Women like fashion. Women like style. So what's all this fuss in the blogosphere about a wee article covering the conference, , in The New York Times? Sounds like The NYT is trying to break some stereotypes here, reporting this huge festival of women bloggers...or is it?
BlogHer features over 10,000 blogs covering a long list of topics, see the , from health and food to politics, green issues and technology. So why does the article feature in 'The Fashion and Style' section of the paper?
It originally appeared on blog. It's writer Amber Naslund, wrote a letter to the NYT editor:
I'm so disappointed that you managed to completely undermine the professional, hardworking group at BlogHer by parking that article on your "Fashion & Style" page. Why not Business? Technology? These women are changing the face of technology and the online world, and you're parking them off in a trivial corner instead of among the gamechanging minds of Web 2.0 where they belong.
Read the .
It was also picked up by and and has been across the net.
We know the Prime Minister's on holiday at the moment so if you emailed, you'd only get his out of office (probably just temporary, but we won't go there).
But it's been brought to our attention (thank you Randall Evans) that the has been 'temporarily suspended for maintenance work' since 23 June.
Number 10 had hoped to 'be back up and running in a few days', but it's been over five weeks now. Randall thinks it's pretty ironic given there's been 'lots of PR about him [being] easy to contact etc'.
I wonder what the problem can be? I did an archive search for how the page used to look, but no luck - the stopped too soon...
But I did find this from early June 2007...How did Tony Blair find time to respond to all those emails via pen and paper?
Using the new star in the internet search firmament to do a bit of "vanity searching" I have discovered that I enjoy a certain similarity to the late . A few bugs in the system then..
Do you too have an internet doppelgänger? Leave a note in comments
Here at iPM, our bloggers and listeners are always turning us on (ahem) to new stories not yet in the mainstream media. Email us! Just click on email us, on the right hand side.
Every so often, we get alerted to a great website*, one which deserves a wider audience. It is one of the selling points of iPM: let us know, and we'll let the rest of the world know.
One such website is .
It starts from the simple premise that the phrase "I feel..." or "I'm feeling..." is extremely common in blogs and websites, which are often very personal creations.
By searching for those two phrases on websites like MySpace, Flickr, Technorati, Ice Rocket, and Google, this website builds up a picture of how people are feeling, all over the world.
It's searchable, so if you feel like finding out how 40-49 year old women in Sydney are feeling right now, it can do that.
(I'm looking forward to finding out how people in Weston-super-mare are feeling today...)
Click on the image below, and you'll be taken to their website.
But only if you feel like it.
(be aware that the website is data-heavy so it may take some time to load up...and the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is not responsible for any content contained on it)
*Like buses, you wait ages to be told about great websites, and then two come along at once.
is a website devoted to making information more "visual". Click on the above, which shows the growth of Walmart across America....and then "feel free" to explore further.
What have you seen - on the internet or on a blog - that you think deserves a wider audience?
Whether it's quirky or straight-down-the-line, we'd love to hear your suggestions. Either comment below, or email us.
More good news about iPM: it's back to being broadcast at 5.30pm on Saturday afternoons, and back to its full duration of 24 minutes. It's not that we didn't like the 5.45am slot on Saturdays or anything...
This week's podcast now in the wild - you can . In the show...
Can blogs change minds?
Tracking the online debate over climate change, we wondered whether blogs really have the power to persuade. Patrick Leman, a psychologist at Royal Holloway, is sceptical. More on the blog here.
DIY Broadband
Standing in for Mr Blog this week, Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones investigates a reader's claim that large chunks of the country are in 'broadband poverty' - and looks at the being pioneered by the parishioners of .
Favourites
Comedian Ross Noble shared his favourite bookmarks.
Show Us A Better Way
A look at the government consultation on data mashups, mentioned on last weeks show ... you can win £20,000.
Next week we'll be back in our regular slot at 5.30 after Saturday PM. The running order is empty (except for John Cleese, who'll be telling us about favourite websites) so let us know what stories we should look at, by email or on the blog. We won't pay you, though.
The web. It's a great place to find out new things, challenge one's preconceptions and expose urban myths and untruths. And the sheer number of citizen journalists and bloggers makes it
Or, perhaps not. The blogosphere can also seem like an echo chamber where those with non-mainstream beliefs can find like-minded souls, and tune out opposing ideas. As Charlie Brooker found out last week after attacking 9/11 conspiracy theorists on Comment is Free, the internet is the natural home for 'truthers'; his attracted more comments than any other in the history of the site .
Few issues polarise people as much as the reality of man-made global warming. On Monday, Ofcom's on Channel 4's The Great Global Warming Swindle was published. You can read the report itself . So what was the verdict? Over to the blogs:
Ok, so they weren't quick but they got there in the end. The TV regulators have finally came out and said that the 'Documentary' the 'Great Global Warming Swindle' was not up to scratch. In fact, they said a lot more than that but in language that wasn't quite as direct as it might have been.
Great Global Warming Swindle Cleared
How shoddy is the case for global warming theory than 37 professors between them cannot convince Ofcom of a single uncorrected error in The Great Global Warming Swindle?
In all, this witchhunt against The Great Global Warming Swindle has failed utterly to discredit it, discrediting instead the accusers.
Ofcom rules that The Great Global Warming Swindle was biased and unfair (...) It was unfair to the IPCC, David King, and Carl Wunsch and breached a requirement of impartiality about global warming policy. The complaint is a thorough demolition of all the falsehoods in the Swindle...
None of the complaints alleging lack of due impartiality in the science portion (sections 1-4) was upheld. Not one. The only bone thrown to the complainants was a finding that there had not been due impartiality in the portion talking about Africa - an issue that Bob Ward and the Myles Allen 37 didn't even mention.
A humiliating defeat ... for the professors ...it's hard to imagine a more thorough stuffing of the complainants. They were lucky they didn't have to pay costs.
Overall: C4 gets stuffed on this one, with most of the complaints upheld.
OfCom's key finding, after their minor technical criticisms, is devastating. The film "Did not mislead audiences so as to cause harm or offence". But the main thrust of the complainants was that Channel 4 had misled audiences. The OfCom verdict amounts almost to an endorsement of the film.
Confused? In some ways, the online coverage of the Ofcom verdict is reflective of the larger climate change debate. Such a mixed and heavily caveated report lends itself to multiple interpretations. In the wider scientific skirmishes over climate change, the exact same observations and facts about, for example, levels of sea ice and historical CO2 levels have been used to draw quite different conclusions. How can this be?
Dr Patrick Leman is a Reader in Psychology at the University of London. He told us that the same piece of evidence can be used by different people to support very different accounts of events. People tend to consider new information to be more plausible if it confirms their pre-existing beliefs - a phenomenon known as - and the nature of the web can be to amplify and exaggerate this bias. Here's an extended version of the interview we recorded earlier.
Well, it's not our money, and it's not a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ competition, since we can never understand the new paperwork we have to fill in since the Blue Peter cat fiasco.
But it IS something we're doing on iPM this week.
about the competition. And there's some background on the PM Blog.
Here's a longer version of the interview with , who's the Cabinet Office minister behind "Show Us A Better Way"
Concern over Communications Data Bill
We followed the journey our story from last week took - taking in comments from the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, Lord Erroll and David Davis.
Savvy Chavvy
No, we're not talking about PM reporter Yvonne Murray who took up the Mr Blog reigns this week, but for young travellers and gypsies.
She also mentioned the Government's public information , worth a scroll down the even if you've only got a minute.
Farewell to the world's oldest blogger
We paid tribute to the charming Olive Riley as she signed off aged 108.
* Not strictly true - we always welcome your comments on the programme which has just gone out and your suggestions for what we should do next week or in future weeks.
Both Age Concern and Help the Aged are checking their databases to see if they can point us to the oldest person in Britain who blogs. Let us know if you know of a blogger in their 90s or even 100s
We're doing this following the recent death at 108 years old of Olive Riley. is now back online, and if we can hook up between London and Australia, we'll be hearing on iPM from the creative force behind Olive's "Life of Riley" blog, . He even made and her extraordinary life.
Although the search for Britain's oldest blogger continues, we have come across , which belongs to a 96 year old Spanish woman. If your understanding of isn't quite up to scratch, there's an English version
Friday afternoon update:
The technology worked, and I have interviewed Mike Rubbo about Olive and her blog. It'll be featured on this week's iPM, and you can listen to a longer version of Mike's memories of Olive below:
How do you feel about the possibility of a centralised police database holding details of every phone call and text message you've sent and websites you've visited?
There's been speculation about changes to the way Government intercepts communication since the Draft Legislative Programme which refers to that will 'modify procedures for acquiring communications data'.
Last week's iPM heard claims from , a telecoms employee who says the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Office has been in discussion with mobile phone operators about how to implement a centralised database.
Listen to the full item featured in the programme with iPM's Chris Vallance.
Today, the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, has warned 'it's 'step too far for the British way of life'. He was speaking on today's The World At One programme with Martha Kearney. You can listen to the interview here
on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News website.
We'll continue to investigate this week. Comment or email us if there's someone in particular you'd like to hear from on this.
, who's just died at 108. She was thought to be the world's oldest blogger, born in the town of Broken Hill, in Australia, in 1899.
She posted more than 70 entries about her life since she began her blog, , in February 2007.
Sadly her blog is struggling to cope with the amount of traffic today, so we can't read posts entitled, 'Olive learns Spanish' and 'Someone peed on the fish' - but hopefully sorted soon.
It got us wondering who Britain's oldest blogger is? Any nonagenarian or even centenarian bloggers documenting their lives online?
We regularly ping out requests to the rich and bloggishly famous and make unheard of visits to the glamorous parts of Television Centre. We're news programmes, on the serious side of building - glitter strictly forbidden. Though Eddie and a couple of the editors sometimes arrive in . We don't judge and pretend not to notice.
Comment or drop us a line if there's someone you'd love to hear from and nosy at the websites they've bookmarked. We'll do our best to oblige.
Welcome, welcome to iPM if this is a whole new thing for you. We investigate stories you send it to us (such as coca-cola and communications data). And we cover interesting ideas and people that are shaping what we do the internet.
Pod plans for this week: a follow-up on the communications data story, a possible look at the and a for travellers and Gyspies.
But it's all open to change. If there's something you think we should look into or link to, leave comment below, email us or if you're a Twitterer.
A heady mix of campervans, film and policy on this week's programme. We began with comments about communications data and RIPA. Just to re-iterate that Stuart spoke to us in a personal capacity.
We visit with our favourite guests, favourite website, IMDB and it's
Sparked by a listener who told us of a friends stolen VW campervan odyssey we looked at e-crime and the findings of the into the issue
And one parish notice: Next week sees the return of Eddie, back from his hols.
Listener Philip sent us an email , which is apparently a consultation carried out for "the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Office Identity & Passport Service.". According to the blurb, "They want to find out what 16-25 year olds think about [..] the National Identity Scheme and getting your reactions to what services could be included with it and their potential costs."
There's also a video starring the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Secretary and some young people:
Philip titled his email, "ID Cards, more mind-control propaganda for the 'yoof'" which suggests he's not a fan. What do you think?
By pure co-incidence, we're looking at card security on iPM this week. But not ID cards, rather smart-cards used on transportation and a variety of other key-less entry systems. If you know about that do please feel free to share what you know.
Where do you get your time from? Listener John Chapman sent this email:
"Being a lot closer to 50 than 30 I was pleased to see the old Clock on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Website. Where does such an iconic symbol of reliability get its time from? From a Trusted Internet clock at a renowned UK scientific body? From those super accurate clocks which are going into the European satellite network?
I was surprised when a colleague pointed out it came from somewhere much nearer to home. How many other people believe the time is accurate? Is this documented somewhere in the Help screens?"
What John means is that the clock on the webpage is based on the time according to your PC (if you don't believe me change the time on your computer and see what happens to the clock on the webpage).
I put John's email to the team behind bbc.co.uk, here's what they said:
"It has always been our aspiration to set the time of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ clock to atomic time. We are working hard on this, but due to the complexities of international time zones, particularly daylight savings time, we have made slow progress. I can assure you that we are actively working on this & hope to bring the benefits to you soon"
So the time will come when the time is accurate. In the meantime there are always the bongs....
UPDATE: It's always nice when we get good comments, and there's a great one below offering some very helpful advice if you want to deprive yourself of one possible excuse for turning up late for work make sure your computer tells the right time.
The time on a PC can be "sync'd" to a number of "internet clocks".
Try 'right-clicking' on the displayed clock (usually at the bottom right of the screen) and left-clicking "Adjust Time/Date". On the tab "Internet Time" you can arrange for your PC's clock to be syncronised to a time standard on the internet.
"time.windows.com" is the usual option but there are others.
There's more about atomic clocks etc. in the comments.
There's a row between digital rights activists and MEPs over whether amendments to proposed EU directives pave the way for people who illegally share files online to be thrown off the net. (Background to the disagreement .) The amendments were passed tonight, though the process of EU parliamentary scrutiny of the proposed directives still has a long way to go.
In the interview below Conservative MEP Malcolm Harbour rejects claims that the amendments would enable "three strikes and you're out" action by ISP's against file-sharers and says he was "absolutely astonished" by the interpretation put on them. In the interview he says he would be happy to consider further changes to clarify the situation.
What happens if your town is reclassifed from rural to urban? Can your agricultural show still go ahead? We're mulling this over as well as an usual E-bay/theft story - both came out of your emails.
Also, we're following up on changes to online healthcare. Last week we posted on developments to choose the hospital you're treated at, and also what the future of online healthcare might be.
Let us know what you think of these ideas or suggest something completely different. Leave a comment below, send us an email or a if you're on Twitter.
Thanks
As a follow up to our interview with Dr Foster Intelligence, below are interviews carried out at Microsoft and King's College New Generation Healthcare roundtable debate, held at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London. We hear first from John Coulthard, Director of Healthcare, Microsoft
Also at the event was Professor Robert Lechler, VP for Health, King's College:
One medical practitioner very plugged into future developments in health and computing is - he's part of a pilot that allows patients to view their records online. He's also a member of a group specialising in Health and IIT
Sir Clive Sinclair
Sir Clive on the internet, electric cars and flying machines. Enjoy the full unedited interview we did earlier this week.
Part 2: is Coca-Cola still it?
Why sharing what you know is such a good idea...well, we would say that, wouldn't we. But have a listen to what happened next after one man's idea was featured on iPM.
We covered a story in May about one man's attempt to persuade Coca-Cola to use their distribution channels to get aid supplies into inaccessible places, particularly in Africa.
This week, I met Simon at the , where he was speaking, and asked him what happened after being on the programme. Amazingly, he met the man from Coca-Cola...
A few years ago, iPM's sister programme PM launched a panel of listeners.
After weeks of deliberation, heated discussions and many meetings, it was given the name of "The PM Panel".
It's been moribund for a little while - but it's now being revived, in a new format.
When the Panel was first conceived, it sought listeners' views and opinions. Now we're looking to tap into the Radio 4 audience's experience and knowledge.
You would help us cover the news better, by sharing your expertise on various subjects.
If you'd like to find out more about how to participate, then click here and send an email entitled "The New PM Panel" and we'll email you back.
Yesterday, Lord Darzi published his much anticipated . Patients ability to rate the quality of their NHS care is central to the report and this will directly affect hospitals' and GPs' funding in England in future.
On Monday, iPM's Chris Vallance spoke to Tim Kelsey, Chair of the executive board of . His company publish data allowing people to compare NHS hospitals. The results feature on the which the company also run.
It's a long interview - largely uncut - and bear in mind it was done before Darzi announced the publication of the review and a constitution for the NHS.
The interview covers a lot of ground, but those of you who're following this closely are likely to find it interesting. Out of the points raised, which would you like to see focused on for Saturday's programme?
In the interview Tim talks about the release of survival data. That is scheduled to happen next week, Dr Foster tells us it will cover: AAA, vascular (elective), AAA, vascular(emergency), Knee replacement (elective) and Hip replacement (elective)
Bernard Ribeiro of the Royal College of Surgeons gives his reaction below:
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.
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Where do you get your time from? Listener John Chapman sent this email: 
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