It’s about the best things happening in London, with some historical smatterings and crap jokes.

Every Thursday from noon. And you can listen again here.

And that’s the idea behind FoldIt, an online game where you have to solve complex puzzles about how proteins fold. Apparently that’s one of the trickiest areas of biology and one that has serious impact on who we tackle certain diseases.

FoldIt’s founders have just published research saying that players “provided the crucial insights to solve the structure of a protein-sniping enzyme critical for reproduction of the AIDS virus,” according to Scientific American. “With help from game-players’ strategies, researchers revealed the enzymes’ structure within three weeks and identified targets for drugs to neutralize it.” (my emphasis)

What? It took three weeks for gamers to come up with the solution? Alright, granted, it’s not a cure for AIDS yet, but that’s a hell of a thing, no? Using crowdsourcing and games to take on medical problems. And it works! What an innovative approach to research.

For more deets, or to have a go at “solving puzzles for science” head to the FoldIt site, and if you’ve got any more examples of this sort of thing do drop me a line.

Granted there will be some dross (there always is), but having now been to about a gazillion open mics, I’m pretty taken by the level of talent there is out there. Also, as this is run by new comics, I reckon there’ll be a good atmosphere for folks to have a shot, which always makes it quite a fun event. And it’s free, gratis, for nothing.

So if you’re free on Mondays, you could do worse than heading over to Kings Cross for a new talent showcase. Or even better, have a go yourself. Details below.

Wisecrack Comedy, Mondays, Central Station, 37 Wharfdale Road, Kings Cross, N1 9SD. New acts should check out the Facebook page for more details.

According to the Guardian article, the owner Sarah Henshaw says that “by setting up on a canal boat we hope to promote a less hurried and harried lifestyle of idle pleasures, cups of tea, conversation, culture and, of course, curling up with an incomparably good Book Barge purchase.” Of course it’s supporting independent bookshops as well, which can only be a good thing.

The barge is now on a six-month tour of the UK’s canals and doing all kinds of onboard author events. Check out the website for more details.

The Book Barge. Photo from The Guardian

http://danwalkersmith.tumblr.com/

There have been some good non-start-up things blipping my blipper, though. A month or so back I managed to squeeze in a session at Hacks/Hackers, for example. If you don’t know H/H, it’s a meetup for journos (hacks) and techies (hackers) to smash around with different ideas of media and how we can make it better.

This sesh was at the Guardian stronghold in Kings Cross, and was hosted by Mozilla, so immediately attracting the right mix of techheads and embittered fag-ash journalists. And though there was a serious theme to it, it was really a chance to try out daft ideas. How do we stop trolls from sabotaging message boards, for instance? How can we take video beyond the flat-screen embedded vids? Can we ever create ‘people-powered news’?

The various heads all got together over pizza and post-its. I was in a group of designers, techies and content-producers tackling the problem of getting the right people involved in the right conversations. And after a certain amount of charading, thought-showering and pissing around, we came up with Badger (TM), a tool to invite people to add expert opinion to chat rooms.

I seriously doubt it’s going to win any nobel prizes or sate my desire for equestrian statues for the moment, but, as always, it’s a joy to try out new forms of journalism and storytelling with curious minds, particularly when media’s in such a sorry state.

If you wanna see more crap about Badger (TM), have a glance at our glossy, high-end, pitching video (which we themed to cash into the upcoming Harry Potter flick):

Oh, and this is a thing from another Mozilla sesh; some Dundee University students’ anatomy of a comments thread, which made me nostril-laugh somewhat:

1) It’s a bloody awesome date venue (OK, so you might not look your sexiest when dressed as a cockroach*, but there’s lots of playful stuff to do together, and you can appear very knowledgeable while pottering around, even if you’re a total chump).

2) By God there’s some awesomely cheap stuff to do in this city. Even my most tightwadded of mates couldn’t refuse this. Free to get in and just under a fiver for a bottle of beer and some Bombay mix. A highly enjoyable and economical evening.

As I shambled out, there was a throng of people outside staring at the Science Museum wall. Obviously I did some staring too, but it was only when said wall began to crumble that I understood it was some sort of projection.

Sensodyne were promoting their new protecting range of toothpastes, and bloody clever it was too. Every time someone hit the punchbag, the wall would crack, and the Sensodyne icon would come out to repair the damage. Look, here’s a vid I recorded on my phone.

Now I know the whole point of this is to generate a viral buzz, and the conspiracy theorist in me wants to avoid being part of the machine. But if I can take off my tin-foil helmet for a moment, this is genuinely fun, playful and clever. It got lots of people involved and was really inclusive. So well done Sensodyne; a nice coda to a really cool night.

* I missed the cockroach tour, but as I was walking out I heard loads of people saying it was the best thing of all. I can believe it. I will definitely do it next time.

There’s also lots of new programming, including fantastic Victorian romps from The Penny Dreadfuls (who I was at Uni with, though never met – very funny chaps) and News Quiz Extra, which gives you some of the edited-out bits from that week’s News Quiz along with interview and behind-the-scenes excepts.

One stood out for me this week: What’s So Funny? with Rufus Hound. It’s a breakdown of what’s happening in the world of comedy each week, and is a must for comedy fans. There’s a different guest each week (this week it was Dave Gorman), from the show I heard, is a good ‘un for anyone who wants to try their hand at stand-up. I’m just going to subscribe to the podcast now.