Suggest a story for May 17

Post categories: Suggest

George South | 17:38 UK time, Saturday, 10 May 2008

Our next show is on May 17 and this is the space to submit your ideas on what we should cover and who you'd like to hear from.

You can add your ideas in the comments below, or send us an email. We read all the emails we get sent.

We'll discuss all our ideas at a meeting on Tuesday and update the blog throughout the week with stories we're looking at.

++ Here are a few of the stories in the mix for this week.

Data Centres - information rich but environmentally poor.

~~Speed Cameras~~ CCTV Traffic Cameras - are local authorities raising millions of pounds illegally? We've had lots of correspondence about this. Thanks.

Plankton - one of you suggested we put Chris Vallance on a boat. We have, more soon.

Airport Security. Again from the blog, this. Interesting.

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Comments

1. At 8:34pm on 10 May 2008, neelypeel wrote:
How about the broadband speed testing about to be carried out independently for the first time?: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/pm/faq.html
Rather than be swayed by inevitably skewed headline speeds advertised by the ISPs, this will be the first time that actual day-to-day speeds are measured. I'm sure the resukts will make interesting reading, and they're looking for volunteers to use the equipment, too. More reading at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/06/samknows_broadband_performance/

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2. At 3:59pm on 11 May 2008, Andylarge2m wrote:
How about the fact the Microsoft is steadfastly refusing to update MS Money 2005 with a new version. This is now the ONLY commercial personal finance program available in the UK and after June 2008 there will be no support for it from MS.

We are going to need to manage our personal finances par excellence through the credit crunch. Where is the software to do it?!!

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3. At 4:03pm on 11 May 2008, Andylarge2m wrote:
My other suggestion would be for iPM to pick up on Stephen Fry's comments about BBC's iPlayer. The simple fact is that the DRM is very easily cracked, so why are the BBC even bothering with DRM?. Pirates crack it in seconds. The only person being inconvenienced is the BBC license payer.

Let the content go free!

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4. At 6:40pm on 12 May 2008, allah01 wrote:
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
5. At 8:08pm on 12 May 2008, neelypeel wrote:
Andylarge2m, Re: MS Money - maybe MS are unconsciously encouraging users to try the free open source equivalent, GnuCash?:
http://www.gnucash.org/

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6. At 10:57am on 13 May 2008, JimConnolly wrote:
Hi,

What about this Twitter story; from the BBC tech blog
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/05/twitter_and_the_china_earthqua.html

One story, which covers news, technology, reporting and ME; I was chatting with the guy as it happened!

Jim Connolly
The Ideas Blog
<a href="http://www.theideasblog.com">www.theideasblog.com</a>

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7. At 2:37pm on 14 May 2008, helenthevolunteer wrote:
There are frequent references, particularly from politicians, to the nuclear family as the natural and best family structure dating back to the beginning of humanity. I would suggest that the nuclear family is a very recent development - a consequence of the industrial revolution and the shift in populations from rural to urban areas - and is fraught with problems. I suspect that the extended family is a much older and more stable model than the nuclear version and would be very interested to hear a range of informed views on this topic.
I think this is an important issue as much time, effort and money is put into shoring up the nuclear family without questioning its viability or considering other possibilities, and arguably with not much benefit in terms of mental health, crime, child and senior citizen welfare etc etc. Some variant on the extended family may offer better outcomes for individuals and for society as a whole.
Helen the volunteer

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8. At 8:34pm on 14 May 2008, Gillianian wrote:
I had to have my nose swabbed today, at a pre-op appointment, to make sure I don't carry the MRSA bug. It would be treated before I was admitted, if I was found to have it - treatment takes 5 days, apparently. It was re-assuring to find out that all patients are being checked.
But - the thing is - the staff aren't being swabbed. Why not?

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9. At 11:17am on 15 May 2008, GasGussler wrote:
I have a couple of issues I want to raise:

1. Fuel Prices
Fuel prices increase almost daily, as does the amount of money the government makes off these increases. Most people do not realise that 70% of the money we pay for fuel goes directly to the government, hence any increase in a barrel of oil means the government gets more revenue. The whole reason for UK tax on fuel being the highest in the WORLD was because it meant any steep increases in the cost of the worlds crude enabled the government to reduce the amount of duty so that the UK consumer would not feel the so-called "pinch at the pump".

Well what are they waiting for?

2. 10p Tax
This 10p tax rate business, I would rather the government keeps what it is going to refund me and use it to get this country out of the hole we're once again finding ourselves in. In my oppinion the PM would have far more respect from me if he said "yes I made a mistake" and "this is what I want to do to fix it". As a member of the public he's losing my trust almost on a daily basis and his party has now lost my vote for good! We talk about regime change in parts of the world well I think it's time we had one. How about Conservatives?

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10. At 08:58am on 16 May 2008, paramedicsteve wrote:
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
11. At 4:07pm on 16 May 2008, Jennifer_Tracey wrote:
Thanks for your suggestions on stories we should investigate, both on the blog and the volume we receive via email everyday. We do read them all and try to respond to as many as possible.

It's a short programme and there are always more stories we'd like to follow up on. If we don't get to it this week, we might in the weeks to come. We have an interesting story-bank building.

neelypeel - the broadband speed testing story is good, we had a huge response when we covered this in the last series. We'd like to pick up on it again in the future.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ipm/2007/12/fraudband_britain.shtml

Andylarge2m - digital rights management (DRM) is another issue we're keeping an eye on. No time for it this week and it's one of those tricky stories to explain, but we'd like to cover soon.

You can watch Stephen Fry's lecture on public service broadcasting here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/7396964.stm

JimConnolly - the Twitter story is very good, but we did do a Twitter story just the other week and it might be tweet-overload
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ipm/2008/04/twittering_around_the_world.shtml

helenthevolunteer - nuclear family idea is nice, though feels like might need an entire programme to cover it. Can you think of a way into this? Did you have a family in mind when you wrote?

Gillianian - thanks for your comment - my first thought was how do know the staff aren't being swabbed?

Drop us a line anytime
Thanks again
Jennifer

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12. At 5:50pm on 16 May 2008, barriesingleton wrote:
Regarding Friday's piece on the refund (or not) of fines accrued from improperly configured infrastructure – or whatever, what about waste or recycle stuff, correctly presented, but not collected? Surely with the march of fines for incorrect “presentation”, failure to collect should mean some punitive compensation is due?

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13. At 11:13am on 17 May 2008, tertrall wrote:
Fuel Prices
Isn't it about time we introduced a two-tier pricing system for fuel - higher for those in cities and urban areas where they have the alternative of public transport; lower for those in rural areas who do not? A simple showing of one's driving license postcode could determine which rate applies.
A visit to my doctor is a round trip of twenty miles; a visit to the supermarket is thirty.

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14. At 6:13pm on 18 May 2008, 3mmab3rry wrote:
Let's talk to Coca Cola about saving the World's children

This is an idea for next week's programme (24/05/2008):
http://tinyurl.com/6pdqjf

Could you run with this, which was posted last week?

By the way... This group is now on facebook: http://tinyurl.com/6qxszq

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15. At 7:03pm on 19 May 2008, ooutofavour wrote:
the topic of Transport for London practices was very timely for me, persoally. I rarely travel through London, but on this occassion I drove through Shoreditch High Street using a bus lane at six minutes past midnight.
Yes, it is 24/7 buses only. This aspect of Transport for London also needs a closer scrutiny. the times should be painted on the road not posted on signs.

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16. At 10:47pm on 19 May 2008, s1m0nb3rry wrote:
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
17. At 11:13pm on 19 May 2008, s1m0nb3rry wrote:
I have been suggesting that the Coca Cola idea be debated for 3 weeks. Sorry to be so persistent. You said you'd call Coca Cola the first time it was suggested and then things went dead.

There's now a Facebook group on this. It was set up yesterday. In the first day it's got 104 members and 757 invited. See
http://tinyurl.com/6qxszq

Thanks

Simon

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The programme that starts with its listeners. Join daily discussions online and contribute ideas for a weekly programme presented by Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey.