in the week. As ever, your comments will determine what makes the final draft and what gets left out.

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This is where the programme starts. All suggestions for this week's programme very welcome. What follows is a mix of our ideas and those already pushed our way. Please treat this as your own space - it helps us shape what we do on air. A draft running order will follow. Comments can be posted below or email ipm [at] bbc.co.uk. Thanks

In the mix so far:

Marc: A couple of suggested stories from the blog to chase. First, an easy one. Dan Bennett ( comment 1 ) wants to hear from the - in particular talking about his . Nice. Then C Brady ( comment 12 ) wants to know if it's possible to calculate the carbon footprint for the motor sport industry? We'll have a go.

Also, why are British politicians so bad at using the web? Conservative blogger isn't convinced is the best use of the Foreign Secretary's time. It's not just the , or - the Lib Dems have got their own where you can - . Online hustings - but does any of it move you to engage or the at least react? If not, why not?

Chris: I briefly mentioned blog on last week's show. I've now spoken to him, so watch this space. To a rather different casualty of war and something called . Is this an appropriate subject for a beauty pageant? Sick or a serious attempt to raise awareness and challenge a stereotype?

George: Word reaches us that is in town. I'd like to hear from him - would you? Also, what's Egypt got against ? And on the subject of people worried about their work online - talks resume this weekend aimed at trying to resolve the . We've been speaking to the behind .

Jenny: Is it against the law to get drunk? As December nears it seems an apt question and one that's being taken up by the MP for Birmingham Yardley, . We've picked this up from - anyway if you live in the area you've all be invited out by your local MP for a pub crawl.

And who do you trust with your private data? Let's assume is not top of your list, how about the NHS? Doctors are poised to boycott the . I'm guessing the child benefit record debacle is bound to add grist to the mill of those (see and ) concerned about this new scheme. As either a patient or doctor are you happy that such important information is being held centrally? Let me know what you think.

So there you go for starters. If you've thoughts about these or other stories you'd like us to cover, email ipm or leave a comment.

View our list of del.icio.us links to see other websites catching our attention:

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Well our second show is complete - thanks to all who helped put it together - this is still very much a work in progress your thoughts are very welcome. Tonight we mentioned:

• Possible new legal worries for gardeners and the women of Colossus mentioned in the opener


• The biography of a planet - we looked at 6 billion others


• - can you build a smarter web


• Should there be testing for drivers of Mobility Scooters we pick up on a


• A story we hope to develop. A blogger visits an area in Iraq


• And the 2 billionth photo posted to Flickr


• Jean Michel Jarre picked his favourite websites


• And an artist who paints sound

You can . Click on these links to subscribe in itunes, Googlereader or My Yahoo or you can find the feed etc. here.

And as promised the longer version of our discussion on the governments consideration of tests for users mobility scooters. Allen Jones of the debated

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Every week on iPM we ask someone to guide us through their internet favourites. They're the handful of websites or blogs that they would read every day, even if they were stranded on a desert island with nothing but a solar-powered laptop.

This week, iPM's guest was the French musician and producer

Jean Michel Jarre's favourites were , a site called (be warned that the content might not be suitable for youngsters) and the website of the unorthodox American film producer .

We'd welcome your suggestions for future guests - let us know in the comments section below or by emailing ipm@bbc.co.uk with ideas for whose internet favourites you'd like to hear.

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You'll have read about the restoration of WWII code breaking . While that project grabbed the headlines, a report into the lives of the women who operated code breaking machines and computers concluded at about the same time.

iPM has had an early chance to hear from the authors of that report and the surviving Bletchley women they interviewed. It provides an important insight into the contribution of women to the early days of computing - a contribution that goes right back to arguably the . Worryingly in researching this piece we also discovered that the gender divide in IT is getting worse not better. Dr Jan Peters of the is one of the authors of the report, in the audio below she talks about the lives of the women at Bletchley

and also worked on the research. She talks about the current situation of women in the computer business, it's a worrying picture but the solution is far from clear.

UPDATE: There are some unpublished comments which for some reason are refusing to appear in the blog. If they don't appear soon I may personally go downstairs and hit the servers with a stick.

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has told iPM about their favourite bookmarks?

Here's a run-down of what they chose when they visited the studios of iPM - it's written in their very own hand-writing:

We'll reveal the identity of this star of stage and screen soon, and run the recording of their favourite bookmarks on a forthcoming iPM - but if you want to try to work out who it is, there are clues in the choices!

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First of all - sorry to all of you trying to post on the blog. Again, we are working hard to fix it. If you are having problems please send us an email: ipm@bbc.co.uk

So, things have changed, and quite a lot. This is how it's looking now,

And here's the first draft from earlier in the week:

Social lending quickly turned out to be nothing like a new version of the old Friendly Societies. Climate change, growing concern that if we did do it then we should go to town on it. Also not everyone convinced you can do art on the radio. I say tosh - so it's still in the running order.

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Jo Cobb is a gardener, a concerned gardener. Her horticultural know-how drew our attention to a story that could affect - well, all of us. Here's part of her email:

It seems that DEFRA are going to ban the growing and sale of plants like Cotoneaster, Turkey Oak and Holm Oak and if we grow these plants we could be prosecuted under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 with unlimited fines and 2 years imprisonment. Consultation runs out jan 2008.

I am a professional gardener and I grow all these beautiful plants. I just hope they will let me work in the prison garden when I'm locked up. Please find out what is going on for us.

DEFRA issued a last week. The consultation is now underway. But the devil is in the . What then for the future of , or ?

iPM has been speaking to someone who knows about these things. John Cushnie is part of the Gardeners' Question Time panel.

Here's the official line from DEFRA:

Plants such as the Cotoneaster, Turkey Oak and Holm Oak are being considered for inclusion in the updated list of species whose introduction into the wild without a licence should be made an offence - this would only affect the planting or causing of these species to grow in the wild.

These three species are not included in the second part of the consultation which considers banning the sale of 28 non-native species regarded as the most destructive. Non-native species that become invasive are considered the second greatest threat to worldwide wildlife and controlling their release into the wild is a key element of conserving our native wildlife.

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are adding the so-called to the beautiful game after purchased a majority stake in the club. 20,000 people paid Myfootballclub £35 to share in the running of the team. In the interview below Tim Glynne-Jones from the company explains the deal:

, with fans actually directing tactics during the game - they languish in Israel's sixth division.

While the jury is still out on crowdsourcing and football - The Wisdom of Crowds is gaining considerable currency in the business world. Don Tapscott is the and wrote the foreword to the book (a collaboratively written book on a similar theme) - he explains the idea behind the Wisdom of Crowds and how businesses are making use of the concept:

Beyond business law enforcement agencies are interested in the opportunities new technology presents for harnessing the power of the crowd. Today I was sent a link (thanks Clark!) pointing to this post from Dangerroom looking at the and an experiment in the crowdsourcing of border security - more from the :

Ordinary citizens may soon be able to help law enforcement officers fight crime along the border. Anyone with access to a computer and the Internet now can log onto https://www.texasborderwatch.com and view one of nine cameras placed at locations along the Texas-Mexico border.

And Canadian police have successfully . Over here local residents in - a TV channel that let them monitor local CCTV footage.

Is this an idea that should be taken further? What if anyone could watch a CCTV camera and report suspicious behaviour to the police? It's a powerful tool but civil liberties issues abound - . Can, and should, the investigation of crime be crowdsourced? In a sense it has been since the invention of the wanted poster - but modern technology raises difficult new issues. Your thoughts welcome.

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(Published 3 Nov 2007)
The coming week will be an important one for internet giant Yahoo. It stands accused of helping the Chinese government to identify a reporter sentenced to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets online.

Yahoo now face a accusing them of 'aiding and abetting torture' as well as a US Congressional at which CEO Jerry Yang is expected to face questions on the case.

China is an enticing prospect for internet firms. It's expected to overtake the US in the by 2009. But the country's suppression of free speech and blocking of the internet is proving to be an ethical minefield for companies hoping to establish themselves there, such as Yahoo, Google and MSN.

Last month, a US Congress panel to prevent American internet companies from cooperating with repressive regimes such as China. Meanwhile Yahoo (which no longer has a majority stake in Yahoo China after selling the firm to a Chinese company in 2005) says it's working "to develop a global code of conduct for operating in countries around the world, including China."

But what would an ethical code look like for companies operating in countries with such different levels of openness and free expression?

I spoke to Yan Sham-Shackleton, who writes , one of the most widely-read English-language blogs in China. She has first-hand experience of censorship, and says that foreign companies need to take responsibility for their actions in the country.

UPDATE 14/11: Yahoo has now out of court. Part of the deal is thought to include Yahoo agreeing to set up a fund to support other dissidents.

that brought the case, Yahoo decided to settle after the last week, in which it was criticised as "at best inexcusably negligent" and at worst "deceptive" for not having given full details to the panel in their earlier probe into the jailing of Shi Tao.

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Every industry has its once-a-year, back-slapping, - and it's no different for Blogs.

But whereas are heading towards their 80th ceremony and towards their 61st, the are comparatively in short trousers.

Only 63,000 votes were cast for its first awards back in when blogging was in its infancy - although it's good to see that its inaugural "Best Blog" winner is . In the awards, more than 500,000 votes were cast.

The overall winner was a blog we've already featured on iPM - - while the Best British Blog was awarded to .

Here are links to the best , the best and the best .

Many of the awards went to Americans - but 25 year old Adrian Sudbury, from Sheffield, won the section for the best

His blog tells the story of his battle with leukemia. We're planning to speak to him on the next iPM - but we want to know your recommended blogs.

Have you seen any blogs with great stories that more people should know about? Are there blogs you read on a daily basis? Have you come across really moving, thought-provoking blogs that you feel ought to have a wider audience?

Share with us what you know about the best blogs in the comments section below - and we could feature them on iPM in the future.

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Have you taken the the "Blog Readability Test"?

We have.

It's a page that finds out what level of education is required to understand your blog. So, we are not as bad as "Elementary", but not as good as "College". Our search for the best will go on. For the time being the verdict is - could do better.

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Rough notes and early story ideas. Feel free to comment on any of the below, or suggest your own. We're keen to hear your recommendations and who best to read and speak to. Comment below or email ipm [at] bbc.co.uk

In the mix so far:

Marc: I'm wondering if we're seeing And how you, Google and your local Town Hall can .

Chris: , developed at Bletchley Park to crack encoded German messages during World War II, returns to action on 15 November. It's the first time has been used since Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the destruction of the top-secret machine in 1945 following the Allied victory that it helped achieve. Who were the early computer pioneers? Why were most Many of them can you help us track down one of these female pioneers? UPDATE: Chris adds, thanks to for correcting this entry and for helping us track down a pioneer

I also like this from Japan. Tunes on your tarmac, could it happen here?

Rupert: Who's writing the best blogs? The blogging industry has been awarding gongs to the including top blog from Adrian Sudbury. Elsewhere, regarding population matters, I'm still looking for your help to find out the answer to this question.

George: Following a suggestion on the blog, I'll be taking a look at , the UK-based 'peer to peer bank'. Should traditional banks be worried about being cut out of the loop, now people can lend and borrow between themselves? For a couple of weeks now, has allowed users to browse one another's profiles in order to decide whether to trust someone with their money. Let's see how they're getting on.

And global warming is on the agenda this week, as the is set to release its Fourth Report. This will synthesise the findings of their previous three reports and make some concrete policy suggestions. By Saturday the report itself will no doubt have been covered and unpicked by numerous outlets, but what's happenning in the UK at a local level to meet the challenge of climate change? We could look . Other suggestions welcome.

Jenny: It's taken a while but this week we should speak to the people behind . And why are advertisers keen to muscle in on . In the words of Brian Potter - it's the future.

If you've thoughts about these or other stories you'd like us to cover, email ipm or leave a comment.

View our list of del.icio.us links to see other websites catching our attention:

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The internet might seem at times to be a mass of games, pornography and silly videos of a monkey on a bike.

But thankfully it's not all like that.

We were alerted to a site which helps make your local area a better place. No matter where you live in the country, you can use to let your local council know about problems like flytipping, potholes or noisy dogs.

From there, we were recommended the website of in London, which is widely held to be one of the best local authorities when it comes to "interactivity" with local residents. It's using what's known as a "mash-up" - combining data from more than one source - to get problems fixed in its local area much more quickly.

You can listen to interviews with both FixMyStreet and Redbridge council below - but we at iPM want to know the websites or blogs which you use to help make where you live a better place. Tell us about them in the comments section, or email ipm@bbc.co.uk

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Any ideas which famous female singer's voice this might represent?

Radio 4 listener, Philip Howell, emailed iPM suggesting we look at the work of who has . It's a neurological condition in which one sense is involuntarily translated into another, for example sounds being experienced as colours and vice versa.

This led me to an that makes connections between synesthesia and creativity. And about a young American boy with the condition.

I'm wondering what colour Radio 4 is and how Philippa would paint Eddie's voice?

UPDATE - Philippa brought her paint pots into the Radio 4 newsroom on Tuesday 13 November. She spoke to Eddie about her synesthesia and painted his voice (above).

She also painted an impression of our chattering voices at an iPM production meeting -

To give us the background to this condition we spoke to , Senior Psychology Lecturer at the University of Sussex, who tries to answer Lorna's question on how many people in the UK are thought to have synesthesia.

The Synesthesia Research Centre at the university has a Q&A on the condition and reveals .

There's also an called A journey to the center of your mind, on the Ted (Technology, Entertainment, Design) website. It is a broader speech about our minds, but includes synesthesia.

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Phew...first programme out.. now all we have to do is start back over again next week. The items and blogs we featured were:

• Should we be unafraid to mention Enoch Powell? George's list of links here


• Mr Bloggy I mentioned and waterboarding


• Pakistan from the perspect of Dr Awab Alvi of and


• A blogger with depression spoke about why he blogged


• Stephen Pinker Harvard Professor of Language told us about his favourite bookmarks


• And we had a discussion about the merits of the new Tube Map inspired by

You can also . Click on these links to subscribe in itunes, Googlereader or My Yahoo or you can download it here.

Thanks for all your comments, suggestions and ideas - they were invaluable. Keep them coming in.

UPDATE: We're having some teething troubles with the podcast, so it's currently not available to download. We're working on it, and in the meantime you can still listen to the program here

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Would you ever consider making your most private experiences public? Particularly if those experiences detailed your severe depression and stays in a psychiatric hospital?

There's a growing number of British people blogging about their mental health and finding support networks online. Earlier this week I spoke to the writer of . He talked frankly about his experiences of writing a blog which intimately details some of the darker periods of his life.

Broke talking on Saturday's iPM

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Whether or not waterboarding is a form of torture is a controversial topic in the US. The confirmation of the US attorney general Michael Mukasey was opposed by some Democratic Senators because he had failed to say whether . And the US congress has .

linked to a disturbing . Current is the global television network founded by Al Gore that gives young adults the opportunity to create and influence what airs on TV. In the video Kaj a former navy SEAL paid former military personnel to waterboard him. Here he talks about his experiences.

The UK version of Current.com launches November 19th. And Kaj's report can been seen on Current TV on channel 193 Sky and 155 Virgin Media.

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Every week we'll ask an interesting person to share their internet favourites. It's the handful of websites they'd read every day, even if they were - let's say utterly hypothetically - stranded on, say, a desert island... To kick it off, here's Harvard Professor of language, cognitive science and evolutionary psychology, Steven Pinker.

Steven Pinker's favourites were , , and . Suggestions welcome for future guests - let us know in the comments if there's someone you'd like to hear from.

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The blog is playing up and many are finding it hard to post. We're really sorry and we are trying to fix it as soon as possible.

In the meantime, you might have better luck sending us an email - ipm@bbc.co.uk

Update at 18.13: Good news - the blog is now working nicely again, so you can add your comments at the end of each entry as normal.

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Last week Nigel Hastilow was the Conservative Party's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis. Then he was forced to after refusing to take back comments he'd made in a newspaper about Enoch Powell. As he explains on his :

Amazing how powerful some names can be. Last Friday I mentioned Enoch Powell and suddenly all hell broke loose.

In an article supporting Tory leader David Cameron's remarks on how uncontrolled immigration would change the country, I mentioned that many people say "Enoch was right".

I have discovered that this is enough, still, 39 years after the controversial speech which undid him politically, to cause outrage.

The resignation sparked a great deal of debate, much of it focussing on whether David Cameron was right to have taken the tough line he did. But as the story rumbled on, a at the man whose name caused all the trouble. Peter Simmons emailed iPM to ask:

What exactly did Enoch Powell say? Lots of people seem to have a knee-jerk reaction to anyone who quotes him favourably, interpreting it as racist, but is this down to Johnny Speight making Alf Garnett a fan of Enoch, rather than an assessment of what he actually said?

As I remember it, Mr Powell warned against uncontrolled immigration because it would alter this country irrevocably and lead eventually to violence between separate communities. The country is certainly changed from 40 years ago, and what are we seeing now? Inter-community strife.

You can read the full text of the 'Rivers of Blood' speech . We asked Sunder Katwala, who about Powell's legacy on Comment is Free this week, to take part in a discussion with his biographer Simon Heffer, who put up a vigorous defence of Enoch in his

You can hear a shorter version of this on the programme tomorrow. This is the full, unedited discussion (12 minutes) but we'll probably run it on air at around four minutes or less.

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Here's how the programme is looking now: A couple of stories have fallen by the side, one has made it back from last week and - Enoch & Immigration - is a direct follow up to comments on the blog and emails to the programme. Of course, it is all still subject to change:

A reminder this is how it looked earlier this week:

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Rupert: Last week, we asked what makes good design? Has Harry Beck's design classic from 1933 been lost in a tangle of new lines and detailed information? We can now bring you a response from Transport for London's Group Design Manager.

TfL will publish its new tube map this Sunday - November 11th. But thanks to and others, we've got wind of it early and it's attracting plenty of comment. It's a journey that's taken us from this:

To this:

See it better .

But does this latest map do an injustice to Harry Beck's original? Here are a couple of alternatives that have been brough to our attention. First this from :

Here's another Max made earlier:

And this from :

Any of the above appeal? There's much on going debate about all this on the blog. Here, as promised, is TfL's Group Design Manager Innes Ferguson. Eddie first asked if any other designs had been considered?

If you click on the Channel Guide, you can also hear from Oliver Green from the London Transport Museum.

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A few quick words of appreciation and an early apology. The response to the blog has been excellent. Your recommendations and suggested stories have been a pot pourri of the informed, the intuitive and the entertaining. So thank you. We'll do our best to respond to as many as possible. It's exactly what we hoped for but in all honesty could never be sure until we actually got this going. For those who haven't had a direct reply - apologies - we're not ignoring you but our immediate concern is how we turn all that happens here into some that'll work on the wireless. We're getting there, stand by your beds.

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I've just recorded my first interview for iPM. Hurrah.

If you've ever wondered: "how stupid is the internet going to get?" - then the chap I spoke to has an answer. Or at last some idea of how to stop the stupidity reaching you.

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In the course of preparing iPM, the members of the team look at hundreds, possibly thousands, of webpages in all the corners of cyberspace as we strive to find the very best to put on the programme.

Many blogs and websites are really well designed.

But some aren't.

Here's a screenshot of one site I've been made aware of called Havenworks.com.

You can have a closer look at it but I'd recommend putting on sunglasses first. It claims to be a news website - and there are news stories on the page - but the phrase "less is more" comes to mind.

We'd love to know if you've ever come across anything to rival this website. Tell us in the comments section, or send us an email, about websites or blogs that have caught your eye for the WRONG reasons.

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What's it like to find yourself the subject of a threatening video on YouTube? to police over a video on YouTube titled, "In Memory of Councillor Alan Craig". Councillor Craig interprets the video, made in the style of an obituary, as a "death threat" directed at him because of his . Councillor Craig, who , describes the video and his reaction to it in the audio below:

the group behind the Abbeymills mosque have condemned the video. It is also worth noting that prior to this incident the . Hafiz Mumtaz is a spokesperson for the mosque's supporters:

In both these interviews Craig and Mumtaz express a desire to talk and negotiate in a peaceful and open manner. Although the web does provide a ready platform for extreme views, in the past I've found that the web can also be a powerful tool for bringing people together, even those on opposite sides of a violent conflict (I remember once facilitating the first phone conversation between an Iraqi mother and the mother of a US soldier who had become friends onlline). The question, which is a pertinent one for politicians, religious groups and even the lone blogger in their bedroom, is how to encourage civil dialogue online and keep and extremists at bay. Answers on a postcard please.

UPDATE: I spoke to the young man who created the video. That interview is below: ++

++ UPDATE 19th November 2207 ++ : This interview is no longer available. This matter is now subject to a police investigation and, following legal advice, we have removed this particular piece of audio.

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I read this week that journalists are not very good with figures. "The great majority come from an arts or social studies background" Guilty, I failed my maths O-Level. The writer went on "most of my colleagues will not have grappled with a differential equation since their early teens. Basic statistical concepts - confidence intervals, standard deviation, probability and so on - are alien to them." Fair enough, but should that stop us asking one of the big questions of day- how many people live here?

The number of people living in the UK seems to vary depending on the paper you read. So who does know? Or who is best placed to know? And who would you trust? All advice welcome and to be clear this not about whether the number is too high or too low or just right - it's about whether it is possible to find a number that we can all broadly agree on.

Some are convinced the UK population is already well over 70 million. iPM has been speaking to one of them, author and business journalist, Martin Baker

Convincing? Or cobblers? Here's something relevant to the above from our friends at Newsnight and 91Èȱ¬ Radio Five Live.

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Rough Notes for 6 Nov 07. Some of the ideas we're taking a look at this week below. We hope that you'll also suggest stories here too, or help us develop some of these ideas. Feel free to add your ideas in the comments, or if you'd rather email them contact us via ipm [at] bbc.co.uk

So the stories that caught our attention this week were:

Marc: I'm looking at a new way of dealing with the menace of barking dogs. Residents of Croydon can now report noisy . And sticking with sound, we'll be venturing even further afield and - think of it as NASA's take on Holst.

Chris: I'm looking at this post by Dr Grumble which argues that (warning: that link has a pretty grisly photo in it). A lot has been written about this issue, Dr Grumble's post contends there have been serious policy failures in the way we treat penicillin antibiotic hospital bugs. Is he right? If you've read an interesting blog post on this, or have expertise in this field we'd be interested in knowing what you think. And on a completely different tack, do you have a Monopoly strategy? This blogger

Rupert: I'm going to try and find out how many people are currently in the UK. There's more to that question than meets the eye. Various groups measure population in different ways, some have suggested , though these estimates are often based on closely guarded proprietary information. We'll try and find out more. Naturally any insight into this very welcome, in the comments, or back-channel via email: ipm [at] bbc.co.uk

George: Lots of this week after another Tory bites the dust for invoking his ghost. Let's see where that conversation goes. We've also been asking people to share their favourite websites for the My Bookmarks segment. Among the first guests will be Steven Pinker and Helena Kennedy - who else should we ask?

Jenny: I'm looking at blogging about depression. There's a great deal of stigma associated with mental illness, so why do sufferers blog? Why make something so private, public?

If you've a thought about these or other stories you'd like us to cover, email ipm or leave a note in the comments. View our regularly updates list of del.icio.us links to see other websites that have caught our attention:

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a blog that's a must visit site for anyone interested in how new technology is changing the media. Here are Jeff's favourite bookmarks - the sites he checks every day.

Jeff's picks were , and his feedreader. Jeff didn't say which one and if you've never heard of a feedreader, it's a website or piece of software that pulls in content from all your favourite sites and blogs into one place - . If you are interested in trying out using a feedreader there's a . I use myself though George is a virtuoso user.

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Why are right-wingers so dominant in the UK blogosphere? Right-of-centre sites like , and consistently leave their left-wing counterparts trailing in both pageviews and political influence. Contrast that with the US, where sites like , , and the set the political agenda and dominate the conversation.

For some time, frustrated left-wing bloggers have kicked around the idea of forming a (modestly termed) 'super-blog' to rival the success of the conservative blogosphere. Sunny Hundal of has been among the more vocal, and today he launched along with dozens of other liberal bloggers

He hopes it will become 'the hub' of a revitalised left-wing blogosphere. So what are its chances and why does the liberal-left blogosphere need a 'kick in the pants' in the first place? Here's Eddie talking to Sunny, as broadcast on the PM programme today.

Guido Fawkes is one of the most well-known bloggers on the right, and his
is a Westminster must-read. So what does he make of the launch?

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Late last week I blogged about the Literature Map, which could help expand your choice of book to read, showing which authors are close to others thanks to the genius of Artificial Intelligence. Stewart McAbney who blogs the has been playing around with the Literature Map for iPM. Here's what he made of it.

Have a go yourself and tell us what you think about it in the Comments section below.

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Rupert: Here's a rough running order, how the programme looks at the start of the week in its embryonic form. This will change and we hope you'll help us change it. Comments and suggestions all welcome, as are any other stories you'd like to hear on the programme.

++ update ++

Here's how it looks on Friday. Given our first programme is a week Saturday this should give you an idea about how, with your help, the progamme will evolve during the week.

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Peeved at petrol costing £1 a litre? Thinking about using the car less? Looking forward to a visit next year from your own ? Then how about ? It's from the same people who came up with a website that helps people share car journeys. Only they've taken the idea one step further ( geddit? ) This new scheme matches individuals with others walking the same way so they can walk together. iPM has been speaking to its founder - Ali Clabburn.

But is letting anyone know where you walk - and when you walk - such a good idea? How do you share safely such personal information without running the risk that you give away too much about yourself and your whereabouts? Here's Ali Clabburn again,

So let's meet two women who have recently become Walkbudi's

My guess is that it's going to take something radical to lure us away from the comfort and convenience of the car - but would you be tempted to give a go?

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Following on from the item about whether magistrates should wear poppies below, I'm now trying to get something together which isn't entirely unconnected ahead of Remembrance Sunday.

I'm hoping to hear from military personnel who blog. There are many serving soldiers and the like around the world who write about their experiences. We'll put the best of their stories about blogging from the front line on iPM next Saturday.

Many of them are well worth a read - although given the nature of what they're blogging about, be aware that some of the language is a bit fruity!

Here's a selection of the best "milblogs" as they're known.

and finally a

If you've ever come across a "milblog", then tell iPM about it in the comments section below and you could help form next week's item.

Edit from Marc: while searching for military blogs, I came across from our friends at Channel 4. The first 35" of it is well worth watching to brighten your day, especially for Star Wars fans. Chris made a terrible pun about the Jeddah Knights, which had the iPM team cringing... It's hard to believe it's genuine. But it is. .

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Graham writes the . He started writing about food while he was living in Saigon, Vietnam, but his blog, and his career have grown beyond that and he now advises organisations like the 91Èȱ¬ and the Guardian on blogging and social media

Here is Graham talking about some of his favourite bookmarks:

Graham's bookmarks were: , and . As ever if you'd like to suggest a few sites of your own please feel free.

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