But two great articles did catch my attention.
Seeking Space, Well-to-Do Londoners Dig Deep
By SARAH LYALL
LONDON — To compensate for the lack of natural light around his new basement swimming pool, one London homeowner installed an outdoor camera that projects real-time images of the changing sky onto the pool ceiling. To assuage the concerns of swimmers who hate cramped spaces, another resident dug down so far beneath the earth that his pool is 16 feet deep and has a high-diving board.
Britain is not immune from the housing slump, and London is still reeling from last month’s riots. But never mind. In a city that has some of the richest people and most expensive real estate in the world, well-off homeowners who have exhausted the traditional methods of home expansion — build up, or build out — are enthusiastically branching out the only other way possible: down.
Far beneath London’s surface, and to their neighbors’ considerable chagrin, they are using enormous machines to remove thousands of tons of dirt and replace it with new structures extending as many as four floors down.
They are building not just swimming pools, but also cinemas, recreation centers, gyms, wine cellars, bowling alleys, squash courts, climbing walls, servants’ quarters, saunas, waterfalls, Jacuzzis, hair salons and multicar garages with special elevators to shuttle vintage car collections up and down.
Hey construction is always a pain in the ass and rich people don't like disturbances in their neighborhoods. But this is beyond cool.
“A good way of looking at it is to think of the super-yacht market,” explained John Lees, chairman of Lees Associates, who regularly works on projects costing tens of millions of dollars. His underground pools, he said, have included one in which a film of moving sharks is projected on the walls while the “Jaws” theme song plays, and another covered in hand-made golden ceramic tiles embedded with tiny lights that twinkle and give swimmers the feeling of being enveloped in the night sky.
To borrow a quote from the brother in 16 Candles, "Classic"
Now over to Deutschland where they won't even let you pay to get laid without Da Fatherland getting a cut. Now the good side of legalized prostitution is the contractors get regular exams, etc. Now I'm not commenting on the morality of legalized prostitution, how it fits in society, etc, but this is kinda weird.
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| A ticket machine prints receipts for those who work the streets. |
In Germany, Sex Workers Feed a Meter
By NICHOLAS KULISH
BERLIN — The city of Bonn has begun collecting taxes from prostitutes with an automated pay station similar to a parking meter, proving again that German efficiency knows few if any bounds.
Bonn is not the only city in Germany to charge such a tax, but it is the first to hit upon the idea of a ticket machine that prints out receipts for the nightly flat fee of 6 euros (currently about $8.65) for the privilege of streetwalking. The meter went into service over the weekend, and by Monday morning had collected $382 for the city’s coffers...
As Ben Franklin said about the two things certain in life, "Death and Taxes."
...The women wait for customers on a stretch of the Immenburgstrasse in a largely industrial part of the city. In addition to the Siemens-built meter machine, which cost $11,575 including installation, the city has built special wooden garages nearby where customers can park their cars and have sex....
A new type of "Park and Ride."
Have a great weekend! Go Saints, kicks ass this Thursday!
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