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......

173 patient medical documents this time. The cache of personal information was discovered in a bag near Kingston Hospital. The files contain data on cancer and HIV patients plus ‘information on those attending conception and addiction clinics, as well as sexual disease and hepatitis test results’. Fortunately, the records are anonymised. But the hospital, ironically an NHS Trust, has no idea how the files escaped. Patients, or customers as they’re probably known these days,......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

Ask someone what they picture when the word "burlesque" is mentioned and chances are they'll think of a pretty girl wearing feathers slinking about on stage. But what if Dita von Teese were a bloke? If you'd like to find out, boys and girls, head on east to the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club for the final of Tease:The UK’s ONLY Male Burlesque Competition ! Come and see who will be crowned ‘Mr Male......

Just out the Van: The London Literature Festival, a two week Festival, starts today at the South Bank Centre. Some of the highlights over the weekend and next week include: Sat 30 June - The Uk's biggest ever Book Crossing (free). Mon 2 July - Pat Barker launches her new novel, Life Class, with a reading and discussion about her life as a writer in her only London show (£8.50). Tues 3 July -......

If you're eager to go to that sold out gig that you didn't hear about in time or get the best seats at sporting events like Wimbledon without queueing overnight, chances are you're going to be delving into the world of secondary ticketing. The traditional image of this market involves risky transactions secured with wads of cash within sight of the relevant venue, but increasingly deals take place online well before the day. Many......

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.......

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......

Tomorrow night BBC1 will host a mighty contest of song to find the UK's Eurovision entry. We're the last country to choose their entry, so we know exactly what we're up against (as the line-up draw has already taken place). The UK entry will be performed at 19th position (6 songs from the end), sandwiched between a lumpy drag queen singing a nonsensical drinking song over a tinny dance track for Ukraine and Romania's......

You've seen the trailer, read the review, so now all there is left to do is go see the film. May we suggest that you do so at the IMAX? The UK's biggest cinema screen - more than 20 metres high (nearly the height of five double-decker buses) and 26 metres wide. A 11,600-watt digital surround-sound system. An IMAX projection system (the most sophisticated motion-picture projection system in the world). Working together, these elements......

John Reid announced today that two more prisons will be built in order to house the ever growing number of bad people. Bad people have been running amok for some time now in the UK, some would say as a direct result of the lack of prison space in which to house them. One of the new jails, to be called Belmarsh West, is to be built next door to Belmarsh prison, and the......

The snow may have brought London to a halt, but the blogorash just keeps spreading. Here are a few of the things that caught our eye out there this week... Thankfully Onionbagblogger's new darts (yes, darts) didn't literally catch our eye, but we did it think it was nice in an age of game consoles that at least one Londoner was enjoying himself the old fashioned way: Ah yes - the darts... 23g of......

Supermarket wars found a new battlefield today as Tesco vowed to build affordable homes for its employees: Tesco is set to build homes for its staff to combat the lack of affordable housing in London. The UK's largest supermarket has allocated 13 to staff of the 250 flats it is building alongside the Streatham store in south London. The retailer already has "planning consent" and is in the "final stages of legal agreements," a......

It's New Years Eve and if like us you're very bad at making plans more than 12 hours in advance, you might be looking for something to do tonight. Equally if you were planning to go to The Truman Show in Shoreditch then you should probably know that it's been cancelled due to 'surprise' secret acts The Kooks pulling out due to illness. In any case here are our top tips: For the danceheads:......

What's most interesting about Pornography by Colin Gregory Palmer isn't that he got the girl to hold the sign, but that she actually seems to be eating it. And because we didn't have a Photo of the Day on Friday (which had nothing to do with us being drunk) here's a bonus pic from Herschell Hershey, The UK Prime Minister with the editor of The Guardian, Mr Harry Potter (12): So a big hello......

This Day in London's History 1485: Henry VII opens batting for the Tudor dynasty, taking the crown at Westminster Abbey. Attending the new king that day were the Yeomen of the Guard - the monarch's bodyguard - on their first official duty. The Yeomen of the Guard are not to be confused with the Yeoman Warders, or Beefeaters, who patrol the Tower of London... 1841: The Tower nearly falls. Beefeaters and policemen scrambled to......

The decision on whether police are to be charged over the death of Jean Charles de Menezes is due to be announced on July 17, the Crown Prosecution Service have announced. Bow Street court closes its doors this Friday. Ah, the memories. The UK's first ever gay prom will hit London next week. Woody Allen interview about his new film Scoop (his second to be filmed in London). Includes the question: Do you now......

Almost everyone who owns a mobile phone has either accidentally or very deliberately thrown their contraption across great distances - and if you haven't managed to do something destructive to your telecommunications gadget, then you're not using it properly. The urge to hurl is so potent, the throwing of phones has now been turned into a sporting event: the first mobile throwing championships took place in Finland at the turn of the millennium and......

UKIP Demands Apology Over "Closet Racist" Remarks The UK Independence Party have demanded an apology from Tory leader David Cameron over remarks he made on London radio station LBC. Mr. Cameron denounced UKIP as "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists, mostly" as he took part in a phone-in show on the station. The comments are further evidence of Cameron's propsed shift of his party from being a right-wing party to being a more centrist party,......

The Curzon Soho has warmed the Londonist cockles by putting on this tribute to the film career of The Clash frontman: The UK Premiere and centrepiece of the season, LET’S ROCK AGAIN, was made by Strummer's cinematic collaborator and friend Dick Rude. It captures Joe & The Mescaleros on the road on the last US tour before Joe’s death and is sure to be an emotional experience for fans and friends alike. CHARLIE DON’T......

Imagine, if you will, the following scenario: you and your best mate have been given a regular invite to the best party in town for years now, it's an amazing bash, and even though you never quite seem to 'pull' as much as the other (frankly better-looking) guests, it's the date in your social calendar that you look forward to the most. Unfortunately, the organisers have told you that after the next party, you'll......

London's congestion charge is somewhat of a contentious issue but if Ken Livingstone was to be accidentally run over and killed when out for a stroll in the Stamford Hill area you could probably say it would be considered his legacy to the capital. The other people inextricably linked with the rapidly expanding zone of extortion, or fine example of progressive city administration depending on how you look at it, are Capita, the company......

Tonight sees the inaugural UK Music Hall Of Fame ceremony at the Hackney Empire theatre. The UK Music Hall Of Fame is a lot like the US Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame except it's British...but includes US artists such as Elvis, and Madonna who are two of the chosen 'founding members' along with U2, The Beatles, and Bob Marley. Of course, if you've been watching the Jamie Theakston fronted series on Channel 4......