Breaking news

A major project at the east end of Princes Street has been granted planning permission.

Special Tartan Tablet on sale in Broughton Street is going down a storm.

Curiouser and Curiouser, Blue Moon Café and Nom de Plume have seen bars – priced at £1 each – flying off the shelves and between the chomping gnashers of cheerful locals.

The toothsome confection has been lovingly engineered by volunteer June to raise money for Mansfield Place-based Waverley Care, a charity which helps people living with Hepatitis C and HIV (see Breaking news 20.4.11)

Pride Scotia is the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Communities' pink-letter day in the calendar, a celebration of their own and other's sexual and lifestyle diversity. This year in Broughton it's being held on Saturday 7 May.

'Pride Scotia is OUR day – for OUR community,' say the organisers, 'And it would be really nice if YOU decide to grace us with your presence by joining US to celebrate. We're here because we're Queer! If Queer isn't you, just come along anyway. Here because you care!'

A hustings tomorrow night (26 April) will examine Scottish Parliamentary candidates on their policies for tackling poverty and inequality. The event will take place in the SYHA builiding at 9 Haddington Place, 6.00–8.30pm.

Fielding questions will be: Jacquie Bell (Scottish Liberal-Democrats); Malcolm Chisholm (Scottish Labour); Colin Fox (Scottish Socialist Party); Andrew Hardie (Scottish Conservatives); Alison Johnstone (Scottish Greens): Shirley-Anne Somerville (Scottish Nationalist Party).

Are you a single person (or bijou couple) looking for your own affordable, comfortable, modern accommodation with minimum impact on the environment?

Are you a former guardsman looking to expand your horizons after years in a sentry box?

Are you a cat seeking less room to share with humans?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you should hurry to St Andrew Square where the Cube will remain on display until Sunday as part of the Science Festival.

A small, blurred image alleged to be compelling evidence for the existence of Keifer Sutherland's knees has appeared on our Facebook page this morning (Broughton Spurtle).

A range of waste management solutions is being piloted across the Edinburgh World Heritage Site between May and October.

The measures under review in the New Town include:

Lynne Williamson is busy raising funds for Waverley Care – the Mansfield Place-based charity which cares for and supports people in Scotland living with Hepatitis C and HIV.

We don't know who Dan is, but apparently he's alive and well and living on a desert island in the Water of Leith.

This photograph was sent to Spurtle at lunchtime, having been taken earlier in the day below Warriston Junction.

Higher on the bridge, in chalk, are the words 'Viva Dan', suggesting he may have had support from a Spanish admirer before launching himself into the void.

If any reader can tell us Dan's identity or suggest a reason for his lonely sojourn, we'd be interested to know.

If our memory of the film Titanic serves correctly, some people chose to play violins while the great liner slipped beneath the waves. The Emperor Nero, famously, preferred to rearrange deckchairs whilst the capital of the ancient world burned to the ground. But in the Athens of the North, facing budgetary meltdown, we do things differently: the City of Edinburgh Council fiddles with its fairy lights.