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We have "zoos" with pigs, sheep, cows etc in Britain. They're called city farms, and they exist so children who live in a city can see what their food looks like before it appears in Tesco.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

http://www.timeout.com/london/...

There's hope for Dr. Strangelove.

So ... Gods Playing Poker as a reverse Dogs Playing Poker?

That gives me an excuse to post this link.
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/sex-dating/naked-poker-ladies

Wtf? Free wifi in a European country?! Does not compute. I was almost certain that "Free", "Insert any service here", and "" could NEVER coexist in the same sentence.... Go to London, pay eleventy pounds for parking, pay to use restroom, pay to breathe air, pay to blink eyes, pay to use sidewalk, but Wifi is now freeeee! Oh wait, only because of the Olympics.

The parking (and congestion) charges are to discourage car use. Many Londoners, including me, don't even own a car.

But there's plenty of free things to do in London -- more than any other city I've ever visited. Some great museums: the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) at South Kensington are free. So is the British Museum, in Holborn. The Museum of London (in the City) is free, as is the Imperial War Museum (Lambeth). That's just the biggest ones, there are at least 20 more not-insignificant free museums.

There are markets, old buildings (cathedrals etc), big art galleries, parks, palaces, the river, theatre, many small gigs are free... and that's just the normal, year-round stuff. There should be free one-off events, though it's obviously worth planning if you want to see something in particular.

Try these websites:
http://www.visitlondon.com/tag/free-attractions
http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/1424/free-london
http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/free-london
http://londonist.com/tags/lotclist

Maplin http://maplin.co.uk/ is an equivalent to Radio Shack and should have UK plug adaptors in stock if your laptop can take UK voltage.

A list of free wi-fi is available at: http://www.timeout.com/london/features/6187/Where_to_find_free_wi-fi_in_London.html. My favorite is the Wellcome Collection http://www.wellcomecollection.org/.

The Wellcome Collection is also an amazing museum if you're at all into medical history. And if you're really into biology (read as thousands of specimen jars), the Hunterian Museum from the Royal College of Surgeons http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums was unlike any thing I've seen. Of course the museums near South Kensington (Natural History, Science) are great bets. The nearby Victoria and Albert is nice as well with "functional art", including all kinds of centuries-old locks (including one or two wooden ones).

Avoid the British Museum on the weekends, and particularly the Egyptian section, as it is mobbed.

If you're in the area and into old engineering and/or trains, take a walk around the recently refurbished St. Pancras train station.

Really off the beaten path is mud-larking. You can walk out onto the Thames shoreline at low tide and look for old finds. We've found Roman glass and centuries-old leather. There's a high chance that you'd find 18th century china shards. A good place to go is the area around the Tate Modern on the south shore- stairs will lead down to the beach. You need to be able to tolerate the occasional drunk harassment, wear gloves, and please don't dig holes.

If you a subject to an asbo you don't like, you absolutely have a right of appeal. Just like other summary judgements, like speeding and parking fine.

You may not like the use of them, but ASBO target are not denied due process.

Alternative Freedom
Dirs. Twila Raftu and Shaun Cronin. 2006. N/R. 68mins. Documentary.
An indictment of the "war" on free culture, this collagelike doc examines the current copyright crisis. A handful of surprisingly fascinating talking heads--including free-software pioneer Richard Stallman and Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig--criticize corporations for preventing technology sharing and experimentation. To punctuate their arguments, the directors intersperse ironic movie and news clips (which, given their unabashedly biased point of view, they probably didn't secure the rights for). Although the effect is at times overwhelming, the film smartly continues the debate about an important issue. (Opens Thu; Pioneer.) --Raven Snook

• Been there, done that.
• First showing.
• First day.
• First week.
• First month.
• Never.
• I'll watch it at CowboyNeal's when he gets the DVD.

Even Spielberg chimed in, while making a plug for his travesty of War of the Worlds.

"You'll cry at the end."

baaaawwwwlll! I want my money back!!

...and they are using child labor to build it!

This is a traveling exhibit of Lego Master Builders; it started in MA, has been to MD and NY. I see that it was just assembled in Chicago and will be there for another week.