And this is a merry tale, a girl-done-good tale, a story of pomp and pageantry and a bit of fun. Nothing too complicated or controversial. What Sullivan himself called ?No topsy-turveydom, very human?.

Moira Cameron has every right to feel ?peerly proud? today as she slips into her new ?undress? uniform (blue, rather than the red and gold picture postcard one) ready for her first day of duty as England?s first female Yeoman Warder. She beat five male applicants for the (rather stingey, we feel) £20,000.00 p.a. job, which is only open to NCOs in the armed forces with a minimum of 19 years? service behind them.

Londonist is only surprised that it has taken this long for women to penetrate the ranks ? she will after all get to wear a theatrical frock coat and fancy stockings, feed the birds, talk to tourists and watch over the world?s biggest collection of bling. Nothing too blokey there. For sure the original Beefeaters probably needed the extra rations of beef they were reputedly given, as they were burdened with such onerous tasks as guarding real prisoners in the Tower.

Anyway, Londonist wishes Yeoman Warder Cameron the very best of British in her new role as one of the capital?s best loved icons.

We all knew it was coming. Yet another tube strike. As of 6pm this evening, we're going to see 72 hours of chaos as more than 2,300 RMT members have promised to walk out. (The TFL website says services will not return to normal until Friday morning.) And what can we do about it? Absolutely nothing. We've been told to 'finish our journeys by 5pm or jump on the DLR'.

So what's the deal? Well, lucky us, the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines should be running as normal. Though of course, these are going to be hugely over crowded. NO OTHER LINES ARE EXPECTED TO RUN. This means that until Thursday 6pm, there is no service on: Bakerloo, Central, Circle, District, East London, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Victoria and Waterloo & City line.

Now, we know the union have been fighting for job security since the collapse of Metronet. But do they have to hold the whole city to ransom to do this? This seems ludicrously unfair and Londonist believe that underground passengers would be hugely supportive of any action that didn't screw up our daily lives. It's a little difficult to be supportive at the moment when Londoners are being used as pawns in a game.

Maintenance works will also not go ahead, meaning more problems in the future when the underground workers have stopped throwing their toys out of the pram. People get made redundant every single day. Yes it's terrible but why do millions of other people have to suffer?

What really annoys Londonist, is that Metronet and Ken Livingstone have assured them already that the concerns they had have been addressed. So why is the strike still going ahead? We have no idea what right the unions have to do this now the issues have been apparently resolved. Disrupting the lives of millions isn't exactly the best way to get results. Having a whole city against what you're fighting for doesn't seem like the best plan of action.

Although the strike is still planned, we'll keep you updated if there's any news. Currently, as services are likely to start winding down around 4.30pm we suggest you find other ways to continue your journey. As always, feel free to comment and tell us what you think.

UPDATE AT 4.15PM: Looks like things have started already. The Central, Victoria and Metropolitan lines already have minor delays. Hammersmith & City, Distrct and Circle lines already running with severe delays.

5.30PM - "Due to Metronet industrial action the service is suspended between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge". On the Piccadilly line. A line that was meant to be running with no problems.

Flickr image from kk+.

Lights go on... lights go off... lights go on... lights go off... Contemporary life hums, buzzes, whirrs and recharges with electricity that we take for granted. It's always there - coming out of our wall sockets, stored in our batteries and flowing around us in cable after cable, concealed in every wall and under every floor.

BOiLEROOM is a theatre company with a fantastically eclectic line-up, bizarrely well-suited for the kind of stories and ideas they bring to the stage: theatre practitioners, a live sound artist, a sculptor, a surgeon and a physicist seem the perfect bunch for a non-typical performance about the dawn of the electrical age. The Terrific Electric is the company's first professional production but as they have already won the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award, we imagine they know what they're doing and do it well.

An isolated household falls under the spell of a charismatic man of science who takes up residence to pursue his experiments. Through this surreal and fantastical world of innovation, BOiLEROOM investigates technology and our relationship with it across generations, from utopian visions of the future to mobile phones, cyberspace and the cutting edge of mechanised medicine.

From what we've read about this intriguing little number, there will be film, music, experimental sound, bits of traditional theatre and stuff that doesn't fall into any of those categories, which are often the most exciting bits. We're expecting to reviews ranging from the smug, one-word 'electrifying' to variations of 'shocking', 'fully-charged' and 'about 40 watts.'

The Terrific Electric at the Barbican Pit, Tuesday 4 to Saturday 15 September. For more information and to book tickets, go to the Barbican website here.

Image courtesy of hojusaram's Flickr photostream, under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence.

If you're not heading out of the capital to Bestival this weekend, and you're looking for a musical treat, then Saturday night at KOKO could be just what you're looking for.

Calvin Harris, Boy Kill Boy, The Mitchell Brothers, Ali Love, Rakes frontman Alan Donohoe and guests will be taking to the stage at one off live event Wasted Youth. The event was set up by journalist Daniel Fulvio after his brother committed suicide on Xmas Eve 2006. Aiming to promote the fact that "silent isn't strong" and that suicide has killed more men aged 15 to 34 in the last four years than any other single cause, Wasted Youth intends to raise awareness and money for charity C.A.L.M (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

Tickets cost £15 and are available here.

This chesty old hoare-nut comes round time and again. What's the most emblematic edifice in the capital? To end all debate, Londonist went in for a more scientific approach than petty arguing on a forum. We visited all the London web sites we could think of. In each case, we noted down which structures the site features in its logo or banner. The one chosen by the most websites wins. So was it Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, The London Eye? Join us after the jump to find out the rankings...

And the winner is...

...Big Ben and/or the Palace of Westminster. The Barry/Pugin masterwork is featured on 19 of 27 websites. St Pauls is in second position with 13 inclusions. And Tower Bridge third with 12 apperances.

Suprisingly, City Hall beats Westminster Abbey. And One Canada Square - the tallest building in the UK - only gets a single pick.

The results in full:
19 Big Ben/Palace of Westminster
13 St Paul's Cathedral
12 Tower Bridge
11 London Eye
7 Gherkin
6 Tower 42
5 BT Tower
4 City Hall, Eros, Nelson's Column, Tower of London
3 Millennium Bridge
2 Buckingham Palace
1 Bank of England, 1 Canada Square, Cannon St Bridge, Centre Point, Covent Garden, Custom House, Harrods, Thames Barrier, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, Willis Building

And the web sites sampled: All London Tours, ExploreLondon, Federation of Small Businesses London, Flora London Marathon, FridayCities, London Art Prints, London Daily, London Development Agency, London First, London Guided Tours, London Higher, Londonist, LondonLit+, LondonTown.com, Lonely Planet Guide to London, LSE, Nature Network London, netLondon.com, This is London, Time Out London, TourGuides.co.uk, Tour London, Trusted Places, University of London, Visa Flex.com UK, Visit London, We Hang Here.

Or, stuff about London you think is true, but is actually rubbish.

1. The Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus.

Ah, the Eros statue. A symbol of love in the midst of tourists and shoppers. How romantic. Er, actually, sorry to dissapoint you, but it's all rubbish. Think we're making it up? Allow us to explain.

The statue is a memorial to The 7th Earl of Shaftsbury (yep, that's where the avenue got its name) and it's meant to represent the 'Angel of the Christian Charity'. Not Eros, the Greek God of love.

Anthony Ashley-Cooper was born in 1801 and became one of the Victorian era's best known philanthropists. He put a huge amount of work in the welfare of children and was a big fan of Florence Nightingale too. Basically he did so much good work, the memorial fountain and statue were erected as a memorial for him in 1893.

The memorial actually used to be further west. In the Second World War, the statue was removed and replaced by advertising hoardings. It was put back in 1948. It wasn't placed in its current position until the whole of Piccadilly Circus went under reconstruction in the 1980s and it was moved to where it stands today.

Since the mistakenly named statue has a bow, everyone thinks he's shooting arrows like Cupid did. Making romantic mischief for all who sit around him. But the eagle eyed among you will have noticed that the bow itself has no arrow.

Apparently, this is because the 'shaft' or arrow is said to be buried in Shaftesbury Avenue. See, it's all linked to the Earl and has nothing to do with Eros at all. The name stuck and everyone has forgotten the 'Angel of the Christian Charity'. It's a shame really as this Anthony bloke seemed to be a pretty nice guy.

Flickr image from Victoria Peckham's photostream.

Touch Wood is a season of brand new dance, most of which hasn't been created at the time of writing even though the season opens next Tuesday. Naked ideas on a bare wood stage, apparently. We barely know who's going to be performing. Either the ethos is truly last minute, ad hoc, by the seat of your pants unpredictable stuff or the Place programming team's had all summer off and not quite got their arses in gear for autumn.

Either way, it is super exciting that one of the confirmed artists to participate will be Probe; a partnership between Antonia Grove and Theo Clinkard who are young, sexy and unfeasibly talented dancers who have danced with and for the coolest dance companies and choreographers around as well as pursuing their own creative interests and doing their own funky thing (expect to hear more about these guys later in the year).

We're also promised stuff from a whole raft of upthrusting performers and emerging choreographers including several Place Prize artists and the much-hyped Hofesh Shecter who must surely be finding it difficult to concentrate on this when he's due to present the biggest show of his life at the end of the month when "In Your Rooms" makes it to Sadlers Wells.

Basically, we have no idea what will happen at any of the nights, neither do the Place and we're not even sure the artists do either. This will definitely produce some hit and miss programmes but as with all radical contemporary dance, you've got to suck it and see to find the true gems. We're keen. And The Place has a nice bar and plenty of intervals.

By the way, the featured nudity is metaphoric rather than promised. Although, as no one knows what's going to happen, it might be actual. You have been warned.

Touch Wood opens at The Place, near Euston, on 11 September at 8pm and runs sporadically till 6 October. Artists have yet to be announced on many dates. Check The Place website and/or register for email updates about the programme. Tickets cost £5-£15, book online or call the Box Office on 020 7121 1100.

Image by Shaun Webb courtesy of The Place.

The other part of this poorly contrived syllogism is that Londonist hates sitting in traffic jams. Especially in London. All those fumes and all that rage all concentrated into one urban corridor. Bad news all round, really.

So therefore Londonist can see the logic of traffic-light industry. You are momentarily distracted from the tedium, and someone gets to earn a quick bob. Buying your evening newspaper, some half-dead flowers for the missus, a cold drink perhaps ? they all kinda make sense (although surely we are not so time-poor a society that we cannot make time to go and buy these items through normal outlets?). And we just love those brave theatrical types who give us masquerades and acrobatics while we wait for that old green light.

But the squeegee gangs are something else. If we were in Delhi or Dubai or some other dustbowl city, there would perhaps be a need for windscreen washing. But in our metropolis they are a menace. At best they compel you into paying for a badly executed service that you really didn?t want in the first place; at worst you are staring into the soap-sud splashed face of organised crime. And the whole situation is made even harder by the fact that most (but not all, apparently) of the squeegee operators are youngsters ? you are left wondering whether what you really want to do is to beat the living sh** out of them or take them home and give them a scrub and a good meal. Furthermore, the idea of squeegee extortion is easily replicated by unsupervised school truants/kids, some no older than 7 or 8 ? how long before tragedy occurs?

So we are pleased to see that one London council is taking them on and moving them on. As usual, it is hard man Ealing who has been brave enough to take this stance; Londonist has in the past been less than impressed by their strictness, but on this occasion we salute them.

Image courtesy of romainedirisinghe?s flickr stream.

It was a sad day.

However, it seems we shouldn't have been so surprised by the presence of one of the largest mammals in the world in our urban waters. The ZSL Marine Mammal Sighting Survey reports that between July 2005 and June 2006, there were an astonishing 4 sightings of whales in the Thames as well as 8 dolphins, 37 porpoises and 49 seals.

Of course, the survey is based on the reports of people who live, work and play along the river. There are no guarantees that certain of the creatures weren't double or even triple counted but, still, we're amazed at the number of marine visitors who've chosen to visit our capital rather than bask in an Attenborough shoot in a deeper, more remote and unpopulated location.

The results of the survey, which is in its 4th year, will be used to get a better picture of marine life in the Thames and help us to better conserve and manage habitats for all our aquatic friends. If you're a regular river gazer, check out the latest sightings and participate in the ongoing survey now.

You can also pore over the sightings map which proves that seals love Docklands: WILDLIFE FACT.

Image of the Thames whale courtesy of Mr Jaded's Flickrstream.

Even with the public transportation odds stacked against them, fans of both electronic music and innovative design would do well to make their way to Phonica Records in Soho tonight for the official launch of Yahama's Tenori-On. Essentially a 16 x 16 grid of touch-sensitive LED buttons, the Tenori-On is a step sequencer that places an emphasis on the creation of sound through vision. As the performer touches the device's buttons to trigger sounds, feedback is received in the form of pulsating lights, often leading one to create interesting audio work based on how lovely it all looks. Tenori-On's intuitive feel ensures that absolute beginners can easily pick it up and run with it, though with the ability to load one's own sounds via SD memory card and sync with other instruments via MIDI, the possibilities for original sonic creation are happily endless.

Born of the same playful musical mind that brought Electroplankton to the Nintendo DS, the Tenori-On translates Japanese media artist Toshio Iwai's visions into a commercially available musical instrument. Whereas Electroplankton was brilliantly fun and a piece of software that every DS owner and music lover should try at least once, we eventually found ourselves wanting to take our experiments further into full-blown composition. Unfortunately the Tenori-On doesn't have cute little sea creatures that smile at you as you move them around the screen, but it indeed looks more stylish to play on stage than Nintendo's handheld.

Style and possibility do, however, come at a price: the simple exploration afforded by Electroplankton is experienced for the somewhat modest £30 cost of a DS game, whereas the Tenori-On will retail at £599. While you may want to start saving now or just find that's too much to ever dream about spending, you can come to tonight's event for free and drool over this elegant machine much as you'd like (just don't drool too much and short it out).

Since it's inception in 2001, Iwai's creation has received playtime with an impressive host of electronic music luminaries, including Kraftwerk, Tortoise and Taylor Deupree. Tonight's event begins at 6 p.m. and will feature performances from Robert Lippok, Secondo and Capracara as well as a DJ set from Duodecimo. Perhaps most exciting of all will be a talk from Toshio Iwai himself, who will also be on hand to answer your questions. For our non-London readers to the north or for those that miss tonight's festivities and enjoy travelling, there will be a similar event held in Manchester tomorrow night at Mint Lounge from 8 p.m. till midnight.

Tenori-On Launch Party at Vinyl Factory below Phonica Records, 51 Poland Street, London, W1F 7NG (use main shop entrance). Tuesday, 4 September 2007, 18.00 - 23.00. Free.