Blogophobia: an irrational fear, intolerance of, or aversion to the blogosphere. Martin Amis has been accused of far worse, but after hearing him talk at RADA yesterday evening, this was the only accusation we felt it safe to lodge against him. The offending remark came early in the evening when, during his reading from the recently published The Second Plane, Amis effectively dissed Londonist and its ilk as “semi-literate windbags of the blogosphere”. Gauntlet,......

Reality TV has found a new audience with the broadcast of a splendid new show, Model Mosque. Shown on the Islam Channel, the programme sees mosques from around the UK (of which there are 1,500 official ones) going head to head to be awarded the title of Mosque with the mostest and to receive £35,000 worth of consultancy. Viewers vote by text on the weekly knockout rounds - the final is on 25th November. Londonist......

When Londonist originally heard that the Dead Sea Scrolls were being exhibited in London, an erroneous verbal concatenation took place which caused the communication to appear as, 'Dead Seascrolls'. We were curious – what are these Seascrolls? Are they washed-up aquatic behemoths, heaving their last sigh on some obscure Russian beach, causing the locals to run away, gasping in horror at nature's lost son? No. They’re not that. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a......

Recently, Robert Mugabe hasn't done much to live up to his British knighthood. He did provide us with one of our very favourite websites (loving the clipart animated flag, keep up the good work) but even that can't make up for the 3000% inflation, the beatings, the collapse of agriculture, land confiscation and mass starvation. In short, the man is a gigantic knob. Of course, Robert likes to blame all these things (the dire......

If Islam had confessionals like the Catholic faith, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's imam would be a busy man. "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z." "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl." "I was responsible for planning, surveying and financing for the operation to destroy Heathrow Airport, the Canary Wharf building and Big Ben on British soil." These and around 30 other admissions......

We first saw Caroline Clifford in the final of the Amused Moose new act competition at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, and hers was the best 7 minutes we'd heard all festival. She was also a finalist at So You Think You're Funny 2006. As well as standing up, she draws cartoons. How are you? I’m well thanks – I have a slight pain in my left buttock, I don’t *think* it’s cancer although......

German. Art. Controversial. Diana. London. Do you know how long we've been waiting for an article to come along that contains all of those words? And, finally, today our prayers have been answered: An art show based on a controversial German stage work about the death of Britain's Princess Diana has found a home in London. Christoph Schlingensief's "The Last Hour" was originally scheduled to be part of the Frieze Art Fair, which runs......

Muslim protesters disrupted a speech by John Reid in Leytonstone today after he urged Muslim parents to monitor their children for signs of 'radicalisation'. Several protesters were led from the room after describing Reid as an "enemy of Islam." Best local story of the day: ex-Simply Red singer strips off in a busy high street to protest about the lack of youth facilities. Next year the Barbican will mark the 30th anniversary of punk......

In case you missed it earlier: The Met have pleaded not guilty to health and safety charges relating to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. It's a 'test case' apparently. Police patrols at churches and mosques in London have been stepped up following the protests over Pope Benedict's remarks about Islam. A survivor of July 7 has criticised TerrorBull Games of Cambridge for creating War on Terror: The Board Game. The game includes......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. The Beckett Centenary Celebration continues this week with a season of his shorter works at the Bookshop Theatre, A Piece of Monologue on Tuesday ("the summing up of the last two and a half billion seconds of a man's life") and The End on Wednesday (One man’s testament to the lack of care in......

When shooting people indiscriminately results in a little bad press it's time to do a little swatting up: A police force is issuing its frontline officers with a guide to Islam in a bid to improve relations with the Muslim community. City of London Police is the first force in the country to issue its officers with a guide to the religion. The 86-page "Guide to Islam for non-Muslims" aims to give officers a......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. First off, a resounding thank you to Sarah who authored this column so expertly each week and has only abdicated the role because she was forced back to the Big Apple. We’re not sure if they have “books” or “literature” over there Sarah, so this one’s for you… Events Around London: Tonight: The crime......

The choicest cuts from our sister sites around the globe. Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out......

Henry Rollins will be rolling into town again next month for one of his annual spoken word gigs - at least we hope he will, because whether he gets here may well be down to what reading material he decides to bring with him. His choice of in-flight read caused a ridiculous kafuffle when he recently travelled from New Zealand to Australia. It turns out that a fellow passenger objected to Rollins reading Ahmed......

Photograph based on actual events. 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 Beautiful Minds Mingle at the British Library ‘Cuddle a chemist and see the reaction.’ Remember that? If you’re of a certain vintage, you might recall this somewhat ill-advised campaign by a well-known chemistry society. The aim was to coax youngsters......

The riots in France couldn’t happen here in London, right? Our society is far more integrated and recognising of other cultures - isn’t it? Well, so the news commentators keep saying. But when it comes down to it, many of us are dangerously ignorant of other faiths and ethnicities. Only today, a poll by the BBC indicated that more than a third of UK citizens have no understanding of Islam, while 37% of Muslims......

- 50 houses were evacuated in east London over the weekend after a "huge pile of tyres" caught fire in Barking. - After security is stepped up at the Cenotaph it's revealed that an al-Qaeda video released after 7 July claimed the Queen was “one of the severest enemies of Islam”. - A House of Commons committee has thrown out measures that would have allowed Westminster council to register all the pedicabs in central London.......

There's lots and lots and LOTS on TV for a square-eyed troll to watch this week. Tonight, for example, we go from the serious (The Battle For Islam, Mon, 9pm BBC2) to the 'not so serious but still thought provoking' (Tottenham Ayatollah Revisited, Mon 8pm C4), to the frivolous (Greatest TV Comedy Moments, Mon 9pm Five), to the frivolous-and-plain-insulting (Bring Your Husband To Heel, Mon 7pm BBC2). Oh yes, and we've heard very good......

We have that BBC alert gizmo where BREAKING NEWS pops up on the desktop to thundering dramatic music - it only ever seems to bring bad news like just now when we learned that Mo Mowlam died. It never pops up to say Kittens Are Cute or to even state the obvious like Norman Tebbit Is Still A Night-Walking Caricature Right Wing Racist Fuck, Impervious To The March Of Time, IRA Bombs And Silver......