While many of us will be looking forward to a very pleasant lie-in this morning 251 crews will be down by the Thames at the crack of dawn preparing themselves for the 10am start of the 2008 Womens' Head of the River Race (WEHORR). In contrast to most years, though, the very cream of Britain's female rowing talent will not be taking part as they're on their way back from a pre-Olympic training camp......

That's one of the relaxing conversation pieces to be found at a ‘Skeptics in the pub’ meetup. Tonight’s guest speaker is Dr Matthew Smith from Liverpool Hope University, who will talk about fate, the meaning of life and mid-life crises. We caught up with co-organiser Sid Rodriques to find out what skepticism is, and whether we should be skeptical of it. How would you define a 'skeptic'? A skeptic is someone who asks for......

This Day In London’s History 1962: The first ‘Panda crossing’ is opened on York Road, opposite Waterloo Station. Since the 1930s, pedestrian crossings in Britain were marked by poles bearing orange glass domes known as ’Belisha beacons’ (named after Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport at the time). Traffic approaching these crossings was required to stop and give way to any pedestrians who were waiting to cross the road. At around the same time,......

Being huge fans of David Mamet's House of Games and other great con stories (have you seen Eddie Izzard in The Riches yet? Great stuff) we've been following the Blue Peter grift very carefully. It's a classic con that we think scam artists the world over will copy and make their own. The beauty is in the simplicity of the long con. All you need is to create a popular children's television show and......

A mixed bag for the weekend, as mixed as the weather (especially when you think of the snow involved in skiing...) Starting tonight, there's Light It! Festival of Light in Myatt's Fields Park in Camberwell This outdoor event has video installations, circus art, sculptural artworks, music and sound, candles and lanterns and is first in a series of planned annual events for this Victorian south London park. Go along to see leading artists' interpretations......

Anyone who's ever tried to get round Tate Modern in a day with their visiting family in tow will know how stressful modern art can be. All that walking, the mental fatigue, the fights over the bench space... it's a jungle out there! Thank the Lord then for Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist whose latest work actually requires the viewer to lie down on a bed to view it. The work (entitled Löndön, so she's......

If ever there was an excuse to buy a new TV for the wife/partner/dog this Christmas then here it is. The BBC has announced it is to begin to test High Definition TV on digital terrestrial TV in London in the next few months. For those of you who have been wallowing in the TV dark ages, HD-TV is the best thing that has happened to the format since they rolled out the snooker......

Welcome to the first (and, it's perfectly conceivable, last) London Blog Roundup. As you can see, this one's subtitled the Beta Version; although it's an idea we at Londonist have talked about for about as long as there has been a Londonist, it's one we've never tried out. There isn't a proper name yet, so we've gone for the Ronseal approach and called it "London Blog Roundup". And that does not mean it consists......

We've mentioned a couple of times now that Iain Sinclair will be appearing at Patti Smith's Meltdown, but we didn't reveal that Londonist was invited to have a chat with him one sunny afternoon a week or so ago. What followed was a conversation that made for a great interview which it is now our pleasure to share with you. It's a LONG one, but it covers so much of interest that we were......

Have you been watching The Apprentice on BBC2? We have...in fact we might even go as far to say we're slightly addicted to it. When we heard they were going to import the Donald Trump-fronted version over from the States, and plonk Amstrad supremo Alan Sugar in the big boardroom chair we'll admit we were a bit cynical. But, contrary to expectations, the Beeb have made a decent job of the whole thing by......