All stories about "England"

Football fans will have to wait until Wednesday and Thursday to see who will win Euro 2008’s semifinal match-ups. But, today, they can feast their eyes on Architects Herzog & de Meuron’s revised plans for a football stadium on the waterfront at Portsmouth in England. The “scheme includes a new 36,000 seater stadium for Portsmouth FC, an exhibition center, housing and a waterfront park.” Not too shabby. [Dezeen]

  Comments

Six Masai warriors from Tanzania will be running in the London Marathon on April 13th. They're being flown over by the "non-profit adventure specialists" at Greenforce to help raise money for water back home. In what reads a little like a Monty Python skit, the Masai will be given the tailor-made travel guide called "Visiting England: A Cultural Briefing for the Warriors". In this four-page work, a slight lack of cultural diversity seems present, such as in the claim that some Brits "may look like they have a frown on their face, [but] they are very friendly people -- many of them just work in offices, [at] jobs they don't enjoy, and so they do not smile as much as they should." Makes you wonder how things are over at Greenforce. (tompagenet/flickr)

  Comments

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants to crack down on pot smoking, but his government isn't cooperating. Tony Blair, the previous Prime Minister, had downgraded marijuana to a Class C drug. Blair's move led to police having a more laid back attitude towards stoners, and some critics claim it also caused more young people to smoke weed. Brown wants cannabis to be reclassified as a Class B substance once again, but the Government's drug advisory body has come out against the idea. [Telegraph]

  Comments

London's iconic red phone booths, which have graced Britain's streets since the 1920s, may soon be a thing of the past. Thanks to an increase in cell phone usage, British Telephone has removed "about 30,000, or a third of all pay phones, from the streets since 2002." Out of the 61,700 remaining, only about one-fourth of those booths are made with the red wood or cast iron that is stereotypically British. In turn, fewer and fewer booths on the street mean people are paying top dollar to collect them. As in the UK, the U.S. has seen a decline of more than half of all pay phones in the last ten years. [USA Today]

  Comments

TripAdvisor has singled out the 10 dirtiest hotels in both the U.S. and the U.K. The worst hygiene offenders include Hotel Carter and Regency Inn & Suites in NYC, Pacific Sands Motel in Santa Monica and Travel Inn Civic/Medical Center in Miami. In England, the dirtiest include Manor Court Hotel, Whiteleaf Hotel, Park Hotel and Eden Plaza Hotel in London. [via] [Photo]

  Comments

Almost 23,000 dogs gathered today for Crufts, the world's largest dog show. Held in Birmingham, England, the event spans four days and may have as many as 150,000 visitors. A unique aspect of this canine competition is that, in addition to show dogs, Crufts also hosts therapy dogs and assistance dogs, which help the disabled and deaf. [The Times]

  Comments

Condom Company Durex has conducted a survey of the sex lives of 26,000 people in 26 different countries. Their research determined that Greeks, Brazilians, and Russians are having the most sex. Overall, they concluded that "sex worldwide could be better." Embarrassingly, us Americans have the second worst sex lives in the world. Japan is having the least sex of all by far. Only 34% of Japanese people who responded to the survey report that they're getting laid. In general, Anglos did pretty bad. Brits came in fourth from the bottom just behind Canadians and Australians. [Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey]

  Comments