I know our teams in Japan will be asking themselves that as they cover the aftermath of the tsunami and earthquake. As a story the unfolding chaos is irresistible. Cars piled on houses, boats piled on bridges - the images are awful, in the original sense of that word.
The voices of the displaced and distraught are inspirations to our humanity.
But is gathering that material doing any good?
When I asked myself this question - on the hills of Northern Iraq amongst the dying after Saddam had chased the Kurds from their homes in 1991 or with the Iraqi mourners after suicide bombings more recently - I justified myself by saying "we are calling the powerful to account - if we weren't here they could do what they liked and no one would know."
Even in Japan, democratic and open as it appears to be during this crisis, the same rule applies. Without showing those images or recording those voices, the victims would not be seen or heard and those responsible for their welfare might not be so keen to act.
]]>We need to make Twitter profitable. e-Mail is hard to monetise . . .Twitter is more of an information network. We have the ability to create a system that scales.
Are we going to see some changes in Twitter? Will they be for the better? What would you like to see?
Iraq is sending representatives to one of the world's biggest tourism fairs for the first time in more than ten years. The delegation to the World Trade Market in London will be led by the chairman of the Tourism Board of Iraq, Hammoud al-Yaqoubi. We'll talk to Mr. al-Yaqoubi and welcome your suggestions for questions.
And...
...in the first half of next year Google plans to put millions of the world's books online. So, is this giant digital library the most exciting research tool since man first put pen to paper; or copyright infringement on an industrial scale? We'll have an expert guest.
I'd like your experiences, and your questions to our expert guests, including David Blanchflower, who has warned that the figure of one in five under-25s currently out of work in the UK is just the "lull before the storm" as graduates and school leavers enter a tough job market.
We'll hear from graduates on the job hunt, a recruitment consultant with tips to make you stand out from the crowd, special reports from Spain and Japan (two places credit-crunched more than most) and what happens if you decide NOT to get qualified? We'll hear from Zahra and Chris who both chose the non-university route and who are crucially, both working full-time right now.
And what about those who come to developed countries for a better future? How has the economic downturn hit people like Ibrahim from BangladeshView image?
Please use the comments to tell us your story and put your questions.
On Monday November 2nd we'll be switching all of the BBCs blogs to BBC iD from the previous BBC membership system. And in the New Year our message boards and other communities will be heading down the same route.
By March 2010 BBC iD will be the single sign in for all BBC Online services. If you have an existing BBC membership account for blogs, message boards or other services at some point in the next few months you will be automatically prompted to upgrade to BBC iD.
We do need to replace the old system, but we don't underestimate the inconvenience the transition will represent for some of our users. We apologise for this and hope that you will find the service improvements that BBC iD will support over the coming months for example, working on mobiles - make it all worthwhile.
We've tried to answer the questions you may have about the new system here.
If we've missed anything, please let us know. Most users should be able to upgrade their account from a BBC membership to a BBC iD when prompted with a minimum of fuss.
Well be keeping you up to date with the roll-out of BBC iD via the BBC Internet blog. We're also using the Internet blog as a early test of the new system so please do leave a comment below.
NB: There's one thing you will need to think about if you have more than one BBC membership account.:
If you have more than one BBC membership you'll only be able to upgrade one of those accounts to BBC iD using your preferred username and email address. That BBC iD account will retain links to your previous membership account and any comments and posts you made using it. So if you have more than one BBC membership, make sure you upgrade your favourite one.
Please put some questions in the comments on this blog, and I'll put as many of them to him as there's time for.
ALSO: spent most of the day recording interviews around East London with Bangladeshi students who are looking for work - they have student visas supported by colleges that are sometimes little more than a room above a shop. When times were good, they could find work in London and send money home. Now they can't find jobs and are in trouble.
This will be part of our special programme in a week on the higher levels of unemployment in many countries amongst educated young people as a result of the global recession.
]]>We're doing an item about the warning that the Internet could be collapsing because of bandwidth shortage within two years. Should we pay a congestion charge? What's your technical or political suggestion?
]]>TOP LINE
Russia and China signing a new energy deal allowing Gazprom to export gas to China for the first time.
WHY ARE WE DOING THE STORY
* Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, is meeting his Chinese counterpart today (Tuesday) and will sign various agreements.
* This is a sign of steady improvement of relations between the two countries.
* An energy hungry China means Russia do not have to look only towards Europe for it's gas market.
WHO IS THE GUEST
Elliot Wilson is the associate editor of the Spectator Business magazine, (he's been to both countries and talk about both perspective)..... And joins us LIVE
When your trading partner's currency weakens, it's not all good news. Yes you can buy their goods more cheaply. But they can't buy yours. So Asian central banks bought US dollars yesterday to weaken their own currencies. Nations in South East Asia are struggling with weak demand for their exports from America.
City AM says: Despite the intervention, the greenback hit one-year lows against a raft of regional currencies. The dollar index, which tracks its value against a basket of six main currencies, hit a 14-month low in New York trading.
What's happening on markets where you are and why?
]]>Please suggest your questions as comments on this blog. Thanks
]]>UK opposition leader David Cameron will deliver his keynote speech at his party's conference - widely anticipated to offer hope as well as the grimness in his shadow finance minister's speech.
'WHATEVER' IS MOST ANNOYING WORD
A QUARTER OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION IS MUSLIM
A report from an American think-tank says there are just over one-and-a-half billion Muslims in the world, nearly one in four of the total population. The Pew Forum's analysis, which took three years to compile, shows that sixty per cent of Muslims are in Asia, and only twenty per cent in the Middle East and North Africa.
Who would you like to hear from on this subject?
]]>Password Hacking Scam Hits More Providers
We're covering the apparent hacking of email providers, which has now spread to Gmail, AOL and Yahoo, it appears. Have you been affected? Still fixing guest.
The Dollar's Demise?
TOPLINE
Gold at record high as dollar falls. What does this indicate for the future of the dollar as the worlds global currency. Many a doomsayer is using the falling dollar as a indication of Americas decline as a global power.
GUEST
Simon Johnson, a former IMF chief economist who is now professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. He has a blog on the financial crisis. Trader or speculator? Let us know using Comments.
Thanks,
Dan
ARISE MAGAZINE
Arise, a glossy high end magazine aimed at Sub Saharan African women launched. Magazine targets ladies of leisure, successful businesswomen and middle-income housewives make up an attractive demographic that, in the past, relied on international fashion magazines for style and beauty information.
WHY ARE WE DOING THE STORY
Shattering stereotypes of African women - Arise alone packages both pan-African and global content, producing a blend that Ms. Jennings calls "afropolitan."
WHO IS THE GUEST:
Arise Editor - Helen Jennings
GUINEA MILITARY COMMANDER SPEAKS TO JOURNALISTS ABOUT LAST WEEK'S VIOLENCE
TOP LINE OF STORY A week ago 157 people were killed while protesting that Guineas' new strongman, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, had reversed a pledge to stand in presidential elections. Camara is a mercurial figure as he demonstrated in an interview to foreign journalists.
CONTRIBUTOR: Adam Nossiter - New York Times correspondent in West Africa who has just interviewed Captain Camara. Read Ofeibia Quist-Arcton for background
]]>Still hasn't made any money though.
]]>Now there is the LiveScribe system, which records audio as you take notes and links the two.
All of these rely on paper covered with specially printed tiny dots to give the cameras in the pens some orientation. LiveScribe has a small screen on the pen, too.
Could this all heading towards a technology that turns paper, with all of its advantages, into a throwaway computer?
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