Tube fares are being increased up to 74% - and it seems like Boris tried to bury it yesterday

Kentish Town's Flowerpot to close after landlord shenanigans

Review: The Amaz!ng Meeting - what happens when Cory Doctorow, Stephen Fry, Alan Moore, and the Amazing Randi play host to 1000 of their closest friends

The Amaz!ng Meeting, bringing together sceptics for an entertaining exchange of ideas, recently staged at the Hilton Metropole Hotel last weekend. Organised by conjuror, paranormalist investigator and bane of Uri Geller, the Amazing Randi, TAM brought together a dazzling array of speakers to discuss loose variations on a topic- What is scepticism and how can we use it to save the society we believe in?

A brief and incomplete recount of the conventions highlights would include the superb and hilarious MC’ing of Richard Wiseman, the fascinating tour of the weirder corners of the universe by Marcus Chown, Cory Doctorow discussing the madness of a proposal for a copyright firewall in the UK, an interview with Lost Girls graphic novel artist Melinda Gebbie, and Richard Dawkins. There was a light ripple of confusion in the applause following Dawkins’s statement that Christianity was the armour needed in our battle against the most evil religion of today, Islam. What he meant, I think, is that the actions of extremist Muslims – stonings, suicide bombings, attacks on free speech and “honour killing” of young women perceived by men as somehow besmirching their good name – are wrong and should be stopped, regardless of cultural relativity. Atheism had a frequent mention at the talks. While being a sceptic and humanist doesn’t necessarily preclude being religious, it is awfully hard to view the universe clearly if you think, at the heart of it all, there is a benevolent but bloodthirsty deity who created the world 6000 years ago in order to punish the vast majority of his children for not being narrowminded enough. A moral atheism was continually espoused, that we should be good to each other because it is right to do so, not because a lightning bolt took divine dictation on a couple slabs of rock three millennia ago.

BBC political reporter Nick Robinson rips placard from protestor - caught on video

London agenda for Thursday 21 October

London agenda for Thursday 21 October

1. Bad Things That Could Happen, a film by design collective ‘This Is It’ at DreamBagsJaguarShoes [Run Riot]
2. Nervy, rhythmic, post-punkisms with Cold in Berlin, Man-Flu, and Youthless at the Lock Tavern [London Gigs]
3. An evening of mystery and nightmares inspired by the films of David Lynch at the Double R Club [Run Riot]

Google employees make video for Dan Savage's 'It Gets Better Project'

Say ‘no’ to hate crime this weekend

London agenda for Wednesday 20 October

London agenda for Wednesday 20 October
1. Glam/punk/art meets garage angularity with The Dogbones, Vile Imbeciles, and Kitty Junkbrother at Dublin Castle [London Gigs]
2. Kraut beat with Wolf People and Toehammer at the Lex [London Gigs]
3. See the gig of the year (electronica version) with God Don’t Like It: Drum Eyes / Nedry / Rocketnumber9 / Devilman / Becoming Real / Husband at Corsica Studios [Run Riot]
4. Classical music without rules at Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment:the Night Shift [Run Riot]
5. Relax in the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden [Tired of London]

London agenda for Tuesday 19 October

London agenda for Tuesday 19 October
1. Sketch fetish performers at Life Drawing at the Book Club [Le Cool]
2. Experimental music at Galvanised [Run Riot]
3. Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood at the Working Man’s Club [Run Riot]
4. Tired of London, Tired of Life’s Second Birthday Party [Tired of London]

London agenda for Monday 18 October

London agenda for Monday 18 October
1. Listen to the dreamy and non-specific music of Kisses [Le Cool]
2. Prepare for the the Decline Of Western Civilisation Part II: The Metal Years [Le Cool]
3. Journey back in time to the age of dinosaurs at the monthly pop science party Super/Collider [Run Riot]