London is slightly less debilitatingly expensive this year, it's Christmas in August and chavs inducted...

London is slightly less debilitatingly expensive this year, it's Christmas in August and chavs inducted...

Welcome to today's unintentionally Brit-centric newscast...aren't you glad that I'm using all my copious free-time this month to shower you with not-particularly-useful bits of news trivia, rather than determine my future? Thought so.

According to the Economist's bi-annual Worldwide Cost of Living survey, London has dropped two places to become the eighth costliest city in the world, while Reykjavik jumps from eighth to fourth and Tokyo retains its stranglehold on the number one spot ($5 liter of mineral water, anyone?). And sorry, New Yorkers, but you've got nothing to gripe about - the Big Apple only came in at #35, behind pricier cities such as Wellington, Barcelona and Seoul.

Father Christmas has arrived at Harrods in what is rapidly becoming a frightening tradition at the Knightsbridge store - the opening of the "Christmas World" department a scant 137 days ahead of the holy holiday. Not only can sunburned, bermuda shorts wearing rolly-polly tourists pick up some fancy tree baubles, but they can also get a head start on unique gifts for the kids: "Harrods are offering (for only £229) a typical Barbie doll, in a frilly scarlet dress with fluffy shoulder pads, long scarlet gloves and a parting to show a pair of very shapely legs. When you look at the head, however, it's a reindeer. It's the sort of thing Hunter S Thompson saw on particularly heavy acid trips."

Ruby Murray, anyone? The Oxford Dictionary of English has been updated once again to reflect our ever-widening (let's just not address the issue of depth) language. "Chav" has finally weasled its way in as "a young lower-class person typified by brash and loutish behaviour and the waering of [real or imitation] designer clothes." "Lush" is no longer just the name of a company that started in Dorset and makes fabulously luxuriant bath products, but has been generalized to describe anything "very good." My favorite addition may be "chugger" - a mixture of charity and mugger to describe those annoying pimply young people in polo shirts who monopolize street corners whilst soliciting you to save children, puppies and/or old people. As the BBC points out, "Researchers said the dictionary now included 350 ways of insulting someone, but only 40 expressions to compliment them."

Electronica on the Nile, the 35mm faces extinction and summer celebrity death #2...

Electronica on the Nile, the 35mm faces extinction and summer celebrity death #2...

Last night at the El-Sawy Cultural Center, I went to see the band, Bikya, perform...they're three young guys who I might describe as young Egyptian Massive Attack with a dash of early Groove Armada. The concert was held in one of Cairo's many fantastic outdoor performance spaces, this one located under the 26th of July bridge in Zamalek, literally on the banks of the Nile. As I explained to my Egyptian-British friend, Adam, I don't know what I was expecting culturally of Cairo before I arrived, but I certainly haven't bee disappointed. Even if an electronica group like Bikya has a very small local following, just the fact that tons of young artists and musicians are out and performing in great spaces all over the city every night, is truly fantastic.

It's the definitive beginning of the end for the 35mm camera...Dixons, one of the largest electronics store chains in the UK, has announced that they will stop selling analog cameras once stocks run out. Following Kodak's announcement last month that they will stop producing professional black-and-white photo paper due to dropping demand, it seems like 35mm photography is truly on the verge of extinction at last.

Peter Jennings passed away on Sunday at the age of 67 after a difficult battle with lung cancer. These things always seems to come in three's every summer...who's next? Rehnquist? Carter?

Trashy vegans campaign for animal rights, Nigerian internet scammers revealed, and a Cuban legend moves on...

Trashy vegans campaign for animal rights, Nigerian internet scammers revealed, and a Cuban legend moves on...

Whoever said vegans can't be healthy, thoughtful AND slutty, too? The Vegan Vixens - when not saving pitbulls, practicing yoga or "investigating economic crimes" - are lending their scantily-clad selves to the effort to encourage more healthful and humane eating. However, after a recent breast-baring appearance (it was just one, apparently, belonging to Tanjereen) on Howard Stern, the Vixens have received numerous complaints from animal rights and vegan activists for their risque routines. Even the church apparently has a beef with the girls. As Dawnielle complains under her list of "Turn Offs," "I also get anoyed at those who think that helping animals is somehow unChristian-like! I sure can't picture Jesus being unkind to one of his sheep..."

Ever wonder how your average Nigerian internet scammer spends his or her day? According to an AP story, Festac Town, a district of Lagos, is a hotbed of scammers who "flaunt their smart clothes and cars and hang around the Internet cafes, trading stoires about successful cons and near misses, and hatching new plots" despite a now three-year-old crackdown by the government. You'd think that if the government can pinpoint the epicenter of activity to a single town that they'd be able to do more to stop these crimes...

Ibrahim Ferrer, the phenomenal singer made famous by the Buena Vista Social Club, passed away at the age of 78 in Havana this weekend. I had tickets to see him perform in England during his European tour this past spring but didn't make the trip in the end. What a loss...