How does one think, one cannot become biased towards life, without the geometrical incursions tainting the world view?

Golden Ratio tendencies….?

On the matter of design on the cheap, Target do produce a Michael Graves (who has designed for, amongst other lines, Alessi, including designing Alessi’s best-selling item ever) line. Some of their furniture doesn’t look bad, either; it’s not made fantastically well, but I remember even back in 1989 or so, Habitat selling a bookcase for a hundred quid that looked like it had been made by a mediocre 13 year old in woodwork class. And there’s always IKEA, I guess.

I did my PhD in London not that long ago, and survived OK on my EPSRC grant. Although I’d never catch the tube for less than 4 stops or so (I used to walk from the train at West Brompton to Imperial, which was fine unless there was a real downpour).

Every time I go to NYC, I experience the ‘how much’ moment, too, but the weakness of the dollar has made London into a place that I just can’t afford to go to that often.

–IP.

And don’t get me started on electronics and electrical appliances, and things like music and video. I don’t even bother visiting such stores in the UK any more. Even when I lived here I would wait until I was in the USA to buy such things. You basically swop the numerical amounts unchanged, and then with teh exchange rate find that they are twice as expensive…… Pretty sure I’m not making that up.

Cheers,

-cvj

….from my problem years obsessing over the golden mean…

When I seen this statement, I of course recognized your position now.

I am enthralled by such “seeing,” however abstract, that it have some tangible connection to reality?

On it’s own, very artistic for sure.

Also, don’t forget that
1) there is 17.5% of VAT and
2) the dollar has tanked. Seriously tanked.

Things actually aren’t that much more expensive here, it just seems eye-wateringly expensive when you have puny dollars to spend. And besides….Habitat?? Liberty?? Not exactly discount shopping, were we??

See here:
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/05/what_things_cost/source/1.htm

House prices have doubled over the past few years. I bought a one-bedroom starter-home flat in Weybridge for £56,000 in 1999 and sold it for £102,500 in 2002. With inflation going at that rate, salaries are obviously rising and other items are going up in price.

When buying a new laptop, it is tempting to take a trip to New York, buy it cheaply there, throw the box away and sneak it into the UK through the green channel of customs here. The prices of electronics in London are probably 50-100% higher than in America.

When there is a recession triggered by an oil crisis or whatever, the UK will be in a serious state because of the huge amount of debt generated by the high prices. Any significant jump increase in the base rate of interest would cause a crisis. The only way out of it is to very gradually increase interest rates to reduce the amount of debt to a stable amount in a controlled way. The UK government is not doing this as it would be unpopular with business leaders, who don’t want the economic growth to slow down that way! The public is just taking advantage of low interest rates to borrow enormous amounts on the basis that a lot of other people are doing the same thing (group-think mentality).

Best,

-cvj

Perhaps you’re forgetting that this is silly season in the UK what with the upcoming world cup. I agree that gossip about footballers’ wives does not constitute actual news but, for God’s sake, this is the world cup. You know, the collective national hysteria that engulfs this fair isle once every four years and leads men to cry into their pints when they realise that yet again England are going to be dumped out on penalties.

Quite honestly, if it weren’t for this quadrennial spectacle of self-flagellation among all sections of the British press, from the loftiest broadsheet to the most scarlet of red-tops, this country would be a damn sight less interesting place.

By the way, I think you’re completely wrong about the Guardian’s move to berliner format. *Everyone* here agrees that it’s a much better paper since it switched away from broadsheet.

As for the existance of the regualr fare schedule, I’m not sure - I assume to deal with other Brits in town, as tourists are “supposed” to buy 1-Day Travelcards (anyone who would buy one who’s in London more than once just buys a PAYG Oyster). After doing the math several times from having people come to visit us, it comes out that it’s a better deal to buy a bunch of Travelcards if you’re planning on using the Tube for less than six days - on day six, the premium you pay for the Travelcard (over the Oyster’s price capping) equals out with the three pounds you paid for the card itself. That, and we’ve just started keeping an extra Oyster around the house, giving it to people who visit us, and asking them to give it back with the same amount of money as was on it when they started using it.

On that note, though, the Oyster daily price-capping has done more for Tube ridership than anyone imagined, and I curse its absence when I’m using the transport systems in any other city. But you’re right - three pounds for a zone 1-2 single is pretty ridiculous, and there was a fair amount of outrage when it was announced (especially since the Oyster fares were reduced simultaneously from an already-cheap level, and the Tube infrastructure needs a lot of work)

Cheers,

-cvj