Magic Carpet Ride | Hacker News Reader

Magic Carpet Ride

vestoj.com

44 pointspepys19 comments

An important feature of text is that it is an aperiodic crystal. Textiles are usually highly periodic, but Elizabeth Barber relates an anecdote of attempting to reproduce an early (Hallstatt?) textile and very carefully exactly copying the oddly changing numbers of threads in each run ... until she realised she'd swapped warp and weft!

You well of British carpet horrors runs deep. Carpeted bathrooms were common amongst my grandparents’ generation. A nightclub in Nottingham, Ocean, was infamously carpeted when I studied there, and the subject of many jokes about what manner of substances must be contained in those threads.

The carpet was eventually torn up, leading to mourning and memorials from the student population https://thetab.com/uk/nottingham/2013/09/13/hoes-carpet-torn..., and the owner has leaned in to the meme and given several framed squares away to patrons.

Carpeted bathrooms, carpeted kitchens too lol

You don't see the horror when you are living inside it.

It was only once I began spending significant time outside the UK I became aware of what we hath wrought.

> Carpeted bathrooms were common amongst my grandparents’ generation.

My mother remains a fan. Apparently it makes all the kneeling whilst bathing children a lot more pleasant.

A good bathtub rug would seem to solve the problem in a much less... problematic way. Far easier to clean, much less to deal with, and much more easily replaced. Can even be put away completely when not needed.

I had no idea that each 'Spoons has its own custom carpet design. They are a much-derided chain but this is a nice detail, and by keeping drinking affordable they ensure the next generation of Britons can keep alive the vital tradition of a night in the pub laughing and talking bollocks.

Some pictures of the carpets: https://www.wetherspoonscarpets.co.uk/

how pretty Spoons looks is inversely proportional to the scummy people inside. they're always real nice looking buildings.

This is an article that would have benefited from more photos.

> Like clothes, carpets will also move in and out of fashion. With the introduction of easy-to-clean linoleum floors and shiny wooden panels in the 1980s, the decline of the carpet industry began. By the Nineties, the former competitors Templeton and Stoddard were sold to a Dutch company and outsourced, and by 2009 they were liquidated in the lost search for a new owner. Carpets were no longer symbols of a prosperous middle class but a declining symbol of an outdated past.

I personally prefer the cheap linoleum over expensive carpet or wood. I can sweep it, vacuum it, mop it. Why spend more money on wall to wall carpets? You can get a small area rug or one of those standing mats where you need it.

Because carpets are warm, nice to walk on, sound dampening and cosy. In a cold climate like the UK they're way nicer than hard floors.

You can vacuum carpets, and clean them if you want (though most people rarely do).

Rugs are not remotely the same.

> When I moved to Glasgow a year ago, I moved to the country of carpeted floors. Every British home seems to own a carpet, and everyone seems to have an affinity for it too. These carpeted floors are everywhere.

The weirdest: carpeted bathrooms. Very British.

many years ago an older relative went on a holiday to Spain and was outraged that their apartment did _not_ have carpet. I deemed it futile to point out that carpeting is desirable here because our climate is so wretched, but as flooring in a hot country would actually be pretty icky.

For the non-British, they aren't common and most people think they are super weird, but they do exist. Particularly in old folks' houses.

Well, they are certainly more common in Britain than in any other country I've visited. We've seen them in quite a few rental apartments that we've looked at in England (mostly in the Midlands).

The house I grew up in in the US had a carpeted bathroom. Whoever owned the house previously had intentionally put carpet down over top of the linoleum floor.

That linoleum was absolutely hideous. Beige with gold veins running through it, paired with the pea soup green sink, toilet, and tub. I don't blame them for wanting to cover that up, but full wall to wall carpet, including under the toilet is not something any rational person should ever want.

Combined with another odd British tradition: Wearing your outdoor shoes around the house, it can lead to some truly nasty floors over time.

Wherever I've lived in the UK I rarely come across this, mostly the opposite.

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