HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: martin.baines@uk.sun.com (Martin Baines - Sun UK - SE Manager Cambridge)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Date: 5 Jan 1993 13:46:11 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems Ltd
Distribution: world
Reply-To: martin.baines@uk.sun.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: bottomdog.uk.sun.com

In article 22637@rdg.dec.com, cockburn@edieng.enet.dec.com (Craig Cockburn) writes:

>According to an article in the Scotsman on 19th December (P13), a Mintel
>report shows that Britain is the 5th most expensive country in the
>world for a "typical selection of 22 consumer items". In Germany and
>the US, however, wages are higher and prices are lower. The UK has
>the cheapest Mars bars and Baked Beans. The UK is a major oil producing
>nation and has the cheapest petrol in Europe, but it's still 3 times
>the price of petrol in the US. Why? I wonder what the duty is for 
>someone importing petrol?

Exactly the same as the duty you pay at the petrol pumps. I.e. it
is illegal to sell petrol without charging duty. If you brought
petrol in yourself from (say) the USA (assuming the airline didn't
have a heart attack) you would be charged the duty on entry at customs.
If you don't declare it it's illegal. Taking out the costs of duty
and VAT petrol in the UK is about the same price as the US. The
government pockets the difference.

Actually duty and VAT account for most of the difference between
US and UK prices on many things. Consider electronic goods the
duty on import from the US is 17%, VAT is 17.5%, so for
a hypothetical item priced at $1000 in the USA, the duty
would be $170 so the Ex-VAT price is: $1170, now add VAT
(remember it's cumulative) to give a UK price of $1374.75.
Now consider the currancy conversion: today it is approx $1.55
to the pound. Any sensible company selling dollar priced goods
would hedge against a downward movement of the pound (*very*
sensible if you remember recent events), so lets use a conversion
of $1.50 = 1, this gives a UK price of the item of: 916.50,
not exactly dollar = pound, but not far off, and remember we
haven't allowed for the cost of shipping: if it cost more than
83.50 we would be at dollar = pound without any profiteering
at all.

Now I am *not* arguing that many UK prices are not a lot more
than elsewhere in the work, merely that a lot more of the
price difference is due to government policy than people
realise. Of course, this still doesn't explain why UK
manufactured CDs cost so much more than US ones, except
the fact that they sell most they can make at those prices.

>Maybe a decent set of prices in the UK is just what we need to get the
>economy moving again.

Great idea! Now what government services shall we cut to
make up for the loss in duty and VAT revenue?....

Martin

---
"You might say that, but I couldn't possibly comment"

Martin Baines, Sales Support Manager,
Sun Microsystems Ltd, 306 Science Park, Cambridge, CB4 4WG, UK
Phone: +44 223 420421                 Fax: +44 223 420257
JANET:     Martin.Baines@uk.co.sun    Other UK:  Martin.Baines@sun.co.uk
Internet:  Martin.Baines@UK.sun.com
X.400:     g=martin s=baines prmd=sunir admd=mci c=us

Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: ambidge@ecf.toronto.edu (Chris Ambidge)
Subject: Re: British Imperial Weights and Measures
Organization: University of Toronto, Engineering Computing Facility
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 22:26:27 GMT

>Geraint.Jones@comlab.oxford.ac.uk  writes:
>> various delightful souls contributed:
>> (  >>>"A Pint's A Pound the Whole World Round"
>> (  >>
>> (  >>A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter.
>> (  >
>> (  >" A Litre of water's a pint and three quarters"
>> (  
>> (  no, I believe you're thinking of "two and a quarter pounds of jam
>> (  weigh about a kilogram"
>> (   
>> (    -- or do you have to subtract 32 first?  Or is it afterwards?  I never
>> (       could remember.
>> 
>> Oh, oh! Five and ten and twenty-one: winter, spring and summer sun.  Ahhhh.  

To which  Chris Powell added:
>
>No, no, no!  It's "30's hot, 20's nice, 10 is cold and zero's
>ice"!

QUESTION:
Does this change at all if there's an R in the month?  

	--- enquiring minds need to know!

(different, Canajun) Chris  
(he of an enquiring mind)
-- 
Chris Ambidge / ambidge@ecf.toronto.edu / ambidge@ecf.utoronto.ca  
   chemical engineering / university of toronto
   200 college st / toronto ON / M5S 1A4 // 416 978 3106
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: alla0008@student.tc.umn.edu (Graham Allan)
Subject: Re: electrical power
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 16:13:47 GMT

In article <8548@charon.cwi.nl> steven@cwi.nl (Steven Pemberton) writes:
>In article <1993Jan7.071308.15181@netcom.com> ewadams@netcom.com
>(Ernest Adams) writes:
>> Generally I'm not in favor of trying to make the Old World more like the
>> New, but in this case I'll make an exception. Non-lethal line voltage
>> just makes better sense than 220 volts.
>
>I read recently that 17 European countries have agreed to standardise
>their electricity supplies to 230 volts 50Hz; but not (guess who) the
>UK. Why on earth not? Surely lowering the voltage slightly will have
>minimal impact (less that raising it as the Dutch are doing).

Maybe because it won't make any difference either way, anything designed
to run on 230V will be fine on 240V, and vice versa.

Graham
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:18447 soc.culture.celtic:8634
From: yadallee@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Dave Shariff Yadallee)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.celtic
Subject: Shetlands oil fiasco
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 93 06:29:31 MST
Organization: Edmonton Remote Systems #3, Edmonton, AB, Canada

Attention!

Is there ANY current information available about the Braer bungle?

What abut the Commons debate on this?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Dave Shariff Yadallee (B. Sc. (Econ/Math) (U of Alberta 1990) )
 (yadallee@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca, userLIBE@mts.ucs.ualberta.ca)
God Save the Queen, God Bless us All! Remember! Jesus Saves!!
Birthdate: 29 Jan 1969, Redhill, Surrey, England, UK
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: jlloyd@cc.uow.edu.au (Jonathan Lloyd)
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Organization: University Of Wollongong
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 93 00:27:18 GMT

eac@world.std.com (Eric A Cottrell) writes:

>I seem to remember a commission reporting that cars are higher priced in
>the UK due to driving on the left. I can understand this in cars, but not
>in other goods.

This actaully a load of bullshit. Jap cars sell for much lower prices 
here in Australia, even though the import tariffs and taxes are higher 
and we drive on the left as well. In fact a lot of Euro cars are cheaper here
too (e.g. Peugeot 205 GTi, Golf GTi, Audi 80). This is despite extra features 
required to meet Aussie design rules and the low volume of sales!!!!!

New cars are a rip off in the UK period. They use transfer pricing and other
nasty tricks to fool us. The extra cost of RHD is not enough to account for 
the difference. Excluding taxes and tarrifs etc even low volume luxury
models are cheaper in Australia. 

Market pricing mate!!!

>I not a marketing expert, but companies are in the business of making money.
>They will sell items at the highest price the customer is willing to pay.
>It will be interesting to see if the changes to the tariffs in the EC will
>lower prices.
> 
>73 Eric eac@world.std.com

Yes but in a supposed single market why should the british consumer pay more?
I suppose they protect inefficient farmers, why not protect inefficient
carmakers? In the end they too fat and die anyway. Sooner or later 
we'll pay for all this protectionism.

-Jonathan

********************************************************************
** These views are my own and do not reflect upon the policy *******
** or views of the University of Wollongong, only of a young *******
** welshman in a land down under ---Cymru am Byth ******************
********************************************************************
Phone +61 42 213018     Fax +61 42 213112       Email J.Lloyd@uow.edu.au
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:18342 soc.culture.french:9480
From: pascal@apd.cpg.sony.co.jp (Pascal Goguey)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.french
Subject: Re: British phones in France
Date: 8 Jan 93 00:24:36 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.french
Organization: Sony Corporation,Communication Products Group Audio Products
	Div,Atsugi,Japan.
In-reply-to: olinga@sol.cs.uni-sb.de's message of 7 Jan 93 14:20:26 GMT


 *J' ai le meme probleme avec un telephone allemand. J' aimerais
 *savoir, si la fiche est la meme. Ou alors il faudra y operer
 *des modifications pour qu' il fonctionne en France.
 *
 *----
 *
 *Guy F. Olinga   Technische Fakultaet
 *		  Fachbereich Informatik
 *		  Universitaet des Saarlandes-RFA
 *
 *		  email: olinga@sol.cs.uni-sb.de
 *			 olinga@minisun.cs.uni-sb.de
 *		  Tel.: +49 681 398049 (abends)

	"Operer des modifications" me parait un peu pompeux pour dire
"changer une fiche", surtout quand la ligne n'a que deux fils...
--
  Pascal Goguey  Sony Corporation  ($@GC9%7Z(J  $@8d7](J)
  Communication Products Group Audio Products Div
  Atsugi TEC, Japan
From: mmh@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Silly Bible semi-pedantry [was: Re: Happy Christmas!]
Date: 5 Jan 93 09:21:06 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.

In article <1992Dec30.052511.17710@digi.lonestar.org> gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo) writes:
>In article <1992Dec28.234520.13834@netcom.com> sue@netcom.com (Sue Miller) writes:
>>OBsoc.culture.brit:
>>Must all be bogus anyway, since the gospels seem to completely drop
>>out the bit where Jesus visits the UK.  Would have been the highlight
>>of his travels, so the chronicles must therefore be entirely bogus.
>>
>The Bible never claims to be a complete biography of Christ or a history
>of the events surrounding his life in the conventional sense.  Your
>conlusion that their failure to mention this implies that they are therefore
>entirely bogus is about as logical as the claim that they can only be
>inspired if they are totally inerrant.
>
>The legendary appearance of Christ in England implies that he appeared
>there after the Resurrection, i.e. at a time when the possibility for
>him to appear in the body of resurrection would have made such appearances
>no longer constrained by physical time and space.

Looks like you have forgotten the famous soc.culture.british
non-printing smiley rule.

There is a legend that Jesus was brought to Britain as a child
by Joseph of Arimethea (not the same person as Joseph, Mary's
spouse, though I have seen him wrongly referred to as such in
several places this Christmas, most unfortunately in the
Guardian). They stayed at Glastonbury, and there is still a
thorn tree there which grew when Joseph planted his staff in
the ground.

Matthew Huntbach
From: morna@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Morna J Findlay)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Buying things cheaper in the USA
Date: 7 Jan 93 16:15:39 GMT
Reply-To: morna@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Morna J Findlay)
Organization: Laboratory for the Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh U

If it's really true that all sorts of goods are much cheaper in the US
than here in the UK, perhaps someone can assist my SO in his quest to
find - a Kirby Vacuum cleaner.


If anyone can send me a phone number or address of any US dealers, or
even just find out what price they are over there, I'd be dead grateful.

Presently he refuses to hoover with the "inferior technology" at our
disposal. And I can't often be bothered either....

Can YOU help poor little Rosie live in a clean house?



cheers


M

-- 
Morna Findlay 					JANET:morna@uk.ac.ed.dcs 
	Thanksgiving For a National Victory (Robert Burns)
Ye hypocrites! are these your pranks? To murder men and give God thanks?
Desist, for shame! Proceed no further: God won't accept your thanks for murther.
From: mckeonj@ul.ie
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: U.K. --> N. American voltage transformers and plugs
Date: 6 Jan 93 21:07:33 GMT
Organization: University of Limerick, Ireland

In article <botfield.724967574@turtle1>, botfield@rtsg.mot.com (Derek A. Botfield) writes:
> MDuPree@world.std.com (Micky DuPree) writes:
> 
>>A contact in the U.K. warned me that 240v --> 120v voltage transformers,
>>such as one might use to run a North American appliance off of U.K. wall
>>power, tend to "short out, smoulder, and catch fire."  Can anyone else
>>share their experience with such converters?
When bringing electrical apparatus from USA to Britain & Ireland,
the best thing is .... DON'T!
Too many problems: for a start, the necessary voltage converter
/transformer needs to be twice as big as you thought, and will
cost four times as much. Next the frequency is "wrong", 50 cycles
instead of 60. Next, and most serious, apart from the plugs being
wrong, you really must not attach USA wired equipment to "British"
supply, because the live and neutral lines are reversed, and you
may well finish with a live chassis at 220/240 volts AC - you may
survive a 110 volt shock, but you may not survive a 220 volt one.
Better to buy the native goods for your stay here.
Besides, all the important stuff, TV, VCR, etc, don't work here
anyway, the standards are all different. If you bring your laptop,
expect to need a similar sized mains power pack lugging around.
Set Jocular vein ON:
I think we should paraphrase the old WWII saying; "Yanks, oversexed,
overpaid, and over here!"
1990s version "Underpowered and over here"
Jocular vein OFF
-- 
"Ich am of Irlonde" (medieval fragment used by Yeats)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
John McKeon, Material Science Dept. University of Limerick, Ireland
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: ray@philmtl.philips.ca (Ray Dunn)
Subject: Re: Record shops (LPs)
Organization: Not Philips.
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 23:35:35 GMT

In refd article, eac@world.std.com (Eric A Cottrell) writes:
>I seem to remember a commission reporting that cars are higher priced in
>the UK due to driving on the left. I can understand this in cars, but not
>in other goods.

Why would that be?  Perhaps for imported European cars (_noone_ in the UK
drives American cars) but it costs the domestic car industry in the UK no
more to make a RHD car than it would to make a LHD car, and Japanese cars
of course are imported to the UK in RHD as for their own domestic market.

What was it we decide here recently?  Over 40 countries drive on the left?
-- 
Ray Dunn at home        |  Beaconsfield, Quebec  |  Phone: (514) 630 3749
ray@philmtl.philips.ca  |  ray@cam.org           |  uunet!sobeco!philmtl!ray
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: dbrooks@osf.org (David Brooks)
Subject: Re: electrical power
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 18:37:23 GMT

steven@cwi.nl (Steven Pemberton) writes:
| I read recently that 17 European countries have agreed to standardise
| their electricity supplies to 230 volts 50Hz; but not (guess who) the
| UK. Why on earth not? Surely lowering the voltage slightly will have
| minimal impact (less that raising it as the Dutch are doing).

I'm pretty sure that, when I was young, the SEEBoard changed us (in a
south London suburb) from 215V to 240V.  They came into the house and
checked all the appliances, and *gave* us new light bulbs.  Good luck to
the Dutch.

Perhaps they don't want everyone to complain about how dim their lights
have suddenly become, not like in the good old days, when they gave you
the powerful new ones, when I were a lad, it's disgusting the way
they...

bonk...

Thankyou.
-- 
David Brooks					dbrooks@osf.org
Open Software Foundation			uunet!osf.org!dbrooks
Shine out, fair sun, with all your heat!  Black winter freezes to his seat...
The boneless fish close quaking lies...the stars in icicles arise!
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: agc@bmdhh286.bnr.ca (Alan Carter)
Subject: Re: Celsius <--> Fahrenheit (was Re: British Imperial...)
Organization: BNR-Europe-Limited, Maidenhead, England
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 17:52:16 GMT

In article <1993Jan6.150437.13956@bnrmtl.bnr.ca>, sewell@tsingtao.bnr.ca (Henry Sewell) writes:
|> From a dark corner of my mind crawls the following
|> 'fact', probably said by some well-meaning teacher:
|> 
|> 0 deg.F  freezing point of saline -  coldest at that time
|> 1000 deg. F  boiling point of sulphur - hottest known at
|>                that time

I thought it was:

0F   - Freezing point of a mixture of salts - recipe subsequently lost.
100F - Average blood temperature of a person (determined incorrectly).

   Silly way to run an empire but at least we got the Suzanne Vega
   albumn out of it.

   Alan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Maidenhead itself is too snobby to be pleasant. It is the haunt of the
   river swell and his overdressed female companion. It is the town of showy
   hotels, patronized chiefly by dudes and ballet girls. 

   Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome, 1889
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: johnf@apollo.hp.com (John Francis)
Subject: Re: English Tea Kettle
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 18:36:12 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA

In article <42re02hI30io01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> czl30@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Chris Lee) writes:
>
>I've seen kettles in the British Food Shop in Cambell, CA (just outside
>San Jose), but they ain't cheap, and I suspect any kettle that is big
>and powerful enough will have a problem drawing current without
>the lead.
>

How true.

Or did you mean "without overheating the lead" ?

That is precisely why my kitchen has a 220v outlet in it (dual switched
MK socket & real plugs with big fat rectangular pins and separate fuses);
I needed somewhere to plug in my Russel-Hobbs 'forgettle' and toaster.
The toaster has just (after 12 years) been replaced, but the kettle is
still going strong.
-- 
John Francis                                 johnf@apollo.hp.com
with 9 cats to feed, I don't have time to think up a clever .sig
From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Silly Bible semi-pedantry [was: Re: Happy Christmas!]
Date: 5 Jan 93 16:05:44 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

In article <1993Jan5.092106.12107@dcs.qmw.ac.uk>, mmh@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach) writes:
> There is a legend that Jesus was brought to Britain as a child
> by Joseph of Arimethea (not the same person as Joseph, Mary's
> spouse, though I have seen him wrongly referred to as such in
> several places this Christmas, most unfortunately in the
> Guardian).

Talking of the Guardian, we must congratulate Matthew on his recent letter to
it: three or four paragraphs on politics and not a reference to Paddy's happy
band in sight. Well done!

> They stayed at Glastonbury, and there is still a
> thorn tree there which grew when Joseph planted his staff in
> the ground.

Or at least people say there is.
-- 

Stephen Wilcox             |   For Sale: Posts in British Government. Suit
wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk    |   outgoing American. Highest bids accepted.
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:18582 alt.usage.english:10512
From: aledm@grant.ncd.com (Aled Morris)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Back from the UK
Date: 12 Jan 93 18:45:35 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.british
Organization: Network Computing Devices, Mt. View, CA, USA

In article <1993Jan11.233015.28726@csi.uottawa.ca>, misrael@csi.uottawa.ca (Mark Israel) writes:
>In article <1993Jan11.020701.9391@news.columbia.edu>, gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) writes:
>> c) "Store" vs "Shop"
>>
>> In America, the standard terminology for a place of retail sales is a 
>> "store" whereas in the UK it's a "shop."
...
>> The most pronounced use of the word "shop" in the US is in the phrase 
>> "coffee shop"

I think the US usage herein this example is analogous to `workshop', so
the term `coffee shop' refers to a service, a place where coffee is
engineered or manufactured for you (rather than, say, `coffee store'
which I've never heard but which would presumably refer to a coffee
bean retailer. c.f. UK `shop floor' rarely refers to retail premises,
or a `body shop' (small `b') beats your panels, etc.

Some other US retail terms which you can ponder: `outlet' (a factory-
seconds shop), `closeout' (stock clearance?) and `bulk' (trendy Palo Alto
term for `loose' as in beans sold by the pound (small `l' small `b' ;-)
in that expensive wholefood supermarket on Hamilton.

>> d) The word "quite"
...
>> To my eyes this looked strange, as I would say that something "quite
>> challenging" is more challenging than something "challenging," 
>
>   It's ambiguous.  "This cup is quite full" means "This cup is 
>completely full" on both sides of the Atlantic.  And on both sides of
>the Atlantic, "This book is quite good" means "This book is fairly 
>good."

UK Common usage is `quite' == `nearly' (about 75%?), the example you give
`quite full' (`quite' == `exactly') strikes me as a bit quaint, very Queen
Victoria, although I do use it myself as an affirmitive put-down:

You:	If you write me a cheque I won't be able to cash it till next week!
Me:	Quite.

Now one US word which I've had difficulty with (and this may be a Bay Area
usage) is `really' to mean `yes, how insightful'.  The UK usage of `really'
is usually `I don't believe you', see my problem?

Me:		It's cheaper to fly from SFO to London than SFO to New York
US You:		Really!
Me [offended]:	YES!  Why do I bother?  Look it up yourself!  You obviously
		don't know anything about this!  Have you ever _flown_?
		Please go away! etc. etc.

Aled

aledm@ncd.com    Network Computing Devices Inc.
(415)694 4543    350 North Bernardo Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043
From: czl30@duts.ccc.amdahl.com (Chris Lee)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: English Tea Kettle
Date: 7 Jan 93 23:16:25 GMT
Reply-To: czl30@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Chris Lee)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

In article <C0HyCD.LL4@apollo.hp.com> johnf@apollo.hp.com (John Francis) writes:
>In article <42re02hI30io01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> czl30@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Chris Lee) writes:
>>
>>I've seen kettles in the British Food Shop in Cambell, CA (just outside
>>San Jose), but they ain't cheap, and I suspect any kettle that is big
>>and powerful enough will have a problem drawing current without
>>the lead.
>>
>
>How true.
>
>Or did you mean "without overheating the lead" ?

I did, but then i my lysdexic fingas nevva seam 2 tipe wot mi brane wonts
them 2.

>-- 
>John Francis                                 johnf@apollo.hp.com
>with 9 cats to feed, I don't have time to think up a clever .sig

Only 2 cats but they miaow with Manchester accents. I brought them with me
when I moved here 3 years ago.

Chris
From: banarji@unixg.ubc.ca (Ajai Banarji)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: US equipment in the UK
Date: 9 Jan 1993 03:05:25 GMT
Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: unixg.ubc.ca

	        	US equipment in the UK

  Someone was mentioning all the unspeakable things which would happen if
you tried using US equipment in the UK. But the situation is not so bleak.
There are some computers (such as Apple's Powerbook range) which have an
"Universal adapter" which accepts anything from 90 to 260 volts and 48 to
62 cycles. Thus, the "US-born" computer can be used in the UK or anywhere
else without an additional transformer. All you need is an inexpensive plug
adapter.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.british