The Taser may have turned a Flordia student into an unwitting celebrity earlier in the year, but on the streets of London it's a serious business. As we reported a few weeks ago, the Met has recently increased Taser deployment for a trial period. Barely a fortnight in, and the IPCC are already investigating allegations that an unarmed and innocent man was shocked repeatedly with the weapon. As part of anti-gun crime initiative Operation......

The legendary girls from St Trinians had their premiere last night in Leicester Square. St Trinian's is the 2007 film of the 1950s film series is getting certain bits of the press excited, with a cast that features Rupert Everett in drag, Russell Brand twatting about with no noticeable change of costume or persona, Colin Firth striding about being humourless and lots of attractive women playing schoolgirls. Celia Imrie and Anna Chancellor both have......

The nation’s favourite supermarket (not) plays Scrooge with its staff. Police everywhere would like us to party carefully this season. Quite right too. The food police go to work on a hedgehog. The regular police get to play with tasers, even tho’ it is against their own better judgment. The immigration and detention centre at Colnbrook isn’t a very nice place. So why is it there? Finally, in slightly happier news, we are back......

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and......

Whilst many, last night, were labouring under the somewhat unreasonable expectations that our national football side might do something a little old school, like win, there was a group of us who went home late with a collective smile on our faces. The aforementioned happy folks gathered at the 229 Club, at the far end of Great Portland Street. There we faced drums that go thuddity thuddity thuddity boom, guitars that go danga danga......

New writing theatre company Paines Plough are presenting an absolutely cracking new way to see plays this autumn and making us think that there should be more theatre programmed like this. New writing, an exciting theatre space, a sensible time slot, a hot snack and a drink are all included in the ticket price and you can be on your way having had your culture fix by 8pm when other theatres are raising the......

London Ambulance Service is the best. And it has the best blogger, too. Just as well, because gun crime has risen 10%. Free wifi on London to Milton Keynes bus route. At last, a reason to go to the new town. Securitas robbers sported 'false noses, chins, moustaches, stubble and hairlines'. Putney's rear of the year fought off 'rear-ly tough competition' by showing off 'her best ass-et'. Image of Primrose Hill courtesy of ignacio......

We love a play on words at Londonist so we're delighted to tell you that the third Tree-athlon hits Battersea Park tomorrow. Taking it's etymology from the triathlon but spinning it towards the event's beneficiaries - the trees - charity Trees for Cities will be raising money in a tripartite manner: 1. A 5k run for registered tree-athletes - sponsor/donate here 2. An urban "tree wish" for each registered runners printed on their bib......

Do you want to go and see some Peregrine Falcons? We were enjoying ourselves today on a leisurely stroll along the South Bank (home of London's finest avian encounters) when we stumbled upon the RSPB outside the Tate Modern. They had four telescopes pointed up at the central tower. To the naked eye nothing could be seen but with the help of the lens the beautiful creatures were a delight to watch. The birds......

13. The Horror Of Berkeley Square Over a century ago, No. 50 Berkeley Square, W1 was London's most famous haunted house. Some of the residents to have lived on the street are William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham (No. 6), Horace Walpole (No. 11) and Lord Clive (No. 45, which is where he committed suicide in 1774). A certain Mr Myers occupied No. 50 for many years; he brought the house and was due......

A new exhibition opens tomorrow at the National Army Museum in Chelsea. Called Helmand: The Soldier's Story, it is a detailed, unique insight into life in a war zone - and a current one, which is a rare feat in museum history. A wide range of contributions from the soldiers of 16 Air Assault Brigade who were the first NATO troops to enter Helmand Province in 2006. Contributions from over 150 soldiers range from......

How many weeks after a smoking ban is implemented does it take before the wrath of the smokers results in violence? The answer is three. A trio of men at a south-west London club were seen fleeing the scene after James Oyebola, a former British heavyweight boxer, was shot in the head and leg. Oyebola, 47, had confronted the men about smoking at the club, Chateau 6 in Fulham Road. He was taken to......

Man arrested for having a fake gun near Downing Street. Beware anyone thinking of entering Street Wars. C-charge removed 70,000 cars from the centre last year. Olympics get second major sponsor. We reckon we know the third ;-) Canary's 'incredible journey', actually a bit lame. Image courtesy of ponyintheair via the Londonist flickr group.......

Hooha over very expensive council corporate suite at the O2. But Bon Jovi christens it with "hair rock". Motorist hides gun between buttocks in Tooting. But local newspaper fails to spot 'Shooting craps' pun potential. At Wimbledon, if the rain doesn't get you, the snipers will. Madonna adds a sixth London home to her collection. Image courtesy of Chutney Bannister via the Londonist flickr group.......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

New York and London have always had a bit of rivalry going on, about who's best. In recent times, London seems to have got the edge - New York's Mayor, for example, expressed worries that London was moving ahead as the world's financial centre. And frankly, we know that our chocolate's a hell of a lot better. But now Mayor Bloomberg has gone further. Announcing his new plans to combat climate change, he commended......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

LondonRemembers has turned plaque-tracking into something of an extreme sport. Its mission is to hunt down and record every plaque, memorial and dedication in London. Each entry is mapped, and includes photos and biographical notes. It’s a godsend for local historians, genealogists and anyone who likes poking into the capital’s lesser-known oddments. Most of the legwork, research and data entry was done by one person – Richenda Walford. We just had to meet her.......

OpenStreetMap is a map of the world created, like all the best things, by amateur enthusiasts. Farting in the general direction of professional mappers, these collaborative cartographers prowl the streets collecting GPS data and building up their wiki-based map. We caught up with charter-in-chief Steve Coast, to find out why they're bothering. So what's it all about? OpenStreetMap exists because map data is very expensive in the UK. It's owned by a monopoly provider......

The RMT Union has announced a three day tube strike next week by Metronet workers. Next week, the City of London will become Europe's largest wifi hotspot. Tony Blair blames a distinctive black culture for the recent spate of knife and gun crime. A new Cutty Sark exhibition has opened in Greenwich. Image courtesy of Orhan* via the Londonist flickr group.......

Have you recently risen from the dead? Do you like eating brains? Are you wanting to meet other undead people for friendship and perhaps more? Then Fleshmob this Saturday could be just the thing for you! It's a bit like a flashmob which has so far proved to be an excellent way to get to know people by either bashing them over the head with pillows or dancing to your own private tunes -......

The Times is running this as an exclusive: Scores of worried parents are buying body armour for their children in a desperate attempt to keep them safe as street violence escalates. A firm that supplies stab- and bullet-proof vests to government agencies around the world has sold 60 jackets, at a cost of between £300 to £425, to concerned parents who have flooded the company with inquiries after several murders of teenagers on London......

This Day In London’s History 1916: Prolific actor Eric Christmas is born in London. OK, so it’s slim pickings this week in terms of interesting London-related events that have taken place on this date. But we did discover that the wonderfully-named Eric Cuthbert Christmas was born on 19th March 1916 in London, and in the absence of anything more interesting occurring on this date in London we thought we would find out a little......

A teenager who shot dead a young father outside his east London home told a jury he was sorry for his family and that he had only meant to scare him. Bradley Tucker, 18, told the Old Bailey jury he believed the gun he fired at Peter Woodhams would only "go bang". In what is certainly a tragic situation, perhaps we can find a silver lining: a lesson in firearm awareness. Guns don’t just......

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's? Bostonist dug deep to uncover Barack Obama's unpaid parking tickets, their Governor's latest ethical lapse, and a plagarizing sports writer. Chicagoist had everything in twos: two views on having the Olympics, losing two members of their Super Bowl team, and two music festivals. DCist put their noses in legal books as......

More fatal gun crime: Officers were called to reports of a shooting in Scrubs Lane at 1615 GMT on Sunday afternoon. The victim, a 21-year-old man, was pronounced dead at the scene. A post-mortem examination is due to take place on Monday. In a separate incident a policer officer was shot in South London: The officer, from Southwark, was unhurt in the shooting in Beaton Close, Peckham, in the early hours of Sunday. No-one......

Gun crime suspect was found cowering in a shed An Aboriginal leader is on his way to London to stop scientists from drilling holes into his ancestors. House of Fraser have removed a major advertising campaign after complaints that the slogans were racist. A "crippling" tube strike is perhaps on the way . And 55 years of outdoor summer concerts at Kenwood House have come to an end.......

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......

Here's the latest news following the recent fatal shootings: Did 15-year-old Billy Cox die because of a text message? Sir Ian Blair will be meeting John Reid to discuss the shootings. Cameron reckons it's down to the fathers and wants powers introduced to "compel" them to look after the kids. The BBC has been testing the mood on the streets: They have no conscience. They think they can just do whatever they like. They......

11th January 2007 Kristin Hersh @ Soho Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street In a tiny theatre tucked behind the busy neon glare of Leicester Square a woman takes the stage with her band. This is no ordinary woman and no ordinary band. Joined by experimental string duo The McCarricks (also opening tonight with a techno orchestral blast), erstwhile bassist Bernard Georges (Throwing Muses/50 Foot Wave) and drummer Rob Ahlers (50 Foot Wave), Kristin Hersh......