Fine Cell Work - a charity that teaches fine needlework to British prison inmates and sells their products. Quilting, too.

The New Herzog Film Is Out Next Week, and it's the festive season: Thusly, I propose a London Meetup to go and see it. And then drink. Manfully. more inside

Man can fly. The most exciting thing I've ever seen.

The BBC's Alan Johnston freed, after 16 weeks in captivity in Gaza.

Cuteness, lethal dose of. A single link to YouTube, yes, but also, technically speaking, the single cutest thing ever.

OR-Live. Live and recorded webcasts of surgery. Gasp at the Brain tumour resection, swoon at the hip replacement, tune in this afternoon for the Robotic Prostatectomy.

Enter Stevie. The robber was holding a gun to 5-year-old Mary Long's head when a 3-foot-tall Mighty Morphin Power Ranger leapt into the room...

Walkenclips, for when you just need the wise words of the man who asked for more cowbell.

Leek Spin It's the Hamster Dance for the 21st Century. Only good.

The 1001 Inventions of the Muslim world Coffee, Cameras, Chess, Parachutes, Carpets, Soap, Alcohol, Architectural arches, Quilts, the Rocket, the Torpedo, the Ornamental Garden, the Earth as a Globe, Cheese, the Kiosk, the Zero, the Three Course Meal. More here

Do you take it? Music. NSFW. Very Hummable. NSFW. Singalong Chorus. NSFW

"Someone is shooting at us, we must go..." The film director Walter Herzog was shot whilst being interviewed by the BBC, giving rise to perhaps the manliest line ever uttered aloud. Read the article, get to the last line, and then join me in a chestbeating chorus, my noble monkey brethren.

The History of Modern Music As The Tube Map. The interconnections of the music of the past 100 years, transposed perfectly onto the London Underground. As the piece by the creator says, "it's a shame, for example, that the Circle Line constantly runs in tandem with either the District or Metropolitan lines, thus leaving no room for pure pop acts such as Kylie Minogue and the Pet Shop Boys..."

I like to fly. They have long cold winters in Finland. Long enough, and cold enough, to encourage young men to strap jet turbines to their feet and jump off balloons. (embedded video, and glorious lunacy).

The Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club No one expects the Spanish Inquisition Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith t-shirts. Top ex-papal aide and noted mastermind of currant Vatican thought Cardinal Ratzinger has a posse with official merchandise. The best motto: "Putting the smackdown on heresy since 1981".

We all need a theme tune. 698 free to download and use soundtracks in mp3 and aac, from the Aggressive/Driving through to Grand/Heroic.. What's your theme tune? I baggsy this one (mp3 stream).

Straight Outta Compton (mp3) by Nina Gordon Just the best gangsta cover I've ever heard. That is all.

2 days 17 hours until Ellen Macarthur breaks the solo round-the-world non-stop multihull sailing record. A national hero in the UK, worshipped in France, she's gone 26,933 miles as I type this. Here's the live data from the boat. Go! Go!

Former Minister HIV positive Chris Smith, the UK's Secretary of State for Culture from 1997 to 2001, and the country's first openly gay minister, tells the Sunday Times today that he has been HIV+ for seventeen years. It seems a very welcome openness, but how will it go down? What if it was a ex/minister from your country? Is it time for positive status to be, forgive me, rebranded?

Singing in the Rain, rather updated. (.mov), It's an advert, but damn it's well done. (via Media Guardian.)