On family holiday in London, we were riding in a taxi out to the Imperial War Museum. As we passed the riverfront headquarters of MI6, a.k.a. the Secret Intelligence Service, my wife happened to be futzing with her iPhone. A list of Wi-Fi networks popped up. At the top: a network called KeepNoseOut.
Coincidence? I’d like to think not. I like this even better than the Dutch cafe that labeled its Wi-Fi network BuyAnotherCupYouCheapskate.
London is of course full of happy surprises for American visitors. The “chewable toothbrush,” for instance, for sale in a tube station:
And, in the Parliamentary Bookshop in Parliament Square, I spotted a single American book: Nudge, by Thaler and Sunstein (see earlier blog posts here), which has been embraced in something of a bear hug by the Conservative Party here.
I also spotted (but failed to photograph) a tube ad for a personal health kit to fight MRSA and other “superbugs.” You’re supposed to buy such a kit and bring it to the hospital if you happen to wind up there, since, as we know, doctors do not always wash their hands when they should.
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Welcome to London!
…I don’t know if you’ve spotted any of the vending machines in the ‘Gents’ which dispense both condoms and headache tablets ?
If you get a chance, I’d recommend walking along the Thames bank from the Tower of London, over Tower Bridge and back along the south bank of the Thames to Southwark Cathedral and beyond – up to Tate Modern & millenium bridge even – impressive views any many neat things to see.
If the state of British dental hygiene is any indication Id probably avoid that chewable toothbrush if I were you.
The MRSA scare has been demonstrated as bogus over and over. Check out http://www.badscience.net/category/mrsa/
Ugh, those ads for the supposed anti-superbug kit annoy me to no end – especially how they are apparently ESSENTIAL for anyone going into hospital, as well as for the elderly, and pregnant women. They’re ?14.99 a pop, too. Scaremongering and insidious.
HAHA
The Keep nose Out almost seems TOO perfect a fit. Would they really put something liek that…it is like telling a kid not to do something. Almost baiting people.
http://www.justinpopovic.com
they might not play rock,paper,scissors either- “How to win every argument” with a sledgehammer?- hello? i think gun beats hammer
Yeah, those “superbug” kit ads have shown up everywhere on the tube – just in the last week or so, as far as I can tell. Like the other posters, I’m a) a bit dubious and b) annoyed by the attempted fear-mongering.
No first-rate, self-respecting intelligence organization would have an open wireless network like that – it would be wired and have fixed, controlled access points. Probably just someone being funny.