Hans and Eva Rausing must be a lovely couple. Charming, in fact. Possibly the most lovely, charming and persuasive people you could possibly meet. We are sure the charm isn't derived from the fact that they happen to be very well-off, being the heirs to a £5bn fortune (Hans's father owns Tetra Pak, the huge food packaging business). Their charm seems to have reached an almost ludicrous level in Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court this......

Jury service can be a drag, we imagine (Londonist's youthfulness precluding it from being summoned to rule over our fellow citizens). How to make the time go quickly? You could do like Homer Simpson did and wear a pair of oversized comedy glasses to surreptitiously snooze behind. Or you could smuggle in some class Cs and attempt to drive down Doobie Lane while deciding the verdict. A juror from Surbiton tried just that last......

London collectively yawned as Amy Winehouse was arrested then released on bail last night in her duel with Pete Doherty to become London's most-wanted, drug-addled musician. To her credit, she did go to an east London police station voluntarily. She was called in based on her "alleged possession of a controlled drug" and an investigation involving some fun video footage that supposedly shows ol' Ames smoking crack. We think Best Week Ever said it best......

It’s getting warmer! Ok, not really. Lazy evenings lolling about in one of the city’s grand parks are still a ways off, so keep heading inside to galleries and theatres for your (heated) culture fix. This week’s cerebral theme? Attention-grabbing names. You’ll see. Onwards! The film You, the Living opens this week. The film has received rave reviews and filmmaker Roy Andersson is being touted as the next Bergman. You know, nothing special. First......

News of a film installation to be unveiled at Rayners Lane and Sudbury Town stations shortly alerted us to the fact that TfL's jolly and diverse Platform for Art programme had undergone a rebrand and will be relaunching as Art on the Underground at the end of this month. There's not much in a name, of course, but always fans of wordplay and puns we rather liked "Platform for Art". However, TfL has opted......

Over on our flickr group there has been some interesting discussion about Google Maps. It's web 2.0 crazy. Simon Crubellier began the thread ('Google Maps Strangeness') with, Has anyone looked at the maps.google.co.uk satellite photo of Trafalgar Square lately? What on earth is going on there? It's obviously the crack of dawn on a summer morning, all the surrounding streets are empty, but the place is packed... The images of London were last updated......

Sir Ian Blair dismissed favouring non-white applicant recruits to the Met as "yesterday's solution" at a National Black Police Association debate yesterday. The recruitment bus rolls into Trafalgar Square's Diwali celebrations this weekend to demonstrate the Met's policy of targeting their recruitment at black and Asian communities. As they say, The better we reflect London's diverse communities, the better we're able to serve them. The Met is still struggling to represent London, however, and......

Travis Bickle: All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. Below is a genuine conversation this Londonista has had whilst walking through Camden - Drug dealer: (over the hubbub of "skunk, weed, hash, skunk, weed") AK47? Anyone want AK47? Londonist: (to friend, perhaps a little too loudly in hindsight) Bloody......

Greenwich Indoor Market is fab. There's nothing more enjoyable than a stroll around all the little stalls on a Sunday. Thankfully, plans to knock it down and turn it into flats were scuppered after public out cry (no shock there then). But new plans have been uncovered to revamp it and keep the locals happy. Hopefully, this means that the market will get a nice new roof, and the possibility to open all week......

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

You might think the act of visiting an art gallery specifically to gawp at a hole in the ground would obviate the need to remind people not to trip over said hole. Apparently not. Mere days after the unveiling of Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth, a 548 foot long fissure running the length of the Turbine Hall, people are already coming unstuck. One young woman reportedly fell feet-first into the exhibit and had to be dragged......

Giant crack in the Tate Modern. Half of those living near Heathrow would quite fancy a new runway. A pretty grim account of the Menezes shooting emerges in court. Newts get evicted from Olympic site. Croydon branches of Greggs are employing bouncers, claims local news site. Crumbs, that half-baked idea really takes the biscuit, etc. etc. Image courtesy of Dartar, who gets picked again for visiting one our favourite pubs. Image via the Londonist......

And so to our final rugby watching venue post with just 4 teams remaining to accommodate. Italy play Portugal tonight in Paris, 7pm Bar Italia - where else? Japan crunch with Wales tomorrow in Cardiff at 8pm. We didn't think Japan would be the hardest nut to crack but our badgering and internetting and random contacting of Japanese people hasn't turned up a definitive option. So, we'll give you a unconfirmed one. Sirocco London......

As befits a truly global capital, London has established itself as a hub in the important international trade of tourist-attracting human reproductions, importing Chinese warriors and exporting waxwork celebrities. While the first crowds were taking a gander at 20 members of the Emperor Ying’s terracotta court at the British Museum, 51 waxworks produced by Madame Tussauds arrived in Washington DC, naked and apparently ready to party. The likes of Beyonce, George Clooney, Tom Cruise......

It would seem that Mayor Livingstone, famous for courting the unusual, is at it again. He is new-best-friends with the Polish community in London. His jolly japes this time include a Polish reception at Town Hall, replete with pierogi and pickles, and a trip to POSK, the Polish Community Centre in Hammersmith. He is quite the darling of the Polish press, by all accounts. Of course only the very cynical would suggest that it has......

Monday sees Portland, Oregon’s new indie-rock darlings The Thermals play Dingwalls with support from Siberia’s SonicFlyer. Tickets are still available from See Tickets at £8.50 each plus booking fees. Tellison play their “disarming melodies and big-hearted guitars” at the Camden Barfly, with support coming from Encyclopedia, The Xcerts and Gavin Osborn, with tickets only £6 each. Popular Canadian singer-songwriter Feist plays Scala on Tuesday night, though tickets are long gone unfortunately – Scarlet mist may......

Sometimes it seems that all we hear about the capital’s kids these days is ASBOs, hoodies, knives, crack, Akon, child prostitution etcetera, depressing etcetera. How heartwarming, then, to learn that 10 year old London schoolboy, Sam Metcalf, has never missed a day’s school in his young, determined life. That’s 18 terms on the trot. Not one single sickie or foray into truancy. Apparently, it’s not down to some kind of super immunity but his......

Once you've conquered the Thames by swimming its entire length in 21 days, what's next? A nice luxurious holiday? Perhaps some time to just relax with a takeaway and something good on the telly? Not if you're Londonist's favourite swimmer Lewis Pugh. Then it's time for a nice brisk swim in the Arctic Ocean. On Sunday 15th July, Pugh is going to attempt the first long distance swim at the North Pole. And why......

“One broken collar bone, one sprained ankle and a severe case of man-flu – that’s the toll of a three week UK tour” joked Tom McRae as he chatted with the crowd at last night’s tour finale at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire. Taking the audience on a journey through his past three albums and his most recent, King of Cards, he manages to play all the old favourites and a few new ones. Opening up......

A century of plastic is being celebrated at the Science Museum! Eubank arrested after he drove his 32ft seven tonne protest lorry past an armed patrol, entered Whitehall and approached Downing Street. Again. Go to the Museum of London this summer, go to the requisite room and you shall see the skeleton of a headless Roman. Metronet are to 'streamline'. Ooo, ooo, aerodynamic tunnels allowing bullet train speeds? Nope. A crowded-platform's worth of redundancies.......

Such was the misinformed delighted squeal from the official Big Brother forum today as the first shots of 2007’s house of pain in Elstree were revealed. Yep, this year it’s all arse about face; the fridge is in the garden, the bath is in the living room, the chickens are encased in glass. "Modernistic sur-reality" apparently. It’s not yet clear where the cooker actually is but we can all be put out of our......

Who is Pete Doherty? Get ready for a shock: Pete Doherty has had his wrist slapped again. What for this time? Assault? Possession of a dangerous weapon? No… surely not drugs again? Does anybody really care? Was anyone surprised? Will it happen again? Of course. Who on earth is Pete Doherty? OK, he sang in a band or two for a while…but that didn’t end too well - remember the cocaine shenanigans a few......

Woman pimp lured girls with crack. Yes, you read that correctly. We're appropriately late in mentioning this: frustrated commuters walk along tracks after severe delays. Trevor Baylis, the bloke behind the wind-up radio, think there aren't enough toilets. The UK is 300 today. Did anyone notice? Diamond Geezer did, of course. Underwhelming 1 May rally takes place. Image courtesy of chutney bannister via the Londonist flickr group.......

This week - Adam Sandler's family were killed in 9/11 (Reign Over Me) and Ryan Gosling is a crack addict high school teacher (Half Nelson). Before we push on, it is only right that we warn you that Peter Bradshaw hasn't written any reviews for the films that we feature today. Even geniuses like him need a week off, even if he can watch a 2 hour film in 3 minutes superman stylee then......

Genius: Human Footprint is a new TV programme we've heard about, due to be broadcast on Channel 4 next Thursday, 26 April at 9pm. Throughout our lives, we will meet hundreds of people, eat tonnes of food, spend money on a vast array of material goods, and create mountains of waste. But have you ever thought about what this all amounts to for one individual and what their human footprint is on the planet?......

The Independent is excited about one of our icons getting an upgrade: the new black cab is green. The TX4 matches the new Euro IV emissions standards for the European Union that do not come into force until 2007. It is also ahead of the game in terms of emissions standards set by Ken Livingstone and Transport for London. It can also take 5 per cent of its fuel in the form of biodiesel......

Edgware Road shisha cafe's and the ban on smoking. Something's gotta give. Boxing postman and the campaign against binge drinking. We love local news. London Marathon and a solution to its litter problem. Lorry drivers and the campaign to kill fewer cyclists. And UK immigration crack down on dangerous Doggs. Image courtesy of buckaroo kid via the Londonist flickr group.......

This Day In London’s History 1961: Rioting outside the Belgian embassy as demonstrators protest against the killing of Patrice Lumumba, ex Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the summer of 1960, Patrice Lumumba was elected Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, becoming the country’s first democratically elected leader after it gained independence from Belgian colonial rule. However his brief rule over the troubled country was hardly plain-sailing......

This week - Simon Pegg polices the country town of Sandford (Hot Fuzz) and Jennifer Love Hewitt lives in Bristol (The Truth About Love). First, we must say sorry for the lack of Saturday Cinema Summary last week. We were saving London from certain destruction. All very top secret - CIA, Interpol, Power Rangers, the cast of Spooks, all that sort of thing. We toyed with trying to tell you that no films had......

The soon-to-be-constructed 'Cheesegrater' building seems to have attracted a little murine attention. Could it be the same family of mice we previously encountered at Newham Hospital, and Asda? Could it...could it? Papa Mouse: [to his 8 starving children] My little mouslings, now that we have been driven out of both Newham General Hospital and the Lavender Hill branch of Asda and we are hungry and homeless, we must concentrate all our efforts on finding......