London Update

"Passengers travelling on London’s underground network will soon be able to use their mobile phones at stations deep beneath the city streets. Mobile access will be introduced at all 275 underground stations by mid-2008, according to Transport for London (TfL), the quango that oversees the capital’s transport. Small antennae called “microcells”, hidden in signs or vending machines, will make the subterranean service possible. Unlike other cities’ systems, London’s will support fancy new 3G phones, as well as wireless internet access for laptop users." --The Economist's London City Guide for July

Now that's something good and geeky to excite me. The cell phone and email made home commuting possilble. It also meant that for many workers, a vacation no longer was truly time off from work. Now even your commute to and from work will not necessarily be work free, because you'll be accessible all the time (except for *maybe* when your phone is charging). Still, I relish it. There's always that one call you're waiting for and can't go take the Tube until you get it..... or maybe that's just me having an exagerrated sense of self importance.

Two other side tibits from the city guide of note. First, Reuters has now moved its HQ off Fleet Street and moved in next to the Citigroup tower. Following a few months after Barclay's Bank, Reuter's entry into the neo financial-commerce hub in East London marks the end of a 500 year era where Fleet Street was synonymous with English journalism. Only a few tiny firms remain.

The other bit was a brief blurb mentioning how London's Afro-carribean population is far more integrated and dispersed throughout the city (in recent years) than minority populations in your average American city, particularly African Americans. I find it to be just another testament of London's amazing cultural diversity and essentially higher equality than both elsewhere in Europe and here in America. I'm sure racism is still a problem, but people seem to see past cultural and skin color lines far far more easily in that international city.