Things

Window tax

In Things, language on 13 February 2010 with Comments Off

To be filed under “things I didn’t know about that I probably should’ve and that answer so many questions: window tax.

From wikipedia:

Properties with between ten and twenty windows paid a total of four shillings, and those above twenty windows paid eight shillings.  The number of windows that incurred tax was changed to seven in 1766 and eight in 1825. The flat-rate tax was changed to a variable rate, dependent on the property value, in 1778. People who were ineligible for church or poor rates, for reasons of poverty, were exempt from the window tax.  Window tax was relatively unintrusive and easy to assess. The bigger the house, the more windows it was likely to have, and the more tax the occupants would pay. Nevertheless, the tax was unpopular, because it was seen by some as a tax on “light and air”.

The tax was imposed in Scotland in the 1780s, instantly explaining (almost) all of the buildings in Edinburgh with bricked-up windows.

Additionally, the tax is considered to be a possible origin of the phrase “daylight robbery“, though this remains unproven.

Bed Head After-Party

In Design, Odd, Things on 28 January 2009 tagged Design, hair, packaging with Comments Off

I have a packaging thing. I love packaging design. This comes in especially handy to pass time when doing something I really don’t love, like having my hair cut. All that sitting still and not fidgeting and making small talk about Christmas (come on, people, it was a month ago. Try harder.) and having to sit in front of a mirror for an age when, for the most part, I’m vampiric about mirrors.

A big chunk of hairdresser income comes from selling overpriced hair product, and overpriced hair product generally has brilliant packaging in order to make people like me buy some overpriced hair product they won’t use but will gaze at lovingly.  Depending on the target market,  packaging ranges from classy to fun to, err… this:

… oh come on, it’s not just me, is it? Is it?

Sadistics

In Things on 19 December 2008 tagged statistics, university, xkcd with Comments Off

With apologies to XKCD…

As of this evening, the semester is over. I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.

Right now, I’m not convinced you can have any…

In Things, Websites on 3 December 2008 tagged graphjam, uni with Comments Off

Wall-e screenplay

In Things, Websites on 25 November 2008 tagged film, link, screenplay, wall-e with Comments Off

I’m not much of a film fan, mostly because they require a concentration span of longer than six seconds. But, having just watched Wall-e for the second time yesterday, I can confidently declare it to be my favourite film. Yep, it even beats Dot and the Kangaroo.

Should you not yet have the Wall-e DVD, which was released yesterday in the UK and which I’m not lending you because my need to stroke the cover and giggle is greater than any need you may have, you can make do with reading the screenplay.

Japanese Kangaroo mug

In Design, Things on 5 November 2008 tagged Design, kangaroo, mug, wants with Comments Off

Should anyone who reads this be able to read or speak Japanese or be in Japan, I need this mug:

Kangaroo mug available from sunny-style.com So far, my attempts to circumvent the Japaneseness of the checkout process have failed miserably, but I can’t even begin to tell you how much I want this. There must be a way!