It was a delightfully dry and bright, crisp and chilly weekend in London... except for a sudden bit of flooding along Edgware Road on Sunday morning. Not from the heavens opening in a repeat of the 2007 deluges but from what has been reported as a mechanical digger failure at the crucial junction of Sussex Gardens and Edgware Road not far from Marble Arch. This is the junction where traffic from Paddington Station comes......

In years to come as historians look back on the events that triggered the untimely demise of this once great nation of ours, they'll probably be analysing the following timeline: October 2003: First grumblings about raising the Council Tax in London to pay for the Olympics if we get it. February 2006: Travelling Ken asks for a bit more money to fund the Olympics, 65p a week on London's Council Tax bills. December 2007:......

16. Strange Invaders Whilst residing at his terraced house in Kentish Town, during the 1980s, Christopher Fowler began to notice glimpses of unusual whitish creatures in his back garden. After finally finding the time to fully investigate, and to dismiss such possible hallucinations on his own behalf, Mr Fowler was astounded to discover several albino lobster-like critters, which plagued his yard for several months. A friend of Mr Fowler’s, whilst visiting one evening, almost......

Last week we reported on Walk Score, a tool for people who want to take positive steps towards greener living. This week, something for our more pessimistic readers: Flood Maps. Another twist on Google Maps, look up where you live or where you’re thinking of moving to, type in the amount you predict sea levels will rise, and find out whether you’re going to end up underwater. Projecting sea level rise is problematic. A......

…the way that apparently a lot of people have as this photo has been doing the rounds. And no, it is not part of this week’s ‘Touch Up London’ competition. It is, rather, one of the publicity shots for the much touted $30 million film, FLOOD, which is due to wash up in a cinema near you from Friday. Based on a book by Richard Doyle, it has a huge wall of water charging......

The third of our interviews with the Tory candidates for London Mayor. Previously, Victoria Borwick and Andrew Boff. Warwick Lightfoot has, no doubt, spent a lifetime tolerating jibes about his Tolkeinesque name. He's also acquired an outstanding CV that includes stints as Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea, Special Advisor to the Chancellor and 20 years experience as a councillor. Most impressively of all, he's the first Tory candidate to admit to vomiting on the......

As soon as the sun came out, half of you probably rushed to the nearest beach. Or the nearest pub. Or the nearest airport. Now you're back in the real world and you've spent all your money. It means that we can't go and see the Summer exhibition at Buckingham Palace (we love an excuse to be nosy!) and we can't go and see Orlando Bloom in 'In Celebration' (apparently it's not very good......

Roding foreboding - East End river's flood defences may be inadequate. Pensioner dies after being pelted by by kids. Man ploughs car into group of girls. The nightclub owner who's openly flouting the smoking ban. There's always one. DLR to get longer trains. Image courtesy of onionbagblogger via the Londonist flickr group.......

Flood chaos presumably caused by too many asylum seekers blocking up our drains. This will affect your mortgage.......

Hey, check me out - I've got my own account for the Londonist blogging software! Look, my name's at the bottom and everything! This level of trust is genuinely almost too much for me to handle. What if I accidentally reveal that the editor's a shoplifter, or I write something that offends all our readers with big, big chins? Also, I'm used to blogging using LiveJournal, a website renowned for angst and misery. So......

Note to readers -- You know how a nice bit of chocolate on your desk at the end of a warm day melts and goes all squishy in its wrapper? Mmm, yes. Lovely, isn’t it? Now get that mental image out of your head and put down the chocolate because you won’t want anything brown and squishy near you at the moment. You’re not still eating, are you? Good. You may proceed. There was......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 7th May 1663: The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane opens for the first time. There have actually been four theatres on this site since the 17th century, and the first one didn’t even last 9 years before burning down in 1672. The second was built in 1674, but demolished in 1791. The third lasted from 1794 until it burned down in 1809 (flammable things, these theatres). Finally, the......

"Whole crew... from backstops... full pressure... GO!!!" It's our first journey to the Thames of the series and we start with 286 crews of women rowing the wrong way up the river. Well, in fairness to the majority of oarspersons it's really the right way, 4 miles and 374 yards (or just under 7 kilometres) from Mortlake church to Putney Bridge. It's just that the most stratospherically well known contest over the same stretch......

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger added to his recent complaint about cup replays with some further stern words aimed in the direction of London rivals Chelsea and their just announced £80m operating loss for the most recent accounting year: They have a super sponsor. With normal mathematics, minus 80 is minus 80. It is 80 miles below water, and to survive so deep is normally very difficult... I have said many times that all clubs......

What's more boring than talking about the weather? Betting on it: Totesport, which has come up with a series of "global warming wagers", is also offering odds of 50-1 that the Thames Barrier will be breached over the next decade.The company, which thought up the bets with the help of former BBC weatherman John Kettley, is offering odds of 4-1 that 2007 will be the hottest year on record. Totesport spokesman Damian Walker said:......

Every day this month the Londonist team will be pointing you in the direction of a Christmas present that (with a bit of luck) you won't already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we'll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings... The Londonist Chinatown Christmas Hamper is the alternative collection of foodstuffs that appear this time of year. Though far from original as department stores......

Mussels. They look harmless enough. But plans to find a way of lowering the risk of flooding in the Lower Thames have been halted by the discovery of a community of the depressed river mussel, Pseudanodonta complanata. The find was made during studies into the construction of flood diversion channels between Datchet and Teddington. Plans are also afoot to erect defences between Walton and Teddington in order to protect small groups of houses from......

You know we can't resist something that a Conservative dismisses as a "socialist propaganda fest". That's the attitude of Angie Bray (leader of London's Tories - one of the ones with the cute little caps aboard the Death Star) at the news that those two red menaces Ken and Chávez have a scheme to flood London with black gold: an extraordinary deal struck with London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, that would see Caracas benefit from......

London's literary hotspots are Bloomsbury, London Fields and... Battersea. Just how literary this particular part of town tucked away in the shadows of Clapham Junction is shown off to full effect in the SW11 Literary Festival. Starting on 11 September and ending 2 October, big names will flood the area for readings, book signings, workshops, literary lunches, quizzes and... stuff. This festival is described as an "opportunity to meet people who write books, who......

The Gay Cops vs. God Cops grudge match is hotting up as things turn... well... a bit Biblical: The head of the Gay Police Association (GPA) received a death threat after a row erupted over an advert the group put in a national newspaper. The advert blames religious beliefs for a rise in homophobic attacks and shows a bible next to a pool of blood with the slogan 'In the name of the father'.......

A school in Barkingside has taken out all the mirrors from the girls' toilets because they are spending more time attending their appearance than attending classes. King Solomon High School then had to remove all the mirrors from the boys' toilets as the ever resourceful female of the species then began to sneak into the male facilities in order to continue their make-up and hair routines. Anyone who has had to spend any amount......

The BBC has a leaked government report which says large areas of the Thames Gateway could be allowed to flood as part of an 'estuary park'. Arsenal unveiled their new 60,000-capacity Emeriates Stadium in front of a 20,000 crowd yesterday, with an open traning session. Scary doctor story: An Elstree doctor injected thousands of children with out-of-date MMR vaccines which he carried in sandwich bags, and stored in a tiny refrigerator plugged into a......

London Architecture Biennale and Architecture Week got off to a fine if sweaty start this weekend. We’d particularly recommend ‘Transit’, an Iain Sinclair-narrated short film by Emily Richardson, in catacombs beneath Smithfield Market - spooky, thought provoking and surprisingly deserted when we visited. Here’s our pick of the many events happening over the next couple of days. And don’t worry about missing the football. They’ve thought of that… Monday Blueprint Big Breakfasts: The chance......

BBC: A groundwater cooling system is to be tested at Victoria station in an effort to combat soaring temperatures on the Tube over the summer months... The first thing that springs to mind is why wait until June to test the damn thing? It's not like we're shivering down there at anytime. Maybe they'll get it working properly in time for Christmas. But forget that because this is the GOOD bit: Victoria Tube station,......

You don't often get apologies from the police, so one Matthew Brabbs of Caterham should count himself at least somewhat lucky that he has. Unfortunately for Matthew he had to get mugged first. Adding insult to (thankfully lack of) injury, when he tried to report the incident to the police he was laughed at becuase he had just handed over the money and not tried to fight back. Perhaps if the police weren't making......

Look: a graph! Londonist just gets more thrilling by the day doesn't it? Ok, so it might not be the most thrilling graphic we've ever posted but let's put it in context and see if that stems the flood of readers who are hastily deleting our bookmark from their 'favourites'. The graph actualy comes from here, Google's new 'Trends' site, which is currently in beta. "See what the world is searching for" runs the......

Hey, did you know that every building in London has been targeted by aircraft-mounted lasers? We certainly didn’t. But now at least we know why Londonist’s TV set keeps switching channels unexpectedly. It’s all part of the revolution in 3D mapping. While everyone’s been salivating over Google Earth, other initiatives have been waiting in the wings. And not just waiting. Here’s one that uses wings. Aerial mapping company BlueSky has announced a new 3D......

We’d just about stopped wetting our pants with excitement over the immense pleasures of Google Earth. So imagine the burden on our underwear after finding a site that (1) makes bits of London 3-D and (2) allows one to…oh my shattered bladder…TRAVEL THROUGH TIME. Digitally Distributed Environments, now prominently placed in our bookmarks, is the blog of Dr Andy Hudson-Smith. He works at UCL in the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis building 3-D images......

We're surprised that The Standard didn't run this as front page news with the headline WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! and a photo of Kevin Costner in his Waterworld gear driving a black cab: A film about the real-life threat of a tidal wave hitting London will begin shooting in the capital in the spring. The Flood tells the story of what would happen if the city's dam defences were breached and is based......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Speed Dating: Laws of Attraction, at the Dana Centre What is it with trying to pair off sciency types? First we had that shindig over at the British Library, now the Dana Centre have decided to see if cupid’s arrow obeys Newton’s First Law. On......