What: Safecity, www.safecity.in, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or download the Android app here, the iPhone app here, free.

Why: Ladies, how many times have you ignored a lewd comment on your way to work? Apart from maybe complaining about it to some friends, there’s really no way to pin point that location for other women passing through the same area. Or is there? Safecity aims to do just that, with a real time updated map that shows areas where women are harassed. We clicked through to Mumbai and learned that men misbehave at the Wadala Station Road and there’s a serious lack of railway police force on the harbor line. Even though it’s a new site, the updates have (sadly) grown since we checked in a couple of days ago, but it’s nice to know that someone has your back.  Location and incidents can be posted via email, Twitter, phone app and the web.

When: You want to end New Year’s Eve teasing.

It's time to put all your obsessive Instagramming to good use - the United Nations Women India chapter is helping raise awareness for violence against women with a cool photo competition. Here’s how it works: submit a photo depicting what freedom from gender-related violence means to you. The contest allows a maximum of three photos per participant, and each one must be accompanied by a 100 word caption along with details on where the photograph was taken.

The top three winners, decided using Facebook votes and a jury, will win cameras and be showcased at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York this spring. If you want to check out the competition, you can browse the Lead Board on their Facebook page to view how many votes entries have already garnered.

Contest closes February 10, 2013; photos displayed March 2013 onwards. Go on, join the click!

Getting there: UN Women India photo competition for Freedom From Violence For Women & Girls, visit the Facebook page to know more and participate, entry free.

This month's playlist is stolen from two concerts, some particularly musical Facebook profiles (thanks Meher and Nadir) and a long love letter. Singing along highly recommended. 

Download the podcast or hear online here.

Into the Wild - LP

Mexico - The Staves

Blues Run the Game - Jackson C. Frank

Home - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes

Up With The Birds - Coldplay

The Blower’s Daughter - Damien Rice

Anjane - Strings

Maria - Animal Liberation Orchestra

The Long Haul - NO

Have a favourite song? Send us your recommendations to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and if we love them, we’ll add them to next month’s track record!

In this weekly column, filmmaker Danish Aslam will be your purveyor of the finest quality random facts, useless trivia and other esoterica from the world wide web. He lives mostly behind a keyboard and may or may not be a wizened old green man who speaks in grammatically incorrect aphorisms. You can find more on his home page http://pictually.me/dontpanic

Greetings Earthlings. I talk to you from the other side of the Apocalypse. As we are thus engaged in conversation, one can only surmise that the world still spins madly on. And since we have successfully navigated our way to the end of yet another Armageddon-free year, it's time for that traditional end-of-the-year activity: the recap!

Since 'Best Of' normally becomes the most over-repeated phrase around this time of the year, I decided to not swim against the tide and add my little two cents as well. So here's a curated uber-list of my favourite lists from the millions floating around out there. Have a good non-Mayan holiday and may you ever be the first into the nuclear bunker when the meteor strikes.

The Most Searched: To kick things off, the ultimate list of all that mattered based on that most ubiquitous of barometers: what did you search for? Google's Zeitgeist 2012 video is the perfect snapshot of everything that made us fire up those browsers and hit 'Search'.

The Best Video Games: What better way to bring in the New Year than pretty much how you spent the previous one: with a wireless controller in your hand and infinite worlds in front of you? And here's the definitive list of said worlds, courtesy IGN. 

The Top 10 Kisses: Why? Just  because. Everybody's a sucker for a good love story; and it doesn't get more soppy than this . And nobody said this list was going to make sense.

The 50 Most Brilliant, Obnoxious, Or Delightfully Sociopathic Facebook Posts: Need I say more? Whether or not all of these are real, they still make for a hilarious read.

The Most Popular How-To Guides: For all the fellow geeks out there, here's something that should whet your whistle.

The Best Tech Gifts Of The Year: As the website says, "Can't find it here? Then it's probably not worth having." FYI, if anybody's feeling particularly generous, the 'Gifts For Mac Lovers' section is my personal favourite.

YouTube's Most-Viewed Ads: Most of the stuff that floats around on the idiot-box only serves to justify the name while selling us something we definitely don't need. But sometimes the stuff they use to sell you stuff turns out to be really interesting stuff in itself. So here's some of the best.

The Best (Worst?) Typos, Mistakes and Corrections: Because one can never have enough of good grammar. And because the typo-police is just around the corner.

The Best Long Reads: Now this is a list that may take you some time to get through, but at the end of it you may just be a better person. One of my personal favourites, this one is a treat for all lovers of non-fiction and competent journalism.

The Year's Top YouTube Stars: The power of the video has never been more obvious than in 2012. When an ironic commentary on a Korean suburb can become the most danced-to song in dandiya season, you realise how powerful the internet has become (Skynet alert!). And YouTube decided to do their own little tribute by inviting some faces that you might recognise to star in this mashup. Rewind YouTube Style!

What: Make your own Christmas decorations at The Hab, G-1, 444 Corporate Lounge, road no 7, Linking Road , Khar (W), call 61274444, priced between Rs 100 to Rs 500 per piece.

Why: You have a pretty skirt for the holidays, it’s only fair that your Christmas tree has one too. Get quick DIY lessons in making tree skirts, ornaments, stars and wrapping paper using beads, stones, sequins, lace and ribbons at The Hab, Bandra’s super fun craft studio. Don’t forget to make some mistletoe now. Smooch!

When: You want Christmas to be sew pretty.

In this weekly column, filmmaker Danish Aslam will be your purveyor of the finest quality random facts, useless trivia and other esoterica from the world wide web. He lives mostly behind a keyboard and may or may not be a wizened old green man who speaks in grammatically incorrect aphorisms. You can find more on his home page http://pictually.me/dontpanic

Kim-Jong Un-do The Internet

Dictatorships are fascinating. In a morbid sort of way, but fascinating nonetheless. And the one that fascinates me most is probably the ironically named Democratic People's Republic of Korea, popularly known to the world as North Korea. Or, as good old Kim Jong-Un probably calls it while throwing one of his temper tantrums: "MY Country, you evil American bastards!"

Of the many weird, dysfunctional and downright stupid things that the people in this country are made to deal with, one of the funniest has to be their internet, as this BBC piece reveals. Fun fact: any web page that mentions Supreme Leader KJU's name has to include a piece of code that ensures his name is ever-so-slightly bigger than the words around it. Every single time. Hey, at least they don't have the usual Mac vs. Windows debates since every single computer there has to run on Red Star, North Korea's own OS that's in keeping with the country's values. They have their own freaking OS! The next time you complain about your computer not being intuitive enough or some such non-issue, read this piece and thank your lucky stars.

Real-Life Video Games

Video games are fun. Mainly because most of the time you know that when Raven whips your ass with his patented Grave Digger move, you can just switch off the console and get back to your life sans the broken bones. But there are some people (like the guys who get kicked in the nuts on Jackass, for fun) who don't think that's realistic enough. And so they wire themselves up to a PlayStation console so that they get electric shocks every time their character takes damage while playing Tekken. And then there's the type of people who lock themselves up in an abandoned hospital and try to escape a la Resident Evil. These and many more real-life versions of video games are available for your bemused perusal in this piece from the good folks over at Cracked.

1,892 Cover Songs

Cover songs are great. And fun. Especially when you're least expecting one. I love that first moment of recognition when the person who's been waxing eloquent about how ethereal Yael Naim's voice sounds in this song suddenly realise that this is the same Britney Spears song that they claimed was final proof that the apocalypse was nigh. John James at Esquire loves cover songs too. Which is why he's compiled a list of 1,892 cover songs every man should listen to. It's pretty much as comprehensive as a list can get, so there's not much more I'd like to add here except for: “Fire up the iTunes!"

What: Get your own didgeridoo from the Didgeridoo Makers, visit their Facebook page here or call Sumit Singh on 09650360539, start at Rs 2,000 for a basic bamboo instrument.

Why: Because the ukulele is so 2012. Score one of these babies (rumored to be the first instruments on the planet, made by aboriginal Australians out of termite-ridden trees) and you’re sure to be crowned the new prince of Hipsterville – or at least Bandra. Sumit and his merry band at Didgeridoo Makers can customise one to your specifications and budget, working with rural families to hue it out of pinewood, bamboo, ash. They also make other hard-to-find instruments like djembe and rain sticks. Don’t miss the note on this one!

When: You want to just didgeridoo it.

Let's face it. You don't get much work done in December. So if you're getting off early or (finally) have Saturdays free, you might want to get behind a cause. New website Volunteer Mumbai urges Bombay folk to help out at after-school programs and at old age homes, and makes this possible by posting volunteer opportunities at NGOs across the city.

Ex consultant and regular do-gooder Saloni Behl started this project when she realised how "decentralised" the volunteer search process was, during a three-month sabbatical in India. Together with her sister Ruchi Behl, who also runs a non-profit called the Sanjeevani Project, she hopes to streamline the search process and connect volunteers instantly with their cause. 

Volunteer Mumbai allows you to search volunteer openings by time frame, NGO or cause, although this seems sort of pointless right now, because the NGO list on their website currently features just nine organisations including Akanksha, Dignity Foundation and Magic Bus. It's probably because they're new and we hope to see the list padded up soon. Even the blog that's supposed to provide news and stories about the non-profit sector, has a 'coming soon' sign on it.

Want to start ASAP? Start by checking their bulletin board that has six opportunities, which will have you teaching 8th and 9th graders after school and volunteering at a sports day for Akanksha kids. 

We'll see you at the finish line!

Getting there: Visit www.volunteermumbai.org, free.

The Store: Bring Monet

With its mad Peggy Guggenheim sunglasses, Bubbles bag pack and Buckyballs puzzle that contains the Earth’s rare magnets, the Guggenheim Museum store has been consistently rated among the best museum shops in the world.

Back home, the lovely Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum (Byculla) has a new store too, but it’s far from Buckyballs. They’ve opened with the expected –art and photography books (starting at Rs 250), tote bags (Rs 400 approx), mugs (Rs 225), greeting cards (Rs 60 for a pack of 6) and logo T-shirts. If you’ve been to the more ambitious Prince of Wales Museum shop, this one will appear scantily stocked to you. But the products that are on sale, are prettily displayed like precious artifacts inside a table with a glass top and photo catalog, while the cups, greeting cards and bags are locked away in short, glass-door vintage teak cupboards.

We loved the mugs, especially those with photo prints of the museum's gorgeous stucco ceiling, golden arches, palisade and railings (the same prints are available as greeting cards too). But the market bags with their cheap plastic-y finish and the unimaginative black tees with museum logo made us wish a bigger and better batch of products was currently in production in some artist’s imagination. A  museum collaboration with a new artist every quarter to conceptualise products, would be nice. If you wish to buy, we suggest you bring cash, because using your card means walking all the way to the accountant’s office to swipe it.

The Café: The Last Supper

Right next door to the store is a tiny third-party owned, non-profit cafe that serves simple Indian food like vada and samosa pav, thali and sandwiches, all priced below Rs 200. Our evening snack consisted of the plain jane grilled chicken sandwich (Rs 60) and a tasty chicken kathi roll (Rs 100), mildly spicy and freshly prepared. We didn't mind the plastic furniture setting as much once we saw the cheery tall glass vases with white daises on every table. The café could be a place to get a quick bite during a museum visit, but it still has a long way to go (food and ambience-wise) before it demands a special visit, like Jehangir Art Gallery's Cafe Samovar.

In this weekly column, filmmaker Danish Aslam will be your purveyor of the finest quality random facts, useless trivia and other esoterica from the world wide web. He lives mostly behind a keyboard and may or may not be a wizened old green man who speaks in grammatically incorrect aphorisms. You can find more on his home page http://pictually.me/dontpanic

The Dark Knight Rises - Honest Trailer

This is going to be the last of the Dark Knight posts. I promise. Most definitely. For sure. Untilthenextonecomesalong. So the people over at Screen Junkies did another Honest Trailer and for this one, they nailed the third Nolan installment in his epic take on the caped crusader. Irrespective of whether you're a fan or not, these guys are good at pointing out logic loopholes while making you laugh. And they haven't disappointed this time round either. Have fun.'

Topsy-Turvy Rube Goldberg

I love a good Rube Goldberg machine. And just because you need to Google that to find out what it is doesn't mean you can't enjoy one too. And this one, created by the Canadian company 2D House, is a doozy. Just as you think that this is a fairly standard example of the type, the tables are flipped. Quite literally. For more of their work in this rarefied field, check out the Rube Goldberg section of their website. The fact that they have a Rube Goldberg section to their website makes them entirely deserving of that highest of modern linguistic acknowledgements: 'mad props'.

PS: This Honda ad ‘The Cog’ is another beautiful example of this setup used to drive home a point.

Selfies Through History

Selfies are that questionable subset of photographs inflicted upon us, thanks to the invention of the front-facing camera. While each new one taken mostly seems to further the hypothesis: 'How stupid can someone look while photographing oneself?' South African newspaper The Cape Times has managed to redeem this much-maligned genre somewhat. This series of ads takes famous historical moments and skews the perspective so that it seems that they were all selfies. Seamless work, and another example of a well-made ad.

Tech Porn

Do you have a lot of money to burn? Does the end of the year signify an opportunity to legitimately set ablaze that pile of cash in the pursuit of more material happiness? Does said material happiness translate into gadgets, electronics and other bad-ass tech goodies that make your inner android go 'Hallelujah'? Then this 100+ list curated by TIME of the year's best tech objects may be just what you need. If imminent bankruptcy is a desirable option in the near future. Read at your own risk.

To Russia With Love

Mathias Rust was 19 when he flew his Cessna from his home in West Germany all the way to Moscow to land in the Red Square. This was in 1987 - the height of the cold war - when Russia's air defence (and security paranoia) ranked among the best in the world. The resulting embarrassment for the Soviets led to a over a year in prison for the teenager and 150 people being sacked by Gorbachev, but 25 years later he looks back on the incident with no regrets. This BBC profile of Mathias and the incident that made him famous is a fascinating read.

It's The End Of The World and NASA's Not Happy

So according to the ancient Mayans, and Roland Emmerich, we've got another 11 days to go. We may be approaching the home stretch of jokes about December 21 and the coming apocalypse but NASA doesn't seem to find this funny at all. So much so that they've created a webpage helpfully titled Beyond 2012: Why the World Won't End to answer all your questions. So the next time someone comes to you with yet another "It's-definitely-the-end-of-the-world-dude-and-this-time-it's-true" story, you can point them to this and, hopefully, shut them up forever.

PS: Did you know that according to the same kooks who thought up the Mayan Armageddon, the only place on earth that will be safe is a tiny village in France called Bugarach, thanks to the magical powers of the local mountain, the Pic de Bugarach? I would be really interested in tracking the real estate prices there over the next couple of weeks.

15 Misleading Movie Posters

A good movie poster is a work of art. But what's even better is a movie poster that has absolutely no earthly connection with the movie that it's about. Cracked.com has put together a selection of 15 movie posters from around the world that defy logic, since what they focus on has no connection with the movie at all. Or if it does, it's as if the designers of the poster decided to watch just one scene from the movie and then step out for a walk while discussing the fine art of extrapolation. Either way, the results are hilarious. My personal favourite: The Spaghetti Godfather and the Satan's-Pooping-Into-My-Brain version of The Exorcist.