United Kingdom: 3G service survey crowdsourced

by Alex Robertson Textor on

This morning, the BBC released a survey regarding the reach of 3G service across the United Kingdom. The BBC obtained its data the newfangled way, via crowdsourcing. In July, almost 45,000 people downloaded an Android app that allowed their mobile phones to be tracked for the survey.

And the outcome of the survey? The BBC found that about three-quarters of the time people in the UK appear to be able to access 3G coverage, though “notspots” (where users can access much slower 2G service) exist in many places. These notspots include a surprising number of areas within central London. There are also wide swaths of the country where no data came back from the crowdsourcing phone users.

The BBC’s multimedia survey allows readers to check coverage in their home postcodes. I found my own postcode (E2) to be generally well blanketed with 3G coverage, though not without its 3G-lacking pieces of the map.

The survey also points out that the country’s roads and railways are also undersaturated, with notably bad service along some heavily-used highways and train routes.

The BBC mentions the research of a startup called OpenSignalMaps, which has carried out a similar survey. OpenSignalMaps found that 3G is accessed just 58 percent of the time by users in the UK; furthermore, they have located 22,000 mostly rural places in the UK with no 3G service. Gwynedd in north Wales and Cumbria in northwest England are especially lacking in 3G service.

[Image: Flickr | William Hook]

London: A nontraditional tea

by Alex Robertson Textor on

High teas loom large in the fantasies of many tourists. How is it possible, I was wondering to myself earlier this month, that the only teas I’d enjoyed since moving to London in January were simple cream teas at various country pubs and inns? Most of these cream teas were notably lovely, with scones slathered in double or clotted cream the main event in each case.

But a blow-out high tea had evaded me.

I recently remedied the situation, though in a distinctly nontraditional way, by sampling the Gentlemen’s Afternoon Tea at the Sanctum Soho Hotel in London. Begun in late 2010, the Gentlemen’s Tea turns the typical high tea on its head. The starring item is the tray of three types of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, served with pewter tankards for sipping and a small ice bucket. The three types of whiskey, each of which I naturally felt compelled to sample, include the basic Jack, the flavorful Single Barrel, and the twice charcoal-mellowed Gentleman Jack.

There were other nice things on the menu, all vaguely masculine. There are starches and a lot of meat, with no raw vegetables in sight. Highlights include a fat poached oyster slathered in a sweet relish, seared steak on toasted sourdough, and a Yorkshire pudding stuffed with roast beef and horseradish. All are diminutive three-bite numbers save the gargantuan lamb and potato hotpot, which could do duty as a main course.

Tea (not an afterthought, really!) followed the parade of nibbles and liquor. And then came a cigar as the final “course.” A waitress asked if we’d like to be accompanied to the rooftop to enjoy our cigars.

The tagline of the tea is “The Ultimate Indulgence” and at £50 ($82.50) per person, it is certainly a self-indulgent little escapade.

Other nontraditional teas in London include the Mandeville Hotel’s Men’s and gluten-free afternoon teas, and TeaSmith‘s afternoon TeaSmithCeremony, which pairs teas with various pastries and chocolates.

The author was a guest of Sanctum Soho for the Gentlemen’s Afternoon Tea.

[Image: Flickr | cookbookman17]

Visa-free travel by the numbers

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Visa-free travel is easy travel. Procuring visas takes time, energy, and money, and is beyond debate a pain for frequent travelers. The erection of visa barriers responds to a number of factors, though it can be said without too many qualifications that the citizens of rich countries tend to have a much easier time accessing the world visa-free than do the citizens of poor countries.

The Henley Visa Restrictions Index Global Ranking 2011, excerpted in the Economist last week, was just published by Henley & Partners, an international law firm specializing in “international residence and citizenship planning.” Henley & Partners divide the world into 223 countries and territories.

And who gets to travel with few visa restrictions? The best citizenships for visa-free travel belong to nationals of Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, at 173 apiece. On their Nordic heels is Germany at 172 and a mess of countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom) at 171. The United States isn’t too far down the list, tied in fifth place with Ireland at 169. The US comes in ahead of Switzerland (167), Canada (164), New Zealand (166), and Australia (166).

Some of the least lucky countries, according to the Henley Visa Restrictions Index survey: India (53), China (40), Iran (36), Lebanon (33), and Afghanistan (24).

[Image: Flickr | megoizzy]

London is burning: A dispatch from inside the riots, looting and arson

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Improbably, London is burning.

I returned from a long celebratory weekend in Antwerp on Monday afternoon. It was a grand weekend, full of very good meals, great conversation, and retail discoveries. While away, I’d read about rioting in Tottenham on Saturday night in response to the shooting death of a man named Mark Duggan at the hands of a policeman on August 4. I’d sensed from some news reports and Twitter that things had escalated, though to be completely frank I hadn’t paid much attention.

Transferring from the Eurostar to the Tube at St. Pancras this afternoon, I encountered a sign that things were off-kilter in the form of an announcement that there were no trains to Brixton. Hmmm. Then, transferring from the Tube to a bus at Old Street, it became clear that the city had temporarily morphed into a different place. The air was charged. Pedestrians crossed streets carelessly. Sirens were ongoing. I overheard snippets of conversation about Tube closures and bus detours. Three police vans screeched past our bus towards Hackney. My phone started to pulse.

I received eight text messages in a row from my partner. There was rioting on Mare Street, just ten minutes from our flat, and he asked if I would quickly do some grocery shopping before the shops in the area boarded up. He biked home from work early.

The Turkish proprietors at the grocery store downstairs seemed shell-shocked. They’d pulled their metal gate part-way down so that they’d be able to shut quickly if needs demanded. Three helicopters hovered overhead. Two middle-aged women came into the store. “Peckham,” one said, looking fatigued. “It’s really bad in Peckham.” My sister and I snapped up groceries and sat inside, keeping one eye on the street. Sirens waxed and waned. The news channels proved to be a chaotic and depressing distraction, so we turned the television off and refreshed various news sites online at an obsessive pitch.

So to Twitter, where the breadth of the rioting–mostly, it appeared, looting, with liberal lashings of arson and violent clashes with police–became evident. The looting is widespread. Buildings and cars have been set on fire. The stories of carjackings and bicyclejackings came fast and furious. Thankfully, in the midst of this frenzy, nobody has been killed.Since Saturday night, there have been rioting or looting incidents in Hackney Central, Bethnal Green, Enfield, East Dulwich, Ponder’s End, Deptford, Brixton, Croydon, Peckham, Woolwich, Balham, Elephant & Castle, and Clapham Junction, among other places. Most upsetting of all was the news that rioting spread tonight to other cities in the UK, including Birmingham, Leeds, and Liverpool.

And as Monday night wore on there were reports of riots in ever more unlikely London neighborhoods: Chalk Farm, Angel, and Notting Hill–yes, the cuter-than-cute Notting Hill of the 1999 Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant movie. The Telegraph put together a frequently updated and very handy interactive map of the London riots thus far.

Meanwhile, London’s Mayor Boris Johnson and UK Prime Minister David Cameron, both on summer holidays, were missing in action during the most dramatic hours of the day; as the pitch of the day got more and more fevered, however, both men announced that they would be returning to London ahead of schedule. (Early this evening a spokesperson for the Prime Minister made it clear that he would be monitoring events from his holiday perch in Tuscany, but just after 9 pm he reversed course and announced that he would return to London on Tuesday morning; the Mayor made it clear several hours earlier that he would be cutting his Canadian vacation short.)

Why have these riots exploded now, and with such copycat force? Honestly, I have no idea. Everyone I’ve talked to today has been surprised by the events of the last 72 hours. Nina Power suggested in the Guardian today that heavy cuts in public spending, high levels of unemployment, and deep inequality have all played a hand. I have no doubt that she is right. But the force and the speed of the riots can’t be completely explained by Power’s argument.

Londoners have been taken aback. We’ll wake up on Tuesday with shot nerves, hoping for calm.

[Image: Flickr | StuartBannocks]

Brits behaving badly abroad

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Today the Foreign Office released British Behaviour Abroad 2011, with detailed figures on British nationals in trouble overseas (read: Brits behaving badly abroad). The period surveyed: April 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011.

There are lots of interesting tidbits in the survey. British nationals request consular assistance in greatest numbers in Spain and the United States, though since both of these countries are very popular destinations for people from the UK, this is perhaps not all that surprising.

The more interesting chart in the report is of which countries see the highest numbers of requests for consular assistance per visitor and resident abroad. The top five, in descending order: The Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Cyprus, and India. British nationals abroad are most likely to be arrested in Thailand, followed by the United States.

Another interesting detail: The Foreign Office claims that 43 percent of the 18-24 set know someone who has taken illegal drugs while abroad. Aggregate drug arrests are highest for British nationals abroad in Spain (171), the United States (100), Jamaica (63), Norway (55), and Thailand (51).

The good news is that the number of British nationals arrested is down, 10 percent overall and 20 percent for drug-related offenses.

The report also tabulates deaths, hospitalizations, rapes, and sexual assaults abroad. Each of these categories saw slight movement up or down in 2010-2011, with deaths, hospitalizations, and sexual assaults slightly up and rapes down.

[Image: Flickr | La Citta Vita]